Here is Chapter 13. Enjoy. Please Review…

CHAPTER THIRTEEN

THE TRUTH ABOUT R.A.B.

The cold air swept through the trees and sent Harry, Ron, and Hermione's robes fluttering. The glittering unicorn's blood trickling through the floor flowed as the hooded man continued to move closer. The three Gryffindors stayed together, holding each other's hands. They could hear each other's breath; short and disturbed. The sounds of the crickets and other nocturnal creatures did not change the fear that they were feeling as the hooded man drew closer.

"Why are you looking for me?" asked the hooded man.

"Sorry, sir. We weren't looking for you," said Hermione shakily as she drew herself closer to Harry and Ron. "We did not mean to disturb your dinner. We were looking for Regulus Black."

"I am Regulus Black," said the hooded man. He then looked at the three more closely, seeing the flaming red hair and freckles of Ron, the bushy hair of Hermione, and alas, a shapeless scar from a recent wound on Harry's forehead. "Ahh, Harry Potter, the famous Harry Potter."

Harry suddenly froze. He was sure no one who did not know him personally would recognize him without his lightning scar. He thought before that when he sliced of his lightning shaped scar, he would not gather stares from people again. He felt curious on how Regulus knew his identity and asked. "How did you know who I am? I don't have a lightning scar."

"Ahh, you cannot fool me. I know you have been trying to destroy that scar so you sliced it off. I can still see area of the wound," said Regulus as he now was just a feet from the three seventh years. "Funny, isn't it. How you wished to get a scar off your head but then, is only replaced with a larger, irregularly shaped one."

"Well, at least it doesn't suggest that I am who I am to others who don't know me. Anyway, if you are Regulus Black, you must be a Death Eater!"

"Ah, wrong indeed. I am not."

"How do you explain that!" said Harry as he pointed to Regulus' arm, where a figure of the Dark Mark was imprinted. "That is the mark of Voldemort's followers."

"Do you know Severus?" said Regulus with a slight pitch of interest in his tone.

"Yeah, so what?" Harry finally felt as though the hooded man, Regulus Black, was not going to kill them. If Regulus wanted to, he would have done it by then. He relaxed a bit and stood more comfortably.

"He is not, as you may already know, a Death Eater but part of the Order of the Phoenix. He was just a spy. But still, he has the Dark Mark on his arm, right?" said Regulus questioningly. "The Dark Mark does not suggest anything. Same as how a lightning scar on your forehead does not suggest that you will defeat Lord Voldemort."

The three remained silent. Regulus then sat on a thick tree stump and breathed heavily. He then raised his hands to his hood and flipped it off, revealing his face. A striking resemblance was distinctly visible between Regulus and his brother, Sirius. His hair was chin length and unattended, his face was sallow with his cheeks sunken. His face was marked with scars and lines, signs of age and hardship. Yet, a handsomeness much like what Sirius Black had was still visible.

The three Gryffindors relaxed a little and started to scramble towards a tree root opposite the stump Regulus was sitting on. They too, sat on the tree root and said nothing. In those times of silence, everything can be heard. The chirping of the beetles and crickets were everywhere, as well as the occasional owl hoot.

"Why were you looking for me?" asked Regulus at last. "Why would Harry Potter and his friends be looking for me?"

"Well," started Harry. "We wanted to know why you purged the school of Boggarts."

"Ahh, that," answered Regulus. "It is because a Boggart is not the solution for destroying a Horcrux."

"But, the book said that the only thing that can destroy a Horcrux is exposure to something that naturally consumes souls," said Hermione with much more conviction and less fright, apparently hurt to hear that books can bemistaken. "We read it from the Durmstrang Library."

"That is correct, young lady," said Regulus with a hint of charm similar to his brother's in his voice. "A dementor is indeed the answer to a Horcrux's destruction. A Dementor, and not a Boggart."

"But Boggarts can copy to some degree the nature of the thing it changes it shape into," said Harry. "When I was with a Dementor, its effects on me were similar to one caused by a boggart shaped as a Dementor. Cold and… and…"

"That is also correct," cut in Regulus before Harry finished describing the chilling sensations caused by a Dementor. "But there is an important difference between a Boggart and a Dementor. Dementors not only consume souls but also leave them in a special place where it gets destroyed. Dementors are a link from this world to the place where the soul they have sucked out gets destroyed. Boggarts do not have this link."

"I don't understand," said Hermione. "Dementors suck souls and deposit them in some place?"

"Indeed," answered Regulus with a smile. "That place is where the soul is actually destroyed. The Dementor only brings a soul into this place. It cannot destroy a soul. It is merely a carrier, a carrier that brings a soul to this evil place that is so horrible that souls, which normally endure death in spirit form, are crushed and destroyed, with only whispers and faint voices as proof that these souls ever existed."

"Where is this place then?" asked Hermione. Ron was still silent as a rabbit.

"Somewhere in the Ministry of Magic. I am sure you all have seen the entrance to this place. Especially you, Harry."

Harry sat there, thinking of such a place. He tried to recall the time when he went into the Ministry. It was then his fifth year when he went there. He remembered the torches and the lifts, the flying paper airplanes and the many fireplaces. He remembered the fountain of Magical Brethren, and the many offices in its halls. He remembered being with Mr. Weasley as they decended towards the older parts of the Ministry of Magic. The stone walls lined with old torches were in Harry's mind. The many rooms, the court hearing, and of course, how can he forget, the Department of Mysteries.

"Is it the veil, sir?" asked Harry.

"Indeed, Potter," said Regulus with a twisted smile. "The entrance to the place where souls are reduced to mere whisps of air is the black veil in the Department of Mysteries. My brother went in there. I'm sure you know that."

"Well, your brother also said that you were a Death Eater. How come your not?" asked Harry.

"I actually was, once in my life. I was young then and my parents were so proud of me when they heard I was initiated and was accepted into the ranks of the Death Eaters. Sirius though, was disappointed. I knew I was working for evil but at that time, it meant power and fear. It wasn't until I disappointed Voldemort that I learned that I was in the wrong side. It was when I was tasked to go to Godric's Hollow to learn where Lily and James were hiding so that Lord Voldemort could kill them and you, Harry, after hearing the prophecy in the Hog's Head many years ago. I failed to do so, of course, for my brother was Secret Keeper then of your parents' whereabouts. He wouldn't tell me where the place was. As I returned, Voldemort showed no mercy upon me for failing to know where your parents' were hiding. He tried to kill me and I almost did. He did not use the Killing Curse, oh no, for that meant a painless death. He wanted to torture me and so, he used every spell he knew to hurt me and cause me pain but not kill me. When I couldn't take it any longer, I collapsed on the floor and passed out. Thinking that I was dead, Voldemort and the other Death Eaters left me."

"You survived?"

"Yes, a man on the street found me and nursed me back to health. I never showed him my Dark Mark in fear that he might not want to take care of me before I fully recover. That was the time I vowed revenge against Voldemort. Of course, being a Death Eater once, I knew of the Horcruxes. That was why I stole one of them, a black locket from a cave by the shore, and secretly left it in Grimmauld Place, my home, where I knew my brother would find and try to destroy as soon as he learned of its nature."

"But Sirius said you died."

"He never knew that I was alive. He heard that Voldemort killed me and that was it, he never knew I survived. I thought that was for the best. If Sirius and my family knew I was alive, Voldemort may discover that he failed to kill me."

Silence fell again. Harry was now starting to feel sorry for Regulus, and also guilty for thinking of him as a Death Eater. He shifted his position on the tree root he sat on and looked at Hermione and Ron. They both stared back, not knowing what to say.

"So, going back to topic, do you know how to get a real Dementor to suck the soul out of the Horcruxes?" asked Regulus, breaking the silence.

"No, not yet," answered Harry. "But can we just throw the Horcrux into the veil? So that it can get destroyed there."

"No, for the Horcrux—the container of the soul— still houses Voldemort's soul within it. The soul must be exposed to the evil elements present in the realm beyond the veil in order to be destroyed and the only way that the soul can be exposed is if it is sucked out from its protective Horcrux by a Dementor."

"So, if that is what you're saying…" said Harry, standing up. "Then when Sirius went into the veil, his soul wasn't destroyed because it was still in his body. He can still be alive!" A glimmer of hope that his godfather might be alive was surfacing. At the back of his mind though, he knew it was too good to be true.

"Yes, and no" answered Regulus. "You see, indeed, Sirius was still alive and with a body when he went through the veil. Yes, his soul was not destroyed for it was still in a body, protecting it. But think, there is no food, water, nor any other sustenance in the realm beyond the veil. His body, overtime, died, leaving his soul exposed and in the end, destroyed."

Harry's feeling of hope died down. The night was as deep black as the black lake when they started to head back to the castle.

"Farewell," said Regulus, smiling at them as they prepared to leave.

"Bye," said all three as they started to make their way back towards the edge of the black lake. Once they were within the outside lawns of the castle, they avoided Hagrid's Hut so they wouldn't be questioned about what they just did. As they walked, they started to talk to each other.

"He's not evil, huh… We never thought of that…" said Hermione. "Silly of us."

"Yeah," said Harry absentmindedly, "Silly of us." His mind was elsewhere as he walked. He was thinking of Sirius, how he must've starved beyond the veil, slowly dying. The agony of hunger and thirst his godfather must have gone through was too much. Harry knew that it was his fault why his godfather ended up dead. He knew that if he had just took Occlumency lessons with Snape seriously, he wouldn't have been tricked by Voldemort that fateful night almost two years ago.

The next day, breakfast was going on as McGonagall suddenly approached Harry, Ron, and Hermione. She looked distressed as her hair was askew and her hat, which normally was dead-on center on top of her head, was tilted.

"You three, I need to speak with you three," said McGonagall as Harry ate toast. "Now."

The three Gryffindors stood up and trailed after McGonagall, leading them out of the Great Hall and towards an empty Entrance Hall. They walked towards a corner for privacy and there, McGonagall started to talk.

"I feel that you must know that just this morning, there was an attack in St. Mungo's. No one was hurt. No one except for Severus. Apparently, the attackers were not interested in anyone but him. He wasn't able to survive it. He is now dead."

END OF CHAPTER THIRTEEN