Chapter 3
He stood at the centre of the room before taking out a wand - one neither had ever seen, different than when he was in Hogwarts- before casting Revelio. The disguise soon began to fade out - his true features popping in. The chiselled jaw, sharp cheekbones, icy grey eyes, and curly black hair.
In front of the two order members stood Regulus Arcturus Black.
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"How-" Sirius croaked, tears already falling down "-How do we know that this is not another trick"
Regulus rolled his eyes, "Do you honestly think I would free you, risking my own position amongst the Death Eater and drag you to my personal hiding spot? All while revealing myself, when I am technically supposed to be dead? And having Kreacher apparate us, the same house elves that hates you both and only serves the members of the Black family. To be fair he no longer does serve, I freed him, but he still wanted to work for me so I pay him a liveable wage."
"Technically you didn't drag us.." Sirius muttered.
"Are you seriously going to correct my choice of words?"
"Well, I do happen to be named Sirius"
"Oh Merlin, why did I save you?"
"W-Why did you fake your death" James asked.
He had to admit, he never knew Regulus very well. He noticed the boy, sure, and did chat with him occasionally in Hogwarts, but as soon as Sirius started to avoid him, so did he. He felt guilty about it as soon as he heard the awful, now clearly untrue, news. And even worse as he held a crying Sirius in his arms every night for months because the latter was constantly plagued by nightmares. He himself shed a few tears, he could never admit that he never thought of Regulus as a Death Eater. The quiet kid that always looked like a puppy every time he argued with Sirius. Not him.
"Well, technically, I did die"
"WHAT?!" The two screamed
"Both of you got a really good set of lungs, damn. But yes, I was legally dead for 4 minutes and 37seconds before Pandora was able to resuscitate me"
"What on Earth did you do?"
"Do you want the long story or short?"
"Short for now please" James meekly asked, barely able to keep his head together with what all happened and wanting to ask so many more questions.
"Well, I found out Voldemorts' weakness and attempted to destroy it, only to be drowned and killed by the inferis' guarding said weakness. Pandora saw me drowning in a vision and searched for me with Evan before rescuing me. Evan nearly beat me to death for dying on them - that asshole."
"Wow- ok. I think I need to sit. Do you need to sit, Pads? I need to."
"Well, there are seats here."
"Oh shut it" James rebutted, earning a quiet chuckle from the younger Black.
"Why disguise as Peter? Was he really the traitor? What happened to his parents? Where is he?"
"Well bomb me with questions, why don't you, brother? Let's see: Yes he was a traitor. I had someone in the order follow him when he continuously went to his supposedly sick parents. Yes I have connections, no I won't say who. They saw him go towards a Death Eater, get a mask and cloak handed to him, before they both apparated away. Both really were stupid not to check if anyone was following them - although in their defence the supposedly amazing 'order' never clocked on so.. maybe they never felt the need. Pettigrew's parents died already and were buried in the property under certain flowers rather than marked graves so no one would know. Yes, we dug to check, their bodies were definitely there in caskets as well. Well as for why I chose to disguise as him, lets just say he became... indisposed."
"That damn fucker of a traitor" Sirius cursed
"Wait- What do you mean, indisposed?" James asked.
At this particular question, Regulus's grin turned damn near feral, "Well, if you're curious, open the 2nd shelf of the cabinet"
James gulped as he approached the wooden cabinet. He opened the shelf and was shocked at what stood in front of him: Skulls. Human skulls. As if that wasn't terrifying enough, in beautiful cursive letters, each skull was named. At the back of the skulls - one was turned the other way with a few letters, as if left and forgotten in a hurry.
"He's in the front and centre" Regulus informed.
1,2,3,4,5 - He found the centre. 9 rows and 2 columns. 18 total. 18 human skulls.
"Reg, I need more of an explanation?"
"Well, there is a skull with his name on it - what else to say?"
"How and why the skull display?"
"Well, I couldn't really let him live long, now can I? He was in the middle of telling a death eater member his plan to reveal the McKinnons address to Voldemort - to earn a higher position, I guess- and lets just say when a friend of mine who was spying on them with me heard Marlene's name come out of his appalling mouth, they went in for the kill. So we just killed them both. We disguised one as an order hit that never made it to the meeting place between him and the traitor and I disguised as him. As a bonus I got his skull for the display. I wanted a glass display, but Pandora only let me keep my winnings in the wooden cabinet. A few of them are Evan's death eater killings, however."
"Should have left me some of him to skin alive before you killed him." Sirius muttered, completely unbothered by the fact that his brother collected Human skulls from the people that he killed and called it his winnings.
"Don't you agree they would've looked better on display?" He pleaded his case with his brother, hoping for an agreement. Just before Sirius could answer, someone else did. Someone not amongst the current trio, but clearly someone who had just gotten through and was walking through the hallway towards them.
"Be grateful we even let you keep them, Reggie" A voice said amusedly as it made itself clearer to the group. It was a voice that belonged to someone they all knew. An order member. One they considered a family even.