Heart of a Lion
Sirius woke with a start. He was lying on his back staring up at a white ceiling. Suddenly two blurs entered his vision. Slowly they cleared for him to recognize two very familiar people.
'James? Lily?' he croaked.
'Nice to see you Padfoot.' James Potter said with a grin as he extended his hand.
Sirius took it and was hauled to his feet. He looked around. His surroundings were becoming more clear. It looked like Godric's Hollow. he turned towards his friends.
'How is this possible? You're dead! I saw your bodies! How can you...' he trailed off when realization struck. 'No, that bitch! I can't believe it! Bellatrix only hit me with a stunning spell! How could I have died!'
Lily looked sad. 'You fell through the Veil of Death. It's a one-way ticket here.'
Sirius turned to them, 'Oh Merlin, I'm so sorry. I should've been the Secret Keeper. I should've looked after Harry. I should've told Dumbledore...' James and Lily gathered him into a hug. 'I should've made Harry my first priority, not the rat. I'm sorry I wasn't there for him.'
'Shh...we know. And we know you were overcome with grief. Even in the short time Harry knew you, you made him happy.' Lily said.
'Don't worry Padfoot. You're forgiven. We have all eternity to talk. But right now someone else wants to talk to you.' James gestured inside.
'Go on. He's been waiting for you. You can talk to us later.' Lily said. 'I want to hear every single detail about my son.'
Sirius walked inside. He heard the door shut and figured that they wanted to give him some privacy with the person. He prayed...wait, could he pray?...to Merlin that it was not his mother. He would have ran out of the house faster than Snape when confronted with shampoo.
The person that was sitting at his friends table, was probably the last person he expected. As he looked at the familiar face, he felt old memories resurfacing.
'Hey. I'm going to Hogwarts soon! I'm going to prove Mother wrong!' he shouted.
'How?' he asked in a childish voice.
'I'm going to show them all. I'm not going into stinky Slytherin. I'll be a Gryffindor! I'll show our parents! I'll show them that blood doesn't matter! And when you go to Hogwarts, you'll be in Gryffindor too!'
'Really?' he asked with hope filled face.
'Of course! How could you not? You're named after the heart of the lion constellation! How could you not?'
xXx
'BLACK, REGULUS!
'SLYTHERIN!'
xXx
'Just because I'm in Slytherin doesn't make me evil!'
xXx
'Just go to your death eater friends! You're not my brother!'
'Regulus?' he asked, not believing his eyes. There at the table sat his brother. Looking young as ever, his raven hair falling in front of his gray eyes, so much like his own.
His brother smiled. 'Hi Sirius. Long time no see.'
Sirius narrowed his eyes. 'Why are you here?'
Regulus hesitated. 'I wanted to apologize. You were right all along. Voldemort was a madman and I was a stupid Slytherin. I never should've listened to Bellatrix or any of my cousins.'
'You said his name.' Sirius pointed out.
'What's he going to do? Kill me?' Regulus asked.
'Good point. So what made you see sense?'
'I regretted joining the moment I took the mark. I realized I was in way over my head. When I went on my first raid, I saw Bellatrix kill a muggle woman who looked five, six months pregnant. She didn't even do anything. She was just there. That's what made me realize how stupid I had been, listening to Mother and Father. The stupid blood importance.'
'After that night, I went into the Black library and researched possible ways for me to get rid of the mark. You know how many books are in there. There wasn't a single hint that good hellp, both dark and light magic.
'Then,' Regulus's face darkened. 'Voldemort needed a house-elf. And Malfoy told him I had one. So I handed over Kreacher. While they were gone, I researched something I had found in the Library. It was a way to make yourself immortal. I was interested because a couple weeks previously Rabastan Lestrange had said at the meeting that Aurors were given the right to kill and Voldemort had said "I cannot die". What I found was how to make Horcruxes.'
'Horcruxes? What are those?' he asked interested.
'They were containers to hold shreds of your soul, to keep you alive after your physical body died. They're really dark. You have to split your soul and...' Regulus shuddered. 'I don't even want to think about it. Anyway, so I realized that, that's why he won't die. Because he made Horcruxes and now he's immortal. I think he made more than one. So I set out trying to find out where he might've hidden them so I could destroy them.'
'I called Kreacher back and he came back with scratches everywhere and he was soaking wet and trembling. I asked him what happened and he told me that Voldemort had taken him to a cave with a Lake filled with dead bodies.'
'Inferi.' Sirius said horrified.
'Exactly. He said that Voldemort had used a boat and took them to the middle of the Lake where there was a little island, with a basin filled with poison. He made Krecher drink it and then put a locket in and filled it with more poison. Kreacher had tried to get a drink of water and the Inferi woke up and tried to drag him under. That's when I called him. Lucky huh?'
Sirius sat confused. 'I don't really get what that has to do with you?'
Regulus let out an exasperated sigh. 'Merlin, you're dense! Anyway, I got him to take me to the cave.'
Sirius looked horrified. 'Why would you want to go there?' he demanded.
'I wanted to destroy the Horcrux. I thought by doing it, it would make up for some of the mistakes I made earlier. So Kreacher brought me to the cave and we went to the little island with the basin.' Regulus continued.
'Did you make Kreacher drink the poison?' Sirius asked partially disgusted.
'No. I drank it.' Regulus said avoiding looking into Sirius's face and seeing the horrified expression. 'I drank it and switched the lockets. The potion,' he shuddered,' it makes you see your worst emories, somewhat like a dememtor. I told Kreacher to leave and to destroy the real locket. After he disapparated, I went to the Lake to get a drink. I was so thirsty, As you can imagine, it didn't go down well with the Inferi.' he grimaced.
Sirius looked at his brother with wide eyes. His stupid foolish little brother. 'I can't believe you would do something like that!'
Regulus looked at him. 'You know, someday I can't believe it either. So, do you forgive me for all my stupid mistakes?' he asked Sirius with a hopeful look on his face, identical to the one he had showed Sirius a couple months before he had gone to Hogwarts and everything had changed.
'Well, after hearing that story, I'm not sure I can refuse.' Sirius said.
Regulus grinned. 'Really?'
'You know you sound exactly like you did before I went to Hogwarts.' Sirius observed.
Regulus flushed. 'Shut up!'
'Well looks like I was right after all.' Sirius said.
'About what?' Regulus asked?
'You would've done great in Gryffindor. I was right. You do have a heart of a lion