❄ Twilight Forever ❄ Book 1 ❄ Cold Fall ❄

❄ 14 ❄️ Walburga Black's Confession ❄️

❄ 14 ❄️ Walburga Black's Confession ❄

Number Twelve, Grimmauld Place

Harry, Hermione, Ron, and Ginny all looked at Rhys questioningly. He shrugged his shoulders in reply, just as clueless as they were, and followed her out of the room as the other four all fell into step behind him. The Black girl, Riusa, was standing before a large portrait frame draped with heavy, black, moth-eaten velvet curtains. She grasped a handful of curtains and flung them aside, revealing an old woman in a black nightcap, screaming as if she was being tortured.

"FILTH! SCUM! BY-PRODUCTS OF DIRT AND VILENESS! HALF-BREEDS, MUTANTS, FREAKS, BEGONE FROM THIS PLACE! HOW DARE YOU BEFOUL THE HOUSE OF MY FATHERS---"

Rhys stared at the portrait in a mixture of disgust and horror. The old woman was drooling, her grey eyes rolling around inside her head, the yellowing skin of her face was stretched taut as she continued to scream.

"STAINS OF DISHONOR, FILTHY HALF-BREEDS, BLOOD TRAITORS, CHILDREN OF FILTH---"

Harry, Ron, and Hermione all looked at each other and then started forward but a quelling look from Rini stopped them before they could reach the portrait. She turned around to face the screaming old woman and shouted at her.

"SHUT UP, YOU HORRIBLE OLD HAG!"

The woman froze in the midst of her screaming and blinked down at the girl in total surprise.

"Siriusa?" she whispered softly. " H-how? I-I thought you were dead."

Riusa didn't answer her. She simply stared up at the woman with a blank expression on her face. The old woman's grey eyes welled with unshed tears.

"Oh, my darling! You've come back to me!" she wailed happily, clasping her old, wrinkled hands to her breast in her mirth.

Riusa tossed the photographs and newspaper clippings in her face, sneering nastily.

"I've read that you had blamed Rius for my death," she spoke quietly. "Why?"

"Who is she?" Rhys whispered to Harry.

Harry's emerald green eyes darkened suddenly to a deep forest green as his face hardened.

"That," he spat. "Is my godfather's mother, Walburga Black."

Mrs. Black began to speak. "I had no choice," she whispered softly. "He took you from your warm bed and out of the house in the middle of the night."

Riusa laughed quietly, the sound dark and chilling, and shook her head, causing her black hair to ripple down her back like ripples on water.

"No, Mother," she replied softly. "It was my idea to leave the house, not Rius."

Mrs. Black shook her head this time, denying her daughter's words.

"Listen to me!" Riusa yelled at her mother, making everyone jump at her booming voice. "It. Was. My. Idea."

Mrs. Black shook her head again and began sobbing anew. Rhys could not help but feel sorry for her as he watched big, fat tears began rolling down her gaunt cheeks.