Two Years Ago-
...
"What'dya think!?" Bellatrix questioned with glee. Her head tilted forwards for a moment, down to the depths below as she watched the crumb-sized populous go about their day with ignorance, before shifting towards her cousin's passive gaze ahead towards the skyline. The background of the giant clock, the people down below and near on everything else was ignored as she watched him shrug.
After a moment of not receiving an answer, the recently graduated girl let out a huff as she set her back against the giant three.
"Why do ya gotta be such a buzzkill?" She questioned, "All the way up here with your awesome-"
"Crazy."
"-cousin and the only thing you can do is watch clouds?"
A single beat passed as the words settled all around the two of them before the boy let out a snort as he turned his gaze towards her. The maddening swirl in his eyes was as present as it'd always been, sending chills down her spine as she held in the urge to look away.
Frankly, she wasn't sure why no one else ever noticed the sheer madness that oozed out of those black pearls. The insanity that twisted and turned and forced its way back to sanity like a drunken wizard apparating to a muggle pub.
"To be completely honest, Bells." The nickname sent a jolt of fear through her, her mind remembering a visual memory of the boy before her once recreating her former betrothed's given name into a curse. "I expected a better view." The boy remarked with ease as he put both hands behind his head, one of them no doubt scratching at the seal he had on.
Truthfully, she had no problem with the boy monologuing out loud like a lunatic- It made him endearing.
She could count the number of wizards that wore their hearts on their sleeves in one hand, and Sirius wore his thoughts in a fist.
Her uncle however made it a requirement that the boy always kept it locked up out in public.
At least until he was accepted into Hogwarts.
Though in her own opinion revealing those 'seals' even by accident ought to have been the bigger concern.
Crazy children, particularly from their family, were practically born on a galleon flip.
The odds were generally not in their favor.
A child born with an entirely new and freakishly powerful form of magic?
Yeah.
Her uncle was rather reckless for that one.
Hell her lovable cousin had even made a seal that had let her cheat her way to the top of her class's graduation, and she hadn't studied a damn day.
What was the point of learning a curriculum made by school focused on 'safety' and 'light' and 'weakness' when the avenues offered by her younger cousin could topple and cut through all of them like cheese?
She'd once seen the boy entertain the thought of making a seal that could capture and hold Fiendfyre itself. And the only problem that had occurred to her at the time was the fact that someone would have to cast the freakin' spell near the most irreplaceable member of their family since... Well, the first one she supposed.
Sirius was everything a Black should be.
Powerful, ruthless, cold, and above all else, sane enough to weaponize the fact he was born with more insanity than the past four generations put together.
Above all else.
Above all else...
The words repeated in her head for a few moments as she turned her gaze back to the streets below.
Above... All... Else.
Turning her gaze back to the somewhat bemused boy, she found herself reconsidering the notion.
Sanity or the lack there off had nothing to do with it.
Ruthlessness, cold, and power had nothing to do with it.
The only thing that truly mattered was..?
"Sirius," She called out, watching the boy raised an eyebrow at her. "What do you think makes a Black who they are?"
"Melanin?" The boy immediately deadpanned towards her.
She blinked at that one, tilting her head the slightest bit. "What?"
The boy rolled his eyes at her. "Pick up a muggle newspaper on your travels will you?"
"No." She remarked, affronted at the thought before she quickly shook her head. "Seriously though, what do you think's more important? Which... Uh." She waved her hand helplessly. "You know, which trait's important for our family?"
"...I dunno, it'd be nice if we could formulate better questions for starters."
She twitched at him.
"You know what I meant. Regulus knows what I meant. The fuckin' future knows what I meant."
"Well, yeah, hindsight's twenty outta twenty for a reason."
She glowered at him, he rolled his eyes.
"None of its important Bells. It doesn't matter if you're powerful, kind, ruthless, an idiot, insane, or a freakin' portrait-"
The last one was probably referring to the future.
She didn't want to know.
"Hell, you could all those fuckin' things- A banshee screaming out of a portrait!" The boy barked out. "It don' matter, 'cos at the end of the day you're a Black, and racism's gonna getcha."
"I am going to push you off the giant arrow if you don't answer my question seriously." She calmly stated, her emotions having turned passive about halfway through his rant.
The boy just chuckled at her. "Fine." He let out a sigh, a somewhat whimsical expression on his face. "It still doesn't matter."
"Why not?"
"'Cos it ain't everyone else we gotta worry about Bells." A single beat passed as her brow furrowed. "I mean we were basically born with everything we'd need to succeed. Wealth, blood, and power... And yet, our history's pretty famous for insanity and falling into it." The boy shrugged. "Long story short, Bells, when it comes to our family? We're literally our own worst enemies."
She frowned at the words, her gaze falling back down beneath her.
"I mean, shit, it took my parents yearsbefore they gave me the benefit of doubt and stopped thinking I was born broken and crazy."
"You are crazy." She muttered uneasily.
"Err yeah, crazy right maybe," The boy shook his head, earning her gaze once again. "You get my point though right?"
She nodded warily, her gaze turning back down as a giggle quickly built the more she thought about his words.
The first set of people that called her precious cousin crazy had been his own parents.
"Born with everything..." She repeated the words. "Suppose it includes judgment too."
...
"So, heard what you asked for your graduation gift," They'd eventually settled into a lull following their last conversation- They'd had to switch seats given Big Ben couldn't just sit at three o'clock all day.
She shrugged at that, idly going through the bottle secretly stashed with the only thing that let her get out of Hogwarts with her brain and sanity intact.
Of course, she hadn't always needed it- Only started to after Sirius started pointing out the sheer insanity that filled the castle every time she told him stories, and even when she hadn't.
Seers were quite frankly just builtdifferently when it came to being conversational partners.
The number of times she had to reevaluate certain friendships, teachers, students, ghosts, house-elves, and even freakin' portraits was absolutely insane.
It got to the point she started asking him for advice herself via owl- He never replied to those of course, given Sirius preferred telling her why she fucked up instead of giving her advice- Called it character development or something. The other stuff was probably just him testing her patience, even if most of it turned out true or stupidly worse.
"What about it?" She questioned, the slightest hint of a slur in her voice. Turning her gaze towards the amused boy, she held his gaze for a moment before she offered him the bottle.
Sirius accepted it and promptly set it on fire as he dropped it down below.
"...That was one hundred and fifty Galleons you little shit." She remarked passively as she watched the firey bottle drop down below.
"Are you suggesting you weren't asking me to do that- And instead actually offering a nine-year-old an obscenely expensive alcoholic drink?"
"...You know," She eventually deflated. "Most kids your age would love a cousin like me."
"Yeah? Most would die to have one like me."
"Or die because they had one like you."
The boy nodded amiably to that.
"Well, at least you're not delusional." She shrugged. "Just every other mental term that'll get you into Mungo's crazy ward."
"Think they'd let us share a room?"
She snorted at the thought, her hand ruffling the idiot's hair. "So they could walk into AK's been thrown at each other?"
"Clock-in to a Fiendfyre in the morning?"
"Have some cursed meals for lunch?" She followed on, somewhat too slow to come up with anything more appro-
"Surprise Nundus at dinner,"
She tilted her head at that one.
"Where would you get a Nundu at Mungo's?"
"I dunno, find a patient that met one and reverse apparate it using their scars?" A single beat passed as she blinked a few times at the words, her mind running through several different forms of magic wondering if it was actually- "Cursed attacks usually don't just leave after their handyworks after they're done exorcising someone's life expectancy you know."
When her brain gave up after the seventh dead end, she narrowed her eyes the slightest as she peered into her cousin's ones. "Could you really do that?"
"...Bellatrix, if I wanted to, I could probably create a singularity in the middle of Dumbledore's personal privy."
Her brain came up with nothing at the somewhat strange term.
"What's a singularity?"
"The second most dangerous thing in Dumbledore's privy."
She couldn't help the snort, which quickly fell into a deranged giggle that came out (According to Sirius that's what her giggles sounded like).
"Seriously though, your trip to the Department of Scooby-Doo Mysteries?"
She blinked several times at that one.
"Department of-"
When her cousin rolled his eyes, a huff coming out at the same time, she felt her wariness briefly overcome her intoxication as she gave him a bemused look.
"You're asking about the Veil, aren't you?"
The boy nodded, his expression turning passive once again, even if he kept his gaze locked on her. The feeling of... Wrongness, for some reason, not abating- Her head imploring her to look away, to apparate away to-
...To avoid the conversation?
To not answer?
Her silence must've been telling given the boy's smile seemed to grow.
"How were their screams?" Sirius questioned with a hint of glee.
She couldn't help the gulp that came out.
Her cousin had never been to the Department of Mysteries- Her uncle forbade it.
"Sirius?"
"Shi..." The boy started, as he tilted his head at her. The three-letter word sent a jolt of fear through her. "Mu..." The fear turned cold, her hand starting to shake for a moment. "Ra..."
It was the same three words she'd heard, on repeat, ever since arriving at that chamber.
"Shimura. It's all one word you know?"
"You..." the word popped out of her mouth as a very uneasy and strained smile filled up her face. Her memories of the... Screams filled her mind. The screams she'd heard on seeing that veil for the first time. The screams of something monstrous hidden and locked away...
The screams of what could've been one thing or billions of them.
"Saw that in a vision... Didn't you?"
Her cousin simply snorted at the words, as he turned his gaze back down towards the ground beneath them.
"Nah, they ain't in the future..." The boy started snickering, the sound grating on her for a moment before it, along with the rest of the feelings, disappeared. Replaced by a calmness of sorts. Relief and... Oddly enough, satisfaction filtered through her.
"They're in the past... Long gone and forgotten, all but by us." A single beat passed. "By those who share... Myblood."
...The words, particularly the end of them, were somewhat disturbing given that up until a decade ago, the Death Chamber had been open to research.
Up until a decade ago, the veil had been silent.
She made to question him on it- What specifically? She wasn't sure nor that it mattered, given the boy simply answered her before the words even escaped her own mouth.
"I put them there."
For some odd reason, she believed him.
The boy simply relaxed his back against the giant clock, a relaxed expression on his face.
"Why don't we keep that as our little secret?"