A/N: Sorry about leading you on about this chapter! I had it all written in my head and then when I actually put it down I didn't like it at all, so I scrapped it and had to begin again. I think my problem is that I keep writing later chapters and then trying to fill in the middle, it's a confusing way to write. Anyways thanks for the reviews! ALSO: I have absolutely no idea why my last chapter was compacted into that huge paragraph, I published it in the exactly the same way I always have. It's kind of distressing, so sorry for that!

Regulus Black was stuck between a rock and a hard place.

He was glad to have been accepted into the older Slytherins group, he knew that was the natural progression of things, and he knew that their acceptance of him, meant that they felt he would be an asset to the Dark Lord. Regulus hadn't been sure that he wanted to be a Death Eater, but since Sirius left, his parents where putting a lot of pressure on him to regain the family honor. Now that he was getting older, he wasn't surprised when his older cousin Bella, and her friends approached him to become one of them.

He knew that he also shouldn't have been surprised when Bella called him to meet with her, Rabastan, Rodolphus, Snape, Viola Rosier, Wilkes, Cain, and Avery.

"You need to do something to prove yourself to us." Bella said, she seemed to delight in his discomfort and fear. So much for blood being thicker.

"What would you have me do Bella? We're Blacks. I'm as dedicated to the cause as you are." Regulus said, he knew that stroking Bella's ego was the only way to appeal to her. Bella looked pleased, but she apparently wasn't going to go easy on him.

"Your Blood-Traitor brother proved that isn't true Reg." Bella said, cruelly using the nickname that Sirius used to call him.

Regulus decided it was in his best interest to stay silent.

"Your task is to take down Athena Dumbledore." Bella said, and before Regulus could ask any questions, he was roughly pushed out of the room.

'What does she mean, 'take down'?' Regulus thought to himself as he walked around the Hogwarts grounds a week later. Rodolphus expressed that they were all displeased with his lack of progress, and when Regulus tried to communicate the fact that he didn't quite understand what he was supposed to do, Rodolphus shoved him so hard he thought that he might have disconnected his shoulder.

"I'm not killing anyone on Hogwarts grounds." Regulus whispered feverishly to Snape when he bumped into him on his search for the group of Gryffindors.

"Especially not a Dumbledore!" Snape nodded silently, he seemed to be considering something.

"Bella is crazy, but she's not crazy enough to have you murder the Headmasters niece. She probably just wants you to hurt her or scare her, and most importantly not get caught."

Regulus nodded, he had figured as much. "Nobody else had to prove themselves did they?" Snape froze. "Yeah that's what I thought. She's punishing me for Sirius, isn't she?"

Snape shrugged, and walked away silently.

Regulus shook his head, he was doomed if Snape was the only person who was willing to help him.

One of the problems was that he didn't particularly want to harm Athena Dumbledore.

Of all the Gryffindors she seemed to be the one whom he would be able to tolerate for any amount of time. She was never outwardly nasty to him, in fact she almost went out of her way to not be nasty to him. He figured it was a credit to her loyalty to his brother, but it was impressive.

But, he wasn't surprised at the fact that this was who Bella picked for his 'task'. They were notorious in their hate for each other, and that was another way that Dumbledore impressed him. She was the only one he had ever seen stand up to Bella. Bella was so incredibly cruel that she was almost inhuman, and she was incredible at magic. Dumbledore was the only one who had been able to duel Bella and win consistently.

He would never say it out loud, but for all the power that Bella possessed, Athena Dumbledore had more. And really nobody should be surprised, which led to another reason why he didn't want to harm her, she was practically Professor Dumbledore's daughter.

Even though he felt that the Headmaster was fool for putting so much worth on MudBloods and Muggle-Borns, there was no denying that he was an extremely powerful wizard.

And so this is where Regulus found himself, hiding behind the stacks in the library, eavesdropping on Dumbledore, his brother, and the other ones that he didn't care about.

"Athena? Could you double check this?" Regulus heard the short fat one ask timidly.

"Sure Pete."

They sat in silence for a few more moments, Regulus was a bit surprised at his brothers attention span. He never did homework for more than a few minutes.

He dared a peek around the corner and wasn't surprised to see that Sirius wasn't doing homework at all, but he was surprised to see that he was drawing, sketching the scene in front of him. Dumbledore reading over the paper, Lupin resting his head on his hand as he flipped through pages, Evans looking a bit flustered as she frantically wrote something down. He was surprised at the detail, he had never even known his brother could draw. Although he suspected that his table mates didn't know that he was drawing them either.

"It's 7:30 already? Damn. I've got to go. Is it okay if I look this over later Pete?" Dumbledore said, standing up to gather her things, which she threw roughly into her bag.

"Uh sure." Peter shrugged, taking back his parchment and reading through it again.

"Where are you going?" Sirius asked, for some reason, hearing Sirius' voice made Regulus' stomach drop. He would be ashamed of him if he knew what he was about to do.

"My Uncle Al wants to speak with me." Dumbledore said, and turned quickly and walked away.

Regulus raised an eyebrow, but quickly used the disillusionment charm that Snape had taught him, and followed her out of the library. He wasn't entirely sure what he was going to do, but he figured that attacking her while she was on her way to meet the headmaster might garner him some extra points.

He was so deep in his thoughts that he hadn't realized that Dumbledore was going in the opposite direction of the Headmasters office. He finally noticed when they reached the fifth floor, and she began pacing in front of a tapestry.

'Hmm..this is certainly interesting.' Regulus thought to himself as he leaned close to wall, 'I wonder why she lied.'

He thought that perhaps Athena Dumbledore wasn't as innocent or as Gryffindor as everyone believed. Maybe she was meeting with Slytherins? It must be something bad. He looked up and down the corridor for any sign of other people who were meeting her, but he didn't see anyone.

He almost jumped back in fright when a door suddenly appeared in the tapestry.

"You're finally here." Regulus heard a voice from the door say, but before he could get a good look at who it was, Athena was pulled inside and the door was slammed shut.

ZZZ

Regulus knew that Bella was going to be absolutely furious. He'd had the perfect opportunity to act, and he didn't take it. He tried to think frantically of a way to spin the situation into one that was more comfortable for him as he walked back to the Slytherin common room. But no matter how he thought of it, he was in trouble.

"Well?" Bellatrix requested as soon as he entered the room, she was holding court in one of the high-backed chairs in front of the fireplace. He suspected that she quite enjoyed the fear she caused just by sitting there, with the flames licking up behind her.

"Well..you see.." Regulus began but Bella cut him off.

"You've failed again I presume." She said, her voice was as cold as ice. "You're really a credit to Slytherin." A few people laughed at her sarcasm.

"Go on then, give us your excuse, I'm sure it will be a good one."

Bella beckoned him forward, a sickly smile stretched across her features, made all the more grotesque by the flickering light.

"I listened to them in the library." Bella leaned forward in feigned interest.

"And then Dumbledore said that she had to go, she had a meeting with her Uncle." Bellatrix seemed mildly intrigued at this, her eyes flickered slightly.

"So I followed her."

"And?"

"Well, she lied." Bella was unmistakably interested. "Instead of going to the Headmasters office, she went to the fifth floor. She paced around in front of that tapestry of Barnabas the Barmy and a door appeared."

Regulus paused for them to be as shocked as he was, but none of them seemed impressed.

"Yes, yes she went to the Room of Requirement, then what?" Bella pressed.

"What's the Room of Requirement?"

"It's of no concern to you. Continue with the story."

Regulus almost shot her a glare, but he knew that would be a grave mistake. "So, the door opened and somebody said 'You're finally here.' She was pulled inside, and the door closed."

"And did you see who it was?"

"No."

Bella looked thunderous, but then it seemed something dawned on her.

"You've done well Regulus." She said, standing up and patting him on the shoulder. "This is excellent news."

Bellatrix began pacing around the room, deep in thought, while the other Slytherins who were 'privileged' enough to be in her circle all watched, bemused.

"Forgive me Bella," Snape interrupted her train of thought, it seemed these days that he was the only one brave enough to do it. "Why exactly is this excellent news?"

"Do you know what makes us different from the Gryffindors?" Bella asked, circling around Snape like a vulture. If he was phased, he didn't show it.

"Cunning, smarts, logic, an ability to do complex magic?" Snape said sarcastically, a few people chuckled, but were silenced immediately by Bellatrix.

"No."

"Enlighten me." He said, forming an arch with his fingers, his eyes were wisely trained on Bellatrix.

"As much as I loathe to admit it, you and I both know that Gryffindors posses those qualities."

Regulus was intrigued, he had never heard his cousin speak positively about their rival house.

"What sets us apart," She began, stepping into the center of the group. "Is loyalty."

"Loyalty?" Regulus repeated, he sat down on the floor near one of the large leather couches.

"Yes dear cousin. Loyalty." Bella said looking down at him, and Regulus had the feeling that this was something he should listen to and remember. "Have you ever lied to your friends or family?" She asked.

"Yeah." Regulus answered, unsure of what that had to do with anything.

"That is what sets us apart. We have the strength and the ability to lie to those we care about whenever it suits us. Gryffindors on the other hand, would never dream of lying to their loved ones. It would be a betrayal of trust. Somebody with as much pride in being a Gryffindor as Dumbledore, would never lie about something unless it was really important. We're going to find out what that lie is, and we're going to expose it."

ZZZZZ

Athena shivered as she stepped out into the cold night air. She pulled her cloak around her, mumbling the spell that her Uncle had taught her to make her standard Hogwarts issue robe thicker and warmer. She had almost made it out of the entry when she heard the sound of footsteps, quickly she held her breath and ducked into the shadows.

"Well then when are we going to tell my mother?"

Athena glanced around the corner, Frank Longbottom and his girlfriend Alice were walking hand in hand around the entrance hall. Probably just beginning Prefect duty. She waited until their voices died away before moving out of the shadows and into the courtyard.

She used a few beams from the full moon to quickly peruse the Marauders Map.

'Good,' She thought 'Everyone is where they're supposed to be.'

Athena folded up the map and made her way across the courtyard and onto the Quidditch pitch, where she spotted the red and gold tower that Gryffindor fans usually sat in during Quidditch games, and hurried up the seemingly endless flights of stairs. When she finally got to the top her hair was sticking to her forehead and her cloak was slightly damp with sweat, she panted a little to catch her breath, and almost shrieked as a freezing wind blew past her, turning the sweat on her brow to ice.

"Damnit." She muttered, waving a warming charm over herself, but still she shivered.

She flattened herself against the wall as shield for the wind, and was still able to look up at the lights in millions of windows in Hogwarts. A loud deep chime resounded from the clock tower.

"Seven O'Clock." She whispered, "Show time."

She took a moment to glance up at the castle again, counting the windows until she found her Uncle Al's. Just as predicted, his light went out.

"Perfect."

She looked to the Forbidden Forest and heard a pained howl, she grimaced and raised her wand to the sky and began saying numerous incantations, some of which she learned from advanced spell books, and some of which she simply made up, but the loud resounding, almost window shattering BOOM that erupted the moment she finished her spell, indicated that it was going exactly the way she planned.

The noise was enough to draw everyones attention to their windows, and if she squinted she could see faces pressed to the windows of the school, students and teachers all wondering what was going on. Immediately after the noise, enormous elaborate fire works began to explode in the sky. All red and gold of course. Every few minutes a loud BANG! would shake the ground, and she knew she had about three minutes to get out of the Quidditch tower and get back up to Gryffindor.

"I could make it." She said aloud to herself, but she didn't move. Instead she stepped out from behind the wall, and looked down at the courtyard, she smiled broadly, the entire Hogwarts staff was rushing out to the pitch. Thankfully McGonagall was out in front of the pack, the red and gold probably indicated to her that it was one of her own, exactly as Athena had planned for. She looked livid.

"Athena Dumbledore! Get down here this instant!" McGonagall shouted as she reached the tower.

"Damn." Athen muttered, she should have known that her hair would give her away instantly. She glanced towards the courtyard again, but it was empty. So Athena pretended that she didn't hear Professor McGonagall, and continued to look up at the bright fireworks, the red glow cast and almost demonic look over McGonagalls bird like features, she was clearly growing angrier by the second.

But still the courtyard remained empty, so Athena kept on ignoring her. She felt bad about it, but she needed more time.

After one particularly loud boom, McGonagall finally lost it.

"DUMBLEDORE! GET DOWN FROM THAT TOWER OR SO HELP ME MERLIN I WILL COME UP THERE AND GET YOU AND I ASSURE YOU THAT IS NOT SOMETHING YOU WANT TO MAKE ME DO!" McGonagall must have used a powerful Sonorous charm because her voice was so loud that that the ground shook.

Athena glanced desperately at the courtyard and sighed in relief when she saw three dark figures making their way across it. "Finally." She breathed, before heading down the many flights of stairs to the grassy pitch.

"What are you thinking!" McGonagall shouted as soon as Athena appeared in front of her, Athena winced. "Why must you always cause some type of disturbance! As the Headmasters niece it is your responsibility to set a good example to the other students!" McGonagall raged at her while the rest of the staff all looked on in wonderment.

McGonagall shot them a glare and they dispersed back into the castle, McGonagall dragged Athena by the arm across the courtyard and into the castle where she dragged her up to the Headmasters office, yelling all the way.