Oh Lucius
“Merlin’s pants on a flagpole! What is going on? Why did I just follow Regulus Black in here? Why is Peter tied up? What the hell?”
“MOONY!” Sirius launched himself across the room and into his boyfriend’s arms. Remus catches him with a grunt.
“Hi, love. Mmph… Pads… bruised ribs.” Remus pushes Sirius back but stays holding him.
“Mm, sorry.” Sirius can’t believe it. He’s here. He’s back. He always comes back.
“Okay… but back to my question. What the bloody hell is going on?!”
“Hey, mate,” James says as he pats Remus on the back. “About all that… Peter is the spy in the Order. Regulus is apparently a spy for the Order? I don’t really know. I’m still processing.”
“Wait. Back up. What? Peter is the rat?”
“Yeah. Fitting isn’t it?”
“Yeah, I guess so.”
Regulus walks over to the three boys. “What do we do with him?”
“I say kill him.” Sirius pipes up. It’s kind of odd threatening Peter’s life with Regulus.
“How can you say that, Pads,” James questions.
“What do you mean,” Sirius asked. “He betrayed us, Prongs. He’s the reason so many Order members have died. He’s the reason Mary lost her arm. He’s the reason the Longbottoms are at St. Mungos right now. He did that. Peter.”
“But he was our best friend, Sirius. He’s been my best friend since… birth, really. I can’t just kill him.”
“You don’t have to do it,” Remus adds, in an attempt at comfort. James stares at him with an expression that says ‘That’s not what I meant and you know it.’ “Plus, he would have no problem killing you. Clearly.”
“That’s different, Remus. You know that. We all know about Peter.”
“I don’t,” Regulus butts in, “What about him?”
“He’s a sociopath,” Remus states, matter-of-factly. Regulus processes this for a second before nodding with satisfaction and understanding. The Black brothers know more than most about sociopaths, thanks to Bellatrix.
“Ok, James, if we don’t kill him, what do we do with him?” Sirius doesn’t want to look at Peter’s ratty little face any longer. He wants to decide what they’re doing and do it.
“Throw him in Azkaban,” James says loudly, so everyone can hear him. “Throw him in a cell for the rest of his life. Let him sit with what he’s done. Let him remember the damage he’s caused.”
“James,” Remus starts, gently. “I know you think that’s what he deserves but… James, you have to understand that Peter’s brain works differently than ours do. He doesn’t have a conscience. He wouldn’t think about how what he’s done is wrong because he doesn’t realize it is.”
“Ok but we can’t kill him. I would never forgive myself. I just can’t do it. We’ve known what Peter is since we were 13 years-old and we never gave up on him. We helped him understand what was ok and what was wrong. We taught him how to live. I can’t just give up on him.”
“Oh Godric, James.” Marlene walks towards him and places her hands on his shoulders. “You put Jesus to shame with how good you are.”
“Who?” James stares at Marlene, eyebrows knit together in confusion.
“Nevermind, that. I've known Peter my whole life, too, you know. And I could kill him myself right now. He’s hurt so many people. He’s killed so many people. My sister, James. He’s the reason I lost my sister. He’s gone too far to save. We have to get rid of him.”
“I say we let him go,” Peter inputs. Everyone in the room shouts at the same time.
“Shut up.”
“No!”
“You don’t get a say, traitor.”
Dorcas takes a piece of duct tape off a broken folding chair and sticks it on Peter’s mouth. Then she holds it there with a permanent sticking charm.
Sirius leaves Remus’s side to reach out for his best friend. “James, we have to kill him. We have no other choice.”
“We do have a choice,” James argues. “We always have a choice.” He shoots a pointed look at Regulus.
Regulus rolls his eyes.“Oh, get over it already. It’s been years!”
“For you! It’s been years, for you! I just found out 20 minutes ago!”
“Oh, shut up, you pricks,” Lily interjects. “We don’t have time for this. James, we have to kill Peter. If we throw him in Azkaban, he could escape.”
“No one’s ever escaped Azkaban before,” James argues.
“No one’s had a rat as their Animagus before,” Regulus and Remus say at the same time. They both glance at each other with small grins on their faces. It’s nice to see after all these years, Sirius has to admit. When they were in school, Sirius loved the idea of them being friends, though if they were to ever find that out, he would deny it to his grave.
“Azkaban is not ready to deal with someone that could escape so simply,” Regulus explains. “We have to kill him.”
“Fine! But I won’t watch. I’m leaving.” James goes to leave but stops and turns around, addressing the group. “Just make it quick. Please. For me, make it quick and painless.”
“Ok, James. Ok,” Regulus reassures.
“Dinner? At the manor, afterwards?” James looks at his friends with questioning eyes.
“I can’t. I’ve got patrol with Dorcas in an hour.”
“I’ll cover that for you, Sirius,” Kingsley offers before he turns to Dorcas, “I’ll bring a couple aurors with me so you can catch up with Marlene. I know today has been rough on all of you.”
“Thanks, King. I appreciate that,” Dorcas responds.
“Alright then,” James says, “I’ll see you soon.”
“Bye, James,” the room choruses.
“Ok,” Moody begins, “I’m going to send a Patronus to Dumbledore. While I’m doing that, anyone who wants to stay for Pettigrew’s execution, can. Otherwise, meeting dismissed.” There’s shuffling around the warehouse as people move to leave or to get comfortable to watch the traitor’s execution.
Regulus goes to catch up with Dorcas and probably explain himself. Lily and Marlene look to be having a serious conversation in the corner. Leaving Remus and Sirius alone for the first time since Remus left for his secret mission 2 weeks ago. Sirius hopes that later he may be able to get some more information on what Remus is doing now that they can trust each other. Right now though, he just wants to be with him.
Sirius falls into Remus’s chest and wraps his arms around his waist. Remus chuckles and then winces as he pulls Sirius in and says, “Hi, love.”
“Hi.”
“How are you feeling?”
“Like shit.” Remus squeezes him tighter probably causing himself pain and Sirius relaxes into his embrace. “Little less like shit.” Remus chuckles that beautiful chuckle of his again.
“Ok,” Moody calls, ruining the moment. “Who’s doing it?”
“What,” Marlene asks, confused. Sirius pulls himself out of Remus’s embrace and settles for holding his hand.
“The killing, dear.” Lily pats Marlene’s back with a grimace on her face.
“Oh! Me! Can I do it? Please,” Marlene begs.
“No, McKinnon.” Moody raises his eyebrow and his one eye fixates on Marlene.
“What?! Why not,” Marlene whines.
“We promised James to do it fast,” Remus adds.
Sirius squeezes Remus’s hand. “Yeah, McKinnon, would you be able to do it fast? Get it done? Not prolong it to cause him pain? I know I couldn’t.” Sirius knows that if James hadn’t asked them to make it quick, he probably would make Peter suffer for hours.
“He killed my sister,” Marlene snaps, growing agitated. “I have the right to make him suffer. He deserves it.” And Sirius can’t really argue with that logic. His brother is alive and well and apparently on their side. He knows if anything were to happen to Regulus, he would light the world on fire, even if he was a death eater.
Marlene takes the silence as a sign that no one will argue. She stomps over to Peter and before anyone can stop her, pulls out her pocket knife (a gift from her sister for her 13th birthday) and proceeds to cut off Peter’s finger. Peter's muffled scream rings through the room and a tear rolls down his face.
“No!” Moody scrambles forward to grab Marlene but is met with a bloody pocket knife at his throat. His hands fly up and he stares at her down the slope of his crooked nose. “Woah.”
Dorcas approaches Marlene from behind. Marlene visibly relaxes when Dorcas reaches around her to take the knife from her. After throwing the knife on the table next to her, Dorcas wraps her arms around Marlene to pull her back to her chest and holds her close. Marlene starts to cry and Sirius is shocked. The only time he has ever seen Marlene cry was when she was drunk. He’s never seen her cry sober, not even when her sister died.
“That’s it! I’m doing it.” Kingsley darts forward, wand in hand.
“NO!” Remus, Sirius, and Dorcas yell at the same time.
“What, why?” Kingsley skids to a stop.
“One of us gets to do it.” Remus stares daggers at Peter and honestly, in Sirius’s biased opinion, it’s the hottest he’s ever been. “You didn’t sleep in a dorm with him for 7 years and call him your best friend.
“Fine.” Moody steps in. “Who’s doing it? Sirius already said he won’t be able to do it. “Also whoever does it has to visit a mind healer twice a week for the next 2 months.”
Remus steps up, letting go of Sirius’s hand, much to his dismay. “I’ll do it. I was planning on going to a mind healer anyway.” Remus walks up to Peter, wand in the hand that was previously holding Sirius’. Remus crouches down so he’s eye level with Peter and deactivates Dorcas’s permanent sticking charm on the tape. He rips it off, hard. “Any last words, Pettigrew?” Damn, Sirius is going to die.
Peter, being the maniac that he is, laughs and looks Remus dead in the face and says, “The target is James and Lily.”
Remus fumbles and Regulus steps between him and the rat and points his wand, “Avada Kedavra.” Sirius honestly forgot his brother was here. Lurking in the corner. Observing the whole time.
“What? What does that mean? ‘James and Lily are the target’?” Lily, eyes wild, glances at every face. “What is going on? Target of what? Regulus?” Lily’s gaze lands on Regulus, digging for some kind of answer.
And, in typical Regulus fashion, he doesn’t give her one. “Nothing. I’ve got it under control.”
“Got what under control,” Remus booms.
Regulus raises his eyebrows slightly in surprise. Remus rarely ever gets loud and he probably never has in front of Regulus, let alone at him. “The situation Peter is talking about. I have it under control.”
“Ok then tell us,” Remus says, still loud and slowly moving closer to Regulus. “Tell us what ‘the situation’ is so that we can help.”
“You can’t help it’ll just put you in danger and further endanger James and Lily. No. I’m not telling you.”
“I DON’T CARE! I don’t care if it puts me in danger,” Remus is in Regulus’s face now. They’re glaring at each other. Eye to eye. Well, more like eye to chest because Remus is comically tall, but if they were the same height it would be eye to eye. “Tell me what the hell is going on, Black. Now!”
“Fine,” Regulus states, calm and unbothered by Remus’s volume and proximity. “But if you die, I am not to blame.”
“Fine.”
“Good.”
“Great.”
“Lovely.”
“Wonder-”
“WILL YOU TWO KNOCK IT OFF AND TELL US WHAT THE BLOODY HELL IS GOING ON?! Merlin’s bollocks,” Lily explodes. Sirius really doesn’t blame her. Remus and Regulus are insufferable together if they aren’t getting along.
“Ok, ok,” Regulus begins, “Voldemort has been blabbing about some prophecy he got about his downfall. It is said he will be taken down by a woman with hair of fire and a fierceness to back it up and a man with an ego the size of a lake and a heart to match. He’s been crafting a plan to destroy these people but none of us knew who it was. Until now,” Regulus gestures at Peter’s limp body in the chair next to him.
“But why would Peter tell us who it is? Now we can protect them.” Sirius looks to his brother and he stares back like Sirius is the dumbest person on the face of the earth.
“He didn’t know I knew about the prophecy. Severus and I have been going to meetings under the invisibility cloak.”
“WHAT?” Sirius and Remus both yelp.
“James has been looking for that stupid cloak for years. The last time he saw it was-” Sirius is cut off.
“-the night we broke up. I know. That’s when I took it. I was going to give it back but thought better of it.”
“Good call,” Remus praises, “But why didn’t you just give it to me or Sirius?”
“I’m not an idiot, Remus. I know you’re used to surrounding yourself with people who act before thinking,” he nods to Sirius. Sirius scowls back. “But I’m not one. I knew the cloak may come in handy and you two weren’t very fond of me after that anyway.”
“Fair point,” Remus agrees.
“Right. So I took it and we’ve been using it to attend meetings.”
“Wait,” Dorcas interrupted, still holding Marlene, “If you’ve been attending meetings, how come you didn’t see Pettigrew?”
“We have to hide in the corner during meetings. We’ve never seen him until today.”
“Wait, wait, wait,” Sirius waves his hands to draw attention to himself, “Snivellus… was under the cloak.”
“Yes, Sirius.”
“Ew. Now we have to burn it.”
“Merlin, you’re so dramatic.”
“Oi, am not.”
“Are to.”
“Am not.”
“OH MY GOD! You’re so annoying! The lot of you.” Lily is clearly fed up with all of them. Whoops.
“Maybe we can talk about this later,” Remus suggests. “Listen, we've been at this for an hour. How about we all go to James’s for dinner and relax and we can continue this conversation tomorrow.”
“James,” Sirius mumbles. “Wait. James! Oh, Merlin. Remus, James!”
“Yup, that’s our best friend’s name.”
“No!”
“It’s not?” Remus looks at him with sarcastic confusion in his eyes. Playful, flirty bastard.
“Shut up! James! There’s a hit on him and we’re here chatting.” Sirius throws his arms in the air to emphasize his point.
“Ok, love. Let’s go.” Remus comes closer and grabs Sirius’s hand once more.
They head toward the open entrance, followed by Lily, then Marlene and Dorcas, and lastly Regulus. They make their way down the hall and out the front garage style door. Apparating to Potter Manor.
***
“Bollocks.” Regulus was the last to apparate and now he’s off again, running towards a bush. He just cast a revealing charm and now they’re all staring as he rushes towards a bush.
A moment later, he reaches behind it and pulls on a familiar head of white blonde hair. Lucius Malfoy, greasy husband of Regulus’s favorite cousin, Narcissa.
“Explain, Malfoy,” Regulus snarls.
“You first. What are you doing at Potter Manor?”
“What are you doing at Potter Manor?”
“Stake-out. Obviously.”
“Why? What’s the plan?” Regulus tugs on the blonde hair, tight in his grasp.
“Wouldn’t you like to know?” Malfoy attempts to pull Regulus’s hand from his hair but fails. Regulus’s fist only tightens around the locks. Sighing, Lucius continues his line of questioning. “What are you doing, Black?”
“Well, I’m about to gut you like a fish. What exactly are you doing here?”
“Nothing. I just like hanging out behind bushes in front of known Order members' houses.”
“Lucius,” Regulus pulls Malfoy’s hair back so that his neck is exposed to the knife Dorcas hands him.
“Oh, so, Regulus can threaten people with a knife to the throat but I can’t?” Marlene crosses her arms over her chest in a pout. “I see how it is.” Dorcas replies to that with a light smack to Marlene’s arm and a kiss to her temple.
“Why are you here? What are you doing?” Regulus presses the knife just far enough that it doesn’t break the skin of Malfoy’s neck.”
“I could ask you the same.”
“I asked first.” Regulus pushes so a small trickle of blood slides down Malfoy’s throat.
A sound to their right makes the entire group snap their heads. A little old lady that was walking down the street has just dropped her cane and is staring at them wide-eyed. Marlene darts in her direction, withdraws her wand, and obliviates the woman.
“Hey maybe we should…” Remus gestures to the front door of the Manor.
“Yeah,” Sirius agrees. “Where should we put him?”
They begin to make their way to the front door followed by the rest of the group, Regulus dragging Malfoy by his hair.
“I’m not sure…” Remus trails off, thinking.
“Finally! What took so lo-” James’s eye falls to the door as Regulus drags in a whining Malfoy. He openly gapes. “Why is Lucius Malfoy in my house? And why is he bleeding? What now?!”
“I found him,” Regulus replies, “He was hiding in the bushes.”
“What? Why?” Euphemia Potter, Sirius’s third favorite person on the planet (behind only Remus and her own son), enters the room.
“Fucker won’t tell me!” Regulus turns his attention back to the bleeding Death Eater still gripped by the hair. “Explain yourself! Now, Malfoy!”
“No. Not talking.”
“That’s fine.” Effie steps forward studying the man. “Take him to the dungeon downstairs. Where we used to keep Remus on holiday. We have some poisons to test anyway.”
“¡Mama! ¡Es una loca! No podemos hacer,” James whines. Ugh. Sirius hates when they speak Spanish. He likes to understand what’s going on and now he doesn’t.
“Mírame, hijo.”
James scowls and mumbles under his breath, “Ay Merlin mío, mi madre.”
“What? What’s happening,” Sirius is growing agitated in his confusion. He feels out of control and that doesn’t bode well with him.
“James said that his mum’s idea was crazy and that we can’t do that and then she said watch me.” All heads snap to Regulus as he pushes Lucius to Effie to handle. “What?”
“Just… How did you know that?” James stares at Regulus in shock.
“I started learning Spanish a month after we started dating.” Regulus shrugs as if he didn’t just reveal that he knows a whole other language.
“You did WHAT?” Clearly James was not aware of that fact.
“Oh, please. Don’t act as if you didn’t learn French.”
“No- I… What- I didn’t-” James tries to deny. “Yeah, ok. I did.”
“Exactly.”
“Hold on,” Sirius interjects. Staring at James, “You know French?”
“Yeah. I learnt it in like 6th year.”
“Then why do you always stare at me like I’m an idiot every time I speak French.”
“You usually say something stupid.” James shrugs his shoulders and sets off toward the kitchen, probably to help his dad with dinner.
Sirius turns to see what everyone is doing, always checking, cautious. Remus and Lily are chatting about something in the corner near the bookshelf, probably about books. Boring. Marlene and Dorcas are making out on the couch. No one bats an eye considering that’s practically their natural state. And Regulus. Regulus is looking around the Manor. Probably taking it all in. It suddenly hits Sirius that his little brother has never been here.
“Bonjour.” Sirius throws an arm around his brother’s shoulders. “Que diriez-vous d'une visite?" Regulus turns to him, eyebrows knit together. "Qu'as-tu oublié comment parler français?"
Sirius feels antsy under his brother’s studying gaze. Eventually, finding what he was looking for, “Ça a l'air bien”