"Reg, what do you remember about Karkaroff?" Sirius asked as his brother entered the cave in Reynard form, a rabbit between his jaws.
Regulus dropped the rabbit and transformed. "Why on earth do you ask?"
Sirius simply handed him another letter from Harry. Regulus's confusion only grew as he scanned it. "Somebody entered Harry in the Triwizard Tournament?" he asked, looking up only absently to see his brother's impatient nod. Not only was it a bizarre turn of events, Sirius shouldn't be taking it half so calmly, not when people died in that competition.
He glanced around the cave for the owl that had delivered the message and found a large barn owl on a ledge with its head under its wing, asleep. So Sirius must have already had time to throw his fit and remember that entry into the Triwizard Tournament was binding. Regulus bit his lip and handed the letter back. "Wow," was all he could think of to say.
"So what do you remember about Karkaroff?" Sirius repeated.
"Why do you ask?" Regulus asked again, still trying to reconcile the two halves of this conversation. "You don't think he put the boy's name in there, do you?"
"Yes, as a matter of fact I do."
Regulus raised an eyebrow. "Why?"
"I'll bet you anything this has something to do with those rumors in Austria, and Karkaroff was a Death Eater, and dammit, Reggie, who else is there that might've done it?"
"I can't think of anyone off the top of my head," Regulus admitted, taking a penknife out of his pocket and leaning down to skin the rabbit. "But still, what I remember about Karkaroff boils down to this: he's a coward. An intelligent coward, but still a coward. I doubt highly that he'd go back to a man he'd betrayed."
"If Voldemort offered him a sec—"
Regulus cut him off with a derisive snort. "Voldemort doesn't give second chances. Igor Karkaroff and I both forfeited our lives to him when we betrayed him; I just have the advantage of letting him think I've already paid up."
"Have you got any better suggestions?" Sirius demanded, crossing his arms over his chest.
"No. I guess we're back to page one."
"I guess." Sirius agreed reluctantly. "Unless . . . I mean, wouldn't Voldemort put off killing you with a 'prove your loyalty' offer if he thought he could get what he wanted out of you before doing you in?"
He's a dog with a bone when he's being stubborn, Regulus thought, not for the first time. He bit his lip. "Well, yes. I doubt Karkaroff would be stupid enough to take it, since there's not enough human in the Dark Lord to take the Unbreakable Vow, but . . . it's possible."
"And it's the best explanation we can think of," Sirius added. "I'm warning Harry. Face to face."
"How?"
"I'll think of something."
"While you're warning him about Karkaroff, I'd warn him about the Durmstrang champion, too. He'll have added the Dark Arts to the school curriculum."
Sirius nodded. "Definitely got to do it before the first task. Any idea when that it?"
"Late this month, if the Daily Prophet's any judge," Regulus answered. He picked one up, tore off a page, and wiped it blank with his wand before handing it and a pen to his brother.
"Thanks," Sirius muttered as he started to scribble.
"I still can't believe you talked me into this," Regulus muttered a few weeks later, stoking the fire.
"Yeah, yeah," Sirius muttered, grinning absently at the half-hearted glare his brother was shooting him. For all the world, after all, Regulus currently reminded him of Remus Lupin on a dare. "Any idea how much time we have?"
"Not an inkling," Regulus replied. The fire was lit and he straightened and scanned the mantle. "Here's the floo powder," he announced, picking it up. "Remind me again why we had to break in? And why no one ever thinks to use the lesser known locking spells on anything but the door? Everyone but Dad, that is."
Sirius rolled his eyes. "Do you think I can just knock on someone's door and ask if I can borrow the floo for a minute?" he asked, taking the powder.
"I know, it just makes me nervous," Regulus admitted. "I'll keep watch."
Sirius nodded and threw a handful of floo powder into the flames. It had been over a decade since he'd used the stuff and he'd hated it when he'd had to, hated the sensation of not quite being in one piece, but he certainly didn't have any better ideas. He glanced over at Regulus, who was standing by the window like a cat in a dog pound, shook his head, and stuck it into the green-tinted flames. "Gryffindor common room," he muttered, closing his eyes.
When the spinning sensation stopped and he opened his eyes, it was to see Harry sitting by the fire, his gaze drifting slowly back to the flames. When the boy saw him among them, he jumped, broke into a grin, and slid out of his chair. "Hullo, Sirius— how are you doing?"
"Never mind me," Sirius snapped, "how about you?"
"I'm—" Harry started, then hesitated. "I'm not entirely sure. I mean, of course I didn't expect everyone to believe me when I said I didn't enter the tournament, certainly not the Slytherins, and the Hufflepuffs have their own champion, but I thought maybe Ravenclaw . . . and my own House, but no one believes me except you and Regulus and Dumbledore and Hagrid and Hermione. Not even Ron. . . ."
He shook his head. "And then Rita Skeeter went and wrote that article about me, where I hadn't told her anything really and she just made things up. No one's shut up about that, either. Well, unless you count Ron. . . ."
Harry bit his lip, but before Sirius could open his mouth, he launched into his monologue again. "Ron won't believe me, he won't even talk to me anymore. Hermione says he's jealous, what with all his brothers and me being famous, but still. . . . He's got know I don't want to be, not for having my parents murdered. . . . But Hermione told me it's the last straw and now he's mad at me for no reason.
"And tonight Hagrid brought me into the Forest to show me the first task, and it's dragons, Sirius. I'm a goner," Harry finished.
Sirius realized he was biting his lip and, since the boy seemed to be done, launched into his own speech. "Dragons I can tell you how to deal with, Harry, but I'll get to that in a minute— we haven't got much time, I had to break into someone's house to use the fireplace; Reg's watching the door but he can't stop them, only tell me, and we've got no idea when they'll be home. Anyway, there are a couple of things I need to warn you about."
"What?" Harry asked, as if he couldn't think of anything more pressing that his impending death by dragon. Under normal circumstances, Sirius would have agreed with him, but these weren't normal circumstances.
"Karkaroff. He was a Death Eater, Harry— you do know what Death Eaters are, right?" When Harry nodded, he continued. "He was caught, he was in Azkaban with me for awhile, but he got released. I'll bet anything he's why Dumbledore wanted an Auror at Hogwarts this year, especially one as good as Moody."
"Karkaroff got released?" Harry asked slowly, as if he couldn't quite believe what was being said to him.
A grim smile flashed briefly over Sirius's face— it was pretty unbelievable. "Yeah, he made a deal with the Ministry, said he'd seen the error of his ways, and then he named names. Put a bunch of other people in Azkaban in his place. Nearly as popular as Peter in there, he is. And Reggie says he'll be teaching the Dark Arts, so watch out for the Durmstrang champion as well."
"Okay. . . ." Harry said uncertainly. "Are you saying Karkaroff put my name in the goblet? Because he's a really good actor if he did, since he seemed pretty angry. He wanted to stop me from competing."
"We know he's a good actor," Sirius reminded him. "He convinced the Ministry to let him go, didn't he? I'm not sure Reg could've and he really did switch sides. Then again, open betrayal never was Reggie's style. . . . Anyway, I've been keeping an eye on the Daily Prophet—"
"You and the rest of the world," Harry muttered bitterly.
"—and reading between the lines on that Skeeter woman's articles. Someone tried to stop Mad-Eye from getting here." Harry opened his mouth to protest, but Sirius plowed on without giving him a chance. "Yeah, I know she said it was another false alarm, but I somehow doubt it. Someone knew their job would be a lot more difficult with him around. No one'll pay too much attention, of course, Mad-Eye's heard intruders a bit too often, but I'll bet he can still spot the real thing. He was the best Auror the Ministry ever had, after all."
Harry nodded hesitantly. "So . . . you're saying Karkaroff's trying to kill me? But— why?"
Sirius bit his lip, trying to figure out how to explain. "There have been some pretty strange things going on lately. The Death Eater's have been more active than usual lately— they showed themselves for the first time in over a decade at the Quidditch World Cup, didn't they? Someone set off the Dark Mark . . . and— did you hear about the Ministry of Magic witch that's gone missing?"
"Bertha Jorkins?" Harry asked.
"Exactly . . . she disappeared in Austria, and that's definitely the last place either Reg or I heard any rumors about Voldemort . . . and she worked in the Department of Magic Games and Sports, didn't she? So she would definitely have known that the Triwizard Tournament was coming up?"
"Yeah, but . . . how likely is it, really, that she'd have walked straight into Voldemort?" Harry asked sensibly.
"Listen, I knew Bertha Jorkins," Sirius told him grimly. "She was a few years ahead of your dad and me at Hogwarts. And she was an idiot. Very nosy, but no sense at all, and that's not a good combination, Harry. It's probably the easiest type of person to lure into a trap."
"So . . . so you think Voldemort found out about the Tournament?" Harry asked. "And . . . and you think Karkaroff might've put my name in the goblet on his orders?"
"I don't know, Harry," Sirius admitted, shaking his head. "I just don't know. Karkaroff doesn't strike me as the type to go back to Voldemort unless Voldemort was strong enough to protect him, and Reg swears up and down that Karkaroff forfeited any protection in getting out of Azkaban and isn't stupid enough to fall for a sham. . . . But whoever put your name in the goblet of fire did it for a reason, and I can't help but think how easy it would be to hurt you through one of the tasks and make it look like an accident."
"Looks like a really good plan from where I'm standing," Harry said grimly. "Just stand back and let the dragons take care of me."
That brought the subject back to the issue Harry had first mentioned. Since it was urgent and goodness knew they were running out of time, Sirius started speaking as quickly as he could. "Yeah, about those dragons, Harry— there's a fairly simple way. Don't be tempted to use a Stunner— dragons are too strong and too powerfully magical to be knocked out by a single one of those, you need about half a dozen wizards casting them simultaneously—"
"Yeah, I know, I just saw."
"But there are a few ways to do it alone," Sirius said. "All you need's a simple spell. Just—"
But he never got to finish his sentence. There was a bump from somewhere, and Harry started and looked around, holding up a hand to stop him from continuing. After a few moments of tense silence, it came again. "Go!" Harry hissed. "Someone's coming!"
The boy started to get to his feet and Sirius pulled his head back out the fire, rubbing his neck as if he weren't entirely certain his head was properly attached.
Regulus looked over from the window and pulled the drapery entirely closed. "So . . . how'd it go?"
"He's warned at least," Sirius answered grimly, getting to his feet and massaging his knees where they'd been digging into the floor. "Apparently Hagrid dragged him into the Forbidden Forest to warn him about the first task tonight, and it has something to do with dragons. Somebody started down the steps as I started to tell him how to deal with it."
"He's bright, he'll find it," Regulus answered, shrugging. "And wouldn't you tell him what to use technically be cheating?" he added mildly.
"Considering how he got in, I don't care," Sirius snapped. "I just want him to get through all three of them alive."
Regulus nodded, pulled out his wand, and waved it at the fireplace, dousing the flames. "Point taken. Now, if you wouldn't mind transforming? The last thing we need is for some insomniac witch to look out her window in the dead of night and see Sirius Black standing in her neighbor's living room."
Sirius nodded and transformed into the giant black dog.
Regulus tucked his wand into his pocket, pulled back the drapes and undid the window latch. He climbed out the window, hoping the hypothetical insomniac witch still had her shutters drawn, and waited for Sirius to make the leap. As soon as the dog was standing on the Hogsmeade cobbles, he closed the window and muttered the spell to lock it again. Then he transformed himself and the two canines started back up the mountain toward the cave.
Author's Note: This is, judging from the looks of my mental picture of the rest of 1994, the only truly Sirius centric chapter in this particular Double Trouble instalment. I also now have to disclaim a few of those lines, expecially Harry's, which were taken directly from the book, and Harry's letter in the last chapter, which is almost word-for-word from GoF and which I forgot to disclaim last chapter. Also, thanks to Jackline for pointing out that the EU didn't switch to the Euro until 1999. In other news, thanks to everyone who reviewed last chapter, please make my day and review this one! Cheers! — Loki