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“This is justice.”
Regulus breathed deeply, his silver-gray eyes focused on the Dementors fluttering through the air. His hands gripped the arms of the seat they were bound to as his blood ran cold, waiting for the moment the creatures would suck out his soul, the decided fate from the Wizengamot.
“This is what I deserve.”
He swallowed, eying the creatures instead of the wizards and witches watching the public execution of sorts, or so he expected.
“I am, after all, a Death Eater who evaded justice for sixteen years.” Regulus thought to himself, waiting for the order to be given to the Dementors to suck out his soul. “I just hope—my one hope is that this won’t hurt my girls.”
The Ministry of Magic caught him unaware at King’s Cross, the presence of the Auror slightly puzzling if it weren’t for the sudden and unexpected throbbing in his arm announcing the return of a certain someone just before his eldest was meant to return from Hogwarts. They’d found him, though, waiting for his wife to return to their car with their eldest. However, he could still remember being yanked painfully from the car, grateful that his eldest wasn’t there to see his arrest, yet nothing changed the fact he wasn’t there to explain anything if his children ever did find out.
He let out his breath as he closed his eyes, wishing the Ministry of Magic would get the whole affair over with while wishing Sirius might sweep in and rescue him even though he doubted his brother would do so, given how much his older brother hated him, when—
“Expectro Patronus!”
…
Sirius stared at the newspaper, his hands clenched together, causing the paper to scrunch between his fingers. The wizard swallowed, his grip tightening.
Remus glanced over his shoulder, shaking his head. “You know it’s a trap.”
“I don’t care that it’s a trap!” Sirius said, still looking at the image of his brother, the brother he thought dead, staring back at him.
The Order of the Phoenix set up at Grimmauld Place, and while Sirius volunteered the place, he still found being back in the family home he swore he’d never return to the point of irritation. Nor did he think Molly’s attempts at making the place livable, starting with the bedrooms, would bear fruit, although he didn’t stop her either.
“The children will need a place to stay,” Sirius thought, having heard it quite clear that Harry would not be coming, which proved yet another frustration. Yet, he understood why Dumbledore reminded him that, as a Black, he would be aware of the power of familial magic. “Not that I’m sure I believe in that, though he obviously does.”
Thus, the children, Harry’s two friends and the rest of the Weasley children, were brought to Grimmauld Place as for them, there didn’t exist the same kind of protection, and Sirius thought the whole affair would be relatively simple if not outright fun getting to hang out with his godson’s friends even though he couldn’t hang out with them.
He’d not expected, though—
Sirius didn’t expect the Granger girl to be in tears by the time they arrived, with Kingsley explaining, “We suspect Death Eaters took her father.”
“Suspect?” Sirius said, shaking his head, far from amused at the situation. “Who else could it be?”
“According to the Ministry of Magic, you.”
Sirius cringed at that, knowing full well from the papers and everyone else about the Ministry of Magic denying Voldemort was back. Still, he—the supposed escaped Death Eater who wasn’t actually a Death Eater—was an easy scapegoat in the given situation, which meant nobody would be looking for the girls’ father, yet in the back of his head, there was also that knowledge her father likely wasn’t alive anymore.
“Which she knows, I think,” Sirius thought while watching the Granger girl pore into her studies, much to the dismay of Ron Weasley, who found her not to be any fun, yet standing there watching her spread her books out in the dining room reminded him of how a certain someone would distract himself from what was going on around him by doing the same thing. “Although Regulus wouldn’t have dared make a mess of the dining room with his school books.”
This, in turn, stood as a solid reminder that Regulus lived under the same exacting expectation of perfection as their parents, that while Sirius felt the brunt of Walburga Black screaming at him for not behaving correctly like Regulus, his brother never actually got the chance to live.
“Never graduated, never even got to take his NEWTS,” Sirius thought to himself. “And I know he would have gotten the highest score on all of them, which could have been whatever he wanted. Only, she made him be a Death Eater, crushing his soul with what those monsters are expected to do.”
And thus things went until the Granger girl got her hands on the paper, the color draining on her face, making her puffy, red eyes that let everyone know she cried over the loss of her father, thus living up to the bravery trait of Gryffindors even though Sirius didn’t feel she needed to do that. Still, there were whispers of her family—sisters who’d not been brought in along with her mother and the rounds members of the Order made to keep the rest of the Granger family safe.
Sirius learned a little bit from the other members’ brief mentions of their covert operation of watching the other Granger family members and offhand comments from the Granger girl that the middle daughter refused to believe in the whole magic thing despite being a witch. At the same time, the youngest was ‘special’ or ‘interesting little thing,’ but the entire thing must have been hard, keeping things from a family that actually cared.
So, seeing the color drain from the Granger girl’s face as she looked at the front page, her lip trembled before she took off to the room she shared with the Weasley daughter, the door slamming—Sirius couldn’t help but feel for her, wishing he might do something, only—
Sirius picked up the paper to see what bothered her, thinking he’d see more of the rhetoric of the Ministry denying Voldemort was back, only to see—
“Bloody Merlin,” Sirius said, sucking in his breath. He felt the color drain from his face, glancing up at the tapestry even though he was looking through the ceiling at the object, knowing full well the tapestry clearly said the person in the picture was dead.
He then looked down, swallowing.
“Or he will be—the Dementor’s kiss is as good as,” Sirius thought to himself.
That was when Remus looked over his shoulder. “You know it’s a trap.”
“I don’t care that it’s a trap!” Sirius said. “I’m going!”
After all, if it were true, and not simply someone the Ministry made to look like his younger brother, his younger brother would be as good as dead if he didn’t go, so without hesitation, Sirius turned into a dog and left Grimmauld’s place.
…
Regulus’ eyes snapped open, realization sinking in someone had come to rescue him. “ Sirius? ” was the first thought , and the second was, “Please, not Bella .” But then—
His eyes blinked.
“Uncle Iggy? Addy?” Regulus said, caught off guard.
“What are you doing!” the Ministry of Magic, one Cornelious Fudge bellowed.
“I’m here to demand a trial on behalf of my wife’s family,” Ignatius Prewett said.
“Why?” someone said. “He’s a Death Eater.”
“He’s still family,” Ignatius replied. “And according to the papers, we’re not at war, so there shouldn’t be any reason to suspend proper procedure on this matter?”
“You’re,” Cornelious Fudge said, stopping at the sudden sound of—
Regulus turned his head towards the yapping dog, watching as the guards chased the dog around.
“Who let the dog in?’ someone said.
“Get him.”
“An actual trial or send him to Azkaban. Don’t exact upon him what is equivalent to Death with no way to…”
“It’s not as if he’s innocent.”
Regulus’ head turned, seeing the familiar, and then. “Umbridge.”
She let out a sniff. “Oh, how the House of Black has fallen.”
“Never mind this!” Cornelius said. “You’re ruining…”
“What?” Ignatius said as his nephew Adrian Prewett, who was in the same year as Regulus, kept the patronus going. “You rushing to judgment?”
“The trap!” Cornelius blurted out, then cleared his throat, running a finger through his collar. “I mean…”
“For the leader of the Death Eaters?” Regulus asked, avoiding calling Voldemort by his chosen title or the title of Dark Lord. “It won’t…”
But before he could say it wouldn’t work, Cornelius Fudge, his face reddening slightly, said, “Voldemort isn’t back.”
Regulus frowned. “He isn’t?”
“Bloody Death Eater,” someone muttered.
“Can we just get…”
“Regulus,” Uncle Ignatius said as the dog continued evading the men.
“It’s a trap for that older brother of yours.”
“Sirius?” Regulus frowned. “Why?”
“Because he’s a bloody Death Eater.”
“No, he isn’t,” Regulus said, frowning.
Then, the entire Wizengamot exploded, saying things such as, “How would you know?” while others said, “Betrayed the Potters.”
Regulus narrowed his eyes. “I wouldn’t know. You’re trying to tell me my Muggle-loving older brother joined the Death Eaters but also betrayed the Potters?” He let out a laugh. “So the Ministry of Magic is still dysfunctional.”
“You will be silent!” Cornelius Fudge roared.
Adrian shook his head. “You’re not helping your case, Reggie.”
“Yes, but Sirius is not a Death Eater,” Regulus said. “That would be someone else.”
Cornelius Fudge rolled his eyes. “Sure. We’re supposed to believe this?” He pointed his gavel at Ignatius. “And you. You’ve…”
“Perhaps we should hear Regulus Blackout.”
Regulus tilts his head, noticing Amelia Bones there.
“Who is the Death Eater you speak of?”
“One of Sirius’ friends,” Regulus said.
And that’s when the dog, who’d until then evaded the guards, stopped, yelping as they captured them.
“Excuse me,” Cornelius Fudge said. “Please tell me you’re not going to claim James Potter was the real Death Eater and that he betrayed his own family.”
Regulus frowned. “Are you an idiot? It definitely wasn’t Potter. It wasn’t Lupin either.”
“Then who…” Cornelius Fudge said.
“Peter Pettigrew,” Dumbledore said, having made his appearance finally. “But you already knew that, given that Harry Potter informed you as much that Peter Pettigrew was alive two years ago, that he betrayed the Potters and killed those Muggles.” Regulus thought they would finish things when Dumbledore said, “And really, Cornelius? Faking a public Dementor’s kiss for someone already cleared of wrongdoing thanks to the testimony of one Lucious Malfoy, or are you going to actually claim the testimony that cleared Lucious Malfoy is malicious in nature.”
“One could argue he simply wanted to clear his wife’s cousin?” Umbridge said, looking down her nose at everyone, holding her fake blood status over everyone to prove herself superior, when—Regulus knew too well there were certain pure-bloods this held true for a while. For others, it did not. Yet, she didn’t even have a proper claim.
“But why?” Dumbledore said. “If not to relieve the pain his wife’s family went through at having the name of an innocent family member they thought dead, then why? It wasn’t as if anyone thought Regulus was alive and thus could walk free, but from the sounds of things, Regulus Black here has been very unaware of the going on in the Wizarding World.”
“We can’t simply clear…” Cornelius shook his head. “We simply can’t clear someone’s name on a child’s word.”
“Or a werewolf?”
“Prejudice, bastards,” Regulus thought to himself. “And they get on us pure-bloods for being prejudiced while pretending not to be.”
“And now a former Death Eater,” Dumbledore said.
“But he’s plenty to gain as Sirius is his older brother,” Umbridge said.
“Except Regulus Black has never been the kind of person to lie.”
Regulus tilted his head, turning his attention to Amelia Bone, wondering why she chose to stand with them.
“Which I will also speak to his character,” Amelia Bones said. “Having attended school with him, I can say he is very different from his older brother, but if you want someone to attest to Regulus Black’s personality and how out of place he would have been among the Death Eaters—shall we bring in Professor Slughorn.”
Regulus—he shook his head. “Please don’t. That’s not fair to him.”
“People can have one personality in front of some and a completely different…”
“Like you?” Regulus blurted out in response to Umbridge. “I recollect some of the vile things you said in front of the Black family matriarch in the past.”
“I would like to ask,” Amelia Bones said, “Who among us feel there is a doubt to the conviction of Sirius Black, thus rendering this entire thing a moot point, given the fact, as Dumbledore has said, it is on record that our court system has already cleared Regulus Black of any wrongdoing during the war?” She turned to Cornelius. “Which is something you and I discussed, that this was only meant as a trap for what at the time was deemed a dangerous Death Eater who’d escaped Azkaban.”
Regulus would have laughed had the situation been more serious, but the vote occurred as the guards undid the bounds and—
“Now, how many, since there is a near-unanimous decision, that Sirius is indeed innocent of the charges he was placed in Azkaban for?”
He sucked in his breath, watching everyone except Umbridge say yes, they thought his brother innocent.”
“Then I ask the Minister of Magic to vacate Sirius Black’s conviction.”
Regulus let out a sigh of relief as the conviction was overturned.
The next thing he knew, the black dog broke free of the guards and bounded towards him, pouncing in excitement as dogs do, or so he thought, until—
He felt himself pulled into a hug, a very human hug, as Dumbledore cleared his throat. “Would it be possible to overlook the fact Sirius Black is, in fact, an unregistered Animagus given he’s already spent time in Azkaban for a crime he didn't commit, but it should also go on record that Peter Pettigrew is also an Animagus—a rat?”
“Let’s go home.”
“Home?” Regulus asked, thinking of his home with his girls, only—
Sirius wouldn’t let go of him, instead bringing him home to—
“To Grimmauld Place,” Regulus said, wondering when he’d get to see his girls.
…
“Why?” Sirius said, letting out a sigh in answer to the question obviously written all over his brother's face. “Not many other places I can go, but I told the Order they could use the place as their headquarters.”
“She’ll…”
“She’s not there,” Sirius said, patting his younger brother on the shoulder, but Dumbledore didn’t hesitate to bring Adrian and Ignatius Prewett along with him.
“Adrian!” Molly called out. “What are…”
And then she stared at Regulus, the person who was supposed to be dead.
“Mr. …”
He thought she’d say, Mr. Black, only for the Granger girl to hurtle herself at his brother.
“Dad!”
“Hermione,” Regulus said. “I am so, so sorry.”
Sirius turned his head, watching the Granger girl sob into his brother’s arms, and then, “I’ve got many questions.”
“Same with me,” Dumbledore said, while Molly, who’d finished saying Regulus’ new last name.
It was a lot to take in.