76 A New Home.

The day they went to the Ministry with Crouch.

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Headmaster Office

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"So you believe, he is Voldemort's Son," Blair said standing in front of the headmaster, His class was about to start in half an hour.

" I bet my Lemon drops on it," Dumbledore said in his jolly voice, "I was 100% sure the minute I saw the ring in his hand. That ring belongs to the gaunt family, Tom's Maternal family, and knowing his personality, He would only give it to a person who have Slytherin blood running through his vein."

" His son has decided to reveal himself in public, So It is not far until that bastard rises again. We don't even know where are the rest of the Horcruxes are or how many did he make." Blair sighed, It was about time he takes out his battle equipment as well as his sword. One might think it is useless in front of wizards, but it helped him get out with a fair share of situations. Hell, In the last wizarding war, He had beheaded more people with his sword than an average Auror killed death eaters.

"We may not know that, But I know a person who might know the exact number." Dumbledore looked at him, His eyes still twinkling as if the rise of Voldemort was no big deal. Blair had to admit, The old man knew how to keep himself calm, well except when it comes to his school.

"Who?"

" Horace Slughorn, he taught Tom during his school years, and as far as I know he was probably the one who gave Tom more information about Hourcoxus," Dumbledore sighed.

"Him? The last time I had a chat with him was 8 years ago, He invited me to his party. Get together as he likes to say."

"No surprise in that, That's what he does,"

" So when are we visiting him,"

" Soon after the tournament, If that doesn't work then we can invite him to teach in Hogwarts next year."

"Will he come...."

"oh he will, I am 100% sure of that." Blair could only see the old blue eyes twinkling madly to the point of glowing. He rechecked his mind shield as those eyes give him creeps.

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Present-day.

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Blair strolling around the black lake aimlessly. Today, he was free, no Wizengamote work or any classes, The kids were busy with their friends and Dumbledore has some work in the Ministry. Frankly, he was really bored. He didn't have any hobbies or things to do to pass his time. Maybe others might think this life to be dull, Arguing in Wizengomate for hours, teaching dueling, and assigning detentions to mischievous brats. but to Blair, it was what gave his life meaning. At least he was doing something for the betterment of life for kids. He did succeed in it a little. The only other thing that he would do was worry about Aurora.

One thing that he hasn't tell anyone about was that even though he has been raising all three kids for nearly the same time period. He loved Aurora more than Melania and Sirius. He still loved the twins but Aurora was special (A/N: Not in a romantic manner, I know how it sounds, But i couldn't get a better phrase.) Obviously, he didn't show favoritism from outside. But dip down he knew better about himself to realize that.

Now the twins have been living in Grimmauld's place more than Grindlewald's place, Living with their actual father. Aurora would also live with the twins most of the time, As there was no one in Grindlewald's place to talk. His home which he has been living in since his 5th year was now again empty most of the time, Devoid of any sound. Aurora would rarely come to the estate. He wondered how his life would be after the kids are grown up.

As he was thinking about the little changes that were happening in his life, suddenly something clicked. He quickly went towards the end of the wards and apparated in front of Grimmauld's Place.

Sirius' house looked as grimmy as always, despite being identical to the houses in the entire block it looked unique in its own right, Maybe the Blacks left their own touch in this house, who knows. Opposite to the Black's house, there was an empty plot filled with trees and wild grass with a small abandoned house in the middle. The house looked like it was going crumble any minute now. It had a single floor with cracked glasses and dusty windows. It was as if no one has visited this place for years.

'This will do'

He decided to buy the plot and build his own house on it. It will convenient for all of them. They can visit him anytime they wanted to and the black twins don't have to live far away from their actual father. He turned around and was about to head towards Grimmauld's place to visit Sirius and Delphie.....well mostly Sirius.... when he saw a handsome blonde-haired man walking with his arms entangled with a familiar woman towards the Grimmuald's place.

'sigh....reckless as always....'

He changed his mind and decided to apparate towards a real estate agent trying to find if the plot in front of the Grimmualds place was available for sale. If not then he will have to go straight to the owner. He again didn't notice Delphini observing him through a now clean window of her room.

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Delphini..

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One might think that she was a stalker and it looked just like that. But in reality, her piano was placed near the window in such a way that she could see everything happening outside the window. It might be a little strange for a person keeping her piano in a bedroom, but she wanted privacy and complete silence when she played piano. She would create new tunes or play it just to relax. She also had a noise cancelation charm on her room. To avoid any sound from coming inside as well as going outside and that was the main reason no one knew about her hobby.

As for what work she did to make a living.....well....it was nothing. she had so much gold stored in her vault that She could live lavishly for a few hundred years without working and would just empty her vault by half. Most of this fortune was inherited from her parents. She was the only heiress of her parents after all. If she wanted she could have easily brought a huge castle and live there peacefully and that's what she had planned. She was ready to leave this place as soon as she hears the news of the escape of Sirius Black from Hogwarts. But well something unexpected happened, Instead of his escape, She heard the news of him being kissed by dementors. To her knowledge the only male heir of the Black family was dead. So she decided to settle here as she quite liked it here and why would she leave after maintaining this place for years.

But who would have thought that Sirius would fake his death? His appearance in the estate caught her off guard, so in her hast, she decided to stun the dog Animigus. Then came the opponent who she was not sure she could beat, Blair Bradley. So she decided to make an unbreakable vow which was convenient for her as well as for him.

She had heard quite a bit of rumor about the Lunatic and also seen him fighting during the world cup. Yes, she was there and his spells were no joke even though they were just his defensive spells. She was not certain how powerful he was.

She knew that Voldemort was not dead, She also knew that he had Horcruxes and the second wizarding war was not far. She didn't know who was going to win the war, But one thing was sure the wizarding world was going to witness multiple great duels of all time. Everyone was going to see the actual limit of Magic. If it wasn't Voldemort's early fall due to the Potters. She didn't know what would have happened to the wizarding. As even though the Ministry would have fallen eventually, Dumbledore and Blair were still standing on the opposite side rivaling Voldemort and Bellatrix Lestrange and now there was a new variable into the equation. Another powerhouse who hasn't shown his power. Until now he has been playing defensive enjoying the thrill of dueling easily blocking powerful fiendfire.

'So many things are different,'

She took off a locket from her neck, which was hidden under her dress. She began to carris....it...

'Different indeed'

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Blair's POV

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The plot was available for sale, The agent said that its stubborn old owner wanted to sell it at 40% price more than its actual value, and as the house had a history of dozens of people being killed in mysterious circumstances, no one wanted to buy the house.

Blair had a fair share idea of who the culprits were...So he decided to buy the house...The negotiation went in the stubborn owner's favor, Blair had to pay 20% extra. But as Blair was in need of this plot he had to buy it. He informed the agent that the money will be ready within a week and he should just keep the paperwork ready. It will take a few days for the goblins to convert such an amount of Gallons into muggle money and quite a bit of conversion charge.

After the deal, he apparated back to Hogwarts and went straight to his office to write a letter to Gringotts. A few days later he went to the only Wizarding construction company in the world, The company has been in business for centuries, It had made houses for rich pureblood families like The Malfoys and The Blacks. He placed an order to construct a manor on the plot. The entire purchase costed him a little more than half of his vault.

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The next day Blair's office door burst open. Revealing a heavily breathing person. Blair knew who opened the door as there was only one student in the entire castle who opens his door like this. Even after multiple tries to insert some courtesy into her, He failed miserably.

"Sigh....What is it," Blair asked without lifting his head from the letter he was writing. He was tired of telling her to open his office door with a knock.

"Teach me how to dance,"

Blair's writing hand suddenly stopped.

'How the hell am I supposed to know how to dance.'

Never in his entire life had he ever danced. True, he was invited to various balls in his political career. He never danced with anyone, despite multiple requests. The Daily Prophet even wrote an article on him possibly being gay and only wanted to dance with handsome men and was too shy to reveal his sexuality.

That day the headquarter of Daily Prophet was extremely close to burning down into ashes with black cursed flames. If it wasn't for little Aurora getting hurt due to falling from the tree there would be no Daily Prophet right now and Blair would be a wanted fugitive. Later he did raised this incident in Wizengamotes but nothing happened, The writer of the article only had to publicly apologize to Blair and that's all. Anyway back to the current situation.

"If I am not wrong, Professor McGonagall is giving dance lessons to you guys. So why do you want me to teach you."

"Well you see, There are so many students taking those lessons that it is hard for the professor to pay attention to all of them..... So, when are you teaching me." She didn't even wait for Blair to answer and already assume it to be positive, Blair didn't blame her after all he was the one who said yes to everything she asked for, and to Blair it was not a bad thing because he planed on fulfilling any wishes, she just have to ask for it. Responsibilities will come after she becomes a little mature and that was years away from now.

"How about you ask your friends to teach you, I am sure they will be happy to help you."

"Well, they also suck at dancing."

"How about to ask Sirius, he is coming to school in a few day,"

"What? Padfoot is coming to Hogwarts?" She said in shook.

"Yes, apparently he also wants to attend the ball." Attending the ball was just an excuse, the real reason he wanted to come was to see whom his daughter was dancing with and Blair could understand his feeling as it is frustrating when your daughter refuses to say a single word about the bastard who is going to take them to dance.

"Why can't you teach me until Sirius comes,"

"He is coming tomorrow" That was a lie, Blair was going to letter him right after this talk. "Until then practice with your classmates. I have something more important to do."

"Fine" Aurora turned around, disappointed, she will have to wait one more day.

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The next day Sirius came to Hogwarts in disguise. He was now a handsome middle-aged man with a sharp beard as well as a long jawline, silky long black hair, with his usual grey eyes and a maroon suit made of expensive-looking fabric. Right now he looked like the head of a rich pureblood family which he was, He just didn't act like one. When Blair asked whose hair did he used for the potion. The reply was quite surprising. The Dog Animagus took it from a homeless man lying on a footpath near an alley of Grimmauld's place. It worked anyway so no problem with that.

The problem arose when Sirius told him that he was not good at ball dance. He tried learning it during James' Wedding. But well it turned out to be an embarrassment for him and his date, So they decided to invite Delphine to teach Harry, Aurora, Nicholas and the Black twins some dancing lessons. The silvery haired woman agreed to teach the students but in return, she asked for a small favor that she can collect anytime from Blair. Blair agreed to it.

And after that day the kids began to learn dance from Delphine. The woman was quite good at dancing as well as teaching. She was strict while teaching just like Blair and would treat kids like strangers in the class.

Among all of the kids, Aurora was trying the hardest to learn how to dance. Blair saw her dancing multiple times alone in the classroom with a humanoid cushion as her partner, smiling widely as if imagining she was dancing with her partner. Now seeing her like this, Blair was very much interested in who her partner was. After all, this was the first time he saw her lazy daughter learning something so diligently other than Quidditch.

During these days Delphine would also sometimes come to talk and strangely enough most of the time she would ask for a place where all the hidden things are kept hidden. The only place where hidden things were kept was Flinch's office, nothing else clicked. He answered her truthfully and after that, she stopped asking that question.

She and Sirius has been living in abandoned classrooms turned into rooms. Well, most of the furniture was from the Black estate.

In the meanwhile, the construction of his house in front of Grimmauld's place has started. He ordered a traditionally made manor without any sticking charms on it. He wanted to personally place those charms on it. The contractor said that the work will take some time because they had to import tiles as well as stones for the manor. It will take at least 3 months. Blair didn't mind it as he would be living at Hogwarts for few more months anyway.

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25 December

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Blair was standing at the corner of the ballroom with notice-me-not charm on himself. Today was the day, his daughter was looking forward to and also the day he hated the most in his life. He was observing the empty great hall which was soon to fill with students and a few other guests. As of right now, there were only a few teachers and The headmasters of all the schools. Everyone was wearing fancy old-fashioned dresses while he was wearing his normal violet waistcoat with a fine white shirt from inside. Like every year today, he wanted to be left alone in his office. But to Aurora's continuous pestering to come to see her dance he had to come.

He took out a small hip flask from his coat and took a huge gulp from it. The great hall door opened revealing a well-dressed Minerva coming through it followed by the champions. The first one to enter was The French Veela who looked beautiful in her shiny grey dress, with a handsome looking teenager by her side. If Blair remembered correctly his name was Cedric Diggory. The next one was Durmstrang champion, Surprisingly he was accompanied by Hermonie Granger, Blair thought she would come with Harry or Ron but well it didn't mattered, What greatly mattered was who was Aurora's date, was he a Griffindor or a Slytherin. It didn't really mattered what house he was from as she was only 14 years old and it's not like he was going to be her future partner anyway.

'You are being ridiculous Blair,...future partner?...really?'

According to him it really was ridiculous. After all, she was only 14.

Harry was the next champion who entered the great hall. He was wearing an expensive-looking suit which they brought together. Surprisingly enough he was accompanied by a familiar red-haired girl, Ginny Weasley. Blair knew that the Weasley girl had a huge admiration for Harry. After all, At the start of her first year, he was the one who carried out her detention for hexing a Slytherin for bad-mouthing Harry with an impressive Bat-Bogey Hex, and that admiration didn't cool down until this year.

Next, It was Aurora's turn, She was wearing a pitch-black silk dress which according to Muggle standards looked like 18th-century dresses. Her silvery white long hairs straighten up with a diamond bracelet on her right arm. She was looking gorgeous, Maybe the most beautiful girl in the school. Maybe it was just because of him being her father, After all, parents always find their children beautiful no matter how they look. Blair then turned his eyes from his to daughter towards her partner, The moment he was waiting for an entire month because a certain spoiled brat refused to tell him who her date was, and ohh boy he was in for a great surprise. Beside her was Nicholas Prince who was also wearing an expensive suit brought by Blair while looking continuously towards a girl who was wearing strange clothes.

'Luna Lovegood'

Blair decided to ignore it and again looked at his daughter. This time he noticed something which he failed to notice the first time, probably he was too much in a haste to find out who her partner was. Aurora wasn't looking happy at all. Her eyes were red as if she had just stopped crying. There were tear marks on her face. mixed with her eye liner. Now that he looked carefully into her eyes, He noticed that she was struggling to hold her tears. He let everyone settle before going towards her.

"What happened?" Blair asked in a voice that had a hint of worry in it. After all, it was rare to see her cry like this and this was the last thing he wanted to see today. She has practiced too hard to let her day ruin just like that

"Nothing" She said in a barely visible voice. This was obviously a lie. He turned towards Nicholas for an answer, But the 3rd year Rainclaw just turned towards Aurora as if telling him that he had no clue and to ask her for an answer. He was also looking a little troubled.

"Aurora?...."

"Nothing" He got the same answer in return But failed to notice her voice a little raised.

"you kno...."

"DIDN'T I SAY IT'S NOTHING.....WHY DON'T YOU LIVE ME ALONE...." Aurora yelled at him as tears again began to run down her chicks, and rushed out of the great hall leaving a stunned wide-eyed Blair behind. He was shocked deeply. This was the first time she had ever yelled at him like this. Never in these 14 years had anyone of his kids had ever talked back to him let alone yelled at him like this. .Agreed they talked back when they are joking or in a casual manner But this, was the first time.

Nearby students were just staring at him, probably attracted by Aurora's voice. Blair didn't say anything, instead, he quietly went out of the great hall and went to his office. He only came to the ball leaving his yearly ritual to see his daughter's dance, after all, she had done so much practice. There was no point in staying now, was it.

He also didn't go behind her as she made it perfectly clear that she wanted to be left alone.

After entering the room he took out an old dusty glass bottle half-filled with an aged liquor before taking few gulps from it and sat on his chair before closing his eyes. The room was charmed to keep the outside noises out which caused it to descend into an abnormal silence. The office was so quiet that Blair could even hear his heartbeats, as well as the sound of blood rushing through his veins..

An unknown amount of time later, he heard a faint knock on his door which was locked through a charm. He took a sobering potion before getting up from his chair and opening the door revealing Aurora standing in front looking at him with her bloodshot grey eyes in silence. After 30 seconds.

"Want to tell me something?" He asked in a calm voice. But there was reassurance in his voice.

"I...I....am sorry...." She said in a shaky voice....."I was just too much angry at that basta...am.... pig, I shouldn't have shouted at you like that."

"Hmm....Now go back to the ball." Blair said before turning around.

"It's over...." She said in a low voice and a depressed voice....

Blair stop his moment and looked at the watch just to see both of the clock's hands were accurately resting on 12.

"Did you dance?"

" No" This time her voice was barely visible. All these days of practice was for nothing. This also depressed him as he had seen her practicing for all those days and knew how much did she put in.

Blair gave a sigh before taking out his wand and waving it towards the middle of the room. everything including the desk moved at the corner making space in between. He made another wand motion and the lamp on the table suddenly turned into a giant taphone and began to play classical music.

"Well, how about you show this old man how you dance, After all, I have been waiting to see it for days." Blair said.

"You told me that you didn't know how to dance...."

"Of course I know how to dance, I am Blair Bradley after all,"

A few minutes later one can hear laughter from the dueling teacher's office...

"Dad you were lying, You don't know a single thing about dance...."

"Ohh.... I am just playing with you...Now I will be serious...

"Nope", you still you suck at dancing, You should follow my foot, I will teach you how to dance."

"oh...how the roles have turned."