Growing Up Black
is a Harry Potter fanfic by Elvendork Nigellus.
Sirius Black's squib relatives rescue Harry from the Dursleys. Harry now goes by Ares Black and pretends to be Sirius' son to avoid being forced to return to the Dursleys.
Tropes:
- Adaptational Heroism: Thanks to the influence of Aries, and later on Sirius as well, Draco ends up growing into a far less of a bastard.
- Blackmail: By the time Dumbledore figures out what happened to Harry, the Blacks already have enough blackmail material on him to keep him quiet. Most importantly, his romantic past with Grindewald.
- Even Evil Has Standards: For all his Fantastic Racism, affinity for dark magic and his cruel treatment of his family, Abraxas considers Lucius betrayal of the Malfoy family in Voldemort's service to be unforgivable and disowns him.
- Evil Uncle: Lucius Malfoy's dead sister is passed as the mother of Harry's new identity.
- Faking the Dead: The squibs use a potion to change Harry's identity and pass him as Sirius' son. Harry is belived to have died.
- Former Teen Rebel: How the purebloods consider Sirius, since they think he ended up embracing Voldemort's viewpoint and siring a pureblood son by a respectable pureblood lady in spite of being a Gryffindor prankster.
- Granny Classic: Melania "Granny" Black (née Macmillan). She's an amazing cook and easily the most cheerful and matronly of the elder Black women.
- Happily Adopted: Aries Black really enjoys his new life more than Harry Potter's.
- Hero with Bad Publicity: Sirius Black is still believed to be guilty even after being released, most lightsiders just assume his family bribed him out of Azkaban (despite this being essentially impossible).
- Heroic Sacrifice: Marius sacrifices himself for Harry by absorbing a Dark curse that's put Harry in a coma. As a result, he's buried in the Malfoy family cemetary instead of the one reserved for other Squibs
- Is the Answer to This Question "Yes"?: When Sirius asks the Weasley twins if they find their rooms satisfactory, George asks "Does the sun let off a bit of light? I've never seen anything so grand in my entire life".
- The Kindnapper: Marius and Clytemnestra Black "abduct" Harry from the Dursleys.
- Off on a Technicality: Sirius is released from prison when his Grandfather Pollux Black inovkes a law that states that, as a pureblood, Sirius should have been tried within his first month of imprisonment and, because he wasn't, the charges against him have to be dropped. Pollux also gets the muggle witnesses' testimonies to be disregarded because muggles are legally unreliable witnesses and Dumbledore's testimony gets disregarded because he's not a first hand witness.
- On One Condition:
- Once Harry is declared dead, a clause at James' will transfers his inheritance to Remus Lupin.
- When Marius dies, Harry inherits his fortune if he keeps Clytemnestra with the lifestyle she's used to.
- My God, What Have I Done?: Only after Harry's secret is revealed to the family at large is Abraxas forced to confront just what his racism, stubborness and classism has cost him when Clytmenestra all but spells it out for him. He's thrown away or lost most of his family either by disowning them for not falling in line with his pureblood obsession, or they've become corrupted by Dark Magic and drawn to Voldemort.
- Raised by Grandparents: Marius and Clytemnestra actually are Harry's great-uncle and aunt by his father, but they become his primary caretakers all the same.
- Sexless Marriage: Sirius and Narcissa enters one of these after Lucius is disowned for his involvement with Voldemort and almost getting Harry killed, mainly to allow Draco to grow up with a father figure. Aside from being distantly related, neither party is particularly attracted to each other, and Sirius stint in Azkaban pretty much robbed him of most of his sex drive.
- Sins of Our Fathers: Ares Black and Draco Malfoy are ostracized at Hogwarts because of their fathers' crimes.
- Unperson: Pretty much every family member Abraxas decided weren't living up to his standards, such as his squib relatives. He reluctantly accepts them back into the fold when they adopt Aries and pass him off as the son of Sirius.
