Lucius seemed to have opted for staying out of the way, and Sirius found himself alone in the kitchen, wondering sourly for a moment why it was that everyone chased around after Snape, dragging him back when he got the slightest bit offended. He was running through yet another rehearsal when he heard the last sound he expected to hear coming from the garden, the sound of laughter, two men laughing, punctuated by baby-like screeches of delight. Damn, Sirius swore to himself; he wasn’t ready yet. He hadn’t practiced enough; he hadn’t practiced this at all.

He watched the door open on Snape and Lupin, but neither of the men even glanced at him; their attention was riveted on the boy who walked beside Lupin, holding his hand, and the other little boy who walked between the two men. Harry was holding one of Lupin’s hands and one of Severus’s; his bare feet hardly touched the ground, until he was whisked into the air, shrieking in laughter, only to be let back down to take another few supported steps. From behind him Sirius could hear the stirring of elves, as they scuttled to the back door to greet the boys, fussing and laughing in a way that made Sirius feel as though he were watching a party to which he hadn’t been invited.

‘When did they begin walking?’ he asked, hoping to drag himself into the fun.

Snape seemed to notice he was there at last. ‘If you had got off your arse at any time over the last three weeks you would know that for yourself.’

‘Yeah, well, I didn’t think I should leave here,’ Sirius replied, avoiding his eyes. ‘Anyway, I thought I was supposed to be dead.’

‘You could have written,’ Severus snapped back at him. ‘Unless your arm was broken too.’ He looked behind Sirius to where Lucius had decided to come into the kitchen after all. ‘And what’s your excuse?’

‘I don’t have one, Severus, as you well know,’ Malfoy replied. ‘That aside, I’m glad you’re home; it has been difficult being here without you.’ He gave Lupin and Sirius a sweeping glance before turning his attention to Draco. ‘I missed him walking; damn, I seem always to be second these days.’

Sirius had bent down to pick Harry up but the boy had fussed and tugged away, grabbing a fistful of Snape’s trousers instead, hauling himself unsteadily to his feet, shouting something that might have been, ‘Up, up,’ in his baby voice.

‘I didn’t know he could speak,’ Sirius whispered.

‘He couldn’t, not English at any rate,’ Snape replied dryly. ‘I confess I had not known quite what his first language was going to be until now; it certainly wasn’t one I was familiar with.’ He made to hand the boy to Sirius as though in some sort of gesture of peace, but Harry struggled. ‘Perhaps you should let him get used to you again, Black. Three weeks is a long time in a little boy’s life.’

‘Yeah,’ Sirius replied, ‘it was a long time in mine too.’ He turned away and sat at the table; there was a lot more mending to be done than he’d hoped for.

*****

‘Snape left Hogwarts this afternoon,’ Bellatrix reported to Regulus as they both shed their cloaks.

‘Really?’ Regulus replied, feigning only the mildest interest. He was finding it damned inconvenient to go outside and wait for every ruddy visitor, and then wait for Kreacher to come back outside and invite him in. Once he was sure the bloody elf had deliberately left him standing cooling his heels on the pavement. He’d like to wring the neck of whatever idiot had set such a restrictive Charm on the house, and yet he hesitated to leave; there was something about Grimmauld Place that made him feel it held more secrets than it had disclosed to him thus far. ‘Do we have any idea where he went?’ he asked, looking first to where Barty had slouched lazily at the end of the table, and then to his cousin.

Bellatrix shook her head and her raven hair tossed on her shoulders. Her crowning glory had been shorn in Azkaban but the careful Charms she had cast about herself preserved the woman she had been before she went, and hid the ravaged hag she had reduced herself to in her fury of capture. ‘Does it really matter, Regulus?’ she asked. ‘Are we not better to keep this in the family? What do you need with that sullen ugly pauper of a half-blood?’

‘Why don’t you let me be the judge of that?’ he snapped. ‘Anyway, more important than Snape’s wanderings, have you found out what I wanted you to find out?’

‘No, no one seems to know where he is.’

‘Damn.’

‘I don’t know what you’re worried about a baby for,’ Bellatrix retorted. ‘I mean he’s hardly going to be able to cast a simple repairing spell by the time …’ She trailed off as though in some sort of indiscretion.

‘By the time what, Bella?’ Regulus asked as he sat down, glancing round in distaste at the horrible kitchen. He had to get away from this dump, untold secrets or not. He hated it here; it wasn’t a fitting place for one such as he.

‘By the time you’re ready to do whatever it is you’re going to do,’ she replied, not at all put out.

‘He managed to put Voldemort out of action, which is more than any of you lot had the balls to try,’ Regulus replied flatly.

‘Yourself included, cousin.’

‘Just watch your mouth, Bella,’ Regulus snapped. ‘I want that boy found.’ He didn’t add that if he were anywhere near Snape or Dumbledore it wouldn’t take either of them too long to recognise that he held Voldemort’s magic. In fact it was only because he was still a babe in arms that they did not know already.

‘We are trying, Regulus,’ Bellatrix replied with a hard look of her own, nodding to where Barty still sat at the end of the table watching the two of them, as Kreacher handed round mugs of tea. She looked at the grey liquid the elf had given her; it seemed to have an unwholesome looking scum on the top of it. ‘Do you really have to stay in this house?’ she asked, wrinkling her nose.

‘No, actually, I’m just thinking about moving,’ he replied with a smile as he reached for the blank parchment that sat at the far side of the table.

*****

They had staggered through the evening meal. Severus knew it was up to him to unburden the atmosphere a little; he just had to try to drop the cutting edge from everything he said to either Black or Lucius … just, it was a tall order. He could see Black was becoming moody and withdrawn; he could hardly blame him. He was everyone’s whipping boy; every time he as much as opened his mouth someone jumped down his throat, and Severus was mildly impressed that he hadn’t stormed out yet. Lupin was obviously getting fed up playing referee and Lucius had become more and more testy and challenging. No one ate much, except Lucius, which was a pity; for once the elves hadn’t overcooked the lamb.

Snape roused himself from his thoughts as he realised Black had spoken to him and he hadn’t a damn clue what he’d said. ‘What?’ he asked with a frown he just knew would be read as a scowl; he’d try to do better next time.

‘I said, do you want some more wine?’ Sirius replied through gritted teeth.

‘Yes, the red,’ Snape nodded in reply and watched Black blink back the retort he had been ready to throw; he had a funny feeling he was just on the point of losing his temper. He thought it quite amazing the change that came over Sirius; he seemed to relax and drop the bristling defences he’d put up around himself as he bent over Snape’s shoulder to fill his glass from the new bottle he’d had to get from the dresser. Severus tried to ignore the thrill of the deliberate bodily contact. He felt quite magnanimous; it must have been a rush of blood to the head, along with the other places it had rushed to without his permission. He thought he’d try it out on Lucius too. ‘Why is everyone in such foul moods?’ he asked. ‘I’m beginning to wish I had stayed another few days at Hogwarts.’

‘I’m not in a mood,’ Sirius replied as he sat back down, without offering his services as a wine waiter to anyone else despite the fact that Lucius held out the glass he had drained in anticipation.

‘I’m not in a mood either,’ Lucius added, with a brave attempt at his expensive smile, which fell rather short of its mark.

‘Neither am I,’ Lupin said, his own slow smile, at first acknowledging he knew just what Severus was up to then turning to a frown as he looked to the window to where an owl tapped for entry. ‘Oh damn,’ he swore mildly, ‘what’s this?’

Severus kept his smirk to himself. He suspected that Regulus had just got word that he’d left Hogwarts; he’d asked Andromeda to give him a head start before she informed on him to her sister. Regulus would be writing to him to ask where he was staying now; perhaps he was going to offer him a bed at Grimmauld Place. He stood up and crossed to the window and let the owl in, surprised when she flew to Lucius.

“My Dear Lucius, I shall be staying slightly longer in England than I had anticipated as I, indeed we, still have some unfinished business. I would be grateful if you would be so kind as to have two guest rooms prepared in the manor, one for myself and one for your recently returned sister-in-law. We shall arrive tomorrow evening in time for dinner and I look forward to catching up then and enjoying some of your legendary hospitality. Regulus Black.”

‘You just had to start with him, didn’t you?’ Lucius accused; he’d gone a horrible colour. ‘You had to get Andromeda to let that bitch Bella know you were moving. I’ve got enough damn Blacks here without Bella and Regulus coming too. Do something about it, Severus.’ He’d stood up and was waving the offending scroll in Snape’s face; there was nothing like a little crisis to get things back to normal.

*****

“My Dear Regulus, Thank you for your letter, although I confess to being somewhat surprised at your request. As you are well aware I do not see eye to eye with my sister-in-law and there are few people on earth I would be less inclined to share the manor with than her. Unfortunately there is also the fact that I’m afraid you’re too late again. Only this afternoon I agreed to let Severus stay here for a while; he seems to be homeless again. I confess I am rather concerned for his welfare; he has become quite the vagabond of late, and what with Lupin staying here too, I feel, in the interests of your own safety, you should perhaps take up whatever other generous offers you have been made. I remain yours, Lucius Malfoy.”

Regulus stifled his fury; it would not do to be seen to have been thwarted again, or indeed snubbed, as the letter indicated, not in front of Bellatrix, not when she had Rastaban and Rodolphus with her. He wondered two things for now; the first was how owls managed to find him when he couldn’t even find the house himself without Kreacher’s help, although he suspected that answer lay within the owls themselves, the other was just what Bellatrix was doing here so early. He wished her owl hadn’t managed through; it would have been much more satisfying to learn that the vicious harpy was standing in a London street for hours on end waiting for Kreacher to come for her. Of course he could have left her there and pretended, but he needed information. He was beginning to regret having told the world at large, and Lucius in particular, that he was dead, and it had not escaped his notice that no one had seen fit to retract that; perhaps it was time for a resurrection.

‘Lucius Malfoy is becoming somewhat too clever for his handmade shoes,’ he murmured, half in invitation for her comment.

‘Maybe not,’ Rodolphus said, when Bellatrix had nothing more to offer than a twist of her lips. ‘His security leaves quite a lot to be desired, for one thing.’

‘How so?’ Regulus asked. ‘He never leaves the manor without Lupin. It’s really quite touching.’

‘Lupin teaches at his music school,’ Rodolphus scoffed. ‘He was there alone when Bella and I visited yesterday to look it over for our ‘nephew’.’

‘Have you got all the opening times now?’ Regulus asked.

‘Yes, it would be no problem to go to the manor and deal with Malfoy while Lupin is involved with his kiddies.’

‘Deal with Lucius? With Severus Snape on the premises? He would blast you and whomever you took with you to particles of dust without using his wand.’ Regulus gave him a pitying look and waved the scroll at him. ‘Anyway, you cretin, I need Lucius just now, not that I would expect you to understand.’

Regulus stood up and tapped the scroll across his hand. He had played a very close game so far; none of the others really knew the pivotal part Lucius Malfoy played in his plans. If he could just get the Potter boy somewhere under his own watchful eye he could go back to his long-term ambitions, away from this place, somewhere he could concentrate on sorting out the jumbled thoughts he was struggling with.

It had all been so neat and almost clinical before the waters had been muddied by the Potter boy being moved; all Regulus had really had to do was sit back like a grand master of a chess game while Lucius Malfoy moved the pieces that mattered within his control. He couldn’t deny that Malfoy appeared to be doing a decent job with Dumbledore; Andromeda had told him that Lucius had been approved to join the Board of Governors of Hogwarts next year, that was a very nice stepping stone to other things. Regulus smiled to himself, wondering how much it had cost the supercilious prick.

Now he needed to see Snape again; he needed to begin to bring him closer to him, but he dared not underestimate him, he was a tricky one to deal with. At least he was comfortable with the fact that Snape’s allegiance still lay with Voldemort; however he had tried to convey that he was answerable to no one but himself. Regulus had seen his loyalty to the Dark Lord for himself, under the influence of Veritaserum; even Severus Snape couldn’t resist spilling his secrets under that. He contented himself that it was time to begin to bring Snape into his plans and his confidence; the dark snake would understand better than anyone else the importance of getting Voldemort’s magic back from the boy, Regulus just hoped he would know how to.

He was going to write to him, tonight when he had the leisure and was alone; then again, perhaps the personal approach was better. He would wait a couple of days and let him settle in and go to see him; it would be better this time, now that he could dispense with the worry of whose side Snape was on.

*****

‘Regulus is here, Severus. He’s asking to see you,’ Lupin said as he pushed the door open on the interlinked Charmed rooms that Snape and Sirius had almost finished getting into some sort of order. Work on them had miraculously begun again when Snape returned from Hogwarts to find that Sirius had done nothing much at all to them in his absence. ‘He seems to be alone,’ he added.

‘Where’s Lucius?’ Snape asked as he donned his black frock coat before turning to the fairies, who sat at the corners of the huge wooden playpen he had given the boys to play in to keep them out of their feet. The fairies listened carefully, their little black eyes watching him and then watching the two boys, as they nodded their understanding.

‘He’s upstairs. It’s all right, he knows Regulus is here,’ Lupin replied as he followed Snape from the Charmed room, leaving Sirius casting an envious frown after them. ‘We’ll come back down here once I know you’ve got Regulus occupied.

They passed through one ruined room, which Andromeda had enchanted to make it look as though its dust hadn’t been disturbed for years, even the roof was partly open to the elements in the far corner, before opening a door onto the main east corridor in the hallway just beside the dining room. Of course the door could not be seen from the corridor side, and if it could have been one would have assumed it led into the dining room; it could hardly have led anywhere else. Lupin left Snape in the corridor and headed upstairs.

*****

Severus cautioned himself to maintain a balance. He needed to get Regulus to confide in him; he needed to move forward again. He needed to find the rest of Voldemort and destroy it before it had the opportunity to grow to full malignancy like the cancer it was.

‘Regulus,’ he nodded coolly, ignoring the proffered hand and sitting stiffly opposite him on the most uncomfortable chair in the whole manor. ‘To what do I owe the pleasure?’ he asked, managing to make it sound like a mortal insult as he warned himself again not to be any more standoffish.

Regulus dropped his hand to his side without losing composure, and settled back into his seat. ‘I felt it was time for another chat, Severus,’ he said. ‘We seemed not to move forward last time.’

‘And have you laced all of the cups in the manor with Veritaserum on the off chance that I offer you tea?’ Snape asked. ‘Not that I am going to.’

‘Come, come, Severus,’ Regulus replied disarmingly. ‘One has to be sure where the allegiance of those one intends to take into one’s confidence lie. We are both men of the world.’

Men of the world indeed, Severus snorted to himself in derision at the audacity of the man. ‘I shall give you, let us say, half an hour to present your case to me. After that I have reading to do and it will take something very interesting to keep me from it,’ he said, sitting back as best he could in the straight chair.

He listened carefully at first to Regulus, then found himself almost losing track of what he said as the fascination of identifying the times when Regulus was speaking and the times he seemed to be mouthing Voldemort’s ideals took over; he suspected Regulus did not even realise what was happening to himself. Once he began talking about Harry, Severus became much more attentive to his meticulously prepared manifesto, as Regulus confirmed to him what he already knew, that he had managed to preserve Voldemort’s awareness within himself.

‘What has any of this to do with me, Black?’ Severus asked.

‘It is not his awareness I need you for, Severus,’ Regulus replied, ‘it is his magic.’

‘I don’t understand,’ Snape admitted. ‘You must know where his remains are. Why not take his magic the same way you took his mind?’

‘His magic isn’t in his remains,’ Regulus said and held Snape’s eyes for a brief troubled moment. ‘It is inside Harry Potter.’

‘I see,’ Severus said quietly, as he finally realised the danger Harry was in. Without Voldemort’s magic, Regulus Black was just another tyrant standing on a soapbox made of sand. ‘I had wondered at your desire to know where the boy was. Have you found him yet?’

‘No, but he will not stay lost for long,’ Regulus replied. ‘I’m sure Dumbledore will know where he is, and the people I have in Hogwarts are in his trust.’

‘Perhaps he has gone back to wherever he was before your brother moved him?’ Snape asked, pleased to see that remark seemed to lull Regulus further into a sense of security that Snape had not known who had taken the boy from his aunt’s house.

‘No,’ Regulus replied. ‘Vernon Dursley would have told me if he had him back.’

It took Severus enormous effort not to freeze at Dursley’s name as it rushed through his head, threatening to poison his mind as it went. ‘Dursley?’ he managed to ask. ‘Who is that?’

‘The boy’s uncle. He’s a Muggle, the husband of Lily Evans’s sister,’ Regulus replied. ‘He is unimportant.’

Severus felt the little push on his mind, the telltale sign that Voldemort had seen something that Regulus hadn’t. He carefully shut his own mind down, smoothing the edges to make sure they could not get picked away. ‘What would you have me do? If you do not have the boy, how am I supposed to find him? I am not in Dumbledore’s confidence any more than you are.’

‘But Lucius is,’ Regulus replied. ‘And the werewolf probably. Anyway, that is not your problem, Severus; I shall find the boy. My reason for coming here was really to bring you up to speed on what no one else knows.’

‘Why?’ Severus asked, and once again he felt Voldemort trying to gauge him.

‘I need to know you’re in this, Severus,’ Regulus replied and this time it was Severus who pushed his own mind to try to find Regulus’s.

It was a mess, a turmoil of doubts and confidence and fear and foolhardiness, all competing with one another for supremacy. Snape decided to play the card he had hoped he could use, the one that would trump Regulus without him being aware that he was handing the control of part of his game to another. ‘You want me to help you push him back into his place, Regulus, don’t you?’ he asked with his version of smile. ‘You’re afraid he’s gaining control of you and you need my help to keep him in check. Quite apart from that is the fact that you have not got the first idea of how to take the magic from the Potter boy, when we find him, and metamorphose with it. How am I doing so far?’

It was the first time Snape had seen Regulus look unsure of himself since James Potter had died, but he recovered quickly. ‘Very good, Snape. Now, are you in?’

‘I have a question of my own first,’ Severus replied. ‘How did you manage the first transmutation? I mean, how did you actually go about taking his mind?’

‘I didn’t. The Dark Lord used the last drop of magic he had doing it himself,’ Regulus replied. ‘He didn’t even leave enough to control me. Such a pity,’ he said tragically.

Snape smiled thinly again. He wanted to finish this now; he had a lot to think about and none of it was good. He stood up from the straight-backed chair with some relief. ‘Very well, Black,’ he said. ‘Let me know when you find the boy, and if I’m still around I’ll have a look at what I can do.’

‘And that’s it?’ Regulus asked, standing too.

‘Oh, no. You have not given me time to think of my own terms and conditions,’ he said. ‘But do not worry; I shall get around to it.’

‘One other thing, Snape,’ Regulus said. ‘Perhaps it may be wise to keep Lucius in the dark for the time being. Just in case he accidentally lets something slip to Dumbledore; he’s not the brightest star in the firmament.’

That made Severus angry for some reason he couldn’t think of; he turned it back to Regulus. ‘Perhaps you should be more careful of whom you recruit in that case,’ he said coolly; it would have to do, it was the best he could think of. ‘How do I get in touch with you? Where are you staying?’

‘In Grimmauld Place,’ Regulus replied, watching for his reaction.

‘That dump?’ Snape didn’t bother to disappoint him. He looked pointedly round the lavish but elegantly faded luxury of Lucius’s drawing room with a superior smirk on his face that he knew would annoy Regulus. ‘How on earth did you get under Dumbledore’s Charm?’ he asked. ‘I confess to being impressed.’

‘It was magic,’ Regulus replied, smiling in what he must have assumed was supremacy at last.

Snape watched him, wondering why he didn’t just kill him there and then, but his revenge would somehow feel incomplete, and he needed to check that what he had said about Harry was true. If he killed Regulus now and it was not; he knew he would never find Voldemort.

‘Where is the rest of him, Black?’ he asked.

‘Quite safe, I assure you.’

*****