Lost Boy 08

Lost Boy

Part the Eighth

Lily received the note from You-Know-Who that night after dinner.  She hadn’t confronted her parents because she honestly wasn’t sure what to say.  She’d ask when she had all the facts.  At least, that’s what she was telling herself.

She was to go to Fairy Black Apartment (above Fairy Woven Silks) in Diagon Alley tomorrow at eleven o’clock in the morning.  She wasn’t exactly sure where that was.

Although she was afraid that Severus wouldn’t be home, she got up and went to Spinner’s End.  The house was cold and drab, but at least Mr. Snape was out.  Mrs. Snape was in.  Her skin was sallow and her eyes were the same black as Severus’s.

They were up in Severus’s room when she showed him the note.

“You must go,” Severus told her.  “There’s no two ways about it.”

“Yes,” she agreed.  “But You-Know-Who will be there.”

“You saw him today.”

Lily bit her nails.  “But he—he has no nose.”

“If that’s your only objection to the Dark Lord,” Severus argued, but Lily was now pacing. 

“What if Alphard Black is a Death Eater?  He must be.  You-Know-Who is arranging all of this.”

“Then you can be a spy,” Severus suggested ironically.

Lily looked up with her green grass eyes, considering.

Severus stared at her.  “I wasn’t being serious.”

“I am.”  She swiped the letter back and forth across the palm of her hand, thinking.  “You’re right.  This is the perfect opportunity.  I can get Hartwig, make him see me for myself, and work as a spy.”

“Or you and Hartwig could be neutral,” Severus suggested carefully, not expecting Lily to be really listening.

She wasn’t.  She was too busy planning. 

There were swirls of thoughts in her mind when she went home that night, and she didn’t even hear Petunia when she called her a “Freak” or talked about her perfect boyfriend, Vernon Dursley.  Apparently, he was coming around for dinner on Friday night and Petunia wanted Lily out of the house.  Lily didn’t plan on still being there.

The next morning she put on the same light blue robes and packed her trunk as instructed, minimizing it and putting it in her pocket.  She picked up her cat Lulu and attached a leash to her collar, hoping she wouldn’t look too oddly in Cokeworth, walking to the glade where she planned to Apparate.

She left a note on the table, saying she would be gone for the day and not to wait up for her.  Lily hoped this wasn’t a kidnapping scheme, because if it was, her parents would never find her again. 

Diagon Alley was deserted much as it had been for the last couple of years.  Huddles of wizards moved from shop to shop, not wanting to be caught out in the open.  There were wanted posters for known Death Eaters, but the problem was that no one knew who the Death Eaters actually were.  They could be your friend, your lover, your brother, and you’d have no idea.  They were insidious like that.

It took her a good ten minutes to find Fairy Woven Silks.  It was down the other side of Diagon Alley, past Gringotts.  The door to Fairy Black Apartment was a small door off to the side and she knocked on it briskly, not finding a bell.  Her watch showed that it was five ‘til, and she hoped that Mr. Black didn’t mind her being early.

No one answered.

She knocked again.

Looking over her shoulder, she noticed a shadow coming out of the fog that was swirling in the snow. 

An arrow was pointing to a hole in the side of the door and, carefully, Lily got out her wand and poked it in, remembering The Wicked Stepmother.  She could hear a bell go off somewhere.

The sound of footsteps rang in the hall and the door opened to reveal a tall wizard who looked a great deal like Sirius Black.  “Mr. Alphard Black?” Lily asked, holding onto Lulu’s leash.

“Yes, yes,” he answered, ushering her inside.  He looked over her shoulder.  “You must be Miss Evans.  Come in, come in.”

She didn’t need to be invited twice. 

Lulu hopped in and Lily was glad when the door closed behind her.

The hall was narrow and climbed up two stories before it emptied out into the flat.  She looked around at the comfortable rooms, only stopping her perusal when her eyes landed on You-Know-Who.  “Black Card,” she greeted.  “I’ve been told you’re ‘You-Know-Who.’”

He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named reached forward and took her hand in his, lifting it up to beneath his lips, hovering there beneath, before releasing it.  Lily had seen the pureblood nicety before but no one had ever been polite to her in such a way before she’d met You-Know-Who.  “You have the right of it.  I do prefer ‘the Dark Lord.’”

“Only Death Eaters call you that.”

“Not only Death Eaters,” Alphard Black assured her, as he offered her a seat.  She picked up Lulu and put her in her lap.  “All of the pureblood families do, regardless of allegiance.”

Lily looked over at him and took in his face.  It was weathered and worn as if he had had great troubles in his life.

“I have the potions,” You-Know-Who informed them.  “The Blood Matching potion and then the Naming potion.”

Lily looked at him with wide eyes.  “I thought those were banned.”

“Do you want to know or not, Mademoiselle?” he asked sincerely. 

A piece of parchment was brought forward and set on a table.  Lily and Alphard’s sleeves were rolled up and their arms placed on the parchment, one from either side of the table.  You-Know-Who made a cut smoothly across their forearm until it started bleeding onto the parchment.  He unstoppered a bottle of purple potion and poured it over the long joint cut.

Lily hissed.  Lulu hissed from her place on the apartment floor.

The potion steamed green and Alphard smiled.  “Parent and child,” he told her.

Before he could say anything else, You-Know-Who had dribbled a blue potion over the cuts and it stung like nothing else.  Lily cried out, but Alphard reached out and held her arm down.  The blue potion dripped out and down their arms and onto the parchment.  Words began to form, and Lily watched in agonizing fascination as they congealed into the word ‘Stephagenia’ in her purple blood.

A cloth was placed over her arm and she was allowed to take it back.

The parchment was rumpled from where they had lain their arms, but where Alphard’s blood had dripped down, his blood read ‘Alphard,’ also in purple.

“That will hold up in a court of law,” Alphard told her as he wiped the blood from his own arm.  “You are my daughter.”

“Stephagenia,” she repeated, sounding it out carefully.

You-Know-Who was looking at her in open curiosity. 

“Stephagenia Lilliana Electra Rose,” Alphard qualified.  “You were taken from the cottage hospital where Elnora gave birth to you.  We could not get to St. Mungo’s in time.  Elnora could not Apparate because it was dangerous to the pregnancy.”  He reached out carefully and touched Lily’s arm.  “You were greatly wanted and have been missed.”

“Where is—where is Mrs. Black?” Lily asked carefully.

Sadness crept into Alphard’s eyes.  “Elnora died of a broken heart.  Your loss was too much to bear.”

Something broke inside Lily.  Her mother had died because she was stolen?  Her grass green eyes flashed darker in anger.  You-Know-Who must have noticed because he looked over at her in interest. 

“Bottle that anger, Miss Black.  Righteous indignation is powerful.  It will come in useful in the days to come as we further solve this mystery.”

She nodded her head and continued to press the cloth into her arm.

Lulu meowed and, feeling the slack of the leash, scampered off further into the apartment.

The athame cut left a thin silver scar in her arm, that You-Know-Who said would never heal.  It was the nature of the potions.  The hereditary parchment was taken and framed and placed above the fireplace.  Lily stared at it for a long time while You-Know-Who and Alphard discussed the next couple of days. 

Her trunk was resized and put into a room of rose colors.  She was booked the next day at Fairy Woven Silks for a suitable wardrobe and then registered at Gringotts.

“We need to talk about your vined ring, Stephagenia.”  This was Alphard.  You-Know-Who had flooed out half an hour earlier.  Lulu had been found and her leash taken off so she could better acquaint herself with her new hunting grounds.

Lily turned to her wizard father and looked at him, searching for any part of herself in him.  The shape of their eyes was the same, the color a dark grey-green, and his hair was straight like hers, not wavy like Sirius’s or that boy in Slytherin’s.

“Hartwig wears one,” she admitted, coming and sitting beside him.

“You are fond of this Hartwig.  I’ve heard you mention him once before.”

“He refuses to go with me because I’m a Muggleborn.”  She glanced off to the side.

“Well, Stephagenia, that’s not a problem anymore.”

“Lily,” she corrected.  “My name is Lily.”

“Your name is Stephagenia Lilliana.  We are blessed the Muggles kept some form of your name.”  Alphard’s voice was hard and uncompromising.  “It’s what your mother named you.”

There was no argument Lily really had against that.  She could not fight against a dead woman. 

Alphard paused.  “You said Hartwig had a vined ring.”

“Yes,” she agreed.  “It’s terribly simple.  It’s just a vine up his left middle finger.  Everyone else’s is gold and leafed and bejeweled,  but his is just a vine.”

“His family might not be well off,” Alphard suggested carefully.  “What is his family’s name?”

“Potter.”

“Potter?” Alphard spluttered.  “The Potters are six generations, then.”  He seemed stunned.  “They certainly have the money.  It must be down to personal preference.—Do you understand the purpose of a vined ring, Stephagenia?”

Lily almost didn’t look up, looking down at her bloody fingernails.

“Yes,” Alphard agreed.  “We’ll get you a magical manicure before you go back to Hogwarts.  It seems like you’ve been under a great deal of stress, my dear.”  He paused.  “A vined ring is protection.  It protects your virtue from careless wizards.  No man—wizard or Muggle—can touch you until you are married.  Then only your husband can partake of your loveliness.”

Looking up, Lily asked, “Does it protect a wizard’s virtue?” 

“Just so, my dear.  It will punish anyone who tries to hurt you.  But mark my words, it will punish you if you step out of line as well.”

Lily grimaced.  “Then why does everyone have one?”

“It is to prove their virtue,” Alphard told her simply, “to prove their virginity upon their marriage.  It is also a status symbol.”  He lifted up his left hand and showed her a gold ring with amber rosettes inlaid.  “It is also a matter of fashion.—We should get you one before you go back to Hogwarts so no one can doubt you are Stephagenia Black.”

Lily looked up into her father’s dark green gaze.  “As long as it proves it to Hartwig.”

“It will prove it beyond a doubt.”

Alphard arranged it so that Gideon Prewett would come sit with her while he went out to talk to her parents—the Evanses.  He didn’t want to leave her alone for fear that she would disappear much as she had seventeen years previously.

“I remember you!” Gideon greeted her with a kiss to the cheek when he arrived through the flames.  “You were a little first year my sixth year.  All spark!  To think, you’re Aunt Elnora’s girl.”  He was tall with deep auburn hair and deeper brown eyes.  He had a face full of laughter and a voice full of good cheer.  “Leave little Steph with me, Uncle.  I will see no harm comes to her.”

Alphard looked between the two of them fondly.  “Thank you, Gideon.  I shouldn’t be more than an hour.”

He left for his law wizard’s and then Lily, for the second time that day, found herself alone with a wizard—a relative—who she knew nothing about.

“Well, little coz,” Gideon said, sitting down and taking out a packet of cards, “Uncle Alphard always said you were taken away by the fairies!”

“I was taken away by Muggles,” she qualified.  “He’s gone to speak to them.”  She bit her lip in worry.  “They’re not so bad.  Petunia—”  She thought of her sister.  “Petunia likes to call me a ‘freak’ but that’s what sisters do, isn’t it?”

Gideon looked worried.  “Not so, little coz,” he told her plainly.  “I’d curse Fabian if he called our Molly anything of the sort.”  He paused.  “Our Moll is getting married.  We’ll have to get you an invitation.”

Lily’s ears popped up.  “A wedding?”

“She’s marrying Arthur Weasley.  Ministry man.  Misuse for Muggle Artifacts.”  He shuffled the cards.  “Exploding snap?”

“I don’t remember Molly from Hogwarts.”

“Oh.  She graduated two years ago.  Hufflepuff.”  He gave her a winning smile.  “No reason for you to know her.”

Alphard came back later than expected, well past ten.  Gideon flooed out promising to send that invitation.  Lily looked at her wizarding father, but he only kissed her on the head and promised her that all would be well.

The next day was busy.  First they had to go to The Wicked Stepmother to get the name on her black card changed to ‘Stephagenia Black.’  It took only a couple of spells.  Then they were at The Pumpkin Carriage looking at vined rings. 

They presented her card and the shop assistant’s eyes went wide.

She immediately showed them to a case with gold vined rings with several precious jewels.  “Perhaps emerald to match the lady’s eyes?” she suggested. 

“Or rubies for Gryffindor?” Alphard remarked, pointing to one he thought was elegant.

Lily, however, wanted something simple like Hartwig’s.  She gravitated to a simple gold vine that started at the base of the left middle finger, coming up to the knuckle, parting into two vines so her finger could bend, before coming up to just below the nail. 

“No leaves?  No flowers?” Alphard checked.  “How about this one?”

He pointed to a very similar one which had three leaves on it, painted green.  “Please, for my sake.”

She tried it on and did like the way it matched her eyes.

In the end she got a ring with green leaves and two painted red roses.  It was humble but still pretty to look at.  The ring could hardly be called extravagant. 

Next was Fairy Woven Silks, where Alphard insisted she get four sets of day robes and one set for special occasions.  “You cannot always wear this pair, which you said you borrowed.”  His green eyes glinted. 

“You can get away with it in Gryffindor.”

“Not if you are my daughter.”  His voice had a strain of steel in it.  “Blacks are always well dressed.”  He turned a page of his Daily Prophet. 

Lily went back to looking at herself in the mirror.

The flat was empty after that.  There was only Lulu who was curled up in a window seat overlooking Diagon Alley.  Lily had finished all her work and she wasn’t entirely certain what to do.  Around dinner, she went to Alphard and asked carefully, “Can I invite Black over tomorrow?”

He looked over at her.  “Which Black?”

“Sirius,” she qualified.  “He’s in my year at Hogwarts.”

He grunted.  “I sent a note over to Walburga, my sister, Sirius’s mother.  He should know all about you by now.  Go on, send your note.  That boy hardly knows what’s good for him, though.  Doesn’t even have the decency to wear a vined ring.”

Lily nodded.  Before she could go, Alphard added,

“The Dark Lord is coming over for tea on Thursday.”  Alphard didn’t even ask.  He just told her. 

Lily supposed this was the beginning of her career as a spy.  She would have to play this carefully.  She couldn’t be too eager.  She couldn’t be too resistant as well.

Sirius came over the next day.  She was wearing her Muggle jeans and he looked her over and asked, “Evans?  Is it true?  Are you really Stephagenia?”

“So it would seem, Black.”  She came up to him and was glad her hair was out of her face.  She had put it up on her head in a twisted braid.  Alphard had asked her not to wear it down at breakfast that morning.  “We’re related.”

He looked at her for a long second.  “Great.  I’m just like my father.  He married his cousin.”

She startled.  “What?”

“I fancy the robes off you, Evans,” he told her.  “Surely you know that.”

“I thought that was a prank.”

“No, not a prank,” he told her as they went into her room and lounged on the floor.  “Why do you think I nearly cursed Potter for making you cry?”  His grey eyes looked at her earnestly.

“You snog every witch that doesn’t wear a vined ring!”

“I could snog you,” he suggested.

She pulled a face at him.  “I think I’ll pass.”

“At least you’re not wearing—” His eyes went to her left hand.  “Oh, you didn’t, Evans!”

Her eyes followed his.  “Alphard asked me to.  He said it was important.”

“They’re chastity belts!” he insisted, grabbing her hand to look at it.  “Evans, how could you conform?  You’re a Gryffindor!”

“Yes, about that.  I heard the rest of the Blacks were in Slytherin.”

“Except for us,” Sirius told her proudly.  “Another reason for us to marry.  We could start a Gryffindor dynasty.”

She looked at him oddly.  “Confidant, are you?”

“Horribly,” he agreed.  “Can I call you ‘Steph’?”

“If I can call you ‘Sirius’,” she agreed.

He held out his hand, “Deal.”  They shook on it.  A spark of magic excited on the palms of their hands, but that was only to be expected.  They had shaken a wizard’s handshake. 

“If only you had been found younger, Steph,” Sirius opined.  “We could have had such fun together over the summers.”

“We still can,” she suggested, “as long as it’s not pranking or flying a stupid broom.”

“Nah, I wouldn’t do that to you,” he promised.  “We have these large family gatherings.  Everyone is there.  I always go off by myself and drink fairy fizz and get buzzed, but it would be so much fun with two.”

“Alphard showed me the tree.  I’ve got cousins on both sides.”

“There’s me and Reggie,” Sirius agreed.  “Then there are the girls.  Andromeda has been disinherited.”

“Andromeda?  Who is she?”

“Bellatrix and Narcissa’s eldest sister.  She went and married a Muggleborn.”  He tapped the side of his nose.  “Strictly not allowed.  Our house words are ‘toujours pur.’  I would have married you anyway.  I wouldn’t mind being disinherited.”

Lily looked at him strangely.  “I would mind,” she told him.  “I only just found my wizarding family.”

“Uncle Alphard’s not so bad,” Sirius promised.  “He’s not like Mother.  She’s a rabid blood purist.  Uncle Cygnus was willing to still see Dromeda but Mother insisted.”  He sighed.  “I drop Dromeda a line now and then.  She has a daughter now.  A metamorphmagus.”

Lily’s eyes blew wide.  “Is that a Black family trait?”

Sirius sat up.  “It only exists in the Black family,” he told her seriously.  “Don’t let anyone tell you otherwise.  If it pops up, the person has a Black ancestor.  Then again, it’s usually a heavily guarded secret.  No one wants to admit to it.”

“Then how do you know about Andromeda’s daughter?”

“She can’t control it.  I was babysitting and her hair turned pink.”  He barked a laugh.  “You should have seen my face!  I thought it was her accidental magic.  I was frantic trying to turn it back.”  He grinned wide, showing his teeth.  “I’ll introduce you this summer.”

“What are you going to do?  Once we graduate?”

“I have a job as an archivist all lined up.  Mother doesn’t think it’s smart enough, but it’s what I want to do while I look around.  It’s at the Wizarding Bodleian in Oxford.”

“Hmm,” Lily hummed.  “I’m still deciding between offers from the Ministry.”

“You better run them by Uncle Alphard.  He’ll want a say about what is ‘ladylike’ and ‘fit for the House of Black.’”  He gave her a look.

“Hadn’t thought about that,” Lily admitted.

“Well, now you’ve been warned.”

Lily was exchanging daily owls with Severus.  He was keeping her abreast of the situation at the Evans household.  It appeared like Alphard had been there several times with other wizards and there was a rumor among the Death Eaters of a wizarding lawsuit. 

Thursday dawned and Lily carefully put up her hair.  She’d picked up the latest issue of Witch Weekly, much to her shame, and copied one of the hairstyles in it.  Alphard insisted she wear her nicest pair of robes which were a buttery yellow lace with a high collared neck.

You-Know-Who flooed in and took her hand, raising it to below his lips before releasing it.  Lily wondered what he would look like with a nose.  She supposed he might be handsome.

“Miss Black,” he greeted.

“Black Card.”

Alphard had set up a small table for them in the living room and Lily prepared tea for them.  Alphard was in his study with the door open.  Lily glanced in that direction when You-Know-Who put up a silencing bubble.

“There, now, we can talk freely.”

“Wizard Father will know you’ve done that.”

“He may, but he will not protest.  Now what are we drinking?”

“I found a tin of Paris tea in the cupboard,” she answered.  “Wizard Father said it belonged to Mother.  I wanted to see what it tastes like.”  She dropped the tea ball into the boiling water to let it steep.

“It does you credit to honor your mother.”

“Does your mother still live?” she asked a little cautiously.

He paused.  “My mother died of a broken heart, much like yours, a few hours after I was born.  My father had been lost to us.  She was able to hold out for my sake, but her heart could not live without him.”

“Then you knew neither of your parents,” Lily surmised.

“No, neither,” he agreed.  “My mother gave me magic, though, which was gift enough.”

Lily nodded thoughtfully.  “My mother also gave me magic.”

“That she did.” 

Lily took the metal ball out of the teapot and poured them two cups of tea, preferring to do it by hand than by enchanting the teapot.  “You’ll have to tell me how you like it.”  She waited until he tasted it.

“A bit of honey perhaps.”

She flicked her wand and the honey served him, a spoon coming to stir it in.

“Hmm.  Much better.”

Lily enchanted the honey to serve her as well, trusting his judgment.  It was indeed wonderfully sweet. 

“Tell me how you’ve been getting on,” You-Know-Who asked, though it seemed a little like a command.

“I’ve been back to The Wicked Stepmother to get the name on my card changed,” she told him carefully.  “I got my vined ring.  I’ve been to Fairy Woven Silks.”

“I see you are most elegantly dressed.”

“Yes, thank you,” Lily was sure to say.  “Cousin Sirius has been over.  So has Cousin Gideon.”

“Gideon—?”

“Prewett.”  She set down her cup.  “His sister Molly is getting married this summer and he sent over an invitation.  I’ll have a reason to dance.”  She smiled to herself and tried to smile at You-Know-Who specifically.  “Severus wrote and said that Wizard Father is rumored to be bringing a lawsuit against the Evans family.”  She said this last bit carefully.

“This Severus is very well informed.”

“He’s a Death Eater.”  She stared into You-Know-Who’s eyes.

He seemed pleased.  “The Evans family should have inquired into your heritage when you received your Hogwarts letter, much like the case of Hartwig Potter.  He received his Hogwarts letter and was immediately transferred into the Potters’s care.  You should have been given over to the Office of Public Inquiry by whatever Hogwarts Professor came to inform your family and then you would have been with Alphard and the rest of the Blacks seven years ago.” 

“How were the Evanses supposed to know?” she wondered.

“It should have been obvious.  You had magic; they did not—and you were adopted.”

Lily looked into her teacup.  She took a deep breath.  “I suppose a great deal would have been different then.”

“Yes,” You-Know-Who agreed.  “A great deal would have been different.”