Ok, I hope you enjoy the next chapter, I like the ending of this one. Once again I apologise for mistakes, I like writing and reading fanfiction, not reading the actual story, maybe the changes are on purpose, please read, review and enjoy.
Back from the dead –Regulus watched Severus' face as his cobalt eyes alighted on him and he was sure anyone else would have fainted. He wanted to smirk as his hollow, gaunt face paled even further but had to hold it back because he had a persona to hold up, he was meant to be crazy here so he could not smirk, if he found something funny he could laugh manically. He had a terse friendship with the man, they had been housemates and Severus had befriended him to spite Sirius, but Reg had been torn between helping him as Slytherins were meant to and the loyalty he had to his brother. He felt nothing adverse for the man himself, he just hated him in a passive sort of way so Sirius would love him, and he did, so he just kept shunning his advances.
As he and Sirius hated each other he felt the need to be hostile towards the pale, ugly man but was not quite brave enough to do so outwardly because he was friends with Lucius. That man who was now locked up where he belonged was a man who was far too influential. He was fully capable of turning the whole house against him, so he was never nasty to Severus and he tentatively allowed him to help him with his subjects and walk him to lessons. However he tried to keep contact and conversation with him to a minimum without being overly obvious that he was doing so and he never knew if he was doing a good job of being subtle because while Severus might not have noticed the shunning he could have just not cared. He didn't even talk to him much when they were both death eaters, which led to a fair deal of awkwardness between them.
Regulus fixed him with a hard glare, trying to send him a telepathic message but he must have missed a few lessons on that subject because it did not seem as if he was proving very successful. 'Stall for me Severus,' he thought at him as hard as he could, if someone could scream a thought that is. 'Stall, however you can, I tackled the headmaster to the ground and bit him through those purple robes, you can do it too. I don't care what you do, walk slowly to go and get the veritaserum, for Sirius and Harry, please.' He suddenly regretted telling Sirius he did not want Severus to see him because, and this assuming the man would be on their side over the headmaster regarding Harry; this would be a whole lot simpler. 'Please Severus,' he thought as hard as he could, somehow getting it into his head it would work.
Needless to say it did not work as well as he might have hoped, all he was given as a reply was a queer look as Severus tried to work out why the weird man before him whom he had thought dead until a couple of moments ago and could very well be insane was staring at him with such intensity and such a bizarre expression. What he needed was a prompt, something spoken out loud but with the headmaster so close that proved difficult. 'What would Sirius do?' Sirius would not have gotten into this mess. 'What are your advantages?' Any sort of fight with the headmaster was half power and halfwits, this was going to have to be 100% wits to at least help Sirius, and he already knew he'd sent a patronus, it did not take a genius to work out who it went to.
He only had one thing he could make an advantage out of, Dumbledore thought he was insane. Of course Severus might think he was insane too, but if he screamed it loud enough he could give quite a clear message without anything suspicious coming out of it. If there was one thing Regulus could do, it could act, so he did, he started and thrash and scream, wordless cries of make believe agony, anger and fear, although self anger and guilty fear for Sirius and Harry was quite genuine. He shook his head from side to side started to convulse, the foam pouring out of his mouth as if he was having a full on fit. He struggled and shook and fought against the bonds tying him to his seat knowing they were not going to break.
He certainly had their attention at least; both men had shrunk back from him slightly. He focused his now bloodshot eyes on Severus and started to bark crazy laughter which made him shrink back further with uncertainty. It was all an act of course, he was a good actor, he could hardly tell Severus his clue without disguising it as insane yells, Dumbledore might catch onto something. However, there was a little voice at the back of his mind telling him he may be overdoing it slightly. His aim was to throw Dumbledore off his hypothetical scent, not scare Severus off, he was stalling them though, which was something. "What the hell happened to him?" Severus muttered to the headmaster, "should I call Poppy? Maybe get some calming draught?"
"He died Severus, I think for a dead man he is in surprisingly good shape. However I do not believe he is as insane as he would have us believe. I don't know whether he stole the invisibility cloak from my quarters or whether he had help in that department in the form of his older brother, but he got onto Hogwarts grounds alone. An insane man probably would not be able to get into the room of requirement by himself, especially as I am sure he did not know about it when he was a student here all those years ago. He cast a patronus as well, not an easy spell in general, especially not for an insane wizard. Come on Mr Black," he tapped his shoulder to try and snap him out of it, "that is enough now, calm down."
"He looks pretty crazy to me," Severus muttered as Regulus moved to bite the headmaster's fingers when they got too close to his person.
"Anyway my boy, I would like you to go and get some veritaserum from your stores." At this Regulus sprung into action. Severus was a smart man, his yells would mean nothing to Dumbledore, probably, but Severus would figure it out, hopefully.
"NO SEVERUS!" He screamed, making to the thin, pale man to turn back around as Regulus sounded terrified, he was acting too well, Severus had no idea this was an act, but as he became more and more in character, the less of an act it was becoming. "YOU CAN'T GO DOWN THE STAIRS SEVERUS!" He screamed, "DON'T LEAVE THE ROOM! DON'T LEAVE THE ROOM! DON'T LEAVE THE ROOM!" On a whim he added, "PEANUT BUTTER AND JAM SANDWICHES!" This was more or less what Sirius had said to Severus when he'd been staying in Grimmauld Place, recovering and he'd obeyed out of loyalty, gratitude and debt. Sirius had told him the noise being made upstairs was Harry or Kreacher to protect Reg's existence from the man, when he'd seen the two of them walk past his bedroom door a moment ago.
Dumbledore would not know that though, it was a double entendre, that was the beauty of it. Dumbledore would think Regulus in his mad state had somehow, for some reason, latched onto Severus and did not want him to leave the room, leave him alone, and the dungeons were downstairs. Severus would put two and two together and realise that in order to uphold his promise to Sirius and Harry, he had to help Regulus stall. Regulus slowly let his thrashing subside and was pleased to note that while Dumbledore held an expression of pity and supreme confusion, understanding was dawning on Severus' face. Dumbledore was facing the crazy man so he did not see it, Reg gave him a smile that fell from his face and quickly as it came, so as not to arouse suspicion, and Severus gave him the smallest of nods.
Reg had done all he could and brought a few more minutes just with that display, it was time for Severus to play his part, it was up to him to help now. "I'm afraid I cannot get you any veritaserum," Snape said, answering Dumbledore's question and Regulus' wishes with one quick statement, "as I do not have any left. It, along with a great number of potions were stolen by Sirius Black a number of months ago as you know and truth serum takes a long time to brew and requires complete concentration for the entire duration. Between my classes, brewing potions for the hospital wings and other concoctions that were stolen and more commonly needed in a school, I have not been able to completely replenish my stocks."
Regulus did not know how much of that was truth and did not care either way; the important thing was that the headmaster brought it, which he did. Had Regulus not been tied to the chair at the moment, he would have jumped up and hugged the man. Regulus appreciated Snape's attempt but it only ended up stalling the headmaster always had something else under his sleeve for seven minutes, but plenty of time had passed now. Seven minutes was how long it took him to fire call Fudge and tell him to floo to his office and bring Veritaserum with him. Fudge answered immediately as he always did, whether someone he was hunting was currently tied up in the office of the man who picked up his slack or not.
Fudge also almost fainted at the sight of him, but like Dumbledore, professionally attempted to push the feeling aside. "What's the matter Fudge?" He said teasingly, leaning forward in the seat he was bound to, "surprised to see me?"
"You're dead," Fudge said quickly as he produced the vial, "of course I am surprised to see you."
"My mistake," Reg said, "I must be a figment of your guilt ridden imagination. Do feed me the Veritaserum Fudge," he teased tauntingly, "there is so much I would like to say I would like to say and be taken seriously." He turned to Dumbledore, "I'm not really crazy," he said, "I was just play acting, but now Fudge is here to play there is a lot I have to say. What are you waiting for Fudge? Feed me the truth serum." He should have probably kept silent, for while it felt good to taunt him again, Fudge managed to convince Dumbledore not to give him the truth serum.
"If he wants it, he must have ingested something to make it have no effect or something, don't trust a Black yet, he must have connections with his brother." He leaned in close to Regulus' face, "I know you know where he is, Black, there is more than one way to get information out of a person." He drew his wand and pointed it square at Regulus' chest, "where is your brother Black, you will answer me or so help me I will use an unforgiveable."
Regulus tried not let his face drain from colour, he had felt the pain of crucio before and he did not want to feel its effects again. He forced a smirk to adorn him face instead, feeling fear would be like conceding already. Black had beaten him when he'd been locked in jail, Regulus could do the same thing, if he stayed calm he would win. "I can't say I am surprised Fudge," he said, shrugging as best as he could against the bonds holding him, "you are dark now after all. All the ministry officials following you now after all the dramatic occurrences inside your ministry are death eaters. He'll come for you when he's done you know, Sirius will come for you and he'll make you pay for everything you did, once he's finished doing your job and capturing and imprisoning all of your death eaters. Maybe he will sort out a nice little cell for you too."
"Shut up!" Fudge slapped him, which just made him laugh even more, so much so it sounded almost maniacal, but not insane, and Dumbledore was hearing all of this.
"You won't feed me truth serum, because then I will leak to your influential buddy here that you are corrupt and my brother is innocent and he and you will not be able to dispute it. Sirius did not kill those muggles, or Peter, Peter is still alive and Peter was the death eater who betrayed James and Lily to VOLDEMORT!" Severus and Fudge flinched at the name while Reg, after spending so long with the confident Sirius felt nothing, far less exuded any reaction, which sent him into another bout of insane giggles. I have made a fine comeback from being a death eater, much like you Severus, and I'm hunting the death eaters with Sirius, like Malfoy, the Lestrange brothers and the Notts, the rest will follow soon, very soon."
"Is there something you need to tell me Fudge?" Dumbledore ask, twinkle absent from his mind, "Regulus, is Sirius innocent?"
"Sirius didn't kill those people Dumbledore."
Dumbledore nodded, "but how can you be so sure if he just told you."
"He showed me, with his memories, he tracked down Peter after James and Lily died, but Peter showed uncharacteristic swiftness. He blew up the street and cut off his finger and transformed into a rat and escaped down the sewer leaving Sirius unscathed so he was framed. He shouted that he was the one who betrayed the Potters; minutes later you appeared Fudge and arrested him with no trial." He turned back to the headmaster, "and what about you? You got him out of the jail when he was a death eater," he jerked his head in Severus' direction, "but you won't save an innocent man. You must have been suspicious, Sirius turn dark, kill his own brother, for James was basically his brother, you must be mad."
"I believe you Regulus, however I still do not feel comfortable leaving Harry with him."
Regulus grew nervous, "what do you mean Dumbledore? You have not grown dark on me have you? Not now, please not now"
"He is so powerful, with no wand as well."
"A perfect protector then, you mean it is power you do not have and power that is not under your control, you bastard." He whirled on Fudge, "and you can stop smirking in relief you bastard!" He started struggling and spitting in earnest, "he will come for you both!" He thrashed in anger, eyes darkening, "HE WILL KILL YOU IF YOU TRY AND TAKE HARRY AWAY FROM HIM AGAIN! HE WILL FUCKING KILL YOU! HE'LL FUCKING KILL YOU ALL!"
"Scream all you like Regulus, I'm making the decision I think is the best."
"You are making the decision that will suit you the best you fucking liar! Sirius saved him from abuse and we love him, we love him! It will kill Harry to be separated from us again, he has finally found family and Sirius and Harry are all I have left, we only have each other!" He struggled further, wanting nothing more than to rip their eyes out. Severus was strangely silent and standing off to the side, an unreadable expression on his face. "He is innocent! He is innocent! HE IS INNOCENT AND YOU WILL STILL CONDEMN HIM! YOU BASTARDS! YOU FUCKING BASTARDS! SIRIUS CAN TAKE THE NIGHT OFF! I'LL FUCKING KILL YOU MYSELF! YOU CORRUPT FUCKING BLOODY CUNTS!" He screeched, "I AM GOING TO KILL YOU! YOU WILL RUE THE DAY YOU CROSSED US!"
"Feed him the veritaserum Fudge," Dumbledore said, "let us see where they are hiding." Of course he struggled, he thrashed, he spat, but eventually the potion was forced down his throat. "Where were you staying with Sirius and Harry?"
It was veritaserum, he could not stop the answer spilling from his mouth, "Grimmauld Place," he said immediately, "Sirius is Lord Black now, it's his."
"How do you find it?"
"It's under the fidelus charm."
"You could take us there?"
"I can."
"Will you?"
"Never, not for all the riches in the world."
"I could torture you until you do," Fudge cut in.
"Mr Fudge!" Severus cut in, scandalised, "don't you think all of this is a bit harsh and hasty. We know, or at least there is a possibility Sirius Black in innocent, now you are still hunting him? And you condone all this headmaster?" At Dumbledore's nod Severus bent his head, "I am afraid I cannot agree with this, I will not follow you with this doubt, and hopefully, neither will the Order. I am sorry; the two of you are on your own."
"How about we keep Regulus here until Sirius comes for him? I am sure he will come for the remainder of his family, I can take him down," Dumbledore offered, continuing as if there had been no outburst from the teacher next to him.
Severus shook his head in disgust. He nodded his head as a sign of goodbye and quickly left the office, it was too corrupt in there. They wanted to condemn an innocent man who had saved his life to cover up their mistakes, and he could not agree with that.
"Dad?" Harry asked as he crawled onto his father's lap, "where's uncle Reg? Shouldn't we go get him to come home now?" Sirius wrapped his arms around the little bundle but said nothing, even though Harry was right. They had been in the Bahamas for almost two whole days now but had not done anything about the missing Reg or the revolution, this was an annoying problem and it would mean leaving Harry for extended periods of time, again, but he would make up for it when the revolution was over, he just needed another year or so. But he did not even know where Reg was, probably not Azkaban, he'd have to be somewhere secure, he needed help with this mission. Just because he was powerful did not mean that he knew everything.
"It's kind of late cub," Sirius said, suddenly noticing it was 10:30pm, very late for small children, "why aren't you in bed?"
"I couldn't sleep."
"Did you have a nightmare?"
Harry nodded, "about uncle Vernon."
Sirius' arms tightened and he rested his chin on Harry's black locks. "I'm sorry for everything they put you through; I should have come for you earlier. You do know you will never have to see them again don't you? You are quite safe; they will never hurt you again."
"I know, but they still frighten me, I'm sorry."
"You don't have anything to be sorry for cub, I'm sorry if I sounded that way. I'm just worried about your uncle; I don't know where he is." He picked up Harry and took them both to his bed and stretched out on it. "Here, I'll keep your uncle away from you; you have a father and an uncle who loves you very much, never forget that." Sirius was certainly never going to forget it, for as long as he lived knew he was never going to forget it, Harry was his, and he was loved, so very, very loved, and Harry loved him also, probably more than he knew.
On the third day Sirius was woken by a patronus appearing in his bedroom, waking the two of them up. Sirius sat up slowly, holding Harry so he did not fall to the floor when gravity meant he could no longer stay on the chest he'd been sleeping on. It was a huge silver lion, he knew that anywhere, Remus' patronus, now what did he want? The lion opened its mouth and out tumbled apology after apology, much like Regulus' patronus had been. "Oh my God Sirius I am so sorry I ever doubted your innocence and after my first inkling I never sought to make things right with you. I should have known it was preposterous but I needed someone to blame for their deaths, I should have fought tooth and nail to get you a trial and rejoiced when you broke out."
"Severus has visited me and told me Regulus has been questioned by Dumbledore and Fudge. I can't believe he is still alive, I remember how you cried when you found out he was dead, despite is wrong side in the war. Even though they both know you are innocent they still want to capture you, you are too dangerous to not be under their control so have captured Regulus so you go to rescue them. They probably have a load of traps but I know it is completely pointless telling you not to go or to wait a little longer to plan and gather some allies first; I will help you fight if you want me to. I will stand behind you 100% in this revolution you are starting. They did not find Grimmauld Place because Regulus refused to show them where it is, even though, and I'm so sorry Sirius, they used crucio on him, though they do know it is Grimmauld Place."
Sirius almost froze at that information, they had tortured his brother. How DARE they, he was going to kill Fudge, and Dumbledore, brutally. He felt love as well because Regulus had not broken under the pressure, he loved them that much. "Regulus is being held at the ministry under the guard of Dumbledore, he is the one you will have to fight, good luck." So Dumbledore had fully betrayed him now, he was the enemy, a man he had once respected, almost loved to an extent; he was the man he would have to defeat in battle. He was not scared of the encounter, while he was only 80% sure he could win which were still not odds he liked all that much, that was not what was bothering him, it was simply because it was Dumbledore, just Dumbledore.
He did not want to fight that man; the thought of beating him, even to bring his brother back brought him no pleasure. In the same way it takes a lot for a child to stop loving their parents, despite all of his transgressions against him, he still held a glimmer of affection for his old headmaster. He had to be wary, people turned on their friends, this he knew, and Fudge was wetting his pants more every day which caused him to do drastic things, but Dumbledore was always a constant for the light. Dumbledore would cast unforgivable, Dumbledore would never be dark, even if he would throw him into Azkaban when he rescued curs like Severus – something was up. "Dad, Padfoot, is everything ok? Is Uncle Reg ok?"
"Yes cub," he answered truthfully, "come tomorrow everything will be ok." He called Kreacher into the room just as Harry was dozing off again due to the late night before. "Kreacher, I need you to listen to me carefully and do exactly what I say. I want you to take Harry and take him to Remus, and he is to stay there until I call for him. I want you to serve Remus as you have served me, for Harry because I have no desire to separate the two of you. Now, if things get bad then I want you to forget me, and Regulus if you have to. If I am ambushed and can't get out and can't be saved then just forget and help raise Harry, do you understand?"
"Master that is never going to hap-"
"Do you understand, Kreacher?" Sirius shook him by the shoulders, staring into those wide eyes that were filling with the huge tears of worry that only a house elf could produce. Shakily and upset he closed his mouth to force himself to make no reply or reassurances that Sirius would be fine as much as he believed them, needed to believe them. He did not want to stop questioning how Sirius did not need to worry about that, how powerful he was. The intensity in his eyes however was so great, tantamount to an order, he had to nod and say what Sirius wanted to hear and carry out his words. He'd make sure Harry was looked after.
Sirius placed Harry in Kreacher's arms where he was held preciously to his chest like a fragile piece of glass. "Thank you Kreacher," Sirius said with a small smile, "for everything you've done, and in case I don't see you again, goodbye." Kreacher did not get a chance to say goodbye back, Sirius had already apparated, game face on. There was really nothing left to do but drop Harry off in the arms of Remus and persuade him to help Sirius fight.
Reality was being challenged a lot recently, ever since Peter betrayed them he was doing an awful lot of things he thought he would never do. He was imprisoned for a crime he did not commit and even more amazingly he became the first one ever to break out. He unlocked his core and had gained the potential to become the most powerful magician alive. He was looking after his abused godson and not to blow his own trumpet, but despite his lack of experience he was doing so superbly. He had become a vigilante hunting death eaters getting them to confess and then presenting the memories to the minister in increasingly more public spaces via his own invented brand of penseive, and he never was the creative one, especially not for potions, so that in itself was another phenomenon.
He should really stop being surprised at his own feats of magic because now he was a certain someone's heir he was going to keep surprising himself for years to come. He had already struck Remus, beaten Malfoy, Lestrange, Nott and various other people, this was just another adversary. Still, this man had been something of a mentor to him, his father had never really been the parental type and before running away with James to live with him and effectively become his brother to the point he shared his parents too, he had given this man similar adoration. Striking a brother is normal within many families but when you do it to one's father it is different, and he knew he was going to get no satisfaction from surpassing this man.
It would not have been so bad if there were no onlookers, but this man served as a pillar of such strength to so many, beating him would not favour them. They relied on him to be their protector, protecting them from villains like him and to have said villain emerge victorious was painful. The kindest thing he could do was beat him without hurting him badly and retreat without so much as looking at anyone else. He would not boast, he was not a gloat and he would not prolong things and he was already sorry for what was inevitably going to happen because he did now and always would admire and even love this man, he'd admit it, after all, he had done so much for him. Of course leaving him to rot in Azkaban was not a fatherly move, but it takes a lot for love to die.
"So it has come to this," he said quietly, knowing his opponent, though easily twenty paces way, heard him perfectly. "I had rather hoped I'd not have to battle you, I have always thought of you as a father figure, and during my school years I yearned for you to look on me as a son." It was true, Minerva had always paid him special attention, treating him as her personal cub more than just another one of her lions, maternal love was never in short supply, but paternal love was another matter. His opponent made no reply as he raised his wand and Sirius copied by raising his hands into a battling position, ready to take on this man he admired, this man he once adored, Albus Wulfric, Brian, too many middle names Dumbledore.
As always with his once headmaster, fighting him was half a battle of power and half a battle of wits. In the area of power he was pretty sure he was superior, in fact, he knew he was far superior, but with skills and battle technique he was not so sure. Wandless magic and his own modified shields had gotten him a long way so far but he had not had a century to master skills like Dumbledore had. As for wit, well it was the same, but if he sounded confident enough he might be able to beat him without hurting him. He was definitely going to win, but he needed to win in such a way his old mentor was unharmed, and if at all possible, save face.
"Tom was always scared of me," Albus said calmly, "even when he decided to go by the name Lord Voldemort and became the dark wizard he is today, he is still scared. It would make sense his servants are scared too."
"I am not frightened of you, Albus, wary maybe, an admirer certainly, but not scared, because I am confident in my own power and I know that it is greater than yours. All the greatest witches and wizards we know of lived in the past which is... interesting. It is all about unlocking one's core I believe, something of the past, it works better than simply having the right wand. I found out something interesting a while back that has increased my confidence greatly. Voldemort could not hold a candle up to any of the four founders, and the four founders combined could not hold a candle up to Merlin, and the heir of Merlin is me. There is a reason why the Black house is the most Noble and Ancient, so perhaps it is you who will learn fear. It's about time."
"I do not have to harm and humiliate you Black, you or your brother, if you just give yourself up or agree to work for me and Fudge everything will work out fine."
"Be your pawn you mean, I'm afraid I cannot accept that."
"You are outnumbered."
"So I see, but you are clearly outmatched."
"I have had over one hundred years to master my magic."
"Well I have had over one hundred weeks, my magic is held by an unlocked core, there is no way you can beat me."
"I will knock that confidence out of you."
"The same sentiments to you, I will be sure to send you flowers while you all recover in St Mungo's, oh wait, no I won't, because you'll be dead. You overstepped the line when you took and dared to even hurt my brother; innocent Regulus who did nothing to you." True he was a death eater once, but he repented for that, Severus was a death eater once. "I should not be surprised; you had no qualms with hunting a man you knew was innocent. But I shall crumble your empire at the same time I crumble Voldemort's in case he find a way to return his body. I am going to make sure you regret ever even hearing my name, goodbye, headmaster, minister."