Potion Fumes and Periwinkle

Chapter 3

A/N: I LIVE! And here we see my possibly poor attempts at making Dumbledore not-totally-evil.

I'm a big supporter of the Evil!Dumbledore camp. But I'm gonna try to avoid that here, to the best of my ability.

We finally get that Regulus POV!

And I still don't have a cohesive plot for this. I really gotta think one up. Otherwise this'll just turn into slice-of-life fic or something.

Anyway, thanks for reading!

He stares at the paper, and can't quite believe it. Can't quite comprehend the words, even as they stare at him in stark judgement.

'...laughed like a man gone mad, as he swore again and again, "I killed them, I killed them," even as the aurors completed their arrest...'

Sirius' face stares back at him, caught in a moment of mad laughter, and by Merlin he looks so much like Cousin Bella...

Regulus flips the paper over sharply, unable to stare at it any longer.

"He wouldn't do that," Regulus breathes, and tries to ignore the trembles in his hand.

Sirius wouldn't.

And yet all evidence says he has.

"Was he tortured?" Regulus muses aloud, glancing towards Severus. He went into hiding, after that night at the Lake, and he knows he missed large sections of the war. Bits and pieces from Severus' lips when the man came to drop off the potions keeping him alive, but perhaps his old friend just didn't want to tell him...?

He knows that's not true even before Severus speaks.

Their relationship may not be what it once was, but he would never have lied to Regulus in that way.

"It is not surprising. I have long told you your brother is a menace." Severus hisses, glaring at the paper as though it personally offends him.

"Maybe to us, but..." Regulus' throat closes, and he tries not to choke on his words. "He always... the Potters were more a family to him than we were."

He can't quite bring himself to say that Sirius loved the Potters more.

It hurts to even think it, but... Sirius considered James Potter his brother far more than he did Regulus.

Regulus just wishes he knew why he wasn't good enough they drifted apart.

Severus scoffs, and Regulus glares at him.

"I know something happened in your sixth year, between you. But I know my brother, Severus. Either of us, he might have stabbed in the back in a heartbeat. But not James. Never James. I just don't understand..."

He trails off, staring at the flipped-over paper as though it might offer him answers.

Everything is silent in the moments between Severus turning pages through Slughorn's notes. Regulus should do the same, but his gaze keeps crawling back to the paper, and he both wants to flip it over and wants to never see it again.

Eventually, Severus stops, resting his hands atop the notes.

"He tried to murder me."

It's a quiet admission, and Regulus almost asks, "Who?", before he remembers their short conversation.

He turns his attention to Severus, who meets his eyes with a coolly dispassionate gaze.

"Remus Lupin is a werewolf, and Black... goaded... me into approaching him during a full moon. I hadn't realized, of course. Potter had to put a stop to it. Black demanded to know why Potter interfered, said it was, "Only what he deserved," and even you know how they didn't speak for a week after that. No matter how much you care for him, Black is utterly capable of murder. I would not call myself surprised to see that he finally turned on even his 'closest friends'."