Resurrection

Chapter 4

Discovered

D: These things really are quite annoying.

Although school was still in, the trio was given a short break so that they could devise a plan to set everything right again. Professor Trelawney had warned them of inevitable danger, which, they just ignored, but Professor McGonagall took the warning to heart and sent the three away with Tonks and Remus. There'd been another slight attack within the school, but it was not enough to send every student home early. The only lives lost were a few of the house elves, which of course got Hermione started on how cruel their lives were and how humans were too lazy to do their own work. Still, the attack had grabbed the order's attention and this is why they'd come to Grimmuald on a Monday.

"I still don't understand why we had to leave on a weekday. I have an essay due today." Hermione whined, "Couldn't it have waited until the weekend?"

"No. And besides now you have extra time to do your essay." Ron argued.

Harry smiled at his two bickering friends. He wondered if they'd ever stop their incessant babbles about nothing. The group carefully looked around them to be sure no one spotted them. Tonks confirmed that they were the only ones on the street and urged them forward. Harry unlocked and opened the door revealing the familiar stuffy smell of the ancient house. The group quietly came in so as not to disturb the portrait of Mrs. Black. This was when Harry stopped suddenly, causing the others to stop as well.

"Do any of you smell that?" The others sniffed curiously around the room for any funny smell that may have alerted their leader.

"I smell pancakes." Ron confessed.

"That's odd." Remus commented and stole to the kitchen. He came back in a moment later with Kreacher.

"Kreacher was hungry master, made himself breakfast." The ancient house elf lied, to protect his real master, who was upstairs at the moment, cleaning out old objects in the attic. The ugly being cracked a trademark grin and popped upstairs. There was a noise above the group that captured their attention. Hermione started up the stairs but was stopped by Harry.

"Don't." He had a hold on her arm that meant what he said. "Let us go with you." She gave him a look that said she was a big girl but she paused and nodded anyway. So she, Harry, and Tonks all went up together. Ron and Remus stayed behind to have a look downstairs.

"So," Ron began "when are you going to propose to Tonks?" He teased. Remus rolled his eyes and threw a couch pillow at the joking red-head. Ron instinctively shielded his face with his arms. "You know you'd be such a great couple. You're both beautiful people, the beautifuls should always be together."

Remus paused in his pillow throwing to look at Ron. Where did Ron hear such a thing? The boy knew the on coming question and quickly explained. "I heard my mother saying something like that. I asked Hermione about it and she agreed. The beautiful people deserve to be together and have a beautiful privileged life together and have beautiful privileged children together."

Remus shot one more pillow that managed to penetrate Ron's arm shield. It hit the boys face and caused dust to fly out and made the boy sneeze. "Ew…this place really needs to be cleaned up."

"Well then, clean it up." Remus ordered as he arranged everything again.

Ron took slight offense to that remark and backfired saying "I don't know how to clean. My own room hasn't been dusted in years, and mum won't step one toe in it."

"Molly's probably afraid she'll find dead rabbits or something in there."

"I don't hoard dead rabbits in my room, or any animal for that matter. There may be an old sandwich under my bed, but that's about it."

"I was just joking. Come on, let's find something decent to eat."

"Can you cook?"

"Fairly well, I'm not a chef but I can cook some thing edible." He moved into the kitchen followed by the red head who at this moment, was a little frightened.

… … …

The two brothers were so engrossed with looking through the attic that neither of them had heard anyone come in. Currently, Sirius was looking through an old family album he'd found under a pile of other things.

"Reggie, look at this old thing." He breathed. The younger brother inched over curious at what his older brother had found.

It was an old photo album. The book was bound by dead vines and the pages were ripped but the pictures were in surprisingly good condition. The pictures moved in their respective manners. There was a picture of the entire Black family as it was before Sirius was born. Uncle Alfred was still alive and smiling cheerfully in this particular picture. The boy's father looked to be the youngest and there was no sign of their mother anywhere.

"This must be before our parents were married."

"But if that's the entire Black family, why wouldn't she be in there? She is his cousin, disturbingly enough."

"Your right, but I think this is our father's immediate family. You know; his mother, father, brothers or whatever." Regulus whispered an 'oh' and continued with what he'd been doing before.

Sirius, he saw, was still entranced by the photo album. It was in this moment that he heard muffled sounds below him. It came from the second floor. He didn't think much on it because he knew how Kreacher had the habit of making rounds around the house. It wasn't until the sounds became voices that he did anything about it.

"Sirius," he said, "Sirius there's someone here." Sirius looked up from the book and stared at his brother.

"That's impossible. This place is charmed so much. The only reason Mirie could get in was because I was with her. As long as there's a Black with the person trying to get here, they can."

Regulus just ignored this crazy explanation and readied himself at the door. "Just come over here." He demanded, receiving a look of annoyance from his brother. Sirius did so as quietly as he could and the second he settled down he recognized those voices.

"Harry and Hermione are here? They're supposed to be in school."

"Who?"

"My um…godson and his friend. They're both students at Hogwarts but…why or how they're here, I have no idea." Sirius hid himself further away from the groups view and just watched. Regulus did much the same but watched with interest. 'His godson? That's Harry? He doesn't look like much to me.' He thought to himself.

Sirius had of course explained every bit of detail with Regulus about everything that had happened. At least, everything he knew. So of course, he'd said something about Harry being his godson and what all he was capable of. Some parts of Sirius' tale Regulus was not fond of, namely, the parts where Harry and his lunatic friends were trying to put an end to the Dark Lord. Regulus still felt in obligation to the foul man, albeit he could hardly be called a man anymore. So there the two were, unsure of where to go.

… … …

"I'm not seeing anything Harry." Announced Tonks. So far, the three had looked in nearly every room but a few.

"Well…there is the attic." He glanced up the dark steps that led to the darkest room in the house, which, was quite a feat, every room was as dark as rooms come.

"Do you two know we haven't done what we came here to do?" Hermione reminded.

Tonks and Harry, both ascending the attic stairs turned their heads and looked upon the girl like they had no idea what she was getting at. Hermione took this as offensive and threw up her hands in annoyance.

"Forget it!" she then stormed downstairs to look for Remus and Ron. Harry and Tonks shrugged it off and continued up.

The first thing they noticed was papers and boxes strewn all along the floorboards. "What a mess." Tonks commented. She walked carefully along the far wall, watching her steps so as not to bother any of the papers. "Kreacher must have been up here." She then came across the old photo album and studied the picture in front of her. Two young boys were playing around, wrestling each other for a spot in the picture. The eldest boy didn't look to be much older than eight. Tonks knew almost immediately that she was looking at a child Sirius and his younger brother, what was his name? 'Regulus' she remembered.

"Harry, come look at this." She said with amusement. Harry made his way over to her, leaving his own area; which was where the Black brothers had been hiding.

"Wow, they're so young there. Is there a date anywhere?" Tonks turned the picture over in her hand. There was scribbled writing on the top left corner. Sirius & Regulus, June 5th, 19…the rest of the year had been smudged away.

"They look so happy here." Tonks breathed. "It's just awful what happened to them."

Sirius knew what she was referring to and also knew what photo they were looking at. It happened to be one of his favorites. It was taken before he attended Hogwarts and before he turned away from his own family. They had been so happy at that time. He couldn't help but feel a tinge guilty for not being sorted into Slytherin, but that guilt slid away when he really opened his eyes to what evil his family had for so long been a part of. He wanted so much to relieve his younger brother of that pressure. He wanted to be that older brother that Regulus could look up to, but he was never given the chance...and that's what bothered him.

Regulus looked on in interest at the two strangers in his attic that, for one reason or another, he was hiding from. He wasn't the bravest person in the world, but he also wasn't one to stay hidden for long. He was stubborn like that. He wasn't, however, the one to ruin their cover. Sirius somehow managed to bump his head on the wall which of course caught the attention of Harry and Tonks.

"OW!" He whispered and then cursed when he'd realized his mistake." Regulus rolled his dark eyes, annoyed at his brother's stupidity.

Both Tonks and Harry swiftly turned their heads toward the sound. "Who's there?" Harry asked to no one in particular. There was silence for a few seconds or so and then the attic door slowly swung closed to expose just Sirius' dark form. Harry stood frozen with a frightened look on his face; Tonks clapped her hands on her mouth and let out a surprised scream. Sirius tried quieting her by a series of shushes, but that did not help matters.

"Now, uh…please don't be alarmed, it's just me." He tried to reason. He must have forgotten they think he's dead. Harry still stood frozen, unable to speak, while Tonks' remained afraid of the man before her.

… … …

Remus had just managed to get a few sandwiches on the kitchen table when he heard the distinct cry of fright come from Tonks. Ron paused in mid-chew with the look of confusion on his freckly face. Hermione also stopped eating and whipped her head to the kitchen door. Ron was afraid she might've gotten whiplash. All three of them stormed out of the room and hurried upstairs, leaving their lunch behind.

They reached the attic in seconds, Remus, with his wand at the ready, swung the door open further, causing the door to hit against Regulus and pin him against the wall. Regulus, in response, let out a string of curse words.

"Shit, shit, shit, shit! Oh goddamn that fucking hurt!" This was all the group heard and Sirius rolled his eyes and sighed. Remus knew doors didn't generally talk unless charmed to do so, so this piqued his interest. Ron and Hermione ran to Harry and that's when they too saw Sirius.

"Sirius!" Hermione exclaimed "But you're supposed to be dead!" Sirius nodded with a grin on his face.

"Not really, can't explain that right now. Um…let us go downstairs to talk about it."

"Sirius," This time it was Remus who spoke. "Doors don't generally speak."

"I know that." He limped over to the door and closed it again. This revealed his brother, who was currently holding a hand to his mouth to keep him from talking. The heroes all stared in that direction, speechless. Regulus took this as his cue to stand up, stare back at them and walk out of the attic. "Look at that, you scared him. Good going guys." Then he himself went downstairs.

This left the others confused. Remus was the first to leave and return to the kitchen. For whatever reason, he knew that's where Sirius went.