BLACK. Everyone knew that name. Most people are related to a Black somehow. Especially if you are in Slytherin.

We worked out at least 2 people.

- Draco Malfoy SLYTHERIN. His mother was Narcissa née Black. 1st Cousin of Sirius Black.

- Tonks HUFFLEPUFF. Her mother was Andromeda née Black. 1st Cousin of Sirius Black.

I told him that I remember being told that he was my cousin but I said that perhaps I was told that all Death Eaters were cousins so I couldn’t be sure about that. We ruled me out. I said that I would ask Gert because if he came from a top pureblood family, it would stand to reason that they would have a house elf. It turns out that they did. KREACHER apparently Gert didn’t like him much.

Just a few days had past and my uncle arrived to pick me up. It seemed that the Ministry of Magic found Sirius Black to be a serious threat. I decided to ask more about him. Surely if anyone knew it would be him. All around Diagon Alley there were posters “HAVE YOU SEEN THIS WIZARD?” & “WARNING DO NOT APPROACH”. Apparently, it had even been on muggle news that he was carrying a gun. (like a wand that fires stones, we had recently learnt about them in muggle studies).

As usual and probably to my bad luck I wasn’t scared about the warnings. My uncle was a little twitchy and kept disappearing to the basement. went out on several occasions to buy books and ice creams. There were several things that I saw that I were unusual that summer. One of them was Harry and the other was a black dog. I didn’t know if it was a stray or what it was. If you understand the way I see things you might understand that I can see when someone or something is or has been transfigured. This was NOT a dog this was some sort of animagus.

The way you can tell is that it has a sparkle around it. It is easier for children to see than adults but I looked at it and it looked at me. On that particular occasion I was called away by my uncle and didn’t get to see much more of it.
I did manage to ask my uncle more about what he looked like though. The picture wasn’t a great help. He said that he was about his height with shoulder length hair and was always friends with the wrong people. He also reminded me it had been twelve years since he had seen him so he may have changed. I don’t know how true this was but when I finally met him, he was quite skinny after having been in jail for so long and I could understand what my uncle meant by the wrong people. It had nothing to do with being a Death Eater. I’m not really sure he ever was one.

I think he meant that he was one of the people that teased him at school, and was not considered by his family as a proper Black. This is information that I gained over the years though, not what I learned then.

It wasn’t long before I was waiting for everyone to arrive at Hogwarts. In reality I doubt it was that long but it felt like an eternity. The shack shrieked, owls were coming in and out on a regular basis and even Dumbledore was nervous. The Ministry had decided to keep Hogwarts on the highest security level possible. Did that change anything from last year. No not really we were still on high alert.