Disclaimer: Not mine :P (I'm too lazy to write a proper disclaimer :P)

Mysteries of the Department

Fighting again. Finally. Not doing anything is the most tiring thing to do, and he had spent nearly a year like that. He had been very tired of feeling useless. But he did not feel useless any more. He felt excited and almost happy.

'Come on,' he laughed at her 'You can do better than that!' The famous last words of a true Gryffindor. And very soon he regretted saying them.

As he fell backwards, suddenly realising what was behind him, scenes from his life flashed in front of his eyes. He's five years old, playing with his little brother… He's ten years old, Bella, Reggie and he have just played a prank on Cissy… He's eleven, he's just got his Hogwarts letter… He says goodbye to his parents and brother and gets on the train… He's sitting in the compartment with some other kids, talking to Bella… He remembered this moment. In a few seconds he was going to argue with her, and after a few hours tell the Sorting Hat that he did not want to be in one house with her… But the argument didn't come! Now he was getting on a boat with Bella, Snape and some girl he didn't know. But this was not what he remembered!

There wasn't much time for thinking about it. He fell over and hit the floor on the other side. He got up and looked around. The room looked exactly the same as the one he had been in a moment ago, but there was nobody there except for him. This was not what he had expected the afterlife to be. Maybe he wasn't dead after all. But where had everybody gone? Maybe this was not the same room? Maybe he had to go back? Sirius stared at the veil for a moment and then started forward. But before he could reach it he heard a voice behind him.

'Stop!' somebody shouted. There were two things Sirius could do: run forwards faster or stop. For some reason unknown even to himself, he chose the second option. He turned around quickly, rising his wand. The other man was holding a wand too, but, surprisingly, didn't seem very eager to use it.

'What are you doing here?' the man asked.

Sirius wasn't quite sure of it himself.

'How did you get in here?' the man asked another question.

'I wish I knew,'

'Who are you?'

Sirius stared at the man. He really didn't know? How was that possible? Oh, well. It just might save his life.

'Why should I tell you?' he asked the stranger.

'Because I asked you,' the man was beginning to get annoyed.

'But what gives you the right to ask?'

'I work here. You're trespassing.'

'You work here?' Sirius knew he had no chance now, but the more questions he asked the more time he had, which is always good in a situation like this 'Can you prove it?'

The Unspeakable showed him an identity card. Of course. What else had he expected? But then he noticed something he had most certainly not expected. The name written on the card: Regulus Black. Well, the stranger did look similar to him… But he was dead! It was impossible! Unless…

'Oh Merlin…' he whispered 'Am I… am I dead?'

'You look alive to me,' Regulus said 'You look too solid for a ghost and zombies don't ask so many questions.'

'Hang on… Why do you look different? You're older than you were. Almost as old as I am. But I lived longer -'

'Shut up!' Regulus interrupted 'You are not dead!'

'But you are.'

'No, I don't think I am. Now will you tell me already who you are? Or shall I just use an Identity Spell?'

'Magic works here? Good…'

'Of course it does,' said Regulus impatiently 'Whatever you mean by here. Now are you going to tell me -?'

'I'm your brother, you little idiot!' Sirius shouted, forgetting all about trying not to get caught. Regulus stared. He didn't seem to believe.

'You aren't,' he said when he regained his ability to talk.

Oh, right. According to their mother they were not brothers any more.

'All right then. I'm not. Just don't tell anyone… Oh, nevermind, they won't believe you. They think I'm in Tibet.' He grinned. He wondered how Kingsley had managed to say it with a straight face.

Regulus stared at him, confused.

'What…? Tibet…? Don't tell…?' he tried to ask about a hundred questions at the same time, but failed miserably. Finally he managed to say 'And I still don't know who the hell you are!'

'I just told you.'

'No, you didn't. You said you were my brother, then you said you weren't… '

'No, you said I wasn't.'

'Because you can't be,' Regulus said, and then, tired of the discussion, he performed the Identity Spell.

'But… but…' he stuttered a second later.

'But what?'

'This can't be right. You're not him. You don't look like him. I mean, maybe a little, but…'

'How can I not look like myself?'

'I don't know… You could have -'

'What do you know about that veil-thing?' Sirius asked suddenly. He had had an idea. A completely insane one, but then, the whole situation was completely insane.

'What?' Regulus asked.

'You work here, don't you? Maybe you know something about it?'

'It's top secret stuff,' the Unspeakable told him.

'It's the only way to find out what's going on!'

'All right… We're not sure yet. You'd probably die if you went through it. Or at least you'd never come back.'

'Or you'd bump into someone who's supposed to be dead and tells you that you aren't really you?'

'What?'

'Well, that's what happened,' Sirius explained 'I fell through that thing, and suddenly you're here, telling me I'm not me.'

Regulus stared at him in disbelief.

'You… went… through… that… thing?'

'I didn't mean to. It's all Bella's fault!'

'Bellatrix?' Regulus seemed to have trouble following his brother's story 'Why the hell would she -?'

'Because I'm a filthy bloodtraitor. Oh. And I wouldn't let her have that prophecy and deliver Harry Potter to Voldemort.'

'Bloodtraitor?' Regulus seemed confused for a moment again 'Not in this universe…'

'What? Not in…? What kind of universe is it then?'

The younger brother gasped.

'You're a genious,' he said.

'Yeah, I know,' Sirius answered 'Err… But what did I do?'

'I think we've just solved the biggest mystery of the Department!'

'Does that mean you know what's going on?'

'Not really. It's too weird to be true… But so are you, so maybe I'm right.'

'Hey!' said Sirius, offended 'Why are you calling me weird?'

'How about because you've just appeared here from some other world and you are, sort of, my brother, only you aren't?' Regulus suggested 'I guess there's another world behind that thing,' he added.

'Apparently it's very different from this one,' Sirius commented. He did not know much about this world yet, but it seemed completely crazy.

'I guess it is,' Regulus said, taking in his brother's appearance and probably thinking exactly the same about the world he had come from.