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The Secret Demi-Lives of Portraits
The Noble and Most Ancient House of Black has been well known for centuries for their innovation. Pioneering into magics the rest of the Wizarding World couldn’t have begun to imagine, the House of Black has been creating the magic necessary to magical society ever since Thuban The Ancient.
Under the Guidance of Thuban’s only begotten son, Polaris, Magical Britain, as we know it today, was founded when the Norman Mages were subjugated in 1066 within their first steps on what become English Soil. Back During the Dark Ages, Polaris had already established the foundations for British Magical Society.
He and his kin had physically constructed the Magical Network on the island, balanced the magic and maintained control over the wild. The island had become a magical paradise because of that. He wasn’t going to allow these invading mages to overhaul or destroy his life’s work, well, the first one, anyway. He knew of their magic and beliefs and Polaris took out all of them with the help of 16 if his direct namesakes “The Sons of Polaris”
Polaris was named “The Black” that day.
By that time, Polaris XX had been two hundred years old, and he had lost five Grandfathers in the battle. Polaris the first, however had lost many many more descendants in his thousand years. He made a good bet on the Normans, hoping they would bring back the more Roman Way of Life he had been yearning for since 410.
He believed Civilization Lost after 576 and nearly had given up hope for the world to repair itself.
So he got to work.
As he lived through the centuries, up to and after the Norman Invasion, The Sons of Polaris and their families developed several forms of Magical Travel; Floo by Ignatia Wildsmith Nee Black in 1411, The single-purpose racing broomstick by Pliedies in 276 and The Magic Carpet, by Polaris I when he was just 17 in 60 AD. They also take credit for the discovery of Apparition which was magically impossible prior to 1170 BC, and Wizard Space in 640. Their most important innovation, however, was The Moving Portrait by Polaris III in 140 AD.
So, naturally, the Black Family has come to possess the largest Gallery of Painted Ancestors in the world. The only problem is that in order for the Homunculus Charm to come to life, the painted subject must die first, and Polaris I, Polaris The Eternal, cannot die.
Many generations passed and on an August morning in 1776, the Painted Likeness of Polaris XXVI came to life in the Foyer of number 12 Grimmauld Place.
Polaris XXVI is the 5-times Great Grandfather of Phineas Nigellus Black and his siblings, and he, Polaris, was the undisputed master in space manipulation charms.
In his life, he had built 16 houses with his proprietary application of Wizard Space. Number 12 was his least favorite one. Unfortunately, it is also the most connected. But that didn’t really matter, because he also holds the world record for interconnected portraits numbering at 17, one in each of his Black Manors worldwide and one in the Black Gallery in Black Mountain.
Now, being such a connected individual, the painted Visage of Polaris XXVI freely travels between all of his frames and is able to contact 99% of all portraits worldwide through no more than 2 circles of separation, and the remaining 1% by 3 circles of separation. While he doesn’t have a portrait in Hogwarts, he does have several descendants and dozens of ancestors there. He also gets much of his information from Ignatia’s Floo Obelisks, but those had already started to be removed by the time of his death.
But for Portrait Polaris, a death he doesn’t remember is only the beginning.
Wizarding Society’s acceptance of these portraits is influenced by the Homunculus Charm itself. Wrapped up in the charm are several other charms which are meant to placate and comfort anyone looking at a Portrait. So they never think about it when they whisper secrets to their beloved family members.
The Art of Enchanted Painting and creation of the Moving Portraits is a closely guarded secret. Lesser forms had been developed for Moving Photographs, Moving Illustrations in Books and Tattoos, and the limited, Chocolate Frog Card illustrations. These forms were licensed and the royalties have made the numerous Black Vaults the fullest in the world.
But no one but those with Black Blood are able to receive the secret of the Full Homunculus charm, and that secret is held in Fidelius in the soul of Polaris The Eternal, so it’s not getting out any time soon, so one of the many career paths set out before a Child of House Black is Magical Portrait Painter and Enchanter.
When a wizard sits for a portrait, a decent amount of blood is used in the enchantment, so for all intents and purposes, a Painted Subject is connected to the Blood of Their Living Counterpart. All a Wizard or Witch has to do to synchronize their memories is touch the frame of their main portrait and all the rest, should they have them crafted, get updated as well. The process for a Child of House Black is different. Their likenesses are Automagically updated just by virtue of existing, seeing as the underlying magic for all portraits is Black Family Magic, which propagates in the blood cells of all Children of House Black, regardless name, within 4 removed generations before it Peters out.
Few wizards think to utilize the portraits around them and even fewer approach their full potential.
There was one shrewd, wicked, little wizard who did realize his vulnerability in the face of the Portraits, however.
Little Orphan, Tom Riddle, within days of his first year, had watched the Portraits and realized something that none of his Pureblood contemporaries could even understand.
Tom had been raised with muggles so he wasn’t blind to such an obvious tool of espionage.
Tom went out of his way his whole career in Hogwarts and afterward avoiding the gaze of any moving portrait and by his seventh year at Hogwarts he finally reverse engineered as much of the Homunculus Charm he could. After couple hundred destroyed chocolate frog cards revealed part of the underlying charm work, he snuck out the Hog’s Head with the empty Portrait Frame of Ferdinand Octavius Pratt.
As he thought, no one missed the Pratt, who spent most of his time sleeping in the Hogwarts Library these days. Tom got just what he needed out of the Portrait Frame and managed to reverse engineer enough of the charm to create his Dark Mark. This little known fact brought about the demise of 200 Children of House Black when the Evil little Heir of Slytherin eventually rose to power.
Tom took on the moniker Lord Voldemort and his loyal followers and marked each of their left forearms before graduation.
And so a newly Minted Dark Lord left on the boats with the rest of his year, while Albus Dumbledore was abroad, on-again-off-again, with Grindelwald.
Tom’s Dark Mark acted as a Notice-Me-Not charm specifically for the Moving Portraits and CCTV Cameras, he’d come to find out by his return to Britain, in 1969.
The fucking muggles just landed on the moon and Tom needed to be somewhere ignorant of that fact. So he slid back on the scene amidst his old friends, more like slammed back on top of them and started blasting and marking the rich ones left and right.
The painted Lepus CACKLED when his Great Great Great Grandson Orion II, Father of Sirius III, walked right up to Polaris XXVI and yanked the Portrait down, undetected. Newly marked, he and Walburga sealed Polaris in his frame and stuffed him in a far back corner of the library, and hexed a sheet to drape over it for good measure.
Even Lepus, the evil git, never noticed Orion and Walburga fully, afterwards, not until their portraits woke.
In Black Country Estate, Number 2 Ebony Drive, tucked back in the Forest of Dean and so well hidden not even Agent Orange would have been able to find the place, Lord Arcturus II sat in disappointment when Polaris XXVI never came to visit again.
In Number 17 Black Hall Road in Oxford, Arcturus’s Eldest Cousin (his first cousin eight times removed), ‘Auntie’ Lyra Black, Daughter of Polaris’s favored twin son, Pollux. Summoned her favorite Tea Service and sighed in relief when the Sons of Lyra all showed up. Her son, Vega, his grandson, Leo, his son, Adam, his son, Gabriel, and daughter, Euphemia and her young son, James, all entered in the Portrait Room, followed by Elladora and her sister, Iola, her son Errai, and his daughter, Aurora, and her son, Aurelius, and his young daughter, Pandora, from the other side of the family.
Auntie Lyra couldn’t help but smile at her tribe. A few dozen decades ago, the Family Magic blessed her favorite tea service. She summons it and when she does, all of those blood related to her that are absolutely loyal to her receive a pull calling them to her Portrait Hall. All those who are pulled affectionately refer to themselves as the Sons of Lyra, the family has been heavily involved with maintaining order in Her Majesty’s realm since Lyra’s first job in the government right out of Hogwarts.
The Sons of Lyra heavily opposed the Statute of Secrecy, Lyra served Crown and Country before it, and continued afterwards. She believed that the numerous occlusion doctrines, secrecy policies, information management techniques and husbandry of the magical resources performed by The Crown, through the Royal Magical Cabinet and the Wizengamot, were far superior to the job the Ministry of Magic is doing now.
They all let the chairs conjure themselves as they sat, as usual, and the Tea Service served them, as usual. Pollux was in his frame, as usual, but what was very unusual was the empty frame on the opposite side of the hearth.
“Something has happened” Lyra said “Grandfather Polaris has been my primary spy in our battle against the Blood Suprematism and the Bad Side of the Family.”
Pollux then spoke “I cannot be too sure how it’s happened, but I have noticed a growing blind spot, but I can’t remember where that blind spot is!”
The men and Effie all gasped.
“This shouldn’t be possible!” The 362-but-appearing-37-year-old, Lyra exclaimed. “Everyone in Britain with the secret of the Homunculus charm is in this room!”
“Not all of us.” Pollux said. Lyra almost panicked.
“Ginny?!” Lyra called and a Beautiful house elf in a Pink Victorian dress with a parasol and derby hat, looking like Mary Poppins, Popped into the room.
All of Lyra’s descendants straightened up at her appearance, and Effie was desperately trying to flatten James’s hair. Henry would be so sad if Ginny broke the curse on his hair, especially after the fuss he made when Monty started selling the Sleekeasy’s.
“Mistress Calls Ginny?” the house elf said.
“Yes, thank you Ginny, I need your help.” Lyra replied
“Of course! What can Ginny be doing for Mistress?” The elf smiled and bounced a little, she may be over 600 years old but is just as youthful and exuberant as Lyra.
“We seem to have lost Grandfather” Lyra said gesturing at the 12 foot by 8 foot empty frame on the feature wall. She continued “Châteaux Noir, where Father’s other portrait is, is currently empty, young Charon is in Black Mountain for the summer.”
Ginny, not needing any of that information, had her hand on her chin and was looking up at the empty frame. She tapped her parasol gently on the brim of her hat and let out a hum.
“Hmm, Ginny thinks she is finding Master Polaris, by Ginny not being finding Master Polaris.” The elf was tightly gripping her parasol.
“Go on,” Lyra urged.
“Ginny is being shut out of Town House, Mistress. Kreacher is not hearing Ginny, and Master Polari’s Frame is not being on the wall there.” Lyra narrowed her eyes.
“Orion and Walburga aren’t nearly clever enough to figure this out on their own.” Iola voiced what everyone else was thinking, judging by the murmurs of agreement.
“I’ve heard tell that the Dark Faction has been rallying around a new figure. I haven’t discovered who yet, the portraits haven’t been whispering anything.” Elladora said.
“And the repositories? A leak of dark magic that could cause the disruption in the Magical Network?” Lyra asked
“None of the four repositories have been interfered with since we restored them, and the key hasn’t resurfaced to my knowledge. I don’t think I would miss the magical signature reappearing even after all these years.” Errai said, he tilted his head and looked at the portrait with the corner of his eye, shook his head and continued,
“There are no disturbances of the Ancient Magic around the frame, either.”
“Nargles!” Pandora helpfully exclaimed.
Errai chuckled and said “That’s right, Pandy! There’re no Nargles on Grandpa’s portrait.”
“That’s a relief!” Pandora said, nodding seriously. And it really was, judging by the relieved sighs throughout the room.
Even with Lyra’s subtle control over Wizarding Britain, she was unable to find this new rallying figure of the Dark Faction. For years she searched surreptitiously, poking gently into the minds of all of the Wizards and Witches she came across, and one after another, she came up against a wall around the ‘Dark Lord’ as she came to understand it.
Compared to Gellert, this new lord is mysterious and secluded, which made him far more dangerous, and judging by the gaps in the Portrait Network, she determined that the houses of Black, Nott, Goyle, Crabbe, Malfoy, Flint, Avery, Parkinson, LeStrange, and Yaxley were all definitely involved in something nefarious.