The Marauders - Order of the Phoenix - Part Two

Most Interesting

It was early morning, a mist set in the park across the street, Grimmauld Place grey and quiet. The door to Number 12 opened carefully and Kreacher stuck his head out. An owl had landed on the house step and hooted, fluttering its wings with impatience, hopping about. A small bag was tied to its leg. Kreacher reached out and took the bird, dragging it inside with a surprised "hoo!"

Up the stairs he carried the owl, the bag still tied on, and he knocked on the door at the top of the third floor landing.

"Kreacher, you don't have to knock," came Regulus's voice.

Kreacher pushed open the door just a smidgeon and slid into the room through a narrow space rather than opening it all the way. "Master has received this owl, which Kreacher has fetched from the stoop for Master Regulus."

Regulus looked up from a map he'd spread out on his desk and had been pouring over for some time. He was trying at locating Little Hangleton on it. He took in Kreacher's rough grip on the owl's wings, carrying it like it was about to explode at any given moment - well at arm's length. "Kreacher, really, you could've just taken the delivery, you needn't have kidnapped the owl..." Regulus got up and crossed the room, relieving Kreacher of his bounty. The owl hooted miserably, and Regulus untied the bag from it's ankle. It was a fairly miserable-looking creature, not one of the official post owls. He looked half-starved. "Kreacher, go get a bowl of water and something for this bird to eat."

"What does the bird eat?" Kreacher asked.

"I don't know... get a bit of that roast we had last night, I guess. They eat rats don't they? I mean, the roast isn't a rat but it's meat, at least? And don't we maybe have some old owl nuts in the attic? Merlin knows where Adolf's gone to, so we needn't be saving them for him anymore."

Kreacher nodded and rushed off.

Regulus looked at the poor owl in his hands and plopped it onto a chair to wait for it's dinner. He took the velvet bag and opened it up, reaching inside and finding a small vial of opalescent liquid and a rolled up note. He turned the vial over, wondering what it was, then set it down on the desk and unrolled the parchment.

Most interesting. - S.

Regulus looked at the vial. Snape, clearly, but what the hell was the vial of? Perhaps a potion? He lifted it up again and looked it over.

"Memory," Cadmus Peverell said from his frame, his voice lazy.

Regulus looked over at him.

"That there is a memory. It's bottled up to be viewed in a pensieve. Have you got one?"

"Mother does. In the library," Regulus answered. He turned the vial over again, watching the swirling colors in the grey liquid. "I've never used one... I don't think..." for even as he said it, he could almost imagine himself staring down into one.

"You simply pour the memory into the pensieve and then put your face in it."

Regulus raised an eyebrow. "That sounds... incorrect, sir."

"It's precisely how it's done."

"It sounds like something Sirius would tell me to do just to guffaw at me when I've done it."

Cadmus Peverell puffed, "I am not a nasty older brother, Mr. Black, I had enough experiences of the sort with my own older brother, without you accusing me of being like him! Don't do it if you're so suspicious!"

Regulus really wanted to know what Snape had found and why it was "most interesting".

Picking up the owl gently, and waving his wand so that the portrait followed after him, Regulus made his way downstairs to Walburga's library. He put the owl down on another chair and went to the cupboard where Walburga's pensieve was stored. The pensieve was heavy and made of thick grey stone lined with mother of pearl. It reminded Regulus of something that sent a shiver into his spine.