016 // MC is a ball of stress.

Sirius was worried. his mother was bedridden. He couldn't concentrate on his training properly, he had to soothe his siblings' worries and he was stressed. Due to upcoming challenges. His tutors were not helping, working him to bone daily as he had finally gotten a wand.

It was nearing yule and their mother was bedridden for the last few weeks. All the adults were tight-lipped, and Sirius and his siblings weren't allowed even near where their mother was resting. He had tried to sneak in but for the first time, there were individual powerful wards on the infirmary which needed above-average knowledge of waring to bypass.

Sirius watched the burning yule log while playing a card game with 9 years old Phineas and an almost 6 years old Elladora. They were drinking hot chocolate, which kint had made them on Sirius's insistence. Their father and grandfather were also there, taking a much-needed break from the usual soirees they were invited to on account of their mother's illness.

Suddenly Mr Edward came into the room and moved towards Cygnus, his age visible on his face. He said something in his ear, which Sirius tried to listen to but failed.

Their father rushed out of the room and as I stood up to follow, Grandfather ordered them to go to their rooms. Ella looked close to tears; she was the most affected by our mother's mysterious illness.

Sirius took his siblings to his chambers, where they all cuddled in the bed, Ella finally sleeping after crying her eyes out. They slept uneasily and some hours later an unnervingly silent kint woke him up. He opened his mouth to ask something but then saw his siblings sleeping peacefully. He left the bedroom for the living room/study area followed by kint.

"What is it kint? Is mother alright?" He asked as he had previously ordered kint to keep an ear and eye on the happenings in the household.

"Master Sirius, Mistress Black be having a little mistress late in the night. Little missy be being sick. Mistress be hurting." kint said with tears in his eyes.

Sirius hugged the little fellow and thought about what he said.

He then deduced that according to kint, their mother was pregnant and had given birth to a daughter late in the night but as he didn't see the usual signs of pregnancy on her previously, it meant the baby was most likely premature and the pregnancy, as well as birth, had complications. He clearly remembered how his mother had looked when she was heavy with Phineas and Elladora a few years back.

So, this was most likely the reason for the tense environment in their home. he raked his brain to see what he remembered from the HP series about this event. He had sorted his memories when he started learning occlumency but didn't need those memories of a past life as he was trying to learn everything without a biased foundation which was what HP was in this period. He didn't remember a lot from his own life and had lost a lot, but he captured the essence of the most important things.

He traced back the black family tree which he only knew because he had stumbled upon it on the internet. There was a black mark on the spot of the 4th child of Cygnus and Ella black. A girl named Iola, ran away to marry a muggle and was burned from the tapestry for that.

He could live with that, he would have the power and resources to support and protect his newest sibling if something like that occurred in future, but right now his youngest sister was unnamed and not even a day old and his mother was also not faring well.

He freshened up, donned some plain loose clothes which equalled exercise clothes in that period and made his way towards the infirmary before leaving for his mandatory martial training.

As he passed the parlour on his way to sneak in the infirmary, which he knew was not possible but hoped that wards would be lax as it wasn't properly morning yet, he heard his father calling him inside.

"Yes, father? Is mother alright? Can I visit her" He questioned his father who looked like he didn't sleep the whole night and was nursing a whiskey at 5 in the morning!

"Sit down!" his father growled, and he sat down immediately. He had rarely seen his father angry or irritated.

"Your mother is fine, she would need a few to recover from the childbirth." He said taking a sip from his glass.

"Childbirth?" He exclaimed, perhaps overdoing it a bit which made his father give him a look that said, 'you can't fool me!'

"Yes, you have another sister, but she is early and unwell. The healer is keeping them under observation for now." Cygnus said a bit bitterly.

"Oh, when can I meet her?" Sirius asked ignoring his father's tone.

"Soon. Now run to the training grounds and don't disturb your mother. She may be allowed visitors later." Cygnus ordered curtly and sent Sirius away. Looked like his father wasn't happy with mother's condition or having another girl or due to some entirely other reason.

Sirius had no intention of disturbing his mother in such a delicate state. An unbidden memory from long ago made its way in his mind, 'a sobbing brown-haired woman was holding an unmoving baby and a blonde man was silently crying sitting at her side.' Sirius remembered, he had lost a lot from his past life never to recover but he remembered at least the faces of his college friends, they had fallen in love young and then had a stillbirth, not even a year into their marriage. He was to be the godfather of the child of his two dearest friends.

Sirius trained lost in emotions that morning and he got an ass whopping from his instructor for being absent-minded. He tightened his occlumency shields and got back to work.

The days passed in the usual manner, albeit it was bleak without loud squabbling of his siblings who were having increasing incidents of accidental magic and their governess who was running behind them the whole day trying to contain the chaos as if that was possible with children of their age.

On the yule that they were finally allowed to visit their mother. Elladora and Phineas were quite excited about having a new sister, but she was under the special care of healers, and we were not allowed to visit her.

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The Greengrass family was hosting yule ball at their manor that year and Sirius had to attend with his grandfather to represent their family. Grandfather was hoisting more and more duties to father from the last couple of years and balls usually fell under his father's preview now but this year his father was unavailable due to obvious reasons. It wasn't the first time he had to attend a ball, but it was certainly the first time he tried to make acquaintances with his peers.

"Good evening, merry yule to you all." Sirius greeted a group of 3 boys standing at the sidelines who he knew would be attending Hogwarts with him. He had seen them on various occasions but had never tried to interact before today.

"Good evening. You're the Black heir apparent. Are you not?" a chubby brown-haired boy questioned him while the sharp-eyed blond hair boy peered at him with calculating eyes.

"Indeed, I am him and you're the eldest son of Heir Flint." He said nodding his head in politeness towards the boy and showing is heir ring.

"Yes, my father is the heir right now, but I've heard that grandfather is thinking of passing the lordship." The Flint boy boasted showing off his own signet ring.

"Pleasure to make your acquaintance Heir Black, are you attending with Elder Lord Black today?" The red-haired kid asked in a pompous manner which reminded him of children playing dress-up even if he himself was one such child right now.

"Yes, Father and mother are occupied so grandfather thought it would be a good opportunity for me to be seen in society." He replied to the redhead who he knew was a Prewett.

"Yes, it seems your family has been missing in the society since the Samhain ball at Lord Barnett." The blond boy who was a Malfoy snarked in a manner that could be considered vexing if Sirius was the type of person to take offence at children's words.

"Yes Heir Malfoy, I assure you the reason would be soon apparent to the ton in a matter of few weeks." Sirius politely replied.

"Did you receive your Hogwarts letter yet Heir Black? I can't wait for my birthday when I would receive mine." Flint interrupted oblivious to the frostiness.

"Yes, mine came through on my 11th birthday, which was about 2 months ago. You shall receive yours in due time and please call me Sirius. We all are to be peers at Hogwarts soon enough." Sirius said keeping his tone just polite enough to engage the others in the conversation as well.

"Yes, we are to be peers in less than a year. Call me Burton Sirius." Burton Flint replied.

"I received my letter 2 weeks ago on my birthday. And do call me Cloyd," Prewett kid said with happiness reflecting on his face.

"Oh, did you get your wand yet Cloyd?" Sirius asked.

"Yes, 10 inches of willow and unicorn hair, it's a good wand for charms according to Mr Ollivander," Prewett said proudly taking out his wand which he was carrying with him apparently.

"Well, mine is 11 and a half inches of oak and Dragon heartstring, a powerful wand father said." Malfoy boasted showing off his wand.

"I wonder what mine might be. I cannot wait for another month for my letter." Burton moaned looking at his peers' wands rather fascinated.

"Well, mine is 13 inches of aspen wood and dragon scale of an extinct dragon. Mr Ollivander said it is one of the oldest wands in his shop." Sirius replied to Malfoy's boasting taking out his own pale wand which was unvarnished and had a powerful feeling to it. Malfoy was irritating and he couldn't help himself from showing off and putting the kid in his place. He needed better control over his actions but Malfoy reminded him of something unpleasant.

Malfoy looked at his wand with wide eyes while Prewett and Flint snickered at Malfoy's expression.

"Do you know when we would be going to Hogwarts?" Burton asked them.

"My letter said that we must arrive on 1st September and that too by something called Train," Cloyd whispered loudly in a scandalous tone.

"What is a train even?" Burton asked in a curious voice.

"I heard father saying it is a muggle nonsense ministry is forcing us to ride in to reach Hogwarts." Darius Malfoy said in a haughty tone.

"Train is multiple horseless carriages joined together which runs on the specially made path," Sirius answered youngest of them ignoring Malfoy yet again.

"Oh, it is going to be so marvellous finally going to Hogwarts. My mother says it is beautiful beyond comprehension." Cloyd said in a dreamy voice.

"Yes, but I loath to leave my brother and sister behind. They would be miserable when I leave." Sirius said taking a fruity drink from a passing house elf.

Their discussion continued for quite a while covering from their siblings to Hogwarts, to houses to sorting and even to quidditch. They only stopped when Malfoy left in a huff as he wasn't the centre of attention in their little group.

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It was New Year's Eve when their mother finally joined them at celebrations, their little sister was still under the care of healers and would probably remain there for a few weeks, but they were allowed to look at her from the far. She was Tiny!

As the new year came, Sirius's training took a harder turn.

The last few months had been stressful for him but now the time of challenge was nearing so his father had cut down on distractions and doubled his schedule.

His grandfather had tested his occlumency shields and was beyond impressed by their strength praising him for having the shields even an adult would be envious of.

Sirius hadn't even shown his mindscape and had weakened his shields to hide a few floating decoy memories to look impressive but not too much that they would raise questions.

His martial magic master had doubled down on him after he got his wand and had taught him magic while using both wand and staff simultaneously. It was beyond exhausting and draining but Sirius could feel his core getting clearer and denser the more magic he used so he did what he was told and more.

He had learnt the wand magic taught in the first two years at Hogwarts and had started the 3rd-year syllabus a fortnight ago under the guidance of his various tutors. The tutors knew that Sirius would face life-threatening challenges, so they didn't hold back or question much about the level of content while teaching advanced magic to an 11-year-old child.

He had learnt a few nifty tricks and shortcuts for performing wand magic and he felt grateful that he was getting the opportunity to learn at his own pace under the certified masters of the field, which was much quicker than his peers.

He was keeping correspondence with Burton Flint and Cloyd Prewett, and they were jealous of him learning magic before going to Hogwarts but being in the primary line to inherit, they understood that what he was doing was out of duty and obligation to family. They had good heads on the shoulder and Sirius felt that they would be pleasant companions or perhaps even friends at the school with their above-average intelligence.

His opponent had turned 11 on 3rd January of that year and he knew that challenges would be relatively easy for him particularly but even then, fit to be performed by prepubescent children, they would be deadly as no one can call a Black sane.

And Lord Merula was above all a Black by blood running in his veins even if it had been 6 generations since their branch had split.

On the other hand, he should never underestimate his other distant cousin as well as opponent, Heir Noir. distant at 4 generations, they still had black bloodthirstiness.

He was examined from head to toe by a healer 3 weeks prior to the first challenge and the healer started him on a course of nutrients and protein potions to build some mass he was lacking due to him being tall for his age. His father had approved the potions course for the next 3 weeks as Sirius was not gaining weight as a child his age should be due to daily exhaustion.

Sirius felt he couldn't be more prepared for the challenge.

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A/N - Hello Dear Readers!

So my keyboard broke and I binge watched second season of 'Bridgerton', that's why there was delay in publishing this chapter.

Next chapter would be first challenge!!!

Hope you enjoy this and do leave reviews on main page so this can finally get a rating!!!

Comments, power-stones and adding this to library is always encouraged!!!

Toodles!!