A.N.: This is a short but crucial one! I'll update two but please review on both. I need to know how you like/dislike the chapters! To Aya-Mikage2002, peacekeeperchuck and the ever-faithful SlytherclawXHuffledor for your reviews of chapter 28.


Letters from a Young Death Eater


Sirius re-emerged as a man later on when everyone else had gone to bed, with Hermes threatening to go up too after having enough of Rhona making stabs at him about Witches' Suffragettes Society, and sprawled luxuriously in the huge armchair by the fire, which seemed to fit him particularly well.

"So, how's the W.S.S. coming along?" he grinned at Rhona.

"Pretty good, actually. So far I've driven Hermes up the wall three times in an hour," Rhona smirked.

"A personal best," Harriet added, and Rhona nodded.

"So…First Hogsmeade visit tomorrow," Sirius smiled. "What are you three going to get up to?"

"Well," Rhona and Harriet both sighed, "we thought about going to Madam Puddifoot's," Rhona continued, "but, seeing as it's too feminine for Hermes, we've decided we might go and have lunch at the Three Broomsticks."

"And then drag Hermes around the shops," Harriet cackled vindictively. Hermes pointedly ignored them both.

"I see…would you be having this lunch in a private parlour?" Sirius asked casually.

"Perhaps," Rhona shrugged. Sirius rolled his eyes. "Why?"

"Has this got anything to do with…what we talked about the other day?" Harriet asked quietly. Sirius eyed her thoughtfully.

"Perhaps," he said, mocking Rhona. "There is something I'd like you to obtain from Bode and Barbars'."

"What's that?"

"It's a shop in Hogsmeade," Sirius said, giving them a shifty, guilty sort of look. "It's… Have you ever heard of Borgin and Bourke's?"

"Heard of it? Harriet's been there!" Rhona exclaimed, and Sirius then gave Harriet a very searching half-glare.

"We'll get back to that in a minute, but…Bode and Barbars' isn't quite as disreputable as Borgin and Bourke's, but it comes close to it; it's the Hogsmeade equivalent," Sirius said quietly, pulling several things out of the pocket of his robes. A letter, another sheaf of parchment, and a small, burnished silver key.

"What's that?" Harriet asked interestedly.

"This is the key to a safety-deposit box in the back room of Bode and Barbars'," Sirius said quietly, handing Harriet the key. "This is the registration number of the box, and the password. You must think the password, only think it, and tap it with your wand before unlocking the box. That's very important."

"Er…what exactly is in this safety-deposit box?" Hermes asked warily. Sirius bit his lip, glancing around at them all.

"I'm not entirely certain," he said quietly.

"Then how do you—?"

"It belongs to my brother," Sirius said quietly. "Harriet, read this, will you?" He handed Harriet the letter, which she realised when she took it was only a few sparse sentences long.


Dear Sirius,

I know I'm being cryptic writing like this,

but the Dark Lord's spies are everywhere.

I can't risk writing to you as I would wish.

Tell Prongs that if I'm successful,

his daughter's job will be made a little easier.

If I fail, go to Bode and Barbars' in Hogsmeade.

Your goddaughter should find what's in my box extremely useful.

She'll know what to do with them.

Regulus


"Sirius, what does it mean?" Harriet asked quietly. "Who's Regulus?"

"My younger-brother," Sirius sighed heavily. "I don't know what it means."

"How does he know about Prongs?" Harriet asked.

"Most likely he heard me talking to James when we were at Hogwarts," Sirius sighed heavily. "He was four years below me, you see, in Slytherin. We never saw much of each other after I ran away from home. I received this letter maybe six months before your parents… Well, we all know the end of that story."

"He says my 'job will be made a little easier,'" Harriet read. "Do you think he knows—about the prophecy?"

"It's very possible," Sirius said quietly, rubbing his face tiredly. "Regulus joined the Death Eaters very young—by that time, our cousin Bellatrix was already one of Voldemort's closest supporters. I cannot say most-trusted, for I doubt Voldemort ever trusted anyone. But it is very possible Regulus was invited right into the inner circle. He might've known."

"Might've known enough to be a threat," Rhona remarked, taking the letter and reading it.

"How do we know it wasn't a fake?" Hermes asked quietly.

"It was delivered into my hands," Sirius said quietly, "by Severus Snape."

"Snape?" all three blurted.

"Yes. You are to tell no-one about this—Severus Snape turned spy for the Order of the Phoenix almost a year before Lord Voldemort's downfall," Sirius said quietly, glancing around at all of them. "He was a double-agent."

"What do you mean?"

"I mean—He was a Death Eater," Sirius said, even more quietly. "He turned spy for Dumbledore, I never knew why. But I received this letter from Regulus through him…I never got a response when I wrote back."

"Does Dumbledore know about this?" Harriet asked, turning over the tiny silver key in her hand.

"No," Sirius sighed heavily. "When I never heard back from Regulus, well… I've never found out what happened to him. He disappeared." Sirius' face marred with ill-disguised concern and deep guilt.

"So, we go to Bode and Barbars'," Rhona said definitively. "Only way to know what he was going on about."


A.N.: Please review!