The Art of Living - R. Black

thirty

Song for this chapter: Exit Music (For a Film) - Radiohead

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Regulus Black

August 2nd, 1998

I'm woken up in the very early hours of the morning to the feeling that the wards have been broken. Every time that the wards I've cast are broken, I can feel it, no matter where I am or what I'm doing.

Someone has broken past the wards and into Grimmauld Place.

"Putain," I mutter and get out of bed. I grab my wand off of the nightstand and start putting my shoes on.

I must've made enough noise to wake Meredith up.

"Reg?" She mumbles. "What're you doing?" My wife squints her eyes in the dark and then sits up abruptly when she sees that I'm putting on my shoes to leave. "Where are you going?"

"Someone broke into Grimmauld Place," I tell her, keeping my voice quiet.

"What?" She asks. Meredith gets out of bed and goes for her shoes but I step in her way.

I cup her face with my hand. "You have to stay here, angel," I say. "I'm just going to check things out and someone has to stay with the kids."

"Okay, I'll go, you stay with the kids," Meredith says.

"Please, don't fight me on this," I say and Meredith relaxes slightly, still looking quite annoyed at me. "I know Grimmauld Place better than you."

"Fine," Meredith says. "Please be safe, we don't know who broke in-"

I nod, "I know, I will. I'm sure it's just looters or something. People have tried to break in before." I kiss Meredith on the head. "I'll be back soon, I promise."

"I love you," Meredith says.

"I love you too," I reply.

Meredith watches me leave the bedroom. I walk out the front door and out to the property line. As soon as I reach the property line I apparate to London.

I land on the front step of Grimmauld Place.

The front door is locked so I cast alohomora and the front door pops right open. I'm barely two steps into the front door when someone steps around the corner with their wand raised.

I raise my wand instinctively and stare at the person standing in front of me.

"Harry?" I ask.

Recognition flashes over his face and Harry lowers his wand. "It's just Regulus," He calls and steps out of the way.

I look past him and into the living room. Hermione Granger and Ron Weasley are in the living room with piles of blankets.

"What're you doing here?" I ask while all three teenagers stare at me.

"We needed a place to hide," Hermione answers.

Harry walks further into the living room and I follow. "It was the first place I thought of with good enough wards and hiding."

I pinch the bridge of my nose, not out of annoyance but because it's only five in the morning and I had only been asleep for two hours before I was disrupted.

"We can leave," Ron says. Hermione hits him in the arm and he winces and rubs his arm where she hit him.

"No, no, it's okay," I say. "Sirius wanted this place to go to you anyways, the paperwork just wasn't completed before he died so it went to me. But it's yours, Harry."

Harry gapes at me. "I didn't know that," He says. Harry looks a bit like a deer in headlights right now and he looks like the spitting image of his dad.

"You can stay as long as you need," I say. "But why are you guys here?"

All three of them share a look for a second and Hermione whispers something that I can't hear and Harry and Ron nod before they all turn to look at me.

"We're going to start hunting Horcruxes," Ron says.

"Merlin and Morgana," I groan. I run my hand through my hair out of frustration. "All of you are too young to be seeking out Horcruxes. It isn't a treasure hunt."

Harry says, "We're all of age now."

"Still, too young," I argue.

"You were barely eighteen," Hermione says.

"Yes, which is why I have the right to tell you that you're too young because I was too young," I explain.

Harry stares at me with a set jaw. "We're going to search for them regardless. So do you want to help us or not?"

"You are so lucky that it's me here right now and not Meredith," I say. She would already be halfway through a lecture that somehow manages to work every single time. I contemplate things for a few seconds. "Let me let Meredith that I haven't been killed by the people who broke into the house and then we can talk."

I send Meredith a patronus letting her know that I'm okay and that Harry, Hermione, and Ron were the ones who broke in and not a group of Death Eaters.

Once that is taken care of, I sit down on one of the overstuffed couches. There's a rustling coming from the stairwell and Harry already has his wand raised.

"It's fine," I say and lower his wand. "Kreacher, stop lurking, you can come in here."

There's a crack and Kreacher is standing in front of me.

"Kreacher thought that he heard Master Regulus," Kreacher says, clasping his hands in front of him. "Kreacher was about to go get Master Regulus." He looks over at the teenagers with an annoyed look on his face. "They broke in."

"It's okay, Kreacher," I tell him. "This place is Harry's."

Kreacher frowns, "No, it belongs to Master Regulus."

"Legally, yes, but I'm going to start on some paperwork so that it's Harry's," I say.

"Really?" Harry asks, slightly surprised even though I already told him that the place is his.

Kreacher mutters, "Stupid teenagers," Then gives the trio a disapproving look before trotting into the kitchen.

"Forgive him, Kreacher is very loyal to the Black family," I explain.

"I noticed," Hermione says, sitting down on the other couch. Ron glances over at her before sitting down beside her. They both exchange a glance then look in opposite directions.

"So, what's going on here then?" I ask, gesturing between them.

Harry glances over his shoulder at them then back and me and rolls his eyes while shaking his head. Ron and Hermione both blush but don't move further apart.

"We-, we're friends," Hermione stutters.

Ron nods, "Yes-, friends." His voice is a bit squeaky and his face is almost the color of his hair.

"Interesting," I comment.

Hermione sits up straighter. "About the Horcruxes," She trails off.

"Right," I say. "What do you know?"

Everyone looks at Harry. The seventeen year old boy stands up straighter. He has an expression on his face that makes him look much older than he actually is, but that's the effects of war I guess. Harry looks like the spitting image of his parents whom I barely knew. I knew of James and Lily, but Meredith was the one who actually knew them. She's the one who grieved over their deaths.

"In second year I destroyed Tom Riddle's diary with a Basilisk fang," Harry starts. "Dumbledore told me that he had taken care of another Horcrux-, he didn't say what it was or how he destroyed it."

"He always liked to keep secrets," I say.

"Dumbledore also said that Voldemort made up to six Horcruxes, so there's four remaining," Harry adds. "He also had some ideas on what the other Horcruxes are."

"So do I," I say. "We all know about the locket, but the issue now is finding it."