"Phew..."
I exhaled and collapsed onto the floor, and literally a couple of seconds later Bella appeared before me out of the black smoke of combat Teleportation. And yes, Teleportation -- because I have no intention of getting used to that idiotic term "Apparition" invented by English wizards. Across the world, this method of magical travel goes by many names, and there are countries where it is called teleportation, which is the term I grew up with. So to hell with it all -- I won't be mangling my tongue.
"Well then, sweetheart, have you exhausted yourself again?"
"Mother..."
I sighed heavily.
"...one ought not to forget that I am only nine years old. Yes, due to the Bougnière Effect -- or, in plain terms, a reborn soul -- my core stabilised earlier than it does in other children, but even so I have only been training for a year and a half."
I gave Mother a pointed look without stating the obvious. She was older than me and, consequently, more experienced. I had mentioned it once before, and after that my life had turned into hell for a full week. I would not make the same mistake again.
"Are there many children who, after a year and a half of training, can do what I do -- and in a field that isn't even their primary discipline?"
"Not many..."
Bella shook her head.
"...but you are a Black. The Heir of the House. You must be the best."
"And I will be. But today's training will have to end here, since I still need to make myself presentable before the Healing tutor arrives."
"Healer."
Bella corrected the terminology with characteristic precision.
"That's what I said."
"Yes, yes..."
Mother smiled with a faint touch of smugness. To any outside observer -- someone from my previous world who was familiar with the Harry Potter universe -- it would surely be quite interesting to know exactly how it came about that I call Bella 'Mother' and that she trains me. And here, perhaps, one ought to start from the very beginning.
So then: my mother, Narcissa Black, married Lucius Malfoy, then I was born, and the man himself took part in the raids and terrorist attacks carried out by the Death Eaters. Everything would have unfolded exactly as in canon, were it not for me and my reborn soul.
Such things had happened in this world before -- more than once -- and the phenomenon had even been studied to a relative degree. It was called the Bougnière Effect, after the surname of the wizard who had first been able to establish the fact of a soul being reborn from another world into ours. And Narcissa, as a representative of the ancient and noble House of Black -- even if only by her maiden name -- knew of this Effect. Moreover, it was customary among the Blacks to perform several rituals after the birth of a child: both to identify a reborn soul and to begin the education of such a child in good time, as well as to determine the nature of their gift.
Father ignored my birth entirely. From the memories that Mother had shown me at age five -- once she had satisfied herself that I was sufficiently lucid -- it emerged that he had told her: "Until he's five, you raise him yourself, because I haven't got time to fuss over this little wretch, and after that I'll make a proper Malfoy of him." Mother had not been pleased by this, but at the time she had not yet been in a position to do anything about it.
However, after Tom died and Lucius descended into a drunken stupor following his purchase of a pardon from the Ministry, she calmly replaced one of his hangover potions with a Black family variant. She even graciously warned her husband that taking it in combination with certain other potions was mortally dangerous, but...
Lucius was not in a fit state to listen at the time, and so he died of natural causes.
After that, Mother took everything into her own hands. She contacted Walburga, returned to the House of Black, and brought with her the entire Malfoy fortune, their library, their artefacts, and a great deal else besides. It was at that point that Grandmother and Mother learned of Tom's Horcruxes and resolved that the House of Black would no longer support the madman.
From there, things began to unfold in an even more interesting fashion. If Grandmother had lacked the strength to manage everything alone, then together with Mother they first set about getting Bella out of prison. Her marriage to Rodolphus had been dissolved on the grounds that he had failed to protect his wife: she had first lost an unborn child, and then ended up in Azkaban as well. And no, it was not a matter of magic -- it was a matter of a cleverly drafted marriage contract, sealed by magic.
And yes, the attack on the Longbottoms had also been contested and framed as a blood feud in retaliation for the lost child. So Bella was released, even if it had required greasing the palms of several officials. After the dissolution of the marriage, a portion of Rodolphus's assets -- which the goblins, despite threats from the Ministry, had no intention whatsoever of handing over to the government -- was transferred to Aunt Bella as compensation. Unfortunately Mother herself could no longer have children, but that simply meant I now had two mothers. And Mum Cissy did not object to Bella becoming my second mother.
After that, all three Black ladies set about finding a way to save Sirius, though that proved somewhat more complicated. To begin with, several bribed officials arranged for his transfer to safer floors within Azkaban, and eventually his imprisonment itself -- "owing to insufficient evidence" -- was commuted to deportation.
All of this lasted until approximately my fifth birthday. When I turned five, Grandmother performed all the necessary rituals to make me the Heir of the House of Black, while Sirius was struck from even the will entirely. He was left a small house in the south of France and a school vault topped up to fifty thousand Galleons -- more than the average Auror could earn in ten years.
After that, the wayward hound was simply forgotten, with a promise given that they would find Pettigrew and make him answer for what he had done. And so it came to pass. Less than six months after Sirius left the country, the little rat was found and sentenced to the Dementor's Kiss.
What else ought to be said about my life?
Well... neither mother sat idle at home. Cissy had taken a position as a Healer, as she had the necessary training and gift for it -- she was now the head Healer in one of the wards at St Mungo's and earned a respectable income, though income was never really her aim. She simply did not want to sit about the house all day.
Bella had taken a different path and become a duellist, competing professionally in various tournaments. It brought her a very decent income, as well as fame.
Andromeda...
Relations with the third Black sister were strained. As they were with her daughter, whom Ted -- Andromeda's husband -- was diligently turning against them. That was their choice, however, and after Andromeda had refused to return to the family, they had not pressed the matter of contact particularly hard. They sent gifts for occasions and dispatched courtesy letters, nothing more.
And so we arrive at the present situation. Mother, after performing the rituals following my birth, had established that my gift lay in the area of curse-breaking. A rare and sought-after gift -- however, in addition to its rarity, it was also exceptionally difficult to master, as it required constant practice and work with cursed objects.
But no one wished to let me near objects of that sort, or even near living people carrying curses, without proper preparation. And so my theoretical grounding had been very broad-ranging, and once my core had stabilised, my magical training had become equally broad-ranging.
My mothers, knowing that the effect of the reborn soul made me mentally somewhat older than my peers, and seeing my eagerness for magic, had covered the first three years of the Hogwarts curriculum with me in the first six months. That had only been possible, however, because all of it had been studied theoretically beforehand, and I had only needed to work through the spells from the textbooks in practice.
Incidentally, I had been rather surprised when my mothers had not produced ancient textbooks from the time of some great-great-great-great-grandfather, but had instead purchased brand new ones recommended for prospective Hogwarts students. In response to my question, they explained...
It only seems as though the Hogwarts curriculum has been simplified over time -- in reality, that is not quite the case. It is simply that many spells which were taught in earlier eras have fallen out of use and studying them would be pointless. The spells themselves, meanwhile, have become more refined. That is all. Yes, certain disciplines taught during Dumbledore's own schooling have been removed from the list, but they were removed after the Second World War, and on a worldwide basis. Only a handful of countries declined to follow suit.
And yes, Hogwarts was still considered the finest school in Britain -- and there were ten of them in the country -- and ranked among the top three schools in the world, after the Russian Koldovstoretz and the French Beauxbatons. That ranking could not be considered fixed, however: if this year Koldovstoretz held first place, next year Hogwarts might surge ahead, and after that Beauxbatons.
In short, I had been taught the standard school curriculum strictly from Hogwarts textbooks, while everything beyond the school framework had been covered by private tutors.
All of this was conducted under the strict supervision of one of my mothers, the tutor themselves, and various artefacts that measured the degree of my magical exhaustion -- all in order to optimally calibrate the load and help my core and reserves grow.
Yes, in this world there are concepts known as the core and the reserve. If the core is the core -- the thing that generates magical energy, present in wizards and Squibs and even ordinary people alike, the only difference being its size -- then the reserve is something else entirely.
Ordinary people have none whatsoever. Squibs have a reserve that is entirely "leaky" and incapable of retaining magical energy, while wizards' reserves grow throughout their lives -- but it is only up to the age of twenty that this growth comes easily and quickly. After that, every percentage of increase demands gruelling training.
Though most ordinary wizards do not trouble themselves with such things. As a rule, the average Ministry clerk or St Mungo's orderly gets by perfectly well with the basic spells learned at Hogwarts, and casting them with a wand can be done hundreds -- if not thousands -- of times in a single day.
It was a different matter for Healers or Aurors, or those who had chosen to join one of the magical guilds -- there, proficiency in specific magic was required, and certain spells demanded a reserve of considerable size.
In short, my development was proceeding strictly according to plan. True, I had not yet been allowed anywhere near cursed objects -- only told about the theory, the various curses, and the methods of placing them on objects and people.
The preparation, in other words, was aimed at the point approximately six months to a year away when I would perform my first curse-breaking on an object. A simple one, for now. A safe one.
"Sweetheart, you do remember that today you have not only your Healing lesson but your Potions lesson as well?"
I winced slightly.
"The man you've convinced to teach me is about as good a Potions teacher as a... hmm..."
I winced again.
"Severus is the youngest Potions mas--"
"Mum, I've already heard it -- that he's the youngest Potions master in the last hundred years or so. Only, as far as I can see, the mastery was awarded not for his ability to teach, but for his academic achievements. You do remember that there are two kinds of mastery? The first is awarded for academic achievements or for training more than three apprentices to journeyman level, and the second for both combined? Well, as far as I can tell, he has never reached the second kind and never will."
"He does teach at Hogwarts, after all..."
I winced once more.
"Yes... he teaches... more like he hammers things in. You know, he hasn't told me a single thing about Potions that I couldn't have found myself. I can learn to brew potions from a textbook without his help."
"And what ought he to have told you?"
"Oh, at the very least pointed me towards where to find information about ingredient compatibility. Perhaps suggested more elegant preparation techniques. And honestly, as far as I'm concerned, the entire first year ought to have been devoted exclusively to chopping ingredients. But he just pushes through the practical work..."
I shook my head.
"Well, that's simply his teaching style."
"Yes, yes..."
I nodded with irritation.
"...but something tells me that in a few years' time, the Auror Office and St Mungo's will be crying out, because they'll have a shortage of Potions specialists."
"Do you think so?"
Bella looked at me with a measure of doubt.
"I'm fairly certain of it. He's clearly a little wary of you, so he keeps his nature in check when he's teaching me -- but at Hogwarts..."
I sighed heavily.
"...there he has no restraining factors, and he will take it out on the children in full. As a consequence, Potions will be despised. And only a handful of students -- those who have already decided on their career and are certain they need the subject -- will make any real effort in his class."
"And what, in your opinion, ought to be done?"
"Well... as far as I'm concerned, the ideal solution would be to sack him and bring back Slughorn, but Dumbledore won't agree to that. He needs his own pet..."
Bella placed her hand on my head and her nails pressed gently into my scalp.
"...in short, that man is very important to him. So he won't allow him to be removed from the school..."
Despite the fact that the Snake-Tongue specialists brought in from India, along with several other experts, had helped Mother remove the Mark, she still reacted sharply to any mention of Death Eater Marks -- which was precisely why I left the sentence unfinished. She would not have taken genuine offence, but she would most certainly have scheduled another few sparring sessions to teach me to watch my tongue.
Incidentally, persuading her to renounce her service to Tom -- and, as a consequence, to locate and apply the method of removing the Mark -- had only been possible after Mum Cissy and Grandmother Walburga had told her about her beloved master's Horcruxes. After that, she had immediately refused to serve him any further. Or rather, more precisely, after it had been confirmed that he had created Horcruxes in a quantity exceeding the one per century that might minimise the damage to one's mind and soul.
"...so in your position I would put together a plan for opening Potions courses for those who genuinely want to sit their exams and go on to work at the Auror Office or St Mungo's."
"Hmm..."
Bella tapped the tip of her wand thoughtfully against her lips.
"...that is actually a rather good idea! We could try bringing 'Meda into it..."
I snorted quietly.
"Is something not to your liking?"
"No, not at all..."
I shrugged.
"...it's more that I simply don't understand. You've written Sirius out of your lives..."
At the mention of her cousin's name, Bella's expression tightened slightly.
"...but not 'Meda and her family. Why is that?"
"Because she regularly replies to the courtesy letters. In essence, as you know, those letters are nothing more than 'hello, how are you, goodbye' -- but replying to them, if you don't intend to sever ties with the family entirely, is obligatory. Besides, 'Meda herself -- and this much is clear from small slips in her letters -- would not be against returning to the family. It's Ted who is the difficulty..."
Bella shook her head.
"Well, Ted can actually be understood..."
Mother raised an eyebrow in question.
"Understood?"
"How much unpleasantness did Grandmother direct at him? How many times did he approach her for help -- even just to understand how to properly raise a Metamorphmagus child? Grandmother was so deeply aggrieved that she ignored their family entirely. It took the combined efforts of you and Mum Cissy to shift her position even slightly and to begin attempting to mend things. Only by that point Ted himself had no more use for it."
"Tch..."
Bella pulled a face but did not deny the truth of what I had said.
"...all right, we help them through 'Meda regardless. As for your first question -- Sirius, before the end of the war, when he left home, spoke the words of magical renunciation. That means he did not lose the right to the family name, but he can only ever become Head of the House now if there are no other heirs whatsoever. And he has never answered the courtesy letters -- not then, and not now."
"Right then..."
I set off to make myself presentable, but paused in the doorway.
"...I love you. And make sure you beat everyone at the tournament tomorrow."
"As if there were any other possibility..."
She gave me a knowing smile, as if to say there was no question of it, and I finally left the training room.
//==============//