Disclaimer: I don't own Harry Potter or anything you can recognise from any books or TV series or movies. I do however take liberties with the plots or mentions provided by JKR or other writers. The only profit I'm getting out of it is improving my English.

Title: Secrets & Keepers – Collision Course

Rating/Warnings: R/M [AU; Manipulative Dumbledore (therefore not Dumbledore friendly); profanity; canon-typical violence; frank discussion of past child abuse (Harry but not only) and of past child abuse of sexual nature (not Harry); not very detailed descriptions of torture (not Harry); Black family feels.

Additional warnings: profanity

Chapter summary: Mr Lupin and Miss Tonks do some detective work.

Word count: Around 15 000 words.

Author's note/personal ramble: Where should I start... First off, I'm sorry that I've been gone for so long, I didn't intend to fall from the radar for so many months. I have no clear explanation for this hiatus. For some part of it was responsible my Sherlock story, then I temporarily got stuck with a scene, found a way to unstuck myself from it by writing something else. Then there was a particular discussion with one reviewer that resulted in a certain idea and then on the tail of it came the idea that I should do something about the scale of this story as a whole.

I love this story. I love how it bloomed out of a decade-old chapter of a story I will never publish because it was crap (it was). I loved how certain scenes just came to me and still remained with me. What I didn't expect was what spanned between those scenes and the majority of the stuff between them was necessary for plot or character building purpose. Sure there's a scene or two I know that this story could do without (like Regulus's tirade on magical schooling). I fully intended to be done with the build-up by chapter five and now that I will be lucky if I will be done with it by chapter twelve (and I know that I won't be). All of it convinced me to trim one giant story into smaller parts. About fifteen chapters big opening is overwhelming but when it's a separate story...

Hence the adjustment of the name that sums up nicely what will occur at the climax of this part. I swear that it won't take me another ten chapters to get there. I think that you can expect another chapter of Remus with and without Tonks but I'm not sure if their further detective work won't span into another chapter. Once I'm done with them what comes is the collision itself and I'm hoping that by the time I will be done with it this part of the story it won't exceed the fifteen chapters mark.

As for Remus... for someone who has one carpet after another yanked from under him, he's faring pretty well, all things considered. As for Tonks... yeah, she runs with it but she has good intentions (and she has another year of training left)

Not beta read. Treated with Grammarly.

Dedicated to all of my readers who stuck with me for so long. Thank You, I hope that You will find this story enjoyable. I would be the most grateful for constructive criticism.

In all affairs it's a healthy thing now and then to hang a question mark on the things you have long taken for granted.

~Bertrand Russell

Secrets & Keepers – Collision Course

Chapter ten: True Detectives

Remus Lupin, Lupin's Cottage, Northern Yorkshire, 7th August, morning.

His consciousness returned with a brutality that over the years he came to associate with forcible revival. Out of pure instinct as soon as fresh oxygen filled his lungs he lunged his right arm in the general direction of the room. He didn't expect to grab anything therefore he was both surprised and alarmed when his hand collided with something solid and something invisible.

Disillusionment, his mind supplied just as he grabbed whatever he collided with and forced his magic into countercharm. It wasn't an easy spell to cast it wandlessly and nonverbally but his body was running on high levels of adrenaline and the countercharm cast like that worked for him in the past in such circumstances.

He fully expected the intruder and rescuer of a dubious variety to be Sirius Black.

But it wasn't.

It was a woman.

She had a young-looking, pale, heart-shaped face with a slightly upturned nose, dark eyes and short and curly pink hair. At the moment she was sitting on the ground but when she revived him she had to be crouching next to him.

"Bugger," they both breathed out in unison as he tightened his grip on her right ankle.

"Nice to meet you," he added sceptically as he attempted to sit up without releasing his hold on her.

"Can't exactly say the same," she snorted. "Can you let me go?"

"I will," he said as he propped himself on his left hand, "as soon as you will tell me who are you and what you're doing in my house," he added.

"Saving your ungrateful furry arse from suffocating yourself over disturbing news," she replied swiftly.

"Thank you," he mumbled.

"You're welcome," she shrugged. "Now can you let me go?" she asked pointedly.

"You still didn't tell me who are you," he pointed out.

"Tonks," she sighed.

"Just Tonks?" he asked sceptically feeling the trickle of recognition in the back of his mind.

He heard this name before. But when and where?

"Good name," she said swiftly. "I'll try to remember it."

Didn't Sirius have a cousin whose married name was Tonks? But she had to be older than him to be married while Sirius was still at school.

Come to think about it wasn't there some sort of scandal involved? A teenage pregnancy while she was still a student? They weren't exactly unheard of, teenage pregnancies and if one focused themselves on listening to the grapevine at least one accidental pregnancy occurred every year. At least back when they were still students. Even in their own year there was Bathsheda Babbling, granted he didn't know it at the time but he did read the notification about her birth in The Daily Prophet back in September 1978 which meant that for the baby to be born then Bathsheda had to be pregnant through the winter, spring and summer of 1978.

He tried to summon a memory of Sirius ever talking about his cousin and her baby but he was drawing a blank. Nearly. There was some rant about traditional baby names and how much some of them sucked. What was the name Sirius found so displeasing to complain about it?

"Nymphadora," he breathed out finally.

"Damn you," Tonks huffed. "How did you?" she mumbled with annoyance. "Don't you dare to repeat it or I will hex your furry arse into next century."

"Then what I'm supposed to call you?" he asked.

"Tonks works just fine," she said simply. "And why would you need to call me anything?" she asked.

"Why don't you tell me?" he asked pointedly. "You're at my house and I don't remember inviting you inside."

"I invited myself," she shrugged. "I was starting to smell and the last night wasn't exactly warm."

"So you've been here all night," he said.

He should have felt disturbed by that thought. Someone invaded his personal space and existed in it for hours before he realised that he wasn't alone. Most probably he wouldn't have realised that he wasn't alone if it wasn't for Tonks not wanting to have him on her conscience. If Tonks had been a murderer she would have plenty of opportunities to kill him in his sleep

"Whole week," she grimaced. "I'm what remained from your sitters and I'm here only because they aren't paying me for sitting on you."

"Why?" he asked curiously.

"Because your Auror security detail was replaced by Muggle police who ditched you for serious work three days ago," she answered.

"And you stayed here from the goodness of your hearth?" he asked pointedly.

"No, I stayed here because I believe that sooner or later Sirius Black will try to contact you," she replied. "He hadn't done so in so far but unlike the rest who either forgot about it or hadn't taken it into account I'm convinced that Sirius Black will try to use his Auror training against the Aurors that will try to capture him," she added sourly.

"You're certain of that?" he asked sceptically.

"Listen, Lupin," she sighed. "Let's make one thing abundantly clear regardless of how much of a traitor and all-around bastard Sirius Black was and remains I'm not going to deny that when he was on the force he was a damn fine Auror," she added bitterly. "I saw his arrests records; he was smart, talented and persistent. Azkaban might have messed with his head more than it was messed up when he was arrested but it still doesn't change the fact that it had taken a smart, talented and relatively powerful wizard."

"Point," he agreed heavily. "And odds are that he remains one if he managed to escape from it," he added grimly. "What do you know about his escape?"

"Why do you need to know about his escape?" she asked suspiciously.

"Maybe because no one had done it before?" he offered.

Or what part his Animagi abilities had played in it, he thought grimly. It bugged him, had been bugging him from the moment he heard about Sirius's escape. Rationally, he knew that he should have mentioned it to Moody when he came around but for a reason he couldn't explain he stayed silent, rationalising with himself that it couldn't have been this simple. Because if it was that simple Sirius would have escaped not now but ages ago. No, if he escaped he had to escape by using some form of Dark Magic which Voldemort taught him.

Still, why now? What possibly could have caused Sirius to escape exactly when he did and not earlier?

"Well, your guess is as good as mine," muttered Tonks. "No one knows that. All that's known on the subject is that he was present during one headcount and he wasn't present during another," she sighed. "What is certain however is that he didn't disapparate from his cell. Ministry is paranoid about maintaining proper anti-apparation wards around Azkaban and exclusion points from thereof. Those are heavily guarded around the clock," she added grimly. "There was no chatter about dead guards so I'm assuming that however he managed to escape his escape went unnoticed while it was happening. What do you think he had done?" she asked curiously.

"I don't know what I should be thinking," he sighed. "I used to think that I knew him rather well and then it turned out that I didn't know him at all."

"As did I," she admitted softly. "He used to be an older brother I always wanted but never got. I used to worship the ground he was walking on. He was my hero and my inspiration and then…" she grimaced.

"If it's any consolation at all, you aren't alone with that," mumbled Remus.

"It is but it doesn't help at all," she snorted. "Where is he now? I know that he's planning to head to Hogwarts eventually but where the fuck he's now?" she huffed

"I don't know," whispered Remus. "I'm not sure," he added as he looked down at the discarded Prophet and Harry's photograph. "Or do I?" he mumbled, more to himself than to Tonks.

"You think he went after Potter?" she asked pensively. "But why would he do that?"

"To finish what Voldemort started nearly twelve years ago?" offered Remus grimly. "It remains in the realm of possibility," he sighed. "What I know for certain is that he escaped, in so far remains uncaught and then suddenly Harry goes missing from his relatives."

"So we should start looking for Harry," she said simply.

"We?" he asked curiously.

"Well, as far as I'm concerned you're a person of interest in an ongoing investigation and odds are that Sirius will come after you at some point," she shrugged. "Just because I revealed myself to you doesn't mean that I will stop doing what I did through the past week. And it's not that I don't trust you…" she grimaced.

"But you don't trust me," he finished simply. "I don't really trust you either," he added pointedly and he hadn't, not a single bit. "You aren't here officially. You're his relative," he counted out. "I can keep going on."

"Great," she snorted. "So we agree that we don't trust each other but because we know a square root of jack shit about everything that's going on we have to work together. Can you finally let go of my ankle?" she asked pointedly.

He did so and he started pulling himself upright by using the countertop as an anchor point. His legs still felt a bit unsteady. In the meantime, Tonks tried to pull herself into standing position but after the first attempt she landed on her bum and her second attempt nearly knocked him back to the floor because she stumbled over her own feet and fell into his arms.

"You have a grace of a ballet dancing hippopotamus," he snorted after he steadied her and himself. "Does it happen often?" he asked curiously.

"I'm a bloody Metamorphmagus, Wolfman," she snorted. "My centre of gravity is all over the place. I'm lucky if I'm relatively the same height two days in a row because my body grows and shrinks on its own volition while I'm sleeping. I could never control that and trying to consciously fix it is fucking hard and usually not worth the hassle."

"Curious," he hummed.

"Thank you for finding it amusing," she snorted.

"No, it's not amusing, it's annoying. At least from a practical point of view if you're supposed to track someone," he said simply. "You said that you aren't here officially but you implied that you know enough about Aurors to be either a recent graduate from the training or still a trainee. I don't know at what point they're teaching Stealth & Tracking…"

"Please, shut up," she muttered. "So off to Little Whinging now?" she changed the subject.

"Just give me a moment," he sighed. "I just need to check something before we should leave."

He took a deep breath and tried to pour all of his hope and desire for Harry's continued safety and survival into his Patronus. Which along with the message it was supposed to carry wasn't exactly easy. But he owed as much to Dumbledore before he went and investigated on his own.

"So?" chirped Tonks once the mist of his Patronus disappeared from the view. "Should we eat while we wait? I can…"

"No," he interrupted her. "You aren't coming anywhere near the stove if I can help it."

"I'm not a that bad cook," she objected.

"It's not the quality of your food that I doubt," he stated simply.

"Fair point," she sighed. "Can I at least make coffee?"

He didn't expect Dumbledore's reply to arrive immediately upon receiving his Patronus but he did hope that it would arrive quickly enough. Patroni communication wasn't one of the fastest ways although it was far faster than owls and far less inconspicuous than Floo calls but nothing compared to both fast and inconspicuous way of communication that were the infernal two-way mirrors that Sirius and James used to use at school.

Minutes trickled by. One turned into two, then five then fifteen and then into half of hour. By that point, Tonks started going a little stir-crazy with lack of a definite answer. Obviously, the Auror in her wanted to just go now and investigate while the other part of her didn't want to leave without him.

It was ridiculous. They were wasting time Harry might not have to begin with.

It would be the best and safest for Harry if you didn't try to get yourself involved with him, Remus.

Nearly twelve years old words and he still could remember them with the same brutal clarity. It was a bitter pill to swallow, knowing that the only thing he had left of his friends, the family they all had, the child they all adored was growing far away from him. But he endured it. It wasn't easy but he made it, through the first year and then the other and then the ones that followed.

A little over two years ago, when Harry was about to get his Hogwarts letter he had written to Dumbledore and offered to chaperone Harry on his trip to Diagon Alley but Dumbledore's reply while understanding denied him that opportunity. It wasn't exactly safe back then, too little time had passed since Greyback pack's brutal attack in mid-April on three young girls and to quite a big number of vendors on Diagon Alley, he was a known werewolf. A werewolf and the Boy-Who-Lived on a shopping trip to Diagon Alley? Bad idea for now and besides Dumbledore already made arrangements for Harry to be well guarded on the trip.

He tried again next year but he didn't get an answer to his inquiry until late August that contained a reply that it was already taken care off and that Dumbledore was very sorry about taking so long but unfortunately his other duties pretty much removed his from English soil for a majority of the summer vacation.

He was still willing to try and ask this year but before he worked enough bravery weighed down by the disappointment of denied earlier requests into another letter Dumbledore himself turned at his house with a job offer. So he decided to not tempt fate and count his blessings. He was going to see Harry at Hogwarts, that would be enough and maybe, just maybe…

But Harry might not end up at Hogwarts again. No, for all that they knew he might be dead. Sirius would see to that. The only however pale ray of hope was that rather than finishing what Voldemort started was that Sirius would try and use some sort of a dark ritual to revive Voldemort. And all dark rituals required a living sacrifice of some sort, they were also very time-consuming.

So the only thing that mattered was whatever or not Sirius just wanted to finish what Voldemort started or bring him back to his former glory.

"Not that I'm complaining but it's been nearly an hour," Tonks said grimly. "Whose approval you need so much to risk the trail getting even colder?"

Remus closed his eyes and shook his head.

"No one's, I guess," he said quietly. "I just thought… Never mind, finish your coffee and let's get going," he added as he opened his eyes.

Just to see the familiar pale form of Dumbledore's Patronus soaring towards the house.

"Wait," he breathed out. "Another minute, please."

Soon enough the phoenix soared through the open window and hanging mid-air it opened its beak.

"You don't need to worry, Remus," it said in Dumbledore's voice. "All is well or soon will be. It's nothing but a simple familial domestic dispute. Harry will soon turn up on the doorsteps of one of his friends if he already didn't. There's nothing to worry about. I'll see you in September."

And then the phoenix disappeared.

No need to worry. Simple domestic dispute. Will turn up on the doorstep of his friends.

No need to worry. Simple domestic dispute. Turned up on the doorstep of his friend.

It had taken a long while, over a year in fact, before he had a chance to hear the account of Sirius's arrival to Potter Mansion from Mrs Potter but those were the exact words that were used in relation to Sirius.

They stung back then and they still stung now. Because back then he chose to not question what changed in Sirius's life to walk away. He knew that things in the Black family household weren't ideal but Sirius never complained. Strike that he complained quite a lot about returning home for summer vacation but he was never very specific in his complaints. So for a very long time, his complaints were taken as simple teenage defiance.

But that wasn't the case, was it? According to Mrs Potter when Sirius turned up on their doorstep he looked like he had been very brutally beaten and had nothing on him that couldn't fit into his schoolbag.

Sirius was a strong-willed individual. Stubborn to the point of obstinacy, unwavering in his decisions and determined to achieve his goals no matter how much effort achieving them required from him. Granted, not all of his ideas had been exceptionally bright but… he was Sirius. Whatever horrors he had gone through at the hands of his family he never mentioned them after he ran away. It was as if once the door slammed shut behind him that part of his life ceased to exist. Sirius was stubborn and determined enough to break out of the circle of abuse and no one saw it until it was already too late to help him. At least not before he helped himself.

The circle of abuse is vicious and hard to break, that much Remus knew. He also knew that it broke some people who weren't able to handle it and that there were many different ways of breaking down.

It's also hard to spot it when you're deliberately not seeing it. He hadn't seen it with Sirius; he chose to not see it with Sirius.

And he had done the same thing to Harry, per Dumbledore's request. He simply accepted Dumbledore's words at face value, ignored the internal instinct that kept whispering in his ear occasionally that people like Petunia or Vernon Dursley don't change for the better and just…

It couldn't be that, could it be? It was just his paranoia and guilty conscience ganging upon him. No one stepped to help Sirius before he helped himself and as a friend he had completely failed Sirius. Who knows maybe if someone stepped up sooner…

He couldn't fail Harry, not again. He needed to make sure, needed to check on his own that everything was as fine as Dumbledore believed it to be.

"So what are we doing?" asked Tonks softly.

"Do you believe it? Him?" he asked quietly.

"Do you?" she asked simply.

"I want to," he admitted.

"But you don't," she added. "Then let's go."

Secrets & Keepers – Collision Course

Getting to Little Whinging was an easy part. Too easy even. It also didn't take a genius to figure out that the entire area was devoid of Auror or police presence which was bloody disturbing.

"It doesn't make a lick of a sense," Tonks commented as she attempted to adjust the straps of her SEEboard uniform. "It's a missing child case in suburbia; the area should be swarmed with police presence."

"If his relatives bothered to report him as missing," muttered Remus grimly as he handed her a disposable cup of coffee.

"For your information, I still don't like it," she added sourly. "It's asking for trouble."

"Trouble is my middle name," he shrugged and he adjusted his bag.

"It's John," she deadpanned. "I read your file."

"It's the oldest and most harmless trick in the books," he explained stiffly. "They will wake up groggy, believe that they drank on the job and they won't bother to report it."

"Let me guess, you've done it before," she muttered as they started to approach what was now their car for the day.

"A time or two," he admitted. "We're lucky that they were using this car. We would be in bigger troubles if someone caught us lunging them around a different one."

"Weird, your file didn't mention any criminal activity," she snorted as she walked around the car towards the passenger seat.

"Does it bother you?" he quipped as he opened the door to the driver's side.

"Yes," she admitted with a shrug as she climbed into the passenger seat. "But only because it means that in so far you hadn't been caught."

"You make me sound like a criminal mastermind," he said as he closed the door.

"Let me think about it," she smirked. "Possession of illegal substances, drugging, kidnapping and impersonating a public service worker, then there's a car thief…"

"Weirdly enough I'm not doing it all on my own," he deadpanned.

"… and being a bad influence on another public service worker," she finished.

"In training," he quipped. "And it's not as if I put a gun or a wand to your head. You came with me on your own volition and agreed to follow my lead in order to not attract attention."

"I was bored out of my mind," she shrugged. "You're a pretty docile target to observe. This is far more interesting. I just hope that it will be worth the trouble we might get ourselves into."

"Is peace of mind worth enough to you?" he asked as he stuck the key into the ignition.

Secrets & Keepers – Collision Course

He knew that it was a total waste of time but he also knew that in order to not attract any unwanted attention they needed to be consequent in their disguise of SEEboard workers. So upon reaching Privet Drive they started checking the houses from the furthest side of the street. Luckily for them, there wasn't too much of them and quite a big number of people simply weren't home.

Unluckily for them, Mrs 8 Privet Drive had some minor electrical issue and she was quite happy to not only let in two SEEboard workers inside but also to put them into actual work.

"This is bloody ridiculous," commented Tonks quietly over his shoulder as she glanced towards the living-room where Mrs 8 Privet Drive was watching daytime TV, quite loudly. "Neither of us is an actual electrician."

"Speak for yourself," muttered Remus. "I had enough time on my hands to study the basics. It's absurdly simple once you put your mind to it."

"Then what's taking you so bloody long to fix it?" she hissed.

"I don't want to have her on my conscience," he admitted softly. "So, I need to get it right or ruin it completely. Which I would be able to do if you will stop panting into my ear for a minute."

"I'm not panting into your ear," objected Tonks.

"You just aren't familiar with the concept of private space," he deadpanned and then just as her hand landed on his arse he added. "Please remove your hand from where it is, it's uncomfortable."

"In the front or the back?" she asked.

"I'm not dignifying that with a response," he muttered.

"You just did," she quipped.

Secrets & Keepers – Collision Course

It had taken what felt like hours to get out of 8 Privet Drive after being thanked profusely by Mrs 8 Privet Drive. She even paid them, quite handsomely on that. Once they left the house, Tonks tried to protest that she did nothing to earn it and wanted to give her portion to Remus but Remus managed to convince her to keep it (although he wasn't sure that he was very convincing).

While Tonks was knocking on the door of 6 Privet Drive, which in so far appeared to be blessedly empty, Remus loitered on the edge of the lawn that was shared with 4 Privet Drive.

He was one of those werewolves that believed that lycanthropy was a sickness; a curse, rather than a blessing. That said, like some born or pack raised werewolves he knew that at different phases of the moon he was granted certain perks or drawbacks (depending from the angle one was looking at).

His sense of smell was always all over the place. Its oversensitivity was responsible for his poor performance in potions. It was also responsible for his dorm-mates being the cleanest teenage boys in their entire year (which was saying something). In his teenage years it worked with no rhyme or reason. During certain cycles he maintained it for barely a week around the full moon and during the others up to about a week surrounding the new moon.

Blessedly in his adolescence, it calmed the fuck down. He was still a lousy potion maker but one that could prepare his own Pepper Up potion without blowing himself up, or setting something or himself on fire. So in that regard, he was counting his blessings. His sense of smell still remained slightly oversensitive at certain phases of the moon. During the day before and right after the full moon it was all over the place, amplifying certain smells and dulling the others. During the rest of the cycle, up until three days surrounding the new moon on both ends, he continued to have a quite good sense of smell. Although one he needed to hone if he needed to trail something or someone by smell.

Distinguishing different and unfamiliar scents, however, was hard. In theory, and on a good day, he was capable of nosing out Sirius in both forms pretty well. At least that was true nearly twelve years ago. Same thing with Harry. Not that he needed to do it often but Harry was a very determined hide & seek player since he learned how to walk and even when he was still crawling he could get pretty fast. So, both he and Sirius (mostly Sirius to be frank) had an opportunity or two to sniff Harry out when he was determined to hide from the adults.

Except, like with Sirius, it all had been ages ago and unlike with Sirius, who at the time was an adult and whose core scent managed to settle back then, Harry was a teenager. Not only his scent had a chance to change from that of a young baby into a child but also because he was a teenager his core scent would be slowly adapting into its final version.

Honing on the scents he wanted took him a while. Not only because he was working from memory but also because he hadn't done such a thing since the war had ended. He simply didn't need to. But he needed to now.

Harry's scent was a mixture of boy and stress and fear and magic. No blood though, which was the only good thing. No Sirius too, at least in a very close vicinity to where he was standing.

He strolled through the sidewalk slowly, pretending to admire flowers and bushes on the lawn while he was trying to pinpoint in which direction Harry went. He didn't smell Sirius on the sidewalk that was leading to the front door but he caught the whiff of him in the gentle breeze.

Grass, wet dog (completely understandable, if he showed his face here in human form surely he would have been caught by now) and just the barest whiff of Sirius underneath dirt and grime and sweat and anxiety.

Why was he anxious?

Because he finally got to Harry and could finish what Voldemort had started? Or maybe because the success of Voldemort's revival hinged on securing Harry and removing him from Little Whinging with minimal fuss?

That was probably it. Even as a Death Eater Sirius was and still remained a trained Auror. Most probably a completely insane one but if there was a method in the madness Sirius was likely to follow it.

Sirius went no further than the bushes at the edge of the lawn that was shared by 4 Privet Drive with 2 Privet Drive and Harry fled in that direction. With Sirius? After Sirius? With Sirius chasing after him?

As he started to follow their scents with all his focus centred on them he realised that Harry's scent moved (choosing directions, moving and stopping for long enough for his scent to linger on the ground a little more). Sirius's, on the other hand, didn't move away from Harry's scent even for a moment. Most probably in pursuit of Harry.

Both headed north, then west, through an alley between the houses into a crescent street. Harry first, Sirius second and Remus in pursuit of both, with Tonks at his heels. He didn't know if she tried to stop him from the chase but even if she had he didn't care. Harry and Sirius were all that mattered.

If he closed his eyes he could practically see them. Harry, small and scrawny and so much like James's with Lily's eyes with Padfoot hot on his heels. A trivial game of Harry's childhood that made him laugh and squeal when the huge dog turned into a human that...

… that hugged him tightly, that whispered words of endearments into Harry's mop of hair, that loved the little boy with all the fierceness of someone who believed that they lost their chance at happiness…

… that planned to kill Harry sooner or later, in the name of a mad man.

He reached the end of the street and stopped dead in his tracks when he realised that Harry's and Sirius's scents weren't going further. He tried to backtrack but after a few minutes, he conceded to himself that the place where their scents ended they just ended and none of them followed the other in a different direction.

"Here?" asked Tonks.

"Yes," he admitted quietly. "Up to here and no further."

"You didn't have a chance to sniff out Black, did you?" she asked, reminding him that no one aside of him, Sirius and long-dead people knew that Sirius was an Animagus.

It should have been easy. It just required out of him opening his mouth and saying just four words to Tonks and from there she would get out of him the rest.

'What's stopping you from doing that then?' a voice much like Sirius's came to the forefront of his mind.

I have no idea, he admitted to himself.

'You've been betrayed and you were blind to that betrayal until the consequences of it couldn't be missed. Why are you fooling yourself that if your circumstances were different the same courtesy you're extending to him would have been extended to you? He already sold your secret; not selling his doesn't make you a better person or a better friend. It also puts Harry's life in greater danger.'

Sirius is an Animagus.

He's an Animagus.

Animagus.

"How come that no one saw an escaped convict following a teenage boy," Tonks grumbled.

Say it now.

Say it.

He opened his mouth and took a deep breath only to let it out a moment later. It was a no brainer, especially in current circumstances and he was still unable to let go of the knowledge that could potentially save Harry's life. So he tried again, this time breathing through his nose.

Harry's and Sirius's scents drowned his senses again and that was when it hit him that they weren't alone. There was another scent, as old as theirs. Male and definitely magical, mixing with theirs.

Friend or foe? Whose friend or foe on the matter? Harry's or Sirius's? Where he came from? Not from the Dursleys house, if he had then Remus would have noticed his scent earlier. None of them was going further in any direction which meant that they had to leave the place in some other way.

Car?

He did smell faint lingering traces of oil and petrol but it was hard to gauge whatever or not Sirius would have used one. He could drive, all right, cars as well as bikes even though he preferred the latter. Sirius certainly didn't own a car before he went to Azkaban. While hot wiring a car didn't require a genius and was something that Sirius used to know how to do, stealing one was a risk Sirius might not be willing to take.

Brooms?

It would have been the obvious answer if Sirius wasn't involved. Sirius wasn't the biggest fan of brooms. He did appreciate quality brooms and like James, he could gush about them for hours but as a viewer and not a flyer. Even though he did play Beater on the Gryffindor Quidditch team for a few years. He also hated standing out when he was amongst Muggles and never had a big problem with blending in. Muggle neighbourhood and a getaway method that would get Sirius's approval? Certainly not a broom.

"He got him," spat Tonks lividly.

"How can you tell?" he asked.

He knew that Sirius managed to follow Harry here but he was curious how Tonks reached that conclusion herself.

"Because they apparated away," she answered grimly. "Regardless of what the Ministry wants the general population to believe apparation is traceable. Not from one point to the other unless additionally you're tracking a person but there are ways of telling where the entry or exit points are," she explained. "We're standing over the exit point and from here who knows where they went."

"They weren't alone," admitted Remus finally.

"They?" Tonks frowned. "You didn't say a single word…"

"Pardon me, it's been a while since I had to be a sniffer dog," he hissed.

"Because he has been here is a very hard sentence to say, isn't it?" she snorted. "Since when?" she asked briskly.

"From the Dursleys house," he answered. "He was coming from that direction too because I didn't smell him from the one we came. Harry ran his way and I'm gauging he followed Harry back up here," he paused. "Someone was waiting for them here. I'm just not sure who."

"Friend or foe?" she asked.

"Hard to tell," he grimaced.

"Did they leave together or not?" she pressed.

"From what I can tell, yes," he admitted.

"Can you follow it? Maybe entry point can tell us something," she suggested.

The scent of the mystery man led them east, past the alley through which Harry and Sirius went and then further south. At one point it turned west then south again. Fortunately, it led them right to the front door and Remus was about to tell Tonks that they got lucky when he saw the look on her face.

"What?" was what made out of his mouth instead.

"Do you know what's behind this house?" she asked.

He shook his head.

"4 Privet Drive and by my estimations they share a garden wall," she answered. "I could be wrong obviously but we're just deep enough into the street for me to be correct."

It probably wasn't a good thing.

On the other hand, he remembered Dumbledore saying that he had someone in the area to keep an eye on Harry. Could they trace Harry's watcher to this house? But if that was the case why the watcher left the town with Harry and Sirius rather than led Harry back home?

Secrets & Keepers – Collision Course

Breaking into a Muggle house was easy. Immoral, but easy, even when one had to deal with Muggle security measures. Breaking into a wizarding household, however, always carried a certain risk. From pureblood mansions to tiniest cottages one was already risking just by entering the grounds uninvited. The numbers and complexity of wards with which one had to deal depended from a lot of factors but even the most uncaring about his or hers earthy possessions wizard or witch had even the lousiest, buy in bulk for half of the normal price if you can't make them yourself, wards. How one treated and made their wards said a lot about a person.

What wards of 11 Mistletoe Drive said about their owner?

Quite a lot. A sheer number of them spoke about high paranoia and thoroughness of the man. As did the ones that hid the magic done in the household that had been buried under their own wards meant to hide the fact. Then there was lack of Muggle repellent wards which implied that the owner didn't mind blending with the Muggles (or at least an occasional visit from a neighbour). Then there was…

… the fact that his companion was standing inside the house while he was inspecting bushes and ward points underneath them.

"Are you freaking insane?" he chastised her after he nearly slammed the door behind himself.

"No," she shrugged. "I'm being thorough and I like ruling the obvious first," she replied. "The door wasn't locked and there was no magic on it. Why I shouldn't try that first?"

"Because we don't know who we're dealing with and experience taught me to err on the side of caution in that regard," he muttered.

"I'd rather face magic inside than deal with Muggle police which would have been called if we loitered around the garden for too long," she pointed out with a shrug. "We're inside, nothing bad happened in so far and we have a mystery to solve," she added before she turned on her heel and intended to march away.

Had her turn been a tad less vigorous the momentum of it would have carried her through the entrance between the hall and the living room without a problem. But because it was Tonks, and grace most certainly wasn't her middle name, she nearly brained herself on the doorframe.

Remus reached out to steady her and asked, "Okay?"

She nodded, rubbed her forehead and this time without a hitch or colliding with anything went through the door.

From TV set through furniture the living-room looked curiously devoid of anything that looked remotely magical, yet warm and inviting. Plants that were spread around the room looked boringly Muggle, as did the photographs.

"Nothing outwardly incriminating or magical in here," called out Tonks from the kitchen. Some clattering followed her statement before she added, "I'm taking it back. I found a cauldron, doesn't look like it has been used in a while though."

Intent on heading up the stairs Remus turned around as his eyes slid over the framed photographs standing on the bookshelf. It was a cluster of four, but his gaze settled immediately on a particular one in front. How it found itself here, he wondered and slightly alarmed that there was something wrong with his eyes he reached for the frame for a closer inspection.

From up close it was evident that the photograph he was thinking about and the one in front of his eyes weren't the same. They appeared to be though, with the background of clear blue sky and the illusive similarity in looks between the man in the photograph and the man he hadn't seen in nearly twelve years.

The starkest difference was in the man's eyes. Rather than grey, he expected to find they were brown. The hair pulled back into a ponytail was black in colour. High-cheekbones looked nearly the same but his lips, nose and chin, like the colour of his eyes were off. A little too thin, too wide, too pointy. Still aristocratic though, even in a leather jacket with a bandana under his chin, green rather than blue like it was in the original photograph.

It was impossible. Except it was staring him right in the face. Literal dead man walking. Supposedly properly buried with all the pureblood honours one eighteen years old supposed Death Eater could have accumulated in his short life.

Regulus Arcturus Black. Significantly older than when Remus saw him last ages ago a few weeks before his supposed death.

How?!

Still holding the photograph in his hands he looked around the room, this time paying more than cursory attention to the other photographs. The room contained quite a lot of them. All were Muggle and most of them showed an elderly couple. But Regulus was in them too, sometimes accompanying one or the other or both. In some, he was alone.

The photographs were placed around the room without a clear chronological order. Their placing and occasionally size were the only signs that implied that some were more cherished than the others. Wedding photograph of the elderly couple appeared to be one of them, as was one of them with a baby and a couple that showed the growth of the baby into a strapping young man in a military uniform. They were hanging over the mantelpiece together with the ones that contained Regulus.

In the photographs, Regulus blended seamlessly with the world and people that surrounded him. In fact, if Remus didn't know his face and therefore simply knew better he would have said that the man in them was a Muggle. He also appeared to be quite fond of and affectionate with the old couple and didn't appear to mind having the same fondness and affection reflected at him.

There were two, technically three photographs that stood out to Remus. Two of them shared the same frame even. One of them showed a much younger Regulus, gaunt, pale, wide-eyed and with much shorter hair that was nothing more than a few millimetre fuzz on the top of his head. It showed him on crutches, mid-step in a narrow corridor.

The second photograph in the frame couldn't be more different from the first one. Taken outside rather than inside it showed a man that was definitely a couple of years older climbing over a stile with a big grin on his face. The crutches were gone and the fuzz on the top of his head managed to grow out into a beginning of that Mohawk haircut that Sirius briefly sported in the seventh year.

The third photograph was in a solitary frame and showed Regulus accompanied by the couple in front of some building. He was wearing black robes and a weird, flat hat and holding something in his hand. It looked much like Remus's graduation photograph from Hogwarts except it couldn't be the same for Regulus. At least not if Hogwarts was the educational institution he was graduating from because if that was true his parents would have been in the picture.

Framing the photograph on both sides were two diplomas from the University of London. One awarded a Martin Green (very creatively named) title of Bachelor of Science in Mathematics. Another awarded him qualified teacher status. From an heir of a pureblood family through a Death Eater to presumably Mathematics teacher in most probably a Muggle school. Oh, how the mighty have fallen…

"You recognise him," stated Tonks and suddenness of her statement, as well as the fact that she managed to sneak up to him without colliding with anything startled Remus slightly.

"You don't?" he asked curiously.

"Enough to recognise his face but not the name," she admitted. "My mother was cast out of the Black family so the only Black family names I grew up knowing were Sirius's and Aunt Narcissa's," she paused. "And Grandpa Arcturus but unlike the other two I don't remember ever meeting him personally and from what I heard he wasn't even Mum's grandfather…" she stopped suddenly and shook her head. "He was the head of the Black family and I heard Mum once telling Dad that he was the man with the power to undo their marriage."

"Did he?" hummed Remus.

"Not to my knowledge," she shrugged. "It's weird," she observed. "Her decision to marry Dad was universally hated enough for her to get cast out of the family but not enough for him to dissolve their marriage."

"Maybe he subscribed to the philosophy of sleeping in the bed one made for themselves," he supplied.

"Maybe," Tonks agreed. "Doesn't exactly help me with him though," she grimaced. "I caught some names over the years but aside of who am I to the worst Headmaster Hogwarts ever had I was never particularly interested in learning them," she grimaced and sighed. "It isn't Sirius, that much I can see but I'm not sure how many more cousins and how far removed Mum had. At times being related to Sirius Black and Bellatrix Lestrange used to be enough."

"That's Regulus Black," he said grimly. "Sirius's younger brother. A supposed Death Eater and a man nearly fourteen years dead."

"He looks quite zippy for a dead man," she replied. "Right at home too," she added and hummed. "What you remember about him?" she asked pensively.

"Not a lot," he shrugged. "He was Sirius's younger brother and was at Hogwarts with us. A year below though. Slytherin, academically one of the best students in his year, at the very least good enough to get and keep both Perfect's badge and Quidditch Captain's badge. Could have been good enough to make Head Prefect in the seventh year but I'm not sure. Determined player and at a certain point the only saving grace of Slytherin Quidditch team had."

"And as a brother?" she asked.

He closed his eyes and tried to summon the memories of Regulus. The ones that come first were of a boy who tracked Sirius's movements and occasionally scowled at James when the latter caught him watching Sirius. In fact, a scowl was Regulus's default look when James was involved. James didn't like it and didn't like Regulus very much. The feeling appeared to be mutual. Probably the only reason why it didn't escalate into a full-on war like between James and Snape was that Sirius warned James that against Regulus he was standing on his own. Regulus most probably received a similar warning which he seemed to heed. Sure, there was a lot of name-calling with an occasional brawl but that was it. Then came the point when they had ended, giving way to an occasional look of superiority and smirks. But that was Regulus with James.

Regulus with Sirius though… That question didn't have one definite answer. On one hand, there were periods when they appeared to hate each other guts and on the other…

La famille vient en premier. Family comes first.

A statement that Sirius ridiculed at nearly every opportunity available but the same Sirius kept vigil through the night when Regulus had been put in a magical coma due to some nasty head injury. The statement was also true for the other and when he deemed it necessary Regulus could play the brother card against Madam Pomfrey very well.

Then there was the echo of that long and terrifying night when they kept vigil not knowing if Sirius was going to make it until the morning. At the time Remus concluded that the off smell in the room was the smell of what the magic of the curse was doing to Sirius but now, after smelling Regulus scent he wasn't so sure.

In the end, it came down to what Mirzam decided and whom she deemed as important enough to notify about Sirius's upcoming demise. His friends? They all had been there. His family though… Which member of the Black family Mirzam was most likely to inform about a very real possibility of Sirius's likely demise? The law obliged her to contact someone from the family, preferably the head of the Black family or the parents but with her undesirable upbringing, the most accessible member of the Black family at the time was Regulus, who at the time was still at Hogwarts.

And Regulus knew that being seen, especially by James would lead to a confrontation and he decided to avoid it. The Blacks were wealthy enough to afford an invisibility cloak or several of them. If not, young Regulus was powerful and skilled enough wizard for a very strong disillusionment charm that lasted for hours. Then there was Mirzam who could have simply let Regulus borrow her Auror cloak if he decided that avoiding being kicked out of St Mungo's altogether (by arguing with James over who had more right to be by Sirius's bedside) was worth swallowing his pride and accepting help from a Muggleborn.

"Lupin?" Tonks prompted him.

"Sorry," he sighed. "I'm thinking about the answer to your question and…" he hesitated. "I have no definite answer. On one hand, they were estranged…"

But on the other?

The news of Regulus's demise didn't reach them until the evening during a not really surprising surprise birthday party Lily and James planned for Sirius's twentieth birthday. They weren't even delivered by the man himself, rather than Mirzam. She was extremely reluctant to share any details with the rest of them, supposedly to not interfere with the ongoing investigation (neither she nor Sirius was leading). At the time the rest of them assumed that the reason why she wasn't sharing anything with them was that she didn't know a lot. Regulus was a Black and the Black family had enough clout to police who had access to what kind of information. Granted some rumours found their way out of the investigation but other than that the only thing which the general public knew for certain was that Regulus Black was dead and that was that.

Sirius's behaviour in the days that followed was erratic. Ranging from avoiding any contact with anyone to hardly letting his friends leave his sight when he finally made contact. Then there was this atypical emotional containment interrupted occasionally by very brief outbursts of invectives under Regulus's address.

Sirius's dominating stoicism in the face of his brother's death was found unnerving by some of his friends and colleagues. Peter didn't have an opinion on the matter, claiming that he was an only child and that he didn't exactly pay Sirius's and Regulus's relationship too much attention. James fully expected Sirius to be angry and livid all the time. Lily, knowing Sirius's exuberance, also expected more emotional response. Remus himself at the time wasn't sure what to expect out of Sirius. Like Peter, he too was an only child and while he did pay more attention to Sirius's and Regulus's relationship than Peter did he wasn't sure. On one hand, like James and Lily, he expected some sort of emotional response but on the other, he bought Frank's suggestion about pureblood upbringing. It helped that Alice, and also Mirzam, agreed with Frank and therefore Regulus and his death as a subject of conversation were left sorely up to Sirius to pick it if he wished to. Which he hadn't. Not even once.

Now Remus thought he knew why. It was one thing to hide one's grief from people who weren't supposed to know about it but it was another to pretend to grieve someone who wasn't dead in the first place. Sirius was a pureblood and in his own words (after a Godfather marathon) all pureblood families to a certain degree worked like a mafia. So while Sirius physically left the Black family it didn't mean that he actually left the Black family. Maybe an estranged member of a next generation in the Aurors was what the Black family had needed… Okay, that sounded like a plot straight out of a mafia movie that would have Sirius rolling his eyes at him.

It didn't change the facts. Officially Regulus Black died on 2nd or 3rd November 1979 (either of those two, hard to tell for certain without checking official reports). Then there was a funeral Remus knew nothing about aside of that Sirius was forbidden from attending it. Then there was Sirius's stoicism in the face of his brother's demise interrupted by an occasional and brief outburst of anger. Could it be real grief filtered through Sirius's upbringing or was it something else?

It all boiled down to what kind of brother Sirius was to Regulus and how the whole thing went down. Was the rest of the family in the known? Did Regulus come to Sirius on his own and the family never knew? Considering the location it probably was the latter, he had a dubious honour of briefly meeting Sirius's parents and if there was one thing he knew for certain about them it was that Mrs Black would never allow her younger son to live amongst Muggles. Or worse, with them. The idea of Regulus Black living with an old Muggle couple was as preposterous as the idea of his older brother turning against and betraying James Potter.

Yet, they both happened. But never mind how he got there. What was he doing here? On whose orders he was staying here?

The most logical assumption was that he was here on Voldemort's orders but it didn't exactly make sense for several reasons. First off, Regulus predeceased the Dark Lord by two years and – according to the grapevine that Remus learned after the war – he was executed by his fellow Death Eaters for failing to follow Voldemort's direct order. Apparently, the order itself wasn't important enough to warrant direct wrath of Voldemort or his personal involvement.

Still, the idea of Regulus being here on Voldemort's orders didn't exactly sit right. At the same time, it made sense and it hadn't. It would have been a foolproof idea, preparing for any eventuality that something might go wrong… On the other hand, it was Voldemort. Remus had a dubious honour (or an actual one because he survived it) of duelling against the man (four against one) once (and quite briefly on that) and the way he fought said a lot about the man. He was a resourceful and powerful man and a quick spellcaster. At the same time, he was overconfident in his spells and the power behind them (which was how they all ended living to tell the tale, even though they didn't tell the tale).

Finding a way to Godric's Hollow to destroy the competition? Yes.

Getting there and doing so? Definitely.

Having a backup plan in case something goes wrong? What could possibly go wrong or against him?

Therefore Regulus's presence couldn't have been Voldemort's idea. Sirius's on the other hand… Sirius was a resourceful man, to the point of holding himself back at Hogwarts and at times quite a lot. He thought that he was very good at hiding and had Remus been watching him less intently at the time maybe he would have believed it, like James had. He was pretty damn powerful too, at least against his peers. It was hard not to be, he was a Black, his parents didn't believe in the silliness of following the law that restricted underage witches and wizards from using their magic. So Sirius, and also Regulus, grew up using magic and grew confident with using magic, learning how much power exactly they needed to put behind their spells. They were both confident spellcasters if often a bit rash with their use of magic.

Supposedly they were estranged and while Remus was certain that Sirius cut ties with the rest of the family it was hard to gauge how estranged the brothers actually had been due to his estrangement with Sirius at the time. For certain, they both watched each other intently while they were at school and afterwards…

If Regulus really was a mathematics teacher and his degrees weren't something he had gotten just to kill time then he had to work. Because he was dedicated to maintaining his cover of a Muggle (at least on the surface) it couldn't have been a place located too far away from this house. No further than London or within an hour…. Little Whinging had a school too. The neighbourhood was big enough to warrant one, not a very big one but one nonetheless.

Could Regulus be Dumbledore's watcher? Close enough to intervene if necessary and loyal to him because he felt like owed Dumbledore his freedom and his life.

No, that's you, a tiny voice much like Sirius's came from the back of his mind.

What Regulus owed Dumbledore for certain aside of allowing him to complete his magical education at Hogwarts?

Nothing. He was a Black and if he found himself in a tight spot with Voldemort he wouldn't have gone to Dumbledore personally. No, he would have gone straight to Sirius. But did Sirius go to Dumbledore or did he orchestrate all of this on his own?

But if Dumbledore was involved would he allow Regulus such proximity to Harry? If it had been anyone else and Dumbledore was involved in their continued survival Remus wouldn't hesitate to agree. But Regulus wasn't any regular idiot who got himself too deep with Voldemort before he realised what it meant. He was a Black, he was Sirius's brother and Sirius was Voldemort's right hand…

He was, wasn't he?

Sirius was James's and Lily's Secret Keeper and Voldemort got to the Potters, he reminded himself. But Sirius also, most probably, placed his younger and supposedly dead brother on Lily's sister. How did he predict that this would be the place where Harry will end up?

It didn't take a genius to figure that one out.

James's and Lily's will, in the portions, that Remus knew (which was sorely that part) stated that in the event of their demise Sirius would take care of their child or children. Remus didn't know if there were any other names in that testament. Frank and Alice could have been named as guardians in case Sirius couldn't or wouldn't do it. As much as he would have wanted to Remus himself couldn't do it and Peter didn't want to for a variety of reasons. Friends aside what was left was family. In James's case extended cousins in the Black family (because any Potter relatives he might have on the other side of the Atlantic were too far removed) and in Lily's case, Petunia. It was an outcome neither favoured and they hoped that it wouldn't come down to that.

But it came down to that and there he was, in a house in which Sirius's brother lived that shared a garden wall with the house in which Lily's sister lived.

Why? Whose agenda did he serve?

He admitted the conundrum of Regulus's motivation to Tonks.

"You're forgetting one thing," she replied thoughtfully. "The idea that Regulus, rather than someone else's, serves his own agenda."

"And what would it be?" he asked sceptically.

"We won't know until we will thoroughly search the place," she shrugged.

Secrets & Keepers – Collision Course

They found Regulus's bedroom in the last room upstairs they inspected. Two rooms that faced the street turned out to be an empty guest room and an office. The other was a master that connected with the bathroom. Photographs on the wall implied that the occupants of it were most likely the old Muggle couple rather than a young wizard so they didn't search it thoroughly.

Regulus's room turned out to be suspiciously small for a wizard. Yet it had the air of a wizarding space, this weird mixture of clutter and chaos that characterises wizarding households of modest size. At the same time, it contained a TV set, a computer and some enhanced version of wireless. Bookcases dominated it, filling in nearly all of the available spaces. The only place where they didn't occupy were the walls over the desk and the bed.

Instead of bookcases, these empty spaces were filled with photographs. Some bigger, some smaller. Majority of them were group photographs of Regulus with his students and faster than he expected it Remus found in several of them (differing only by the changing years) James's familiar face with Lily's bright eyes. In the photographs Harry never strayed too far from Regulus, sometimes he appeared standing next to Regulus, sometimes standing before him and sometimes standing behind the back of seated Regulus but never further than at arm's reach. Which was weird. There were also more photographs of Regulus with the old couple and Regulus alone.

On the wall over the left side bed were hanging four mountain landscapes. There wasn't anything particular about them. If he had seen them in the house of any other person he would have thought nothing of it. But it was Regulus Black, Sirius's younger brother living in Muggle suburbia, as a Muggle and that room was his domain. Therefore he lied down on the bed, wanting to see the room through Regulus's eyes. If his estimations were correct Regulus was about thirty-two, still young but old enough to be set in his ways and with his routines.

With the way, they were placed the landscapes would have been one of the first and the last things Regulus would see upon waking up or falling asleep. The fact that rather than hanging in a straight line they were hanging in a circle also meant something. Wizards were always finicky about their circles after all and as Muggle as Regulus pretended to be he was still a wizard.

But it wasn't until he finally picked one of them and examined its frame when he realised what he was dealing with. It was subtle and simple, yet complex in its simplicity like all illusion spells were. Yet, unlike most illusion spells it lacked the usual company of a Muggle repellent or a Confundus. The illusion was the only thing that was on the frame (well illusion and a little bit of dust). It wasn't very elaborate but thorough and undoing it carefully (to put it back in place if necessary) took him a few minutes.

From the corner of his eye, he could see Tonks fiddling with one of the other photographs.

He didn't feel particularly surprised when he saw Sirius's face in the photograph he was holding. What did surprise him was what kind of a photograph it was. It wasn't an old family photograph from Sirius's childhood rather than a copy of a photograph from the official photoshoot each Auror got upon graduating from theoretical training. Sirius upon receiving his copies muttered something about Ministry wanting to have something to present the public with during his eventual funeral. It was a portrait shot of Sirius dressed in a utilitarian black leather version of the robes, with the red cape thrown off his shoulders. His expression was sombre and dignified and yet with his arms crossed over his chest, he looked like an epitome of defiance. Even the ribbon attached to his uniform, earned for graduating with honours, screamed defiance.

Not defiance, pride, he corrected himself. Or maybe a mixture of both. For most of the time defiance was Sirius's default mode and unless one had a very good argument to convince him (if he was in the mood to listen that's it). When he wanted to he worked hard and like everybody else he basked in the appreciation when it was showed.

Look at me, as motionless as he was Sirius in the photograph seemed to say. I earned it, Moony; no one bought this for me. I worked my arse to get into the training and through it so I could show it off.

"Do you recognise her?" Tonks's voice tore him from his thoughts as she turned to him the photograph she was holding.

The landscape in the photograph was replaced by another portrait photograph, this time of someone whose photograph he didn't expect to find in Regulus's house. Yet there she was, as dignified as Sirius in his photograph with bright eyes and a soft smile. Mirzam Verascez in all of her glory of a freshly graduated Auror trainee, a mass of dark curls in red robes.

Rather than answering Tonks's question Remus put Sirius's photograph down on the bed and found himself reaching for the topmost of the landscapes. Now that he knew what he was working with he managed to disable the illusion in seconds.

He fully expected a mix of the other two now that he had seen both but while it was a photograph of Sirius and Mirzam together it wasn't the one he expected. It had to be taken at some point of Sirius's stay at St Mungo's for the man in the photograph looked like death warmed up, pale and gaunt, leaning into Mirzam's embrace with his eyes closed. Mirzam meanwhile was doing her best impression of a freshly woken up nundu. Who took this photo he had no idea.

While he was inspecting that photograph Tonks placed the photograph of Mirzam she was holding on the bed and disabled the illusion on the one at the bottom of the circle and placed it on the bed with the others.

It was a photograph of Harry. Not a recent one too. He looked maybe a year or two older than when Remus saw him last. He was tiny and scrawny; the clothes he was wearing were so big that he was practically swimming in them. His face was scrunched in that endearingly familiar myopic look as he was watching something that happened out of the frame.

He looked at the whole circle of photographs on the bed. These were Regulus's most guarded photographs, one that were hidden from curious eyes by magic.

"I don't remember her," Tonks mussed.

"You might not," he admitted. "Their relationship…" he paused. "They just gotten engaged the day she died," he sighed. "On Harry's birthday of all days in the year," he sighed heavily. "No, it was the day before it," he corrected himself. "Sirius was distraught, tried his best to hide it but…" he frowned.

"She was Sirius's fiancée?" Tonks frowned. "What family she was from?"

"Her name was Mirzam Verascez and officially she was a Muggleborn," he explained.

"It's a weird name for a Muggleborn," said Tonks and she grimaced. "Not that I'm throwing stones."

"You wouldn't dare to do so, Nymphadora" he agreed.

"Fuck you, Remus," she deadpanned. "What I mean to say is that, as far as I know, astronomical names in wizarding culture, the name Mirzam or Murzim were traditionally given to boys."

"And mostly to stillbirths from what I remember," added Remus and hummed softly.

"How did she die?" Tonks asked quietly.

"Bellatrix Lestrange," muttered Remus. "Some sort of experimental spell."

Tonks grimaced.

"This," he pointed at a solitary photograph of Mirzam, "surprises me. She wasn't this kind of person that gave a fuck about blood status. Her standard reply to Mudblood was 'and a good morning to you too' or if it was one of the girls 'yes, that makes you look fat'. Not that the ones from our year had done so more than a couple of times. Persephone Greengrass was corralling them and the girls, unlike the boys, maintained some sort of a standard."

"Could Regulus have a thing for her?" Tonks asked pensively.

"If he had a thing for her he was hiding it very well," he said and grimaced. "Better than his interest in what his male classmates had under their robes," he shrugged. "Although he could go both ways."

"Did he?" she hummed.

"I didn't exactly pay him that much of attention," he replied defensively.

"No, he was the wrong one, wasn't he?" she chirped.

"What?!" he spluttered, nearly choking himself on his saliva.

"I left Hogwarts not that long ago and I do remember usual teenage dramas," she shrugged. "I have issues with spatial coordination of my own body but other than that my brain is working quite well," she admitted with a small smile. "I'm not stupid and you aren't doing a very good job of hiding it."

Remus grimaced as he almost flopped into the chair by the desk.

"It's complicated," he sighed. "Always had been. Especially back then. Hormones," he shrugged and grimaced again. "I don't remember when James first started pinning after Lily but I do remember that for a very long time she wanted nothing do with him. So he vented, sometimes to me or to Peter but more often than not to Sirius. Sirius, in turn, kept coming and venting to me that James kept coming and venting to him with his pinning."

"Oh," she gasped softly.

"Yeah," he nodded and grimaced. "It was a rough couple of months. Then came a few other rough couple of months and by the time the dust had settled I knew what could last. James continued to pine after Lily while Sirius stopped pinning after James. I'm not sure if at that point he was interested in anyone in particular…."

"And you?" she asked pensively. "He's my bloody cousin but even I can tell that he fits a certain type of attractiveness."

"I heard that there are people who are attracted to inferis," he said sourly. "Just because you find someone or something attractive it doesn't mean that you should hit that," he snorted. "With Sirius…" he paused. "For a long while, I thought that James was it for him and that was something I would have never gotten between. Then…" he grimaced and rubbed his mouth. "Idols fall," he muttered finally.

"And Sirius had fallen too," she offered.

"Hard," he admitted grimly. "We weren't on speaking terms for months and by the time we were…" he shrugged. "It was complicated," he shrugged again. "It took us a while to learn how to trust each other again and by the time we had Sirius wasn't showing interest in anyone aside of Mirzam. I knew very little of it when it was happening," he sighed. "I learned more after she died," he paused and shook his head. "I could have him back then, you know," he said grimly. "But it would have been for all the wrong reasons and I didn't want that. I wouldn't destroy our friendship for a singular tumble between sheets with a grieving man. Instead…"

"I'm sorry," Tonks said softly.

"It's the wolf," he said quietly, sounding mournful even to his own ears. "To Moony Padfoot still remains all that's left from the pack. He's a traitor, a mass murderer and all-around bastard but he's still pack. I tried to stay away from the proximity of Azkaban but…" he stopped, knowing that if he continued he would either burst in tears or would start howling.

"It's not the walls that make the prison," Tonks offered. "What do you feel guilty for?" she asked.

He remained quiet for a couple of minutes to organise his thoughts and control his breathing.

"Not seeing it," he whispered finally. "Not acting. Allowing myself to drift away, to be pushed away from my friends. Believing that I was the one that knew Sirius best but it turned out that I didn't know him at all," he grumbled. "Even now…" he started and immediately fell silent.

Say it.

I can't.

Say it.

I can't.

Say it.

"I can't," he spat at loud.

Rather than flinching and inching away Tonks approached him and placed her hand on his shoulder before she said, "You know how he got out."

"I think I do," he finally admitted with a great effort

"But you can't bring yourself to say it, can you?" she asked pensively.

It couldn't have been this simple, could it be? He knew, but he couldn't say it. To Dumbledore, to Moody, even to Tonks. He could think of those words but he couldn't say them because they weren't his to share them.

Was it a simple test of the limits of the Fidelius Charm before it was used on James and Lily? Lily would have insisted on a test in a controlled environment. Or maybe it was Sirius's security measure right from the beginning. After all, he was the only one of them that used his abilities regularly. After they left Hogwarts James and Peter hardly used their forms. With time James learned to love his but he recognised that outside of corralling a werewolf on a full moon and tracking someone through the woods it wasn't a very practical form. Peter was never a big fan of his form. At one point, after he became an Animagus, he even admitted to Remus that when he learned about his form he was so disappointed with it that if it wasn't for James and Sirius he would have never followed through with it. But being a rat Animagus was better than not being one at all. Not that Peter grew very fond of it. Very quickly it became apparent to other Marauders that Peter's form was very useful for stuff that required a lot of stealth (but not much finesse as Sirius once claimed). Sirius, on the other hand, was so in tune with Padfoot that he achieved and continued to maintain clothed transformation which for the other two was hit or miss (and for quite a significant portion of time at school it was more often miss rather than hit). To Sirius, Padfoot wasn't just something he could do (like Animagi transformation was to James and Peter) but an integral part of him.

Which one of them was it, Lily or Sirius? Did it matter in the long run? The idea to test the limits of Fidelius could have been Lily's but on the other hand, Sirius was a smooth talker. He could have encouraged Lily to test the limits of the charm, volunteering the knowledge about his ability as a test. If Peter hadn't gotten into his way it would have been it. Job done and with Fidelius in place, no one would have been wiser. Aside from Remus.

"Bastard," he growled, more to himself than to Tonks.

But what about Regulus? How he fit into Sirius's plans? How did Harry? What they needed him for? Regulus was enough of an idiot to join Death Easter but not enough to stay one. He was smart enough to figure out that Voldemort wasn't a forgiving master. His defection cost him his life (the one he knew and in the eyes of the wizarding world it cost him his life). Would he risk revival of the Dark Lord just to please Sirius? Would Sirius risk Regulus for Voldemort after, most probably, ensuring his continued survival? And what about Harry?

"La famille vient en premier," he murmured.

"What did you say?" Tonks asked curiously.

"La famille vient en premier," he repeated, a little louder.

Tonks hummed and after a moment asked pensively, "Is Harry by any chance related to them?"

"They're second cousins," answered Remus. "James's mother, Dorea Black was one of Sirius's maternal grandaunts. She wasn't a particularly good mother and other than giving birth to him she hadn't done anything for him. I'm not even sure if she bothered to see him at least once after she gave birth to him but that doesn't change the fact that she was his mother."

Tonks sat down on the bed, narrowly missing sitting down on the photographs. Then she twined her fingers together and brought her joined hands to her chin. For several minutes she was quiet and very, very still before she finally shrugged.

"You know that my mother was a Black?" she asked.

Remus nodded quickly.

"Even though I'm a half-blood and by pureblood standards from not a very favourable combination I received what my mother considers a proper Black upbringing, in certain areas," she said grimly. "Seemed like a waste of time to me but you know," she shrugged, "I think that she still had hoped at the time for something more than an occasional postcard from Aunt Cissy," she shrugged again before she shook her head. "One of the things she drilled into my head was how important part in the family history played primacy. She even made me promise that if I ever accepted a marriage proposal from a pureblood or what purebloods recognise as a favourable half-blood then, as a sign of goodwill and depending on who will be the head of the family at the time, I should consider petitioning them for preparation of the marriage contract," she said with a heavy sigh. "I never planned to do it. My mother eloped and I never planned to bother with inviting into making decisions for me people who never bothered to send as much as a Christmas postcard," she added with a snort. "But that doesn't change the facts. Primacy is what elevated the Blacks into the sacred twenty-eight. It built the family fortune and alliances. It also narrowed the list of potential spouses but…" she shrugged. "It gave the Blacks power over non-Black spouses and gave them right to their children and sometimes grandchildren…"

James doesn't know a shit, he could almost hear Sirius's more than a decade old snarl.

Of course, he didn't. How could he? Even though his mother was a Black James wasn't aware that he was one of Sirius's distant cousins until Fleamont and Euphemia passed away. Was Dorea a persona non grata or did the Blacks…? They already have two potential male heirs and didn't need one from the Potters…

Or did they?

After he ran away Sirius hardly talked about the Black family. He revealed that his uncle had passed away and left him some money. He mentioned Andromeda and Nymphadora by name and on an odd occasion made comments about the company that Regulus kept but that was it. When, before his escape, he spoke of grandparents he always used plural form and never their names. The only difference was the tone he used while talking about them. Sometimes it was filled with some form of fondness and sometimes it dripped with disdain.

"You don't happen to know if Arcturus is still alive, do you?" he asked her. "And if not then who took the position from him."

"He's dead," she answered swiftly. "That much I know. After he died grandpa Cygnus's wrote Mum a very warm and compassionate," she put a heavy accent on both words, "letter on how she should start saying her goodbyes to dad because as soon as he would become the head of the family he would dissolve my parents' marriage."

"But it never happened," asked Remus.

"Nope," confirmed Tonks. "Mum was really worried for a couple of weeks after she received the letter but the more time passed between Arcturus's death and the elevation of the status grandpa Cygnus was waiting for…" she shrugged. "Arcturus died either at the end of October or beginning of November. Grandpa Cygnus died about two months later, on mum's birthday actually, bloody bastard and by then he still wasn't appointed as the head of the family."

"Other living relatives?" asked Remus.

Tonks frowned and scratched the back of her neck before she answered, "There's a Longbottom cousin still alive but she never had been very mobile. At least she kept sending postcards and occasional gifts. Aunt Cassiopeia followed him a couple of months later with better timing and I remember her because she left in her last will a bequest to Mum. Mum was more shocked about that fact than she was about the bequest in question, which was Aunt's Italian brothel. Then there's a decent crop of some distant cousins. The Burkes and the Weasleys. Charlus Weasley was in my year, I dated him once, for an entire Hogsmeade weekend in the third year. I even turned him gay by the end of it."

"Seriously?" just flew out of Remus's mouth before he could stop himself.

"I told you that I wasn't that far removed from teenage drama," she shrugged. "It was a bit traumatic experience when it was happening though," she paused for a moment. "After grandpa Cygnus died Mum tried to narrow the list of likely candidates for the title but…" she grimaced. "Phineas and Marius both had children and sons as far as I could remember, at least one but I'm not sure if they would qualify since both were squibs. They had children too but I can't give you either their sex or number because as far as Mum managed to ascertain the position of the head of the house didn't fall on one of them."

Remus frowned. The Blacks didn't sound like some of the laxer families where the title of the head could have been awarded to anyone, even a spouse of the head of the family after their death. If they valued primacy so much then they had to be more paranoid about the position of the most powerful member of the family. The patriarchal system then.

"Who Arcturus was to Sirius and Regulus?" he asked pensively.

"Their…" she started and suddenly closed her mouth. "Oh, bugger," she groaned and took a deep breath before she added. "Arcturus was their grandfather, a biological one and paternal on that…" she shook her head. "I'm not sure that they deliver letters to high-security prisoners," she snorted.

"Their father is dead, that much I'm certain off," sighed Remus knowing exactly where it was leading them.

Of course, the Blacks would be one of those families where being a convicted criminal meant nothing as far as certain inheritances went. Especially not ones of this kind of importance. But how Harry fit into all of this? Yes, he was a Black family relative through James but mending fences with the Blacks, aside of Sirius (and after some time had passed) wasn't something James was interested in. Neither after Fleamont and Euphemia's death nor later.

What importance Harry as a Black family descendant held to Sirius and Regulus?

"He's the Boy Who Lived," said Tonks and only then Remus realised that he said it at loud. "The Boy Saviour, the One That Vanquished, isn't he?" she asked. "Nobody knows how but everybody knows that he did. That counts for something, with some families."

"He's also the last Potter," murmured Remus. "Well, one of the last ones."

"How can he be one of the last ones if his father predeceased him, had no other male heirs and no brothers?" asked Tonks.

"The Grand Divide," grimaced Remus. "Not even James knew what it was about except that it happened and how he was supposed to handle the estate after his parents had died. The only thing James knew about it was that his great-grand-something and who knows how many times removed uncle at some point had done something that resulted in having the entire Potter family turned against him. All that James knew for certain was that he and his heirs eventually wound up in the United States where they had remained. According to Sirius however…"

"Who was not a Potter," Tonks pointed out.

"But at the time he was an unlimited source of scandalous gossip from the ancient times," explained Remus. "Bear in mind that it was our, I think, third year or end of the second one. Never mind, we were a bunch of little shits that kept telling each other scary stories and Sirius could always talk his way out of nearly any tight spot."

"He could have been lying," Tonks suggested.

"He could," agreed Remus. "But James either remained suspiciously tight-lipped about it if he found it to be true or…" he shrugged. "According to Sirius, he-whose-name-had-been-forgotten seduced and knocked up his own baby sister. That alone to the Potters, who had rather radical views about maintaining purity of the bloodline by not contaminating it with incestuous relations was unforgivable. That he had enough of sway over her to convince her to run away after him to America even more so. But apparently, the cherry on the top of that bloody sundae was that together they raised between twelve to fifteen children."

"That's just sick," Tonks grimaced.

"And according to the teller of tales that wasn't the end of it," snorted Remus. "What they had done was enough for the Potter family to cast them out together with their heirs and putting in place inheritance laws that would see their branch taking over the family estates only in the direst circumstances."

"Such us?" she asked.

"Complete extinction of the main and minor lines both in male and female lines leading up to the two of them…"

"Which is nothing short of impossible," Tonks nodded.

"Which is why, according to Sirius, the feisty sister cursed the entire main line with something that diminished quite big and sprawled out family into…" he grimaced. "Well, James was an only child, so was his father and his grandfather. His great-grandfather had siblings a brother and a sister but he died in infancy and she in childbirth together with her child, quite early on too. I'm not saying that this story is true, considering the source," he shrugged. "But there had to be some seed of truth in it. The Potters were very radical about maintaining purity of their bloodline from incestuous relations," he grimaced. "Except it doesn't exactly make much sense…"

"With Sirius and Regulus going after Harry in order to get to the Potter estates?" asked Tonks. "I agree. I don't know how rich the Potters were or are but the Black family fortune is the Black family fortune. We're talking about truly ridiculous sums that belong to one man at the helm of the Black family and his whims."

"What if it isn't the Potter family fortune that's at stake?" hummed Remus.

"If Harry's grandmother was Dorea Black…" muttered Tonks. "But that doesn't make any sense," she paused. "In what bloody order…" she closed her eyes and continued to mutter. "Sirius," she paused. "Phineas or Arcturus? Whichever came first Belvina was next and Cygnus was the youngest of them all. Sirius's heirs come first, Arcturus's and Phineas's come second and third. Cygnus's heirs come stone dead last. Leave out squibs but that still leaves out Arcturus's heirs…" she shook her head. "It makes no sense," she repeated.

"Does it have to?" asked Remus. "For all that we know, he might want to finish what Voldemort started."

"Regulus," Tonks pointed out. "And why now?"

"Why not?" suggested Remus. "It's not as if I know how Sirius's mind works. If I had he would have been long dead by now and Harry would still have his parents."

"Maybe he still does," muttered Tonks.

"Pardon?" mumbled Remus.

"Never mind," she shrugged. "I'm just thinking too loudly and I probably lost the plot…" she shook her head. "No matter from which angle I look at Harry as the Black family descendant according to what you consider legal sources he wouldn't be the first choice for a Black family heir. There are entire families that have sounder rights to eventual title and even then they have to wait for the female line to die out," she shrugged again. "The only way for Harry to have a real significance for Sirius and Regulus as the Black family descendant if he is a direct heir of either of them."

"You mean…" Remus choked on the word, unable to speak it at loud.

"That he's the son of one of them," Tonks clarified.

"Sirius would…." Remus started to protest.

… never do that to James? He wasn't supposed to sell him to Voldemort either. Yet, that happened. But that would mean that… that… Lily… that Mirzam… that James… that Sirius.

You weren't there. You allowed yourself to be pushed away. You didn't even realise that something happened to Mirzam until after you found her obituary on the anniversary of her death. They could have slipped everything past you.

It could have been willing or unwilling. You heard the stories about the curse and you saw the evidence of something that turned a big and sprawled out family into a circle of mostly two plus one.

Except it didn't make sense. Not with Harry's age and Lily being pregnant while Mirzam was still alive. Mirzam was patient with Sirius but no woman would have agreed to such insanity, no matter how it would have been presented to her. Mirzam would have never allowed Sirius to get away with such a thing without consequences. Mirzam also died before Harry was born and if Sirius lost most of his marbles at some point it had to be back then. Could it be…

Substantiate your evidence, you moron. What you know for certain?

That Sirius was and still remains Harry's godfather. If he hadn't been a convicted criminal he would have been Harry's guardian. He escaped and the Ministry (and probably with them also Dumbledore) were quite convinced that whatever he was planning to do involved Harry. In that regard, they were right because Sirius not only managed to get to Harry but also successfully kidnapped him, with the help of his supposedly dead younger brother. And that was where the things got weirder.

Regulus was a wild card Remus didn't expect to encounter. After all, the man was dead and his altered (but not really) state of existence threw a lot of things off. With Sirius alone, one could be certain that whatever he was planning to do to Harry involved something nefarious and Voldemort but Regulus somehow managed to escape Voldemort's wrath. Having once vanished from Voldemort's radar he had no logical reason to get himself involved with him again.

And what about Sirius?

He didn't expect that thought and neither had he expected the tone of defiance in it. Did he have a reason to get himself involved with Voldemort?

It was a stupid question because Sirius did get himself involved with Voldemort. He was James's and Lily's secret keeper and Voldemort had gotten to them. If Sirius wasn't their secret keeper they would simply continue to live.

Dumbledore said that Sirius was their secret keeper. He had no reason to lie.

Did he now? So if say Mundungus Fletcher started saying to whoever would have wanted to listen to him that say Dumbledore was the next Dark Lord in hiding you would have believed him?

Not without a proof.

And yet…

"Lupin!" Tonks his and swift kick into his ankle pulled him from his thoughts.

He shook his head and found himself staring at her face which expression was hard to gauge. At some point when he lost himself into his head she managed to produce two quite thick folders and was examining contents of the one on the top.

He held out his hand but she made no move to put either in his hands so he sighed and shifted from the desk to the bed. Sitting himself down next to Tonks he looked over her arm at the first page she was still staring at.

From the top of the page it read:

Name Date of the Arrest Date of the Trial

Black, Sirius Orion 2nd November 1981 no public records of thereof

Nott, Sebastian 3rd November 1981 17th November 1981

The list went on, and on, and on, and on. But as far as it went the words on the top of it did not change.

Next: More detective work from Mr Moony and Miss Tonks.