010 // MC makes tough decisions.

As the family moved inside, Sirius immediately went to the infirmary they had in their home. It was near the potion's lab on the ground floor itself. It was used so that healers don't intrude to their private chambers and in the primary family wing that needed special access to even know where they were.

There, his precious siblings were lying unconscious. He felt tears trickling down his face at the sight of them, he had failed. He was their elder brother, and it was his responsibility to protect them.

Madam Polly seeing that Sirius was well rushed towards him and Sirius hugged her. She was a second mother to him, and they had a special bond. She was relieved to see Sirius unharmed.

"What happened to them Ma'am?" he asked her, trying to control his tears.

"They were given some kind of potion; we haven't found a counter-potion yet, but various people are working towards finding a cure for them." She said, trying to soothe Sirius.

Hearing this Sirius remembered taking various potions from kidnappers. He went to an empty table and started taking out all the potion bottles he had found there while his family looked curiously.

"Here, I took all these from the house they had kept me in. I took anything that looked interesting there, there might be an antidote for the potion given to my siblings. Please heal them." Sirius pleaded to his grandfather who had a grave look on his face.

"We would have to test these first to find the correct one, you have one well, my heir. Not one you escape on your own but bought a possible cure for your brother and sister." His grandfather said patting him on the head while his mother moved to take him out of the infirmary.

"Sirius, son come. Your grandfather would take care of them, you need to eat something." His mother said and they went to a small dining room where there was a spread of dinner food laid out for Sirius.

His mother sat alongside him while a servant served the meal. Even in these troubled times, etiquette was followed as it was ingrained in his very being growing up in this household. Not that he was a pig in his past life, but rules were very lax in that period.

After eating his fill, he moved towards his grandfather's office. His grandfather was busy interrogating Kint when he arrived, so he knocked on the open door.

"Come in Sirius, take a seat." His grandfather called him inside and he sat in front of his grandfather.

"Tell me, everything son, from the beginning." His grandfather ordered, worry visible on his face. It should be known that while his grandfather rarely showed emotions in public, he was a bit relaxed with his family.

With that Sirius started telling what had transpired from the beginning.

He told his grandfather how he was having a picnic with his siblings in gardens near the muggle manor after his classes with Miss Clara Allen chaperoning them.

How they were attacked and how he was taken to an unknown place. He told about the cells, where he had met Aiden Adams and got to know about other children and his meetings with his captors while they came to bring their meals.

He told his grandfather who was listening patiently, about how food reminded him of elves in the manor and he had tried his luck in calling an elf. How kint couldn't gain the attention of family members but then helped him escape. He had told kint to grab some sleeping droughts from the general potion stock from the servant quarters and used that to escape his captors.

He then slyly told his grandfather about what he had discovered while snooping around the house and how had left his sleeping captors defenceless and bound in their beds with help of Kint and then escaped.

His grandfather listened to him carefully and asked a few clarifying questions here and there. He didn't hide anything except his wandless magic which he glossed over so it can be brushed off as accidental magic or the Kint's magic.

"I am proud of you Sirius; we were looking for you from the moment guards discovered young Phineas and Elladora with Miss Clara on the grounds. We were able to track a foreign signature, but it was masked with most likely this amulet." Grandfather said inspecting one of the amulets, Sirius had found there and given him.

He nodded, not knowing much about them, he had read about them in a history book and that is why recognized them and their broad function. There was this one question burning in his mind which he wanted to ask his grandfather but didn't know how to go about it. Straight-up asking sounded like the right course of action so he did just that.

"Grandfather, can I ask a question?" He asked the question mulling in his mind.

"Yes Sirius, you may." His grandfather replied looking intently at him with his stone-grey eyes, Black hair tied in a low pony behind his head and still wearing day clothes.

"Why didn't anyone listen to kint when I sent him for help. Is it because he is a house-elf?" He asked, it was most plausible that just because kint was an elf, everyone ignored him.

"Son, that elf didn't have clear instructions, when he was asked, why didn't he tell anyone in the household properly, the poor thing was not able to comprehend that he had to tell someone without asking them first. We had already questioned elves before you summoned him, so no one asked him again." His grandfather replied without emotion and this made Sirius realize one thing.

His grandfather was lying, most probably they had just thought the elf was rambling and didn't listen to him. He knew his family, they didn't care for words of elves in the house. He wasn't satisfied with grandfather's brush off answer so he would research on the matter later.

"Alright grandfather, thank you for clarifying that." He answered his grandfather who was waiting for him to finish his thoughts.

"Now, what do you wish should be done to those kidnappers Sirius. They kidnapped you, and while I am beyond enraged at their audacity to lay hand on members of the most ancient and most noble house of Black, they need to be punished." His grandfather asked for his opinion which he wasn't expecting.

"Where are they right now?" He asked his grandfather

"Secure for now. We need to plan a proper course of action for them. They harmed you the most, so you need to decide if you want them to vanish or if you want a public spectacle." His grandfather laid the options in front of him, an 8-year-old child and moments like this reminded him that blacks were a bloodthirsty bunch.

"I'd tell you my decision, tomorrow grandfather. I need to think about this and meanwhile, I'd like to know their motives and why did they target me and those other children and everything else about them." He said with finality which made his grandfather grin in a not so nice way. This was the man who had lost too much, seen the world and was living proudly, the true lords of blacks.

"Yes, that can be arranged. Your little helper was able to get us those vermin. You can go and rest for now, and I want a decision tomorrow else I would take my action. But they are your enemies first." Grandfather dismissed me saying that.

"Yes, grandfather." And with that, he left for his room deep in thinking.

It was morning the next day and Sirius had slept for only a couple of hours still worried about his siblings and the heavy burden of deciding the fate of his captors.

As he got ready, he found a scroll on his writing desk as well as a lemon-yellow potion. It was a wide eye potion, he drank the potion and opened the scroll.

.................

Name – Harper Moody (b.1832)

Blood status – Muggle

Name – Hubert Moody (b.1829)

Blood status - Muggleborn

Name - Damon Lynch Murray (b.1826)

Blood status – Half-blood

Harper and Hubert Moody are disgruntled children of a low bred muggle man. They were unsatisfied with their status in the muggle and wizarding world respectively and were employed by Murray to do his dirty work.

Damon Lynch Murray is the son of Pureblood Lizzie Murray nee Lynch and Muggleborn Brooke Murray. They attended Hogwarts in the same year and disappeared after their 5th year when Lizzie Lynch was contracted to marry a pureblood when she turned 17.

Damon was born in a middle-class home with both parents working to live. He was a prodigious student and is particularly talented in mind arts and potions. He was able to make a living by stealing secrets from people's minds during and after his Hogwarts years.

He then started kidnapping to take revenge on people who had bullied or rejected him for one reason or another. He kept a list of such people which includes about 20 families. Out of these 20 families, 6 had lost children in the past 2 years. They were kidnapped by Murray and experimented on to find the secret of pureblood. He wanted to become pureblood. He had previously killed his parents and a squib sister as well as 3 people he had employed in past. His current employees are Hubert and his brother Harper Moody, who he manipulates in working for him by using their unprotected thoughts and deplorable situation against them.

He is responsible for the murders of 15 adults and 8 children and planned on killing 2 children he was currently experimenting with soon. His intentions were experimenting on recently kidnapped children next.

.........

Sirius felt disgusted after reading the scroll. There was a long list of crimes and atrocities committed by the man under the information written in detail. This man was a sociopath of high other while the other 2 were his henchmen and nothing else. This man doesn't deserve to live and parents whose children were kidnapped need closure even if he wanted to end this person's life right now. These kinds of monsters don't deserve to live but death was too good for them.

He decided on his course of action and went to his grandfather with his decision final. He didn't have an appetite after reading that scroll. He should've killed him last night but what's done was done and death was too merciful for this criminal.

He knocked on the door of his grandfather's study.

"Enter" he heard his grandfather calling him inside.

He looked at the current Lord black and found signs of a sleepless night. These crimes were something that couldn't faze his grandfather, so it was something else. He took a seat and deposited the scroll on the table.

"Ah, so you've read it." His grandfather simply said only looking up once from the document he was reading.

"yes, grandfather and I've made my decision." He said with unwavering confidence in his voice.

His grandfather focused on him finally and looked into his eyes. Stone grey eyes looked into similar Stone-grey eyes.

"Good. about time you start learning how to deal with enemies" Grandfather said while an unsaid conversation passed between the eyes of the older and younger generation.

"I don't want these Monsters to see the light of the day again, they don't deserve to live. But I also want those people who have lost children to know that their children have been avenged and give them closure." He laid the fate of 3 men that have kidnapped him in front of his grandfather.

"It would be done. Now on the topic of children, you saved last night." His grandfather said accepting his decision without a blink and moving on.

"What about them? Send back them to their families." Sirius said gearing himself up to ask about the state of his siblings.

"Yes, Aiden Adams and Edwin Pucey were sent to their families they owe a life debt to you which could be collected anytime. But the last boy, he is an orphan now. He is currently 12 years old. He calls himself Augustus and said that his family had denied him going to Hogwarts previously when they were approached and then he was kidnapped a few weeks later. He doesn't wish to go back to his family. What do you wish to do with him?" Grandfather asked in a nonchalant tone like discussing whether and not the life of a magical child.

Sirius kept his face impassive. His grandfather was giving him a lot of decision-making power which was unprecedented. He shouldn't be asked to make this decision but here he was forced to decide for a Muggleborn child. He knew the views of his grandfather on muggles and muggleborns. While there wasn't a deep burning hatred for them in his family, there was a clear indifference regarding them. They were treated like they were worth nothing beyond their use. He had studied his family's interactions with them.

"Let him be trained under Mr Edward to be a servant in the household for now. He is old enough to learn responsibilities and earn his keep. Get him a wand and let him get an education here so he might be of some use to the family. I'd see what should be done with him when he is somewhat older and useful." Sirius said to his grandfather and stood up to leave. He would check on his siblings himself.