⚯͛ Unfortunate - Remus Lupin ⚯͛

69.

"Regulus??"

"Hi..."

The boy walked in slowly, looking nervously around him. Almost everyone in the room had their wand up and pointed at him. Maeve looked at him, her green eyes wide in shock. It seemed like it had been about ten years since she last saw him, but in reality it had only been one. It was strange to see him again, especially in the setting of an Order meeting.

"What are you doing here, Reg?" Sirius asked.

"I..." He looked round at them all once more, before fixating his gaze on Maeve, "I did it, Maeve."

"You..."

And then it clicked. He had done what she had done. After she told him that she had made the potion, he had figured it out and made it for himself. He had reversed the unbreakable vow.

He had defected.

"Oh."

She lowered her wand and walked forward to hug him. He let out a breath of relief and squeezed her tight.

"What the hell's going on? Reg, what are you doing here?" They heard Sirius ask.

"Reg, tell them," Maeve pulled back and walked to stand by Remus again, who shot her a confused look.

"Oh...well Maeve kind of let on to me about the potion that she had been working on last year because I had told her I was having doubts about my...allegiance...and after she told me about it I decided to make it too," he said nervously.

"I knew you'd figure it out," she smiled proudly at him, "you're a potions mastermind, always been better than me."

"How do we know he's telling the truth?" Marlene asked the group, but mainly Dumbledore.

"Show us your arm, Mr Black," Dumbledore ordered cautiously.

Regulus looked to Maeve, and she nodded back in reassurance. He swallowed and held out his arm, pulling up his sleeve and showing his Dark Mark. It was, indeed, faded. Just as Maeve's was.

"He's telling the truth," Dumbledore said.

"How do you know?" James asked.

"His Dark Mark is faded. The only thing that can do that is extracting the dark magic from it, and that can only be from the potion to reverse the unbreakable vow," Maeve told him.

"Come in, Mr Black, you can relax," Dumbledore told him gently.

"Thank you," the boy said, walking into the room slowly, "and I assure you, I will be more careful than Maeve was with all of this...no offence."

"None taken," she said.

"I won't be found out, I swear," he told Dumbledore.

"Good," Dumbledore nodded, "please, sit down. You can sit in on this meeting if you'd like and then afterwards you can talk to a select few of the group privately, and we can discuss your situation."

Regulus came to sit beside Sirius, who smiled proudly at him. He was happy that his brother had finally done the right thing.

"Thank you," Regulus nodded slowly, "I actually do have some information for the group, if that's okay? I thought it might be useful."

"Go ahead," Dumbledore said.

"Have you heard of something called a horcrux?" He asked.

"Heard of it? It's what we've been trying to figure out for ages," Maeve told him, "I knew that the Dark Lord had them because of when he was torturing me and kept asking me about them."

"Yeah, that's when I first heard about them too, but since you left I...well I was appointed in your place, as his right hand," Regulus said quietly, "he's told me some new information about it...it could help lead to his downfall if you knew..."

"Please, Mr Black, tell us, anything you have would be incredibly useful," Dumbledore urged.

"Okay, well...there are six horcruxes..." he began, looking up thoughtfully.

"Six?!" Lily exclaimed, "I assumed there would only be like...three at the maximum."

"I'm afraid not," Regulus said gravely.

"Do you have any idea what any of them are?" Dumbledore asked him.

"Uh, yes...Voldemort made three of his horcruxes attach to items related to three of the founders of Hogwarts: Hufflepuff, Ravenclaw and Slytherin," Regulus said.

"Ah, just as I suspected," Dumbledore smiled, "any idea of their location, Mr Black?"

"I'm sorry, Sir, I don't, I think he's only relayed that information to Bellatrix," Regulus said.

"Bitch," Maeve muttered when she heard Bellatrix's name.

"Reg, do you think she'd tell you? Would there be a way for you to get it out of her?" Sirius asked him.

"Perhaps," he nodded slowly.

"You could get her really drunk, she's a messy drunk, even messier than James," Maeve said, grinning at James who just scowled at her.

"Yeah, you're right," Regulus laughed slightly, "I'm sure she wouldn't be able to keep her mouth shut then."

"So, it's settled, will you try to get that information for us then, Regulus?" Dumbledore asked.

"Yes, Sir," Regulus nodded strongly, "but for now, I'd recommend looking in places you'd suspect to find the items...definitely Hogwarts...and maybe Gringotts?"

"Yes, we will deploy our members to look around both sites to try to find anything," Dumbledore nodded.

"Thank you for this," Lily said to Regulus softly.

"Yeah, you're really risking a lot, I would know," Maeve said, nodding, "I'm proud of you, Reg."

"It's all because of you, I would have never made that final decision to...you know...do it," Regulus told her, making her smile softly.

"I'm proud of you too," Sirius nudged him with a huge grin.

"Thanks," Reg looked down, smiling too.

"But we can't make the same mistakes as we did last time, Mr Black, if you have any feeling that Voldemort is onto you, you do not go back, we will help make you 'disappear'. He would never find you," Dumbledore told him.

"Thank you," Regulus nodded, exhaling nervously, "I want to be a double-agent, like Maeve was...I just don't want it to end the way it did for Maeve..."

"You're safe now, Reg, you won't be hurt, I promise," Maeve told him gently, "and now you're with us, you can help save people rather than kill them, like you would with him."

"I know," he forced a brave smile onto his face, "that's why I joined. I want to do good."

Sirius put a brotherly arm around him, "and do good you will."