Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

She prayed that she wasn't too late as she came closer. She could hear virtually no sound, which scared her much more than any shout could ever dream of accomplishing.

Screams meant that there was somebody still alive. Silence meant dead.

Her eyes landed on a crowd of inferi, slowly disappearing into the dark lake. They turned to face her, barring their teeth and slowly started to drift towards her.

She didn't have time for this.

"Fiendfyre!" She yelled, putting all her concentration towards controlling the flames.

The inferi started to move away from her hurriedly, although it was of no use as the flames scorched every single one of them.

She put her wand back into the pocket of her jeans, looked at the musky, dark waters below, took a deep breath and jumped.

Just hold on for a little while longer.

***

He could feel himself being pulled out of the water and being hastily dumped onto the rough ground. He wanted to hex the person who did such a thing because he was a Black, and how dare someone man-handle a Black!

He could hardly feel anything. His body was numb.

He felt himself going a bit thirsty and something soft pressing down on his numb lips. Air was being blown inside his mouth. Consciousness was starting to regain him, just a little bit.

He opened his eyes by accumulating all the will power he had.

Sadly, it wasn't much, and everything was still blurry. He briefly wondered if Potter felt the same way without those horrid glasses that he always wore.

He closed his eyes again. It was all too much.

Air was being blown inside his mouth once more and his head hurt worse than it did after any of the Slytherin victory parties combined.

He opened his eyes again, and the sight he awoke to was beautiful.

Soft black wavy hair fell around him like an acromantula silk curtain. Her face was incredibly impossibly beautiful and her gorgeous features left no doubt of pureblood heritage. Her cheekbones were high and her eyelashes kissed her cheekbones every time she blinked. Her face was slightly flustered, her eyebrows were frowned and he could see barely visible wrinkles near her eyes in her otherwise flawlessly perfect face, indicating laugh lines.

Her lips were ruby red and slightly chewed on, which was bad because hadn't every pureblood been taught that biting lips was unsanitary and a sign of weakness? She bit her lips again —just a little bit— and all he could think about was that she needed to stop doing that. It was an awful habit and unbecoming of a lady.

She's speaking, his mind realised. Her lips were moving sort of hurriedly. Frantically.

He supposed that he could read her lips, but to be honest, he was all too content to just stare into her eyes.

They were green. So incredibly, wonderfully green. Her emotions were put on full display as her eyes captured hundreds and thousands of flashes— nervous, horridness, happiness, sadness, anger and desperation.

Her eyes were green.

Slytherin green.

The same shade as the jewel on his founder's locket. That thought brought some sense into him, but then he relaxed once more.

The locket was safe.

It was with Kreacher. The locket was safe. The madman could die. His plan had succeeded. Sirius —his brother— would live. Maybe he would name his son after him. He would live and be happy. His plan worked. He could die now. Everything was fine. Everybody was perfectly safe.

He looked at her again. More intensely this time.

He could see light cascading around her like a golden blanket.

She looked like a goddess.

He supposed, that if this was the last sight he ever saw, he was thankful to the holy beings.

She was so beautiful.

A smile made its way on his face, a genuine one, as he slowly started to close his eyes in satisfaction.

From the bottom of his now half-closed eyes, he could see the girl get frantic, even more desperate, as she brought her lips down and crashed it to his.

His smile became smug now.

A very attractive girl was kissing him. There were worse ways to die.

So he thought, if this was going to be his last kiss, might as well make it passionate.

He closed his eyes blissfully, slowly bringing his arms around her slim figure and responding to her kiss.

She had wonderful lips.

She pulled away immediately and he was left very disappointed.

Her eyes were wide and her face was flushed, shock visibly seen in her complexion.

She brought her pale, petite hand near his cheek.

She might caress him, softly touch his cheek lovingly and kiss him once again. She might—

SLAP!

His mind was much clearer now, as were the other senses of his body.

He blinked in confusion, his cheeks still stinging from where her hand had connected with his skin. He had no doubt that if he were to look his reflection in a mirror at the moment, he would see a red handprint on his cheek.

He could also read her emotions much better now. What he had previously assumed to be shock, he now realised was barely concealed anger.

She pushed herself off him, her body earlier strangling him in a lover's embrace, and dusted herself.

"Merlin!" she shouted angrily. "I'm trying to save you, and you're trying to kiss me!?"

He coughed for a while, tuning out the girl's rant. He didn't know for how long exactly he coughed. It felt like an eternity. He expelled all the water from his lungs, feeling much better as he took in deep breaths of air.

"...What... " His voice was hoarse and it pained him to speak. But that was all he could bring himself to say as he watched the beautiful girl pace around the cave muttering something about 'stupid male testosterone.'

The cave.

What was she doing here? Nobody knew where he was, and he knew Kreacher would not have said a word about his location. His parents were on a trip in Germany. Nobody knew where he was. The cave was empty when he first came here. How did she come here?

His hands immediately, instinctively reached for his wand and he pulled himself up, the genetic Black paranoia and instincts taking over and feeling a little light-headed.

He held his wand in a tight and steady grip to the girl's graceful neck and managed to croak out, "Who are you?" His voice sounded scarily similar to nails scratching the chalkboard.

The girl tossed him a weary smile. "You look incredibly much like your older brother. The resemblance is uncanny."

His grip tightened on his wand even more so, as his free hand grabbed the girl's wrist in a death grip. His nails pierced through her unmarred skin and red blood bled through slightly. The girl didn't flinch and kept his gaze steadily.

"Who are you?" he repeated. This time more forceful, more regal, more threatening.

The girl replied with another nervous smile, "You wouldn't believe me if I told you."

"Try me," he said, his stormy grey eyes connecting into clear emerald ones.

The girl smiled again, though it came across as more of a grimace, "I'm Ara. Ara Black."

His grip on her tightened even more, if that was possible. "Do you take me for a fool? I knew the Black Family Tree by heart before I was six. There is no Ara Black, there has never been a Ara Black."

"But there will be," the girl chimed. "Born in 1980, as the seventh month dies. The daughter of Lord James Charlus Potter and Heir Sirius Orion Black III via an ancient and slightly illegal blood adoption potion."

His grip loosened on her slightly in shock. Time travelling was impossible, especially so far behind.

"You are lying," he stated.

The girl gave him another grimace. "I told you that you wouldn't believe me." She shook her head before replying, "In the—well, future, I'm the last Black alive. Well, unless you count Draco, but Aunt Cissa says that there isn't a single Black blood in his body. Anyway, I was cleaning up Number 12 Grimmauld Place, when I accidentally opened a casket. It started to suck me inside of it. Kreacher grabbed my hand to try and stop me but it sucked him inside as well. We found ourselves here- in the past.

"Luckily, we were sent to Diagon Alley. We borrowed a newspaper and found out the date and Kreacher remembered that this would be the day you died. So he transported me to this cave and I asked him to go to the Manor and explain everything to his past counterpart. I told him not to come here unless I called. I promised him I was going to save you. You already know the rest."

His wand grip loosened, as well as the grip on her wrist. The Blacks were pretty messed up. It was believable that they would have something as weird and crazy as a time travelling device. But still...

"You still don't believe me, do you?" She asked, noticing the expression on his face. "Very well. It's better to hear the story from someone you are already familiar with. Kreacher!"

A pop was heard. Two pops actually.

He didn't look. He kept his eyes still focused on the girl's. Being a Black meant that you were naturally paranoid.

"Master..." came the voice.

This time he did turn. He knew that voice and all the breaths left him.

It was Kreacher, standing next to an older Kreacher.

The older looking Kreacher still had the huge ears, the grump expression on his face and the superiority look. But his big tennis ball eyes were all foggy as tears freely fell from his face.

The elf ran towards him, forgetting all properity between a House Elf and a Master, and crashed into one of his legs, hugging it tightly.

"Oh Master is alive! Master Regulus is alive!" The older looking Kreacher cried in a mixture of relief and happiness. "Kreacher did what Master said. Kreacher hid the locket. The locket is destroyed, Master, just as Master Regulus wanted!"

"Very good, Kreacher. You did a brilliant job." The words came naturally from him, and a smile grew on his face. "How did you destroy the locket, Kreacher?"

"Oh! Mistress Black did that. She knows. Mistress Black knows." Kreacher replied happily.

Regulus frowned his eyebrows, "Mistress Black?"

"That would be me," came the girl's voice.

Oh... Right.

Regulus lowered his wand slowly and released the girl's wrist.

The girl smiled. "Do you mind..." She trailed off, looking at her slightly bleeding wrist.

Regulus felt slight guilt. What she had said was the truth. She had saved his life. He owed her a life debt.

He pointed his wand at her wrist and muttered the spell. Episkey did the work, and left her hand unmarred once again.

"Thanks," she spoke, smiling.

He nodded. A brief silence enveloped them before Regulus asked, "So, what now?"

The girl hummed in response, slightly confused.

"How do I destroy the locket?" He clarified.

"We," she corrected before sighing. "Horcruxes are not very easy to destroy."

"I know." Regulus grimaced. "And it's horcrux."

The girl shook her head. "No. It's horcruxes."

"There are more? He made more?" He asked, eyes widening and face paling in horror.

The girl —Ara— nodded sadly, "Considering the year, four more to be precise."

"What!" Regulus exclaimed. "That monster split his soul five times!"

"Two more times in the future. Seven times in total," she added casually.

He waited for her to elaborate her statement. She didn't.

He ran his hand through his hair. His mother would have hexed him if she saw him doing such an action.

"What are they?" He asked her. "Where are they?"

Ara gave him another weary smile before pulling out a wand.

A very familiar looking wand, although he couldn't quite put his finger on it.

She transfigured two nearby rocks into chairs —both green in colour— and gestured for him to sit down. He compiled. After transfiguring two other rocks into stools for the House Elfs, she sat down as well, pocketing the wand.

"You know where the locket is," Ara started slowly, taking his nod as confirmation. "Where we found the other horcruxes in the future, and doesn't that feels weird to say, are, well— We found Ravenclaw's diadem in Hogwarts, in the Room on Requirements or the Come and Go Room as you may also know it."

A nod from him encouraged her to go on.

"Hufflepuff's cup is in your cousin Bellatrix Lestrange's vault. She got it as an inheritance from her dearest mother-in-law, who used to apparently date the Dark Lord back in the day," Ara explained. "We retrieved that from breaking into her vault— don't ask how."

But Regulus did ask, extremely shocked and a little scared, "You broke into Gringotts? You stole something from Gringotts and lived?"

Ara grimaced again. "That's a story for another time," She spoke. "Anyway, the Gaunt's ring is at the Gaunt's shack which is located just outside Little Hangleton or was it the Great Hangleton." Ara paused, as if remembering something. "Never mind, it'll come to me. The last Horcrux is our very own beloved Dark Lord's secret diary. It was given to Lucius Malfoy, passed down from his father Abraxas. It must be in Lord Malfoy's study." she finished.

She allowed him a few minutes to absorb and comprehend everything.

Her eyes gleamed with unspoken mischief —much like his brother's used to— and twinkled brighter than the star his brother was named after as she spoke her next words. "So, I hear you're hunting horcruxes. Mind if I help?"

He couldn't help it.

He laughed.

He laughed like insanity possessed him. He laughed because this situation is technically insane. He laughed at the way his brother's future daughter —his apparent niece— framed her sentences.

"Yes," Regulus replied with a grin.

Chapter Text

"My parents are in Germany at the moment," Regulus informed her. "So I suppose we can use my house as a base."

Ara shrugged her shoulders. "It's not like we could use mine."

Ara looked at the house that they apparatated in front of. It was just as big and gloomy as she remembered it to be.

"Eighteen years later, it still stays the same," Ara muttered under her breath.

Regulus heard her anyway and asked, "Eighteen? Are you eighteen years of age?"

"Haven't you been taught that it is rude to ask a lady her age?" Ara teased, and was pleasantly surprised to see his cheeks turn a rosy hue.

"Apologies."

"But yes," Ara continued. "I am eighteen."

"A year younger than me," Regulus murmured. "Physically, at least."

Ara nodded in reply.

"Is there any way that we could avoid the front entrance? I'd rather not have the ancestors of the Most Ancient and Nobel House of Black questioning me or worse, informing your parents about their new guest."

Regulus nodded. "Fair point. Kretcher, —or well, Kretchers— can pop us right into my room."

The House Elf's did as they were told.

Ara walked around Regulus's room as he went to the rest room to freshen himself up. It was exactly how it had been in the future. Kretcher —the older one— had done an excellent job in keeping everything at it's place and not moving it even a bit. Then again, Ara knew that he considered Master Regulus's room sacred and never cleaned it.

"First things first," Regulus said as soon as he and Ara were seated. "You cannot be Ara Black. We need to get you another identity."

Ara nodded in agreement. "Leave that to me. Do you remember when I told you that I was the only Black left in the future? Well, obviously I couldn't have lived by myself. I was raised by a wonderful couple who I called -and still call- my parents. I'm sure that if I explain everything to them, they will let me carry their name, since technically, they did make me their heir in the future..." She trailed off, making him a little confused. "It's hard to explain and I am getting a little confused with my tenses... But bottom line, don't worry about the name issue, I got that covered."

Regulus nodded before a curious expression overtook his face. "Pardon me, but I have to ask— were you a Slytherin at Hogwarts?"

Ara smiled. "Hufflepuff, actually."

"Hufflepuff?" Regulus repeated, shocked. "My second guess would have been a Gryffindor and my third a Ravenclaw, actually. I did not peg you for a Hufflepuff. Mother must have been pulling her hair out by the roots and rolling in her grave. Her son is a lion and her granddaughter, a badger? Oh, the horror!" Regulus mused.

"Hey! Don't make fun of the badger," Ara warned with a grin. "After all, we eat snakes like you for breakfast."

To her surprise, Regulus chuckled. "True. Anyway, coming back to the matter of horcruxes, what do you suggest our next course of action to be?"

"The ring," Ara immediately responded. "That is one of the easiest horcruxes we can take. The next, I would suggest the cup. Bellatrix married into the Lestrange family. You can threaten -as Heir Apparent- to dissolve the marriage if you do not receive the cup. Tell it to Rudolphous though- because as hard as it is to believe even after so many years, he genuinely loves her. We can probably, hopefully, use the same tactic for the diary with the Malfoy's. And then we have to go to Hogwarts for the diadem."

Regulus hummed thoughtfully. "That sounds like a good outline. We shall have to add more details to the plan, however—" He momentarily paused. "You still haven't told me how to destroy these... things."

"There are two ways that I know of- Fiendfyre and Basalisk venom. In the future, I had used the Sword of Gryffindor dipped in Basalisk venom mainly," Ara explained.

"I'm so glad that they are so easy to find," Regulus commented sarcastically. "Where the bloody hell did you find the sword? I was under the assumption that it had been lost."

"Inside the Sorting Hat," Ara said nonchalantly. "Once again, don't ask me how I know. And although I can control it, I am not that fond of fiendfyre, and by the look on your face, neither are you. If you can get me to Hogwarts, however, I can guarantee the Basalisk venom."

Regulus raised an eyebrow. "How can you find Basalisk venom in Hog— Merlin!" He halted mid-speech as he realised the answer. He turned to his companion and looked at her wide-eyed filled with equal measures of horror and fascination. "The Chamber of Secrets? That is the monster in the Chamber? A fucking basilisk!" Regulus said angrily. "Morgana! I was studying in a school with a basilisk!"

"Oh, don't be so dramatic about it." Ara intoned with a roll of her eyes. "At least you didn't have it petrifying your classmates in your second year."

Regulus went wide eyed once again."What the—"

"-I don't want to talk about it," Ara stated firmly.

Regulus smiled warily. "You do not like to talk about a lot of things." Seeing Ara go silent, he once again ran a hand through his hair (and what a bad habit he was developing!) and sighed, "So we can get the venom at Hogwarts, right? We can get the diadem when we go there as well, then, and kill two birds with one spell."

Ara nodded. "We'll get the ring today so that when we visit Hogwarts we can destroy the locket, ring and the diadem simultaneously in the Chamber."

Regulus stayed silent for a minute, deep in thought. "How are we going to get into the Chamber anyway?"

"It's in the second floor girl's bathroom," Ara answered. "I might not be able to speak Parseltongue anymore, but I still remember a few words."

"What do you mean you can't speak Parseltongue anymore? You could speak Parseltongue?" Regulus questioned, shocked. "How could you do so?"

Ara opened her mouth to reply, but Regulus cut her off. "Let me guess. You don't want to talk about it?" He asked with a slight bitterness in his voice.

Ara smiled. "I'll answer everything in detail someday. But I'm afraid that today is not that day. I'm still trying to get over the fact that I'm in the past, you are alive and all that stuff. It's a bit of an overload on my brain." She admitted.

Regulus sighed and accepted her answer. He himself was finding it difficult to believe that he was talking to his niece from eighteen years in the future.

So instead he inquired, "When are we going to the Shack?"

Ara looked thoughtful. "Today, definitely. The sooner the better. We'll go after sundown in a few hours."

"Till then I suppose we must think of an excuse to go to Hogwarts?"

"I was actually thinking that we can sneak into Hogwarts through Hogsmead via a secret passage," Ara said. "Do you know any of those passages?"

"I know one," Regulus admitted, refusing to elaborate.

Ara looked at him expectantly. "Well?"

"I don't want to talk about it," He replied cheekily, mirroring her expression with a serious face and sparkling, mischievous eyes.

Ara rolled her eyes. "Stop that. It's weird."

"Weirder than your yet-to-be niece visiting from the future, saving your life and being a Horcrux expert?" He deadpanned.

"Fair point," Ara conceded with a smile.

***

As Ara didn't remember whether the Gaunt Shack was located at the Greater Hangleton or the Little Hangleton, Regulus, in a rather careless move that even shocked himself, suggested that they flip a coin to choose.

Heads, they go to Little Hangleton and tails, they visit the Greater Hangleton.

The coin landed on tails.

And that was how Regulus and Ara practically wasted the afternoon as they searched every inch of the village without spotting the Shack. Luckily, an old passerby muggle lady had seen their looks of absolute confusion mixed with a little bit of fright, and had asked them what they were doing.

Regulus had looked completely repulsed that a muggle was standing so close to him and had stuck his nose so high up in the air that Ara felt that it could actually touch the star he was named after. Seeing as Regulus -despite his change in decision against Moldywart was not a big fan of muggles- Ara took the lead on this one as she flashed the elderly woman a blinding smile, looped her arm into Regulus' and lightly leaned her head on his shoulder.

"Good evening, ma'am," she began politely.

"Good evening dear," the lady greeted, her eyes showing confusion as they darted between the smiling Ara and constipated-looking Regulus. "I see that you are looking a little lost there. May I help you with anything?"

"Yes, please," Ara interjected before Regulus could get a word in. "I am Bella Lestrange and this is my husband Tom." She tossed another smile at both, the lady and Regulus who threw her an amused look. "Please excuse him for not speaking. He had a tooth plucked out earlier today. His mouth still aches." Ara explained, making the old lady's eyes soften completely as she gave the young couple in front of her a sympathetic expression.

"Oh my." The lady gasped, feeling awful for having judged the young man so quickly. "I am so sorry."

"It's completely fine." Ara responded, eyes soft and smile warm.

"I'm afraid I haven't seen the two of you before. Are you both new to the neighbourhood?" The old lady asked quickly, in an effort to change the subject.

Ara laughed, resting her head completely on Regulus' shoulders as he snaked an arm around her waist, giving off the impression that the two were a perfectly happy couple. "Actually, we are just looking around. We are planning to start a family soon and heard that the villages of Hangleton are absolutely lovely. So we decided to pay a visit and see if there are any plots of land available."

"Yes, Hangleton is a great place to raise children." The old lady agreed, smiling.

Ara returned her smile. "Unfortunately, we got a little mixed up." She released a nervous laugh. "Our realtor said that we could check out the plot for somewhere called the Gaunt Shack, I believe. But he failed to mention which and where of the Hangleton villages it was located in. So, my husband and I are a little lost at finding it."

"The Gaunt Shack?" The woman gasped.

Ara nodded. "Oh yes. Our realtor mentioned that since it hasn't been lived in for so long, we could demolish it and construct a new house in it's plot." She elucidated, making the woman relax. "You wouldn't happen to know where it is, would you?" She joked.

The old woman laughed. "Everybody knows about the Gaunts, dear. Even all the way over here in the Greater Hangleton area. I'm afraid you have been looking in the wrong village, dears. The Gaunt Shack is located a little beyond the Little Hangleton village. You best look there," she spoke. "Although, there are many houses available in this village itself. It's a much better neighbourhood than Little Hanglton and more lively as well. You could save yourselves quite a pretty penny by settling down here. I could even show you some of the houses, if you would like."

"That would be lovely and I would love to take you up on that offer, madam." Ara smiled apologetically. "But unfortunately, we promised our realtor that we would give the plot a quick peak."

"I understand, dear," the woman said, still in a pitying tone as she sneaked a glance at Regulus who was still frowning. She cleared her throat. "Well, the two of you better be on your way then. I hope to see you settled in the neighbourhood, though."

Ara smiled. "We hope so too."

"Are you sure that you weren't a Slytherin?" Regulus asked later, when they were on their way to Little Hangleton.

Ara giggled at his remark. "Positive."

Regulus still looked doubtful.

"I'm not a Slytherin, Regulus." Ara said with a smile. "I'm just a really good liar."

***

Although Ara had not remembered the precise location of the Shack, she thankfully, did remember all the numerous, dangerous enchantments that Riddle had placed all over the Gaunt Shack in order to protect his horcrux.

With each step she took towards the Gaunt Shack, her wand buzzed a little bit louder, the simple black single-stoned pendent she always wore tingled against her skin and the cloak that she without fail put over her jumper -that was not visible to the naked eye- tickled her skin. This reminded her that there were in deed, two sets of Hollows in the past, making her offhandedly wonder what would happen if they were to meet.

She could see the outline of the beaten-down, broken Shack in the distance, so she supposed she would find out soon, anyway.

"Keep your wand ready," She ordered Regulus, taking out her own wand. "And I hope you did well in school."

"First in my year." Regulus spoke casually with a hint of pride as he freed his wand.

"Coincidence. So was I." Ara's sharp green eyes carefully observed their surroundings. "Have you got a job yet?"

"I don't suppose you would consider being an heir a full time job, would you?" He asked in a dry tone, a spell ready to leave his lips if something went wrong.

"Of course not," Ara shot down, still scanning for enchantments as she curiously added, "Do you plan on getting a job in the future?"

"Yes."

"What do you want you become?"

"Why are you asking all these questions?" Regulus asked instead, a clear sign that he was attempting to divert from the topic.

"Because I don't like the silence. Especially not now. I need a distraction." Ara answered. "So, what would you like to become?" She repeated.

Regulus didn't answer for four seconds (and yes, Ara did count). "Quidditch player." He replied finally. "I wanted to play professional quidditch."

He waited for her to laugh, like how his mother had when he had initially expressed his ambitions to her. Walburga Black had waved away that dream with a flick of her hand and had told him that he would grow out of this phase and if he was going to get a job, it would be something reputable like working in the ministry or getting a mastery in a subject.

"That sounds cool. You played Quidditch at Hogwarts, didn't you? I heard you were a brilliant seeker." Ara said instead, making Regulus look at her in a new kind of light. "I'm a seeker myself. We should play a match sometime. If you do decide to play professional, then I'm sure you'll be great at it. I better get free tickets to any matches, though, or I promise, I will make a fit."

Regulus didn't have the heart to tell her that he definitely wouldn't be playing quidditch professionally because his parents didn't approve. He would most likely get a high profile job in the ministry so his parents would be proud of him. But he had a feeling that if he told her that, then well- she was (is, would be? Ara was right, tenses were confusing) the daughter of his brother. She would without a doubt tell him that his parents approval shouldn't matter that much (but it really did to him) and that it was his life so he should live it the way he wanted to and follow his dreams. But the truth was, when Sirius had first broken their parents heart, Regulus had promised himself that he wouldn't do so as well. He had kept that promise until now and had no intention of breaking it in the future as well. He choose to ignore that annoying voice in his mind that said that his parents would be disappointed by him going against the Dark Lord.

But either way, Ara complimenting his skills and supporting his childhood dream really meant a lot to him. Much more than he would ever admit to himself even.

"What about you?" Regulus asked instead, trying to keep the thickness out of his voice.

"Well, I actually have a job already." Ara shrugged before flashing a smile in his direction.

He thought over what he already knew about her. She had led a war against the greatest Dark Lord in history and had won.

"An auror?" He guessed.

Ara's eyes went wide before she abruptly burst out laughing. "What, no! Me, an auror? No way! You're really funny, Regulus. That was the best joke I've ever heard in my life!" She stated in between laughs.

Regulus rolled his eyes. Being dramatic was apparently genetic. "Then, what?"

Ara's lips twisted to form a secret and mysterious smile. "An Unspeakable."

And before Regulus's brain had caught up with her reply, Ara cursed loudly and began waving her wand in obscure motions. Regulus immediately jumped to help her, everything else forgotten. They had just met the first of the Dark Lord's absurdly powerful enchantments and they were plenty more to go, so Ara was going to need all the help she could get.

***

It took them a little over two hours to take out every single enchantment, and triple check to see if they missed anything. After all, one could not be too sure with the Dark Lord.

During this time, the sun had long set and the full moon along with the multitude of stars had risen up high in the heavens. It was a beautiful sight, but sadly, neither Regulus nor Ara could afford to admire it.

They had conjured bluebell charms before taking a step into the beaten down Shack. Ara had also hurriedly informed him about the curse placed on the ring just before they had entered. It was mutually decided between them that neither of them would touch it at any costs until they had gotten that basilisk venom.

Although they didn't have time to admire the heavens, Regulus did take a long look around the ruins of the ancestral home of the Gaunt and felt very disgusted at the state a once Most Ancient and Noble House had been reduced to. Sure, he had heard all those things from his mother, over how happy she had been when the Gaunts had killed some common muggles to how furious she had felt when she had found out that they had been sent to Azkaban for committing such a 'small, insignificant thing'. He had also heard all those whispers over how the once mighty House of Gaunt had now been reduced to a pitiful, poverty filled state, which had made his mother sniff her nose in a snobbish manner upon hearing. But experiencing the rumours for himself, in person, hit differently.

The descendants of the great Salazar Slytherin had been reduced to such a horribly awful living state. The house was a mess. It was beyond broken and ruined and somebody (Morfin Gaunt, if Ara is to be believed) had nailed a dead snake to the front door and the rotting smell coming from it was almost impossible to bear.

The whole house smelt repulsive, actually. It was inches thick with dust and covered with filth, rodents, pests, insects and fungi.

This was where the last-known descendants of Salazar Slytherin had lived.

This was the Dark Lord's maternal house.

Regulus Black stomached the sudden urge he felt to laugh.

It would be wrong of him to do so, especially with Ara staring are rotting floorboards with a gaunt (pardon the pun) expression and tightly clutching her pendent and wand.

Regulus followed the direction of her eyes and felt a jolt of surprise corse through him upon seeing the corners of what appeared to be a golden box hidden under those repulsive, rotting floor boards.

"Is that it?" He asked.

Ara seemed to jump at the sound of his voice, her expression clearly startled as she shook out of whatever trance she had been in. Nodding her head, she responded, "Yes." Then, as an afterthought, she intoned, "Remember not to touch it."

"Not even in my dreams," Regulus said dryly, making Ara give him a small, soft smile.

They used the reductor curse to blast the floorboards and the levitating charm to put it into a large plastic bag that they had had the foresight to bring with them. Ara had admitted that she couldn't remember whether or not the container also had curses on it, so they decided to play it safe and not risk it. Plastic, like amber, was one of the few things that was un-reactive to magic, so it was thus, safe.

They shared a glance. Neither of them wanted to stay in that place longer than necessary. With the enchantments gone and the anti-apparatation wards taken down, they quietly apparatated back to Number 12 Grimmauld Place.

***

Ara had decided to sleep in one of the many guest rooms that night because even though she loved Sirius Black with all her heart, she could not and would not sleep in a room filled with posters of half-naked and fully-naked women.

It took a little bit of effort to avoid the ever-watchful eyes of the portraits of the ancestors of the Most Ancient and Noble House of Black, but it was nothing a simple muffling charm, disillusionment charm and a powerful invisibility cloak (paranoia ran in the family and it is always better to be safe than sorry) couldn't solve.

The golden box that contained the Resurrection Ring was kept beside Salazar Slytherin's locket on the attic. Two down, three to go.

And although she should have been happy that they had gotten the ring without much trouble, she still couldn't sleep well that night. Because tomorrow morning, they were going to get the problem of her last name and identity straightened out.

Which meant, that they would be paying a visit to her future adoptive parents who had raised her. The same adoptive parents who although very understanding, might still dismiss her as a crazy woman because she would after all, be claiming to be their adoptive daughter from the near future.

Which in turn would mean, that Regulus and herself would have to either illegally make, smuggle or steal an international port-key tomorrow; because the ancestral home of the Most Ancient and Noble House of Flamel happen to be located in the beautifully pleasant country of France.

Chapter Text

"Where are we?" Regulus inquired, looking around the field of green.

"South of France."

"The Flamels live here?"

"Yes. We are standing right in front of their property line, actually," Ara informed him. Although it was common knowledge that the Flamels lived in France, it was only known to a selective few the precise location of their manor.

Regulus looked at the place in front of him with a confused expression as he was unable to see anything but the green, dense trees.

Ara took a breath from where she stood beside him and smiled. "Are you ready?"

"I think I should be asking that question to you," Regulus chimed before his features grew serious. "Are you okay?"

She gave him a shaky smile in reply. "I will be." And with one more deep breath, she intertwined her fingers with his and took a large step forward, dragging him along with her.

It felt like they had crossed an invisible barrier at that moment because suddenly, Regulus couldn't see the dense trees anymore. Instead, standing before him was a large and handsome Manor, complete with tall, looming windows and balconies.

Ara smiled at the sight with a nostalgic glint in her eyes. "I'm sure they already know that we are here. So, let's not keep them waiting any longer," she commanded as she began walking forward, pulling him along with her onto the path of pebbles that led to the front door.

Her hand was small but it felt warm as it continued to hug his own. Ara held an almost death-like grip on his hand and she was chewing on her lip again, and he couldn't help but think that she should really do a better job at containing her nerves.

They walked all the way to the front door before proceeding to standing on the welcome mat patiently. A second later, the door opened, revealing a middle-aged couple.

Ara squeezed his hand tighter and he lightly squeezed it back.

They hadn't really discussed how they were going to approach this whole situation. Ara had been firm and unmoving in her decision that she wanted to wing it. But now, Regulus realised that he probably should have protested more and insisted that they at the very least, talked how they were going to handle this, because Ara was looking at the couple like a deer caught in the headlights.

"Code 3259 Alpha," She blurted out.

The man, who Regulus assumed to be Nicolas Flamel, blinked. "What?" He asked in his accented English.

Ara closed her eyes tiredly, giving off the impression that she was Atlas, holding the weight of the world on her shoulders. "Of course you wouldn't know what it meant. You haven't made the list of codes yet."

"Pardon?" The woman, Perenelle Flamel asked this time, politely confused.

"Blunt truth or slow explanation?" Ara asked instead.

Mr Flamel took a step back, like somebody had punched him in the gut. "That's something I..." He trailed off, looking more confused than ever.

That's something I say. How do you know it? Have I ever met you? Regulus assumed he wanted to ask.

Regulus didn't blame the couple for looking so confused. He was sure that he would be as well if a boy and a girl randomly showed up in their invisible, heavily enchanted house.

Mrs Flamel was the first to shake off the shock. "Blunt. Always blunt," she intoned at last, the words flowing naturally from her mouth.

Ara took another deep breath and Regulus squeezed her hand lightly again in a show of support. "I'm from the future and in the future, I'm an orphan and the two of you adopt me— that's why I know where you live and why the two of you didn't get electrocuted when we entered without prior permission—" That's why she held his hand, Regulus realisedThat must be what he calls her in the future, Regulus realised. "I have faith in you. But I feel like I have been cheated considering that you know your childhood, but we missed it. Now, at least because obviously we would know in the future but since you are in the past, we don't and—" He swallows thickly. "Can I— Can we— Can we see it? Only the parts about your childhood —the memories you shared with us— nothing more." He quickly rushed to reassure. "I don't want to know if a cure to dragon pox has been invented or anything, just—" his voice broke once again. "I really want to know your first words." He said, giving her a weary smile and looking at Ara as if she was an angel descended from heaven.

Ara smiled, nodding. "Okay," She said simply with a thick voice, mostly because she didn't look like she could say anything else without bursting into tears at Mr Flamel's statements.

"Okay," Mr Flamel echoed. "Everything will be completely okay."

"So, what do you want us to do?" Mrs Flamel asked suddenly, broken out of her trance and looking at Ara as if she was the most precious thing in the universe. The same way Regulus wished his own mother would look at him like Perenelle Flamel did roughly an hour after meeting her future, adopted daughter.

"What?"

"Dear, I am sure you wouldn't have broken the space-time continuum and completely messed up the timeline just to meet with us. What do you want us to do?" Mrs Flamel repeated.

Ara stayed silent for a second before managing to speak. "Do you think I could legally and publicly identify myself as your daughter? Please?"

Mr Flamel laughed joyfully, a deep sound rumbling from his belly. "Mon chéri, just because you got thrown into the past and none of us have any memories of the future, does not mean that you stopped being our daughter. Past, present, future and in everything in between, you being our daughter is the single most greatest thing that has ever happened or will happen or— whatever, tenses are confusing. The point is, you didn't have to ask permission, dear. It has always been and always will be your birthright." He finished firmly. Mrs Flamel nodded at his words before giving them a kind smile so wide that it wrinkled the corners of her eyes.

Ara's eyes began brimming with tears as she launched into a hug with her adoptive parents. Regulus turned his head away from the scene. It felt like he was intruding on a private moment. But suddenly, a hand reached out, grabbed the end of his coat and pulled, making him stumble into the group hug as well. The four of them just stood there like that, in a group hug. None of them said anything for a long time after that because sometimes, things don't have to be said since they can be felt.

***

Meanwhile, back in Britain, Orion and Walburga Black returned to number twelve, Grimmauld Place a day earlier than planned, simply because Walburga couldn't wait any longer to see her favourite son —and only child, as far as she was concerned— Regulus.

Kreacher informed them that Master Regulus has gone out with a friend and would be back by dinner time, making Walblurga frown as she had wanted to see and talk to him about how the Avery Heiress is pretty, rich, pureblood and of marriageable age, hoping he would get the hint.

But seeing that Regulus wasn't present at the moment, Walburga did what she always did when things didn't go the way she had wanted— go to the family tapestry room and trace out all the branches.

Orion fought the urge to roll his eyes as his wife dramatically stomped away to the tree room, and instead, sat down on an armchair, summoned a book, and began to read.

"Orion!" His wife's screeching voice echoed the tall ceilings and hollow walls of the house suddenly, making Orion almost jump (almost, because he was a Black and Black's were always composed, calm and elegant; they did not jump like others).

A few moments after hearing his wife's startled shout, Orion Black rushed to where she was, at the tree room.

"Walburga?" He asked questioningly, on noticing that she was not hurt and perfectly fine.

Walburga's response was to point a shaking finger at a branch of the tree, making Orion lazily follow her finger before his eyes widened and he tumbled back in shock.

The black spot on the family tree that he knew had once contained the picture of a grinning Sirius now had an extended branch. That extension led to a single picture of a lovely looking, smiling girl with soft, dark locks of hair and the brightest green eyes he had ever seen. And below her picture was a banner that contained only one word that had been magically sewn in black, velvet thread— Adhara .

***

Regulus used a portkey to return to his house in time for dinner. After discussing possible strategies to tackle the future and changing the name of future-Kreacher to something else and asking him to stay in France with the Flamels, Regulus was exhausted. Ara had decided to stay with her adoptive parents, the Flamels, and he agreed with her decision. There would be less suspicion if she did so considering that the Flamels rarely made public appearances and there was no proper reason to stay at number 12 Grimmauld Place again, especially since his parents were also due to return soon.

He had just hung his coat when his mother suddenly leaped in front of his face, prompting him to jump with surprise and lay a hand on his chest to calm his drumming heart-beat. "Mother! I thought you were still in Germany. What—"

"—Your brother has gone too far this time!" She screeched, making Regulus frown.

"Pardon?"

"He had a bastard! A child born out of wedlock! Oh, what will everybody say!" His mother cried. "The worst part is, we don't even know whether that bastard is pureblood or not!"

Regulus' eyes widened. "...What..."

"I know," his mother agreed angrily. "That brat was always so reckless. Always such a Gryffindor... A proper disgrace he is. He knocked up a witch —Merlin knows if her blood is pure— without marrying her and even had a daughter— all without telling us!"

"...A daughter?"

Walburga Black ignored her son's widened eyes and fast beating heart. She grabbed his hand and proceeded to drag him into the tree room to show him what she meant.

His father was already there, staring at the tree branches with a vacant expression of disbelief. Regulus followed his line of vision and almost tripped on his steps with shock.

The evidence of his yet-to-be-born niece's time travelling was stitched on the tapestry as clear as day. The black spot beside his own picture that used to have contained a picture of his brother, had another branch extended to it, and that branch had the picture of the girl he had seen just three minutes ago. Her black hair fell freely over her shoulders, her green eyes twinkled mischievously and her smile could easily be mistaken for that of an angel's. Regulus forced his eyes to look away from her picture, and landed it on the banner instead, and his eyes widened with shock.

Adhara

While he did not know an Adhara, he did know an Ara. The realisation enlightened him a second later and he closed his eyes to calm himself.

Adhara was the constellation that held the star Sirius. Adhara was the name of his currently yet-to-be niece.

Ara was the nickname his currently yet-to-be niece had chosen for herself.

He told himself that it was completely fine that he hadn't thought to question her on her nickname because both, Ara and Adhara were names of constellations, so he couldn't have known. However, ever since he was little, Regulus had always prided himself on his ability to solve puzzles and crosswords, (to his credit, he did solve the mystery of the Dark Lord's immortality years before anybody else, according to Ara) so this revelation came as a big blow to his ego.

He ran a hand through his hair, and his parents were so stunned by the tapestry, that they didn't even bother to correct or point out the awful habit he was developing.

His mother was moaning over whether or not Adhara was pureblood and just her existence in general, and his father had excused himself to go and inform the rest of their very large and slightly insane family on this breaking news.

But Regulus just stood there, staring at Ara's picture on their family tree and for some odd reason, the only thing that was running repeatedly through his mind was that she looked very pretty when she smiled.

He hadn't counted on this to happen and he knew that neither had Ara. For all the plans and ideas that they had brainstormed with Mr and Mrs Flamel, they hadn't counted on the family tree to out them.

"What if it's wrong?" Regulus asked, turning to face his mother who paused at her mutterings. "What if the tree got it wrong?"

His mother considered his question gravely. "I want this to be as false as you do, Regulus. But the tree never lies."

No, it doesn't. Regulus thought, his eyes once again fixed on the tapestry, but this time, at the black spot where the picture of his brother had had to be. But I really, really wished it did.

***

Dinner that night was painfully awkward. His mother was grumbling and cursing Sirius left, right and centre while his father had been clutching his utensils so hard, his knuckles had turned white. Regulus had quietly asked to be excused before speed-walking (because a Black did not run like mere commoners) into his room and taking out the two-way mirror that Ara had given him.

Ara's smiling face was seen by him from the mirror's screen three seconds later.

"Hello Regulus," she greeted.

"Hello Adhara," he said casually, watching as her eyes widened.

"How did you know?" She questioned, surprised.

"Oh, it was quite easy. I like solving puzzles, you see, and I fancy myself to be quite brilliant at that," Regulus explained. "Not to mention, our family tree doesn't lie; and it won't even spare unborn, time travelling nieces."

Ara's eyes widened even more and she looked quite faint. "Family tree," she mumbled, "Of course, I knew we were forgetting something!" She exclaimed with dawning enlightenment, but it did not matter. The damage had already been done. "Did your parents see it?"

"My parents were the ones who pointed it out to me," he quipped, making her swear. "What do you want to do about it?"

Ara gave him a weary smile. "Is there anything we can do about it?"

He did not reply to her question, making her sigh tiredly before proceeding to bite her lip once more, looking deep in thought. She really shouldn't do that. It's an awful habit.

"There isn't anything we can do about it," Ara said finally. "But that doesn't mean we can't take advantage of it."

"Advantage, how?" Regulus questioned.

"By using it as a distraction," Ara answered with a faint grin. "We can divert everybody's attention to finding out the mysterious Black heiress. That way, they will most likely completely ignore the two of us, meaning, we would not have to be so cautious with carrying out our mission."

Regulus pondered over her reply. She was right. "It is acceptable," He agreed at last before once again looking doubtful. "Are you sure you were not a Slytherin?"

Ara laughed. "Positive."

"But there is one slight flaw to the plan," Regulus stated pointedly.

Ara tilted her head. "How so?"

"Sooner or later, somebody will meet you," Regulus piqued. "And yes, you can claim to be Ara Flamel and not Adhara Black, but the point still stands that you have James Potter's black hair, Lily Evans' green eyes and Sirius Black's facial features. Not to mention, that your exact picture has appeared in the Black family tree. It will be too easy to string the pieces of the puzzle together."

"So you're saying that I need to change my look?"

"I'm saying that you need to change your genes," Regulus corrected. "It would be a disaster if somebody gets your blood and I don't think changing your hair or eye colour will make a difference considering you look too much like Great Aunt Dorea and my brother." He explained.

Ara laughed, more bitterly this time, but he knew that she could see his points. Time travelling had not been invented yet and even Ara had confessed that it was considered impossible to go so far back in time even in her present. It would be absolute havoc if somebody else learnt of her true identity and all the plans they had created to stop the Da— Tom Riddle would be doomed. Her being the secret daughter of the Flamel's was a brilliant cover, but they needed something more to stabilise it.

He also knew that he was asking a little too much of her and even invading a lot of her personal space with his suggestion. Altering their genes consisted of wiping clean their identity and rebuilding it, basically. By doing this, Ara would no longer be a Potter or a Black.

Not to mention, since the potion in the Potter vault was the last batch of the gene-altering potions in the whole wide world, with the original recipe long lost, it would be clear that if they were to go ahead with changing Ara's genes once more, then there would never be an Adhara Potter Black in the current future because Sirius would never be able to blood-adopt her. If they were to do this, Adhara Potter Black would cease to exist completely the second the blood-adoption potion touched Ara's lips for the second time. There would be no Adhara Potter Black in his present or future, there would only be Ara Flamel.

But, they simply couldn't risk it. With no known way of getting back to her future (which would definitely be altered due to the events she had changed in her past), she was well and truly stuck here.

Ara gave him another weary smile, knowing exactly what he was suggesting. "There is only one way to alter your genes."

"And only one potion in the world," Regulus added, nodding. "It's how you became a Black in the first place, and it is also going to be the cause for undoing that."

'Both James Potter and Sirius Black became very, incredibly drunk one day and began talking about children, for some bazaar reason. I was like, a year old back then, and James was asking Sirius to have a son fast so they could set the two of us up together and James and Sirius could be actual brothers, you know. Then Sirius pointed out that they would be fathers not brothers if their respective children were to get married and besides, he didn't have any children. Then James pointed out that I was his godchild which technically made me his child as well; and Sirius emphasised the technically part and James decided to change that,' Ara had explained earlier that day, grinning. 'So they went to the main Potter vault at Gringotts, where the last batch of the only gene-altering potion in the entire, whole wide world was present, brought it back to my nursery and did the ritual under the influence of alcohol. They woke up to a massive hangover along with a murderous Lily being on a warpath the next morning and that was when they actually realised what they had done, and voila! That is the story of how Regulus and I became directly related!' She finished telling Regulus and Mr and Mrs Flamel the story, ending it with a giggle.

Ara sighed again and bit her lips enough to draw blood. Regulus didn't think it was an appropriate time to lecture her on what a bad habit that was. "Mum and dad would be on cloud nine about this," she confessed with a small smile. Regulus knew that she was referring to her adoptive parents and not her biological ones.

He returned her smile. "So, you are fine with all this?"

"I don't really have a choice, do I?" She retorted teasingly before nodding. "And yes. Surprisingly, I am. Mum and dad— they raised me like any other parent would and as much as I love and respect them, the truth still stands that I was too little to remember anything about James, Sirius or Lily. Everything I know of them consists purely of what other people have said about them or by looking through pensives," She admitted. "Being Adhara Potter Black was scary. I had so many expectations to live up to and I feel like I had to grow up too fast. I think I'd like just being Ara Flamel."

Regulus gave a supportive smile because he understood.

He understood how hard it was to play the expectant role of the Heir to the most powerful house in Britain and although Ara's childhood with the Flamel's had been picture-perfect, she had never been able to be free of all the responsibilities tasked to her to manage not one, but multiple houses. But if she became Ara Flamel, the weight from her shoulders would be lifted because she would still have her biological parents, and they would take care of almost everything and she would be free. Well, freer than she had been before, at least.

"I would really like to be a real Flamel," Ara continued to speak, and Regulus couldn't help but pity her. Time travelling was messy and confusing, but by going along with his suggestion, both of them knew that she would be changing the course of her own currently unborn self. "Don't get me wrong, being both a Potter and a Black is amazing and all, but—"

"—I understand." Regulus interjected and he really did. In answer to his reply, Ara flashed him a smile almost as genuine as the one she had given the Flamels.

Ara sighed again after a few more seconds. "I just wish we didn't have to break into Gringotts," she stated, bringing them back to the topic on hand.

"As Gryffindor as my statement must sound, I'm quite excited actually." Regulus grinned. "It must have been thrilling."

"Yes, thrilling is a word I would use to describe the event." Ara nodded. "Along with insane, death-defying and the phrase, never again."

"Some promises are meant to be broken."

"Maybe. But this time, we are going to plan how we are going to go with this. And I mean that we are going to perfectly plan everything down to the last minute detail. Hopefully, that would increase the very poor odds of us making it out alive."

Regulus laughed. "We can do it, don't worry. I'm a Black and till we get the potion, so are you. We can handle everything."

"Dragons tend to be difficult to handle, though," Ara commented dryly.

"But not impossible."

"I'm sorry but I forgot. Which of us is the Hufflepuff and which is the Slytherin?" Ara asked, making Regulus narrow his eyes at her.

"We need to steal two things from Gringotts," Regulus said instead, choosing to ignore her previous, rather offensive comment. "Along with the potion, we can also steal Hufflepuff's cup."

Ara sobered up at that. "Yes, I suppose you are correct. The cup means we will have three horcruxes with us. So when we go to Hogwarts, we can get Ravenclaw's diadem, take all four horcruxes to the Chamber of Secrets and destroy it. Then, the only horcux left would be Tommy boy's diary." She nodded. "It sounds like a good plan."

"It sounds like a good idea," Regulus corrected. "Now, it's up to us to actually, carefully plan. We can't be rash about this. It will be dangerous and we may even die in the process."

Ara snorted. "I survived the first time, I am confident that I will be able to survive the second as well."

"And me?"

"Your survival is doubtful. But don't worry, I am not going to let you die, Regulus. I spent too much effort trying to save you the first time to let it go to waste."

"My hero."

"And don't you forget it." Ara grinned. "Besides, even if you die, think of the headlines of the Daily Prophet: REGULUS BLACK DIES IN AN ATTEMPT TO STEAL FROM GRINGOTTS! I for one, think that it is a worthy death."

"Worthy enough to go to Valhalla?"

"Oh, definitely," Ara affirmed. "And you'll even be able to cross that off your list of goals."

"Right now, my list of goals only consist of surviving," he dryly stated, making Ara laugh again. "Am I Slytherin enough for you now?"

"You never stopped." Ara smiled before clearing her throat. "So, are you ready to go on a dangerous adventure with a good chance of being mutilated, burnt alive, cursed, hexed, beheaded, castrated and causing the third Gobin rebellion?" She asked, eyes sparkling.

Regulus laughed. "With you by my side? Always."

Ara laughed with him, her cheeks tinged a light pink.

A few seconds after laughing, Regulus cast a quick tempos and his eyes widened as he looked at the time. "Okay. It's pretty late. Let's talk tomorrow morning. I'm going to go to bed now."

"Oh." Ara blinked and because she couldn't help herself, added, "Mind if I slytherin?" She asked naturally with a mischievous, goofy expression, before both of their eyes simultaneously widened as their brains fully processed her comment.

Regulus was bewildered and shocked while Ara looked positively horrified.

"Did you just—"

"—Coming, maman!" Ara cut-in before flashing him an apologetic look. "Sorry. My mother is calling me. I'll talk to you tomorrow morning. Bye!" She stated hurriedly, as she blushed all the way to the tip of her ears and quickly disconnected the mirror connection.

Regulus didn't have any nightmares that night and slept peacefully with a soft smile on his face.

Chapter Text

They had planned it perfectly, down to the very last minute detail. So, Ara wondered how on terra did she —once again, mind you— had to escape Gringott's Bank the same way as she had done the first time when Regulus, herself and her (adopted but soon to be biological) parents had brainstormed one hundred and two other ways to escape.

In the end, they had stolen not one, not two, but three things from Gringott's, which consisted of the last of its kind gene-altering blood adoption potion from the Potter vault (thank god for her paranoia and for her habit of stuffing everything in the never-ending sling bag she always carried with her everywhere and had thus, managed to bring it with her to the past), the second item was Hufflepuff's Cup from Bellatrix Lestrange's personal vaults (this one they actually had to break into and the horcrux was now safely put into another plastic bag) and lastly, one of the security systems of Gringotts actually, which was their Ukrainian Ironbelly dragon.

They had a truly productive day, as you can probably tell; and just like the last time she had had to escape from Gringott's, Regulus and her rode out the bank on the dragon's back, clutching it's neck tightly and hanging on to their dear lives as it broke out of one of the bank's tall window before they proceeded to ride it all the way to the South of France where her parents were calmly waiting for the two of them with hot chocolate and chocolate chip cookies.

Getting almost killed many times was worth it however, since they now processed three horcruxes with them. Only two more to go.

***

In a mighty Manor belonging to the Potters in Caithness, Scotland, Sirius Black looked at the letter in his hand mutely.

His best friend, James Potter, noticed his expression and clapped him on the back. "Are you alright, Padfoot?" He asked with concern.

Sirius wordlessly nodded before handing him the letter. James eyes dropped to the sigil at the bottom of the letter first. The Black coat of arms was neatly printed at the very edge of the letter, making James frown. Nothing good ever came whenever one of the members of that crazy family made contact with Sirius. The last letter Sirius had received had been from his mother, actually, and James had had to hug him tightly as he read out loud that he had been blasted off the family tree.

James' eyes widened as he read the contents of the letter and almost doubled over in shock. "What the—"

"—Apparently, I'm a father," Sirius interrupted, smiling weakly.

"It has to be wrong," James insisted.

Sirius shook his head before sighing. "We used the same principle of the family tree to make the marauders map, remember? The map doesn't lie, and the tree certainly doesn't."

"But— who?" James asked wide-eyed, still trying to process the news. "Who? What? When? Where? Why? Who?" He repeated, shell-shocked.

"I don't know." Sirius running a hand through his hair normally neat hair, messing it up. "My mother, for all her many, many faults, won't joke about something like this." He sighed tiredly. "I'm a father," He whispered to the air like he was convincing himself. "I have a daughter. An actual daughter. Someone who is fifty percent of me. A real, live, actual, daughter."

"But weren't you with Marlene during that time?"

Sirius shook his head. "Not nine months ago I wasn't, remember? The two of us were on a break for a month and I was with Chelsea Kinney then."

"I'm pretty sure she would tell you if you were the father of her baby," James reasoned.

Sirius shook his head again. "No. We had a pretty explosive break-up, remember?"

James winced at the memory before shaking his head. "What if this is another scheme?"

Sirius' brows furrowed. "Scheme?"

"What if they want you back, Pads?"

Sirius laughed bitterly. "Now why would they want that?"

"Because they still might love you after all this time."

"This is my parents we are talking about, Prongs," Sirius reminded him dryly.

"Because you are still the heir, then," James suggested. "Just because your parents blasted you off the family tree—"

"—Way to rub it in, Prongs—"

"—does not mean that you are disowned," James continued, ignoring Sirius' rather unnecessary comment. "Your Grandfather —who is the head of the family— has not disowned you officially, which means that you are still part of the Black family. I would think that they still assume that they can train you to be the heir."

"That train is long gone from the station, Prongs, and even they know that," Sirius answered in a dry tone before shaking his head. "But I don't think so. My mother wouldn't have written to me if it wasn't extremely —pardon the pun— serious, desperate or if I wasn't her last option. They would definitely not make up some elaborate plot —especially if it involves the future heir of the family— just so they can talk to me personally."

"Wait. So are you going to go and meet them now? Your parents?" James asked, bewildered. "Like really?"

Sirius flashed him a bitter smile. "Really really," He confirmed. "Will you come with me?" He asked casually, in an attempt to disguise the bundles of nerves and summersaults his heart was doing at the mere thought of seeing his lovely parents again.

"Of course." James grinned lopsidedly, making Sirius return it.

No matter what would go down later when they went to visit his parents and brother at his childhood home, he knew that everything was going to be fine. Because this time, James would be with him.

***

Number 12, Grimmauld Place,

London, England:

"Sirius," Walburga said stiffly, her expression being the one a person made when they smelt something that they didn't like.

"Mother," Sirius said in a glacial tone, his eyes hard.

"Sirius," Orion greeted with cool indifference.

"Father."

"James," James inputted, feeling awkward but never one to back down and making three pairs of stormy grey eyes fix on him. "I had a feeling that I might be forgotten in this oh-so-happy family reunion."

Now, three pairs of glaring eyes were fixed on him before Sirius cracked a smile.

"Us, forget you? Never." Sirius smiled before frowning upon looking at his parents once again. "Why did you call me?"

"The real question is, why didn't you tell us you got a witch pregnant," Orion retorted. "And while we would have initially been upset for the child being born out of wedlock, we would have been supportive of the conceiving of the child who is to be a member of our family and—"

"—Is she pureblood?" Walburga interrupted, eyes searching and lips sneering. "She better be pureblood, boy!"

"I didn't even know I had a child," Sirius reminded dryly. "So I sincerely apologise from the bottom of my heart, but I can't answer any of your questions since I, myself, am searching for the answers."

"Is this even real?" James asked with narrowed eyes. "Did you make it up?" He demanded.

Walburga glared heatedly at the only non-Black member in the house and opened her mouth to argue, before Orion thankfully beat her to it. "We didn't. If you wish, you can see the proof for yourself." He said coldly, gesturing to the tree room.

"We will." James said, glaring back daggers.

Orion smiled mockingly. "Shall we?"

"Lets," Sirius stated with a mocking smile of his own before the party of four stepped into the tree room.

***

At Flamel Manor,

Un-plot-able location somewhere in Nice, France:

"You don't have to this darling," Mrs Flamel began. "It doesn't matter if you are not our blood child. That does not mean that we will love you any less, dear. There is no need to risk your life and Merlin knows what will happen. Don't do this, sweetheart..." She said in French, her voice dripping with concern.

Mr Flamel nodded, his eyes worried. "mon chéri", you really don't have to—"

"—But I want to." Ara cut-in firmly, making Mr and Mrs Flamel crack a smile despite the tension in the room.

"But what if something goes wrong?" Mrs Flamel asked.

"And what if it doesn't?" Ara retorted with a smile. "Don't worry, maman. Don't worry papa. I'll be fine. Promise. And you know what they say about promises, right? You—"

"—never, ever break them," Mrs Flamel, Mr Flamel and Ara finished together, sharing a chuckle.

"It's going to be fine." Ara repeated. She turned to face Regulus with a lopsided smile. "Any last words of encouragement, discouragement or advice?"

"Don't die," he responded.

"I'll try my best not to," Ara replied dryly. "Merlin, you're all such pessimists! It will be completely fine, you all, don't worry," she assured, flashing them another smile.

Ara glanced at her reflection in a spoon and her smile turned sad. She kissed the reflection in her spoon, as if saying goodbye before she raised the glass and gave them all another weak smile. "Cheers." She gulped the clear liquid that was the gene-replacing potion down her mouth.

Not even a second later, Ara's eyes widened and her hands immediately went to grab onto her own throat.

The glass dropped to the ground and shattered as Ara let out a pain-stricken scream. She shut her eyes tightly as she dropped to her knees and clutches the floor in absolute pain.

Regulus had once heard his mother use the crucatious curse on Sirius and had assumed that no scream can top that. Looking at Ara, he realised that he was wrong.

Every cell, nerve, genetic component was being replaced inside of her. He didn't doubt that the pain she felt was unbearable. Just glancing at the state and hearing the shouts she let out felt torturous to him, so he couldn't even dream of the hurt she must be facing.

She screamed louder, and Regulus was afraid that she had damaged her voice box. Mrs Flamel had already broken down into tears on seeing how her adopted by soon-to-be-biological daughter was faring, and even Mr Flamel, as he comforted his wife, was crying and wincing at every shout Ara let out.

Regulus would be lying if he claimed that he was doing better.

But Ara was going to be fine, he repeated in his mind to reassure himself, she had done this once before as a child, so she can do this now also. She had to do it. He wouldn't be able to live with himself if she died during an idea he suggested. Come on, Ara.

To Ara, it felt like every cell in her body had been put under the fiendfyre. She wanted all this to stop. She didn't want to do this anymore but a small part of her mind knew that she couldn't do anything about it now. The changes were permanent and this was the last potion of it's kind in the world. There was no way to undo it.

Ara had been put under the crucatious curse a few times before, but now, she was willing to give everything she owned in exchange to be put under the torture curse rather than go through the suffering this potion caused her at the moment. It made the most feared crucatious curse look like a mild stinging hex in comparison.

He couldn't watch her like this any longer.

Regulus took out his wand, "Stupefy!"

Ara fell to the ground, unconscious. She wasn't screaming any longer, but her body was still convulsing and shaking.

He watched with a mixture of horror and fascination as the colour of her skin toned down by a shade and her once dark-as-night hair went lighter and lighter until it settled into a beautiful shade of brown— just like Mrs Flamel's.

The change in her features weren't noticeable, but subtle. Yet, the differences were crystal clear to him. Her cheekbones soften by a tad, the shape of her eyes were now more doe-like than almond, her face had become a little bit more heart-shape and he could see the barest hint of dimples on her cheeks.

Her body finally stoped shaking and a second later, her eyes opened abruptly; and Regulus realised that they weren't green anymore, but a lovely shade of blue that mirror Mr Flamel's own eyes.

Adhara Potter Black's existence in the present and future had stopped. From now on, there was only Ara Flamel for better or for worst.

Regulus only hoped that it was for the better.

***

At Number 12, Grimmauld Place,

London, England:

Sirius stared at the tree with his eyebrows frowned. "There is no branch." .

"What!?" Walburga screeched, coming to check for herself. "Impossible!"

Not even a second later, she doubled over in shock upon realising that her oldest son was indeed correct. There was no branch that existed from Sirius' burnt spot and no picture of the pretty dark-haired girl with the emerald eyes that she had been seeing from the past day. "B—But it was just there! I checked it personally just a minute ago!" She exclaimed in disbelief.

James gave her a deadpanned look while Sirius scoffed as he recollected his and James' conversation earlier that day.

"What if this is another scheme?"

"Scheme?"

"What if they want you back, Pads?"

"Now why would they want that?"

"Because they still might love you after all this time."

"This is my parents we are talking about, Prongs."

"Because you are still the heir, then. Just because your parents blasted you off the family tree—"

"—Way to rub it in, Prongs—"

"—does not mean that you are disowned. Your Grandfather —who is the head of the family— has not disowned you officially, which means that you are still part of the Black family. I would think that they still assume that they can train you to be the heir."

He turned to face his soul brother. "You were right. They did go to every length to bring me back to this place."

James grinned. "Well, I hate to say 'I told you so'—"

"—No you don't—"

"—I really don't. Ha ha! I told you so, Padfoot!" James intoned smugly.

Sirius glanced at his mother who was still staring at the tapestry in disbelief. "I can't believe I'm saying this, but yes. Yes you did."

"We are not lying, Sirius." Orion said coldly, his eyes occasionally sneaking a bewildered, disbelieving glance at the tapestry. "There was an extension of your branch that led to a picture of a girl with dark hair much like yours and—"

Sirius began laughing.

"How dare you behave with your father this way, you insolent boy!" Walburga shouted in fury, hand going to her wand.

But James was faster. "Expelliariamis!" He expertly pointed his wand at Walburga and glared at her heatedly. "Don't even think about it, because I promise you, I won't hesitate to hex you until you only have an inch of your life." He warned, making Walburga glared at him in return.

Orion's eyes were fixed on Sirius', however, as he completely ignored the exchange that had occurred between his wife and his Aunt Dorea's only son. "You don't believe us," he stated.

"You've never given me a good reason to do so before," Sirius stated, just as coldly. "So why should I now?"

"Because it's the truth."

"So, the other things you've told me weren't?"

"Stop behaving like a child, Sirius," Orion replied coldly, arms folded. "Adhara. That was the name of the girl we saw on the tapestry. It sounds like something you would name your daughter."

"I don't have a daughter," Sirius reminded him. Even if he did, there was no way he would give her the same name as his god-daughter.

"You do. Somebody must have done something in the minute we left the room to greet you. We know what we saw and you know as well as I do that the tapestry doesn't lie," Orion responded.

Sirius mockingly turned to face the tapestry and placed a palm on the blackened spot which used to contain a picture of him before proceeding to trace it with a finger.

He remembered that when he was little, he had been forced to by-heart every name on this damed tapestry by his wonderful parents, and he could clearly see that there was no new extension branch, no new picture and there never had been and there never was a member of the Black family named Adhara.

"You are correct, father," he began, turning to face him and smiling amusedly for a second upon noticing that James had a wand pointed at his mother. He hoped Prongs would accidentally let loose a spell or two at that she-devil. "The tapestry doesn't lie," Sirius stated and smiled mockingly at him once more. "And according to the tapestry, I do not have any children and I also happened to be burnt off of it, if you haven't already noticed; a fact that you have got your lovely wife to thank for. Anyway, the point is," he paused to look both his parents in the eye. "I am not your son."

Walburga let out another scream, but once again, James was quicker and threw a stunner her way.

Sirius raised an eyebrow at his father. "You aren't going to do anything about that?" He gestured to a proud-looking James and an unconscious Walburga.

Orion shrugged his shoulders. "Thank you," he told James who snorted at him before turning once more to Sirius. "We have wronged you in many ways, I know. None of it was fair, I know. But you should know that we are telling you the truth about this. There really was an extension in your branch, my son. If only you would stop being so stubborn and prideful and let me explain—"

"—I am not your son," Sirius cut him off firmly, grey eyes as cold and hard as steal. He turned to James, ignoring his father. "Let's go home, James."

James Potter nodded before following his friend back home.

The Potter Manor would always be home for Sirius in a way Grimmauld Place could have never even dreamt of achieving.

Orion Black didn't make any attempts to stop him as James and him walked out the door. His father never made any efforts to get him to stay. A weak part of Sirius -even now after all this time- hoped that he would.

But he didn't.

So Sirius Black walked out of the door of Grimmauld Place once again and just like before, nobody stopped him. And just like the last time he walked out of that place, James, Lord Potter, Lady Potter and himself spent the night under the stars drinking hot chocolate and eating s'mores.

***

When Regulus Black returned home, he was greeted to the sight of his mother spluttering over her words and cursing his brother under her breath as she paced across the white marble floor of the parlour. His father, however, gave off the impression that he couldn't be bothered less by any worldly thing, as he read a book, Ritualistic Runes by Lycoris Yaxley, while sitting cross-legged on an armchair.

"Mother," Regulus started softly, his eyebrows frowned in confusion. "What—"

"—Your brother is a complete idiot!" Walburga roared.

Of course he is, Regulus thought, but he wouldn't dare voice his mind now— not when his mother was glaring daggers and ready to spit curses. "If I may inquire details regarding which act of stupidity my dearest brother committed this time, mother?" He asked politely.

His mother let out a war cry in response and whatever words came out of her mouth was completely incoherent, but Regulus could gather by her mere emotions that his brother had majorly angered their parents.

He mentally sighed. This was honestly nothing new.

In fact, it had become a routine of sorts: Sirius would do something that would either exasperate or displeasure their parents, thus stealing all of their attention for himself and nobody would pay any mind to Regulus, whose existence only flashed into their minds when they needed him for a work that they couldn't get anybody else to do.

It had always been like this for as long as he could remember.

Sirius was always the best and no matter how hard he tried, he could never match up to his brother. He was always second.

The sad part was, he tried so hard to make his parents proud. He studied and practised every spell until he was at the top of his year. He lived up to every single expectation that had been set by their parents. He got into Slytherin like a good son. He didn't befriend or talk to any mud bloods or halfbloods unless it was absolutely necessary, like a good pureblood. He made friends with all the right people, spoke with the proper manners and behaved like he was expected to.

He became Prefect. He also became Quidditch Captain. He even became the Head Boy.

Yet—

Sirius was the apple of their parent's eyes. He was loud, rowdy and impulsive; but he was a prodigy in magic in a way that Regulus could only dream about. Sirius was the best dueller in their generation of the Black family, crossing even Bellatrix's power with effortless ease. Sirius was the smart one —the person who could easily score remarkably well on his exams without lifting a finger. Sirius was the person that other parents compared their children to and complemented their parents on— perfect Sirius with his intelligence, kindness, strength, skills, talent and looks.

It was always Sirius.

Sirius was the one who his mother moaned over how brilliant he would have been if he had gotten sorted into Slytherin ("A waste of perfectly good talent."), not Regulus- the child who actually got sorted into the house of snakes like they wanted.

Whether intentionally or not, the people always had a way of shining the spotlight over Sirius and leaving him behind in the darkness.

After all, no matter what he did, Sirius would always be the heir; and Regulus was just the spare who would be disposed after use.

Regulus knew that it wasn't Sirius' fault. His older brother certainly did not wish to even have a minute portion of their parent's attention or ire. In fact, there were countless times when Sirius had laid to either protect Regulus or not put him in trouble. Sirius wasn't perfect, but Regulus had always believed that he was honestly a really good older brother; until Sirius had run away to the Potter's.

Until Sirius had abandoned him.

Until Sirius had left him behind.

Until Sirius had chosen James, Remus and Peter over him.

Until Sirius had chosen his friends over his own brother.

(There was an annoying voice in his head that kept telling him that Sirius had indeed offered a place at the Potter's to him, and it was Regulus who had declined the invitation coldly; but Regulus chose to ignore that part.)

Regulus sighed and shook his head.

"I'll be off to bed. Good night, mother, father. I hope you sleep well," he said, turning to walk in the direction of his room, when his father's cool tone of bored indifference rang across the room.

"It's hardly half past six, Regulus. Stay for a while longer. At least until dinner," Orion stated.

Regulus paused mid-step, lips pursed.

Stay with his parents in the parlour and listen to his mother rant about Sirius being a disgrace to the family for the fourth time that week, or go to his room and talk to Ara for a bit with their mirrors and then, go to sleep.

It was an incredibly tough choice.

Regulus turned back to face his father with a small smile dancing on his face. "Thank you for the invitation, father. However, I am afraid I must decline. I am meeting a friend of mine early tomorrow morning and I think it's best if I get an early night today," he replied before adding, "Plus, I already had a fast dinner with my friend a few minutes ago."

His statements caused his mother to stop pacing and tearing a hole in their expensive carpets. She turned to face him intently with a gleam in her eyes. "A friend? Anybody we know?"

"No. I met her recently."

"Her?" Walburga questioned, the gleam in her eyes brightening as her lips curved into a smirk. "It's a girl." She stated.

Regulus nodded, unsure on where she was going with this conversation. Previously, his mother hadn't batted an eye whenever he had mentioned that he was going out with some of his female friends. He wondered why she was taking such an interest now.

"Is she pureblood?"

Well, the Flamels were purebloods, so, "Of course, mother."

Walburga's smirk widened and Regulus' confusion deepened.

"Is this friend the same one you are going out with tomorrow morning?"

"The very one," Regulus confirmed, frowning his brows further upon noticing his father sharing his mother's newfound interest in his circle of friends.

"Where is she from?"

"France."

"She isn't from Britain then?"

"She was born in Britain, but raised in France." Or was going to be born but now won't be.

"Hmm..." His mother hummed, pursing her lips thinly before continuing to fire questions at him from what seemed to Regulus, a never ending list. "Is she an heiress?"

"Yes." Both is and was.

"Wealthy?"

"Yes."

"From a respectable household?"

"Yes."

"Is she beautiful?"

"More so than Aphrodite."

"Smart?"

"Absolutely brilliant."

"Age?"

"It's rude of me to ask."

"Age?" His mother repeated, an impatient tone underlining her voice.

"A year younger than I. So, eighteen," Regulus answered.

"Hmm..." His mother hummed again, looking at him with sharp, shrewd, startling grey eyes. She didn't stop her interrogation, however. "How long have you known her?"

"A few days."

"And..." She prompted.

Regulus furrowed his brows. "And... what?"

"Hopeless." Walburga shook her head before resuming to speak. "You said you are meeting her tomorrow. Where?"

"At Hogsmeade," he answered truthfully, so if he was accidentally spotted, his parents wouldn't doubt him and his alibi would be solidified.

They had come up with the logic that the two of them would be meeting for breakfast in a private room at the Three Broomsticks in Hogsmeade for their alibi, shortly after which they would infiltrate Hogwarts via a relatively unknown passage; after which, they would split up. Regulus would go to the Room of Requirement and get Ravenclaw's diadem and then proceed to the girl's lavatory located on the second floor and enter the open Chamber. Meanwhile, Ara would directly go to the Chamber of Secrets, kill the basilisk, save the poison and if possible, destroy the other horcuxes they had collected as she waited for him to arrive as well.

Tomorrow was going to be a tough day.

"Why are the two of you meeting up so early?" Walburga asked. By now, his father had long abandoned his book and was now watching the interaction between his mother and himself with a sharp curiosity in his eyes.

"She works as an Unspeakable," he announced bluntly, making his mother's eyes widen and his father look thoroughly impressed.

"What does her job have to do with why you are meeting up, Regulus?" His mother demanded. "Unless... You aren't planning to abandon a wonderful career in the ministry to become an Unspeakable, are you?" She asked with narrowed eyes.

"Of course not, mother," Regulus replied smoothly. "She is researching a subject and wanted to know specific topics about the History of Britain's magic. Unfortunately, she doesn't have the time to do the reading herself since her deadline was quite short and is fast approaching, and so, since I topped History of Magic and scored the highest marks achieved in fifty years, she asked for my help, and I agreed."

He knew that he didn't have to add the whole 'scored the highest marks achieved in fifty years' bit, but he wanted to remind his parents of the fact that he had once again, done better than Sirius in something.

"Oh." His mother blinked. "What is she researching about?"

And just like always, his parents didn't notice or acknowledge it.

"I'm under an oath not to speak of it," Regulus lied smoothly, making his mother frown.

"Where are you meeting tomorrow?"

"The Three Broomsticks."

Walburga wrinkled her nose at the mention of such a common place.

"May I please be excused?" Regulus asked politely, though internally, he was itching to go and speak with Ara once again.

Walburga seemed to contemplate the question on her mind, before slowly nodding. "You are excused," She finally answered, and Regulus had to force his legs to not jump up in joy and run into his room immediately.

Instead, he smiled gratefully at his mother. "Thank you mother. I will see the two of you later."

He turned around and began walking once more, when just like before, his father's voice echoed in the room again.

"You never told us her name," Orion noted, folding his arms casually.

Regulus pursed his lips before shifting it into a small smile, precisely as he had done earlier. "Ara. Her name is Ara."

"She even has a constellation name!" His mother exclaimed with more happiness than he had ever heard her talk with before, as she clapped his hands together excitedly. "That's wonderful!" She paused, proceeding to probe, "Is she related to us? By a lesser branch that settled in France, perhaps?"

She was. "No," Regulus replied. "There is no connection between her and our family. I had the same enquiry when I first met her, but her family has been based in France from the very beginning. She isn't named Ara after a constellation. She is named Ara because her parents like how that name sounded."

Well, technically, Ara liked how that two syllabi word sounded so much, that she insisted that everybody call her so, rather than by her original, whole, given, three syllabi name, Adhara. But his parents didn't have to know that.

Walburga's face grew gleeful at his answer, which frankly, scared Regulus.

Upon seeing that his parents had no more questions to stop him, he continued his journey to his room, opened the door, entered, locked it, pulled out the mirror and began talking to Ara about random, insignificant things like his favourite Quidditch move to pull and pretty-sounding words that she liked to learn about; rather than talk about tomorrow's events like he had originally planned to do.

But he couldn't help it.

None except Ara liked to ask him how his day went, even though she was by his side the whole time. She liked hearing his perspective on things and as she had accidentally confessed, liked hearing the sound of his voice. Strangely, she found it quite calming.

Nobody other than Ara asked him which ice-cream flavour he preferred, or which job did he really like or what his passion actually was.

When people first glanced at him, they assumed things, as dictated by human coding. However, not one of them chose to correct all their initial assumptions regarding him by actually asking him questions and listening —not just hearing— his answers like Ara did.

She didn't know how much it meant to him.

In fact, Ara didn't seem to think it was a big deal. She claimed that she detested silences, and so, kept asking questions in order to not slip into the quiet. But for Regulus, who had been expertly trained to read between the lines— her questions showed that she cared. She cared what he thought. She cared about how he acted. She cared about what he liked. She cared about him.

Nobody cared about him, not really. Not the 'friends' he had made over the years to please his parents, not his cousins who cared mostly about their respective partners, not his parents who only seemed to notice his existence when Sirius messed up and not even Sirius, who ran away to the Potters and left him alone. But Ara cared.

And that thought both pleased and terrified him.

Chapter Text

When Regulus walked down to the living room early the next morning, he was extremely surprised to see his parents already up and apparently, consoling an angry Bellatrix. The presence of his dark-haired and slightly obsessive cousin itself rang warning bells inside his head.

Regulus walked over to the group. His father, ever sharp and observant, was the first to notice his presence.

"Good morning Regulus."

"Good morning, father. I hope you slept well. You too, mother," Regulus said before facing Bellatrix. "Good morning, Be—"

"—What is so good about this morning, Reggie!" Bellatrix snapped.

"I apologise," Regulus said immediately, used to his cousin's mood swings.

"You must forgive Regulus, Bella," Walburga told her soothingly. "He doesn't know what happened and I am sure that he is really excited about today." She flashed him a coy smile paired with a suggestive look.

Regulus sighed and prayed that his parents and cousin did not notice the flush in his cheeks. "She is just a friend, mother."

Walburga waved his comment away, while Bellatrix smirked.

"She? You're meeting up with a girl so early in the morning?" Bellatrix asked, smirk widening with each word.

"I don't know why everybody finds that so hard to believe. I have had female friends in the past, you know," Regulus muttered.

"Yes, but your female friends consist of those who have already been engaged," Bellatrix said, before adding as an afterthought, "The girl you are meeting. Is she single?"

"As far as my knowledge, yes."

"And you are meeting each other alone?"

"Yes."

"Then it's a date!" She clapped her hands.

"No. It's not," Regulus said slowly. "I'm helping her with a research project. That's it."

"Research project?" Bellatrix repeated doubtfully.

"Yes. She happens to be an Unspeakable," Regulus replied.

This time, Bellatrix gave him all her attention. Any tears or anger she might have had before had now all disappeared. At that moment, Regulus realised that he was not speaking with Bellatrix, his wonderfully scary cousin. He was speaking with Bellatrix, the right hand woman of the Dark Lord Tom.

"An Unspeakable? You know an Unspeakable and didn't tell me! When were you planning to tell me this, Reggie?" Bellatrix demanded.

"I couldn't tell you no matter how much I have wanted to. I've only known her for about a week and she held me under an oath the whole time. She only released me yesterday afternoon, and even then, I am sworn to secrecy about what she is researching," Regulus answered calmly.

Bellatrix seemed to have accepted his answer, because she nodded her head. "The Unspeakable's are very tricky," she commented understandingly. "Have you recruited her to the Dark Lord yet? An Unspeakable will be a great ally to have."

"I thought Rookwood was an Unspeakable?"

"He is, but one of the lowest levels. An Omega. He can hardly be counted," Bellatrix replied. "Which level is she on?"

"Alpha," He replied truthfully, recalling the conversation he had with Ara last night.

"You can tell everybody that I am an Unspeakable. I don't mind."

"Are you sure?"

"Oh, yes. Absolutely. Papa is the secret Head of the Unspeakable's, after all, and he has already given me my old-new job back. Information about the Unspeakable's is very much classified, and even if it wasn't, papa can easily fake some things."

"But by claiming that I know an Unspeakable, you will gain the Dark Lo—"

"—Tom," Ara had interjected sternly. "His name is Tom."

"Sorry. By saying that you are an Unspeakable, you will gain Tom's attention."

"You say that like it is a bad thing."

"Isn't it?"

"No. We need Tom's attention on the two of us. It will be easier to get back the diary, and easier to kill him."

"I sincerely doubt that."

"Me too. But, the truth is, sooner or later, Tom is going to find out that Hufflepuff's cup was one of the stolen items from Gringotts. Then, he will check all the locations of his other horcuxes, just to see if they are safe, and will be extremely angry to see that they are gone. He is going to go on a warpath to discover who knows his secret, and the only people that could have figured it out would be Albus Dumbledore, or one of the people he gave his horcruxes to protect— like you," Ara had said. "You saying that you are trying to recruit an Alpha-level Unspeakable on your side, would keep the suspicions of you."

Bellatrix whistled impressively at his answer. "Really? An Alpha level?"

"Yes," Regulus replied. "See, I have been attempting to get her to our side, and that is my primary focus for now."

"The Dark Lord had been wondering why you had not been so active in our circles," Bellatrix admitted. "But I am sure that he will understand your reason for it. After all, recruiting an Alpha level Unspeakable must be tiring and horrifying. Don't loose her, Reggie," She warned.

"I won't," Regulus spoke sincerely. "I think she is actually half-convinced about our most wonderful cause. I have to tread carefully now to get her to agree fully."

"You can get her to meet with the Dark Lord," Bellatrix suggested. "The Dark Lord is very good at recruiting people to our cause. He's very persuasive."

"That's what I plan to do, but only after she finished her project. She won't be free or able to concentrate on anything else until then, I am afraid."

"When is her project due?"

"Next Sunday."

"I can get both of you a meeting with the Dark Lord. It would be hard of course —the Dark Lord is so incredibly busy— but I am sure that if I ask, he will be able to do it," Bellatrix intoned with pride.

"That is incredibly kind of you, Bella. I appreciate it."

Bellatrix laughed. "Of course, Reggie. We are family, after all."

"His most loyal and faithful family as well," Walburga added proudly. "With darling Bellatrix his right hand, Regulus, a member of His inner circle and Narcissa married to another."

Bellatrix nodded. "Indeed, we are. If only..." She trailed off, and everybody knew what she was about to say.

If only Andromeda had followed their footsteps.

If only Sirius had as well.

If one thought Regulus had a problem with Sirius leaving and his parents attention, it was nothing compared to Bellatrix.

No matter how hard Bellatrix had tried, Sirius had always been the better dueller between them— something that annoyed her to no end. Sirius had always been a prodigy at everything. It was Sirius who could cast powerful dark spells easily in his sleep; and Bellatrix was irked that she had to actually practise hard to be able to cast one. Bellatrix hated the fact that Sirius had everything, was good at everything, yet choose to abandon it all.

Regulus cleared his throat, effectively snapping them all out of their nostalgic trance. "I have to go. We have to meet up in five minutes."

Bellatrix nodded. "Okay. I'll be sure to mention the work you are doing to the Dark Lord. He will be most pleased."

"That is high praise. Thank you once again, Bella."

Bellatrix shrugged before smirking. "Have fun!" She sang as she waggled her eyebrows.

Regulus rolled his eyes. "I will," He said before pausing. "If I may intrude, why were you angry a few minutes ago?"

It was Bellatrix's turn to roll her eyes. "You are not intruding, Reggie. Morgana, you are so polite that it is almost annoying in a sense!"

"Almost," Regulus cheekily echoed.

"Almost." Bellatrix smirked before frowning. "Have you read today's Daily Prophet?"

"Not yet."

His father wordlessly handed him the newspaper and Regulus proceeded to read it.

GRINGOTT'S ROBBED!

Yesterday morning, two unidentified persons stole from Gringott's and escaped via a dragon. You read it right, dear readers. The duo stole from the previously, famously reputed 'Un-steal-able Bank' in broad day light and escaped.

What started out to be a normal day at Gringott's bank turned out to be quite remarkable as at around ten in the morning, visitors were horrified to see a Ukrainian Underbelly dragon burst through the floor of the Bank before escaping to the free open by breaking through a window.

What was even more fascinating was that two person were actually riding on the dragon! Their identities, are sadly, not known to us since the two of them were wearing grey hoods over their faces. However, based on the body structure of the persons, we have come to find out that it was a duo containing a male and a female, who are most likely a couple.

A few minutes after the couple rode out of the Bank on the back of their dragon, a special correspondent who is educated in the Goblin language of Gobbledegook, told us here at the Daily Prophet of the news and also informed us that the couple had actually stolen two objects from not one, but two different maximum-security vaults at Gringott's!

Yes, everybody.

Gringott's has been successfully stolen from —two of the maximum security ones, no less— which means that all of our wealth that we had trusted the Bank to guard, is now at great risk. After all, of the thieves could so easily steal from the very expensive, very warded and very protected maximum security vaults, what about us— those who do not have such security?

Unfortunately, we still do not know whose vaults the objects has been stolen from and what exactly the objects are.

We are yet to receive new information on this subject from both, the Auror department and the Gringott's Bank.

The Minister of Magic assured us that the 'Culprit Couple' will soon be caught and whatever they have stolen shall be returned to their rightful owners.

We shall provide you with more updates on this breaking news as it develops.

ALSO SEE:

0. Famous Magizoologist and author of best-selling book, Fantastic Beasts And Where To Find Them, Newt Scamander comment on the lack of proper care and the poor, cruel way the Ukrainian Underbelly dragon has been treated by Gringott's Bank on page 6.

0. The dark history behind Gringott's Bank and the Goblin Wars on page 9.

0. For the results of the Annual Magic Lottery, see page 13.

0 For Quidditch updates, see page 14.

Regulus handed the newspaper back to his father. Was it odd that he felt proud of himself and Ara?

"I thought nobody could break into Gringotts?" He asked with a confused expression.

Walburga huffed. "So did we. Good for nothing Goblins!"

"One of the objects those mudbloods stole was from my vault," Bellatrix spat angrily, and all Regulus could think about was that it was concerning that she immediately assumed that it was mudbloods who were thieves. Did she really blame them for everything? Had Regulus been like this earlier?

He should probably stop calling them mudbloods in his mind.

"That's awful!" Regulus said. "Was it anything important?"

Bellatrix hesitated. "Yes," She revealed.

"I hope they get it back soon then."

"They better," Bellatrix said with a wicked gleam in her eyes. "Or else I will have to pry it off of their cold, dead fingers." She shook her head and reverted back to his cousin Bellatrix again, flashing him yet another coy look. "Good luck with your girlfriend." She emphasised like a little kid.

While Sirius had been close with Andromeda, Regulus had always favoured Narcissa and Bellatrix much more.

He rolled his eyes. "She is not my girlfriend."

"Yet," Bellatrix added in a sing-song voice, smirking once more.

Regulus rolled his eyes again. "Goodbye, Bella."

Bellatrix blew him a kiss. "Bye Reggie! Go and get her!"

Regulus chose to ignore her, and nodded to his father and gave a smile to his mother. "I'll see you later, mother. Father."

They nodded in acknowledgement, speaking their own "I'll see you later"s and "Be safe"s.

Regulus apparatated to Hogsmead village and entered the Three Broomsticks.

"Regulus!" A girl shouted as soon as he entered, waving him over to her table.

For one weak second, he was confused.

Over the past few days, he had so been used to looking for a girl with dark hair and green eyes, that he felt confused as to why a brown haired, blue eyed girl was waving him over.

But then, he remembered.

It didn't matter that her looks had changed. On the inside, she was still the amazing Ara he had come to know and on the outside, she was still biting her lips as she flashed him a smile, like she always did when she was nervous.

He made his way over to her.

"The Prophet is calling us the 'Culprit Couple'," he told her as soon as he sat down.

Ara laughed, blue eyes sparkling. "I read. It's bold of them to assume that just because a male and a female are seen together, they automatically become a couple. We could be siblings, for all they know."

"Or uncle and niece," Regulus said.

"Or uncle and niece," Ara repeated, mouth smiling and eyes twinkling before she became sober. "Did you have any problems?"

My parents and cousin think that I have a crush on you because apparently I only talk with girls who are already taken and were shocked to learn that you are single.

"Bella has taken an interest in you. So, be careful," he told instead.

Ara nodded seriously, having had first hand experience on the trouble of catching Bella'a attention it put a person in.

"Also, she told me that she was going to get the two of us an audience with Tom," Regulus told her. "Apparently, Unspeakable's are on demand."

"Can't blame them. We, Unspeakable's, are pretty awesome," Ara bragged.

The thing was, Ara was telling the truth.

The Unspeakables were pretty awesome.

Not as awesome as being a professional Quidditch player, but still.

Their official job description was that they were researchers, who researched about absurd and common fields of magic and discovered things that people could not have dreamt of. But the thing was, they always kept whatever they discovered as a trade secret and would not tell anybody else about it, which made their job sound very mysterious and secretive.

It also caused loads of rumours to be spread about their work. Some, like his mother, assumed that they had already invented the cure to immortality and were not telling it to anybody and others, like his father, thought that they invented and discovered unspeakable horrors and that was the reason they were not telling anybody.

It was because their job was so mysterious and everybody had a thing for assuming things, that everybody wanted to know what exactly the Unspeakables were actually doing. Including Tom Riddle.

When Regulus had asked Ara about it, she had simply just smiled and told him that the reason they didn't tell anybody whatever they were working on, was that sometimes, it was better for it to not be known. Ignorance is bliss, after all.

Plus, every Unspeakable had to take an oath devoid of almost all loopholes, swearing to not speak, earning their name of 'Unspeakable'.

Regulus cleared his throat. "Shall we go now?"

Ara bit her lip again —she really had to stop doing that. Didn't she know how unsanitary it was?— before shaking her head. "Later. Did you have breakfast yet?"

"No."

"Neither did I. Let's eat first, work later."

"Priorities, Ara."

"It's one of the Unspeakables' mottos, actually," Ara told him before she signalled a waitress over.

The waitress arrived and took their orders with a smile. Eggs and coffee for Ara, and pancakes and tea for him, before she wished them a nice day and left.

"Oh!" Ara exclaimed as if she just remembered something. She took out a parcel from her never-ending sling bag and handed it over to him. "It's an Unspeakable robe," she explained. "Wear it when we go to Hogwarts. That way, if we are questioned or caught, we can just say that we are working on a project and can't speak about it because it goes against our oath or something. Plus, Unspeakable's have jurisdiction everywhere, so nobody can say that we were not invited."

"Isn't this taking advantage of your job and violating work ethics?" Regulus asked off handedly as he took the parcel from her.

Ara shrugged. "That's the beauty of being an Unspeakable. There aren't any work ethics."

"What if somebody recognises me? What then?"

Ara looked at him weirdly. "Regulus," she began slowly, "have you by any chance actually seen an Unspeakable robe?"

"Not really."

"Well, it has a hood that covers your whole face, so you can just wear it," Ara elucidated. "And when you wear that hood, you can see through it clearly but others can't see your face. It adds to the whole 'mysterious' reputation. Dad thinks it's cool."

"I still can't believe that Nicholas Flamel is the Head of the Unspeakables," Regulus muttered. "And that I actually met him."

Ara simply shrugged again, not knowing what to say.

The waitress returned with their orders and for some odd reason, Regulus wondered if this really was a date. He shook his head, making Ara look at him questioningly.

He was clearly overthinking things.

He had to put his mind back to focus. After all, there were lots of things to do today, like, finding the second-last horcrux of Tom, slaying a Basilisk and destroying four of Tom's horcuxes.

He needed to think about these things; not over how Ara's smile caused his heart to skip a beat and metaphorical butterflies to flutter in his stomach.

***

Ara wrinkled her nose. "What's that smell?"

"A wonderfully pleasant blend of alcohol and teenage hormones," Regulus responded, making her snort.

The two of them walked across the dark, damp and rather smelly tunnel that led to a secret corridor near the Slytherin Common Room. Ara looked completely comfortable in her grey, Unspeakable robes with the hood pulled down, while Regulus felt a tad weird and out of place wearing them. He had asked her how it felt so right for her, and she had simply told him that it was the same way his green, Slytherin Quidditch Robes felt proper for him.

Ara really had to learn a little bit of subtlety whenever she tried to 'discreetly' tell him to follow his dreams because sometimes, she tended to be as subtle as an exploding charm.

They reached the dead-end of the tunnel. Regulus knocked on it seven times, and the wall slowly started to disappear.

He gestured to the Hogwarts corridor. "Ladies first."

"I'm only an Heiress," Ara said, mirroring his gesture. "So please, lead the way."

Regulus smirked before doing so.

Stepping into Hogwarts almost a year and a half after graduating brought forward waves of nostalgia to him. It felt like Hogwarts herself knew he was there and a warm, protective blanket had been wrapped around him.

"Do you feel that too?" Ara whispered, voice filled with awe and happiness.

Regulus wordlessly nodded before shaking his head. "Twenty minutes," he said. "I'll meet you in the second floor bathroom in twenty minutes."

"Regulus, if you wanted to snog me, all you had to do was ask," Ara told him, smiling innocently, making Regulus splutter for a second.

"This was your plan," he said heatedly.

Ara pouted. "You're no fun," she grumbled before looking at him seriously again. "Be careful. And remember, you need to really want it for the door to appear."

"Trust me, there is nothing I want more," Regulus muttered lowly before clearing his throat and flashing her a small smile. "Good luck."

"You too. We'll need it," Ara said, returning his smile before looking around confusedly. "How come there aren't anybody in the corridors?"

Regulus shrugged. "It's Saturday and early in the morning. I honestly doubt if anybody is awake."

Ara nodded and with one last exchange of smiles, the two of them split up to do their respective tasks.

***

It took him nearly three hours to find Ravenclaw's diadem, much to his embarrassment.

And to make matters worse, it was only with the help of Helena Ravenclaw, also known as the Grey Lady, that he had managed to find it in the first place. And to make things even more horrible, after hitting the two and a half hour mark, Ara was the one who had apparently found and requested Helena to assist him in finding the diadem.

If any of his family members had seen this incident, they would have never let him live it down.

However, this was Ara —who although had been a Black for nearly her entire life— had grown up with the kind and compassionate Flamel's, who had influenced her so much that she had been sorted into Hufflepuff of all Houses!

So when Regulus had gone into the girl's lavatory (after being hit on by a weird ghost), jumped into the tunnel and crossed doors and a floor full of skulls, he had wordlessly handed the diadem to Ara, who flashed him a blinding smile.

"Oh good, you found it."

"I took three hours and the assistance of a ghost," he reminded her dryly. "I'm sure you found it in ten minutes."

Ara waved away his comment. "Yes, but in your defence, Hufflepuff's have always been particularly good finders," she said kindly.

She always had a way of making him feel better.

Laying dead beside Ara was a humongous basilisk.

"You can look if you want," Ara told him upon noticing his curious expression.

"The eyes won't kill me as well, would it?" He joked.

In response, Ara pointed towards a box in a corner, smiling brightly. "Not if I have gauged it out and put it in a box."

Regulus blinked. "Wait. It could actually kill me?"

"Of course it can!" Ara said in a 'duh' tone. "The properties of the eyes of a Basilisk and the eyes of Medusa are very much similar. Perseus had to behead Medusa and used her head to turn a kraken into stone in the myths, remember? Like that, a basilisk can also still kill somebody with it's direct stare and petrify somebody with it's indirect stare even after it has died."

Regulus swallowed before looking at the box wearily. "How are you going to throw it then? By burning it?"

Ara looked at him weirdly with her eyebrows furrowed. "Why would I want to throw it away? Do you know how rare it is to find basilisk parts, let alone it's eyes?" She asked rhetorically. "We can harvest the basilisk parts into research."

"And the eyes?"

She smiled innocently at him. "In case any of our plans backfire, it is very important to have a backup."

"You are going to petrify and kill people who get in your way?"

"It's human instinct, Regulus." She paused. "Do you disapprove?"

"Not quite. I was actually wondering if I could keep one eye with me."

"Of course!" She smiled blindingly again.

"Give it to me later though," Regulus told her, getting a nod in response.

The dead basilisk in the room gave him enough creeps already.

Speaking of dead basilisk, Regulus curiously circled it. It was big, scaly, green and disgusting. The smell of rotting meat had already filled the air.

"Did you kill it with the Sword of Gryffindor again?" He asked Ara, who snorted in reply.

"Actually, I didn't really feel like beheading animals that could kill me today, so I took the easier route," she answered.

"There is an easier route to kill a basilisk?" Regulus asked, bewildered.

Ara smiled once again, twirling her wand in her hand. "The natural enemy of a basilisk is roosters," she informed him before a glint of steel appeared in her blue eyes and her lips set itself into a thin, hard line. "And this time... This time I knew how to transfigure inanimate objects into living things."

Regulus nodded, unsure of him to respond to her words.

Ara shook her head, smiling once again. She took out a plastic baggie from the never-ending pockets in her grey, Unspeakable robes. Inside the clear bag, was a single tooth that looked to be bigger than his hand.

Regulus' eyes widened at that sight. He knew what it was, of course. That was half of the reason they came to Hogwarts in the first place; but for some reason, he still found it hard to believe and a part of him still assumed all of this to be a dream —his time travelling ex-niece rescuing him from the hold of Death, robbing Gringotts, everything really. But this— This just made it all feel completely and utterly real.

"Is that—"

"—something you can eat? Well, yes, but I wouldn't recommend it. It's quite poisonous, you see." Ara hummed, making him glare and in turn, prompting her to laugh. "But, if you thought it is the fang of a thousand year old basilisk," she continued with her lips quipped upwards, "then you assumed correctly."

Regulus wordlessly nodded at her statement before taking out a box from his own robes- the same box that they had previously hid in the attic of number twelve, Grimmauld Place. The box that contained all the stolen horcruxes.

He took all four of them out with great care, making sure not to have direct physical contact with any of them and only taking them out after checking his mental barriers.

During that time, Ara took out three other identical, clear, plastic bags from the pockets of her robes; each containing a single basilisk fang -still a little bloodied- that she had managed to slay, collect and pack carefully into the bags sometime during the three hours Regulus had had to spend taking down the diadem. She then slowly uncovered each of them, taking care to leave enough plastic at one end so they could use it like a handle in order to avoid accidental scratches with the poisonous fang, since they did not have any phoenix tears on hand with them.

"What if somebody enters the bathroom? We haven't locked it." Regulus asked offhandedly, watching as she carefully laid the fangs down, two plastic handles facing him and the other two, her.

"Trust me when I say that nobody will come," Ara replied. "During the whole time I studied at Hogwarts, I can tell you from personal experience as a girl, that nobody uses this bathroom anymore. Myrtle is horrifying."

"She doesn't look horrifying."

"When her face pops out of the toilet you are sitting on, it will," Ara told him. "There have only been three times when I had entered this bathroom during the seven years I studied there, and all three times were in relation with the Chamber of Secrets. Don't worry. We'll be fine."

Regulus nodded and took two of the fangs by the plastic handle, one in each hand. Ara followed his actions. Both of them kneeled behind two horcruxes each. Him, the locket and the diadem; and her, the cup and the ring.

She eyed the objects warily. "Are you ready?" She asked, not looking up from the horcruxes.

"No," he replied honestly.

"Me too."

"That's nice," he commented, taking a deep breath. "Let's do this. One—"

"—Two—"

"—THREE!" The two of them finished together, simultaneously stabbing the horcruxes with the fangs.

Mists of dark vapour eloped them as soon as they did, and Regulus could hear shouts and loud cries as he shut his ears and eyes tightly. He had no doubt Ara was doing the same.

It took a few more minutes for darkness and sounds to stop, letting him to slowly and cautiously open his eyes after that.

The first thing he saw was pools of blue.

"We did it," he whispered in disbelief. Well, they still had the diary and the madman himself, but one had to celebrate the small achievements in life.

Ara nodded happily. "We did it," she confirmed and as soon as she did, he ran to her —properity and manners forgotten— and eloped her into a tight hug.

Ara didn't hesitate, and immediately wrapped her arms around him. She felt warm. Had she always smelt like mint and adventure?

He didn't know how long they stood there like that —inside the legendary Chamber of Secrets, in front of a dead basilisk and beside destroyed horcruxes— but Regulus honestly didn't care.

They were one step closer to making Tom mortal once more and he didn't know exactly when, but for some reason, Ara had started to feel like home.

***

Meanwhile, back at the Manor in Caithness, An owl flew in, dropping a letter from it's legs with James catching it just before it could fall into his tea.

"What is it?" Lily asked, balancing Adhara on her hip as the little baby girl grabbed a chunk full of her mother's auburn hair with her chubby fist and proceeded to put it inside her mouth before gurgling happily, making Lily scowl and James laugh.

"Hello Prongsletta. Had a nice nap?" James cooed to his daughter who made incoherent happy noises from her mouth in reply before making grabby hands. James laughed and carried her, watching with a soft, fond smile as she tried to grab his glasses.

"It's a letter from Gringotts," James answered to his wife.

Lily frowned. "Why would you receive a letter from Gringotts?"

James shrugged. "Read it for me?" He asked, smiling lopsidedly.

Lily rolled her eyes with a small smile before proceeding to do exactly that. Her eyebrows furrowed deeper as she read.

"What is it?" James asked, rocking Adhara back and forth lightly.

"Do you remember today's headlines in the newspaper?" Lily said.

"You mean about those guys who stole from the bank? Yeah," James replied, frowning. "Why? Is Gringotts doing a security check to prevent such things from happening in the future or something?"

"James," Lily started seriously, "one of the vaults they stole from was yours."

James eyebrows rose. Adhara successfully took his glasses. "Really? What did they steal?"

"Every coin was accounted for, apparently," Lily read from the letter. "The goblins think that the thieves stole a particular object and were wondering if you would go and check which one."

"There are a lot of items in the Potter Vault, Lils. Most of them priceless and the one of a kind sort. I don't know every single item in it and all the important inheritances of our family are kept in the Potter Manor." James sighed tiredly. "It would be useless even if I go. I wouldn't be able to pinpoint what single object the thieves might have stolen. Besides, what kind of thieves ignore all the gold and steal two objects only? You'd think with all the trouble they took to get into the maximum security vaults, that they might have robbed it blank."

"Maybe these two items were extremely rare and important," Lily suggested thoughtfully. "What strikes me odd is that they knew exactly in which vaults their desired items were located in. It isn't a coincidence. They knew that their objects were there in yours and the other person's vaults."

"I think the same." James nodded, catching his glasses before it hit the floor as Adhara threw it, and handed it back to her. "I'll go to the Auror office now and check in for more details."

Lily nodded, taking Adhara back into her arms, before smiling. "Be safe."

"You too." James' eyes slid from his wife to his daughter.

He didn't care what the thieves might have stolen from his vault because right now, he had much bigger things to worry about. Professor Dumbledore had informed them a while ago that the bastard of a Dark Lord was targeting his precious, baby daughter and his godson, Nevile Longbottom.

He knew that Lily was just as worried over this as he was.

The two of them, along with Sirius, Remus, Peter, Alice and Frank, had dedicated hours after the two children had fallen asleep to find a way to protect them. The dark circles under all their eyes were proof of that.

There were only two ways to end this. Either his daughter and his godson had to die, or that psychopathic madman had to.

And James was prepared to sacrifice himself and the whole world before even a single hair on his daughter's head was harmed.

Chapter Text

They really weren't fortunate in the luck department because Regulus and Ara had exited from Moaning Myrtle's bathroom only to be caught like a snitch by a Seeker in front of many, many students who were apparently coming back to their Common Rooms after lunch— most of whom donned Slytherin and Hufflepuff robes.

The students were pointing at their robes and murmuring amongst themselves. Regulus could recognise a few of the students from the Quidditch teams and a few others from his house. He didn't know what to do. He had assumed that they would have been able to make a clean getaway like they had entered without being spotted.

So much for optimism.

Regulus glanced at her confusedly with just a hint of worry, so Ara took the lead, smiling brightly even though nobody but him could see it. "Good morning everybody," she greeted them pleasantly.

It was better for her to do all the talking considering that there were still many students who would be able to recognise him if he spoke, since he had just graduated the previous year.

She received a few chorus of greetings back, but most of them continued to stare at them with either frightened or weary expressions on their faces.

"I am Unspeakable Flamel," she introduced, pointing to herself before gesturing to Regulus, "and this is Unspeakable White. I am sure you all are wondering why we are here."
The crowd of students nodded their heads in response.

"Tell me," Ara started with a smile bright enough to light up a town. "What do you know about the Chamber of Secrets?"

She received silence in reply.

"Anybody?" Ara prompted.

A Slytherin girl who Regulus recognised as Evangeline Rosier hesitated before answering, "It was built by Salazar Slytherin. Nobody knows whether it has been found or not."

Ara happily clapped her hands. "Well, actually, my correspondent and I found it. It's in the bathroom behind us, under a sink. The only problem is that you need to know Parseltongue to open it and the whole, man-killing fifty-foot basilisk thing—"

"—A BASILISK?!" A Hufflepuff exclaimed with fright.

"—Yes, that is what I just said. Try to keep up," Ara continued. "Anyway, so as I was saying, the bathroom behind us is now officially Unspeakable territory for the time being. My partner and I have set up very dangerous wards so I suggest that you try not to sneak into the lavatory unless you want to be drowned in water, electrocuted, have all your blood cells turned into sand and permanently become a ferret." She gestured to the door to enter the lavatory. "You can try to enter and see if I am lying, if you don't believe me."

At least two Hufflepuffs fainted at her statement while everybody else vigorously shook their heads.

Ara cheerfully clapped her hands together once more. "Great! Any questions?"

Every conscious hand went up in the air.

"Too bad, because I have neither the time, patience or training quills to explain it to you all," Ara intoned. "Anyway, we have to go now. Lots of Unspeakable things to do, pun intended. Toodles!"

She looped her arm around Regulus' and waved at them. The students did not know how to react to any of her statements and Regulus could not blame them. The two of them made quite an intimidating pair with their grey robes with their face fully covered, along with the horrible reputation surrounding the Unspeakables.

Just as they began to walk, an annoying familiar voice stopped them in their tracks.

"Just one second, please,"

They turned. Albus Dumbledore stood there wearing bright orange robes and smiling genuinely, even though his eyebrows were furrowed with confusion.

Ara tensed for a second while Regulus stiffened, feeling grateful for the hoods restricting a view of their faces.

Ara recovered before Regulus did, nonchalantly quizzing, "Yes?"

"I apologise for this late interruption, I'm afraid I just arrived at this scene," Dumbledore said, glancing at the bathroom and the slight scatter of blood staining Ara's grey robes. "But, if I may ask, why did I hear you threatening my students?"

"I wasn't threatening them," Ara said calmly. "I was informing them exactly what would happen if they decided to be overly curious or rebellious and attempted to pull a stunt. It's legal technicalities, you see. This way, if, by any chance, one of your students... die... or become an animal for the rest of their life, then the Unspeakable department would be able to say that we did warn them."

"You could have put it nicely," Dumbledore stated pointedly, glancing to where some of the students were trying to revive the ones who had fainted.

"I could have, but that wouldn't help them," Ara said, her voice suddenly turning cold.

Dumbledore raised an eyebrow. "Oh?"

"It's better if every child knows exactly what is happening to them than remain oblivious. At least now, the children can be cautious," Ara replied coolly and Regulus had a feeling that she was not just referring to her previous statement.

"I am the Headmaster of this school," Dumbledore stated, either ignoring Ara's words or deliberately avoiding them. "I have a say on where and where not the students can step."

Ara smiled sweetly, even though none but him could see it. Her tone was smug. "Actually, Unspeakable's have jurisdiction everywhere."

"But you cannot take control of a place without the direct signature of the Minister of Magic."

"We cannot take permanent control of a place without the direct signature of the Minister of Magic," Ara corrected. "We can, however, take temporary control over it for seven days, which is, a week." She smiled again. "Don't worry, esteemed Headmaster, by the time we are done with the Chamber, there will be nothing new left for you to discover. You should thank us. We did the hard bit by killing the giant snake that lived there and we will go one step further and clear it for any dangerous artefacts or traps so that none of your precious, innocent and extremely sheltered children can accidentally come across it."

Dumbledore raised an eyebrow at her words but did not do anything except nod. "I suppose..." He trailed off. He glanced at their looped arms. "Might I know your identities?"

"I am Unspeakable Flamel and this is Unspeakable White," Ara repeated.

Dumbledore raised an eyebrow. "Flamel?"

"That is what I just said."

"Like Nicolas Flamel, perhaps?"

"Yes. He is my father."

Dumbledore looked victorious, like he had just caught them in the middle of an act. "Nicolas and I happened to work together multiple times in the past. He never mentioned a daughter."

"I think that would be because the last time you visited the Flamel Manor was twenty years ago, when I wasn't born yet, and you haven't really talked to him much since," Ara pointed out dryly.

"I didn't know the elixir made it possible to have children," Albus Dumbledore noted.

"You couldn't have, considering my parents were the very first to even drink the elixir of life."

"How are you born?"

"Well, this is awkward," Ara said slowly before clearing her throat. "You see, when a man and a woman love each other, they—"

"—I am perfectly aware of how the process of reproduction works, Miss," Dumbledore interrupted calmly, even though his eyes were narrowed at her. "Forgive an old man's curiosity, but I cannot help but be sceptical of you."

Ara removed her hood at the end of his statement, revealing her face.

Dumbledore looked at her with surprise.

Regulus didn't blame him. After the second blood adoption potion, Ara did look remarkably like her adoptive-turned-biological parents.

Nicolas Flamel's clear blue eyes and Perenelle Flamel's brown hair along with a beautiful face that was the result of a mixture of both their features, stared back at Dumbledore.

Ara smirked, and this time, everybody —the students and the Headmaster— could also see it. "I'm Ara. Ara Flamel. It's awfully rude to deny a person's existence to their face, but at least you are bold enough to speak your mind." She paused, then her eyes widened, as if she had been enlightened with a fact. "So that's why the hat put you to Gryffindor!" She exclaimed and Regulus couldn't help but disguise his chuckle into a cough.

Dumbledore's lips were slightly parted. "How—"

"—I know you still don't believe me," Ara interrupted, smiling, "so I would like to invite you to dinner. The location of the Manor hasn't changed, so you shouldn't have any difficulty finding it. My parents and I would love to host you sometime and I hope that we can become better acquaintances. If you still don't believe me even after that, then I would be delighted to give you a blood inheritance test," she said, Dumbledore nodded mutely, still staring at her features with something akin to shock.

Ara turned to Regulus, her eyes twinkling as brightly as the stars she was originally named after. "Shall we? I have life-threatening experiments to conduct on impervioused people —oops, I mean— I have research to do." A mysterious smirk formed on her face as Ara clearly enjoyed the horrified reactions of the students.

Regulus, still controlling his desire to speak, simply nodded. The two of them walked back to the secret entrance that led to Hogsmead before using a portkey to go to Flamel Manor, and this time, nobody stopped them.

Later the same day, the Daily Prophet had created an article detailing their visit.

LEGENDARY CHAMBER OF SECRETS DISCOVERED AT HOGWARTS!

I am sure for all those of you who have taken the time out to read Hogwarts: A History, then you are aware that one of the founder's of the beloved school, Lord Salazar Slytherin, had apparently built a secret Chamber beneath the school to act as a last layer of defence in case the school was ever breached by muggles during the inhumane Witch Burnings.

Now, the legendary Chamber of Secrets is a myth no more!

We have received statements from the Unspeakable Department that early morning yesterday, two of their researchers— Unspeakable Ara Flamel (the daughter of famed alchemist Nicolas Flamel, according to very reliable sources) and Unspeakable Leo White— entered Hogwarts and discovered the Chamber of Secrets, in a project dubbed 'Famous Four' where they are trying to re-discover all the hidden belongings and secrets of the four founders of Hogwarts: Godric Gryffindor, Helga Hufflepuff, Rowena Ravenclaw and Salazar Slytherin.

We have been informed by the Unspeakable Department that the location of the Chamber of Secrets is beneath the second floor, girl's lavatory, which is now heavily guarded with enchantments and wards so as to not allow anybody to accidentally cross it until it is deemed safe.

The wards and enchantments are apparently in the words of Unspeakable Flamel, supposed to, "unless you want to be drowned in water, electrocuted, have all your blood cells turned into sand and permanently become a ferret." This reporter would not advise one to test whether or not she was lying.

According to the Unspeakable Department, the Chamber of Secrets can only be opened by a parselmouth or somebody with the knowledge of being able to speak in parseltongue, and the Chamber had previously contained a live —now dead— fifty foot basilisk (a large snake that can kill you if you look in it's eyes directly and petrify you if you look into its eyes indirectly).

The discovery of the Chamber is being credited to Alpha-level Unspeakable and French Heiress, Ara Flamel, Eta-level Unspeakable, Leo White, and the Heir to the Most Ancient and Noble House of Black, Regulus Arcturus Black II, who had been recruited to help in this milestone discovery.

Also, with the discovery of the basilisk in the Chamber of Secrets, half-giant and current groundsmaster of Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry, Rubeus Hagrid, has been relieved of his previous suspension for having been thought to have killed Myrtle Warren nearly twenty five years ago. As compensation for his expulsion, the Ministry of Magic has so kindly provided tutors to assist him in catching up on his studies from where it had been discontinued.

More on this story as it develops.

ALSO SEE:

0. The history behind the Chamber of Secrets and the Witch Trials on page 4.

0. Regulus A. Black II and his record-breaking score in the History of Magic examinations on page 5.

0. Other belongings of the Founders of Hogwarts that have been lost in time on page 7.

0. Ask Rita on page 19.

***

When a beaming Regulus Black returned to number 12 Grimmauld Place for dinner, he was a little surprised to see Bellatrix and Narcissa in the parlour along with his parents. In fact, it was only about a minute later that the realisation of why they were there hit him like a blasting curse.

It was Saturday.

Narcissa always insisted that she and Bellatrix have dinner with their favourite Aunt, Uncle and cousin on Saturday.

Narcissa greeted him as soon as her crystal blue eyes met his stormy grey ones. She stood up from the love seat she had been previously sitting on and moved forward to give him a hug.

"Regulus! I missed you so much! Look at you; it seems like you grow taller everytime I see you!" She exclaimed with a pout in the end. Narcissa had always been mad about the fact that she was the shortest in their entire family.

Regulus chuckled as he hugged her back. "I missed you too, Cissa. How are you? And how is little Draco?"

"Both of us are splendid, thank you for asking," Narcissa replied with a smile, releasing him. "And what about you?"

"Oh, you know. The same."

"I sincerely doubt that," Narcissa intoned. "I read in the afternoon paper that you worked with the Unspeakable's to find the Chamber of Secrets! Oh Regulus, that is absolutely wonderful! I am so proud of you," she cheered, wrapping him into yet another hug.

"It was nothing really. It was all Ara," he responded honestly.

Narcissa lightly het him on his head. "Nonsense, Mister-Highest-Score-In-History. You should really stop downplaying your role." She chided with a tsk.

Regulus rolled his eyes with a fond smile. Narcissa had a way of reminding him why she was one of his most favourite people in the world.

Narcissa's statement seemed to remind everybody else to congratulate him on discovering Salazar Slytherin's legendary Chamber of Secrets. They gushed over him and waved away any time he tried to tell them that it was Ara who had done it all.

"I am sure the Dark Lord will be very pleased by your discovery," Bellatrix told him, clapping him on his back. "Although, did you have to kill the basilisk? Salazar Slytherin's beast is historical, after all."

Regulus leaned in close at that, making it seem like he was telling them all a big secret and in turn, making his parents and cousins curious. "Between you and me, the only reason Ara even wanted to find Salazar Slytherin's Chamber of Secrets was to kill the basilisk."

"Why?" Narcissa asked curiously.

Regulus shrugged at that. "She wouldn't tell me no matter how many times I asked her, but I personally believe that she needs it for some research of sorts because after killing the basilisk, the only, and I repeat, the only thing that she took was it's eyes."

"The eyes still contain their properties, don't they?" Orion asked thoughtfully, at which Regulus nodded.

"Oh." Bellatrix blinked. "That's nice. How did you all kill the basilisk?"

"Once again, it was Unspeakable White and Ara who did it all." Regulus felt the need to emphasise. "Apparently, roosters are the natural enemy of basilisks, so they simply transfigured some."

"That's it?!" Bellatrix asked, bewildered.

"That's it," Regulus confirmed.

"Huh," Bellatrix breathed out in a huff. "I was expecting more."

"Me too," Narcissa agreed. "I thought they would use some mysterious spells of sorts."

Regulus shrugged in reply.

A peaceful silence blanketed them for a few seconds.

"So," Narcissa began, smirking, "Ara, huh?"

"Yes..." Regulus spoke slowly with visible confusion. "So...?"

Narcissa het him across his head again. "Why didn't you tell me she is your girlfriend!" She asked with a tone of hurt underlining her voice.

"Because, Cissa, our relationship is apparently such a secret that not even I or Ara know about it," Regulus replied dryly.

Narcissa scowled, crossing her arms over her chest. "Don't use that sarcasm on me, young man! When did the two of you start dating and why didn't you tell me about it first? I had to find out from Bella of all people!"

"Cissa," Regulus began slowly. "I can promise you that Ara and I aren't dating. At all. Never have and never will."

"But Bella told me the two of you went on a date today morning!" Narcissa protested with narrowed eyes.

"We didn't go on a date. I just had to meet up with both her and Unspeakable White to sign some last minute things. I can assure you that it was not a date. In fact, if I liked somebody, I promise that you would be the first to know," Regulus vowed.

Narcissa looked doubtful. "Promise?"

"On our ancestors," Regulus confirmed.

"So, Unspeakable— I mean Heiress— I mean— Never mind. Anyway, yourself and Ara Flamel aren't dating?"

"Yes."

"Why not?"

"Because."

"Because what?" Narcissa questioned.

"Just because." Regulus shrugged her allegations off his shoulders like they were a cloak.

"That isn't a good enough reason."

"It is to me," Regulus answered, and before Narcissa could question him once more, a knock was heard on the front door.

Bellatrix, who had been thoroughly enjoying the show of Narcissa interrogating Regulus, frowned when it was interrupted.

The knock was heard again, this time, more loudly.

"Kreacher!" Walburga shrieked. "Get the door would you, you absolutely useless Elf!"

***

Ara stood at the other end of the door with a sort of hurried look on her face, which lessened upon seeing Kreacher.

"Good evening, Kreacher," she greeted, "Is Regulus here? I really need to tell him about something."

Kreacher nodded. "Master Regulus is inside, Mistress Black. Would you like to come in?" He asked, holding the door open for her.

"Yes, please. Thank you," Ara replied as she stepped into the house. "But, uhh, Kreacher— You do realise that I am no longer a Black, right?" She asked as Kreacher closed the door behind her.

"Kreacher knows this," the House-Elf confirmed, nodding.

"Then why did you call me Mistress Black?" Ara asked confusedly.

"Kreacher is sorry. Kreacher should have said future Mistress Black," Kreacher replied with a sly smirk.

"Actually Kreacher, the last of the blood-adoption potion has already been used up, so I won't be able to take it again. Sorry," Ara explained, making Kreacher sigh tiredly at her words and shake his head in dismay.

"Future Mistress Black will understand in the future," Kreacher declared aloud before muttering a quiet "Hopefully" under his breath. He raised his chin to look at her again. "Come, future Mistress Black. Kreacher will take you to Master Regulus," he said before gesturing the way.

Ara smiled brightly at him. "Thank you, Kreacher!"

Kreacher led her to the parlour, whereupon which Ara actually, genuinely froze upon seeing those four other faces.

Four pairs of startling grey eyes and one pair of crystal blue ones bore into her with a mixture of excitement and confusion.

"Ara?" Regulus asked with confusion, immediately making his way to stand beside her.

"Hello Regulus," Ara said with a smile and tried her very best to not go back to her nervous tick of biting her lip in front of the familiar strangers. "We haven't met, but Regulus has told me so much about you all that it feels like we are already acquaintances." She lightly curtsied, smiling on the outside and screaming on the inside. "Merry meet. I'm Flamel, Ara Flamel. It's both a pleasure and an honour to meet you all."

Narcissa was the first to react with a curtsy of her own. "Merry meet, Heiress Flamel. I am Narcissa Malfoy and this is my sister, Bellatrix Lestrange—" Bellatrix gave her an appraising look and smirked approvingly upon noticing that Ara had two wands. "—And this inspirational, wonderful couple behind me are, of course, Regulus' parents, Orion and Walburga Black."

They all said their respective pleasantries.

"I don't mean to be rude," Ara began, fighting the urge to chew on her lip. "But may I please talk to Regulus about something? It's important."

"Go ahead," Bellatrix prompted curiously.

"Privately," Ara added, turning back to Regulus once more. "And under at least four more oaths."

Regulus nodded. "Give us a minute please," He told his family.

Narcissa waved him off, a sly smirk growing on her visage. "Take all the time you need with her. A minute, hour, the rest of your lives."

Regulus' eyes widened as he cleared his throat, which did nothing to hide the growing pink on his cheeks. "Please ignore Narcissa, Ara," He told her, flashing the only blonde in the room a glare. "Merlin knows we all do."

Ara looked at him with another confused expression and Regulus took the opportunity to all but drag her to a corner that he knew did not have any portraits or other unwanted eavesdroppers.

Both himself and Ara put layers of wards and enchantments around them to ensure nobody would listen, then their faces turned serious.

"What's wrong?" Regulus asked.

"Why do you assume that the reason I came is because something is wrong?" Ara asked rhetorically. "You are such a pessimist, Regulus."

"Well, is there something wrong?"

"Oh, big time," Ara replied, pursing her lips. "Have you read the afternoon edition of the Daily Prophet yet?"

"No. Why?"

"Those idiots were given one job and they couldn't even do that properly!" Ara exclaimed angrily.

"What do you mean?" Regulus asked with concern. "Ara, what's wrong?"

Ara closed her eyes and took a few deep breaths to calm herself. "Some of the Omega level Unspeakable gave away too much information to the press."

Regulus stilled. "What do you mean?" He repeated.

Ara flashed him a small, sad smile. "All they were supposed to tell the press was that the Chamber of Secrets has been discovered by me and 'Unspeakable Leo White' with your assistance; the location of the Chamber along with my whole electrocution-ferret threat; the basilisk was killed by us and that the whole reason we did this was so that we can get the basilisk parts for research. Nothing more."

"I know... We both discussed this answer together, remember?" Regulus asked dryly.

"They didn't do that Regulus," Ara said, her voice tight. "Instead, they made up a fictional 'project' called Famous Four where apparently, we the Unspeakable, are trying to find all the properties and belongings previously owned by the four founders of Hogwarts." She bit on her lips now. "You see where this went terribly wrong, don't you?"

Regulus nodded mutely, eyes widened with horror.

He would have had to have been a complete fool not to see the point she was hinting at.

Claiming that the mysterious Unspeakables were on a project to discover the artefacts of the Hogwarts four would include them attempting to find Rowena Ravenclaw's diadem, Helga Hufflepuff's cup, Salazar Slytherin's locket and Salazar Slytherin's ring; as in, four out of the five horcruxes Tom Riddle had made till now. Precisely, the four horcruxes they had already destroyed.

"He's already paranoid." Regulus found himself saying, his voice barely above a whisper. "Upon hearing that the Unspeakables are looking for them, he will go to each of their locations and check whether or not they are safe. And when he finds that they are missing—" He swallowed, unable to complete his sentence.

"He'll be on a warpath." Ara continued for him, practically chewing her lips off. She really needed to stop doing that. "H—he will attack the Unspeakables and try to regain them back. He will also be even more protective over his diary, making it next to impossible to get it." She swallowed, giving him a weak smile. "And I'm not even going to get started on how he might feel upon finding that his beloved basilisk is dead."

"I've given him a target also, haven't I?" Regulus asked faintly, making her flash him a sad, half-smile. "Your name is printed all over the newspaper that you killed the basilisk and that it is your project. Well, yours and Leo White's." He ran a hand through his hair as Ara bit her lip nervously some more. "My name is also mentioned, but everybody will think that I couldn't possibly have known about your project because the Unspeakables are so secretive and had put me under so many oaths. I told Bellatrix who has definitely already told him that I know you, so he will without doubt ask me to be bait in luring you in. Sure I'll get a couple crucio's for my part in killing his precious pet and putting his dear horcruxes in danger, but Tom Riddle won't hunt me down."

"He'll hunt me." Ara nodded, resigned to her fate. "He will be out for my head."

"I'm sorry," Regulus whispered. "I could have helped more. I—"

Ara waved him off. "Don't be. It's not your fault. None of it is," she told him sternly. "Besides, I'm used to it, remember? This will all be just like old times." She paused. "Or new-old times? I don't— Time travel is confusing."

Regulus let out a snort. "Definitely." He looked to her with serious sincerity. "We'll figure it out, Ara."

"I know we will, Regulus." Ara smiled. "But later. Let's enjoy today; after all, we don't know whether our tomorrow will be stolen from us."

Regulus gave her another half-smile. "We played with fire, didn't we? We are going to get burnt."

Ara shook her head. "Not if we are glaciers of ice," she said. "That way, when the fire gets too close and begins to melt the glacier, it will turn into water and put out the fire." She looked at him. "Let's put out the fire before it burns any more people."

Regulus nodded with determination. "Lets."

***

When Ara and Regulus returned to the parlour, they were met with the sight of the latter's parents and cousins waiting patiently for them.

Narcissa beamed brightly upon spotting them. "Regulus! Heiress Flamel! Had a nice, long talk?"

"Yes," Regulus replied shortly, narrowing his eyes at his blonde cousin.

"Thank you for asking, Mrs Malfoy. And please, call me Ara. I insist." Ara smiled.

Narcissa's beam brightened, if that was possible. "Only if you call me Narcissa, Ara."

Ara nodded with a smile.

"So," Narcissa began, "Well, Ara, you told us that Regulus told you all about us, but I am afraid he hasn't told us anything about you." She smirked, looking between them.

Regulus glared at her while Ara cleared her throat.

"I'm sorry," Ara told her.

Narcissa waved away her comment. "Why should you be? It's not your fault. The blame falls entirely on Regulus."

Regulus was now at the point where he was glaring daggers at his cousin. Bellatrix looked to be on the verge of laughter while Walburga was smirking between the two of them and Orion was indifferent.

"But," Narcissa began slyly, "you could make it up for him by staying with us for dinner tonight. What do you say?"

Regulus shook his head vigorously, but Ara nodded with a small smile. "I would love that, thank you."

"Oh, trust me." Narcissa smiled. "The pleasure is all ours."

While on their way to the dining room, a silvery patronus of an owl flew in, making the five occupants of the room look at it.

"Code 5776. Creature 6897 is out of containment. Report immediately," the patronus said before flying out, making Ara let out a few curses in her native tongue.

"I apologise, but can I have a rain-check on this, please?" Ara said hurriedly.

"Of course. As long as there is a next time," Narcissa said.

"What is creature 6897?" Bellatrix asked curiously, making Orion listen attentively for an answer.

Ara looked at all of them with utmost seriousness. "Trust me, you don't want to know." She hurriedly told them all goodbye's, gave Regulus a light and quick peck on his cheek and all but ran out of the house and apparated to the Department of Mysteries immediately.

With all that had been going on, she had completely forgotten that creature 6897 would escape today. During its capture, thirty seven Unspeakables would be killed. She would do her damn well best to lower that count.

***

Narcissa looked at Regulus immediately after Ara left. "I like her. She seems nice."

"That's because she really is," Regulus replied, a fond smile unknowingly etching his face. "She was homeschooled by her parents, but I am sure that if she had attended Hogwarts, the hat would have sorted her into Hufflepuff."

Narcissa sighed dreamily at his words before nodding in determination. "Okay. That made up my mind. I've decided I'm going to help you out in your little situation."

"What situation?" Regulus asked with confusion and weariness. After all, this was Cissa who was talking or as Bellatrix, Andromeda, himself and Sirius used to secretly call her when they were children, 'Meddling Narcissa'.

"Look, the difference between girlfriend and girl-friend is that little space in between called the friendzone," Narcissa started. "C'mon Regulus, and pay attention as I tell you how to get out of this awful, horrifying zone that you happen to be struck in now."

Regulus sighed tiredly. "What did I do to deserve this kind of punishment?" He asked, looking up to the ceiling.

"You didn't tell me that she is your girlfriend!" Narcissa yelled.

"That is because she isn't my girlfriend!" Regulus shouted back.

"Ooh, but she will be. Mark my words, or I am not Narcissa Black," Narcissa proclaimed gleefully.

"But you aren't Narcissa Black," Regulus reminded her pointedly. "You are Narcissa Malfoy."

Narcissa waved him off. "Technicalities."

"Technicalities matter a lot," Regulus said. "Like, Ara isn't my girlfriend. She is just a friend, and she always will be."

"You are in denial," Narcissa sang.

"I did not know that denial became a synonym for being honest," Regulus said dryly.

"That's because it isn't," Narcissa said. "You say this now, but I've got a feeling in my gut, and it's never failed me before and it won't now. And Regulus dear, I will be sure to capture this conversation in a pensive so that during yours and Ara's wedding—"

"—Nonexistent wedding." Regulus emphasised.

"During yours and Ara's wedding," Narcissa repeated over his voice. "I will happily say that I told you so." She pursed her lips as if remembering something. "Oh, by the way, Draco is definitely going to be the ringbearer. He looks absolutely adorable in formal robes!" She gushed.

Chapter Text

Regulus' dark mark burned against his skin harshly and not for the first time, he cursed Tom Riddle in both the languages he knew.

Ara was sitting beside him on the soft blue sofa in her bedroom, lip-biting again as she dabbed a pack of conjured ice on his left forearm. "It's getting worse," she stated the obvious.

"He is punishing me for associating with the person who killed his basilisk and stole his horcruxes, Ara. Imagine what he would do when he finds out that I am part of the duo who completely destroyed them," Regulus replied and despite the immense pain, a sick sort of pleasure and pride coursed through him at that thought.

Ara bit her lips hard enough to draw blood. "We need to get that mark removed."

"No," Regulus shot-down firmly. "The Dark Mark is our only way of knowing his mood swings. Without it, we'll have no way of knowing how he is feeling."

"He's angry. Always angry," Ara answered before adding, "And sadistic," as an afterthought. She sighed. "Regulus, his moods are always either angry or murderous. There is no in-between. You shouldn't have to suffer for information we already know."

"But Ara," Regulus started, "What if he calls a meeting with his Death Eaters? Without the mark, I will neither be able to know about it nor will I be allowed to attend. I thought we both agreed on me playing spy until we got the diary."

"We didn't agree, I didn't just necessarily protest, that's all," Ara objected. "It's not worth it, Regulus."

"It will save lives."

"But not yours," Ara pointed out, dabbing more ice on his mark.

"I will gladly face death in hopes that when Tom Riddle meets his match, he will be mortal once more," Regulus said, his statement extremely similar to what he had written in his note a few hours prior to making the journey to Crystal Cave.

Ara stopped dabbing ice to look him dead in the eye. "I'm not going to let you die, so no." She averted her eyes back to his brand, dabbing it some more. "Besides, if things go bad, we have the basilisk eyes to save us."

"Not always."

"Yes always," Ara countered. "Nothing says 'I am not entirely fond of your existence' like death or petrification."

He's lips formed an amused smile. "Can Tom Riddle die upon glancing at the basilisk?" Regulus mused.

"If he doesn't have his horcruxes, maybe, yes. But when he's still hiding behind their protection, I have a feeling that he will be petrified, actually," Ara replied. "But I will be sure to test that theory with pleasure."

Regulus let out a deep, throaty chuckle at that, and for some odd reason that she didn't entirely understand, Ara felt her cheeks get heated at that sound.

The moment was short-lived however, considering that the next second, Regulus was screaming in pain and clutching the ground with his fingers.

Ara was immediately by his side, leaping off the sofa to the floor, her face showing horror as the gazed to where the veins in his left forearm which had been branded by the mark had was turning purple against his fair skin.

"Is that monster trying to make your arm limp!" Ara yelled out in anger before beginning to cast some pain-removing and body-numbing spells and drawing runes for strength, endurance, health and safety on him.

Regulus' screaming was so unbearable, that Mr and Mrs Flamel had also barged into the room where they sat with terror on their faces before joining their daughter in her efforts to stop his pain.

Even the kind House Elves provided all the assistance they could, with Kreacher leading them.

But it was of no use.

The mark had been casted in parseltongue, and not for the first or last time, Ara cursed that monster for everything he did and also cursed herself for not having learnt parseltongue properly when she still had that ability.

Nearly two hours later, Regulus' screams decreased to occasional yells and the veins in his left arm were completely blackened with Dark Magic.

"That's it," Ara declared, helping him stand up and sit back on a chair, "I now declare all your opinions incompetent. We need to get that mark removed."

"No—" Regulus coughed out, his once proud voice now a ghostly whisper. "W—W—We n—n—need—d m—mark. P—Plan to s—spy." He managed to rasp out, his tone was hoarse from all that screaming.

Ara's blue eyes met Regulus' grey ones. "You can't keep this up anymore, Reg," she intoned softly and slowly. "Tom won't stop at just one attack, he will do it again and I'm afraid that next time, you won't have the option to remove your mark. Your only choices will be between severing your entire left arm, burning it off, or death. And I'm sorry, but that is not something that I want to risk."

"C—Can do it," Regulus objected weakly but with determination. "W—Will s—s—save lives—s."

Ara shook her head, telling him, "Everybody wants to save lives, Reg. But you need to understand that it is perfectly alright if you save only one life and it is completely fine if that life is yours."

Regulus managed to shake his head lightly with pain. "N—No."

"Yes," Ara stated sternly.

"I—I d—don't matter. Lives. Save."

"You matter to me," Ara said sincerely. "You matter to me a lot. There are always numerous other ways to approach a problem, Regulus. We just haven't figured it out yet. Please note the emphasis on the word, 'yet'. There is another, better, safer, happier way, Regulus; and I need your help to find it."

"B—but—"

"—In the then future," Ara began over Regulus' protests, applying ointment on his left arm, "Draco played the role of what you insisted on being. A spy. He suffered greatly for it and he did it for the same reasons that I think you are doing it." She looked up to meet his eyes. "He thought that he had sinned. The people around us were so prejudiced that before he was even born, they already had an image in their minds over what he should, how he should look like and how he should behave." She pursed her lips and her eyes grew hard. "They were so kind that they thanked him for tutoring one of their younger year mates with a jinx. They hit him with a bat-bogey hex because he was trying to protect some younger Slytherins from being bullied by a few Gryffindor upperclassmen. And he was awarded with the honour of receiving detention because of the colour of his tie."

Regulus listened intently, his attention fixed on her and not on the pain.

"At first, he didn't listen to them and ignored them. But then—" Ara let out a bitter chuckle. "He started to believe it. He began to believe that he was the devil's spawn, the root of all evil and whatever other insanely obnoxious insults people could come up with. Children can be horribly cruel if they want to," she continued her narration nonchalantly, "And so, he insisted on playing spy in a dangerous chess game because he believed that if he did this, then people would start to see the true him. That they would respect him. That they would like him." She looked him in the eyes again. "That they would accept him."

Regulus deviated his eyes from hers and cleared his throat. "Did they?" He asked, trying to keep emotions devoid in his voice.

"No," Ara told him bluntly. "Because no matter what he did, how much he risked his life for them, all they would see was a split rotten heir who hurt people for his pleasure. And even after it was revealed that he was a spy for our side, people still believed that he wasn't and that he switched to the apparently winning side at the last moment. They still do, no matter who or how much we tell them otherwise." She paused. "Or did, since that future doesn't exist anymore."

Regulus stayed silent. "What did he do?" He asked finally.

Ara smiled. "He learnt to love himself, as silly and odd as it may sound. Not in a narcissist way, but in a positive I-am-the-one-person-I-can-always-count-on way. It took him time. Lots of it. But he did it, and you can as well."

"I'm not like him," Regulus insisted, his voice crocked.

"Okay. Sorry. My mistake," Ara said monotonously, accompanying her statement with a nod. Then, her voice turned empathic. "The world is full of people whose opinions don't matter, and they really shouldn't. Nobody has the right to judge your actions without understanding your reasons for doing so."

"B—But people will d—die."

"You will die," Ara emphasised. "And honestly, that's all I care about right now. People die everyday, Regulus, it's nothing new. But you overcame your prophesied death and don't you think that it is awful of you to throw that away?" Upon realising that Regulus was currently still in his denial phase, Ara added, "Think of it this way. The two of us are one of the only two people who know how to defeat Tom and have access to the tools to kill him. And if you don't get that mark removed, you will die and think about how many people would have to suffer and join you in the afterlife because of your frankly, very stubborn and stupid decision."

Regulus opened his mouth to protest, but Ara cut him off before he could.

"You promised," she whispered. "You promised me that you would help me with this till the very end. I know for a fact that this isn't the end, Reg."

Regulus stayed silent, his eyes moving around her pretty face. "How do you even remove the mark?" He asked at last.

Ara had to forcibly stop herself from breathing out a sigh of relief. "I had studied Draco's mark for a while after the war in my free time. Combining that with what I have observed in your mark, I have a theory that the mark was created by casting the incantation in parseltongue, since Tom probably arrogantly thought that he was the only person who could speak it." She explained. "Unfortunately for Tom and fortunately for us, countries in South-East Asia, happened to be very talented in speaking to snakes. We'll take a trip to one of them as soon as possible, preferably today, and test out this theory. Alright?"

Regulus hesitated, but then, another scream escaped him as he tightly clutched the ends of the armchair he was sitting on. Luckily, this one only lasted for a few minutes.

"I'll take that as a yes," Ara noted some more minutes later as she alternated between applying ice and another layer of ointment on his left arm.

***

Regulus and Ara used the portkey that the former had been using to travel between France and England to visit Grimmauld Place. Once they stepped onto the familiar, gloomy atmosphere and cold floors of the Manor, they quickly made their way up the staircase and to Regulus' room. Lady Fortuna seemed to favour them that day since they bumped into neither Orion nor Walburga on the way up.

Regulus' left arm was now almost completely blackened, as if decaying, increasing Ara's worry. Not to mention, every few minutes, a burst of pain would course through Regulus' body that he had described as to being held under the crucatious curse. Ara wasn't sure how many such bursts he would be able to handle before it began permanently messing up his nervous system and frankly, she hoped and prayed that they wouldn't have to find out.

And as Regulus clutched his almost limp arm and bit the insides of his mouth loudly so a shout won't escape him, Ara was busy packing a few of his things into her never-ending sling bag. Basic things, like his toothbrush, a few sets of underpants and robes, hairbrush; along with some of the more secretive things that they couldn't allow anybody to accidentally find like the two-way mirror and a journal in which Regulus had used to make some notes and reminders.

Another reason why they came to Grimmauld Place was that the Black's tended to have many illegal, international port key's to spare.

Portkey's were wonderful things as one could make a bunch of them in one go and keep them ready for use and when they wanted to use it, all you had to do was say a particular spell and speak a location, and that portkey would then be permanently tuned to it.

They had used a portkey to get to France the first time and Regulus used another portkey to return to Britain every time he had travelled to France to pay Ara and Mr and Mrs Flamel a visit.

She took a diamond necklace (because Merlin-forbid the Black's touch anything that wasn't super expensive), said the incantation of the spell and the location that they were to go to Haryana, India.

According to her father's intelligence network, there was an abundance of parselmouth's in that region and many old temples and ashrams that may be able to solve their problem.

Walking back to Regulus' closet, Ara also grabbed the first full-sleeved cloth that she could see —which happened to be his Slytherin Quidditch jersey— and helped him wear it.

"I know it hurts to wear it," Ara said, flinching every time she saw Regulus wince. "But we can't afford to let anybody see your arm right now. They'll have questions, and we sure as hell won't be able to give them the answers."

Regulus nodded with tightly shut eyes.

The pain decreased a few seconds later but was going to come back in a couple of minutes, he knew.

He opened his eyes just in time to see Ara take out a pair of dragon-hide duelling gloves from that never-ending sling bag of hers.

He arched an eyebrow.

She noticed his expression and shook her head. "Don't ask."

"Wasn't planning to," he responded, and he honestly wasn't. He had just gotten used to the fact that Ara was a bundle of surprises filled with things that he would have never guessed even in his wildest dreams.

She slipped it on his hands before helping him stand up.

Regulus had his right arm thrown around her shoulders for support as he leaned against her slightly. His left arm was as dark as his family name but covered undertake sleeves of his jersey.

He felt completely useless and realised that he probably should have listened to Ara the first time she told him to remove the mark.

"Let's go," she said, prompting Regulus to nod.

And so they walked down the hall and stairs together.

Unfortunately, they weren't so lucky after all, considering that when they reached the bottom of the stairs, they could see Walburga in the parlour that they had to cross through to get to the front door.

The mother of Sirius and Regulus was delicately sipping her tea when she noticed them.

Ara was sure they made quite the sight with Regulus' arm still swung over her shoulders and leaning against her, while the state of her hair had been put into a frenzy due to her stress levels and her running around trying to find everything while her lips were stolen due to her habit of constantly biting them whenever she was nervous, worried or anxious. The fact that they were seen coming out of Regulus' bedroom and hadn't been seen going in was just the cherry on the top.

She was sure that there were many suggestive implications that one would be able to form from her above statements and was also confident in the fact that their real and completely innocent explanation would be believed by no one.

Ara and Regulus both threw her a smile before continuing in the direction of the front door when Walburga spoke, making them pause in their steps. The matriarch of the household narrowed her eyes, looking between them with thinly veiled suspicion. "Where are you both going? At such an early time that too."

"Out," Ara replied shortly.

"Where?" Walburga demanded.

"Asia," Regulus managed to wheeze out.

The pain had chosen to grace Regulus Black once more with its presence.

How lovely.

Walburga pursed her lips. "Why?" She asked.

To see if we can get the Dark Mark removed from your handsome son's arm, Ara thought in the safety of her mind.

Her mind whirled with possible answers that she could give that wouldn't attract much suspicion, but she could see Regulus' face grow paler and his legs start to shake from the corner of her eyes, so in that moment of distraction, all her mouth could say was, "We heard it was a wonderful place to elope."

Walburga's eyes widened like saucers at her words as she spluttered. Ara thanked the stars that she was named after that Regulus was too weak and on the verge of fainting to react or comprehend her statement.

She flashed Walburga a blinding smile. "Good day," Ara wished her, speed walking with Regulus out the door before using the international port-key and disappearing with Regulus by her side.

The last thing she could hear was Walburga Black screaming, "ORION!" loudly enough that she was sure they would still be able to hear it when they arrived in India.

Chapter Text

The temple they had been referred to was one dedicated to Lord Shiva, one of the principle deities of the Hindu religion. From the outside, Ara could not sense or detect any muggle repelling wards whatsoever, so she was initially confused about whether or not they had come to the right place.

Herself and Regulus got some weird looks thrown their way for their outfits. He was wearing his Slytherin Quidditch jersey and pants —which was definitely not temple going attire— while she was wearing her Unspeakable grey ones, having had no time to change, but most of the temple-going devotes seemed to ignore them.

A priest of the temple —who she would learn was called a Purohit— spotted them in about three seconds of them coming, and made his way over, looking confusedly between their attire.

Ara muttered a language translation spell and drew a translation rune on her hand with a finger.

"Namaste," the Purohit greeted, putting his hands together.

"Hello," Ara said.

Regulus had fainted from the pain and she was now baring his entire weight on her body.

"I do find myself wondering why British wizards would pay a visit to our humble temple," the Purohit mused aloud politely, but curiously.

"We find ourselves caught up in a problem, and we heard that you are one of the people who can solve it," Ara said, shifting her stance to aid her to bear Regulus' weight.

The Purohit's eyes held an enigmatic, mysterious glint. "We can solve many problems," he said, "one need only ask the right questions. What is the matter?"

In response, Ara —with great difficulty— took off the gloves and rolled up the sleeves on Regulus' left arm.

The Purohit's mouth dropped to a thin, hard-line. "Come with me," he said seriously before assisting Ara in carrying Regulus.

They walked to one of the sides of a temple, where Ara could see a small wooden door along with multitude protective enchantments surrounding it.

The Purohit, upon standing directly in front of it, muttered a spell in what she assumed was Sanskrit, making the door fling open and allowing them to enter. The door shut behind them.

This door led to a series of staircases leading underground, and the final staircase led to one of the most beautiful views Ara had seen.

It was a waterfall.

An underground waterfall.

A stone structure of what she would later know to be the Shivlinga was placed at the bottom of it, so the water was directly falling on its head.

There were fireflies everywhere, providing light, and the ceiling of this cave was enchanted to mirror the perfect weather outside.

She would later find out that this place was used by the Purohits for performing magical rituals in secret and for teaching their disciples this wonderful art as well.

Ara found herself at awe.

"I request you to come here, Miss," the Purohit said in a tone of urgency, effectively snapping her out of her daze. "I'm afraid your friend does not have much time."

"Do you recognise this curse?" Ara asked hurriedly, helping the Purohit lay Regulus' body in a stone bed of sorts.

The Purohit nodded grimly. "Unfortunately, yes. Although, I am curious about how he managed to get himself affected so badly. All the speakers here are heavily instructed never to use such curses."

Ara hesitated. "A speaker back in England did this to him, actually."

"Still— if he is of our descent, surely he knows better than to use such inhumanely cruel curses, especially considering its side effects."

"The man who did this to him, he's all English. He got the tongue from his mother's line which can be traced back to one of our only natural speakers, Salazar Slytherin," Ara explained.

The Purohit nodded in understanding. "We have heard of him. When your countrymen first came to our country, all they could brag about was Salazar Slytherin and him knowing the language of snakes." He paused, and a glint in his eyes brightened as he grinned widely. "Imagine their surprise when they realised that more than three-fourths of the magical population here were not only well versed in speaking the language but also practising powerful magic with it."

"They must have been quite shocked," Ara noted.

The Purohit laughed, nodding. "Extremely so, yes." He turned to face Regulus's unconscious body and lightly touched the brand on his blackened, left arm. "You see this mark?"

Ara nodded.

"The spell placed on it was initially used as a medical treatment," the Purohit elucidated. "Sometimes, when a person has been affected by another curse that causes their magic to drain out, or if they have exerted themselves too much; then another healthy person would draw any mark that resembled a snake on themselves and speak this spell. The two persons would then form a magical bond where anytime he needs it, the sick person can draw on the magic of a healthy person to survive."

"So like a parasite?"

"Yes." The Purohit nodded. "The curse was invented with a kind purpose in mind, but unfortunately, the blanket that can be used to gently warm a baby can also be used to strangle it. Similarly, the spell quickly attracted those with many evil intentions, who used it like you said —to the parasite— the magic on another person, despite being completely healthy." He grimaced. "It has been banned and thoroughly warned against ever since. Those who have been blessed with the serpent speak have to take an oath when they are very little to promise never to utter such cursed spells."

Ara nodded slowly, processing all this information. "You mentioned something about side effects?" She probed, but he shook his head.

"Later," the Purohit promised, "but now, let's cleanse this boy of his curse that is draining him of his very essence while simultaneously stealing his magic."

***

A ritual usually consisted of four parts— fire or water for purification, sacrifice (living, nonliving or thing), intent or purpose, and chanting.

Then, depending on the category of the ritual and what it was to be used for, many things would be added to this otherwise simple equation.

Rituals were very specific.

There were no substitutes for ingredients, offerings or sacrifices; the number of people and amount of time required to participate in or conduct the ritual differed with each one and the chanting had to be in a specific language with all its pronunciations clear and proper. There were countless ways a ritual could go dangerously, horribly wrong, but only one way it could go right.

With rituals, you either did it correctly or incorrectly. There was no in-between.

Hence, the reason it was forbidden and punishable by law in the majority of the countries even though it was without a doubt, the strongest and powerful way to celebrate magic. Most of the countries that had banned rituals felt that it just wasn't worth the risk, while others had experienced the effects of a ritual-gone-wrong first hand, and didn't want that to happen again.

India, however, celebrated it. Of course, those who learnt the art of conducting and performing rituals were heavily trained with supervision and caution, but the underlying point was, the wonderful subcontinent of India was the one that produced the most rune, rituals, arithmancy, charms and transfiguration prodigies and masteries in the entire world.

A fact that they were incredibly proud of, as they should be.

The ritual to remove the parasitic brand from Regulus was a big and long one.

A set of seven Purohits —arithmetically, a very strong and lucky number— were called to help in this ritual. All of them parselmouths. First, the Purohits cleansed Regulus' body in water (a universal magical cleanser and purifying agent along with fire, but they couldn't exactly burn him, now could they) and then, runes and symbols were drawn on Regulus' body and blackened left arm with precise intricate using a mixture of kumkum and water along with another mixture of Haldi (turmeric) and water. Neem, mango and banana leaves were tied along with the altar and a pit of fire burned brightly in the middle.

The seven Purohits chanted in a union in the ancient and sacred language of Sanskrit, occasionally throwing in a flower, teerta (holy water), milk, ghee, or some other sort of sacrificial element into the flames.

Whatever they were doing, it looked to be working, as Regulus' completely blackened left arm had now reduced in such a way that it was only his veins in that arm which was dark in colour now.

Ara was aghast that the (literal) bastard Tom Riddle was not only branding people, but was also sucking people's magic using it. No wonder that pathetic excuse of a human being was never tired whenever he fought with her in the future-past, considering he was falling back on the magic of his followers as well.

Tom Riddle did not deserve something as natural as death. He deserved something completely unnatural. Castration, permanent mutilation of limbs, gauging of eyes and heart, organ liquefying curses and skin decaying curses are few examples that flashed through Ara's pretty mind.

About three and a quarter hours later, the Purohits switched the language of chanting from Sanskrit to Parseltongue, or as they preferred to call it, Snake Speak or nagabasha (and now that she could no longer understand the language, she would admit that it did sound quite scary and intimidating).

For some reason, Parseltongue sounded a lot like aggressive hissing, as if a snake had been threatened and was now violently yelling.

Slowly, as the Purohits vigorously chanted in the language of snakes, Ara could see faint wisps of black smoke over Regulus' Dark Mark. The darkened veins started to lighten against Regulus' pale skin. It grew lighter and lighter until it disappeared. His veins had returned to normal.

The unconscious Regulus let out an anguished scream as the Dark Mark began quickly turning red.

Without batting an eye, one of the Purohits poured some more of the teerta on the dark mark, and another Purohit touched what Ara assumed to be a pressure point because Regulus' eyes once again rolled back to his head as he fainted once more.

The Purohits were done approximately fifteen minutes later, and Ara threw a scarf over Regulus because he looked cold.

The Purohits turned to face her now.

Anurag Goswami, the Purohit she had initially talked to, assured her that her companion was going to be completely fine and he was currently just resting because the ritual was quite draining to the body, physically, mentally and spiritually.

He asked her to make sure that Regulus ate well, practised meditation daily for at least a week, avoided lifting heavy objects with his recovering arm and not to bring too much stress on himself.

Ara wryly smiled and told him the last bit wouldn't be possible for some time.

Purohit Anurag Goswami had nodded seriously with ever-knowing eyes and told her that that was fine as well, but everybody had a limit and one should not test how stable their mentality might be if they exert themselves beyond that, for they might not be fond of the result.

Ara nodded and assured him that they knew their limits.

Purohit Goswami gave Ara a look at her statement that reminded her much of the one her mother would give her when she was telling a downright, obvious lie.

He also told her that although they were able to remove the magical bond that connected Regulus with Tom Riddle that allowed the latter to punish and steal magic from the former; they could not remove the dark mark brand from his left forearm simply because it was in fact, not a brand (which could be easily cleansed and vanished) but a result of a wound caused by dark magic that had been enchanted to take such a shape upon the contact of skin. And it was common knowledge that wounds and scars left by dark magic could not be erased or vanished, and the victim would have to live with it throughout their lives.

The very faint and extremely thin lightning bolt-shaped white scar that continued to mar her forehead that one would be able to see if they look at her face closely, was proof of that fact.

Ara would have to live with the remainder of Sirius, James and Lily sacrificing themselves for her even though they wouldn't remember it, while Regulus would have to live with the remainder of his mistake glaring at him whenever he ever so much as glanced at his arm.

Life was cruel.

Purohit Anurag Goswami also explained to her that whenever Regulus had yelled, it was because Tom Riddle had been stealing magic from him at that moment. The jolts of pain that had coursed through him then was his body's way of warning him of the invasion and theft that had been occurring.

He also recommended that Regulus be put on bed rest for the day and his body not moved until tomorrow morning. Purohit Goswami told her that he always told people not to travel via apparation, portkey or floo for at least two to three days after undergoing such a ritual, but he had a feeling that Ara would not heed his advice on that and that the two foreigners had a deadline that they couldn't afford to miss.

The small, sad smile that graced Ara's face at his dry comment had cemented the Purohit's suspicions that the two were on some sort of dangerous quest.

"I wish you all the luck in the world," Purohit Goswami told her.

Ara smiled gratefully at him. "Thank you, I have a feeling we will need it."

***
A state of consciousness slowly descended upon him. His head hurt, his whole body hurt and he felt like there was a weight that had been placed on him.

With difficulty, Regulus blinked away his desire to return to the peaceful realm of Morpheus. As his vision began to clear, he took a minute to observe his surroundings.

He was in a rather bare room with not much furniture and was placed on a sleeping mat.

He fought a losing battle against himself to remember the events that must have brought him to his current state, but unfortunately, he could only recollect bits and pieces and not the whole picture.

He remembered feeling an unbearable amount of pain coming from his left arm and he remembered Ara holding one of the port key's, but anything that must have occurred between the two events or after, brought forward a blank slate in his mind.

Regulus tried to shift his body to lie in a more comfortable position when the weight on his body restricted him from doing so.

What was that weight anyway?

He looked sideways to the right and by doing so, found himself three inches away from Ara's nose.

The weight on him turned out to be her hand. She had a tight grip.

Regulus felt mesmerised by her face and wondered how a person could look so beautiful. He was so close to her face that if he desired, he could count every eyelash and every freckle that graced her skin. Her lips were chewed on and dry, but was it odd that he found it attractive?

Her eyebrows were slightly furrowed as she slept and her nose was somewhat wrinkled.

She must be having a bad dream, he thought.

He was now in a very uncomfortable position, so he started to slowly and carefully shift his body trying his best to not disturb Ara.

His best, apparently, was useless, as her eyes lightly fluttered, making her long eyelashes kiss her cheekbones and revealing two crystal orbs of eyes.

Regulus froze.

She just caught him bluntly staring at her.

"Reg—"

"—You snore," he interrupted her.

All either of them had to do was lean in by an inch and their lips would be able to meet.

Ara blinked. "Good evening to you too." She sat up and stretched.

He missed the body heat that had been coming from her but nevertheless followed her action.

"Where are we?" Regulus quizzed.

"You don't remember?"

Regulus shook his head.

"We are in a temple in India," Ara responded as her eyes moved towards his left forearm, "They removed the curse."

Regulus's eyes immediately landed on his left arm, just noticing that his veins nor skin was dark no more. The pain was gone and for some reason, his soul felt lighter and his magic felt healthier.

"It's been a few hours since they did so. I told them I would keep an eye out for you, but I must have dozed off for a nap without realising," she informed him, a little embarrassed.

"You've had a long and tiring day, I don't blame you," Regulus told her, throwing her a grateful smile. "Thank you. For everything."

Ara's cheeks welcomed a lovely shade of pink. "It was no problem, Regulus. I care for you, and even if I hadn't, I still would have done it."

Regulus rolled his eyes, but couldn't deny the way his heart skipped a beat at her words. "Hufflepuffs," He said.

"Slytherins," Ara retorted with a grin.

With another roll of his eyes, Regulus looked down to his left arm once more. The curse may have been gone, but the Dark Mark was still present, glaring at him.

"The Dark Mark is apparently the result of an injury caused by a dark spell," Ara told him softly. "And you know what that means, don't you?"

"It will never go away," Regulus said, glancing at Ara's forehead where a very thin, barely visible scar in the shape of a lightning bolt was present, but usually hidden by her bangs. He forced his eyes back on to his hand and let out a bitter laugh. "It's karma, isn't it? To remind me of my mistake for the rest of my life."

"Karma's a bitch," Ara inputted.

"That maybe, but she is a fair bitch," Regulus said with a nod, eyes pained and fixed on the Dark Mark as he traced its outline with his free hand. "I deserve this."

"No," Ara intoned strongly, "What you deserve, is a hug."

And with that, she wrapped her arms around his neck while he circled his arms around her waist. She was still wearing her grey work robes that she had been wearing yesterday and her breath stunk since she was yet to brush her teeth, and he was under no illusion that he didn't as well.

Ara rested her head on his shoulders, blissfully closing her eyes.

"This is nice," she stated at the same time he commented, "You're warm."

They both shared a goofy smile on their faces, unnoticed by the other and hugged a little tighter. It was odd how their bodies fit perfectly into the hug; like it was made for it.

But a few minutes later, they reluctantly released each other, knowing that no matter how much they wanted to, they couldn't stay like that forever.

"So—" Regulus cleared his throat. "What did I miss?"

"Oh, so much!" Ara replied before launching into a detailed explanation of what the Purohits had told her along with a list of instructions of what he should and should not do for the next few days.

***

Adding two teaspoons of sugar, Narcissa Malfoy nee Black lightly stirred her tea before proceeding to lightly sip it.

Perfect, as always.

Her dear aunt Walburga who had invited her to Madame Flake's for the evening in the first place had not even touched hers yet which Narcissa found odd.

She carefully placed her cup back onto the saucer and lightly dabbed away nonexistent liquid near her mouth with a white napkin and looked at her aunt with concerned eyes. "Is everything alright, Aunty Walburga?"

"Splendid dear, why would you assume otherwise?" Walburga replied, her voice frustrated.

Narcissa raised an eyebrow but did not comment on that. "How is Uncle Orion?" She inquired politely.

"Still alive and doing whatever," Walburga replied.

"How fares Sirius, then?"

"Still a blood traitor and doing another blood traitor."

"Regulus," Narcissa stated, feeling annoyed at her aunt's absurdly short replies. Usually, her aunt adored her and always chatted much with her. Besides, it wasn't Narcissa who invited Walburga for tea. And instead of playing hostess, her aunt was behaving quite unruly. So when Narcissa was going to play the part, the least her aunt could do was indulge her. "How is Regulus?" She asked.

Walburga scowled. "Still in the process of eloping, I would assume."

It was an extremely good thing that Narcissa had not been drinking tea at that moment, for she was sure it would have ended up splattered everywhere. "Excuse me, Aunt 'Burga, but did you just say that Regulus eloped?"

Walburga's scowl deepened. "My poor, sweet, innocent, precious boy would have never thought of doing something like this. It was all that girl's fault."

"Girl?"

"Ara," she spat.

Narcissa blinked. "They eloped?" She repeated as if to confirm. "Regulus and Ara eloped?"

Walburga nodded. "To Asia. They left this morning."

Narcissa frowned. "That's awful."

"I know."

"I told them Draco would be the ring bearer. How dare they deprive him of this opportunity!" She stated strongly with a hint of anger.

"Not the point, Narcissa," Walburga reminded, tossing her niece a glare.

"It definitely is, Aunty. And if they thought they could get away with this crime, then they thought wrong. I will be having a few words with them when they get back. After all, just because they are already married does not mean that they can't have a wedding," Narcissa continued. "And of course, I'll be honoured to plan my favourite cousin's wedding to the girl he so obviously loves. Not my girlfriend, my foot! What a liar your son is, aunty!" She ranted.

"Wait," Walburga started with narrowed eyes. "What do you mean the girl he so obviously loves? He doesn't love her. She entranced him for sure! Or fed my angel a love potion. Those Unspeakables are nasty, after all."

Narcissa rolled her eyes, taking a sip of her tea. "I honestly don't understand how you didn't notice. Didn't you see the way he looked at her when she visited us a few days ago? It was beautiful." She sighed dreamily.

"He looked at her like he looks at everybody else— normally," Walburga replied.

"That's funny, Auntie." Narcissa laughed. "But why are you so upset about this?"

"They eloped! The question is, why are you not upset about this?"

"Sure they got married in a non-traditional manner, but doesn't that make it more romantic?" Narcissa cooed. "Besides, auntie, she fits all the categories you wanted for Regulus to find in a wife. In fact, she's better, isn't she?"

"No—"

"—She's an Heiress, she's wealthy, intelligent, beautiful," Narcissa listed off. "She's kind, obviously cares for him and loves him back. You shouldn't be worried, Aunty, you should be grateful."

"She's an Unspeakable," Walburga protested.

"And Regulus is currently unemployed," Narcissa countered. "What's your point?"

Walburga opened her mouth to reply, but Narcissa cut her off, "Face it, Aunty. She's perfect. She is so right for him, that even you have so much trouble finding faults with her that you are nitpicking." She gave her aunt a soft smile. "Is it possible that you don't like her because Regulus likes her?"

"What? No. That's silly!" Walburga protested.

"Is it, aunty? Is it really?" Narcissa questioned. "You love Regulus more than anybody else in the world and he loved you the same. But now, there is this pretty girl in the picture who loves him as well and he fully reciprocates her feelings." She said. "Do you think you might be scared that he might replace you or not look up to you anymore?"

Walburga paused. "No," she denied.

"Because he won't," Narcissa continued, smiling. "Regulus isn't like that, and you know that as well. Just because he loves her, doesn't mean he will love you any less. In fact, I think you should talk with him, her or both of them."

Walburga stayed silent. She finally took a sip of her long-cold tea. Narcissa followed her action.

"How did you come to know of them eloping anyway?" Narcissa asked, setting her cup back on the saucer.

"The girl told me early this morning," Walburga replied.

"She told you?" Narcissa echoed, bewildered. "Wh— I— I've never heard of somebody confessing they were going to elope." She took another sip of her tea. "What was Regulus doing when she told you?"

"Half-hugging her," Walburga responded.

Narcissa's eyes furrowed. "He didn't say anything to contradict or agree with her?"

"No," Walburga replied with a frown. "Why?"

Narcissa just shook her head. "No reason in particular. Just- Are you sure she didn't mean it in a sarcastic or joking manner?"

"I'm sure," Walburga said, frowning deeper. "I cannot believe my son didn't even invite me to his wedding!"

"Technically, he isn't having a wedding, he's having an elopement, and to invite you to an elopement would ruin the meaning of the word, wouldn't it?" Narcissa mused. "Don't worry, aunty. We'll have a proper wedding when they get back. A grand one, with Draco as the ring bearer, of course." She smiled. "Besides, you have a daughter-in-law now, aunty. And you know how the song goes, don't you? First comes love, then comes marriage and then a baby in a baby carriage." She clapped excitedly. "I'm going to get nieces and nephews, you are going to be a grandmother and Draco's going to be a big brother, it's a win-win. Do not mess this up for me, aunty. I will be the godmother of their wonderfully beautiful child by hook or by crook. Do not break them up!" Narcissa warned with playful seriousness, putting a smile on Walburga's face.

The two moved on to other topics after that, but unknown to them, a little bug sat on a nearby table, listening to everything with a smirk on her buggy face.

***

PRESENTING, MR AND MRS REGULUS BLACK!

Angel's are singing and wedding bells are ringing as we approach the bridal season. Destination weddings are the new trends, however, one does not have to go the traditional route with a wedding. After all, there are other ways to get married.

Like elopement.

This morning, French Heiress Ara Flamel and Regulus, Heir to the Most Ancient and Noble House of Black, travelled to the beautiful and exotic continent of Asia to elope!

Unspeakable Ara Flamel has reportedly already met Regulus Black's parents a few days ago, and we think that that was when they decided to take the next step to marriage.

Traditional wedding or not, we at the Daily Prophet would like to wish the couple who recently discovered Salazar Slytherin's legendary Chamber of Secrets, congratulations and a happy married life.

Mr and Mrs Flamel were unavailable for comment on their daughter's spontaneous decision to elope and neither were Heir and Mrs Black.

ALSO, SEE:

0.| The discovery of the Chamber of Secrets on page 2

0.| Elopement vs traditional weddings on page 7

0.| Gilderoy Lockheart's newest book on page 11

***

In a large, un-plot-able Manor at Caithness in Scotland, a handsome dark-haired man with startling grey eyes choked on his morning coffee as he read the article in that morning newspaper.

A bespectacled, hazel-eyed man hurriedly patted him on the back. "Are you alright?"

The other man coughed for a while before swallowing and turning to his friend with wide eyes. "Reggie eloped!" He exclaimed.

The bespectacled man blinked. "What?!"

"I know." He turned back to look at the newspaper, eyes glistening proudly. "A wild, outrageous and scandalous stunt? We finally have proof that he is my brother after all!"

Chapter Text

Regulus made sure he personally, properly thanked all the Purohits who had helped him recover to his full health. Each of the Purohits politely accepted his thanks but made it their goal to remind him to practise meditation, a light workout, eat healthily and not exert too much stress on both, his healing arm and mind.

They had only arrived in India the previous morning, but it was already time to go. After all, Tom Riddle was like an annoying pest— he wouldn't go away unless they used the pest-repellant spell on him.

"Thank you so much for your hospitality and everything, really," Ara told them with a grateful smile as she connected her pinky finger with Regulus'.

Purohit Naveen Rao returned her smile. "Atithi Devo Bhava meaning Guest is God. Trust me, the pleasure was all ours. We thank you for coming and hope you have a wonderful life ahead."

"You as well," Regulus' smile mirrored Ara's as he looked down to their interlocked pinky fingers.

"Do not forget to do your mental exercises." Purohit Goswami repeated.

"With how many times I have been reminded of that today, I sincerely doubt I would be able to forget it in my life," Regulus said, making a few chuckles join the air and Ara rolled her eyes.

"Also, we have something for you," Purohit Anurag Goswami began, looking between them. "Both of you." He signalled one of his disciples who held a beautifully intricate silver tray in his hand to come closer.

The silver tray had two threads that were a bright red colour with streaks of yellow and orange sewed randomly. It also contained a small silver container that had been lidded, making the two foreigners look at it curiously.

"They look ordinary, I know, but these two strings have been woven with many enchantments and runes for luck, happiness, health, and such." Purohit Goswami picked the strings up and held them in the air, to give Regulus and Ara a closer look at them. "It also contains a Ward of sorts, that will spring up when you are about to be hit with a stray curse or hex without your knowledge. The only unfortunate part is, that it's only good for one hit. After it has protected you once, the protective enchantments will fade, but all the happiness and health runes will remain."

"Thank you so much," Ara and Regulus chorused sincerely, as the Purohit tied the strings to each of their left hands, forcing their pinkies to finally break free from their hold on each other.

Protection against stray curses would be extremely useful considering what they were planning to do.

"Also, we have one more thing to give," Purohit Rao started as he opened the lidded container to reveal two identical diamond rings. It looked very expensive.

"Diamonds, as you already know, is one of the only things in the world that is neutral to magic. The band of these two specially handmade rings is silver, which is also one of the purest materials in the world and is also enhanced with more runes. Since you were affected with dark magic, as you already know, your injury will be permanent and although we have successfully removed the parasitic effects of your curse, the dark magic is still remaining, although very faint. However, a combination of silver, diamond and these runes will not only help lessen the effect of it but will also prevent it from affecting your mental, physical or spiritual state," Purohit Anurag Goswami explained. "So, we ask you two to kindly wear these rings at all times since, as I mentioned, while a side-effect of a dark spell, these rings will help in prohibiting the negative magic to affect you and will also reduce its harmful effects."

Regulus felt his heart touched by the kindness and thoughtfulness of the Purohit's who had never met him before. "Thank you," his voice was filled with emotion.

"Honestly, thank you so much. It means a lot to us," Ara told them. "But I just have one question, Regulus is the one with the dark mark, not me. Why do I have to wear it?"

Purohit Rao looked at her like she was insulting his intelligence while Purohit Goswami raised an eyebrow. "Are you saying, Miss Flamel, that you have never been hit with a dark spell? Ever?"

"No offence, Miss, but your forehead reeks of unconfined dark magic; and I fear that it has already begun affecting you. These rings will, however, help you contain it." Purohit Rao finished.

Ara's mouth formed an 'o' shape as her hand subconsciously touched that spot on her forehead.

The Purohit's flashed her a knowing look.

"Both of you must wear it," Purohit Rao emphasised pointedly.

Ara gave them a small smile as she took the ring and slid it into a finger. "Thank you," she repeated as Regulus followed her action.

"Might we suggest wearing it on the ring finger of your left-hand?" Purohit Goswami asked politely, "It's just that the ring finger of your left-hand has a vein that leads directly to your heart, and you both know how much heart symbolises purity."

"Any finger is alright, but the ring-finger of your left hand is just a better option," Purohit Rao added.

"Isn't the left-hand ring finger where married couples wear their wedding rings?" Ara mused out loud as she switched the finger on which she wore the diamond ring.

"Oh yes, and considering that both of us are wearing the same rings, I sincerely hope that no one gets the wrong idea that we have, I don't know, gotten married or something." Regulus joked, making everybody laugh.

In the amount of stress and tension Ara had undergone the previous day, she had sadly forgotten all about the little sarcastic remark that she had made to a certain Walburga Black.

After another round of thank you's and take care's, Regulus and Ara, with the assistance of a portkey, returned to the Flamel Manor in the South of France to regroup, strategise and rest.

***

"What is up with you and holding my pinky?" Regulus asked with amusement sparkling in his eyes as he looked at their once again, interlocked pinkies.

Ara shrugged her shoulders. "Holding hands is not only overrated, but it might also lead to assumptions thrown at us that we are a couple or something. I want to avoid that."

"Smart," Regulus commented with an approving nod.

"Why do you sound so surprised?" Ara grinned. "Not to brag, but I am an Unspeakable, you know?"

"I do know, but I don't think it's worth bragging about," Regulus replied.

Ara hummed at his answer, eyes fixed at their connected little fingers. "What do you think is worth bragging about then?"

Being a Quidditch star, he thought but instead said out loud, "Being a Ministry worker," because he knew that if he would have told her the truth, she would have once again attempted to not only push him but also lecture him on the importance of following his dreams and how everybody else' opinion on him didn't matter.

Ara seemed to know that he wanted to avoid that as well because instead of calling him out on his obvious lie, she simply nodded. "Alright," she said, dropping the topic before standing up from where she had been sitting on one of the chairs of the informal dining room. "Come on," she commanded, walking away.

Regulus looked at her form with visible confusion, but nevertheless, also got up to follow her. "Where? Why?" He asked, catching up to her pace.

"I just realised that although you've been to France multiple times in the past two weeks, you have gone nowhere outside excluding the Manor grounds," she replied. "I wish to change that."

Regulus raised an eyebrow. "You want to play tour guide when a madman is out there large who is practically hunting for our heads?"

"No, I want to play host. There is a difference," Ara corrected, interlocking their pinkies once more before smiling at him softly. "Let's go. I'll show you all my favourite locations and cafes that I loved to visit as I grew up. A few of them are yet to be established, but most of them are already there, as far as I can remember."

"But, Ara—" Regulus opened his mouth to protest before he was cut off by said girl.

"—There is a high probability that we will die in our mission, quest, whatever you want to call it, Regulus. Might as well make some memories and live with no regrets until then," Ara told him, smiling.

"Maybe, but—"

"—I didn't know you were fond of arses so much, Regulus," Ara interrupted with amusement shining bright in her eyes, as he took the initiative to interlock their pinkies this time.

Regulus scowled. "How I admire your sophistication and elegant choice of words, Ara."

"Why thank you Regulus, I quite admire that butt you're so fond of speaking about actually," Ara replied casually before her mind processed exactly what sentences had left her mouth, causing her eyes to widen and for her to abruptly pause in her steps for a second. She continued walking, eyes closed with pain.

Regulus turned his face to meet hers. "Did you just—"

"—I didn't say anything." Ara denied vehemently.

"—Yes, you did," Regulus said pointedly, merriment painted across his handsome features. "You said that you really like— I believe 'admire' is the word you used—"

"—LALALALALALALALALALA!" Ara yelled in a sing-song tone, her voice overlapping Regulus', and successfully drowning his words.

He calmly waited until she had stopped, gave her a second to relax before saying, "You admire my arse." He stated.

"Right now, I admire my patience," Ara replied. "I blame hormones for my first statement and my fear of what my mother would say if she had to bail me out of jail for committing murder, for the second."

"You admire my arse," Regulus repeated, his tone smug.

"Careful Regulus. My patience is declining, and that is very dangerous."

"You admire my arse," He said once more, a happy smirk playing on his lips.

"I also admire the ability of Ukrainian Underbelly dragons to burn people alive," Ara said. "Would you like to find out for yourself? We have one on the grounds if I remember correctly."

"You admire my arse!" He sang with a skip in his step as the two of them walked out the front door.

Ara scowled. "Repeat it louder, please. I don't think the Purohits in India have heard you just yet."

"Alright," Regulus took a deep breath before proceeding to shout, "ARA FLAMEL ADMIRES MY— MUMHHMH" His words went incoherent as Ara's eyes quickly widened and she slapped a free hand on his mouth.

"Why in any sense would you do that!" She shouted.

Regulus looked at her innocently. "You asked me to, remember?"

"Sarcasm, genius!" Ara said, hitting him lightly on his head. "Don't do such things again. Ever. There is a veil in the Chamber of Death that nobody knows where it leads, and I am not afraid to throw your mutated body into it." She threatened semi-serious.

Regulus chuckled, bending his head down to her height so his mouth was a few inches beside her ear. "If it's any consolation, I admire your arse as well," he told her before walking ahead calmly with a smug smirk dancing on his mouth.

Ara's eyes widened as her mouth dropped slightly. She quickly closed it and blinked her confusion away and speed-walked to catch up to his pace of steps, her cheeks a lovely shade of red.

"Get back here you— you— okay, I don't have a proper insult for you— but get back here, you person! I'm the one who makes flirtatiously blunt remarks in this friendship, not you! It's your job to be all flustered, not mine! Are you even listening to me, you person! Get back here, you annoyingly stupid person of mediocre intelligence! Aha! How is that for an insult you annoyingly stupid person of mediocre intelligence!? Darn it, I repeated myself. Regulus!? Are you even listening to me, you person! Okay, fine. Good luck navigating here without me. REGULUS—"

***

BONJOUR LES JEUNES MARIÉS !

It seems that the new Mr and Mrs Black were quick to begin their honeymoon.

Yesterday evening, Heir Regulus Black and Heiress Ara Black nee Flamel were seen in the city of Nice in France, wandering in and out of cafes and popular tourist spots by the locals.

While the location of Nicholas Flamel's home is unknown, it makes sense that the couple would choose Ara's home country and more importantly, the country of love as their honeymoon destination, especially with their elopement just yesterday in the exotic and beautiful continent of Asia.

According to some statements by the locals who played eyewitness to the relationship of the couple, they are in a word, adorable. The locals did nothing but sang praises over the playfulness and love the young couple shared for each other. And get this, multiple eyewitnesses have stated on record that the whole time that the two toured, they never let go of each other's pinky fingers.

Goodbye hand holding and hello pinky intertwining.

Speaking of their hands, we were able to firsthand see the proof of their marriage— a ring on the ring finger of their left hand, which according to retired healer Fiona Cartel, has a vein that leads directly to your heart.

So cute!

The couple adorned identical rings on their fingers, which makes the whole thing even more romantic, and according to eyewitness and a French jeweller Dion La Rue, the band of their wedding ring was made with silver (to symbolise purity) and had many runes inscribed on it. The ones he could recognise at first glance were the runes for happiness, health and luck. The rings also featured a large identical diamond, perhaps the only thing traditional about their marriage.

Our sister newspaper in France, has been kind enough to send us a picture of the newly married Mr and Mrs Black as they strolled through the roads with smiles on their faces, pinkies intertwined and diamonds shining bright in the sunlight. (Image accompanied in the side)

We are yet to receive comments from the bride and the groom's family.

Once again, a sincere congratulations to the happy couple and we at the Daily Prophet, wish you all the very best for your married life with each other.

Article by Rita Skeeter

ALSO, SEE:

0.| Scandal! Puddlemere United seeker seen kissing rival seeker from the Holyhead Harpies on page 4

0.| You-Know-Who's latest attack see twenty-three muggles dead on page 5

0.| Horoscope reading on page 11

***

Regulus continued to stay at the Flamel Manor for the whole week, never once returning to England. This was because he had made the beautiful city of Nice, France his 'happy place'. In England, Tom Riddle was still at large, people were losing their lives, his dark-loyal family and his estranged brother were there. However, in France, it was just funny Mr Flamel, kind Mrs Flamel, Ara and himself. There was no trouble and no need for pretending.

He didn't have to play the role of the perfect Heir to the Most Ancient and Noble House of Black that people expected him to be, he didn't have to be the ideal son that his parents so desperately craved, he didn't have to act like he worshipped Tom Riddle's very existence like his cousin Bellatrix did and he most certainly didn't have to care what other people thought of him; instead, concentrating on what he thought of himself.

Regulus had been hiding behind a mask for so long, that he was a little surprised to remember what he had been like without it.

In France, with Ara, Regulus could finally be himself.

His brown-haired blue eyes quest-companion had been very adamant that he followed precisely what the Purohit's had advised him to do and after she had informed them, so had Mr and Mrs Flamel.

Mrs Flamel had taken it upon herself to make sure that Regulus ate only healthy and organic meals while Mr Flamel made it his mission to regularly guide Regulus while doing meditation. Ara, on the other hand, made it her duty to keep him as stress-free as she possibly could.

Yes, they did still ponder and worry over how they would be able to get Tom Riddle's diary because once the diary was destroyed, he would be free game to anybody since he would be mortal then.

It was during these discussions that Regulus' hair could be mistaken for that of James Potter's with how messy it had become, and Ara's lips would start bleeding due to how hard she would have chewed on it.

They really had to make an effort to stop these awful habits and nervous ticks.

It was also after these serious conversations that Ara would intertwine her pinky finger with his and the two of them would go for a walk outside, visiting more of Ara's favourite spots and cafes. Regulus enjoyed those times a lot, where they were able to talk about something other than contemplating a way to stop Tom Riddle and his plan for world domination.

They also got to know each other much better during these times, without even intending to do so.

It was the little things; like how whenever they went to a cafe, Ara would order black coffee for herself and a caramel hot chocolate for him, since she knew that he had a huge sweet tooth, or how most of the places she took him to were nothing educational and purely for fun and the view because she knew that his parents would have been completely against that and Regulus wanted to rebel against his parents and their ideologies and this was one of the ways for him to do that. It was also like how whenever silence would engulf them for more than a minute, Ara would abruptly, randomly and kind of awkwardly start talking and ranting over non-specific things, simply because she understood that he wasn't fond of the quietness.

Regulus found it sweet when somebody knew every single detail of you. Not because you constantly reminded them, but because they paid attention.

Unknown to him, however, every time they went out, the Daily Prophet had taken to keeping a tab on the pair. The English newspaper had developed somewhat of an obsession with the two of them after they had discovered Salazar Slytherin's legendary Chamber of Secrets (the mysterious, enigmatic and beautiful heiress and the handsome, secretive, sphinx-like heir to the most politically powerful house in Britain who had managed to stay out of the spotlight for so long) and all the little things they did together was dutifully recorded by the newspaper and published the very next day.

Unfortunately for Regulus and Ara, the two had no way of knowing what was happening because Mr and Mrs Flamel had never really been big on the concepts of newspapers, dismissing them to be gossip-filled and useless, and had not ordered newspapers of any kind to be delivered to their home.

Ara was like-minded to her parents that way. She knew how fickle the press could be from personal experiences and had also taken to not reading the paper unless somebody else insisted she read it or to check on whether the media had printed the press-release statements from the Department of Mysteries properly.

Regulus, however, actually enjoyed reading the papers, a habit he had inherited from his father but because of the lack of newspapers in the Flamel household, it had slipped his mind to do so, especially with how hectic and crazy his life had been recently.

***

Ara sat with her legs folded on Regulus' bed at nine in the morning (her parents had insisted that Regulus had a room of his own, especially since he stayed over so often), still in her pyjamas and with her hair in a messy bun.

They had just finished breakfast and were now attempting to strategise yet another plan in order to get Tom Riddle's diary. They had been trying to solve this problem for the past week or so and all they had managed to make were paper aeroplanes, boats, hats and doodles.

Regulus had excused himself a minute ago to use the restroom, so Ara was left all by herself in the large room surrounded by paper, quills and research books.

She sighed, boredom clear on her face and pushed a few stray hairs behind her ear and looked around for something to do until he returned.

A thought enlightened her.

Ara quickly hid under the bed, getting ready to scare Regulus after he returned from the restroom, her chapped lips twisted into a wicked smile.

She watched from below the bed as Regulus came out from the restroom before looking confusedly at what looked like an empty room with no sign of her presence. She also watched his mouth twist to resemble a devious smirk and get all excited before running to the closet, opening it and hiding inside it, leaving a little gap instead of closing the door for him to see if she had come to scare her.

Ara stifled a laugh from where she was present under the bed.

She was trying to scare him and he was trying to scare her.

That turned out to be a fun turn of events.

However, both their pranks were cut short as an owl flapped against the tall windows of the room.

Both Regulus and Ara slowly came out of their hiding place, with the former giving the latter a surprising look.

"Did you just—"

"—Yes."

"So we both—"

"—Well, you know what they say, great minds think alike."

Regulus laughed, nodding. "Yes, yes they do."

Both of them turned back to the window where the owl was waiting patiently for them to open it.

While the Flamel Manor was hidden from the eyes of muggles and magic-users alike, the wards were placed in such a way that animals —both magic and mundane— could pass through it. Mr and Mrs Flamel did such a thing so that their vast grounds could serve as a retreat for any animal or creature in need of it.

Ara looked cautious. "Do you recognise it?" She asked, referring to the owl with a letter in its talons.

Regulus' eyebrows furrowed for a moment before realisation dawned on him and he nodded. "Yes." He cleared his throat, slowly opening the window and letting the owl in. The owl dropped the letter in Regulus' hands before sitting on the desk comfortably and letting out a hoot.

Ara could see the sigil on the outside of the letter, making her even more cautious and worried. "Why is Bellatrix writing to you?" She asked before biting her bottom lip.

"I don't know," Regulus answered. "But I guess we'll find out soon."

"Check for curses and hexes," Ara told him.

Regulus nodded, proceeding to do exactly that and found himself go surprised upon realising that there were no curses, hexes or jinxes that had been placed on the envelope.

He carefully opened it.

Bellatrix had always had the prettiest handwriting, something that Narcissa had been quite jealous of when they had been younger. But now, Regulus could dictate slight errors in her otherwise flawless penmanship. It was almost as if her hands had been shaking while she had been writing the letter.

Like one would have been after being put under the crucatious curse for a few minutes.

Regulus' grip tightened on the letter. No matter what she had done or what she would do, Bella was family. How dare that monster put her under the torture curse!

Ara stood back, patiently sitting on the bed. She had somehow wordlessly understood that this letter was personal, and also trusted him that if there was any information that would be useful to accomplish their goal, he would tell it to her. But the contents of the letter were private, and so she could not just invade his space to satisfy her curiosity or anxiety.

Regulus was thankful for that, as he sat on the bed himself and carefully read her short letter.

Dear Reggie,

I know you are having loads of fun with the love of your life, but do not forget your responsibilities. You haven't been answering any of the Dark Lord's calls from the past three weeks and while I understood that you had a genuine reason for the first two weeks, why aren't you answering them now? Your pretty Unspeakable has already been bound to you and now, you have no excuse.

I love you Reggie and I've defended you to the Dark Lord, but this teenage daydream you are in has got to stop now. Your behaviour is not only immature but also irresponsible.

The Dark Lord had been contemplating on removing you from the Inner Circle, however, I vouched for you so he has kindly given you three days. Get your shit together Reggie and don't screw this up. I know you must be in euphoria right now with Ara, but don't you even for a minute forget that you are first and foremost one of the Dark Lord's most loyal follower.

Answer His call the next time, Reggie, or I'll kill you myself.

Have fun with Ara. Cissy wants me to tell you that she is very upset that Draco wasn't the ring bearer and she wishes to have a few words with you when you return to England. Good luck with that, I hope you survive.

Love,

Bella.

Regulus rolled his eyes.

Why did everybody seem to think that Ara and he were together when they so obviously weren't? And his sincere apologies to Narcissa, but Draco was not going to be the ring bearer ever because Ara and himself were never going to get married. Ever.

People should really stop making assumptions, especially such silly ones.

He met Ara's concerned eyes. "I'll tell you later," he promised. "Let me just write Bella a return later. She's not exactly patient if you haven't noticed."

Ara laughed, nodding. "Okay."

Regulus grabbed a nearby empty parchment and dipped a quill into some ink, using one of the books as support to write his letter.

Dear Bella,

Lovely to hear from you. I hope you are doing well.

Unfortunately, I do not know what these calls are you are talking about, because I haven't felt the Dark Lord call me through the mark at all. (And how he took great pleasure in writing that because after their little trip to India, the powerful and complex dark mark had been reduced to nothing but an odd-looking tattoo)

I assure you that if I had felt the Dark Lord calling me, I would have surely answered without a single ounce of hesitation. I appreciate you vouching for me and I am very sorry that you did. I should have taken up more duties so that such a situation wouldn't have befallen you. I sincerely apologise for that and I promise to work harder to prove my worth to the Dark Lord and bring glory to His most powerful name.

I must admit that Ara has been proving to be quite helpful as although she isn't fully supportive of our most noble cause, she has unknowingly slipped up some information that had been thoroughly classified by the Unspeakable's to me.

This form of communication isn't safe for me to disclose such sensitive information, and so I will have to tell it to either you or the Dark Lord personally under wards to prevent any eavesdroppers or for this dire and surprising bit of news to reach the ears of somebody like Albus Dumbledore.

I shall be sure to make appointments to meet you as soon as I return to Britain, but I must warn you that it will take some time as Ara and her parents will find it suspicious if I leave so abruptly. In the meantime, I will try to fish out some more of these highly secretive and classified news.

Please tell Cissa that I regret to inform her that Draco will unfortunately never be a ring bearer unless it is for somebody else' wedding and I am not sure what you mean by 'have fun with Ara' because she happens to be loads of fun.

I hope all is going well with yourself and Rudolphous.

Love,

Regulus.

He gave the letter to the owl, who once again hooted before flying away.

"So," Ara began as he made his way over to sit beside her on the bed before entangling their pinky fingers together. "What was that about?"

"Tom Riddle is angry and upset that I haven't been answering his calls, Bella is angry and upset that I haven't been fully serving Tom Riddle and Cissa is angry and upset that Draco hasn't been made ring bearer," he elucidated to her.

Ara's brows frowned in confusion. "Ring bearer?"

"It's quite funny actually," Regulus confessed, a smile dancing on his lips. "See, for some odd reason, Cissa seems to be convinced that the two of us are going to get married."

"Why?" Ara asked. "We aren't together. Not in that way."

Regulus shrugged. "That's just the way Cissa is. She thinks that if two people are within three feet of each other, it's because they either have a crush or are secretly dating."

Amusement twinkled brightly in Ara's eyes. "That's silly."

"I agree," Regulus replied. "So anyway, Cissa asked Bella to ask me when the two of us are getting married because she wants Draco to be the ring bearer soon."

"Neve,." Ara replied before adding, "No offence."

"None taken," Regulus waved her off. "I apologise for her, Cissa's always been like that."

"No worries, it's cute." Ara smiled. "It's weird because the two of us are just friends, but it's cute the way your cousin's thought processes are."

Regulus laughed. "I know." He smiled. "Want to go for a walk? Hopefully, it will refresh our minds so we can go back to planning."

Ara nodded. "That sounds like a nice idea. Also, let's visit the Ukrainian Underbelly dragon, and think of a name for it because I can't just keep calling it the Ukrainian Underbelly dragon."

"How about Snuffles?" Regulus suggested.

Ara looked amused. "Snuffles? For a large, fire-breathing, dangerous dragon? Isn't it ironic?"

"That's the point," Regulus replied, smirking. "Imagine, if we are ever in trouble, we threaten people that Snuffles will hurt them if they don't let us go. Due to the name, they'll think Snuffles is a small dog or something, definitely not a dragon."

Ara laughed, nodding. "Alright. Let's go and pay Snuffles a visit."

Chapter Text

It was a little while after returning from visiting the newly dubbed Snuffles did they realise that they had been looking at it all wrong.

They had been basing all the plans to steal Tom Riddle's diary under the assumption that it was still kept at Malfoy Manor. That was why they hadn't been able to formulate a proper plan because by now, Tom Riddle would have definitely known that there were some persons who had destroyed all his other Horcruxes (that must have been why he had been so angry at Regulus earlier) and they were sure that he had checked the locations of all his Horcruxes and had been enraged to find them missing.

The diary was the only one left, and the process to make a Horcrux took nearly a month. He wouldn't be able to do make another one yet.

This was the time they had been waiting for.

"Bellatrix told me I had three days in the letter. Three days to get my shit together, to quote her," Regulus told Ara.

"That must mean that Tommy boy is planning something in three days from now. That's why she wants you there," Ara intoned, eyes widening.

Regulus nodded sombrely. "Yes, so that's our deadline. We have three days to find and destroy the diary."

"No pressure," Ara added dryly, making Regulus laugh.

As he laughed, his nose crinkled adorably while a few laugh lines made themselves visible. His smile took up the whole space of his face like it always did, and Ara thought that it was one of the most precious things she had ever seen.

She laughed with him, and somewhere along the middle, a realisation dawned on her.

Bloody hell! She fancied him. She fancied Regulus.

She shook herself out of it. There were more important things they had to worry about now.

"But we need confirmation that the diary isn't in Malfoy Manor," Regulus continued, blissfully oblivious of her internal musings. "because right now, it's still just an assumption. We need to know for sure."

"I can go to the Auror office and ask them to raid Malfoy Manor," Ara suggested and upon seeing Regulus' doubtful expression, she further explained. "No, think about it. Unless you are an Unspeakable, nobody really knows what we do. They expect us to be all-knowing and such. I can go to the Auror office and claim that we think that the Lord's study in the Malfoy Manor has a diary that had been taken from one of our employees that contains highly sensitive and dangerous information. The Aurors have to listen to us since we are at a higher hierarchy than them, and they will definitely go, at least to satisfy their own curiosity and know what the enigmatic Unspeakables are looking for," Ara elucidated. "If they find the diary, good. If they don't, we'll know for sure that he hid it in another place and the Auror's can assume what they want about my weird request, I couldn't care less. But it's worth a try, don't you think?"

Regulus' face held a thoughtful expression for a while before he finally slowly nodded. "Yes. Let's go." He stood up.

"Woah, Woah, wait," Ara told him. "Where do you think you're going, you person?"

"To go with you?"

"You're not an Unspeakable," Ara pointed out.

"Leo White would beg to differ." Regulus grinned.

"You're not coming," Ara told him matter-of-factly. "What part about 'do not exert yourself too much mentally or physically' don't you understand?"

"The entirety, actually," Regulus replied dryly with a roll of his eyes. "I'll be fine, Ara. Don't worry."

"One of us has to worry and it clearly isn't you," Ara said. "Sit down, Reg. I'm not kidding. I'm going by myself and I'll be back in a few minutes. I better not see you doing anything I would do."

"But—"

"—Again, what is up with you and arses!" Ara exclaimed, prompting Regulus to roll his eyes once more. "As I said, I'll be gone for a few minutes max. Eat ice-cream in the meantime, if you'd like, but stay here. I mean it, Regulus."

"Okay, fine!" Regulus grumbled.

She met his eyes.

People had told her that she could only drown in blues, but here she was, drowning in the shades of grey and streaks of black seen in his eyes. His beautiful, perfect eyes that she had never really paid much attention to earlier.

Had his eyes always been so pretty?

Ara winked. "So glad we have an understanding. Goodbye, sweet summer child. I'll be back in a bit." She grinned before apparating to the English Ministry of Magic.

***

It was after Ara had filed her order to the Auror Department and was exiting the office did she bump into somebody that she had actually hoped to avoid.

"—Oh, I'm so sorry—"

"—I apologise, I wasn't looking—"

Sirius Black grinned as he noticed her grey robes. "An Unspeakable, huh?"

"An Auror, huh?" She retorted, making Sirius laugh.

"Yeah, well. If we only preach and don't fight, wouldn't that make us hypocrites?" Sirius shrugged. "I'm Sirius, by the way. Only by name, not behaviour."

Ara grinned, pulling down her hood and revealing the face that Sirius had become familiar into seeing as she was being featured a lot in the Daily Prophet recently along with his brother. "And I'm Ara, not like the constellations but like the name my parents thought sounded pretty."

She expected Sirius to give her a funny comment, but it looked like Sirius's mouth had become dry. "Ara? As in, Ara Flamel?"

"According to my knowledge, yes."

"You know my brother, right?" Sirius probed, eyes frantic and eager. "How is Regulus? Is he eating healthy? Has he reduced his sugar content? Is he fine? Is he happy?" He listed off his questions.

Ara gave him a sad smile. "I think you need to ask him that himself."

Sirius shook his head. "He won't answer to me."

"And that's an assumption on your part. A false one," Ara replied, digging through her pocket and handing him a portkey to Flamel Manor. "I know you miss him badly, and so does he. Both of you are just too stubborn to admit it. Why don't the two of you stop making false assumptions and actually try talking to each other? Who knows, both of you might find yourselves surprised." She smiled encouragingly at him. "That's a portkey to my house in France. Regulus is staying there as well. You should drop by for a visit." Without waiting for his answer, Ara spun on her heels and left.

When her feet planted themselves on the familiar white marbled tiles of the Flamel Manor, Ara ventured to discover that Regulus was waiting for her in the same place he had been seated before, but now, a half-empty tub of chocolate ice-cream sat beside him. "So, how did it go?"

"Brilliant." Ara forced a smile to herself. "I met somebody on the way."

"Somebody you knew or somebody I know?"

"Somebody we both wished we knew better," Ara replied.

Regulus raised an eyebrow. "Oh. Who?"

Ara gave him a closed-lipped smile. "I'll tell you if this person decides to come." She looked at the clock that hung onto the pastel walls that covered the Manor. It was a little after seven. "I'm going to go to bed early. Sleep well, you person." Ara smiled, getting ready to go upstairs when Regulus' voice stopped her in her steps.

"It's my brother, isn't it?" He inquired. There were so many undertones of emotions in his voice, making it very hard to ignore.

"I hate that you are good at solving puzzles." Ara flashed him a half-smile once again. "Goodnight, Regulus. If you're up, tell my parents that I'm going to bed early. I'll see you tomorrow," She said before heading upstairs, leaving Regulus alone with his thoughts.

***

The next morning at around eight, Sirius Black was seated on the couch at the parlour and idly chatting with Mr and Mrs Flamel, leaving Regulus shocked and Ara smiling.

"Sirius?"

"Hello, Reggie." He smiled.

"We'll give you all some space," Mrs Flamel said, leaving with Mr Flamel.

Ara took a seat. Regulus kept standing and staring, completely shell-shocked.

The atmosphere was so awkward, it was suffocating in a sense.

"What are you doing here?" Regulus asked.

"Your girlfriend told me I should talk to you instead of making assumptions," Sirius replied.

"She's not my girlfriend," Regulus corrected immediately, finally taking a seat opposite from his brother.

"Right, sorry, the elopement and all. Your wife asked me to come," Sirius amended his earlier statment.

"Um— I'm not his wife." Ara pointed out.

Sirius looked confused. "You both got divorced already?"

"No, because to get divorced, we would first have to get married," Ara told him.

"Which we didn't," Regulus added, making Ara nod strongly.

"That's not what I read in the Daily Prophet," Sirius said.

"What exactly did you read on the Daily Prophet?" Ara asked worriedly.

"How exactly the two of you suddenly eloped in Asia —I'm so proud of you for that, by the way, little brother. I always knew you had it in you— and your honeymoon in France," Sirius answered with a suggestive grin, making both Ara and Regulus go wide-eyed.

"N—No," Ara spluttered while Regulus put up his protests.

"We didn't elope in Asia. I have no idea why the Prophet would print such lies," Regulus told him. "We did go to Asia, but it wasn't for the reasons you would think."

"Then why?" Sirius questioned, prompting Regulus and Ara to share a glance.

Ara turned back to face Sirius with a smile. "Please excuse us for a second," She told him, rising from the sofa she had been sitting on before dragging Regulus into the kitchen to have a short discussion regarding the question levelled to them.

It took about ten minutes for them to come to an agreement, all the while not raising their voices so Sirius would not hear them.

They agreed to tell him about the Horcruxes, them robbing Gringotts bank and all their adventures in finding the Horcruxes along with the real reason they went to Asia. But they also decided not to tell him about Ara being his ex-time-travelling-daughter and such. Concluding this way was due to two reasons in particular. The first and foremost reason being how Regulus deeply craved to have a better relationship with his brother even though he wouldn't admit it, and secondly, Sirius would be a good ally for them to have.

Ara and Regulus also mutual agreed to go along with the whole 'elopement' concept with everybody else because denying their 'marriage' would mean giving people another believable reason they had travelled to Asia. Thank you so much, Daily Prophet, for making the whole thing so public.

They went back to the parlour where Sirius was waiting for them patiently.

"We'll tell you," Regulus started slowly, voice cool and detached. "But you need to take a Wizard's Oath."

Sirius looked bewildered. "A Wizard's Oath?"

"Yes," Regulus nodded.

"Why?"

Regulus gave his brother a weary smile. "Wouldn't you like to know exactly how Ara and I robbed Gringotts?"

"You what!?" Sirius yelled, eyes widening like saucer plates. "How?"

"The dragon, of course!"

"A dragon!?"

"Oh yes, the whole thing was not as hard as I thought it would be, to be honest," Regulus mused, making Ara giggle.

Sirius wasted no time in giving them the oath to tell not a living soul about whatever they were going to tell him without their direct permission.

"Tell me everything," Sirius demanded with mischievous, twinkling eyes, and Regulus obliged.

And as Regulus launched into a detailed explanation on what he had been up to the past month (Sirius almost fell out of his chair upon finding out what they really did in Asia), Ara could see that while it wasn't perfect, the relationship of the two Black brothers was slowly and gently connecting once again.

***

A Ministry owl had flown in sometime in the second hour Regulus had been story-telling and had dropped a letter into Ara's hands. The search in the Lord's study at Malfoy Manor revealed no diary, much to Ara and Regulus' disappointment. Sure, the realistic part of their mind knew that Tom Riddle would have hidden the diary in another location by now, but the optimistic part of them had hoped that he wouldn't have.

Of course, luck had never truly favoured them.

The only good thing about this whole affair was that the brotherhood between Sirius and Regulus was growing.

In fact, Sirius had voluntarily given them information about what the Order of the Phoenix had been doing —most of which Ara knew because she was from the future, but she couldn't exactly tell him that— and after much contemplation with Ara, Regulus had permitted Sirius to tell the Order about Tom Riddle's Horcruxes and the truth about what they were and how to destroy them.

It was only when the topic of traitors was brought up, did things go south.

"What do you mean Peter is a traitor?" Sirius gritted out.

"I know you don't believe us," Regulus began. "But that's the truth. I've seen him in Death Eater meetings."

Sirius let out a bitter laugh. "No. Peter wouldn't do anything like that. He's harmless and loyal." He emphasised. "He wouldn't betray us."

"That's because he already did!" Regulus revealed. "He has been ever since I was in the sixth year and you were in seventh."

"That's not true!"

"Just because you don't believe in something does not mean it isn't real," Regulus countered hotly.

"Peter wouldn't do something like this," Sirius said firmly. "I know him and I trust him."

"Do you trust him more than you trust me?" Regulus asked, trying and failing to keep the pain from out of his voice. "You trust your friend more than your brother?"

"Yes," Sirius responded coldly before standing up. "I think we are done here. It was nice meeting you, Ara. Regulus, I hope we can talk to each other properly again after you've decided to come to your senses. Goodbye." He pulled on the portkey and disappeared.

***

Sirius felt like banging his head against a wall.

He had a chance at making things right with his brother and he messed it up; like he messed up everything else.

But what else could he have done? Regulus was throwing accusations at Wormtail while Ara just sat there silent without stopping him.

Sirius knew Peter. He knew him ever since James and he had seen a little flabby boy stuffing his face with food in the Gryffindor dorms and the two of them had made a unanimous decision to take him in.

It had been more than five years since he had had a proper conversation with Regulus.

He couldn't doubt Peter.

Unlike himself and Remus who had connections to the dark side, Peter was scot-free. He was clean.

How could Regulus just accuse him like that?

He sighed tiredly as he walked into the Order meeting that day. He was already late by a few minutes. He walked in, waved at his friends, nodded at his acquaintances and kissed Marlene on her forehead before taking a seat.

Sirius smiled at the sight of little Adhara and Neville playing together in a corner, both toddlers blissfully oblivious to the gaunt atmosphere around them and happily babbling to each other in an incoherent language. They were so innocent right now, untainted by the darkness of the world.

James, Lily, Frank and Alice were watching the sight as well, a soft smile on their faces. It was moments like this that reminded them of what they fought for.

A future.

A future in which Adhara, Neville and all the other children would be happy and care-free. A future where they wouldn't have to worry about their homes getting raided or their lives being lost.

They fought so that their children wouldn't have to.

"Sorry I'm late," Peter squeaked out as he took a seat across from Sirius.

"That's alright." James smiled. "Sirius just came a second ago and Professor Dumbledore hasn't come yet."

"Oh good." Peter breathed out.

"Hey, Peter," Frank called out. "It's really hot. Are you sure you don't want to change to something else? Mate, you're wearing a sweater in the summer!"

"No, I'm good Frank." Peter smiled, shifting in his seat. "I like sweaters and I've already applied some cooling charms."

Frank held his hands up in a surrender motion. "It's your sweat, mate."

Sirius narrowed his eyes. "I thought you said you hated sweaters," he commented casually.

"That was a long time ago, Padfoot." Peter laughed.

"It was two years ago," Sirius pointed out, making Peter shrug.

And that got him thinking. Peter, who hated sweaters, had seemed to develop a strong and sudden likeness for them somewhere in the middle of the seventh year. Even in the heat of the summer sun, he wore a full-sleeved sweater. Sirius hadn't really found that odd before, but he couldn't help but question it now. Another piece of the puzzle fell into place.

Damn you Regulus for putting all these doubts in my mind.

"Remove it," Sirius commanded Peter, making everybody stare at him oddly.

"Why?" James asked. "He's just wearing a sweater, Padfoot. It's no big deal."

"It is if he's wearing it to hide the dark mark on his left forearm," Sirius replied, making people draw in sharp breaths.

"That's a very serious accusation, Sirius," Remus warned.

The atmosphere was so gaunt that they didn't even joke about the use of that word.

"And a very honest one," Sirius defended, turning to Peter. "Take it off, Wormtail."

"Sirius," James said in a warning tone. "You're being paranoid. So much so that you are accusing Peter of all people into playing traitor. Please watch yourself."

"Being paranoid is in my blood, Prongs, and it is a trait that has saved me many times," he said, his gaze fixed on Peter. "Take. It. Off."

"Peter isn't a traitor, Sirius," Remus told him.

"Then he wouldn't have any trouble proving it, would he? Take it off, Wormtail."

"Okay fine. So if Peter pulls up the sleeves of the sweater and proves that he isn't a traitor, can everybody just calm down?" Frank asked.

Sirius nodded.

"Then pull off your sleeves, Peter," Frank told him.

"Yeah, Wormtail. Show Sirius that you aren't a traitor like we know you aren't," James intoned but frowned when he noticed that the rat animagus was nervously shifting in his seat. "Peter? C'mon just take it off for a second. Sirius' paranoia is acting up and to do this, we can shut it down. Go ahead."

"W—Well, I'm not a t—traitor," Peter stuttered out.

"Prove it," Sirius dared him. "In fact, let's all prove that we aren't traitors. One can never be too careful, especially when it's not only ours but our children's lives on the line as well. I'll start." He boldly showed his unmarked left forearm to them all.

James rolled his eyes and showed his empty arm as well. Lily confusedly followed his action. Marlene, Frank, Alice, Remus and everybody else also did the same. Only one covered wrist remained.

Sirius' gaze was fixed on Peter's like a predator hunting its prey. "Your turn, Wormtail."

Peter chuckled nervously and what happened next was all too fast.

Peter turned into a rat, people went wide-eyed knowing that he was an animagus, Sirius had his wand out and immediately transfigured a cage to trap him in.

Sirius crouched down to the rat's eye level and smirked with hurt eyes. "Running means you've got something to hide." He stood up again, pointed his wand and muttered the animagus-reversal spell, making Wormtail turn back to Peter. Sirius transfigured ropes to bind him and Peter struggled to get out of it.

It turned out that no matter what he had said before, Sirius did indeed trust his brother more than his friends.

He ripped out the sleeve of his left forearm and the whole Order gasped with shock as the dark mark glared back at them.

"Peter, you literal rat!"

***

"It wasn't your fault, Regulus," Ara stated shortly after Sirius had left, intertwining their pinky fingers together once more. "You told him the truth and there is nothing wrong with that. He deserved to know it, no matter how ugly it is. So don't you even for a second think that any of this messed up crap is your fault. Okay?"

Regulus half-smiled at her. It was nice to find somebody who was kinder to you than you were on yourself.

"Okay." Regulus nodded.

Ara looked doubtful. "Really? Honestly?"

"I will be," Regulus promised.

"Okay." Ara smiled.

Regulus looked into her eyes.

He couldn't describe how he was drowning in the oceans of her eyes, how her smile felt like happiness personified and how her existence felt like everything wasn't falling apart and there was hope.

He couldn't just compare her to a garden, sunrise, stars or an artwork, because she was so much more than something pretty for him to look at. She was the very blood that ran through his veins and in and out of his heart, keeping him alive.

She was the perfect example of falling for somebody's soul because yes, she was beautiful but he never fully appreciated her looks until after he had memorised the sound of her laugh and swam in the depths of her eyes.

Regulus forced down the urge for his eyes to widen as he realised. Bloody hell! He fancied Ara.

He shook himself out of that feeling. "Anyway, now that the diary isn't at Malfoy Manor, where else could it be?"

"If I knew, I would have told you, Regulus," Ara replied, lip-biting again. "I do not know where he could have put it. So if you know, please tell me where the fuck else could he have put it!" Ara exclaimed, lips cracked and bleeding.

Regulus ran his hand through his hair enough times to tear some of it from the roots. "It's somewhere special. All the locations he had chosen were either something special or symbolic to him. It has to mean something. The new place- it won't be random."

"No, it won't. But where is the real question," Ara replied, chewing on her bottom lips and he knew that it wasn't the right time, but he couldn't help but find her action quite attractive.

"Hufflepuff's cup was given to his first love, which was later passed on to her daughter-in-law," Regulus recalled. "And the diary was originally given to Abraxas Malfoy for safekeeping, his first follower."

"Ravenclaw's diadem was kept at Hogwarts, the place he felt was home," Ara added. "And Salazar Slytherin's ring was at his maternal ancestral home— his connection to Salazar Slytherin."

Regulus nodded. "And Salazar Slytherin's locket was kept inside crystal cave— the place where he had trapped two innocent children in order to get revenge," he said. "Which place are we missing?"

"What about the Riddle Manor?" Ara asked. "It means something to him."

"I doubt the man wants anything more to do with his muggle father, especially since he changed his own name," Regulus replied. "But how about the house of the woman he got Hufflepuff's cup originally from?"

Ara shook her head. "He wouldn't have kept it in the house of Hepzibah Smith. There are many neutral purebloods currently living in it, and it would have raised too much of a commotion if he did. Besides, while it's where he found an artefact belonging to a founder, the location is not meaningful to him. Not really."

"What about where he got Ravenclaw's diadem?"

Ara shook her head once again. "Helena, Rowena's daughter, told him about it. You've met Helena before, remember? And once again, while the artefact is significant, the location nor the person is meaningful to him."

"Didn't you once mention that he spent a lot of time in Albania? Could he have hidden it there by any chance?"

"Once again, I doubt it. If you see carefully, you will notice that all the places and people he had trusted his Horcruxes to were the ones he had known before he transitioned to his monster-like self. It was in Albania when he had first transitioned."

"Then it must be important to him, right?"

"I actually once checked it before, in the past-future," Ara admitted. "It was when I was obsessed with everything about Tom Riddle and I desperately wanted to find a way to reverse the dark mark on Draco's arm. So, I went to Albania and spent three months tracing his steps." She let out a bitter laugh. "Nothing. Tom moved in and out of hotel rooms, burnt all the books he had referred to and left virtually no sign of himself. Albania was just a space for him. A space for him to transition and spend his time away when he was in hiding, but he didn't care about it one bit."

"Okay." Regulus nodded his head. "What about... What about— Say, didn't you mention that he had a job?"

"At Borgin and Burke's, yes."

"He could have hidden the diary there," Regulus noted. "It's filled with all sorts of dark artefacts. It wouldn't be hard to sneak another one in."

"Borgin is very easy to scare but my father has a deal with him of sorts."

"What kind of deal?" Regulus asked curiously.

"The kind an Unspeakable makes with persons they find to be dodgy which basically states that if they do not alert them with every single business transaction and object in their shop, then they would be the next victim that Unspeakable's experimented on," Ara replied, eyes shining. "Borgin, for all his faults, keeps a thorough record of everything and every person in his shop and trust me when I say that he would have told us if anything or anybody had come in."

"But— You told me that he was scared of Tom Riddle."

"Correct. However, he happens to be scared of the mysterious Unspeakable's even more," Ara responded with a smile. "Tom had actually visited the shop when we were still in India to buy a vanishing cabinet. However, upon noticing that it had not been fixed yet, gave Borgin a month to make it proper. Borgin alerted my father as soon as Tom had apparated away," she informed him. "Tom Riddle did not hide it inside the shop."

"Then where!" Regulus exclaimed, running another hand through his hair. "What other place or location would be so important to him before he became a mass-murdering sociopath!"

"It has to mean something to him," Ara continued, face thoughtful. "It has to hold some significant value to him, perhaps a kind of struggle he overcame or something? Kind of like—"

Both Ara and Regulus' eyes widened simultaneously in realisation as they shouted with euphoria in a union, "Wool's Orphanage!"

Chapter Text

Wool's Orphanage stood tall and grim, just like she had remembered from the pensive of the past-future.

Regulus gave the muggle building an unimpressed look. "This is where the most feared Dark Lord of all time grew up?"

"Yup," Ara replied, popping the word. She turned to face him. "Shall we?" She asked, intertwining their pinky fingers once more.

Regulus' eyes sparkled with amusement, despite the brooding future. "Let's."

The two of them walked into the orphanage.

Children of all ages ran around laughing before stopping abruptly at the sight of the two of them and adopting hopeful looks.

Ara felt guilty at their expressions and she gave them a small wave.

The orphanage was cold enough that she leaned into Regulus for extra body-warmth, causing him to half-hug her. The two of them painted a lovely picture of a young couple looking forward to starting a family, even if they didn't know it.

Some of the children whispered lowly into the ears of the others over how beautiful the girl looked and how handsome the man was, and upon noticing the large diamond rings and expensive clothing, they gleefully gushed over how wealthy and kind the couple must be. They expressed with hopeful voices over how much they wished they were adopted by this couple.

However, none of these quiet, silent whispers reached the ears of either Ara or Regulus, as the two were currently very goal-oriented. They had to find the diary.

Ara seemed to remember approximately where the matron's office was, so she guided the two of them into the corridors and through the doors.

The matron had just been about to shout at them when she realised that they weren't children, but adults. After that, she quickly welcomed them into her office and the two parties exchanged social pleasantries.

And since Regulus was still not entirely warm and comfortable with the idea of talking to muggles, Ara took the lead.

"I'm Molly, and this is my husband Severus," Ara introduced.

"Hello Molly, Severus," the matron greeted with a smile, making Ara flash her a blinding smile while Regulus nod curtly at her. "Are you both looking to adopt?"

Ara let out an awkward laugh. "Not exactly," she said, making the matron frown. "You see, the thing is, my older brother visited this orphanage recently and he left a diary here. This black leather-bound one that I had given him for his birthday. It has the encryption of T.M.Riddle at it's back in gold. And we really need that diary. My husband and I had recorded extremely important transactions in it, so could you please help us find it?" She asked in a near-pleading tone.

The matron blinked. "Oh, I do know what diary you are speaking about but when I had looked inside it, it was completely blank." Her eyes narrowed suspiciously.

"We used invisible ink while writing in it," Ara answered. "As I said, these are very important transactions and we couldn't afford it to fall into the wrong eyes. May we please have it?"

The matron's eyes were still hesitant, even if she had believed their explanation. Tom Riddle must have told her not to give it to anybody. "But—"

"—We'll pay you, of course, for keeping the diary so safely. It's the least we could do. Say, 100 pounds?" Ara interjected casually, making the matron's eyes widened.

When in doubt, buy your way out.

The matron nodded. "Of course, just give me a second and I'll get your diary for you," she stated, digging into her drawer and fishing out the black leather-bound diary which happened to be Tom Riddle's very last Horcrux. "Here you go."

"Thank you." Ara smiled, taking it and keeping it inside her never-ending sling bag and also pulling out the small bag of muggle money that she always carried for emergency purposes. She handed it to a matron. "And for you."

The matron took it delicately. Then, the closing social niceties were exchanged with the matron wishing them a nice day and vice-versa.

Regulus and Ara walked out of the matron and into a nearby secluded alleyway before using an international portkey to go back to the Flamel Manor.

***

Regulus destroyed the diary with the basilisk fang with great pleasure because now, finally, that bastard was mortal once more.

Ara pulled out a bottle of fire-whiskey to celebrate but before they could open it, his dear cousin Bella's owl once again flew in and dropped a letter into his hand.

Regulus frowned before opening it.

Dear Reggie,

I honestly have no idea why your mark isn't working. You'll have to take that up with the Dark Lord. Unfortunately, I haven't been able to tell him about this issue you are facing yourself since I have been too busy preparing for tomorrow's raid.

Speaking of which—

There is going to be a raid tomorrow at Diagon Alley at sharp 10. Don't be late.

Love,

Bella.

Regulus swore, wordlessly handing the letter to Ara and proceeded to summon a pieces of parchment, a quill and an ink-pot.

He wrote a quick 'Okay, I'll see you there. Good luck' to Bellatrix in reply and handed it to the owl which dutifully left to deliver it to its owner.

"We have to tell the Aurors and the Order," Ara declared after reading it.

"Or," Regulus began. "We can tell both in one go."

Ara's eyebrows furrowed. "How—" An epiphany enlightened her "—You're going to tell Sirius, aren't you?"

"Yes," Regulus replied. "He might not believe me about Peter Pettigrew being a traitor, but I'm certain he will believe me about a raid."

Ara nodded her head in agreement. "Okay, but be sure to mention to him that we've also destroyed the last Horcrux, meaning Tom Riddle is mortal."

"Of course," Regulus responded as he penned down the letter to his brother.

***

They received a reply from Sirius within three hours of sending it.

Sirius had spent two paragraphs on congratulating and thanking them for destroying all the Horcruxes and telling him this information respectively; and had spent the next three pages writing an apology letter to Regulus, and Ara had politely refrained from asking him what exactly Sirius had written that had made Regulus' eyes glossy towards the end. Instead, she had held on to his pinky the whole time while sipping from a bottle of fire-whiskey, showing support and calming her nerves.

Regulus later told her that Sirius had trusted him over his friends and realised that Peter Pettigrew was a traitor and had also apologised for not being there for him for all these years.

And while Ara truly hadn't meant to, she had caught the last bit of Regulus' reply before he had sent it off.

In the past nine years, Peter has been with you more times than I have. I wouldn't blame you for trusting him more than me, but I do hope to change that.

Ara had smiled at that. The previously broken relationship between the Black brothers was slowly healing beautifully.

That night, Ara and Regulus had slept in their respective beds with much difficulty, unable to contain the nerves and excitement for tomorrow, they were either going to kill Tom Riddle, or die trying.

They sincerely hoped it was the former.

***

The next morning, an hour before the attack on Dragon Alley was scheduled, both Ara and Regulus were dressed in the grey Unspeakable Robes, dragon-hide boots with their wand safely fixed into its holsters.

Regulus was a Black for a reason and had insisted that they make a big dramatic entrance by flying into the battlefield on a huge, fire-breathing and dangerous Ukrainian Underbelly dragon.

So, Ara simply watched Regulus pet Snuffles for a while.

He caught her staring at him and smiled.

And in those three seconds their eyes connected, she saw everything that she had ever dreamed of. It was weirdly beautiful, how the simple act of connecting eyes could be so intimate that no word or phrase could even dream of expressing. She disconnected from her mental musings and returned his smile, offhandedly wondering why her heart seemed to skip a beat.

She cleared her throat. "Are you ready?" Ara asked offhandedly.

"No," Regulus answered honestly. "You?"

"No," she replied before turning to face him and intertwining their pinky fingers together for what she hoped wouldn't be the last time."Stay safe, you person," Ara told him softly. "I like being alive at the same time as you, and time-turners aren't invented for another eleven years."

Regulus smiled, chuckling lightly. "I love you too, Ara."

Ara's eyes widened, and so did Regulus' as he realised what he had said. "What?"

"I said, 'Don't forget, Ara'," Regulus hastily corrected. "Don't forget me."

"Couldn't even if I wanted to." She smiled before a determined expression painted her face. "Let's do this shit and hopefully, survive in the process!"

"Nice war cry," Regulus complimented.

"Thank you, I just thought of it."

***
The ever bustling Diagon Alley had been reduced to a war zone. Aurors and members of the Order of the Phoenix were simultaneously battling Death Eaters while trying their very best to get the civilians to safety.

"Shit," Ara spoke.

"Couldn't have said it better myself," Regulus muttered.

Snuffles seemed to share their opinion as it landed and immediately began squishing Death Eaters —Ara and Regulus had taken the time to show the dragon pictures of the Death Eater's masks and robes so he could differentiate— and burning fire at them.

The appearance of the very large Ukrainian Underbelly dragon put a temporary halt in the battle as everybody looked at them in confusion.

Ara and himself got off the dragon before she took a deep breath.

"Hello, Tom Riddle. I'm Ara," she introduced herself to the Dark Lord Voldemort, knuckles turning white as her hand tightened the grip on the elder wand. "We haven't formally met, but I hate you infinitely." Ara readied herself into her preferred duelling stance. "I was born as the seventh month died and if you're wondering, Reg and I were the ones who destroyed all your Horcruxes. That means that you're mortal now, you literal bastard," she spat, and not even a millisecond later, Tom Riddle let out a war cry before unleashing a tornado of hexes and curses at her.

Ara was equally brilliant, using all the knowledge accumulated from her years as an Unspeakable against him.

The two of them made a terrifying sight and the fight looked to be like a stalemate, something that seemed to make Tom Riddle even angrier. The two of them kept moving and shifting their stances and eventually ended up inside Florean Fortescue's Ice Cream Parlour, thus shielding them from the eyes of everybody else.

Regulus could see Albus Dumbledore about to interfere at the corner of his eyes and frowned. He needed to prevent that but he was sure that the Headmaster of Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry wouldn't just believe him if he told him that Ara needed to do this on her own.

So, he spoke to the old professor using the one thing he did believe in.

"You know about the prophecy, don't you, Professor?" Regulus quizzed, grabbing his wrist.

Albus Dumbledore blinked at him in surprise. "Pardon—"

"The one with the power to vanquish the Dark Lord approaches... born to those who have thrice defied him, born as the seventh month dies... and the Dark Lord will mark him as his equal, but he will have power the Dark Lord knows not... and either must die at the hand of the other for neither can live while the other survives... the one with the power to vanquish the Dark Lord will be born as the seventh month dies...." Regulus recited from memory and controlled the urge to laugh at Albus Dumbledore's gaping expression.

"How—"

"—This is between them, Professor," Regulus said sternly. "This is their prophecy. This is their fight. Do not interfere." And without waiting for a reply, Regulus turned around and fought a Death Eater.

"Traitor!" Bellatrix growled at him, making her way straight to him. "I will hang your carcases from the—"

"Stupefy!"

A stunner chose to hit her at that very moment, making his dear cousin go limp.

His brother's handsome face grinned at him. "I hate monologues, don't you?" Sirius stood beside him back-to-back. "I got your back, little brother. Let's show these people how insane Black's truly are, eh?"

Regulus mirrored his grin, throwing a stunner at an unsuspecting Death Eater. "Like Ara put it so properly this morning, let's do this shit and hopefully, survive in the process!"

Sirius laughed, throwing hexes and curses at people and Regulus offhandedly wondered if this counted as a brotherly bonding activity.

***

Sometime after, a woman tightly holding a child frantically dashed out of the beloved ice cream parlour.

Regulus stopped her. "What's going on?"

"T—The girl!" The woman cried, sobbing hysterically.

Regulus forgot how to breathe for a second. "What about her? Is she alright?"

"S—She was winning but then— but then—"

"—What!" Regulus barked impatiently with worry.

Sirius laid a comforting hand on his shoulder while simultaneously defending them.

"—It was our fault!" The woman wailed. "S-She tried her best to protect us but then got distracted for a second and he—" Her voice broke again. "He threw a curse on her. She's bleeding very badly. I don't think she's going to make it."

Regulus' eyes widened as he quickly headed for the ice cream parlour that was now almost in ruins, ignoring his brother's cry of his name.

Ara and he had talked over this bit actually. She had told him that if she felt like she was going to lose the duel, then she was going to use fiendfyre on both of them, thus killing herself and Tom Riddle.

But Regulus couldn't let that happen.

Ara couldn't die. She just couldn't.

He stopped running when he reached the entrance of the ice cream parlour. The welcome mat was the only thing that wasn't completely destroyed. Both Ara and Tom were badly injured. Tom's dark robes were dripping with blood while —Regulus didn't know how— but that noseless bastard was bleeding from his nose. There were cuts on his pale cheekbones and his bald head looked scorched.

But no matter how bad Tom Riddle was faring, Ara looked like she had it worse as she was covered in blood and backed up against a wall, but still clutched the elder wand in her hand and had it pointed defiantly at the Dark Lord.

Regulus knew he had to do something but what?

Cursing Tom Riddle now would only buy Ara more time before the Dark Lord killed them all. Perhaps he could throw the killing curse at him with his back presently turned, but he was under no illusion that Tom Riddle wouldn't hear his incantation and dodge.

So what to do? What to do?

And why in the name of Merlin's saggy balls were these Unspeakable robes so heavy! Honestly, it felt like—

Wait.

Unspeakable robes.

He was wearing Unspeakable robes. The same ones he had worn when they—

Regulus quickly patted down his pockets and took out a plastic bag with the basilisk eye inside it and smirked.

Bingo.

He removed the plastic bag and held the gooey eye in his hand, taking care not to face the pupils in his direction and shouted, "TOM RIDDLE!"

Tom Riddle's enraged face whipped to meet his.

Big mistake.

"Traitor," he growled. "By the time I am done with you, there won't be any parts of you that aren't disintegrated."

"That sounds wonderful," Regulus replied, holding the eye behind his back. "But I'm not feeling very disintegrate—y today, so can we postpone that to tomorrow?"

Tom Riddle threw a beheading curse at him in reply.

"I guess not," Regulus muttered as he narrowly dodged it.

"I will use you to make an example of how exactly Lord Voldemort deals with traitors. You shall receive no mercy and I will watch you be on your knees and beg for mercy with pleasure."

"That sounds kinky," Regulus noted, receiving an entail expelling curse for his answer. "And guess what? You don't get to control me," he yelled, gripping on to the eye tighter. It was gross, but it was almost time. "I am the designer of my own catastrophe! And if I am going to burn, it will be by my flame, not yours!"

Tom Riddle let out a war-cry at the precise same time Regulus pulled out the eye of the basilisk and held it to the Dark Lord's eye level.

And just like every other mortal, Tom Riddle was not immune to the effects of a direct basilisk stare and fell to the ground, wide-eyes and unmistakable dead.

It was rather anti-climatic, to be honest.

Regulus hastily put the eye back into the plastic bag and into his pocket before running over and crouching down beside Ara.

"Are you alright?"

"Well," Ara began. "I feel like I'm going to throw up, my head and arms hurt, I am covered in my own blood and bleeding through a few vital organs, so I'm good. Wonderful, actually. Thank you for asking. How are you?"

"Perfect, now that I am here with you," he piqued with a smile, sitting beside her.

"I told you the basilisk eyes would come handy," Ara stated smugly.

Regulus' lips quipped upwards. "I don't remember arguing with you on that."

Silence blanketed them for thirty seconds as the weight of their actions finally sank in.

Tom Riddle was once and for all, dead. Finally.

"Let's go out," Ara told him.

"You're injured," Regulus said pointedly. "We should wait for the healers to come here, or let me just go and call them."

"Reg," Ara interrupted with a soft smile. "I meant, let us go out. You know, like on a date," she told him, intertwining their pinky fingers together.

"Oh."

"Am I supposed to take that 'Oh' as a yes or a no?"

"Of course it's a yes," Regulus replied, smiling goofily. "But traditionally, aren't the men supposed to ask out the women?"

Ara shrugged. "None of the things we've done together can be classified as traditional or elegant, for that matter. But if you want to heal your broken ego, you can ask me out, I guess."

"There would be no need for that. Ever since I've met you, my ego has been non-existent."

Ara laughed. "Well, I'm honoured."

"You should be," Regulus said with a smile. "Besides, it makes sense that you asked me out. After all, you're the flirty one in this relationship, remember?"

"That I am." Ara grinned proudly before wincing. "I don't mean to break up this moment, but can you please be a dear and get a healer here for me? Tom Riddle hit me with a curse that makes me slowly bleed out of my offices, and I've been under it for so long that I don't think I've got any blood to bleed out."

Regulus' eyes widened drastically as he stood up. "Why didn't you say that earlier?"

Ara shrugged once again. "If I was going to die, might as well ask out the person of my life."

"How I admire your priorities, Ara," Regulus intoned, rushing out of the shop with the intention of calling a healer.

"And how I admire your arse, Regulus!" Ara shouted from behind him.

"Not the time, Ara, but thank you!" Regulus yelled back before proceeding to immediately search for healers.

"It's always time, and you're welcome!" Ara exclaimed as she descended into a state of unconsciousness due to the blood loss.

Chapter Text

Two weeks after the battle of Diagon Alley, Ara, dressed in her grey, Unspeakable work-robes, walked into the Department of Mysteries and deep into the Chamber of Death where she stopped about a meter away from the veil.

She pursed her lips thinly at it before reaching into her never-ending sling bag and pulling out a variety of objects.

She firstly held in her hand the elder wand of the future-past. She gave it a close-lipped smile and hesitated for a second before breaking it and tossing the parts into the veil. Next, she pulled out the resurrection stone and unflinchingly threw it inside the veil. Then, she slowly pulled out the invisibility cloak, with which she had many fond memories and gave it a small kiss. She was feeling quite regretful about this, but it wouldn't be good for this world to hold two sets of the deathly hallows. Merlin knew just one was bad enough.

"Goodbye, and thank you," Ara whispered to the cloak before she more gently cast it into the veil.

She spun on her heel to leave before pausing and turning back around as an afterthought. She just looked at the veil for a minute, entranced by it, before shaking herself out of the daze and pushing her hand into her sling-bag once more and pulling out another stone: the one from the current present.

She bit her lip, gripped the stone tightly, aimed and hurled it into the veil with all her might and watched with satisfaction as it flew inside and became dissolved by the white fumes that made up the veil.

Now, nobody would ever be able to unite the three deathly hallows.

Ara turned around and exited the room, a beautiful, care-free smile dancing on her face.

***

Two years later, at the parlour of the Malfoy Manor, Regulus smiled as Narcissa poured him some tea.

The past few years had been going nicely. His and Sirius' relationship was going splendidly. Sirius had not only survived the war but had also had a son with his girlfriend Marlene, named Leo. Everybody had assumed that the name was because it was not only a star constellation, but it also was a lion which was another not-so-subtle diss to his family; but only Sirius, Ara, himself, Potter, Lupin, Marlene and Evans (after they had informed the later four) were privy to the knowledge that it was in honour of Regulus, who had assumed the name of 'Leo White' for a while.

"How are you?" Regulus asked her.

"Brilliant, of course," Narcissa replied, eyes sparkling. "I think Lucius has learnt his lesson in supporting Dark Lords. He's not going to do it ever again, I'm sure. Instead, he, Draco and I have been spending much time together. It's quite fun."

While Lucius was one of the Death Eaters who had claimed impervious, he was under Ministry surveillance, meaning one wrong move and he would be thrown in jail.

Bella had cursed both, his and Lucius' names throughout the entire journey until she had been taken to Azkaban. Regulus made sure he paid her a weekly visit, even if he knew that she didn't quite like him now. He wasn't going to give up on her. He had the first-hand experience on how it felt to be deserted and alone and he wasn't going to let Bella nor Andromeda feel that way.

Speaking of Andromeda, she was back into the family along with her metamorphmagus of a daughter. The weekly family dinners tended to get a tad crazy at times with all his cousins, brother, in-laws, nephew, nieces and Ara outside Bellatrix's cell in Azkaban and eating pot roast, but he wouldn't have it any other way.

Regulus hummed at Narcissa's answer before glancing to the parlour where Ara and Draco were playing.

Narcissa followed his direction and smiled at the sight.

The presently three-year-old Draco absolutely adored Ara with every cell in his being, and that was putting it lightly.

Regulus watched with soft eyes as Ara laughed at something Draco had said, making the latter's skin turn a wonderful shade of red.

"Has he still got a childhood crush on her?" Regulus mused out loud.

Narcissa laughed. "Oh yes, big time. He'll grow out of it in a few years but I'm sure she'll always hold the title of his favourite relative," she answered, making Regulus chuckle.

Little Draco's relationship with Ara was very special. She seemed to prioritise him more than everybody and anything else and always gave him her very full attention, something Draco loved. She laughed at all his jokes (even if they weren't particularly funny), would tell him stories and buy him whatever he wanted —Narcissa had joked that she spoilt him even more than Lucius did— and would play whatever he wanted with a smile on her beautiful face.

Draco would tell anybody who would listen about how famed war-hero and the recipient of Order of Merlin First Class, Unspeakable Ara was his aunt and would go on and list all of the qualities he loved about her. And sometimes, if he was feeling extremely happy, would also add that the war-hero, recipient of Order of Merlin First Class and Puddlemere United seeker who was to play for the Welsh National Quidditch Team at the World Cups the following year, Regulus Black, was also his uncle.

"I think I'm going to ask her to marry me," Regulus told Narcissa, who pursed her lips in confusion.

"Aren't you both already married?"

"I meant that we should have a proper wedding, Cissa," Regulus said, amending his words. "You said it yourself, an elopement counts as a marriage, not a wedding. So I was thinking we should have a grand wedding this year. It can also be considered as a vow renewing ceremony," he explained before adding, "Draco can finally be the ring bearer."

His answer seemed to satisfy Narcissa, who nodded and replied, "Okay. I'll start planning it", with an excited smile.

Regulus fought the urge to exhale a relieved breath and instead turned to see Ara and Draco playing again.

Ara caught his eye and gave him a wink, before continuing to listen to Draco ramble about how Adhara Potter was clearly cheating in Quidditch because there was no way she could catch the snitch so fast.