Part 4

They—the Order—had elected to bring the Black siblings to Hogwarts for questioning—Azkaban was out, and nobody fully trusted the Ministry not to just give them the Dermentor's Kiss. To be honest, the Order wasn't sure if they shouldn't just let the Dementor's have them, even though they had seen them openly defy and kill Voldemort—while they stood by and did nothing.

Both of the (ex?)Death Eaters had been brought to the Great Hall—thank goodness it was the summer; there were no students—and then they were chained to chairs.

Dumbledore cleared his throat authoritatively. "Now, you can answer honestly and we can forgo the Truth Serum, or if you choose to lie to us we will have to use whatever means necessary." He spoke sternly down to his former students. "If we believe that you are trying to deceive us, we will have no choice."

"We'll tell the truth." Regulus answered for the both of them, but Dumbledore still stared at Sirius waiting for an individual response.

"We'll tell the truth." Sirius repeated hoarsely—his throat was still sore from screaming.

"Very well." Dumbledore paused, almost uncertainly. "Why don't you tell us your story from the beginning?" It was not really a question.

"Siri, you should probably start then. You started this whole thing; it was your idea." Regulus said.

James Potter jumped in before any reply could be made. "It was your idea to become a Death Eater, Sirius?" He sounded incredulous and angry. He had hoped that his parents had brain washed him, but that he had finally come to his senses. Apparently he had been wrong to hope.

"No." Potter looked about ready to start yelling demands, so Sirius said with irritation, "Will you just let me tell the story, or do you want to continue to look like an idiot and waste all of our time?" When he was greeted by silence—apart from Regulus' amused snort—he sighed in relief. "When I got sorted into Gryffindor, my parents were very unhappy, my mother especially. She punished me with the Cruciatus curse. Then I didn't agree with their views on muggles and muggleborns. She punished me some more." Sirius had closed his eyes at this point, and there was absolute silence, the kind where the breathing of the person next to you sounded like a screech.

"As you can imagine, I got a bit tired of being tortured. I had an idea that I had been brooding over the whole year, but I couldn't do it alone—I needed Reggie. I had a back-up, of course. If Reg wouldn't listen to me, I would leave and be disowned—I'd go to James. My idea was to fake being Death Eater's, gain status in his circle, find out all of his secrets, and kill him." Sirius looked over to Regulus and smiled. "And it worked."

Regulus rolled his eyes. "Yes, yes, your brilliance is astounding, however do you do it."

"How did you fake being Death Eater's? And how did you get him to tell you all of his secrets?" Lily asked.

"You always were one of the sharp ones weren't you?" Regulus said rhetorically. "We were able to do it because of our specialties."

"You mean the Dark Arts?" Dumbledore asked neutrally. Both brothers shook their heads.

"That's not our specialties."

"What are they then?"

"Mine is illusions." Regulus said with no small amount of pride.

"And you Sirius?" James prompted, overwhelmingly curious.

"Mind Magic." He had said it emotionlessly, but he had to grin when he saw their astonished reactions.

"You-you specialized in Mind Magic?" James stuttered, and Sirius nodded.

Remus looked a bit surprised, but pushed on. "And how did those help you with fooling You-Know-Who?"

"With my illusions, I made the Dark Mark appear on our arms—so we technically didn't even take the Mark. Sirius went into his mind to make him believe that he trusted us completely. That was how we found out that he had Horcruxes—making him immortal. He had five soul pieces—Hufflepuff's Cup, Slytherin's Locket, Ravenclaw's Diadem, a diary, and a ring—but Sirius was able to convince him to let us hide them in our vaults at Gringotts. That was what I threw into the Veil. Then he was mortal, so Sirius stabbed him in the back."

There was silence as everyone tried to wrap their heads around the fact that the Dark Twins weren't actually Dark.

"Have you been the ones sending information to us?" Dumbedore asked. It was easy to see that he was unhappy with being uninformed.

"Of course, if we hadn't, many more would be dead." Regulus whistled again, and the nighthawk—whom had flown off—came speeding over to his shoulder. "This is my familiar, Dolos. He seemed the best way to communicate. We couldn't see any of you in person, for obvious reasons." He gave everyone in the room a penetrating look, and they all knew that they couldn't be seen in person because they would not have been trusted. The Order hadn't really relieved them of their doubts either, considering that they were chained up.

The questioning continued, and some answers were verified by Veritiserum. Sirius and Regulus were checked for the Dark Mark, and it was only when all of this was over that they were freed. The brothers were escorted to Hogsmead by James and Remus—who had volunteered quite insistently. It was a quiet walk.

Just as they were about to go their separate ways, James spoke up. "Sirius… I'm sorry…" He pushed up his glasses awkwardly and coughed. "I don't understand though, if you had asked me to, I would have done this with you—" He was interrupted.

"No, you wouldn't have James." Sirius stated bluntly. "You would have talked me out of it; you're not Slytherin enough for something like this. Besides, you specialize in Transfiguration, and that would have been useless. I couldn't ask Remus either, because Voldemort wouldn't have let him in because he's a Werewolf." Sirius smiled his eyes a little far away. "When I was fifteen, I thought that it would be a great prank. I realize now of course how much more serious it was, and all I can really look back on for my Hogwarts years and say that I'm proud, is when I asked Regulus to help me instead of you." It was harsh, but Sirius had always been truthful—with the exception of when speaking to Voldemort—so he didn't feel bad in the slightest.

"Where are you going to go now?" Remus spoke up, sounding sad.

"Reg and I are going to go live in France. We have some properties over there, and not to mention not nearly as bad of a reputation."

"Are… are we ever going to see you again?" James' voice was cracked and heartbroken, and it made Sirius pause before answering.

"You're free to owl us, and if you ever end up in France, I'm sure we'll have extra space." He looked questioningly at Regulus, who smiled.

"So we will see you again?"

"Of course."