Sirius did not bother waking Regulus up at dawn on February Twenty-Second, and when Regulus finally did open his eyes— still shaking off vague forebodings about the Mark that persisted in his dreams and much later than Sirius usually let him sleep— Sirius was nowhere to be found. He glanced over at Buckbeak, who had been known to stare desolately after one of them for as much as an hour after they disappeared, but the hippogriff was busily preening his feathers and didn't seem to notice Sirius's absence. He had probably been gone awhile, then.

"If he didn't leave a note. . . ." Regulus mumbled, fading off less for the ominous effect than because he couldn't think of anything suitably nasty to do if Sirius hadn't left one.

A quick search of the cave proved that he didn't have to expand on his imagination. Sirius had scrawled and circled a note in the margin of one of the more recent Daily Prophets:

Can't sleep anymore, gone hunting. In the likely event that I don't catch anything and drag it back here, meet me by the school gates at noon.

Grumbling, Regulus checked his watch— it was eleven-thirty, so he could make it if he hurried. "C'mon, Sirius, you had to know I'd sleep too late if you let me," he muttered. But at least Sirius had decided to distract himself this time, which was definitely a step in the right direction.

Regulus glanced behind him at Buckbeak, who seemed to find him more interesting at the moment than he did his feather's. When Regulus took fox form, the hippogriff let out a desolate caw, as if he were being permanently abandoned.

Unable to snap something at Buckbeak, the fox made a grumbling sound in the back of his throat and rolled his eyes before scampering out of the cave and beginning the trek down the mountain towards the village and Hogwarts.

Sirius was already waiting for his brother by the time Regulus got to the gates. He raised a brow and woofed when he saw Regulus coming, as if to ask where he'd been.

Still irritated, Regulus felt the fur on the back of his neck rising and bared his teeth in reply.

Sirius's lips also parted to reveal his fangs, but Regulus knew his brother well enough to know he wasn't annoyed by Regulus's rotten mood. Far from it, in fact— he was smirking.

Regulus growled.

Sirius's tail wagged once and he started to trot into the Forbidden Forest. Regulus rushed after him at a near sprint to keep up. The only problem with traveling this way was that he couldn't give Sirius a piece of his mind right now, as much as he wanted to.

The two of them took a wide berth around the school to avoid both the walls and arriving with enough time for Sirius to start really fretting. By the time Regulus could smell the lake on the wind, Sirius transformed back into a man. "Erm . . . Reggie?" he asked.

Regulus transformed himself and raised his eyebrows above his glasses. "What did you do now, Sirius?" he demanded.

"Nothing. I just wondered if you knew where they were holding the second task, because I don't."

"You're the one that finds it important to be there, despite the fact that there's nothing we could do even if something happened," Regulus pointed out. "I thought you'd figure it out yourself."

Sirius sighed. "Reggie. . . ."

"All right, I guess it's a school event and wouldn't have been made as public as it could have been. Dumbledore doesn't want the place swarming with reporters, after all." He glanced up at the nearest tree. "If I climb one of these things I can probably see where it is," he muttered. "It's not as if it's going to be a small affair, after all."

It was Sirius's turn to raise his brows. "If you're afraid of heights, Reg—"

"I've told you before that I'm not scared if there's something solid between me and the fall, and it's not as if I'm going to climb high enough that the branches are really swaying." He smiled slightly. "Chasing helter-skelter after you is probably going to shave more years off my life due to stress than a few minutes swaying in the branches."

Sirius shrugged. "I'm going to remind you that it was your idea when you come down cursing," he said.

Regulus transformed once again and hopped from branch to branch, steadily making his way up. Gray foxes had been built for this, and even when the branches did start to sway a little— it was a windy day— something about the shape he was in kept him from getting too nervous. He was nearly seventy-five feet in the air by the time he could see over enough trees to see the stands that had been conjured beside the Black Lake.

He descended rather more slowly that he had climbed, dropped the last six feet, and turned back into a man. "By the lake," he told Sirius. "And we've got"— he checked his watch— "about forty minutes, so if it's all the same to you I'd rather I not have to chase you down there and shave a few more years off my life."

Sirius grinned. "All right."

Because Regulus insisted, occasionally by growling and yipping, on traveling at his stubby-legged pace rather than Sirius's long strides, the two reached the shore and found an inconspicuous place to settle down as Harry sprinted, late, to where the other three champions stood.

Ludo Bagman— a man Regulus faintly recognized from his career as a Quidditch beater— gave Harry a few minutes to catch his breath before he stood and magically amplified his voice. "Well, all our champions are ready for the second task, which will start with my whistle. They have precisely one hour to recover whatever has been taken from them. On the count of three, then. One . . . two . . . three!"

The four champions waded quickly into the water. The three older ones disappeared very quickly, flicking their wands right before diving into the water, but for a few minutes Harry stood there as if spellbound. He didn't touch his wand, and after a few minutes Regulus could hear catcalls from the Slytherin section of the stands. He rolled his eyes, remembering how brutal his house could be when things didn't look favorable, and how idiotic they often looked when they started mocking people too soon. Sirius, however, tensed.

Harry reached up suddenly, clutching his neck, before plunging quickly into the water. Sirius was on his feet so quickly Regulus wondered how he got there. But before the dog could do anything stupid, his feet— now obviously webbed— kicked out of the water for a moment before he vanished under the lake. Sirius lay back down, and the Slytherins abruptly stopped catcalling.

Regulus smiled slightly— a human habit that looked downright deadly on a fox— as Sirius settled down beside him. It was gillyweed, then. He had to admit the kid was bright enough to hold his own, even if Snape would be furious about the stolen plant.

He wasn't back yet.

It had been nearly two hours, and Harry wasn't back yet. Fleur Delacour had returned first, Cedric Diggory had also returned, carrying another student, and Viktor Krum had just surfaced with Hermione Granger. Sirius was pacing and grumbling in the back of his canine throat, and even Regulus was starting to worry a little. How long did gillyweed last, anyway? Regulus hadn't the least idea, and he was half afraid he was going to find out in the wrong fashion.

Finally, just as Regulus was about to pounce on Sirius for the confounded pacing on the excuse it was sure to draw attention, three heads appeared from the deeps. One was a blonde girl, the second Ron Weasley's, and the third, a little behind the others, was Harry's.

Sirius yelped in surprise and relief and Regulus finally did pounce on his brother lest he start jumping. The two rolled on the ground for a few minutes, Regulus dodging Sirius's paws as the bigger dog tried to untangle himself from the heap he had landed in and avoiding Sirius's tail, which was wagging wildly.

By the time the two had both righted themselves, Bagman was awarding points. Regulus only half listened to the first three champions', which would be reported in the next day's paper, anyway, but he was curious to see what the verdict would be on Harry's.

"Harry Potter used gillyweed to great effect. He returned last, and well outside the time limit of an hour. However, the Merchiftainess informs us that Mr. Potter was first to reach the hostages, and that the delay in his return was due to his determination to return all the hostages to safety, not merely his own."

Regulus sighed dramatically and Sirius glared at him. At this Regulus only shot him the fanged grin of a fox. They didn't need language to tease each other about their houses, and this was clearly a prime example of what Regulus would call Gryffindor stupidity.

"Most of the judges feel that this shows moral fiber and merits full marks. However . . . Mr. Potter's score is forty-five points."

Hogwarts cheered wildly, since both their champions were now tied for first place. Sirius's tail began to beat wildly again, knocking his brother in the side and Regulus, rolling his eyes dramatically, tugged his brother's ear. The two melted inconspicuously back into the Forbidden Forest.

"Moral fiber, eh?" Sirius asked as soon as they were far enough into the Forest to transform and talk.

"I dunno if I'd agree," Regulus answered lightly. "After all, he had to know they weren't in real danger. Dumbledore was involved in planning the thing, after all."

Sirius rolled his eyes.

"In the real world, yeah, that would've taken some nerve," Regulus conceded. "Kid just forgot the Tournament wasn't the real world."

"Heh." Sirius smiled slightly and shook his head. "So, at the risk of getting answers I don't like, what would you've done?"

"In the Tournament? That would've been the end of it for me," Regulus answered. "I'm even more afraid of drowning than I am of flying, to be honest, and nothing could induce me to get into that lake. I haven't even been able to get into a swimming pool since. . . ." He faded off and shook his head.

"Yes?" Sirius demanded.

Regulus shook his head. "I don't want to talk about it. Suffice to say it involved a lake and dead people."

"All right," Sirius murmured, shaking his head. "But, out of curiosity . . . who would it've been for you?"

"At the kid's age? You or Cissy," Regulus admitted. "Now? You're the only family I've got left, Sirius, and you know what I think of family."

Sirius nodded.

"So, at the risk of getting answers I don't like, what would you've used?"

"Bubble-head charm, like the first two. I am not afraid of water."

"I wouldn't blame you if you never wanted to get into it again, though. Azkaban's an island, after all, and the swim back here must've been awful."

"I dunno . . . it was like getting my mind back, finally being out of there," Sirius murmured. "Like finally being alive again. Besides," he added, grinning suddenly and clearly trying to lighten the mood. " Britain's an island, too. Azkaban hasn't stopped me from wanting to come here, now has it?"

Regulus rolled his eyes. "And who? Lupin or Harry? I know at Harry's age it'd've been James."

Sirius stared at his brother for a minute and shook his head. "Why did you rule yourself out?" he demanded after a long minute.

"I figured I was out of the running against the school friend you did something supremely illegal for and your godson," he answered.

"Reggie. . . ." Sirius shook his head. "Probably Harry," he admitted. "But I wouldn't count out either you or Remus."

Author's Note: The response to this story continues, frankly, to amaze me, which is one of the reasons I'm going to apologize, but I doubt I'll be updating next week. I have, among other commitments, a lot of school work to finish as the first quarter draws to a close, so I'll be taking a week's hiatus in order to simply get everything I need to get done done. Anyway— MercuryBlue144: I did actually catch the Austria/Albania thing halfway through chapter five, but since this AU, I decided that internal consistency was the more important. You've got a fair point about Durmstrang's location though; thanks for pointing it out. Thanks also to everyone who pointed out the minor errors in the last chapter, and of course, to everyone who just reviewed! Until the next update, Cheers! —Loki