The Noble House Of Black

CHAPTER TWENTY: Throne Room

Contrary to popular belief, Walburga Black understood fully the vast weight that the title mother carried. However, while many mothers believe 'loving their children' is their most important task, Walburgaknew that protecting her children was her utmost responsibility. And the most challenging part of protecting them was teaching them to survive independently in a world ruled by predators. They couldn't live under her wing forever. Loving someone was a weakness; Walburgaknew that most of all. The only people she truly loved were her children, and as such they were a weakness. To be fair to herself, they were her only real weakness. All of them, even Caelum. Once upon a time she had another weakness, but that was long ago and Walburga had decided that she would never let her children be as weak as she once was.

She made her children strong. Whatever hardships they would inevitably encounter in the future, she knew she had prepared them well, even if it meant she had to pretend to be their greatest adversary. If that is what it takes, she told herself, and indeed it was, well one day they might finally understand why she did what she did, why she sent them gifts of pain, abandonment, and loneliness. Because of these they were now becoming resilient, and without that the world they would soon enter would gobble them up. Her hope was that there would never be anything worse for her children than their own mother.

Walburga had not realized just how unsettling it would be not having all three of her children under her own roof. She had taken to periodically checking on their whereabouts and wellbeing, without their knowledge of course. For her methods to take full effect they could never know she cared for them.

Glancing briefly up at the grandfather clock in the corner of the room, six forty-eight, she thought, twelve minutes until her twins arrived, twelve minutes until she would be changing their lives forever. It was then that she realized she had not seen her youngest son, Regulus, since they had broken fast that morning.

"Kreature," Walburga summoned, brushing the dust from her robes onto the stone floor of her study.

"Mistress Black. How may Kreature be of service to Mistress?" Kreature's unpleasant voice crackled out, echoing dully against the hard, stone walls of the chamber.

"Find out what Regulus has been spending his precious hours doing and be inconspicuous as you do so," her voice rang out clearly, she had learned long ago to control to control her pitch and volume precisely, so no echo issued when she spoke. She found this had a rather chilling effect on guests when used correctly. It put them just a little off balance and could make them more easily betray what they were feeling. Her own storm grey eyes betrayed nothing of what she was feeling, ever.

"Yes, Mistress Black," Kreature uttered as he faded away into the shadows of the room, leaving Walburga entirely alone in her silence.

Only moments had passed before he returned to her side.

"Speak, Kreature," Walburga commanded.

"Master Regulus was crying in the young Master Sirius and Mistress Caelum's chambers." Kreature scowled to no one in particular, waiting for his Mistress' command.

"Very well. Bring my twins to me, Kreature," she demanded. It had been long enough since she'd seen them, two months and twenty-three days. It was time to remind them who they were.

"Yes Mistress. It is Kreature's pleasure to serve the Noble and Most Ancient House of Black." Kreature bowed and disapparated from her study as quickly as he came.

Now that Kreature was gone, it was time to decide what she should do about Regulus. Crying was not something that was tolerated in The Noble and Most Ancient House of Black. Surprising even herself, she decided tonight was not the night to deal with Regulus's foolishness, the twins were going to prove enough of a problem. It was the rarest occasion, but Walburga wished for a moment that she could just go up to her child and comfort him, let him sob all his sorrows in her embrace. But what future price would be paid for such a moment of weakness now.

The clock began to chime its tedious song as it struck seven and she sealed her emotions away. There would be time to deal with Regulus later. She felt them long before she saw them, she knew that her twins were home and went to greet them at the entrance.

Walburga had always thought that Caelum and Sirius looked  like twins; it was an odd thing to think. They didn't look alike, only they did, where Caelum ended Sirius began. If you found them together, you'd think they looked quite similar, but if you looked at their features, there were too many differences to count. The only things about the twins that were truly similar were their eyes, their storm grey eyes, flicks of blue painted the ends of their eyes. They were like her eyes and those of her own brother. Orion's were black like obsidian, Regulus had taken after him.

The moment those eyes both looked up at her that night, unexpected relief washed over her shoulders, and she felt she could finally take in the breath she hadn't even known she'd been holding. They were again safe, they were back at home with her ... She'd always been there to protect them, even when they didn't know it. Nothing was allowed to harm them, nothing except her. But shadows of things to come kept her up at night, and it was very difficult to battle a shadow, especially one that hadn't even yet arrived.

Sirius spoke first. Walburga thought proudly that he and Caelum were like thunder and lightning, he was loud and threatening, she was quick and dangerous. He would be the warning cry foretelling the havoc she would wreak upon the world if his warning wasn't heeded. It made the twins an even more dangerous force together than they already were individually.

"Good evening, Mother," Sirius greeted, staring his mother straight in her eyes. Not a challenge, that would be a foolish and unattainable attempt at conquest, no, just with pride and without fear. She had taught them well.

"Good evening, Sirius, Caelum." She pushed the smile back down that wanted to spread across her face and curtly nodded her head. "You will be summoned within the hour. Until then, you may do as you please."

The twins briskly nodded and made their way for the staircase, feeling their mother's stare piercing the back of their heads.

After they had gone, Walburga made her own way down the corridor, glancing at the house elf heads mounted on the wall and pausing momentarily at the empty space, well, it was empty for now and would be until Kreature dissatisfied the Lady Black, or perhaps her children.

A barely audible sigh escaped her lips. She had just remembered a time when she wasn't the Lady Black, she was just Bria.

The world was just her, Jennie and Effie. She imagined her twins felt the same way she once had, and she was about to take all of that from them this very evening. She wished for a moment that the world was not as it was, wished that she could just let them be. But wishing was for fools and reality rarely listened. 

Walburga made her way to the dining room where the large wood table held a streak of obsidian that ran down the middle like a lightning bolt, splitting the wood in two. Everything had been prepared exactly as she had ordered. Two black velvet seats waited at the head of the table, with ornate silver detailing that had taken a magical craftsman half a year to create. Twenty-eight thorns braided their way up the arms of each chair, each painstakingly sharpened to a deadly point. And Walburga resolved again to love her children enough to be their villain. She would give up anything for them.

A/N:

Does Walburga's form of love justify her actions?

-Maia🖤