HP: The Other Potter! Ch.7 (Patreon)

Chapter 7

LILY EVANS

Lily Evans, the fiery redhead of Gryffindor, sat in the Great Hall as the Sorting took place, but her focus was not on the ceremony, for she sat beside one of her friends, trying to answer her bombardment of questions.

“You must be joking?” Marlene asked, surprised as she continued to stare at the Slytherin table, or more specifically at the form of one Narcissa Black, who sat beside her sister and her friend Wilma Davies.

“I am not. I say it with my own eyes,” she repeated for the tenth time as Marlene refused to believe her words,

“And I wasn’t the only one. James Potter and Sirius Black were there as well,” she added, and Marlene nodded.

“I thought Black was just messing with me earlier, but you are telling me he was right,” Marlene finished with a heavy sigh as she rubbed her head, clearly struggling to process the news.

“Alden Potter is dating the younger Black sister,” she finished, her own surprise mirroring Marlene's.

Alden Potter was famous throughout the school for various reasons, the biggest being his little club for the muggle-borns, which helped them navigate the wizarding world, though that was but one reason for his fame.

He was born into wealth and was amicable enough to have a slew of suitors, so it had been quite a surprise when he had begun going out with none other than Victoria Parkinson, a Slytherin with a not-so-stellar reputation.

“So, the rumors were true, him and Victoria Parkinson did break up,” Marlene added as her eyes wondered towards the Slytherin senior who sat there engrossed in her meal.

“But I never thought him to be the kind to cheat on someone,” she added, and Marlene shrugged.

“Maybe it is just rumours that Victoria spread, we do not know, but it seems Potter Senior has a thing for the House of Snakes,” and there was some teasing in her tone as Lily raised a brow.

“Is that jealousy I sense in your tone?” she asked, and the brunette shrugged.

“Of course, who wouldn't want to date Mr. Mcdreamy? Given his views, I would have thought him more partial to our side rather than fraternizing with those damned snakes,” Marlene uttered, and if anyone else were to hear those words, they would be scandalized that the prim and proper Marlene had such a mind.

“You could always try,” she said, and Marlene rolled her eyes.

“Who is to say I haven’t” and her eyes widened as the implication of those words dawned on her.

“You do not mean?” and Marlene shrugged, understanding her unsaid accusations.

Alden Potter’s little club was open to all and not solely for muggle-borns. Lily had been a part of it since he third year. She had joined so she could learn more about the world of magic, and it was one of her better decisions.

However, it seems not everyone has joined their little club for academic purposes.

“And I am not the only one. Half the girls in the club are there for him,” Marlene added, and Lily shook her head.

“But it's for making connections and studying and guidance,” she argued, and Marlene smirked.

“Well, in a way, we are trying to make connections,” she argued, making him sniffle as the sorting ended. They had gotten a few Gryffindors this year.

“Speaking of the club, I heard from Professor Slughorn that they were thinking of shutting it down,” she told her, recalling the conversation she had overheard in the party.

“Why?” Marlene asked, perplexed, just as she had been upon hearing the news.

“Apparently, there was a complaint against the whole club, and they were going to shut it down,” she told Marlene all that she had heard.

“And now?” Marlene added.

“Apparently, Flitwick stepped in and decided to act as patron for the club, which will now officially be the duelling club,” she added, not knowing how that would affect the club’s activities.

“That is good; half the reason my grades are up is because of that club, and it's our OWL year; my family would kill me if my grades slipped,” Marlene groaned.

“Speaking of that, do you know Alden’s owl scores?” she suddenly mentioned, and Marlene perked up.

“What?”

“Nine,” she answered, making her friend’s eyes widen.

“You have to be kidding me. We do not even have nine electives at school,” she added, and Lily shrugged.

“I heard it from Slughorn himself.”

“Nine! What the hell does he eat?” she spoke sarcastically as their eyes travelled to the Ravenclaw table.

And the answer was ‘not beans,’ apparently.

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SIRIUS BLACK

Sirius Black was in a state of disbelief as he sat on the Gryffindor table with his group of four. Mooney had his nose buried in a book as usual, and Peter was busy trying to make himself look smaller and smaller as he ate away, and Potter, as always, was eyeing their resident redhead, as for himself.

His eyes continued to shift between Alden Potter and his cousin, trying to make sense of what he had seen, which was more or less confirmed by the rumors.

“I still cannot believe it,” he uttered as James heard his words and decided to turn away from his lover and finally focus on him.

“What can’t you believe?” he questioned.

“That your cousin is dating Narcissa, Narcissa!” Sirius uttered in disbelief. Something that James did not share for some reason.

“What’s so surprising about it is he was seeing Victoria Parkinson before that,” Sirius said.

“But she is a Black. A Black,” and James raised a brow.

“Aunt Dorea is a Black,” he retorted and shrugged.

“But that is Aunt Dorea. She loved Uncle Charlus and went against her whole family for him, while Narcissa was betrothed to that blonde prick Malfoy,” he told James, who finally showed his surprise.

“Was she really?” he questioned as their eyes turned towards the Slytherin table, and as he had said, they found the blonde staring at the back of Alden with very well-hidden disgust.

“She was, and now somehow Alden has broken up with Victoria and is now seeing Narcissa. I have never even seen him with her, ever. The person he often talks to is Andy, not Narcissa. I am telling you, James, there is something fishy going on here,” he added, and his friend shrugged.

“Well, there is one way to find out,” his friend added as his gaze shifted down the Slytherin table towards a rather lone figure of much similar build to his own, eating his meal slowly and elegantly.

“You could ask him,” James added. It had been quite some time since Sirius had talked with his brother. Having spent the last three summers with the Potters, his contact with his family had been cut to almost nothing.

“Maybe I will,” he added as he began to eat away at his own meal, his gaze still shifting towards Narcissa Black, who sat with her friend Wilma Davies as they ate their first meal of the Fifth year.

“James,” he whispered suddenly, recalling something, as he nudged the blonde with his elbow.

“Yeah,” James replied, annoyed as he leaned closer, avoiding Remus, who was still buried in his book.

“About that plan, are we still doing it,” he asked, and James’s eyes widened as he nodded his head.

“Yeah, I found the book in my family’s library. I brought it with me as well, but the spell is way more complicated than anything we have done. It’s a big risk,” he added, and Sirius should have guessed that.

Becoming an Animagus was a hard task, it was one reason Britain had only eight registered animagi to this day, though he did believe that there were many more who had simply not registered with the Ministry.

“But we have to give this a try,” he added, looking at their furry friend, knowing that this was perhaps the only way they could help him.

“Maybe we could ask McGonagall for help,” he offered, and James shook his head.

“No, she would never agree, and we would have to suffer in detention for the whole year. We cannot go to her,” he said, and Sirius’s mind raced before an idea popped into his head.

“What about Alden, your cousin? Perhaps he could help us. I heard that he even tutors seniors in his club sessions. He might be able to guide us through the process,” he offered, and James looked towards his cousin.

“I don’t know, what if he refuses and tells this McGonagall or my parents about this,” James retorted, and Sirius shrugged.

“If we explain to him why we are doing this, I think he would be willing to help us,” he offered and saw James nod slowly.

“We will try on our own, but if we hit a roadblock, we will go to him,” and Sirius nodded.

“Good.”

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ARCTURUS BLACK

Arcturus Black, the head of the Most Ancient and Most Noble House of Black sat in his room, the halls of the ancestral home of the Blacks’ Grimmauld Place now much quieter as all the young ones left for Hogwarts, for their education.

Bellatrix, the only one who had finished school yet was now at the Lestrange’s home.

“You do know that Narcissa was lying, don’t you?” Melania, his dear wife, added from the side as she sat infront of the vanity, her eyes cruising towards him through the mirror.

“Of course, I knew,” he replied with a scoff. Narcissa is too young to lie to lie to me. The second she opened her mouth and claimed that she loved Dorea’s boy, I knew that she was lying,” he added. There was more to it, and he was disappointed that she felt that she could not share her true thoughts about this betrothal with them.

“Yet you let her get away with it,” Melania added as she stood up and sat down beside him.

“Because it was a good lie,” he replied, coughing, and she passed him his potion before he could. Age had brought with it many ailments, and though none of them would take his life, they did make his life quite uncomfortable.

“Cygnus is an idiot. He thinks a match with the Malfoys is the best his daughter could have. Those damned blondes are nothing more than up jumped bastards who wish to further their name and influence using my name, my blood,” Arcturus roared.

“Indeed, though I do not understand Cygnus’s continued insistence over such matches. They are his daughters, but all three of them wed into such a closely knit circle,” she noticed. Even though she was not involved in politics as he was, she had been able to spot the worrying trend.

The same worrying trend he had spotted.

“It is worrying,” she added, and he nodded. It was worrying indeed. Orion, his eldest, was weak, illnesses making him unsuitable to lead the family, and his eldest grandson was too estranged from the family, too lost in the carelessness of his youth.

He was not blind to Walburga’s intentions of making her youngest the heir, not that he would ever do so. He would like to keep her and Cygnus’s influence away from the Black line as much as possible.

“It is, but this is better. Dorea’s boy is a much better choice than whatever idiot Cygnus may pick. From what I know, he is closer to both James and Sirius, and though he is not the heir, one would have to be an idiot to think Charlus and Dorea’s boy would be anything but ordinary,” he said with some pride, for even though the boy may be a Potter, he still had Black blood in his veins.

“You have looked into the boy?” Melania questioned, and he nodded.

“I did so. This isn’t the first time I have tried to broker a match between Cygnus’s daughters and Dorea’s boy. Yet Dorea’s experiences have given her a bad taste for arranged matches and betrothals, and she did not wish to entangle her son in such a thing,” he scoffed. He could understand her hesitance, yet the more he saw Bellatrix and what she had become, the more he lamented that he had not pushed harder back then.

But there was still time. He could make amends.

“Do you think she would agree now?” she questioned, and he sighed.

“I will have to make her. Otherwise, I envision a very dark future for our family. A very dark future.”

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