Grimmauld Place was still quiet as Regulus and Kreacher popped into the living room. Regulus looked around, noticing that the place looked cleaner, but overall the same before he left it on his original mission to defy the Dark Lord.
Regulus took as few steps through the house, pausing as he heard the fourth step squeak, his eyes darting to the hallway where he knew the stairs were, watching the door frame as Harry came into view.
"It's Regulus!" Harry shouted and soon there were multiple footsteps following down the stairs.
After those words left Harry's mouth, Regulus felt like everything was moving in slow motion as he watched Sirius walk into the room. Sirius truly looked like the older brother now, his hair still hung to his shoulders, a look their mother had despised, but somehow it looked cleaner and better kept than all those years before. His face was covered in a full, but well trimmed beard and mustache, and it almost made Regulus laugh, considering how smooth his own face was.
"You're fucking alive..." Sirius muttered, still surprised even though Remus had double confirmed it for him.
"The reunion will have to wait," Regulus insisted, holding his hand up as Sirius moved to hug him. He could tell his brother looked hurt, but they had to saved Hermione, there was plenty of time for conversations and catch-up later.
"Hermione's at Malfoy Manor," Regulus informed the group of males.
The news immediately sent Ron and Harry into an uproar.
"I'm going to need something extra in my tea..." Remus, only four days from the next full moon, muttered to nobody in particular as he headed for the kitchen, leaving Harry, Ron and Regulus to argue, Sirius getting the pleasure of trying to break them up.
—
Hermione could not escape the small scream that left her mouth as Peter hit the ground. Bellatrix was back on her in an instant and Hermione struggled to back away from her from where the older woman had knocked her onto the floor.
"If you don't want to tell me what I need to know, mudblood, then I'll just have to pull it out of your head myself."
Bellatrix was on her in an instant and the searing pain Hermione felt as the older witch dove into her mind was nothing like she had ever felt when practicing with Harry. Hermione tried to think of boring things, of memories of when she was small, keeping her thoughts far away from anything important. The further Bellatrix dove, the harder Hermione fought to keep her out, pushing back and finding herself tumbling just for the briefest moment through Bellatrix's mind and memories.
"You seem distracted cousin, " Bellatrix noted, peering at Regulus with curiosity. "Something you want to share?"
Regulus turned to scowl at Bellatrix. "If I wanted to share, then I would. Mind your own business and stay out of my head."
As Hermione was pushed out of the witches' mind, a split second decision came to her, focusing on one memory and one memory only as the death eater drove into her mind with a venom, determined to find out information to please her Dark Lord.
After sending off her owl to Harry, Hermione came quietly down the stairs to find Regulus watching the telly on the couch. She looked around, expecting her parents to have been back from their date night already, but aside from the sound of the television, she did not hear anything else in the house. She stood at the back entrance to the living room, Regulus still had his back to her, clearly enthralled in the movie he was watching.
She was just going to try and poke in his mind, just once, to see if her practice with Harry during their sixth year had helped any. Hermione quietly reached for her wand in her pocket, her fingers gripping around it as she whispered 'Legillmens'.
YOU ARE READING
Between Fine Lines
Fanfiction"The world isn't split into good people and Death Eaters. We've all got both light and dark inside us. What matters is the part we choose to act on. That's who we really are." --- Harry returns from the cave with Dumbledore, except this time they co...
