Hermione and Ginny looked over curiously. "What is it?" asked Hermione.
They struggled through the ever-increasing pile of trash on the floor and came to Ron’s side. "Listen to this letter," he said, shocked. "Harry is going to need this."
"Go on," said Ginny impatiently. Ron was staring at the letter as though he couldn't’t believe what was written on it.
"Okay, here goes," he said. "Dear Regulus Black, your Dark Lord Voldemort is pleased to inform you of your recent upgrade, so to speak, in his ranks. You now have a ‘Sirius’ mission. We have information that your brother, Sirius Black, has done/is two things. (1) He is working for the other side, and holds close relationships with Albus Dumbledore, Lily Potter, and James Potter. As you know, these three people, and your brother, are the biggest threats to our cause. And (2), Sirius Black recently convinced Peter Pettigrew to be the Secret-Keeper for the Potters(Lily and James, aforementioned). You have two assignments.
1. Kill Sirius Black, the aforementioned, your brother. He is a serious threat to our cause, and the loss of him will severely cripple the Potters(Lily and James).
2. Convince Peter Pettigrew, aforementioned, to confess Lily and James’ position to Lord Voldemort. Once they are out of the way, there is only one more serious threat.
3. Spy on Albus Dumbledore. Tell him that Death Eaters came to your house, killed your brother, and left the Dark Mark above your house. Convince him you want to revenge Sirius. Get us all the information about Dumbledore, his weaknesses, his thoughts: everything.
Do these things and you will receive a position of high honor among Lord Voldemort and his ranks. Disregard this letter, or its instructions, and you will be killed. You have been forewarned.
Signed,
Severus Snape."
Hermione was frozen in place; Ginny was practically hyperventilating from keeping back tears. Neither of them could believe their ears. Regulus had been assigned to kill Sirius; Regulus had told Pedigree to betray Harry’s parents. Regulus had been told to help kill Tumbledown.
"And he backed out, didn’t he?" said Hermione shakily. "Remember Sirius told us Regulus got scared and backed out, so Voldemort killed him?"
"And Snape sent the letter," said Ron. "Not that I doubt the git’s loyalty to Voldemort now, after what he did."
Ron shuffled through the rest of the papers, looking for more pieces to the story. "Here’s another one…from Regulus to Sirius."
He cleared his throat and began to read, "Dear Sirius, I have been ordered by Lord Voldemort to kill you. I expect I will be killed any time now myself, and I want you to know the truth. You are so dear to me, and I love you like nothing else in the world. By the time you find this, I will either be dead, under the Imperius Curse, or under Lord Voldemort’s torture. I am giving my life to save you, Sirius. I have bought you some more time, so use it well. Fight him, and restore the peace. I declare this my will of departure, and I tell you one last thing: The location of the only Horcrux I know of is hidden deep in the Dark Lord’s past. I am under an Unbreakable Vow, so I cannot tell you where. All I say is this: Marvolo.
Goodbye, Sirius,
Regulus Black."
"So he knew, didn’t he," Ginny shook. "He knew he was going to die, so he spied for us enough to tell us of at least one of the Horcruxes." She shook her head. "And to think Sirius never knew how his brother felt about him, or why his brother died. It was all to save him…" she began blinking furiously.
"We need to find Harry," said Hermione firmly. "He needs to know. It will help us defeat Voldemort."
"Yeah, agreed Ron. "Where is he anyway?"
They swung around as they heard the door shut and lock behind them. "Mr. Potter is currently indisposed in the kitchen," said an oddly familiar voice from behind the hood of a cloak. "Perhaps you would like to join him?"
Ron, Ginny, and Hermione looked at eachother frantically. None of them had wands, and they were completely unarmed. Except for the letters.
"Distract him," Hermione coughed surreptitiously.
Seemingly out of nowhere, Ginny started coughing furiously. She held her throat, and Ron rushed to her aid, kicking the man in the cloak hard in the shins. The man collapsed into a heap on the floor, and Hermione grabbed the letters and stuffed them in her pocket. Ron stole his wand, and held it tightly in his hand, pointing it at the man.
"Take off your hood," Ron snarled. "I have a pretty good idea who you are, but I just wanted to check, Professor."
The man shot out a hand towards Ron’s legs and pulled him down. Ginny, however, had excellent reflexes, caught the wand, and handed it to Hermione. The man made a move to steal the wand, but Hermione stamped on his hand and shouted, "Stupefy!"
The man froze, and Ron pried his leg out of his grip. "Someone needs to stay and watch Snape," Hermione said, pulling off the man’s hood. "Ginny, Ron, stay here with the wand and guard him. Stun him again if he wakes up. I’m going to get Harry and Lupin." She dashed out of the room, leaving Ginny and Ron alone.
"Do you think he was there the whole time?" asked Ginny, staring at Snape with a look of disgust on her face.
"Probably listening outside the door, the slimy git," answered Ron, a look of pure undiluted hatred on his face. Snape groaned, and Ron kicked him, just for good measure.
"Ron!" said Ginny.
"What?" he asked. "Hermione said to keep him unconscious, didn’t she?" he said, a grin spreading across his face.
Hermione ran as fast as she could into her room and grabbed her and Ron’s wands. She couldn’t take the chance that more Death Eaters were in the kitchen, standing guard on Harry and Lupin, and she needed to keep her, Harry, and Lupin armed. She stopped in Harry’s room, grabbed his wand, and tip-toed down the stairs to the kitchen.
She paused outside the door. What if there was a group of Death Eaters just outside the door, waiting to curse and disarm her? She thought a while and decided to per from a Disillusionment Charm on herself. She walked over to the mirror, looked at herself, and did it, smiling as she watched it work perfectly, thanking herself for that extra homework she always asked Professor Flitwick for. Then, she walked over to the kitchen door, opened it, and slid in.
The room was in a state of sheer chaos. It looked as though a war itself had been fought in there. The kitchen table was toppled over and lay in a corner, one of the legs broken off. All the spindly chairs but two were scattered around the room, and Harry and Lupin were tied to two, sitting in the corner. The was cutlery thrown out of its drawer, the points of some of the bread knifes stuck in the walls. The sink was running, and blood was spattered across the floor.
Hermione rushed over to the sink, shut it off, and hurried over to Harry and Lupin. They appeared to be stunned. Important though Harry was to her, she felt Lupin would be of more use if a Death Eater was to come charging in.
She untied Lupin from the chair and cringed. The ropes were tied cruelly tight, and they had left deep welts in the skin on his arms and neck. "Ennervate," whispered Hermione.
Lupin stirred slightly and jumped up, snatching his wand from where it appeared, to him, to be floating in the air. "Who’s there?" he said sharply. "Show yourself or get cursed."
"Professor Lupin, it’s me, Hermione," she said, as she Re-Illusioned herself. "I put a Disillusionment Charm on myself in case there were anymore Death Eaters in the room."
Lupin frowned. "What did the Boggart in your third year Defense Against the Dark Arts exam turn into?"
"Professor McGonagall telling me I had failed every exam," she replied nervously.
Lupin's shoulders relaxed. "What a relief," he sighed.
"Was Snape down here?" asked Hermione. "Is he the one that attacked you?"
"Yes," replied Lupin. "Harry and I were talking about something he saw in his vision, and we forgot to put a Silencing Charm on the door. Snape heard every word, and then he attacked us. Our wands were laying on the table, and we couldn't react in time."
"Well, he tried to attack us upstairs, too," said Hermione. "He pointed his wand at us, and Ginny pretended to start coughing. Ron rushed to 'help' her, and kicked him in the shins on the way by, and he dropped his wand. I picked it up, and I stunned him."
Lupin grinned. "Clever," he said. "I suppose you played on Snape's sense that he was too much smarter than you to view you as a threat."
Hermione beamed. "Yeah, and I grabbed these. We found them on the desk in the room we were cleaning. I guess that room must have been Regulus's."
Lupin's face sharpened. "You found letters from Regulus?"
"Yeah," admitted Hermione. "One from Regulus to Sirius, and one from Snape to Regulus."
"What did they say?"
"Well," Hermione said. "The one to Sirius told Sirius how much Regulus loved him, and that he was buying Sirius time, and not to waste it."
"Interesting," mused Lupin. "Sirius always thought Regulus wouldn't have just left like that; he always knew, somehow, that Regulus would have said something to him."
"I didn't think Sirius and Regulus were very close," said Hermione. "Sirius never talked about him like they were."
"Oh, they weren't exactly close," explained Lupin. "But they loved each other, even if it didn't show on the surface."
"Oh..." Hermione trailed off.
"Now, what did the other letter say?" asked Lupin.
"Oh, yes, of course," jumped Hermione, who seemed to have been coming out of a reverie. "It was from Snape to Regulus. It told him to kill Sirius, convince Peter Pettigrew to tell Voldemort where Harry's parents were, and to spy on Dumbledore, and find out his weaknesses."
Lupin looked puzzled. "But why did they need Regulus to convince Pettigrew to snitch to Voldemort?" he asked. "I always thought he as loyal to the Dark Side by himself.... Obviously Snape, along with some Veritaserum, has some explaining to do."
Hermione looked at Harry, still stunned, and sighed, her brow furrowed. "Obviously a lot of things are coming out that we never knew about before. Won't that help us out?"
"Yeah, it'll help everything get a little more complicated," sighed Lupin. "Get Harry out, will you? I want to check on Ron and Ginny upstairs and make sure they are still safe up there with Snape."
He dashed upstairs, wand clutched in his hand, and left Hermione alone in the kitchen with Harry.
She slowly unwound the ropes binding him to the chair, wincing as they came off, some marked with unmistakable red stains that had to be blood. When she got all of them off, she Vanished them, and awoke Harry.
"Ennervate," she whispered.
Harry slowly sat up and opened his eyes, as if he had merely woken up from a short nap, instead of a fight and being stunned.
"Hermione, you're okay," he smiled. "What happened after Snape stunned Lupin and I?"
"Snape came upstairs and tried to take on the rest of us," she said.
"You, Ron, and Ginny,?" he asked. "And you guys were wandless?"
"Yeah," said Hermione. "I think he was going to try and stun us but--"
"Is Ginny alright?" interrupted Harry. "She isn't hurt or anything, is she?"
"No," said Hermione irritably. "But Ron is going to want to talk to you about something. Now, may I get on with the story?"
Harry nodded, and she continued. "So Ginny started fake coughing, and Ron, pretending to rush to her aid, kicking Snape in the shins in the process. Ron stole the wand, but Snape kicked him, and he dropped it. Ginny got it back, gave it to me, and I stunned him."
Harry grinned. "Did you tell Ron to give Snape a good kick for me?" he asked.
"No, but I'm sure he did that already without you telling him," she smiled. "Anyway, I left them with Snape's wand, got both of our's, and came down here. I Disillusioned myself just in case there were any Death Eaters in here with you. I untied and awoke Lupin, and he told me what had happened. I showed him these," she held up the letters, "and we talked. Then he rushed up stairs to check on Ron and Ginny."
"What are those, anyway?" Harry asked.
"Well, these are two letters," she replied. "One is from Sirius's brother, Regulus, to Sirius, and this one is from Snape to Regulus. The one to Sirius tells him how much Regulus loved him, and how he had bought him some more time by disobeying the Dark Lord. The one from Snape gave Regulus orders from Voldemort. One, to kill Sirius, two, to convince Pettigrew to snitch on your mum and dad, and three, to spy on Dumbledore and find out his weaknesses."
Harry's jaw dropped. "So it's someone else's fault my parent's died, not Pettigrew's?" he asked.
"Well, technically, it is still Pettigrew's fault, because he listened to what the dark side had to say. But, yeah, it might not have happened if they hadn't talked to him."
Harry was confused. Pettigrew supposedly snitched on his mum and dad, but really it was someone telling Pettigrew to tell Voldemort where his parents were hiding. "So who did it if Regulus didn't and got killed?"
"I think Lupin is going to find that out for us," said Hermione. "He said something about Snape and Veritaserum."
Harry sighed and put his face in his hands. Would everything have happened differently if Sirius had found those letters? He was happy that he knew about them, but he knew the contents would torture him for the rest of his life. He held his head up defiantly, and vowed to himself never to give up on Voldemort. It wouldn't have happened at all if it hadn't been for Voldemort, he thought. I would have been a normal person, with a normal family. I might have even had siblings. Normal...
"Harry, are you okay?" asked Hermione. "You look like something's troubling you."
"Yeah, I'm fine," he replied. "I'm just thinking how I might have been normal if it wasn't for Voldemort. He's the one who started it, and without him, Pettigrew wouldn't have had to make the choice."
Hermione gave him a stern look. "There is no such thing as normal," she said.
"Of course there is."
"Oh, yeah," she said. "Define it for me, then."
Harry groaned. "What is this? I thought school was over with."
Hermione narrowed her eyes at him. "Fine, be in denial. I'm not the one who can't answer a simple question."
"I can too!" he said, angry at being treated like this. "Normal is...erm...well, normal is when you aren't different," he concluded.
Hermione smirked. "Okay, so who is normal to you?"
Harry stared blankly back at her. "Erm..."
"There is no normal. There never is, there never will be. Normal is a state of mind; you'll never avenge your parents, Sirius, or anybody by trying to be normal." She took a breath. "Normal is a figment of everyone's imagination."
"Professor Lupin," said Ginny urgently. "Snape tried to attack us but Ron kicked him and Hermione and I stole his wand and--"
"Ginny, it’s okay. I already know; Snape attacked Harry and I in the kitchen, and we were wandless at the time," said Lupin soothingly. "Everything is under control."
"Is Harry okay?" she practically shrieked. "I have to go see him and make sure he’s alright!"
Lupin smiled. "I think Harry is in good hands. Hermione is awakening him and getting the ropes off him, and she is telling him what happened up here, too."
"Are you going to do something about Snape?" asked Ron. "The idiot tried to attack us all, and he said he was going to tie us up downstairs with you."
"Well, he didn’t get that far, I see," said Lupin. "I suppose you stunned him?"
"Yeah."
"Good, we can’t have him running amok, now can we?" grinned Lupin. "I have some Veritaserum with me, and I was planning on administering some to him in the kitchen. Would you be so kind as to come down with us?"
Ginny and Ron nodded, and walked out the door. They were followed by Lupin after he had muttered a spell ("Planer!"), which caused Snape to float eerily, guided by Lupin’s wand. Ron recognized it as the same spell Sirius had used to make Snape float of of the Shrieking Shack and the Whomping Willow in their third year at Hogwarts.
As they walked down the stairs, Snape occasionally ‘accidentally’ bumping into things, they heard the sounds of a conversation between Fred, George, and Mrs. Weasley floating up the stairs.
"Why wouldn’t Snape have attacked them, too?" asked Ron.
"He probably considered them a minor threat, and wasn’t going to bother with them until he had you all finished with," replied Lupin casually. "Remember, though Snape is very smart, and very cunning, he does have the weakness of slightly overestimating himself. To tell the truth, I think Molly, Fred, and George at the same time are more than quite a match more him. Molly is an excellent dueler, too."
"What?" asked Ron and Ginny simultaneously.
"There is no way that mum could be a dueler," said Ginny slowly, in awe.
"Yeah, all she knows are household spells and stuff," agreed Ron.
"She’s not in the Order for no reason, you know," said Lupin, grinning once more. "You should ask her about it some time, and see what she says."
Lupin continued walking down the hallway, bumping Snape into the troll-leg umbrella stand on the way by. Ron and Ginny, however, were stopped in awe in the middle of the hallway.
"Mum…a dueler," said Ginny. "Do you think it’s even possible?" she giggled.
"Honestly…" said Ron, as he began walking again. "The bets spell in dueling she knows is expelliarmus, and she only uses that on Doxies."
Mrs. Weasley then walked out of the drawing room door, arms loaded with Mrs. Skower’s All-Purpose Cleaner and some dirty rags.
"Hey, mum," Ginny called. "Can you show us some of your dueling skills after dinner tonight?"
Mrs. Weasley went extremely pink around the ears and walked towards the kitchen, pretending that she hadn’t heard them.