Chapter 12
Few months later - Summer 1995
Voldemort was back…
Hermione couldn't help but feel the dread in her stomach as she remembered what it was like during the first Wizarding War.
All the deaths, the panic… It was horrible.
And now he was back, and she knew that soon his death eaters would be back and this time around, she had no Regulus and no greater task of returning home. This was happening in her time now, there was no escape from it.
From what Harry, has told her about the ritual in the graveyard he witnessed during the last task of the tournament, she had no doubt Voldemort returned, and he was much stronger than in their first and second year.
Sirius was apparently tasked with reinstating the Order of the Phoenix as Dumbledore and Harry's testimony rose a bit of an uproar at the ministry. The minister of magic, Cornelius Fudge was refusing to believe that the dark wizard has returned and dismissed it down to Dumbledore being after his position.
With no certain confirmation of Regulus' death, Hermione found herself yet again consumed by the books in which she searched for the right spell.
She could only wonder what reason Voldemort could have to kill Regulus, who was so invested in his cause. That is, if that was what happened of course…
She might have made him more comfortable with the idea of going to muggle places, eating and drinking muggle products, wearing muggle clothes, using muggle technology, but Regulus still saw Wizards as superior to muggles.
So, what happened?
Draco said he disappeared, which didn't mean he was dead or killed… That was just what Narcissa Malfoy believed, but Lucius would know better, he was one of Voldemort's followers back then…
"Strawberry or Chocolate cousin?" Klaus appeared before her with two small containers with ice cream. He must have walked in when she wasn't paying attention.
Klaus always had the best timing in the family. It was a hot summer day and he just brought her the one thing Hermione needed the most in that moment.
"Strawberry" She replied fast.
"Damn it! I lost the bet" Klaus murmured as he passed her the ice cream flavour she chose and sat himself on the edge of the desk she was working on.
He was wearing a mid-length leather muggle skirt and a silk shirt with flowery print. He must have gotten them from her mother's wardrobe.
"You bet over my choice of ice cream flavour? With who?" She asked amused. It was silly how childish her older cousin was sometimes.
"The great grand uncle Archibald. His spirit came back again and is asking me to find some ancient diamond necklace he wanted to give his wife for her birthday before he passed away, and now they met in the afterlife and she's angry, so he must find it and he wants me to help. I really thought you would choose chocolate you know."
"Do you want to swap?" She suggested
"No, he will know I cheated. And he's dead you know, it's disrespectful." He sighted sadly.
"Sorry. Do the spirits still bother you often?" She asked, hoping he cousin was getting at least a little better at controlling his gifts.
The spirits Klaus saw were different to the ghosts at Hogwarts.
Ghosts like Sir Nicholas or Bloody Baron chose to linger in the world of the living instead of moving on, and were visible to wizards. The spirits Klaus could see and talk to, were the souls who have already crossed to the afterlife, so no wizards could see them.
Hermione suspected Klaus could summon and talk to any dead person if he was sober, but most of the time he was under influence of either alcohol or some muggle drugs that kept him from accessing that specific skill. Instead some spirits came to him.
Family spirits like the great grand uncle Archibald often returned to share some hot gossip from the afterlife, or to ask for help with whatever ridiculous task they came up with. And Klaus spent his days talking to them when he wasn't drinking or going out to visit the graves or the muggle clubs.
Claudius long gave up on training him as the next head of the Greenfell family and accepted that the Greenfell house would die out in the male line with Klaus, as he suspected the boy would join his spirit friends faster than he would. Hermione would have to take over after Claudius died, but she would marry and take on the surname of her husband's family.
"They come and go as they please, you know" He said with a soft smile.
"Maybe if you sobered up a little, you would be able to control it a bit better" She suggested playing with her ice cream.
"I tried but being sober doesn't help." He replied with his mouth full. "Ow ah ohm cold...! If anything it makes it harder to control. I drink alcohol to suppress it. I tried to learn to control it but it's hard. Not all spirits are nice, some are vicious and I don't know how to stop them from coming through. I tried everything but they don't listen."
"Maybe I can try to find an answer in these books? I'm afraid that I'm no longer above using the druid magic anymore, no matter how dark or nasty it gets"
"That's kind of you but grandfather tried already. There is very little in those books on how to keep the spirits at bay, most of our ancestors who had the same gift as me went mad or died early. The early druids didn't leave any written records on how to deal with it. Anyways, how is your research going? I think I would quite like to meet that Regulus guy you talk so much about, cousin."
"If I'm successful, you will. You would like him, he used to play with you when you were little. Maybe I'm approaching this wrong, maybe I'm looking for a wrong spell? I'm worried I will mess this up." She confessed. With Niklaus everything was transparent. He was painfully blunt and had a way of making people confess and tell him things. Hermione thought it had something to do with his gift also.
"If anyone can do it, it's you. If you can't, nobody can. Relax cousin, if he's dead I'm sure he's in no rush." He jumped off the table. "I'm off to the vaults. It's going to be a long dive, we have more jewellery than books, but hopefully I can find the troublesome thing by the end of the week" Klaus said as he disappeared behind the thick rows of books, leaving Hermione with a small smile dancing on her lips.
Few weeks later a letter for Hermione came from Sirius, asking her to join him and the order at their headquarters for the rest of the summer.
She was to meet with him in a set location where he could take them both to the said place safely.
Hermione didn't expect he would take her to the 12 Grimmauld Place so it startled her a little. It was just like the last time she saw it, but a little dusty. She composed herself quickly.
"Hermione! It's so good to see you again!" Molly Weasley came out of the kitchen to greet her with her big motherly smile.
"And you as well Mrs Weasley" She smiled politely, looking around.
Going in deeper she noticed the house was in a pretty bad state. It was dirty and needed repair. It looked like it stood empty for many years - which it did.
Hermione went upstairs to take her small bag into the room she would be staying in. Sirius told her she could choose whichever room she liked that was still empty, since she got here first, before Ron or Harry did.
The choice was easy; she went straight into Regulus's room.
His room looked untouched. The once vibrant bottle green walls faded away, the collection of newspaper scraps Regulus kept on the wall was still there, though half of it fell off and covered up the desk and some of the floor.
The room was full of Slytherin banners. The Slytherin crest, hanging on the wall over the bed was tilted and the door of the wardrobe was half open and broken. She hoped Regulus wouldn't mind her cleaning up a bit. She was sure he would have preferred her to stay in his room over anyone else. Regulus loved his privacy, but it would surely get busy later and if she didn't take it, surely someone else would occupy it sooner or later.
"Miss Greenfell" Hermione turned around to see Regulus's beloved house elf, Kreacher standing in the open door looking at her with surprise evident in his big old eyes.
He aged and looked abused. She would have to talk to Sirius about his treatment of the elf. Kreacher was used to ill treatment but he looked much better in the past. The last time the elf saw her was 20 years ago, and she now looked the same as she did back then. He knew her real name, however Regulus ordered him to never reveal it to anyone.
"Kreacher! It's good to see you. But don't call me that around here, someone might overhear" She said quietly.
"Do you think it's okay if we clean Regulus's room? I will be staying here for a bit" The elf used to be extremely rude to her but ever since Regulus told him Hermione was his friend, Kreacher seemed to be much nicer to her, and with every time she came around, he warmed up to her more and more as he saw she cared for his Master Regulus.
"Yes Miss, Kreacher will do as you ask" He said and they began to clean. Hermione tackled the newspapers first. She collected them and placed them in a box. She didn't want to throw them away knowing how fond Regulus was of them, maybe they could prove to be useful in the future.
She asked Kreacher where would be the best place to put the box and the elf was too happy to take it off her hands. It must have been a while since he felt so useful.
"Kreacher, what happened to Regulus? I was told he disappeared but… he wasn't killed, was he?" She asked when fixing the bed whilst the elf was dusting.
"Kreacher can't say Miss, Master Regulus ordered Kreacher to not say, made him promise to never say"
"That's okay. If Regulus said so then you must obey him" She replied, satisfying the elf. Kreacher clearly knew something about the circumstances around Regulus' disappearance, but she knew that teying to get him to reveal anything would end in a disaster.
Cleaning together like this they were finished in no time.
"Can you finish off here while I go downstairs?" Hermione asked nicely and Kreacher was only too keen to do so.
Hermione walked down the stairs to the kitchen to see who was present. She was met with a few familiar faces of Molly, Sirius, Lupin and one new face who smiled widely at her. They were talking about something before she came in but stopped the minute they saw her.
"Hermione dear! Come sit, sit! You must be hungry, I made a roast, here, eat up!" Molly put a plate full of food in front of her as Hermione sat down on the free chair.
"Thank you Mrs. Weasley" She said politely and turned to face the adults that sat at the table. Her eyes fell on Lupin.
"It's good to see you again Professor" She smiled making Remus laugh.
"And you too Hermione! But please, I'm not your Professor anymore, you're free to call me by my name" He said and Hermione felt more comfortable not having to be careful about calling him Remus, like she used to in the past.
"Hermione meet Nymphadora Tonks, my cousin Andromeda's daughter" Sirius introduced her to the wild looking girl with colourful hair. He then later explained that Andromeda was Narcissa Malfoy's sister who was disowned by the family for marrying a muggle.
Soon, other Order members began to come and Arthur Weasley finally arrived with the rest of the family.
Hermione went upstairs with Ron, who wanted to take a look around before Harry was brought in. The order wanted to wait a bit before bringing him over, in case they were being watched.
Harry was brought to the Order HQ over a week later and in the meantime, Hermione and Ron, as well as the twins, were tasked with cleaning the house.
Hermione even came across the portrait of Walburga Black, who thoughtfully shouted at thinking her to be a mudblood, before recognising her as the druid girl who was a friend of Regulus over 20 years ago. Talking to Walburga was hardly pleasant so Hermione did her best to avoid the corridor where the portrait hang.
Harry was quite upset with the both of them as neither Hermione nor Ron respond to his letter all summer.
Hermione took it upon herself to explain to him that Dumbledore asked them not to contact him, as it could compromise his safety. Later, with the help of Fred and George, they tried to listen in on the order but when that failed, Hermione showed Harry around the house.
They ended on the room with the tapestry that revealed the Black family tree. Hermione hasn't seen it before, Regulus never talked much about his family with her. The tapestry looked immensely old; it was faded and damaged in some places.
Nevertheless, the golden thread with which it was embroidered still glinted brightly enough to show them a sprawling family tree dating back to the Middle Ages. Large words at the very top of the tapestry read: The Noble and Most Ancient House of Black 'Toujours pur'.
"It means 'Always Pure' in French" She told Harry who has shown interest in the family motto.
The meeting must have ended about then as Sirius joined them in the tapestry room.
He told them all about his family. About his father and his mother. About the family members who were blasted off the tapestry for various reasons. Sirius mentioned his parents' home was only being used as the Order of the Phoenix's headquarters due to the protective enchantments his father put on it years ago and the additional security measures that Dumbledore set up, which is why he agreed to put up with moving back in.
He revealed that his own mother blasted him off the tapestry after they disowned him for running away from his family's house, he added that it was one of the reasons behind his disinheritance, as his parents were unhappy with Sirius being sorted into Gryffindor and not believing in the notion of blood purity, which was so heavily engrained in every Black since they were born.
Those who chose to rebel were cut off. Sirius explains that his family was all for the purification of the wizarding race, getting rid of Muggle-borns and having pure-bloods in charge, and while not all of them became Voldemort's followers, they agreed with his ideals. Hermione was only half listening until she heard Regulus' name leave Sirius' mouth.
"He was my younger brother. Became one of his people around 16 I heard. I had left home by then, and was disowned by my family so I had no idea. But it was hardly surprising, Regulus idolised him since he was a child." Sirius sighted.
"He was much better son than I was, always did what they told him to do. I blame my parents for what he became" Hermione felt anger rise in her. Perhaps if Sirius didn't abandon his brother, maybe they would have a chance of convincing Regulus against it. But then, he ended up joining so that his father didn't have to. Hermione couldn't dismiss the fact that Voldemort came looking for Sirius, not Regulus that one summer evening.
"Is he still alive?" She heard Harry ask. Hermione felt her body tense slightly.
"No. He was murdered by Voldemort. Or on Voldemort's orders, more likely. I doubt Regulus was ever important enough to be killed by Voldemort in person. From what I found out after he died, he got in so far, then panicked about what he was being asked to do and tried to back out, the coward. Well, you don't just hand in your resignation to Voldemort. It's a lifetime of service or death."
Hermione left the room.
How could he call Regulus a coward? He got the mark at 15! He was only a child. He had to do terrible things none of them would ever have the guts to follow through with…
Regulus wasn't a coward.
And on the contrary to what he made a lot of people believe about him, he wasn't evil, he had a good heart. He got in a little too deep. He was attracted to it, but the reality of what it meant was way too much to handle. He was hurting and had no older brother to go to because he ran away from home.
Hermione has always been thoughtfully against what Regulus believed in, but she understood why he was the way he was. And despite his upbringing and the war, he remained a good and a kind person. He just saw no other way but to be a good son to his parents. He was too loyal to his family and too proud to abandon it. It was all he knew, all he had.
He was too lonely.