Forbidden Lessons

'Is that why her name was covered with a black mark?' Harry asked quietly. 'It was damaged on purpose, wasn't it.' Pollux's wince was all the confirmation Harry needed. 'I suppose Dad's name was missing because he ran away from home, and Uncle Marius was missing because he's a Squib.'

'It's just a silly old tapestry,' Pollux said hastily. 'It doesn't mean anything.'

'So can Aries and I meet our cousin Nymphadora?' Draco asked.

Pollux nearly refused outright, but as he looked down at the two earnest faces of his great-grandsons, he hesitated.

'I'll see what I can do,' he promised. 'Come on, Aries, let's go meet your grandmother.'

Both boys followed Pollux out of the room, none of them noticing the two extra names that had appeared on the tapestry next to Sirius's: Regina Malfoy and Aries Black.

Later that afternoon, Harry returned to Windermere Court with Uncle Marius and Aunt Clytemnestra. He eagerly recounted all the news of the holiday to the portraits, who laughed and gasped in all the right places.

'A Parselmouth?' Lily was stunned. 'Where did that come from?'

James grinned. 'Maybe you're not as Muggleborn as we thought. Maybe you're the Heiress of Slytherin.'

'But I'm not a Parselmouth,' Lily protested.

'Maybe you are, and just never had the opportunity to find out,' Regina observed.

Uncle Marius cleared his throat. Everyone stopped talking and turned their attention to him.

'Whilst all this is most diverting, I am afraid we have some rather pressing matters that demand our attention,' he said. 'Aries, right after you left for Grimmauld Place, Arcturus and Abraxas informed me that they and Pollux have agreed to allow you to remain here with us.'

'That's great!' Harry exclaimed, and James cheered.

'There are, however, a few conditions,' Marius said. 'You will live here Monday through Friday. You will spend Saturdays at Grimmauld Place and Sundays at Malfoy Manor. Over the summer, you will go to visit Arcturus and Melania in France.'

'That doesn't sound so bad,' Harry said.

'There's more,' Aunt Clytemnestra said. 'Cassiopeia will be coming to live with us.'

Harry's jaw fell open. 'Cassiopeia? Why?'

'She'll be tutoring you,' Uncle Marius explained. 'Draco will be coming over for lessons as well.'

Harry wasn't sure what to think of that. Cassiopeia had been perfectly nice to him, after all, but he had seen her be utterly nasty to other people. He didn't think he would much enjoy having her living with him. On the other hand, taking lessons with Draco could be a lot of fun.

'We'll have to be very careful,' he said. 'No one can slip up at all.'

'Certainly not,' Uncle Marius agreed. 'It would take only one mistake to destroy all that we have accomplished.'

Harry's face fell. 'I hope she doesn't ruin everything.'

'Cheer up, Aries,' James said with a mischievous grin. 'We can make things very exciting for Aunt Cassie.'

As things turned out, Cassiopeia was not nearly as awful as Harry had feared. She continued to treat Harry well, and managed even to treat Uncle Marius and Aunt Clytemnestra somewhat civilly. She spent much of her time alone in her rooms, engrossed in her own studies. As for her lessons, Harry and Draco both found them quite fascinating.

'Most pureblood families nowadays,' she lectured them their first day of tutoring, shortly after the New Year, 'leave intensive instruction in magic until Hogwarts, and so handicap their offspring. They claim that studying too much magic too soon can overwhelm children.' She spat in disgust.

'I do not hold with such new-fangled nonsense. I shall be teaching you the way I was taught as a girl: two years of serious theory followed by two years with practice wands. We shall purchase your real wands a year before you go to Hogwarts, giving you a solid foundation from which to excel.'

'If that's the way they used to do things, why did they change?' Harry asked.

Cassiopeia snarled. 'Dumbledore, that Muggle-loving old fool, persuaded the Wizengamot to pass a number of ridiculous statutes restricting what could be taught to children of various ages.' She sniggered. 'He claims, of course, that it's for their own protection, but everyone knows it's an underhanded attempt to put Mudbloods on the same footing as decent wizards.'

'So what we're doing is illegal?' Draco looked positively thrilled.

'Technically,' Cassiopeia admitted. 'But so is special magic. Laws and regulations are for lesser mortals, not for such as we, the noble descendants of great and powerful wizards. One must learn to manipulate such petty regulations to one's advantage, but one can never allow them to prevent one from doing whatever is necessary to achieve one's ends.'

Cassiopeia instructed them thoroughly in the basics of Astronomy, Herbology and potion-making, as well as the theoretical foundations of Transfiguration and Charms. Fridays were devoted to what she called 'special magic,' in other words, the Dark Arts. Draco and Harry were both quite bright, and made steady progress, much to Cassiopeia's satisfaction.

After lessons Draco often stayed over for much of the afternoon, and the two cousins spent many exhilarating days flying their broomsticks in the garden, playing pranks on the Squibs (who didn't really mind) and Cassiopeia (who minded a great deal) as well as exploring the three large magical homes they had at their disposal. As time passed, Harry grew more and more accustomed to his new life, and the Dursleys slowly became little more than a faintly-remembered nightmare.

It took Remus several months of digging in the wizarding Hall of Records, but he finally discovered that Marius and Clytemnestra Black, pureblood Squibs, had been appointed as guardians to one Aries Sirius Black, a pureblood, six years old, the only son of Sirius Orion Black and Regina Cassandra Malfoy.

Remus shook his head at the obvious deception. He might not have known Sirius as well as he thought he did, but he would certainly have known if his supposed friend had secretly been married. Moreover, Aries' birth date was given as August 1, 1980, only a day after Harry's birthday, and Remus happened to know exactly where Sirius had been that day—with Remus at James and Lily's, setting up Harry's nursery.

Remus snorted. Sirius would never have allowed his wife to give birth alone in another country without his being there to help. He had even tried to stay whilst Lily was giving birth, to provide moral support to James, but Lily had lost her temper and ordered him and James both out. Remus jotted down the address on a spare bit of parchment.

.....

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