Dark Lord Dumbledore - Volume 1 Chapter 65

Harry had spent a lot of time thinking about the best way to explain how Grimmauld Place was fixed up and the house-elves under his control. In the end, he decided to kill two birds with one stone and blame Mrs Black for it. And yesterday, as soon as the train from Hogwarts arrived in London, he had called for Kreacher.

Although Chad’s first meeting with Walburga Black was less than pleasant, her first impression of the powerful child had been rather positive. For a Pureblood maniac that looked down on him for his mother’s parentage, Mrs Black also respected power.

For a child, that was not even old enough to attend Hogwarts, to be able to release his magic as an aura that could literally wipe out her painting was worthy of respect. Not to mention the casual reminders of how she had singlehandedly destroyed the Noble and Most Ancient House of Black and that he was the best choice to fix it.

When Chad had bonded with Kreacher and given him five house-elves to be part of House Black’s elves under his control, Grimmauld Place was brought back to a standard that any self-respecting Noble would be happy to own. This had also significantly contributed to Walburga Black’s change in her view of Harrison Chad Peverell.

Although Chad had only visited Grimmauld Place a couple of times since destroying the locket, Mrs Black had been quite polite and their conversations productive. Though Chad never revealed any of his plans, Kreacher’s endors.e.m.e.nt was enough for her to know that the boy was worthy of bringing back House Black to its former glory.

If the psycho elf that had fanatically followed her for years praised his new master’s character, ability and future plans, it was a good indicator that he was not some bleeding heart Light faction member wanting equal rights for mud-bloods! Though Chad had ordered his elves to not reveal any of his secrets, Mrs Black was shrewd enough to read between the lines.

The problem was convincing her to take credit from rescuing ‘Harry Potter’ from the muggles and combating Dumbledore’s plans against him. She was on board with most of it, but the fact that she had to welcome Sirius back and be nice to him was a sticking point. She really didn’t like how he ‘betrayed’ her by leaving.

“But the muggle lover turned his back on his own heritage!” The magical portrait complained.

“Well, to be fair, you didn’t give him much of a choice. With you advocating for Voldemort’s ridiculous dogma of ‘kill everything that disagrees with him’! You have to admit that you were in the wrong, and it was your actions that drove him into Dumbledore’s welcoming ‘guidance’. If you don’t remedy the situation now, only Dumbledore wins.”

The old woman in the painting glared at Chad, but he didn’t really care. If she didn’t go along with it, he would simply just remove her from the wall. There were just too many ways to circ.u.mvent the permanent sticking charm on her painting.

But since it was more effort to come up with another excuse than to just coax her into it, Chad decided to give her the carrot before he smashed her with the stick.

“How about you give him a chance. Although Dumbledore messed him up, he did still love Regulus, even if his relationship with you soured him against the House of Black. I have also set in motion a plan to marry him to a famous Pureblood witch.

With me guiding him, I can at least have him become a respected Pureblood in the ‘Neutral’ faction. You don’t want that idiot Malfoy to end the Noble and Most Ancient House of Black and steal your heritage do you?”

The evil old woman stiffened at the mention of her favourite son. Chad had Kreacher explain how Regulus had found out what Voldemort would do in order to reach his aims, and that he had died in his effort to bring the mud-blood down. The topic of Voldemort now infuriated her immensely.

The last dig about the uppity Malfoy family assimilating the Black’s prestige was just adding fuel to the fire. Even if she hated Sirius, at least he was of her blood, and any child of his wouldn’t have the stigma of “Bad Faith” damaging the honour of the Black name.

Who knows what price Cygnus had demanded for the shame of shackling his daughter with that name! Orion had been against it but said nothing since the Malfoys were at least wealthy Purebloods.

“I’ll tell you what, if you go along with all of my plans to the best of your ability, I will even free your niece Bellatrix from Azkaban. This way, even if Sirius fails to secure a Black heir, she can pop out a few pure-bloods to carry on the line!” Chad conceded.

What he didn’t mention was that he was going to empty the prison anyway once he revealed his Voldemort persona to troll the Ministry and Dumbledore. Bellatrix was rumoured to be a bit of a hottie, and everyone knew that the crazies were the best in bed! So he was not sacrificing anything by offering it as an incentive to the old biddy in the painting.

“Fine, I will play the regretful mother and welcome that blood traitor back as the Head of House Black, but you better fulfil your promises to me! If only my poor Regulus survived and Sirius was the one to die!” The cruel old Pureblood wailed.

‘Man, that’s some cold-blooded sh*t right there!’ Chad thought to himself as he watched a mother wish for the death of her own child. ‘I better thoroughly prep her for when Sirius arrives, this kind of talk would see my plans torpedoed before they even began!’

——————————————————-

The next day, when Chad had finished catching up with Crystal and organising everything for his subjugatio… trip to Australia, he had Kreacher once again pop him over to Grimmauld Place. He had thirty minutes to once again ensure Mrs Black would not f*ck everything up with her Pureblood mania.

“So we are agreed, you will tolerate Sirius if he shows some promise and I get Bellatrix out of Azkaban. No blood supremacist dogma or insults to any guest, even if they are mud-bloods, and certainly no telling Sirius that he should have died.” He once again asserted.

“Yes, yes, boy, I will play along. I am not an idiot, I can see you are the best hope to correct the damage that the mud-blood Riddle did to my family.”

“Good, because as much as I enjoy your insight into the Pureblood society, if you ruin this for me, I will burn your painting and you will have no say over how House Black develops. Kreacher is under strict orders to observe any and all interactions you have, so please be mindful of your behaviour.”

The vicious and slightly insane old woman squinted her eyes at him before sighing and giving him a nod of acceptance. Might makes right after all, and Chad had power in spades. Certainly more than enough for Mrs Black to recognise his value for House Black.

Chad was just thankful that the only thing the woman cherished more than blood supremacy dogma, was the reputation of House Black! Power and influence came third, and with two out of three, it was enough to manipulate the stubborn old b*tch into compliance.

The doorbell must have been pushed since a loud, clanging bell sound rang out, indicating that Sirius had arrived precisely on time. Chad had decided to open the door and let Sirius in himself, no need to taint the man’s first impression by having Kreacher scowl at him.

Opening the door revealed a gaunt man that was clearly nervous, but at the same time excited. Chad could take a guess at Sirius’ thought process from what he knew of the man.

Not only did Sirius hate this house for the bad memories from his childhood, but he was also probably still stumped on what his godson was doing here. It was a ‘Dark’ house after all.

This was probably coupled with his joy at finally meeting the only reason he continued enduring after Pettigrew was dead, and the driving need to not fail his best friend again.

Though Skeeter’s ‘ministrations’ would have helped with the self-loathing, it must have overwhelmed Sirius when he opened the door and saw a miniature combination of Lily and James Potter giving him a smile.

“Hello, you must be Sirius Black,” Chad said, ending the awkward pause after they made eye contact.

“Uh, yeah. Harry, it is so good to see you after all these years. I expect you’re tired of hearing this, but you look so like your father, except for your eyes. You have your mother’s eyes, a good thing too. James’ eyesight was terrible!” Said the emaciated prankster, falling back into his old joking self.

Once again taking up his role as Harry Potter, Chad adopted using Harry as his name. Changing his name to Harrison Chad Peverell by swearing it magically made it all the easier for him to switch between the two. It would also help with people trying to use his name in contracts without permission.

Chuckling at his godfather’s quip, he invited the man inside. “Before we go further Mr Black, I must warn you that it has taken some quite convincing to get your mother to be civil and welcome you back into the family. I know that you both have a problem with each other, but please try to at least be courteous. For me.”

“My mother? How can you stand to even listen to her? Better yet, how has she not killed you in some gruesome ritual because of Lily being your mother? Hang on, isn’t she dead?” Sirius questioned, each one a bit louder than the last, or that was proper.

Knowing it was impossible for the man to just forget years of abuse, Harry gave him a bit of leeway.

“Please keep your voice down. Just be reserved when you meet Mrs Black, and I will explain everything when she can not hear you screaming for her demise. And yes, she died and is now a portrait at the end of the hall. Again, please just be courteous until I explain everything.” Harry once again insisted.

Knowing he was being a tad rude and was unaware of the situation, Sirius gave a nod of acceptance, much like his mother had earlier. He then squared his shoulders and grit his teeth for the dreaded encounter of his dead mother that had tormented him throughout his childhood.