Buckbeak landed inside a copse of trees with his usual pair of jolts— one for the front feet and another for the back. Regulus immediately slid off, still clutching Buckbeak's flank to steady himself, since he was still shaking a little.

"Are you all right?" Sirius asked, joining him on the ground.

Regulus's reflex response to a question like that— "Do I look all right?"— wouldn't work this time, because although he was all right, Sirius was asking because he still looked terrified. "I'm fine. Or I will be in a minute."

"I had no idea you were that afraid of heights."

"Never occurred to you to ask yourself why I only ever got on a broomstick once as a kid?" Regulus couldn't help but ask.

"Well, Cissy never exactly cared for flying, either," Sirius answered, shrugging. "And you never seemed to have any trouble when we were out on the roof or up on the Astronomy Tower."

"I'm fine when there's something like ground underneath me," Regulus retorted. "And it doesn't help that Buckbeak rocks so much." He shook his head and straightened. "Let's get the hippogriff out of sight, shall we? Or at least you?"

Sirius grinned slightly and transformed. "That's one down," Regulus admitted, pulling Dumbledore's map out of his pocket.

The headmaster had left detailed instructions, so the cave wasn't hard to find. What was difficult was climbing a mountain with an easily distracted hippogriff in tow. After all, Buckbeak hadn't had much opportunity to get outside for several months, and he was making it very clear that he wanted time to sniff the air and investigate anything that seemed interesting. It didn't help that Sirius kept disappearing at odd intervals and reappearing, once with some scratches across his nose where he'd stuck it into the lair of a stray cat who hadn't appreciated the interruption.

Regulus was therefore frustrated and muttering death threats by the time that he dragged Buckbeak into the cave, Sirius bounding in after him.

The cave itself overlooked Hogsmeade, high enough on a precipice that they couldn't see anyone and no one looking up at the mountain would notice them. It was also fairly spacious for having an entrance Buckbeak could barely squeeze through.

"Not exactly what I would call home," Sirius announced. He'd returned to human form immediately upon entering and was now looking around with a vaguely curious expression. "But it does beat the hell out of the haunts in the Shrieking Shack."

"I thought you said there were no ghosts in there," Regulus couldn't help but note mildly, searching for some place he could tether Buckbeak.

"You know what I mean."

"Yeah, yeah . . . home'd be the same way for me."

"Home. . . ." Sirius cocked his head for a minute, as if trying to place the word. "You mean Grimmauld?" he asked finally.

Regulus lifted an eyebrow. "Where else would I mean?"

"Well, it was never really home to me," Sirius admitted, running his fingers through his hair distractedly. "And it just seems a bit odd that you've been out of there for fourteen years and it's still where home is."

"I never really managed to settle— in the first year I convinced myself it was because I was scared, but after Voldemort fell" —he shrugged— "I guess I just never had the people that made it home." He found a convenient rock to wedge Buckbeak's tether into and added, "Why? Where was home to you?"

"I guess the closest I've ever come's been James's," Sirius admitted quietly. "So home's pretty much gone for me, too."

For a minute the two stood there awkwardly, Sirius with his hand in his hair and Regulus playing absently with his glasses. Finally, Regulus shook his head and changed the subject. "Well, one of us'd probably best go see if we can get a paper," he murmured. "It's been nearly a week since we've seen one, after all, and something may've happened. You're the least conspicuous. . . ."

Sirius nodded and transformed back into the dog.

"I'll bet you I know why Dumbledore got Moody out of retirement now," Sirius announced as a reentered the cave, carrying a few papers.

Regulus, who had been trying to chase out rats in fox form, looked up at his brother, startled. Then he shook his head and changed back. "Really?"

"Apparently they're having a go at bringing the Triwizard Tournament back this year. At Hogwarts."

Regulus raised an eyebrow. "Would you mind enlightening me as to how this has anything whatsoever to do with a paranoid ex-Auror? I still hold that it's because the job's jinxed."

Sirius passed him a headline. "Read the two other headmaster's names."

The front page was emblazoned with a picture of the Triwizard judges— head of the Department of International Magical Cooperation Barty Crouch, head of the Department of Magical Games and Sports Ludo Bagman, Dumbledore, the Beauxbaton headmistress Olympe Maxime, and the Durmstrang headmaster Igor Karkaroff. Dumbledore, Bagman, and Madame Maxime were smiling vaguely at the camera; Crouch was wearing a solemn look, and Karkaroff was downright scowling.

"Who in their right mind would put Igor Karkaroff in charge of a school?" Regulus demanded.

"No idea," Sirius admitted, "but—"

"I mean, who would put a known Death Eater in charge of eleven-year-old children?" Regulus continued, completely ignoring his brother.

Sirius's next remark, however, cut through the beginning of his rant. "Well, Dumbledore for one."

Regulus narrowed his eyes and made a few quick connections. "Sirius, will you please not make this about Severus Snape?"

"I wasn't. But it got your attention," Sirius answered, smiling slightly. "Now if I could finish explaining my theory. . . ?"

Regulus crossed his arms over his chest and leaned against the cave wall. "Fine."

"All right, so if you've got an ex-Death Eater on the grounds you're going to want somebody to keep an eye on him, won't you? And dammit, Reg, Moody's the one who put Karkaroff into Azkaban in the first place!"

"Was he?"

Sirius nodded.

"All right. That's one mad theory from you that makes a certain amount of sense. It didn't have anything to do with Voldemort after all, then."

Sirius made a face at him. "Now, how about his other bizarre staff appointments?"

"Sirius, I told you not to make this about Snape."

"I'm not trying to make anything about Snape, I just want to know why Dumbledore hired him," Sirius answered irritably. "Maybe he's better than Karkaroff, since he is under someone's thumb and Snape at least doesn't back down under pressure, so he won't necessarily go straight back to Voldemort, but he's still a Death Eater."

Regulus rolled his eyes. "Then ask Dumbledore, not me. Now, I'm going to continue trying to get the rats out of this cave," he announced. "Are you going to help me or are you going to brood?"

Dear Sirius and Regulus,

I reckon I just imagined my scar hurting, I was half asleep when I wrote you last time. There's no point in coming back, everything's fine here. Don't worry about me, my head feels completely normal.

—Harry

The letter arrived very late one night a week or so into the term, tied to the leg of the same snowy owl that had found them in France. Sirius was hunting at the time, so Regulus untied the letter and scanned it without risk of a snide remark— anyway, it was addressed to the both of them.

Much to the disgust of the bird, he also chuckled a bit over the missive. Harry was worried about Sirius, and Sirius was worried about Harry, and Regulus wasn't entirely sure who had the more legitimate grounds for that worry.

When the owl let out her disgusted hoot, Regulus automatically patted his jean and jacket pockets for something for her without success. "Did I scare you or are you just annoyed that I think your master's crazy if he thought this would work?" he asked instead, reaching out to stroke her feathers.

The owl shot him another disdainful look but allowed herself to be stroked for a minute or two.

Regulus picked up one of the Daily Prophets now lying scattered about the cave and wiped it clean with his wand. Then, pulling a ballpoint out of his jacket pocket, he set about putting Harry's mind at ease:

Nice try, Harry, but if it was a valid argument I'd've kept Sirius in hiding with it to begin with. Still, your scar isn't the only warning sign and most of them are on this side of the Channel, so keep your eyes open.

Regulus reached up to adjust his glasses and regarded the preening owl in front of him, aware that "just worry about yourself" was not going to cut it for a Gryffindor. It rarely soothed his fears, after all, and Slytherins had much greater self-preservation instincts.

Still, after a moment he just shrugged and finished the letter.

We're back in the country and well-hidden, and we want you to keep us posted on what's going on at Hogwarts. And if Sirius has to rely on sensationalist news articles for information much longer, he may wind up breaking into Hogwarts again, and you know how much of a disaster that was last year. Don't use your snowy owl, though, keep changing owls, and while I know you don't want to hear this, don't worry about Sirius, I assure you I can handle him. From the looks of things, after all, you'd be better off watching your own back.

—Regulus

He folded the letter, sealed it with a spell, and tied it to the owl's leg. "Sorry to send you back without anything," he told her as he carried her to the mouth of the cave. "You can't have had an easy time tracking us down, after all."

She hooted a reply rather more pleasantly than she had previously before fluttering off.

"So what was that?"

Regulus jumped and turned in time to see Sirius emerge from the scrub. "You're back?"

"Yeah. No luck but I'm exhausted." He cocked his head, looking back at the bird as she flapped off. "Is that Harry's owl? It looked familiar."

"Yeah."

Sirius raised an eyebrow. "What'd he write you about, then?"

"Well, he wrote both of us in attempt to keep us on the other side of the Channel," Regulus explained, handing him the letter.

Sirius scanned it and his lips twitched slightly. "He sounds exactly like his mother, to the point at which you know he's rationalizing just to keep us out of trouble. What'd you tell him about it?"

"To keep in touch with a less conspicuous owl and that as amazing as it may seem, I really do have your overprotective streak under control."

Sirius made a face, mostly teasingly. "Do you make it sound like I'm a mental patient on purpose?" he wanted to know.

"You realize you are only proving to me just how desperately you need sleep?" Regulus asked him quietly.

Sirius rolled his eyes theatrically. "G'night, Reg."

--
Author's Notes: Neither my smoothest chapter or my best, either, but I've finally got the story in a place where I can kick off the GoF plot points. And hopefully the server won't go nuts as I post this time. Anyway, thanks to everyone who left a review last chapter, and as, always, a thank you in advance to those of you who leave a comment this time! Cheers! — Loki