"I want to help," Regulus insisted as he stared, unperturbed, at the three teenagers. Being tossed to the ground of the Department of Mysteries after having resigned himself to death had been disorienting to say the least. The realisation that his return had occurred a mere hour after his brother's death, as if the Veil had exacted some kind of macabre exchange, had been even worse. But it hadn't been until days later, when Albus Dumbledore had taken custody of him and spirited him away to his childhood home, that he had come to appreciate the length of time that had passed since his own death. After having been interrogated by the Order of the Phoenix as they tried to determine his trustworthiness, reassuring three kids that he was on their side would be simple. "I couldn't stop him in my own time, but I can help you stop him in yours."
"Why should we trust you?" snapped the boy with the intense green eyes that watched him with a mixture of longing and bitterness. He, out of all of them, seemed to be taking the unexpected switch the hardest.
"Because you have no other choice if you want to defeat the Dark Lord. You can't do it without me."
"You're just as likely to stab us in the back as to help us. You're a Death Eater, just like your dear cousin Bellatrix."
The girl glanced at the Potter boy in concern, confirming Regulus' assumption that there was a story behind his anger. Forcing himself not to fire back at him, he shrugged and said, "I was one, yes. But I deserted back in 1979. If my 'dear cousin' ever finds out, she'll kill me herself to salvage the family name. I have no reason to help them and every reason to bring them down."
"Harry, I⦠I believe him," the girl said, and Regulus' curious gaze automatically shifted to her. With hair so bushy that it could house a bird's nest and clothes that looked almost uncomfortably Muggle, she wouldn't have been his first choice of ally. Still, someone was better than no one. And, if the things Lupin had said about her while introducing him to the younger group were correct, she might be better than almost anyone. "I know you don't want to, but I think we can trust him."
"Hermione, you can't be serious," the redhead interrupted. "He's ā he's a murderer!"
Her eyebrows pulled down as a conflicted expression crossed her face. "I know; he has done some terrible things. I'm not saying that any of us have to like him. But he left them out of love, Ron. No one with that strong of a bond to his house-elf can be all bad. And the Headmaster is considering letting him join the order, which he wouldn't do that if weren't sure that he could be trusted." Turning back to face Regulus, she continued, "I'm not saying I think you're good. I just think you're telling the truth about wanting Voldemort gone."
"Noted," he replied, mildly amused by her little point of clarification at the end. Potter and Weasley still looked conflicted, but they both appeared to be mulling things over. His focus, however, was on her. The more people he had on his side, the greater the chance of them allowing him some freedom ā the ability to move about unsupervised, his own wand ā in the weeks and months to come. "And I am."
A/N: Prompt - 'bond'
