The Noble House Of Black

CHAPTER EIGHTEEN: Her Nurturing Nature

"No Sirius, for the last bloody time, I do not know what our dear Mother would like to discuss with us!" Caelum exclaimed with exasperation. Her twin had asked her this same question four times in the past hour, and she was getting fed up.

"What has her knickers in a twist?" Andromeda asked, gesturing towards her little cousin.

"Mother has called the both of us back to Grimmauld for an important conversation, the topic of which neither of us are to know," Sirius explained.

Andromeda hesitated for a moment, a falter that no one else would have noticed, but Caelum was not anyone else.

"What is it Andromeda? You know something of tonight? Speak now," Caelum demanded, sitting up from her position on the Slytherin common room couch.

"It is only a hunch dear cousin, don't pester," Andromeda waved off, but Caelum was persistent.

"If that is so, then there should be no problem in sharing." Caelum smiled, in an almost threatening manner, while she waited out the silence from Andromeda.

"I suppose," Andromeda sighed. "I..." she said, and then stopped as if she were not quite sure how to form her thoughts into words. "I suspect that they have decided to crown you."

"How did you arrive at such a conclusion?" Caelum asked. She suddenly felt as if she were going to cry, but she would not let the tears fall.

"It was mentioned by our parents briefly before we left for school. I thought they had changed their minds; you are rather young." Andromeda cautiously placed a hand on Sirius's shoulder, but it seemed to Caelum only a mimicry of a comforting gesture.

"Leave us, now." Sirius turned towards his elder cousin, her hand falling from his shoulder at his defiant glare. Sirius was angry, why hadn't she told them? It was their right to know, so why hadn't Mother told them?

Andromeda left, but hurt flashed on her face as she did so.

"You're angry with her?" Caelum asked, having composed herself.

"Yes. Aren't you?" Sirius laughed, the Black cousins had a habit of this, laughing instead of crying, it is what made them so very terrifying.

Caelum thought for a moment, and then spoke. "No," she said, smiling as well.

"And why not?"

"She was doing what she thought best. It would be like blaming a child for being simple, or a serpent for bitting someone. They can't help it, it is in their nature. That was just Andromeda, her nature is to protect those who do to want protection." Caelum trailed, before turning to look at her brother.

"I see. You mistake the subject of my anger, however. It is Mother I am wroth with. Andromeda has no ability to elicit any emotional response from me whatsoever."

It was a long moment of silence before anyone spoke again. "We could always runaway," Caelum suggested, sighing and toying with her empty ring finger.

Sirius hummed in agreement, before saying, "Not without Reg." The twins almost smiled at the thought of their little brother, and then, through a shared glance, they remembered the dark significance of what it would mean to be crowned in the the Noble House of Black and any remnants of an upward pull to their lips disappeared, replaced with a somber stoniness. "One day perhaps, when he's old enough to come with us," Caelum replied. And this time it was Sirius who hummed in agreement.

A/N:

What do you think it means to be crowned in The Noble and Most Ancient House of Black?

-Maia🖤