Chapter 1
The sun had set hours ago, Regulus had sat in this darkened hallway waiting since long before then. He was waiting to find out what his assignment was, which commander he would be under for his first few months under the ministry's side of the fight. He already knew he'd be heading to the training for the front lines, that's what the Dark Lord had told him before he left for this mission. He had been fighting for the death eaters since he was 15 years old, learning how to since he was 12.
Right after his brother left, Regulus’s parents decided his time would be better spent with other pure blood children learning ways to defend a better way. He had learned from the best, the Dark Lord, and some of the older members who trained the kids. Regulus was always told how his brother was a failure and a traitor for defecting to the other side.
He hadn't seen Sirius since that night, only heard things about him, when he was 15 he found out his brother had become a high ranking general for the other side. It was a few weeks after the Dark Lord had marked Regulus, and his parents were out celebrating his becoming an official follower.
They had chosen him for this mission because no one on the other side would recognize him, most likely not even his own brother. it had been over ten years now, Sirius would be 24 and he was 22. His job was to get intel and smuggle it back to the others. with his skill level they were confident he would quickly climb the ranks and secure a position of power. so he could destroy them from the inside out.
Regulus was pulled from his thoughts by a tall man, walking down the hall, he wore black robes that made him almost disappear in the darkness of the hallway. "Regulus Arcturus?" The man spoke.
"Yes, sir."
"Come with me."
The man turned and began to walk off, Regulus was quick to follow behind him. They walked silently through the halls and up the stairs. "We are going to meet with your new commanding officer, General Potter, you will refer to him as General or Sir. You'll be with him the entirety of your entry training" The man stopped, just before turning down a hallway. "Here we are, good luck, we thank you for your service"
With that the man left Regulus, standing alone. Regulus took a deep breath, pushing down his nerves, and entered the room.
Inside there was a single desk and chair. The walls were lined with weapons and maps. A large bookshelf sat behind the desk, the only other thing in the room besides the chair. Regulus was shocked at the size, this office was so small, nothing like he was expecting. but he kept his face calm, and scanned the maps, they looked like old battle maps scuffed and stained with blood. James Potter sat at the desk, reading a file. "General, sir. I'm Regulus Arcturus"
"Please sit." Regulus did as told, taking the chair across from James. "I was wondering when you'd get here, the rest of your squad is already out getting things ready."
"I'm from far away, so it took a while to get things in order." Regulus said
James hummed, reading a part of the file again. "This is your file, it seems rather empty regarding you and your family. Care to explain?"
Regulus was quick to think, he knew the Dark Lord wouldn't want his name and ties to the death eaters known, but he couldn't make it look suspicious. "My father was an auror before he died. He and my mother were killed in the war. When I was 15."
"How tragic." James said Regulus could tell it was genuine. "and your brother, what is his name?"
"he's dead so it doesn't matter" he lied.
"I have a brother, we were inseparable when we were younger. It seems recently we've not been able to be that way, I miss him dearly. I'm sorry you lost yours." James looked at Regulus.
Regulus had a pang of guilt, but shook it away. This was for the greater good, the light side must fall. "I was hoping we could work on getting things done, Sir. The faster we do that the sooner we can bring an end to this war." he said to him. Regulus was ready for it to all be over, he was tired, but he wouldnt rest until he found his brother, and the dark lord finally won.
"Right, let's get out to the training fields, you'll meet the rest of your crew and then I'll show you back to the barracks" James closed the file and stood, Regulus following.
James led Regulus down a flight of stairs, through the base, and into the training grounds. They went past the regular training field and into a forest, Regulus was shocked at how dark it was, he could hardly see where he was going. After a few minutes they reached a clearing. There was a circle drawn on the ground, and a small fire was set in the middle. Regulus could see a group of people standing around.
He knew that he would meet the others, before heading off to rest and then training the next morning., but he didnt expect there to be so few of them, maybe most of them had already gone off to bed. There was no way they could fight with this number of fighters. "Alright men, I need you all to stand here, this is our newest member, give him a good welcome and show him the ropes" James ordered.
The group of men walked closer, and Regulus noticed a few of them, one of the men Regulus knew, Christopher was the name of one, he vaguely could recognize one or two of the others as well from his childhood. but they didn't recognize him. He could see they were all armed, but it seemed more of a precaution. He gripped his own wand in his pocket, ready to draw it in a moment's notice if he needed to.
"Welcome to the group, we've all been together for a while now, and we'd love to have you. Just remember, you're our team, and we've got your back." one man spoke. "What's your name?" one of them asked.
"Regulus," he answered. "And who are you all?"
"My name is Christopher, this is Frank, Alice, and mary." one of the men said, pointing to each person as he named them.
Regulus nodded, staying silent, the others all seemed nice, and he had heard about a few of them from his father. "So, where are the rest of the soldiers?" Regulus asked.
The four people in front of him tensed, and exchanged glances, "we are the rest of the soldiers" Mary said, her tone was sad.
Regulus's mind whirred. "Are you telling me, there's only six of us going to the front lines? That's suicide."
"That's war," Frank stated.
Regulus looked around, the other four looked somber, but still had hope, the fire in their eyes burned. He saw the way they moved, the way they stood, the way they spoke. They were experienced. They'd survive the war, if anyone could, it was these soldiers. He'd need to find their weaknesses, report the low numbers, The death eaters had been pushing the marauders lines back for quite some time now, maybe this was the reason why.
"So, what are we doing here so late at night? Why is everything so dark? We can hardly see anything."
"This is the forest, where as a part of the marauders, we work mostly in stealth. If you can hide and attack from afar you have a better chance at survival. Distance is what we use mostly, The death eaters mainly use hand to hand and close combat with their soldiers. So we're the only ones that can keep them back, and give the other troops time to attack." James explained to him.
"I was under the impression, we'd be attacking the front lines" Regulus said
"Well, you are," Frank answered.
"We attack at night, when the death eaters are tired. When they're on watch the numbers are smaller, and they're less likely to see us coming. It gives us the advantage, and keeps as many soldiers alive as we can." Mary explained.
Regulus nodded, explaining why patrol soldiers download in numbers so often, they would need to prepare them better, and study more distance spell blocking combat styles in order to snuff out this attack plan they had. He'd need to keep all of this in mental notes. He couldn't afford to leave a paper trail and get caught.
"We've got a big day tomorrow, so we should all get some rest," Alice said.
Everyone nodded, and Regulus followed the rest of them back to the base. They passed the infirmary and the mess hall, the group split up in the hallway and went to there, Potter was still with them, with him being the head of the group he didn't understand why he was staying with them and not preparing battle orders, or other work officials needed to do during wartime.
"Where do I sleep?" Regulus asked, hoping he could get Potter out of the area, and get time to snoop, find a map or a list of important officers. See where his brother was deployed and work his way to getting there.
"Down the hall, second door on the left." James told him.
Regulus nodded and headed down the hallway, the barracks were simple, a bed, dresser, and a trunk for his belongings. He opened the trunk, and set his few belongings inside. He kept his wand in his pocket. He couldn't afford to let his guard down at all. He brought a small notepad, some coded letters, and ink and quill with him.
"Regulus," James called out.
"Yes?" Regulus asked, stepping back out of his room.
"You look familiar," James said, studying him.
"Maybe we met before." Regulus tried to joke.
James gave him a smile, "yeah maybe, but I can never forget a face" he paused. "You look like someone I know. Someone I care about."
Regulus's mind started to race, he knew James was talking about his brother. there was no one else he could be talking about, he wasn't going to ask him anything about it. not wanting to draw more attention to it, he had no idea he looked so much like Sirius. He thought of the best way to respond, "well, I can't wait to meet him, he sounds like a great guy"
"Yeah, you remind me of him, you both have the same fire. The same determination and bravery" James smiled fondly.
"What's his name?"
"Sirius," James was silent for a moment. Regulus could tell he was thinking of his brother, and it made him feel guilty.
"Well, I hope I can be as good of a soldier as him," Regulus said.
James nodded, and turned to leave. "Get some sleep, we start training at first light."
"Goodnight." Regulus called.
Regulus headed back into his room, closing the door behind him. He was glad Potter didn't recognize him, or that if he did he did not say anything. He couldn't wait to get this mission over with.
He sat on the bed, pulling his quill and ink and a notepad from his pockets. He needed to write a message, to let the death eaters know what was going on, and about the small numbers they would have to fight. And wrote out his report, slipping it to an owl to carry off to the dark lord.