Here is the next chapter, enjoy and review

Ramifications – Regulus did not know that he had fallen asleep again but suddenly when he was stretching awake again he was lying in his bed and Remus was sitting on a chair by his bedside. He was wearing Sirius' clothes and Regulus could not help wondering whether he had done this a lot in the past, in school they were, Regulus noted absentmindedly, the same size, but now they were a little baggy on the sandy haired man. Sirius had put on weight since coming out of Azkaban so he was not the skeleton he had become in jail and on top of that had toned up impressively. So many different things to say ran through Regulus' mind, but in the end he stayed silent. Remus had stayed with him; he had never had the feeling of needing someone who was not his brother so much since Sirius ran off to the Potters.

There was tired smile on the older man's face, he did not say anything as he handed him four vials and Regulus did not say anything as he downed them one after the other. He wondered whether it was odd that he could identify each one, being a death eater on the front lines had meant he saw battle an awful lot. Remus had given him a blood replenisher, a pick me up (God knows he needed that one), a pain reliever and a calming draught, something he had not had since he was a teen. He remembered the last time he'd had one was when he was fourteen and he learnt that his brother had abandoned him by running away to the Potters, but he was too much of a coward to join him. "Why did I need the calming draught Remus?"

Regulus licked his lips to get the vestiges of the pick me up, it improved pretty much everything, including your mood but the matron at school had never allowed you to take it for that because it was a bother of a thing to build up a resistance to. He wondered whether it would have been better to administer it because in its absence it meant that a lot of the students ended up getting drunk. Remus shrugged, "I do not know how much you remember from last night, you were half delirious by the time I got to you. I wanted to make sure you did not send yourself into cardiac arrest when you look at your shoulder and the lack of arm protruding from it."

His eyes tightened at the prompt, it would seem they were going to get straight down to business. "I remember everything Remus, absolutely everything." Despite the seriousness of the situation he was reminded of a similar conversation he'd had with Damian a couple of years back when Damian was asking how much he remembered from the night before when he got hammered. Even though he had lost his friend the memory brought a glimmer of a smile to his face.

"Well you need to rest, and then we can figure out what to do with the guests in the hall."

Reg noted Remus had dark circles under his eyes, he remembered when they were at school Remus always took ill the day after the full moon. He could not help but wonder whether the sandy haired man had put off well needed sleep to watch over him. "How long was I asleep Remy?"

"2 days."

"I don't think I have ever slept so long in my life." Another thought tackled his weary mind, "Remy, if you're here, then who have you left my nephew with?" No offence to Kreacher, he was a brilliant house elf but he had not had all that much practice in looking after a child all by himself. Sometimes a human needed the care of another human and if the people Sirius trusted were few and far between, then the number a werewolf did were miniscule.

Remus sighed as if he had been waiting for that question. "I had a choice between Minerva and Severus, I chose Minerva because at least she knows how to take care of a child, the only problem is that Albus has not let her out of his sight since the fight."

"You left my nephew with Dumbledore!"

"There is no need to be so alarmed, he is a good man, he was absolutely incensed when someone dared to attack Minerva – that is once he regained his senses. You should know that he was not in his right mind when he attacked you and Sirius and he is sorry."

"Sorry does not quite cut it this time."

"I know, he should never have let it get so far, he should have known better and he understands if you never want to see him again, but he was being possessed at the time."

"By what?"

"A horcrux."

"I see," Regulus deflated, he knew personally just how strong they were, especially if it was one that belonged to Voldemort "which one?"

Remus raised one eyebrow; he had obviously been expecting more questions about such rare magic instead of cool acceptance. "You know about the horcruxes and He Who Must-" Regulus gave him a look, "-Voldemort then."

"I do, more than you know." The locket heavy in his hand and the need to hide it. The inferi, screaming and grabbing for him. The terrible nightmares and the illness that transpired from them, but being able to help Sirius and his revolution because of them.

"And more than you are ever going to tell me."

Regulus smiled a small genuine smile, "you know me all too well."

Remus sighed, "Dumbledore did not tell me much either, but it was a ring he was wearing round his neck, he wanted to figure out why it called to him, now he knows he has taken it off. The ring is not the only horcrux he has found; he has another and has stored it inside the mirror of Erised with some sort of spell so only a few can access it. We need to get the manor sorted out and get you all healed before we take him and Kreacher back." At the mention of his disability Regulus bit his lip and Remus halted in his speech and held him. There was little he could do to calm him, Remus had always been truthful so he could not put up false pretenses that the younger Black could see through anyway tell him everything was going to be ok, but he could offer his comfort.

"Is Sirius any closer to waking?"

Remus shook his head sorrowfully, "I am afraid not Reg, though not for lack of trying. Dumbledore and Miverva looked over him along with Poppy to see if there was anything to do to speed up the process but there is no way. Harry keeps talking to him though and Albus and Minerva join in, even Severus said he'd come by, they are keeping him warm and safe and comfortable and waiting, that is all there is to do now, just wait until he wakes of his own accord."

"We figured that was all there was to do."

"I'll get you something to eat and then we can sort things out. Is there anything in particular you want, I can always go get it if you don't have it."

"I don't mind, just no jam and peanut butter sandwiches."

"That sounds like a repulsive combination."

"I know, Sirius and I both think so, Harry absolutely adores it, though sometimes I think it is more of a passive love than any true liking of his own." Ten minutes later they were sharing a tin of tomato and basil soup with slices of buttered tiger bread that Regulus did not know they had but was gulping down thankfully. Remus attempted to make lighthearted conversation throughout the meal but it was too forced to have any sort of effect and in the end the end up eating in silence. When they were done it took them a further few minutes of silence before they decided to get up and deal with the people in the hall and move them to the basement of the house.

"What should we do about the dead werewolf?"

"Do you want it?"

"I don't keep prizes like that Reg."

"Then I'll chuck it down here with the others."

"Won't it smell?"

"Northing a spell can't mask."

"Levicorpus," Remus muttered at the same time Regulus flicked his wrist upwards and they moved the bodies down to the basement, Damian was in his human from again. Regulus' eyes tightened at his motionless body, how could one person who was a good friend now hate him so much? Was he truly on the dark side or just under the spell of Greyback? Would he turn back to him now that the reason he got the mark in the first place was dead? Once they were all secured to the wall Regulus fed them a potion he had found in the room, he had not heard of it before but it seemed like it would do a pretty good job, and if something went wrong, well they deserved the worst anyway. It was designed to keep a person in stasis while feeding them all they needed to stay alive.

"Are you sure you should be using that?" Remus eyed it warily as Regulus forced it down the lax throats of the men before him. "I was talking to Severus, apparently that potion was an experiment he was working on, he is pretty pissed off about it being stolen."

Regulus shrugged, "I think you have mistaken me for someone who gives a shit about what happens to them. I will coming down here to check on them every couple of days anyway so if it does not work then I will get nutrients to them the normal way. If there is a complication or they wake up they will not be able to leave this basement, it is the most fortified room of the house. If they die or get horribly deformed then it will be no less than what they deserve."

"Then why don't you just kill them?"

"I want Sirius to decide."

"You battled them, the choice is yours so he will probably ask you what you want to do, or kill them as they are responsible for your lost arm."

"I still don't know how to approach that matter with Sirius yet."

"Well you don't have to worry about it for a few days yet in any case. We can go to St Mungos this afternoon and get your measurements drawn up for a prosthetic one to be fitted and when Sirius wakes you can wear a glamour."

"He will be able to see through the glamour."

"Not for a few days, he will be weak after waking up so that will give you more time, and Harry will not be able to see through it so it will give you more time to explain things to him too."

Regulus nodded, "Harry is still very young, he will just accept it, Sirius on the other hand, his reactions are unclear, it will either break him or he will go on a murderous rampage."

"I never thought I would say this, but the murderous rampage is more likely. Come on, let's get you to St Mungos and get you fixed up."

"St Mungos? What if I get arrested?"

"Sirius is the one the law is after, not you, besides; most of the population had decided Sirius is innocent anyway and won't chase him. If you make it clear you are not going to answer questions about your brother and we make the trip quick so that Fudge never works out you were there, everything will be ok, but you need that wound seen to."

It turned out Remus was right, as soon as Reg made it clear he was there to be treated and that was all, and he would be very grateful if he was treated as quickly as possible, the air became as professional as could be. The nurse that tended to him was a pretty young blond who was currently in her seventh year of Hogwarts. It was uncomfortable that she kept touching him and casting him coy glances underneath her lashes but at least she got the job done, eventually. "Ok," she said once she had measured everything, "seeming as you are not allergic to anything we should be able to have your arm ready by the middle of next week, you'll need to come in to have it fixed and make sure you are compatible. We have some muggle ones for you to use in the meantime if you wish."

"Ok, thank you," Regulus got up and rearranged his jacket; he hated how it sagged on one side where there was no arm there so it could keep its shape. He waited for the woman to come back with the muggle wooden one, it would no use and would feel like the dead weight it was but it might help him to forget, if only for a while about his lost limb.

"She's nice," Remus mentioned when she was out the room.

"You want to ask her out?"

"No, I don't date blondes."

"And you and Malfoy would have made such a good couple."

Remus gave an appreciative laugh, "it's not me she likes, it's you."

"I'm not really feeling up to anything right now; especially not now I've lost my arm."

"Or especially now you've lost your arm."

"You want me to use her to get a pity fuck?"

"I don't want you to do anything, I am not pushing one way or the other I am simply reminding you that you do not necessarily have to love someone for sex, there are so many different types."

"Pity sex."

"Thank God we are still alive sex – usually after a battle or a mugging or something."

"Hate sex."

"Have you ever had that?"

"No. You?"

"No. Bored sex."

"Ah, she's back." He picked up the wooden arm, not quite sure what to do with it until the nurse took pity of him and fixed it to his shoulder, informing him he could not do anything with it but it looked as if he had two from a distance. With an absentminded nod he concentrated until the wood had turned into the colour of flesh. He was not sure how long the façade would last, not only could Sirius see through them it was quite hard to mask the fact that he was not using one arm at all. That would change when he got his prosthetic one though, with a little practice it would be just like his old one.

"Wow," the nurse touched the wooden arm to make sure it really was still wood and gave him an impressed look, "you are really good at glamours."

"I'm Regulus Black, I'm good at everything."

"I don't care what you say," Remus said as they were leaving the building, "that last comment of yours was an innuendo if I've ever heard one."

Remus stayed with him for the next two days, not only should he not be attempting too much magic having almost pushed himself to exhaustion, he was still suffering blood loss and he was still getting used to functioning adequately with one arm. It turned out that Remus had aired out the room where the draught of the living death gas was released while Regulus had been sleeping. He had said that being in the room for more than a minute made him feel like he wanted to pass out so he summoned wind to ghost through the house to get rid of any vestiges of the gas. The initial spell had gotten rid of the most of it but they still summoned another bout each morning and evening for the two days Remus stayed with him just to make sure.

It was unlikely that if there was any left it would do anything more than send someone into a normal sleep but it always paid to be cautious, especially seeming as there was going to be an infant in the house. Eventually it was time for Remus to return to his own home and his own life, and finally get some well needed and well deserved sleep, but right before; he decided to take him to Sirius, Harry and Kreacher where they were with Dumbledore and McGonagall. When he entered the house, Kreacher was nowhere to be seen, probably tending to something (since regaining his sanity he was like any other good house elf) even though Minerva McGonagall and Albus Dumbledore almost certainly told him not to bother. He cast his eyes around for Sirius but his brother must have been in another room, perhaps the elf was tending to him.

As for his nephew, Harry was so busy drawing pictures and showing them to Minerva and Albus Dumbledore – who were sitting together on a love seat – that he did not notice his arrival at first. Regulus had never seen the little boy so animated, he was sitting on the floor and the two adults seemed to be actually interested in what he was saying and for the first time Reg truly listened with all of his being, he had missed his nephew so much. "This is of me, and this is of daddy and this one is Uncle Reggie, and this one is of Uncle Remy! I drewed," –it's 'drew' Harry dear – "one of Padfoot too, though it is actually just daddy in disguise. This one is of Hermione who is my bestest," –it's just 'best' Harry – "friend and her mummy and daddy."

As soon as he was finished with one picture and the story that corresponded with it, he was up getting another one or scribbling on another piece of paper. Minerva and Dumbledore were gazing at him with adoration; they noted his presence but did not announce it, letting Harry speak. "This is of one where we went to the beach together and we made sandcastles and we went swimming together in the sea and in the pool, because the hotel had a swimming pool and daddy liked the pool more than the sea but he did go into the sea with me and Hermione to make sure we were ok. We had rooms that joined onto each other so we could go and see each other all the time. Daddy and Uncle Reggie don't know but we woke up in the middle of the night, me and Hermione and we went to the pool again."

He and Sirius knew full well that they had gotten up in the middle of the night and gone to the pool again and had followed them. It turned out that they could only access the paddling one as a pool guard had to be present for people to go to the full size one. They let the children believe that they had gotten away with it though as they were really not doing all that much wrong and they came right back and did not try anything like it again. "We haven't gone back to the beach again but we meet up all the time in the park and round each other's houses and we have tea. Hermione went to America with her family and had jam and peanut butter sandwiches and she told me about them and gave me one when we first met and now it is one of my most favorite foods."

"Daddy and Uncle Reggie don't like them all that much but Kreacher still makes them for me all the time if I ask him nicely, coz it is always important to ask people nicely for things. Kreacher is an excellent cook and he sometimes lets me help with things and he does the cleaning too and with the Dursleys I used to have to the cleaning and the cooking and I burnt myself. Looks see, I got a scar here from the stove, I had lots and lots of other buts daddy was able to cover them up and heal them. So now I don't have any on my back anymore which is good because otherwise I could not have gone swimming with Hermione and her family coz I don't like other people seeing them. Daddy says I should not worry about them but they make me feel sad."

"I haven't drewed any pictures of Aunt Petunia or Uncle Vernon because I did not like being with them and Dudley but I have lots and lots with daddy and Uncle Reggie. This one is one of my favorites; it is when we went to Floreen forty queues for a snack," he never could pronounce it right, "and we all got something different. Daddy got Toffee and chocolate chip because he liked things that are sweet, sweet, sweet, except Cocoa, which he likes sour, sour, sour, and I never understood it and I can only have it with loads of sugar, but daddy says that having too much sugar is bad for you. But I do lots and lots of exercising, daddy and I go flying almost every single day and sometimes we don't even use a broomstick, we just go whoooooosh and awaaaaaayyyy!"

Regulus watched in amusement as he spread his arms out to the side to emphasize his point, "I haven't drewed that one yet, I'll do it later. When we went to get a snack Uncle Reggie could not decide between the different ice creams and he said that he wanted to try them all. Me and Daddy said that he couldn't try them all because he'd be sick because there were like fifty different flavors but Uncle Reggie just took that as a challenge and said that now he was definitely going to have them all and he did manage after all because he only had a teensy tiny bit of each. He didn't like the mint one because it was too strong and we all know that he doesn't like coffee anyway although sometimes he'll drink it for the caffeine, but he still had it because of the challenge."

Harry stopped for breath and handed a pencil to Minerva for her to sharpen; he could do it himself, but why bother when you have adults fawning over you ready to do it for you. Besides, Dumbledore was feeling guilty about how he had almost killed the child by placing him with the Dursleys and right now with the boy so carelessly revealing more information about his life there; he'd bend over backwards for him now. Then again, that might just be the effect of kids in general, Dumbledore did like children otherwise he would not be a headmaster, even though Harry was a lot younger than the children he liked to teach. "Uncle Reggie's favorite flavor was the toffee, which is strange because it was sweeter than Daddy's and he's the one with the sweetest tooth."

"I tried a little bit of ice cream and I was excited because I'd never had any before even though Dudley had lots and lots and he kept saying that it was really, really nice. It was too cold though, it tasted good but I don't like really cold things so I didn't have much. But instead of saying tough, Uncle Reggie and daddy said that I could have whatever I wanted so I chose waffles. I had three waffles with chocolate sauce and golden syrup. I even got given squirty cream on the top and they put it on with the spiral with hundreds and thousands on than which kept changing colour. I managed to eat it all up and daddy and Uncle Reggie said they did not know where I put it all, so I said my tummy was a tardis."

He started to draw again, "I'm doing what a tardis is now," the boy never ran out of things to say did he? "Hermione told me what one was, she was allowed to watch doctor who with her mummy and daddy, but I was told it was too scary." It was too scary for someone who was still really and infant, he and Sirius had come to that conclusion when watching one episode, once Harry expressed his desire to see it. Whilst doing so they also reckoned most of what the doctor could do with his 'sonic screwdriver', could also be accomplished with any competent witch or wizard with his or her wand (if you needed one that is). "He travels through space and time with a machine called a tardis and it is bigger on the inside than it is on the outside, just like my tummy."

"Funnily enough," Regulus cut in, seeing his chance, "the same rule does not seem to apply when it comes to eating his vegetables." Harry was not a fussy eater by any stretch of the imagination and he will eat what is put in front of him when encouraged. However, he will claim to be full after a meal only to magically find he has more room after all when Kreacher brings out the pudding. It certainly was a way to find out whether he was feeling ill or not as no Harry James Sirius Potter Black would turn down apple crumble or sticky toffee pudding if he was feeling well.

The effect of hearing his uncle's voice was instantaneous. Harry jumped up, dropping his crayons and turned around to see him, a huge grin split his face. He ran into his uncle's embrace with no hesitation with a joyful cry of, "Uncle Reggie!" He did not notice that his uncle only used one arm to pick him up and hold him and his glamour was enough to fool Minerva. When he locked eyes with Dumbledore though, he could see that he was not so easily fooled. They stared at each other for a moment before the old man inclined his head, allowing him to keep to his secret. "I missed you Uncle Reggie," the little tyke said as he wrapped his little arms around his neck.

"I missed you too cub, now say thank you to Mr Dumbledore and Miss Minnie for looking after you and how about we get you and daddy home huh?"