Retaliation

Grandfather's retaliation was quick and efficient. I got to know about it through the prophet two days after my visit to the Black castle.

First was an article about the mysterious death of Corvus Selwyn. He was found dead alone in bed at the Selwyn manor last night. There was no evidence of any struggle inside the house and there was no sign of any magical activity in his bedroom so the Aurors declared his death as natural. Even I would have thought it was a natural death if I did not know about his betrayal to grandfather. I was impressed due to the fact that grandfather was able to do this despite his current condition.

Another article said that Lord Arcturus Black had sold all the contracts of unpaid Loans to the House of Black to the goblins. Now the goblins could do anything with those contracts. Many pureblood Lords had started selling of their assets to repay these loans as soon as possible so as to avoid the increased interest rates charged by the goblins. This sudden move by Lord Black whom everyone assumed to do anything about unpaid loans led to many rich purebloods losing large chunks of their fortunes. They had stopped paying back the loans that they had taken from the Black family when they found that Lord Black was not paying attention to the loans. This sudden action caught them off-guard and as they could not get the required money from other means, they had to sell some of their assets. Everyone was confused by Lord Black's sudden move and were speculating the reason.

I was happy that grandfather had taken such an action. Most of the families that had unpaid loans were from the darker families that supported the Dark Lord. Now they will not have much extra cash to support the Dark Lord when he com s back. I am sure that Lucius Malfoy must have lost a lot of the Malfoy fortune due to this action taken by grandfather. Now he will not have enough money left to make Voldemort forgive him for his mistakes. I was going to do this anyway after I had taken control of the Black estate. I have a feeling grandfather is making sure that he has the whole estate properly under his control before he passes it over to me. He did not want me to take care of many troublesome things just after becoming Lord Black.

After reading the articles I looked towards the Slytherin side to see their reactions. Judging by the high number of pale faces, I can deduce that many dark families had taken loans from the Black family.

I was worried about the health of grandfather. Further research into the field in the ROR told that there was no treatment for it. Elgar had not come to me to inform me about grandfather's health. He did not answer to my calls and to make matters worse I had forgotten the location of the Black castle so I could not visit and check. Grandfather must have put the castle under Fidelius to hide himself from the retaliation of the angry families. All these made me worry more.

One week passed with no news about grandfather. Then one night I found a letter with the black crest on my study table in my room. I knew what this letter meant. With a heavy heart, I opened the letter and started reading.

Dear Charles,

By the time you will be reading this letter, I will be dead. I did go to a healer to get his opinion about my health but his diagnosis was that it was too late for me. At this stage of poisoning, any treatment would have led to my death. My old body would not be able to survive any treatment.

Don't mourn for me. I have lived long and my only wish during the last few years was to make sure that the Black family does not die out. I am leaving that to you now. I know that you are much stronger than what you revealed to me. The healer said the fact that you were able to diagnose me correctly meant that you were near the level of a trainee healer. I nearly jumped with joy after hearing that. Don't worry, I did not reveal your identity to the healer.

I am dying with so much happiness and hope for the future of the Black family. Hope was something that I was searching for, for many years. I am currently making sure that the black estate is correctly sorted out for you. I am also in the process of getting you a gift that I think you will need for your future endeavours. After I have acquired it, I will be leaving it with the Gringotts Black account manager along with my new will.

Thank you for making the last few days of my life wonderful.

Arcturus Black

Lord of Most Ancient and Noble House of Black

I had tears in my eyes by the time I had completed reading the letter. I had met him for only a few hours but he was the first adult to have greatly impressed me in this world. There was so much I could learn from him. I had started calling him grandfather and was greatly impressed by his power and resourcefulness.

It seems like I am not destined to have parental figures in my life. First was my mother who died after saying just a few words to me and now grandfather.

I wiped my tears and promised in my heart to make his dream come true. I will make sure that both Falken family and Black family become the most powerful families in the future.

I called Elgar and he popped into my room to answer my call. He looked haggard and it looked like he had been crying for a long time. He told me that he had performed the funeral of grandfather on his own, he followed all the steps in the Black family traditions and buried him in the Black family crypts. He had done this alone because he thought that I could not leave Hogwarts for it. I thanked him for it and gave the poor elf a hug. Grandfather must have meant a lot to him. Elgar broke down and started crying again. I continued hugging him till he calmed down.

I told him that I will call him again after I have visited Gringotts and the will has been read. I told him to take care of the black castle and wait for my call. He nodded and popped away.

The next day the prophet announced the death of Lord Black. The black estate had been frozen by Lord Black before his death so no one could do anything to it. The ministry did not have his will so for the estate to be unfrozen, an heir had to come to Gringotts and claim it.

So now everyone was speculating who the new Black Heir was. Draco could be seen loudly proclaiming him to be the new Heir. He and his father will get a rude awakening when they decide to visit Gringotts to claim the Heirship. I know that Lucius should be relying on Draco claiming the estate to help him during these tough times.