Chapter Text
Early in the morning following the eventful visit to Gringotts, Raven was lying awake in her bed, beside Draco’s sleeping form. Having a nap the previous afternoon had made her wake up early, and she was too excited for the day to come to fall back to sleep. Shesha, the lazy snake, had refused to wake up and talk to her, instead burrowing further under the warm covers. Sometimes her snake really reminded Raven of a cat. She had mentioned it once, only to be given the cold shoulder (though she didn’t think snakes even had shoulders) for two whole days. She wasn’t going to say it out loud to him again.
During her time with the Malfoys, Raven had been practising using her sense for magic more. It still tired her out and gave her a headache to concentrate on it for a long time, but she was getting better at telling different people’s magics apart from a distance, and avoiding walking into things by seeing the magic imbued in the places and objects around her. The problem, she mused, was that her colours really weren’t like sight, as she remembered it. Nothing was opaque, so it got hard to tell what was closer and what was further away, not to mention that there weren’t any shadows. She hadn’t realised until she didn’t have them, how hard it was to understand things’ shapes without shadows. But the hardest part by far was the way that magic just wouldn’t sit still. Everything was blurry and jittery, and trying to tell what was actually moving in a sea of things all moving at once was really hard work. From what she could tell though, being around Draco, Shesha, Lucius and Cissa a lot made it easier to notice their magics in particular.
Being used to the buzzing cacophony of colour that was the magic around her, Raven had been amazed and excited when the goblin’s magic desk had been working the day before. Suddenly, around it there was a sort of bubble of focus. Almost like the letters were all written on a solid rock, instead of flying around in the air. She could still see around and through it as much as usual, but it was easy to concentrate on only the desk, for once. The shapes which Ripshod drew into the desk with his claw stayed there, and she began to see echoes of them somewhere else through the walls as it worked. Of course, before anything much happened, she had interrupted, and made them all angry. She still felt a little guilty for that, but Cissa had insisted that nothing was her fault and even given her extra dessert for having been patient while the grownups sorted out the contract thing. Oh yeah, she kind of had a job, like the grownups! The girl giggled, imagining herself sitting in a fancy chair in an office, ordering people about in that grumpy voice Lucius got when he was talking to someone from work in his office. She couldn’t wait to get to learn magic at Hogwarts and be allowed to go to Gringotts and learn about Goblin magic too.
This time, when the Malfoy family entered Gringotts, they were immediately greeted by a new goblin attendant, more senior in rank judging by their finery, and taken straight to Ripshod’s office without delay. Narcissa couldn’t help but notice that the route seemed to be a different one than the day before — they arrived much faster, and with fewer twists and turns. It seemed that the previous day’s antics had changed the goblins’ regard for them to a degree.
“Greetings once again, Malfoy clan. May you remain prosperous. Shall we get straight down to business?” offered Ripshod as soon as the humans had been seated.
Lucius and Narcissa assented after offering their own greetings. With a glance at Raven, Ripshod began to write on the Tablet with his claw. The young girl noticed the change in magic immediately, but did her best to politely pay attention without looking like she was doing so. After a short time, a shallow stone bowl the width of a drinking glass, a sharp wrought-silver dagger, and a worn wooden box blinked into existence on the Tablet’s surface.
“So, as I explained yesterday, the cynnforca here will be held by one participant while the tines are dipped in the blood of the other. I assume you would prefer not to use your ward’s own blood?”
Lucius agreed.
“In that case, we shall use Lady Malfoy’s blood, and have Raven hold the cynnforca. First though, you’ll need to verify that she is capable of controlling her own magic sufficiently to activate it.
Ripshod pushed the first two items towards his clients with a nod, and Narcissa took the cynnforca and placed it in Raven’s small hands. Having been listening attentively, the girl immediately started working on pushing her magic into the artefact. Having not really taken hold of her magic before, it took a few minutes of Raven turning her magical sense towards her own body to feel where her own magical core lay. It was funny, having the feeling of something which was there in her body, but also not physically there. She wasn’t really sure what to do, so decided to think at the spot her colours, her ‘core’, lay.
After a few seconds, Raven saw a big ball of colour, swirling dark reds with white-gold streaks. She was a little taken aback by it, having become used to seeing the magics of Draco and her family, but never her own. It was bigger than Draco’s, by quite a bit — nearly as big as Narcissa’s, but what was most unusual was the small discoloured spot, like Jupiter’s Great Storm from a book about the planets Lucius had read to her and Draco. It was black, and a completely different feeling to the rest of her core. Where the majority swirled and sizzled, and reacted as she felt it inside her, this part was numb, like nothing she’d felt before. It was like it was achored somewhere inside her, but completely alien at the same time.
Raven considered bringing up the difference, but she quickly decided there was no point. Nobody else could see magic colours the way she could, so how would they know what it was? Speaking of which, perhaps it was an indication of her blindness affecting her. That made sense, given that everyone else who could see fine didn’t have anything like it.
The girl dismissed her concerns and turned to the task at hand. She tried imagining pushing on the ball of her magic to make it go into her hand holding the cynnforca, from one side and then the other, but it was like pushing against a stone wall. Frustrated at the complete lack of movement, next she tried pulling at it. This time she was surprised at the small sense of stretching, unlike anything else she’d felt. Spurred on, she took a bigger hold, and yanked.
The next thing she knew, there was a loud shout and Draco disappeared from beside her. He seemed to have somehow ended up on the floor.
“What was that?!” demanded the boy, indignantly.
“Uh,” began Raven, who was mystified.
“Raven,” broke in Lucius, “are you aware you just let out a large wave of magical energy?”
She shook her head.
“It knocked Draco onto the floor, and caused my wand to heat up uncomfortably. Perhaps, try whatever you were doing more gently? Magic, for me, feels like warm water flowing within me. It shouldn’t require a great mental force; merely concentration.”
“Sorry Draco! And sorry Lucius, it was an accident,” Raven apologised sheepishly. “I’ll try again more gently.”
This time, when Raven felt for her core, she imagined hooking a finger under one of the ephemeral threads that flowed close to the surface. She could feel an almost buzzing hum from it, and gently tugged. This time, the thread easily extended itself as if her core were its bobbin. With a gleeful exclamation, she tugged it easily along her arm and into the cynnforca.
The room was filled with a ringing tone. It sounded like a single note, but when she tried to listen closer, it was impossible to distinguish singularly.
“Well done, darling,” praised Narcissa warmly, as Draco let out a surprised gasp at the sound. “Now that we know you can use it, we just need to follow Ripshod’s instructions to notarise our relation.”
Raven’s brows knitted in confusion. “What does ‘notarise’ mean?”
“It means to make something official. In this case, we are notarising our blood relation. That means we’re proving to Ripshod and anyone who wishes to check, that we truly are cousins. Second cousins, once removed, to be precise,” explained Narcissa patiently.
Ripshod cleared his throat, and Narcissa led her young ward to stand beside her at the edge of the large desk. When offered a small bejeweled dagger the length of a finger, she didn’t hesitate to prick her left wrist deeply enough for a constant flow of blood to pool in the bowl. Lucius, hovering at her side, withdrew his wand and murmured a healing spell as soon as Ripshod curtly indicated enough blood had been spilled. Almost absent-mindedly, the blond held his wife’s now-healed wrist up to his lips for a gentle kiss. Narcissa smiled fondly at the sweet gesture.
When prompted, Raven held out her hand holding the cynnforca in front of her, and allowed the goblin to turn it over and carefully position it such that the two symmetrical tines just dipped into the shallow pool of blood. Breathlessly, she once more coaxed a thread of magic into the artefact.
This time, the tone was nearly impossible to hear, muffled as it was by the blood. However, when she tentatively widened her awareness from only the magic of her body to observe around her again (making sure to hold the thread of magic without snapping it), she could see bright ripples in the colours around her. They formed complex geometric patterns that seemed to resonate around her.
Lucius was fascinated by the deceptively complex forms the ripples on the surface of the blood pool had taken. It was a very clever trick for the goblins to have invented, he mused. Ripshod, on the other hand, had been busily completing the proof of blood relation. He slid a clean, rune-bordered parchment under the flat bowl of blood without disturbing it, and performed some complex motions with his hands resulting in a small burst of magic. When the parchment was slid out, the ripple patterns of blood had been reproduced perfectly on it, apparently using the blood itself as ink. Once this process was completed, the goblin vanished the blood, and took the cynnforca back from the young girl, returning it to its box along with the stone bowl. He then placed them on the Tablet, and quickly scratched some marks to return them from whence they came, and clicked his fingers with a flourish, causing a small piece of folded thick parchment to enlarge and cover most of the desk. On it were many different illustrated circular geometric patterns, each labelled in Gobbledegook.
"Here we may compare the patterns we recorded with the meanings shown here. Bear in mind that some may appear simultaneously.”
The goblin studied the chart and parchment for some time, during which time Narcissa plucked Draco onto her lap, the boy having started to squirm from boredom.
“Huh,” grunted the goblin, after an extended silence.
“Your tone does not fill me with confidence,” Lucius said, rubbing his temples.
“Oh Merlin, what’s happened now?” Narcissa demanded with a hint of desperation.
“Well, here your relation as cousins is quite clear, but there’s something else too, which rather changes things. It appears Raven is already a member of the Black line,” announced Ripshod. “I certainly didn’t foresee this.”
“How is that possible?” came Lucius’ quick reply.
“Disregarding the patterns indicating her blood relation as a cousin of Lady Malfoy, leaves this one,” he circled certain areas of the parchment with a claw, leaving a glowing outline, “which indicates that she is current immediate heir to the Black line. Given recent history of the family, this suggests she is designated heir of the current Lord Black.”
“But surely there is no Lord Black? My cousin Sirius, who last I knew was heir to the late Lord Arcturus II, my father, was imprisoned in Azkaban for his infamous betrayal of the Potters. I was under the impression that conviction of a serious crime would strip him of the de-facto lordship he held at the time,” said Narcissa.
“That is correct.”
“Then how is Raven heir?” questioned Lucius. “For her to be heir, Sirius would have to still be Lord Black. Which is certainly not the case, according to the Wizengamot registers.”
“The cynnforca cares not for your Ministry. It tells only the truth according to the family magic that flows through all members’ blood. There is no chance of mistake, only an obscure situation we have not considered. Further research will be necessary; I won’t speculate on it until we have more information,” concluded Ripshod.
“Very well then, setting that aside. Can we or can we not adopt Raven as intended?” asked Lucius.
“Yes, quite easily, I believe. While Sirius Black is apparently still Lord Black, his incarceration makes him Lord in absentium. As such, Lady Malfoy née Black, most senior close living relative of Sirius Black, is stewardess of the Black Lordship by default.”
“Would Andromeda not hold that title?” Lucius queried.
“No,” answered his wife. “She was disowned from the Black family when she eloped with Edward. I had thought that there was nothing that could be done until a new Lord Black took place, which would have required us to have another son, as Draco is Heir Malfoy.”
“Well, this has been enlightening,” sighed Lucius, looking a little overwhelmed.
“Well,” agreed Narcissa. “Looks like it’s up to me then. All those years of pureblood geneology are coming to use.” She drew her wand, and held it loosely, tip pointed upwards. “I, Narcissa Electra Malfoy née Black hereby accept the title of stewardess to the Ancient and Noble House of Black, for so long as the current Lord Black should remain in absentium, or until the Heir Black should gain their majority. So mote it be.”
There was a deep rush of magic felt by Narcissa and Raven, together. The fierce woman took a few deep breaths to calm her magic, and took hold of Raven’s shoulder in her free hand. “This is it,” she whispered to the young girl.
“I, Stewardess Narcissa Electra of the Ancient and Noble House of Black, hereby adopt this child, Corva Lilia Black née Harry James Potter, as my ward and child. So mote it be.”
Raven gasped, feeling a deep shift in her own magic once more. The overwhelming, indescribable feeling made her eyes brim with tears. Seeing her distress, Lucius picked the little girl up, and moved to his wife, until Raven was sandwiched between her new parents. Draco ran over and put his hand up to hold hers affectionately, she gave a watery smile to her new brother. Happy tears streamed down the young face with the happy realisation that she truly had a family, like she’d secretly wished for every night in her cupboard. Real parents, who didn’t hurt her or yell at her, and a real brother who was her best friend in the world. A real family who believed that she was a girl, and loved her.