TW: Small mention of Abuse

Chapter Sixty-Seven: The Case of the...?

…..

"Now all of you tell me again what happened." the deputy headmistress spoke sternly, her sharp eyes narrowed in distaste at all of them. Regulus doubted any Gryffindors would be under this much scrutiny, and people thought Slugghorn played house favorites.

"We were playing the game ma'am," Lucinda replied, just like Regulus had told them too somehow realizing even through his panic that whatever they told the professors it could by no means be the truth.

"And explain to me once more what sort of hair-brained nonsense this 'game' is?"

"We try to touch the Whomping Willow. Whoever gets the farthest wins," Gregory explained nervously, his eyes darting around the room as if convinced some milky white-eyed monster would chase after them….again.

McGonagall regarded them all closely as if by peering through her spectacles she could spot the lie. After scrutinizing them for a long moment she finally gave a sigh.

"Very well. Ten points deducted from your respective houses for each of you and three days' worth of detention with me," McGonagall stated, holding up her hands as they all tried to protest.

"That's not fair other houses were doing it too!"

"Pretty sure it was someone from your house that started it, professor!"

"I assure you it will be looked into but that doesn't mean the five of you shouldn't be held accountable, after all, you were up after hours and blatantly ignoring Dumbledore's warning about that tree. Your actions resulted in the serious injury of a student so be grateful the punishment isn't worse! Now all of you, back to bed," she replied firmly, her tone making it clear no amount of arguing would alter her point.

"She can't possibly take points away from Davey! The poor bloke probably lost an eye." Gregory grumbled as they left, glancing at Emma who had been very quiet. It was her recent friendship with Davey that was the reason he had been with them.

If only Emma and Davey had stayed at the stupid dance none of them would be in trouble.

Only Regulus had to consider the fact he might not be standing here right now if Davey hadn't shouted the warning he had that allowed Regulus to duck away from the knotted branch. A branch that had slammed hard into the ground where he had previously been, leaving a dent in the earth from the sheer force. Regulus shuddered thinking how close he had come to being wiped off this earth. Why was a tree that dangerous allowed to be on Hogwarts grounds in the first place? Regulus was sure it must be guarding something important as that was the only reason that made any sense whatsoever, but he wasn't about to test his theory any time soon. He didn't think he wanted to go near that blasted tree ever again.

"What gives, with them having such a dangerous thing on the grounds anyways?" Lucinda grumbled particularly annoyed since her cousin Gregory had his arm in a sling and a large bruise on his other hand.

"Bet it's guarding something! Mark my words you don't have something that dangerous around a bunch of stupid kids without a distinct purpose," Regulus clarified as the four of them walked towards the dungeons. No one had the heart to let Emma walk herself to her Ravenclaw dorm and since it wasn't really against the rules to let another student in, it was silently agreed upon that she'd simply stay in Lucinda's dorm tonight. In fact, they might all stay in her dorm.

None of them really wanted to be alone. Not after what had happened.

Regulus opened the door to their dorm glad the dance would keep the older students away for a few more hours at least. If there was one thing a Slytherin wouldn't miss out on it was a party to potentially elevate their status in society...or school.

"Are you guys alright?" asked a Slytherin coming over to them with concern in his expression.

"Back off we're fine," Regulus replied coldly since Narcissa had taught him that's how he was to talk to the 'Slytherin peasants'. That basically meant anyone who wasn't from old pureblood families which were most of his fellow Slytherins. Regulus normally didn't follow Narcissa's example with that unless she was around….or if he was in a particularly bad mood like he was now.

He didn't even have the normal decency he'd typically have to regret his snapping at the student. Because Regulus didn't really want anyone to be afraid of him unlike Sirius, who seemed to desire that people would fear him, what with how he tormented Slytherins and all.

"Little harsh…." Emma remarked, which made him bristle but he resisted snapping at Emma who hadn't said anything in a long time and who was more upset than any of them about the events of the night.

"It's fine. Ryan is a leaper among our house, no one likes him. He should have known better than to approach a Black!" Lucinda retorted, sounding affronted.

"He was just concerned," Regulus defended, distracted on bigger problems that his other friends hadn't quite seemed to realize yet. He walked into the room that was shared by him and Gregory.

Just the two of them shared the room. That wasn't unusual though, since Hogwarts seemed to know that most Slytherin parents would throw fits if their children room with too many people. In fact, Regulus's mother had offered to throw such a fit so he could get his own room but Regulus had shot her down enjoying the idea of sharing a room, especially with how homesick he had been upon first arriving, and quickly becoming friends with Gregory because of it.

"We need to figure out what we are going to do," he said, flicking his wand to light the relaxing blue flames that gave the impression his room was underwater, helped along by clear tubes that ran across the structure of the ceilings of all the Slytherin bedrooms. Regulus quite liked it, especially when a Gindyfish occasionally got stuck and had to release the strange metallic liquid that made the creature shrink.

"What do you mean?" Gregory asked, looking confused as the others.

Regulus took a deep breath having realized long ago his intelligence was far superior to his peers, and he didn't mean that in an arrogant way, merely an accurate observation. Regulus wasn't quite sure what it was that led to his broader world outlook and higher maturity than his friends, but he had a sneaky suspicion his upbringing had something to do with it.

"Whatever that thing was didn't come from the forest….at least it shouldn't have. Someone had to have brought it to Hogwarts…..illegally," he explained resisting the urge to snidely point out that they had just been discussing what creatures were in the Forbidden Forest last week.

However, Regulus had hated it when Sissy or Sirius looked down on him so he forced himself not to do the same with his friends. It wasn't really their fault if they'd rather be excited about the Triwizard Tournament or fantasize about one day serving the dark lord. Regulus didn't know if he himself wanted to join the dark lord who seemed…..overly cruel but he kept that to himself. After all, Regulus had learned very quickly to keep his true opinion about things close to his chest and keep his mouth shut about anything until he checked with Sissy what was acceptable for him to believe about whatever the matter was.

That's why he had kept his great admiration of Professor Corbyn who spoke about creatures as if they actually had feelings and rights, to himself. Regulus knew creatures did have feelings and should be treated well because of Kreacher, only no one else seemed to like the DADA Professor so Regulus merely shrugged to signify his supposed indifference anytime he was brought up.

"Why….Why didn't we tell a professor then Regulus?" Lucinda gasped looking scared. Not that Regulus could blame her, he too was scared with even the mere possibility of more than one of those things being on the grounds. Hell, even just one was bad enough.

"They wouldn't have believed us," Emma spoke up before Regulus could and he nodded at her, impressed at how strong she sounded despite the possibility her friend may never be the same after tonight.

"But that's ridiculous! Who would lie about that?"

"First years trying to avoid getting in trouble," Regulus explained, who knew all too well about adults not believing kids. His dad didn't believe Regulus about his mom beating Sirius nor did their aunt believe Regulus when he had tried to explain last year how Sirius was punished with a dementor. Regulus shivered, that had been the only time he had come face to face with the dementor and he knew he'd do whatever his parents wanted, whatever was expected of him, to avoid meeting that hideous creature again.

"So what do we do? Who would believe us?" Gregory asked, even though they were all aware of the unfortunate answer. No one would believe a bunch of first years.

Regulus wished Sissy would but he knew she mostly saw him as a silly little kid.

That left Sirius as their only option. If anything, Sirius owed Regulus his belief, since he had believed his brother about the dementor long before he had known for a fact his brother was telling the truth. His older brother would believe him, he just had to. After having his big brother hug him as he had only ever done a handful of times before Regulus felt a bit as if he could really tell him anything. Only when Regulus had attempted to explain they were chased, Sirius had, with an unusually kind demeanor, explained they had just been scared. Then when Regulus persisted in trying to describe what had happened Sirius had grown frustrated thinking Regulus was just trying to avoid punishment so Mother wouldn't be disappointed in her 'favorite child'.

Regulus would have been upset with Sirius if he hadn't at least seen partly where Sirius was coming from. Regulus knew he was the favorite now, it just frustrated him because Sirius used to be the favorite and seemed to have completely forgotten about that. His brother coincidently forgot that he had thrown away his chance. Sirius used to have what Regulus had only been given as a second choice. But Regulus couldn't think about that now. Besides, maybe now that 'avoiding trouble' wasn't a possibility anymore Sirius would believe him. Regulus was even willing to shove the fact that he had believed his older brother when no one else did in Sirius' face if that's what it took to get him to believe him. After all, Hogwarts could be in danger and he and his friends could use someone older, and more experienced at breaking rules, to help them figure out some way to stop it.

"You guys wait here, I'm going to find someone who might help," he instructed, ignoring their protests. "I'll be fine that….that thing won't be in the castle. Just wait for me," he ordered and left his friends trying to figure out some way to slip into the Yule Ball.

Their evening wasn't supposed to have turned out his way.

Not that pointing that out to himself changed anything. Really it had all seemed like a marvelous adventure at first, one even Regulus could get behind. It all started the night they had overheard those older students talking. Well...technically it had started with Emma finding out what had happened since Lucinda had failed at keeping it a secret for long. Emma had somehow managed to even convince Regulus, despite him knowing she was a liar, that she had heard about a few older students planning to sneak into the forbidden forest on the night of the Yule Ball to get an advantage with the next task.

"That means we could slip into the forest too," Gregory had exclaimed, always the first to get sucked into Emma's lies. Only...this time she hadn't been lying...not really.

For a few weeks, it had been harmless fun of planning how they would get in. Regulus...if he was being honest with himself mostly wanted to go into the forest since Sirius already had. Regulus didn't think he was all that competitive but he also was fascinated by creatures where Sirius only hated them. Besides, if his dumb older brother hadn't even gotten hurt going into the forest then Regulus figured it wasn't all that dangerous after all.

But then Emma had announced she was going to the Yule Ball and that she'd meet them at the edge of the forest, the thin part in between the Hogwarts grounds and the real start to the Forbidden Forest where all the students knew entering too deep into would alert a professor to your misdeeds. Regulus still wasn't sure how Sirius had managed to get in, but Regulus's curiosity about the forest, his friends' constant persuading, and the possibility of helping Gideon by catching the cheaters red-handed was simply too alluring to pass up.

Somehow, Regulus had let himself be stupid, much more stupid than a noble Black ever had the right to be.

He scolded himself violently as he marched through the halls convinced that if a professor spotted him, as it was now technically past hours, he could convince them that he had an older student 'date' to the dance. It wasn't technically a lie since Regulus had been asked by multiple third and second years, but he didn't like dancing much and Narcissa assured him missing out on this dance at his age wasn't going to harm his social standing in any way.

Perhaps if he had gone to the dance he never would have gone to the edge of the Forbidden Forest?

But he had, with Greg and Lucinda and he would have been lying if at the time he hadn't been excited. Lucinda and Greg allowed him to be simply a kid in a way his older cousins and brother scoffed at despite being more childish than Regulus by far. His friends allowed him to be a kid and to drop most pretenses of caring about labels in a way his parents discouraged….harshly.

Hogwarts had brought freedom from home in a form Regulus hadn't before realized would be good for him. He still struggled with missing home but he knew Hogwarts was good for him and…..part of him was glad to have a break from his mother's bouts of her extremely cross temper.

"Where are you going young man?" an older Hufflepuff student asked him with a slightly demeaning tone.

Regulus hated being a child!

"To the dance."

Predictably the Hufflepfull seemed shocked, not many second years were going to the dance let alone first years. The whole setup was ridiculous and Regulus hated that Hogwarts hadn't simply just said first and second years weren't allowed to go. Instead, the schools had created this farce about 'needing an older date'. Although Regulus supposed if Hogwarts had denied the younger students from going outright, there would have been an uproar amongst the Slytherin parents, and overly boisterous students like his brother and James Potter may have even started a riot.

"Aren't you a little young, little guy?" the teenager replied with a sort of lopsided smile as if expecting Regulus to admit he was lying and to go back to his dorm, like a good obedient boy'. Regulus didn't have time for this, he wasn't sure how much longer the first, second, and third years would be allowed to stay at the dance.

"I'm Regulus Black, now please let me pass," he explained, unable to keep the slight challenge out of his voice. But of course, the Hufflepuff immediately backed off and as Regulus walked past him he couldn't keep the slight smile off his face. No one messed with a true Black!

After, Regulus managed with overall relative ease to convince three other older students he did have an older date waiting for him inside and all but threatened one of the seventh year students who was acting as some sort of poor excuse for a bouncer he made it into the Great Hall which seemed much bigger than normal.

Finding Sirius would be the real problem.

"I would like to have everyone's attention," Dumbledore called in a commanding echoing voice from the front area where a stage was set up and where the wizarding band called Dark Dragons had stopped the song they had been playing abruptly. A tense silence filled the Great Hall and Regulus ducked his head swearing he could feel the headmaster's eyes on him.

"As of tonight, any student found by the Whomping Willow will be in serious trouble. There has been an accident and while the student hurt has suffered no life-threatening injuries, it has made Hogwarts aware that the danger of the Whomping Willow needed once more to be stressed too old and new students alike. So while the Whomping Willow may seem like a fun challenge, it should be treated with the proper respect any creature deserves. Those who fail to do so will find detention rather than coal in their stocking," Dumbledore's serious expression had softened into a smile and a few students laughed at the bad joke though most seemed tense, probably because they had either participated in the challenge or encouraged a younger student to do so.

Regulus wasn't sure who had started the challenge but hoped they felt very bad.

Even though the stupid challenge actually had nothing to do with what had happened tonight.

It really hadn't been their fault! When they had arrived at the edge of where the trees started growing denser, Emma had met up with them tugging along her 'date' who had seemed like a decent boy but whose presence had seemed to kill the mood of the adventure slightly. Still, Lucinda's excitement had fueled them all and Davey had enough sense to realize he was an outsider in this and had wisely just sort of hung back.

They had then hidden in some bushes, small enough to be completely covered, and had almost given up on waiting for anything to happen when five older students had arrived, all their faces had been hidden by the shadows of the night.

Regulus still couldn't make sense of what their conversation had even been about despite still remembering it word for word.

"This will help you in your mission," whispered a quiet older male voice, the age of the speaker impossible to determine.

"I still don't get why you are helping us, but thanks." Whoever was speaking this time sounded younger, though Regulus couldn't be certain.

"Because I too am sick of Hogwarts arrogance. If this doesn't make it clear they've really strayed from the path of excellent these past years, nothing will."

"So all we have to do is…"

"Achoo!"

Even though Regulus was upset Davey had gotten hurt, considering it was him who alerted the older students to their snooping due to a stupid sneeze meant that it was a bit fitting he was the one who had paid the price for it.

What happened next made even less sense to Regulus than the conversation in which he could recognize the presence of accents in two of the students' voices, though which school they were from was impossible to tell. The real mystery was the third voice which could either have been a student or someone older. That third voice whose lack of an accent meant the person was possibly from Hogwarts?

Regulus had no idea which school was trying to cheat or why anyone from Hogwarts would take part in such underhanded tactics. But if he was being honest, to him it seemed to go beyond simple cheating. Why wouldn't just sneaking into the forest suffice? Why did they have to bring such a terrible monster with them?

Regulus realized he had been wandering through the outskirts of the Great Hall for a while but still was unsuccessful in finding Sirius. It seemed like the real challenge would be locating his older brother. After several more minutes, Regulus was beginning to think he had miscalculated and Sirius had merely gone to bed. Only that really didn't sound like his brother and finally, Regulus spotted Sirius making a fool of himself by dancing with two of his friends.

Holding himself taller Regulus approached his brother trying not to be embarrassed about how he had been sobbing and acting like a terrified child to his brother only a short while ago.

When Sirius spotted him he immediately dropped his friend's hands, a look of pure concern on his face which both made Regulus feel stupid and deeper down inexplicably happy.

"You ok Reg?"

"Fine Sirius, I was hoping to have a word with you though."

Regulus shot a sharp look at James who had given a scoff at Regulus's formal speech.

Not a surprise the blood traitor didn't appreciate good manners.

"Lighten up little bro," Sirius chuckled reaching to ruffle his hair. Regulus grabbed Sirius' wrist to stop him from doing so, noticing the too tight smile his brother had on his face. Why must his brother always pretend? Regulus could see the benefit of pretending when Sirius had been forced to go to stuffy parties since if he didn't he'd get in trouble. But why was his brother forcing a smile in front of his friends? Didn't he trust his friends?

Regulus really didn't get Sirius.

"I will not lighten up. Did you forget someone is in the hospital wing?" he asked perplexed, though by the way Sirius' eyes had narrowed, he had somehow taken the comment as some sort of insult on his character or what-not. Honestly, his older brother was so juvenile.

Regulus really wished he had a better option in who to confide in over this…..but he knew he didn't. And perhaps a foolish childish part of him was hoping this would somehow bridge the gap between the two of them and Regulus could have the older brother back that he used to semi idolize.

"It's also a party Reg, and yeah it sucks for Dudgey, but in case you missed it, Dumbledore said it's not life-threatening."

"Davey. I need to talk to you Sirius," Regulus glanced past Sirius at James and...Pete….Peter who were both trying too hard to look like they weren't paying attention. "Alone," he added with an exasperated sigh. Luckily Sirius complied though not without nagging Regulus about acting too old and too stuffy and too serious and blah blah blah blah.

"OK there now the snoops can't hear. So what's up? Can't sleep? You know you can ask the matron for a tonic."

"I hate sleeping drafts as do you, I believe."

Besides how old did Sirius think he was? Also, didn't his brother realize Regulus had witnessed a similar level of horrible pain from the boy standing beside him before?

"But that's not the problem, like I was trying to tell you earlier something was chasing us." Regulus couldn't help the unconscious act of wrapping his arms around himself feeling a spike in fear at speaking of it.

"You're still on about that? Come on Regulus just accept your punishment. Don't worry I doubt dear old Mum will send you a howler," Sirius replied with quite a bitterness in his tone which momentarily threw Regulus off.

"You mean….why would she send you one?"

Sirius rolled his eyes and put a hand on Regulus's shoulder looking like he couldn't make up his mind on whether he wanted to hug Regulus or shake him.

"If you hadn't noticed everything is my fault."

Regulus certainly didn't agree with that! Sirius' own actions were his fault, but if he wanted to blame his rebelliousness on their mom and view her as some sort of awful person then that was also his fault. Only Regulus didn't point this out, needing Sirius not to lose his short fuse.

"I'm sorry, but I already got in trouble. This isn't about that. Some monster was following us…..it was….awful Sirius." Please believe me, he wanted to add but didn't. He held his breath as Sirius seemed to consider this.

"What….sort of monster?" he asked in an uneasy tone which made Regulus wonder if the Forbidden Forest wasn't more dangerous than he had originally considered.

"Um…..I….didn't get a good look at it…..it came out of some large chest and….." Regulus shuddered "it…..I know this sounds insane Sirius but it was like a dead body or something….."

Again Regulus waited while Sirius seemed to be considering something. However at least Sirius seemed to be taking him seriously, that was better than most.

"Who were these students?"

"I don't know….they had accents...although I think one was a Hogwarts student... they were talking about teaching Hogwarts a lesson basically….."

"It was probably stupid Arja and his sister. But look, Regulus, I doubt they had a dead body with them."

"I'm telling you it was like some….some sort of zombie..."

Sirius sighed.

"Alright, Reg."

"You believe me?" asked hopefully.

"Course I do Reg. Just do me a favor and let me handle it ok?"

Regulus wilted, the belief that Sirius would treat him with respect dwindling.

"I want to help."

"You just focus on your studies or Sissy and mum will have my ass got it?"

Regulus knew there wasn't much point in arguing further. Either Sirius didn't believe him at all and was pacifying him, or he did truly believe him and was going to take over the whole project because 'Regulus was just a kid'.

As Regulus forced himself to thank Sirius and promise him he'd go back to his dorm Regulus was certain of two things.

One, that he utterly despised being the youngest, and two that there was no way he was going to stop trying to figure out what was going on with Hogwarts. He'd show his older family members that he was worth taken seriously. Saving the school seemed to be a good way to do that.