Black Family Tutelage Aftermath Ⅶ

Resuming her tale, Dorea pointedly said, "As I was saying, Cousin Eaton recounted to us that Uncle Phineas seemed rather troubled before his death. Uncle Phineas was unable to sleep, constantly glancing over his shoulders as if being watched."

 "We discussed the subject amply among us, but neither did our father(s) nor grandfather ever speak of the reason why my uncle Phineas was cast out of the family when he was most obviously ill," Dorea confessed with a frown.

"Perchance, it was for harboring muggle sentiment, yet I cannot fathom a reason why our father(s) would have kept silent on the subject, and not fulminated loudly about their brother being a blood traitor," Dorea furrowed her brow in thought. "My father in particular detested muggles and would have certainly been the first to express his abhorrence. It is rather strange in retrospect." 

Indeed, the subject had been amply discussed among her older brothers, her older sister, and her cousin, Arcturus. Yet none of them could recall family lore nor any rumors about their Uncle Phineas. They desperately racked their minds, but they found no tangible reason as to why their uncle was disowned beyond wild speculation.

Shaking her head, Dorea continues, "Before his death, Uncle Phineas entrusted a small box with the wooden insignia of the Black family crest to Cousin Eaton's grandfather. Their family never opened the box and returned the box intact to us. And only then did we open the box and discover the Basilisk egg carefully preserved inside."

With visible speculation abundantly clear in her eyes, Rowan says, "Are you certain this is a Basilisk egg? The egg seems rather small for a Basilisk egg. And not to sound ungrateful or rude, but the egg has a strange white spot it."

"Yes, that was my initial reservations as well," Dorea was frank. "However, Cassiopeia insisted it was a Basilisk egg. The one with the most expertise in dealing with magical creatures in our family is my dear elder sister, and we all implicitly trust her judgment without question."

"I suppose, I have to agree since the egg does not appear to be a chicken egg," Rowan sarcastically remarked upon glancing down at the egg again. It was small enough that she could easily crush the egg in the palm of her hand.

"Of course not, child," Dorea ruefully shook her head. "This is a genuine Basilisk egg, one born between the union of a male and female basilisk. It is the utmost rarest of magical creatures as it is a genuine Basilisk rather than one born from a chicken egg and hatched under a toad."

Something clicks into place at Dorea's words. Something in Rowan's face must have gone given her away as she went pale. Her unexpected pallor thankfully was confused with exhaustion after a long day of tutoring.

 "I see that I have tired you out for the evening," Dorea patted her goddaughter fondly on the shoulder. "I shall see myself out and leave you to rest."

Dorea's knees loudly pop as she rises to her feet and leaves Rowan still kneeling on the carpet in shock. The door shuts behind Dorea, yet Rowan doesn't even move as her mind recalls the dream just before the start of summer about an old graveyard. She had nearly tripped over a fallen tombstone only to realize that the entire clearing was full of dilated tombstones. 

The lettering on many of the graves is old and faded, utterly unreadable, while the wording on others can still faintly be made out. Some of the headstones lay on the ground utterly shattered. Others are covered by long grass, thick lumps on the ground easy to trip over or hurt one's shin that causing her to painfully hurt herself as she followed the Fenny snake in her dream.

However, there had been one particular tombstone that had stuck in her mind. The family crest on the tombstone had been violently slashed through and was utterly unrecognizable. Yet just below the family crest, there are faint words that can still be made to read as, "Toujours Pur," meaning 'always pure.'

At the time, Rowan failed to understand why the Fenny serpent brought her to the tomb. Even after she read the worn tombstone inscription that read, "Here lies, Phineas Black, 1878-1899."

Goosebumps spread across her flesh as Rowan glances down at the small egg in her hand. The Great Mother Snake had once told her that the dreamscape is a dream and yet not a dream. An interconnected dimension where time exists and does not exist in the same breath.

Rowan's eyes darted to back the basilisk egg in her hand. Hydra had attempted to steal Nadira's egg, but what if it was not the first time Hydra had attempted to steal such an item? The first instance that came to mind is Salazar Slytherin in the time of the founders.

It is obvious Salazar Slytherin failed to stop Hydra and so did Godric Gryffindor even Marcellus, the First Headmaster of Hogwarts. Yet the existence of Hydra couldn't have gone unnoticed through the ages. An abdominal existence like Hydra always leaves traces, there must have been others during the past centuries who discovered traces of Hydra as well and attempted to destroy it. Tragically, Salazar Slytherin and all those who came after him ultimately failed to destroy Hydra.

Then the dream of the gravestones was no mere dream, but rather a revelation of the past of all those that had failed to stop Hydra. Rowan took a deep breath to steady herself, before gazing down at the small egg again. Hydra must have wanted the egg for some nefarious purpose, and somehow Phineas had learned of it and stolen it.

Being young and healthy with no childhood illness or indication of being prone to illnesses, it is rather baffling in this type of context for Phineas to die so young from illness. That is unless Phineas was poisoned by Hydra or in the attempt to steal the egg (much like in Potter's time where a certain Headmaster had to drink a bowl of poison in order to retrieve the Slytherin locket).

It would certainly explain why Phineas Nigellus Black would disown his son if he learned of the theft (believing that it would harm or weaken political power). Being a Black, Phineas Nigellus Black would never reveal the fact that his son was a thief, but neither could he tolerate his son's actions. Ironically, Phineas Nigellus Black probably would have been delighted if his son had killed a muggle or muggleborn and would have happily helped him cover up the crime….

Glancing back at the egg, Rowan recalls the rest of the dream. There was an elderly fisherman wearing comfortable, loose, old worn robes. The tips of his fingers were stained with ink. His face was firm with bushy untamed eyebrows, but old and worn; and yet much like Dumbledore, his eyes were bright and clear.

The elderly wizard had crooked yellow teeth that peeked out when he spoke. He recounted the tale of the distant East where koi fish swim up the yellow river. Many perish yet few against all odds succeed and transform into great and powerful dragons. After a brief conversation, the wizard had warned her to "beware of the tail hidden in plain sight."

Yet what struck Rowan the most was as she was about to wake up, the old wizard had said, "Come find me," when you wake up. Well, she hadn't found him yet, but her grandmother, Dorea's, and Cassiopeia's photo album would be a good place to start.

With plenty on her mind, Rowan carefully set the egg aside. She wasn't sure what she was going to do with it, but she was reluctant to destroy it. If Phineas had died for the egg by destroying it, she would make his death in vain. With her mind full of thoughts, she fitfully tossed and turned throughout the night.