Regulus avoided Remus's eyes with great care, to the degree where Remus felt uncomfortable because of just how obvious Regulus made it. The man seemed almost desperate in his attempts, as if Remus could break the great warrior, the destroyer of Voldemort. Perhaps, Remus wondered, that was true. A dead, friendly face could do that to a person, after all. Wilkes nearly glared at Remus from his loyal place next to Regulus. The man was like a dog, honestly, protecting his master. Wilkes must believe in Regulus with everything in him to throw his loyalty at the feet of an unstable man. Remus had no doubt that the past-Slytherin would die for his friend, and Merlin, that seemed strange for the Snape-like man.

Of perhaps not so strange – Snape himself had been driven by long-winded loyalty and love to his Lily. Remus knew that the man's love had been as unrequited as possible; Lily never spoke to him after his fifth year, when she insulted him. And yet, he couldn't help but also remember his own shock that Snape's patronus remained a doe, Snape's love remained fixed on Lily, even so many years after her death.

"Well, let's get this ball rolling," Wilkes said as a preamble, and at once all eyes left Regulus and returned to the man. "Questions, anyone?"

"Where's Sirius?" James immediately demanded. "Did you hurt him?" James looked ruffled and aggressive, and Remus sighed, knowing his friend too well to expect James to be a little more tactful. Luckily, Lily quieted him down, just as Regulus jumped to his feet.

"Should've killed him," he snarled. "The mutt is just playing tricks, insisting that he's not my brother."

James bristled even more, shoulders locking as Regulus called Sirius a mutt. Lily laid her hand gently on his shoulder and whispered something to him which stopped him from responding.

"Reg," Wilkes said softly, and to Remus's surprise the man sat back down at the voice. The anger drifted out of his eyes, and he returned to that calm, maddening way that he looked everywhere but at anyone. Except Wilkes, that was. So the strange loyalty went both ways, Remus realized, that made it even stranger.

"I think they're telling the truth," Wilkes begin, and Remus wouldn't have doubted his words at all, except for the fact that Wilkes had explained why he talked like that about them. "There stories match to the very last fact." Regulus looked at him in anger and betrayal flashed in his eyes.

"You can't believe them!' he demanded. "Sirius did this; I know it."

"Why would Sirius let himself be captured, Reg," Wilkes countered. "And why can't we remove the charms on the others, if they used charms to look how they do?"

"He could be waiting for us to believe this insane story," Reg argued, his eyes looking everywhere and flickering to each person. "And Sirius is a brilliant wizard; I don't put charms such as these past him."

"Of course he is," Wilkes agreed. "But the story is needlessly complicated; to the degree where I doubt all of theirs would have matched like they did."

"There's no way," Regulus said, his voice dropping to a whisper. "Leon." His eyes met his friends, and even though Remus couldn't see them, he could hear the pleading note in Regulus's voice.

"I'm not saying we trust them completely, Reg," Leon answered, the fire in his voice gone. "I just think that we don't need to kill them now." Everything seemed to stop as all eyes looked upon Regulus's figure. The defeated hero. The insane hero. The man who could look so weak, so powerful, and had a circle of disciples and only one true one.

"Okay," he answered, looking to the floor. Then, with far more composure than Remus expected, Regulus straightened and turned towards the door. "I'll fetch the mutt." As soon as he exited, Lily turned to Wilkes.

"Leon, do you really believe that?" she asked immediately, as if she had been waiting for Regulus to leave the room. After the kid storms out, the grown-ups can talk, Remus thought, shaking his head at how every single one of the people there did it.

"I'm not positive," he admitted. "But that Remus over there is pretty convincing. He spent a hell of a long time worrying about why I was so loyal to Reg. Not to mention this." Remus jolted with shock. How did Wilkes know that? And Remus froze once more as Wilkes unfolded the picture that had been safely in his jacket.

Okay, so while Remus had recognized that Wilkes was good at being the interrogator, he definitely hadn't registered just how good. The others seemed shocked by the picture of Tonks and Teddy.

"Why would Sirius try tricking us by giving this Remus a backstory where we all know what happened here with him?" Wilkes pushed. "It makes no sense."

"Hardly any of them had wands," McGonagall added. "They were completely defenseless." Bill Weasley slowly stood from his chair.

"The theory matches," he added. "I just went on one hell of a search for books on the subject, but they all said that this was possible." Remus felt a little hope blossom in his chest. They were starting to believe the travelers, and while that was only a beginning, it was much more than the nothing with which they started. Harry stood suddenly, ignoring the way that almost all of the people in the room pulled their wands on him.

"I have an idea," he said calmly, and Remus was struck by the way that Harry seemed so calm under the pressure, standing before the wands. Merlin, he couldn't help but be proud of the boy. "Is Dumbledore's Pensieve still here?"

Remus understood immediately what the boy's plan was; after all, it was quite a simple one: Show them the memories of their arrival, and then they would understood. But unfortunately, Remus knew it was much more complicated than that.

"Do you really think we are that naïve?" Lily said, raising her eyebrows. Her voice was a mix of anger and disbelief, and Remus saw Harry flinch.

"You'd tell if they were tampered with," Harry promised. "After all, the memories wouldn't seem right. They'd seem shiny." Remus himself hadn't been sure what a tampered memory looked like, so he was rather impressed with Harry's knowledge in the area.

"And are you an Occulmens, boy?" an unknown woman growled. Remus guessed she was an Auror. She seemed the type. "Or is being trapped in your mind not something we have to worry about?" Harry looked shocked that someone could even do that, and Remus winced a little, unsure of whether his plan would hurt their chances of being trusted.

"I am no Occulmens," Harry said. "But I doubt that that is something you have to worry about. These aren't my memories." Carefully, he pulled out a vial from his jacket, filled to the brim with a soft white swirl. Now Remus didn't understand at all what Harry planned. In fact, he'd been a little quick to assume he had known at all, in retrospect. That being said, so had the others.

"And who do they belong to," the witch asked, scathing as to if she even believed him. Remus didn't blame her honestly; it all seemed a little too coincidental.

"A dead man," Harry answered. "I don't know his role on your side, but on ours he was a spy for the light and much too good at his job. He gave me these memories as he died, needing to give me information for our side." Remus understood suddenly. So they were Snape's memories, and this was how Harry learned of the Horcrux, Remus realized. It made a surprising amount of sense, honestly.

"Bill?" The woman turned to the much younger man next to her. "Can you prove who they belong to? I'm not about to jump into Black's memories." With a frown of concentration, the eldest Weasley boy stepped forward. He casted a couple spells on the vial, and the swirls turned a deep red before the memories whispered their owner's name.

"Severusss Snape…"

Harry looked at the vial in surprise as it spoke, not having believed it possible, but the entire room had heard its owner. Bill shrugged, a motion that seemed to say that that was the best he could do so why not go for it.

"I'll bite," he said. "Let's try this." As soon as he said it, both of his present brothers stood to join him. Remus was rather surprised to see Charlie there, not to mention that there was only one of the twins. To be rather honest, he wasn't quite sure which.

"We're with you," Charlie said, speaking for both of them.

"We should wait for Reg," Wilkes said, breaking up the others' thoughts as they wondered who would join the Weasleys.

"It doesn't matter, Wilkes," the woman said. "He wouldn't enter them anyway."

"It does matter, Dorea," Wilkes protested. "Reg's the leader of the Order!"

"And some leader he is," she answered. "Just because he killed Voldemort doesn't mean he controls us. After all, it's his own brother that plagues us today!" Wilkes bristled at her words but said nothing else, sending a sly glance towards the dimension travelers.

"I'll stay here," Lily said, "With Leon. The rest of you should go." Wilkes didn't look angry at the way he was left out, rather leaning back into his chair and closing his eyes for a moment. Bill carefully pulled Dumbledore's Pensieve out into the room, and Harry poured the memory into it. From where he was, Remus could see a flash of red hair, and then a blinding white flash. He wondered what memories Snape had shared with Harry.

From the curious and skeptical looks of almost all of the others, he sure wasn't the only one.

I'm not completely happy with this chapter, unfortunately. It didn't really flow right. As always though, let me know what you guys think.