The Tree of Blacks (English version)

O.W.Ls Results

15th July 1976. Arcturus Black Manor, Cornwall.

The Black family was eating a frugal lunch around the dining room table in their summer residence. It was Walburga who had ordered Kreacher, the family's house-elf, to prepare a meal which was meagre and had nothing to do with the rich banquets at Hogwarts, full of delicacies and treats, to which the three sons had by now become largely accustomed. It was a subtle provocation on the part of the mother, expressing her implicit disapproval of the educational choices the school was pursuing.

A criticism that her husband, Orion Black, apparently also fully shared. The man, with his perpetually austere appearance, showed his total support for his wife by enjoying with a solemn expression every mouthful of the bland and tasteless dishes, which Kreacher made appear on his silver platter with regular snaps of his fingers.

Alya, Regulus and Sirius didn't show the same enthusiasm, but they were far from expressing their disappointment about the meal. All five ate in religious silence, with only the clinking of glasses and cutlery as a background. In any case, it was customary in the Black household to eat meals without getting lost in chatter. To the outside eye, the situation might have looked like another of Walburga's strict rules to make her family seem even more noble and regal than it already was. However, the choice of silence had quite other reasons: relations with her eldest son, Sirius, had deteriorated inexorably, due to the boy's total rejection of the elitist values in which the Black lineage blindly believed. His disgust with every member of his noble family - including Alya and Regulus, of course - was increasingly evident. Any hint of conversation risked turning into a furious argument about magical blood rights and how much Sirius brought dishonour to the family.

Therefore, as long as the five Blacks were together in the same room, seated at the same table, it was much more convenient to maintain a safe and controlled muteness, so as not to spoil the verisimilar atmosphere of summer holiday serenity.

However, that day there was an air of unusual tension at the Arcturus Black manor, but that had nothing to do with latent family disagreements. Both Sirius and Alya kept casting nervous glances at the hall window. Neither dared admit it, proud as they were, but both expected owls or any bird of prey to arrive at any moment with the results in their paw of O.W.Ls exams. A wait filled with anxiety and expectation, which also concealed a childish fear of the possible reactions of their parents regarding their grades. However, the only things coming through the window panes were the sun's rays, flooding the room's sumptuous furniture with copious iridescent light. No birds on the horizon, not even a blackbird or a finch.

***

"You're agitated, admit it," poked Regulus, looking at Alya with the expression of someone who knows better.

Lunch over, brother and sister had taken refuge upstairs, in the small room that Alya adored. Sirius was in the same wing of the palace, but holed up in his room. He had made a habit of spending all his time there, except for times of obligatory family gatherings. Alya assumed that he and his pompous friend, James Potter, had finally found a way to communicate with each other without the use of letters and owls. It was the only plausible explanation for her brother's quiet and unusual behaviour.

Regulus perched lazily on one of the cushioned chairs around the perimeter of the room, whistling the tune of the French song Walburga had taught them as children. Alya, unable to sit still, had taken to improvising a few waltz steps, dancing a dance of her own. It had always been like that: when she was nervous about something, Alya danced. And Regulus knew her well.

"Alya, you're a bundle of nerves!" her brother mocked her again.

"I don't know what you're talking about, Reg," Alya replied dryly, continuing to twirl gracefully under the sumptuous crystal chandeliers, which floated just below the ceiling, almost touching the garish paintings. The gold decorating the effigies on the walls seemed to shine with a greater brilliance than usual, thanks to the sun shining through the large windows, which overlooked the panorama outside. A light made even more dazzling by the reflections of the numerous mirrors that studded the sumptuous walls. Alya loved to dance immersed in that regal splendour.