Toujours Pur | Euphemia Black

Prologue | The Noble House of Black

Disclaimer : Do I look like JK Rowling? No! Then I don't own Harry Potter, do I?

Warning : this is a fanfiction which means everything I write might not be cannon. There is not a lot on Euphemia Potter (nee Black) so not everything will be true. I researched as much as I could but as I said there's not much on Euphemia.

Previous readers will notice that a few of these first chapters are similar but have been edited as I unpublished this book to re-upload it again, hopefully better this time.

Cassiopeia and Arcturus Black were proud to call themselves pure - blooded Blacks, thank you very much. The Blacks were a proud, rich and most importantly pure family.

They went back centuries, had traditions and a disturbingly dark sense of magic.

They believed in chopping house elves' heads off when they got too old and shunned and looked down on "filthy halfbloods."

And then of course there were the horrendous mudbloods (and this always got a shudder) who didn't deserve to live and the Blacks were one of the first families to sign the petition for no mudbloods at Hogwarts.

It was never heard of before but when more and more "Muggle children" started expressing magical powers the only solution was to suppress it and not invite them to Hogwarts, leave them be.

And of course the Blacks agreed with this 100%. Even if it created obscuris. Why should the Blacks care about filthy Muggle children?

The only reason half bloods were allowed in was because Armando Dippet, the well respected Headmaster of Hogwarts, was one and even though he got home educated by his magical mother because he could not attend Hogwarts, he believed half bloods should be educated the same as purebloods.

And so that law was passed. To the disgust of the Noble House of Black.

As said, the Blacks had their traditions such as naming and is that resulted in Euphemia Black being named before she was born.

As soon as Cassiopeia found out she was pregnant with a girl, she was named.

There was no choice. Euphemia couldn't have an ordinary Muggle name, oh no she had to follow the tradition.

And although a girl was not exactly expected for a first child in the Black family because boys were needed to continue the blood line, a girl was still accepted. Otherwise, who else would help continue the line?

Yes, the Blacks believed in all that sexist stuff about a woman's place being at home with the children.

Euphemia had expectations as high as the Empire State Building as soon as she was born. She was to grow up, marry a respectable pure blood man and have at least one child (preferably a boy).

If she married a blood traitor, half blood, mudblood or even (God forbid) a Muggle or couldn't have children then she would be disowned, burned off the tree and forgotten - you name it.

She was to go to Slytherin and have the same views as the rest of the family on blood. But no one realised that she was different.

They should've really, as when she was just 5, she would wave at muggles and even once attempted to paint a burned away relative back on the tree because "they're all burnt and that's not nice mummy!!"

She got a long Cruciatus session for that incident but that is a story for another time.

Euphemia didn't see what these relatives had done wrong, she didn't see the difference between pure bloods and muggles, it confused and befuddled her that her family thought different.

They were all humans, weren't they? They all had feelings and Cassiopeia would often find her daughter looking sadly out of the window, or at the family tree, as if she had an adventurer inside of her that was just waiting to burst out and be free. Mia wanted to be free.

Easy to say, this child was adorable, and despite some Muggle incidents which just baffled her parents,  she really was doted on.

Her brother got more attention from Arcturus but Cassiopeia loved braiding her daughters hair and choosing her nice clothes and she was let off quite easily when there were misdemeanours involving her.

The only thing that could possibly get her disowned was if she was placed in another house other than Slytherin or, heaven forbid, she marry a person not approved by her parents or the family.

But she was shaping up well and that was all Cassiopeia and Arcturus needed.

But they didn't need to know that Euphemia was all words and her heart was bigger than her head, did they?

Surprising she didn't end up in Hufflepuff. If that had happened, she would've been disowned, forgotten about and never talked to again, because the Noble House of Black had expectations, you see, and Euphemia had to uphold them.

Little did they know Euphemia would do anything but what was expected of her.

I hope you enjoyed this little prologue to give you a taster of this story, longer chapters and plot coming soon!