One More Light

Disclaimer: I do not own Harry Potter or any of its characters. However, since Rowling discarded my favourite characters I picked them up and took them into my care to give them the love and attention they deserve...and occasionally give them reason to need that love and attention no matter how much they deserve it without needing a reason.

Summary: As Regulus sets out to destroy the Locket, he takes a different course of action, changing everything.

Warnings: Strong bromance between James and Sirius, can't stomach boys being extremely close without it being sexual, then none of my stories are for you and you should hit the return button to find other stories to read.

Character deaths; though none of our boys.

A/N:

I wrote a specific scene of this story while listening to the song 'One More Light' by Linkin Park on repeat shortly after lead singer Chester committed suicide. If you don't know it, then I would recommend it to you as it is a beautiful song and the title for this story was inspired by it.

Special thanks to Kitty for everything. You are always teaching me new things and are a merlin send when it comes to grammar (and pretty much everything else) You're the best!

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"To the Dark Lord. I know I will be dead long before you read this, but I want you to know it was I who discovered your secret. I have stolen the real Horcrux and intend to destroy it as soon as I can. I face death in the hope that when you meet your match, you will be mortal once more. R.A.B."

Staring down at the piece of paper he determined it was to his satisfaction and folded it so that it would fit into the small space inside the locket before closing it.

Brushing his thumb over the embodied letter, he made sure it was closed properly before putting it into his pocket and rising to his feet.

If he was going to do this, now was as good of a time as any and he could only hope Kreacher would find a way to destroy the real one.

He spared one last glance around his bedroom before he closed the door and turned around; eyes falling on the door across of his own.

He wasn't sure what made him cross the hallway to his brother's old room, but carefully opened the door and made his way inside for the first time in years.

The banners of Gryffindor house leaped out to him despite the layers of dust and he had to swallow back a faint smile at the daring posters of bikini-clad Muggle girls and a Muggle vehicle attached to the wall as he remembered very well how livid their parents had been upon discovering them.

Letting his eyes sweep over his brother's room, it occurred to him that Sirius had been right after all and he was saddened to know his brother would never know he had realised that.

His eyes caught on the photo hanging just above the night-stand beside the bed and he made his way over to have a closer look at the four boys displayed on it.

All four were laughing and it stung him to know one of them was a traitor to his brother's trust; something his brother would never see coming from someone he trusted.

Letting his eyes linger on his brother's teenage image, he realised that if he was going to do this, it might be wise to alert someone of what he had discovered so that in case he failed, there would be someone to take over what he had set out to do.

And who better than his own brother; the one person he knew with absolute certainty would not be on the Dark Lord's side.

If anyone could be trusted with this information, it would be Sirius, and Regulus immediately decided he would stop by his brother's house before setting out to exchange the lockets and hopefully set the path to destroy the Dark Lord.

He wasn't sure how he was going to convince his brother to listen to him, but that was something he could think of when he was there.

Leaving the bedroom; he lingered a brief moment longer to have a good look around his childhood house, willing himself to commit it to memory one last time before he left.

It wasn't difficult to find his brother's whereabouts after using a few locator spells and he Apparated to the familiar magical signature; only to be tossed back upon arrival.

Landing in a painful heap in the grass was a huge blow to his dignity as he really should have expected his brother to have wards in place to repel unwanted visitors.

Biting back a curse, he rolled over with a groan; simply kneeling in the unkempt grass for a moment to clear the ringing in his ears.

"Why are you here," despite the time that had passed, the voice was still familiar in its sharpness and he raised his hands to show his brother he was unarmed.

"I need to talk to you."

"What could you possibly have to say that I would want to hear?"

"The Dark Lord...he needs to be stopped and I have information that might make that possible." Regulus swallowed as he slowly rose to his feet a little unbalanced as he didn't dare to lower his hands when there was a wand firmly trained on him. Turning fully he laid eyes on his brother for the first time in over two years.

Sirius looked healthier than he ever had in the time they had lived together; a slight tan on the exposed parts of a body that was no longer scrawny yet still slender underneath the Muggle clothes.

"Why are you coming to me with this?" Sirius asked warily, though Regulus could not really blame his apprehension as his brother remained safely inside his wards; not after all that had happened between them and he truthfully would have been worried about the man's sanity if he hadn't been.

"Because you are the only person in the world who I know I can trust to not defer to either him or Dumbledore. Who will do the right thing to stop this war," he admitted. "I know we have never seen eye to eye, but you were right about him. I just didn't see it before now."

"Why did you change your mind now? Why after all this time?"

"I have been having my doubts for a while now," sighing, Regulus knew he would have to be honest and more specific if he were to even remotely gain Sirius' trust. "I have always believed that we are better than Half-Bloods and Muggles, but the length the Dark Lord goes through to take them out, it is horrid and inhuman."

"You have always known he kills people," Sirius raised an eyebrow, thankfully not pointing out that he had warned Regulus of the Dark Lord's actions long before he ever joined him.

"I did, but I didn't realise what that meant, not truly," swallowing Regulus clenched his hands into fists. "He tortures people before murdering them, Sirius."

"You have never cared about that before, why now?"

"No one deserves to be tortured," he couldn't manage to look up in Sirius' eyes as his stomach clenched, staring down at the door behind his brother instead as he remembered the countless times over the years he had witnessed his parents hurting Sirius; not once having made an attempt to try and stop them from torturing his brother and had instead walked away so the screams would not distract him from whatever he had been doing at the time.

But he did not ask for forgiveness, knowing he wouldn't deserve it even if his brother would have been willing to give it. Not when he had walked away whenever the Dark Lord or Bellatrix had gotten their hands on a new victim, the resulting screams reminding him uncomfortably of his brother but not being brave enough to put a stop to it and leaving the victims to their fates.

"That still doesn't explain why you came to me," Sirius gave no indication of having heard the underlying sorrow Regulus now felt at his inactions of the past.

"He made a Horcrux," he knew his brother would know what they were and was not disappointed as Sirius took a sharp breath, though his wand did not waver from where it was still pointed at Regulus' heart.

The lingering wand would have worried Regulus if he had not known he would have been dead already if his brother had not been willing to listen.

"I know where it is and I will destroy it, but I don't want to leave without informing someone I can fully trust in case I fail."

"Why would you fail?" the lack of emotion in his brother's voice hurt Regulus more than he had thought it would.

"Because it will be dangerous to retrieve it."

"How did you find it in the first place?"

"The Dark Lord made Bella, Lucius and me stay behind after a meeting some weeks ago. He requested a House-elf from me and I loaned him Kreacher. He used him to activate the protections placed upon the Horcrux before he left him for dead and Kreacher just barely managed to escape alive and return to me."

"What kind of protections? And how do you plan to get past them?"

As he told him the whole story, Regulus found himself wondering if his brother would care once he was gone. If he would try to avenge his death like he would one of his friends, or if he had truly lost all compassion the other could have ever held for him years ago already.

"I plan to drink the poison in the basin and have Kreacher destroy the Horcrux," he finished.

"Clearly this metanoia of yours has not given you any more brain capacity than what little you originally possessed," Sirius scoffed and finally his wand lowered as his brother seemed to determine he would not try to attack him. "A suicide mission is all you can think of?"

"There is no other way," trying to hold onto his temper at the obvious disdain in his brother's voice, he knew now was not the time to care about his own ego. Not if he wanted to get Sirius to listen to him before he set out to complete the mission he had set out for himself.

"Isn't there? I can think of at least three different ways right this instance, none of them including your death," Sirius snapped. "Wait here."

"What?" Regulus stared rather dumbfounded as Sirius quite abruptly turned around and entered his house, rummaging through the kitchen cupboards for a moment before filling a bottle of water at the faucet and grabbing something from a little side table, putting both items into a messenger bag.

"I want to know all about what he said during that meeting and after that we are going to that cave so I can show you just how much of an idiot you truly are," pulling the bag over his head so that there was no chance he'd dislodge it, Sirius' voice held enough authority to it that Regulus automatically began to speak.

"He just spoke about who were targets and how important it is to locate the Pot..."

"I don't care about the actual meeting, I want to know what he said to those of you who had to stay behind," Sirius cut him off.

Thoroughly wrong-footed now, Regulus shrugged. "I don't know, he took all of us aside separately."

"Did he request a House-elf from them? Or did he give them anything? Did you notice anything different about them when they left again?" Sirius' tone of voice was seriously enough that Regulus found himself automatically pulling the memory out of his mind, letting it swirl between them.

It was not quite as effective as using a Pensieve, but he didn't think Sirius would trust him enough to dive into a memory with him when he wouldn't even come from behind the wards of his house.

Letting events play before their eyes, he tried to see anything that stood out but couldn't detect anything as first Lucius and then Bellatrix left before he was called in.

"Both of their pockets were bulkier than they were before they entered his chamber," Sirius pointed out, using his wand to enlarge the images and freeze them. "It looks like a book, but I can't see what the item is Bellatrix is carrying beyond that it is round and quite large."

He stared at the image for a moment longer before a sweep from his wand had the memory locked into a phial and he formed a Patronus. "Want to bet that he made more than one of those things and gave them to your associates for safe-keeping?"

Ignoring the implications of that for the moment as they were too horrific to even consider, Regulus stepped forward to intercept him, wincing as the wards stopped him once more. "What are you doing?"

"Informing James of what you told me," Sirius' wand had risen slightly as he came closer, a beautiful dog Patronus hovering before him protectively. "Did you really think I would just follow you without letting him know about what was going on?"

"You can't trust Potter," the words escaped before he had thought through how they would come across to the one person who trusted Potter above anyone else and couldn't blame the sceptical gaze directed at him.

"There is no one in the universe whom I trust more."

"Your friends are not all they claim to be. I...there is a traitor among your midst."

"We are aware," Sirius readily admitted. "But James is not a traitor."

"Pettigrew is."

"What makes you think that?"

Regulus was momentarily surprised his brother was still listening when he himself was fairly sure he would have brushed him off the moment his friends were insulted like that, had their roles been reversed. But then he remembered that for all of his supposed temper, Sirius was in fact the most composed Black of them all and was always willing to listen to reason when it was presented to him plainly. It was why he had known he had to alert his brother to what he was planning to do.

"Although the others know him by another name, I know his real identity."

"And why is that when I doubt you are important enough in his inner circle to be entrusted with such information?"

Half of him wanted to curse Sirius for the insensitive comment; but the other half was aware of the truth in the words so he bit back his initial response and took a deep breath.

As much as he had never gotten along well with his brother, he hated that he would be the one to break his heart now as it was well known how much Sirius cared for his friends.

"They call him Wormtail."

A flash of sharp pain crossed Sirius' handsome features before he could close his expression off to leave blankness in place that, although utterly familiar, felt wrong to see on his brother. "And why are you so sure that is Peter?"

"Because that is what your friends and you called him, back at Hogwarts," though he was aware someone else could have taken over the nickname to spread unease among the well known and tight group.

"Show me."

Cold and intensive grey eyes met his, pushing into his mind; but he did not stop his brother and instead opened up the memories he had of the masked and robed person standing near the Dark Lord during various meetings of the past year.

Taking a sharp breath as his brother abruptly pulled back, Regulus needed a moment to force the memories back to where they belonged in his mind while Sirius pulled the sliver of memories now his own out of his temple to feed them to the Patronus before him.

Sirius did not speak as he stared down at his Patronus, his expression still unreadable and Regulus wished he knew his brother well enough to know what was happening in that usually so brilliant mind. "I will tell James to take Peter into custody."

"You still trust Potter, despite being told one of your closest friends is a traitor?" Regulus asked incredulously.

"Yes," the absolute certainty in Sirius' voice annoyed Regulus as he wondered if his brother had learned anything from this new knowledge.

"You were willing to listen to me about Pettigrew, but you refuse to doubt Potter?"

"There is no reason for doubt there."

Anger rose in Regulus at the dismissal, though if he was completely honest with himself, he would have to admit that he didn't believe Potter would ever betray Sirius in any way, even if the guy wasn't one of the most integer people he had ever seen.

Not when the guy had taken Sirius in so thoroughly after his brother had run away; had given him both the home and the family he knew his brother had never had at Grimmauld Place but had always yearned for.

If there was anyone Sirius would be able to trust, it probably would indeed be Potter.

"Are you willing to risk everything by informing him?"

Sirius sent his Patronus off before Regulus could say more and as the bright silver dog disappeared from view, the area suddenly turned a lot darker again.

"A world in which I would not be able to trust James, would not be worth living in."

Cold sweat ran down Regulus' spine at the implications behind those words and he dared not imagine what they might mean.

"What about the werewolf?"

"Don't bother telling me Remus is a traitor as well, he is not."

"Pettigrew is."

"Remus is not Peter," Sirius shook his head.

"Would you trust a Half-Breed with your life?" Regulus bit out.

"Contrary to the people the Blacks surround themselves with, I don't make it a habit to surround myself with backstabbers and traitors," Sirius shot back. "I trust Remus with James' life."

Regulus fought to reel in his automatic anger and repulsive disgust at the knowledge that his brother put that much faith into someone less than human; well aware that Potter's safety was more important to him than his own.

"He is a..."

"What he is or isn't is none of your business, call that blasted elf so we can get this over with," the clear dismissal of the subject annoyed Regulus, but he knew it was not worth starting an argument over it; especially when he knew the other would not listen to him.

"Kreacher!"

"Master Regu..." the small elf cut himself off as he noticed Sirius beside him, though it did not escape Regulus' notice the elf had been pushed back from the wards as well. "What is..."

"Do keep your mouth shut when your opinion is not asked," Sirius snapped. "As much as it pains me to having to admit it, I am still legally a son of the House of Black and therefore you will have to obey any order I give you without fail. If I had any other choice, I would not use you, but unfortunately you are the only one who knows the exact location of where we are going."

"And you will not speak to anyone about today's events or even having seen Sirius," Regulus didn't like how his brother spoke to his trusted servant, but couldn't fault him as he knew he had every reason to hate the elf as much as he did. "Bring us to the cave the Dark Lord took you to."

"But Apparate us safely onto the inner island instead of outside the cave," Sirius' words startled Regulus, not having thought of that possibility. And it was possible or Kreacher wouldn't have been able to Disapparate from the small island either.

Kreacher's gaze was full of hatred and disgust, but he obeyed without a comment as he placed his hand on Regulus' knee.

Reaching out to place a hand on Sirius' arm, Regulus silently cursed his own thoughtlessness as his brother immediately tensed back regardless of the wards still being between them to protect him.

He of all people should have known Sirius would not respond kindly to unfamiliar touch, at least not by a Black.

But he did not bother with an apology he knew his brother would not care for and offered his arm instead, waiting with bated breath as Sirius hesitated before stepping out of the protection of the wards to place a hand on his biceps; loose enough that he could immediately pull back should it be needed.

The distrust was painful, but Regulus didn't comment on it and at his order Kreacher side-Apparated them directly onto the island he had described to Regulus only weeks before.

The sight before his eyes was rather eerie, the small island seemed to glow with a misty greenish light and the hairs on Regulus' arms rose at the feel of dark magic all around them.

"Lumos," Sirius' small conjured light did little to penetrate the velvety blanket of heavy darkness all around them, though it did provide them with a little more light beyond the greenish one coming from the basis behind them.

A second conjured light travelled over the still lake, Regulus' heart hammering in his throat as he could just make out the shapes of the Inferi floating in the water, but the light was small enough that it did not attract their attention.

He wondered if that was why Sirius hadn't made their current source of light any bigger.

"The Horcrux is on the bottom of the basin, I gathered from what the Dark Lord made Kreacher do, that we need to drink the potion to be able to take it out," Regulus informed his brother as Sirius walked up to the basin to look at the potion in it before conjuring a large cup.

He had no trouble pushing it through the potion and filled it to the brim, the potion disappearing the moment he turned the cup around; confirming Regulus' belief that it had to be drunk as the liquid refilled itself in the basin itself.

"One of us will need to drink it."

"We will see," Sirius calmly refilled the cup and held it up so he could study the potion inside. "So that is how it is."

Watching in confusion as Sirius pulled out a small statue of a bear from his bag and animated it; he only barely managed to remain quiet as his brother promptly fed the potion to the now animated statue.

Humming approvingly as the basin did not refill itself as the potion went down the stone throat, Sirius refilled the cup and repeated his action.

"How did you know that would work?" Regulus finally managed to bring out after several cups had been downed.

"Your master has the habit of underestimating people and believing himself to be the most clever of all," Sirius fed the animated bear more potion and momentarily Regulus wondered why the animal was not writhing in pain, as Kreacher had described the potion to be beyond painful, before he realised it was an animated statue and could not feel pain.

The ingeniousness of the simple act made Regulus see what his brother had meant about him being an idiot as he would have drunk the potion himself.

"But what if it had not worked? And you would have had to drink it after all?" He still couldn't help but ask, wanting to know what his brother would have had for a back-up plan.

"I could have brewed an antidote to this potion to annul the effects, tried a real animal under a numbing potion or transfiguring a snail into a human before even thinking of drinking it myself," Sirius answered. "But I recognise the Drink of Despair and knew my first option would work fine as although it must be drunk to vanish, it does not necessarily have to be a human throat it is drunken by. Kreacher is proof of that."

Sirius turned to him. "But just out of curiosity, say that you would have gone here without me and drank the potion yourself, how would you have proceeded from there?"

"I would have tried to get water from the lake as Kreacher said I cannot conjure any," Regulus admitted.

"You would have been pulled under by the Inferi long before you would have managed to recover enough to use magic."

"There is no other way, is there?" Shame washed over him as Sirius tossed the bottle of water to him, the simplicity of his solution painfully easy.

Because the Dark Lord had set it up so that no water could be conjured, but had clearly not taken into account that someone would fall back onto Muggle methods as they were far beneath the man and most wizards.

Where Regulus would have perished in his attempt to destroy the Horcrux, hoping Kreacher would be able to find a way to destroy it, Sirius calmly slipped on a glove before fishing the Locket out of the now nearly empty basin without ever having endangered either himself or anyone else.

"As I said before, you are an idiot," Sirius scoffed as he looked at the Locket closely while absently Vanishing the bear. "Now what to do about you."

"I should hope we are going to destroy it," Regulus wasn't sure what his brother was thinking now, they had come there specifically to destroy that thing after all.

"Yes, but do we destroy it now while we are fairly certain there are more than one of these, or do we wait and keep it hidden until we can determine if it might be possible to destroy all the ones he might have made by using this one?"

Regulus had forgotten his brother's earlier assessment that the Dark Lord had made more than one Horcrux, but knew it would just be like the cocky immortality obsessed monster to have made more of them to ensure his survival.

Icy coldness washed over him as he realised it would all have been for nothing if he had gone ahead without seeing Sirius out, as he had first planned. No one would have known the truth and he now blessed his own indecision to stop him from making such a grave error.

"We have to keep it hidden."

"Yes," Sirius wrapped the Locket into a conjured cloth and put it into his bag and Regulus suddenly remembered the twin locket he had in his pocket; pulling it out.

"Put this in the basin so he won't know it's missing should he decide to check on it," handing it over, he watched as Sirius raised an eyebrow before placing the locket into the basin which was slowly refilling with potion.

"Smart move," he acknowledged before turning to the lake. "Have him ready to Apparate us out again."

"What are you going to do?" Regulus asked as Sirius looked out over the Inferi filled lake.

"Undoing the terror done to them."

"Why, it are just Inferi," Regulus stayed well away from the lake as Sirius knelt down before it and studied the faces closest to him, not having any desire to suddenly be pulled down.

"Does that mean they should just be left in a cursed existence? Would you want your body to be cursed for all of eternity, being used to do someone else's bidding?"

The mere thought freaked Regulus out, but he didn't want to admit that to his brother. "It wouldn't be me any more. They are just puppets; dead bodies reanimated by dark magic."

"That's not entirely true, they are in pain."

"They...it are corpses, they can't feel pain," he wished his brother wouldn't stare at them so intently as they had no idea if they could sense living beings or not.

"The souls of these creatures are still trapped in their bodies, suffering as their bodies are cruelly denied the rest they deserve."

"What are you talking about?" dread filled him as Sirius rose to his feet again, his grey eyes glowing in the green misty light as he looked up to him.

"Can you not hear them?"

Turning to the lake, he stared out into the eerie darkness for a long moment, trying to hear what his brother was claiming to hear, but there was nothing beyond Kreacher's heavy breathing beside him.

"They are screaming," Sirius' whisper made him frown and he automatically stepped forward to get closer to his brother, the feeling of dread suddenly increasing as he caught a faint and low hum.

Cold sweat ran down his spine as the muted hum became recognisable as low wailing once he focused on it, coming from below the water.

"H-how..." he faintly wondered how his brother had managed to pick up on it so easily and watched horrified as Sirius stepped up right to the edge of the water.

He wanted to drag his brother away from the water where those things were, but found himself frozen in fear as Sirius raised his wand. "May you finally find your rest."

It took Regulus a moment to identify the bright light spreading through the cave as Fiendfyre; forming a wall of fire all around them but yet never breaking the surface as it vaporized the dormant Inferi.

He himself would have had no qualms about leaving the Inferi where they were, even knowing what he did now and he realised that was one of the greatest differences between them.

His brother had always been full of compassion for others; speaking up for those deemed less worthy while Regulus had never bothered to give any of them more than a disdained thought.

Even now, disgusted as he was with what the Dark Lord had done to Kreacher and was still doing to all those people, he would not have given those trapped souls more than a fleeting thought of disgust as they weren't important to him.

But his brother cared despite it being unlikely he had known a single one of these Inferi, he cared just because he felt they deserved being cared for.

An almost blinding light brought his attention back to where his brother was standing; the fire having died out, but the cave was now lightened up by bright white lights rising up all around Sirius, floating up from the now silent lake.

A warm feeling brushing against his awareness made his breathing stock, realising it were the trapped souls he was feeling and tears rose in his eyes.

Their overwhelming relief and gratitude towards his brother washed over him as Sirius reached out to cradle some of the smaller and brighter lights in silent comfort before magically lifting them up higher; finally allowing him to see the truth.

There was no difference between the souls of magical people and Muggles; how could there be when they all shone just as brightly as they surrounded his brother, the sight surreal yet beautiful.

He did not try to stop the tears from falling, the lights brightening as they caressed Sirius before slowly disappearing from sight, but the resulting near darkness no longer bothered him as he had finally opened his eyes.

"I'm sorry," he couldn't bring himself to regret whispering it out loud, not when it was so obvious now that his brother had always been right whereas Regulus had just been too enamoured with their parents' teachings to see the truth.

"About?" It felt wrong to see his brother in the eerie green light left from the basin after having seen him surrounded by so much pure light and Regulus wanted nothing more than to get him out of the darkness.

"Everything," he couldn't put into words just how much he regretted everything he had ever believed in; had ever done. "We have to stop him, stop all of them."

He knew how silly he sounded; especially considering that his brother had already been fighting against the Dark Lord and his Death Eaters for years, but Sirius didn't use it against him.

"I intend to do so," he looked down to his pocket and rested a hand on it, tapping it twice before turning to him. "We are done here."

"Are they truly gone?" Regulus glanced at the now empty lake. "Where did they go?"

"I hope they went on to find rest now that they are free."

"I...I am glad," Regulus admitted, wanted to reach out to his brother but didn't dare to do so when he knew his little enlightenment did not mean the other would suddenly forget all that had happened and would not react kindly.

So he simply held out his arm once more and a soft order later found them back where they had begun to find James Potter leaning against the wall beside the front door.

"And?" Sirius did not seem surprised to see him and willingly went with Potter as the man reached out for his hand; drawing him away from Regulus and into the safety of the wards he clearly had no trouble passing.

It stung that Potter could clearly enter the wards unchallenged, but as the man carefully checked his brother over for any sign of injury Regulus forcefully pushed away his long-time resentment of the other man.

"Peter confessed to everything. He was approached by Snape of all people and has been spying for them for a few months already," Potter sounded composed as always, though the way he held tightly onto Sirius' hand exposed just how shaken he was as the man trusted his friends as deeply as his brother did. "Why did you suddenly change sides?"

Mere hours ago, Regulus would have scoffed and sneered at the demanding tone directed at him, but now he forced his initial response back as the man deserved an answer.

Because even if Regulus resented the man, he knew Potter was by far Sirius' most important person and his brother would not take kindly to him picking a fight with him; he never had.

"The Dark Lord is wrong, Mum and Dad are wrong," he regretted directing the last part to Sirius when the other flinched at the mere mentioning of them.

"They are not his parents. They haven't deserved the right to call themselves that," Potter growled protectively; pulling Sirius against his side even as his brother reached up to rest a calming hand on Potter's biceps.

The sting was worse now as the two men across of him stood well within each other's personal space and where his brother had shied away from his touch, he did not have that problem with Potter as he leaned into his hold and although Regulus was aware that he had no right to feel jealous at their interaction, it still hurt to see Potter hold the trust he himself had never had.

"I thought Walburga and Orion could not do wrong in your eyes?"

"They always claimed that we are better than them, that we are superior," despite now knowing the truth of it all, he still found it difficult to go against everything his parents had ever taught him but managed to force himself to continue.

"They are no different from us at all. They bleed the same as we do; the same colour..." he trailed off embarrassed as Potter raised an eyebrow.

"It is not green, blue or black, no."

He wasn't quite sure why he was so surprised his brother understood when Sirius had grown up on the same stories he had.

"What?" Potter however clearly did not understand.

"It is what Walburga and Orion tried to convince us of, that Muggles and Half-Blood's blood was different from our own; tainted," Sirius softly answered. "They also said that the blood of werewolves and vampires was poisoned and green."

"It's not?" it was embarrassing to realise just how utterly naive, how stupid he had been to believe his parents' claims.

"Only goblins have a green blood, but they are some of the very few. Most creatures, magical or not, have normal red blood."

"I noticed that part," it was difficult to keep the images of broken bodies from entering his mind, but he managed. "The war, their actions...everything is so wrong. You were right and I was a fool...am a fool."

"That you are," his brother's readily agreement startled a huff of a laugh out of Regulus. "But at least you are realising that now and apparently doing something about that."

"I will do anything to put a stop to this...to him," it wasn't difficult to meet his brother's eyes this time. "Will you help me do so?"

"I thought we had already established that?" Sirius raised an eyebrow. "Perhaps you can visit Arcturus."

"Grandfather? What for?"

"To see where he stands in this war once and for all. The time has come for him to make a choice and if it is in our favour, his influence as the Head of the House of Black can stop most of the ones fighting for Riddle."

"Who is Riddle?"

"Your precious Dark Lord's real name," Potter said. "Tom Riddle."

"His birth name is Tom Gaunt," Regulus corrected. "He is the last descendant of the House of Gaunt, the oldest Pure-Blood family."

"Riddle is a Half-Blood."

"No he's not."

"The Gaunt line has been considered extinct since the early forties when the last son of the House died in Azkaban," Potter argued.

"That may be, but he descends from the daughter's line, I overheard him boasting that to Bella," he wasn't sure why he was arguing with Potter about his former master's ancestry.

"Merope Gaunt eloped with a Muggle named Riddle," Sirius cut into the argument and Regulus turned to him confused. "I thought Grandfather would have taught you all about the bloodlines?"

"Why would he do that?"

"It is your duty as the Heir to know all the so called important bloodlines as it would not do for you to not know who everyone is and accidentally speak to the wrong people."

"That didn't stop you from befriending Potter," Regulus couldn't stop himself from pointing out. "But regardless, I am not the Heir, you are."

"Orion disinherited me when I managed to get away for good."

It remained weird to hear Sirius refer to their parents by their given names, no matter how long he had done so, though Regulus had noted that their grandfather was still referred to by his relation.

But then their grandfather had not been involved in their upbringing and had actually chosen Sirius' side, confining their parents to Grimmauld Place after he discovered the way they had treated his brother; but it suddenly occurred to Regulus that Sirius might actually have no knowledge of any of that.

"Grandfather didn't disinherit you and made it quite clear that you were his heir regardless of where you were living."

"What?"

While his brother's obvious surprise was quite humoristic to see, now was not the time to play mind games. "He was enraged when he discovered what our pa- what Mother and Father had been doing to you and confined them to the family home while at the same time stripping them of their magic."

It was clear that this was all news to his brother. "It is what drove Father to an early death and Mother insane."

"Walburga has never been the slightest bit sane in the first place," Sirius snorted and as much as Regulus desired, he found he could not argue with that. "Why didn't he disinherit me?"

"I don't know, he made it quite clear to Mother and Father that you are his chosen heir and always will be. And since you are the Heir, I was never taught anything beyond the basic etiquette and rules. So I don't know why this Merope you mentioned so important."

"Merope was the last daughter of the House of Gaunt."

"Perhaps she was the aunt of the Dark Lord's mother?"

"Marvolo Gaunt only had two children; Morfin and Merope. Morfin died without children and Merope died during the birth of her first child in nineteen twenty-six."

"Then Marvolo must have had siblings that the Dark Lord descended from," Regulus' stomach plummeted when Sirius shook his head. "It can't be. Maybe he lied about what family he descended from and he is just the Pure-Blood descendant from a lesser family?"

"We researched his origins while we were trying to find a way to take him down," Potter explained. "Riddle hid his traces well, but we managed to discover that his name is actually Tom Marvolo Riddle. He is the last descendant of the House of Gaunt, yes, but not a Pure-Blood."

"I can't believe..." he wasn't entirely sure if it was worse to know the Pure-Bloods of old were bowing down to a Half-Blood or that the bastard had managed to deceive them all. He himself had allowed a Half-Blood to brand him a servant and more than ever did he want to burn the mark off his arm.

"Why haven't you ever brought that knowledge to the public?"

"Why? Those blood-thirsty maniacs wouldn't have believed us and the general public is too terrified to even call him by his chosen name," Potter scoffed hostile. "I wonder where your..."

"James, don't," Sirius' soft voice made Potter jerk sharply; hands clenching as he angrily rubbed a hand over his face, almost dislodging his glasses.

"I can't...how can I just forget how he simply stood by when those monsters...when they...I don't know how you can even look at him, let alone treat him so civilly, but I can't...I can't just happily get along with him, knowing..."

The sheer hatred and anger in his words acutely reminded Regulus that Potter had every reason to hate his guts so deeply, because as much as Potter was his brother's most important person, everyone knew the same was true in reverse no matter anyone else who came into their lives.

No matter what kind of family blood bond there was between Regulus and Sirius, it was Potter who was Sirius' true brother in every way it mattered and no matter how much Regulus might change, that was a certainty to remain.

And as he knew that there was no one in this world who loved Sirius as much as Potter did, Regulus resolved to no longer try and agonise the one person his brother had always been able to count on.

"I'm not asking you to become friends, but we are going to have to work together," Sirius reached up to brush away the tears that had appeared in Potter's eyes, unaware of Regulus' thoughts. "For the sake of the future; for your child's future, please try?"

The revelation of a child made Regulus wonder how long Potter's wife had been pregnant as he would have heard if he'd had a child, but found that it mattered not as Potter took a shuddering breath and reached up to squeeze Sirius' hand softly in agreement. "So, Arcturus. How can he stop those of his house who are fighting for Riddle?"

"He can renounce their status as members of the House of Black."

"It would mean they would not get any financial support from the House anymore, right?" Regulus tried to clarify, making Potter whistle.

"That would put a serious damper on Riddle's resources."

"Not just that, he can condemn them and force them to hold up their vow to the House," Sirius explained. "If he calls them to stop fighting and they don't, their magic will be bound."

"That would take more than half of his Death Eaters out of play," Regulus mentally tried to calculate how many of those in the Dark Lord's circle were considered part of the House of Black.

"It would take more than half of his followers and financiers out of play," Sirius corrected. "There are a lot of Pure-Bloods in his ranks who are related to the House of Black at least somewhere along the line."

"As well as Half-Bloods," Potter agreed. "If we can get Arcturus to make a stance, that is."

"I cannot be the one to talk to him," Regulus admitted. "He would never listen to me or believe I have changed my mind."

"Then I will go," Sirius decided, conjuring a Patronus again, sending it off.

"If the memories that you sent me are correct, then at least both Malfoy and Lestrange have a Horcrux," Potter noted. "If he does take our side, we could request that he confiscates the items into his possession and not have to try and find them."

"That would risk Riddle finding out what we are doing and have him hide possible others he has made," Sirius shook his head. "But chances are that they keep them safe in their vaults at Gringotts and we could request access there without telling him what we are looking for precisely."

"And as he is the Head of House, the Goblins would be honour-bound to keep our visit a secret from even the owners of the vaults," Regulus took a deep breath as Sirius' Patronus returned and disappeared.

"I have been granted an audience right away," Sirius turned to Regulus. "Are you coming with me?"

"Potter's not going with you?" Regulus hadn't even considered the two would split up.

"I'm going to scourge the Potter library and see if Dad knows something about the subject," Potter stated as if that should have been obvious from the start and perhaps it had been to them as Sirius gave no indication of being surprised by that course of action.

"Then I think it would be better if I return to Grimmauld Place to scourge the library there for any information on how to destroy them," Regulus admitted.

"That might be smart, cover as much ground as we can in as little as time as possible. See if you can find something about locating them as well."

"I will," Regulus promised, glancing down at his brother's bag. "Will you keep it hidden?"

"Of course. We will meet back up here again in six hours," at the clear dismissal, Regulus turned to Kreacher to give him the order to Apparate them back home.

"Regulus?"

"Yes?"

"Be careful."

"You, too," he was pleasantly surprised by the request, though Sirius did not turn around and they Disapparated in unison.