A/N: Whoa! This chapter was hard to write! I think it's because of the amount of dialogue in it, for which I appologise. I was nervous of putting so much in, and then remembered certain HP chapters such as the chapter in Dumbledore's office after the Ministry (OotP) which was basically all speech. So I just went for it. I added a flashback to keep it interesting.

This was a ridiculously long chapter, which has now been broken down into two still-rather-long chapters. The second will be posted in a couple of days.

Thanks for the reviews so far. Let me know what you think of this spiel...

The troupe of wizards made their way silently, back to Grimmauld Place. It was approaching midnight, and the rain still fell heavily around them as they stood waiting for the manor house to materialize.

"We still don't have a Secret Keeper," Kingsley mumbled. However, to his surprise the house appeared before them.

"You forget, I'm the rightful owner to this estate," Regulus said snidely, noticing Lupin clench his jaw in annoyance. Kingsley simply nodded, causing Lupin's face to darken further.

"This house belongs to Harry Potter," Lupin said bluntly, and proceeded up the steps. Tonks could sense the man's irritation, but chose to ignore it…for now.

Kingsley and Moody followed Lupin up the stairs, knowing it was unwise to linger outside of headquarters for too long a time. Regulus hesitated.

"Are you coming?" Tonks asked gently, placing her hand on the man's forearm. Remus turned at the front door and crossed his arms across his chest with a loud sigh, which could be heard from the pavement.

"Yeah…it's just hard, coming back here. This place bring back a lot of memories, and none of them good." Regulus inhaled deeply and took Tonks' hand, giving it a tight squeeze. "Ok, let's do this."

The cousins joined the three men on the doorstep. Lupin's eyes fell heavily on Black, before opening the door with his wand.

As soon as the front door opened, Mrs Black proceeded with her usual shrieks. Regulus blinked in surprise.

"Why hello, Mother," he said quietly, and the screaming stopped abruptly, albeit for a few seconds.

"No," Mrs Black whispered. This gentle tone surprised the Order members, who hadn't heard the portrait speak calmly in all the time they had resided there. "My son…Regulus? You haunt me, still?" There was an apparent look of anguish on Mrs Black's face. Her younger son stared at her blankly.

"Yes," he answered her simply. Tonks knew the peace was too good to be true, for the portrait began to wail once more.

"WHAT IS THIS MAGIC?" she cried. "LEAVE ME BE… DESECRATION OF MY DEAD SON! MY ONLY SON!"

Regulus winced at this. He turned to his younger cousin.

"Really Dora, what is she still doing here?"

Tonks chewed on her thumbnail, attempting to hide her discomfort. The witch merely shrugged.

"Perpetuus Terminus," Regulus said casually, and the portrait began to deteriorate slowly from the wall, his mother screaming until her face crumbled to the floor. The entrance hall was left in silence and a pile of cinders remained on the tiled floor.

"Thank you," Tonks smiled to Regulus, who was about to reply when a new voice spoke from the stairs.

"What's going on?" Harry Potter descended the stairs sporting a frown. He stopped as he joined them in the hallway. "Who are you?"

Regulus smiled at the boy's forward question.

"I take it you're Harry Potter. I'm–"

"No one." Lupin cut in. He turned to the boy. "Go back up to bed Harry."

Harry stood firmly and Lupin suspected he would be disobeyed. An uncomfortable silence fell between the crowd. Moody spoke first.

"Well…I for one am still expecting an explanation… I'll be in the kitchen." The Auror staggered off, his wooden leg tapping in a steady rhythm. Kingsley eyed the newcomer warily before joining his comrade.

Tonks licked her lips in discomfort. Remus and Regulus locked glares, and Harry looked very confused between the two men. Giving an angry sigh, Tonks grabbed at her cousin's hand once more.

"Oh, come on Regulus!" she growled, following in the direction Kingsley and Moody had sauntered off in.

"Wait a minute…Regulus? Regulus Black?" Harry spluttered in disbelief. Lupin watched them go.

"Apparently," he muttered to himself, rather than for Harry's benefit.

"But…he's dead. Sirius told me so."

"Apparently not," Lupin said numbly. He turned once more to see Harry's mouth open in shock. It was as if the man had just realised Harry was still there.

"Perhaps you should go back to bed," he suggested and Harry gave an indignant laugh.

"I don't think so Lupin, I gotta hear this!" The boy made his way to the kitchen door. "Are you coming?" he called over his shoulder to his former professor. Lupin stood for a moment before giving a shrug of resignation and finding the strength to join Harry at the door.

"This better be good," Lupin growled to the boy's shoulder and they descended the stairs together.

Once Lupin and Harry had taken their places around the long kitchen table, opposite from Tonks and Regulus, the 'interrogation' began.

"Well?" Lupin asked bluntly.

"Well what?" Regulus responded, deliberately trying to wind the other man up.

"Regulus, please!" Tonks sighed in exasperation. Her cousin shrugged.

"Fine… Where should I start?"

"Well we've believed you to be dead for seventeen years, Black. How's about you start with what happened that night between you and Voldemort," Kingsley prompted. Regulus gave a sharp laugh, which sounded remarkably like Sirius.

"You think the Dark Lord would have killed me personally? No, it was Bella. My beloved cousin." He paused, taking in the gazes of the Order members, before taking a deep breath and recounting his tale.

"I had overheard a very private conversation between Voldemort and Nagini. This information wasn't even shared with his Death Eaters. Voldemort thought it wise for me to be… disposed of rather than risk others hearing his secrets. His mistake, however, was giving Bellatrix the honour.

Bella was, and probably still is, a very inquisitive woman. She had a thirst for knowledge on the Dark Lord's plans, not because she was nosey, but because she felt that it would bring her closer to him. Many Death Eaters were fighting for the post as second-in-command. None were given it, though. Voldemort likes to work alone."

Harry listened intently to this, knowing that the words were true. He had found that much out from Dumbledore's Pensieve earlier in the year.

"So, you can imagine Bella's delight when she heard that Voldemort had picked her to kill an untrustworthy Death Eater. She felt it was her chance to show her Lord what she was capable of. Up until then, she was solely known for the Cruciatus Curse; pain but not fatality. Imagine her surprise when the subject of her torture was to be her cousin."

"Are you trying to tell us that Bellatrix Lestrange couldn't bring herself to kill you because you were her cousin?" Moody growled sceptically. "That's not like the Lestrange we know. She killed your brother without a second thought!"

"Yes she did. And I don't doubt that it was to make up for her failure with me. She had shown immense weakness that night… I do not believe we will ever see it again," Regulus added quietly, thinking regretfully about Narcissa and Draco.

"I could see the conflict within her, and I knew she wouldn't go through with it."

"What happened?" Harry prompted. Regulus' grey eyes locked with the boy's emerald own.

"I will tell you Harry. Know that this is the truth, as far as I am aware. My recollection of that night remains somewhat hazy but I will do my best."

It was a cold night, and Bellatrix Lestrange walked quickly to her destination; a dilapidated house far from the prying eyes of Muggles and Wizards alike. Her Lord had told her where to go, and given her instructions of the greatest detail.

"I know you can do this Bella," he had told her. "Do this for me, and you will give me no reason to doubt you."

And so she had gone at his command.

Opening the battered wooden door, she lit her wand and entered the filthy dwelling. Instinct told her to climb the stairs, and she did just that, hating that the floor in the old house creaked with her every movement.

Heading for the master bedroom, she stopped as she heard a distinct male groan. Bellatrix pushed open the door firmly and directed her wand fiercely at the hunched figure lying in a foetal position on the floor. The young man was bound and gagged, and sodden with his own sweat. He looked up as the witch entered, trying his hardest to see who the newcomer was, but he was unable to twist his neck any further. The boy was surprised to hear a female gasp, followed by his name.

"Regulus? Merlin, Regulus what are you doing here?"

And suddenly, he was being help up into a sitting position, and cold fingers were struggling with the cloth around his mouth.

"Bella," he choked as she freed him, and she threw her arms around her teenage cousin in concern. "The Dark Lord sent you." It wasn't a question and Bella nodded slowly.

"Then you know what you have to do," Regulus told her, his voice gaining strength again. Bellatrix's face was blank but her eyes portrayed an unease that had filled her entire being. She swallowed hard.

"Oh Regulus, what did you do?" she whispered.

"Wrong place wrong time, Cuz. I heard something I shouldn't have and now –"

"What did you hear?" Bella asked immediately, clinging to her cousin's arms with sharp fingers. Regulus flinched.

"Uh…that the Giants have not been as cooperative as the Dark Lord had hoped. He was worried of our finding out and feeling that he had failed," Regulus lied and was relieved that Bellatrix bought it.

"Why would we think that? The Giants have been trouble from the start. I told Lord Voldemort so…he doesn't value my opinion," she added bitterly.

The pair fell into an uneasy silence. Bella was chewing on a thumbnail, and Regulus chafed his wrists together, hoping that his cousin would take the hint and remove the rough rope that held them together. Bellatrix looked up at him, and saw his anguish.

"Here," she said simply, and removed the binds. Regulus smiled his appreciation.

"Well…let's get this over and done with," he said with a wavering voice, and Bellatrix flinched.

"I…Regulus…I can't," her voice cracked in distress. "I don't know what to do. If I don't then–"

"He'll kill you," Regulus finished for her firmly. Bella nodded in fear. Her dark eyes became suddenly wide.

"Unless…unless I feign your death…I could Obliviate you. He would never know."

"It's a risk Bella. If he found out, you'd be better off dead! And I don't see the point in living when I don't have my memories. What kind of life is that?"

"What other choice do I have Reg? I can do this." She raised her wand with a trembling hand. "Forgive me please. I would never hurt you Regulus. Your blood is my blood right?"

"Toujour Pur," Regulus mumbled.

"Toujour Pur," Bellatrix echoed. She embraced her cousin tightly and then let him go suddenly, as if worried that she may lose her nerve. Licking her lips, she gave Regulus a final nod.

"Obliviate!" she cried and the spell flew from her wand, hitting her cousin hard in the chest and sending him stumbling.

"Stupefy!" Bella sent a bolt of red light in Regulus' direction and he crumbled to the floor. His eyes were closed, and his brow was crinkled ever so slightly in confusion. Bella let out a moan of despair. She threw herself heavily at her cousins' side and planted a chaste kiss on his forehead. Then, she snatched his ring from his left hand. It was a symbol of his pure blood; their family. The gold band shimmered ever so slightly in the pale moonlight. It was engraved with a serpent on its outer edge. Bella brought the ring closer to her face and read the engraved inscription along the inner side of the band. 'Toujour Pur' it read.

"Always pure," the witch whispered with a shuddered breath. A thin finger stroked at the cold, black onyx that was set in the ring. A black stone much like herself, cold and dark but beautiful nonetheless.

Bella held it tightly in her hand and scrambled from the floor. She bolted to the door and left her cousin to lie there. His memories of her, along with his entire life, were nothing more.

As Regulus' story came to a halt, the group were cast into an uneasy silence. The man linked his fingers together, waiting to see which wizard would be the first to speak. It was Harry.

"So Bellatrix spared you…just like that?" The boy had a hint of cynicism in his tone, which Regulus had been expecting. The man simply nodded and Harry's brow creased.

"Why?" the boy scoffed. It hurt and angered Harry to find that the younger of the Black brothers remained alive, and that the very person who had spared the Regulus' life had killed the elder – his own Godfather.

Regulus took a deep breath and opened his mouth to speak. He hesitated, closing his lips together gently, before the answer came to him.

"Because Bella knew that being a Black meant as much to me as it did to her."

Harry nodded, satisfied with his response.

"After I had been Obliviated," he continued, "Bella spread word of my death to save her own skin. She sent my ring back to my parents as a sign. I swore to them, when the ring was placed in my possession, that I would never remove it. I was proud of who I was…I still am, for all it matters now. The Black family line is coming to an end, and I will be damned if Bellatrix Lestrange is the last one standing. Not after all that has come to pass."

Regulus held his head up high, in indication that he had finished his dialogue. The man's eyes locked with Lupin's. The elder's remained cold and empty, and filled Regulus with such discomfort that he had to look away, down to the table.

"Are you a Death Eater?" This very forward question, from a different speaker, caused Regulus to look up sharply. Kingsley Shacklebolt's face remained set, even when the man shook his head with a laugh.

"I am not, nor have I ever been a Death Eater. I was a naïve young boy, willing to do anything to please his family, yes. But I was no Death Eater. I was forced into a life that I wasn't proud of. Much like young Draco Malfoy." He paused as he thought on his deceased second cousin. He had never met Draco, but felt such a connection to the boy, as if his childhood had been reconstructed again through another.

"No, I'm no more a Death Eater than my brother was…than Draco will be. It seems our Dora here was the only Black child to have been brought up uncorrupted and honest. You're a very lucky girl, Dora," he addressed the young woman by his side. She continued to chew her nails, and shuddered her foot restlessly. A simple nod was his only response.

"What I want to know," Lupin spoke up for the first time since the 'interrogation' "is why you've come into Tonks' life now. If you've been alive for all of these years then where have you been? Fair enough you were Obliviated, but obviously it wore off. Why are you here?"

Lupin knew, of course. It made perfect sense to him now; Tonks' elusiveness, the mysterious initials. He wondered if the man would confess all, in front of everybody present.

Regulus licked his dry lips and thought briefly on what to divulge with the group. After all, he didn't trust them, as they didn't trust him. He decided upon telling a part-truth.

"In all honesty, my memories pieced together rather slowly. I only considered returning home when I was convinced that my memories were fully restored. But then I decided against it, for more than one reason; this was my chance to live the life I'd wanted. I was without the Black label–"

"I thought you said you were proud to be a Black!" Harry cut in.

"I was… I am… but of its pureblood significance, not because of its connection to the Dark Arts. Then, of course, there was the obvious reason that Bellatrix would be killed if I were to announce that I lived."

"What a pity," Harry mumbled snidely.

"It would be, Harry," Regulus insisted. "Bellatrix spared my life. I would never have endangered hers. I owe her everything." There was a hint of appreciation, even affection, in his tone, which Harry did not care for at all. He sprung to his feet and banged his fist down on the table angrily.

"She's a murderer. Lucky you being saved! I'm so pleased for you! But Sirius wasn't spared…or Malfoy and his mum, and Tonks' mother, the Longbottoms…not to mention countless others which I am fortunate enough not to know about. You talk about her as if she's a saint. She killed Sirius!" he spat. "And nothing you say about her past weaknesses will make her appear anything other than that in my mind." He sat down abruptly, causing his chair to scrape loudly on the floor. Harry was breathing heavily, and was very aware of the fact he was shaking. He looked to his hands in awkwardness.

"Carry on," he mumbled, and Regulus inclined his head.

"Very well. It was only after I heard of the disastrous ending to the Tri-Wizard Tournament, not that long ago, that I considered making my presence known. But who was I to turn to? My family…what was left of it, anyway? Of course I had heard of Sirius escaping from Azkaban, and was worried that my reappearance would somehow seem connected with my brother."

"So once again you were thinking of yourself!" Harry spoke up once more.

"Harry, are you going to let me finish?" Regulus snapped impatiently. Harry blinked at the man, stunned that a stranger would speak to him in such a way. The boy looked back to the table, and Regulus took that as a cue to continue.

"And then, I heard of my brother's death…over a year ago now. I have to admit I was surprised…and it saddened me more than I thought it would have. Sirius was always smarter than myself. He was no Death Eater, and Azkaban was no place for him." Regulus took a deep breath to calm himself as his voice cracked. "I had read in the Prophet about the incident at the Ministry, how that Voldemort was 'officially' back in the eyes of the community…and I heard of the brave fight fought by many individuals, including my own cousin, Nymphadora Tonks. At last I had found a family member I could trust. An Auror, from Black blood," he laughed at the thought. "I hadn't expected it to have happened."

Once again, he turned to the woman beside him. This time, the Auror looked up. Her dark eyes were distracted, with grief she was yet to truly feel. She had heard this story, this explanation, before of course. Her mind was elsewhere; with her mother.

"Are you telling me that you've been in contact with Tonks for over a year?" Lupin asked curtly, once again feeling the queasiness of jealousy settle within him. Regulus laughed once more, though it did nothing to ease Lupin.

"No, of course not," he chuckled. "Once again I was cowardly. I decided to wait it out. The war was coming, and I wasn't sure where I was to fit in the scheme of things. No doubt your Order won't trust me…and I have no intention to return to the Death Eaters; for Bella's sake and my own. No…it was only when I heard of Dumbledore's death did I contact Dora. I have my reasons for doing so at that time." Tonks shuffled slightly in her chair as Regulus said this, and she looked over to Harry who frowned at her. "But I would wish to keep that private…for now at least," Regulus trailed off. This seemed to satisfy Shacklebolt and Moody, but Lupin remained wary.

Moody cleared his throat loudly, and took a quick sip from his hipflask. The group blinked at him expectantly, and the man gave an obvious swallow before proceeding.

"Well Sonny, even if everything you've told us is true, we aren't likely to trust you," Mad-Eye pointed out bluntly.

"Oh I'm aware of that, Sir."

"We'll be keeping a close eye on you lad. Both eyes." He spun his magical blue eye for emphasis. Regulus nodded quickly, and Lupin couldn't help but think that the retired Auror troubled the man.

"Come now Shacklebolt," Moody's voice boomed over-loudly as he stood. "We still have urgent business to attend to. We should return to the office."

The Auror rose from his seat and joined Moody by the stairs.

"What business?" Harry called to the men. Kingsley turned to the boy, and then his eyes fell briefly onto Tonks. Harry realised immediately, and wished he hadn't asked.

"I'll come to the office in the morning," Tonks mumbled but Kingsley shook his head.

"No Tonks, that's not necessary," her colleague said gently. When Tonks didn't respond, Kingsley turned to Lupin and gave him a significant look.

Lupin knew what it meant; look after Tonks, and watch over Black. He nodded slightly to Kingsley, and the Auror climbed the stairs after Moody.

The room fell deadly silent as Kingsley and Moody departed from Headquarters. Tonks shuffled uncomfortably in her seat. Her head was pounding from stress and exhaustion. She hadn't even begun to take in all that had happened that evening. The Auror took a glance over to Lupin, whose grey eyes were fixed on Regulus Black.

"Well?" he asked sharply. Regulus gave a feral smile and leaned back casually in his seat.

"It seems you like that word Lupin," he commented. "I'm pretty tired so I think I'll head off. Unless I'm welcome to stay." The man glanced over at Harry, who didn't respond. Regulus gave a light laugh and rose from his seat.

"Sit down, Black. We haven't finished yet," Lupin told the younger man threateningly.

"I have," Regulus insisted. Lupin drew his wand and Tonks let out a hiss of frustration.

"You're not going anywhere…until you've told me about your connection to Voldemort's Horcruxes."

Tonks winced. Harry's jaw dropped and he turned to stare at Lupin in disbelief. Regulus merely regarded the man for a brief moment before giving a single nod and lowering himself slowly into his chair.

"Very well, Lupin. What would you like to know?"

A/N: Btw, the house with Regulus and Bellatrix was supposed to be the House of Gaunt. Don't think that really came across very well, but ah well.

RAB Part Two will be posted in a couple of days and contains Tonks/Lupin interaction because it's so fun and I love them.

Appologies again for the amount of dialogue in this chapter. The next will be similar I'm afraid, but after all the explanations are done we can get to some action! Yeah!

Review please, even if it's criticism. Thanks.