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Kreacher is Bringing News


To the Acting Minister for Magic, Bartemius Crouch,
A letter from Voldemort, the Dark Lord Reigning:
I have your Minister. Should you wish to have him returned to you, you will heed my demands:
First the Dark Lord demands that a registry for the Muggle Born witches and wizards be put into place. I wish to know exactly who is pure of blood and who is not.
Once this wish is obeyed, I shall send you my next demand.
Until then, I enclose a small token of my… appreciation for your cooperation...
A piece of the Minister.
Sincerely.


The letter was attached to a box. And in the box was the finger of Harold Minchum.

Bartemius Crouch had received word of the grotesque bit of mail from his security team, who had submitted the finger to experts that could tell if it was truly Harold Minchum’s filange and they’d concluded beyond reasonable doubt that it had indeed once belonged to the Minister’s hand. They presented Barty Crouch with the letter.

Barty Crouch sat in the Minister’s office, his face twitching unhappily at this news. “A registry! For the muggle borns?” He thought about the implications of such a motion, of the logistics, of the time it would take to overhaul an entire system, and create a registry. It would take months - maybe even years - before the Ministry could possibly be expected to have completed such a task… He rubbed his forehead slowly.

“They’re certain it was the Minister’s finger?” he asked.

“Yes sir. They’re certain,” replied the Auror who had delivered the message.

Barty drew a deep breath. What harm could it be to indulge at least this much? A registry was not the end of the world, it would not hurt anyone to be registered. It might even come in handy to know one day! And if it got the Minister for Magic released back to them, then they had to do it. He folded the letter and looked up at the auror.

“Get me somebody from the Muggle Welfare and Liaison Office,” he said.

“Yes sir, right away sir,” and the Auror ducked away quickly.




Regulus Black lay in the dark in his bed, his fingers wrapped tight around the medallion that Maryrose Jenkins had given to him for his birthday… He had been laying in his bed for some time, though he did not dare to sleep for the nightmares that had been plaguing him. Instead, he lay there, staring up at the ceiling overhead and trying desperately to distract himself from the horrible images he was too afraid to close his eyes for.

CRACK!

Kreacher stood upon the end of Regulus’s bed and he bowed exceedingly low, his nose nearly touching the sheets beneath his wide, elfish feet. “Master Regulus, Kreacher is bringing news.”

“You found her?” Regulus hissed, sitting up quickly, barely a sparing a glance to see if the others were disturbed by his excitement, “Where is she, Kreacher? Where’s Maryrose? Quickly!”

“Kreacher is not knowing exactly the place that Master Regulus’s friend is at, but Kreacher has overheard that she is being kept in a cave, just as Kreacher thought before! The Dark Lord has told Kreacher’s Mistress he has put the girl in the cave and there are others that the Dark Lord is keeping there, he is telling Mistress! Kreacher knew this was important for Master Regulus to know and Kreacher is here now, only moments after the Dark Lord has said this to Kreacher’s Mistress! Kreacher is trying to find the cave for Master Regulus, but Kreacher is not knowing where the cave is yet! But Master’s friend is in the cave!”

Regulus’s heart throbbed in his chest. Maryrose was being kept - she was being kept, that must mean she was alive! She was being kept with others - perhaps she was with the MInister for Magic, whose whereabouts were still unknown according to the Daily Prophet. He needed to know where this cave was, he needed to know as quickly as possible so that he could tell James Potter and they could go and rescue Maryrose Jenkins and anybody else that she might be with as well. They could save Maryrose and the others that the Dark Lord had locked up.

But mainly Maryrose.

“Thank you Kreacher. Thank you. Please, tell me the moment you find out anything at all about that cave. Anything!” Regulus said, excitedly.

“Yes, Master Regulus,” Kreacher bowed lowly and disapparated with a crack!

He sat in the dark, desperately trying to think of any caves at all that he might know of, but of course he could think of none. He glanced about the room, at the other boys, who were all fast asleep. None had been disturbed by Kreacher’s visit, except Barty, who had rolled over at the sound of Kreacher’s appearance, but hadn’t actually woken up. None of them would’ve been willing to help him think up caves, anyway, even if they were awake, he thought. He needed somebody that could help him think of caves… Normally, he would’ve gone to Maryrose with something like this, the very first thing in the morning, but seeing as it was Maryrose who he was trying to help, that wasn’t going to work.

”If you need anything at all, don’t hesitate to come to me.”

The words echoed in Regulus’s mind. Of course. James Potter. James would help him think of caves. And if they looked in the library at books about caves, perhaps they might find one and they could summons Kreacher and Kreacher could take them and they could go and rescue Maryrose and she’d be okay and they’d be heroes. Well, James would be a hero again, seeing as he already was one on account of the MInchum girl. They’d be heroes and Maryrose would be be home.

He got so excited that he couldn’t wait. He had to move now. It was nearly five in the morning, soon everyone would be getting up to go to breakfast, just another hour or so, and he was too excited to wait here in the dungeons. Besides, if he waited he’d have to catch James in the Great Hall and then everyone would see what he was doing and ask questions - Mulciber and Snape and the lot of them - but if he went now, nobody would need to know.

Hurriedly, Regulus crawled out of bed and he ran to his trunk and changed his clothes, draping his Slytherin tie about his neck without doing it up yet and only half tucking in his shirt. He carried his shoes and tiptoed out in his stocking feet to be extra quiet, and snuck out the door of the dormitory, pulling the door shut carefully behind him so as not to wake any of the others. He ran down the stairs and across the common room, glancing to the fireplace to be sure Snape wasn’t sitting in his usual perch, but Severus wasn’t there. He snuck out the door and into the corridor, and ran the rest of the way through the castle, up the stair, and to the corridor in the highest peak of Gryffindor tower, waitin by the stairs that he knew the Gryffindors came down, since he didn’t know exactly where their common room door was located.

And there he waited.




Severus Snape was not in front of the fireplace, Severus Snape was searching the castle for the dusty room he’d seen in James Potter’s mind. It had to be there somewhere. He logicked about where in the castle would afford an angle for the moonlight to come in like it had in James’s mind and he’d concluded with a few specific corridors and he’d gone through and pushed every door along them open - getting excited when he found one that was locked only to find it was one of Filch’s broom cupboards and, although it was dusty and filled up with cobwebs, was not the room he was searching for.

He was getting frustrated. He wanted to go to Dumbledore with his knowledge about Sirius Black - surely Dumbledore would expel him for good this time when he found out that Sirius Black was a bleedin’ werewolf! - but he needed evidence that Dumbledore could see, something more than the promise that he’d seen it in James Potter’s mind. He needed the room where Sirius Black went to change.

And so he searched and searched and when the morning sunlight was coming through the windows instead of the moon, he sighed in frustration and decided that he would continue his search the next night (and the next after that if that’s what was needed), and he went back to his common room, promising himself that he would prove Sirius Black was a werewolf and that the Marauders were working together to hide it and he’d figure out what the secret about this black shaggy dog was, too.

He climbed in bed back in the dungeons and imagined Sirius Black and James Potter both getting in trouble - for being a werewolf and for assisting to hide an unregistered werewolf - and he grinned at the thought that maybe, finally, after all these years, he’d be rid of them once and for all.




“Here, Rey, I dunno where this jumper came from - my mum probably sent it at some point - but the arms are way too long for me, you want it?” James held up a brand new sweater, tags still on and everything.

Remus had been just about to tug on the slowly going threadbare Christmas sweater from two years ago that James had given him - the one with the wolves across the chest, and he’d been complaining that people were going to make comments on them, and Sirius was sitting on one of the desks, telling him that he’d beat up anyone that made any comment at all (“don’t care if they’re bigger than me or anything, Moonpie, I’ll tear’em limb from limb!”). He took the jumper James held out to him and inspected it. “This is brand new,” he declined, trying to hand it back, “Why don’t you send it back and your mum can exchange it for one that fits you?”

James shook his head, “No, Moony, she never remembers to keep receipts and it’s been since before holiday, they won’t exchange it now. Besides, it would hurt her feelings if I sent it back. Go on and wear it, it’ll keep you warm and it doesn’t have any wolves on it.”

Remus looked the sweater over - it was exactly the same grey as Sirius’s eyes, his favorite colour, and the fabric was so much softer and warmer than that old worn out one he had now… so he smiled and said, “Well gee, thanks James. I s’pose your misfortune is my gain!” and he happily tugged the jumper on over his head. It was the first new jumper he’d got since the year James had given him the other one and it fit him much better than his old ones, which were tighter and a bit short ‘round the sleeves. This one’s sleeves came a little over his wrist and he liked that, he could even tuck his fingers into the sleeves if he wanted to! And it was so warm! He happily hugged himself in the fabric and grinned over at James in appreciation.

“Looks great, Moony!” James said enthusiastically.

Peter smiled as he got dressed, guessing that James probably knew perfectly well where that jumper had come from, but knowing Remus Lupin was far too proud to accept random new jumpers as gifts (charity) that James had come up with a creative way of delivering it to him. Peter felt proud that his best mate was so thoughtful, and stared up at James in admiration as he struggled at making the knots in his Gryffindor tie.

Sirius was still in his Return to Remus Lupin t-shirt, but he’d sort of half combed his hair, which was an improvement on his recent morning routine, which Remus noticed and was glad for. Putting in even a half-hearted effort meant that Sirius was feeling at least a little bit more like himself now that he and James were speaking again, though neither had actually apologized just yet, and things were still in that awkward early stage, but it was getting better every minute and perhaps soon Sirius would completely break out of his funk… Remus could only hope because after all the reading he’d done the only conclusion he’d been able to draw about Sirius and his condition was the term major depression, and the only treatment he could find was talk therapy and medication and seeing as Sirius refused to accept help from anyone, it didn’t seem like there was much to be done. So it made Remus happy that James was back in the picture, and he hoped it meant Sirius would be back to his normal self soon…

They just needed for nothing to mess it up and it would all be alright.

But it happened on the way down to the Great Hall, as they made their way down the corridor, laughing as they did impressions of the dementors being chased about by various patronuses and making fun of the cloaked figures, when Regulus Black appeared in their path, standing up from the plinth he’d been sitting on in front of one of the suits of armor that lined the hall. “James!” Regulus said excitedly when he saw him coming.

Sirius’s eyes narrowed at the sight of his brother. “Oi, I thought I told you to fuck off, Reg?” he demanded, stepping up and jabbing his fingers against his brother’s shoulders hard enough that Regulus staggered backward a couple steps. “You aren’t wanted.”

“I’m nto here to see you,” Regulus said. “I’m here to see James.”

“Sirius, it’s alright,” James said, flushing, “I told him if he needed help with the Maryrose thing that I’d… I’d help him.”

Sirius stared at James for a moment, clearly debating if this was worth fighting over again, and he sighed and said, “Fine. I’m going downstairs,” and he roughly shoved past Regulus and continued on down the hall.

Remus sighed and went after him, tucking his hands into the sleeves of the grey sweater a he went.

“Go on, Pete, I’ll catch you lot up in a minute,” James said to Peter, and Peter, needing no further encouragement to go to where the food was, took off running after the other two. James turned to Regulus. “Kreacher found her?” he asked eagerly.

Regulus was rubbing the spot where Sirius had jabbed him. “Yeah, well, sort of,” he said, turning to James, “He overheard something and I thought maybe you could help me think of where it could be.”

“Sure, what’s he heard?” James and Regulus were walking slowly down the hall, following the boys at a great distance.

“Well, he’s heard the Dark Lord mention a cave to Mother,” Regulus said, “And they’re keeping Maryrose there, along with some others. I’m thinking one of the others might be Harold Minchum.”

“Blimey,” James murmured.

“But I dunno where the cave is. Neither does Kreacher.” Regulus said, “If we knew, we could go and save her, but I can’t think of any caves. Do you know of any?”

James rubbed his chin, “Well, in third year, when Fenrir Greyback kidnapped us, there was a cave up in the mountain here that they took us to, Peter and I, but I think that got mostly blasted out in the battle - dunno if enough of it still exists to really be right for that…” he mused.

“I just hate that she’s in a cave,” Regulus said sadly. “I hate the idea of it. Maryrose doesn’t belong anywhere as dismal as a cave. She doesn’t. She’s far too beautiful for a dark, drippy, horrible cave.” He shivered at the thought of it, picturing her crying against a damp old rock with her brightly coloured hair…

“She likes caves, though, she’s explored through them before… Last summer, at her birthday party, she and I snuck away to this old cave down the beach from her house and --” he stopped. He stopped talking and walking, he just froze there in the corridor and Regulus stopped, too, and stared up at him with wide eyes and James stammered, “The inferius. There were inferius in the water… she said the cave was rumored haunted… that nobody ever went there.. She used ot play there as a kid, though, and she brought me with her… we were, uh, meaning to have a bit of a snog in there but then the inferius grabbed my ankle and bloody hell, what if… what if Voldemort --- yeah… and then… I mean it is a cave… oh bloody hell.”

Regulus was staring up at James. “You know how to get to it?”

“It’s easy enough. Just going to her house then down the beach,” James answered.

Regulus’s voice was suddenly quite regal, “Kreacher!” he called.

And with a CRACK!, the house elf appeared there in the corridor bowing. “Yes, Master Regulus, sir?”

“Kreacher, I command you to take James and I to Maryrose Jenkins’s house,” Regulus said. He looked at James, “Tell him where it is.”

And so James told the elf, who grabbed their hands, and with a CRACK! they were gone.