Chapter Twenty-One

"Congratulations everyone on our first victory," Professor Slughorn announced. "Don't party too hard."

Our Head of House had arranged for the house elves to bring down plates of food and pumpkin juice from the kitchens, which were now on a trestle table near the windows. The sixth and seventh years appeared to have got hold of firewhisky from somewhere but Slughorn didn't comment or even look in their direction. I grabbed a plateful and headed over to the other three second-years (Rosier was still in the Hospital Wing).

"Well done," drawled Barty, not in a complementary manner at all. "Not bad for your first game."

"Shut it, Barty. It's obvious you're jealous," I quipped.

"Nobody would ever be jealous of you," said Barty. "Besides, I wouldn't want to be on the team anyway. Look what happened to Evan."

Mulciber practically growled at this: Evan had been his best friend since birth. Avery quickly changed the subject by getting out 'Exploding Snap' cards.

The four of us played several rounds of cards, of which I won twice, and soon we were having a good time. Over in the corner, most of the sixth years were getting drunk. Lucius was the only one of them that appeared sober.

…..

Monday and lessons came all too soon. Evan Rosier was back from the Hospital Wing but in a sullen mood, picking at his breakfast instead of wolfing it down like he usually would. As usual, owls swooped into the hall and for once I had mail from my parents. It was a pleasant surprise.

Dear Regulus,

Your Mother and I are proud of you for winning your first Quidditch match and for avoiding getting injured. Self-preservation is of the upmost importance even in a dangerous sport like Quidditch. I would also like to congratulate you on your good behaviour so far and let you know that we wish you to continue with your extra-curricular studies.

We have planned to spend Christmas Eve and Christmas Day with your Aunt and Uncle, Bellatrix, Rodolphus and Narcissa, so make sure that you choose appropriate gifts for them from both you and Sirius. We do not want your brother to choose items from Hogsmeade like previous years. Bellatrix will take you shopping if you cannot find anything by postal order.

See you soon,

Father

P.S. If you see your brother please tell him that his permission to visit Hogsmeade will be revoked if he continues to misbehave.

It was interesting that Father thought that I had any influence over Sirius. I supposed that meant he approved of me hanging around with my brother, although I didn't dare ask. It really was stretching it a bit. I also now had to think about Christmas shopping for my cousins, a task more difficult that it would've been if Narcissa would actually talk to me.

A squawk and peck to the hand while reading my father's letter told me that the black owl from Bellatrix had also arrived again, probably with the same charms on it as last time.

Dear Regulus,

Rodolphus recently discovered that a student has been spying on him and captured them. We thought that the situation had been dealt with but the student is now studying at Hogwarts again. I need you to find out who they are what they know.

So far Bellatrix's task was weird. It was unlikely Rodolphus didn't know who he had caught, and even if he didn't know who they were, how would he know that they had gone back to Hogwarts. Maybe they only knew this person by sight. I read on.

I'll give you some details to go on. The student was found in October, has light-coloured hair, and went back to school in November (they would have been missing school during the first week of the month).

I realised my cousin was talking about the student that had been terribly hurt in the forest – the one Professor Dumbledore had been lectured us about. I hadn't realised that they were back at Hogwarts. Had it been Rodolphus that had sent them to St. Mungo's?

Also, Bellatrix's definition of details was profoundly lacking. She hadn't even mentioned gender. And light hair? Light hair could be anyone: for example, Narcissa or Evan or Remus Lupin. Oh Merlin, Sirius's friend had disappeared for a few days this month. What if it was him? Was Bellatrix asking me to spy on Lupin? I wasn't going to do that!

I also need you to find out if we should be worried about the younger Rosiers. Rodolphus and I suspect that Evan may have been divulging secrets.

I look forward to hearing from you and I'll see you on December 20th.

Bellatrix

I let out a deep breath - yet another request for information on the Rosiers. They weren't really that interesting and they didn't really tell me any secrets other than that one I knew Bellatrix must have known about.

…..

Lessons passed slowly, especially with History of Magic. At lunch time I looked for Sirius to tell him about the letters. I couldn't find him so I went back to lessons.

Finally it was time for the extra Herbology lesson, although to be honest I was rather bored of Herbology after having already had it for a double period. Still, learning about healing magic was going to be interesting. It was a different career to the one my parents expected of me but still respectable for a high-achieving Pureblood.

I walked down to the greenhouses with Marcus, who was also taking the healing class. There were a small number of students already in the first greenhouse with Professor Sprout, including four Ravenclaws, two Hufflepuffs, Lily Evans, Severus Snape and Tristan Rosier. I noticed that the sign-up sheet for the mentor scheme still only had four names on it, so I didn't write mine – there was no point having a mentor that I didn't like.

"Thank you all for coming. In this class you will be learning how Herbology and Potions can be combined for the practical application of healing. Today, we're looking at common extracts used in healing serums. Can anyone tell us when we would use these?"

Lily put up her hand. "When someone is injured by a magical plant or animal and cannot be cured by a spell."

"That's right. And can anyone give us an example?" the Professor asked.

I wasn't sure. The first thing I thought of for animal injury was a werewolf bite and I knew that there wasn't a cure for that at all. I let the others answer.

"Manticore sting?" suggested Marcus.

"Cactus burn?" said Rosier. "We have twin Cacti in the garden. One hurts, the other heals."

"Both of you are correct, so ten points for Slytherin. You are unlikely to come across a manticore whilst at Hogwarts, but its sting can be cured with serum containing the antidote for the poison," said Professor Sprout. She went on to explain the basics of antidotes and showed us how to make healing cream for Vampyr Mosp stings. By the end of the lesson, I had made my own small jar of the stuff, which, due to the current infestation, was probably the most useful thing I could have made.

…..

It wasn't until after dinner that I managed to corner Sirius.

"Brother, we need to talk," I said, trying to work out in my head exactly what I should tell him. I hadn't even told him about the other awkward letters Bellatrix had been sending. "Somewhere private," I added. I didn't really want Peter, James and Remus listening in (or anyone else really).

"Ok, I'll show you a secret passageway then."

"Is this the one behind the mirror," I asked.

"No. A different one," said my brother. "How did you know about it though?"

"I followed Lucius Malfoy," I said. The passageway likely wasn't secret at all.

Ten minutes later, Sirius and I were somewhere between Hogwarts on Honeydukes cellar.

"So what did you want to talk about? You did well at Quidditch but surely you can talk about that in front of the others."

If the letter from Bellatrix hadn't self-destructed itself I would have shown it to him. However, as nothing was left of it but ashes I now had to explain everything.

"Bellatrix wrote to me," I said. "Father too, but Bellatrix's letter is more important. I think she…" I stopped talking. It was hard to explain and I felt like I was betraying my cousin. "Did you notice anything different about your friend Remus?" I asked instead.

Sirius's eyes widened. "How did she… what did Bellatrix tell you about him?"

"Nothing.. um… it might not have been him," I said. "Bellatrix asked me to find out who it was that got captured in the forest. I noticed Remus had been missing this month so I thought maybe it had been him."

Sirius looked oddly relieved as if he'd expected something much worse (although being captured by Rodolphus and hospitalised was about as horrible as life could get). "No, that definitely wasn't Remus. He just had to go home to visit his mother. Captured?"

"You know when Dumbledore said someone got hurt in the forest? I just found out Rodolphus caught them spying and I guess tortured them and left them for dead," I explained. As soon as the words were out of my mouth I realised the gravity of the situation (this was Azkaban-worthy) and also how callous I was being about it. "She told me that they were back at Hogwarts and that I was to find out who they were."

"Wouldn't she know already? He's her husband," Sirius said, echoing my own thoughts on the matter.

"I don't know. I think she wants to test me, but I'm stuck. I haven't a clue where to start looking and I don't really want to work for her," I admitted. "The only thing I can think of is maybe if we find out who it is, then we can get them to speak out."

"Do you really think Dumbledore hasn't tried to get information out of them already?" said Sirius.

"No," I sighed. Dumbledore probably had, as well as the healers and their parents and whoever it was that found them. What was more surprising is that no one had put out a 'wanted' poster for Rodolphus yet, because if someone was well enough to go to lessons again they obviously hadn't been tortured into insanity and probably remembered everything that had happened. Why hadn't they told anyone anything?

"Is there anything else she wants you to do, so you don't end up giving her a blank spy report," Sirius asked. Like me, he probably thought it was best to stay on Bellatrix's good side, but I could never be sure with him.

"She asked me to report on the Rosiers," I said. "She wants to know if they do anything suspicious."

"That should be easy. You're with Evan practically every hour of every day and you're with Damien for Quidditch," said my brother. "And I can tell you what Tristan's been up to," he sniggered.

"What?"

"He's been singing to a cactus for his Herbology project," laughed Sirius. "And his voice is cracking."

"What did he sing?" I asked, intrigued at the sudden change in subject matter. I'd read about singing cacti – the more you sang to them, the bigger they grew.

"Hey little cactus green and small,

One day you'll grow big and tall,

Soon you'll soar above the clouds

And make your daddy…"

"Ok you can stop now," I laughed. Sirius was singing deliberately out of tune. "I can't tell Bellatrix that!"

"Tell her he fainted last Friday then," he said casually.

"Fainted?" I gave Sirius a puzzled look. This was the first I'd heard about it.

"You're obviously not as close with the Rosiers as I thought, then. It's happened a few times, but last time was when we were making blood replenishing potions. The other times he just collapsed on the floor," Sirius said. He seemed unconcerned about this, which shocked me.

"Is there anything else I need to know? What did Father have to say?" Sirius quickly changed the subject.

"Only that I need to shop for both of us this year and that you need to behave. Oh, and they want us home for Christmas," I said, though I was secretly glad that Father seemed to be proud of me.

…..

Back in the dormitory, I drafted a letter to my cousin, giving unhelpful information that she knew already.

Dear Bellatrix,

Damien used the curse you told me about on Evan a few weeks ago while the rest of us were watching. He was angry at the time. Therefore now Avery and Mulciber know. However, most of the details I was given on the curse were different to the details you gave me, so I suspect that either Evan is hiding the truth or no one told him it properly in the first place.

Evan is in a horrible mood now because he got hit with a bludger in his first Quidditch match, while Tristan is upset that he isn't on the team anymore and has barely spoken a word to anyone. We weren't friendly to start with anyway. Apparently he fainted last week. Damien appears to hate both of them so I doubt he will have told them anything more than he already has.

I don't know anything about anyone spying. Dumbledore announced that someone had been sent to St. Mungo's due to getting injured in the forest but didn't tell us who it was. I didn't notice anyone that I knew being missing and quite frankly your description matches a third of the school population.

I look forward to seeing you in the holidays,

Regulus