The Marauders - Order of the Phoenix - Part Two

Oliver's Natural Strategy

Regulus hated the idea of being so exposed as having Severus Snape aware of his secret, but as upsetting as the idea of Snape as a potential enemy was, the move of him as an ally was hopefully going to prove to be equally beneficial.

The night he composed a note - asking "Sev" to join him in Diagon Alley, signed Lily (the only person that Severus would respond to without any further details being disclosed, giving Regulus the opportunity to send an encrypted message without raising the hackles o) - he had been working rather desperately at figuring out the missing name from the registry, trying to cross reference family records throughout the library. There were no less than ten different family trees in the library, various versions that had been handed down and copied and copied and copied, but Walburga had been quite thorough with her scratching out. Nearly as thorough as Regulus was in correcting the documents - adding Sirius back on everywhere he found him missing.

But none of the versions had the missing Gaunt.

Consequently, he'd set aside the search for the missing Gaunt until he'd figured out a way to visit the Hall of Ancestors, at the Ministry for Magic, where he could trace his bloodline back and find the missing Gaunt woman who had married a Riddle.

In the meantime, he wanted to pursue other leads as well. But he didn't have much else. What sort of place would Voldemort consider special, worthy enough to store a bit of himself in? Surely it would be a place that meant something to him - some former home or landmark.

Regulus kept thinking how he would have hid his in that street lamp post in the middle of the Palais, the place where he had last spent time with his big brother. Surely there was some similar place that meant a good deal to Voldemort that he, Regulus, would have no clue to the meaning of. Nor anyone else for that matter, which was the genius and the horridness of it. How was he supposed to find it if it was something only Voldemort would know about?

If only there was a way to get an inside peek at the Dark Lord's mind.

And that had been the thought that had led him to Severus Snape.

Reckless? Sure. But the thing was that Severus Snape had secrets that he didn't want the Dark Lord to know, either, things that Regulus did know and could use as blackmail.

("Every piece of mail I send it blackmail," Sirius's voice echoed in Regulus's mind.)

Regulus had enough information about Severus Snape to keep him in line, and in an odd way Regulus sort of trusted Snape anyway. True, Snape was a world class idiot, an arsehole in the highest order, but he was also sort of a victim of the same things that Regulus had been, with not even a tenth of the privilege. Snape, Regulus recognized, was the child of a Dark Magic family that had broken the rules, fallen into poverty and regret, and had been scratching, desperately ever since. Severus was part of a fallen class, unacceptable pureblood families, ostracized by their previous involvement in the dark circles by everyone else, and even pathetic on the level of muggle lives. Severus Snape had been left out of every single social circle that he orbited, orphaned, and had so royally and completely messed up his only friendship that there was nothing that could ever restore it. He'd earned all of the rubbish that he'd got himself into.

Without the influence of Sirius and Maryrose, Regulus would've been in precisely the same place.

Few people understood that.

But Regulus did.

And on top of that, Severus also happened to be very useful tool that Regulus could use.

And use him he would.

"Today Gryffindor plays Hufflepuff in a match to potentially determine who will win the '78-'79 Cup at Hogwarts!" Dexter's voice carried through the pitch. "Bloody exciting match today made even more exciting by the fact that Hogwarts is playing host to some visitors - everyone remember to say hi to the Marauders and watch out because pranks can never be too far behind when they're around! We were only expecting James Potter but we've got ALL FOUR here today after all!"