Hadrian Sirius Black

The Final Task

The Final Task

Albus Dumbledore felt a deep sense of dread, that afternoon.

The Final Task would be starting later that evening and they had not seen Igor all day. Supposedly, even the rest of his students had not and Viktor didn't seem particularly worried.

It was fairly concerning but there was no proof that Hadrian Black had anything to do with the man's disappearance.

Blue eyes stared up at the portraits in his office, a hand stroking his beard as he met the gaze of Phineas Black. The handsome man was staring back, a challenging gleam in his eyes.

"You seem happy today Phineas. What's the occasion?" he questioned politely, the former headmaster shrugging in response, seeming unbothered by Dumbledore's suspicious gaze. "Oh there's no real occasion. Can I not be proud of my descendants?" responded Phineas, his dark eyes seeming amused. Dumbledore nodded slowly, sighing deeply now.

"I don't understand Phineas. Are you not disappointed? Are you not wary? The Black Family has always been powerful and pure, but this is-"

"You know nothing Albus Dumbledore. You are but a half-blood. And a hypocritical one at that. You don't like dark magic, nor dark creatures yet, you use dark magic on Death Eaters to get answers. Remus Lupin, the boy you cared for so deeply when James was alive, is a werewolf, yet you treat him like dirt. Sirius, my great grandson, was framed with no trial and you know he's innocent, yet you did nothing for him. You watched Tom Riddle grow up and you twisted his views. Yes, he is biased, hell so is my family, however, he is not wrong. Muggles and wizards cannot coexist peacefully, not forever. When they see something they don't understand, they immediately try to kill it and disect it for information." said Phineas, his words full of scorn.

The portraits of headmasters before, now looked between the two, silent. Phineas had a point.

Dumbledore was silent for a long while.

"Even so, killing them all and keeping bloodlines "pure" is nigh impossible. Even you should know that." said the old wizard, his voice low and Phineas scoffed. "Tom isn't an idiot. He knows very well he can't kill them all and he knows our lines won't be completely "pure". When we mean pure, we don't just mean blood. The Blacks have never turned away a half-blood so long as, they abide by who we are. We are wizards. We do not want our traditions lost, or our magic weak. To hide in fear like this, regulating the magic we were born with, to get rid of creatures because of their dark nature, to be friendly with muggles after they tried to burn us alive centuries ago, killing their own in the process, is just blasphemy,"

Phineas paused, Albus noting the anger and..pain in his words.

"And for you to go against your own kind like this, to call Tom Riddle crazy for trying to protect what little of a world we have in the first place, is mad. Of course I am proud of Sirius and Hadrian. I am proud of Bellatrix and Narcissa. I am proud of my family because they stay true to themselves and the Slytherin way. You may not agree, but don't try and take the moral high ground Albus. War would have happened either way. It happened once, it will happen again until something changes. So let me sit back and enjoy you crumble. It is entertaining." he finished, smiling widely now, Dumbledore narrowing his eyes at the portrait.

"We will see, Phineas." he finally said and the man smirked. Knowing full well he had won that argument.

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