Reading Between The Lines ~ Remus Lupin ~ Book 1

chapter 64

Wednesday, 11 April 1979

"What is it, Reg?" Lena whispered softly. Layla stood beside him, clutching his hand.

"You have that map right? Remus gave it to you – the one he, Sirius, your brother, and Potter would use right?"

"Yeah, why?"

"I overheard Barty Crouch talking to Aristotle Nott – they're meeting tonight somewhere on the grounds tonight with some Death Eaters who have graduated."

"What?! Why?" Lena cried quietly as she pulled out the map.

"We don't know," Layla explained. "That's what we're going to try to find out. And Reggie wasn't invited. So either Bellatrix doesn't want him getting trouble at Hogwarts or..."

"They doubt where my loyalties lie," Regulus finished as Lena finished casting the incantation to open the map.

"They're by the Quidditch pitch," Lena breathed out. "The Lestrange brothers, Bellatrix, Nott, Snape," Layla read aloud.

Regulus gestured to the moving footprints coming out of the Forbidden Forest. "More are coming though."

"We tried telling Dumbledore but we couldn't find them," Layla said.

Regulus looked at the girls. "He's still not here."

"We should tell McGonagall then. She'll know what to do," Lena reasoned. "She's in her office."

"No, I can't. Dumbledores said that I mustn't tell anyone that I'm a spy. The less people that know the better"

Layla chewed her lip.

"Well, we can't just let them meet. At least not without finding out," Layla stated firmly. "We should all go down there."

"No, one of us should stay here with Marauder's Map and go to Dumbledore as soon as he arrives and tell him what's happening," Regulus decided.

"Yes, yes," Layla agreed. "Reg and I will go down to the pitch and–"

Lena shook her head. "No, Reg and I should. Reg's a pureblood and will at least have an excuse to be there if they catch him. And I'm an Animagus so no one will know who I am."

"You are?!"

"She is."

Lena looked up at the Ravenclaw and the Slytherin. "Then it's settled?"

The couple echoed each other. "Yes."

<><><><><>

Too bad we don't have James' invisibility cloak, Lena thought.

She and Regulus were beneath one of the covered Hufflepuff stands, laying on the wet grass. Their faces were pressed to the ground, allowing them to hear better through the sliver of the gap between the grass and the cloth.

Lena counted the pairs of feet that peaked out between the Death Eater's robes.

"There's nine of them," Lena whispered as quietly as possible.

"Lucius Malfoy's is seventh. See his cane there? I'd recognize it anywhere."

"Who's the last one of them? We know everyone else?"

"We can ask Layla when we get back. She'll know from the map."

Lena nodded.

<><><><><>

"Where's your cousin, Bellatrix?" Lucius drawled. "Does the Dark Lord not think him capable? Trustworthy?"

Bellatrix hissed at her brother-in-law. "The Dark Lord holds Regulus in high regard, Lucius. Higher than you even."