Black Bond
by CentaurPrincessis a Harry Potter Alternate Universe Fanfic in which Sirius Black has a daughter named Acqulia Black who’s the same age as Harry, and as a result of her existence, the story heavily diverts from canon as it goes on, as Sirius escapes Azkaban in Harry’s first year.
The OC, Acqulia, is well written for the most part, and the story is quite lengthy, over a million words long in fact, chronicling years 1 through 3 of Hogwarts, with a sequel, Black Bond II, covering Years 4 through 7.
This fanfiction contains the following tropes:
- Action Dad: Sirius Black.
- Action Girl, Badass Bookworm variant: Hermione, who isn’t petrified in Year Two, becomes this when she leads Ron and Neville to rescue Harry and Acquila in the Chamber of Secrets.
- The Alcatraz: Azkaban, enough said.
- Bait-and-Switch Tyrant: This is sort of done with Narcissa, though along the way she is made quite sympathetic throughout.
- The Baroness: Nigella Flint.
- Big Bad: Voldemort is the ultimate Bad Guy of this story.
- Character Development: A lot of characters go through this. Neville’s Character Development from the books end up happening much earlier than in canon for example.
- Dark and Troubled Past: Sirius has a hard and dark childhood considering his best friend is dead, he was betrayed by a best friend who framed him, his wife was killed by said betrayer, he has a teenage daughter who he hardly knows because he was in prison for most of her childhood, he has to raise his teenage godson who is falling in love with Sirius’s own daughter, oh, and Voldemort want to kill his daughter and godson.
- Death Faked for You: To prevent Acquila from being raised by her father's dark relatives, Dumbledore fakes her death.
- Exact Words: Sirius Grandaunt Cassiopeia says she may have pressed for a trial had she suspected he's innocent. He takes her wording (may) as a sign that she wouldn't.
- Evil Overlord: Lord Voldemort.
- See also Big Bad.
- For Want Of A Nail: There are two important ones:
- The main one is the existence of Athena McKinnon, which, coupled with the fact that Athena ends up together with Sirius, in turn results in the birth of Acqulia Black, who's very existence in the Harry Potter universe sets off some butterflies.
- The second is impacted by the first, but causes the most butterflies to form, and it's when Sirius escapes Azkaban in Harry’s first Year. The fact that Peter Pettigrew is captured and Sirius gets his freedom also causes plenty of changes which make the later chapters quite different from canon. While Year Two has some minor similarities to canon, Year Three is wildly different.
- He Knows Too Much: Peter Pettigrew kills Acquila's mother because she knows he's the real Secret-Keeper.
- Hypocrite: Sirius Black and Alastor Moody say Draco will become a Death Eater like his father in spite of Sirius being an example that it's not necessarily true and Moody already knowing of Sirius' innocence by that point. Narcissa calls Sirius out for this.
- In Spite of a Nail: A few cases of this happening, although they happen quite less as the fic goes on.
- The Chamber is still opened, although the Basilisk is destroyed twice and Voldemort finds out the Horcruxes are destroyed.
- Although they meet differently and much earlier than they do in canon, Remus still ends up with Tonks.
- Cornelius Fudge is still the one who accidentally motivates Sirius to escape Azkaban. The difference is that, instead of doing so by unknowingly giving Sirius a clue to Peter Pettigrew's whereabouts, he does it by letting Sirius know that Acquila is alive.
- Gold Digger: Nigella Flint is this toward Sirius, but also a Woman Scorned.
- Love Dodecahedron: Before they ultimately get together Acqulia and Harry like each other, but Acqulia also likes Cedric Diggory, and Harry likes Daphne Greengrass, but throughout this all Draco Malfoy likes Acqulia, but she only thinks of him as a friend and a cousin.
- Mindlink Mates: Sort of. The story uses the concept of a Soul Bond, and the idea of a bonded pair reading minds, but unlike in most fics, it’s more hearing stray thoughts or emotions which can cause quite of bit of arguments and the like. Harry and Acqulia don’t actually have conversations in their minds.
- Original Character: With a Fanfic as large as this, there happens to be quite a few OCs running around the place, and not just the two big ones like Acquila Black and her mother Athena McKinnon. A couple examples include Nigella Flint, Mopsy the House-Elf, Nathan Rosier, Irene Summerby, and Ophelia Smith just to name a few.
- O.C. Stand-in: A few background and minor characters are given a bit more time in the spotlight, like Daphne Greengrass, Blaise Zabini, Charlus Potter and Dorea Potter nee Black, Cassiopeia Black, and Marlene McKinnon(who is frequently mentioned enough that we are able to know her character).
- Papa Wolf: Sirius; he is quite protective of his daughter and godson.
- Revenge: Lots of cases of this:
- Nigella Flint toward the late Regulus Black, choosing to take her revenge on his brother and niece.
- Acquila toward Fenrir Greyback.
- Sirius toward Peter Pettigrew and also toward Lucius Malfoy for the death of his sister-in-law.
- Redemption Equals Death: Regulus Black, who died trying to destroy the Locket Horcrux.
- Revenge Before Reason: Acquila, who inherited her father’s temperament, seeks this on Fenrir Greyback.
- Star-Crossed Lovers: Harry Potter and Acqulia Black.
- Sins of Our Fathers: Voldemort sends Greyback to bite Draco Malfoy in order punish Lucius Malfoy for the destruction of the Diary and for allowing himself to submit to Sirius’ blackmail of him.
- See also Wham Episode.
- Several people who believe Sirius to be guilty hold it against his daughter.
- Spanner in the Works: Sirius and Dumbledore's plan to find and destroy the Horcruxes is horribly foiled by Voldemort who has discovered that the truth of his horcruxes is out and moves all the ones he can get from their canon location.
- Tragic Hero: Sirius is plagued with guilt throughout much of the story, as he blames himself heavily for the events that led him to Azkaban, as well as other events for after he escaped.
- Tragic Mistake: Sirius makes one when he uses truth serum on fellow Auror Irene Summerby without her knowing in order to interrogate her, believing her a spy for Voldemort. He turns out to tragically be wrong and ends up ruining his friendship with her. It's worsened when it turns out the reasons she was acting weird around him was because she had a crush on him, meaning he also seemingly destroyed any possible future romance with the other Auror.
- The whole secret keeper affair with Peter Pettigrew and the Potters can also count as an example of this.
- Woman Scorned: Nigella Flint is this, blaming the late Regulus Black, her ex-lover for all the troubles in her life, and thus deciding the take her revenge on Regulus’s brother, Sirius.
- Wham Episode: Draco Malfoy is bitten by Fenrir Greyback under the orders of Voldermort, resulting in Draco becoming a werewolf.
- See also Sins of Our Fathers.
- You Killed My Father: Well, sort of. Greyback kills Ophelia Smith, the matron at the orphanage where Acquila grew up, and the woman who Acquila viewed as a motherly figure. Acqulia is none too happy about this and wants revenge.
