Piece By Piece

Chapter Eleven: Bitter Reunion

      Regulus had spent a week so far at Malfoy Manor, gaining trust and proving his 'allegiance' to the higher-ups within the Death Eaters. He'd been able to get a little information about their plans through eavesdropping and overhearing casual conversations; but what he got was mostly in the form of context-required hints. Still, he recorded each and every one meticulously in a small notebook that he carried around in his pocket. When no one was looking Regulus would quickly take it out and scribble down what he'd heard. At night he studied the notes and tried to make sense of them. Some were easier to decipher than others. 

      As of now, it seemed, the Death Eaters wanted to begin increasing patrols and cracking down on anything rebellious, but those actions didn't take Regulus at all by surprise. He hoped that in the next few days Bellatrix, who didn't seem at all suspicious of him, would let him in on a few secrets. 

      But things took a turn for the much worse one afternoon when Regulus was walking back from a particularly grueling training session when he spotted a short and rather fat man peering through a window on a door at the end of a hallway he was passing. Something told him that he needed to find out what was in that room. When the man stopped looking and turned away, he locked eyes with Regulus.

      "Well hello there," The man greeted him. "I heard through the grapevine that you'd come home. Welcome back."

      Regulus hadn't recognized him until then because he looked so different, but the man he was now staring at was none other than Peter Pettigrew. It was safe to say that he'd aged the worst of his ex-friends; his hair was patchy and unbrushed, his clothes were unwashed, and his face could only be described as... rat-like. Regulus' blood boiled at the thought of all the pain Peter had caused, but he used his suprise to his advantage. I'm not supposed to know any more than what Bella told me, he thought.

      "Peter," Regulus said, "I forgot for a second that you're with us now. Uh... I heard you've done wonders."

      Pettigrew smiled at him. "Why thank you," he said. "My loyalty is to your family, after all."

      Regulus tried not to visibly cringe. "I should, uh, get back to my room and change," he said, beginning to walk backwards. "Just came back from training, I'm sure you know how it is."

      "Were you not going in my direction?" Pettigrew asked.

      "Oh, no." Regulus had stopped walking backwards to avoid suspicion. "I was passing through that hallway-" He pointed to where he'd come from. "-when I saw you. This 'hello' was just a quick detour."

      "Oh." Pettigrew's face scrunched up like a rat sniffing for table scraps. "Well then, hopefully I'll see you later. I think we could be great friends."

      Regulus tried to suppress the vomit that came up his throat and forced a feeble, "Yeah, let's talk sometime," before turning around and walking back into the other hallway. He ducked around the corner and stayed there, peeking back to see when Pettigrew would leave. 

      As if the interaction had given him reason to worry, Peter stared down the hallway in the direction that Regulus had left. He waited for a few minutes, then took one last look into the room, grinned, and turned to leave. Thankfully, he didn't walk in Regulus' direction. 

      Regulus kept careful watch of his surroundings and waited for five minutes before taking action. Then he stood upright and walked down the hallway, staying on the left side so that if Pettigrew was still there, he wouldn't be able to see Regulus from down the adjoining hallway. When he reached the corner he took out his wand and peeked around it to make sure he wasn't being watched. After that he checked his surroundings once more. Confident in his momentary solitude, he walked up to the door and looked through the small window. What he saw inside made his heart stop.