The Third Time is a Charm

Posted: 22 November 2009

Chapter 50: The Formidable Women

"Are you teaching her Occlumency?" His look of utter amazement was unmistakable.

"It's a lullaby my Grandfather taught me before he died. He said his Father was considered one of the best Occlumans around. His Dad and Father found a way to make a game of it as he was growing up. By the time he entered school, he was very good at it."

"Where did the song come from?" Severus asked, he had never heard it before.

"My Grandfather said his Dad made it up to help his Father teach it." Becca responded with a smirk.

Narcissa wanted to know if Becca could write down the words but Becca turned to Regulus and asked, "Can you get one of the elves to get a copy of the children's books from the publishing company? The book of lullabies has this one in there as well as others."

"Assistant Mimsy!" Regulus called in a hushed urgency for his personal assistant from the publishing house. Now that the babies were sleeping, he didn’t want to wake them. A little elf in royal blue overalls with the Prince Conglomerate crest blazoned across the front bib and on the little blue hat that sat on her head popped in immediately.

"Yes, Master Regulus. What may I do for you?" The elf gave a half bow as she spoke then awaited her instructions.

"Can you bring me two copies of all the children's books?" He asked the elf politely.

"Of course, Master Regulus. Mimsy will be right back." The little elf then popped out and a few minutes later popped back in carrying several children's books in duplicate. "Is there anything else I may do for you, sir?"

"That will be all Mimsy, thank you."

Now Narcissa was not as oblivious as her husband and noticed the difference in the elf from her own. Walburga Black was just as observant as her niece and raised an eyebrow at her son.

"What was that?" she asked Regulus.

"That was my personal assistant at the publishing house. She sees to the things in my office."

"Do all the elves behave like that around here?" the older woman wanted to know.

"As far as I know. They all have titles and all answer in the same manner. They are very efficient and help in the businesses owned by Prince Conglomerate." Regulus had forgotten about how strange it was at first to see how the elves were treated here and to see them respond.

"Let's eat lunch Mother, while we visit awhile." he said to change the subject.

As they all sat down and partook of the wonderful lunch of tropical fruits and cheeses and sandwiches, Doc arrived with Shashi. Harry stiffened slightly at the sight of the Light Elf, not knowing how Malfoy would take him assisting Doc to look at his twins.

After explaining things to Narcissa, who was ecstatic to find out that this was not exactly a genetic problem, Doc looked at the twins and asked if he could get a reading from their magical core. He showed the parents what spell he would use and used it on Becca first so they could see what a weak core looked like, and then used it on Harry to see what a strong core looked like. This way the parents would know he would not harm their children. Both children showed a very weak and drained core, but the strange thing was that when placed together the cores were stronger than when the babies were separated. Doc presumed this was why it was so hard to separate them.

Using tines with different tones, he showed how their cores responded to the musical notes and explained the treatment they could use to strengthen their magical cores. He theorized that they could be at least underpowered if not just have average strength if treatment was started right away. The reason Becca was not stronger was the treatment was found too late and although she could use magic, she also had learned to compensate for the lack of power.

It was Walburga Black, however, that was the most amazed and had something to say.

"If we had known about this years ago, it could have changed so many lives. I, too, believed in the ideals of the Dark Lord, but never joined when I found out what his methods were. I wish I had found this out before my son joined that horrible man."

Severus was the one who eased her mind with, "We have all been in that situation. That is why we are doing what we can now, before it is too late." He gave the older woman a smile and asked her if she would like more tea. “And don’t worry about Regulus; he is not a part of them anymore.”

"If it would be agreeable, I would like to have Becca over for tea and some of the other ladies will be invited." She turned to address her niece, "Narcissa, how do you feel about getting this message out. Do you think we can do this without HIM knowing?"

"I know he doesn't call on the women that are pregnant." She smirked at that. "I feel that these are the ones in the most danger. We don't want what happened to the twins to happen to any more of our children. Right now, I feel as if I could take him on all by myself and win. How dare he do this to my children?" Narcissa showed the crack in her demeanor as she verbalized her anger at what he had done to the twins.

"I don't think that is a good idea, dear." Lucius interjected.

"I don't care if it's a good idea. It is the right idea. How many others have the same problem and no hope? We have to keep our world hidden from muggles and I believe that is what these people want to do?" She ended in a question and a raised brow to Harry, Severus and Becca. All three nodded, but it was Severus that added to the statement.

"We also want to make our world stronger. Our numbers are decreasing with every year, yet we live longer than the muggles and we have children. We need to increase our numbers by keeping our children in this world no matter how hard it is."

He watched as Lucius kept his tongue and stayed silent after Narcissa rebuked him for butting in. He gave Harry a knowing look and you could see amusement in both their eyes if you looked close enough.

Narcissa then spoke with Doc. "Is there anything else we could be doing at home to help them?"

Doc, who could see the fierce protection in the woman's manner, told her, "We can try something that hasn't been done before. At least I haven't done it before. It is a theory that we have come up with to increase the core in underpowered wizardkind children."

"Will it hurt the children? I don't want anything else to happen to them." Narcissa's voice was full of concern and worry.

"Actually, Shashi, is a Light Elf and we believe that if he uses some Elvin magic and connects to the core we can insert some fairy dust into the core and it will regenerate faster. We haven't tried it because it doesn't work in anyone after puberty. It is a new theory for wizardkind but we do know that it works in Elvin children."

"Fairy dust is not toxic to wizards, but I would like you to explain the procedure."

So Doc explained they would use an ancient Elvin spell to connect with the core and sprinkle light fairy dust into the core. The light dust is what the fairies used to make magic twinkle lights and was really harmless, but it would put the magic light in the core to give it power to regenerate. Lucius, on the other hand didn't look happy about it. In fact he started to object twice before Narcissa said if it would help her children, or even might help, she was willing to try.

Then her Aunt Walburga agreed most vehemently and Lucius was silenced once again.

It seemed that if you wanted to help the purebloods be more powerful and help the children, you only needed to speak with Walburga Black. Harry was wondering why they hadn't thought about this before. The woman was formidable and could hold her own in any argument. Of course, he thought, it didn’t hurt that they had saved the life of her own child.

As Lissy was the first one to try this on, Doc did the spell to view her magical core, then Shashi carefully added to the spell to open it up and drop a few sprinkles of fairy dust into the magical opening. Lissy started to giggle in her sleep and settled down with a smile on her face. The procedure took about fifteen minutes to complete and when the core started to glow brighter, everyone sighed in relief. Next, Nissy went through the same thing. Her core had actually been all but non existent except when laying right next to her sister, so Shashi placed a few extra dust particles into the magical opening. Nissy then giggled like her sister and settled down into a more peaceful sleep.

Harry thought the procedure was awesome to watch. The spell Doc did was the same one to look at the magical core. The one Shashi did, actually attached to Doc’s spell and caused an opening and then a small whirlwind like tunnel going all the way to the core. As he dropped the particles, one at a time, of fairy dust, each particle was lit and you could see the slow descent until it connected with the core then was absorbed into the center. After the absorption, the core started to glow white like the light of the dust. He would then drop another dust particle. It was dangerous to add too many at one time and you didn’t want to add too much either as the magic could be too strong for the baby to handle. When he was finished, he cancelled the spell to close the opening and then Doc cancelled the spell to see the core.

"We don't know how long it will last, but we believe it will be permanent. I would suggest you bring them to the medical center in a few weeks. Or if you are feeling poorly, owl the center and I will come to you. I know it can be hard traveling when pregnant." Doc said this as he handed her a business card. He was hoping to check the twins several times over the next few months to make sure the adjustments were permanent.

Narcissa nodded her understanding and put the card in her pocket to use later. Lucius watched her and said nothing, but he was still trying to understand why she would allow other creatures to use spells on the twins. Of course it wasn't too bad, he allowed, the elf was at least a healer.

The group spent the remainder of the day together getting to know each other. Narcissa was especially interested in getting the manor renovated to include the new mini-floo. It would be so much easier to call her friends without getting on the floor.

As they said goodbye that evening, Becca was invited to come for tea the next week after Harry and Severus started their training. She was going to go and join the women in a lighthearted conversation and possibly let them know that she could remove their marks. At least she would be around other females instead of being surrounded by men all the time.

They spent the remainder of the afternoon conversing with everyone else, including Salazar Slytherin. Lady Black was most impressed with the founder as were the others. Those that came from his house at Hogwarts were gathered around him quite much that afternoon, listening to the pureblood ways. Salazar carefully steered away from the subject of other creatures and merging them into today's magical world. He didn't want to get Lucius riled up again.

That evening, after everyone else left, Regulus took his mother to see the publishing company and then flooed her home. Remus said he needed to see some werewolf contacts about the next group to receive the cure potion. Doc and Shashi went their separate ways, and Harry, Becca and Severus were once again left alone. They decided to go out as well.

The trio went into London to see a spectacular fireworks display in the muggle section of town at midnight. Severus and Harry shared the most romantic kiss, and then they both turned and kissed Becca's cheeks. It was a tradition on New Years to kiss the one you were going to stay with for the year. Becca thought it was sweet of them to include her. Then they walked around for about half an hour before Becca started to get cold.

"Guys, I love your wanting to show me London, but we need to cut this short. I don't want to get chilled and it's getting colder out here." Becca said to her two escorts."

Severus and Harry both agreed, they too were getting cold, and even though they had used a few warming spells, it was also getting late and exhaustion was setting in. So they found an abandoned alley and portkeyed home. When they landed, Becca was dizzy and only kept from falling by Severus grabbing her shirt, much like he always grabbed Harry's. He wondered what it was about these two that they couldn't land on their feet.

Becca thank him for catching her and sat down to take a few deep breaths. Severus watched her and then noticed that her color was very pale.

"Becca, are you feeling alright?" Severus asked.

"Just dizzy and a little nauseous... I will be fine. It's just been a long day." Severus helped Becca to bed and came back into the sitting room to retrieve Harry. He was hoping for another repeat performance from the younger man. They had not been alone for quite some time with all the others living so close. It had definitely put a damper on their sex life and Severus was anxious to get Harry to himself again. He was celebrating New Years after all.

Harry was sitting on a chair, watching The Seven in front of the fire in the fireplace. He was just staring off into space as Severus walked into the room.

"Is everything alright?" he asked Harry.

"Yeah, fine Sev… I was just wondering why we didn't get the women involved in this before. I don't even think Voldemort would be able to go up against Lady Black. That woman is just scary." Severus chuckled at his mate. He was right, Walburga Black was quite formidable. The way she shut Lucius Malfoy from making comments about a different creature performing spells on his girls was priceless. It wasn't often you would find the man at a loss for words.

"Well, I can't say I would go up against her, but remember Voldemort isn't sane, so he might anyway."

"Yeah, I can just see it now, Voldemort in the throne room with Walburga Black telling him to sit up straight and pay attention." Harry gave a tired laugh at his musings and then commented to Severus, "Are you ready to retire for the night?"

Severus didn't answer but held out his hand in response to Harry's question. He pulled the young man to their bedroom hoping that Harry wasn't too tired for a little lovemaking.


At Malfoy Manor,

As soon as the nanny elf took the babies to their room, Lucius turned to his wife in a fit of pique and said, "Why did you allow a Light Elf to perform healing magic on our daughters. Do I need to remind you we are DARK WIZARDS?" Lucius was not just angry he was getting livid the more he thought about it. "This could change the way they do magic. This could change our family. They performed light magic on them. A Light Elf with fairy light dust. MORE LIGHT magic on MY children. How could you?"

He never saw the spell coming...

He was sitting in a chair, a silencing spell had been placed on his mouth and the bands that held him in place were fairly tight. He was revived but couldn't move. He hated when Narcissa did that to him. It had been over two months, in his view, since he had seen his wife. That was how long he had been in that time room and he had hoped to have a nice evening with his wife, now it was not looking so well.

"Good, you are awake." Narcissa said in a sickly sweet tone. He knew that tone; it was the one she used before a shouting lecture. He knew when he heard that tone, it did not bode well for him. "Now, Lucius dear," Oh no, Lucius thought here it comes. "YOU KNOW THE CHILDREN NEEDED HELP. I will not allow you to talk to me like that. I knew I could trust them as soon as I saw Regulus there. Aunt Walburga agreed with me and she would not have been there if she suspected anything. I CAN NOT BELIEVE you are taking this attitude with me!"

Narcissa was huffing with from exerting the energy it was taking to calm down. "They had Salazar Slytherin's portrait and he didn't look like he was opposed to being there either. You heard what he told us. Light and dark magic are to work in tandem, one protecting and using energy to help the other. HE didn't have a problem with the procedure so I fail to see why you should."

The woman glared at her husband for a few minutes. "I would do anything for my children. If it means allowing them to use light magic instead of NO MAGIC then so be it. Their heritage, you were spouting about, is magical first and foremost. I do not want my children to be squibs because of a mistake you and I made trusting and believing in a DERANGED LUNATIC!

She sighed and finally started to calm down now that she had that off her chest. "Don't think I don't know you used a time turner also. I noticed Severus Snape and he actually looked healthy and had a few added pounds on him. I don't know how far back you guys went, but just this morning the man looked so gaunt and stressed a puff of wind would blow him away."

Lucius just nodded as he was still silenced by his wife. She was sitting in the chair, legs tucked neatly to the side with her ankles crossed. She had her arms crossed over her chest and if looks could kill, Lucius would be in cinders by now.

"You men were dressed like muggles, but Severus looked good in the clothes. I also noticed that Regulus does not have the dark mark. So someone must have removed it. I won't ask you to reveal any secrets because I am sure you had to take some sort of oath. But I will tell you this, if these people are going to help us as they did today, and have done for Reg, then I am not going to turn down their help either. MY children are too important. You and I have studied dark magic from the cradle and neither one of us has seen or heard of a spell to help increase the magic of an underpowered child or a squib like we saw today."

Narcissa paused in her declarations to make sure Lucius was paying attention. "These people are the only ones I have ever met that do not fear the Dark Lord. They may be foolish, but I get the impression they know exactly what they are dealing with.


The same evening at Black Manor…

Walburga Black was sitting in her dining room with her son Regulus. They had a pleasant time walking through the publications department and Reg had taken several books that his mother thought she would like to read. It was not how a barely legal aged wizard would usually spend his New Years Eve. But it was pleasant and he was still wanted by the Death Eaters for leaving them, so it was safer to lay low for now.

“Mother,” he started to say, “how do you feel about what you learned today?”

“My son,” she smiled gently at the young man in front of her. “Please come with me, I want to show you something.”

They made their way to the library with mother leading her son. She started to explain on her way up the stairs, “Years ago, your father and I discovered something in the library of this house. How it came to be here, no one knows. But we kept it hidden for the information it contained.”

Regulus was a little puzzled at what his mother was saying. There was nothing hidden in the library, he and Sirius had been all over the place as children and had discovered all there was to find years ago.

His mother stood in front of a set of book shelves and pointed her wand at them. With a whispered spell that he didn’t quite catch, the shelves began to move. As if it was on rollers two sections of bookshelves shifted forward then shifted to the side to reveal another room.

Regulus was stunned. He had never seen this before.

“In this small room,” it was no more than two meters deep, more like a big closet really, “you will find books dating back over seven hundred years. These are the Black journals. Each of your ancestors has contributed to this collection. Some of them were seers others were in lucrative professions and others were teachers and businessmen. All their secrets, successes and failures can be found in this room.”

“Why did Sirius and I never find this?” Regulus asked in wonder.

“I only know that it revealed itself when you father and I were speaking about the rise of the Dark Lord. I, sort of, made a comment about the house letting us talk to the ancestors of your father and this room appeared.”

“Mother, there must be thousands of journals in here. Have you read any of them?”

“You father and I read many of them. Some of them were about a new power rising that would bring the magical world together again. Some of them were about the same information you have in these new books about squibs not leaving the magical world as it was a risk to us. Of course when they wrote it, it was in angst about how others didn’t believe them.”

“Why are you showing this to me now?”

“This is your legacy, your heritage. It is yours and Sirius’; if you can ever get him to accept his family responsibilities. I believe this is the information you seek in whether or not to join your group. As soon as I read the book you sent me I suspected that these were the people that were foretold. When I was portkeyed in and met them I knew I was correct.”

“How do we get Sirius to see this? I don’t even see him anymore, but Remus saw him for Christmas. I am afraid he will be much harder to convince.” Regulus informed her.


Walburga smiled in a sly, knowing manner. “I believe that when the time is right, your people will have a plan. I believe they are closer to this family then they let on.”

“So you do not oppose my being involved with this group?”

“Not only do I approve, I believe it is time to get the women involved. I have stayed out of this skirmish up to this point. I was waiting for a sign, something to tell me what the correct approach was. After you joined the Dark Lord, I realized his methods were too brutish and common. He pillages and maims and tortures like common criminals. This has never been the pureblood way. Albus Dumbledore is the light wizard Lord, if you want to call him that, but he manipulates and sacrifices without remorse. This may be the pureblood way but he is not bringing this world together, he is only taking it apart for his followers and himself.”

“In the oldest of these journals there are references to magic working together and bringing our world together in the true ways of old. If it is to help protect the children, we should start spreading the word.” She said confidently to her son. She knew she had made mistakes with Sirius, but he had turned his back on his heritage and when the Dark Lord first appeared, the man had spoken about the same things that were in the journal. It was not until today, she realized how twisted his ideals were. She would correct her error.


A/N I would like to thank all my readers out there especially those who read and review. I received a review that stated they loved the story but didn’t like reading slash. Some of you already know that the story on FanFiction is a tamer version and that the Adult site that has the more “steamy” scenes in it. The only difference between the two is after I refer to going into a room for fun I continue on the Adult site only. There have been many readers that have encouraged me to write this so that the underage can read it also. I will eventually edit this story for the fanfiction site to be classed as a less restrictive reading. The Adult site will always have the more (what one reviewer called) Snarry yummyness. So for those of you who don't usually read slash and don't care for it you can find the same story on http://www.fanfiction.net/s/5286275/50/.

I want you all to know that I appreciate every single one of you and thank you for all your comments and criticisms. I really do consider each one and hope that I can accommodate them as much as possible. Since I am American, I would like to wish everyone a Harry Thanksgiving and yes there will be a new chapter up by Wednesday as usual.

Thank you Kim, nari-chan, Jan and kaasan for reviewing since the last chapter. You guys are awesome.