Black and White

20

"In these lessons, I will attempt to penetrate your mind," Snape explains. "You will attempt to resist. Prepare yourself. Miss Black, you will be next. Legillemins."

Harry yells as his mind is invaded, and I can only imagine what he sees. The mark burns again, but not nearly as severely with the Murtlap Essence already covering it.

"Concentrate, Potter," Snape orders. "Focus."

When he's done with Harry, who has apparently failed, Snape turns to me. With little warning, he enters my mind as well.

Multiple scenes flash before my eyes, including reading with Roldolphus, seeing Roldolphus murdered, meeting Hermione, Harry, and Ron, the snowball fight with Fred and George, tortured by Bellatrix, sitting in Draco's room as a little kid to hide from our parents, feeding thestrals with Luna, writing sentences for Umbridge, and being levitated in Dumbledore's Army.

Needless to say, I also failed our first lesson. Finally, Snape lets us leave.

"Miss Black," he calls just before I exit. "You will be returning to Grimauld Place for the holidays."

I thank him and follow Harry out, finally able to ask him what had happened in the first place.

"I saw Mr. Weasley being attacked," he tells me. "He was in the Ministry. Apparently, it was real. Ron, Ginny, and the twins have been sent home by portkey."

A few days later, Harry and I return to Grimauld Place as well, where Harry and I are drawn to the sound of Sirius singing his own rendition of "God Rest Ye Merry Gentlemen", or... "Hippogriffs". He greets us joyfully, then gets down to business.

"Ron told me he last saw Snape taking you two away," he tells us. "What did he do?"

"He tried to help us," I answer, looking at Harry. "With unconventional methods, yes, but I think he really meant to help."

We tell him about the apparent bond between us, and about the occlumency lesson in the middle of the night. He listens without much comment, then mentions that we would probably like to see our friends.

Harry enters the dining room full of Weasleys and Hermione first, and I follow him, Dad a ways behind us.

"Oh, Harry, Lucy," Mrs. Weasley exclaims, hugging us tightly. "There you two are! Lovely to have you both with us."

"Thank you, Mrs. Weasley," I smile.

She hands us both a package, and I take mine over to Fred and George, who immediately want to know why I entered Dumbledore's office with Snape, dark mark showing. I say I'll tell them later, and open my present. It's a knitted scarf with every color of the rainbow.

"I know you like bright colors," Mrs. Weasley winks at me, motioning towards the twins. I grin, wrapping it snugly around my neck.

"A toast," Mr. Weasley calls, then. "A toast, to Mr. Harry Potter, without whom, I would not be here. Harry."

"Harry," we repeat, holding up glasses of wine for the adults, and sparkling cider for the children.

"Harry," Dad toasts last.

Dad then takes me away to give me my mother's book of muggle fairy tales, which I know will be much better than sneaking into Aunt Narcissa's library.

On the last day of the holiday, I follow Harry into an unusual looking room. It appears to be a giant family tree, sprawling all across the walls. And greeting us in the doorway, is a glaring house-elf.

"Nasty brats," it says. "Standing there as bold as brass. Harry Potter, the boy who stopped the Dark Lord. And Lucida, the mudblood who taints the name of Black. If my poor mistress only knew-"

"Kreacher!" Dad shouts from the stairs outside the room, interrupting the house-elf. "That's enough of your bile. Away with you!"

"Of course, Master," the house-elf, Kreacher, answers. "Kreacher lives to serve the noble house of Black."

"Sorry about that," Dad says awkwardly as he enters. "He never was very pleasant, even when I was a boy. Not to me, anyway."

"You grew up here?" Harry asks.

"This is my parents' house," Dad explains. "I offered it to Dumbledore as headquarters for the Order. About the only useful thing I've been able to do. This is the Black family tree."

I look back to the tree, searching for familiar names, and see Bellatrix.

"My deranged cousin," Dad snarls at her picture. "I hated the lot of them." He leads us to another portion of the tree. "My parents, with their pure-blood mania."

I look to the next most familiar name on the tree. "Sirius". But the picture is burned out. Under his name is another burned out picture. "Lucida".

"My mother did that after I ran away," Dad tells us, pointing to his own name. Then, pointing to mine, he says, "And this, before you were even born, Lucy. Because your mother was half-blood. My mother was a... charming woman. I was sixteen when I left."

"Where did you go?" I ask, snapping Dad out of his thoughts.

"Your dad's," he tells Harry. "I was always welcome at the Potters'. I see him so much in you, Harry. You are so very much alike."

"I'm not so sure," Harry admits. "Sirius, when I was... When I saw Mr. Weasley attacked, I wasn't just watching. I was the snake. And afterwards, in Dumbledore's office, there was a moment when I wanted to... This connection between me and Voldemort. What if the reason for it is that I am becoming more like him? I just feel so angry all the time. And what if, after everything that I've been through, something's gone wrong inside me. What if I'm becoming bad?"

"I want you to listen to me very carefully, Harry," Dad says, taking each of our shoulders. "You, too, Lucy. You're not a bad person. Neither of you are. You are both very good people who bad things have happened to. You understand? Besides, the world isn't split into good people and Death Eaters. Lucy is proof of that. We've all got both light and dark inside of us. What matters is the part we choose to act on. That's who we really are."

A knock on the door breaks us apart. "It's time to go," Hermione tells us.

"When all this is over, we'll be a proper family," Dad promises Harry and I. "You'll see."

Dad gives us each a heartfelt hug, before sending us off to Hogwarts once more.

When we arrive, we all hear the news. Hagrid is back. I run all the way to Hagrid's hut with Harry, Hermione, and Ron, eager to see the friendly giant. As we get there, however, we hear Umbridge from outside.

"I will say this one last time," she is saying. "I'm ordering you to tell me where you've been."

The four of us rush to the window and peek in, but we can't see anything.

"I told you," Hagrid answers. "I've been away for me health."

"Your health?" Umbridge questions.

"Yeah," Hagrid says. "Bit of fresh air, you know."

"Oh, yes," Umbridge smiles. "As gamekeeper, fresh air must be difficult to come by. If I were you, I wouldn't get too used to being back. In fact, I mightn't bother unpacking at all."

We hide in stunned silence as Umbridge leaves.