Sirius (I) / Orion (I)

𝐒𝐢𝐫𝐢𝐮𝐬.

There were many things Sirius hated about his mother : from the disapproving glares she sent him to the scathing slaps she gave him. He hated how she ignored him most of the time if not to torture him. But what he hated most right now ? The fact that her hug had been enough to soothe him the first hug he had ever received from her.

Leaving the room with his brother had been the easier thing he had ever done in his life, but now, he didn't know how he should behave. After all, his..."mother" had passed out and she might wake up to become the same hateful shrew as she used to be. She might even be worse after what he threw at her when he felt overconfident which resulted in the second time in less than a week that he had single-handedly hurt her twice. She would never let him forget it and if she could find a way to mark him with his stupid mistake without anyone ever noticing, he was sure she would do it. Even his friends from Hogwarts were aware of what might be going on at home - and they surely would never believe him if he was to ever tell what had happened.

He tried to think about something else - but he could only remember her heartbroken blue eyes when she understood how serious he was about her cruelty.

Walburga Black...well, she was a mystery to him. Aside from the fact that she had given birth to him and Regulus and her wedding to Orion, who was nowadays set to inherent the titles and fortune - he didn't know anything else. He barely knew what she used to like when she was just a child and had never heard a small story of quip about her time at Hogwarts. Even her parents were never talked about within their home, even though he had heard some rumors about the fact his grandmother had jumped into bed with her 12-year-old cousin while she was 17 in order to have a good standing.

Sirius wanted to keep on staying calm and aloof - but every minute away from the room was putting him on edge. It was difficult to stay seated while one of his parents could be dying or where they could be plotting their revenge against him and his blood-traitor ways.

He didn't exactly understand why - but...it had hurt him that his mother hadn't remembered him. At first, he had genuinely thought she was pulling a cruel prank on them to punish them for their insubordination and their lack of attention when practicing dangerous spells at home, especially since she had taken care to hide their Wanda that day before they had gotten a hold on hers.

He didn't know which was worse : for the Walburga they knew to come back or for the new Walburga to stay. The teenager didn't even want to carry any type of hope since he knew he could easily jinx himself and get saddled with a third option that could be disastrous on itself - he had no idea what it could be, but he was sure the Black bunch could be creative when they needed to be.

Like usual, when he didn't know what he could do, he thought about the most obvious solution. Of course, he needed James ! His mother was a great Healer and could offer help if needed (and figure out if Walburga was lying or was genuinely confused about her lack of memories). He started walking towards the empty study where he was sure to find parchment, a quill and ink. Even his father's owl was right there - that's when he knew he made the right decision, even the starts were smiling down at him.

"Dear James,

I am sorry that I haven't been able to contact

you this week. It turns out that I "accidentally" hexed my mother. She had to stay abed for a whole week - it was heaven. Unfortunately, even great things must come to an end.

She woke up today even though she barely rememberes anything about us.

She asked me who I was. She even looked at Regulus like he was a stranger ! That's when I knew something wasnt right since she was glaring at her precious son.

I don't know if she's faking it - but if she is, she must become a honorary Maraudeur. P.S : she hugged me.

P.P.S : she kissed me on the forehead.

P. P. P. S : what does it mean ? I need help mate !"

≿━━━━༺❀༻━━━━≾

𝐎𝐫𝐢𝐨𝐧.

As soon as the children left the room, Orion walked up to his wife and looked at her for a few minutes. He felt a bit ashamed of himself and his lack of care, but he just wanted to make sure that she want lying to them. Even the idea sounded preposterous since she would have needed a plan to play her little games with them whenever she felt she was sufficiently bored.

The acting Lord Black didn't know what he should do ; but he knew that Walburga wouldn't have shown that much emotion if she was lying. It was easy ; she didn't know what real emotion was.

Unease and fright filled him ; after the various talks he heard about a certain Dark Lord rising while a Light Lord was vehemently recruiting in order to draw people from the other side. He couldn't take the risk with his legacy and his sons if they were to learn that their mother had forsaken common sense and had decided to follow orders from either one of them.

Orion was aware that what he was about to do was despicable : people's mind we're their own and everyone knew how dangerous an unskilled wizard would be if he were to tempt the same spell. But Blacks were not ordinary wizards and the family patriarch won't stop until he has his answers.

Sighing, he took out his wands and pointed it towards his wife's forehead before chanting his spell. "𝓛𝓮𝓰𝓲𝓵𝓲𝓶𝓮𝓷𝓼 !"

From there, he was assaulted by hundreds, thousands, an incommensurable number of memories and emotions that certainly did not belong to Walburga. He was about to blast the imposter to kingdom come until he noticed a woman sharing the same face called Antonia - she had the exact same spark as his wife did when she woke up and the same softness she had used with Sirius when he had started his tantrum.

From her difficult childhood to her kidnapping, her poisoning, her heart wrenching fears of space (he could completely understand her because he was currently freaking out about everything he didn't know and how advanced Muggles had gotten) and finally her betrayals, her determination to save others, her children that she had left behind...

At the end, Orion couldn't look at the woman the same way. He had actually witnessed her death, nay, her sacrifice for the whole Universe while he had been ready to get rid of her because he was sure she was here to maliciously hurt them or take advantage of them. It turned out...she was just as surprised and shocked at them - even if a bit resolute since she was frighteningly used to the impossible.

The older man sighed, thinking about everything that must be done before she would be able to go out in society. If she even wanted to since the woman he had caught a glimpse from would rather stay at home and work.

Would he..."let her" work ? He was 95% sure that the real Walburga would have never cared but he was also certain that the new and improved version would probably skin him alive for even insinuating that it would be his choice. He was a bit regretful about the way he had snuck up on her mind and had used the moments to skim the memories, but he had retained an important information out of it : their world, their "dimension" was considered a children's tale where she came from. If the dates coincided, it could mean she had actual knowledge of some events of importance that might happen.

The issue was that he would never confess about what he did while she was asleep. His actions hadn't been malicious since all he had wanted was to protect his family and keep them safe - from what he had seen, Toni Stark would have destroyed the whole world if someone had touched a hair on her daughter's head.

This thought prompted him to think : she had moved throughout dimensions and had been cut from her own reality whereas their original Walburga had just...moved on to the other side, eager to let her boring housewife life behind her while she would finally rest away from the problems around them.

For the moment, he would stay silent about his findings and wait for her to be sincere before opening himself to her. Even though she had the same face as his wife and the same body and the same smile...all attributes he had never cared about for their whole marriage before he had seen her awake today. After what he had seen, it was completely easy to understand how her behavior and her beauty had changed and been influenced by each other.

Now, seeing her in her white sleeping gown, almost translucent felt too intimate compared to their previous encounters in her rooms. She had rejuvenated over night, visibly losing more than thirty years at least over the span of a week. Looking at her was getting more and more complicated since he was visibly entranced by her beauty and the shape of her body.

Remembering that it wasn't actually his wife but basically a stranger that would (maybe) live with him in his house, he shuddered about his lack of manners. He had been there for more than fifteen minutes after her breakdown and he hadn't even washed her from the blood in her face or helped her change her outfit to be more comfortable.

Once he finished with the Healing Spells, he called out to their house-elf. "Kreacher !," he exclaimed, waiting for him to Apparate in the room.

"What can Kreacher do for Master and Mistress ?," asked the experimented house-elf.

The fact that he could still feel her magic and her presence as the real Walburga was reassuring: it made it completely different from a case of body snatching since elves are proficient in the study and would recognize them right away. It was better not to spill out more secrets right now while they were too weak - and he still needed to track his two terrors and explain to them the exact ramifications of what will happen now that he was completely sure that Walburga would not come back and that the "changeling" was not overly dangerous.

Aside from her intoxicating beauty and surprising intelligence, he had fell (a bit, just a little bit) for her kindness, something Walburga would have never given thoughts about.

With this confirmation, he joined his eldest son in his study while calling up Regulus from the other side of their house, still too close to his mother, who couldn't bear to think about anything else.