Chapter 7
"Come, this way," Crouch directed them to a small corner of the room, away from Regulus' prying ears, not that James felt that Regulus would even hear them with how he was slightly swaying, humming to himself. "You deserve to know a bit more about Regulus if I want you to protect him the way I am asking, and with how this case is going...well it will likely be given in full soon enough, and I would prefer it not be a shock when it happens. Reuglus won't like that." He ran a hand through his hair, clearly stressed out. "Rosier and I were on one of our first infiltration missions. It took five years, we were infiltrating a well known terrorist group at the time, I won't bother wtih the details, but after a couple of years of us finally getting rank in their group, they decided to merge with an even more dangerous group. It took another few years before we garnered any semblance of trust from the new group. When we did...We decided to leave. We were gonna take as much as we could from the leader's personal rooms and ditch as quick as possible, we had finally been given guard duty from outside their chambers. It was well decided but..." Crouch glanced were the gorgeous man was sitting, Remus was speaking to him quietly, and Sirius longed to know what about. "He was there. Young, fifteen, maybe, he hasn't given us an exact birthdate, but he was young. Definitely a minor, and way too young to be strung up and tied down to a forty year old man's bed." Sirius's eyes widened in horror, pity clashing in his gaze. "I couldn't just leave him. Rosier said it was a dumb decision, and in hindsight he was right, but I just couldn't do it. The scene...I've been to many a crime scene and that scene with Regulus still haunts my nightmares most of all. We asked him if he wanted to come with us...I have no idea if he thought he was going willingly or not...he was dosed up on something. What I do know, was that we snuck him out, but he was found missing quite quickly, and it was obvious who had taken him. The only ones missing were us. We barely escaped with our lives, and the fact that we rushed to the FBI headquarters was the only reason we weren't sprayed with bullets. They were not that stupid.
"We got Regulus fixed up, and put into witness protection immediately, placed with us, of course, and once he finally was off whatever they had drugged him with, he gave us a ton of information. For a minor, he was pretty high up in the organization, though that may also be due to the fact that the leader had fixated on him, and felt him not able to go anywhere. I am still not quite sure. Rosier and I got extremely rewarded. Regulus' information managed to put away hundreds of people. Tons of high end dealers. Not the petty ones off the streets from rough homes but legit people working the whole thing over." Sirius and James both felt themselves finding a higher level of respect for regulus now, while Lily and Dorcas just couldn't help the sorrow that laced their hearts at the history of this strange man. "The leader though? The main bigwigs that head everything? We still haven't got that information. Regulus refused to give it to us, and honestly, I am not too sure if he remembers, or maybe it is just too painful to remember. It isn't like we have a memory spell we can just slap on him to force it. It's been coming back slowly over the last few years, but slow and steady is the race. I don't even know if it is that he can't remember or if he's just worried about the statue of limitations or whatever else." Crouch sighed, rubbing his face with his hands roughly.
"I'm telling you because of the cup. Regulus was right. He was found out. Somebody found out something that they shouldn't have, and I have no idea what to do with that information, but I do know that we aren't going to be getting anywhere without him and his information. It may be cruel, but I need him to remember, while also keeping him safe. That cup? Regulus knew immediately who it was, and we still have no idea who that person is. We have nothing but the alias that they went by when Rosier and I were infiltrating, but even then...that isn't a real name. It won't hold any weight unless we get down to the nitty gritty." Sirius scoffed.
"You brought a person out of witness protection just because you wanted information?"
"Sirius," James attempted, but Sirius just shoved off his gentle reprimand.
"Look, I get that we've had trouble, and clearly that guy has a ton of information that's useful, which has to be locked down under tons of trauma, but like...this is a new level of low.
"I know, you are right, and I am not trying to say otherwise but..."
"NO, what happens now? We have to keep a bullet eye on Regulus otherwise he could get caught. All because you think you may get something? You don't know anything. You don't know if Regulus is his real name, you don't know what age he is because you don't know his confirmed birthdate, you don't know who captured him, don't know his family, don't know anything."
"We know certain things about his family, certain family members, but those are the ones that never had any information about what was going on behind the scenes anyways. We had interrogations and investigations to look into it, but while Regulus may not seem like it, he is very good at deflection." Crouch lifted his hand, cutting off Sirius' argument. "Look, I Know what I am doing is shady. Evan said the same thing and cautioned me against it time and again, but Regulus isn't going to be getting any peace of mind until we've put away everyone that had a hand in what he went through, and so far he is the only one that has that information. We don't know what the leader looks like, we have no idea what his real name is, we know nothing, Regulus has that information but is too locked up to tell us. We have to do something!"
"So you want to put him into harms way and retraumatize him!" Dorcas finally spoke up, her eyes fierce and glaring. "That is not the way we opperate!"
"Normally not, but this is an international threat, not just a threat to us. This organization may live on our soil, but they have their fingers in everyone's pudding. Regulus isn't even American, and yet here he is."
"Wait...what?" James cut off, tilting his head curiously. Crouch groaned.
"Maybe I said it wrong. I don't know for sure, but when he speaks did you not notice the slight accent." Sirius lifted his hand, he had, but James had totally missed it! Some detective he was turning out to be. "It was way stronger when we first got him speaking english, and that was when we finally did because for the longest time he wasn't speaking english at all. It was french." Sirius shivered, a small twitch of his fingers the only thing to give way his discomfort. "I know our method is shit, but its the only one we have."
"You are using an innocent man for bait. This isn't going to end well," Lily said firmly. The Director sighed, but shrugged.
"What other choice do we have?"