Serendipity (Fred Weasley HP)

Foreword

This is a story about Halley Aurelia Black the first and only child of Sirius Orion Black and Melissa Fiona McGonagall, born 24th December 1977.
The story starts where any good story should, at the beginning.
The most unlikely pair if there ever were, Sirius and Melissa spent most of their schooling at each other's throats.

Unlike her mother, Melissa was a Ravenclaw through and through, she studied hard and was often found with her nose shoved in a book or two, she was an obvious favourite to pair up with in class because it almost guaranteed you a great mark. She wasn't really one for trouble but sometimes found herself in it because she'd stay up all night reading only to fall asleep in class. Melissa was fairly easy to mess with, she wore her heart on her sleeve and it wasn't hard to read her emotions. This made her the perfect target for a certain group of boys who had a knack for trouble.

Sirius, as everyone knows, was the rebel, the bad boy, the charming trouble maker. He got under Melissa's skin every day and it was safe to say he was enjoying every second of their love-hate relationship. Sirius was never backward about coming forward and he made it his personal mission to push Melissa's buttons, enjoying the rise it got out of her.

One fateful evening during her patrol around the castle, part of her Prefect duties, Melissa came across Sirius trying to set up different pranks for their fellow classmates. Needless to say, they worked each other up so much and caused such a scene that it alerted the teachers. Two weeks detention for duelling, from scrubbing floors to cleaning every window in the castle that was all it took to go from enemies to friends to secret crushes.

Everyone thought it was cute how much they tried to hide it, even fight their feelings, but anyone who'd spent any time around the two could see how good they were for each other. Melissa helped ground him and Sirius helped her loosen up. By the end of their sixth year, they couldn't keep their attraction hidden from each other anymore and neither of them ever looked back.

Halley was only three years old when it happened, thunder struck outside and the toddler cried in the arms of her father who wept silent tears over the body of his dead wife. She was so young, too young to be taken. Halley was dropped off at her grandparents' house and that was the last time she saw her father.

Minerva and Elphinstone never hid Halley's parentage from her, they didn't believe in lying to their granddaughter because in their experience the truth would always find a way to come out. Minerva answered any question that Halley had growing up and they'd visit Melissa's grave every year to lay flowers and pay their respects. She was the spitting image of her father, long, unruly black hair, bright silvery eyes with flecks of green and sharp cheekbones, there were no doubts that she'd inherited the Black family traits, which frankly only made her life harder at school.

It was clear that Halley had also inherited her mother's brain, she was a fiercely intelligent and independent child and had no issues with telling anyone what was really on her mind. Which Minerva found highly amusing when it was directed at someone else, not that she would ever admit that out loud. A trait that neither parent was sure where exactly she got it from, was her Metamorphmagi abilities. As a baby, she'd often change her hair colour depending on her mood or who she was around and it didn't take them long to realise what she was. There was never a dull moment raising Halley.

Minerva and Halley took Elphinstone's passing hard, all they had left was each other. It was the first time Halley had any difficulty controlling her morphing abilities, her eyes didn't light up, her hair laid dull and limp. The two females used each other as a rock to get them through a difficult time. Minerva was just glad to still have one family member left, while Halley couldn't help but feel a little abandoned, first her mother, then father and then her grandfather. It was her biggest fear to lose her grandmother as well.

1989 and Halley was sorted into Gryffindor surprise surprise and Minerva clapped a little louder than everyone else, looking proudly at her granddaughter. To be fair she would have been proud whichever house she'd ended up in but Gryffindor had gained a bright young witch that day and Halley was proud to be in one of the houses that her parents had been in.

It wasn't easy growing up with the last name Black, kids made snap judgments about her and her father which were unfair and untrue. Halley never once believed Sirius to be guilty of the crimes he'd been imprisoned for and she would tell anyone who would listen which included two ginger boys and one dreadlocked boy in her year, Fred and George Weasley and Lee Jordan. They got on like a house on fire and soon saw Halley as one of the boys which is what she liked. A new generation of trouble makers, a Black, two Weasleys and a Jordan. That poor school had no idea what was coming.