"Reggie never left without you, he had planned to run away when he'd stolen and destroyed the locket, Kreacher told us that much, but he never made it out. He was poisoned and surrounded by Inferi. He gave Kreacher the locket and sent him away to safety and ordered him to destroy it… Severus…he died in that cave in 1979… and he died a hero"

oOo oOo

Severus didn't say anything for the longest time, and then he went to bed, leaving Hermione nervously frittering about downstairs. She heard the footsteps upstairs as he checked on the children, then the bedroom door, then nothing but quiet as a silencing charm was obviously put up.

Was she wrong to have told him? To open old wounds, when there was already so many old and new that plagued him? No. She thought, after a moment. He had a right to this knowledge, it was important to him. Regulus, Reggie, had been more important to Severus than most people in his young life and she had no right to hold that knowledge from him.

Still, she didn't quite know what to do. She briefly thought of taking him tea and biscuits but this wasn't an easy or simple fix, and no amount of tea and good intentions would make it feel better. Severus had spent a large part of his life no doubt feeling abandoned and blaming Reggie for that abandonment. Let alone his confused feelings tied around his sexuality and his prior relationship with the man. Severus probably had no small amount of conflicting emotions about the man that had been Regulus Black, had probably spent a long time angry and blaming him, only to find out that Reggie had always intended to keep his word and instead of swanning off somewhere in the world, he'd been dead and gone right here in the UK, having never left, and Hermione wasn't going to be of any help to him if she went in half-cocked with her own confused and turbulent thoughts. No. She would be here if he wanted her to be, but she'd let him deal with things in his own way.

It surprised her then, when she had finally locked up and made her way to her own bed for the night, that she heard him call for her cautiously.

"Hermione?"

Moving to the doorway of his room, she leaned on the frame. The door had been left ajar, letting the faint light in from the hall but the room was dark, and he was laid on his side in his bed, his back to her as he stared at the opposing wall.

"I'm here Severus" the words were as soft as she could make them.

"Is…is he still there?…in that cave?"

Her stomach dropped and twisted, when she realised that he was. In that cursed cave full of Inferi. She knew that Harry & Dumbledore had warded the cave to prevent anyone else from stumbling upon it after they left, but even after discovering his identity, and the fact that he had died fighting against Voldemort, the war had still been raging and it had not even been a consideration to retrieve his body and afterwards… she was ashamed to admit she'd forgotten all about him until Severus's admission.

"I'm sorry, but yes, as far as I am aware"

Severus nodded, as though he'd expected as much. But he didn't react otherwise.

"Would Potter-... Harry… Do you think if I were to ask ,w-would he take me there?"

So that I can retrieve his body. So that I can lay him to rest.

The rest went unsaid, but she knew without a doubt, that was what was on his mind.

"I'm certain that he would and that he would help in whatever way he can. He would probably feel terrible for not having done so sooner once he realises, in fact I think Kreacher would want to help also if given the chance… I know that he also loved Regulus, I will call him tomorrow.."

"Thank You" The words were soft and cracked as he spoke them.

"I'm sorry. I feel ashamed that we haven't thought to do this for him already. I have no excuses."

"We were at war." The words were still spoken monotonously as he stared at the wall. "You were dealing with murder, torture, horcruxes and an army of death eaters. Fighting a lake of inferi for the body of a wizard, whom you'd never known and who was almost 20 years long d-dead at that point was hardly a priority"

"Still. It was an oversight on our part not to think of him, and I'm sorry. I know Harry will be too"

Severus just nodded, and when he said nothing more for a few minutes she slipped away to bed, leaving him to his solitude.

Hours later when the middle of the night had become the earliest hours of the next morning, she was awoken by Sacha, but instead of leading her to the nursery he took her to the other bedroom. The door was still ajar from earlier, and she could see the form of the large man on the bed was shaking with the force of his sobs.

Saying nothing, she slipped into the bed behind him and wrapped her arms and legs around him in a tight hug. It was hard to feel like she was helping or having much of an impact on the much larger man, when she felt like nothing more substantial than a backpack or a koala clinging onto his broad back and shoulders, but he grasped onto her arms where they were wrapped around his chest, clinging onto them as though they were a lifeline and she pressed her face into his back, her cheek resting between his shoulder blades as she held him while he cried himself out, which dissolved into hiccups and dry sobs and eventually into an exhausted sleep, where she stayed wrapped around him like devils snare until the babies woke hours later in the late morning.

oOo

It would have been a curious sight for anyone who had cared to see, the Dark Wizard, The Young Auror and the House Elf as they made their way through the biting wind and salt sea spray into that cursed cave in the North Sea, but thanks to a number of charms, no one did notice them.

As Hermione had predicted, Harry had been absolutely devastated to have not thought about retrieving Regulus' body, especially as he still lived with Kreacher in his home. Kreacher, who still kept the destroyed locket that Harry had gifted him after the war, which had finally softened the cantankerous elf towards them, as he'd been beyond elated that the trio had succeeded where he had not, in undertaking Regulus' final orders and destroying the real locket.

So when Hermione had spoken to him the next morning as promised, he'd immediately booked a few days off work and told Severus he was ready to rectify his mistake immediately, when Severus had tried to assuage him of some of his guilt, insisting that he hadn't needed to drop everything to undertake this straight away, Harry had firmly and promptly reminded him that not only had Regulus fought for the light, that Sirius had made Harry the heir to the house of Black and that he lived in the Black's ancestral home and as such, not only was it his a matter of honour and respect, it was also a familial duty to bring Regulus home.

The cave seemed to be it's own morbid world. The smell of moss and dirt, the damp and salt spray of the sea, the wind whipping and whistling around them, plastering their wet hair to their damp faces and the lingering scent of fire, smoke and charcoal from the flames Dumbledore had cast upon the Inferi. Earth, Air , Fire, Water. All the elements seemingly combined in a morbid maelstrom as the world outside ceased to be, as the 3 inhabitants seemed to be trapped in their own purgatory of guilt, failure and broken promises as they approached the eerie stillness of the lake that belied the horrors that lay below.

Dumbledore had managed to destroy a large number of the Inferi that inhabited the lake but there was still no small amount of them hidden in the depths of the water.

"Any ideas on how we ge through the Inferi?" Harry had asked Severus, the now seasoned and battle hardened Auror was not afraid of the Inferi, but neither was he stupid enough to engage that number of them at once. But he also couldn't deny the cold fingers of unease that crept down his spine when he stared at the opaque water, knowing just what was hidden below and remembering the grasping hands that had tried to drag him to his death. Between the grindylows and merpeople that had dragged him down in the black lake at Hogwarts during the Triwizard Tournamnet, the Inferi that had dragged him down in the lake in front of him in his 6th Year, and the Horcrux Necklace that had dragged him under the icy depths in the Forest of Dean he could honestly say that it was less the Inferi that frightened him and more the Thalassophobia he'd developed, that was making him sick at the thought of the water below him, knowing from experience it was far far deeper than it appeared from the surface.

"We're not going to" Severus had finally said after a seemingly long and calculated silence as he took in the cave and the dark magic that permeated every inch of it.

"Then how do you propose to find Regulus' body with a horde of Inferi in the way? Because I'll be honest, I'm not good in deep water, even without the battalion of Inferi whom I'm not keen to get reacquainted with."

In a voice that was both sadder and softer than Harry had ever heard from the stoic potion master, Severus spoke.

"Firstly Harry, it's been almost 20 years of churning salt water in a lake of Inferi. There will be no 'body' to retrieve, only bones if anything at all."

At those words , Kreacher snapped his fingers and a small wooden casket materialised at their feet. It was not quite as big as Harry's school chest, but it was of a high quality wood, which had been waxed to a shine, with beautiful and intricate metal detailing polished and gleaming and he wondered if Kreacher had made it himself, from the soft look Severus gave the withered elf and the slight touch of his hand on a small bony shoulder, Harry rather thought he had.

"Secondly, we are going to bring Regulus to us"

"Summoning spells don't work on peop-" Harry began before Severus' resigned look fell upon him and he quickly quietened himself with the realisation.

Of course. Summoning spells don't work on the living because they are live, animate.
Dead bodies and bones are not, they are as inanimate as other objects.

"Who is to cast the spell?" The man asked in that deep voice that still to this day caused a pavlovian response within Harry that he had to sit up and listen closely.

Hermoine had not said much about what Severus' relationship with Regulus Black was, stating it was not her place to say. Only that they'd been friends in school , that he was important to Severus, but as Harry watched the man he'd come to admire, he knew there was more to the story. Though Harry had felt the sting of his failure to not bring Regulus home before now, looking at the man before him, he knew that though he would clearly allow Harry in his position as the Black Heir, the honours of doing this now, that this was important to Severus somehow, much more important than Harry's wounded pride at him not having thought to recover R.A.B before now. So the answer came easily.

"You should do it"

The usual mask was absent and Severus clearly looked surprised that Harry had not chosen to do the honours himself, before he quickly schooled his expression once more, but the stilted nod Harry was given, was as close to profuse thanks as he'd ever seen from the stoic wizard and Harry instantly knew he'd made the right choice.

closing his eyes and breathing deeply a few times, Severus prepared himself as Harry and Kreacher watched quietly from his side.

Taking another deep breath, he nodded to Kreacher who with a snap of his fingers created a shield around them, which Harry reinforced with a twitch of his wand and locking his eyes on the dark water, Severus finally spoke.

Tapping his wand on the polished wooden box beside him, Severus Cast.

"Accio Regulus Arcturus Black"

If it weren't for the emotions running through him, Harry might have said the moment was anticlimactic. There was no great explosion of water, no churning of the lake, no explosion of Inferi clawing their way to the surface, in fact the Inferi below carried on uncaring as no living soul had touched the water.

Instead, a small collection of bones gently levitated out of the water and into the casket beside them, the water barely stirred and the inferi remained bellow the surface and in a matter of moments the scant few ripples that had disturbed the surface, faded into stillness once more.

Severus had closed his eyes the moment the bones had gently landed in the casket , and Harry had to swallow how impressed he was at the man's clear and precise control over the spell in favour of giving the man some space. Seeing the taught way he held himself and the way his eyes were screwed shut, Harry placed a hand on the taller man's shoulder, squeezing it gently before moving a few paces away and turning his back to him. "I think a silencing spell if you would, Kreacher?"

Then all was quiet for Severus.

oOo

He didn't know how long it had been before he was able to open his eyes. The second the water had rippled with movement, it had become real.

Before that, a million different thoughts and scenarios had ran through his head. A bitter part of him still feared that this simply wasn't true and that Regulus was off travelling the world, having decided that Severus was an unnecessary or unwanted addition. Another part of him thought maybe he had survived the ordeal with the locket after all, and he'd struggled his way somewhere to recover and disappeared, leaving the war behind. Another larger part had been afraid that if he truly was in the cave, that after so long, there would have been nothing left of him for Severus to retrieve and that he'd never be able to lay him to rest, which ate at him worse than any other scenario, making him feel like the worse kind of failure. All that had shattered at the first ripples of the water in response to his summoning charm.

Feeling hurt, angry , sickened and sorrowful but also a growing sense of some kind of calmness and long awaited closure he sank to a seat on the wet rock by the casket, uncaring as the cold and damp seeped into his trousers.

"Hello Reggie, I finally made it, almost 20 years too late but I'm here"

He was afraid to open his eyes.

Afraid of what he'd see.

Despite his words to Harry a part of him had been terrified that the inferi and the dark magic in the cave would have done something.Terrified that he'd be looking at nothing more than an Inferi of Reggie, or a rotten bloated corpse with an accusing and haunted look on its face ,judging him for leaving him here alone for so long, as though Severus should have somehow known that Reggie wouldn't have stood him up like that. Or a waxy and grotesque skeleton like something from a horror film like Poltergeist.

Opening his eyes he almost laughed out loud, in fact he was pretty sure a chuckle had broken through.

Reggie… shone.

20 Years in the water had stripped and cleaned his bones to a pristine white that wouldn't be out of place in any museum. But something had happened with the sea salt in the controlled climate of the cave…something Severus hadn't expected. Beautiful and complex salt crystals had formed over his bones, where the enchanted lights that Harry had summoned, hit the clusters of salt crystals, they shined and sparkled.

"Always fucking fabulous even now."

Gently reaching out and touching the crystals on the skull, he snorted and shook his head, though couldn't help the wry grin that fought its way forth.

"You would have got a kick out of this I'm sure"

His mood sombered as he placed the lid on the box , it seemed too small to encompass everything that Reggie was.

"I'm sorry. Truly. I should never have doubted you, I should have trusted in you. Looked for you. Instead, I let myself believe that I was worthless, that nobody could have truly wanted me for me. In my obsession with punishing myself, I didn't give you enough credit, I did you a disservice and I blamed you… hated you for leaving me. I'm still mad for what was, what wasn't, what could have been. I miss you Reggie, and I'm sorry. "

He rested his hand on the lid.

"So much has happened. We won the war, voldemort is dead and all the horcruxes are gone…and I have a son. Me . He's wasn't planned but he's everything Reggie. And there's a woman… sort of. She's Brilliant, Clever, Fierce she's not Alexander's mum but in a way she is, and she agreed to be his Godmother. You'd love her."

He spared a glance to the box beside him, before he snorted and rubbed his face with his other hand. "OK, you'd scratch her eyes out for the audacity if you were still here with me, but I'd like to think that if you can see her now, you'd approve. I haven't made a move… I don't know if I'd ever dare, we both have wounds that are too fresh right now but I think that in time, something could be there. Even if she didn't return my feelings I know she'd never be cruel. She's kind Reg, so fucking kind. I have this dream that we could be a real family together some day. The four of us, because she has a daughter too, not much older than Alexander… I don't know why I'm telling you this but I guess I wanted you to know that it wasn't for nothing. What you did, I'm still here and we won. Don't get me wrong there are still some battles to fight but the war is over and I'm still here."

Pressing his hand once more to the lid, he closed his eyes again.

"I'm here Reggie. I'm here"

He didn't know how long he sat there, staring across the dark and quiet lake. His hand resting atop the small wooden casket beside him, oblivious to the cold sinking into his bones.

And the wet damp rock that soaked through is trousers and chilled him to the bone, until eventually he jerked back to awareness when a warm hand rested on his shoulder, and two familiar green eyes stared at him. But instead of rousing him, he sank to the floor, sitting side by side with Severus.

"I have access to the Black Family Crypt in London's Wizarding Cemetery. Sirius isn't there though, he hated them in life so I didn't want him stuck with them in death. When the unspeakables retrieved his body from the veil , I had him buried besides my mum and dad in Godrics Hollow, along with Remus & Tonks."

"He hated his family as much as Sirius did"

Harry nodded. "I thought as much"

Speaking quietly once more Severus continued.

"… and he never saw eye to eye with Sirius and the other Marauders either"

Severus looked away then, as though worried he had overstepped some unsaid boundary. Legally after all, Harry had all the rights here.

Once more he was stunned to feel a warm hand clasping his shoulder.

"Severus, you knew him. He was clearly important to you, where would you like to lay him to rest?"

"He was never a Black, not truly. And he certainly wasn't a marauder…I would like to lay him to rest in my family Crypt, where I too will lay one day."

Because in another life , he might have become a Prince.

The last went unsaid , but Harry who had never mastered occlumency or legilimency, seemed to hear it anyway.

"Then that's what we'll do"

His hand rubbed Severus' back and Severus nodded after taking a shaking inhale, he rose to his feet.

"I find myself wishing to be rid of this fucking place once and for all Potter, and getting home to my Son. What about you ?"

"Couldn't agree with you more Severus" He stood beside him , taking in the eerily quite cave.

"What do you think we should do with this place?"

"Master is to be leaving that to Kreacher"

The somewhat gnarled and frail elf seemed to stand tall and strong, looking younger and more alive than either man had seen him.

"Kreacher be seeing you back at home young master"

For a moment, Harry looked like he would protest, but a hand on his shoulder and a barely there shake of his head from Severus, had Harry retreating along with Severus as they carried the casket containing Regulus between them.

Safely Back in London, neither wizard was there to see the Elf's long awaited vengeance on the cursed cave that had taken his beloved master and neither asked what the elf had done when he returned wet, bedraggled and bloodied almost an hour later.

But when the muggle papers reported over the next few days of a great landslide that had caused a great chunk of the cliffside to collapse into the sea, they both knew that the cave and the Inferi were never going to claim another victim.

oOo

In a quiet crypt in London, Severus gently laid Reggie's casket to rest, alongside his mother, his grandmother and other relatives. His hateful grandfather, who'd disowned his mother, was not there. He'd died under suspicious circumstances, and his grandmother had conveniently 'lost' his casket, ensuring it was never laid within the Prince Crypt. Soon after, his Grandmother had reached out to his mother and himself, his father having drank himself to death by this point, and she welcomed them both back and ensured Severus was named as rightful heir to the Prince line, despite his grandfather having disowned Eileen. They had a short time to reconnect, heal wounds and mend bridges before his grandmother passed peacefully. His mother, weakened from years of abuse, died a short few years later.

"Hello mum , Grandmum. This is Reggie. Please, watch out for him for me, he's had a tough journey to get here."

He left flowers for his mother and grandmother, lighting a few candles and before he left the crypt, he placed a couple of things down for Reggie.

One was a copy of an old polaroid photo. The original sat in his wallet, old and faded it was of the two of them. Reggie was in his last year at Hogwarts, Severus had graduated the same year before, Reggie had insisted on taking the photo, and a less than pleased Severus had flicked two fingers at the camera. Despite believing that Reggie had left without him, he'd kept the photo in his wallet to this day, and was now glad that he had.

The other item he smiled as he placed it with the photo. He'd finally gotten around to filing it with the Ministry, ensuring it still remained under the Fidelius.

Alongside the photo, sat a copy of his son's birth certificate.

Born on the 1st of May, to Severus Snape.

Alexander Regulus Snape.