Disclaimer: Jo's world, I just live here.
Summary: If a monkey eats fermented grapes, does that make him a vine swinger?
A/N: Woohooo! Finally got the next chapter up. And, best yet, finals are almost over and I'm not taking summer courses, so I'll only have to work around, well, work.
-8-8-8-8-8-8-8-
Chapter 25: The Locket
Aries looked on in shock as the young Black fainted dead away. Perhaps he had underestimated the impact his little revelation would have. He jotted a quick note to Riddle, so as not to alienate a potentially useful resource, and closed the book, rushing over to his friend. A quick enervate woke the black-haired young man, though it did nothing for the headache caused by crashing to the floor.
"Ohh," Regulus groaned. "What bludger hit me?"
"No bludger, just the floor," Aries told him, cracking a relieved smile. He helped his friend sit up and cast a general health-improving spell on Reggie's head.
The young Black started a sigh of relief, but it ended long and remorseful. Reggie stared down at his hands for a while, and Aries kept silent, wanting to let his friend think things through.
"That's it then," he said finally. "The Dark Lord is powerful, we've all seen that; but he's a half-blood, raised without a wizard or witch in sight. His very power discounts all those theories you read me Aries – they're wrong. This whole stupid war is wrong! It's not some noble battle to preserve the strength of magic, it's some personal grudge of Tom Riddle." Regulus spat on the ground after speaking the name, making Aries' eyebrows shoot up in surprise at his vehemence.
"Calm down now, Reggie," he said, patting his friend on the shoulder. "It's not good to get so worked up."
"Worked up?" Reggie laughed incredulously. "I'm far beyond 'worked up', Aries. I killed for him; I killed women, children…people lying asleep in their beds, whose only crime was that they knew better than the rest of us. I can't – I won't – let that rest. If the Dark –"
Regulus finally remembered where they were, and to whom he was speaking, and cut himself off, looking around warily. Aries smiled faintly – had he been a loyal Death Eater, or had he not erected a silencing ward, Reggie would have signed his death warrant with his first sentence; clamming up now would do him no good.
"We shouldn't talk about this here," Aries agreed. "Come to my place tomorrow and I'll let you know a few truths."
Reggie looked up at him, startled, a little fear showing in his eyes. Aries raised an eyebrow and gave him a look that said, "You know me."
"Alright, I'll be there," the youth relented.
Aries helped Regulus off the floor, and gave him an honest smile.
-8-8-8-8-8-8-8-
Severus was interrupted from his sleep by the flexing of the wards to allow apparition. Only two other people had been blood-keyed into the wards, so Severus wasn't worried and tried to return to his dreams. Unfortunately, it appeared fate was against him as, mere moments later, the sound of off-key singing filled Fraternita Aeternus. Severus tried plugging his ears, pulling the quilt over his head, and even tried casting a silencing charm at the door, but the singing was too loud and the flat's wards absorbed his attempted spell.
Scowling, Severus pulled a dressing gown over his cotton trousers and shuffled tiredly into the kitchen, where he found Aries and a half-empty bottle of firewhiskey. Although a small shot glass lay nearby, it was clear both from the lack of moisture in the cup and the brunet's death grip on the neck of the bottle that this was not a moderated nightcap.
"Fi'ty five bottles of beer on the wall, fi'ty five bottlesh of beer," Aries slurred. "Take one down," he took another gulp of whiskey, "passh it aroun', fi'ty four bottlesh of beer on the wall."
"Aries, what the devil are you doing?" Sev growled.
The brunet looked up, eyes unfocused and face flushed.
"'lo Sever–… Shever–… Sev. Isn't life grand?"
The Slytherin wrinkled his impressive nose at Aries' powerfully alcoholic breath.
"What are you going on about?" he wondered.
"Tomorrow," Aries explained with a smile so bright it looked like a grimace, "I'm gonna puch my life in…in shome'un else's hands. Gonna tell'm a shecret 'at could get me kill'd."
Sev knew he should brush off Aries' ramblings as drunken and incoherent, but his blood ran chill at the thought. Aries, too, was a Death Eater of high standing, and likely knew quite a few secrets that could get him killed.
"What have you got yourself into, Aries?" he murmured. However, as drunk as he was, Aries was not deaf.
"Can't tell you, iss a shecret," the brunet sloshed some whiskey onto the counter as he spoke.
"But you're telling this other person?" Sev demanded, starting to get angry. "You'll put your life on the line, trust them but not me?"
"'Course!" Aries grinned again. "Knew you'd un'erstand, Shev."
Severus felt a spark of resentment flare into life. Aries had been awfully closed mouthed the last time they spoke; how long had the other man been keeping secrets from him? And it would be secrets, there was never just one when a person started to hold back. But Severus was a Slytherin, he understood having and keeping secrets. He even understood getting drunk on the eve of risking your life.
But he could not understand, nor would he try, calling someone a friend, and then going behind their back and telling secrets to others.
"Fine," he breathed, almost too angry to speak. "Then I suppose you won't need me around anymore. Good luck with your hangover, Hesuchazo."
-8-8-8-8-8-8-8-
Aries woke with a splitting headache and a cottony mouth; those were expected, though, and he knew a large amount of water would help out immensely. However, he could not explain the shadows of a keen regret that lingered in the back of his mind. True, waking up regretting the night before was a common effect of alcohol consumption, but he hadn't gone outside of the safe house, so he shouldn't have found anyone to insult too badly.
Unable to shake the worry that this was more than just 'oops I redecorated the carpet' regret, Aries dug out one of the memory containers he used for Order information. Memories covered with a drunken haze wouldn't be perfectly clear seen this way, but would be much more distinct than what he could recover himself. He watched with growing horror the conversation with Severus, smacking himself firmly on the forehead when he saw how the other man's face darkened at his callous words.
Well, there was only one way to fix this, and two hands were hardly worse than one.
Pulling himself sluggishly out of the pensieve, Aries went over to the writing table. A message this urgent couldn't be left to the off-chance that Sev would arrive at the Safe House in time to read it, so he'd have to owl it, which meant an early morning trip to the Diagon post office.
Maybe he could get a hangover cure from the apothecary first.
With a heavy sigh, Aries carefully crafted a letter to Severus, inviting him to the Safe House that night. He also wrote a note to Charles, figuring it was safer to have two people if obliviation became necessary.
-8-8-8-8-8-8-8-
Eight o'clock that night, just after the sun had set, Sev arrived at the Safe House. He had seriously debated whether or not to come, but in the end, curiosity had won over pride. The Slytherin graduate was the first to arrive, and he carefully took in the empty flat around him, sitting in the most comfortable armchair. A potions journal he had left on the coffee table the other night caught his eye, and he opened it to an article about research on a potion to subdue werewolves.
The story was interesting, although it sounded from the ingredients as though the maker originally wanted a potion to kill werewolves. Silver and aconite were the active ingredients, and the maker was even calling the potion "Wolfsbane". Severus smirked at the thought of feeding it to Lupin. It would never happen, though; he and the werewolf ought never to cross paths again, unless they were pointing wands at each other.
By the time Sev heard anyone else enter the flat, he had finished that article and moved on to a historical piece about the discovery of the uses of dragon's blood. The constant mention of Dumbledore was not enthralling enough to prevent interruption, and the potions student gratefully set the journal down and rose to greet Aries.
"Charles, what are you doing here?" he blurted.
"The same thing you are, I suppose," the redhead drawled. "Waiting for Aries to arrive so I can witness his latest half-baked scheme."
"You don't approve, I take it?" Sev asked wryly.
Charles flopped gracefully into his favorite, dark green armchair and leveled a long look at Severus.
"Frankly, I think that Aries should keep his secret a secret, and that telling it here today is likely, if not definitely, going to get him killed."
The Slytherin's nostrils flared at the implied distrust.
"I could have said the same thing the night he told you he was a Death Eater," he said coolly. "But Aries said that we are friends and shouldn't have any secrets between us."
"Yes, well, Aries has his own definition of friendship," Charles sneered, though his eyes looked troubled. "One day he'll trust the wrong person, say the wrong thing, and he'll end up dead. Just because you won't betray him doesn't mean this other person won't, or the next."
The truth of that statement felt like a physical blow to Severus, and he wilted back into his seat. Aries was dangerously reckless with the truth, he couldn't deny that. His mind flew back to the night previous, where he had found the brunet up to his eyebrows in alcohol, and couldn't hold back a small smirk.
"He is not as reckless as we think," he quietly denied. "He probably has been planning this revelation for weeks, constantly testing this other person to see if they will betray him."
Charles openly snorted at that. "If I thought Aries was smart enough to test someone that thoroughly without them realizing, then I wouldn't be nearly so worried," he sulked.
Severus didn't have a chance to respond as the door to the flat opened then. He and Charles rose together, eager to learn the identity of the mysterious confidant.
-8-8-8-8-8-8-8-
Regulus arrived at the small muggle café no later than fifteen minutes before his scheduled meeting with Aries. Yet, as per usual, Aries had beaten him there and was casually sipping tea and reading some sort of muggle publication. The young Black's stomach twisted at the sight of food; he hadn't been able to eat since the revelation and didn't feel any inclination to start now.
"Hello, Reggie," Aries greeted him brightly, interrupting his thoughts. "And how are you this fine day?"
"Nervous as all Hades, and you should know it," Regulus scolded. "This is my life on the line here."
Aries waved a dismissive hand, making Reggie want to curse him.
"Don't worry, neither of our lives is on the line where I'm taking you," the brunet claimed. Regulus wasn't sure he believed him, but when the waitress brought him a cup of tea, he did take a few sips.
Aries waited until there was no sign of Regulus drinking more to fold up his paper and stand, leaving a stack of muggle paper money on the table.
"Follow me, and keep your voice down, I don't want us followed."
With this last cryptic statement, Aries started down the street. Regulus hesitated only a moment longer, then hurried to catch up. If he trusted nothing else in his life right now, he trusted that Aries would not get him killed, so he could certainly throw his lot in with worse people.
The brunet led him along two bustling blocks of muggle businesses, then ducked quickly into an alley and darted down two more interconnecting alleys. Aries really didn't want them followed, wherever they were going. Finally, just as Regulus was begin to get a bit breathless from the determined pace, Aries stopped in front of a building. It was an ordinary building, the same color and size as both of the buildings to either side, yet Aries was holding the door open as if it were the minister's mansion. The inside was well lit with icy, buzzing muggle lights, revealing plain beige carpet and a few uninspired portraits that didn't even move.
It was like some kind of bizarre alternate dimension where the life had been sucked out of everything. Regulus shuddered.
"Don't tell me you live here," he gasped, unable to imagine his boisterous friend in such cold surroundings.
"Of course not," Aries smiled as if amused. "I share a flat near Diagon. Now, come along, and remember to stay quiet."
Regulus pursed his lips together at the reminder, though he was still unsure about the connection between being quiet and being followed – anyone close enough to hear them would surely be close enough to see them as well.
He tagged along behind Aries who took him to a small alcove in the hallway where two imposing metal doors with no handles stood motionless. A small pad with two buttons sat in the wall next to the doors and Aries pressed the one on top. From behind the door something made rumbling and rattling noises, and Regulus began to feel worried – what kind of creature would need such monstrous doors to hold it in? Suddenly, an invisible bell chimed and the doors opened; Reggie cringed, but saw nothing but a small, windowless room inside, a pad with many more buttons the only decoration.
If he didn't know better, he'd think it was a lift.
When the doors opened again to a completely different hallway, Reggie paled.
"That was a lift," he stammered. "I though you said this is a muggle building."
"It is," Aries responded unconcernedly. "It's not a magical lift, it's run by electricity, just like most muggle inventions."
"What do you mean, muggle inventions?" Regulus demanded. Lifts were magical, everyone knew that; they were basically just boxes with controlled levitation charms.
"Didn't you know?" Aries raised an amused eyebrow at him. "Muggles invented most of the things wizards use every day; we just adapted them to run off magic. Lifts, ovens, cars, even the WWN didn't show up until a good decade after muggle radio programmes."
Regulus took that in silently as he trailed after the brunet down the hall. He had already accepted that most of Voldemort's ideas about pureblood superiority were wrong, but to think that muggles were not inferior, were not disabled, but were, in fact, key attributers to wizard life…He wasn't sure if he could wrap his mind around that just now.
The sound of a door latch startled Regulus, and he forced these new thoughts to the back of his mind. This was it, Aries was opening the door to a new fate, and Regulus would meet it head on – not as a Black, not as a pureblood scion, not even as a wizard, but as a man of integrity who would not live a lie once he knew it was a lie.
He took a shaky step forward into the flat and stopped short.
-8-8-8-8-8-8-8-
Sev's jaw didn't drop, but it was a very near thing.
"Black?" he gawked.
"Snape?" Black responded, equally startled.
"Oh, you know each other," Aries interrupted. "Good."
Severus snapped his glare to his Gryffindor friend. Aries knew full well how he felt about Sirius Black, and here he was, bringing in the irascible infant trapped in a man's body's little brother.
"Calm down, Sev," Aries cautioned, proving he was not totally without intelligence. "They may look alike, but they aren't the same at all."
The underlying warning was clear: Aries had invited Regulus first, and Severus second, and if one of them had to go, it would not be Regulus.
"We shall see," Severus murmured, sitting down, but not lessening his glare.
"Right, then," Aries clapped his hands and smiled obliviously. "Now that we're all here. Regulus, this is Charles Higgins; Charles, this is Regulus Black. Charles and Severus are very good friends of mine. We're all here to get some things out in the open. Before we start, can I get anyone anything – tea, biscuits, calming draughts?"
His proposition was met with frosty stares from three sides, so, with a roll of his eyes, Aries sat.
Over the next hour, Aries explained to those who shared the mark that he was not as loyal as he appeared to be. The tale was slow and arduous, and the look of betrayal that flashed from Severus' eyes before he cleared his face made Aries' insides twist.
"So that is it, then," the Slytherin snapped, glaring hatefully. "Very well." He stood and made for the door, but Charles' wand was faster with three locking charms before Sev could even reach the kitchen.
"Severus," the redhead said firmly. "Remember why we are here. Remember what this set of rooms represents: the war is not bigger than our friendship. Just as I didn't turn you in when Aries told me you had joined, he has been spying for Dumbledore for over a year now, and you and Regulus are both still free. And you will both walk out of here free, even if you don't choose to come back."
"I have your word?" Severus demanded, back to them.
"You have my word," Aries pledged, reaching for his wand to seal the pledge. "I swear by –" He was cut off by the sound of the door slamming.
Severus was gone.
-8-8-8-8-8-8-8-
Regulus left soon after Snape. He was quite dissatisfied with Voldemort, true enough, but Dumbledore's benevolent manipulation and disregard for wizarding traditions still grated. True, Dumbledore was doing more than anyone at the moment to bring the Dark Lord down, and sometimes one had to join forces with unexpected allies to defeat a common foe…
But by Merlin! Regulus had had enough of taking orders from wizards he didn't respect. Maybe he couldn't defeat Voldemort, but he could find out a way to make false the evil wizard's claim to immortality. Those awful spellbooks Aries had made him read certainly gave him a few ideas.
Regulus only knew of two ways for a wizard to live forever. One was through the legendary Philosopher's Stone. However, that only kept one from dying of old age – it didn't protect from injury or deadly curse – and it required complete dependence on a piece of rock, which was not Voldemort's style at all. The Dark Lord never depended on anyone, even his followers knew that a task from their leader was a favor to them (or a death sentence if they did it wrong) and not a favor to Voldemort.
That left only one option that would produce the desired result. It was magic so Dark that, before reading Voldemort's books, Regulus had only heard it mentioned in awed whispers by his family, who claimed to be the Darkest of Dark. A way to tear a wizard's soul in two and hide a piece of it away, where no one could find and dispose of it. A way to tie a wizard to the land of the living so inexorably that death could not touch him.
Regulus would bet his inheritance that Voldemort had made a Horcrux.
This required some thought. Naturally a Horcrux would be some object of great importance and symbolic value, and Voldemort liked to claim Slytherin heritage…Was there some Slytherin heirloom remaining that the Dark Lord might have gotten hold of?
And while he was researching that, he would also have to look into possible hiding places. He knew, from his research into Tom Riddle, the location of the orphanage that raised the young boy Voldemort. That was as good a starting point as any.
The Slytherin graduate still wasn't comfortable talking to Aries, so rather than enlist the Spellsmith's help in snooping through the Dark Lord's library, he decided to use the resources of his own family. The Black's had a library that was almost as old as the family itself, and his mother had always had an infatuation with all things Slytherin. Regulus managed to get her alone – an rather tipsy – Christmas night, and knew he'd get no better opportunity to grill her.
"Happy Christmas, Mother," he dipped his head politely.
"Oh, yes, Happy Christmas Regulus," she returned, flushed face and bright eyes making her look somewhat mad. "How are your extracurricular activities?"
"Just wonderful, Mother," he lied. "I feel so honored to know that I'm a part of bringing our family into this bright new world."
His mother smiled fondly at him, making Regulus want to sick up.
"Actually, Mother, I wondered if you might be willing to help with a…project of mine."
"Anything for the cause, my son."
To make the request more enticing, Regulus glanced around, as though afraid ministry spies might overhear.
"You know my lord is the heir of Slytherin. I was wondering if you knew of any heirlooms from the founder that He might be interested in."
"Ah, a noble quest worthy of the Black name. I'm afraid I can't be of much help, however. The only Slytherin heirloom of which I had any knowledge was a locket that fell into the hands of one Hepzibah Smith – descended of Hufflepuff, of all things! – but when her over aged house elf accidentally did her in…well, no one quite knows what happened to the locket after that."
Regulus sighed for effect, though inwardly he was rejoicing – this was exactly the kind of lead he had been hoping for, and he was quite certain that it was no house elf that killed Hepzibah Smith.
"Well, thank you anyway, Mother," he expressed a disappointed gratitude, just in case she was paying attention. It seemed he needn't have bothered.
"It just goes to show that your Aunt Elladora had the right of it," Walburga ranted. "House elves absolutely must be beheaded before they become senile. That way no harm comes to the family reputation, and the elf can be remembered with its dignity intact. What little of it they're broth with, that is." She cackled at her own joke, took another delicate swig of Champaign, and fell asleep.
Regulus left her there; he had plans to make.
-8-8-8-8-8-8-8-
A/N: Whelp, there you have it folks. Er…I really don't have anything to say at the moment. Please direct any questions to the review button below. Or, better yet, to the Yahoo! or LiveJournal communities.
PANTZ,
Emerson