tensile strength
Blair is convinced she can do anything, but it is only now that she realizes just how exhausting it can be to be a double agent.
The Dark Lord has become increasingly reliant on Regulus. He summons Reg almost everyday, asking him to inspect certain dark artifacts or deliver a tome from the Black family library. Sometimes, Reg doesn’t go home for days on end, causing endless worry for both his siblings. At the Manor, he falls asleep slumped on books of all kinds. He reads up on a variety of topics, some as commonplace as the Deathly Hallows.
“What’s he going to do?” Sirius mocks. “Summon the Peverells?”
When his siblings pry, Regulus just replies, “He’s up to something, but I haven’t figured it out yet.”
Blair thanks the gods-that-be that they have earned the Dark Lord’s trust enough for them, Reg especially, to be in his inner circle, but still, she is terrified for her twin.
Blair, on the other hand, is sent on more pointless skirmishes. Voldemort has taken to ordering attacks on muggleborn families and even muggle communities. When Blair tells the Order members that she has to stun and curse in order not to attract suspicion, they look at her derisively.
This, too, is another source of tension.
The Order members, while they have accepted Blair and Reg into their fold, clearly do not welcome them. It makes sense, of course, but it pains Blair that the side she is actually rooting for is the one that doesn’t trust her. Sometimes, she thinks wistfully about the life she could have led as the future Lady Zabini. She would have a foot in two camps without doing any work. But that’s not who she is, at least not anymore.
Nevertheless, she is relaxed enough to talk to some of the Order members, at least the ones who approach her. This is a group composed entirely of Sirius’s friends.
She learns that Lily Evans and James Potter, quite recently, have eloped at Gretna Green. Lily even shows them photographs. Sirius is there in some of them, the impish best man dogging the happy couple. Remus regales them with a story of the rushed ceremony.
Blair is happy for them. She thinks of the girl she used to be, the girl who would have been horrified at a pureblood family’s flagrant flouting of tradition. She is glad that she is not that girl anymore.
Blair is also observant to a fault - she notices that Severus Snape still looks at Lily with longing. She surmises that Lily is the reason that Severus is on their side. It was not so long ago that Severus was a devoted friend to and follower of Dolohov and Mulciber.
Sometimes, Blair catches Dan looking at her, but she waits for him to approach her.
-
Two things happen that cement Regulus and Blair’s place in the order.
The first occurs one day when they are at a meeting at Grimmauld Place. A drab and chubby man floos in the middle of it. Blair recognizes him as Peter Pettigrew. Peter stops to greet Sirius and the rest of the Marauders. He doesn’t see the twins.
Reg tenses. He whispers, “Do you trust me?”
Blair nods. “Of course.”
“Okay, put him in a body bind.”
In concert, they cast a Petrificus Totalus. Pettigrew instantly falls to the floor.
Longbottom lets out a cry of alarm. The rest of the room, excluding Sirius, points their wands at Blair and Reg.
“He’s a Death Eater,” Reg spits out.
Pettigrew starts whimpering. “Moony! Prongs! Do you believe them?” He wisely leaves Sirius out of his plea, noting his protective stance of his siblings.
Everyone looks at Regulus. “The Dark Lord trusts no one, so he rotates his followers. I’m his researcher, so to speak, so I see more of his circle than most. I’ve seen Pettigrew there. Multiple times. He always leaves unharmed.”
“Just… pull down his sleeve. You’ll see.”
James walks over to Pettigrew. Pettigrew starts crying. James gently pulls down his sleeve, and there, on his upper arm is the Dark Mark, brilliant and malevolent.
They feed Pettigrew veritaserum and he admits that he is just waiting for the opportune moment to jump ship. He admits that his jealousy of his friends is the reason he betrays their side. Sirius lets out a sound of disgust. Blair has to restrain him.
Mad-Eye Moody kills Pettigrew on the spot. He has no time for traitors, he says, and Dumbledore isn’t there, busy doing other Order business, to feed them his tripe about forgiveness.
A few Order members leave the body in Pettigrew’s flat. With Regulus’s help, they erase Moody’s magical signature, and stage his death as a suicide.
After this, Frank Longbottom and Hestia Jones begin to warm to them, too. On occasion, the Prewett twins wrinkle their noses at Reg and Blair when any of the Order members makes a joking reference to twins.
Dan, too, starts talking to her.
-
Cissa owls her a few days later, and tells her that she is expecting a child, but not to worry about her- the baby knows his Auntie Blair is busy with all her good work.
Blair sobs into her pillow that night, alone.