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( chapter zero. )

❛ phineas nigellus black ❜

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before.

 hogwarts school of
witchcraft and wizardry

"THERE IS NO WAY THAT I AM letting you run off with a Scamander!” my father is shouting, it almost feels like a roar, as he rises behind his desk. He should look like and appear as an old man. A fragile, but loving father. But I only see the denunciatory, almost terrifying headmaster of Hogwarts, not my father.

Biting my lower lip (hard, I feel the blood flood in my mouth), I nail my eyes at the ground as if I could hide from his yelling. He rises above me, alongside fear and his voice everything obscures and I see nothing but his shadow.

"YOU. ARE. A. BLACK!"

The only thing I can physically do is gulping.

Then I'm just shuddering and jump backwards, trembling, as my father's fist slams the table. The wooden desk trembles, parchments fall to the ground, just at my feet. I focus more on the chicory ink lines than on my father’s words.

Maybe I can disappear inside those lines if I concentrate enough.

But no. It's all for nothing.

I've had enough time to learn that there is nowhere to hide from Phineas Nigellus Black's anger.

"Has he already knocked you up?"

"Of course not!" I protest loudly, before I could think and bite on my tongue to shut my mouth and never open it. 

"Your mother and I spent the last few yours to find you and arrange you a decent marriage, with an eligible man!" 

Tears streaming down my face as I slowly look up and rise my head. I know that it makes him even more upset and mad that my weakness is visible. My sensitivity, my agitation and sickness. Crying and expressing emotions – any kind of emotion – is the weakest thing a Black can imagine.

As these thoughts run through me and I can see the contempt in his eyes... an involuntary nonverbal curse breaks out of me that just makes my father stumble. Of course, he is much stronger than me. Stronger wizard, stronger man.

Definetely a stronger character.

I am proficient in nonverbal charms, but it has not happened since I was a child that I have cast a spell against my will and consciousness. His hands turn white as he forcibly squeezes the tabletop, the wood cutting deeply into his skin. His eyes roll almost in blood as he raises his hand toward me.

"How dare you?! My own flesh and blood!" he continues to yell, and now I don't even flinch. I've seen it coming.  I'm practiced in his rage. I'm familiar with it.

But... there are always more things in his messed up mind that can surprise me.

Then various objects rise from the table and the near cabinet. The next moment... everything begins to fly towards me.  I can even feel the time slowing down as a trophy, dozens of papers, paperweights and two books are in the air, approaching me. I feel each blow and beat and strike of the objects for an eternity. I don’t even look there and it only lasts for a second, but I can feel they hurt and scars different parts of my body.

Probably my soul too. Even though I always believed my soul is unbreakable like the vow.

Turns out... it's not. Far from it, actually.

I don’t have the time to raise my arm to protect my face, so I just turn my head away fast. One of the books hits my face. My blonde hair flies in front of me like a shield, but for a moment everything turns red as the aftermath of the blow.

Blond hair ... my father described it as a fatal mistake for years.  The blonde little Black girl from House Ravenclaw. The black lamb of the family. Who never fit into the pureblood ideas. Nor the family expectations and stereotypes.

But I existed, and even my father couldn't deny that.

"Your oldest brother married a Gamp girl! Your sister is dating with that Burke boy and Cygnus with Bulstrode's daughter! How dare you tarnish their names like that? How can you bring such shame to our name? Who do you think you are?" my father is splattering some more, with such intesity that tiny drops of saliva fly out of his mouth. He swings his wand as he shouts. Wounds on my bare arm open up and blood flows down my wrist, down to the floor.

Golden, pure blood spots the Headmaster's office in Hogwarts. How  ironic!

He sheds his own blood, which is so precious and valuable that we can’t even think of diluting it with half-blood relations or... romances. Oh, the horror!

"You have no power over me..." I can only squeeze this out of myself as whisper, nothing more. Force the words out of myself with my last breath. I don’t look into my father's eyes as I turn my back and run out of his office. Quickly so he doesn't have the time... to react to my impudence.

I run down the stairs, out of the Headmaster's posh and private tower, dizzy from the blood loss. It feels like days as I get down to the basement, pass the kitchen, and then into the Hufflepuff common room. I know the password, the painting gives me a free pass, but for a moment I have to lean against the wall next to the painting to keep myself from falling on the dusty ground. I can barely see from the blood and pain, and it's only growing.

When the door slams after me, Theseus Scamander raises his head at the sound to look up at me. He sits on one of the comfy couches, hunched over reading a book, getting closer and closer to the candle flame. First, a lean half-smile sits at the corner of his mouth, then... his gaze runs through me. He sees my blood-soaked sweater, my confused and disturbed face, my sweaty locks.

"What happened?" Theseus bounces up to his feet in a split second, hesitantly puts his hand on my hair softly, searching for my gaze. But my eyes just flicker and move back and forth without rest. I put my hand on his arm, grab it as I feel like I’m getting weaker and I have to cling to something to stay stable on my feet.

"My father..." I'm only capable of stuttering.

"Your dad done this to you?" Dad. I don't even recognize that word. All my life, I've only had a father, never a dad. I nod as an answer to his questions and I already feel the tears flooding my eyes. Again. His face tenses, his jaw clenches and I can see that he is already thinking about... what to do with me. How to help me. Panic and a desire for action mix in his eyes. "Come, let me see!"

He helps me sit down on the couch, helps me to feel as comfortable as possible. I can’t even comprehend or percieve what he’s doing, I’m just barely conscious. I feel dizzy, starting to blink flat and flatter every second, and almost lean on Theseus's shoulder.

I just want to sleep.

This how I know that... My condition is not really stable.

But it gets better. Slowly. Thank Rowena, Theseus listened and learned at the Herbology and Charms lectures, so he shrinks and stitches my wounds easily and then dries the blood off from my skin.

"Here, chocolate... helps to bring back your strength!" I don't know where he got that slice of chocolate from, but I don't even care. At all. I'm just eating it as if I had been starving for years.

The black dots slowly disappear from the corner of my eye and a sobbing erupts from me that has been maturing for a while. I lean on Theseus's shoulder and he pulls me closer defensively.

It has always been so. Theseus has been protecting me from day one.

I mean... specifically since the moment we met.

"You deserve better. So much better, Lulu!" he whispers in my ear and the nickname he gave me only makes me cry even more. "It's over now. A couple of months and we'll get out of here. We will be Aurors, we will be together. And together we are capable of everything."

"You promise?" I slowly lift my head off his shoulder so I can see his face. He strokes one hand on my face, slowly caressing my skin with his thumb. I'm safe. I'm safe with Theseus, nothing and not a single soul can hurt me. I just need to finally believe this.

"I promise."

author's note:

i was so very excited to finally
share this intro chapter,
so i finished translating
a few days ago and i've decided
to share this chapter right away.

so... now, officially: this is my first,
english, translated harry potter
fanfiction or rather
fantastic beasts fanfiction.

and i'm so very excited to open
myself up to the english
community, and gain new mutuals!

so, hey! welcome!

recently i re-watched crimes of grindelwald and... fell in love with callum turner. again.

so after that, i started to think about what and how.
and now we are here.

my goal is to create a great original character (lyra) and
give some glimpse into the
black family relations
(at least according to my imagination...)...

and maybe fix some plotholes

i really hope you all enjoyed this prologue, and you've caught and like the whole vibe of the story.

and i also hope that you will
accompany me on this little...
journey... by moonlight. 😂😂😂