Title: Lucida

Story Notes: Woman, stop starting new crap when you've got like seventy-billion old stories to finish and two requests that still need done!

Actual Story Notes: An idea that has been kicking around in my head for a long time. I have no idea if I'll actually continue it. Everything is laid out, but it depends on whether I have as much fun writing this as I thought I would.

Summary: Walburga Black hears of Sirius's supposed betrayal of Lily and James. She decides to spring her son from jail and get her family's rightful heir back. Naturally, this wreaks untold consequences on the established timeline.

Warnings: Some violence, language, etc. Probably no graphic incest in this one. Probably. Maybe. ...okay maybe still keep your eyes out (I'm a creature of habit). OOC behavior because that's sort of the point. Also some characters' ages are a bit off, specifically Regulus Black because I needed him to be younger than in canon.

Pairings: Undecided, but you should probably take a gander at my other works and prepare yourself.

Characters: All the main Blacks, Remus Lupin, Harry Potter, the Malfoys, the Lestranges, Lord Voldemort, and most of the Order members.

Prelude-

Walburga Black had been laid up in bed with an atrocious headcold for nearly a week and a half. With her husband out of town visiting some foreign colleague, she was left with her youngest son, Regulus, to care for her. A task the boy had taken to with admirable enthusiasm despite his mother's rather toxic mood.

"Lemon tea, you idiot boy," Walburga snapped, shoving Regulus's hand away from her so hard that he nearly scalded himself. "I can't stomach the peppermint. You know that."

"But Mother, you asked for—"

"Just do as I say, Sirius."

Regulus frowned. "Mother, I'm—"

"Why are you still here?" Walburga shrieked. "Bring me my drink!"

"Yes, Mother," Regulus sighed. He set off into the hall with half a mind to just keep walking all the way outside and out of town.

His mother had been confusing him for his brother a lot recently. He knew it was just a side effect of the virus and all the medications she was currently taking, but it stung nonetheless. He was the good son, how could she mistake him for that traitor?

Regulus took his time in the kitchen heating up a new kettle of water. His mother was just going to scream at him either way, so he may as well bide some time and pray for her to fall asleep while he was downstairs.

Regulus turned on the radio. After a few seconds of crackling, a rather disconcerting melody filled the kitchen. A creepy base line with an almost ethereal melody wavering around it. Regulus was a few seconds staring at the radio in confusion before he remembered the date.

"Halloween," he muttered, a slight melancholy to his voice. All his friends were probably feasting at Hogwarts right now, gorging themselves on sweets and planning for a night full of parties...and here he was stuck back at Grimmauld Place playing nursemaid to his mother and her flu-addled, rambling demands.

"Regulus!" Walburga's voice managed to carry through the house quite well and Regulus immediately clapped his hands to his ears.

At least she was back to knowing who he was again. No more of this Sirius nonsense. It made him uneasy. What if some part of his parents really wanted Sirius back? He'd had his chance, and he'd thrown it away. Their name belonged to Regulus now...

"I'm coming," Regulus said, too quietly for his mother to hear him but it made little difference. He threw a new bag into the boiling water and set upstairs with a mug of lemon tea this time.

However, when he reached his mother's bedroom, he saw she had fallen asleep. He set her drink on the nightstand and charmed it with a wave of his wand, to keep it warm. He fussed about his mother's blankets for a bit, making sure she was well tucked-in and then returned to his own bedroom to sulk for the rest of the holiday evening with a bottle of his parents' Firewhiskey.

Walburga came around a few hours later, fever broken and still groggy, but immensely more clear-headed than before. Immediately she sat up.

"Regulus?" she called softly. She had vague memories of her youngest coming home from Hogwarts to care for her. When he didn't respond, she got out of bed and threw on some robes. She sauntered to Regulus's bedroom and knocked. No answer. She opened the door softly to see her son passed out on his bed, face buried in his arms. She frowned at the empty bottle of alcohol on his bedroom floor and an angry crease formed between her eyes. She had not raised a thief!

Walburga decided to confront her son later when he awoke and instead set about finding her shoes. Her sinuses were still jammed and she desperately needed some fresh air.

The muggle streets were not an option, obviously, so she threw some powder into her fireplace and sauntered into Diagon Alley, expecting it to be peaceful and dark.

Except it wasn't.

Walburga stepped out onto the cobbled streets in the middle of what appeared to be a giant party. The alleyway was packed. People were shouting, drinking, hugging each other...

Walburga blinked. Two men she recognized as married Ministry officials were actually kissing each other. A little girl with a handful of sparklers crashed against Walburga, nearly igniting her robes, and then ran off without a care.

And there was so much noise! Puzzled, Walburga fought her way through the throng of people and further down the street. Shops that should have closed hours ago were bustling with customers. Some even seemed to be having massive sales or giving items away for free. The ice cream parlor in particular had a throng of children packed inside it, none of whom looked to be bothering with money.

The sea of celebrating wizards seemed to be endless. No one recognized Walburga. People stood gormless in her way, forcing her to actually touch them to push her way through, desperately searching for some uncrowded section of road.

Finally, near the tail end of the alley there was some breathing room. By no means was the area deserted, but Walburga was finally able to straighten her clothes and take a few deep breaths without being accosted. Then a group of people sitting under a gazebo outside the cafe caught her attention.

"Lysandra?" she asked suspiciously. She had not expected to see anyone of the Lestranges' caliber mucking about with all these partyers. Yet here the woman was, hand in hand with her husband and whispering urgently to him. Also sitting with them was none other than Walburga's sister-in-law, Lucretia. All three were midway through Italian sodas with a half-finished tray of coffee cake in front of them. Slowly, Walburga walked towards their table.

It was Lucretia who noticed Walburga as she approached.

"Sister!" she gasped, immediately silencing her group's conversation.

"Walburga!" Lysandra exclaimed. "Can you believe the news? It's unthinkable!"

Walburga cocked her head in confusion. By Lysandra's tone she was neither happy nor sad about some event...merely amazed.

"What do you—"

"Lysa!" Lucretia hissed, slapping at her friend's arm. Walburga stopped mid-question.

"What?" Lysandra griped.

"Show some consideration." Lucretia jerked her head in Walburga's direction. "Forgive Lysandra, dear, she's a one-track mind sometimes. Of course we're all in mourning for you." Lucretia got up from her seat and pulled Walburga into a hug that the Black Family Head did not return.

"What are you people babbling about?" Walburga demanded, pushing herself free from her sister. Lucretia was undeterred and remained holding onto Walburga's arm, fretting about and nervously trying to smooth her disheveled hair.

"The Dark Lord, of course!" Lysandra finally admitted. "He's dead! I never would have thought it possible!"

"Dead?" Walburga asked, swatting Lucretia's fingers from her fringe. "Is that what all this is about?" She turned back to the crowded streets. The celebrating showed no signs of stopping. In fact the mass of people seemed to be expanding if nothing else. Walburga backed up a step and sneered a little in discomfort.

"Walburga, surely you've heard?" Lycoris Lestrange said cooly. He took an idle sip of his wife's drink. "Are you so helpless with Orion gone that you cannot even manage to read the news?"

Walburga was livid at her cousin's remark, but before she could answer, Lucretia chimed in again with her sickeningly high-pitched voice.

"Of course you poor thing, We'd hardly expect you to be joining in the festivities. You must be taking it very hard. Please, won't you sit with us?"

Walburga sat down, a little perplexed. They seemed to be expecting her to break down, but why? It was true that Walburga had been sympathetic to the Dark Lord's cause, an ideological backer of sorts...and she had been very proud of her Regulus when he'd decided to join the man's ranks the month prior...but she had not been all-invested in the Dark Lord. Quite the contrary. As of late, with the rise of Barty Crouch's insane counter-terror measures, she'd been starting to regret her fifteen-year-old son's involvement in everything, and had been secretly hoping for an opportunity to get him out of harm's way. If the Dark Lord was truly dead, then if anything she felt relieved.

Lysandra hollered to the waiter to bring Walburga a drink.

"Of course I didn't mean to be so coarse earlier, Walburga," Lysandra said earnestly, shoving a hot breve into Walburga's hands. "I'd forgotten in the heat of the moment, and I mean, you really can't blame me, can you? We're all still in shock to find out that he was even involved!"

"You did a fair job hiding that from us all, Walburga," Lycoris said with a hint of admiration in his smug-bastard voice. "You lot had us all fooled into thinking he belonged to those muggle-lovers. Imagine our surprise to find he was loyal to his family all along! It's a damn shame that it ended like this, of course. Waste of impressive talent."

The phrase 'muggle-lover' made something click in Walburga's brain.

"Sirius?" she asked in an almost inaudible whisper. There was a sudden sickness in the pit of her stomach. What had happened to him? Something horrible, it must have been! Oh, she had sworn he was no child of hers, that he could rot in hell for all she cared, that he was a failure, a disappointment and she wanted nothing more to do with him, shameful creature that he was...but she knew this feeling. Knew it intimately. It was the horrible swoosh in her gut the moment after Sirius fell from his broomstick but before he was caught by her levitation charm... it was the instant just before she realized he was lying limp in his crib because he was asleep, not dead...it was the small space of time in between hearing the healers say your son was born premature and but he's going to be just fine...

It occurred to Walburga that Lycoris was still talking. Her hearing drifted in and out, a loud ringing in her ears, until she finally heard Lucretia yell, "Enough, Lycosis! It's obvious she has no idea what's happened!"

Walburga felt her mouth dry out. All three of them were looking at her, each waiting for the others to say something.

"What has happened to my son?" Walburga croaked calmly.

She narrowed her eyes on Lysandra, intimidating the woman to speak.

"Well...he is...well he was caught, Walburga. The DMLE found him at the house where He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named was killed. They realized that Sirius had been working for him all along and that he was the one who sent the Dark Lord to the Potters' home. He was their secret-keeper, you see, and he handed that information over."

"James Potter?" Walburga whispered. She remembered that boy and his mudblood girlfriend all too well. Sirius had been nearly inseparable from them for years. He'd even lived with the Potter boy when he'd been thrown from Grimmauld Place. It made no sense to Walburga that he would have betrayed his worthless friends. Perhaps the Dark Lord had coerced the information out of him...?

"And then when they cornered him, he went berserk. The Dark Lord was defeated somehow by the Potters' baby, Harry. When Sirius realized what happened, he lost it. Murdered half the street in his anger, including that Peter Pettigrew boy he used to hang around with. Horrible temper, really...a lot like...well, never mind."

Lysandra trailed off, averting her eyes.

"What happened to him?" Walburga asked fiercely, fearing the worst. "Did they kill him? Did they kill my son? My heir? I'll have their heads, every last one of them! Their entire department!"

The next thing she knew, she was standing, her mug broken on the ground, and screaming with an edge she'd ironically not used since she'd been yelling at Sirius Black.

Her friends' eyes widened.

"N—not exactly," Lucretia said in a small voice. "He eventually went with them quietly. He's in Azkaban right now...at least I think he is."

"You think?" Walburga hissed.

"Well he'll not likely be there much longer," Lycoris said as though it were the most obvious thing in the world. "He's scheduled to be Kissed any minute now." He looked at his pocket watch as though it would somehow tell him if Sirius Black still had his soul.

"What?" Walburga cried. "Right now? But there's not been a trial...!"

"A trial for a Death Eater?" Lysandra asked in bemused voice. "Did you really think Crouch would allow such a thing?"

"He was no Death Eater!"

"Oh, drop the act, Walburga. Everyone knows you wanted both of your sons to work for the man. It's unbecoming to denounce your oldest now just because he's been found out. Though I do still admit it was clever to have him fake his position so well..."

"That boy was incapable of holding his tongue long enough to fake anything!" Walburga screamed, but none of them were listening to her.

"Poor thing's distraught," Lucretia simpered.

Walburga whipped out her wand.

Lycoris raised an eyebrow. "What, are you going to curse us just for letting you know? For God's sake, Walburga, it's not been our decision to sic the dementors on Sirius."

Walburga lowered her arm. She appeared to be thinking extremely quickly, shaking her head a little now and then.

"Where are you going?" Lysandra asked loudly as Walburga sheathed her wand without a word and stalked away. "Walburga, come back here! Don't do anything rash! What will Orion say when he returns home?"

With a crack something louder than was usual, Walburga Black disapparated away, leaving behind her a party still in full swing and a gazebo full of rather perplexed, pure-bloods.

-signed, tenkuroi