By the time Harry and Barbara reached the waiting room of the hospital, Harry in tears, Barbara clinging to his hand with a death grip, her purse swinging wildly on the other hand, Regulus was already there in the waiting room. He looked a mess.

"Did you hear anything?" Barbara asked anxiously, sitting down next to him. "Is he going to be okay?"

"It's—it's too soon to tell." Regulus's voice was very soft, and Harry knew why; it was easier to keep your voice from breaking if you spoke quietly.

"I can't believe this happened," Barbara said, and Harry thought he finally heard her voice quaver.

"I can." Regulus sighed, and Barbara looked up. "Heart failure is what killed both our parents. It runs in the family. And I suppose it didn't help that he chain-smoked for all those years."

Harry couldn't say a word. This whole year he knew his family would be complete—Sirius, Remus, Phoebe, Barbara, and now Regulus, who they had just discovered was alive after all. But Sirius's heart hadn't been able to take it. Literally.

Barbara finally started to cry silently. Harry knew she was thinking about how she almost lost her father as a little girl, before she was even born…Would the same thing happen to poor Phoebe? Would she be like Harry, only knowing her father through stories, heart aching for a father's love?

Regulus put a comforting arm around Barbara. He seemed to be trying so hard not to cry. He looked a lot like Sirius, only a little smaller and slighter, and his eyes were pale blue instead of gray, almost like diamonds. Harry thought he and Barbara were trying to be strong for him, but he didn't need it. He could see through anything adults faked.

They had only been there for a few minutes when Remus came rushing in.

"I came as soon as I heard," he said, looking distraught. "Any news?"

"Nothing yet," said Regulus, as Barbara leaned her face into his shoulder.

Remus sat down next to Harry and offered him a handkerchief. Harry refused it, because he knew he couldn't stop crying. And he felt powerless. His image of his perfect family had been shattered. Without Sirius, his whole world was shattered, and he hated how powerless he felt. Magic couldn't save Sirius from a heart attack. Now he would be living with Andromeda, listed as his elected guardian right after Sirius on his father's will, and although he was sure she was nice, he didn't even know her from a hole in the ground.

Finally, their commiserating was interrupted by a nurse standing by the doorway to the waiting room.

"We have news on Mr. Sirius Black," she said softly.

Regulus jumped out of his seat like it had been electrocuted.

"Good news? Bad news?" he pressed her. "What?"

The nurse broke into a tired smile, and spread her arms out to them. "He'll be just fine. It will take more than a heart attack to kill him."

Harry's heart flew upwards like fifteen brooms at a Quidditch match, and he ran to the nurse, giving her a tight hug of relief. Regulus was right behind him. Remus helped Barbara up, and everyone scuttled over to where the nurse was standing.

"It's best if you don't all overwhelm him," she pointed out, then looked at Regulus. "Family first."

"Sirius can't call me his family," Regulus said quietly, turning his head away. "And…and not just because of this."

The nurse looked confused.

"Regulus, listen," Harry interrupted. "You—you don't know. Sirius has told me tons of stuff about you."

"Like what?" said Regulus. "That I turned into a Death Eater and I'm just like our parents?"

"No, not that." Harry shook his head. "He told me about how you tried to be rebellious by shaving for the first time without telling your parents and you sliced up your hands instead by mistake, and he had to help you clean it up. He told me about the time when you came to his room because of a bad dream and he read you The Tales of Beedle the Bard, and—"

"And the next morning, Mom found us curled up together, fast asleep, and took a picture," Regulus finished, looking touched. "He…he remembers allthat?"

"Like it was yesterday," said Harry. "You know, he said he really regrets not connecting with you as much as he should have, and—I wouldn't say this if it weren't true—he blames himself for letting you go astray."

"What?" Regulus's head snapped up, and he looked at Harry. "The only person who's responsible for leading me astray is me."

Regulus's face suddenly assumed a determined expression, and he grabbed Harry's hand.

"Time to go talk some sense into that man."

They entered Sirius's hospital room together, the two of them. Harry felt a lump in his throat. Sirius looked so weak and pale, dressed in a hospital gown, lying back against the bedsheets, apparently fast asleep, his black hair loose, spread all out over the hospital pillow.

Regulus sat down on the side of the bed and held Sirius's pale, thin hand in his own.

Harry couldn't help observing them, though he could hardly see (tears were clouding his eyes again). Regulus's pale-blue eyes were shimmering with tears, making them resemble diamonds even more. He moved his thumb back and forth, massaging Sirius's hand, as if willing him to wake up.

And finally, Sirius opened his eyes.

"R-Regulus…?" he croaked. "Am I…am I dead?"

"No, brother," said Regulus, the tears becoming more pronounced in his diamond eyes. "And neither am I."

"But…but…but how?" Sirius was blinking in confusion and, it seemed, exhaustion; he made to get up, but Regulus gently pushed him back down, still not letting go of his hand.

"I faked my death ad escaped to America," he explained, looking away. "I still don't know if it was the right thing to do…but I was just trying to protect everyone. I'm sorry, Sirius."

Something flickered in Sirius's gray eyes. Regulus squeezed his brother's hand.

"Becoming a Death Eater was wrong…I know that now," Regulus continued. "I didn't mean to hurt anyone, I just…I just, well, I-I thought…I mean, I'm sure you're wondering how you can ever forgive me, and I don't blame you—Sirius?"

Regulus had stopped speaking.

Sirius was smiling.

And before anyone could say anything more, Sirius sat up straight in bed and hugged Regulus, hugged him tight. Regulus looked shocked, didn't move a muscle. Sirius seemed to be both laughing and crying, hugging Regulus like he would never let go.

"The only thing I'm wondering," Sirius said, his voice breaking, "is what wonderful, amazing thing I must've done to get my little brother back. I love you, Regulus."

Regulus's blue eyes closed, and Harry saw that tear, finally released, trickle down his cheek.

"I love you too, Sirius."

When they had finally separated, Sirius looked over at Harry, and smiled again, holding out his arms.

"Harry," he said. "Harry…"

"Sirius!" Harry hugged Sirius as tight as he could. Tears were still leaking out of his eyes. When they pulled apart, Sirius seemed to notice this.

"Were you crying?" he asked bemusedly.

"Well, I was so scared," said Harry, then hugged Sirius again. "I love you, Sirius, so you're not allowed to die, ever. That's the rule."

Sirius laughed and hugged Harry back, then ruffled his hair. Harry was so glad he was alive to do it.

"Best of all," said Sirius, looking at Regulus, "this means Lucius Malfoy doesn't get to be Head of the House of Black anymore."

"What?" said Harry in indignation. "Since when is he the Head of the Black Family?"

"Since Uncle Cygnus died, that's when," said Sirius, "and we always thought there was nobody else available."

"Uncle Cygnus is dead?" Regulus frowned.

"Yeah," Sirius replied. "Died last spring. It was of natural causes, though."

"Well, then I suppose that did give the title to Lucius, at least until I reclaim it," Regulus agreed. "Dad held the title when he was alive, since he was older. Then once Dad died, Uncle Cygnus got the title. It would have gone to me when he died last spring, but by faking my death, I conceded the title to the next available male. Since Rodolphus Lestrange is in prison and Andromeda's marriage to Edward Tonks was never validated, the title went to Lucius Malfoy through his marriage to Cousin Narcissa. The title skipped over Sirius because he was disowned."

"And if Lucius died, the title would go to…to Draco?" said Harry.

"Not anymore," said Sirius, beaming. "Not since my little brother came back. You are going to take back the title, aren't you, Reg?"

"Yes," Regulus replied. "That is, unless you want it."

"I can't have it, remember?" said Sirius. "I got disowned."

"Well, I'm Head of the family now," Regulus told him, now beaming. "And the first thing I'm going to do is re-own all the people in our family who were disowned. Since you're the older brother, the title is going to go back to you. And you have the choice to either keep it, or concede it to me."

Sirius looked absolutely thunderstruck.

"Are you…are you kidding?" he said.

"I did a lot of thinking while I was in America, Sirius," Regulus said matter-of-factly. "And I've got a lot of explaining to do, I know it. But one thing I've realized, long ago, is that none of the people who got removed from our family tree deserved to be removed. And now I have the power to bring them back."

"Well, Reg, in that case I think you'll make a much better Head of the House of Black than I ever will," said Sirius gently. "As long as we keep the title away from the Malfoys, I'm good."

"What if both of you…well…" Harry couldn't think about Sirius or Regulus dying, but he had to make sure Draco couldn't be Head of Sirius's family once Lucius died.

"Don't worry, Harry," said Sirius. "If something were to happen to both me and Regulus, the title would go to Ted Tonks, assuming Reg really does put Andromeda back on the family tree—and he's a good guy. If Ted caps it, the title won't go to Draco. It will go to whoever Phoebe marries, as long as I don't hex him first. She has a more direct link."

Harry smiled, thinking of how Malfoy would probably be so smug to be Head of two bloodlines, then get it taken away once Phoebe married.

"Or if Sirius were to have a son later on, the title would go to him," Regulus added.

"What about you?" said Sirius. "You could have a son, too."

"Oh, honestly, Sirius," said Regulus, his face turning a bit pink. "There is no way I have time to even get married right now, much less have children."

"You say that now…" Sirius grinned wickedly. "But then the right girl comes along."

Regulus shook his head, but then Harry remembered something.

"Malfoy is going to be Head of the Greengrass family, too," he said. "He's in love with Astoria. I saw him watching her at King's Cross."

"Even if he does marry her, he's not going to be Head of the Greengrass family," said Sirius. "That title will go to whoever Holly marries, since she's the oldest…that is, if she ever gives up on her penis embargo."

"Her what?" said Regulus.

"She's sworn off men," Sirius explained, "because all her dates have ever done is look at her breasts."

"Well, they are nice to look at, to be fair," Harry admitted. Regulus raised an eyebrow, and Sirius grinned, but that was when they heard a knock on the door.

"Mind if we come in?" Remus asked, poking his head into the room.

"Not at all, Moony," said Sirius warmly, so Remus walked in, followed by Barbara. "I'm sorry for giving you all such a scare. They say I have to stay in the hospital a few days, but that I'm going to make a full recovery."

Barbara rushed to Sirius's bedside, buried her face in his hospital gown, and started to cry uncontrollably.

"Oh, Siri, darling," she sobbed. "I-I was so worried! I love you…so much…imagine if you had—oh, I can't even think…"

"It's all right, love," Sirius whispered. "I'm going to be okay. Besides, little Pheebs needs her daddy, doesn't she?"

Barbara laughed in between her crying.

"Sirius," said Regulus, "Harry said you blame yourself for letting me go astray. Is that true?"

"I-I suppose I can't say it's not," Sirius admitted. "I wanted to protect you from all that was bad. But I couldn't, and I never forgave myself for it."

"Well, you can forgive yourself now, because I've joined you on the good path," Regulus told him, smiling. "And even if I hadn't, my choice to go to the Dark Side wasn't your fault. It was a decision I made."

"Speaking of, Regulus, I think there's something we're all wondering," said Remus. "What happened? How were you a dead Death Eater one day, a wildly successful Chicago-based businessman the next?"

"It's a long story, but I owe it to you all," said Regulus. "And I suppose the story starts with the day I joined the Death Eaters. I was…well, I was really excited when the Dark Lord gave me a mission. That is, until I found out what it entailed."

"What's that?" said Sirius.

"He was making Horcruxes, Sirius," Regulus said darkly.

Remus and Sirius gasped in horror; Barbara looked as confused as Harry felt.

"What's a Horcrux?" Harry asked.

Regulus and Sirius shared concerned glances, until Sirius finally said, "It's…it's where you put parts of your soul into different objects. All the objects have to be destroyed before you can die. I…I guess that explains why he didn't die when the Killing Curse rebounded on him that day."

"Mere shadow and vapor," Harry said quietly, remembering what Voldemort had said to him.

"Right," said Regulus. "Well, the thing is, he put a Horcrux in Slytherin's locket, and he wanted me to use our house-elf, Kreacher, to test the defenses. But what I didn't know was that the Dark Lord left Kreacher to die. Kreacher escaped using house-elf magic, then told me the truth."

"And that's what changed your mind?" said Sirius. "You always did love that elf."

"Well, that's part of what did it, I suppose," Regulus replied. "But when Kreacher told me what he'd seen, I figured out about the Horcruxes. And after that…after that I just couldn't. I knew at that moment, for once in my life, I had to do what I wanted to do, not what other people wanted me to do. So I told Kreacher to take me to the Cave where the locket was hidden."

"And what happened then?" asked Harry.

"Well, I brought along a fake locket," said Regulus, "and once we got to the Cave, I drank the potion in the basin where the locket is hidden—you can only get to it if you drink the potion. It causes terrible, terrible thirst, because it's meant to lure you to the lake, where Inferi are hidden."

"Inferi!" Sirius exclaimed. "Honestly, Reg, if I had known—"

"What are Inferi?" Barbara asked.

"Reanimated dead bodies," Remus said matter-of-factly. Barbara looked beyond horrified. Harry wondered if she knew exactly what she was getting herself into.

"I ordered Kreacher to swap the lockets, destroy the Horcrux, and leave me to die," said Regulus.

"Leave you to die? Why?" said Sirius.

"If anyone knew about my switch, my whole family would be in trouble," Regulus explained. "So I told Kreacher, you will leave me for dead."

"But he obviously didn't," Sirius pointed out. "What happened?"

"It's just…well, I was on my way to the lake to quench my thirst, because I didn't know about the Inferi," Regulus was telling them. "I thought Kreacher had Disapparated. But then I saw him standing over by the rocks, watching me. After he had switched out the lockets, which he had, he was still there. When he saw me going to the lake, he told me about the Inferi, and he told me, 'Come home, Master Regulus, I will give you water. I'll heal you. Come with me.'"

Sirius was staring, open-mouthed, in complete shock.

"And I said, 'I can't come with, I can't, it will only mean trouble for you, and for everyone else,'" Regulus continued. "Nobody can know. But he grabbed my weakened wrist, and he Apparated me back to London. But not back home."

"Where, then?" asked Sirius. "How did you not get discovered? And didn't he have to punish himself for disobeying you?"

"Yes, he did, until I told him to stop," said Regulus. "But he took me to a Non-Maj hospital—"

"To a what?" said Harry.

"Oh…sorry," Regulus said. "I keep forgetting…that's a Muggle hospital. He took me to a Muggle hospital in London, right outside the entrance to the emergency room. He yelled out real loud, 'WATER! WATER!' and told me he would tell everyone I was dead. Then he Disapparated just as the doctors and nurses came running outside."

"But that still doesn't explain how you ended up on the other side of the pond," Sirius told him.

"I'm getting to that," said Regulus. "Luckily, they had water with them, and once I had some, I was better off for it. I spent some time recovering there; I wasn't really ill, just weak. And as I was in there, I realized I was alive, but I couldn't go back now. Kreacher was telling people I was dead, and if anyone saw me alive, it would be the end of not just me, but our entire family. I knew my only option was to get out of Europe and live life as a No-Maj."

"And that's how you came to live in America," Harry said.

"Right. I knew I couldn't wait for them to discharge me from the hospital," Regulus continued. "So in the middle of the night when everyone was sleeping, I Disapparated to the nearest airport and landed eleven hours later to seek my fortune in the city of Chicago. I had a rough time at first. I had to start from nothing, as I didn't have the family fortune to help me out. Just because you can make it in America doesn't mean it's easy. The only reason Reggie's Pizza Empire is so successful is because—"

"Because it tastes so darn good?" Sirius grinned.

Regulus smiled for the first time in telling his story.

"Well, yes, but I was going to say it was because I worked so darn hard for it, and I still do," he replied. "When you're an entrepreneur, you have to work yourself harder than any employer ever legally could. But it paid off for me. Within three years, there were two Reggie's Pizza Empire restaurants in Chicagoland; by 1990, there were six. And I was doing pretty well for myself."

"You always have been good at adapting and fitting in," Sirius commented. "I may have been born to rebel, but you were born to conform."

"Exactly, I used that to my advantage," said Regulus. "Back in Britain, I had to adapt to being a pureblood maniac. But now…now I had to adapt to the Chicagoan pizza-loving No-Maj life. So I immersed myself in the culture as much as I could and I actually came to love it quite a bit. I'm still a huge Bears fan. I like to think I mastered the accent pretty well, and by the time Reggie's Pizza Empire got off the ground, I was a successful, money-grubbing capitalist British-born American No-Maj worth about a million dollars."

"So what made you give up the good life and come back to Britain?" Barbara asked. She hadn't said much so far, but Harry knew she had been paying close attention to what she could understand.

"In June, I read a certain article in the New York Ghost—that's an American wizarding newspaper," said Regulus. "Sirius, I suppose you can guess what the front-page story was on June 20, 1991?"

"The day I got released!" Sirius gasped. "They put that in the American newspaper?"

"Of course they did, brother," said Regulus. "It was in Wizarding newspapers all over the world!"

"But in the Daily Prophet, it wasn't headline news," said Sirius. "It was just a random article."

"That's because they did a coverup here," Regulus explained. "The Daily Prophet is in tight with the Ministry of Magic. They didn't want their mistake being broadcast to everyone. But the New York Ghost could care less about the Ministry of Magic's mistakes. They were all too glad to have such a juicy story. And when I read it, I almost choked on my breakfast.

"Of course, I knew I couldn't just up and leave," he continued. "But I did know I couldn't just stay here in America with you out of prison over there, either. It took a couple of months to get my affairs in order and find someone to manage the business over here so I could set up in London, and I was able to get here by Christmas. I meant to surprise you on Christmas Day, but the person at the desk told me you were in Scotland. I took that to mean Hogwarts.

"The first-ever Reggie's Pizza Empire in London opened in January," Regulus said. "I figured I could capitalize on the fact that the food here is way bland compared to the food in America, and by God, it worked. Reggie's Pizza Empire is, like, three times more popular here than it ever was in Chicagoland. That's why I'm opening another one very soon.

"By the way…" Regulus smiled. "How would you all like to be my special guests when the new restaurant opens?"

"We'd love to," said Sirius. "Oh, Reg, is—is all of that true? The part about the locket, and Kreacher, and defying Voldemort?"

"All of it," said Regulus seriously, nodding.

"Oh my God…" Sirius leaned back on the hospital bed. "Oh, Regulus, please forgive me."

"For…for what?" said Regulus, looking confused.

"I always thought you just got killed for chickening out on Voldemort's orders," Sirius choked. "I'm—I'm so sorry."

"It's okay." Regulus smiled. "That's what I wanted you to think."

"But still…" Harry was surprised to see that this time, Sirius's eyes were filling with tears. "All this time…all this time I just thought you were Mum and Dad's puppet, and yet…and yet…"

"I was their puppet, Sirius, but no more," Regulus told them. "If there's anything I learned from this whole experience, it's that I need to stop being what people tell me I need to be, and choose my own path."

Sirius was smiling so, so much, but his eyes were still filled with tears.

"Standing up for what I believed in and defying what I was being told to do when I knew it was wrong…well, that felt really good," Regulus continued. "I-I wanted to be brave, like you."

"You were, Reg, you were," said Sirius, giving Regulus another hug. "I'm…I'm so proud of you. More than you could ever know."

Harry, Remus and Barbara all watched; it seemed like Sirius couldn't hold it back any longer.

"Sirius…" said Regulus. "Sirius, don't…"

But it was too late. Harry had seen Sirius get angry, and he had seen him get weepy, and a little disturbed by things from his past. But he had never seen him really, truly, openly cry…until now. Regulus looked like he had no idea what to do as his brother, Sirius, hugged him tightly and let out what seemed like twelve years' worth of lost tears.

And all for Regulus, his flesh and blood. Someone Sirius thought was gone forever, and yet they had gotten a second chance.