The Search Is Over

Chapter 45

A few evenings later Regulus received surprise visitors at Doge's. He and Kreacher had just returned from hunting down Regulus's evening meal which happened to be a Muggle crime boss. Regulus had just finished brushing his teeth when Doge tapped on the door of the bedroom he and Kreacher shared.

"Regulus, you have visitors! Severus Snape, his young lady and their owl. They are in the parlor," he called through the door.

Regulus and Kreacher exchanged a curious look.

"Thank you," Regulus called back. "We shall be right down."

Hastily he checked his reflection in the mirror, then ran an ornate silver comb through his hair as it had gotten a little windblown from being out in the night air. The comb was a Christmas gift from his Mum on his twelfth birthday, and it meant much to have it, along with all of his belongings, back in his life again. Now that his mother was gone, the comb, in particular, was high in the ranks of his most prized possessions.

Doge was waiting at the bottom of the stairs, and handed Regulus a small packet.

"A treat for the owl," he said with a pleasant smile.

Regulus nodded, recalling that Snape had an owl with him the last time they'd met at Hogwarts.

When he and Kreacher entered the parlor they found Severus Snape seated on a long comfortable looking sofa beside a pretty young woman who looked somehow familiar. She was tall and willowy with large quiet green eyes and long wavy dark red hair that fell soft and straight to her waist. She wore green robes and a silver silk scarf in her hair, so Regulus took her to be a former Slytherin. A large white owl sat on the sofa behind the two, looking quite as if he belonged there like a living bit of ornamentation.

As he and Kreacher came further into the room, Regulus found himself scrambling to remember where he'd seen the red head before. Then it came to him. She was seated beside Severus at dinner the night he and Kreacher had their first meeting with Wolfgang at Hogwarts. From their evident closeness then and the fact that there wasn't even a millimeter of space between them on the sofa now, it appeared the two were a couple. That was a surprise in itself, because Severus had never liked anyone enough to dance with them much less date them! Many of their mutual school friends joked that Severus only dated books.

Perhaps this young lady was as interesting as a book, though. He recalled from a comment Sabra Zabini had made that she was the one who made the crystal wands, and she had made one for Grindelwald. Her name was Mag.

Curious to test her mental defenses, Regulus did a brief scan of her mind which told him two things. The first was that her mental shields weren't bad at all, if obviously no match for a vampire. The second was that she was the daughter of two other people that he knew. Heather and Raislen WestCraven were former Slytherins Regulus had liked quite a lot. Raislen's family had the biggest library he'd ever seen. He was always bringing interesting books to Hogwarts. A friendly sort, Raislen never minded allowing a fellow bibliophile to borrow one if he promised to be very careful.

Raislen, and fellow book enthusiast Heather Knight, now WestCraven, were three years older than Regulus. As such they'd graduated by the time he was in his fifth year, and he was sad to see the influx of rare books end. The two had been very good friends with Severus, at least until Snape chose to become a Death Eater. Severus had shared his bitterness over their ending of the friendship with Regulus more than once during their final years at Hogwarts.

Despite popular belief, not all Slytherins were keen to follow Voldemort, and theirs with Severus wasn't the only friendship to end over allegiances. It appeared they had worked all of that out, though. The fact that former school friends, even those three years older, had fully grown children made Regulus feel a bit old...At least for a moment.