The Marauders - Order of the Phoenix - Part One

What Cadmus Peverell Knew About Horcruxes

A parchment was enchanted and spellotaped to the refrigerator the morning after Sirius Black's Birthday reading 105 SLEEPS TIL FREDDIE. Each night at 6:00 PM according to the time zone of Lyon, France, the number changed and Sirius, who very punctually made sure to be sitting in the kitchen then, would let out a loud squeal.

"Shame he didn't count down to our wedding with this much zeal," Remus joked after the countdown moved from 103 to 102.

James looked up from a thick biography of a famous Quidditch player that he'd been reading, "Well. Freddie didn't give him a pineapple so you've got him beat there - for now at least."

Remus snorted. "It isn't like Queen is going to give him a ruddy pineapple..."

James shrugged, "I haven't any idea what to expect, honestly, if they're as odd as Sirius Black is, they very well could." He turned back to his book.

Remus laughed, but also tried to be extra loving to Sirius until the thought had worn off a few hours later.

Regulus sat on his bed in the Slytherin dormitories, the door to the sixth year dorms locked, and waved his wand to unshrink the portrait he had stolen from the wall. Although the buzz about the school had finally died down about the portrait having been taken, he figured it was still best not to have any confirmed eyes on him with it - especially any of the Slytherins' eyes. They were apt to report back to Voldemort that he had it, and then there would be questions asked and although he had been working on strengthening his mental barriers all the more, he wasn't sure how vulnerable he might be once he found out the full truth about Alabaster Jackson. He couldn't help but think that his fury toward Voldemort might just send his mind into crumbling Jericho walls if he wasn't careful.

It had been Cadmus's idea for Regulus to relocate the portrait. After all, it had been getting down the corridor unnoticed and without anyone in ear shot that had caused the most troubles so far in their attempts at a rendezvous and Regulus's stream of detentions were getting out of hand. Whatever it was that Cadmus had done to loosen his frame from the wall, Regulus wasn't entirely sure, only that Cadmus had told him to hold onto the bottom of the frame and be ready to keep him from falling, which the boy had done, and then he'd carried the portrait away in the dead of the night, sneaking past Filch and Mrs. Norris to the dungeons.

Now the portrait was sized about half it's actual wall size, but a bit more manageable at least, and he set it on the end of the bed, leaning against the curtains of the four poster so that it almost felt as though he and Cadmus Peverell were sitting down and having a bit of a chat, so that the painting was less imposing.

"Alright," Regulus said, getting up to double-check the security of the door and run a quick charm to be one hundred percent positive that he was alone with the portrait, not to be overheard. "Tell me what you know about horcruxes, then," he said. "I need to know what they are, what they do, and what it's got to do about Alabaster."

Cadmus Peverell was leaning against his frame, sitting up on the bottom edge, like a person might do if they were sitting in a tree. Regulus had never seen a portrait sit that way before and it rather fascinated him. It was difficult not to be rude by asking how Cadmus had pulled it off. It seemed the sort of question that would be offensive to a painting - something which acknowledged their dimensionality seemed sort of like talking about jogging with somebody without legs.

"Horcruxes," murmured Cadmus Peverell as he stared up into the unpainted distance beyond his frame. "As you know, if you've heard the tale told of my brothers and I, there are ways in which a man can cheat death... My brothers and I all took a go at it, in one way or another, and while myself and Antioch were eventually found by death unwilling, my brother Ignotus gave up his life when he was good and ready for death to take it."