"We'll need to use the family magic," Arcturus said quietly, "Albus is too powerful."
Charlus nodded.
In a move that surprised Sirius never mind the collective in the waiting room, Charlus and Arcturus turned as one, his grandfather taking down the privacy ward at the same time as they both called their family magic forth.
"Familius magicus protectus!"
The snake and griffin erupted into being, shocking the life of the room's other occupants.
"Dad, what are you…"
"Leave them, James!" Lily restrained James as he made to stand up.
Charlus and Arcturus pointed their wands in unison. "Bind them."
Sirius could see the alarm enter Albus's eyes, the movement to bring his wand to bear…
But it was too late.
The snake surged forward to bind the three that had been selected.
"Obliviate them! You will remember instead that Sirius was found by the family magic as called by Arcturus and myself." Charlus ordered.
The griffin flew at the three bound, blinding them with a fierce light. A moment later, it was over.
Albus blinked. "I'm sorry, I can't seem to recall…"
"I was just saying Sirius will be fine, Albus." Charlus said soothingly. "Thank you for your concern though but if you need to get back to Hogwarts, we understand."
"And I should return to the Ministry." Bagnold said officiously. "Crouch, we should get back to work rather than lollygagging around here."
Bertie remained behind as the others took their leave and departed. He had kept silent but looked over at them suspiciously. "Am I to be obliviated too?"
"Only if you intend to use the boy for your own purposes." Arcturus replied.
"You have my word that I won't." Bertie sighed heavily. "The others…they will need watching once the boy's powers are known."
"And we shall watch them." Charlus said. "We'd like to count on your support."
"You have it." Bertie said simply. "I should head back before they begin to question why I remained with you."
Arcturus lifted his cane. "I shall walk with you."
Charlus cleared his throat. "You could stay, Arcturus. Sirius will wake by morning."
"And he will not want to see me." Arcturus said simply.
"Lord Black…" Lily rose from her chair awkwardly but offered her hand. "Thank you." Her gratitude for his action in protecting her son shone from her expressive eyes.
"Yes, thank you." James added stiffly.
Arcturus nodded an acknowledgement at James but he took Lily's hand and kissed her knuckles. He straightened as he let go and smiled at her. "My dear Lily, since your son will be Lord Black one day, you should call me Arcturus."
The memory ended; Remus and Sirius fell out of the pensieve.
Sirius thrust a hand through his hair and tried to gather his fragmented thoughts. "He told Lily to call him Arcturus."
"I know you said Bertie told you they ganged up but to see it…"
"He told Lily to call him Arcturus." Sirius repeated.
"And it wasn't the first time the two of them worked together," Remus added, "you could tell that they'd done it before but when and where and to whom?"
"He told Lily to call him Arcturus."
Remus scowled at him. "Merlin, Sirius, there are more important…"
"We already knew what the memory showed us," Sirius shot back, and there were personal aspects of the memory that he didn't want to think about too closely (that his grandfather had waited for news, that he'd been concerned, that he'd clearly understood Voldemort's agenda better than anyone else at the time), "but the fact that my grandfather asked Lily to call him Arcturus is important!"
"Why?" asked Remus confused.
"Because it means he considered her family bar the oath." Sirius said agitatedly.
"And that's bad because…"
"Not bad so much as…unbelievable!" Sirius whirled away to pace the room. "All my life, my grandfather told me that he would never accept a muggleborn into the House of Black! Andy was disowned by him because of Ted, for Merlin's sake!"
"You have to admit, Padfoot, that he hinted as much about his opinion of Lily in his letter." Remus tried to soothe him and failed.
"Why?" The word burst from Sirius without thought. "Why didn't he ever tell me he'd changed his mind when he was alive and I wasn't locked up? He could have told me!"
"And would you have listened back then?" asked Remus pointedly.
Sirius opened his mouth to argue and shut it again as he shook his head. "He was right, you know. If he'd stayed until I was awake, I wouldn't have wanted him."
Remus nodded slowly. "Why don't we look at another memory?"
Sirius acquiesced because it was better than having to deal with his relationship with his grandfather. The third memory dumped them into the same study but sitting across the desk from Arcturus was Charlus.
"I brought a photo." Charlus said proudly, handing over a wizarding photo that showed Lily propped up in bed with baby Harry in her arms, James sat beside her, and both of their attentions captivated by their sleeping child.
"What have they named him?" asked Arcturus, his eyes never leaving the small features of the babe in the picture.
"Harry James Potter." Charlus said with a smile.
"She really insisted on going through with that muggle name?" Arcturus complained as he made to pass the photo back.
"You can keep the photo," Charlus said, taking a sip of his tea, "and Harry is a family name – it's the name of Lily's favourite grandfather so it is in keeping with our tradition of naming sons after favoured forefathers. It's better than Pronglet which James insists on calling him." He set his cup down. "Sirius will be named godfather."
"He'll make a good godfather." Arcturus said proudly. "He all but raised Regulus until he went to school."
Yes, thought Sirius darkly, and then his mother had gotten her claws into his younger brother and things had never been the same between them.
Charlus sighed. "I wish you would reconcile with him, Arcturus."
"I agreed that he would stay in your care years ago, Charlus. I am content." Arcturus said firmly. "His recovery goes well?"
"He's not back at work and he's still walking with a cane but yes, he's doing well." Charlus informed him. "He was questioned closely about the deaths of the ten Death Eaters found at the place where they think he was held by Crouch and Bagnold. Albus was unsurprisingly disapproving about the loss of life."
Arcturus snorted. "I fail to understand how he thinks the Light will win if he's not prepared to fight back."
"You know Albus." Charlus said almost absently.
"You're worried about something." Arcturus said, straightening his robes.
Charlus sighed heavily. "James and Lily aren't telling me something, but I think they've joined Albus's not-so-secret Order although they haven't explicitly said so to me."
"You think Albus is meddling in their decisions?" asked Arcturus bluntly.
Charlus raised both his eyebrows in a silent 'seriously?' query. "When isn't Albus meddling, Arcturus?" He shifted suddenly and gestured at the photo. "Let's forget about Albus's machinations. My grandson is much more interesting. You can't tell from the photo but he has Lily's eyes…"
The memory faded.
.
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