A/N: I wish you all a Happy New Year!

Chapter 15

August 2022

Albus Potter was reading another of Rose's letters. Although he knew that she was living through a war, she always concentrated on telling him about his family he had never had the opportunity to meet. She barely wrote about the war and its horrors, instead writing in a light tone about the happy events in her live.

2nd August 1979

Dear Albus,

I hope you are well. Yesterday I was at Lily's and James' wedding. It was beautiful. Sirius was of course James' best man and I was Lily's matron of honour. Lily looked so beautiful in her white muggle wedding dress and James looked rather handsome, too in his black dress robes.

They were married at Potter Manor. The ceremony took place outside in the garden while the reception took place in this huge ball room. Lily's parents seemed quite impressed by their daughter's new home. Petunia refused to come to the wedding though and Lily was very upset about it. She still loves her sister although Petunia seems to despise and constantly reject her.

Nevertheless, the party was great and Lily and James looked so in love. They couldn't take their eyes of off each other all evening. A year or two ago I would have been envious but my marriage with Sirius has improved greatly and we genuinely love each other now even if we aren't as sickeningly sweet about it as James and Lily.

Sirius and I are now living in our own house in Godric's Hollow. It's small but more than enough for the two of us. The Potters paid half of it as a late wedding and graduation present they said. My healer training is going well as is Sirius' auror training and we should be finished with our training in two more years.

Forty-three years until I can come back to you all. I'll be so old by then! You probably won't even recognise me anymore. I miss you.

Love

Rose

Albus wiped a few tears away that had escaped him. Suddenly two months without Rose didn't seem so bad. Rose would be separated from them for nearly fifty years. If she could deal with that he would survive a few months without his favourite cousin. He only hoped she would come back, no matter how changed or old she was by then.

11th September 1979

Dora and Sirius were sitting in their kitchen having breakfast when Dora's owl Hermia swooped in with their morning post. She carried a letter from the ministry that she dropped on Sirius' plate filled with scrambled eggs. He cursed and picked the letter from his breakfast.

"Why is the ministry writing to you?" Dora asked curiously.

"My father and uncle have managed to get themselves killed. Probably while they were working for You-know-who," Sirius answered with disdain after he had finished reading the letter. "My parents might have disowned me but they have not disinherited me completely. If my brother were to die before me, I would still inherit their house and money," Sirius explained.

"So what are you going to do now?" Dora asked her husband.

"Nothing. Even if I wanted to go to their funeral I doubt my mother would want me there. No, I'll never go back there if I can help it," the former Gryffindor replied.

"What about your brother? Don't you miss him at all? Don't you think he would want you there?" Dora asked him.

"Regulus? He always tried so hard to make our parents proud he even became a Death Eater because of them. Merlin, they were so proud of him, it's disgusting. He's in too deep already for me to help him, not that he would even accept my help if I offered it. I've lost my brother a long time ago."

Dora just nodded sadly in understanding and stood up to clear the table. They both had to get to work.

Three weeks later Sirius got another unexpected letter. It was from his brother, begging him to meet him that evening at Hyde Park in muggle London.

"Will you go?" Dora asked him.

"I don't know. What if it's a trap?" Sirius replied uncertainly.

"I don't think it's a trap but I could come with you if you want," his wife offered.

"You know more than you are telling me, again," he stated.

"I think it's important that you go. You could save his life," she told him and with that it was decided. They would go and listen to whatever Regulus had to say.

That evening they apparated to Hyde Park where Regulus was already waiting for them. He seemed extremely nervous and looked around him suspiciously as if he suspected to be followed. A relieved expression crossed his face when he noticed them. Quickly he walked over to them and drew his wand. Sirius drew his wand as well to defend himself and Dora but Regulus only cast a few privacy charms so no one would be able to eavesdrop on them. Then he hid his wand again and Sirius relaxed.

"Why did you want to meet us?" Sirius came straight to the point.

"I found something out, something important about the Dark Lord. I don't want to be one of his servants any longer, he needs to be defeated and I found out how. He's got a Horcrux and I will destroy it even if it kills me. Will you help me?" he told them quickly in a hushed tone.

Sirius gaped at his younger brother wile Dora seemed unsurprised.

"We will help you but we can't destroy it, yet," she answered calmly.

"Why not?" Regulus asked suspiciously.

"It's a long and complicated story. Let's get out of here first," Dora said, grabbed the two men and disapparated with them.

She apparated them to their house in Godric's Hollow, where she proceeded to tell them everything she knew about the items Harry and her parents had hunted down during the last year of the war.

"I'm from the future," she stated as soon as they were all seated in the living room and observed Regulus to gauge his reaction. The former Slytherin gaped but quickly pulled himself together.

"Why are you telling me this now?" he asked.

"I know someone searched and destroyed certain objects to be able to defeat You-know-who in the future. I never knew what exactly these items were but now I think they must have been those Horcruxes," she informed them.

"Sorry, but what exactly is a Horcrux?" Sirius asked obviously confused.

"It's an object where you store a part of your soul so you can't die," Regulus explained. "That's why we need to destroy it, so the Dark Lord can die," he added.

"Do you know how to destroy a Horcrux?" Dora asked him.

"Er, no," Regulus admitted sheepishly.

"Right, if I remember correctly the item you found was Salazar Slytherin's locket. To destroy the locket you need to open it and you can only open it with parseltounge, so even if you knew how to destroy it, you wouldn't be able to," the former Ravenclaw told him with a frown.

"So we can't do anything?" Sirius stated annoyed.

"Yes, we can. We need to actually. We have to get the locket and place it at Grimauld Place. That's where it has to be so it will be found by the right people later," she explained as vaguely as possible.

"Alright, so how do we do that?" Sirius asked.

"What was your original plan?" Dora asked the younger Black.

"I was planning to go and fetch the locket with Kreacher. Then swap it with a fake one and order Kreacher to destroy the real one. I didn't actually plan on surviving," he admitted.

Dora nodded knowingly. She had heard the story from her parents and what had supposedly happened. Now she needed to make it look like he had gone through with the original plan while still keeping him alive.

"Order Kreacher to bring you to us after you have swapped the lockets. We will organise a hide out for you where no one will find you if they ever bother to look for you. Most will just assume that you are dead. You also need to order Kreacher not to tell anyone that you are still alive. If anyone asks, tell him to say that he left you there on your orders," she told Regulus.

Regulus nodded. "Are you sure it will work? " He asked doubtfully. He knew perfectly well that his life was at stake if this plan didn't work.

"Yes," Dora replied confidently. After all it had already happened, right?

"Okay, you should go Reg. They mustn't get suspicious of you. We'll let you know as soon as we have a save place for you to hide at and then we will go through with the plan, alright?" Sirius said looked at the other two for agreement.

They both nodded and Regulus left the house to apparate away. Before he walked out the door he turned around one last time. "Thank you," he said and then he was gone.

"Where will we hide him? Do you have any good ideas?" Sirius asked Dora as soon as Regulus was gone. They had to act fast so Voldemort wouldn't find out about their plan.

"It would be best if we could get him out of the country. How about France? Your parents had you learn French, right?" she suggested.

"Yes, they insisted on it although I never liked the language," Sirius replied with a grimace.

"Perfect, I'll buy a small house there under the pretence of wanting a summer residence in France. Everyone knows I lived in France for a few years and won't find it weird at all," she said excitedly.

"Sounds like a plan. Are you sure we have enough money to buy another house?" he asked doubtfully.

"We saved most of the money we earned in the past year. I'm sure we will be able to afford something small. We have to," she answered, determination clear in her voice.

Luckily the next day was Dora's day off and she went to France to look for a small house. It was difficult but in the end she found a house she could afford to purchase. It was larger than she had expected which was probably due to the decrepit state of the house and the fact that it was haunted by a ghost. The ghost was friendly enough but the house was situated in a muggle area and the muggles were all giving the haunted house a wide berth. No one had dared to enter the house or buy it for many years so Dora was able to buy it for very little money.

Happily she went back to England to set their plan into motion. Sirius sent a short message to his brother to give him the go ahead while Dora researched the Fidelius charm. They wanted to make sure Voldemort couldn't find Regulus even if he tried. Then they waited.

Three hours later Kreacher appeared with a weak and obviously shaken Regulus in their living room. They had the Horcrux with them but their main concern at the moment was Regulus. He needed help the potion he had ingested to get to the locket had weakened him greatly.

Fortunately Dora was one of the best healer trainees at St. Mungo's and immediately went to help him. The potion itself was not lethal it only forced the one drinking it to relive their worst memory, much like a dementor and caused dehydration.

Dora immediately provided Regulus with lots of tea and chocolate. The potion had already run its cause and brewing an antidote would be pointless. No, tea, chocolate and lots of rest would suffice to get the youngest Black back on his feet.

While Dora took care of Regulus, Sirius watched Kreacher carefully. He knew the house elf was devoted to his younger brother but he was also devoted to his mother and Sirius didn't trust him one bit. So he kept an eye on Kreacher while Dora helped Regulus to regain some of his strength.

"We need to get him to the house as soon as possible," Dora remarked while she fed Regulus with tea and chocolate.

"Yes, but first we need to get rid of Kreacher," Sirius answered.

Kreacher glared at him. "Kreacher won't go until Master Regulus is better. Kreacher will only go when Master Regulus orders him to," he spat.

Regulus smiled weakly from his place on the couch. "Thank you Kreacher but you need to go back to Grimmauld Place and take the locket with you. These two will keep me safe. Don't tell anyone where I am. Tell them I died in the cave if someone asks," he ordered the house elf gently. "Destroy the locket if you can," he added as an afterthought. He knew it was unlikely but still worth a try. Elf magic was very powerful in its own way.

"Yes, Master Regulus," Kreacher answered, bowed to the young wizard and popped away with the locket.

"Okay, do you think you are up for side-along apparition?" Dora asked her patient.

"Yes," Regulus answered after some hesitation. He was already feeling better and he wanted to get as far away from the Dark Lord as possible before he noticed that he was gone.

"Alright, Sirius, help him stand. Both of you hold on to my arms, I will apparate us straight into the house. There are no wards in place yet, we need to set them as soon as we arrive there," she told them and promptly disapparated with the two men holding on to her.