[A/N: I'm back. More or less. My surgical recovery could be going better, but at least there were no serious complications. I just feel blah.]
Harry and Hermione were reading Hogwarts: A History together in her bedroom the next day (Hermione could read twice as fast as Harry, but that worked out because she always wanted to read things twice, anyway) when a sharp smack against the window on the window startled them out of their book. A large brown-and-white tawny owl was there with a parchment in one of its talons and an impatient look on its face.
"Cool!" Harry leapt from the chesterfield. "You get the letter and I'll get one of the owl treats Sirius left for us."
"OK," Hermione said, and hurried to the door. The bird didn't move when she opened it and, when she put her hand out for the parchment, it just stared at her.
"Oh…um…I'll give you a treat in a second," Hermione said.
Harry hurried up a moment later and passed her a treat. She held it out in her hand, and the owl pecked it out of her hand and then dropped the parchment into it.
"Um…thank you," Hermione said.
It stared at her, unblinking.
"Is everything alright?" she asked it.
Its stare didn't change.
"Maybe whoever sent it knew we don't have an owl," Harry said, "so they asked it to wait for a response. I think only Neville, Luna, Sirius, and the Tonks's are allowed to send us owls through the wards, and they'd all know that."
"Oh!" Hermione said. "I'll bet you're right." She unfurled the parchment and they read it together.
Dear Harry and Hermione,
I hope this owl doesn't inconvenience you or attract any muggle attention. I don't want to get you in trouble.
It was great seeing you in Diagon Alley and I really appreciate all of the trouble you went to so I could get my own wand. I'll never forget that. I really liked meeting Luna, too. Do you think maybe you could come by my house sometime to visit once the weather gets warmer and see if Luna wants to come? I can't ask her directly because my Gran would have to ask her parents and she thinks Luna's father is mental. But if you ask if you can bring her, she'll agree just to be polite and assume Sirius asked Luna's parents.
If you can't do it or you'd rather not, that's fine, too. I'd like to see you again, too. I don't have many friends over. Gran occasionally invites other families for tea, but their children all think I'm barely above a squib and don't want to talk to me. I'm tempted to tell them the truth, but then Gran would find out I've another wand and take it away, so I'd be back to barely being able to do magic. Either way, I lose.
If I ever have any children, I hope you and Hermione will be their godparents. That way, if anything happens to me, I know you'll take care of them regardless of how strong their magic is.
Yours Sincerely,
Neville
Hermione finished the letter and tried to hold in her reaction until Harry finished it, too. When he looked up at her, she sighed. "Just once, Harry, just once I would like to learn something about the Wizarding World and think, 'Wow, how forward-thinking of them! I wish Muggle Britain were more like that.'"
"Yeah." Harry's green eyes were as hard and cold as emeralds. "We're going to do something about this, too, aren't we?"
"Yes." Hermione started fishing around for a piece of parchment and a quill to respond. "I think it's the same problem they have with muggles: equating magical ability with a person's worth."
Harry didn't respond, and when Hermione found the quill and parchment she turned back to find him staring at her. "Harry?"
He threw his arms around her and hugged her tightly.
She put down the writing implements and hugged him back. "What's wrong?"
"When I found out you were magical," he whispered, "I was excited because it meant I'd be able to go on this adventure with you. Even if Sirius had said you weren't, though, I'd still have said 'yes' when you asked me to marry you."
"Oh, Harry." She held him for a moment as her heart melted into a puddle of warm goo inside her chest. "I'd still have asked if you weren't magical, too. If the magical world didn't have a place in it for my best friend, it wouldn't have a place for me, either."
They held each other for a bit after that before the cold air from the window reminded them the owl was still there, so they released each other so Hermione could draft a response.
"We're definitely inviting Luna, aren't we?" Harry asked her.
"We definitely are," Hermione said. "I'm glad he liked her so much. She seemed to take to him, too, so hopefully she'll come. If she doesn't want to…should we lie to him?"
Harry thought about it for a moment. "Nah. If we don't tell him, he'll just keep wondering why she won't come. Best to get it over with."
"You're right," Hermione said. "It was nice of him to offer to make us godparents of his children. That's a big responsibility, though."
"I know." Harry's jaw was set. "I won't let his kids grow up like he did."
He didn't say it, but Hermione heard the "or like I did" he must have been thinking. "I know you won't," she said. "I won't, either."
When she was done drafting the letter (with occasional input from Harry), she tied it back up while Harry got another owl treat. After it accepted the treat and missive, it flew off, allowing them to finally close the window again.
They did the rest of their reading that evening under a blanket together. Their hands got a little chilly holding the book, but it was so cosy that Hermione couldn't bring herself to care.
The next morning. Sirius and Hestia attempted to get back on a proper schedule. They managed to get showered and finish one of Dobby's wonderful breakfasts by half ten, which Sirius was willing to call a win. Afterward, Sirius sat and thought for a moment.
"What's on your mind?" Hestia asked.
"I'm not sure what's in Reggie's room," Sirius said. "Do you think we should get dragonhide armour before we go in?"
"That's unlikely to help," Hestia said.
"It is likely to be incredibly cool, though."
She sighed. "Is this whole idea just to get me in skin-tight dragonhide armour?"
"Not at all," Sirius said. "It's a three-part plan: get you in skin-tight dragonhide armour, get me in incredibly cool dragonhide armour, and get us both something we can use if we ever need to fuck up some Death Eaters."
"That's…not a terrible plan," Hestia said. "Not least because then I get to see you in skin-tight dragonhide armour."
Sirius grinned.
"Fine, we can get some skin-tight dragonhide armour next week," Hestia said. "First, though, let's clear out your brother's room."
"Alright." Sirius's grin evaporated. "Let's do it."
When they got up to the bedrooms, they took up positions outside Regulus's door with their wands drawn, and, on the count of three, Hestia cast an Unlocking Charm.
The door sprang open to reveal a room unchanged since the day before. Hestia cast a quick Charm to confirm that something extremely Dark was still in the desk, then levitated it and moved it to the guest room while Sirius locked the door to Regulus's room behind her.
Once she had the desk sitting next to the bed in the guest room, Hestia ran another series of Charms over it. "Whatever it is, it's in one of the compartments at the back of the desk," she said. "I'm going to bring everything out and put it on the vanity table over there. That will let us see if there's anything else in the desk."
Sirius nodded and, with a flick of her wand, the desk sprang open. This time, nothing attacked them, and she was able to open the compartments in the rear one by one and levitate their contents onto the vanity table. There were a few old quills, some blank pieces of parchment, a dried-out bottle of ink, a couple of pieces of parchment with writing on them, and a locket of thick, heavy yellow gold with an 'S' inlaid on its front in bright green stones.
"Interesting," Sirius said. "So it's the locket?"
"Third rule of cursebreaking: no jumping to conclusions," Hestia said. "It could be any of those items, so I'll need to test each one individually."
"I see what you mean," Sirius said. "But it's definitely the locket, right?"
"Oh, absolutely," Hestia replied. "It's one-hundred percent the locket."
None of the other items showed traces of magic, except for one of the quills that turned out to be self-inking, but the locket more than made up for it by proving to be a locus of the Darkest magic either of them had ever seen.
"I've never seen anything like this." Hestia stared at the diagnostic Charm results dancing in the air in front of her wand. "I'm sorry, Sirius. You're going to need a more experienced curse-breaker."
"I understand," Sirius said. "I don't expect you to know every obscure piece of Dark magic we come across. Do you think the parchment that was with it might have a clue?"
Hestia sighed. "Damn it, I forgot about that. Yes, I do." She floated it over.
Kreacher is a bad elf. Kreacher cannot destroy locket like Good Master Regulus wanted. Kreacher will make list of methods to destroy locket so he does not repeat them.
1. Placed in fire. Got hot. Burned Kreacher.
2. Left in beaker of aqua regia for a week. No noticeable effects. Kreacher is unsure what to do with the aqua regia.
3. Ground down with metal rasp. Kreacher is patient elf. No damage to locket after two straight days of rasping. Kreacher is not that patient an elf.
4. Placed under wheels of a moving muggle lorry. No damage, except to Kreacher's fingers when he retrieved the locket from the road.
5. Spent three months cultivating night-blooming metalwort in the attic, then placed locket in the centre of the metalwort patch. Locket killed surrounding metalwort. Only benefit was that Kreacher used up aqua regia by dissolving all remaining metalwort-affected metal in it.
6. Threw locket into bubotubor. Locket undamaged by resulting pus explosion. Kreacher not as resilient.
7. Placed in muggle hydraulic press. Hydraulic press broke. Kreacher disappointed, but at least stupid muggle device damaged.
8. Kreacher apparated for weeks to go down to Africa and find a live erumpent. Kreacher made erumpent angry and tricked it into attacking locket and exploding it. Kreacher find undamaged locket a week later ten miles away. Kreacher think Africa not worth the effort. Unfortunately, tse-tse flies think Kreacher is worth the effort.
9. Placed locket on slipway as muggles launched HMS Ark Royal on River Tyne. Ship jiggled as it went over locket. Twenty-two thousand muggle tons must not be as heavy as twenty-two thousand wizard tons. Stupid muggles.
10. Kreacher stole muggle explosives from a Welsh mine, placed them in a hole with the locket, and detonated them. No damage to locket. Kreacher not far enough away from explosion, so some damage to Kreacher.
Hestia waited patiently while Sirius stopped laughing. "Merlin!" he finally said. "I didn't know how much I needed to read about Kreacher repeatedly harming himself until now."
"Is it really necessary to laugh at another being's suffering?" she asked.
"When he's laughed at yours? Definitely. Besides, some of those were objectively funny. I mean, can you imagine that little arsehole fighting off a cloud of tse-tse flies while chastising them about blood purity?"
She grinned, then looked away. "Um…maybe."
"I knew you had it in you," Sirius grinned, too, but it faded. "If only I knew what he meant and why Reggie would want to destroy it so badly. Can we take a look at the other piece of parchment now?"
"Sure." Hestia floated it over so they could read it.
Father and Mother,
If you find the locket to which Kreacher will attach this letter before Kreacher manages to destroy them both, you must destroy it if you ever cared for me or the legacy of the Blacks at all. The Dark Lord has done something terrible to it and it is a risk to even keep in the house. He claims to be the saviour of Pureblood culture, but he will destroy us all if he is not stopped. He will destroy everything. You must end him. I go now to retrieve the locket and do not expect to survive the experience.
Faithfully,
R.A.B.
"Destroy it?" Sirius asked. "Reggie…Merlin, what did you do? What is that thing?"
"I think we're out of our depths here," Hestia said. "Whatever that is, it's apparently really important to He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named and so vile that it made your brother switch sides. We should probably get some Gringotts cursebreakers to look at it, with the appropriate oaths to keep them quiet afterward."
"I agree," Sirius said. "Let's lock down this room, finish cleaning Reggie's, and then head to Gringotts."
Hestia nodded and cast a variety of locking charms and wards on the guest room while Sirius stared at the nameplate on Regulus's door. When she was done, he heard her soft tread approach him from behind.
"Is there anything you want to talk about?" she asked him.
Sirius reached out and rested his fingers on the nameplate. "I hadn't seen him in years when he died. I hated him, even though he sort of switched sides in the end. There…there was a little part of me for all of those years that thought he had to still have some good in him. I ignored that part and now it's too late."
He allowed Hestia to gently pull him around and into an embrace. "You can't blame yourself for things only visible with hindsight. At the time, he was a marked Death Eater who might have killed you if he'd met you on the battlefield. He…he might even have killed B…Benjy."
"I'm so sorry." Sirius tightened his arms around her. "I know how you feel, believe me. It's just…I remember Reggie from when he was a child, when I'd try to protect him from our parents when we were children. In the end, I just wasn't strong enough to take that abuse any more without pushing back and I ended up being thrown out of the house. If I'd been stronger, maybe I could have saved him."
"You were a child," Hestia said. "You can't look at a child and ask them why they couldn't endure more abuse. They shouldn't have had to endure any. It's not that child's fault they couldn't stand up to more abuse; it's the fault of the adults around them for either abusing them or letting it happen."
He thought about it for a moment before releasing her from his embrace and straightening up. "You're right. Let's get in there and put Regulus's memory to rest…and make sure there's nothing else that might kill us all."
Hestia nodded. "That's a good attitude. I'll make a cursebreaker of you yet."
Harry and Hermione were taking their usual notes in Maths Class that afternoon (which meant Harry was taking down whatever was written on the chalkboard while intermittently staring outside and at the clock while waiting for the day to be over, while Hermione was diligently writing down as much as possible of what Mrs. Rehman was saying) when Assistant Headteacher Ellison knocked on the classroom door.
"Excuse me," she said. "But I need to ask Harry and Hermione to leave early today. Their aunt is here to pick them up."
Mrs. Rehman nodded to her supervisor, the motion causing her headscarf to fall a little further down over her forehead. She adjusted it smoothly and then gestured to Harry and Hermione to go.
The two of them shared an uneasy look as they packed their bags. Neither of Hermione's parents had any female siblings.
Harry and Hermione knew they weren't supposed to take their wands to school, so Hermione didn't. That's why she raised her eyebrows when Harry fished his unregistered wand out of his backpack, using a British History textbook to hide it in his hand. He zipped up his backpack left-handed and slung it over his left shoulder, while his right hand was cupped up and holding the foreedge of the book with the spine face up, letting the overhanging front and back covers partially block others' view of the wand.
The two of them followed Mrs. Ellison out of the classroom and down the hall. Up close, they could see her eyes were a little glassy and out-of-focus.
"So," Harry said, affecting the most casual demeanour he could, "which of our aunts did you say it was?"
"She is your aunt." Mrs. Ellison's voice was calm, yet distant, as if she were narrating the events rather than recalling them. "She said your dog was in trouble and she needed me to get you. I told her that wasn't a good reason to get you out of class, but she said it was and she was right, of course."
"My…dog?" Harry could practically feel the blood drain from his face. "Where is she?"
"In my office, waiting for us," Mrs. Ellison replied.
"We're going to run ahead of you, if that's alright," Harry told her.
"Of course it is," Mrs. Ellison said tonelessly.
Hermione's eyes widened. "It is?"
"It is."
That was enough for Harry. He grabbed Hermione and dragged her down the hall at a fast jog.
"Harry, wait!" she said as they turned the corner toward the administrative offices.
"Sirius is in trouble!" he replied, not turning around.
"What if it's a trap?"
Harry slowed. "I…don't know. I can't lose him!"
"We need a plan. Let me open the office door for you while you have your wand up. If the person makes any sudden moves, start casting and I'll get help."
"That's a good idea." Harry paused. "Maybe you should go now. I don't want you in danger."
"Where could I go?" Hermione asked. "Our house doesn't have a floo connection and, if Sirius is really in trouble, there'll be nobody at his flat, and the Tonks' are at work. Given how few people know where we are and the fact that nobody's burned the school down around us already, this is probably not a trap. I just want to be careful."
"OK." Harry nodded. "Let's do this."