#Alphard C. Black

[centuriesrpg]

[sweetnnaivete]

made a playlist for the noble house of black !

[therealvinelle]

Is it true that Tom Riddle has a different name in a lot of translations because publishers thought making the anagram in book 2 would be super important so they changed the name rather than just letting that one thing not work in the translation? What's Tom's name in your Norwegian copy?

I'll have you know almost everybody have different names in the Norwegian translation. I'm sure Harry would too, if the translator could get away with it, sadly his name was on the title card.

Some of this is for pronunciation, Hermione Granger is made Hermine Grang so we're not all sounding like Victor Krumm trying to make sense of her name, others are given more of an overhaul to convey the pun or vibe from the original name. Alastor "Madeye" Moody is Alastor "Galøye" Bister ("Galøye" is literally "Madeye", while "bister" means "terse").

Other examples of translations include the Black family being Svart (Norwegian word for Black) but by and large keeping their constellation names and spelling (with such exceptions as Alfar ("ph" isn't how we spell the f-sound, and the d would doesn't really work either - it's a phonetic translation of Alphard) and Narsissa (the c would be a problem)), and foreign characters like Victor Krumm and Gellert Grindelwald stay (almost: Victor is now Viktor.) the same, presumably because they're foreign in-universe.

For punny translations we have not just the names, but places and things being made punny to best reflect the original. Diagon Alley is made Diagonalgangen, "The diagonal hallway" that with the -en ending becomes "walking diagonally". Heh. Quidditch is rumpeldunk, the snitch is "snoppen" (a euphemism for penis. I commend the translator for making the game somehow that little bit gayer than it already was), Rita Skeeter is Rita Slita (conveying that she's an exhausting, tireless person), Cornelius Fudge is Kornelius Bleouf (a made-up surname that coincidentally is pronounced the same as "bluff"). It keeps going.

Some people didn't get punny names, simply names that captured the vibe. The Crouch family is now Kroek, Percy is Perry, and Tom Riddle (whom I'll get further into below) is Tom Venster.

(Though, since you've got me talking about one of my favorite niche subjects: the translator did make a pun out of Tom's name that isn't in the original series.

Tom is a common name in Norwegian, but it also is the word for "empty". We have an unrelated idiom, "full av faen" - literally "full of the devil", figuratively a malicious or cruel person. For use in conversation, I could use it about a person but also about a particularly grouchy cat. My friend had a horrible day so now they're full av faen, I tried petting that cat but it's full av faen.

The chapter where we meet eleven-year-old Tom Riddle is titled "Tom, eller full av faen".

I can only imagine the translator had been waiting four books to make that pun.)

In other words, yes Tom's name was trnaslated. In Norwegian the full name is Tom Dredolo Venster, with the anagram being "Voldemort den store" (Voldemort the great). That's right, we suffered even worse secondhand embarrassment in Norway.

I am quite fond of the translated name, as it in my opinion captures the vibe of Tom Riddle very well. An ordinary name with a very nice ring to it, and you don't actually know anybody else with that exact name. Dredolo, the oddball middle name, is as foreign yet fitting with the rest as Marvolo is in English. It's a name that rolls off the tongue.

The Danes, by comparison, have Romeo Gåde Detlev. Which is a very... eyecatching name, I've seen it go viral several times (along with the French Tom Elvis Jedusor), but the problem is that Tom was named for his father, an English gentleman in the 1920's, and this name sounds like a cultural melting pot. Gåde, originally the middle name that stood out and had Mrs. Cole assuming Merope came from an exotic background, is now the most normal name in there.

I want to be lenient, I do, the translator hadn't read Half-Blood Prince at the time and didn't know how much emphasis would be placed on Tom's name being ordinary. But, well, he made the name a different ethnicity, and I can only imagine he must have wanted the first name "Romeo" quite badly. We're left with a name that signals completely different things, which I do think is relevant when Tom's name being painfully Muggle and ordinary, growing up in 1930's London, had such an impact. Being perceived as foreign, which he would be with that name, would change things. His shedding the name to become Voldemort also takes on a very different meaning when he's an Englishmen who spent the first few decades of his life being asked if his parents fled the Soviet Union.

So, not a fan of Romeo Detlev.

As for Tom Elvis Jedusor, that one I have no problem with. Elvis wouldn't become a star until several decades after Tom's birth, and the middle name is supposed to be unusual anyway. The rest of the name sounds appropriately French, no notes. (Though the Danish translator should have taken some for how to give readers a funny, but plausible name).

[deathnguts]

Pls…Go into HEAVY Detail about the Lestrange brothers I’m a very curious bastard…very curious 👀

((Sorry in advance for our difference in writing for these disasters but I’m gonna use this to explain my idea of them but know that I still think yours is very cool and interesting and I genuinely love it so))

Ok I think the best way for me to make words about this is to try and compare them to something. So I’m gonna be the only person to ever talk about Orion Black ever yet again and say with my full chest that Alphard and Orion were more twins than Rabastan and rodolphus the same way Rabastan and rodolphus were more brothers than Alphard and Orion. Lemme explain.

Alphard and Orion are not twins, technically. They were born ten months apart, so they didn’t share the womb but they are the same age. They look exactly the fucking same because of those mixed genes and they were expected to do the same things as the oldest heir blacks. Since they were both the same school year, neither was really treated like the older brother by the rest of the family which lead to them growing up pretty much in tandem to share the title. They were never perfect non-twins, like they didn’t only like each other or finish each other’s sentences or anything, to everyone watching it seemed they didn’t get along at all? Like Alphard was constantly teasing Orion and putting off all his work because he knew Orion would do it and Orion was easily flustered and complained all the time about all the work his brother made him do. But like… if they hated each other than why did they live in each other’s skin. Alphard literally never left Orion alone, he was always there and always had his arm slung around his brother’s shoulders or something. He said it was under the guise of ‘looking out for his little brother because he’s socially inept and has no friends’ and Orion would always just say ‘I’m not your little brother we’re the same age.’ Like there was a bunch of other things being said that he could be worrying about but he just chose to be a brat and that was pretty much their whole relationship. They stayed attached at the hip until Alphard was to be wed at around sixteen and that was the thing he refused to do (because he was gay) and Orion did not understand his firmness on the topic that was really just another duty in his eyes (because he was aroace) and that was the first real divide they had. They never had a divide before so they didn’t know what to do. Alphard wanted to run away, he asked his brother to come with because he didn’t know how to live without him, Orion said no. Alphard had his doubts about his brother valuing their relationship and himself over his family confirmed, Orion had his doubts that Alphard was a childish selfish brat confirmed. Alphard left and they never saw each other again.

Sorry for all the exposition but here’s where I put it to use!

Rodolphus and Rabastan are twins, technically. They shared the womb but were born on different days, Rodolphus first and then Rabastan two days later. (I imagine the pure bloods are very traditional in their treatment of pregnancy and probably have never even heard of a C section, if they baby’s not coming out then the mother just has to wait.) This proved to be a premonition for them as people because just like their birth, Rodolphus was handed off to their father while Rabastan stayed with mommy and got to experience her warmth for so much longer. Rodolphus came when expected with little fuss, Rabastan had to make his own scene and cause so much trouble for his mother in the process yet she continued to love him anyway. They have different birthdays. They are different people. They were raised differently because their mother wasn’t exactly all there and claimed that because her second son stayed with her in birth (forgoing how he nearly killed her doing so) that means he was hers despite him being a boy (traditionally the mother would take charge of the daughters and the father the sons once they come of age, but the Lestranges didn’t do that clearly) ((also cue that TikTok audio where the mother’s like ‘a boy would be the son of France, but you shall be mine’)) and their father didn’t really mind because he has his own son too. The couple weren’t in love but they didn’t hate each other, so they truly didn’t mind raising their children pretty much separately since they both had vastly different ideas of being parents. Rodolphus was raised to learn to be quiet and keep his head down because he went to work with father ever since he learned to stop crying all the time, Rabastan was raised as the center of his mother’s universe while acutely aware she was crazy because it didn’t exactly feel good to have her crazed attention at all times so he learned to act out as much as he wanted becaus he could get away with it and his mother deserved it in his eyes. They saw each other at dinner and were allowed to play whenever they wanted, which they took advantage of when they were young. Rabastan learned early on to resent their father because he was always the one who took rodolphus away, Rodolphus learned early on to resent their mother because she never even looked at him. But as they grew into their chosen parent’s faces, they learned to resent each other as well. (Again cue the TikTok audio for Rabastan that’s like ‘thank you, I look just like my mommy’)

By all accounts they weren’t twins. They stopped even really being brothers when they started hogwarts, if you looked at it a certain way. They lead entirely different lives, adorned completely different faces and roles, anyone who didn’t know them didn’t know they even knew each other. They weren’t like the black brothers where they fought in halls and made a spectacle out of being different, they weren’t like the black sisters who could ignore their differences like an elephant in a room and play pretend that they were sisters despite the looming threat of difference, the lestrange twins were just… nothing. Barely even twins, barely even brothers. They lived in the same dorm room (since I imagine that Slytherin isn’t as populated of a house of that of gryffindor and probably means there’s less kids per dorm, two or three but I usually lean towards two) and it was like all conversation was silenced when they were together. Rodolphus would read on his bed late enough into the night to witness Rabastan stumble through the door with the stink of stolen liquor on him and neither said anything. Rabastan would watch through a key hole as all his family but his mother learned to favor the ‘better brother’ and talk in hushed tones of what their mother’s boy was growing into with Rodolphus in the room and the quieter twin say nothing to deter them. Rodolphus resents Rabastan for having things people value in life that he never even considered having for himself (freedom, love, living in truth) but doesn’t mind enough to make a deal do it because, in truth, Rodolphus doesn’t want those things. The only reason he cares is because his brother them (like true siblings tend to do.) But Rabastan resents Rodolphus for having everything he’s always looked for but never had (praise, adoration, love from someone who wasn’t crazy) and he truly didn’t regret or hold back that resentment because when had he ever regretted or held back anything?

But the reason I chose ti compare the failed twins to the broken brothers is because everyone expected them ti have the opposite relationship. Pure blood twins should be closer than anything, close enough to cause unease in how they are when alone, their seperation should be a disaster. Pure blood brothers should be… quaint, at best. They don’t owe anything to each other, their lives will be completely separate once they marry and have to start fighting for the title of Heir. But it was the last generation’s Black Brothers that were close with the shaking falling out and the Lestrange Twins that were a never kindled fire. And they did follow in their older Black Brother counterparts foot steps in many ways as adults. Alphard broke himself off from the family but kept his own money and power, which he used to live for himself and look out for a younger pure blood child (Sirius) that he saw soemthing worth change in and knew others would seek to destroy. Rabastan distanced himself from the family but kept his own money and power, which he used to live for himself and look out for a younger pure blood child (Regulus) that he saw soemthing worth change in and knew others would seek to destroy. Orion dedicated himself to the role he knew he was born to play and did what he was told when he was told to, no feelings for fuss about it, and was revered as a business man for it but despised as a family man for the same. Rodolphus dedicated himself to the role he knew he was born to play and did what he was told when he was told to, no feelings for fuss about it, and was admired as a business man for it but almost mourned as a family man for the same because Rodolphus didn’t have a family, he just had a wife that he never spoke to.

But at the beginning I said that Rabastan and rodolphus were more brothers than Alphard and Orion as a teen of endearment for them, implying they did have that brotherly idea of each other, and where have I shown it? No where, so here it is now. Where Black siblings always seem to have some huge falling out with a lifetime of silence to follow, most families aren’t that dramatic. Sure Rabastan and Rodolphus were never eveyrthing to each other, but they were still family. When Rabastan feels he has no where else to turn and he can’t stand to look in his mother’s ever fading eyes, he goes to Rodolphus. And just like their school days, Rodolphus will hold his hair when he vomits and have a guest room prepared without a fuss at all. When Rodolphus is at a loss for a scene of people being just so hard for him to understand, unsure of what to do but sure he doesn’t like it at all, Rabastan takes it like he used to take Rodolphus’ veggies under the table. Most things Rodolphus doenst understand are easy enough to either explain or dispel completely by just being his dramatic self and getting people to fall into the line Rodolphus understands again.

Rabastan and Rodolphus don’t parallel one another like good twins, they parallel brothers that could have been better then them. And in some ways, they actually succeed at being the better family to each other. It’s just complicated, because when is family not?

[noblehouseofgay]

Marauders x avatar (au idea)

Loooong ass post but it's so worth it

✧･ﾟ: *✧･ﾟ:*✧･ﾟ: *✧･ﾟ:*✧･ﾟ: *✧･ﾟ:*✧･ﾟ: *✧･ﾟ:*

The Blacks are a powerful firebending family. One of the most powerful actually. Orion is obviously firelord. Sirius and regulus have a healthier zuko and azula dynamic. They obviously keep their own personality, but I think regulus is more like zuko and sirius is more like azula personality wise, action wise it's the other way around. But they kind of mix and match. I think alphard and Andromeda are the Irohs of the family

I think sirius got banished (zuko) and regulus stayed back being the perfect child (azula). And sirius went to find alphard and Andromeda for help (iroh). Down the line tho I think regulus finally leaves and goes to his brother and his new friends to help them (zuko). So like I said, they trade off.

Tho since sirius has Andromeda and alphard, regulus has narcissa. Bellatrix is essentially azula tho character wise. So they're all kind of just sharing the characters around. But you see the vision. Bella and sirius are the more reckless unhinged sibling, regulus and narcissa are the more quiet and calculated sibling.

The Potters are a water tribe. James is obviously sokka (spreading both my zukka and jegulus agenda).

I think remus would make a good earth bender. And it would be an easy way for him to have scars. Plus- disabled remus (maybe not blind, but still)!! Marlene has major toph energy so she's earth as well

Pandora is an air bender. No explanation needed. And since they're siblings, Evan is also an air bender. Twin avatars maybe 👀??

Dorcas and barty live in the fire nation. Easy way to make them best friends with reg. Dorcas gives mai energy 100%.

But if barty wasn't a fire bender he'd be earth bender, another one with toph energy. He would also love throwing rocks.

Yk actually, earth bender works well for barty bc of his dad. His dad would definitely be in thr group trying to hide the war from the earth kingdom, and all barty wants to do is fight back against him. So barty could go either way

Lily isn't a bender, but she lives in the earth kingdom. Other non benders would be mary and Peter. Peter lives with the water tribe (potters), mary lives in the earth kingdom

Lily c o u l d be a water bender instead, filling in as the katara. Bc I like james and Lily being more like siblings than anything

Bonus content:

- lily meeting an ethereal air bender and falling so hard

- fire x water zukka/jegulus!!!!!!

- sirius and remus having a petty rivalry going on at first (ysuft vibes)

- Remus and Lily (toph and katara) bonding

- barty thinking Evans air bender tattoos are super fucking cool

- pandora being the first to want to trust regulus, even if the rest of the group isn't as trusting yet

- for the play episode, remus gets the "the scars NOT ON THE WRONG SIDE" line

- Regulus gets "don't see the family resemblance?" line

- lily with healing abilities <3

- painted lady lily!!

- blue spirit regulus!!

- instead of the blind bandit, remus could be the scarred bandit

- remus "sounds to me like you're scared boulder" lupin

- pandora "I laugh at gravity all the time" rosier

- pandora teaching all the sheltered fire kids how to dance <33

[thecarnivorousmuffinmeta]

If Alphard Black was alive during canon, would that change/affect anything? Besides giving Draco a competent grandparent figure to maybe, perhaps slightly negate some of the influence of incompetent father figure.

Alphard Black, a great character @therealvinelle and I have completely made up for our own purposes.

Honestly, the way Harry sees it, no or else so minimally it's going to be no.

Where Does Alphard Fit In?

Alphard in this universe lives far past his original due date in the early 1980's/late 1970's. Potentially, this means no money willed to Sirius as he's not dead, but we'll go with @therealvinelle and my convenient interpretation of "gifted money to Sirius" in which case Alphard's not quite regretting giving that money but very :/ about it when a few years later Sirius is found to be Death Eater Number 2 who blew up an entire Muggle street in cold blood and sold his best friend, wife, and child out to You-Know-Who directly.

Alphard doesn't suspect this is false given the sheer emotional gut punch he receives around this time that is Bellatrix being a confirmed die-hard Death Eater who has tortured a fucking baby/murdered many/and tortured people into insanity, Regulus's disappearance and presumed death, and Narcissa being married to what clearly is a Death Eater who is now in dire straits and is bribing everyone he can to stay out of Azkaban. At this rate, why shouldn't Sirius have done this? Everyone else in Alphard's life has. Just par for the course.

(As an aside, I doubt Sirius would have gone to live with Alphard when he ran away because a) he didn't canonically b) he had support through the Potters c) the entire point was to run away from the family and that would just be running to family. So, they didn't have a period where they were very close and we remain in the canon world where Sirius was pretty surprised to have gotten money from his uncle like that and then doesn't really think about it.)

Alphard spends the 1980's onwards in a daze of extreme sadness as Regulus has presumably killed himself for no reason the family can discern, Sirius turned out to be a lunatic Death Eater no one suspected (which means he ran off from the family for no reason??? Sirius???), Bellatrix is in Azkaban deservedly for crimes so heinous Alphard really doesn't want to think about it, Narcissa is still fucking married to Lucius who is so clearly a Death Eater it's practically a running joke and sees 0 problem with this (and it's worse because Lucius is doing so well! This is great! He's filling the power vacuum!), Alphard's sister dies at some point during this period as does his second cousin/brother-in-law, and we're basically looking at a guy who's going to be hanging out with Andromeda (and fuck what the family thinks at this point, Alphard's so tired) who looks like the only remaining sane one and telling Narcissa to "PLEASE LEAVE LUCIUS" and being Draco's sad sad grandfather/granduncle figure who's very :/ about Lucius and Narcissa privately talking about how great Voldemort and the Death Eaters are.

I imagine Alphard's very dubious about the Boy Who Lived thing but mostly he just doesn't care. It's just so stupid and his life's misery and people are acting like he's supposed to be happy because at least Voldemort's gone. He doesn't expect to ever interact with Harry Potter because, well, why would he?

Alphard's role comes in more when Sirius escapes Azkaban and I imagine the Aurors aren't sure whether to guard him or not. However, Sirius doesn't give a fuck about his uncle and so he never comes around. Alphard has no reason not to assume that Sirius is on the run somewhere and is guilty as hell given Sirius canonically did not get a chance to prove his innocence.

More to the point, Harry has no reason to hear more about Alphard Black than he already did in canon.

Grimmauld Place was willed to Harry directly from Sirius and so Alphard wouldn't come into the picture there anymore than any of the other Blacks did when Sirius died.

Harry has no reason to interact with Alphard later as there's no suspicion that Alphard would have a Horcrux and he learns about RAB from Kreacher without having to interrogate Alphard about anything.

Draco still becomes a Death Eater because he really has no choice when it comes to saving his family/he wouldn't listen to his boring old grandfather/granduncle anymore than he did his mother/Snape of why this is a bad idea and he should be very careful.

Basically, Alphard would be one of the many witnesses to the tumultuous years that are canon and would have no real affect on it.

[futurequibblerjournalist]

Hihi!! :3

I'd love a yap session about your fav Knights!! If u want ofc :D

If not,, some Marauders content would be super cool!!!! Especially for Remus!! I'd love to hear about his parents and his relationship with them, but I'd be 100% totally and honestly down for anything!! Ooh defo any headcanons for him! Ahhh wowie I feel so special with all the attention uve given me !!

Have a good day :33

- 🍃

It's been so long since I've gotten to answer one of your asks vjfnjgnbg I've missed iiiiiit,,, it's been so fun answering your asks!!

I’m gonna be talking more about the actual knights of Walpurgis but I’m gonna take this as an excuse to talk about my girl Lucretia cause I love her so much

Her full name is Lucretia Elladora Black and she’s born in 1925 though I’ve yet to set an actual birthday for her,, I need to figure that out. She was born with Esotropia in her right eye, polydactyly (she had extra pinkies when she was born but they were removed) and she’s infertile (these are all because of the inbreeding that the Black family is known for).

She’s in the same year as Walburga at school and she was obviously a Slytherin. She was the seeker for the Slytherin quidditch team (though her brother and cousin would often somewhat tease her that it was not proper).

Her best subject is potions and she’s very fond of them. Other hobbies, save for quidditch, include entomology (specifically lepidopterology) and a fascination for the French language. She’s also quite interested in the magical artefacts that the Black family possesses.

She grew up in 12 Grimmauld Place with her younger brother Orion (he’s four years younger than her) and their parents Arcturus and Melania Black. Their house elf was Kreacher when she was growing up and like the woman, she got her middle name after she was notoriously bad to the house elves

I picture her with very long, sleek obviously black hair with bangs, upturned grey eyes, lips that are fuller in the upper lip, a long nose and a beauty spot under her right eye and one on her left cheekbone. She’s tall for like,, Black family standards but that’s not really saying a lot? She’s taller than both Walburga and Orion but just a smidge shorter than Cygnus and Alphard. She got narrow shoulders, average bust and a tiny waist and her skin is incredibly pale like the rest of the family’s.

I think she’s the one who starts out with a crush on Ignatius and everyone considers her a bit of a bitchy mean girl cause she’s one of the girls from the Black family and she’s got a fairly stern personality and a resting bitch face but when she’s around Ignatius she’s all giggly and smiling and twirling her hair and I think she spends a lot of time trying to subtly talk him up and get either her brother or her cousins to approve of him

As for Remus!!! Ahhh I love him so much cjnfjcnf

He was born to Lyall and Hope Lupin on March 10 1960 in Abergavenny, Wales, after the two got married. Lyall is a half-blood born to parents Ulric and Altalune in 1929 also born in Abergavenny. I really like Polish Hope who moves to England/Wales at some point after the war. She is, as we know, a muggle. She meets Lyall, they have their whole meet-cute with the boggart and they get married. Neither thought that they would end up having children but they had Remus as a surprise and he made them both very happy.

I am not a Remus has distant parents/parents that hate him/anything of that sort kind of person. He’s got parents that deeply love him and that are trying their best with him despite the situation they end up with, with Remus’s lycanthropy and that shapes Remus as a person!!! Which is why it’s so important!!! He is gentle in spite of everything partially because he has been surrounded by it for all of his childhood. He’s not been able to have friends but he’s had parents and especially a mother who tried her best to make sure he wasn’t missing anything

I think Remus is really close with his mum, he’s a bit of a mummy’s boy. He’s less close with Lyall, but that’s mostly because Lyall struggles to approach him sometimes because he feels guilty for what happened to Remus because of his actions.

As for some Remus headcanons:

He grew up in a dual faith household with Lyall being Christian (though not particularly practicing) and Hope being Jewish

Blonde Remus!!! It gets darker with age but it’s still light enough to be called blonde. He’s also got hazel/green-ish eyes and a shit tonne of freckles

The nose on this guy!!! Yes,, big < 3

He smokes menthols. He hides that he smokes from his parents but especially his mother

His closest friends are Peter and Lily. He considers Sirius and James very close friends as well of course, but I think he always thinks that there’s a bit of a distance between them cause they’re “so much cooler than him”

I think he met Peter on the train before he met anyone else and the two bonded. This is why Remus was so adamant that Sirius and James include Peter in their group because he refused to exclude his first friend

Feels like stating the obvious but huge collection of jumpers

On that note, Hope knits him stuff like all the time, he’s got knitted vests, knitted jumpers, knitted socks, the whole lot. Hope will sometimes knit socks for James, Sirius and Peter as well and ask him to bring them along

He grew up in many different places since they were forced to move around a lot, but the place he stayed the longest was a fairly remote cottage that he’s very fond of. It’s not particularly fancy, but it’s very cozy and homey

For the wolfstar fans out there I think Remus is the gangliest most awkward looking motherfucker and people are always confused when they learn that wolfstar is a thing because of all people Sirius Black could end up with he chose the one who looks like he’s been through a paper shredder?

A very good storyteller I feel? If he reads a book out loud he makes different voices for the characters, but even if he’s just telling a story in general it’s always very engaging

On that note he speaks a lot with his hands

He’s a horrible dancer lol

A lot of people headcanon that Remus is very warm I feel, but I imagine he feels cold all the time even if to other people he feels warm yk?

I don’t think he’s a bad singer, he might be kinda average, but he thinks he’s an awful singer. He’ll at most do a bit of humming in a very low vibrating voice and he usually does this either when he’s cooking or when he’s in the shower

When he blushes the tips of his ears also get really red

He is the farthest thing from a morning person. It’s almost always a race in the morning to see whether Sirius or Remus will toss a pillow at James first when he’s trying to get them to get up

Remus would wear full pyjamas but none of it would match

He really likes chocolate with orange crunch in it

I could see him being the kind of person to call people love (even more so when he’s older), especially in casual passing like if he bumps into someone he’ll go “oh, sorry, love” without really thinking about it

His favourite subjects are Defence Against the Dark Arts and Charms

I think that's all I've got for now? I have other asks that vaguely include him so there might be some more coming at some point vjfnbjgnb but yeah ahhhh thank you for the ask have some moodboards as well < 3

[crepus]

I like to think that Alphard was THE uncle, all 5 Black cousins (yes even Bellatrix) loved him, he was the embodiment of a cool uncle

Like if the kids really really wanted something he would give it to them even if their parents didn't approve.

like 'Oh Walg what do you mean you won't let Reg play quidditch? I even got him the latest broom model, hell sweep the floor and leave all seekers to shame' and Walburga grits her teeths and allows Regulus to play quidditch.

He helped Andy to run away, and was on thin fucking ice, then he gave money to Sirius and that's why he was burned off the tapestry.

He loved those kids like they were his children :c

[chdarling]

Cygnus and his dogs>>I love the Blacks and their pets, they almost seem to feel more affection for them than for the human race (I can see that). Another thing I LOVE is the fact that they are very cultured: paintings, Greek mythology, music... I love it when the characters "on the bad side" are not stupid, it makes them much more realistic. You are amazing!

Oh yes, Cygnus definitely likes his dogs more than people, just as Alphard much preferred his horses. Maybe we should get Walburga a pet. 🤔

And thank you! I’ve always been super interested in the way a lot of the pure-blood families have names pulled from Greek mythology, and I think it fits very nicely into something a lot of white supremacists/aristocrats have done throughout history, which is to sort of curate this false display of ancientness. Like, they’re kind of cosplaying antiquity, while also scrubbing it of context to craft an idealized version of their “glorious past.” (See: the literal scrubbing of paint from ancient Greek statuary)

I actually like to imagine that a few of the paintings in the Black collection were plagiarized versions of muggle masterpieces. Pure-bloods couldn’t bear to admit that muggles were that talented so, much as they did with music in TLE (just a few decades behind, ahem), some pure-blood painter did a lil duplication and added some magic to make the painting move or whatever they do, and bam, sudden acclaim among wizardkind. 😂

For instance, the painting Regulus was so taken with in this chapter was absolutely a wizard imitation of Jan Weenix’s Still Life with Swan and Game before a Country Estate, c. 1685.

:)

[fiendishfyre]

All your thoughts on Walburga Black please

Thank for this ask, I apologize for the incoherent mess Imma bout to vomit out.

First and foremost, I do not think nor agree with her (and in part Orion) using harmful spells on Sirius and Regulus. Using the cruciatus curse on her own kids???? Sorry we already have villains like Voldy and Umbridge. I hate Walburga being made into some pure evil cartoon level villain to her sons. I think she loved them. I can't say it was healthy but the Black family is complicated, no *family* is complicated. And I am not saying she wasn't abusive in a way, but I lean more it was generational trauma she imposed (orion would have as well), along with emotional/mental abuse. They leave their own marks and can be enough to want to leave a family. I mean look at well intention, for all accounts 'good' parents but are super controlling, people have ended up leaving that family as well (I say this as I've seen people share their personal lives and this be one reason why. Which is valid too.) Like praising the child that was behaving well while also throwing insult to other child, 'why can't you be like X'. But enough about her and how she'd have raised the kids. I love her having aspirations but it was cut short, forced to marry Orion. Keeping blood pure and all that jazz. Though I do also like her wanting Orion as well but I tend to go for the former. She was a potions master or at least wanted to be, it was one of her fav subject. She taught the boys early on how to make potions. She also played with Sirius specifically with the piano. Sirius was her fav child, apple of her eyes. She was so proud of him, even when he rebelled and ran off, part of her was proud of how strong her son was. Though she'd not speak it aloud. (Maybe in time she would have but life didn't allow it.) Her angry dictates her at times, she is more expressive in emotions than Orion. Which annoys her, she wants to see his emotions. Not saying she can't completely hold her emotions back, but just that she is more prone to outward emotions. Orion will look at something with disgust while she'll do the same and say it aloud too. She's a goth queen and Bella so took inspo from her fashion sense. Hahahahhaa. Wally was also an excellent duelist. Ruthless. Her relationship with her brothers is..hm, she is envious of Alphard, getting to be born a man and having different expectations. She was firstborn of her line, told she *must* wed well then must help carry the Black family line. Also Alphard had a more carefree (my hcs okay) personality while she thought too much and couldn't be like him. Cygnus was like an annoying little brother she ignored until he was older and less annoying. But she and Al were highkey mean to him. Taking advantage of their older siblings status. RIP Cygnus.

She totally would have messed with/bullied Tom Riddle, hahahaha. "Knights of Walpurgis? Fucking nerd." /joking, maybe.

She's the most gorgeous woman and knows it. Is a bit of a clean freak which she loosens up for when it comes to potions though she's still; careful not to make a big mess.

Okay, yeah, these are *my* thoughts only, please don't get offended or argue. c':

[nocturnal-phantoms-fandoms]

C A T for the ask game please hehe 😻

Cat!! My dearest Shrutual <3333

(Im going to answer alphabetically. Also this got so long omg)

A - Ships that you currently like a lot. (They don’t have to be OTPs because not everyone has OTPs.) Friendships, pairings, threesomes, etc. are allowed.

I do have OTPs :D wolfstar and stucky (also previously: klance but im not into them as much anymore)

I even have a meme for this occasion:

other ships from the marauders fandom:

wolfstarbucks <333 wolfbucks and prongsfoot are alright too but not in the long run, I think I prefer them as a trio (everyone is there and all is well and everyone is happy. I get sad when R isnt there and im worried about S's whereabouts when he isnt there, so. Trio)

jily - i wouldnt call myself a jily shipper per se, but its also very dear to me <3333. Would choose a fic with them as a supporting ship over alternatives when reading r/s , thats for sure.

james & sirius friendship but also remus & james friendship!!

basically... sirius and remus and sometimes james an lily. in any configuration at this point

(there are other ships I like from hp, mcu and other fandoms but im not into them that much at this very moment)

C - A ship you have never liked and probably never will.

Oh boy. Do I have to choose just one?

Stony.

... Ok that wasnt that hard.

I dont like Tony, I dont care about him, I dont like their relationship we saw in the films (tho i havent read the comics so im judging just the films), Im not into enemies to lovers, there is nothing for me there. zero, zip, nada.

T - Do you have any hard and fast headcanons that you will die defending?

Thats a really hard question bc apart from fighting "mainstream" fanon with canon info i dont think im that invested about most headcanons? so, i will try. i will not elaborate tho.

if sirius was into any muggle subculture it would be punk

black brothers weren't tortured with cruciatus every other day for any minor inconvenience they caused. sirius was abused psychologically and emotionally and until the last second walburga hoped he would come back and take the role of the heir he was supposed to.

regulus wasnt forced into becoming a DE, but he did it bc he wanted to prove himself

alphard was gay and had muggle lover(s)

sirius would become a curse breaker, a social worker, an activist, a mechanic or an engineer or something like that. idk why but i dont like it when he's a healer/doctor. However I can see sirius joining the aurors with james, but i think he would resign not long after finishing training when he realises he cant fix the system from the inside. idk if james would resign tho.

if we assume that the marauders form a pack, its not remus who is the alpha, even while in wolf form

the last one im adding just bc i saw a post about it right before i started answering this ask: the full moon doesnt make remus horny. its a traumatic experience for him and he associates it with everything he fears - pain and loosing control. for a few days before the full he feels sick and weak and he hates everything and sirius has to fight tooth and nail to just get him under a blanket for a cuddle. right after the full he is exhausted and in pain. the further from the full the easier it is to get him in the mood, basically. (i feel like im the only one. at least on this one post every response was the opposite. i read just one ff with a similar thing - where its the new moon that makes werewolves horny.) i am not opposed to remus being horny right after the full tho

las one I just remembered: the hogwarts express has more than two stops. for gods sake. those kids arent travelling to London from Edinburgh just to spend the whole day on the train on the way back. (check out this map) all of the stations have platforms like 3 ⅓, 2 ⅚ and so on of course.

ask game

[mrstellmeafuckingsecret]

who should be shipped with young tom riddle

A. Walburga

B. Orion

C. Hagrid

or D. Alphard

🤔

i've actually never seen tom x hagrid before, but it gives me the ick. the expelling incident was too icky, and as much as i love an unhealthy relationship (which is bound to take place w tommy) i just ? don't ship hagrid with anyonejkjda

i know it's like . very teenagerish that i dont ship the guy who's not very romanticizable but like dkhafhka umm. hagrid isn't very intelligent and prone to be tricked easily, and that just kind of isn't my favourite flavour of unhealthy relationships.

walburga and tom is personally hilarious to me bc walburga is a very bipolar batshit fucking insane bitch (canon) with a need to mother everyone (i have reasons for saying this!) (in her own, toxic, possessive, way) and tom has mommy issues. i don't think they ever had anything go on between them, but i think tom wouldve liked walburga. he def approached her for recruitment idc what anyone says (unless . like . canon evidence.)

kinda bellamort vibes. kinda.

orion. is straight. but like. no one is 100% straight yk. if orion had one (1) boycrush, it would be tom. orion is litr a coward (he's barely mentioned in the books which i read as him being walburga's cocksleave who says yesmaam to whatever she says & not doing shit on his own). now, orion didn't have any apparent impact on sirius (he never mentions him) or the house (no (apparent) portrait, even though he's lord black) which i read as him just blending into the background. i mean, as much as a black can blend in, anyway. yeah so whatever right,,, he was also younger than tom so i don't think tom had any interest in him. there's more interesting people in the world, the only thing orion would've had that mightve caught tom's fancy would be him being heir black (tomxsiriuspropagandainsert). but like,,, yeah.

now alphard <333333

um. so. i headcanon alphard being like two years younger than walburga, and wally is two years above tom soo. stars align. (funny black family joke.) sirius alphard black and his horrible taste in men is delicious & i love it. he pulls the dark lord by being non-threatening enough that he's not intimidating tom, but hard enough to rival him (at least for a while).

a teaches t about all the magic in the fucking world, and t is drawn to a's charm&looks&intelligence&magic. same w alphard.

it would be so toxic too bc tom would be impersonal as shit and never tell alphard anything right,, he'd cheat repeatedly, he'd make up rumours and lies, he'd make horcruxes, he'd visit a country, he'd plan world domination and when alphard asks about it he's reminded that tom and alphard dont mean anything to each other, theyre simply fucking because theyre teenage boys !!!!!!

uhm. idk how yap more.

tom would remove alphard's memory of their friendship (it was never very public, they both avoided each other anytime but nights) once he became voldemort (homophobia :3) and alphard will always wonder why his dick stands up at the thought of the dark lord 🙏🏼🙏🏼

uh but yeah they broke up in sixth year when alphard found out tom was the one who killed myrtle (erased memory!). alphard has a heart and it is fragile unfortunately.

uhh but i do hc tom did love alphard. ik it's implied that he cant feel love (bc of the love potion?) buuut idk ? i feel like if coming from a love potion would literally turn you into.... wahtever that was.... it'd be a crime yk. he's just a very fucked up kid. psychopathic. he just turns into a proper monster as he starts making horcruxes. he loved & trusted alphard and he told him stuff about himself (a reason why he removed his memories!) like myrtle. bro was NOT good w words. (canon).

yerp.

<3

[birlwrites]

I absolutely love all the lore you created around the Black family and really hope we'll get to see more interactions with the older generation (Cygnus, Alphard etc).

Though I've noticed that besides a single mention in ttdl Lucretia isn't really present. I would love to know how does the Black family actually go about her in ttdl universe since she's not disowned but also married Ignatius Prewett, so what seems to be a fairly Light and pro-Dumbledore family. Also you've mentioned how Regulus would spend time with Cygnus as a kid, so would the same be true for Lucretia? She is his father's sister so a fairly close family after all.

*laughs awkwardly in 'sometimes filling in everything i don't remember with headcanons means the blacks are related to each other in slightly different ways from whatever the hell is canon'*

i feel the need to state that i read the harry potter series like, 14-15 times in elementary school, with a few rereads later on, and have read a lot of fanfiction, but i've never in my life consulted a wiki or really engaged with extra content/canon. so very specific things are burned into my brain, but don't expect full accuracy to canon, between that and the fact that i do just change things sometimes if i think something will work better for my story

ok now that we've gotten that over with, lucretia is regulus's great-aunt in atfhv! this is very important to contextualize her marriage to ignatius prewett because it was not long after her brother arcturus married melania macmillan, in the mid-1930s. (arcturus and melania got married in 1936 and i haven't come up with a specific year for lucretia and ignatius)

this was a high point for house black's friendliness with non-dark families, in which the weasleys were mainly looked down upon for being poor and not so much for being accepting of muggleborns (although, to be clear, house black never reached that point, and house macmillan was and is really socially moderate, as opposed to progressive. house prewett is a little further down that spectrum, but was still in house black's acceptable range, especially as lucretia was marrying out instead of bringing a new person in

ignatius is lord prewett, but in the BCU (this is why the phrase 'birl's cinematic universe' exists LMAO), he and lucretia never have kids. the lordship passes to ignatius's brother after his death, who is molly and fabian and gideon's father

(timeline on that - ignatius is born mid-late 1910s, his brother early 1920s. molly, the eldest, is born in 1956, and fabian and gideon 3 years later. i have most of house black getting married and having kids very young - walburga's actually one of the older ones when she gets married, at 22 - so someone not having kids until their 30s is how house prewett kind of skips a generation compared to the blacks)

all that means that lucretia, as lady prewett, has all the social affairs of house prewett to manage, so she's not as around as most of regulus's family is (cassiopeia, having never married, is around more)

it also means that once either ignatius or lucretia dies, but especially once they both die, the black-prewett alliance is dead in the water, b/c there are no kids and also house black is pulling away from families like the prewetts so they're not going to want to keep up relations

so regulus certainly knows lucretia, and lucretia and walburga will meet up for tea and such, but lucretia wasn't at black manor over the summers, which is where regulus really spent time with and got to know most of his extended family. that being said, she is still accepted among them, she's just not there a lot. kind of like if most of your family lives in roughly the same area and then you have one family member who lives a plane flight away, but emotionally instead of physically

oh also agjhkghlsjkdf i just remembered a conversation i had w my friend about regulus and lucretia that i'm going to make ttdl canon now because i think it's amusing - so, regulus picks up other people's mannerisms like a crow picking up shiny objects, right? he ESPECIALLY did this when he was little. like it was something he did (and does) on purpose, watching people for cool/clever things they do and then copying them

at one point when he was 5 or so, they were having dinner and lucretia was there, and she like. spun her spoon in her hand at one point, and regulus (like, all the way at the other side of the table) tried it, couldn't do it, dropped his spoon, and was mad at her for months. how dare she do something regulus couldn't copy. clearly it was a Cruel Trick (lucretia didn't even know he was watching)

but yeah lucretia isn't very present compared to most of regulus's family, and she never has been in regulus's lifetime, so even though she's as closely related to him as cassiopeia and alphard are, cassiopeia and alphard Feel more closely related

[centuriesrpg]

PERSONAJES CANON

Actualización personajes canon:

A

Avery, Richard

B

Longbottom, Alice

Black, Arcturus

Black, Alphard

Black, Andrómeda

Black, Bellatrix

Black, Cassiopea

Black, Cygnus

Black, Druella

Black, Marius

Black, Narcissa

Black, Orion

Black, Pollux

Black, Regulus

Black, Sirius

Black, Walburga

Bones, Amelia

Bones, Edgar

Burke, Caractacus

C

Carrow, Amycus

Crouch, Caspar

Crouch, Charis

Crouch, Bartemius

D

Diggory, Amos

Digle, Dedalus

Doge, Elphias

Dolohov, Antonin

Dumbledore, Albus

Dumbledore, Aberforth

E

Evans, Lily

Evans, Petunia

F

Fenwick, Benji

Figg, Arabella

Fletcher, Mundungus

Flitwick, Filius

G

Greengrass, Gareth

Greengrass, Keith

H

Hagrid, Rubeus

Hooch, Rolanda

K

Karkarov, Igor

L

Lestrange, Rabastan

Lestrange, Rodolphus

Lupin, Remus

Longbottom, Frank

Lovegood, Pandora

Lovegood Xenophilius

M

Malfoy, Lucius

McDonald, Mary

McGonagall, Minerva

McKinnon, Marlene

Meadowes, Dorcas

Minchum, Harold

Moody, Alastor

O

Ollivander, Garrick

P

Pettigrew, Peter

Prewett, Fabian

Prewett, Gideon

Prewett, Lancelot

Prewett, Mafalda

Prewett, Muriel

Podmore, Sturgis

Pomfrey, Poppy

Potter, James

Q

Quirrell, Quirinus

R

Riddle, Tom

Rosier, Evan

S

Shacklebolt, Kingsley

Sinistra, Aurora

Slughorn, Horace

Snape, Severus

Sprout, Pomona

T

Trelawney, Sybill

V

Vance, Emmeline

Vector, Septima

W

Weasley, Arthur

Weasley, Molly

Y

Yaxley, Corban

[sofoulandfairaday]

18

from: choose violence ask game

18. it's absolutely criminal that the fandom has been sleeping on...

a) Gilderoy Lockhart and Snape's comedic potential in any and all fanfictions. To a lesser degree: Quirrel and Snape. Or Umbridge and Snape. Or Bellatrix and Snape. Literally, any excuse to annoy Snape is gold IMO, I'm talking crack fiction.

b) James Potter x Sirius Black in all its forms. Wolfstar this, Jegulus that... nu-uh. The Marauders were all obsessed with James, Sirius and Remus were ready to kill each other over him, and we all know that Peter actually betrayed the Potters because he was jealous of Lily. As for Regulus, he is gay, but just for blood supremacists, I'm sorry, I don't make the rules. He and Barty do fuck but both of them actually want Voldemort.

c) Lord Voldemort's Hogwarts years/his travels before the First Wizarding War. Specifically stories without romance. I want to hear about these baby Death Eaters' shenanigans in school. Also, the comedic potential of the following love triangle: Alphard Black x Tom Riddle x Walburga Black in any and all crack settings.

[green-and-grey-kenaz]

I Used to be There

Language: English

Characters: Sirius Black, Regulus Black (past), Walburga Black (past), Orion Black (past), James Potter (Mentioned)

Chapter Summary: It’s easier to give Harry the lie that his mother blasted him off of the tapestry after he ran away from home, but Sirius’ conscience knows otherwise and won’t let him forget it. Yet how can Sirius admit to his Harry that his love for James was instrumental in that fatal night?

Word Count: c. 2,500

Link: https://archiveofourown.org/works/43360729

“I used to be there,” said Sirius, pointing at a small, round, charred hole in the tapestry, rather like a cigarette burn. “My sweet old mother blasted me off after I ran away from home – Kreacher’s quite fond of muttering the story under his breath.’”

Everyone had finished their lunch and headed off to yet more clearing out of Grimmauld Place, but he had remained, like some ghoul or ghost, unable to move on. Sirius sat in the room, illuminated by fading candlesticks on the candelabra. There, on the tapestry, Sirius’ dead mother, father and brother all stared out at him, their eyes full of accusations.

Worthless.

Traitor.

Liar.

The voices had never quite left him. James probably would have said it was his conscience. Sirius preferred to blame Azkaban, but the voices had been there before. They had started the day he left Grimmauld Place.

Returning had not calmed them.

Sirius stared at the burnt patch that had once been him, eyes slipping to Uncle Alphard. Had she really done that to get at him? Burnt him off for giving Sirius money in a strange belief that this would help anything? It was certainly easier to assuage his own guilt to believe that of her.

“You know, you really should tell Potter the truth instead of making up lies about us to make yourself feel better.”

“Shut up Regulus,” Sirius muttered to his conscience.

“I’ll never speak again, because of you. Remember. You left. You burnt yourself off of this tree and left me to die. So why shouldn’t I speak now?”

“You killed yourself.”

Mercifully, his conscience did not seem to have anything to say in response to that, but he could feel the imagined presence of his family all around him. Father in his chair, mother breathing down his neck, Regulus silently judging him.

Sirius still remembered coming home (because it still was home back then) for the summer, all hormones and confusion because James. James. James!

James made him laugh, James made him feel safe, James made him smile, James made him live in the moment.

In ways that Remus didn’t.

In ways that Peter could never.

And just, perhaps this wasn’t normal in a friendship. Perhaps it wasn’t even normal in a best friendship or whatever the pseudo-brotherhood that they had going on.

And when James spoke about Evans, what he wanted to be to her…

It hurt him like nothing else could. The disappointment mother felt in him was nothing compared to the slowly twisting knife that slipped between his ribs when James waxed lyrical about Evan’s hair. Regulus’ cold dismissal (if not outright threats) whenever their paths crossed at Hogwarts was just a brief pang compared to the ongoing ache of watching James glancing at Evans to see if she had noticed him.

He was in love with his best mate.

He was in love with his best mate of five years and couldn’t stop dreaming up ways to break James’ fascination with Lily or worse. Hormones made his mind wander to ways that once they were together (as it should be), how they might engage in more intimate activities... Merlin!

James was his best friend.

He shouldn’t be having these thoughts.

There was a flaring of green fire behind him and a voice called out.

“We’re home!” Regulus called, removing his pointed hat, and hanging it up by the fireplace before dusting the soot off of himself.

Mother breezed into the room, looking down at them before waving her wand and disappearing the soot that Sirius had pointedly forgotten to remove from himself when he had home.

“Come with me, both of you. I have something important to discuss with you.”

Regulus and Sirius exchanged glances.

There could be any range of reasons she wanted to speak to them. They had enough elderly family members that someone was always ill and close to death. His grades, as always, were impeccable and while his behaviour could ‘always do with some improvement’ as mother liked to say, it was nothing more than acceptable harmless joshing. Besides, if it was some fault of his, surely Regulus wouldn’t be called in to watch mother have a go at him?

Regulus hesitated at the door eyeing Sirius nervously. Having no patience for Regulus’ concerns over seniority, Sirius just shoved him out of the way instead of letting his brother nervously hog the doorway.

Mother was in the Drawing Room, father sitting in the rocking chair, jaw clenched.

Right, so apparently there was some other great secret to the family that he and Regulus were going to have to learn.

Last time had been a rather fun hex that he had taught to James and found out that apparently it definitely wasn’t school approved. That had been fun.

“Sirius, what do you know of our tapestry?”

“Ugh, old. It’s Saxon. Our ancestors started it to show our legitimacy as newcomers to this isle. It goes back to…”

“Seirios Blakkaz,” Regulus hissed. Ah yes, his namesake.

“Right, Seirios Blakkaz, attested in the Roman literature and the furthest that anyone could go with some certainty. Technically we can trace it a bit further but that’s besides the point. The original tapestry required each birth to be magically stitched in but by the 12th Century A.D. a way was found so that the tapestry might update itself to reflect the births and deaths of the family. It took about two hundred years until new spells were invented which allowed the tapestry to update itself on marriages.”

He glanced at Regulus, in case he had forgotten something. The fact that his brother had returned his attention to their parents indicated that Sirius had likely included all the important details. He nodded to himself, content with that.

“Predominantly correct,” Mother conceded, sweeping aside and Sirius’ eyes fell on the tapestry.

Fuck. No. What?

It was faint but there was someone next to him on the tapestry. Regulus surged past him and Sirius shoved his brother out of the way.

“You betro…” His voice fell as he saw the name.

“Who is it?” Regulus asked, picking himself off of the ground and clambering to Sirius’ side.

James Potter.

“Him?” Spat Regulus, glancing up with affront at mother.

“No, this is not a betrothal. The tapestry has no true way of recording a marriage contract – a deeper magic is required.”

Shit, shit, shit.

“The tapestry can’t record every little incident of someone falling in love! There’d be way more names on it if that were the case!” Sirius protested. Mother sniffed, looking down at him.

“Names only solidify once the marriage has proven itself.”

“Proven…?”

“Consummation.”

“Sirius,” Orion spoke up for the first time and even mother jumped in surprise. “This Potter is a blood traitor and from a family with a dreadfully common name. It cannot be allowed to continue. You must cease your obsession with him and if you find yourself failing that, then your only option is to turn him to our ways.”

Sirius stared at the name on the tapestry, faint, unable to break through the outer threads but undeniably there. James Potter. His stitched face staring out at him.

“When… When I get these stupid teenage hormones under control, it’ll go away, right?”

“Of course,” Mother soothed, possessively wrapping her arms around him and Sirius closed his eyes. He had a summer. A summer to get over his feelings.

“Only you didn’t.”

His brother’s voice was cold and harsh as Sirius stared at the burnt dot that had once been his face.

“Why do you insist on telling me things I already know and not something useful like where your body is? How you died?”

“Because I’m a figment of your guilt? Or if you prefer, because it wouldn’t bring you peace. You figured out I betrayed the Dark Lord. I’m sure your brain can fill in the horrid details of my end.”

Sirius sighed and ran his finger over the burnt face.

As summer had drawn on, James’ name did not fade and Sirius had come to realise that he would never fade. Even now…

He remembered tossing and turning at night before he came up with the only solution he could. He had no idea what the family would do to stop him loving James but he feared it. He feared Regulus’ obsessive talk about killing all blood traitors and the pointed looks he gave to Sirius. He feared father’s cold ultimatum to stop loving James or else turn him. He feared mother’s watchful eyes filled with fake concern. And most of all, he was terrified that James might find out and reject him. Because James loved Lily and Sirius knew that nothing would change that.

So one night, he slipped down to the tapestry and cast the curse, burning away all evidence of his secret. His face, staring emptily back out at him, curled in the flames and the faint image of James faded.

He thought he would have felt different.

That some magic would have snapped and he would have sensed it somehow.

But he felt just the same.

The house still felt like home. If he thought of mother or father, he could still feel that niggling need for their love. Everyone else who had been burnt from the tapestry were disowned but he did not feel like he was any less of the family.

“I never meant it.”

Mother’s voice whispered. She always alternated in his head, switching between views, depending what he wanted to not hear.

“You cursed me.”

“You deserved it, desecrating the tapestry.”

“And yet you tolerated mother doing it to Uncle Alphard, Regulus?”

He did not know how Regulus had reacted to instead, his brother remained silent.

“Ungrateful brat.”

In hindsight, it had been stupid to stay. Sirius had no idea why he had snuck back up to his room and settled down under his Gryffindor covers. He should have known the gravity of the situation but as no omens of doom had occurred, he was filled with a false bravado.

“You just wanted the drama. You wanted someone else to blame.”

He had slept in and when he had finally entered the dinning room for breakfast, he found it empty, his mother and father’s plates half touched but charms keeping the food and drink hot. With no one to judge, Sirius plucked a sausage with his fingers, devouring it and licking his fingers as he made his way through the house. It was with a twinge of nerves he recalled his night-time activities and pushed open the door to the drawing room.

They were there.

“Sirius,” Mother said and for the first time, Sirius felt what it meant to feel true fear as three sets of eyes regarded him as if he were a total stranger. They all had their wands on them.

Call it premonition or just good survival skills, Sirius dashed out the door.

He suspected it was Regulus who threw the leg locking jinx.

It was Regulus who had gone to the tapestry that morning. Who else would have heard him slipping down the stairs.

He hit the ground. Hard.

It was the first time anyone in the family had raised their wand to him.

Father had threatened to.

Mother had certainly shouted herself blue.

His head snapped back with the force of a curse, forcing him to look over his shoulder at his approaching family. He twisted, struggling away.

“How dare you defile our tapestry! How dare you burn your name from it!” Mother shrieked, wand pointing at him. Father followed, wand in hand. Regulus skulked around with the focus of a cat which had found a fledgling bird and did not quite know what to make of it.

“I can’t help it. I can’t help it! I love him and I can’t stop it. I don’t want to but I can’t. And if I can’t…”

He struggled to pull himself away from them.

Mother looked to father, who stared down at him.

“He’s not my son anymore. You can deal with him as you see fit. Just make certain that this filth is disposed of properly.”

“Did you obliviate me?” Sirius asked his ghosts.

“Why would I? You deserve every memory of that day.” Mother sniffed.

“I think we should have gone further, if we did. I said disposed. A babbling child with no memory whatsoever would have brought less shame to the family.” Father said, glowering as ever. Wanting nothing to do with his family.

“We should have at least removed his memory of Potter.” Regulus chimed in.

“What can’t I remember?” Sirius growled in frustration.

His next memory was his body aching, limbs shaking and unable to support his weight, lying just outside of Godric’s Hollow. He had no wand, no money and his mouth tasted of iron. Some time later, he’d finally gotten to his feet and stumbled to the Potter’s house, falling against their door, too shocked to even knock.

When he confronted Regulus at Hogwarts, wands drawn, the only explanation his brother gave was that Sirius had struck out at them, like some beast. He’d left mother heartbroken, like the monster he was. It didn’t surprise Regulus that Sirius had blanked out what he could do in hatred. He must have run to Godric’s Hollow – that no doubt explained his state.

Sirius never got his old wand back.

They had yet to find it in all their cleaning out of the old house.

Regulus and father died, carrying the secret to their graves.

While he wallowed in Azkaban, his mother joined them.

In the end, what was there but the pieces he could put together? His family had attacked him. He woke up far from home, physically unharmed but mentally… there was no doubt in his mind that his hatred of the family was well justified.

They had hurt him.

“Someone had to unbind my jinx, and if we had cursed you, as you so clearly believe, you couldn’t have run, even as a dog to Godric’s Hollow.”

“I know,” Sirius sighed. “I always hoped it was you who helped me.”

“I wanted Potter dead.”

“You didn’t want me dead.”

Sirius traced the burn that had once been his face on the tapestry.

“I can’t tell Harry. I can’t tell him that if I didn’t remove myself from the tapestry, James would be here, linked to my name. I’ll carry the secret to my grave, like you.”

“He’d have died without sealing his name to yours. He wouldn’t be on here.”

“Very reassuring, Regulus.” The ghostly image of Regulus sighed, leaning against the wall, or at least, that’s what Sirius imagined.

“I won’t say it, but if I were someone else, I’d be sorry. For what we lost.”

Which was just what Sirius would have wanted him to say. Regulus was just an echo of a memory, echoing his thoughts. Still, the memory of his brother sat with him until the last candle finally ran out of light and plunged the room into darkness.