Chapter 17-  Of brothers

“So, Professor Lupin levitated the Basilisk away from you?”

“Good thing he did too or it probably would have squished me into mush,” Harry answered Hermione who was getting an account of everything that happened while she had been Petrified.

“How did he get there before the others?” she asked.

Harry shrugged pensively. He hadn’t thought of that. He looked at Ron.

“I dunno. We were all working on opening a passage and suddenly Professor Lupin disappears. Pop, like he just Disapparated.”

“You can’t Apparate or Disapparate inside of Hogwarts grounds,” Hermione said.

“Maybe it didn’t count as Hogwarts grounds since it was so deep,” Neville reasoned.

“Then why didn’t the others Apparate too?” she asked. The boys just shrugged. Hermione huffed and kept asking question after question that they answered patiently.

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He watched the foursome chatter. These were the times when he hated the role he had to play the most. How he had wanted to hold Harry and make sure he was fine just like Sirius and Remus had done. But he couldn’t. Not with Weasley, Flitwick and Sprout there with them. He had to maintain his stony face even though he was crumbling inside at the sight of the enormous beast Harry had faced. At the sight of the fang that he knew had pierced his boy. If Fawkes hadn’t been there… he didn’t even want to think. It was already too late for the antidote that he was carrying; he had brewed it as soon as Albus first voiced his theory, even with the holes later explained by Ms. Granger’s theory. He was nothing but a prepared man. But the problem, the reason why Basilisk Venom is so lethal, is because it’s antidote has to be taken almost the second the skin is pierced because the venom acts so fast. By the time they arrived at the scene Harry would have been dead. His blood went cold at the thought and he had to look at Harry vividly talking, fine and alive, to calm himself. 

After they extricated Gryffindor’s sword from the Basilisk and Severus performed a conserving charm on the beast, he would be coming later on to harvest the parts, the five teachers summoned brooms and flew back through the pipes accompanied by Fawkes. Severus had the unpleasant honor of taking an amnesiac Lockhart as his passenger.

As they reached the bathroom where Longbottom was still waiting for them, Moaning Myrtle seemed quite upset that Harry and Remus were still alive. Apparently she wanted company and she had a little crush on the Werewolf since his Hogwarts’ days as a student. It was a true mark of how they were shaken that Sirius did not use the situation to tease his friend; oh, well, he’d remember later. Sprout and Flitwick parted ways with them as they wanted to make sure their respective houses were still in the dorms unlike the three Gryffindor boys. Severus knew he should go too but with the excuse that Remus and Sirius were acting more like distressed parents than teacher he managed to accompany the rest of the group to McGonagall’s office. There they found the Weasley parents being comforted by Minerva and to his great surprise and relief, Albus.

The Weasleys, of course, jumped at the sight of their daughter and son. Severus honestly thought they were going to cut the girl’s air supply and he wanted to berate them for making all of Harry’s hard work and risks for naught. Miraculously, they didn’t and the girl was fine, if a little shaken. She had been oddly quiet since they found her, shooting Harry and Ron frightened and… shall he say, guilty looks? Next second he found himself on a line of people hugged and thanked by Molly Weasley for saving her daughter and he honestly could do nothing more than stare at her in shock. From the corner of his eyes he saw Harry’s lips twitch but a well-placed glare sobered the boy.

After that came the explanations. Harry explained what happened, how he had gotten in that situation and McGonagall had to put an invisible wall between the Marauders and the oblivious Lockhart. Unfortunately, Severus had been behind that wall too and he knew Minerva had done it on purpose; after all, she and Poppy were the only other people that knew the truth. There had been no way of keeping it from them. Not with the positions they held.

Albus then asked how the Dark Lord had managed to enchant Ginny in opening the Chamber and Severus understood the girl’s guilty look and silence. Albus should have been a Slytherin, the sneaky old coot. Harry explained about the diary and Arthur berated his daughter for trusting an inanimate object that could think. Albus then explained about Tom Riddle, the half-blood orphan that had studied at Hogwarts and later on became Lord Voldemort. Severus was stumped; he never knew the Dark Lord was a half-blood, or the heir of Slytherin through his mother’s side. For that matter, even though he knew Voldemort had been a Slytherin he had never known his real name. He had fancied himself a new name and dropped his old one. Severus couldn’t help but think of the similarities, The Half Blood Prince. No, they were not the same, Severus had something Voldemort never had, love, and more importantly, he still loved. And Severus hadn’t been Head Boy. Yes, he knew, stupid analogy, but the Dark Lord Head Boy? Who would have thought?

Albus then asked Minerva to set up a feast and accompany the Weasley clan and Lockhart to the Hospital Wing, where Severus also wanted Harry to go, but, Albus still wanted to talk to Harry. To be honest Severus himself wanted to hear why Albus failed to tell them Riddle was Voldemort when he told them that he thought Riddle was the one that had opened the Chamber the first time, and to be wary of that diary.

“I made a mistake. I never thought it would come to this and didn’t think it necessary to worry you. I thought we’d find the diary quietly and dispose of it,” Albus had said.

“The information wouldn’t have hurt us, Albus,” Remus had said evenly, “As a matter of fact it would have made us more aware of what kind of threat we would be facing. We were thinking we were dealing with a particularly sick and cruel former student that may have had descendants that we didn’t know about. Not some form of the most feared Wizard of the last Century.”

Albus had sighed and looked old, “I can only apologize for my oversight and promise to be more divulging in the future Remus.”

“See that you do,” Severus had said firmly, “We can’t help if we are kept in the dark.”

At that precise moment the door had banged open and a furious looking Lucius Malfoy had strode in. Severus had almost jumped, almost, and thanked the gods Lucius hadn’t come a second earlier.

“You are back,” Lucius had said with narrowed eyes.

“I would say so,” Sirius had said looking at Dumbledore as if making sure it was indeed Dumbledore, “Wouldn’t you say Remus? Or maybe it’s Albus’ twin that we didn’t know he had.”

Lucius glared at Sirius, “The governors suspended him and yet he still sees fit to ignore it and return to Hogwarts.”

“Well, you see Lucius,” Albus had said smiling serenely, “The Governors seemed to be under the impression-“ Severus tuned out the rest of little verbal war between Lucius and Dumbledore where Dumbledore explained how everything happened and that Arthur Weasley had been set up to focus on the house-elf that had accompanied Lucius; Dobby. He could kick himself. That’s where he had seen the bloody elf: Malfoy Manor. How many times had he been there to socialize with the Malfoys and had been served by that very same elf?

It was as he heard Harry telling Lucius that he had slipped the diary inside one of Ginny’s books during the famous fight at Flourish and Blotts that everything clicked. Stupid! Stupid! Stupid! If he had just remembered the damn elf he would have realized Lucius was behind it from the start. He was in the middle of berating himself when he noticed Remus and Sirius flee after Harry. When he saw Lucius was gone he kicked himself mentally one more time and ran after them. He got there just in time to see Harry shove a stuffed sock on Lucius hand and Lucius ripping the sock to find the diary and dropping said sock on Dobby’s hand. Severus had to work very hard not to laugh.

“You’ll meet the same sticky end as your parents one of this days. They were meddlesome fools, too,” he had said softly.

Sirius and Remus eyes had hardened and they had positioned themselves in front of Harry.

“Better to be a meddlesome fool than a groveling idiot,” Sirius had hissed.

Lucius had glared furiously at him and turned sharply around calling for Dobby who was still in awed shocked at being freed. When Lucius realized this he tried to attack Harry but before either Marauder could act Dobby had thrown Malfoy back. Without a choice Malfoy turned around and hurried out of sight but not before meeting Severus eyes, who for show cried.

“Ten points from Gryffindor Potter, for insulting your elders,” he said, and when Lucius was out of sight and Dobby had vanished after promising not to try and  save Harry’s life again Severus added quietly, “Fifteen points to Gryffindor for making a Malfoy look like an idiot.”

Severus was brought back to the present as he heard Dumbledore welcome Hagrid back and say exams had been cancelled as a treat. He awarded Harry, Weasley and Longbottom points for bravery and Longbottom looked shocked. Honestly, Severus thought Weasley should be awarded more points for his wand backfiring and blasting Lockhart.

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The end of the Summer term had passed in a haze of blazing sunshine. After being assured that they did not blame her at all, Ginny was back to her usual self and was actually starting to make friends with the others in her year. She had been very distraught at the thought of Harry almost dying because of her but Harry assured her that she couldn’t have helped it.

One night, during the very last week of term, Harry was woken in the middle of the night by a very distressed house-elf.

“Kreacher,” Harry said drowsily, “What happened? Are you okay?”

“Oh, Master Harry inquires about Kreacher when Master Harry is being the one that almost died and left Kreacher all alone,” the old elf sobbed.

Harry quickly got out of bed and tried to calm the elf.

“No, don’t be sad Kreacher. See, I am all better now.”

“Kreacher is sorry, Master Harry,” the elf quieted, “Kreacher is needing to ask for Master’s help.”

“For what?”

“Kreacher is hearing how Master destroyed an object that belonged to He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named and Kreacher is needing Master to do it again.”

Harry paled, “Destroy the diary again? Someone fixed it?”

“No, no, Master,” Kreacher shook his head and took a golden locket from his pillowcase, “Master Regulus is asking Kreacher to destroy this before he is dying. Poor Master Regulus,” the elf sobbed, “But, but Kreacher isn’t knowing how to do it. Kreacher tried but nothing is working so Kreacher is hiding this in the Black Manor and when Master Sirius is throwing everything away and breaking his poor mother’s heart, Kreacher is saving this, even before Master Harry is asking Kreacher if he is wanting to keep anything. Then Kreacher is saving lots of other Black Heirlooms that heartless Master is throwing away.”

Harry let the insults to his father go by; he knew that no matter what, Kreacher and Sirius would never get along. He took the locket in his hand and a shiver went through his spine. There was something not right with this locket. He tried to open it but it wouldn’t budge.

“How did Uncle Regulus get this Kreacher?”

Kreacher looked at the other beds and Harry understood. He motioned the elf to get on his bed, closed the curtain and used a privacy spell that his Uncle Sev had invented called Muffliato. And then Kreacher told him the most interesting and horrible tale he had ever heard.

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He was fingering the golden locket in his hands. Moony had gone to get Albus and Severus. He choked a sob. Oh, God, Regulus! His baby brother. How he had wronged him. He had been so brave in the end. Sirius had no idea what this was but Regulus had died to make sure it was destroyed, and Sirius would see that it was.

Regulus had been so prim, Sirius’ opposite. He had been studious, quiet and pompous, a lot like Percy Weasley. He had drank and believed all that pureblood rubbish that their parents had sprouted and when Sirius had started Hogwarts and become a Gryffindor, made friends with half-bloods, blood-traitors and Muggle-borns Regulus had distanced himself from his brother just like the rest of the family. When Sirius went back home for the holidays Regulus wouldn’t talk to him. When Regulus had come to Hogwarts and been sorted into Slytherin he would ignore Sirius in the corridors. And hurt and angry, Sirius would do the same.

When he decided he’d had enough and left the Black Manor to live at the Potters, Sirius didn’t even think of Regulus. They had become strangers.

Years later, Sirius got an owl from his brother asking to meet him at the Hog’s Head. When he got there he had been shocked. His always prim brother was dishelved and had bags under his eyes. His hands were trembling slightly and he fidgeted at any sound. Sirius had been worried but hadn’t known what to do. They had stayed in a silence a long time. Neither knowing what to say to the other. Until Regulus broke the silence.

“You were right Siri,” he had said in a hoarse voice. “Maybe one day I’ll make you proud.” He then got up and walked to Sirius, bending down to hug his brother; and Sirius, not knowing why but feeling he had to, returned the hug fiercely. Regulus than left silently. That was the last time he saw his brother. A few days later he received word of his death.

“You made me very proud Reggie,” Sirius whispered in tears.

At the sound of the portrait opening Sirius wiped his tears and looked up at Remus, Albus and Severus who were coming inside. Albus had a grim look on his face as if his deepest fear had been confirmed. They took seats around the coffee table and Albus asked to see the locket. Sirius gave it to him and just watched as Albus inspected it.

With a heavy sigh Albus said, “Just last week I promised to not keep sensible information from you. I shall do so. I have been looking into why Voldemort didn’t die when hit by the rebounding killing curse for some time now and I had a theory that Harry confirmed when he brought me the diary. This is another confirmation.”

“What is this Albus?” Remus asked warily.

Albus looked at him and heavily said, “A Horcrux.”

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