"When did this change?" Sirius asked, caught off guard by his brother's vehemence.
"The day I found out the truth about the Dark Lord."
He was quiet, he couldn't say anything.
"But how did you get back here, looking like you did right before you died, or whatever you did."
"Our grandfather's time turner" Regulus said with some effort, he hated telling anyone about it, it had been his secret, but now that it was gone it was a mute point.
"Aren't those illegal unless you're registered for life?"
"Isnt being an animagus?" Severus said from the doorway.
"Stay out of this Snivellus."
"You were an Animagus?"
"One would think as my brother you would pick up on these things!"
"Sorry Sirius, I never really had much of a brother."
The two brothers pointed their wands at each other's faces.
"Now, both of you…"
"Stay out of this Snape!"
"Regulus, I thought the point of you remaining in this time was so that you could avoid dying!"
"I'm better than he is, and I'll be cursed if I'll put up with anymore of his insults and inconsiderate behavior!"
"Oho! My little brother thinks he can beat me! In your dreams scrawny one!" Sirius taunted.
"No, he can!" Severus said.
"I know more magic than you could dream of!"
"Dark Magic no doubt! You always were the worst of our psychotic family."
Two loud bangs occurred at that moment. The spells collided. Regulus seethed with anger and thought 'Sectumsempra'. Cuts appeared on Sirius' upper body.
"REGULUS! Stop, you're both on the same side now, we all our, so for Merlin's sake lets not kill each other!" Snape began healing Sirius' wounds. "And Regulus, don't ever use that spell again!"
"Why not? It was one of your best, that and Levicorpus."
"Hah! He only wishes he could have invented Levicorpus!"
"No, your brother is right, I did create that spell, and Langlock too. I was always the better magician."
Sirius was silent. Snape had created the very spell that he and James had used to torment him with. Sirius felt oddly unclean, like the spell had to be Dark Magic simply because Snape had created it.
"Now" Severus said standing up, "will the two of you please refrain from injuring each other any more?"
The two brothers glared in silence.
"I will do my best, Severus" Regulus said as he walked over and offered his hand to help Sirius up. Sirius looked at it for a solid minute and then took it. Regulus pulled him to his feet. "Sorry Siri" he muttered.
"Just don't do it again!"
"I wont" he said, hanging his head a bit, as shame washed over him. He had lost his temper and cursed his own brother.
"And Sirius" Severus said, "For Regulus' sake, and your own too, I suppose, don't go provoking him again."
"Alright, can you leave now?" Sirius said sharply.
"Regulus?"
"Its my house not his!"
"No, its our house, or no one's at all!" Regulus said. "But Severus, it would be, shall we say, a tactful move, if you went home for a while. You still live at Spinner's End?"
"Yes"
"Then I will be there in time for tea."
"Alright" Severus said dipping his head in acknowledgement and then leaving.
After Severus had left the two brothers spent several long minutes simply staring at each other and past each other. Sirius felt tinges of jealousy at seeing someone who looked so much like his untarnished 18 year old self, Azkaban had diminished his good looks greatly. Regulus stood, politely waiting for something to say or do.
"Have you eaten yet?"
"Not since supper 15 years ago" Regulus said.
Sirius chuckled despite himself. It was quite an interesting predicament that his brother was in, to say the least.
"I'll have Kreacher fix us something."
"NO!" Regulus said in voice that verged on being a yelp.
"Why not?"
"I… I'm not ready to see him yet. He's old, and I don't want him to die of shock on me, I'll have to talk to him in my own way. Besides, I can cook, I'll make something."
"Alright, why you worry about that coockey old elf so much I don't know."
"Listen Sirius, if we're going to try and get along then LEAVE KREACHER ALONE!" Regulus said uttering each word with special emphasis.
"Alright, alright, I wont talk bad about your elf!"
"Thanks" Regulus said as he opened the door and he and his brother walked downstairs.
While his little brother cooked the midday meal, Sirius kept Kreacher busy and forbade him from getting anywhere near the kitchen until tea time.
The two brothers sat down to their stew at the little table in the kitchen.
"So" Regulus said letting the word hang there for a moment or two, "if you were sent to Azkaban for murder, how is that you arent there now? I mean no one escapes that place."
"I did, and so did your friend Barty Crouch Jr."
"How?"
"Me or Crouch?"
"You of course, I could care less about Barty Crouch Junior, he was a total psychopath!"
"And You-Know-Who wasn't?"
"You don't see me sitting down at his kitchen table do you? I'm here Sirius, you seem to dislike the fact that I am, but could you at least try to mask the ill will you bear towards me a little bit?"
"Sorry" he said swallowing some stew, "Its just I cant remember you without remembering how obsessed you were with joining the Dark Lord. The stack of newspaper articles are still in your room Reggie."
"I meant to burn those, but when you're facing immanent death, things like that slip your mind."
"Alright, just give me some time to get the picture straight in my head. I mean I knew you left 'him' because you got scared, but you're telling me that you went out to meet this death that you managed to escape by time travel?"
"I wasn't scared, at least that's not why I left. I left and died because the Dark Lord had violated some ideals that I held dear."
"Would you care to elaborate my obscure speaking brother?"
"No, not now at least."
"Fair enough."
"But back to you Siri, how did you escape Azkaban?"
The two brothers chatted pleasantly over their repast and long afterwards, all hostility was kept to a minimum. As they talked they began to understand each other better than they had in years. They were far from being close, but the canyon that divided them began to slowly narrow, and they found they stood on more common ground then they thought.
Right before tea time Regulus apparated to Spinner's End and went in to tea with his best friend.
"How was your lunch with Sirius?" Severus asked rather stiffly.
"Better than I would have thought possible, but I still don't think we're going to get along well enough to live under the same roof for long."
"I'd offer you my home but under the current circumstances I'm afraid that's impossible."
"Why?" Regulus asked as he stirred the cream into his tea.
"I am a Death Eater, remember?"
"Oh, I understand now, as a Death Eater it is only too likely that you will have other Death Eaters visiting you, with orders and the like, and you cant have an expatriate servant under your roof."
"Particularly one that is supposed to have died fifteen years ago."
Regulus chuckled.
"So do you intend to stay at Grimmauld Place indefinetly?"
"I hope not, but I havent figured out what to do yet?"
"As the headquarters of the Order, well, it might be rather awkward for you to be seen, you know a lot of our old school mates are in it."
"I know, but what else can I do? I cannot stay with you, and my more sympathetic relatives are all on the side that I abandoned. I suppose I'll just have to do the unexpected."
"Meaning?"
"Tell everyone the truth, only if I have to though. Its quite likely most of them wont even remember who I am, maybe I can pass myself off as a distant cousin, that's Sirius' idea."
"Your first idea was the best, tell those that you must what actually happened, some of them are sure to recognize you, but what of your cousin Tonks? And the Weasley children, and Harry Potter, if they see you ambling around Sirius' house they will want to know who you are, and I will warn you Potter's muggle-born friend Granger is quite perspicacious."
Regulus was reflective for a long minute.
"Tell them the truth too, especially the one's I'm related too, even though mom burnt Drommy off of the family tree for marrying that mud blood Ted Tonks, she was still always nice, a bit naïve at times, but I cared for her, and if her daughter is anything like her I think we'll get along, never know maybe I can pay my cousin a visit one of these days."
Severus was quiet, he could see that Regulus would stubbornly hope to see his long lost friends and relatives just as determinedly as his brother would hope to get out of Grimmauld Place and fight! Sadly both would be disastrous for them. He changed the topic after a while and they began to reminisce on the days when they had been the Silver Trio of Slytherin, them and Barty Crouch, despite all joining the Death Eaters at a young age they had had good times together.
Despite the deep lines on Severus's sallow face Regulus felt as if no age separated them. Severus realized to his surprise that he was laughing, he hadn't done that in years. The two friends talked on and on until night closed and they began to grow drowsy after some fire whiskey.
"Well, I suppose I ought to go home now."
"Yes, and I need to get myself back to Hogwarts before my students start celebrating too much."
"I bet you're not much fun to have for a teacher, nothing like jolly old Slughorn."
"I'm afraid not, but Regulus, you have no idea what it is like teaching a bunch of whining, inconsiderate, bumbling morons like I do."
"Are they really that bad?"
"Well they certainly aren't as good as we were" he said with a small chuckle. "But I have a few students who do well, there's your second cousin for one, and that insufferable know-it-all from Gryffindor too."
"My second cousin? don't tell me, Bellatrix and Rudolphus had a child?"
"No, your other cousin, Narcissa, she has a son."
"Really? What's he like?"
"Like us, he wants things but he has no idea what it will do to him once he gets them, and I cannot forewarn him. One, because he probably wouldn't listen, just like we didn't listen, and two, because as a colleague of his father's it would be very hazardous if word got out amongst the Death Eaters that I was discouraging Malfoy's son from joining. So I try and help him where I can, but I'm afraid its futile, the boy is prouder than his mother and more stubborn than you!"
"Sounds like he isn't shaming his Black ancestry then" Regulus said with a deep laugh very much like his brother's. "Goodnight Sev!"
"Goodnight Reg."