One Day They'll Know Your Name

Brothers by name

He slowly took a breath. Maybe he'd escaped notice for a little longer. The sounds upstairs had stopped again. Then the doorknob turned.

"Shit shit shit shit shit," he muttered, quickly going around to grab the books scattered everywhere. Maybe if he cleaned up enough he wouldn't be found. The door opened and he looked up to see Sirius looking at him in shock and panic.

"Uh. Hi?" he stuttered.

Sirius just stared back before shaking his head and blinking. "Reggie? No you're dead, you can't be him. You must just be someone who looks like him. Wait, how did you get in here? There are wards!" Sirius all but fell back onto the staircase behind him, eyes wide and head clutched tightly in his hands.

He gave a shy chuckle. "No, uh, it's me. The one and only, or however you used to say it."

"What the fuck, Regulus!? You've been dead for almost fourteen years!!"

"Surprise?" Regulus' grin widened as Sirius growled.

"Get your scrawny ass up here, I'm not stepping foot in that basement ever again if I can help it."

A few minutes later, they were sitting at the kitchen table. Sirius handed Regulus a cup of tea. "Drink up, then I have some questions, starting with how the fuck you're alive when you're supposed to be dead." Sirius sipped his own tea and watched as Regulus drank.

After the cup was empty, Regulus showed it to Sirius. "Shall I wait a moment to really let the Veritaserum work?"

"No need, it works immediately. What is your full name and birthdate?"

"Regulus Arcturus Black, September 21, 1961."

"What was Orion's favorite speech to give whenever we did anything slightly against his and Walburga's wishes?"

"The Noble and Ancient House of Black is one of the most prestigious families in magical Britain. We are the epitome of class, refinement, prosperity, honor, and respect, and we deserve every ounce of it. Especially from our own family members." Regulus paused. "I always tuned out after that."

Sirius snorted. "I tuned out sooner, so good on you. Now, what did you call Narcissa when we were kids?"

"Cousin Cissy."

"Ok. Now that I'm assured that you aren't just someone who somehow managed to steal Reggie's face permanently and only pretend to drink the tea, do you mean any harm to Harry Potter?"

"No."

"Are you a Death Eater?"

"No."

"Do you have the Dark Mark?"

"Yes."

"Why did you turn from the dark side?"

"The Dark Lord hurt Kreacher."

"Would you serve the Dark Lord again if you had the option?"

"No."

Sirius sat back and Regulus let out a breath he didn't know he was holding. He blinked at the vial of potion Sirius handed him.

"It's the antidote. I'm satisfied you won't hurt Harry or go back to Quirrelmort again, so the rest of our conversation can happen normally. I still have a lot of questions, but I don't want to force some of the answers out of you if you don't want to talk about them."

Regulus breathed a sigh of relief and drank the potion. "Who's Quirrelmort?"

Sirius laughed hoarsely. "Old Snakeface decided to possess Harry's first year DADA professor. The two faces really freaked Harry out."

Regulus shivered. "It'd have freaked me out too. What do you want to know?"

"Well mostly I want to know how you 'died' and then obviously survived." Sirius looked at Regulus for a moment. "The short version would be best I think."

Regulus took a deep breath and launched into the story. Voldemort ordering him to provide him with an elf. Kreacher taking him to a cave where the elf was forced to drink a Draught of Despair. Only making it out alive because Regulus had ordered him to come home when he was done. Regulus going back and drinking the potion himself to get whatever it was that was so important because anyone who hurt Kreacher didn't deserve to keep his trinkets. Drinking the potion himself and ordering Kreacher to take the trinket and go. Regulus trying to get to the pool to drink something, anything. Kreacher coming back just as he reached the water and the Inferi came out to kill him.

Sirius didn't say anything for a long moment, staring at Regulus. "I'm sorry," he finally said. "You shouldn't have had to go through that, especially not alone. I'm sorry I couldn't be there for you after that summer."

Regulus shook his head. "Walburga crossed a line she should have never even touched. I'm just lucky she never found out about Barty and me. I still don't know how. We weren't that subtle."

Sirius looked uncomfortable for a moment and Regulus winced internally. He shouldn't have brought up his Hogwarts days boyfriend who tortured and almost killed Sirius' friends.

"Yeah, you weren't. Walburga never found out because she found out about me and Remus first. And I also told one of Barty's friends to tell him to make sure you guys were more subtle before you got caught and got a beating like I did."

Regulus gaped at Sirius for a moment. "You what? Why didn't you just tell me?!"

Sirius grinned wryly at him. "Would you have believed me? I avoided you most of the time, and Walburga was never as hard on you as she was on me, for good reason. There was a reason I never seemed to like you, brother." He looked away, clearing his throat and reaching for his tea. "If she knew half the things you got up to in your Hogwarts days she would have skinned your hide almost as much as she did mine."

Regulus opened his mouth only to snap it closed. He studied his brother for a moment, noticing how he never quite met his eyes. "How many punishments did you take for me?" he asked softly.

Sirius exhaled sharply. "I didn't take any for you. Everything I was punished for was for my own misdemeanors. Maybe I made those 'mistakes' visible so she wouldn't catch you, but all of them were my own that I was already doing. What she did to us..." he cut off suddenly, taking a long gulp of tea. "No child should have to deal with that," he finished in a whisper. "But you especially shouldn't have. You were the younger brother, and I chose to protect you as best as I could. Harry shouldn't have had to either. I hated seeing him after we heard we had to go to the Dursleys for the summer. It was like all the hope had just seeped out of him."

Regulus stood up suddenly and Sirius flinched, only to relax when Regulus sat down next to him and pulled him into a hug. "Thank you," he whispered. "It's good to know you don't hate me and never did. Now, tell me about Harry. I'll tell you everything I can about Ol' Snakeface, but that can wait, for at least an afternoon. We've been talking about too much heavy stuff."

Sirius had been hugging Regulus back, but he suddenly straightened at the mention of his godson. "Harry! Wormtail is probably at the school right now!" His eyes got dark. "If that rat hurts my godson," he growled, "he'll have way less of a a fake death to worry about."