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Dedication: This one is for Dark Angels Blue Fire, who challenged me to write it.
Aprenda Ver
One Shot. Response to a Challenge. Harry realises that R.A.B has been hiding in plain view.
Ron grumbled and glared at Harry and Hermione, slamming the book shut and pushing his chair out. "That's it! I give up! We're never going to find R.A.B at this rate. How the hell does Spanish born, Muggle, Régulo Alejo Bolíver who lived in the bloody twelfth century, I might add, help us find R.A.B who probably only born 40, 50 years ago!"
Hermione harrumphed. "Well, of course it doesn't help, Ron, but then again, we told you that you wouldn't find anything in that book, didn't we Harry?"
Hermione turned to Harry, who seemed to be living on another planet. "Harry? Yoo-hoo, anyone home?" Ron asked, waving his arm in front of his face. Harry started speaking, slowly. "Hold on a second… Régulo. Doesn't that sound a bit like Regulus?"
Hermione nodded, "I fail to see the relevance."
Harry frowned, "No, Hermione, don't you see. Sirius had a brother called Regulus. That would be R.B, right?"
"But Harry, Sirius's brother worked for You-Know-Who," Ron explained.
"Exactly! And didn't Sirius say that he thought he was dead, because he'd had second thoughts about joining Voldemort?"
"Well, yeah," Ron started, but Harry interrupted him before he could continue.
"And didn't you say that Voldemort would have had to have known R.A.B, Hermione? Who better to know Voldemort than one of his own Death Eaters."
"Well, yeah." Hermione began, only to be interrupted by Harry.
"And didn't R.A.B say that he'd be dead by the time that Voldemort found the note, and isn't Regulus dead?"
"Yes, but Harry, Sirius said that Regulus wasn't important enough to have been killed by Voldemort. If you're right, I would assume that he would have been very important."
"Sirius was only guessing. He hardly knew his brother, 'Mione." Ron backed Harry up.
"But Ron, Harry, what was Regulus's middle name?"
Ron shrugged, taking a bite out of an apple. "Shumtin ashtwolegishal"
Hermione tucked a stray strand of hair behind her ear, and turned to Harry. "Translation, please?"
"Something astrological. Hold on, I think I might be able to find out."
Harry got up out of the room, and returned with a Pensieve. Extracting his memory in the now familiar way, he motioned for the others to go in ahead of him. They were back in the House of Black, in the hallway where the family tapestry hung. Harry walked over to it, and looked for Regulus's name. He shook his head, ducking out of the way as a younger version of himself came flying down the hallway. "It doesn't have the middle names on it," he explained.
Hermione frowned. "There's got to be something with their middle names on it, somewhere."
Ron spoke up. "I'm not sure if the Blacks did it, but Mum keeps all our birth certificates in a compartment in the family clock. Maybe if we find a compartment we can find all their middle names."
Harry shook his head. "That's hopeless. Come on. Lets leave."
After they had gotten out of the memory, Harry, Ron and Hermione sat at Harry's desk, tapping heir wands against their chins as they thought.
"Accio Regulus Black's Birth Certificate." Harry said suddenly. Ron and Hermione looked at him with dismay across their faces. It had been such an obvious way to get it. After about half an hour of waiting, an airborne birth certificate came flying through the window and into Harry's head. He rubbed the spot where it had hit, and picked it up off the ground.
"Regulus Arcturus Black." He stated.
It had been so obvious.
Authors Notes:
Short, but when I tried to make it longer it turned out really weird. Feel free to challenge me to write a one shot! I'll try, even if its out of my comfort zone, like this one was. I had not the foggiest idea what I was going to do. But I did it, didn't I?
EDIT 2010: Changed the middle name from Aries to Arcturus to make it canon compliant, at least in that regard.