INFERI (REGULUS BLACK)

49

"Hey Sirius," Aoife's voice disturbed his absorbing experiment. He was waving his wand over a muggle contraption, the expensive looking  vinyl turntable, trying to play Celestina Warbeck. Sirius explained this to Aoife, who clearly didn't understand who Celestina Warbeck was or what the WWN, (Wizarding Wireless Network), was.

"Don't worry 'bout it," Sirius shrugged. "Just remember Wizarding music sucks, especially Celestina Warbeck," he gave a little shudder. "Muggle music is the best."

"Fine," she said hastily. "I wanted to ask you: you wanted to make up with your brother, right?"

Sirius's head jerks up, the turntable forgotten. "Yes," he said immediately. "You have any ideas? I feel so awful for all the times I sneered at his and -"

"No need to feel bad, Sirius," Aoife interrupted. "I've known you for only 2 days, but you don't seem the type to do horrible things on purpose. Well, most of the times. People are unpredictable, you know." Realising that she was now rambling, she quickly got to the point. "Regulus wants to have dine out tonight, with both of us."

"My brother," Sirius's eyes were as round as galleons, "wants to dine out? With both of us? You alone, fine, but with me too?"

"Of course you nutter," Aoife said, plopping down on the sofa. Unfortunately the turntable was placed there, so for some good music, she'd haved to sit in that stuffy, gaudy drawing room. She inwardly shuddered everytime she thought about it.

"So it's the perfect time to apologise," Sirius's face lit up like a Christmas tree.

"Regulus is choosing the restaurant," Aoife added in an offhand manner, staring into the fire.

"We better get planning then," Sirius rubbed his hands eagerly. Quickly conjuring some parchment and a few pens, he spread them on the coffee table. Aoife looked at him, mildly bemused. "What's the use of all that?"

"It's to sketch up my master plan," Sirius grinned, this time rubbing his hands in an exaggerated 'evil planning' way. "We make a map of the place, and how we're going to pull the coolest apology prank in history."

"Sirius," Aoife said sternly, though the effect was ruined by her slight smile. "We want to apologise, not scare the poor chap away."

"But," he pouted, "I want it to be wicked!"

"Fine, put some confetti on him or whatever," Aoife said. "But nothing too extreme. You don't want his to hold a new grudge against you, do you?"

At this, he sobered up. "Do you think that'll happen?" He asked, looking a bit afraid.

"I'll tell you from personal experience," she said somberly. "I tried to lighten up the mood by giving water squirting flowers to my friend after apologising, thought I'll lighten the serious atmosphere, but he just flung the flowers at me and never spoke to me again, saying 'I'd never change.' " She stared broodingly at the fire for a moment. "So, what's the plan?" She asked.

"Oh, I'll just go and say sorry, maybe," Sirius mumbled. "Or just a small prank, to ease my nerves."

"My friend was a real prick. Don't take everything I say seriously, Sirius," Aoife said. Sirius grinned. "But I am Sirius. Dead Serious." Aoife smothered a laugh. "Regulus is better than my wanker of a friend. He can take a prank, for sure. Do confetti."

"Oh, I've got a better idea," Sirius grinned wickedly. After some furious whispering, both of them cracked identical grins. They had some scribbling to do.

*****

Hey Krass,

It was good to hear from you after so long. You don't know how it's like without you.

Regulus swallowed the lump in his throat. He'd never been without his cousin for so long. She was more that that to him, Adelaide was the only one in the entire family who cared for him, not Regulus Arcturus Black, the heir of the Ancient and Most Noble House of Black. She was more of a parent to him than his own (no thanks to Walburga's motherly behaviour).

It's good to hear you and Smith are getting along nicely. I'd called it from 5th year. Evan owes me 100 galleons.
How're Sirius's friends? Not asking for myself, but tell them to send a letter or something, he's getting a bit skittish, stuck with his brother and without them.

He could almost imagine Adelaide's smug expression when she read this paragraph, telling him that he's finally starting to warm up to Sirius, and she knew it all along. Chuckling, he wrote on:

We're alright here, and I just wanted to tell you that I'm going to swallow my pride and whatnot and tell my brother I forgive him. Partially.

Our task's going on well, but it could take a little more time. I want to tell you, but I'm afraid what will happen if this falls into wrong hands. By the way, how many down?

Hope to see you soon. Missing you terribly.

Your one and only favourite cousin,
Reggie A Black

Quickly charming the letter to be visible to Adelaide's eyes only, Regulus owled the parchment, not before stroking his owl, Leo. That cheeky little monkey had somehow tracked him down, and usually reposed in one of the sycamore trees present in the meadow.

"Bye there little fella," he whispered. Quickly exiting the study to take a little solitary walk, he bumped into Belladonna.

"Oh, sorry," he apologised. "I didn't see you there."

"It's fine," she answered. "Walk with me."

Regulus nodded reluctantly, not keen to take up the offer. There was something about her that made him uneasy.

"So, any news about the scroll?" Regulus asked as they passed the aforementioned sycamore tree.

"Not much," she sighed. "I believe it's fruitless. We should be focusing on eliminating the Inferi, not on a bloody scroll."

"I don't get the Inferi," Regulus said. "The explanation you gave was ... unsatisfactory. I still don't get how Inferi are made, and what they are, if not re-animated corpses."

"They are the most ancient form of Dark Magic," Belladonna sighed. The evening sun was setting again. The events of yesterday's evening entered his mind. They were talking about Inferi then too. It was hard to believe that only a day had passed. It seemed like weeks. He hadn't felt like this even during the 2 years he'd spent in Paris.

"You said that cursed or evil witches and wizards are turned into Inferi, but why?" Regulus asked. "Why not finish them altogether? It's quite stupid to keep them alive or undead and whatnot."

"This is quite mythological," Belladonna answered. "And lengthy. I have learnt that our Muggle companion does not know much about our world. She will be quite invaluable help later on. Would you care to brief her? I'll tell you about the Inferi tomorrow. I'm sure everyone would like to hear about it."

Regulus nodded reluctantly, internally dreading to tell Aoife the intricacies of the Wizarding World. Belladonna vanished in a swish of her cloak, leaving Regulus to trudge back inside the house. He had a dinner to prepare for.