Chapter 22
It has been months since their son was taken and they finally had his location.
Both of the parents were drowning in guilt for weeks after their son was taken from them. They were up searching for him day and night, and the few moments they were forced to rest the only thoughts going through their heads were about how it was their fault that their son was taken, why hadn’t they protected him better, how could anyone have gotten into his room, they should have put more wards around his room, one of them should have stayed up with him, they should have known that he was going to be taken, they were bad parents….
Luckily their family intervened and didn’t let them wallow in guilt for long. Both parents were cornered separately and given a lecture about how it wasn’t their fault and if they wanted to blame anyone then blame the ones who kidnapped their baby and not themselves. They snapped out of it after that, they were both feeling guilty but they realised that it wasn’t their fault and that wallowing wasn’t helping them find their son faster. If before their family forced them to take breaks between searching to sleep, now anyone who tried to distract them with anything other than how the search was going they got cursed.
If before they were trying to go political and avoid bloodshed, then now the raids happened daily. All Order members captured were tortured for information and killed after they had told all that they knew, which wasn’t all that many, since all Order members close to Dumbledore seemed to have disappeared over night. All the Prophet was talking about for months was the raids and dead bodies found everywhere, speculating about the reason behind all the bloodshed that came, for them, out of nowhere.
That night when Regulus discovered him missing, he threw the nursery upside down trying to find his baby but was left empty handed. Being sure that his son wasn’t just playing and actually missing he went to wake Tom. After waking and getting to know what had happened he immediately summoned every available death eater and the search began with everyone having the same goal, find Hadrian.
They discovered pretty quickly that they had a traitor who had taken their son and delivered him straight to Dumbledore, who in turn had hidden their son well enough that it was almost impossible to find him. They quickly came to the conclusion that to find their son they had to find the traitor who took him. So while everyone was out looking for their son with Tom leading them, Regulus started to move around the ranks in disguise to find the traitor.
Everyone was under the impression that their Lord’s soulmate was grieving and wouldn’t leave his son’s nursery, in actuality, he was right under their noses trying to find the one responsible.
It had been purely by accident that one night in the middle of october, Regulus was wearing his disguise when he saw a rat running toward the manor gates. It was Pettigrew, the same Peter Pettigrew that was supposed to be out looking for his son and not anywhere near the manor let alone running out of it in his animagus form, oblivious to the fact that Regulus was watching him. Having his suspicions Regulus silently turned into a beautiful midnight blue cat with his signature silver eyes and followed him out of the manor.
Soon Regulus came to a stop and climbed quickly into a tree as he saw a man waiting for Pettigrew, who turned back into a human as soon as he arrived. As he was too far away to see clearly Regulus moved through the trees closer to the two men whispering to each other.
He had to stop himself from jumping down and gouging the eyeballs out of the man who the rat was talking to. Albus Dumbledore, the man who was responsible for his son being taken, not even 5 minutes away from his home, talking to a man who was supposed to be looking for said missing child.
He stayed silently in the tree for hours and listened to how Pettigrew reported everything he had found while running around the Slytherin manor as a rat to Dumbledore. The rat bragged all about how well they had hid the brat, ‘his baby’ thought Regulus while fuming, and how they would never find him because their searches were useless. Surprisingly Pettigrew also inquired from the old man about how Hadrian was doing, ' I thought he didn’t care' mused Regulus bitterly.
The way Dumbledore replied though, edged itself into Regulus’s brain as it was the first piece of information on his son that he had gotten in months. “Right you are my boy, I couldn’t just let a dark lord raise a child you know, he was already showing signs of turning dark. Playing with snakes is not normal for children my boy, it was for the best that the toy he had was burned and the boy placed into a light family. The parents report that the child is still refusing to call them by mama and dada and that they started using silencing charms during the night because his crying woke his brother but they have made progress, the child is no longer flying things at people. Everything is going to plan, my boy do not worry. It’s all for the greater good.”
With those final words Dumbledore had disapparated and Pettigrew turned back into a rat. Before he could even take a step he was stupefied by Regulus who had turned back into human as soon as Dumbledore was gone.
Quickly he conjured a cage and put Pettigrew in it before apparating to Tom in their study. After informing Tom of everything he saw and heard they decided it would be best to move into the dungeons to question their newly discovered traitor.
After arrival they quickly woke the rat and began questioning him. It didn’t take much, after a few cutting spells and a blood boiling curse, the rat was ready to tell them everything he knew.
They got straight to the point wanting to have their son with them as soon as possible. “WHERE IS MY SON?!?” Demanded Regulus face contorted in anger and wand, ready to fire every curse he knew, aimed at Pettigrew. “I don’t know I swear I don’t know” he sobbed, neither of the angry parents believed him and hit him with more curses. Soon the rat started talking “Stop STOP I will tell you everything I know please stop” He said through the blood dripping down and out of his face. The odour of piss radiated from the man as he had peed himself multiple times since they started.
“Where is my son?” Asked Tom, a lot more calmly than Regulus but still angry. The rat squirmed in fear before opening his mouth “Dumbledore gave him to James and Lily” He blurted out before snapping his mouth closed again. “And where are Lily and James currently?” Regulus continued the questioning. Peter didn’t want to answer but he saw the wands aimed at him “I don’t know Dumbledore put them under fidelius and obliviated the location from my mind”
Tom looked at Regulus, people under fidelius were nearly impossible to track down, he was unsure how to find their son if what the rat was saying was the truth. Desperation to find his son was coursing through him (not that anyone other than Regulus could tell) and he was hoping Regulus knew how to get their son back.
Seeing him looking Regulus nodded at him, he shot a quick spell at the rat and continued his questioning this time smirking in victory “what did Dumbledore put under the fidelius? The house they are staying at? My son? Or the Potters?” Tom’s eyes widened in realisation when he realised what Regulus was getting at, it took a second but even Peter realised what Regulus was doing and knowing that he had no choice but to answer, oh did he forget to mention? Regulus hit him with a Black family spell that makes lying, well painful. “The spell was put on the house and the brat” Before he could finish he was hit with the cruciatus curse “You have no right to call my son thar” Snarled Tom offended on his son's behalf.
“Before we finish you off, why did Dumbledore give him to the Potters and how did Dumbledore get our son?” Peter tried to resist answering, knowing that his end was near anyway, but he couldn’t because the spell was still taking effect “Lily said she can’t have more kids in the future because her pregnancy with Godric ruined her body and she won’t do it again but she wanted another baby. She was complaining about it loudly when Headmaster Dumbledore overheard and offered her the brat, she accepted. James agreed quickly after.” And what he said next he blamed fully on the truth spell for admitting “I think he agreed partly because he has been obsessed with Regulus since school and hopes Hadrian will look like him also partly because he hates dark magic and wants to prove that he can remove dark magic from people like he did with Sirius” Pettigrew dropped his head ashamed that he revealed his friends secrets to the enemy.
The cell descended into silence after that. Tom and Regulus were both too horrified to say anything for a moment before Regulus snapped “Do you want to say to me that Potter is doing something to my son to remove his magic from him?!?! And that he did something to Sirius?” He needed answers, had he let his son be tortured for months on end? Did something happen to make his brother act like he does and he didn’t even realise?
Peter only nodded, he was biting his tongue hard enough for it to bleed to stop himself from going into details.
Acting quickly the pair knocked the rat out, to question him more later and ran to their study to make a plan to retrieve their son as quickly as possible. They had no idea what was being done to their son in that house and they needed him out of there as fast as possible.
Within the hour they had a plan ready to go as soon as they had a location. Moving out of the study Regulus went to the ritual room to perform the ritual that would tell him James Potter’s location, he used his own blood as technically James has Black blood through his mother even if she was disowned and disinherited. At the same time Tom moved to the meeting room where all of their family and inner circle had gathered.
Within minutes everyone knew what they had to do. The Lestranges, Nott, the Carrows, Evan and Barty were to go and cause enough destruction in London that all of the Order would be out hunting for them. A very pregnant Pandora was forced to stay behind, she also wanted to go destroy things, with Narcissa in case they needed medical help. Antares and Severus were to go with him and Regulus to retrieve Hadrian and make sure nothing happens to him, though they were to stay hidden in case of any traps. Tom had just finished telling everyone what they were supposed to do when the doors burst open and Regulus walked inside.
“I know where our son is.”