Cause and Effect, My Love

Chapter Four: Relative Unknowns

Harry discovers a forgotten piece of Black history.

Harry Potter spent the summer of 1999 in away from his relatives, the Dursleys. It was not his choice. He had long wanted to spend an entire summer away from their home in Little Whinging, yet his new circumstance was a necessity more than it was wish fulfillment. A day before he returned from Hogwarts, Death Eaters had attacked the Dursley home and burned it completely to the ground. The Dursleys survived, but no longer did they wish to see Harry. Despite Dumbledore's warnings they refused to take Harry back in with them. It was therefore necessary to keep Harry in a safe place away from the attacks of Voldemort.

The safest place Harry could be was 13 Grimmauld Place, the very last house he wanted to be in after the death of his godfather Sirius. His only consolation came in the presence of Remus Lupin, a friend and former classmate of Sirius and James and Lily Potter. Harry found comfort in knowing that Remus was safe, although still unemployed, and took pleasure in his company. But there were some things Remus could not remove from Harry's mind. He missed Sirius, and being in Sirius' former home made Harry miss him more. He was also keenly aware of the dark nature of 13 Grimmauld Place and was reminded all the more of the threat that awaited him just outside the door.

Harry occupied himself that summer with his studies, trying to live a normal life despite his worries. Lupin tried to distract Harry by helping him with schoolwork and teaching him a few advanced spells. He also filled Harry's time with stories of the past, mostly stories concerning his parents during and after school. These stories left Harry dissatisfied, as if Remus were hiding information from him. He would soon be seventeen, an adult according to his country's standards. He knew he could not search for information himself without fear of disaster, but he was likely never to learn the truth if he continued to be treated as a child.

He was content to limit his private search to wanderings around the house. No news of Voldemort's current activities could be found in the house, he knew, but he would think himself successful if he uncovered an untold piece of history that helped him to make sense of the present. He did come across one such artifact: a picture of a girl and a man he did not recognize. At the time he had no idea that the picture had anything to do with him.

He found the picture in the room Sirius had shared with the creature Buckbeak. Rarely did Harry ever wander into the rooms where Sirius slept, but curiosity drew him in. It was a hope of his that Sirius had saved some of the photographs found in the house when he had moved back in two years prior. That same year Sirius had purged what he could of the Black family's old possessions--family portraits, heirlooms, anything that reminded him of his family.

Some portraits had been salvaged by the family house-elf, Kreacher, though those he suspected Sirius to have found later and destroyed. Sirius had reason to destroy these photographs, as they were of his mother and his cousins who had become Death Eaters or were married to one. Unlike these photographs, the ones Harry found were of people Harry did not know, and all of them seemingly of the same two people--a man and a little girl. They both looked related to Sirius.

He focused on one picture in particular. They were standing in a horse stable, dressed in riding clothes. The girl looked no older than ten. Her face was stern and quiet, and her posture firm. The man was, by far, more relaxed. He was smiling. In one of his hands he held his wand; the other was placed on the girl's shoulder. The photograph was most unlike regular wizard photographs; there was little movement involved. Occasionally the girl would look to her right outside of the photograph, or look up to the man, but her stare focused mainly on the camera.

Harry flipped the photograph over to see if any names were written. There were none. He tried to pry the photograph out of the frame, and while doing so Remus Lupin entered the room, looking for Harry. Harry showed him the photograph. Lupin recognized the two at once. The man was Sirius' uncle, and the girl Sirius' sister.

Harry was amazed. He knew that Sirius had two uncles, but of a sister he knew nothing. He immediately asked Lupin of information regarding this newfound sister of Sirius'. Lupin responded in a somber tone that Sirius had a sister named Capella who had been moved to the home of Alphard Black when she was two and had not often seen Sirius afterwards. Her name was either removed from the tapestry because of her refusal to lend her parents the money she inherited from Alphard or to return to England after Alphard's death, or her name had not been added at all since her parents did not want her.

Of the man, Alphard, Lupin knew more than Sirius had told Harry. He was the head of the Department of International Magical Cooperation from 1962 until his death in 1981. A year before he died he sent Capella away to be educated at the Baltimore Institute for Learning Better Overall, a magical school in the United States that taught the arts and sciences along with magic. He gave her no reason for sending her away. When she returned the next year, Alphard was dead.

This new history of the Blacks intrigued Harry. He wondered why Sirius had never told him about his sister or of his uncle. Lupin had no answer. Instead, he invited Harry to return downstairs to his studies, and suggested he not give much thought to the story he had just heard. Lupin left then, and Harry, while Lupin's back was turned, placed the photograph in his pocket. He never had the opportunity to visit that room again.