Sirius was still standing, comprehending. It honestly had felt like the world had come to a standstill, as if the earth had stopped tilting and spinning. His little brother, who was supposed to be long dead, was standing mere feet away from him, having just entered the room.
His first thought was awe. Reggie was okay! His little brother was perfectly fine, he wasn't a corpse buried underground after all. However, that feeling didn't last long at all - for what came next washed over him like a tidal wave. He now felt all sorts - betrayal, anger, and sheer confusion. That can't be Reggie, Sirius's mind started screaming at him, it just can't! This is some sort of mind game, or something. It was a cruel prank - what did Proteus gain from it? It was darn disrespectful to impersonate somebody's dead relative.
He tried to speak, but nothing really came out. He genuinely was speechless and lost for words. His brain wasn't engaging at all either.
Proteus and his wife, Rosaline, were still sitting, yet both of them were looking between the two Black brothers and looked prepared for either one of them to erupt any second now. Sirius's gaze was temporarily torn from Regulus when Proteus's chair started scraping back against the floor, the man standing up. "I think we should leave you two to have a…. Reunion. Don't trash the room too much."
Proteus and Rosaline Nott both shuffled towards the door that Regulus had come back through just seconds ago. Or was it minutes? Nobody had really been counting. Proteus had cast a warming charm on their plates of food as he got up. When the door clicked shut, Reggie even balked a bit.
"Sirius…" His little brother mumbled, shuffling forward a few steps but soon deciding to stop when Sirius flinched.
"You…." Was all he could reply. "You little runt… where have you been all these years?!"
Regulus gulped. "B-brother, I can explain-"
"You dare call me that?" Sirius found himself possessed of an entirely coherent mood. "You dare say that and expect me to believe it?! My brother is dead! DEAD! You are a sick, cruel person to be posing as him! Reveal yourself, whoever you are!"
"Sirius, please! Calm down!" His brother stepped backwards as he stalked forwards.
Sirius whipped his wand out and near jabbed it in his face. "Revelio!"
Nothing happened, to his utter dismay. He tried again, and again and again, but still it didn't work. There's got to be another way to prove it isn't him…
A thought came to him then. And more strength, though he didn't remember grabbing 'Regulus' by his shirt collar and pushing him backwards so that he was holding him up against the wall. A screech was let out as he did so.
Pointing his wand so that it was near the impersonators throat, Sirius started talking again. His method was to ask this person questions that only he and his brother knew the answers to - for they were mostly related to their childhood. "What did father punish us for doing on the eve of my seventh birthday?" He asked slowly, as if he wanted the person to think very carefully of what they answered.
'Reggie' gulped. "For eating all the marzipan out of the pantry in the middle of the night."
Sirius lurched. That was the correct answer. Anyone could have guessed that though… So he tried another one. "What did you do for me on my last Christmas Day spent in Grimmauld Place, before I left for the Potter's?"
"Snuck you a plateful of leftovers." Regulus answered.
That was, again, the correct answer. Their mother and father had neglected Sirius by that point and forbade him to eat with them at the table, so later on Regulus had tiptoed up to Sirius's bedroom and snuck him a plate filled with Christmas dinner. He had been very grateful for that.
Sirius felt himself numbing - was this really Reggie? His eyes were the same, his voice had obviously changed a bit as he was now a man, but apart from that he was exactly how Sirius remembered his little brother. Eventually, Sirius lowered the arm that had Regulus pinned against the wall, and his brother eased.
"Brother, now that you know I'm not an imposter, I can tell you everything." Regulus Black said, walking back towards the table but still facing him.
Feeling himself regain conscious thought, Sirius was still on edge. "You joined the Death Eater's, brother, I haven't forgotten." He said, a tad quietly, yet it was filled with a bit of venom.
Regulus shuddered. "I soon came to rue that decision, Siri."
"Rue it?" He spat, "You knew fine well that Voldemort was planning attacks on my own friends - and we all know how that ended! They killed Edgar Bones, Benjy Fenwick, Caradoc Dearborn… You were complicit!"
"Sirius-"
"-Shut up! You sat at those meetings and listened to your master plot the deaths of those people and yet you did nothing to stop it! Half the Order of the Phoenix were murdered - my friends! THEY KILLED JAMES AND LILY, REGULUS! THEY MURDERED MARLENE!" Sirius found himself shouting, half grief and half anger. "You also sat and listened to him planning to murder children! Your own niece was bound to be a target!"
His throat was going raw. He must've ranted some more, but yet he couldn't comprehend what he was saying anymore. Regulus, to be fair, was taking it all on the chin. Then again, even though Reggie was father's favourite, even he had been on the receiving end of some shouts…
Sirius barely felt the tears streaming down his face. It was the oddest feeling in the world; he felt happy yet furious, grief-stricken but relieved.
"Siri, I-I know that all you say is true. I don't blame you for feeling that way or saying it. Now, can we please sit down and speak to one another civilly? I will tell you everything."
So he did. Regulus explained everything, and answered every question Sirius put to him. Reggie had said that he had become a Marked Death Eater mostly to please mother and father, and though he wasn't initially invited along to the attacks on muggles, he had once been taken along with Lucius Malfoy, Travers and Jugson to harass and tortrue muggle borns in Liverpool. That was apparently where Regulus had lost heart, barely a month into his servitude. He attended meetings reluctantly, though he attempted to gain information from them to use at a later date. Sirius was angry that his brother hadn't once protested during the meetings, but eventually understood why he couldn't - for the simple reason being that he'd likely get killed right there and then.
He sighed. "So how did you manage to convince everyone that you've been dead since 1979?"
Reggie gulped. "Well, I was initially carrying out a sole mission - I will not tell you what I was doing, but I intended to sabotage the dark lord's plans. It was a very important plan. He did not know I was going - only Kreacher did. It's fair to say that the mission failed: I barely managed to escape with my life. I had almost drowned, but I managed to Apparate away at literally the last second. I'm afraid it's a tale for another time."
Sirius inclined his head, satisfied. "What have you been doing? Do you live here with Clara and Proteus?"
Regulus looked up again. "In truth, yeah. I knew I could not return to Grimmauld Place with our parents still alive; I had left them a note before I left to do the task. For almost a month I was living like a muggle - I found shelter in a hostel. Then I remembered Rohan Nott mentioning a disgraced brother of his… And well, the rest is history. I reached out to Proteus, and he accepted me here even though he didn't have to."
Sirius was silent as his brother spoke. "You've lived here on the Isle of Man ever since?"
Regulus nodded. "There's barely any witches or wizards that live here, so I can go out and know that nobody will recognise me. I have barely left this island."
Sirius winced. "Even though you're not cooped up inside, it still sounds horrible - being confined to just one little isle."
His brother shrugged. "Gotten used to it. It's actually a very quaint and interesting little place - I've even learned a bit of Manx. I wonder what father would think of that."
He almost chuckled, but then just stared at his younger brother. "Why didn't you show yourself sooner?" He asked, almost softly. "Surely Proteus gets the Daily Prophet delivered - you must've known they set me free?"
Reggie looked down at his hands. "I wanted to, truly… but I knew you would be livid with me. We were on opposite sides of the war, though on my part I was planning on abandoning the dark lord. I know it makes me sound cowardly, but I wasn't. I wanted to help, but at the same time I was terrified of rejection and getting hurt."
He silently weighed up his brother's words. He knew that he was being heartfelt and honest, and could understand why he wanted to stay hidden. Sirius still felt hurt that he had faked his death though; he had cried many a night (sometimes unwillingly) over it - after all, Reggie was his little brother, who had been his rock before he began attending Hogwarts. At times, Sirius had felt like he'd failed him.
Regulus Black looked up at him again. "Y-your little girl, Sirius, - Dorea. Is she well?"
His heart warmed, and he couldn't help but smile. "Not so little anymore. She's doing very well. She's at Hogwarts right now, with Harry and Amelia Potter, who are obviously my godchildren and therefore my wards."
"I wish to meet her, but she'd probably be frightened to death of me."
"Why do you say that?" Sirius asked.
"I'm sure you barely spoke of me to her - after all, the people I worked with killed her mother. I would be heartbroken if she saw me with contempt, but I wouldn't be surprised if you.. Told her about me."
He considered. "I'm sure she knows what you did. But she's got a great personality, really - she barely holds anyone in contempt."
Reggie lit up. "Oh… well, better late than never. I'd like to meet my niece, Siri."
He eyed his brother, and really did find himself smiling. Does this mean I've forgiven him? Not even he knew. "That can be arranged, most definitely."
Sirius found himself doing more talking, and explained that he was now the Astronomy teacher at Hogwarts. Regulus had found that utterly hilarious, and he had never felt more alive when he was laughing along with his brother for the first time in years. He told him all about Dorea, and also Harry and Amelia.
Eventually, Proteus and Rosaline were knocking at the door, wanting to come back in the room, saying that they were starving as they'd only just been tucking into their supper when Sirius had arrived. He wanted a few more moments with his brother, though, so told them to hang on for just another minute.
"Reggie, you could come live with us, and join our family." Sirius placed a hand on his brother's shoulder.
"I could, brother, I know I could. You're living at uncle Alphard's house, correct?"
Sirius nodded. "Humongous house, plenty of rooms. You obviously wouldn't be able to go outside of its wards and boundaries, but there's plenty of stuff you could do within it."
Regulus was clearly thinking. "I would like to, truly, but it would have to be at a later date."
The two brothers looked at one another. An overwhelming emotion came upon Sirius Black, and it seemed Regulus was thinking the same - for at the same time they opened each other's arms and embraced one another in a huge hug. Sirius had tucked his head into Reggie's shoulder as they were of similar height, and in a vulnerable voice murmured, "I've missed you, little brother."
The dining room door opened, Proteus and Rosaline entered again. They both looked touched that the brothers had reconciled and reunited with one another as they were smiling warmly.
Sirius was very reluctant to leave, but he had to - he himself was quite hungry and the kids were probably wondering where on earth he'd gotten to, though he had left a note on his door. With one last shared look at his younger brother, he Floo'd back to Hogwarts.
Arriving back in his office, he rubbed his face of any stray tears before sinking back down into his chair. It was a lot to take in - finding out your brother was actually alive, but now that he thought about it, he was glad. Though there was a lot to catch up on, he really did want Regulus to come and stay with them at Black Manor. He wanted Dorea to finally meet her uncle, he wanted Harry and Amelia to meet Reggie as well. He figured that Theo and Regulus actually had something in common; they were progeny of Dark magic users, and had grown to realise that going down the path of Death Eater's was not beneficial at all. Ophelia would have company too - though she was planning on getting a job, she would have somebody to speak to on her days off, providing that Reggie and her got along of course.
He jumped slightly when he heard a large knock at his office door. "Come in!" He called.
Remus all but burst in, and seemingly sighed with relief when he saw Sirius. "Where have you been? Dinner's practically finished!"
"I went to Proteus Nott's house…" Was all he said, not sure if he could tell Remus or not.
His best friend knew he was hiding something though. "And?"
"You're going to think I've gone barmy when I say this," Sirius shook his head.
"I'm listening."
"Regulus is alive."
Remus stared at him. "...What?"
"My brother didn't die, Moony. He's alive and well, though I hardly believe it myself I asked him personal questions that only me and him would know the answers to - he got them right, and I made triply sure it wasn't someone pretending to be him via Polyjuice - nothing happened, so it is really him." He rambled.
"But, how? Has Proteus been housing him since his 'death'?"
"Yes," Sirius nodded, "he hasn't left the Isle of Man since 1980."
"Christ," Remus looked to be in disbelief. "I can barely believe it. How did you feel at the time?"
"I'll be honest, I reacted pretty badly at first. Conflicting emotions and all that jazz. Screamed at him that he'd been indirectly complicit in the deaths of.. Our friends and loved ones." He said, referring to James, Lily and Marlene. "But then I calmed down and he told me everything. Before I left, we hugged, for quite a long time, and as we were embracing one another I really felt soft and warm. I think… I think I forgive him, Moony."
Remus smiled at him with sympathy. "He's your brother. Life's too short to be arguing with one's siblings."
Sirius agreed firmly. "He might - I say that, I'll force him to, - come to live with me, Ophelia and the kids at Black Manor."
"That would be really good," Remus nodded, "Dorea will really bond with him, I think. Though I'm practically her uncle anyway, I think she'd be delighted at having an uncle who's actually related to her by blood."
Sirius nodded. "Yeah, it just makes me want the Easter holidays to arrive sooner."
"Surely he could move into Black Manor before then? And maybe you could schedule a weekend where the kids could meet him?"
He considered that possibility. "That could happen too, but how do I even begin to go about telling them that he's been alive all this time? 'Hey Dorea, sweetie, here's your uncle that everyone thought dead but is actually alive.'"
"We'll come up with something." Remus said, chuckling a bit.
Saturday morning had rolled around, and was kickstarted when Harry woke with an awful start at six in the morning. He hadn't been dreaming, so he was confused as to why he'd woken at this time. He shook that off, and knew it would be pointless to try and get back to sleep, so just decided to get up.
Peeking out of the curtains, the weather was alright. There was a bit of fog above the Forbidden Forest and the sky was grey, making the grounds look very dull. The grass was dewy, which meant there had been a slight drizzle of rain during the night. Just before he ended his observation, his eyes were drawn to Hagrid's Hut, where the previously dark cabin had just been illuminated; meaning that Hagrid had just gotten up as well.
Going down to the Great Hall after getting dressed, it was practically deserted except for a few Hufflepuff's. He elected just to sit at Gryffindor table and see who all joined him. Just as he was pouring himself some tea, Terry Boot came down, and upon sighting Harry sat down across from him. "Morning, Terry," Harry smiled warmly.
"Morning," Terry yawned in response. "Do you usually get up this early?"
"No, not on this occasion. For some reason I woke up at six and couldn't get back to sleep, so I just decided to get up." He explained.
"Fair enough," Terry said, helping himself to some toast and egg soldiers. "What are you doing today, then?"
"Me and Anthony are going to the Room of Requirement after breakfast to do some Arithmancy revision, as I'm really struggling with it." He answered.
Terry seemed to feel his pain. "Personality Numbers, I'm assuming?"
Harry nodded. "I understand their uses, I just can't get their significance into my head."
"The Arithmancy class have just spent the last week and a half going over it, and even Vector understands it's very difficult. I honestly don't know if I'll continue Arithmancy at NEWT level if Personality Numbers also feature in that curriculum." Terry agreed.
Harry shuddered at the mere thought of NEWT Arithmancy alone, much less NEWT level Personality Numbers content. He wanted to check the NEWT curriculum for Arithmancy at that level to see exactly what was covered.
"Well, since Anthony offered to teach me it, one can only hope that he understands it, at least." Harry reasoned.
"Me and him spent countless hours pouring over it in the common room with Sue and Lisa, and all four of us together barely managed to understand it. I suspect Anthony has been revising it independently though; he has a tutor, after all."
Harry almost choked on his tea. "He gets privately tutored?"
"Well, during the summer before the start of the school year. He comes from a Jewish family, y'see, and his parents especially are quite determined for him to do well at school, so they pay a tutor to have lessons with him every summer in a good few subjects." Terry explained, "His tutor is ruthless, apparently, but a nice man."
Harry didn't quite know if he would cope with a private tutor during summer holidays - a time usually spent relaxing after almost nine months of school. He could tell it really helped Anthony Goldstein's intellect though; for Anthony was constantly scoring nothing less than E's in his class tests, and O's in classes like Ancient Runes, Arithmancy and Transfiguration.
Stephen Cornfoot came down with Michael Corner, and the two boys looked like they were contemplating sitting with Terry and Harry, but quickly rerouted to Ravenclaw table. Harry wasn't surprised - though the two boys were DA members, you could tell they attended the club not for any love of Harry, but because they wanted to better themselves. Whenever Harry went around the Senior group and asked those two in particular how they were getting on, they would always give short answers and keep themselves to themselves. He noticed that Stephen in particular was influenced by Michael; whenever Corner wasn't around, he was quite nice to talk to, especially in Runes - but when the dark-haired boy was in the equation, he mimicked his attitude of reservation.
As the time got closer to seven, more people were milling down to breakfast; notably Malfoy, who looked well presented despite it being a weekend, though Crabbe and Goyle were complete contrasts - they looked like they'd just gotten up, for their shirts were stained and ties weren't tied. Anthony came down, though he was speaking with Ernie Macmillan who waved at Harry before deciding to sit with his fellow Hufflepuff's. Anthony sat down next to Terry and made a mad dive for the challah French toast. "Morning fellas," the boy said pleasantly.
"You okay to go and revise straight after breakfast?" Harry asked him after saying hello.
Anthony Goldstein nodded vehemently. "Yup, definitely. My tutor showed me a good exercise that really gets it in your head. I think I should suggest it to Professor Vector too, so she can do it with the class and speed things up."
Feeling optimistic, he nodded and carried on eating. He saw Ron walk in with Hermione, Amelia and Dorea, who soon were sitting along from him. Ron was soon in discussion with Ernie, who was sitting back-to-back with him at the Hufflepuff table, and looked very excited. "Me and Ernie are going to tune in to the European Wizarding Chess Championship on the Wizarding Wireless," Ron said happily when he turned back around, "Jules Caron, the reigning French champion, is playing some geezer from Belarus at eleven, so we'll be tuning into that."
"Mind if I join you two?" Terry asked. "I have a bet with my dad that Caron will win; wanna know the results as it happens."
"Of course!" Ron replied. Harry smirked a little bit - before the DA, the only time Ron would ever interact with Ernie would have been in Herbology class, and he hadn't even had a conversation with Terry before. The DA was working very well, and it had mostly been thanks to Harry.
At eight, Harry and Anthony had both finished their breakfast, so decided to head on up to the Room of Requirement. A desk appeared for them, along with chairs. They decided to sit next to one another so that it was easier.
"Right, let me get my notes out…" Anthony said as he reached into his bag. Quickly glancing, Harry noticed that the boy had about six parchment notebooks in his bag; he wondered just what classes they were for, but when the boy pulled some out in order to rummage more he saw that some of them were dedicated entirely to his private tutelage.
"Here it is!" Anthony said at last, flipping through one of his notebooks and laying the page flat on the table so that Harry could see it. Harry immediately got his own notebook out, along with his inkpot and quill.
"We don't really need to go over the uses of Personality Numbers, I get all that, it's just everything else surrounding it I don't understand." Harry commented, just so Anthony knew what to go over.
The boy nodded. "Okie dokie. Just give me a minute or so to have one last read over the exercise so I know exactly what I'm doing."
Harry nodded, and whilst he was waiting decided to label his page with a title and a heading. Anthony was soon ready. "Okay, let's get started. So we know that Personality Numbers can be used in order to at least attempt to predict some sort of futures, and can be used in conjunction with other sorts of magic such as Divination, to increase power and success rates."
Anthony gladly paused as Harry noted that down. He soon nodded at the Ravenclaw to continue once he'd done that. "As their name suggests, they are also used to predict a person's personality via a method of calculation, and the final, singular number at the end of the sum is an individual's given Personality Number. Every single Personality Number - 1 to 9, - has a differing meaning, and most of the meanings ring true to the person."
Harry noted that down dutifully. Anthony moved on to the actual exercise he had mentioned before. "Okay, here's what we do. Along the top, write down the numbers one to nine."
Harry did so. Anthony nodded. "Now, underneath these numbers, write every single letter in the alphabet - for example, write A under 1, B under 2, C under 3, etcetera, until you get to Z."
Anthony ended up also doing the exercise as he spoke, and took a few moments to also do it. The boy soon continued though. "Now, we're going to write down our names, and once we do that, write down the numbers that correspond to the letters of our name."
Harry took a minute or so to do that. "Now we're going to reduce these to find out our 'Character' Numbers. We do this by adding up every single number we have in our names." Goldstein said.
Harry added up 8+1+9+8+7+7+6+2+2+5+9, and he got 65.
"You got 65," Anthony said, peeking at his paper, "now, we're going to split those two numbers to individual ones, and in your case you'll do 6 + 5."
"11," Harry answered instantly, noting it down.
"And finally, your character number is going to be whatever 1 + 1 is, as we split them again. Obviously, your character number is 2. We'll look up what it means in Numerology and Gramatica once we have your Social and Heart Numbers." Anthony said pleasantly. "I got 4 for my Character Number."
"This is really helping me already," Harry grinned, eager to learn more.
"Next: Heart Numbers. This one is far easier: All you do is calculate as you did before, but only add the numbers that attribute to the vowels in your name. Once we do that, we split the number again and add the two values to get the Heart Number."
Harry was already doing it - he added 1, 6 and 5 together to get 12, split it so it was 1 + 2, and got 3 as a result. Anthony got 9 for his.
"Lastly, Social Numbers. This one again is pretty simple; we do the same as we did for the Heart Number, but use only the consonants in our name." Anthony instructed.
Harry added 8, 9, 9, 7, 7, 2, 2, and 9 together to get 53. Splitting it so that it was 5 + 3, he figured his Social Number to be 8. Anthony double checked it, and confirmed that was indeed his number. The Ravenclaw's Social Number was found to be 4.
"Brilliant!" Harry exclaimed in relief. "That was really quite simple. I'm really beginning to understand it now."
Anthony Goldstein grinned knowingly. "Now let's check what these numbers actually mean."
The two boys got their copies of Numerology and Gramaticca out, and flipped the tome-like textbook open to the relevant section. Scanning his eyes over the notes, Harry read what it meant to get a Character Number of 2: "Two represents interaction, two-way communication, cooperation, and balance… Peace, harmony, commitment, loyalty, and fairness are characteristic... But two also introduces the idea of conflict, opposing forces, and the contrasting sides of things: night and day, good and evil."
Harry learned that his Heart Number of 4 indicated stability and firmness, like a table that needed four legs to rest solidly. Fours also were practical, reliable and down to earth; they 'prefer logic and reason to flights of fancy'. He figured that was definitely true about him - though Malfoy provoked him into conflict quite a lot, he always preferred avoiding it and either reasoning or ignoring him. The textbook said that people with Social Number of 8 were 'practical, ambitious, committed, and hard working.' He concluded that definitely resonated with his character; for he was all four of those characteristics with the DA alone, and in his subjects too. He almost found it quite spooky how accurate Personality Numbers were; he definitely preferred this way of predicting characters and futures than the methods used in Divination - which were quite frankly unreliable and only worked on chance.
The two boys did some more revision regarding the subject of Arithmancy in general before they realised that they'd been in there almost two hours. Finishing up, as they were tidying away their books and notes, Anthony spoke up again. "Me and Daphne are getting pretty close…"
Harry smirked. "I remember someone saying they saw you two together on Valentine's Day. How did that go?"
"Really good, actually. She's a nice girl. I hate how we've barely had any spare time to hang around with each other, but I'll ask her to partner me in DA tonight. Are we going to start duelling each other?" Anthony replied.
"We'll warm up on the dummies for fifteen minutes or so before I'll let groups of people start duelling each other; obviously this room isn't quite big enough for everyone to space out and duel at the same time, so I'll maybe let ten pairs duel for ten minutes and then switch to let another ten pairs duel, so on and so on, until everyone's had a go at it." Harry explained, zipping his bag back up.
Anthony nodded. "Sounds good. I'm looking forward to seeing how Neville duels."
"Oh, I know, he's rapid at duelling the dummy." Harry remarked - Neville had improved almost that drastically that Harry had almost thought that somebody was Polyjuicing him. He would make a great Auror one day, he knew.
Lunch was spent in the company of Blaise, Theo and Neville, the former two boys were sitting with the Gryffindor boy when Harry arrived in the Great Hall again after saying goodbye to Anthony, who was going to the library with Justin and Wayne. As Harry sat down with the three of them, Neville was in the middle of an explanation. "You've got to be quite firm with Chinese Chomping Cabbages, but gentle at the same time. The trick to avoid getting bitten is to constantly let them know that you're there and to not hesitate to grasp them shut if they go on a rampage."
Blaise and Theo had hung on to every word of that, and looked like they were mentally noting that for a later date. They acknowledged Harry's arrival as he was ladling Scotch Broth soup into a bowl. "Where were you?" Blaise quizzed.
"Studying Arithmancy with Anthony." He supplied.
"Nice," Blaise said, though the boy didn't take Arithmancy, "has Anto still got the hots for our dear friend Daphne?"
Neville chuckled, and Theo smiled. "He's going to partner her in DA tonight," Harry answered, smiling knowingly.
"Aren't we duelling one another tonight? It could be disastrous if Anthony accidentally hurts her, or knocks her out cold." Theo said.
"Anthony's too smart to send out the wrong spell," Harry reckoned, "and he doesn't seem the type to lose his cool over a girl."
The two of them remained where they were even after lunch was over. At quarter past one, Ron, Terry and Ernie entered the Great Hall at last and sat down quickly. "Caron won, but only just. The Belarusian almost outwitted him it was that agonisingly close." Ron said excitedly. "Definitely led him into a false sense of security; played utter crap in the first half, but then wiped out half of Caron's board in the second half. Caron was panicking, you could tell, and the commentators were getting nervous." Ernie added, "I so wish the underdog from Belarus won though, just for a place in the next round."
Harry had no clue who they were talking about - even though he liked a game of wizard chess with Ron sometimes, he didn't follow it as a sport. All he knew was that Jules Caron was a world-class player, and he'd almost been beaten by a lesser-known contestant.
That evening's DA session had really made Harry quite delighted and confident about his fellow students - for they all looked really promising in their duels with one another. Though everyone had things to work on, they all had their strengths. Dean's Protego was one of the strongest Harry had ever seen; not even Blaise could break it. Ginny, of course, was a powerhouse in herself - utterly relentless and quick-thinking, as were Hermione, Amelia, Dorea and Luna. Padma Patil wasn't afraid to sneak in a few tactics of her own to win her duels when things looked to be going bad for her. Neville had even duelled a sixth year Hufflepuff girl called Leanne - and he had won within barely two minutes of the duel. All in all, he was very pleased with every single Senior DA member; and would sleep better at night knowing that if there was ever to be another inside attacker like Francis Selwyn lurking about the school, they would be able to defend themselves and prevent injuries.
"You lot are amazing, you know that?" Harry praised at the end of the session, and everyone grinned back at him. "We'll continue duelling for the next few weeks and then possibly spend up until Easter just going over what we've learned so far. Before the Easter holidays, we could possibly act out differing situations such as ambushes and battles, if you want?"
Mostly everyone nodded back at him, looking excited. "Great! See you all next week!"
He stayed back with Professor Flitwick to tidy up the room a bit, and to remove any stray Cushioning Charms. He also switched the time delay clocks off (he had told Flitwick about them, and though the teacher looked concerned that he was messing with time, he was fine with it once Harry explained the mechanism of the clocks).
"You really should be proud of them all, Mr Potter, they're all where they are now because of you." Flitwick complimented sincerely.
Harry's cheeks were beginning to hurt; he'd been smiling that much. "I swear they've been practising in their spare time as well."
Saying farewell to the Charms teacher, Harry left the Room of Requirement and headed back to Gryffindor Tower. On his way there, he ran into Remus. "Hello, Remus-"
"-Hi, Harry. Are you free to come to Sirius's office? He needs to speak to you." Remus asked quickly.
"Oh, erm, okay." Was all Harry could really say. He wondered what on earth for…
Up in her father's office, Dorea was utterly confused as to why she was here. Remus had asked her and Amelia to come with him to Sirius's office. When they had got there, Dumbledore was there, and all three men had ushered Dorea alone to go through another door, which was very odd as they didn't explain anything. Could it have been Kaspar and Sofia, who had been her guardians up until the end of fourth year? She had felt terrible that she hadn't written to them as much since term resumed, but she would explain all to them.
When she had stepped through the door, she really did not know what to do - she had just arrived in her father's quarters and they had barely told her anything.
She jumped slightly when she heard what sounded like footsteps. Who on earth was here?
A man came around the corner that separated the hall between the living room and the kitchen. Dorea didn't recognise the person at first, but then she felt herself go cold when she puzzled it out.
Standing on the other side of the room was Regulus Black.
As in, her supposedly dead uncle.
"D-Dorea." Regulus said softly. She had no clue what kind of facial expression she was pulling, but she knew it was one of confusion.
"Are y-you… really my uncle?" She asked.
"Yes." The man said in something slightly louder than a raspy whisper.
"You're alive?"
"A story for another time, sweetie." Her uncle said warmly.
Dorea still stood and stared at the man. She remembered his letter that he'd addressed to Walburga and Orion; still tucked away in her trunk. Despite everything, Regulus had been a Death Eater. How was that forgivable? He was essentially in a terrorist group.
But the letter had said how it had all been pressure - pressure from her grandparents that Regulus had to join else risk getting banished for life. That certainly seemed valid. Plus, her uncle had clearly been planning to abandon the Death Eater's; he had mentioned betraying Voldemort himself. He had clearly lost heart.
Despite her conflicting thoughts, Dorea almost lurched forward and hugged the man who she had never met before now. It seemed both of them had become overwhelmed with longing and emotion - they were finally meeting after so long.
Dorea was sure she would find it in herself to bond with her uncle, and discover just why he did what he did.