Panicked Arrival Ⅲ

With an elegant grace, Druella led the elders of the Black family to a private parlor for her own personal use set aside by her daughter and her son-in-law, Lucius Malfoy. She gestures for the elders to have a seat first, before shutting the door shut with a flick of her wand. The door loudly closes shut leaving the four elderly Black elders' sitting down in a circle before she joins them.

The short, pouchy figure of Arcturus Black, the 3rd snorts loudly and folds his arms over his chest. He looked very little like his handsome son, Orion, and a bit more like his daughter, Lucretia, but overall, his children were both much better looking than he.

"So, we lost Bilius Weasley," Arcturus pompously said, "he is still only from a side branch descended from a cousin, Cedrella-."

"Enough, Arcturus!" Snapped the unwed sinister of the family, Cassiopeia Black. She shakes her elegant silver head in disapproval, while her sharp gray eyes flashed with vexation. "Have you no shame, cousin!" She sneered. "The dead are not to be mocked, Arcturus. Then again, our dear old Aunt never did manage to teach you manners despite the innumerable tutors and lessons that she hired to teach you manners!"

Arcturus's face swells in anger, a violet color, but before he can begin to yell, a sharp raspy voice says, "That is enough out of both of you!" The commanding voice rings through the air causing Cassiopeia to sneer again, but remain silent, while Arcturus folds his arms over his chest in a huff. Cassiopeia was in no mood to pick a fight with her elder brother, Pollux, nor Arcturus with his cousin, Pollux.

The white-haired wizard was ancient, tall, and thin with gray eyes that greatly resembled that of his deceased son, Alphard Black. Having outlived his wife and two sons, Pollux gestures a slightly spotted pale hand at Druella. "Daughter-in-law, you have not summoned us here for nothing. I have no more time to waste, I am old and tired. So, speak."

"Father-in-law," Druella firmly replied, "I regret to bear the burden, but I must inform the elders of the family of the death of Lucretia and Ignatius Prewett at the hands of the giants."

"No, you lie," Arcturus shouted in disbelief as he leaped out of his seat. He instantly begins to pace before, "Why I just saw her this morning and she said she would attend the presentation ball but would arrive fashionably late!"

"You have my utmost sincere condolences, Arcturus, but we were all witnesses to her and her husband's untimely death," Druella solemnly declared.

"No, no, no," Arcturus moaned as he slumped back into his chair. A look of disbelief, pain and sorrow fill his eyes. For all his arrogance and pride, he cared for his only two children. His son is his pride and his daughter is-, was the apple of his eyes. He lets out another moan and covers his eyes as if to hide away from the awful truth that lay before him.

The faces of the two Black sisters, Cassiopeia Black, and Dorea Potter are pale at the news. Pollux's gray eyes meet the eyes of his two sisters, who stare solemnly back at him. He wearily turns towards his daughter-in-law. "There is more is there not?"

"Yes," Druella truthfully replied. "The child named Lorcan D'Eath saved our lives, a life debt is owed by much of the family including myself." She paused, before adding, "And his mother, the widow, Juliet D'Eath perished in the attack. The child still lays unconscious, but he is effectively an orphan."

"D'Eath," Pollux frowned and narrowed his gray eyes with alarm. "Not the one from the Daily Prophet is it?"

"Astute as always, father-in-law," Druella flattered her in-law. "The child is the product of a witch's and a vampire's true love."

"An orphan, you say?" Cassiopeia muttered furrowing her brow. "By our laws, the family must take the child in and raise the child into adulthood. However, we are old and the younger family members still have young children. It would not befit for the child to be raised there."

"Are there truly no other kin to take the child in?" Cassiopeia pointedly asked.

Before Druella can respond to the surprise of them all, Dorea says, "I will take the child in." They all gaze at her in true disbelief as Cassiopeia nearly chokes in shock at her younger sister's audacity.

"Dorea," Cassiopeia begins to say, before tactfully pausing to rephrase her choice of words, "it is difficult to bring up an energetic child and especially a child, who will truly grieve the loss of his mother."

"Exactly," Dorea answered with a sad little smile on her face. "I am a lonely old woman, sister, and who better than I to teach him how to live with one's grief." She paused and somewhat embarrassingly continued, "I have watched Georgina these past years and despite all her aloofness, she is bright and filled with energy whenever her great-niece and nephew are around. I too wish for the warmth of the sun in my latter days."

Cassiopeia was not one for affectionate gestures, but just this once, she reached over and clutched her sister's hand in affirmation. Seeing the determination of his younger sister, Pollux quietly says, "I see that you will not be dissuaded, Dorea, I will not object to the guardianship, but I expect for the child to properly comport himself."

Dorea gratefully nods her head at her elder brother and lets out a soft sigh. Her pale hand streaked with blue veins pulls her shawl tighter around her shoulders. After that bit of excitement, she felt rather tired and cold.

Seeing that Dorea's plea had been so easily granted, Cassiopeia straightens her spine and says, "We have lost two blood kin on this night brother and one by marriage, brother. This is only the start and War will surely rage around us once more. We require allies, Pollux, so I beseech you to permit for the surviving pruned branches within the Isles to return."

Druella blinks at the audacity of the elder Black spinster but remains silent as it is not her place to comment. No, this could only be decided by the one acknowledged as the patriarch of the Black family, Pollux Black. Despite Arcturus Black being eleven years older than Pollux, it was Pollux, who led the family and determined any great change within the family rules.

The ticking clock loudly ticks in the corner slightly muffled by the soft snuffling sounds from Arcturus, who tries to contain his silent weeping. After an unbearable silence, Pollux raises his pensive gray eyes to meet that of his sister. "I have long argued against the return of broken branches, but those branches still thrive in the wild despite having been transplanted into the wilderness. Perchance, it is time for a change, very well, Cassiopeia, you shall have your wish. Summon all existing broken branches within the Isles to the ancestral home, we will return them to their rightful place."

Cassiopeia's eyes brim with tears as she holds back a cry of joy. At long last, her dearest wishes to see the return of her beloved younger brother, Marius to the fold would be fulfilled. Holding back a sniffle, she hoarsely bows her head to her brother. "Thank you, brother," she sincerely thanked her older brother.

Pollux lets out a weary sigh appearing suddenly aged and looking far older than his actual age. "I am old, Cassiopeia," he reluctantly admitted, "and I am tired." He wearily half-closes his gray eyes in exhaustion. "I have outlived my two sons and I have no further desire to outlive any more of the younger generations."

Arcturus lets out a rather loud sniffle at his cousin's words. A parent should never have to outlive their child. And even an arrogant pureblood understood that much.

In a rare display of affection gesture, Cassiopeia reaches out and gently pats her cousin on the back. Pollux does not comment on the gesture as Dorea sadly but knowingly gazes at her kin. The breathless agony would fade away with time, but the sorrow never truly fades much as an old aching wound never does.

Sensing that the elders wish to privately speak alone, Druella rises and politely excuses herself. She understood that she had no place in their grief. And though she did not mourn the loss of Lucretia and her husband, she did not desire death upon them either. Rather she had much to do including tending to the sleeping child. With firm purpose in mind, she strides down the corridor to guard the newly orphaned boy.