Chapter Text
Sirius had been dreaming about Grimmauld Place again, he thought those times were past. After he escaped to the Potters he dreamed about those cold walls every single day, Walburga’s screams etched into his brain. It had gotten better with time, like Effie said it would, new good memories replaced the old and then with the war he had scarier nightmares to have over his cursed childhood.
It wasn't a mystery to him why the dreams were back.
He admits he had talked to the mirror more than he should. He hadn't even expected an answer, there was something just so cathartic about talking, cursing, screaming; In the very slim chance Regulus hadn't thrown it away he enjoyed the thought of ruining his sleep.
It lasted for some nights before someone picked it up.
Not Regulus.
Walburga.
Sirius would rather have the mirror being in the trash than in that banshee's hands so she could scream at him again to get away from her son . He shouted abuse back at her with all the dirtiest most ordinary curses he could remember while she spat slurs.
They could have stayed there forever had Remus not forced the mirror from his hands and thrown it into the corner of the room where it lay on the floor, forgotten.
His chest still burned when he remembered that, more than once he punched a pillow and went to bed with all the poisonous words he still wanted to say to her spinning on his head.
He had told James. Of course he had told James. James vindicated his anger.
When Sirius got back James had one million questions that both him and Moody forced him to be completely honest to. The only part where he had lied was omitting the crucius - if he had known that Regulus would give the mirror to that woman, it would have been the first thing he told.
James would have exploded if he knew, he already almost exploded when he learned about everything else.
Remus after making him go through a full check up with a healer and making sure he didn't have any mental or physical damage became a little less worried, and that meant still bloody worried, like everyone else. One part of Sirius liked seeing them all worked up over him, the idea that they cared when he disappeared, then he reminded himself of course they cared, they were his family, and just felt bad about making them go through all of that.
So when he was woken up from a voice coming from the corner of the room all tiredness left his mind to give place to hatred.
“It's too early for this.” Remus grabbed his wrist to stop him from getting up.” You are just going to work yourself up, go back to sleep and let her talk to herself.”
It was a reasonable thought, but he was not a reasonable man. The floor was too cold for his bare feet as he stepped on it and Remus groaned in annoyance.
“What?” He barked at the mirror, face still swollen from sleep and hair messy enough to rival James’.
It wasn't showing anything, at first he thought she must be in a dark room before he distinguished the contours of a wooden ceiling.
“ I…I needed to speak to you.”
That wasn't Walburga's voice.
Shit.
“Regretting running to your Death Eater friends, aren't we?”
Because he should.
Bellatrix had almost broken his skull in some sick teasing and he had run to her nonetheless. He and Sirius weren't on good terms, of course they weren't but still. And after Sirius gave him a way to reach out in case things got unbearable he had gone and given it to that woman immediately.
“Sirius, this is serious-” it would be an amazing moment for a joke if he wasn't so mad-” I need to speak with Dumbledore.”
“What for?”
“I can't say but I really do, I-”
He stopped in the mid sentence for some reason.
Sirius hadn't noticed Remus getting off of bed and standing by his side until he whispered,” who is he talking to?”
“No one,” Sirius whispered back, after that he started hearing more carefully until his ear finally caught up on another voice coming from the mirror, speaking with Regulus so low that he couldn't understand the words. “Someone.”
“Are you alone?”
A pause. “Yes.”
So he wasn't.
“Let me see your face.” There was something shady there.
When the vision turned from the ceiling to Regulus' face he had to take a deep breath. It was hard to see much but not even the darkness could disguise the nasty bruise on his cheek, it was swollen, red, the skin at the point of impact scraped and bleeding a little. Somehow from all the possible causes of the wounds Sirius knew immediately who was to blame.
The same person that was monitoring the conversation.
“Tell that bitch that there is no need to hide in the shadows.”
The reaction was immediate. “How dare you?!”
If they had been face to face hexes, jinxes and curses would be flowing freely, since they couldn't they limited themselves to a very colourful language. Once she got a glimpse of Remus and decided to call him a “filthy half blood” all reason was lost.
Walburga had stolen the mirror from Regulus so her ugly mug could be on full display, Regulus' pleas for her to give it back were lost on the noise, just like Remus’. He had never been a child she could bully into obeying and he had not grown into a man she could disrespect however she liked.
Remus said he didn't care but Sirius did, and Sirius knew he would fight tooth and nail anyone who dared to call Remus that, even if it was his ex family - especially if it was his ex family.
“Mum please!”
Sirius didn't like the way Regulus' voice cracked.
Walburga apparently also didn't, it was enough to silence her and the mirror to be carefully slipped back into Regulus fingers.
“Just be quick, I can't stand to look at his face for much longer.” She couldn't resist making a last jab.
Remus put a hand on his shoulder to steady him but it wasn't needed, he wasn't going to rise to the bait again, insults against him weren't the problem.
“I need to speak to Dumbledore,” Regulus repeated.
“You already said that, for what?”
As much as he wanted to trust, it wasn't something one could do in war. Regulus had shown where his loyalties lied and even if he wasn't to blame he still had half his face purple and someone by his side listening to everything, none of that inspired much confidence.
Regulus looked at Walburga again, Sirius wanted so badly to tell her to piss off and let them speak for once.
“I found out something, something important.”
Sirius waited to be sure he wasn't going to add anything. “Something you want to share with people on the opposite side?”
“Yes. I ne-”
“You are not going to meet with that lunatic,” Walburga interrupted.
Regulus ignored her, for the first time in his life he ignored her and kept his wide panicking eyes on Sirius. “It's important, more important than anything else, it can end the war.”
It was a trap, it could only be a trap. Still Regulus hadn't looked at him like that in years, with so much hope that Sirius would help, solve whatever mess he got himself into like a white knight. For one second the boy in front of him was no killer, but a nine year old with stars in his eyes asking Sirius to tell him everything about hogwarts.
“Go to Hogsmead, I will pick you up there.”
“No, you will not. Regulus, I entertained your nonsense but I won't let you run off with blood traitors.” Sirius clenched his jaw. The image started to shake.” Give me that back, whatever you have done we don't need help from the likes of hi-”
“Shut up!”
It was so sudden Sirius couldn't process it at first.
Regulus, little perfect little Reggie, had just screamed at their mother.
“Shut up! Shut up! Shut up!” His voice grew higher and more panicking each time. “What don't you understand?! I can die, we can all die! This is the only way!”
Sirius wouldn't be surprised if the intact half of Regulus' face was about to receive the same treatment the other had.
Walburga fell into a stunned silence. “You don't scream at me like that.”
“I'm not screaming,” Regulus let out a screech that was half a cry,” but I told you, if he finds out I-”
“I told you to not scream!” Walburga shrieked.
“I'm not!”
That brought back memories, Sirius was sure that at some point he had many very similar conversations with her, except the part about everyone dying.
“Maybe we can talk this out?” Remus, bless and curse him, intervened.
If only Walburga didn't look at him with so much disgust. “I have nothing to say to someone like you.”
There it was again.
“Trust me I also don't enjoy speaking to you, but this sounds important.”
“It is!” Regulus chimed in, not even when they had curses thrown at them did he look so hectic.
“If the situation is really life or death wouldn't it be better to let him have his chat with Dumbledore? It's not like he is asking for you to become a defender of muggle rights and donate all your money to the poor, just a small talk, how much harm can it do? Don't you trust your son?”
The look she sent Remus became even more poisonous, her face twisted like she was sucking on a lemon with all the offensive words that were ready to leave her mouth at any second. “I trust my son,” she punctuated every word,” it's the only one I have.”
There were some more muffled sounds that Sirius couldn't decipher as the mirror went black
There was no definite answer, he hadn't even been able to process everything that had happened.
“He wants to see Dumbledore. He has something on You-Know-Who. He screamed at her” Sirius turned to Remus for him to understand the sheer magnitude of the act .”He screamed at her.”
It was so out of character, it went completely against the idea of a soft in the head hateful child that didn't know anything despite following blindly that Sirius had cemented it in his head. That child would rather die than speak back to his mother.
Sirius was talking more to himself than anything else, to convince himself he had heard right, but Remus still replied,” he did.”
“Do you think this is a trap?” The doubt hit him.
“If it is, they are bloody good actors…do you want to take the risk?”
He did.
Something inside of him told him it had all been true.
Regulus had really found out something important, something that according to him could make a difference.
The first thing he did while Remus got dressed was send a patronus to Dumbledore and then one to James, he couldnt and wouldnt go through whatever happened alone. Dumbledore's answer was affirmative, James less and more very concerned, not without reason, but he would be coming with Lily; he also suggested calling Peter but that would be too many people, if Sirius still knew anything about Regulus was that the more people Sirius brought the more defensive he would become.
It was probably too late for them, it had been too late for them since the hat shouted Slytherin when meeting Regulus head, maybe it had been to late since they were born with that awful last name, the crucios had been only the final touch, you had to really, truly hate someone to be able to want them in so much pain, a pain one could only wish to their worst enemy.
Still if Regulus wanted to turn his life around Sirius' wouldn't be the one to stop him
If he wanted a life away from what he was born to do Sirius couldn't see any universe where he would be able to force himself to turn his back on him, it was something he couldn't explain - they weren't brothers, they weren't friends, they weren't even friendly, but Sirius wasn't ready to give up on him, he had tought he was but he wasn't .