A/N: Another chapter up and running. Isn't it just swell?One a day... Though it'll certainly slow down after the weekend when I go back to work. Need to think where to go and how to end this story as well... hmm. Not that I don't have plenty of chapters between now and the end. Heh.

Right, well enjoy, and as always please read and review. And any ideas throw them my way.

Chapter 15

"Harry!"

"Leave him alone muggle." There was certainly menace in Draco's voice as he protected Harry, but I went blindly on.

"Shut up Draco. Even you realize that this has to be dealt with NOW." I slammed my hand down on the table, making Harry jump slightly. "I brought him back to life for a reason. I expected you to actually do what you said you were going to do! Voldemort is killing muggles. They have no chance against him, and you're what? Sitting on your hands?"

"Good thing we have a the smooth skills of the muggle teacher here. Otherwise who knows what we would have done? I don't know... maybe have been a bit more tactful." The smirk on Draco's face was really itching to be wiped off.

"What are you all talking about?" Sirius was looking wary and confused at the three of us, though his lips were smirking slightly after Draco's comments to me.

It was an interesting thing to explain to the older man. Why we had brought him back to life. He likely hadn't thought about it. After all it had been his godson, who loved him. That would have been the entire reason for him. I could see now why Harry had a problem bringing it up to him. 'Sirius we brought you back to life because we need you to possibly remember something from the past that will help us defeat Voldemort for good this time. Not that we don't like you of course, but if it wasn't for that we might not have brought you back at all.' That seemed a little harsh to say outloud...

I sat down, now quiet like everyone else. They all were likely trying to come up with something appropriate to say while Sirius started to fidget in annoyance at us all. Even Draco was staying quiet.

"Well, I told you already that Lord Voldemort is still around. Well it's because we didn't know about one last horcrux... and well..." Harry was fidgeting himself, looking at Draco for help.

"Lucius told me it had been stolen by someone who had been a death eater but who had left and been killed. The only one who matched the bill was your brother. So Harry here thinks you might have an idea where it was hidden."

"Not that we didn't want to bring you back for other reasons! I mean we all care about you, it's not just the horcrux!" I waved my hands up, trying to not make things worse for Sirius.

He looked at us all calmly before putting his face into his hands, his shoulders shaking. The idea of Sirius crying was so foreign to us all, that Harry and I immediately jumped up to console him, when a soft sound started to come from behind his hands. At first it seemed to confirm our suspicions, but it soon turned into a definite chuckle. I smacked him hard on the shoulder, going back to sit down, muttering about stupid men.

"Sorry. But was that it? You were all so serious and that was all..." Sirius took a deep breath, and gave Harry a pat on the arm before the younger boy sat down still looking worried. "I know Harry loves me." He glanced at me and smirked. "Glad to know other people care as well." I huffed audibly, and looked away. "But I'm not going to cry that there might have been another reason. I'm proud that Harry used the opportunity to bring down Voldemort, instead of just using it for personal means. I wouldn't have been to happy otherwise." He grew thoughtful for a moment. "Though I suppose I wouldn't have been alive otherwise to have been unhappy or not."

Once again I had to say I was sort of surprised at how well Sirius was dealing with this entire situation. He had been dead for over ten years. Well I had to assume he had been dead, the veil was a bit ambiguous, and I wasn't going to ask him particulars. Then he had been brought back to life to a completely changed world (though watching Draco so coldly making fun of Sirius being dead at the moment perhaps not everything was different). And then he was told the reason he came back was to help find something his brother stole. Maybe he wasn't just a charming, reckless, arrogant, bastard.

"So..." Sirius had pushed his chair closer to mine, ducking his head closer so he could whisper to me. "You care about me do you?"

No definitely an arrogant bastard...

"So Sirius, do you know anything about where your brother might have hidden something?" Harry asked suddenly, not nervous now that he knew his godfather was okay with it all. I was just happy to have Sirius' attention diverted from me, since I was trying hard to not get into anymore arguments with him. But sometimes it was a bit difficult.

"Well. Reg and I weren't exactly the model for brotherly love." I wondered if anyone else heard the catch in his voice, but it appeared that it passed everyone's attention. "I'll have to assume he didn't hide it here, you would have found it by now."

I tapped my chin thoughtfully. Would they have found it? After all they didn't even know what it was, what it looked like. Was it possible that it was under their noses all this time and hadn't even noticed it. I made this comment, and just got looks from everyone.

"Do you think we're stupid?" Draco said rolling his eyes. "We did a sensing spell on everything in this house, even all the furniture. If there had been something like a horcrux, we would have found it." He sounded like he was explaining this to a two year old. Which I suppose I basically was, at least when it came to anything of a magical nature.

"Leave her alone Draco." I was surprised to hear Sirius standing up for me. "She's just a muggle. How would she have known? It was actually a perfectly sensible question to ask. I was about to myself. If Harry wasn't involved, I would have been worried about your ability to even do a sensing spell."

"Hey old man, I'll have you know I'm just as good as Harry at spells..."

"You can't really call me an old man anymore, I'm only nine years older then you." Sirius smirked at Draco, crossing his arms over his chest. A soft sound passed my lips, a soft laugh that caused the two bickering men to look at me questioningly.

"Sorry. It's just funny. Only nine years older."

"See if I stand up for you again..." Sirius muttered looking at me darkly.

"No, it's just I have a cousin who's only four years younger then me and she calls me an old hag."

Every stared at me hard before Sirius' eyebrow twitched up.

"Jealous."

"Definitely." Harry said, agreeing with his godfather.

"Old hag." Draco snorted, shaking his head.

My eyes were wide and I must have looked more then slightly confused. Did they think I was jealous of my younger cousin? I was only 29, I hadn't hit the jealous middle ages yet.

"Your cousin is obviously jealous of you. You're too attractive to ever be called an old hag." Draco explained, and I flushed slightly. Draco complimenting me was almost cause for a heart attack.

"It's ridiculous. She's obviously angry that her older cousin is absolutely perfect. So she tried to ridicule you to make up for the envy." Sirius said seriously. His words, more so then Draco's, caused me to blush a bright red.

"Smitten." Draco said with a sigh.

"Definitely." Harry was agreeing again, this time with Draco who was looking back and forth between Sirius and I. Surprisingly enough there was a light blush on the older man's cheeks.

"I meant that her cousin thinks she's perfect." He muttered.

"Of course cousin dear." Draco wasn't hiding his snigger at all.

"Leave him alone Draco. He's got a right to have a crush." Harry was smirking now as well. I wondered if he had learned that from the young Malfoy. Well I would have wondered that if it wasn't for the fact that I was more worried about the blazing heat emanating from my face from the conversation surrounding me. I didn't dare risk entering this conversation...

"Can we... Can we get back on topic now?"I stuttered out, trying to get everyone off this subject.

The mood had improved though because of the digression, and while we were all still worried about Voldemort and what he was doing and planning, darkness wasn't surrounding us at the moment. I suppose making fun of me cheered everyone up. Glad I could help in some way...

"You know my memory is still a little fuzzy."

Perhaps that was another little side effect of the ritual, but more likely it just had to do with the fact that he had been dead for over ten years. That would make anyone's memory less then perfect. Actually I was surprised that he even knew his own name. We could all forgive a sluggish recall period.

My fingers were starting to tap across the wood on the table. Not that I was annoyed with Sirius, or impatient, I was just nervous. Three sets of eyes settled on the movement of my fingers, moving rhythmically across the grain.

"You have a bit of a nervous habit there don't you?" Sirius sounded amused, but his eyes stayed on my fingers.

"I need to keep my hands busy most of the time..."

Draco smirked across the table, and I opened my mouth to tell him to get rid of it, when I noticed that Sirius was trying very hard to not smirk, and even Harry looked ready to laugh.

"All of you..." I huffed, shaking my head. "Men are all perverts."

"There was something..." Sirius said suddenly, his posture changed from amusement, to wary remembrance. Immediately the jovial atmosphere was gone, and we all leaned forward, expectant for what the older man was going to tell us. "The night he died, I came here to see him. I was worried about him. He had just quit the death eaters, and I wanted to give him my support. After all the parents weren't doing that."

Not surprising really. The Black family, at least the Mother being the only one I had any contact with, didn't seem very understanding. In a normal family it would have problems about school, liking girls, whether or not you might be gay, what college to go to. No in this one it was the fact that the sons didn't want to be homicidal maniacs following an evil dark lord who wanted to take over the world. Next time I saw my parents I was going to tell them the easy time they actually had with me growing up.

Sirius proceeded to tell us what had happened that night. His vivid account making us all see what exactly had occurred that night.

"Reg! Are you here?" Sirius bounded up the stairs, looking round wildly for his brother. Finally he entered his brother's bedroom, to find his younger brother pacing wildly back and forth in the room.

The younger Black had the look of his brother, though at this moment his face was set in an expression of panic, and his hair was long and unruly. The back and forth movement of his body across the room was filled with confusion, worry, and absolute fright.

"Regulus..." Sirius's voice was soft in the room, trying to calm his brother like one would do with a frightened colt.

"Do you realize what I've done?" High pitched, and nasally, Regulus's voice broke as he spoke. "He'll come after me. What I did... He's going to come." He looked wildly about at each mention of the 'He'.

A step was taken by Sirius toward his brother, before he seemed to realize that a comforting hug wasn't what was needed.

"You did the right thing though. He's evil, he would have used you and then destroyed you."

Bitter laughter floated across the room, Regulus digging his hands into his hair violently. "You really are stupid brother. He IS going to destroy me."

"Come with me then. I can protect you, and if not me someone else in the order. Dumbledore..."

Regulus's eyes widened, sudden realization crossing over his features at the mention of the old Hogwart's Headmaster.

"Dumbledore? Yes maybe he could take it... It's possible. He'd know where to..." His ramblings broke off as the younger Black seemed to realize he wasn't alone in the room. "Sirius..." A step was taken, but he stopped, looking around suddenly.

"Reg... Come with me. It'll all be okay. All right? Of course mother and father won't let you back in here, but... I'll protect you."

A small smile appeared on Regulus's face, small but still genuine. "You're the perfect Gryffindor aren't you big brother? I have to talk to Dumbledore." He stepped back again. "When I get back... When I get back..."

His confused face, contorted up into a frightened face, and before Sirius could do anything he had disapparated out of the room.

"I assumed he went to see Dumbledore. But he must not have, because he died that night. He was killed, by a Death Eater." Sirius's voice was quiet, and everyone else at the table looked thoughtful. Harry's eyes were filled with concern for his godfather, and I could guess my own held the same expression. "I didn't do a very good job protecting my brother." His laugh had a bitter ring to it.

"Well, if you read into that conversation you had with him. It's possible he was talking about a horcrux." I said sensibly, getting back on topic, and taking everyone's attention away from Sirius's guilt over his brother. "Isn't it possible he went to Hogwart's to talk to Dumbledore, and then died on the way back?"

Draco's fingers were now tapping across the wood on the table. Perhaps my own nervous habits were rubbing off.

"Does that mean we brought back the wrong person?" Harry narrowed his eyes at Draco, looking like he was going to his the blonde man for saying that right in front of the 'wrong person'.

"Draco." Harry's voice was icy. "That's not true. We wouldn't have known about the conversation without Sirius. And it doesn't make sense anyway. If Regulus had given the horcrux to Dumbledore, he would have destroyed it or he would have told me before he died. There's no way he wouldn't have known what it was." A line appeared between Harry's brows, his mind working hard to figure out what had happened.

"All right then. So he didn't give it to Dumbledore, but we're pretty sure he went to see him." Draco sighed, tired already of all of this. "And we can also be pretty sure he didn't have it on him when he was killed. Since father told me it was stolen. So somewhere in between it got lost."

My eyes widened, things clicking into place, even as I saw Harry's face mirror my own.