"Are you looking for anything in particular?"

Regulus looked up with a guilty start and pulled his fingers away from Titus Andronicus. "Erm . . . no, ma'am," he mumbled.

Nymphadora giggled beside him. "You look like somebody just caught your hand in the cookie jar."

Regulus smiled wanly. He felt like someone had caught his hand in the cookie jar, and it didn't help that Shakespeare inevitably reminded him of Andromeda and his Uncle Alphard, the two who had collectively introduced him to Muggle literature, which had been a guilty pleasure of his for years. "Well, actually, I was looking for my cousin— her mother," he told the woman, gesturing to Nym. "Maybe you know who she is? Andromeda Tonks?"

The girl blinked. "Well . . . Andromeda sounds vaguely familiar. . . ."

"Her maiden name's Black," Regulus added hopefully— Andromeda wasn't a very common name, and the quicker they got Nym back her parents, the better. Neither he nor his father really knew how to deal with a young girl, and he didn't care to contemplate what might happen if he didn't get her back before his mother came home from Scotland.

"She looks like this," Nym added brightly. She crossed her eyes and scrunched her nose in concentration, an expression that made Regulus cringe slightly, before her dark blue hair turned black and her eyes gray. The pug nose that best resembled her father's straightened into a Roman one and her features took on the characteristic Black sharpness. Watching it, Regulus had half a mind to ask her if changing her appearance hurt as much as it looked.

"How. . . ?" the woman started.

"She's a metamorphmagus," Regulus answered. "And please, we really do need to find her mother. Does she look familiar?"

"Well. . . ." The witch bit her lip. "Actually, yes. She was the only pureblood wizard I've seen in the Muggle section, I think. But I haven't seen her in weeks."

Regulus shook his head. "No good, then. Thanks anyway."

The witch nodded and continued on. Regulus cocked his head, looking at Nym critically for a moment, before he commented mildly, "You're going to give someone a heart-attack doing that, you realize. Even in Diagon Alley, it's not considered normal."

Nym shrugged. "That's what Mum says."

Regulus shook his head. "I'm going to check the Defense Against the Dark Arts section and then we'll head back towards the Leaky Cauldron to meet Dad, all right?" he asked, putting a hand on her shoulder to gently guide her in that direction and scooping Anna off of her perch on the bookshelf.

The two were looking for Andromeda in Flourish and Blott's because Orion had declared that an at least preliminary search for the Tonkses was in order. He had gone to talk to Tom at the Leaky Cauldron— the barman had a good memory for faces and could usually put the pureblooded ones with names, particularly those at the center of the scandals Andromeda and Sirius had been. Most wizards stopped at the Leaky Cauldron when in Diagon Alley, and on the spur of the moment it was one of their better ideas.

Regulus and Nymphadora had decided to try a few of the shops that her parents frequented— she had supplied the Quidditch shop for her father and the apothecary, owl emporium, and bookshop for her mother. Regulus had rejected checking the apothecary and the emporium— most of the wizarding world had to pass through the two of them in the course of a week and Meda would have to be in there to be remembered. They had already checked Quality Quidditch Supplies— the clerk behind the counter was the proprietor's son, and while he'd said he knew Ted by sight, he'd also admitted he hadn't seen the man in over a week.

Regulus was hardly expecting better luck in Flourish and Blott's and thus far the world had not surprised him.

"Oi! Reg!"

"Oh, hell. Dolph," Regulus muttered, stiffening. He handed Anna down to Nym almost as if the cat were a shield and half pushed the girl between him and a shelf as he turned around to meet the speaker. Nym didn't argue with him.

Sure enough, Rodolphus Lestrange was headed his way.

"What are we going to do?" Nym asked, much less panicked than her older cousin.

"Er . . . look, put that morphing thing to use again," Regulus told her in a whisper, casting his mind around for a pureblood girl about her age. "Let's see . . . dark brown hair, pale blue eyes, freckles across a pug nose, high cheekbones, maybe an inch taller if you can manage it. You've got the right build now."

"'Kay," she mumbled, and after a second or two he felt her shoulder pushing against his elbow as she grew.

"Reg?" Rodolphus asked, now within earshot. He took in Regulus's panicked expression and grunted. "Hm. I didn't think Bella'd scared you that much."

The conversation that morning. . . . Thank goodness Rodolphus had an alternate explanation for his jumpiness. "She stopped just short of saying she'd kill me, Dolph," he answered dryly. "And when it's your cousin doing that it doesn't exactly foster a sense of security."

Rodolphus rolled his eyes. "Well, I didn't marry her for her people skills, that's for sure," he mumbled, shaking his head. "But come on. You know she exaggerates."

"I'm not sure how much she exaggerates anymore," Regulus muttered under his breath.

"She's not going to kill her cousin," Rodolphus told him. "Who've you got with you?"

Regulus moved out of the way, hoping Nym had gotten enough of his description right to fool Rodolphus in this comparatively dim corner of the bookshop. "Hi," she muttered, hugging Anna more tightly against her chest.

Rodolphus nodded to her and glanced curiously over at Regulus. "What on earth are you doing in a bookshop with Elaine Flint?" he asked.

Regulus shrugged. "I told her dad I'd keep an eye on her while he went and sorted something out between his sons," he answered as casually as he could.

"Wolfe needs to keep a tighter leash on those boys," Rodolphus muttered, shaking his head. "If he's not careful Marcus is going to be just as wild in a few years. Anyway," he added, his tone shifting from deploring to concerned, "did Bella really scare you that much?"

"I'm starting to wonder if she might be losing her touch with reality, Dolph," Regulus admitted under his breath. "I mean, sure, she's always been a fanatic, but I don't think she's been this obsessive over anything else. . . ."

Rodolphus shook his head. "And whether you're willing to admit it or not, kid, you've always scared easy, especially when it's Bella or that brother of yours doing the talking."

"Look at the precedence I've got that they mean what they say," Regulus retorted.

"True." Rodolphus shook his head again. "Well, I just wanted to make sure she didn't completely terrify you," he said. "So if you're all right?"

Regulus nodded. "Yeah. I probably ought to go see if Wolfe's done with the boys, so. . . ."

Dolph smiled. "Yeah." He glanced down at Nym. "I say you ought to kill your brother's before your dad can soften the blow, kid," he announced.

Nym giggled.

"Oh, and Reg? Next time I'll see if I can't head Bella off for you, calm her down a little."

Regulus nodded as he headed off. Rodolphus was good at calming Bella down— he was probably the only one, because the Dark Lord only tended to stir her up more.

He shook his head and regarded Nym's hastily constructed disguise. "You're lucky that he wasn't paying much attention and the light's not too good, you know," he told her. "I wasn't specific enough, and that hair's a shade or two too dark for Elaine's." He bit his lip. "Now, c'mon. I'll bet you Dad's finally gotten to the point with Tom, so before he goes looking for us let's get over to the pub and find him, shall we?"

☐☐☐

"All right, Reg, it's later. Now tell me what's been going on when you're out late with Bella and Dolph and Lucius," Orion announced, joining his son in the library. He sat down across the table from Regulus, who was leafing through the Evening Prophet with a grimace on his face.

Regulus looked up guiltily. He'd started to hope that Orion had been preoccupied with other things and forgotten what he'd asked his son. "Where's Nym?"

"She's playing with Anna and a couple of toy soldiers I dragged out of the attic," Orion answered, but it didn't distract him. "Now, c'mon, you can't say I've ever pried before. Talk."

"No, I can say you've pried," Regulus muttered. "I just can't say you've pushed." Always before, after all, Orion had accepted a shake of the head as answer enough whenever Regulus had come home pale and shaking. It seemed he hadn't really wanted to know.

"Reg."

"All right, all right. But . . . Bella pulled me in fast, and it didn't help that Dolph was pulling in Rabastan at the same time," Regulus grumbled, even if it he knew it was an excuse. "It took me a little while to figure out that it wasn't . . . that it wasn't just a political party of sorts. That it was actually genocide. Against people like Meda. I didn't really think Bella would do that to her own sister— I don't think Dolph realizes that she would do that to her own sister; he isn't nearly as rabid as she is, but. . . ."

"What have you been doing?" Orion repeated softly.

"I've found out that I can't cast the Unforgivables if my life depends on it, Dad— and one of these days it might," Regulus muttered, propping his elbows on the table and his face in his hands. "Can we just leave it at that? I promise you just about anything your imagination supplies will work."

Orion made a face. "My imagination might not be as vivid as Alphard's, Reg, but it still—"

"Most of the time I've been with Bella," Regulus mumbled into his hands. "Her imagination really is as vivid as Alphard's. I'd tell her to start writing like him, but . . . I don't think anyone wants to read what she could come up with."

Orion shuddered. "Yeah. But . . . what now?"

"I can't do it anymore. I'm running out of time I can bide before people stop covering for me with the Unforgivables, and Bella will kill me if I try to stop her killing someone again, and I can't sit back and watch after she tried to kill her own niece. I dunno what I'm gonna do to get out, but I've gotta do something."

"Hm. . . ." Orion propped his own elbows on the table and his chin on his hands, staring contemplatively at his son for a few minutes of silence. "Is that why you were trying to figure out who the Dark Lord was?" he asked.

"Yeah," Regulus admitted. "I mean, if one of them's invincible, it's got to be Dumbledore, right? I mean, he survived Grindelwald, and he's definitely over a hundred now. The Dark Lord's what? He was born in nineteen twenty. . . ."

"1924, a year younger than your mother," Orion supplied. "Let's see, it's 1979, so that'd make him. . . . fifty-five."

"I mean, he's got to have some way to get to him and . . . and dammit, Dad, I can't get out while he's in power, and if somebody doesn't kill him . . . well. . . ." He rubbed his temples and growled under his breath.

Orion raised an eyebrow.

"Sirius talked me into watching one too many cheesy Muggle movies with him," Regulus grumbled. "If nobody kill's him soon, he's going to have someone do me in, and if that happens I want to take a piece of him with me." He'd been trying to avoid thinking the thought to himself, but now that it was out of his mouth the decision was definitely made. There was actually something a little comforting about knowing he had the nerve to make it.

"You sound like your brother's Slytherin side," Orion muttered. "I just hope one of us can figure out a way to do it without getting you killed, because like it or not you're not getting rid of me now, not when you need all the help you can get."


Author's Note:
I'm sorry this took me a week longer than I expected it to --- between band and school, I just haven't had as much time as I would have liked, and I'm sorry if the last scene was a little cheesy; both of them did have to commit to doing something. Anyway, thank you to everyone who dropped me a line for a review --- yeah, the thing about Sirius and Anna at Bella's wedding was the opening scene of a fic that never got off the ground, so I'm glad it came to good use. So, any reviews for this chapter would be greatly appreciated! (While I'm not making any guarantees about this story and when it'll be updated soon, I'll try not to take a month about it). Cheers! --- Loki