Like Real People Do

Chapter Eight

It was unusual, to all of them really, to be gathered together around the table within Regulus Black's tent.

It was early, much too early for Remus or Sirius, and they both heavily leaned against one another and fought the heaviness weighing against their eyelids. James, though, was as bright-eyed and bushy tailed as they come.

"What's the plan, lads?" he asked cheerfully, looking between them all.

"Lower your voice, Prongs," Sirius griped, burying his face in the crook of Remus's neck, "It's much too early for that."

"Some things never change. Do they, Sirius?" Regulus let out a breath of a laugh, sitting down a steaming cup of tea and his notebook on the table.

A grumbling noise could be heard from Sirius, but he didn't bother to answer past that. Regulus absentmindedly stirred sugar into his tea as he waved his hand over the journal, opening it to the first page.

"The horcruxes will be something significant to him. So in order to find what they are, we need to trace every single moment of his life since birth."

"Sounds perfectly easy," Peter deadpanned, nibbling on a scone from the Potter Kitchen, "Doesn't seem hard in the slightest."

"Maybe for you, Pettigrew, but I personally don't believe it to be difficult at all."

James snorted, "Of course you don't."

Regulus turned sharply to look at James, "What do you mean by that?"

James halfheartedly shrugged, "Books, research, all that rot. Seems like something you'd use to fill all that time you had by yourself."

It stung a bit, hearing the words spoken aloud. Regulus enjoyed his solitude, yes, but that did not keep him from being lonely. Grimmauld Place seemed to grow quieter and quieter as the years stretched on, especially after the departure of Sirius and Bellatrix.

"Tom Riddle is his real name, born in 1926 and raised in Wool's Orphanage. When he came to Hogwarts, he was sorted into Slytherin and asked his friends to call him Vol-"

"Don't!" Remus suddenly sat up straighter, his eyes wide. In his quick movements he had thrown Sirius from his shoulder, startling him awake as well.

"The name has a tracker on it. Anyone who says it is at risk of their location being compromised."

"Of course he would charm his own name," Regulus grumbled, turning back to the notebook.

"He asked his friends to call him the Dark Lord. While he was at Hogwarts, he seemed to have built a friendship with the ghost of Ravenclaw tower."

"The grey lady?" James asked.

Regulus largely ignored him, continuing on, "After Hogwarts, he worked at Borgin and Burkes."

"Explains a lot, the evil sod," Sirius muttered under his breath.

"He returned to Hogwarts in 1955 to ask for a job and was turned away. After that, the details seem to grow scarce. He seemed to have resigned from Borgin and Burkes in 1958, and was off the radar after that."

Regulus paused, mulling over the information that he had already read countless times, before continuing.

"Until he came back to Hogwarts in 1968, asking again for a job. He didn't get it, obviously," Regulus drawled.

"Shame," Remus said, his eyebrows raising, "It seems that professors in that class last a year or less. Maybe we could've rid the world of You-Know-Who simply by giving it to him."