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Chapter Text

Dumbledore's office was grandiose, extravagant and somehow awfully replicant of the man himself. Remus found himself feeling small standing south of Dumbledore's desk, eyes fixed on the bookshelves on the side rather than the aged man behind the desk. Dumbledore paid Remus’s nerves no mind, even in the corner of his eyes, Remus could tell he wore his simple, inspective look. “I find it probable to presume you are unaware of why you have been called here.” Dumbledore plainly stated, his candorous voice as inscrutable as it always was. 

“Yes sir.” Remus answered, no matter how long he had been at Hogwarts he still found Dumbledore intimidating in a way none of his friends quite seemed to anymore. 

“It is of no shock to you that I am to admit that recent years have been more tumultuous in regards to the current war.” Dumbledore started, the war did garner Remus’s attention, bringing his attention off the walls of books and painting, meeting Dumbledore's inscrutable stare. 

“I have heard things have started to worsen.” Remus was downplaying what he had heard by a lot though he doubted Dumbledore was expecting much else from him.

“Of course, of course.” Dumbledore started with a kind smile that unleashed Remus."Many students have begun to seek participance or training in preparation, I assume you are aware of this, Mr. Potter and Mr. Black are right on the top of that list.” he continued, Remus nodded. “Whereas most students I have to turn down, it is, of course, a safety issue and most definitely not my place to push students into war. I find myself in a… conflicting situation.”

“How so?” Remus asked, hoping that maybe in some stroke of luck it would have little to do with him. 

“Lord Voldemort” Remus flinched slightly at the name “is gathering help wherever he can, obviously we can not dissuade witches and wizards from joining, no matter how hard we try, each individual is entitled to the choice of following him.” Dumbledore paused, sitting himself up straighter, his light beard falling more centred, lighting deep in contrast to his deep maroon robes. “But outside of witches and wizards we have more leniency, a different sort of sway if you please.” 

“I’m not quite sure I follow.” 

“Centaurs, giants, vampires and creatures of similarity all have a pull to listen to their own, we have people who have agreed to sway these opinions of such nature towards at least neutrality." 

“I suppose you would like to add werewolves to the list?” it was rhetorical, Remus knew the answer. 

“If you are up for it.” 

“I…” Remus started. He didn’t quite know what to say. He had never met another werewolf, aside from the one who bit him at least. He wasn't sure if he ever wanted to. 

“Feel free to think on it Mr. Lupin.” Dumbledore finished. Remus stared at him. 

“Is there any detail you can give me before I decide? It's not something I can just blindly agree to.” it was a logical question that the only functioning part of him could think to ask. Remus of course wanted to help, James and Sirius would be bloody jealous, Peter too, maybe, to a lesser degree but werewolves? Remus had never expected to be offered any kind of special role because of his lycanthropy; he had come to terms with this, the distrust that came with what he was and yet here Dumbledore was, asking not just in spite of it but because of it, this was possibly worse. 

“It would be of the utmost secrecy, you couldn’t tell anyone what you would be doing, obviously. All I can say at the moment is it would involve going away for no more than a week.” Dumbledore explained. Remus didn’t answer immediately.

It was an honour to be chosen for such a task, even if it was only because of the very worst part of him. At least if he did it he would be definitively a good werewolf which was a feat he had been trying to prove since he was just five, remembering the promise he made to his parents, never to lose himself to such less savory means. It would be helpful too, to the cause, to stop the war, Remus knew that for sure.

On the other hand he was only just Seventeen as of March, he was rather untrained and definitely not the best wizard in his year, it was probably a death sentence.

A braver person would have said yes immediately. James, Sirius, even Peter all would have said yes. Maybe if he did end up dying he would be immortalized for his bravery. Maybe he could finally have people know about the whole werewolf thing without initially assuming he was a monster.  “I guess there's no reason I couldn't," Remus sighed, Dumbledore looked pleased. “Do you know when I would be going? Or where?” Remus asked. He felt nervous asking, he regretted wearing the sweater over his uniform, it made him feel all too warm.

“Tomorrow morning. There is a pack just north east from here, I will be seeing you here before breakfast in my office tomorrow morning, you’ll pack tonight, albeit lightly, possessions are frowned upon by most werewolves.”

“Tomorrow?” Remus balked. 

“Less of a chance for words to get around.” Dumbledore responded. “You are dismissed.” he said with a smile, gesturing one aged hand towards the door. 

Remus left with his mind running rampant. Tomorrow was far too soon with far too little notice. Remus didn’t know anything about werewolf packs beside the little bits in library books he had read when he was just eleven. Remus didn’t know what to bring, what would he say to his friends, what would he even be doing in a pack? He needed time to prepare, he needed this to not be so sudden, he was already a bit strung out, with the full moon coming soon; no doubt that is why he was going so quickly but that only meant he was already achy and worn. 

“By the way Mr. Lupin,” Dumbledore added as Remus opened the door. “I find it best that you do not mention this to your friends, it is dire that this stays a secret.” Remus nodded half heartedly. He felt nauseous, overwhelmed, maybe he was excited, just a bit, to meet people like him had been a childhood fantasy. He went down the stairs quickly, he heard the door swing shut behind him, he focused on watching his feet on the stairs, then on the concrete floors. 

He was back in his dorm before he knew it. It was, of course, empty. Supper had just started. It wasn’t odd for him to skip closer to the moon. His appetite always grew closer to the moon, his skin would feel too tight, everything would be overwhelming, he couldn't do anything about those, resisting eating was one of the few restorations he had occasionally done, when he could bear it. Now he just felt preoccupied, his stomach hurt. There was anticipation brewing in the wolf, it contrasted his worry nicely. 

Remus thought the best thing to pack was probably nothing beyond what he typically brought to the moon, thin clothes something to ease his nerves, he used to take chocolate that Madam Pomfrey had always given him. Now he’d sneak in whatever half empty bottle of alcohol Sirius kept on him, for the nerves of course.

He took to lying on his bed. Staring at the canopy above it. He felt his stomach growl. He ignored it in favour of reaching for the book on his nightside. He opened it just to stare at the words. It felt nearly illegible.

He wished he knew how long he’d be gone. If it was just till the moon it would probably only be two days but Remus felt as though Dumbledore wouldn't have asked if he was set on such a small timeframe. It didn’t matter, Remus doubted many werewolves brought suitcases of clothes to the full moon let alone something to do. Could wild werewolves even read? Remus felt the thought was harsh but he truly didn’t know. 

Remus could usually read, not at the moment it seemed, he was far too caught up in his own head to focus on the book he had pulled out. The only distraction came later, when his friends, the Marauders  as they liked to call themselves, pushed through the door. “Remus!” James exclaimed, first through the door wearing a bright smile that almost always sat on his face. “We missed you at supper!” 

“Wasn’t hungry.” Remus mumbled. 

“Aw, certain monthly troubles?” Sirius laughed from behind James, he and Peter both look shorter standing behind James who was comically taller than the two and yet still remained shorter than Remus, though what he didn’t have in height he made up for in figure, he was far bulkier than Remus from his time spent playing quidditch and what not. 

“You alright moons?” Peter asked after Remus remained silent for a moment.

“I’m fine Pete.” Remus responded quietly, he pushed himself up from where he lay on his bed. 

“Never hurts to check.” Peter started, “I suppose you’ll feel better after the moon.” he added with a small smile.

“He’ll feel better on the moon, you mean.” James corrected.

“Just because you love to frolic in fields once a month doesn't mean the whole wolf thing isn’t painful, James.” Peter argued. 

“You're just pissy ‘cus we can frolick, all you do is scuttle along.” Sirius responded with a sharp laugh. He swung an arm around Peter, who rolled his eyes. 

“Well you're just excited because you want to chase sticks in a field which is possibly worse than whatever I do as a rat.” Peter quipped, blowing a strand of Srius’s hair away from his face, it had grown awfully long in the past couple years. James let out a laugh, Sirius turned up his nose. 

“Tragically.” Remus sighed, thinking of his discussion with Dumbledore, “there will be no chasing, scuttling or frolicking on the moon.” 

“Oh c’mon mate, you can’t still think it’s not a good idea for us to go out? Nothing bad’s ever happened!” James whined. He sat on his bed, the one next to Remus’s, it was closer to the door. Peter joined him, sitting next to him on the bed. Sirius leaned against the frame of Remus’s, looking down on him from where he stood.

“It’s not that.” Remus paused. He wasn’t sure what to say as to the why, it’s not like he could tell them, Dumbledore made that clear. Remus wasn’t a huge fan of lying but he was arguably quite good at it. “I’ll be heading home for the moon.” He finally added. 

“What?” the other three exclaimed, with a couple other words that flowed over each other making them hard to figure out. 

“My dad wants me home, just for this one, you know how worried he can get.” 

“Your dad always wants you home, that’s never meant you actually go before!” Sirius exclaimed.

“He’s more adamant, ‘fraid ‘cus of the war and all.” Remus explained halfheartedly. 

“Moony you’ve got to know you’re much safer here! He’s got to know that!” Peter argued. Remus just gave him a shrug. 

“It’a already been decided, I leave tomorrow morning.” Remus stated, he reopened his book to try to signify that he really didn’t want to talk about it.

“Does Lily know? Does Mary? Marlene? This is so sudden Rem! You can’t just go home?” James questioned frantically, listing the girls off on his fingers, it would have been funny if Remus wasn’t feeling so dreadful. 

“You're coming back right? This isn’t like that stupid home schooling stuff from fifth, right?” Sirius added, moving from leaning to sitting on the edge of Remus’s bed, looking at him sharply, his stare felt dark despite the soft grey colour of his eyes. Sirius, despite his name, almost never looked as serious as he did whenever it came to Remus's own well being, it was a look that Remus had come to realize looked quite natural within the bony features Sirius had. 

“I am coming back, yes, it’s only a little while, I would rather not talk about it.” Remus said with a sigh. The other boys shared a glance. Remus flopped back down to lay in his bed. He rolled over, facing the bathroom door, rather than the worrying faces of James and Peter. 

“How long have you known? I mean shouldn't you have told us sooner?” Peter carefully asked, Remus rolled back over to look at them, James and Peter both sat very unmoved Sirius was just out of Remus’s sight, sitting near his feet at the low of the bed, 

“Found out this evening, dad probably wanted me to have too little time to argue.” Remus answered, a lie that came naturally, his parents were overbearing to the point where no matter what they did Remus loved to attempt to argue. 

“That's shite.” Peter responded. James' laugh was muffled as he hid his face against Peter's arm, the contrast was nearly as comical as their height difference, Peter's paleness made James look all the more tanned. 

“Classic Lyall.” Sirius added, Remus nodded along. 

They didn’t bring it up for the rest of the night. Remus was thankful for that. Remus was not thankful for the churning in his stomach, the worry that seeped through his body as if it was his blood. It made everything worse. He already felt sore, achy, like his skin was too thin, he didn’t need to be burning on top of that. 

Sleep came almost too quickly after lights out. Everything was wrong, Remus hadn’t felt this terrible about a full moon in ages, the worry having subsided with the Marauders  there with him. Obviously they couldn't be with him tomorrow, no matter how much he wished to go in any way but alone. 

Remus left the dorm before any of the other boys were even up. They would have pestered him about seeing him off if they had been up, no doubt. Remus preferred to lie to them as little as he could so he chose to leave early, taking nothing but his wand as he headed towards Dumbledore's office. 

Despite getting up so early Remus was rather functional. Between the hyper activity of his senses and the aching in his bones it was an unpleasant and completely grounding walk. Discomfort and worry permeated each of his steps, he liked it better than the anticipation and eagerness that soaked the core of his mind. 

The door was unlocked when he got there. He could see Dumbledore sitting at the desk further in the office as he pushed open the door. Dumbledore signalled him to stay where he was, getting up to meet Remus by the door. “I was worried you would have a change of heart.” Dumbledore said with such a lightness to his voice that Remus almost felt relieved. “I suppose Gryffindors are known for their bravery, I should have expected the same from you,” he laughed. Remus gave a forced smile. 

Dumbledore led them out of his office, back down the stairs and into the maze of halls. Dumbledore was a quick walker, Remus thought it odd of him considering his age. “The nature of this mission is not to make yourself obvious, it goes without saying that it will be dangerous but I believe that with such features as your own you are suited well for it.” Dumbledore explained, Remus nodded rather pointlessly since Dumbledore was looking forwards as he walked ahead of Remus. 

“Am- is there something I’m doing in particular? I’m not really sure what the ‘nature of this mission’ is.” Remus asked, staring at the paintings on the wall, each giving him odd looks as he quoted the older man back to himself.

“You will be gathering information, had I not mentioned it?” 

“No, sir.” Remus mumbled.  

“Ah, must have slipped my mind, I find myself getting simply too old.” Dumbledore laughed. He turned to look at Remus, they had stopped, waiting for the stairs to arrive, Remus felt Dumbledore's soft warm gaze to be a bit too warm. 

Dumbledore had always been a bit sketchy to him. He had invited Remus to Hogwarts personally, clarifying despite his condition he was welcome. He had argued with Lyall in a tone so similar to the soft kindness in his words now. Remus’s instincts always flagged the man so dangerously no matter how mellow and agreeable he acted. “We need someone to see where the allegiances of the werewolves lie. I am quite aware that you know of Greyback, he and his pack are rallying with Voldemort, I suppose we want to make sure others are not following so blindly.” 

“Oh.” Remus answered. It didn't clarify all too much. Remus began to wonder who the ‘we’ was that Dumbledore kept referring to. He wondered if they were all so okay with sending a seventeen year old into such situations or if Dumbledore was as forthcoming with them as he was with Remus. 

“You’re not to be all too outstanding, never make yourself the centre of attention, don’t mention Hogwarts, don’t mention your allegiances, remain passive, subtle, listen to others, speak as little as possible.” Dumbledore instructed, turning back to the stairs, leading Remus down and closer to whenever their destination was. “There is no need for you to put yourself in any unnecessary danger Mr. Lupin.” 

“Of course, sir.” Remus answered with a nod. “Do you know how long I will be gone for?”

“Four days, you’ll stay for the full of tomorrow for the moon and the full of the day after, in the evening of the next night you can apparate- I am told you can do that- to the leaky cauldron, you can floo back to my office from there.” Dumbledore explained, quickly, it was also so completely premeditated, Remus wondered if he even had a bit of a choice in the matter from the start. 

“Is that also how I will be getting there? I’m still not entirely sure where I am even going.” Remus asked quietly. They had stopped, just outside the main doors, standing facing the courtyard. It was quite a lovely scene, still in shades of warm yellows and pinks and soft greens under the rising sun. Remus would appreciate it more if he hadn’t felt entirely too nauseous and quite frankly awfully afraid. 

“You will get to the outer area by sidealong apparation with me, I won’t be staying, you'll have to rely on your senses to find the pack, I trust it will be easy for you.” Dumbledore implores. Remus had no clue if it would be easy. “May I see your wand?” He added, holding out his hand. Remus obliged quickly, watching as Dumbledore put it into a pocket of his robe.

“Won’t I need it? How else am I supposed to protect myself if things say, go south? And I need it to get back at least, for apparating.” Remus questioned with a look of shock that never quite suited his scared face. He felt like he should look more intimidating and less like an awestruck child. 

“You can do without, apparating is not as difficult as it seems, The others will grow suspect if you have it.” Dumbledore explained casually, he held his hand out again, this time for Remus to take. 

Remus hesitated. He definitely needed his wand to apparate, he was not very skilled at apparating and more importantly he figured if things went poorly he would rather have it then to not. Dumbledore stared at him. He related his hesitation, taking Dumbledore's arm. That last thing heard before things got blurry was a quick. “Good Luck.”

Chapter Text

Dumbledore was not there when Remus finally took in his surroundings. He was at the edge of the woods. To his left there was farmland that reminded him of his parents home a little too much. To his right there were woods that bubbled all too familiarly with the same sort of feeling he gained near the moon. He went right. 

The woods were thick. Thicker than the forest at Hogwarts, if he were to be with a friend he would have made a joke that wit was thicker than Mary's ever-tangled mess of curled hair. Remus was not with a friend, he was entirely alone as he waded into the trees, he felt his chest tighten, it could be fear or excitement at this point, the only difference was on where the emotions came from. 

Remus followed whatever instinct was leading him towards the depth of the woods. He went deeper into the woods. The closer he got the less life he saw, birds no longer sang from the trees, the rabbits and foxes that ran along the edges of the woods had long since added out. 

He knew he was there before he actually saw the place. He could smell it, he could hear it, he could feel it, it was almost overwhelming, so much of those things that he had only ever felt from within now settled just out ahead of him. He wished he wasn’t so excited. Werewolves were not kind, they were not something to be sought out, monsters was the common descriptor. Seeking them out just proved how much of one he was. He should hate it. 

He was greeted upon arrival, an old structure, some kind of ruin, stood tall in a clearing. He could only see a few people out front. A tall man, dressed in shoddy clothes covered in scars all too similar to Remus’s own, spoke as spoon as Remus could see him. “Who are you?” he asked, his voice was gravely, Remus could see that the man was a good deal older than him. 

“Um, Just no one, really.” Remus answered, his voice was meek, his heart beat quickly in his chest. 

“Where did you come from? Why are you here?” The man asked further, approaching Remus.

“I didn’t really come from anywhere, I just sort of followed my, um, senses? And ended up here.” He answered nervously, making up whatever he could. All those years covering as a marauder in hopes of lighting a punishment were paying off. 

“I can tell you are one of us. I can also tell you are not a new wolf, I’ll ask again, where did you come from?” the man had amassed a sort of posse, the others that were out front coming in closer to him, there was a thin girl on his left and a burly teen to his right, Remus felt sordidly overwhelmed, he should have said no to this mission, merlin he was in over his head. 

“I really have come from nowhere, never really a permanent place, you really think after people find out what I am they’d keep welcoming me into their home?” Remus snapped, mustering every ounce of acting ability he had to convince the man in front of him. He didn’t answer right away, Remus felt sweat begin to build up on his neck. 

“We’ve all felt that.” The girl on the left muttered, she held out a hand, it was calloused and thin, “I’ll show you around, you’re welcome here.” Remus took her hand and gave her a soft nod. He heard the man mutter something under his breath as the crowd dispensed. “Don’t mind Owen, we’ve had a lot of visitors recently, mostly witches and wizards, you smell like them. We don’t get along with them.”

“I stayed at one's home for a bit recently." Remus lied. “She tried to kill me when she found out what I was.” 

“Happens to the best of us.” She sighed. “I’m Matilda, by the way.”

“Remus,” he answered quietly.

“Oh that’s ironic, isn’t it?” She laughed, taking him into what looked to be a decayed foyer. They stopped in front of a larger group, all dressed in similar clothes, chatting idly. Matilda waved to the one furthest in the room, an older man who looked as though he had been put through a wood chipper. “Mark, We’ve got a new one!” She yelled, a couple of the people in the room looked up, most didn’t.

The old man, Mark, came over to them, followed by an equally old woman with less of a dishevelled look. “Another new addition? He doesn’t seem freshly bitten, looks as bad as the worst of us too, are you sure he's new?” Mark questioned.  

“I was bitten when I was younger.” Remus answered, feeling morbidly calm in a place filled with so many werewolves. 

“It’s apparent.” The other girl answered coldly.

“Shut it, Allison. He’s new here, not new in general.” Matilda explained. 

“Are you a permanent addition?" Mark asked. Remus shook his head. Looking past Mark and Allison, at the worn stone walls of the building. It reminded him of a more decrepit Hogwarts. 

“Not likely, I’m, um, searching for someone, a friend of sorts.” Remus answered, a half lie, he was technically looking for something. 

“Just here for the moon then?” Mark replied calmly, it seemed visitors were not too uncommon, The other woman seemed peeved at the comment. Remus nodded. Mark gave a soft smile and turned to Matilda. “You don’t need to show me everyone who passes through, I trust whoever you let in is of good quality Matilda,” he added. Matilda gave a sheepish look before tuning quickly, gesturing for Remus to follow. 

Matilda was friendlier than he expected. Her timid looks seemed to be more of an illusion. It was funny since Remus had expected everyone to be a little more like the man from earlier, crueler, bigger, scarier. It was odd to have such a poor image of people who as it turned out really were quite similar to him. 

Matilda was one of the younger, more up front members in the pack, at least according to herself. She spent her time with the group from earlier mostly. Owen, the one from earlier, was shockingly nice once Remus was ‘cleared’. Apparently he had been on edge since as if recent times there have been more unsavoury characters around, in his own words, not Remus’s. Remus had wanted to ask more, to ask if it was about Greyback, about the war, but he worried the attention that would draw. 

Aside from Owen and Matilda, Remus was introduced to a couple others of the group he had first seen. Despite the more ragged look of the group, Remus noticed that none of them seemed particularly animalistic. So much for stereotypes. Remus figured if anyone should have known better it was probably him. 

He felt strangely comforted in the company, despite the poor conditions the woods brought and the unease of the moon. These were all people like him, people worse off, free from whatever backlash Remus would have if he were so uncharacteristically open at Hogwarts. 

It felt strange to be able to share what it was like with people so similar. It felt like talking with an old friend you went to elementary school with, it felt so vindicating to have people who understand so intrinsically what it was like. Even with the Marauders , Remus had never been this open, they had never been able to reciprocate in the way Matilda and Owen and the others seemed to be able to. It was scary how nice it was to be so heard. 

Remus spent the day after the full moon feeling perfectly, strangely, normal. Not his depressing normal of being cut and bruised half way to hell. Not his normal after with the Marauders , as complete as their company was for the wolf, it was never quite so completely unharming. He felt normal like relief from just taking a test normal, normal like how, for lack of a better phrase, normal people were normal. 

He had few memories of the night, he remembers flickers, he remembers fighting and running in a group, as a group. The cuts and scrapes on his body tell him it wasn’t all daisies and roses but instinctively, he knows it was in good fun, whatever happened. 

He found himself resting in the dingy ruins of a castle with the others. It wasn’t alarming to wake up like this, no memories worn and tired. Apparently it was common. He was close to Owen and another member of this pack, a thirty-something farmer looking fellow who piqued Remus’s interest a fair bit since from what he heard this man had been running with multiple packs before here. If anyone would have information that Dumbledore had wanted to find, it would be this guy. 

When the man headed out towards the front of the castle Remus found himself itching to follow. Maybe he was being weak to his instinct, wolf bulshite and all, but he did. The man stopped closer to the exterior, leaning against one of the trees and looking out in the depth of the woods. 

Remus thought he looked less like a farmer now, the overalls he had worn before, funny as they were, did seem to shape Remus’s images of him a lot. Now the man wore the same worn clothes as the rest of the pack, the same worn clothes Remus also wore, a tribute to the time spent under the moon. “Are you following me?” The man asked. 

“Not particularly, just wanted to see the sunrise.” Remus lied, moving closer to the man, staring into the sea of trees that had begun to emit a golden glow in the presence of the rising sun. 

“Heard you and I are both just ‘passing through’, Don’t suppose we know each other, ‘nother wolf pack or something?” The man questioned, he seemed to think they were the same type of drifter, Remus figured it would be absolutely idiotic to tell him he was in fact not some kind of travelling werewolf but rather a student and a wizard one at that. 

“Not to my knowledge, Haven't been in many packs from around here.” Remus answered, before adding, "haven't been in many packs at all to tell you the truth, not that many are as nice as this one.”

“Ha! That’s the truth, last one I was in was fucking crazy, one before that was just downright sinister.” The man laughed, this piqued Remus’s interest, crazy or sinister, both were words Remus would probably describe Greyback as.

“Lot of the ones I’ve seen recently coupling up with that wizard, apparently they're rallying up for some kind of war.” Remus knew it was risky to bring it up first, the man seemed angered by the mention. 

“Same here, saying shite ‘bout how they're being accepted for who they are but any werewolf who's doing dealings with a wizard’s not a real wolf in my book.” The man spat. “Had a buddy I used to travel with, he got himself all caught up with Greyback, ‘m sure you've heard of him, saying all sorts of crazy shite, split ways when he asked me to join with that loon.” 

“Greybacks the big one, ya,” Remus agreed. “I know some other packs are leaning towards him, safety with wizards and all that.” 

“Not from what I’ve seen, Greybacks the only one truly with him, all the others down that path are just in it with him, aside from that most just go into hiding, not much of a difference from what they ‘xpect werewolves to do anyways.” The man replied matter-of-factly. It was useful to know, definitely what he came here for, thank merlin this mission wasn’t necessarily a failure. 

“It’s sick.” Remus let slip, he hadn’t quite meant to say it, the other man seemed to agree anyways. 

“Big Ol’Greyback thinks that once the war's over they’ll just let wolves start running rampant or whatever, as if they won’t try to cage us like beasts, fucking always the same with wizards.” The other man continued. “I’ve heard he’s a real bad one, Volde-something or whatever his name was. My buddy used to talk about how Greyback would say he’s going to last forever, the guy’s apparently some kind of immortal.” 

“Even wizards can’t gain immortality.” Remus stated. It was something they had learned in class in the first year, magic had limits. 

“Not this guy apparently, he’s got some dark magic hoodoo shite that makes it possible, Greyback knows it, my buddy knows it, he’s supposed to reek of dark magic.” The man explained. Remus shuddered at the thought, he seemed so sure, it worried Remus to even think it could be true. 

“Dark times ahead if it’s true.” Remus sighed. The man gave a chuckle.

“No darker than usual for people like us.” He said before turning back to the ruins, leaving Remus standing on the edge of the woods alone. 

Remus left the pack the second day after the moon. He didn’t get much more information beyond what he had heard just after the moon. He supposes it was more than enough, werewolves are cowards aside from Greybacks pack which were possibly worse off. There was no sort of dark wizard sway within the werewolf community here, only in Greybacks pack, which was growing. Voldemort was apparently inherently unkillable. Manageable stuff. 

Remus hadn’t known how to head back to the field he had started in. He ended up just picking a direction and walking. It was mid afternoon if the sun was anything to go by and it was since it was all he had to go by. He still wore the clothes he had gotten from Matilda after the moon, he made sure to thank her before he left. She was nice, Owen was nice, Mark was nice, it was almost shockingly all nice within the pack. 

Remus took two hours to get out of the woods. He was nowhere near where he had entered from but he supposed it didn’t matter. He was supposed to apparate. He had never been shown how to apparate without his wand. Remus figured he was likely to be stuck out here. 

There was only so much the three D’s of apparation could do when Remus had no wand to channel his magic through. Arguably the destination was easy enough, Leaky Cauldron, he’d been there before. Determination was a bit scuffed, he was still tired and quite frustrated, being left wandless in the middle of nowhere and all. Deliberation, that was easy, it’s not like he had anywhere else to be and he most certainly had all the desire to be anywhere but lost in some random country side. 

Remus chose to try his best in each area by flopping into a patch of tall grass and just desperately focusing all his thoughts onto apparating. He’d done it before, with his wand but who needs that? It’s only the most fundamental element of casting spells! He ran the words Leaky Cauldron through his head like a chant, he focused on it, he focused on what it felt like to apparate, he focused on letting the magic flow, slowly, he had always been good at not being too hasty in his magic, it used to be so hard to channel he absolutely had to be.  

He could feel the world start to turn in on itself, it had only taken upwards of another hour and a half, but it had finally started, he shut his eyes. When Remus opened his eyes he found himself in a dingy wood hallway which could really be nowhere but the Leaky Cauldron. He followed the hall to the stairs, each step creaking on the old floor, it reminded him of his own rickety bones. 

When he made it to the lobby he was greeted by odd stairs from the few patrons of the establishment. The man behind the counter immediately flagged him over. “I supposed you're the riff-raff Dumbledore warned me about?” The man, an older gentleman with impressively odd sideburns, asked. Remus nodded. “Floos just to the back of the room, powders already paid for by the big man.” He chuckled, gesturing to the fireplace on the back wall. Remus nodded a quiet thank you and headed over. 

Remus had never liked the floo network. It was uncomfortable and a bit embarrassing and that was ignoring the ease of messing up, merlin Remus half expected to end up back in some random countryside. He of course used it anyway, careful to pronounce "Dumbledore' s office’ as articulate and clear as he could.  

In a flash of green light he was there, ashen and still wearing his shoddy clothes from the pack, he felt a tad bit under dressed. “Mr. Lupin!” Dumbledore greeted kindly, “we were just waiting for you to join us.” he gestured between him and the phoenix that often sat with him. Remus gave a sheepish smile. “How was your travel?” 

“Good, I couldn't get much information but I have some." Remus supplied, Dumbledore nodded along, Remus noticed his wand sat on the edge of Dumbledore's desk, he took it without asking.

“Splendid! I’ll have the elves fetch you some clothes, and perhaps something to eat, in the meantime, I’d love to hear all about it.” Dumbledore said, as if Remus were an old friend and they were about to have a casual catch-up over some tea. 

Remus did just that, listing what little he had learned, giving as much detail as he could possibly have from his limited time away. Midway though his tale, true to Dumbledore's word, a house elf came in with a folded thing of what looked to be Remus’s own clothes followed by a platter of some kind of pastry which Remus had to remind himself to be restrained of since his past few meals had consisted of poorly seasoned meats.

 Remus continued his retelling through bites of food which tasted even better than usual. Dumbledore seemed satisfied until Remus brought up his last point. 

“I had one of the others there mention something else too, something about um, you know who, and his sort of abilities or something.” Remus cautiously avoided using Voldemort's real name, he hated the way it felt in his mouth when he used it or maybe it was just fear, that Remus was unwilling to admit

“And what is that?” Dumbledore questioned calmly, he was stocking his beard as he spoke, Remus wondered if it was habit or some kind of nervous quirk. 

“They said he was immortal. In a dark magic way.” Remus started. He noticed a change in Dumbledore's eyes as he continued, an angered look that contrasted the calm blue of his robes. “I know it’s not really possible but he seemed so convinced it was true, apparently so did a friend of his and so did, um, Greyback.” Remus lowered his voice saying Greyback's name, it felt worse than Voldemort's to him, though unlike Voldemort’s he never refused to address that monster by his name. “I just wondered if there was a possibility.” 

“Of course not.” Dumbledore answered all too quickly. “He is as mortal as you and I, whatever it is you heard is just a blind man's fear.” He added, his voice slowed back to usual. He still had that look in his eyes. It made Remus curious. It made Remus feel it more believable then he did before. He should look into it, perhaps. 

“I see.” Remus mumbled in response, picking at the scratchy sleeve of his muted jumper.

“If that is all, Mr. Lupin, then I would like to have to get back to your classes, of course you are not expected to go today, I’m sure you are awfully worn but tomorrow it is business as usual.” Dumbledore instructed. Remus nodded, pushing himself up from the chair he had steeled in and taking the folded clothes before turning to the door. 

“I feel implored to tell you there is a lavatory just down the hall from here. I would suggest you visit to change before heading further into the castle.” Dumbledore offered, Remus nodded as he headed to the door. “I’ve also made sure to instruct your professors to be lenient at your departure, I trust you can assume that this will likely not be the last time I ask this of you.” he added. Remus hated that he really had expected that. 

He did end up getting changed in the lavatory, even splashing some water on his ash covered face. He made an appointment to stop at the library too. The librarian, Madam Pince, gave him little trouble even as he headed back to the restricted section. He figured it was the best place to look. 

He blamed his impulsive interest in the one thing Dumbedore told him to forget about during his time with the Marauders. Being an avid rule breaker had made him a little less deterred by this direct dismissal. Something in Dumbledore's behaviour had just piqued his interest. It was no harm to anyone but himself to just look. Who knows what he would find, probably nothing- hopefully nothing. 

Chapter Text

It was hard for Regulus to study in between Barty and Evans incessant chattering. He had his O.W.Ls coming up, so did the other two, he just seemed more inclined to study rather than goof off. It’s not like he felt he was going to fail, he doubted any of them would, they had been studying all the way since fourth year, mostly under Dorcas who was taking them back then considering she was a year ahead and all. 

Barty and Evan just seemed to lose wind as of recently, they were ‘idly prepared’ evening sinking to making light jabs at Regulus's continuous studying. Regulus didn’t mind, it was better than certain other subjects of conversation. 

It was harder for Regulus to study when he was actively being dragged out of the library by an over enthused Barty and an absolutely complacent Evan. “We’ve been studying for longer than I’ve been alive, Reg!” Barty whined as he yanked at Regulus's arm. “Supper ends soon and I’m going to kill you if we miss it again!” 

“You don’t need me to eat with you, I’m perfectly certain you can do so on your own, and besides even if you couldn't I’m sure Evan wouldn't mind playing mother.” Regulus snapped, one hand held firm on the table. It was futile, Regulus may be quicker but Barty was a fair deal stronger. 

“Like I’d put my hand anywhere near his mouth, bastards got a worse bite than a bloody quintaped” Evan barked, Barty probably would have glared at him if he could do so without losing grip on Regulus.

“Charming, Rosie, real flatterer.” Barty returned, you could hear the smirk in his words. “Why not put your strengths into helping me drag this poor sod to eat something rather than putting dirt on my name.” 

“Well someone ought to keep that ego of yours down and there's not much I can do in the Regulus department, quite frankly I fear he’s got a worse bite than you.” Evan replied, his only contribution turning out to be a book, which he chucked out Regulus’s second hand that missed its mark by a large margin. 

“Fine then I suppose there's only one thing to do." Barty replied, dropping Regulus’s hand. Regulus thought with naivety that that would be the end of it. He knew for sure he was wrong when Barty started chucking books at him, paired with some nonsensical yelling, he looked proper mad, even Evan seemed not to understand what was going on. 

Regulus figured it out when he saw the librarian heading their way. He was getting them kicked out, the bloody git. Regulus would hex him if it would do anything other than make things worse. Barty gave him a knowing smile when he saw Pince coming towards them. Regulus could hear Evan stifle a laugh.  

They were kicked out. Barty was banned for the rest of the week, Evan and Regulus just got off with a warning. Once they were a significant ways down the hall Regulus turned to Barty with a gravely annoyed face. “Bartemius Crouch Junior, I am going to kill you.” He stated plainly. 

“Can I eat first?” Barty replied casually, slinging one arm around Regulus, the other pulling Evan in. “It’d be seemingly pointless of us to get kicked out if I didn’t at least get something to eat.” 

“Maybe I’ll poison your meal, best of both worlds.” Regulus proposed with a pensive look, Barty seemed unaffected by the thought.  

"Wouldn't it be better to punish him by not letting him eat, I know a good hex for making everything taste worse than how flobberworms look.” Evan offered. 

“I’ve always wondered how flobberworms taste.” Barty muttered, dragging the trio towards the Great Hall. 

Later in the evening, after supper, which Regulus participated in rather begrudgingly, Regulus, Barty and Evan set out to their usual spot, an alcove that was shockingly devoid of paintings, it had been Pandora, Evan's sister, who found it, she had been looking to go some place with ‘less eyes’. Pandora wasn’t with them at the moment, scurrying back to her room after supper with haste, muttering about experiments and what not. It was a little worrying. 

Dorcas also had chosen not to accompany them, she, like Pandora, had been more distant as of late. Hers felt more like avoidance than Pandora's did. Regulus understood. Things had been rocky since more and more of the students at Hogwarts began whispering about the war. They never talked about it, Regulus thought it was better that way. 

It was quieter without the girls, Pandora was always the most talkative with them, Barty was a close second but without Dorcas to scold him he tended to end quite off the rails in whatever he was talking about. Evan, despite his propensity for teasing Barty, loved to listen to him talk about whatever gruesome shite he had been thinking about, often adding in comments of his own. He never chose to interrupt. Regulus had little in the way of sway over what Barty says, not in the way Dorcas did anyways. 

Sometime midway though Barty's rant about the similarities in alchemy and some muggle weapon of mass destruction they were interrupted. Alton Avery and Wolfric Mulciber, two of the three chasers on Slytherin's quidditch team, the worse ones in Regulus's opinion seeing as Dorcas was the third, as well Severus Snape and Mallory Wilkes made their way over to the group. Back in fourth year this would have meant trouble but Regulus had noticed a striking decrease in the group's hostility. “Black, Rosier, Crouch.” Mucliber greeted sharply. None of the three answered, Barty gave out a sigh. 

“Not an awfully warm welcome." Avery muttered after a beat of silence. “We’re all friends here aren't we?” he added inquisitively, an unprompted comment that Regulus found to be very strange. 

“No, no I wouldn't say we are.” Evan answered with a smile. 

“Oh come off it now, us Slytherins have got to stick together, promote a united front for what’s to come.” Mulciber mused. Regulus rolled his eyes. 

“I think the only thing that’s to come is a hex heading straight for you if you don\t leave us alone.” Barty retorted, Regulus could see he had already pulled out his wand. 

“No need to be crass Crouch, we all want the same thing here, no?” Mulciber replied calmly. 

“Oh and what's that? For you to spend the rest of your life with a Langlock curse?” Barty continued, not faltering under Mulciber's words. 

“A continued hierarchy, power where it belongs, continuing the lines of the sacred twenty eight, that kind of thing.” Avery spat, Regulus could see he too had tightened a grip on his wand. 

“Oh see, no that’s not what I was thinking at all.” Barty sighed, “shame you came all the way over here just to be wrong, especially with those stiff legs of yours, makes walking such a challenge.” 

“Stiff legs?” Avery questioned, tilting his head, Evan face sprouted a smirk, Regulus rolled his eyes. 

“ Locomotor Mortis ” Barty cast, Avery's legs went stiff, leading to him falling into Wilkes who took down the rest like dominos. “Those stiff legs.” Barty cackled, before quickly pushing himself up and heading down the hall, Regulus and Evan followed. 

“You fucki-” Wilkes stared, pulling out his wand, only to be knocked back by a blast from Evan. He could hear Barty start laughing from up ahead. Regulus wished had gone back to the dorms with Dorcas. 

They ran until they were up a whole floor. Barty and Evan both laughing nearly manically, Regulus couldn't help himself from contributing a soft chuckle. “What kind of idiot falls for that!” Barty breathed, making Evan laugh a little more. 

“You know the only smart one of them is Snape, I swear I’ve met trolls smarter than the other three.” Regulus quipped between breaths of air. He hated running. 

“I’d bet a galleon that the other three are trolls.” Evan added with a laugh, Barty nodded in agreement.

“They’re idiots alright, completely nonsensical.” Barty giggled, “sacred twenty-eight is already a load of dung and on top of that two of them aren’t even on it.”

“The Mulcibers are pretty bottom wrung pure-bloods too, probably’ll get kicked off before the war is even over.” Evan added, “even my family’s got more status then there's which is outrageous because my mum’s practically insane.” 

“If I was some kind of dark power mongering wizard I would have kicked them out ages ago, imagine having to try and get egotistical Avery to follow orders, like that’ll stick.” Barty remarked, elbowing Evan in the side, a friendly jab that was a bit unnecessary considering Evan was still dubbed over catching his breath between his words. 

"Wouldn't last a day in any situation.” Regulus mumbled. 

“I’d do way better than them, not that I would join up or anything, if I did, it wouldn't be some purity bullshite either, ‘just do it to piss off my dad.” Barty said with a small smirk. Regulus didn’t reciprocate it, Evan did but it seemed forced.

“Hey if you did get the mark or whatever we’d probably end up together, dying on the shite side of the war, my parents seem to think I just have to get it.” Evan joked, it didn’t land quite right. Most pureblood families had been forcing their children to join once school ended, Regulus knew that's what his wanted. At least Evan seemed to get a choice. 

“Please, with us on his side Voldy would definitely win.” Barty replied with a concerning lack of care. 

I doubt that’s a good thing.” Regulus muttered, looking past Barty down the hall. It was as avoidant he could get without literally walking away. 

“S’not like we’d suffer.” Barty retorted calmly, Evan gave a sheepish nod at that. 

“So what? Are you really okay with following a murderer just to piss off your father?” Regulus asked, more rhetorically than not.

Barty answered anyway, “I mean I’d also get to hang around Evan, you too probably, aren't your parents y’know like that?” 

“My family has nothing to do with my opinions.” Regulus lied. They did, of course they did, no matter what Regulus personal givings, he’d always be paraded as if he agreed with them, Walburga Black was more stubborn on this then anything else. 

“So you're not going to get the mark? Because I’d probably also bet a galleon that you will, like it or not.” Barty jabbed cruelly, Evan gave him a glare which Barty ignored. 

Regulus didn’t have an answer. He just let out a deep breath and stormed off down the halls. He heard Evan chide Barty as he left. Barty had always been a particularly prickly thing, Regulus knew that, even a hint of insult towards him and suddenly he was king of the pricks, which funnily enough was actually a nickname Evan and Pandora used to call him. 

Regulus also knows Barty is not wrong. Regulus had no say in what role he’ll play in the war. Regulus will be on whatever side his parents chose and it was pretty clear which one they would pick. Regulus wouldn’t complain, he would just follow. He’d be whatever their idea of perfection was, whatever it was that Sirius had not been. It made him feel nauseous. 

Apparently Regulus wasn’t the only one having a bad night. In passing the potions room, Regulus could hear faint moans and mumbles, likely from Professor Slughorn. Regulus, being the exemplary student he was, went to check in on him. It was the kind of thing that got you a place on his shelf, it was also the kind of thing that would distract from the darker thoughts about his own family. “Professor?” Regulus greeted as he entered the darkened potions classroom. 

The first thing Regulus noticed was the smell, the second thing he noticed was the bottle of mead that lay empty and discarded on the desk at the front of the classroom; it’s only remnants seemed to be at the bottom of Slughorns cup, only lasting a second before getting poured down the professors throat. 

He seemed shocked to see Regulus in his tipsy state, which was made even more apparent by the candour of his voice. “Regulus! I must be half mad! It isn’t class time now is it?” 

“No sir, I just heard noises and thought to check in.” Regulus responded, coming closer to the desk.

“Ah, my boy, then you must forgive me for causing a racket, I seem to have slipped into an old habit.” Slughorn bellowed far too loudly for the small quarters they were in. “I was just, ah, reminiscing I suppose, things have been changing all around.”

Apparently everyone wants to talk about changes today Regulus's mind spat cruelly, he quickly brushed away the thought. “Oh well if that’s all I should head out, I'm certain you would appreciate the time to yourself. Regulus answered, hoping for a quick out, Slughorn had always thought highly of Regulus, usually it was a good thing but tonight it might just have him stuck with his clearly drunken teacher which he truly did not wish to deal with. 

“Don’t be silly my boy! I most certainly don't mind the intrusion, especially not from such a bright wizard.” Slughorn praised. Regulus would have rolled his eyes had they not been locked with Slughorns. “Tell me, how has your studying for the O.W.Ls gone?” 

“Well sir, I was actually just in the library earlier tonight.” Regulus answered. 

“That’s wonderful, no doubt you were studying with Crouch, also a very bright young wizard.” Slughorn complemented after another attempted sip of his now empty glass. “Such bright wizards, it’s always bright wizards.” he muttered to himself which piqued Regulus’s interest. 

“What’s always bright wizards?” Regulus questioned tactlessly. 

“Oh nothing nothing, don’t listen to the rambling of your old professor.” Slughorn laughed.

“I doubt much you say can be considered rambling, as such a talented professor.” Regulus flattered in a shameless attempt to get Slughorn to continue. 

“Talented, yes, talented, knowledgeable too, knowledge always leads to bad places.” Slughorn replied, leaning further back into his chair, Regulus moved further into the room, as if it were to be a game of cat and mouse. Regulus waited for the professor to continue flinging the silence. “I wonder if my knowledge was what led to all this, if I hadn’t just thought to dismiss it, such an odd question.” 

“Odd question?” Regulus pushed, coming even closer to the professors desk. 

“Oh yes, so odd, such an obscure magic, dark magic too, not fun stuff.” Slughorn blathered. If Regulus hadn't started speculating they were talking about the Dark Lord before he definitely would have now. “Seven, too, such a high number.” Slughorn had clearly disregarded Regulus, talking only to himself. “One would do the trick, keep him alive- live past death at least what a worry if that… I should have seen it.” The professor wallowed. Regulus gave him a pitying look, though he was more caught up on what he had said. ‘Keep him alive’, no magic could do that, now could it? 

Regulus tuned out the rest of Slughorn's rambling, none of which seemed as important as what he had just said. Regulus made a point to excuse himself quickly that even, his mind running rapidly over what Slughorn had implied. 

Regulus of course chose to head to the library to look into whatever dark magic Professor Slughorn was talking about. Tragically, due to a certain wizard's antics, Regulus also had to wait until evening of the next day to do so. 

He skipped the ending of his last class to get there before Barty or Evan had the chance to lure him into some new nonsense. Pince was not at her desk when he entered. In fact no one seemed to be in the library at all. Regulus knew students were not technically allowed to enter the restricted section, even with a note Pince would typically just run the book to them herself but she wasn't here and Regulus was in a hurry, or at least that’s what he would say if she came by. 

The restricted section was closer to the back, tucked behind a little rope which didn’t do much in itself but under the watchful eye of Madam Pince students almost never made it back. Regulus was about to be a steadfast exception. 

It would help if he knew what he was looking for, the restricted section was already probably a nightmare to traverse, he doubted it was any better when the whole plan was open random books. He skipped the first couple shelves, never much good right at the entrance, probably. Regulus wasn’t actually sure. Regulus had only ever been in the restricted section once, sure he’d gotten a couple books once or twice but usually Pince would just deal with it. Apparently it was ‘too unsafe’ to let students go though it which was stupid because why put it in a school then? 

The first book he pulled tried to bite him. That was a shock. Regulus had been pretty sure books didn’t do that. The second one gave him a searing headache to read. The third literally started turning itself to ash. Regulus was starting to really dislike the restricted section. 

If Regulus knew what type of magic he was looking for he could at least use some kind of tracking spell but he really had no clue. At least he could say pretty safely he had found the dark magic section. It was apparent on the way the books glowed in an almost unnoticeable shimmer of black smoke, Regulus doubted it would be easy to even tell if it hadn’t been such a large section. 

It took him shelves worth of books, several nearly dodged hexes and curses and a narrowly avoided blast of what looked to be hard ice but Regulus thought he finally found the book. It was the second of a series, it was mentioned in a summary from the last issue. One book of course leads to another, which leads to another. The first of the series was missing but it was brought up again in the third and there was another book about them too, unrelated to the first too but still sitting neatly on the shelf next to them. 

Horcruxes. Dark magic that causes the user to live past death. An unspecified incantation and a murder was all it took. Convenient. Regulus felt like he had to be right, what else could it be. It would keep him alive- live past death, whatever Slughorn had said.

Regulus chose to stay hidden in the restricted section to read the dark magic books. It wouldn't be a good look to bring them out considering current times; and maybe also considering he really wasn’t supposed to be back here either. Most of it was unrelated though that didn’t make it any more palatable to Regulus, each newly disturbing magic made Regulus’ skin crawl. Even just the horcruxes were inhumane. It was something to do with the soul, tearing it and if Slughorn was right, which he certainly might not be, there were something near seven of them. It was certainly a cause for something.

It was certainly hard to think about it more when interrupted. “Oh…” A voice from above where Regulus was hunched on the floor said. Looking up made it worse. Remus Lupin was one of Sirius’s tricky little friends. Maybe not little, Lupin was the tallest of their group, certainly taller than Regulus too. “Nice to see you Regulus.” He sounded confused, as if he hadn’t been expecting anyone to be around.

“Lupin.” Regulus responded, turning his nose back to his book.

“Doing some… light hearted reading?” Lupin continued angling to get a better look at the book in Regulus’s hand.

“None of your business.” Regulus spat. "Shouldn't you be out cursing Snape or something with my brother?” 

“Nah, Snivellus isn’t all too interesting all of late. I think James got something for the librarian though, probably why she’s not here now, maybe you should thank him since you're clearly reaping the benefits.” Lupin suggested. Regulus shut his book in an annoyed fashion and looked up at Lupin. He had a new scar, new since Regulus had last looked at him anyways. Regulus had always found him to be an interesting person to look at. The scars screamed danger but the big red jumper screamed dork. 

“I don’t need to thank Potter for anything.”

“So you're not in the restricted section ‘cus the librarian’s not here to stop you?”

“Are you here for a reason Lupin? I happen to be quite busy, no time for childish antics.”

“I can see that, studying for your O.W.Ls, right?

“Yes.” Regulus hissed.

“I don’t remember horcruxes being on my O.W.Ls, is there a new curriculum? I hadn’t heard.” Lupin said in an awfully insinuating tone. It was odd for Lupin to bring up horcruxes in specific, why not another one of the many pieces of magic in the book. 

“Curiculums change.” Regulus retorted with a glare. Lupin hummed before placing another book atop the two Regulus had picked out and placed next to him on the floor. 

“I liked the first one best, got all the nitty-gritty details.” Remus sighed before turning on his heels and leaving. Regulus stared at the empty space Lupin had moved from. Why in merlin's name was Remus Lupin looking into horcruxes? Out of all the people, him, really. Was it for the same reason, it couldn't be for the same reason, Regulus hardly found himself believing it there's no way Lupin would have had the same conclusion. Regulus took the book Lupin had left behind and started reading it. 

Chapter Text

It had been two weeks since he had started to research horcruxes. It had been two weeks and he had found nothing. It was abnormal for him to fail to achieve his goal. He wanted to find a way to locate them or some kind of undeniable proof that the Dark Lord had used them, there had to be some kind of tell, Regulus just couldn't find it. 

Two weeks he had taken from his studying. Two weeks of pointless research in things of varying relations, falling down unfounded rabbit holes with no results. pointless pages worth of notes and theories gone to waste, constantly proved invalid. He was starting to doubt that he had been right in the first place. It was a difficult magic with no documentation of the actual incarnation and no proof that one can even make more than one, let alone seven. Regulus was starting to think it was a waste of time. 

His research, while palatial, went unnoticed by any of his friends since he already had been nose deep in a book because of his extreme studying habits. Pandora had made a few comments on the nature of his books since she herself had been sneaking into the restricted section for her own fun little experiments. 

The break in his research ended up coming in the form of a letter rather than a book. Every day at breakfast, mail would be flown in. This day in particular Regulus received a letter from his cousin which he almost just tossed to the side, it took intervention from Pandora to actually get him to open it right then and there.

Pandora had joined them for breakfast at the Slytherin table most days despite her place in Ravenclaw. She and Evan were twins and beyond that she mostly just liked their company more than her seemingly strange Ravenclaw friends. Regulus liked Pandora a fair bit but he had to admit she was positively odd. As such Pandora, in her own strange way, had grown to be fond of Regulus’s unbearable cousin Narcissa. 

She took the letter right out of his hand with no more than a quick “Oh my favorite cousin!” it was technically correct though Narcissa, nor any of her sisters, had never had much connection with their mothers family. There had been bad blood between Regulus’ aunt Druella and Evan and Pandora mother since before Narcissa was born, though the feud exemplified itself in the distaste Regulus knew Narcissa carried for Pandora. It was not mutual since Pandora seemed to find Narcissa quite endearing ever since she saved her from getting hexed in first year. 

“Pandora give me back my letter.”

“Why, you never read them, all that trouble to send you a letter and you just skim it and never respond.” Pandora pouted, she did give the letter back, slowly hanging it back over the table. “All my and Ev’s cousins never send us anything, and they're twats or think we're too crazy to commune with, but that aside, she’s so nice to you, she’s so much nicer than the other one, Reg, and she just got married, you never even congratulated her.”

“You congratulated her enough for the both of us, I shouldn't have brought you to that wedding.” 

“I was perfectly pleasant at that wedding, it was her fiance who was a prick.” Pandora muttered. 

“Husband.” Regulus corrected. 

“Didn’t you say he was ‘whiner than a banshee’” Barty interrupted as he entered, taking the spot on Regulus’s right, Evan was with him, sitting across from him side by side with Pandora. 

“She also called him a prissy git.” Dorcas added, she had been quiet all morning up until now, she was on the other side of Pandora, pressed up right against her to stay as far away from Mulciber who was just a couple paces down the bench. 

“He was!”

“You almost got me thrown out of my own cousin's wedding.” Regulus argued.

“Our cousin ! And you barely like her anyway!” Pandora shot back.

“I still had to be at her wedding! My parents were livid, definitely not happy with my choice of guest and I figured ‘Cissa wasn’t either.” Regulus cried as he began opening the sleek letter. “If anything I’ll send her a reply apologizing for your crass behaviour.” 

“I wasn’t that bad.” Pandora muttered. Dorcas gave her a pat on the back. Arguably it was Regulus’s idea to bring her, she was of good enough status that his parents were happy with the choice even if they were practically related, and she liked Narcissa enough that he figured she’d be excited. He regretted that decision. 

Regulus rolled his eyes as he pulled out the letter, he read it over, still half listening to Dorcas and Evan pick at Pandora's unruly mannerism. He skipped over a lot of the first bit. She was back from her honey moon, she was fairly happy, Malfoy was lovely, typical stuff. 

He started reading a little more intently when she started talking about the war. Lucius Malfoy had the dark mark. The letter didn’t say that of course, Regulus actually knew that from before, Narcissa was considering getting it, to cater to her husband. She mentioned their family, I know the Blacks also have an allegiance, I think it would suit me as a member of both families. Regulus didn’t like that. Regulus didn’t like the next line either. I know our family will require you to do the same. That was hard to read even if Regulus had already known. 

Somehow the fact that Regulus was expected to become a death eater was not the most interesting part of the letter. The last paragraph was about something that Lucius had now been doing as a show of loyalty. He was keeping something, trusted with a dear possession of the Dark Lord himself, to keep it safe. The letter stated. It was a weird mission to keep, ‘hold onto my prized possession’ doesn’t seem all too impressive of a task, especially since the Prophet was always on about raids and murders and what not but Narcissa talks as if it was of the highest honour. 

Narcissa mentioned she didn’t know the significance, just that it was an honour. Regulus had an idea of the significance of it. Prized possessions, something of value, something that would make a good horcrux. Why would the Dark Lord cherish anything, why would he need something stored or protected unless it contained his own soul, or part of it at least. It made sense. 

Maybe he was reaching, just trying to verify his research but maybe he wasn’t. He wanted to check, Regulus wondered if it would be weird to pay an impromptu visit to his cousin and her husband. It probably was. Regulus would have dwelled on it longer if Pandora hadn’t spoken up, breaking him from his sporadic thoughts. “So what’d my favourite cousin say? She break up with her fiance yet?”

“Husband.” Regulus corrected softly.

“She break up with her husband yet?” Dorcas asked in Pandora's stead, seeing as she had no desire to fix her phrasing. 

“Nothing in particular, she had a good honeymoon.” He replied, folding the letter and placing it into his bag. 

“Was there some kind of massacre at her little vacation? You look ill Reg.” Evan commented, Regulus shook his head. 

“Maybe she gave unnecessary sex details, I do in all my letters to relatives.” Barty joked, or possibly joked, Regulus wouldn't actually put it past him. 

“Aren’t you a virgin?” Dorcas challenged between bites of oatmeal. 

“Wha- No!” Barty argued, looking positively offended. Dorcas gave him a shrewd look, Barty furthered his denial. Regulus left breakfast quickly, hoping to get some air, or maybe hoping to avoid another Barty-Dorcas argument that often ended in a copious amount of food being thrown around. 

Regulus ended up sitting outside his first class, waiting for time to pass, letting his thoughts run rampant. 

Regulus chose to spend his evening heading back to the library. He had managed to avoid thinking about the implications of Nacissas letter, which still sat neatly in his bag, through the act of throwing himself into his classes. Tragically as of today classes were over so Regulus had nothing to do but sate his curiosity.

The library was as empty as ever. Arguably it was closed for the next little bit since Pince was at supper along with the rest of the student body, but the door wasn’t locked and Regulus figured that meant he could argue it wasn’t entirely closed if caught. 

The restricted section is empty which is not much of a shock. Regulus didn’t have to spend half an hour actually searching for the section he needed which he was thankful for. The lack of books attempting several increasingly dangerous attempts to attack him was also a relief. 

The shelves with the books from his last visit were near the back. Three instalments of a series on darker magic and a biography written by a wizard from the late seventeen-hundred who had been attempting to prolong his life, a feat which he was ultimately unsuccessful in. There was another book wedged between the biography and the series now, one that hadn’t been there before. He took it off the shelf, placing it neatly next to the others on the reformed pile on the floor. 

The series posed the same information as it did previously, light mentions and the second and third with a more in-depth description in the first book. The biography never stated much beyond that fact that the wizard never sunk to attempting to create one. All those did was confirm his suspicions about the things Lucius had been tasked with keeping. Some sort of connection to the object which is then stored in a safe place, typically only used by deeply demented wizards since it is dehumanizing in nature. 

The new book had no title and for the most part seemed just as scant in its information as the rest. There was only one section on horcruxes, two pages which stood out to Regulus immediately since it was marked with a little paper that read for your ‘O.W.Ls’ and was crudely signed with ‘Lupin’ at the bottom, Regulus crumpled the note quickly before reading on. 

This book had the most details. Not necessarily the most information since it never described the magic itself but it did highlight certain other conditions. For example the murder had to be inhumane, done for no reason. It also detailed that the magic was especially potent making it naturally draw out other sorts of dark concentrations and it was rather dangerous since the soul is extremely fragile making it only accessible to truly talented witches and wizards who had no such care of their own morality. It seemed quite fitting that someone like a man who literally goes by the Dark Lord would be so drawn to the magic. 

Obviously aside from the validation in his research and notes the sort of conformational information was definitely more disturbing than not. If the thing Lucius had been instructed with was a horcrux then that probably meant there were more then one which probably meant that even if the war somehow ended the Dark Lord really wouldn't be able to die which was kind of in poor taste considering he was a little of kilter in his beliefs to put it kindly. 

If Regulus could just get into the Malfoy house, which he could if it was under the pretense of proving his allegiance to the Dark Lord, which he didn’t quite want to do but if he wanted to he could and then he could probably confirm it which was something he should definitely do before suggesting it to anyone around, no need for anymore fear mongering, it was bad enough as it was without the looming threat of the Dark Lord, the main source of every problem going on in the wizarding world at the moment, being immortal. 

He could probably bring it to Dorcas, he knew she was particularly interested in joining whatever forces the ministry and Dumbledore were amassing, she was a brilliant wizard too and anyone was more likely to believe her since she was already a pretty outspoken radical within Slytherin. At least they'd believe her over him since he screamed pureblood in every which way. 

He didn’t check out the books, he hadn’t last time either, just wrote down the new information on a blank piece of parchment and put the books back. It was darker when he was leaving. Pince was back too which meant he had missed supper, she didn’t say anything as he left, probably hadn’t even noticed he was back there. He left swiftly. 

Call it what you want but Regulus would say it was fate that the first person he saw since leaving the library was the only other person he figured would have even a modicum of knowledge on the subject. He didn’t necessarily like that it was probably fate since he didn’t necessarily like the person, seeing as Lupin was a tad strange, and worse than that, one of his brother's friends. 

It only really crossed his mind to at least ask the man what he thought when he saw him walking quite aggressively down the hall. “Lupin!” he shouted, which did catch Lupin's attention, likely in an unseemly manner since he looked awfully peeved. 

“Regulus.” Lupin responded curtly without so much as breaking his stride. Unlike Potter and Pettigrew, Lupin had always addressed Regulus by his first name which was plenty his own fault since the first time the two crossed paths on their own, sometime in early first year for Regulus, he had flinched at the loud shout of his last name. Remus switched to calling him Regulus after that, even as Regulus and Sirius grew increasingly hostile to one another. 

“Stop, I ne-” Regulus started only to be cut off by Lupin, who in his defense did stop if only to have a shout at Regulus before continuing on. 

“Look Regulus I don’t really have the patience for your very demanding way of talking to people, whatever you need I’m sure one of the several hundred other students at this school would be more than happy to bow to your noble Black family bullshite.” Lupin complained with a flail of his hand and a positively annoyed look as he started back down the hall. The comment about his family meant that whatever Lupin was worked up over was likely Sirius’ fault. 

“I do not have a very demanding way of talking to people.” Regulus corrected swiftly, following Remus as moved. “And whatever problems dear Sirius is causing you has very little to do with me!”

Remus stopped again at the mention of Sirius. “Not everything I do revolves around your brother! And even if he did do something I hardly think it has any sort of relation to this conversation!.” 

“Could have fooled me, you're almost as far up his arse as Potter is.” Regulus muttered, Lupin glared at him. 

“I appreciate the time you’ve taken out of your day to stop me just to insult me but if that's all I’ll be on my way.” Lupin shot back before once again turning back around and heading down the hall. 

“That is not all, come back here!” Regulus demanded as he once again took to trailing behind Lupin. “I need to know what you found out about horcruxes” Regulus added, which caught Lupin's attention quite spectacularly seeing as he stopped dead in his tracks. 

“Why?” Lupin asked, turning to face Regulus, stepping back in his direction. His tone was no longer as angered as it was a second ago.

“For my O.W.Ls.” Regulus lied with ease. Lupin rolled his eyes. 

“I am not an idiot Regulus. I know there's nothing in any class that even delves ever so slightly into horcruxes.” Lupin replied. 

“Times change.”

“Because at the height of a wizarding war the school decided, well here's a brilliant idea, let's teach these children how to do dark magic! Nevermind half the students come from families who have knowingly aligned themselves with you-know-who.” Lupin mocked. 

“Exactly.” Regulus answered quickly. Lupin wore a sour expression. 

“Go back to your friends Regulus, I have no interest in talking to you about this if you're going to play dumb.” Lupin sighed and then once again turned to leave.

“You think he has them too don’t you.” Regulus whispered, looking not quite into Lupin's eyes. The effect was clear anyways, Lupin looked far more serious as he said it, he clearly understood the implication of Regulus’ words. 

“I wouldn't know.” Lupin answered, Regulus gave him a knowing look. “It’s not like I can know for sure.” Lupin amended. 

“I could, I mean I could figure for sure, I just need a little more of… something.” Regulus explained in an entirely too unconvincing voice. Lupin looked rather convinced anyways. 

“How?” Lupin questioned. 

“I haven't exactly gotten there yet, I just need to know if you know something I don’t so that when I do I can be sure.” Regulus clarified rather poorly. 

“I doubt I have much more than you, we’ve read the same books y’know.” 

“I assume you have notes, let me see them.” 

“No.” Lupin immediately answered. 

“Why not?”

“They’re personal! Anything they contain I can tell you.” 

“I don’t quite know what I’m looking for, I just want to check!”

“Just-” Lupin quickly stopped himself when the sounds of approaching foot prints could be heard. Lupin dragged him into one of the closer classrooms and shut the door behind him. 

“Quite unnecessary don’t you think.” Regulus proposed. 

“I don’t think Sirius would be all too happy if he heard I were talking to you.” Lupin argued.

“I thought you two were fighting.” 

“We are.”

“Then shouldn't you not care? I doubt he could ever truly be mad at you anyways" Regulus stated, he had noticed the way Sirius was with Lupin ever since his first year, it was sweet then how he was with Potter, it always irked Regulus just a little. 

“Of course I- wait what does that mean?” Lupin questioned. 

“Are you two not seeing each other?"

“No!” Lupin immediately denied before speaking up again a little less ferociously. “No, Sirius is not interested in anything like that, he’s got a bloody girlfriend!”

“But you’re interested in him?” Regulus wondered, mostly to himself, he had genuinely thought they were dating or at least liked each other in some way; it was odd to hear it wasn’t as such. 

“Wh-, Y’know what I’m starting to change my mind on the whole notes thing.”  Lupin said quickly changing the subject as he pulled out a little notebook that looked worn. 

“Thank you.” Regulus replied with a little smile taking the book from Regulus's hand, flipping through the pages. 

“So how exactly are you going to ‘confirm’ our little suspicion?” Lupin asked after a beat passed. 

“That’s not pertinent to you.” Regulus answered much to Lupin's distaste. "What's this mean?” Regulus pointed to a note about a line from one of the books ‘especially potent, making it naturally draw out other sorts of dark concentrations’. Lupin's note mentioned a couple page numbers that Regulus hadn’t looked at followed by a note about plausibility in the act. 

“Dark concentration is mentioned a couple times, it refers to something that I could feasibly use as a resource.” 

“What is it?” Regulus pushed. Lupin just stared at him.

“That’s not pertinent to you.” He responded smugly. 

“My cousin sent me a letter, they have something from the Dark Lord and I want to see if it’s a horcrux, but I wouldn't be able to tell.” Regulus hissed. “I’d also have to get in and out of my cousins without arousing suspicion so I can’t spend several hours searching the house needlessly.” 

“Dark concentration is used to refer to a lot of things throughout that book, the numbers are the pages where it’s mentioned, the note means that the thing it refers to I… have, so I should be able to sense it, I think.” Lupin explained. 

“If you have something that can sense them then I need it.” Regulus demanded, looking up from the notebook to stare at Lupin.

“It’s not a thing.”

“Spell then.” 

“It’s not a spell, it's… like a condition.” Lupin skirted around with his phrasing again, not very forthcoming. 

“Is it contractable?” Regulus questioned.

“You don’t want it.” 

“If it means I can find the possible horcrux my cousin is harboring then yes I do.” 

“You don’t.” Lupin snapped. 

“You can’t possibly know that, what is it?” Regulus pushed. 

“You don’t need to know that.” Lupin hissed. 

“Don’t be so cagey Lupin.” Regulus replied, putting the book down before crossing his arms. 

“Regulus it doesn’t concern you.” Lupin continued. “If you need to be able to locate them then just bring me with you.” 

“Sneaking you into my cousin's highly guarded house on my own is hard enough. I have no way of getting you in, let alone myself.” Regulus argued.

“James has something that could help us get in.”

“I am not talking to Potter about this, please tell me you haven't talked to Potter about this.” Regulus retorted, looking to the door, as if Potter was just going to prance in, thankfully he didn’t. 

“No I haven't, not enough evidence, plus James would ask far too many questions.” Lupin responded with a bit of a laugh. It posed a question though, made Regulus wonder, how did Lupin know about this? Why was he looking into all this?

“Lupin, how did you find out about all this?” he asked. 

“Regulus just because we have one single similar thought does not mean I owe you a bunch of personal explanations about my personal goings about.” Lupin hissed, he had grown awfully irritated in the past couple of minutes if his stupid tone was anything to go by. 

“Lupin, you know what I would have to do in order to get into my cousin's house that easily? This isn’t just some extra curricular I’m doing for fun, this is something important!” Regulus practically shouted. “I’d have to get the bloody dark mark Lupin, I don’t want to get it for nothing! I don't want to get it at all but I will if it means I can search that house!” 

“So then don’t get it! I can sneak in and I’ll check, I’d have a better chance of finding it then you!” Lupin suggested, placing his hands down on the table.

“You’d get caught, the Malfoys are vigilant, more so since the war and I don’t trust you enough to just let you do that.” Regulus dismissed, turning his noise up. 

“Then we both go, you’ll distract them, I’ll search." Was Lupin's next suggestion 

“Then I’d still have to get the mark.” Regulus argued.

“Can’t you just visit your cousin?”

“In the middle of school? With no reason too? No.” Regulus stated firmly, even if they got along fine, he and Narcissa were never that close. “And I’m not getting the mark on the off chance you have a way to find it so unless you tell me how there's no chance of that.” 

“I…” Lupin parted, running his hand through his hair with a sigh “I can find it if it’s there, I promise, I just can’t tell you, we're not exactly close.” It wasn’t a lie, they had only talked pretty much twice before this year, aside from that they only saw each other whenever he and Sirius had an altercation which gave them a pretty polarizing relation. Plus no doubt Sirius had banned any of his friends from going near Regulus since Regulus had done the same with him. 

“It’ll be an equal exchange won’t it, you’ll know I’m a fucking death eater and I’ll know whatever your hiding.” Regulus proposed. It made him feel weird, to call himself a death eater, he hadn't wanted to be, he half hoped Lupin would dismiss the idea just so he didn’t have to. 

“What if there's nothing there, we just move on, you live as a death eater, I live knowing you know.” Lupin wondered. It almost seemed like an unfair exchange, though Regulus hardly knew what Lupin was hiding.

“If there's nothing there then we don’t have anything to really worry about. And I mean you could get me arrested as a death eater if I say shite about whatever you've got going on.” Regulus countered, pointing a finger at Lupin

“Fine.”Lupin responded

“Fine?” Regulus repeated.  

“Fine.” Lupin nodded before counting one with a hefty sigh.  “I’ll, fuck, I’ll tell you, but then we go together. You'll get the mark, I find whatever it is your cousins got if anything and then we just go our merry ways.” 

“And you're sure you won't get caught? My cousin’s not exactly an idiot.” she wasn’t and Lupin wasn’t exactly the picture of stealth since he was quite tall and awfully distinct with his scars. 

“James’s got a really good invisibility cloak, I’ll borrow it, she won’t know.” Lupin explained tilting his head to the side a bit. Regulus gave him a quizzical look, he assumed that was probably how they had gotten so many pranks done, who would have guessed. 

“Okay.” Regulus affirmed, he held out his hand as if this was some kind of business deal.

“Okay.” Lupin replied, shaking his hand. Lupin was awfully sweaty, he wondered if it was because of the thick jumper he wore from the stress of the conversation.

Regulus waited for Lupin to explain, he didn’t, just sat there with a tight face. “Not much of an explanation still, what's the poor brooding Lupin got that’s so terrible he just has to hide it?”

Finally Lupin spoke, looking past Regulus, eyes fixed on the walls. “Dark concentration was used interchangeably with dark creatures, like vampires and banshees and, luckily for me since I am one, werewolves.” Lupin stared at Regulus, like he was expecting some kind of breakdown of sorts, regulus sat in contemplation for a couple moments before actually bursting out laughing.

“Oh merlin Lupin, your name is terrible then.” He said between laughs, Lupin lightly punched him in the shoulder, a far too friendly gesture for their jaded relationship. 

“Shut up! That is a terrible reaction!” Lupin cried with a look of shock. “I’m a monster, an actual known killing monster and you laugh?” 

“Were you born or bitten?” Regulus questioned.

“Bitten, I was five.” Lupin responded solemnly, looking down at his feet. 

“Oh, Sorry.” Regulus apologized, it was awfully young. 

“Don’t apologize, s’not like you bit me.” Lupin started, clearly he had heard it before. “I should, um, get going.”

“Me too I guess.” Regulus concurred, “I’ll have to send a letter to Narcissa before we finalize anything.”

“Okay.” 

“I’ll, find you I guess, when I figure out when.” Regulus decided as Lupin headed for the door. 

“Okay. Avoid near the moon.” Lupin warned, with a wave as he left the classroom leaving Regulus alone in the empty classroom. Things felt a little more real having actually said something out loud. 

Chapter Text

The day after the full moon was when Remus finally received notice from Regulus about their planned visit to the Malfoys. He had managed to get a note into Remus’ bag, which he had no clue how Regulus had done since they have no classes together and he actually hadn’t seen him all day. At first he hadn’t even realized what the note was for when he first read, just assumed it was scrap paper. Instead it was a note that said no more than the time and place (May seventh, behind the furthest Ravenclaw stand towards the end of the game.) with a neat little R.A.B in the bottom corner. 

That meant that Remus had two-ish days to steal James' invisibility cloak without him noticing. It shouldn't be too hard, it’s not as if he sleeps with the things. Not all the time anyways. James always kept it safely tucked into his trunk. At least they had no pranks coming up, James and Sirius were too invested in quidditch even though their match wasn’t two-three weeks from now they desperately wanted to win. 

The main issue was getting some alone time in the room, or maybe it was hiding it so James didn’t find it immediately. The guilt also sort of hindered his enthusiasm, stealing from James was bad enough, hanging out with Regulus was probably worse. At least it was temporary. Just for confirmation, nothing more.

Right now the issue was that Sirius had practically glued himself to Remus over the past week. They had fought, it was over a week ago but Sirius was clearly still not quite over it. It was a stupid one too, the fight, Remus had been quicker to anger with Sirius since the incident with Snape last year. 

They fought because Sirius was trying to set up Remus and Mary. Sirius had taken to dating Marlene sometime earlier in the year, because of this Remus just had to date someone too. Mary was the pick since she was friends with Marlene in fact she and Remus were also quite close. Sirius thought it was too perfect. Remus thought it was annoying since Remus was pretty clearly not interested. 

At first it wasn’t an issue, it only came to be an issue when Sirius started trying to bring Remus on double dates. It wasn’t fun, it was awkward. Mary didn’t seem to enjoy it either. It was worse since it meant seeing Sirius and Marlene act all couply. Of course Sirius, as oblivious as ever, started bitching to Remus about how unreceptive he was being. Remus, being equally as annoyed with the issue, argued back. It sprawled out of control. Sirius said something worse than whatever Remus had. Sirius had apologized the next day and was now set on making it up. 

The issue came then since Sirius was certain Remus hadn’t forgiven him since he had been absolutely glum as of late. Remus had been absolutely glum because he was lying to his friends, breaking into a pureblood house with Sirius’ brother to steal possibly part of Voldemort's soul from a house where Voldemort himself would be. Tragically this was not something Remus had much desire to share with Sirius or any of his friends for that matter which meant he was at an impasse of sorts. 

Remus snapped the next day over lunch. He still hadn’t come up with much of an idea for stealing the cloak and he still couldn't shake the unrelenting Sirius. Remus decided to spend lunch in the dorm, he had some assignments he desired to work on and he also figured he could get some much needed alone time and perhaps a possible opportunity for his theft. Of course that did not happen since Sirius decided to tag along. 

He was studying on the floor, laid flat on his stomach with his books and quills strung out in front of him. Sirius was not studying. Sirius was laying on James’ bed flicking his wand around, causing little subconscious bursts of magic as he often did when he was bored. 

Remus finally had enough when Sirius’s little paper birds, which he had created to keep entertained since Remus was being poor company, started flying closer to where Remus was. “Sirius.” Remus scolded. 

“What?” Sirius asked with an all too confused face, as if he hadn’t even realized what he was doing.

“Your birds.” Remus replied pointing up to the little row of birds flying closely above him.

“Oh.” Sirius flicked his wands, the paper quickly lit up before disappearing, leaving nothing but a couple pieces of ash to fall on Remus’ books. “Sorry, hadn’t realized it, ‘m just a bit bored I guess.” 

“If you're bored, why don’t you go hang out with James and Pete, I’m sure it's a little more entertaining than sitting here.” Remus suggested, looking up from the book he was reading. 

“See I can’t though.” Sirius sighed dramatically, leaning his head over the edge of James’ bed to stare at Remus. His face started to go red from being upside down. 

“I don’t see why not.” Remus responded, flipping the page of his book as if he was still reading it. 

“Because you’re still upset with me” Sirius stated, which was growing more correct by the second for entirely different reasons. 

“Sirius I am not.”

“You’ve barely said a word to me in the last couple days!” Sirius shouted, flipping himself over now facing Remus with his head upright. 

“I’ve barely said a word to anyone, Pads!” Remus shouted back, throwing a hand to dramatize his point. “‘Sides, even if I was mad, what good would bother me while I study? If anything, wouldn't I get madder?”

“So you are mad!” Sirius confirmed, pointing at Remus who let out an annoyed sigh at the comment. 

Remus took in a deep breath in an attempt to keep his voice as steady as he wanted it to sound. “I’m not, I’m just suggesting that this isn’t the best course of action to be taken if you want someone to not be mad at you.”

“Moons you're sending mixed signals because it sounds like you're saying you're mad.” Sirius implored, twirling a strand of hair around his wand as if they were having a rather bland chat. 

“Well maybe I am getting a bit mad because you're arguing with me and that does quite work me up.” Remus pointed out, shutting the book. Sirius looked as though he was about to say something but Remus cut him off, realising he might just be rather mad at Sirius after all. “And you haven't given me a lick of space since last monday and I do dearly miss my space Sirius!” 

“So you’ll be less mad if I just stopped talking to you.” Sirius replied, sounding awfully hurt, he had dropped his hand holding his wand, letting his hair fall back down to where it sat below his shoulders. 

“No! I’m not mad at all and you don’t need to stop talking to me, I'm just saying it’d be nice if you gave me some time to study, just for right now.” Remus rectified, it had little effort since Sirius still looked a bit upset.

“You’ve been studying forever though, I mean shouldn't you also leave, just to take a break?” Sirius offered, altering the subject. He was dead wrong anyways, Remus had done little studying at all, between staring at Sirius and researching whatever he could about sensing dark magic and what not he had gotten very little school work actually done. 

“I don’t need a break from studying, maybe I need a break from you.” Remus mumbled to himself without much of a thought to his words, Sirius recoiled as if they were a physical blow. It was not uncommon for them to fight nowadays. As of late Remus had found himself and Sirius to be like two puzzle pieces with a missing tab, they didn’t quite fit the same anymore, not like before that stupid prank. Remus now a little more unforgiving and Sirius all too easy to hurt. 

“Well fuck you too then Remus.” Sirius responded quickly, pushing himself up off the bed and getting up to leave. It was awfully dramatic for him to get so upset from one little comment but Remus’ supposes Sirius was always dramatic. 

“Pads I didn’t mean it like that!” Remus sighed apologetically.

“Sounded an awful lot like you did.” 

“For merlin's sake Sirius you know I didn’t.” Remus reiterated a little more aggressively, running one of his hands though his hair in a similar fashion to how his father had done when he was bothered. 

“So you don’t want me to leave.” Sirius questioned, he seemed to know the answer, already most of the ways to the door, wasn’t really a far walk since the room was not too big. 

“That’s not-” Remus started. 

“Yes or no question Moons.” Sirius added, cutting Remus off, which was deeply annoying.

Apparently when annoyed Remus was a lot more hurtful since instead of furthering his back tracking he decided to just make things worse. “You know what! Yes! Yes I do want you to leave! You're bloody smothering me and it’s more bothersome than not.” 

“Fine then!” Sirius snapped, heading out the door. It shut behind him with a slam. Remus gave a deep sigh before face planting on the cover of his book and letting out a muted scream. 

It’s not that he was even actually mad at Sirius. If anything he was just annoyed with him. Remus should be allowed to be annoyed with Sirius if you asked him though Sirius seemed to disagree. They hadn’t had much of a problem before because Remus used to be more than okay with just letting Sirius push over his boundaries like a bulldozer. It was different now. 

They had fought a lot over the latter half of fifth year but things really had gotten better, they were normal. Then Sirius started dating Malrene. It was selfish, how Remus started acting after that, there was no way around it. It hurt to see them together, so Remus picked fights and avoided him if he could. He hadn’t really started doing it on purpose, at first he really only thought he was doing it as a sort of penance for the whole prank last year. Remus realized this was not the case when the things with Mary started. He saw them so much after that. It was almost intentional then, the fighting, it worked to keep them apart at least. 

He never much liked thinking about Sirius like this. It was funny since he really only truly realized it after the whole thing with Snape. He had been avoiding Sirius but he wasn’t angry at him. He missed him more than he didn’t, even when he was rightfully mad he just felt so terrible. He thought it would be fine. It was fine until he started dating Marlene. Dating was one thing but Marlene was another. They were friends, he saw both of them all the time and it hurt all the time. It was tiresome to be around them.

Obviously he would never admit any of that. Apparently he might not really ever have to since Regulus had apparently figured it out immediately. That was mortifying. Regulus probably thought he was plenty pathetic after that. Not that it mattered, Regulus wasn’t much to Remus at all, he had really only agreed to work with him because of his own curiosity, and a slight desire to switch from the whole 'I'm in love with your brother’ topic. 

With Sirius gone Remus could actually focus on that part at least. His little part in his and Regulus' plan. Stealing the cloak. James kept it in his trunk so it would be easy to grab. The trunk was visible to Remus from his spot on the floor, slid under Jame’s bed, right below where Sirius had been sitting not moments ago. 

Obviously it did have a lock but it was just a little muggle one. Alohamora opened it swiftly, popping the lock open. Remus was quick in his endeavor, pulling the cloak out from the bottom of James’ other knick-knacks. 

He kept it folded before placing it in the side pocket of his school bag. The sidepocket, unlike the rest of his bag, was often used for the cloak and other such items for the Marauders  pranks since in early fifth year Remus had managed to get the pocket under an undetectable expansion charm, allowing it to fit twice as much junk then it usually could. 

Remus felt a certain amount of guilt when he left the dorm, both for what he had said to Sirius and for stealing the cloak. In the past couple weeks he had probably done just about enough stupin shite to have the Marauders  and all his friends even, come out and hate him. His bag felt heavier as he headed to his next class.

Regulus felt sorely unprepared for tomorrow. He had managed to slip a note to Lupin and he had managed to coerce Narcissa into some sort of inquisition with her husband so that he could in turn somehow convince the Dark Lord to let Regulus join the death eaters as an official member just under three years before he graduated with an absolutely flimsy excuse about ‘determination’. Regulus was honestly shocked it had worked. 

He had actually met the Dark Lord once before. He would occasionally use certain prestigious members of the pureblood communities' houses for his meetings. The Blacks home had been used only a few times since both his mother and father were both heavily supportive of his efforts, only lacking in the motivation to get the mark themselves. Regulus was mostly at school when it was, only once was he home, one time over summer. He remembers his mother had praised him for his interest. He remembered the cold look the Dark Lord had worn. Perhaps it was interest he wore instead of contempt with how easy he was with Regulus' proposition. 

Regulus read over the letter multiple times that evening. It was simple and sleek as everything that came from Narcissa was. He was to use a portkey that was to be mailed in tomorrow morning to get to the Malfoy's house after his quidditch match, no one would notice his absence since most people would be too enthralled in celebrating or wallowing in defeat. Narcissa mentioned for him to remain timely in his endeavour. She had warned him that impatience was not to go unnoticed. It felt like a threat. 

On top of the fear he felt about actually getting the dark mark, he also had a quidditch game before it and as the only seeker he had an awfully important role. Dorcas and Barty were both on the team as well. Dorcas was currently their captain. She had taken over after Aldan Dextere, the old captain, had been hit with a bludger so bad he hadn’t been able to see straight for a month. He quit after that. Barty was one of the two beaters, a role that suited him a lot more than it would seem. He looked scrawny to put it plainly but he was awfully violent which seemed to more than make up for it. 

Dorcas had been the first of the three of them to try out, getting put on the team only in her second year. Regulus joined in his third, Barty joined in his fourth. Slytherin was good because of it. At least the three of them pulled their weight more than Avery and Mulciber, who were far too violent which often led to at least one foul a game. 

Tomorrow they were up against Hufflepuff. It was their final game of the season and the team had been practising non-stop because of it. Regulus had gone to bed without being able to feel his arms more times then not because of all the practice Dorcas had been running them through. Regulus was almost thankful the season was nearing its end though he sort of dreaded finishing tomorrow’s match since he definitely wouldn't be going anywhere pleasant that evening. 

Dorcas seemed stressed as well though she likely hadn’t been worrying about the dark mark all too much, she was probably worked up about the quidditch match. She had been captain nearly the whole season and she had mentioned to him she really wanted to keep that position next year despite Avery and Mulciber’s calls to have her removed. 

She and him ended up spending the evening together, just the two of them. Dorcas had been the one to suggest it, grabbing him from where he was originally perched in the common room. He didn’t argue and now here they were, sat on the edge of the Great Lake. Dorcas had been skipping stones, caught up in her own thoughts seemingly as Regulus was in his as he read Narcissa's letter. 

She only spoke up once it started to get a bit colder, tightening her cloak and finally looking away from the horizon. “Regulus.” she started, pausing tentatively waiting for him to look up from the letter. “Do you think we’ll stay friends after next year?”

“I don’t see much of a reason why we wouldn't." Regulus responded as he folded up the paper in his hand, placing it back into it’s spot in his bag. “It’s not worth worrying about too much anyways Cas, you’ve still got another year stuck with us.”

“Stuck with you makes it sound like I wouldn't want to, which is really only true in Barty's case.” Dorcas replied with a soft laugh. “I just mean with… everything, I don’t think we’ll end up on the same side of all of this and I don’t really want to lose any of you.” Dorcas added hesitantly. She never much talked about this kind of stuff, Regulus both felt honoured he chose her and a bit scared about the reality of it all. 

Regulus didn’t answer right away. “I think,” he finally started, pausing again to finish his thought. “I think you’ll only lose us if you stop reaching out, I don’t think there’s any world where the four of us stop coming to you unless you stop coming to us.” he continued, pushing himself a little closer to Dorcas,doing his best not minding the dirt accumulation on his pants. 

“I worry I might have to if things go how they seem to be going.” She whispered. It took him a second to realize she was crying a bit. He had never seen Dorcas cry. 

“Then you’ll have no one to blame but yourself, Dorcas.” he answered cruelly. He put an arm around her in an ill attempt to comfort her, as if it could make his words any softer. 

“I know.” She mumbled. “I know and I know you probably don’t have a choice but Evan and Barty talk as if it’s a choice and Pandora won’t talk about it at all and it’s all so trivial, like a big joke to them and-” Dorcas rambled. “-and I worry that they’re going to all go mad, and I worry that one day I’ll see them die and I won’t even be able to mourn because of their choices.” 

“Dorcas.” he tried, she didn’t respond, only pressing her head firmly into his shoulder. 

“I worry about you too.” She whispered into his sleeve. “I know you don’t have a choice and I know you won’t leave and I know where you’ll end up because of it.”

“You don’t know anything about my circumstances, Dorcas. There's two years for things to change.’ Regulus lied, more to himself than Dorcas, the words seem to comfort her anyways. “I think it’s best if we just pretended nothing was wrong until then.” 

Dorcas didn’t say anything, she just wrapped Regulus in a hug, tightening her grip till he was nearly strangled, Like a snake coiling around a mouse. “I wish this wasn’t happening right now.” She whispered mostly to herself. 

“Pretend it isn’t.” he replied, a strategy that he had been employing ever since the war efforts started to grow. A strategy that would probably be ineffective after tomorrow. Dorcas had her eyes closed, Regulus had his eyes open, eyes trained on the small bit of skin above his wrist where his sleeve had rolled up. It was fair as of now, tomorrow it would be replaced reddened and stained with ink.

They went back inside a little after that. Neither of them spoke all the time back to the dungeons. Dorcas only spoke up once she was half up the stairs to the girls dormitory, wishing him a quick goodnight and offering a small thank you. Regulus felt nearly sick, the letter in his bag felt heavy.

Chapter Text

Regulus caught the snitch within the second hour of the game. The Hufflepuff seeker had almost no chance against him, he was only a second year and a muggleborn at that. Even if Regulus didn’t think him adequate for it, it didn’t make him any worse than the other seekers despite what a good lot of his teammates were saying but he also knew it meant the poor boy hadn’t had much experience riding a broom. 

The rest of the team did admirably, this is true for both teams actually. Hufflepuff was up for the first half of the game but by the end, even before Regulus had found the snitch they had started to trail behind Slytherin. 

Typically, Regulus would associate his victory with celebration, being thrown into a little group hug with Barty and Dorcas, waiting for Evan and Pandora to come out from the stands. It wasn’t the case right now. All he felt was nauseous and all his thoughts were attempts at building up an excuse for why he would be missing the usual post-win celebration. “I can’t feel my hand.” He whispered to Barty who was all caught up in a deep kiss with Evan. Regulus had forgotten they were dating, not much had changed since they started. 

“What?” Evan yelled back, answering in Barty's stead when the pair finally parted. 

“I can’t feel my hand, I’m going to visit the hospital wing.” Regulus explained, raising his voice to be heard of the Slytherin's cheers.

“You can’t what?” Barty yelled back, sharing a glance with Evan.

“Feel my hand!” Regulus waved his hand to embellish his words. It did not work. 

“What are you yelling about?” Dorcas shouted, coming up behind  him, she had Pandora by her side, along with one of her roommates, Penelope-something. Regulus never bothered to learn their names, he honestly hadn’t realized Dorcas ever spent time with them. 

“My hand is numb, I’m going to the infirmary to get some cream or something, I’ll meet you at the common room.” He replied, enunciating each word. She gave a nod.

“Do you want me to come with? Or better yet I’ve got this potion that'll probably work– if you don’t mind being slightly blue in the hand for a couple days.” Pandora offered, Regulus shook his head.

“You need to tell Barty and Evan where I’m going, they’re too caught up in each other to hear me.” He replied loudly. “Also I don’t want a blue hand.” he added as he headed away from the group. 

Regulus then quickly made his way over to the back of the pitch where it was pretty empty aside from Lupin who was leaned against the wooden beams of the Ravenclaw stand, cloak strung over one of his arms. “Regulus.” he greeted. “I expected you to be quicker.” 

“I expected you to be slower getting away from Potter, Pettigrew and my brother, you four hang off eachother like fucking Grindylow.” Regulus retorted, hooking a hand around Remus’ wrist and dragging him towards one of the more secluded entrances to the school.

They didn’t speak at all as Regulus dragged Lupin into the castle, taking them into one of the first floor lavatories that had been out of order since first year when a group of students, who Regulus suspected were in fact Lupin and company, had blown it up using some sort of experimental charm seemed inconsequential enough since the thing had been quickly repaired with magic only to have it found that the plumbing no longer worked at all. 

Regulus pulled out a bag from one of the stalls, leaving it next to Lupin on the floor. “Theres a portkey in there, we’ll likely be put out a little in front of the house, I suggest you put that cloak on before then.” Regulus instructed pulling black dress clothes from the bag and moving to change from his quidditch attire. Lupin didn't respond, not vocally anyways, Regulus couldn't see him so he had no way to know if he nodded. 

“In all my years of school this is probably one of the weirdest reasons I’ve ended up hiding out in a lavatory you know.” Lupin muttered, his words were accompanied by an odd fluttering of paper. When Regulus came out, dressed in something a little more appropriate to see the Dark Lord in, he noticed that Lupin was looking over a map. 

“You're in your sixth year and you still need a map?” Regulus questioned harshly. Lupin let out a chuckle. 

“Yes.” Lupin answered with a twinge of mockery in his tone. Regulus rolled his eyes as Lupin folded up the map. “You never said how we’re getting back.” Lupin added, looking at Regulus.

“I was never told.” Regulus responded. “Put your cloak on, we’ll be leaving in a second.” Regulus demanded, Lupin did, making all put his head and a bit of his torso uncovered. Regulus had to admit it was a pretty splendid piece of magic, better than any cloak he’d seen used before for similar activities. 

“Regulus If I end up stranded at the Malfoy house because you have arranged a personal way back I will kill you.” Lupin threatened, almost like a joke but not quite. 

“You won’t, cover your head.” Regulus instructed, Lupin obliged, now only visible was one of his hands which was sitting in Regulus’ own and he grasped the little teacup that had been sent by Narcissa this morning. 

Regulus hated traveling by portkey. It was more nauseating and a little scary. He had only done it once or twice, he had expected Lupin to have done it less. They were able to both land with a little grace at least, not that anyone would be able to see since Lupin was completely invisible and Regulus was too far out from the Malfoys to be seen. 

Malfoy manor was as extravagant as he had expected it to be. Regulus led the forwards, only aware that Lupin was even there by the light pressure of his invisible hand on his shoulder. Narcissa met them, him, halfway down the lined entrance. “Cousin, it’s nice to see you are prompt.” She greeted with a thin smile. “I hope you don’t mind, we have owled your parents at the news.” 

“Good to see you as well. I’m sure my parents will be pleased, I do not mind.” He responded with her same expression. 

She led him into the foyer which was filled with the extravagance you would expect from such a prosperous family. Lucius was already in the room, standing next to a chair. Bellatrix was on the other side. He hadn’t known she would be here.

“Dearest Regulus!” She sang too sweetly as they entered. Her dresses short sleeves showed the mark upon her own arm, soon Regulus would be bearing one to match. He hadn’t really thought this through all too much. His nerves were acting up. The nausea from the portkey was replaced with a worse bought from this. 

“Bellatrix, Malfoy, it is nice to see you both.” he greeted, Lucius remained as still as ever, only a slight smile changed and only for but a second. Bellatrix beamed, moving towards him and cupping his cheeks, he felt Lupin move his hand from his shoulder to right below it on his back. It was comforting even if they weren't friends. 

“Don’t be so stiff cousin, you’ve finally done something truly exceptionary, coming here, be a little more excited.” she sounded so proud, even pressing a firm kiss onto his forehead before circling back towards Lucius. They waited there for a little while, none of them moving much at all except for Narcissa who was getting a house elf to bring tea that no one would drink. Lupin's hand remained firm on his back. 

A dark trail of smoke announced the Dark Lord's arrival. He sat calmly in the chair that Lucius was behind, sitting comfortably as if he had always been there. He looked pale from his near-white arms and the little fragment of his bony face that Regulus could see from under his hood. No one greeted him, no one spoke at all. The only movement in the room was the thin hand waving Regulus forwards. 

Regulus felt Lupin squeeze his shoulder before his hand disappeared. A last comfort before Regulus doomed himself to the cruelty he associated with the death eaters. He would never be free from this after unless he cut his own arm off. It wasn’t the first time the thought crossed his mind. 

Regulus moved forward slowly, stopping once he was directly in front of the Dark Lord. “Regulus Black.” he started, Regulus could see his wand held loosely in his thin fingers, his grip looked almost dainty. “You come from a good family and show good promise being so intrigued by our purpose.” purpose as if it was all he was living for, prejudice and murder. Regulus wanted to cry, instead he gave a sharp nod. “Tell me, why seek out this blessing so young, even your peers, as unwavering as they are in our truth, have yet to seek this out.” 

“Because where they falter in uncertainty, I know there is no other path for me. Even if I am too young to be of much use I am determined to support what is right ” Regulus answered, a well practised half-truth that he struggled to believe at all in the face of the loss of his last shred of self. The Dark lord hummed a response, it sounded hollow, chilling. Bellatrix wore a smile the size of her face. 

“Give me your arm child.” Regulus obliged, holding his left arm forwards. The Dark Lord gripped it tightly, holding the wrist with his cold spindly fingers. He was quick with his movement, flipping Regulus' arms over and with a simple wave of his wand revealing the pale skin of Regulus’ forearm. “You are correct, you will be of little use to me as it is now, I only wish you to keep an eye on the headmaster, keep a steady grasp on his plans, what students he favours.” The Dark Lord instructed as he pointed his wand over Regulus’ arm. He felt it grow warm. 

It was much more painful than Regulus had expected. Even just at the start, it felt as though it was being etched into his skin, burned, and then etched again, his arm grew red with the pain. It was painstakingly slow too, each line, each little fraction took an increasingly large period of time. 

Regulus was sure there was a better way, he remembers Sirius got a tattoo back in second year, it was a magic one that he had gotten to piss off their parents while he still lived there, a little moon that displayed the phases. Thinking back on it, Regulus figured it was probably for Lupin, how sweet. He had said it hadn’t hurt even a little bit with all the magic. This was meant to hurt, it signified what Regulus was, how little power he had. It was humiliating, tears welled in his eyes though they never quite fell. 

It felt like a sacrifice. It felt like he was lesser than whole because he was. This didn’t make him some sort of warrior for his blood, his rights and what not it made him a shallow vessel for someone elses agenda. Amalgamated him into a mass of others tearing his choice into nothing. It was less of a mark and more of a brand, a seal something that kept him contained. 

“You can scream, you are young, you can scream if the pain is too much, it is nothing in comparison to what you will feel as an agent of my army.” the Dark Lord whispered, Regulus could see a cruel smile on the end of the man's face. He wished he could see the look in his eyes though the hood of the cloak. Regulus wished he hadn’t screamed, he did anyway, it felt involuntary. 

Remus was aware that whatever Regulus was doing was painful when he heard the shrieking start coming from the floor below. It made Remus grimace though it didn’t quite get him to stop his search. 

He had made it through the first floor pretty easily, there weren't many things on that floor and most of them were kitchens and dining rooms (who needs more than one dining room, there were like three!). The second floor was mostly empty aside from some drawing rooms and possibly Malfoy's office judging by the minority files sitting at the table. The only issues on the second floor came from the paintings who each were confused at the odd sensation of someone being there. The third floor had many bedrooms, much more than any two person family needed. 

Remus was thankful to have James cloak on when he checked in the last room on the floor. Since the bedrooms seemed to hold Malfoy's father, a sickly looking old man who hadn’t even noticed when his door opened despite the outward appearance of no one being there, maybe he hadn’t quite needed the cloak, the man seemed positively ill, as if he wouldn't last through the week. 

Remus did check the man's room rather quickly since old Malfoy was clearly ill. He did offer the man a sip from the water cup next to his bed when he saw him fail several times attempting to grab it himself. He hadn’t even blinked watching the cup float over for him to take a sip. Remus left swiftly after that.

The fourth floor was just storage by the looks of it. Remus spent most of that floor just trying to avoid the weird amount of trap furniture and gimmicks that was found on it. One of the couches had growled at him which was strange. A necklace personally asked him how he was and enticed him to put it on with words such as  ‘I promise I won’t strangle you’ which were very unconvincing. He got his hand stuck in a doorknob that transformed into another hand, holding him tightly in place, not only causing him to let out a yelp but also drop the cloak. 

After freeing himself from the hand he decided against pulling the cloak back on, figuring no one would be on such a high floor when. He also took to trying to pry open the door, which was hard since the handle firmly wouldn't let him. 

He was set on getting past it anyways. The door itself was ordinarily in fact everything up until now could be described as some sort of ordinary. The only thing out of ordinary was a particularly odd sort of feeling coming from behind the door. Something that Remus hadn’t felt anywhere else. It was a repulsive smell and a sickening feeling and yet despite that Remus couldn't find it entirely appalling. He was nigh certain it was the horcrux, or at least some kind of dark magic. 

Alohamora didn’t work on the door. Neither did any other lock picking spell Remus had learned. He couldn't blast it off and he certainly couldn't pick it since the handle seemed impervious to any sort of immobilization. 

In a last ditch effort, before attempting his next idea of crawling out the nearest window and attempting to scale his way up, he cast a silencing charm and then over the door. He gave it a couple knocks to test if it worked, each of which let out no sound at all. Then he threw his weight against the door, trying once, and then again. The second time the door did fall though, leading Remus to a spiralled staircase leading upwards. Remus gave the handle a rather petulant smile before continuing on up. 

The next challenge came with an easy solution. A rug on the upper edge of the stairs that had a similar mechanism to the girls dormitory stairs at Hogwarts. The easy solution was that since this was a rug, all Remus had to do was roll it up and toss it down the stairs to sit with the frustrated door handle. 

When Remus finally made it up the stairs (and he really meant finally, there were quite a few.) he found himself in a sort of miniature library. It was clear this was one of the turrets that he had seen from outside since the room was cylindrical. One wall contained a ceiling high shelf that made the room appear awfully shallow. Between that and the little writing desk on the other side sat one small window that looked out over the large grounds of the manor. 

The audacious scent had grown stronger when he altered the room. He could still feel a bit of a pinch in his head and the nausea had doubled. Somewhere on the bookshelf he suspected which gave him little direction since the bookshelf was twice as tall and about four times as wide as him. It was stronger a little more towards the middle, a little lower down too but nothing quite drew it out. 

After thoroughly investigating the shelf Remus came to the conclusion that the book shelf was probably some kind of door which he didn’t quite know how to open. He knew that a lot of the secret passages at Hogwarts required certain spells or levers to get through, he tried most of the spells and attempted to yank a couple books off the shelf in hopes of one of them being some sort of key, all of which had no results. 

The books themselves also contained no helpful hints since they were mostly wizarding books that Remus hadn’t read or in a language Remus didn’t understand. He tried every revealing spell in the book and even attempted a similar effort to the one for the door which also didn’t work. 

After at least a good couple minutes of attempting anything he resigned to sitting himself at the desk. It was like the ones at Hogwarts, though the inside was found to be empty and the paper and quills on top were seemingly unused. Nothing out of the ordinary. 

When Remus did eventually find the key it was more of an accident done out of frustration. He had scribbled something along the lines of fuck this door on the paper only for it to disappear into the page. He tested out a couple other words (mostly greetings and insults, he was awfully peeved but wanted to remain somewhat polite) until he finally came up with an idea of sorts. Please move the bookshelf, was all it took for the shelf to start rearranging itself, sliding one of the sections behind another to reveal a stand in a patch of grass. 

The sort of smell of what he could only assume to be dark magic grew tenfold when it was revealed. Remus walked over far too carelessly since immediately upon stepping on the grass with just one foot it started to claw at his leg. It left a nasty array of slices along his already scarred leg that burned as if they were poisoned, which he desperately hoped they weren't though he wasn’t all too caught up on worrying about that right now, distracted by what he could only assume to be part of Voldemort's soul. 

The plants were easily removed by Aguamenti’s lesser known sister, Aguaparis which had a sort of opposite effect, sucking the water out of the killer grass, effectively killing it. Remus stepped a little more cautiously into the circle of now grey grass and stared at the podium in the center which held a little black book, some kind of journal that reeked of whatever damaging feelings it emitted. 

Remus carefully removed it, placing it into his bag as if it were to fall apart in his hands. The touch of the book gave his hands pins and needles. He was surprised that nothing else jumped out at him as he removed it though he wondered if maybe the protection on the book was Voldemort himself. He wondered if he could feel it, feel the part of his soul being moved, touched, he desperately hoped he couldn't or else Remus was certain he wouldn’t make it out of here today. 

After taking the book he attempted to close the library back up with an order for it to shut which worked rather nicely. He replaced the rug on the stairs, placing it back to how it was as best he could. He used a spell to repair the door and then headed his way back towards the stairs, putting the invisibility cloak back on only once he reached the bottom of the stairs. 

Regulus was no longer screaming when he made it back to the lower floors. Remus wasn't aware when exactly he had stopped but he seemed to have. He was still in the same spot when Remus reentered the foyer, kneeling now in front of Voldemort. Remus couldn't see his face but he assumed it was not exactly kept at the moment. 

He crept very slowly back over to Regulus, placing his hand back on to his back, signifying he was there. He doesn’t know if it was a subconscious act but Remus felt Regulus press his back closer into Remus’ palm. 

Voldemort was at the tail end of some speech to Regulus about power and responsibility, which Remus paid no mind to, Regulus didn’t seem all too invested either, slumped over on the floor, probably more focused on whatever pain had led him to cry out earlier. Remus subconsciously found himself rubbing Regulus’ back a bit, a little gesture that his mom used to do to him when he was really young after the moon. 

Once Voldemort finished his speech Regulus and Remus by proxy were led out of the room by Bellatrix Lestrange, formally Black, she had been married for quite a while now. Remus hadn’t known she was going to be there, he wasn’t all too glad she was only having heard bad things about her from Sirius. She didn’t lead them back outdoors, instead taking them to a farther back room that looked to be one of the service corridors from the kitchen.

 “A house elf will be fetched to take you back after we finish saying goodbye to the Dark Lord, obviously you have no need to present for that, best you just get back to school, write to mummy and daddy, heal up that arm of yours, it hurts less the next day.” Lestrange explained in her tooth rotting tone. She was looking past them, still distracted by Voldemort's presence in the other room. Regulus nodded silently, which Lestrange took as her cue to leave. “You're one of us now Reggie, be proud of it.” She added with all the confidence in the world. 

Remus waited until her footsteps simmered to nothing to whisper to Regulus. “Are you alright?” he whispered as he moved his arm from Regulus back to a more encompassing grasp around his shoulders. Regulus didn’t respond. Remus sighed. 

“Look, we can’t exactly take the house elf out since you’ve, uh, got a carry-on lets say, “ Remus warned, taking Regulus with him deeper into the house, towards one the backdoors that the large house was bound to have. “This is not a good time to go catatonic y’know.” he added, dragging Regulus' complacent body along with him. 

Just Remus luck that before even making it outside they were interrupted. It was only a house elf but seeing as Regulus was not answering. “Master Black.” the house elf greeted. “Master Black, I’m here to take you back to school.” She continued after receiving no answer from Regulus. 

Remus did what he used to do to James when he got called on while sleeping in class, a light charm Sirius had taught him in second year that acted as if someone had stuck a cold ice-pop on your back. He was thankful it worked since the next option was a full on slap. 

“Merlin!” Regulus exclaimed, waking from whatever headspace he was caught up in. He looked awfully freaked out, rapidly assessing his surroundings. Remus squeezed his shoulder, it seemed to calm him slightly.  “What was that for?” he hissed, more to Remus than the house elf, though she seemed to think it was towards her. 

“I’ve just called your name master. Please, allow me to return you to school.” The elf explained, holding out a hand. Regulus stared at her. 

“I’m-” Regulus’ voice was shaky, he paused as if to try to calm himself, “I’m alright, I should be able to get back on my own.” Regulus replied, voice only the slightest bit steadier. He took a hazed step backwards, Remus kept a grip on him, feeling Regulus’ own legs give out ever so slightly. 

“Master Black I was instructed to send you back to school. Please, you must cooperate.” 

“I am, you are still sending me back, you are just sending me on my way rather than directly.” Regulus replied shakily. “I just need some time to think.” He added quickly, taking another few steps back. 

“That is not my order, please come with me.” The elf repeated a little more hesitantly. 

“Oh no that’s quite alright, consider your order completed.” Regulus pushed, backing up further until he and Remus were close right up the door on the wall behind them. The house elf matched the steps, drawing closer to the pair, hand outstretched. 

Remus took what he would consider a rather risky chance, opening the door behind them swiftly, hoping it was some sort of exit. The heavy door made a loud creaking noise as it swung on its hinges, turning inwards to reveal a grand set of stairs that apparently Regulus had not accounted for. Taking another step back pushed Remus over the top step, sending both him and Regulus tumbling down the stairs and into whatever horrors a family as precariously dark as the Malfoys would have in store for them. 

Chapter Text

The first thing Remus noticed when he got his wits about him from where he lay at the bottom of the stairs, was that there was no light at the top of the stairs. The door had been awfully, heavy Remus could only assume it had shut on him. He felt James cloak slip off of him a little down the fall. There is no point in putting it back on down here, choosing to shove it into his bag. 

The second thing he noticed was the sharp pain welling up in his ankle which, given the situation he elected to ignore just for a bit. The door at the top of the stairs remained closed which meant the house elf had either given up or decided that the basement wasn’t worth the travel which was not a pleasant thing to think about. 

Remus pushed his torso up off the ground with a grunt. “Lupin?” he heard Regulus question from close beside him. 

“Yep.” Remus responded with a strain to his voice. “Are you alright Regulus?” he added, considering the state of his own mangled ankle and the other probable bruises from the fall. 

“Heads bleeding quite nastily though it’s not nearly as bad as-” Regulus paused, his voice drifting off. “My arm’s quite pained.” he finished, his voice of emotion. 

“I think my ankle’s fractured.” Remus supplied.

“Can you stand on it? I doubt the house elf’s still at the door so we can probably head back that way.” Regulus sounded higher, he had likely stood up though it was hard to tell since the room was awfully dark. 

“Sure, ya, just give me a moment.” Remus replied, pulling himself up using the nearby wall. He could hear Regulus shuffling up the stairs. Remus made a half hearted attempt to follow though it was difficult since putting nearly any weight on it led to a searing pain. 

His attention was drawn away from the pain by a loud rattle followed by a shout by Regulus. “The door’s stuck.” he stated. 

“Try harder” Remus instructed as he stared downwards at where he would probably have seen his foot if it hadn’t been so dark. He continued placing it up and down a couple times, each step leading to another wince of pain. 

“Not helpful, Lupin. It won’t open.” Regulus shot back with another fit of rattling from his attempt.  “This is stupid.” He mumbled “Aloham-”

“Don’t do that.” Remus cut him off “You're underage, still got the trace on you.” 

“You do it then, I don’t like how dark it is down here.” He sounded similar to Sirius as he spoke, Sirius never liked the dark. 

“Alohamora.” Remus cast, pointing his wand in the direction of Regulus’ voice. The door was briefly illuminated only to remain shut when Regulus tried to open the door again. With another flick Remus illuminated the tip of his wand, he was getting awfully good at casting without using an incantation. He made eye contact with Regulus from the bottom of the stairs. “I don’t think I can apparate.” Remus realized, vocalizing his thoughts mostly by accident after a failed attempt. 

“Does this mean we're stuck down here.” Regulus asked rhetorically. 

“I think this means we only have one way to go.” Remus answered, gesturing to the other doorway which led into another dark hall. “Do you know the incantation for healing bones.” he added, looking down towards his ankle. 

“Brachio Emendum heals them but it’s far too difficult to use without practice, you could try Ferula for bandages though.” Regulus offered. 

“I suppose you can do the first one?”

“Quite well, yes.” Regulus said with a smirk as he descended the stairs. 

“And we’re sure you're sixteen not seventeen?” 

“Fifteen.” Regulus corrected. 

“Ferula.” Remus cast, rather scathingly. All it succeeded in doing was bringing a wooden splint and a couple bandages near his feet. “Fifteen, quite young.” Remus quipped, handing Regulus his wand as he bent down and began bandaging his foot. Medical magic was never his forte but he was very good with bandages. It was a shame to have to remove his shoe though, frigid down this low. 

“Same age Sirius was when he ran, I reckon that’s just as dangerous as this.” Regulus responded coldly. “Hurry it up with that, I’d rather not spend my evening down here, I’ve had a poor enough day.”

“You won your quidditch game, wasn’t that quite fun?”

“Not when I had my arm– not to mention my individuality– violated afterwards.” That shut Remus up. He ended up leading him and Regulus further down the trail, not bothering to look back at Regulus whose angered expression was just as scary as Sirius’ maybe more so with the blood pouring down it. 

The hallways ended up being rather long, rather daunting as well. Remus used a few more spells to light the candles lining the path which might have been the wrong move since it also illuminated several previously unseen skeletal remains that lined the hall. 

The next time either of the pair spoke to each other was in the face of the next passage, blocked by a spindly gate and what looked to be a snake-like bird chewing on what looked to be a sanded down bone, likely from one of the even more plentiful skeletons within the gated area. “Lupin, what is that?” Regulus whispered, leaning into Remus as to remain as quiet as possible.

“I, um.” Remus started, staring at the thing as it circled around the room. “I think it’s snallygaster, though they're native to America.” Remus answered. “Why does your cousin have a snallygaster in her basement?” 

“I couldn't tell you– is there a way around it?” 

“They’re not very dangerous to wizards, they don’t like it when their prey knows what they are. Curious though, curious enough to go for a bite just to see what you are. I doubt there’s a way around.” 

“Brilliant.” Regulus replied sarcastically. Remus gave him an annoyed stare. Letting out a sigh, he began rooting though his bag, pulling out the invisibility cloak from earlier. 

“I’m sorry if this is uncomfortable for you, I won’t quite enjoy it either.” He said, throwing one hand around Regulus and using the other to string the cloak around them both, it was a tight fit for the two of them. “Aberto.” he added, causing the door to swing open slowly. “Don’t mind if I use you as a crutch, it’s best if we go faster.” Remus whispered, shifting some of his weight to Regulus who he felt give a nod. 

The terrarium that the snallygaster resided in seemed almost like the outdoors. There was a simple tree erected in the middle. The dark room looked as though it was a park, gated on either side. The snallygaster paid no mind to them, continuing its circling. Remus almost felt bad for it. He didn’t let that stop him from shutting the gate behind them, keeping it trapped in the Malfoys basement. 

They took the cloak off after passing through the gate, Regulus was the one that did it, handing it back to Remus who left it sitting over his arm. Remus still hung partially off Regulus, it was quicker that way, Regulus didn’t shake him off. 

The next obstacle came in the form of a large chasm blocking the way lined with a gross looking sludge. “Do all pureblood families have underground obstacle courses?” Remus asked, looking down at the bottomless pit pushing his good foot forwards to prod at the sludge. It felt like tar. 

“Not to my knowledge, no.” Regulus answered. “I think we should have just chanced the house elf. Even if you got caught I’d probably get off fine.” 

“I don’t think insinuating I should have died is polite, especially not since I can just shove you down this hole, Regulus.” Remus retorted. It wasn’t much of a threat since Regulus was supporting half Remus’ weight. He let out a breathy laugh which annoyed Remus greatly.

Remus fixed his eyes on one of the pillars on the other side, a little past the edge of the tar, closer to the next chamber. It was an easy enough solution. Remus figured that this was not a place one typically went with their wand. “Carpe retractum.” a white string appeared from the tip of Remus wand, replacing Lumos’ bright light with a much dimmer one. Seeing as the statue was transfixed to the other side the string began tugging Remus and Regulus who Remus made sure to hold a firm grip on, to the other side. 

It was a bit terrifying to be dragged over the pit by nothing but his wand but the pair made it over anyway. Feet trailing through the tar until they were pulled right over, crashing into the stone pillar before sprawling backwards on the floor once the spell let up. 

Once again laying on stone, Remus began pushing himself up, Regulus offered a hand which Remus took gratefully. The other side of the pit held three doors, all unlabeled. Remus and Regulus humbled over in tandem. Each of the doors bore the same little circle window, each with a different path laid out behind him. 

“Go for the one with the plants.” Regulus instructed after peering through the windows. Remus cocked an eyebrow at him. “Narcissa likes to garden, if any path is right it’d be the green one. Even if she only just moved in, Malfoy always tried to appease her.” He added. Remus pushed the door with the shrubbery behind it. It looked like a maze, a fitting sight since this basement was clearly one. 

The first thing that occurred to Remus was that the plants were trying to kill them when he started to feel Regulus slip away from him, letting out a yelp as vines wrapped his legs. The easy fix was to just drag Regulus which worked fine until the florals started appearing. Remus had always been hypersensitive to plants, heightened senses were more a curse than a blessing, but these plants seemed clearly intended to irritate beyond usual means. 

It took several turns to get past the shrubbery and its plethora of excess vegetation before the arrived into a thinner slightly less green path. There were no turns the rest of the way, Remus could only assume it was the way out. 

Devilsnare lined the edges of the path, laying limp left undisturbed. The pollen of the flowers seemed to be dead set on asphyxiating them, at least Remus just ended up sneezing, Regulus spent half the tunnel coughing. Smaller vines snapped and scathed past their skin, leaving the two lined with cuts that Remus could deal with with a quick episky. 

The end was blocked by a large fanged germanium, something that they had seen in herbology which had been noted that it should be avoided and nothing more aside from that. Notability it was much bigger then the ones they had been taught about, its large size enveloping the whole door, its grand display of teeth dissuading anyone who made it this far from progression. Its long leaves and vines swung out rapidly causing Remus and Regulius to jump back a couple steps, much to the chagrin of Remus and his banged up ankle. 

Remus recognized its aggression, it was similar to the whomping willow by its rapid movements. Immobilizing it was easy enough, its petals falling limp over the rows of teeth at its center. Regulus looked at him with a befuddled look. Remus freed Regulus from his weight in lieu of searching through his bag for something. He placed a quill on Regulus' hand which just furthered his curious look. With a wave of his wand the thing changed into sheers. “You’ll have to cut it, the vines are supposed to be resistant to magic.” Remus instructed with a mocking smile. 

“You cannot just– why can’t you do it?” Regulus responded, shoving the sheers over, they were larger than usual making Regulus’ hands look comically small. 

"Couldn't risk it, if it woke I’d be killed, no way I could dodge anything with my ankle all mangled.” Remus snapped back. Regulus gave him a sour look before turning to the fanged germanium and reluctantly working to cut it, carefully skirting the edges of the plant. 

The germanium fell with a loud clash, Regulus jumped back, Remus was far back enough that the thing didn’t come near him. The only worry he had were the small vines still nipping at his legs from behind. The door, once revealed, looked just like the one from earlier only more worn, slightly rotted around the edges. 

Beyond the door was the way out. It was like the end of a cave with just about a classroom worth of space between them and what looked to be the woods. Neither of the pair moved despite the little space between them and freedom. The cave was lined with a faint white light circling the area. It wasn’t worth it to chance stepping into the circle without knowing what was in it. 

“There’s something on the roof.” Regulus muttered eyes engrossed on the moving lines of the ceiling. “Remus I think it’s a lethifold,” he added transfixed, staring up looking almost scared or maybe just mystified. The lethifold was definitely a bigger concern but Remus was more focused on the fact that Regulus had called him Remus rather than the typical Lupin. “There’s been barely any sightings of these, only one survivor known, it’s amazing to actually be able to see one, especially here, you know there supposed to be tropical.” mystified then. 

“I don’t suppose the ‘one survivor’ thing is unrelated.” Remus questioned hopelessly. 

“Tragically it is, they're XXXXX, no way we survive if we get in that tiny space with it.” Regulus explained. “I wonder how they got it, I imagine transporting it’s harder than transporting dragons with their carnivorous tendencies.” he seemed genuinely enamored by it rather than frightened at the inevitability of it killing them. Eating them rather. 

“Transporting it’s the least of our concerns, Regulus, how do we make it past it.” Remus hissed, looking at the flowing black shroud move along the cavetop. 

“I’ve read that patronus stuns them, not really repelling like with demantors, but enough to get away.” Regulus hummed with a soft smile growing on his lips. 

“That does shite for us since I can't do a bloody patronus and you’re just unable to do any magic right now.” Remus grumbled looking down at his shoes. 

“You can’t do a patronous?” Regulus asked, finally breaking away from the ceiling to stare at Remus. 

“S’not like there’s a class for it, I have no reason to, not like dementors and fucking lethifolds are a daily occurance for me.” Remus retorted. “Any other way to, I don’t know, hurt it? Stun it? Distract it even?” 

“Probabaly not, that cloak of your won’t work either, they sense things rather than see them– no eyes and all– truly fastening stuff.”

“Well isn’t that wonderful.” Remus mumbles sarcastically to himself. He looked at Regulus “How do we get through then?”

“Run?” Regulus suggested, looking at Remus with a sheepish shrug. 

“Do you happen to know how fast they are?” Remus asked.

“No, I simply figure if we run fast enough it will give us a decent enough chance, how’s your ankle?” 

“Fine enough, at least it’s not nundus or chimereas.” Remus answered with a heavy sigh, taking Regulus’ hand and giving him a despairing look. “You good to go then?” he continued. 

“Propabaly.” Regulus answered with a nod. 

Remus let out a deep breath, bracing himself for the pain in his ankle, deciding last minute that maybe it was best to freeze the thing. “Glacius minora.” he muttered pointing his wand at his ankle which quickly fell into some kind of numbness before squeezing Regulus’ hand and pushing off from where they stood. 

They made it out of the cave in a matter of seconds, it wasn’t very large. It would have been fine if the circle hadn’t been broken when they stepped in, allowing the black cloud to chase after them. “Fuck I think it’s gaining!” He heard Regulus yell from behind, one hand still gripped in Remus’. 

“Nothing we can do about that! Just keep running!” Remus yelled back, following his own advice, running through the sparse trees in the upcoming area. He was slower with Regulus but he couldn't risk letting him go, lest he lose the poor boy. They made it quite far before he felt a tugging on his hand, bringing them both to a halt. 

“Can we… take…a break.” Regulus panted, heavy breaths lining each word. He had let go of Remus hunched over resting his hands on his knees and staring downwards, letting out a string of pitchy coughs. It was a fair reaction, they’d been running for nearly half an hour. It was warrant yes, but not necessarily a good idea since the lethifold was still somewhere behind them. Remus could see its dark figure farther off between the trees. 

“We’ve got like,” Remus looked at the black figure and then back at Regulus, taking a couple deep breaths through the pause. His ankle had started to thaw, he could feel the pain spreading like fire. “Five minutes before that thing fucking eats us.” He sighed deeply. “Maybe try to push through?”

“Push through!” Regulus cried in his winded voice. “Not all of us–” he paused for another breath “Not all of us are fucking werewolves, I have the stamina of a regular teenage boy!” Regulus argued.

“I’m not a good runner ‘cus I’m a werewolf, in fact I’m barely a good runner! Your just a shite runner withing fucking… asthma or something!" Remus decided. He figured Regulus wouldn't even really know asthma was. Regulus gave him a confused look which Remus ignored, grabbing Regulus wrist this time and starting to drag him running along.

They were definitely slower this time, between regular wear and tear, Remus fractured or probably broken by now, ankle and Regulus shallow breaths they were definitely not in good shape. They made it another good stretch of land before Regulus came to another abrupt stop, yanking his wrist from Remus’ as if he was being burned. “Regulus we do not have time to be–” Remus started, turning around and immediately cutting himself off, watching as a thin black tendril came from the newly appeared mass of them coming from the lethifold. Regulus let out a sharp cry

“Remus! Remus! Can you–” Regulus cried, being cut off by the tendril hoisting him in the air, hung upside down from his ankle. “Remus!” he shouted, sounding terrified. 

“Holy shite! Regulus are you alright!” Remus yelled, muttering another slew of curses under his breath. 

“No! No, I am not alright! Remus! Get me down from here! These things fucking eat people! Get me down!” Regulus pleaded shrilly. Remus threw a couple of curses at the mass, none having any effect. 

“Fuck! What do I do! Nothing's working.” Remus whined, trying a few more curses, hexes, charms, the works. 

“Use a bloody patronus!” Regulus yelled back, the tendrils had sort of flipped, Regulus still held upside down was now over the black cloth rather than under it. 

“I don’t know how to use a patronus! It doesn’t work!” 

“Have you ever tried! It’s an easy charm! Hell it’s an easy trick just be fucking happy!”

“I have tried! It doesn’t work! Shite, fuck, Regulus what the fuck to I do.” Regulus gave him an incredulous look, kicking around his legs as Remus held out his wand once again. “Expecto Patronum!” Remus shouted, doing his best to think of anything beside the fact that Regulus could possibly die. He thought of Hogwarts, his parents, his friends. Nothing happened. He gave Regulus a look.

“Try it again! This time mayb–” Regulus was swung quickly left. “Try harder!” He shouted through his movements. 

Remus thought of his parents. Nothing happened. He thought of Lily and Mary and Malrne, even the Marauders  but still nothing, each cast failing to work, Remus would have been a little more frustrated if he wasn’t so freaked out. 

Remus tried again, this time thinking of Sirius. Less about the actual time they spent together. He thought about how they argued. He thought about how it never mattered, no matter how horrid it got he was never mad. Remus thought about how he felt when they fought, the sort of warm longing he felt, the desire to apologize, not to push, to forgive. The sort of emotion that consumed him like a wildfire, or perhaps like the lethifold would if this didn’t work. “Expecto Patronum” He shouted, this time shooting a white flowy light at the dark mass carrying Regulus. 

The black smoke retreaded, the white faded, Regulus fell to the ground with a loud thud. Remus could see he had hit his head again. He was going to have a horrid bruise by the end of this, maybe a concussion. Remus spent a little too long staring at the space where his patronus shot out. It wasn’t corporeal or anything, but it was there. He pushed the wonder aside with force, remembering to check on Regulus before the lethifold recuperated. “Regulus!” He shouted, running up and crouching by Regulus’ side,  flipping him facing upwards. 

“Oh fuck me my head feels terrible.” Regulus griped, pushing himself up slowly, pausing halfway up to lean over and puke. “Merlin.” He muttered, finishing pushing himself up with a much quicker burst. 

“You’ll have to worry about that later.” Remus replied with a sorry face. He pushed himself back up and then offered a hand out to Regulus who took it and joined Remus standing in the sporadic woods. 

“I think we’ll be fine, I doubt it'll come back after that.” Regulus sighed.

“D’you think we should maybe call someone, like the Ministry or something to get that thing contained.” Remus wondered, Regulus just shrugged in response. 

“How’d you even explain this? We shouldn't even be here and someone’ll report it eventually.” Regulus responded, looking around at the woods. “How do we get back to school from here anyways?” 

“We could apparate.” Remus suggested. “I mean eventually we could.” he clarified. 

"Wouldn't work, I don’t know how. Lessons are in sixth year not fifth” Regulus sighed.

“I could do a sidealong, maybe not now, I’m positively drained but there's a town a little while over, could get something to eat and then we’d be good to go.” Remus offered, digging though his bag looking to see if he had any muggle money on him, he did luckily. 

“Where do you see a town? All I see are trees and dirt.” Regulus said, scanning the edge of the woods. 

“It’s a little far out whichever way there is.” Remus pointed towards a few trees and some bushes seemed to be the only thing that way. “I can hear it a bit so it shouldn't be too long of a walk.” Remus added, holding out his hand to Regulus again who gave him another confused look before resigning and just grabbing Remus’ outstretched hand. 

There was no more running. Remus just led Regulus’ forwards towards whatever town was apparently up ahead. A little far ended up being a bit of an understatement, it took them nearly another  hour to get anywhere. He let go of Regulus’ hand once they were right on the edge of the woods. The trees parted into a quaint looking bundle of houses. Remus gave Regulus a sort of smug look before leading the pair off the dirt and onto the street of the small town.

Chapter Text

Regulus had only ever been in a muggle restaurant once before this. Sometime with Sirius when he had still lived there, just after Sirius’ first year. It was a lot nicer there than wherever this was. 

He and Lupin were in some old looking building that looked like it had seen better days. He would have never entered a place like this of his own volition and yet here he sat, bloody head and now adorned in Lupin's jumper to cover his swollen arm. Lupin looked no better, his pants were shredded and his ankle was now purple and swollen. Regulus figured they fit right in a place like this. 

Lupin had ordered for both of them. Regulus put his head down on the wood table, comforted at the alleviation he felt resting his head. He remembered how good it felt to finally sit after all the running, even if it was on the poor quality chairs of this establishment. 

“So.” Lupin started after a beat. “I do think I found… something in the house.” he added, digging through his bag to produce a black diary that looked perfectly ordinary to Regulus.

“And you're certain it’s a horcrux?” Regulus questioned looking at the book. 

“I’m certain it’s something, I’ve got nothing to compare it to but the sort of magic coming off this book is far worse than anything I’ve seen before.” Remus explained, picking it up again, flipping through the pages. “Does T.M Riddle mean anything to you?” 

“No.” Regulus stated plainly, watching as Lupin stared intently over the pages. “Lupin, Give it to me.” he instructed, holding out a hand. 

“Remus.” Lupin corrected, not relenting the book. 

“Lupin is fine, this doesn’t make us friends.” Regulus argued, reaching his hand further, Lupin pulled the book back. 

“You called me it at the house.” Lupin stated. “And when the lethifold had you.” It was technically true, even if Regulus had done it unconsciously, more caught up in his fascination with the lethifold as well as his preoccupation with not dying over his manners in front of Lupin. It didn’t mean anything more than that he was distracted. 

“Extenuating circumstances.” Regulus replied, a hint of annoyance in his voice. 

“I call you by your name. ‘Sides Lupin makes me feel like I’m going to get in trouble.”

“If I call you Remus then you’ll give me the book?” Regulus questioned, looking at the little black diary. Lupin nodded. “Remus, give me the book,” he repeated.  Lupin, or rather Remus gave him the book with a smug smile. Regulus flipped through the pages himself, T.M Riddle was the only text in it at all, faded over the years but still legible. 

He rolled up the sleeve of Remus’ jumper and held the diary close up to his arm. The dark mark grew a couple shades darker with his action, which confirmed both that the mark would say when the Dark Lord was near and that the book contained part of him. “I think that confirms it.” he whispered, looking at Remus’ surprised face. He didn’t look too long at the dark mark, it was still red and grossly pained. He rolled down his sleeve. 

“What do we do about it?” Remus asked, taking the book back from Regulus' hand and putting it in his bag just as the waiter came over with their drinks, just water which Regulus drank almost immediately. “I reckon we ought to report this, I mean there's really no winning the war until this is destroyed.” 

“All that would do is alert him that someone’s looking.” Regulus argued, remembering Slughorn's words. “When Slughorn first mentioned it to me he implied there were more. Seven at most.” he added with a grim look, playing with the straw in his drink. 

“How does Slughorn know about this?” Remus replied before quickening, continuing, as if he only fully registered what Regulus had said after the fact. “Wait seven? There’s seven of these!” 

“I don’t know how Slughorn knows, I just know he seemed pretty upset about it last time he was drunk. And there's seven at the most, I doubt all of them are made yet.” Regulus explained with exasperation. 

“Well then we’ve definitely got to tell someone.” Remus stated, sipping his drink.

“Why must we? It’s not like we know it’s true and what good would it do us anyway if there’s more.” Regulus returned. 

“Of course we know it’s true there’s literally one at the table with us.” Remus nearly shouted.

“It’s too risky to say anything, we’ll both be killed.”

“I’ll die in the war anyway, not after it if no one does something to stop this.” Remus gestured to the book. 

“At least that’ll be later.” Regulus offered. 

“Later for me, you’d just live on in that bloody pureblood utopia.” 

“I would not, I am actively defying the Dark Lord, I’f be killed.”

“Not if no one found out you were doing this, if you just dropped it right now like you’re clearly trying to do.” Remus snapped. “Suppose that’s probably what you want,” he added. 

“That is not what I am trying to say.” Regulus argued. “I’m just-” He started coming up with very little reason for such a thing, it really wouldn't be the end of the world to him if they did drop it, not in the way it would be for Remus anyway. “Who do you suppose we tell then?” He decided without justifying the switch. 

“Dumbledore?” Remus suggested. 

“Not a chance. I don’t trust Dumbledore in the slightest.” Regulus stipulated. 

“The Ministry then.”

“I trust those bastards even less, you know Malfoy works there, who knows how many other death eaters are there.” 

“What about the Minister himself?”

“Like he’d believe us, a werewolf and a death eater, not a chance.” 

“Okay well if you're going to be so negative then what do you suggest we do?”

“We do nothing. If you're so set on them being found then I’ll look for the rest of them on my own.”

“As if I’d let you do that!”

“You're not letting me do anything, you don’t control my actions!” Regulus hissed. 

“Okay how are you going to find them then? You only knew that was one when you held it three inches from your bloody arm, I doubt that’s as effective as what I can do!” Remus nearly yelled back.

“This doesn’t concern you, it was my idea to look for this one in the first place, so this is my battle not yours!” Regulus argued, tilting his head up as if this was something noble. 

“This is everyones fucking battle Regulus! People will die from this war!” Remus whisper-shouted, looking positively angered. “We can do it together if you're so set on going allows me to make sure you’re actually doing something and not just letting this go unfixed. We could maybe tell your brother even.”

“Not a fucking chance, I’d rather die then work with Sirius.” Regulus hissed. He would rather not spend much time with his estranged brother. If he were to be honest he would also mention his desire to keep Sirius safe but he was a liar and more importantly Remus would be insufferable about it. 

“Then just us.” Remus amended. Pausing before adding, “probably best that way anyways, no one else getting hurt or anything.”

Regulus considered it for a moment. It would be better to have Remus than to not. Plus he couldn't do magic outside of school yet. “Fine.” he answered after a length of silence. 

“So what do we do now?” Remus questioned, as if Regulus had any idea. Their food came out before Regulus could answer. Remus had gotten them both club sandwiches and chips, both looking less edible than anything Regulus had ever had before, which wasn’t saying much since he often only had high class meals. 

Despite the unappealing looks the food was nice, salty and a bit greasy, but nice. Remus finished half the sandwich before Regulus made it through more than a couple bites. “I guess we don’t have any leads on another one.” Remus said through bites of food. Regulus shook his head, mouth too full to answer. Remus smiled at him, he must have looked fun, dishevelled, bleeding, mouth filled with what could only be described as poor man's food. 

“And if you so desperately want them gone we’ll need a way to destroy them too.” Regulus added after swallowing a bite. Remus nodded. 

They spent the rest of the meal coming up with slightly ludicrous suggestions on ways to destroy the horcrux aside from the ones mentioned in the book. Feindfyre was far too uncontrollable and basilisk venom was simply impossible to get. They also placed guesses to what else the horcruxes could be, nothing seeming plausible. It was almost kind of fun, sitting and chatting with Remus, ignoring the severe gravity of the situation they were now in. 

Remus paid for their meal, Regulus would have since he was the wealthier of the two but all his money was galleons which were not an acceptable form of currency here, muggle coin only which was stupid because muggle money was stupid. 

“This is probably not a very good idea, to do this ourselves, I mean.” Regulus commented a little down the block. Remus let out a chuckle, he was a few steps behind Remus, limping had slowed him down. 

“Most certainly.” Remus answered, once again holding out his hand when they entered into the alleyway behind the nearest building. 

They ended up in Hogsmeade. The apparition thankfully hadn’t splinched either of them. Remus didn’t talk as he headed further into the town, taking them towards the edge of the area right up against the shrieking shack. He instructed for Regulus to climb over it, which he did hesitantly, annoyed at being told what to do. He then helped Remus over, his ankle had started bleeding a little more profusely, Regulus grimaced at the sight. “Where exactly are we going?” Regulus questioned as they crossed the field to the bones of the old building. 

“There's a path from here to there, more secretive than the front entrance would be.” Remus explained, Regulus looked at him skeptically. “It’s where they um, they put me over the moon, probably where all the shrieking comes from.” Remus mumbled. 

His words were verified when Regulus studied the interior of the building. They entered through a busted window that Remus seemed to know just the right enchantment to sneak in through. The inside was lined with scratched walls and broken furniture, Remus avoided looking up beyond his feet. Regulus knew it was not his place to say anything. 

He was led down a sort of dirt path under the building. Remus immobilized the tree as they exited the small cubby hole entrance. Regulus at least now understood why Dumbledore kept such a dangerous tree on school grounds, it was safer with the tree rather than the werewolf. 

Remus looked set on heading back to his dorm, it was decently late out and if Regulus had grown a little less fond of him throughout the day he probably would have let him. Instead he rerouted the man, leading them both up to the infirmary. 

Regulus nearly managed to talk his way out of staying the night. Remus was a lost cause, apparently the freezing and repeated strain meant even after the bone was fixed he was doomed to the hospital wing overnight. 

Regulus, still wearing Remus’ tattered jumper thankfully avoided Madam Pomfery checking his arm but was not so lucky with his head. He claimed it was fine, just a scratch which she initially believed until performing a couple of spells and determining it was best to keep him for observation for the night. 

She hadn’t questioned how either of them got the wounds nor why they were together. She believed, or at least pretended to believe, that he was there because of a simple case of rouge books from the library and that Remus had narrowly missed a step on the stairs and then chose to ignore the pain till now. She was a smart enough woman not to pry, he knew she wasn’t dumb enough to believe it. 

Pomfery and Remus seemed to have an amicable relationship which is what Regulus believed to her kindness, he had seen her curse students halfway down the hall for lying about injuries far smaller than what they had. He didn’t mind her pitying glances if it meant she stayed silent. 

When Pomfery left the first thing Regulus did was change the colour of his jumper with a little spell. It was an ostentatious maroon and navy striped thing that he changed to a more quiet green and black combo. Remus gave him an almost joking head shake when he did. 

While Regulus did wish to further look into the horcrux he was tragically stuck in bed under the watchful eye of Madam Pomfery, sitting at the front desk, shooting both him and Remus glares when they stood. With not much else to do he ended up dozing off, spending his evening in a restless sleep.

He was awoken barely an hour later by cries from the front desk. Remus seemed to stay sleeping though it from the looks of it, staying on moving under the white sheets in the bed next to him. He probably had more experience being here than Regulus. 

“You mean he’s actually here! He wasn’t earlier I swear we checked!” came the unmistakable voice of James Potter. Regulus was never much of a fan of Potter, rather than dwell on his cries he took to digging though Remus' bag, only stopping once he had received the diary which he once again began to look over. 

“He came in less than an hour ago though I do recommend you let him have his rest.” Pomfery answered in his monotone voice. “You could visit your brother, he came in a little before Mr. Lupin did.” Pomfey added, it was a lie which he hadn’t quite understood why she told. She was no doubt talking to Sirius there which meant that Remus' whole crew was looking for him. He would have cared more since clearly none of his friends had come by but he had gone missing far too long ago which means they too had probably been by earlier. Even if they hadn’t it didn’t matter, they had different ways of showing they cared. 

“My brother’s here? Why? I thought he was down with the Slytherins, celebrating or whatever.” Sirius replied. He sounded nearly worried. Regulus doubted he cared beyond that of his curiosity. 

“You can ask him yourself if you must.” She stated calmly. “Remember visiting hours do close shortly so if you do be quick.” 

Sirius muttered something under his breath. Regulus heard footsteps in the other direction, he figured Sirius wouldn't stop by. Apparently he figured wrong since a couple seconds later had Sirius coming in, no longer flagged by Potter and presumably Pettigrew. “Regulus.” He greeted firmly. 

“Sirius.” Regulus returned, not looking up from the blank pages of the book. 

“Do you know what happened to ‘im?” Sirius questioned, gesturing to Remus’ sleeping body. “Pomfery wouldn't say but I assume you’d have heard if you were in earlier.” 

“If Pomfery wouldn't say then why should I?” Regulus challenged, shutting the book, it was probably a more important gesture to Sirius who wouldn't have known there was nothing on the pages to read while it was open. 

“Never one for challenging authority, Reggie.” Sirius mumbled.

“He broke his ankle.” Regulus responded to spite him. 

“Oh. I guess it’s bad if he’s staying overnight.” Sirius commented to himself. They sat in science for a little while before Sirius piped up again. “And…” he paused, refusing to look straight at Regulus. “What about you? Are you… fine.” Sirius questioned. Regulus looked at him with an annoyed face. 

“I’m fine Sirius.” Regulus answered. It was a lie of course but Regulus doubted Sirius would care for the real answer. My arm hurts because I did what we were both supposed to have done earlier then either of us ever should have had to, my head hurts because I was trapped in our cousins torture basement, I feel ill because I was nearly killed by a fucking lethifold. He doubted Sirius would care. 

“What happened? Bandages around your head are never a good sign.” 

“Nothing that concerns you, Sirius.” 

“I think if you're injured it does concern me, you're still my brother Reg.” Sirius replied, almost sounding hurt. Regulus had to stifle a laugh, Sirius looked affronted. 

“I’m injured a lot more now because of you Sirius, you don’t get to play the big brother card when it suits you if you're just going to run off when things really matter.” Regulus spat.

“I– That’s not, that’s different Reg.” Sirius stuttered. “You know that’s different! And you know I have tried, I did try! A lot! You just never could accept help, always playing the fucking victim! This is why I don’t check in anymore, not because I left, because you can’t accept that I had to!” Sirius replied, gaining confidence with each harsh word. 

“Well then why don’t you leave again, since you have to and all.” Regulus returned with the same visceral spite filling his words. Sirius opened his mouth to say something only to stop. He turned and left without another word. It hurt more than Regulus wished to admit. 

“Little harsh, no?” Remus whispered from the bed next to him.

“Go back to sleep.” Regulus responded coldly. He attempted to follow his own advice, ignoring whatever comment Remus made under his breath. 

He would say he was successful since the next time he opened his eyes it was clearly much darker out, Pomfery was no longer up at the desk and Remus was rolled back into the white sheets on his own bed, happily sleeping away instead of making little judgmental comments at Regulus. 

Regulus found himself once again perusing the blank pages of the diary. There was nothing aside from the name. He’d never seen the name Riddle before, not in any books or stories. He could check the library, it would be this late to just slip in. He should at least tell Remus.

He shook Remus awake. Remus was very resistant, taking several minutes of rough shaking was enough to get him up. He had almost wished he had just used that ‘Barty method’ wish involving just shooting a jet of water at the victim. Remus should be thankful he chose not to. “What the actual fuckkk.” Remus dragged in a tired voice. “Reg’lus, what are you doing?” He moaned, looking at Regulus' face which was looming over him, lit wand in one hand book in the other. 

“I’m going to the library.” Regulus stated, unphased by Remus’ lethargy. It was more of a show, it’s not like he had to tell Remus but he knew Remus didn’t think he was going to take this seriously which Regulus was. He’d already committed treason and now he’d committed to further committing treason, might as well do it as best he could. 

“Wha– Regulus it’s the middle of the night, I am not doing that.”

“I never said you had to, I just wanted to let you know I was going.” Regulus responded, turning to leave.

“Wait.” Remus sighed, pushing himself up and rubbing the tiredness from his eyes and reaching over the side of his bed to his bag. Regulus hadn’t noticed before but he seemed to be wearing pajamas straight from the infirmary's storage. 

Remus pulled out a thin line of paper, handing it to Regulus who took the edge of it, attempting to balance it and his wand. Remus held out his other hand expectantly. Regulus placed the diary into the outreached hand with a sour look. Regulus took the paper from Remus hand, it was entirely blank. “What is this?” 

Remus held his wand up to the paper. “I solemnly swear I am up to no good.” Remus spoke while Regulus stared at him. Before he could make a comment on the odd phrase the map sprouted a deeper brown that spread across the paper, creating what looked to be an etching of the school, centered with text reading ‘Messrs. Moony, Wormtail, Padfoot, and Prongs are proud to present The Marauder's Map.’

“What in the bloody hell is this?”

“The Marauders Map.” Remus answered rather unhelpfully. 

“Oh well that clears it up.” Regulus spat sarcastically.

“It’s a map of the school, it’ll let you know if anyone's coming your way. So you don’t get caught and all.” Remus explained, unfolding part of the paper with the tip of his wand. Regulus gave a hum in place of a thank you before turning to the entry and heading down the hall.

It was much easier to traverse the halls secretly with the map, much as Regulus detested the thought of using something made by his brother and his tricky company, even if he was coming around to Remus. It was a quick trip to the library.

Regulus took the horcrux books first and foremost, he figured no one would miss them. He also went through the school records section taking any book which apparently had any mention of the last name Riddle, which ended up being several books though the information itself was never specified so there was a decent chance a few of them were actual books on riddle which was not exactly what he was looking for. He also took some simple ones on location spells and tracking as well as a few on more flexible types of curse breaking to find certain ways to dispel the magic. 

The way back was worse, he had to dodge Filch and his pesky cat on several occasions and if that wasn’t enough he nearly walked right down the corridor that Dumbledore had apparently been down. He made it back anyways, uncaught and still with considerable ease. It irked him ever so slightly. 

Remus was sitting with the horcrux, now fully up rather than half asleep, hunched over the little black diary with a quill in one hand, it looked as if he were writing, something that Regulus had most certainly not done. “Remus.” he greeted. 

“Regulus! Regulus the book talks! It responds to what I write, his soul is responsive– and sixteen mind you– it’s incredible!” Remus greeted, nearly forgetting to keep his voice hushed. 

“What?” Regulus questioned, placing the stack of books on the tip of Remus’ bed, not bothering to place them nicely. 

“It writes back, come look!” Remus ushered. Regulus joined him hunched over the book. He watched Remus write on the page. What is your name dissolved into the beige paper, returning Tom, as said earlier. It was mystifying to see. 

“It talks?” Regulus muttered squinting at the page. 

“It does!” Remus replied. “I doubt it’s really a good thing but merlin it’s fascinating.” 

“Truely.” Regulus mumbled. “Come back to it later, we have records to go though. Looking for Riddle, Tom Riddle apparently.” gesturing to the pile of books, which really was a large pile, so much so that it had started to teeter since placement. 

“Oh but that’s so much less fun.” Remus grimaced, letting the diary swing shut as he leaned towards the tower of books. 

“You could always go back to sleep, I’m sure I’ll do fine without you.”

“You’ve got twenty-something books laid on my pillow so I do doubt it.” Remus hissed, taking one of the books off the pile. He threw another from the pile into Regulus' chest which caused him to nearly come out with a laugh which he quickly stifled. 

They spent a good chunk of the night reading, noting any important details down onto parchment that didn’t erase your writing. They both seemed to be invested in the idea of Tom Riddle, whoever he was, being whatever the Dark Lord used to be though neither of them seemed to find much on Riddle or his schooling aside from a few awards and mentions in club photos. 

There was little else known in lieu of destroying the thing. They did attempt a couple spells to no avail. Neither wished to destroy the thing too promptly anyway, the fear of the Dark Lords reaction was present within them both. When Regulus began to feel his eyes grow increasingly heavy he gave a confirming look to Remus, who looked equally as tired before packing the things up into Remus bag since Regulus was still without his own. 

He doesn’t remember falling asleep this time either. He does know that when he woke it was closer to midday and Remus had vanished from the bed next to him. It was Sunday so he had nowhere to be but he dragged himself out of the bed anyway, preparing for his first full day as a death eater. The thought made his stomach churn.

He missed the distraction that Remus had provided, annoying as he was between the research and his pointless conversations; it had kept Regulus’ mind free from thoughts about his new found affiliation. Without that he was left to his own thoughts, his own loyalties apparently. His mind felt claustrophobic. He pretended they didn’t.

Chapter Text

Remus hadn’t realized how truly invigorating being able to talk to someone about his life without fear of judgment would be. He knew the diary was most definitely not a healthy outlet, especially since it allegedly housed a piece of the soul of the worst person he could possibly think of. It was just nice, not to have to worry about having what he said get relayed to other friends or judged by unassuming friends. 

He had actually promised Regulus he wouldn't write in the book. He intended to keep that promise, he even managed to for nearly three days before ending up succumbing to his intrigue and took to writing in it. It had been a full day since then and Remus found it safe to say it probably was not a great idea because of the addictive nature of the book's cunning charm. 

Tom Riddle, more formally known as Tom Marvolo Riddle, was sixteen when he put his soul into the diary under circumstances that Remus had yet to be able to work out of him after an incident that he wouldn't give any details over. He had yet to find any real record of Tom Riddle within the school; he had dumped the record books Regulus left with him back in the library in hopes Regulus would pick them up again since Remus had exhausted his ability to look over the boring content within them. 

It was easier to find things about Tom Riddle from Tom Riddle himself. For example, Remus had found out he was a Slytherin, he was a good student who had apparently gotten an award for some form of excellent behaviour that would remain unspecified. He was also very good at manipulating people, even with that understanding Remus found himself drawn into the charms of the diary, it was likely intended to have such an effect so Remus chose not to mind it too much, as long as he was aware it’d be fine. 

None of the Marauders questioned his sudden interest in writing, Remus had always been a more note oriented person rather than whatever James, Sirius and Peters style of hoping and praying their memory excels (which it typically did. It was not odd behaviour for Remus to be invested in a book. 

Invested was one way of putting it. Remus would say it was less about investment and more about validation. When he complained about Sirius and Marlene the book took his side, when he complained about school the book offered him notes and advice (which typically went untaken since it was always a little dark). 

This night in particular laid claim to one of Remus’ frequent writing sessions when he found Marlene up in their dorm, laid calmly on Sirius bed while Sirius practiced incantations with Peter at the end of the bed. Remus settled onto his bed with little indications that either of the three other occupants even noticed his arrival, quite caught up in the spell work or in Marlene's case, sleeping. 

You could hex the girl. Riddle's words suggested when Remus listed his grievances of seeing her so casually in Sirius’ space. She wouldn't be much of a girlfriend without a mouth: oscausi– removes victims' mouths. Remus of course returned that he was not going to hex Marlene, they were friends even if he was mostly upset with her as of late, to no fault of her own, it was his own issues that had soured their relations. 

Redirect his magic then, he could hex her, it’s a simple trick, Riddle proposed. You could charm her to love another. You could charm him to grow increasingly repulsive until you’re the only one even able to love him. Riddle was not the greatest at his solution but Remus liked to think his heart was certainly in something akin to the right place. It was not a pleasant thought to grow sympathises for someone who had already been proved to turn out so truly wrong.

You could take note of your surroundings. The book offered before the words faded completely, growing none to replace them. It was an odd phrase to end on until Remus heard Sirius right beside him “Not much of a note.” He said looking at the blank page of the diary.

“Are you really chastising me for my lack of work whilst actively avoiding your own.” Remus responded, gesturing to Peter who was still holding up his wand reading over the page of the open textbook next to him. 

“Wormy’s got it handled.” Sirius said with a smirk, shoving Remus over and taking up the empty space now next to Remus. 

“Wormy’s not the one doing your exams Sirius, you are.” Remus answered, looking down at the empty book. 

“He will be if I pay him enough. Oi Pete– ten galleons or twenty?” Sirius shouted, chucking one of his shoes towards Peter to capture his attention. Peter gave him a blank stare. 

“Depends on if you want them done properly, ten’ll certainly get you some answers but it won’t guarantee they’re right.” Peter retorted before attempting his non-verbal spell again only for it to produce half a spark before fizzling out. 

“James’d do it for free.” Sirius pouted, pulling out his wand and mimicking Peter's movement silently, giving only a full spark but not much beyond that. 

“Is that what it’s supposed to do?” Remus questioned, looking between the two. 

“It’s supposed to change the colour of your… eyes?” Sirius guessed.

“Hair.” Peter corrected, looking over the page. “It’s supposed to be nonverbal too which is a pain.”

“Wait, I don't want to change my hair colour!” Sirius exchanged looking aghast. “Is that really what we were doing!” 

“Yes! Page one hundred and fifteen was on hair colour and style.”

“I thought we were supposed to be doing two-fifteen?” Remus replied, sitting up to check his actual notes where he had listed the page number. 

“Was it? Weren't we on body modifications, hair is perfect for that.” Peter argued. 

“What’s two fifteen?” Remus questioned as he searched his notes. 

“Two fifteen is people to animals, I feel like that’s more seventh year stuff, no? At least it is non verbally.” Peter answered. Remus checked his notes which apparently did not have the page number written down on them. 

“Well now we’ll never know! Rem’s gone and screwed us all with his shite note taking.” Sirius supplied, leaning over Remus' shoulder at his poorly scrawled notes. 

“At least I take notes, where's yours at Pads?”

“Right there, down in front of you, don’t you know we share in this dorm.” Sirius sang, tugging the notes from Remus’ grip and laying back down with the piece of paper held in front of him. Remus glared at him while Peter tried not to laugh from the floor. “Ask Marly if she’s got any,” he added. 

“No chance I’m waking her up.” Peter responded, prompting Sirius to toss his other shoe across the way, this time hitting Marlene rather than Peter. She shot up with a cry. 

“Sirius, this better not have been your shoe.” was the first thing she said after recurring from the hit and her rest. She was in fact holding up his shoe, the black boot was unmistakable. 

Sirius of course ignored her threats. “Marls, do you have notes for Minnie's class today?” 

“Nah I skipped today, Mary and I were out by the owlery. Though I can– and will– transfigure this very nice shoe into a duck if you don’t apologize for waking me.” She answered, pointing her wand at Sirius' shoe. 

“You wouldn't dare! That’s breaking up grounds!” Sirius sighed dramatically, Marlene raised an eyebrow and firmed her arm. They stared at each other for a beat, as if it were a challenge. Then Sirius got up, walking back to his bed and pressed a firm kiss on her forehead. “I would never apologize for my mischief,” he added into her choppy blonde hair. 

Marlene wore an incredulous face. She shucked the shoe right into Sirius' now very close range face and then got up and left swiftly with a nice smile worn on her face. Remus would have laughed if it were any other two people. 

If Remus had self control– or self respect really, the first thing he did would be anything aside from immediately report back to the known-to-be-evil diary. It was a silly little complaint that of course garnered a very aggressive response from the diary which had notably only gotten more violent since Remus started writing in it. Turn the shoe into a dubog and have it bite her ankles off, it answered. Remus of course turned its suggestion down. You will get nowhere if you never act on your anger. Was Riddle's final note before once again choosing to ignore Remus’ complaints. 

It wasn’t the worst advice but Remus considered himself to be non-confrontational and would rather not piss off Marlene or Sirius since both of them were awfully good wizards and would likely put him in the hospital wing. Maybe he could do something less severe, perhaps poorly practice his own hair related magic and dye Marlene's hair back to its original brown or perhaps cut Sirius a little shorter under the guise of an accident. 

Before he had the chance to think more on the matter, a thing which he was thankful for since it was quite unlike him to be vengeful even if he was a bit hot headed. James pushed his way into the dorm with as loud an entrance as always. “My dearest friend, My most beloved Marauders , my closest comrades.” he started upon entry causing all three of the other boys to look up. “Evans had agreed to work on our potions project together, alone, and in a secluded place!” 

“You mean like how most people work on their potions projects together?” Sirius inquired, flopping into the place on his bed which Marlene had vacated. 

“Yes but it’s me and Lily Evans! She would never have agreed to this if I wasn’t growing on her!” James explained, walking into the room and flopping down onto the ground next to Peter. 

“Or maybe she just wants a good potions grade Jamie.” Peter suggested, placing a hand on his back comfortingly. 

“You weren't there, it wasn’t even reluctant, it was like if I hadn’t suggested it, she would have offered anyway!” James argued, dumping out his bag to reveal his large number of text books. He grabbed the potions one out immediately. The other Marauders  all looked at him skeptically. 

“James it’s been six years you’ve got to move on.” Sirius sighed. 

“No! Evans is coming around to me! I swear!” James retorted.

“Do you solemnly swear it?” Sirius answered with a light laugh.

“Yes! I solemnly swear!” James cried. Leaning into Pete's comforting arm. “We’re at least becoming friends! My charm is irresistible!” 

“Oh James.” Remus said, shaking his head. James looked at him harshly. 

"Wouldn't her seeing you as a friend be worse? Then you’d be in the same boat as Snivellous was all through to fifth year?” Peter asked, looking at James who shook his head. 

“It’s different! First off I’ve backed off plenty unlike old Snilvels who was absolutely leering at her always.” James explained. “I’m fine just being her friend, I mean even that’s better than having her bloody hate me. Her face wasn’t made for hate, too pretty.” 

“The reason you two don’t work as friends is ‘cus she thinks you’ll think she’s leading you on mate, I don’t think that’s going to change.” Sirius supplied, flipping from the top of the bed to the bottom to get a better look at James huddled from. 

“But I don’t think that! I really do want to be friends with her! Who wound’t she’s perfect!” 

“So we’ve heard.” Remus mumbled, which caused Sirius to laugh. 

“Prongs it doesn’t matter what you think it matters what she thinks you think. Get a girlfriend or something, show her you’ve moved on.” Sirius instructed, the comment irked Remus and his natural agenda against Sirius and his fascination in girlfriends. He’d had several before Marlene, Marlene was only bad because Remus couldn't dodge her like he did with the others. 

“But I don’t want a girlfriend and I haven't moved on, I've just accepted that she’s not going to date me and I’m fine with that.” James sobbed. “I mean who else is there that can compare to Evans? She’s so smart and pretty and kind and a bit mean but in a hot way. No one else ever called me out on my bullshite before her.” He lamented. 

“I’d argue Marls can compare, not to perpetuate my lovely relationship but y’know, I’m right.” Sirius argued, a comment that went entirely ignored by James. 

“You don’t have to love everyone you date James. That's part of dating, finding someone you like and learning to love them, you can’t just expect to date the love of your life every time, you think I loved all my girlfriends.” Peter pointed out, rubbing his hand across James' back. 

“C’mon James you gotta get out there! Move on past Lily, one step at a time, get laid or something.” Sirius suggested with a little smirk.

“But I don’t want to date!” James shouted.

“Everyone dates!” Peter exclaimed.

“Remus doesn’t! Why not get on his arse about it! I’ve got a good reason at least!” It was not the first time the others poked fun at his inherent lack of romance, though it was never a big deal to him until more recent years. 

“Hey I’ve been trying to set him up with Mary for months now!” Sirius argued, looking at Remus and immediately continuing over Remus' attempt at defending himself. “Just because you're a werewolf doesn’t mean you can’t date Rem, I’m saying you just gotta give her a chance.” 

“I don’t date because I don’t want to date, not even Mary, Sirius. Unlike you-” he jabbed a finger at James. “Who doesn’t date because he’s been caught up on the same woman since first year!” Remus deflected. It was funny for him to point out since he had a similar reason in regards to Sirius, though the werewolf thing also deterred him a bit. 

“It’s romance! I love her! It’s not some stupid childhood crush! I have the right to be caught up on her!” James retaliated. 

“You most certainly don’t!” Sirius argued. 

“You lost that right when you made us all sit and listen to you lament about her for the entirety of fourth year.” Peter added. 

“And beyond.” Remus muttered, looking at the lamenting James had just done. 

“If you wanted me to shut up then you could have said something!”

“We did!” Peter cried.

“You were to bust ‘oh her hair is the colour of the sunrise’ ‘oh she’s so pretty-” Sirius started. 

“She is beautiful!” Jame intercepted. Beautiful and stunning, and absolutely brilliant and she’s just so-”

“Oscausi.” Remus cast almost subconsciously. It was the same spell Riddle had mentioned earlier though Remus found it better suited for James than Marlene. He was almost surprised to have used it, trusting Riddle was a horrid gamble, he was almost just as surprised to find it worked as he had said, removing James mouth. James of course looked horrified at his sudden loss of voice accompanied by an even worse face when he put his hand to his face only to realize he no longer had a mouth. 

Despite James' horror, Remus found the whole thing shockingly entertaining. It may have been a bit of a darker spell and it was probably pretty horrifying to experience but Remus couldn't help but let out a bit of a shocked cold laugh. “Remus!” Peter cried, looking over at him with a face as horrified and shocked as James. Sirius didn’t seem to mind, laughing away. 

“I wanted him to shut up!” Remus retorted a bit cruelly. “He did say we could get him to shut up!” 

“I think he meant you could ask mate.” Sirius giggled. 

Remus sighed and waved his wand, lifting the spell which was a mistake since James immediately continued talking, “Remus! Remus why would you do that! What spell was that! Where was my mouth! Oh merlin, how would I talk to Evans if I didn’t have a mouth.” Somehow he really had immediately gone back to Lily. 

“Your mouth was where most would prefer it was, which is nowhere.” Remus argued. “You’d think that after literally losing your ability to speak about Lily you’d stop talking about Lily.” Remus shook his head as if disappointed. 

“That was fucking brilliant.” Sirius remarked, ignoring James' dramatic hurt cry. “Where did you learn that!” 

Remus was not tempted to answer honestly in the slightest considering he learned from a very evil diary. Instead he just gave a half hearted shrug.

“Mysterious as always Moony.” Peter replied with a laugh. 

Lightheartedness of the situation aside, Remus felt a bit concerned at how easy it was for him to use the spell riddle had told him about. He shouldn't have trusted it to be what it was nor should he have used it even if he was certain since it was clearly a less than pleasant spell. 

Remus did his best not to dwell on this, instead spending the night arguing with the others as if it were any other day. As if he hadn’t put trust in a part of Voldemort himself's soul which lay neatly on Remus' bed as if it were just another one of the boys in the room. 

The next day Remus took his chance to confirm James’ little claim about Lily himself over lunch where her, him and Mary were gathered in the library studying for their classes away from the distractions of their rowdier friends. 

It was a quick plan made before Peter, Sirius and James were at breakfast. Remus had gone early in order to pick up a letter from his mother, they had been corresponding about the flat he had been convincing her to buy him for the summer. She was still resistant to the idea, Mary and Lily weren't resistant to the idea of studying at all. 

He hadn’t mentioned his lunch plans to James for obvious reasons, wherever Lily was rumoured to be he was bound to show up. He didn’t tell Sirius either, lest he get the wrong idea about him and Mary. He did tell Peter, Peter was nice enough not to mention, crash, or make a big deal of it. 

“Lily.” Remus started, paying little mind to whether Lily was listening or not, keeping his eyes still on the line of the textbook he was reading through. “I’ve heard you’ve agreed to work in seclusion with James, what’s that all about?” he questioned in a seemingly uncaring voice. Mary gave a sharp gasp.

“Lily you didn’t.” she responded, which did draw Remus’ attention of the page just to see the embellished shock on Mary's face as well and the reclusion on Lily's own. 

“Oh don’t make such a fuss, Potter is good at potions, mostly, and I needed a partner, the in seclusion part was just a side effect." 

“No denial? An admittance to wanting to work with James? What sort of polyjuice potion fuckery is going on here!” Mary cried with a laugh. Lily scowled at her. 

“He’s not making a big deal out of it is he? I will back out if he is, hold me to my word, I will!” Lily asked, turning to Remus. 

“Shockingly, no, he mentioned it and then just went back to his usual level of, well, Jamesness, he seemed pretty okay with the fact that you might just want him as a friend.” Remus answered, flipping the page of his book. 

“We are not friends, I still dislike Potter, I just want to get a good mark and not have to spend so much time avoiding him, I swear it’s a real hassle.” Lily responded, shutting her book quite roughly. She took the notes Mary had been writing about the charm she had been working on much to Mary's disgruntlement. 

“At this point you two kind of are friends, I mean you both are mostly civil and I mean all your friends are friends with his friends and I mean your friends with his friends unless Remus is just here for convenience of course.” Mary stated, taking her notes back from Lily. 

“We’re acquaintances.” Lily stipulated, sliding closer to Mary to at least read the notes over her shoulder. 

“I’m a bit hurt by the lack of refusal about my being a convenience.” Remus laughed. 

“Well see why would I deny the truth, we keep you around for your brilliant mind and your ability to shut up not only Potter but also Sirius and Peter.” Lily explained, resting her head on Mary’s shoulder and looking up at him, her eyes were the shade of green that always ever so slightly unsettled him though it was cut by the warmth of her smile. 

“Ah, my true purpose.” Remus agreed with a nod. 

“You say that as if he actually uses that little talent, all you ever do is enable them!” Mary argued, “I’d reckon on a typical day you make them worse rather than better.” 

“It’s all about the balance Mary, sometimes I have to help them fill up a classroom with giant bubble animals so that on occasion I am able to stop them from poisoning the food supply with spices Sirius uncle gifted him that are supposed to burn someone's tongue off.” Remus explained with the most heartfelt look he could muster. 

“Idiots, the lot of you.” Lily chided while Mary laughed. 

“I cannot believe Marlene, our lovely, mostly sensible, super gorgeous, could literally date anyone Marlene is dating Sirius!” Mary nearly shouted. “By choice!” Mary added, as if the idea of dating Sirius was very ludicrous which was a statement Remus didn’t quite agree with, though perhaps Marlene being the one to date him was a bit odd. 

“They’re pretty similar when you think about it though, both beaters, very lively, I think it’s kind of cute.” Lily offered while Mary shook her head. 

“They’d be better if they kept to themselves, no offence Mary but if they keep trying to set us up I’ll actually kill one of them.” Remus added, looking back at the textbooks insurmountable scrawls. 

“Oh none taken, I had enough of it too, they think they're so subtle too, ‘oh Mary come have a pint with us, I swear it's just us’ I’m not an idiot I know Remus’ also going to be there.” Mary agreed.

“It’s sweet in a way though, I mean they just want you two to have what they have.” Lily propagated, looking between Remus and Mary who were sharing a distasteful stare. 

“Okay but imagine they were doing that with you and James.” Mary argued.

“Oh, I take it back.” Lily said, recoiling at the thought. She sat back up straight, pushing herself off the bench before rejoining the shelves. “Why not just tell them then?” She yelled from behind a row of shelves. 

“Ugh like it’s that easy! ‘Just give it a chance Mary, dating’s wonderful’!” Mary imitated, using her hand to symbolize Marlene which caused Remus to laugh. 

“I’m half tempted to just hire someone from Hufflepuff to pretend to date me so they stop dragging me out on things, it’d be plenty pathetic but I can't take this anymore, if I have to spend another evening camped out with you while they make out on the bed next to us I’ll drop out.” Remus whined, doodling little lines on his parchment. 

“And it’s worse when they don’t communicate because sometimes you’ll say no and it’ll end up just me and them which should be considered some type of bloody torture I swear!” Mary continued. 

“Okay geez, I didn’t realize it was such a sore spot.” Lily said, placing a thick book in front of her on the table before sitting down. 

They went mostly back to studying after that aside from a couple small conversations. There were a couple questions the three ended up working on together too for the harder classes and for the pointless paragraphs they were to memorize for classes like herbology and astronomy. 

Remus also made a point of checking the records section too, noticing that the books Regulus had left with him earlier were once again missing meaning either someone else had a strange interest in Riddle or Regulus had gone back and picked them up again. 

He hoped it was the latter, the implication of someone else looking into Riddle could only really mean two things, one of which involved adding another person to his and Regulus impromptu team which he wasn’t a big fan of since he only barely could stand the bickering when it was just Regulus. The other implication was that someone else was interested in Voldemort which was really a poor sign no matter the case. 

In terms of Voldemort, Remus had come to find Riddle to be a good study tool for sixth year Defense Against the Dark Arts. Apparently it was his best subject and likely more importantly, in terms of dark arts, the best way to learn counter curses was to first know the curses themselves. If you truly want to defend yourself you should practice more offence, students should know how to fight if they want to amount to anything, was a popular comment he had been getting a lot in this specific instance. 

There are other things that defend too, things that I could help you control. That was the most unsettling one, Riddle had no way of knowing about his lycanthropy so who knows what he was talking about. The school would be better if it could be defended from such things. Was another unsettling addition which more sounded like blood purity shite rather than actual lessons. 

“Remus you're working on counter curses, yes?” Lily asked peering over the desk to check Remus notes. Remus nodded. “Can I see your notes?” She asked, gesturing to the black book.

“You can have the textbook.” Remus replied, shoving over the large book he had been scanning for the past half hour. 

“Oh don’t make me read the textbook, you’ve been scribbling in that thing for an hour now, let me use it.” Lily pleaded, making grabbing hands at the book. “I can feel my brain melting. I cannot read another six thousand words of preamble, why do I need to know where banshees are native to and how they migrated to know how to defend against them.” 

“I’ve got personal notes in here Lils’ I don’t want you reading them.” Remus lied, clutching the book closer to himself. 

“Oh you should let me read it then!” Mary suggested, always one to pry. 

“Neither of you are reading it, it’s personal.” Remus stated firmly. 

“How many secrets could you really be keeping in there you're on the like tenth page!” Mary screeched, electing a ‘sush’ from one Pince a couple desks over.

“I have an odd style of writing, there are more deeper in,” Remus explained. 

“Just because you want to keep your mysterious reputation running doesn’t mean you have to be all cagey Rem.” Lily chastised. 

“It’s not being cagey for me to want some privacy, it’s my book and they're my notes, I don’t see any reason why I can’t just keep them to myself!” Remus complained.

“You share your notes with Sirius all the time and you share your personal thoughts with us all the time, what's so different about it there?” Mary argued, tilting her head all inquisitively. 

“My personal thoughts and notes are mine so if I don’t want you reading them it’s not your place to tell me what to do with them.” Remus argued back 

“Stop getting so worked up about it, they’re just notes!” Lily snapped, shutting the book in front of her as a gesture of her anger. Remus shot her an uncharacteristically sharp glare before piling up his books and leaving in a very Sirius manner. 

It was petulant but he hadn’t been able to think of much of another way to keep saying no to both Lily, who was arguably quite stubborn, and Mary who just hated when things were kept from her. Remus hoped they wouldn't mind too much, he would hope neither would be mad at him. Despite his childish storm off he wasn’t really mad at them. He regretted it a fair bit once he got down the hall. His pride seemed to keep him from turning back despite that. 

Chapter Text

Regulus was perfectly okay. It had been eleven days since Regulus got the mark. It had been eleven days since he had started wearing only long sleeves, covering his arm. It had been eleven days and Regulus’ arm still felt as though it was on fire even after he knew for sure it was perfectly healed. 

He wanted to talk about it. Or maybe he didn’t, but he felt he needed to though, with it taking up so much space. Remus had been busy since Malfoy Manor and the silence had started to make him feel as though he imagined it. As if he could make up the mark on his arm. 

He had spent the majority of his week throwing himself into his O.W.Ls as a distraction. He also took time to do research about horcruxes or Riddle, neither of which Remus seemed to be doing, they had made eye contact in the library a couple times, Remus studying for classes with his friends, always sporting Riddle's diary but never any books on Riddle himself. 

Regulus knew the work was just a distraction when it came down to it but he couldn't bring himself to care. It was better than letting himself spend all day sitting and wallowing. Distractions were good. Regulus was good at distractions, you don’t grow up in a house like his without developing such a skill. Sirius had and it had clearly cost him, Regulus was smarter than that. 

He made a point of keeping an eye over Remus’ habits. He wouldn't call it stalking. If anything he was protecting him. Remus had been glued to that book since the Manor. He hadn’t been at first, four days if Regulus’ observations were right. The next day at breakfast though the book was present. 

The solution to both his concerns, the ones that pertained to his own suffrage and his ones about Remus’ reliance was simply talking to Remus, which is what he did. 

It wasn’t easy to catch Remus alone, his only opportunity came late one night during prefect duty which he had notably been neglecting over the last couple weeks. Pulling Remus away from Evans was easy enough, Evans was pulled away by a misbehaving student and seemingly to her, when she returned Remus was gone. 

In actuality he was down the hall, being dragged off by Regulus. “Regulus.” he hissed as Regulus pulled him further down the hall. “Regulus, what are you doing?” Regulus didn’t answer. Only turning to look at Remus once he decided they were sufficiently far away from Evans.

“Remus, give me the diary.” Regulus demanded, holding out a hand. 

“What?” 

“The diary, give it to me.” Regulus restated. 

“No, what, why?” Remus answered. He clutched his bag as if Regulus desired to steal it. 

“Because you’ve been using it.” Regulus cried though he kept his voice in a hushed whisper. 

“So? It’s not like it’s a bad thing, I know it’s a horcrux, I’m not actually listening to it or anything.” Remus argued, not relenting the book. Regulus gave him a sturdy look before rescinding his hand in favour of pulling out his wand. 

“Relashio.” Regulus jinxed, causing Remus to drop his bag. He seemed unprepared enough which meant that Regulus had all the time to grab the bag and pull out the book, pushing it into his bag, maintaining eye contact with Remus harshly. “Thank you.” Regulus spat.

“You’re an arse.” Remus answered. 

“It’s for the better.”

“Any other reason for this little meet up or are you here to steal that and skip?” Remus asked, taking to walking down the hall, he seemed intent on continuing with his patrol now with Regulus rather than Evans. It was odd since Regulus was used to patrolling alone, the other Slytherin prefect was an arse so Regulus chose to spend his patrols on his own rather than needlessly honour the partner up with that incompetent guy or anyone else he got paired up with for that matter. 

“Not really, I just came to the conclusion you are not to be trusted with the diary.” Regulus answered truthfully. 

“Oh and why’s that, ‘cus I’m a werewolf?” Remus suggest, Regulus hadn’t known if he was playing the prejudice card or if he genuinely believed that. 

“Because you're emotionally susceptible, be a little colder and maybe you’ll get it back.” Regulus corrected sternly. “Your dear friend Riddle is like a ghost, barely in any records.” 

“Riddle is not my friend, Riddle is young you-know-who and therefore probably has more information on himself than the library.” Remus remarked. “If either of us were to make friends with him wouldn't it be you, pure blooded Slytherin already branded with his mark" Remus jabbed, the comment had Regulus spit turning sour, he hated the reminder. He must have made a face since Remus looked as though he was sorry as soon as the words had passed. 

“Did he tell you about why he got a special award for service to the school? There's a trophy in the school trophy case for him with that inscription but none of the books I’ve checked have had any sort of explanation.” Regulus questioned, ignoring the second part of Remus' comment, more to keep himself from yelling at the man rather than a lack of agreement. He looked up at Remus who just shook his head. 

“He’s fairly secretive.” Remus explained with a little shrug. 

“I would have assumed you would at least find some information about him with all your communication but it truly does seem like I’m the only one putting in the effort after-all.” Regulus sighed. “I have my O.W.Ls coming up Remus, I should be working on those, not this.” He added to defer from the insulation he had been keeping an eye in his general direction which he had been but such behaviours were not new nor something he wanted to discuss. 

“Oh hey after your Owls, after the school year ends really, how are we going to y’know keep this up?” Remus asked, changing the subject from his inherent lack of work. 

“We won’t, do your own research and we can reconnect after the summer.” or not Regulus added internally, not really expecting much from Remus anymore. 

“Sounds unproductive.” Remus argued as they turned down another dark corridor. 

“It sounds better than having my parents learn what I’m doing though whatever letters you would be sending otherwise.” Regulus argued back.

“Well see, that's why my idea works so well, it doesn’t involve your parents at all.” Remus replied, looking down at Regulus with a smile. Regulus didn’t meet his gaze, instead moving his hand over to his arm, rubbing over the cloth that covered his dark mark. It was a habit he had picked up since he got it, rubbing at the skin as if the mark would just rub off. The mention of his parents standing as a reminder of his place in all of this, something the mark did as well. 

“I truly don’t know what your idea is but I assume I should just go ahead and deny it now.” Regulus commented with a hitched breath, any summer without his parents seemed improbable on a good day. 

“My once-removed-great-aunt's son just finished college, something at Cambridge, him and his mate are vacating his flat so she asked if I’d want it. It would probably be better for me if I went and found myself a roommate before I moved in.” Remus offered, looking at Regulus as if it was a perfectly good idea.

“What makes you think I would want to live in your shite muggle apartment?” Regulus questioned. His parents had often told rumours of the depressive lives muggles lived in trashy homes with disturbing vile appliances. Regulus knew better then to trust them entirely but he also knew better then to discredit the notion seeing as they likely were to suffer many chores in the lack of magic. 

“Freedom?” Remus suggested. 

“I do not think my parents would really want that, I’m not even sixteen yet.” 

“Sirius always said they were more lenient on you, why not ask? You can pretend you're staying in pureblood country with Avery or something.” 

“You shouldn't listen to everything Sirius tells you, especially not about our family.” Regulus hissed back. “My parents know the Averys’ well enough that they would have the means to catch me in a lie.”

“I’m not saying you have to, I’m just saying it’s easier if we remained in contact and it’d be easier to remain in contact if your overbearing mother wasn’t managing your mail.” Remus argued. He knew where Remus got the idea, his mother used to go through all Sirius mail which eventually turned to her getting hit with several jinxes from an enchanted letter that ended up with Sirius sorely out of order. It was different with him, he knew better than to be so flagrantly disrespectful. 

“Do not talk about my mother.” Regulus snapped, pressing his nails into his sleeve, the pain in his arm flared up, it was a calming sensation despite the cause. Remus held hands up defensively at the coldness of Regulus' voice. Regulus let out a brief sigh, releasing his grip on his arm, before continuing, “if I were to live with you wouldn't we be caught by Sirius, you know he won’t approve of this little partnership.” 

“I’m not going to mention to them where I’m staying, the unprompted visits would kill me, don’t get me wrong I love my friends but the moment they go without supervision we’ll all get killed.” Remus explained, shaking his head with a dramatized depression. 

I can ask.” Regulus finally agreed after thinking it over for another little while. “If anything it would be best to keep an eye on you since I clearly wouldn't be able to take the diary over summer without losing it to my family.” 

“Sure, sure.” Remus mumbled. “It’s not official yet anyways, my mum's been trying to get me to stay back home but if I don’t take the place now it’ll get sold and it’s more local then where we live, fucking Wales, it’s just all grassland up there.” He lamented. Regulus wasn’t sure why he was telling him this. 

“I will write to my parents about it, don’t expect anything, they can be… strict.” Regulus affirmed. 

“So I’ve heard, if you can’t y’know, move, is there another way to keep in touch? I know Sirius used to have us send things through muggle mail, he got caught eventually but I mean anything along those lines?” Remus rambled slightly. 

“No. I tend to just wait until summer’s over to reconnect with my friends or we see each other at banquets and such though I do doubt you will be at any of those.” Regulus commented. 

“Ya not a chance, a room full of posh blood purists sounds like a bloody nightmare.” 

“It’s not always bad, sometimes Pandora and I can convince Barty to cause enough of a ruckus to entertain.” 

“Unless entertain contains muting the bloody twats then I don’t really see myself enjoying it.” Remus argued. “I think with between my face and my parents I’d probably get rituality sacrificed at one of those.”

“Oh no, we only do ritual sacrifices once a month.” Regulus joked. Remus let out a hesitant laugh.

They mostly patrolled in silence after that, it wasn’t uncomfortable, not for Regulus anyway. After another couple minutes of walking Remus broke off right around the Slytherin common room which meant Regulus had the simple choice of heading back to his dorm. 

Evan and Barty were both still up when he entered. They were always up late, both piled onto Evans bed. They both shot him with mischievous smiles as he entered. “Back so soon, no troublemakers tonight?” Barty hinted. 

Immediately Regulus felt concerned. “What did you do?” he asked demandingly.

“Real discrete Bee, good job.” Evan hissed, he hadn’t needed to speak up to be heard by Barty who was lying entirely under Evan, it looked uncomfortable and yet despite that neither of them seemed bothered. 

“We’ve done nothing, Regulus, why would you suggest such a thing?” Barty replied coyly, ignoring Evans' admittance. 

“If I am in any way implicated by whatever you’ve done I will personally work to get you both expelled.” Regulus stated calmly as he walked further in the room, picking up his night wear and heading towards the bathroom. 

“No show?” Barty asked. It was a strange question that had Regulus turning back to him.

“What?” 

“You always change in the bathroom now, I get that Scint and Mule are kind of creepy but you always used to give Evan and I a little show.” Barty clarified with a smirk. Scint and Mule were the other two in the dorm with them, and between them and Barty and Evan, the latter two were far creepier if Regulus was being entirely honest. 

“I can assure you whatever show I was giving you and Evan was unintentional.” Regulus retaliated. “Perhaps I stopped changing in here because I figured I didn’t want to be a performer in your sex addled mind.” 

“Yes but it’s not just that, you’ve been all mopey recently, all those jumpers and quick retreats to the dorm, if something's the matter you can tell us.” Barty pried, head now hanging off the bed so he could get a better view of Regulus while still remaining suffocating by the entirety of Evan 

“I’ve just been a bit stressed from all the studying.” Regulus lied, resuming his travel to the bathroom. 

Neither of the other boys stopped him this time. He did here Evan whisper “I thought you said you were going to ask tactfully, I don’t think asking him to strip for us is tactful.” to which Barty just laughed. 

Regulus changed quickly, eyes held up, making eye contact with the wall rather than the dark patch of ink on his arm. Obviously the mark explained his sudden desire to remain clothed in front of his friends but he would rather die then admit it to them. He hardly wished to admit it to himself. 

He remembers the letter he got from his mother the day after, she had been so proud. He vaguely remembers Bellatrix being proud. His father was apparently proud too though his mother had been the one to mention it rather than him. He wasn’t proud. He couldn't be. 

The mark was no longer surrounded by red skin, the colour had faded ever so slightly, only picking up on nights before the paper listed more raids and attacks. He hated seeing it then, knowing something was happening and not being able to say anything. Worse yet, being compliant with it. 

It’s not that he was necessarily an equalist, he didn’t have the kindest opinions on muggles, he just didn’t think they needed to die for it. He didn’t think half bloods or even muggleborns were terrible, maybe just a bit worse, like a coin pulled from the dirt, it’s not as if the value had changed. He didn’t agree that people should die for something out of his control. Regulus understood that things were rarely ever under his control. 

This, what he was doing with Remus, that was under his control even if the situation itself wasn’t. He let out a deep breath, resetting whatever worried faces he had made back to his blankest expression. He left the bathroom after longer than he should have needed to get changed. 

He said a quick goodnight to Evan and Barty, quick enough that they had very little time to push further. Behind his closed curtains he slept poorly. Bad dreams permeated his sleep and bad thoughts permeated his head when he lay awake. He pushed through anyway, the silencing charm over his curtains at least let him go uninterrupted. Unseen in his disgruntled state. 

It took him four days to muster up the courage to ask his parents to move out. He was with Pandora as he wrote. She was working on something for potions. He accompanied her to make sure that when she inevitably blew something up there would be someone there to put it out. While she worked he sat, staring at a blank piece of parchment. 

The issue with writing to his parents was that no matter how he asked they would probably take it as defiance, or perhaps some kind of insult which would prove painful for him. He had half the mind to ask the diary which sat in his bag, it would probably be a little more inconspicuous then what Pandora's suggestions would be. He of course didn’t, he was no Remus when it came to trusting the diary. 

Sixteen year old Riddle was still the Dark Lord, just as persuasive, just as manipulative, hiding it under a layer of charm. Regulus was family with the act. His mother had made sure of that when she realized she had failed with Sirius. Only one child had to be able to be the Black's heir and she had likely chosen him as soon as Sirius got sorted into Gryffindor. 

Tragically it was her own tendency to manipulate that he was going to use in order to move out. Regulus was more trusted than Sirius. He was better kept and he knew she would love to flaunt his independence and his initiative. He knew she couldn't truly deny him either if he phrased it as a way to be more available in his role as a death eater. 

I must implore you to trust me to bring status to our family on my own. It was a perfect sentence, would she really be able to deny him freedom if he was doing it for their family. He knew his father would be convinced, he had wanted Regulus to be more independent from the get go, he had once told Regulus that ‘the only thing Sirius had over him was his individuality, even if he was botching it by hanging out with mudbloods and blood traitors’.

His father had always hated how much his mother had coddled him. His definition of coddled had to be skewed since Regulus wouldn't consider teaching him how to properly control a room and attacking him for acting anything but in her ideal image was coddling. It’s not as though he didn’t appreciate the guidance, it just hadn’t been much in the way of coddling. 

I hope you allow me to make use of this gift. Another manipulative line Regulus had thrown in. His connection to the Dark Lord was a gift in their eyes, they wouldn't let him squander it, even if it meant letting him leave. 

Regulus signed the letter the same way he always did to his parents, solely to his mother, who would relay it to his father. With care, your son. He used to sign his name, your son, Regulus, there was no need for that anymore, to his parents they no longer had two sons so why differentiate. 

Regulus made sure to also mention his tireless preparation for the O.W.Ls, nothing like a reminder how much of a perfect son he was to help sway their convictions. 

He flooded the letter neatly and placed it into the cover of one of his text books as to keep it comfortably folded. He’d visit the owlery later, he remembered Dorcas also had plans to head that way at some point so maybe he would go with her. “Letter for your parents?” Pandora questioned as she softened something into her cauldron, causing it to bubble a bright purple colour. Regulus almost didn’t answer, too captivated by whatever she was doing. 

“Yes, I haven't written to them in some time.” Regulus explained. 

“Evan writes to ours enough for the both of us.” Pandora supplied, mixing the strange liquid, causing bubbles to pour over the top. It was definitely not something they learned in class. 

“Pandora.” Regulus implored, looking at her cauldron with an intrigued, if not disturbed, look. “Might I ask what it is that you're making?” he asked, leaning in ever so slightly before reminding himself that this was Pandora making the potion, causing him to pull back immediately. 

“I’m hoping to entirely dissolve one of my roommates' beds.” Pandora explained, staring tentatively at the elixir. I want it to be entirely gone, not even a trace left to remake.”

“Why?”

“She told me that I was weird and that my brother was a slag for sleeping with Barty.” Pandora replied, watching as the bubbles sunk deep holes into the table. 

“Why not just hex her?” 

“Because her bed was imported from her home, she always complained the dorm ones were too stiff and she needed ‘her bed’. This will hurt more than a hex.” Pandora said with a smile as she added an actual spark of magic from her wand. Regulus was shocked the whole pot didn’t implode. 

“Do you have anything you’d like to dissolve? I need to test it first, no good if she can just bring the thing back, magic’s all fun until you realize other people can just stop you from doing all the more fun stuff.” 

Regulus, sensing the opportunity, pulled out the diary. He doubted it would work and it would definitely skew Pandora results since the thing had proven to be nigh impossible to destroy under the several hexes and curses Regulus and more reluctantly, Remus, had tried on it the last time they saw each other.

They had started taking prefect duty together, Remus disappearing from Evans' sights after disappearing from whoever he had been partnered with prior, only to turn up at the end of the night as if they had ‘just missed each other’. Regulus took a cruel satisfaction at her annoyed face as well as Remus’ when she inevitably shouted at him especially since the pair had fought to avoid the usual random pair ups only for Remus to start disappearing. He made sure to stay out of sight each time she came back, thankful for the warning from the map Remus always seemed to carry. 

The diary was placed on the desk, sitting next to the holes that had formed in the table under Pandora's brewing. He placed a couple wards over the table in an attempt to prevent the damage from worsening. 

The potion did nothing aside from spill of the diary which shot a couple of aggravated sparks. He got Pandora to try a couple more times, just for curiosity's sake, only having her stop when the scoops of potion started to spread to the edges of the table, threatening to fall to the floor, likely burning right through it. 

“So it doesn’t work.” Pandora sighed. 

“I mean it does, just not strongly enough to break wards or anything.” Regulus comforted while looking at the table's undisturbed state. 

“ I should add more bundimun ooze then, the recipe I’m basing this off of used the diluted stuff but if it’s not strong enough I reckon the regular stuff would work. I know Slughorn keeps some too, he used it to show how ‘not to’ make doxycide.” Pandora muttered, walking to the locked cabinet on the wall, muttering a quick spell before opening it and beginning rummaging around. Regulus prayed Slughorn wouldn't return to see it. 

“When did we learn to make doxycide?” Regulus asked, not bothering to look at Pandora, choosing to concentrate on cleaning up her potion. He had hovered a couple rags over from Slughorn's rack on the wall to clean up the spilling potion, though all he succeeded in destroying the rags which fizzled to nothing almost as soon as they touched Pandora's potion. He was lucky he hadn’t tried to touch it with his hands. 

“We didn’t but Slughorn talks to himself when mixing on his own, teaches to, it was an empty room and he was just chattering to himself about which vials to use so he wouldn't accidentally upturn Tassocry's divination class. I think he’s just sort of stuck doing it from all his time teaching, maybe not, I talk to myself and I’ve never been a teacher, I know Tasoscry talks to herself too, not in a teacher way, in a way like me and Sybill.” Pandora rambled as she sorted through the vials in the cabinet. 

“Maybe it’s a divination thing.” Regulus suggested. “I don’t talk to myself and I've also never once taken divination.” 

“Quite a shame since your future is so distinctive.” Pandora mumbled, an odd thing to say but it was Pandora. “You don’t talk to yourself because you don’t think yourself good company, I like myself and therefore talking to me is fun for me.” Pandora added this time more to Regulus as she came back over to the table with a vial of putrid coloured ooze. 

“I don’t talk to myself because the habit wouldn’t go unnoticed in my house.” Regulus offered as he gave up in scrubbing the tables and instead used his wand to redirect the spillage back into Pandora's cauldron. 

“That’s part of the charm.” Pandora said, pouring the ooze into the cauldron.

“Certainly not the type of charm that is expected from me.” Regulus responded, watching as the liquid changed from a soft purple to a dark one.  

“If I was everything that was expected of me I think I would be a very different person.”

“That would be a shame, I think you're decently alright how you are.”

“Well you’re quite the opposite, all expectations met and I’d say you’re also decently alright, who’s to say I wouldn't be better like that.” Pandora rebutted, a poor argument since Regulus wouldn't think himself decently anything nor would he say he’s meeting all his expectations, if asked he would probably say he was almost as defiant as Pandora herself in a possibly even worse way. 

“If that’s how you wanted to be then I’d probably say it would be better but I feel you're happy how you are now so I would say you're better now.” Regulus offered. 

“Maybe there's another universe where we're swapped and you’re the defiant one of the two of us.” Pandora suggested. “I think I would love to meet that version of you, not because I don’t like you like this but you’d probably be half a beat better at it then I am and I figure it’d be good to see. I’d probably like to meet me too, just to see what I’d be like.” 

"Wouldn't you just be Evan?” 

“Maybe a bit, lets hope not though, I couldn't see myself dating Barty.” Her potion had started to thicken, clinging to the ladle. 

“In a world where we were all a little swapped wouldn't Barty just be normal?” Regulus asked, watching as the thick mixture started to eat at the sides of Pandora's cauldron, thinning it ever so slightly.  

“Let’s hope not, it’d be too strange to see him all prim.” She replied, pouring the liquid out of her cauldron and into what looked to be a large bag of some kind of animal fleece. “I wonder what Dorcas would be like, my instincts tell me she’d be sort of like Wilkes, all mean and evil but kind of a coward, Evan would be a little bit of a mix between me and you, I wonder if everything were reversed would it be you that ran away instead of your brother?” Pandora whispered, talking more to herself even if she seemed to be asking Regulus, he chose not to answer as to avoid thinking about his brother.

He followed her out of the class. They apparently weren't headed to the Ravenclaw dorm as Regulus had suspected. Instead he followed Pandora halfway up the stairs to what he eventually realized was the divination classroom.  “Pandora, I’m going to head back to my dorm.” He told, tapping her lightly on the shoulder to make sure she was listening, rather than ignoring him in favour of his own thoughts. 

“You should come up first, I want to check something.” 

Regulus did not want to check something, especially if that something had to do with him and divination. “Not today Dora, sorry.” He replied. 

“You really should, there's something off about the space you take up as of late.” Pandora said with an unreadable expression. Regulus just shook his head and mumbled another sorry. 

Pandora was good at telling when things were off so it’s not like not getting the reading would change whatever she was thinking. The only difference was that Regulus wouldn't know himself. He hoped to keep it that way. 

Chapter Text

The full moon ended up falling on the first day of June. Remus was happy to note that Dumbledore had not decided to send him back to the werewolves this month. He was unhappy to note that spending one moon with other werewolves had somehow made spending the next worse without.

He felt it in his bones more than usual. His heightened senses were just a bit more aggravating. The loud chatter of his friends over the last few days had been worse than usual no matter how accommodating they attempted to be. 

It was as if the wolf could tell it was going to be once again stuck in the shack, even in the woods, on the grounds of the most nauseatingly magical place it could be.

Remus, over the years, had grown aware of the wolf and even his own sensitivity to magic. He could feel it and smell it and maybe even touch it in ways that most other students couldn't ever dream of. 

He remembers when the Marauders  had found out about this they thought it was wicked. Remus never had that thought, it was too heavy, too strong, as if he were constantly submerged and shackled by a gift he desperately hadn’t wanted to be aware of. 

The day of the moon was a Wednesday, Remus would have been in class if not for the debilitating headache he had developed slowly through the course of the morning. Instead he found himself waiting for Madam Pomfery in the beds in the hospital wing. 

Peter was with him, he had intended to go alone only to immediately find himself nearly blinded by the pain making it hard to stand straight, let alone walk. James had offered to go with him but James chattering would have been too much. Sirius wasn’t there. Peter was always best at telling what Remus needed in a pinch anyways. 

“You should probably go to class.” Remus instructed, leaning against the frame of the uncomfortable bed. Peter was sitting at the end, digging through his bag. 

“Sirius and James always make sure to take notes when you're like this, it’s not like I have to be there.” Peter responded, pulling out his wand from his bag. Remus wondered why he always put it in his bag rather than in his pocket like most people did. 

“I don’t need someone to watch over me when I’m ‘like this’ though, I’m really fine on my own, Pete.” Remus argued.

“Maybe this isn’t about you then, maybe I just want to skip class.” Peter offered, flicking his wand, Remus watched a pillow fly over from the next bed. Peter caught it, placing it between himself and the wired frame at the end of the bed.

Peter spent a couple seconds rearranging himself before continuing. “You haven't had this bad of a reaction in a while.” 

“It’s just ‘cus I was home last one, it’s like a new environment all over again here.” Remus explained. “It’s not new, nor is it out of the ordinary, I really don’t need you to watch over me.”

“I already told you, I’m just here to cut class.” Peter responded with a smirk.

“You best think of another cover story Mr. Pettigrew.” Madam Pomfery instructed, coming towards the bed from the curtained area near the back of the wing. “Comments like that often get students sent back to class.” 

“Well it’s either I get kicked out for skipping class by you or I get kicked out by Remus for wanting to make sure he's alright.” Peter complained, throwing a hand up. 

“Perhaps I’ll make an exception then, if you are to be a dear and grab me some of the calming drought from the cabinet.” Pomfery responded, pointing her wand at the cabinet near the wall, it flew open with the move of her wand. Peter gave a hum before following the point of her wand.  “I suppose you are here with your usual affliction.” she added, turning back to Remus. 

“Just a bit of a headache, It’s nothing to get all fussy about.” Remus replied, raising his voice in a point to make sure Peter could hear him. He watched Peter stick his tongue at him from where he stood in front of the cabinet. 

“Well dear it’s better safe then sorry, I would rather you come too soon rather than too late, I can cure a headache sure but if things got worse there's very little medical magic could do.” Pomfery explained, waving her wand once again, Remus felt his headache lighten faintly. 

“Yes and who would help me keep Sirius from killing someone if you died from exploding brain syndrome." Peter added, bringing over a little bottle from the cabinet. Pomfery took it from his hand, checking over the label before handing it to Remus who drank it quickly. 

“I don’t think my brain is going to explode from a headache, Wormy.” Remus retorted. Pomfery handed him a goblet of water she had produced seemingly from thin air. He accepted gratefully, hoping for relief from the bitter tasting elixir. 

“What if it starts to transform early though, your werewolf brain doesn't fit in your human head and then it explodes? Maybe that's what's happening.” Peter argued.

“That is not going to happen.” Remus stated.

“It might, werewolves are pretty unknown, it totally could!” Peter furthered with enthusiasm. 

“Maybe stop saying the word werewolf so loudly.” Remus instructed, looking past Peter to make sure the room was empty. 

“As someone who has studied all manners of lycanthropy rather thoroughly I can safely say there is little chance of his brain shifting early or exploding, Mr. Petteigrew.” Pomfery comforted. 

“Little but never no chance.” Peter argued. 

“Real comforting Pete, thanks.” Remus affirmed, kicking a foot out at him, narrowly missing as he jumped back. 

“Just doing my best to keep us informed." Peter said with a laugh before settling back down onto the end of Remus' bed. 

Peter left a little before lunch. He had told Remus he was going to pick him up something, which Remus insisted he didn’t do since his stomach was awfully finicky around this time of the month, having a preference for rawer meats and not much else. Remus didn’t feel like indulging the feeling this time.

When he returned he was accompanied by Lily and Sirius. James had stayed back with Mary and Marlene since neither of them knew about Remus' illness yet and he’d rather they didn’t find out.

Lily found out last year. Snape had been the one to tell her, apparently she had told him she didn’t believe him only to turn back to Remus and immediately ask for confirmation. He remembered that time vividly, Lily had been standoffish for a couple weeks, only letting up after asking for help on her Magical Creatures essay that was set to be on werewolves. 

Since then she had been a rather comforting presence, if not a bit too pitying. Where James, Sirius and Peter elected to act as if nothing was wrong, Lily chose to make sure Remus knew it was alright for things not to be. It was nice. 

Lily sat quietly on the exposed section of the bedside table while Peter and Sirius took to sprawling themselves over the open parts of the bed. Peter was back by Remus' feet and Sirius sitting next to Remus, hanging slightly off the side of the bed. 

“Is there a particular reason why you're all here? It’s impeding on my nice period of rest.” Remus asked, after a long pause of having all three sit and stare at him. 

“We're worried about you.” Sirius answered honestly. 

“I couldn't stand another minute of James.” Lily answered, probably also being quite honest, though he could see the worry in her face which made it a little more apparent she was here for the same reason as Sirius.

“I’m bringing you lunch.” Peter replied, throwing him a piece of toast pulled from somewhere in his bag, awfully unsanitary. “Theres also an apple and probably squished muffin where that came from.” 

“And where exactly did this come from?” Remus asked, eyeing the toast suspiciously. 

“Folded in a napkin in my bag, might be a bit squished and possibly tasting slightly minty since I’ve got peppermint leaves somewhere in my bag.” Peter clarified, Remus gave a shrug before eating the toast. It didn’t taste like much, really only succeeding in making his stomach churn a little. 

“Hey if Moony’s not gonna take the muffin can I have it? James ate half my lunch.” Sirius asked. Peter looked to Remus who nodded, before throwing the muffin at Sirius who caught it and began taking it apart into chunks. 

“Are you really not going to eat anything else? You missed breakfast too.” Lily wondered, giving Remus an inquisitive look. “At least eat the apple.” 

“‘M not that hungry,” he argued. It was a blatant lie and she knew it. Remus pretty much always ate more closer to the moon, the not eating was more of a protest of their worry as well as a little way to starve out the wolf. 

“You still have to eat.” Lily pushed. 

“I’ll eat later then.” Remus offered, another lie since whenever later was would probably have him locked up in the shack rather than sitting at the tables in the Great Hall. “Do you have notes for my morning classes?” he then asked Sirius, quickly changing the subject. 

“I’ve got them for defense against the dark arts but I think James has the ones for the other two.” Sirius replied, digging into his bag. 

“I’ve got some from transfiguration if you want those instead of James’s.” Lily added. Remus nodded at her. “Okay, I would also give you my care of magical creatures ones but we didn’t actually do much today, Kettleburn dragged us halfway across the grounds looking for thestrals only to remember most students wouldn't be able to see him and more problematically for him, he couldn't see them.” 

“I thought we already learned about thestrals?” Remus questioned. 

“Yes but apparently one of the thestrals was to half a calf soon and he wanted us to see it happen, which obviously was stupid since no one can see them in the first place.” Lily clarified as she placed what looked to be her transfiguration notes on his lap. 

“I mean everyone knows Kettleburn’s a bit off, the real question is why did no one stop him?” Peter asked, leaning inwards a bit. 

“Why would anyone?” Sirius replied vibrantly. He was still picking at the muffin from earlier, occasionally offering a chunk to Remus who took it absentmindedly. “Who would want to do actual class when we can spend the whole fifty doing nothing!” 

“People who want to learn, Sirius!” Lily grumbled. “I’ll have you know I tried to tell him but he and Potter kept butting in and cutting me off.” she added, glaring at Sirius. 

“We were doing you a favour mate, you know how pissed people’d be at you if you actually got us doing work then! You’d have been made a pariah Lily!” Sirius argued. 

“I’d rather listen to Kettleburn teach then listen to him re-hash the entirety of last month's lessons while wandering around aimlessly.” Lily argued back. “It was terribly boring and we were still technically being taught it was just stuff we already knew.” 

“Which means you didn't have to pay attention, Lils, and don’t tell me you didn’t spend half the class just chatting with Mary, you were clearly not listening to Kettleburn!”

“Well yes after I gave up trying to tell Kettleburn because of someone's meddling , I did chat with Mary but that’s beside the point!” 

“I think that's exactly the point!” Sirius shouted, prompting Remus to shush him. “You benefited from not doing nothing because you got to just hangout with Mary.” Sirius finished quietly. 

“It wasn’t ‘hanging out’ we were being dragged around the school while in class, all we did was complain about how boring it was!” Lily snapped back. 

“Oh sure.” Sirius replied sarcastically. Lily just shot him another glare before pushing herself off the bedside table. 

“If you're going to be a prat then I’m going to leave.” She stated, before glancing back to Remus. “I hope you feel better Rem, let me know if you want my notes from this afternoon or tomorrow rather than this slacker’s.” 

“If you're heading to lunch then can you send James up?” Sirius called after her. 

“Like I'd ever talk to Potter willingly!” Lily called back before heading around the corner. 

“Do you think she’ll send him?” Sirius asked, looking at Remus. 

“No, no I do not, Sirius.” Remus responded. “You two don’t have to stay here either y’know, I’m fine on my own, I could probably even go to class this afternoon anyways.” Remus added. The pains in his head had shrunk substantially and the aching in his bones was hardly anything new.

“Pomfery told me not to let you go to class.” Peter answered a bit sheepishly, Remus looked at him with a confused expression not remembering that part of the conversion at all. “You were sleeping.” He clarified. 

“‘Sides it’s not like class is as important as you.” Sirius added. “Which is to say since Peter got the morning shift I’ll stick around through the afternoon.” 

“Oh no fair.” Peter argued. “You always skip classes after the moon, I think someone else should at least get the before.” 

“I skip because I’m a genius and don’t need class, can you say the same?” Sirius retorted. 

“Hey I am just as smart as you!” Peter cried, kicking a foot into Sirius's leg. Sirius let out a sharp gasp. 

“No need to resort to violence, I think just because of that I should have to stay anyway you brute.” Sirius replied, looking at Peter as if he had hit him with a full blown curse rather than a light kick. 

“While I appreciate your concern, if this is really just about skipping classes to you I’ll have Pomfrey kick you both out.” Remus interjected, looking between the two as if challenging them to argue. 

“It’s about solidarity mate, if you're forced to miss lessons possibly harming your entire education then we will too, as your friends and all.” Sirius quickly retorted with a face of mock respect. Remus stared at him plainly. 

“Okay both of you out.” Remus replied calmly. 

“Woah, both of us! I haven't even said anything!” Peter yelled, holding his hand over his chest in offense. Remus just shrugged at him

“You don't really have the authority to quick us out and I don’t actually see Pomfery anywhere.” Sirius argued, cranning his neck to stare further into the room. 

“It’s like you want me to forcibly remove you.” Remus sighed. “You know I’m loads stronger closer to the moon right, I could perfectly easily just carry you out myself Pads.” He placed an arm around Sirius' shoulder, threatening to lift up his torso only to be half shut down by Sirius squirming.

“I fucking doubt it! I’ve been beater for the quidditch team for three years now Moony, I don’t think your werewolf strength can compare any more.” Sirius stated, flexing one of his arms which made both Remus and Peter roll their eyes. 

“You hit a ball with a bat once a month! Maybe I’d be more inclined to believe you if you actually did some of James stupid strength training!” Remus shouted before pushing Sirius half of the bed. Sirius of course retaliated by kneeing him in the shin as he pulled himself up with the wired frame of the bed. 

“And be some fucking tosspot who wakes up half the dorm at five in the morning! Like hell! I get enough ‘strength training’ at practice which is more than you’ve got.” Sirius retaliated, using his wand to pull off the pillow from the other bed and hitting it into Remus' face.

“Sirius I will fucking drag you out of here by your bloody feet!” Remus yelled, grabbing the pillow out of his hands and discarding it on the floor. 

“If you go anywhere near my feet I will quick you in the face!” Sirius replied, using his magic to bring the pillow back and attempting to whack Remus with it again only to be stopped by Remus’ arms. 

“Y’know what if you two are just going to fight maybe I will leave.” Peter muttered, pushing himself from the bed, narrowly avoiding another swing from Sirius’ pillow. 

“Well if Pete's leaving then I guess that means you're stuck with me.” Sirius replied, throwing the full pillow at Remus who deflected it onto the floor. 

“What a shame.” Remus sighed, shaking his head as if it really were upsetting. Sirius laughed. 

Peter waved the two a quick goodbye which Sirius reciprocated while Remus pushed out of the bed, picking up the other pillow and returning it to its original bed. “I really don’t get why she’s keeping me here all day.” Remus sighed as he climbed back into the hospital bed. 

“James said you weren't even able to stand this morning, sounds pretty bad.” Sirius offered, settling back into the bed next to Remus. 

“James was exaggerating, It was just a bit of dizziness.” Remus lied as he pulled open Lily's transfiguration notes. 

“You don’t need to lie Moons, I know it gets bad sometimes.” Sirius replied softly. He was laying on Remus' shoulder, he could feel the tickle of Sirius’ long hair on the exposed parts of his neck. Remus tried not to focus on their closeness. 

“It’s not any worse than usual, the only worse thing is the fact that I’m missing class, end of year exams are coming up and I doubt missing classes like this is going to help me pass.” Remus complained. 

“Oh c’mon, you always get good grades! ‘Sides, it’s not like the moons affected any of your classes so far.” Sirius comforted.

“I nearly failed the first and second year because of all this.” Remus corrected, waving his hand to emphasize his words. 

“You were still getting used to everything then, I mean look at you now Moony, you're practically top of the class, you're a prefect for merlin's sake!” 

“I’m honestly pretty sure I’m only a prefect because Mcgonagall pities me.” Remus argued. 

“No way is that true!” Sirius yelled, pushing himself up so he could look straight into Remus’ eyes. With a pointed finger and a very accusatory tone he continued, “first off, Minnie does not feel pity so there's that, and more importantly! You’re absolutely brilliant Moony! You’re an amazing student and I won’t have you saying otherwise!” Sirius finished, before plopping back down next to Remus. 

“You know your words hold no value since we're friends and all.” Remus disagreed. “I can’t trust that you're being honest because when it comes down to it since we're friends you’re probably just saying what you think I want to hear.” 

“My words hold the most value in the entire world dear Moony.” Sirius corrected, placing an arm around Remus shoulder and giving him a squeeze. 

“Sure Padfoot, sure.” Remus agreed. Arguing would upset Sirius and more importantly, more often than not, Sirius, whether it was his words or just him in general, did have quite a lot of value to Remus. 

They spent the rest of the afternoon together, only parting briefly  later when Pomfery came to take him to the shrieking shack, giving her usual potions and wards before giving him a tight hug and wishing him safety before leaving him to transform alone in the shack.

At some point it was safe to assume the Marauders  showed up, they had been joining him as animagi for the moon since last year but Remus never remembered much of the moon anyways. Only coming to the next day, sore, scared and once again alone in the shack. 

The next day was once again spent in the hospital wing. This time he had actually managed to convince the entirety of the Marauders along with Lily, to leave him be when class started, not wanting to impose further and also desperately wanting to be alone for a little while. 

It had been a hard battle to win, especially since both Peter and Sirius’ other option was to go to their divination class, which both of them were deeply sorry to have taken, finding it awfully boring.  Remus and James used to tease them relentlessly when they both chose to take it. Talk about foresight, they’d say, couldn't even predict that class would be an absolute bore. Needless to say it was quite the spiel to get them to go to class. 

Lily had gotten James to go with her with ease, she had barely gotten the words out and he was already following her down the hall. Remus was thankful for Lily's help. It wasn’t that he didn’t want the company, it just felt patronizing. Lily seemed to get it more than the Marauders. 

Pomfery had told him we would be able to leave after lunch. It wasn’t ideal since it was still hours to lunch but at least it gave him something to think about rather than just stare at the secluded little nook where he often stayed after the moon. 

At least he had something to do in the form of the several pages of work from the classes he had missed. He’d had enough to do after a regular moon but he remembered the stacks of work from the moon he had spent with the pack, at least it wasn’t that. 

Around eleven Remus found himself in the presence of slightly unusual company. 

It’s not that he and Regulus were strangers anymore. They had been talking more since May. not really in the way friends do, it was more like exchanging information for a project. Regulus hadn’t mentioned anything about moving in with him over summer either so he figured that was more of an overstep on his part. 

Regulus had no reason to visit Remus after the moon. They were pretty set in their research, nothing dire had been discovered recently so there was no reason for Regulus to visit him at such an inconvenient time. 

It seemed Regulus didn’t know exactly why he was there either, standing awkwardly at the end of the room, you wouldn’t be able to see him at all from the main area of the hospital wing behind the curtains of Remus’ de facto bed. 

After a couple moments of awkward silence, Regulus finally spoke up, though his voice was meek, almost as if he was being forced to say something, as if he hadn’t shown up on his own. “Hey.”

“Hey.” Remus responded, clear confusion permeating his word. 

“How was… your evening.” Regulus tried, slowing as if he expected Remus to come out and snap at him for even bridging it up. 

“Oh obviously it was entirely pleasant.” Remus deadpanned, holding up his bruised arms to make his sarcasm even more potent. Regulus' face contorted to a near smile for just a second. 

“I could hear it– you– the howling last night.” Regulus half whispered, not quite looking at Remus. “Evan and Pandora will often take us out during full moons but I never paid much mind to noises before.”

“There’s charms, wards and shite up that make it harder to notice. Peter said the same thing when they all found out.” Remus replied. “It’s not as bad as it sounds.” He added, noticing the concealed concern Regulus wore. 

“I’d hope not. I’d rather not have you die if we're going to be working together on all this, even if you're not the best resource. You're better than none. Or Barty, god you're better than Barty.” Regulus remarked, shaking his head solemnly. Remus laughed, albeit briefly, the aching and shifting of his ribs made it painful. 

“I’ve heard Crouch’s got the highest grades of your year.” Remus challenged, stifling his laughter for the sake of his ailed body. 

“His grades are not a reflection of his personality, he’s gotten just about as many detentions as they can even give.” Regulus clarified. “I reckon if he'd known about your lycanthropic tendencies he'd be at your door begging to be bitten each night, just for the experience, the bloody idiot.” 

“Well I’d just have to give in now, it’s truly not as bad as it seems if you ignore the brutal misshaping of your entire body.” Remus replied sarcastically. He took a couple seconds to crack each of the fingers on his left hand before continuing. “I’m not sure if wizards would have them, but muggles have these chiropractors that specialize in pain relief by doing shite like cracking your bones. I've always sort of thought of the breakage to be kind of like that, almost therapeutic.” 

“I’ll assume you’re joking but just know Barty would probably believe you.” 

“I’ve made the same joke to James and he believed me.” Remus replied with a nod. 

“Idiots.” Regulus agreed. It was silent for another beat before Regulus continued. “You’re alright though? Or at least no worse than usual?” 

“No worse than usual.” Remus nodded with a slight smile. 

“Good.” Regulus started, “doing this alone doesn’t seem like a great idea, I’d hope not to be forced to do as such.” he added quietly. 

“If I were going to die I’d suggest you find someone else anyway, I’d rather not meet you too soon in the afterlife ‘cus you were dumb enough to act on your own, it’d make me think you less than James or Crouch.” Remus argued. Regulus huffed in return. 

“Well we’re lucky you’re not dying.” Regulus retorted.

“Not yet.” Remus joked though it didn’t seem to land with Regulus. Without so much as a smirk he started digging through his bag before placing a bottle of something on Remus’ bedside. “What’s this?” Remus asked, eyeing the bottle. 

“Something Dora and I brewed, it’s technically experimental and it’s more for taking your mind aches rather then actually fixing them, I’ve tried it before with no adverse effects.” Regulus explained, “Don’t drink more than a mouthful.” 

Remus took a tentative sip. It tasted like cider, much nicer than most potions Pomfery had him take. “‘Xpected it to taste worse." he said after a sip. “Thanks.” 

 "It's nothing, nice to see you're okay, I’ve got to get back to class.” Regulus said before quickly turning back towards the exit. He left just as abruptly as he arrived and Remus still wasn’t quite sure why he’d been there in the first place. 

“Thanks for the visit.” Remus mumbled after Regulus was already out of sight. He decided not to dwell on it. The potion helped with his work anyway, the pain wasn’t gone but as Regulus had said it helped him keep his mind off of it and on his paper. 

Lunch came quickly between his transfiguration papers and practising his nonverbal spells for Defence Against the Dark Arts. James was the one who came and picked him up, Remus must have looked real bad since James spent the whole way trying to subtly support Remus weight. 

He didn’t eat much over lunch, his stomach was a bit off from his activities last night. The few bites he did either tasted like dirt or made him feel nauseous. Seeing Sirius and Marlene huddled, bickering like a married couple in their own little world made him more nauseous. Suddenly he wished he hadn't drunk Regulus' mystery potion. The pains would be more tolerable then whatever seeing them made him feel.