The Passanger
Breakfast was a relatively somber affair. Sirius kept looking at the door. Willow and Pandora were talking quietly, while Lily and Tara read.
“They’re late.” Sirius announced for the twentieth time. “Do you think something’s happened? Has Reggie had a relapse? I'm going to check on them.”
“Finish your breakfast first.” Remus suggested putting another slice of buttered toast on Sirius’s plate. “If they’re not here by then we’ll go and check,”
Sirius had just swallowed the last bite when the door opened. Remus released a silent sigh of relief. He been surprised when Regulus hadn’t shown up promptly at nine, with or without James, but looking at them now he got the feeling that neither had wanted to leave the bubble they’d created.
Sirius threw himself across the room, knocking Regulus back into James who stumbled and almost smashed his head against the still open door, landing on the other side instead. Regulus retaliated by hurling Sirius back the way he came. Remus caught him before he landed on the breakfast table.
“What was that for?” Sirius demanded.
Regulus ignored him and turned to James who sat sprawled in the hallway.. “You okay?” He asked quietly, concern flooding his voice.
“Had worse.” James grimaced. “My tender parts weren’t quite ready for such a hard landing.”
“I had to make sure you were thoroughly awake before we came down to breakfast.” Regulus said with a straight face, though his eyes sparkled.
James grinned and accepted the offered hand, blushing slightly when he heard Remus snort. “Bloody werewolves. Listening in on private conversations.” He muttered knowing Remus could hear him.
“Reggie. Why did you do that?” Sirius asked again
With James standing, Regulus turned and glared at his brother.
“You need to ask permission.” Pandora answered from where she sat on the couch. “He doesn’t react well to unsolicited acts of affection. Violent or otherwise.”
“But James?”
“Is right here,” James said cheerfully and threw his arms around his adopted brother in an enormous hug before ruffling Sirius’s hair in a manner he knew Sirius hated.
“My hair! You sod! That took ages to get right this morning,”
Tara, watching with an amused expression, burst out laughing. She’d never met such a vain yet generous person before. And James knew exactly how to utilize that when required.
“Don’t suppose there’s any toast or pastries left?” James asked plaintively. “I’m starving.”
“Over by the window.” Lily replied. “Once you’ve both eaten we need to finalise our stories for Monty, check out of the hotel, and take our passenger back home.”
The two late comers made their way to the window and ate their fill. James was very careful not to brush up against Regulus at every opportunity, despite Regulus deliberately standing where he’d have to do so. Sirius watched the byplay confused. “Regulus, why are you baiting James? You know he’s terribly tactile, and you’re the complete opposite. You’re not playing nice.”
“Because I can.” Regulus said, as he leant against the window sill and sipped his coffee. A small piece of toast beside him.
“James, leave the mean boy alone and come and give the brother who loves you a cuddle “ Sirius said, opening his arms wide.
Regulus ate the last of his toast and licked his fingers, his face impassive, eyes alight with amusement as he watched James struggling not to respond to his blatant teasing. James tossed his head and sat in front of Sirius who pulled him back into a hug.
“Oh my gosh. It’s the marauders train.” Lily laughed. “I haven’t seen you three do that for ages. Remus on a chair, Sirius at his feet, and then James lying against Sirius” she explained to the others.
“Year four and again in six. When Sirius refused to acknowledge his crush and avoided the intimacy.” James said.
“You were both too busy chasing girls to have any time for me.” Remus pouted.
“And you were hiding in the library with Lily.” Countered Sirius. “Chasing girls was way more fun than being chased by them,”
“Speak for yourself. It’s all fun.” James stared at Regulus who smirked.
“I wouldn’t know. I always get what I want when I want it.” Regulus said smirking. “Lily is right though, we do need to get down to business.”
Lily threw Regulus a grateful glance. “First: our story for Monty and the ministry should be as close to the truth as possible. Thoughts?”
“At the conference we heard of someone spreading rumours about the superiority of pure bred wizards, and how muggle born wizards are diluting the magic.” Said Remus
“While we met the Hungarian quidditch team who invited us to train with them, and told us about a wizard calling himself Lord V de Mort who was giving a speech at one of the university halls.” James said.
“Curious, we all went to it where we met members of the quidditch team. A man came out on stage who looked like Voldemort, but not quite if you had meet him, and began to speak about the evils of diluted blood, and ministry controlled magic. His words were hypnotic. The crowd grew restless. It felt as though a riot was about to begin so we left as quickly as possible. Once everyone was out on the street, most of the crowd dispersed. Only a handful wanted to indulge in violence and attacked a couple of shops. Remus, Sirius and I decided to go a pub to see if we could learn more. Willow, Tara and Lily went back to the hotel.” James said
Lily and Pandora exchanged a smile.
Sirius took up the story. “While we were at the pub, a couple of dodgy characters came in and started talking to different groups. Remus was able to overhear some of the conversation which was along the same lines as the lecture we attended. We decided to follow them. They went into another two or three places before finally reaching a house up the hill near the Black Cathedral. They never came back out so we resolved to extend our search in the surrounding area the following day. A search of the neighbourhood led us to a rear entrance of the cathedral. We went on in and had a look around. James spotted a familiar figure and decided to follow them. We followed James. This led us down into the labyrinth beneath the main complex. After a lot of walking we came across an enormous cavern where the man who had been on stage the night before was speaking with a giant Lamia. We couldn’t hear what was being said, but it sounded like an argument so decided to get closer. As we moved through the labyrinth to get down to the cavern floor a duel broke out. Remus and James raced in.”
“I found the man lying face down on the ground, bound him and covered his face so he couldn’t identify us and then escaped with the package.” Remus said.
“I went to investigate the Lamia but she was lying trapped under falling rocks caused by a massive explosion during the duel. I left her there as the cavern collapsed. She was far too big and injured to rescue without getting myself trapped as well. I still feel vaguely guilty about that.” James finished.
“We then took the package back to the hotel and kept him in a secure room until he regained consciousness and we could question him. This took several days. We established the fact he was a member of the order who worked for Voldemort and had been the cause of several missions resulting in the death of our members. We now submit him to the ministry for punishment.” Lily concluded.
Silence fell for a moment before Pandora started to clap. “That was excellent. You managed to say exactly how it was without mentioning me or Regulus. Although I like that James spotted us so early and was able to lead you to where you need to be.”
James beamed. “Willow, Tara, is there anything we missed or you’d like to add. You were there as well.” He said, tearing his eyes away from Regulus.
Tara shook her head as Willow considered the events. “No. That sums it up. Our purpose here was to try and find a way home. But other than meeting a gypsy woman at your quidditch practice who told me to go back to the beginning, we’ve found out nothing.” Willow said sadly.
“That’s the missing piece. Hmmm. I thought so.” Everyone looked at Regulus in astonishment. “What? I said I’d help so I have been.”
“How exactly? We haven’t seen you for weeks, then you show up here. We’ve been to every library we can think of to get our hands on material related to time travel and turned up nothing.” Sirius said
“Maybe you’ve been searching for the wrong information.” Regulus smirked, “And you missed a very extensive library of magic.”
“Yeah right. Hello Mother I’ve just dropped by to read up on dark magic. A cup of tea would be lovely, thank you.” Sirius snorted. “I can totally not see that happening,”
Pandora laughed. “Sirius Daaahling. Welcome home. Would you like a chocolate biscuit with your tea?”
Sirius grinned. “How well you know our Mother.”
“Regulus, do you really have some idea how to get us home?” Tara asked, interrupting the banter.
“Yes. I need to do one last check to verify timing but I think it can be done.” Regulus replied.
“How long?”
“Sometime in January. I’ll be able to confirm the date next week.”
Willow's face fell. Tara put an arm around her shoulders. “January’s not so bad. If all goes well we’ll be home in a month or so.”
“And not many people can say they had an impromptu three month holiday in England over winter in 1980 before they were born.” Lily added.
Willow laughed. “That’s true. It will make a great story one day.”
Tara kissed Willow's cheek before turning back to Regulus. “So what now?” She asked him.
“You go back to Potters for Christmas and New Year. I’ll let you know where and when to meet. Willow I assume you have a list of the ingredients you used for the spell. And possibly the chant if you can remember it. Monty will have wanted those for his own investigation. I’ll need a copy of both.” Regulus said.
Willow nodded. “I brought them with me, just in case. I’ll give them to you when we’ve finished here.”
Regulus nodded. Lily checked her watch. “Ok. Checkout is at midday. The portkey is in the same alley where we arrived so we will land in the woods near the Potters. James said Monty would meet us there to take our passenger to the ministry. My question is, how do we get that rat out of the hotel and to the portkey given he doesn’t know what we know.” Lily said.
“Is he even still alive? We haven’t heard anything from him, and has he eaten anything in the days he’s been here?” James asked suddenly. He’d been studiously avoiding thinking about the betrayal he felt and focused on Regulus instead.
“Pandora and I have been keeping an eye on him and making sure he’s staying alive.” Remus said. “It also fits with the story Regulus planted in his head.”
“Oh. I’d forgotten that. But how do we get him out of the hotel?” James asked
“Leave that to me. We’ll meet you at the portkey just after twelve.” Regulus said
Silence fell again as the group began to stand to go and get ready for departure.
“Will we see you again?” Sirius suddenly asked. “After today I mean.”
“You’ll definitely see me.” Pandora said sunnily. Lily blushed.
“Reggie?”
“I do wish you would stop calling me that. It was fine when we were children, but I really dislike it.” Regulus grimaced.
“Reg?” James grinned
“Not that much better.” Regulus responded archly, refusing to let the flush of pleasure he felt show externally. James, he discovered, liked to yell Reg when he came.
Sirius sighed “Regulus is so formal. We need to find you a nickname.”
“Please don’t. And to answer your question. Yes, you willl see me again. In January. I can’t imagine you lot not being around to say goodbye to your American friends.”
“Our friends.” Pandora chided.