A/N:

Ya know. I really wanted to work on my other WIPs, but this happened and would not leave me alone.

Sort of dedicated to the amazing Tobirion who can take amazingly complex characters and balance them beautifully. Also a nod to Xardogn's amazing story, The Golden Weapon.

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Orion Black regretted many things about his life.

Orion regretted being born the Black Heir every second of every day. He regretted being painfully shy and socially awkward no matter what he did to combat the issues; he regretted being so terrified of women after that incident with that horrid mudblood that his father was forced to quickly marry him off to Walburga to spare the family shame.

Orion regretted that his habit of hiding behind Walburga and her steadfast convictions were what eventually drove her to believe that her word was law. Orion knew it was his fault that she had slowly sunk deeper into her insanity, as Walburga had needed a partner who could argue with her and make her change her mind occasionally, but Orion simply couldn't abide the shouting or the insults.

The two boys that Walburga had blessed him with were his pride and joy, but yet again he'd failed them when he'd allowed Walburga to dictate their lives. Orion had managed to stand up for the boys a few times, but not nearly often or steadfastly enough for him to feel any sort of pride as their father.

Orion was the single greatest blight to have ever graced the Black Family tree and he was intimately aware of his lifetime of failures.

However, the look on Reggie's face when Orion appeared with Thimble- Orion had known of Kreacher and Reggie's plan, he was the Lord of the House by magic- on that small island surrounded by Inferi almost made the man feel as if he'd actually accomplished something worthwhile for once in his miserable life.

Orion quickly Petrified his son and shoved him towards the teary-eyed, but resolute Thimble. "I love you, Reg. Tell Siri that I love him, too. I'm sorry…for everything."

Regulus Black's last view of his coward father was of the man bravely facing death to buy time for Thimble to take Regulus somewhere safe.

Orion had been smiling- warm and bright and triumphant.

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When Regulus Black had awoken in the safe house that his father had prepared for him it had taken him nearly a week to properly wrap his head around exactly what had happened.

Regulus had grimly gone to retrieve the Horcrux. He'd ordered Kreacher away. He'd seen the Inferi converging. He had known he was about to die.

Father had come with Thimble. Regulus still didn't understand exactly how.

Father told him that he loved him. And Siri.

Then he'd willingly walked to his death.

Father was gone.

So was Regulus' Dark Mark.

"Father…." Regulus choked out brokenly as he raged on the inside. "Father why?"

Why did you save me? Why did you leave me? Why didn't you come with me?

Later, when he'd spent all of his anger and his tears, Thimble came to him.

"Young Master Regulus, sirs," Thimble said solemnly, her spindly fingers curling around Regulus' clenched fist and gently prying it open before she deposited a small stone against his palm. Once the stone was secure Thimble gently wrapped Regulus' fingers back around the small item and tenderly patted his hand before withdrawing. "Master be tellings Thimble that's Young Master Regulus would be knowing how to opens this when the time is being right." Thimble blinked her tennis-ball sized eyes slowly and smiled warmly at Regulus. "Thimble is not havings much times left, Young Master, but she's be wantings to tells yous that Master Orion really dids be lovings you boys…" Thimble trailed off and her bat-like ears drooped so low they nearly kissed the floor. "Master just not beings ables to believe in himselfs, is alls."

Regulus swallowed convulsively and nodded at the small female Elf- Kreacher's mother- and she gave the teen one last, impossibly fond, warm smile before she straightened ad disappeared with a sharp crack.

Regulus bowed his head and broke out into fresh, (unbecoming of a Black Heir, he could almost hear his Mother say), raw sobs when he felt the tendril of magic that connected him to Thimble slowly vanish.

Hours later, with red eyes, a raw throat, and more than one shattered-then-Reparo'ed breakable, Regulus hurled the stone that Thimble had given him against the nearest wall.

"Dammit, Father! I'm not strong enough to do this on my own!"

There was a small hissing sound and then a projection of Orion appeared above where the stone had fallen. "I know I've left you, Reggie, but you're not alone."

Regulus slowly sank to the floor and let his father's words wash over him. By the time Orion had explained everything, Regulus felt hope flare in his chest.

I wish I had known this side of you all along, Father.

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Sirius Black stared at the lines he'd painstakingly etched into the unforgiving stone walls of Azkaban with his fingernails listlessly.

No one was coming for him.

Sirius let his head loll back, ignoring the way his tangled, matted hair caught on the rough-hewn edges of the stones as he barked out a crazed, bitter laugh.

Bad blood will out, huh?

Sirius's clouded grey eyes stared sightlessly out into the dark, forbidding corridor just beyond the bars that held him back from escaping.

Didn't even rate a trial, in the end.

Sometime later- it could have been hours or days, really-Sirius felt the Dementors's aura creeping up the hallway and he hurriedly shifted into Padfoot. Almost immediately he felt the effects of the Guards of Azkaban's presence diminish as the animal's survival instincts shifted his emotions deeper and away from the greedy wraith's purview.

Padfoot whined and whimpered as the cloaked Guards rattled the bars to his cell threateningly, enraged that they were being denied their full due.

I deserve this….

"It's not like you to give up, Siri."

"Oh, great." Sirius laughed bitterly, shifting back into his human form seamlessly as he gazed at his new 'visitor'. "I'm being visited by dead people."

The visage of Regulus Black smiled sardonically. "I'd be much less attractive if I were a corpse, Siri."

"Now I know I'm hallucinating." The elder Black Heir mumbled grouchily, even as his eyes misted over and he greedily drank in the sight of his younger brother. "Because Reggie would never lower himself to make such an unbecoming joke."

"You have no idea, big brother."

Sirius tried to swallow around the sudden lump in his throat. How long had been since Reggie had called him that? "I wish you were real." Sirius managed after a long moment. "There were so many things-"

"This is great, Siri, but we've really gotta go."

(It took Sirius nearly a week to realize he'd been rescued and then a month before he'd let Regulus out of his sight without panicking.

Fortunately for Sirius- who had several impulsive moments that could have ended truly terribly- Regulus had a plan.)

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Augusta Longbottom was many things. Austere, a member of the Old Guard, a fierce opponent-

-but she was also a mother, and more to that, a grandmother.

Her son- her, precious, precious Frank- and his wife- lively, fierce, lovely Alice- were catatonic, locked so deeply within their own minds that they would never recover, short of a miracle. Her husband- her strong, steady partner of more than seventy years- was newly dead and the vultures were circling about her and her irreplaceable Neville.

Neville, who was shy and smiled only at her. Neville who had listened to his parents scream that awful, horrific night and still had nightmares about it sometimes, sending the young child tumbling into her bed and crying into her chest as he tried to push back the feeling of being utterly, completely helpless.

Her beautiful, priceless, kind-hearted Neville who was the perfect mix of all the people she'd loved so fiercely and had lost too soon-

Those bastards want to kick Neville out or change him. 'It won't do for the House of Longbottom to spear to be weak!' my foot! She seethed as she stalked down the halls of Longbottom Hall in more than a bit of a temper, having just come from an 'emergency Family Council'. Over my dead body!

Augusta stormed into her room and dug out the small card that she had received nigh a year ago from a man she'd thought to be dead. She closed her eyes and pinched the bridge of her nose in thought as she turned the card over in her free hand.

It was insane, a plan truly worthy of the Blacks and there was the Bellatrix angle to consider, but it might be-

"Gran?" A soft voice called, causing Augusta to look up and smile warmly at her grandson.

"Come in, sweetheart, don't dally in the hallway." She ordered him briskly, earning her a shy smile and the obedient shuffle of small feet as Neville quickly came in, shut the door behind him, and quickly crossed the room to be swept up into his Gran's arms. "How are you today, little bear?" August asked after a long moment of pressing tender kisses to Neville's sable hair- as always it smelled of baby, sunshine, and earth..

"….ok." He said softly after a long moment, his tiny fingers curling uncertainly into the expensive fabric of her robe.

Augusta drew back and tilted Neville's chin up so she could see him properly. "Just o-" Augusta's mouth snapped shut when she saw the bruise on Neville's cheek. "Little bear," She said as evenly as she could manage. "What happened?" Because she would have known if Neville had had an accident, Aspy would have informed her. The only way her little bear would have gotten a bruise like that and she wouldn't have been promptly informed as if-

"Uncle Algie." Neville murmured softly, his golden-hazel eyes filling with tears as he buried his face in her robe. "He said that it would not have happened if I had magic."

Augusta drew in a shaky breath as her arms went around her precious grandson and she tried to tamp down on the maelstrom of fury that raged within her breast. "I won't let this continue, little bear." She murmured to him as he started to cry in earnest.

I won't.

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Harry looked at the man with the dark hair and the kind eyes solemnly. "Why?"

The skin around the eyes crinkled lightly as the man smiled at him in a way that reminded Harry of the way Uncle Vernon sometimes smiled at Dudley. "Because you're family, kiddo."

"So are they." Harry made a fluttery hand gesture that roughly implied the sleeping Dursleys were family too.

A warm, calloused hand came down onto Harry's hair and the man's fingers gently scratched the boy's scalp before he allowed his hand to drop onto the boy's thin shoulder. "No, they're just people you happened to be loosely related to." The man corrected warmly. "I'm talking about being family."

Harry smiled shyly and ducked his head so that his wild hair would hopefully hide the creeping blush and his teary eyes. "Promise?" He asked hesitantly.

"I promise." The man agreed warmly.

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"Are you all absolutely sure?" Regulus asked the assembled seriously.

"If you don't quit stalling, Black-"

"Alright, well." Sirius butted in cheerfully from his spot to the right of the rather irate Augusta. "Let's do this!"

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Minerva did not often interfere with the lives of the mortals- or even the Cetra, truth be told- but the bright souls who had cast themselves before the mercy of the Creator called to her in a way that she was nearly powerless to resist.

"What do you offer me in exchange for Sanctuary?" She asked, hooded and cloaked as they were tossed about in the Seas of Chaos, the barrier between all worlds and dimensions that kept the multi-verse from collapsing in upon itself.

"Everything but the lives of the children." They responded instantly. Humbly. "As long as they are found and can live, you may take everything from us."

Minerva's lips curved into a small, fond smile and she flicked her hand at them. In the green that twisted out from her fingertips she heard the voice of the Planet- of Gaia- sing out brightly as the souls of the Golden People rejoiced. The Lifestream reached out and embraced the travelers wholeheartedly and Gaia's blood fairly burned as She accepted Her new Children, wrapping them in layers upon layers of Her Blessing as the Golden People's melody rang out all the clearer as their new Hope was forged. Not exactly Cetra, not exactly WEAPONs, but something between the two and yet neither.

The melody reached its crescendo.

Yes, Minerva thought as she folded back into her small pocket dimension outside of space and time where she observed the worlds she was tasked with guarding. I think that this is for the best.

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Yes? No?

Please leave a review on your way out!

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A/N:

Also, no idea on pairings. I am sort of toying with the idea of Sirius and Mama Strife, with Augusta and Regulus adding plenty of commentary in the background.

Cloudy could have two younger brothers. It would be hella cute. Can't you just imagine BigBrother!Cloud?

Or they could end up in Gongaga.

I dunno.

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A/N #2:

Also, Orion had originally planned for Regulus to jump worlds- possibly with Sirius- so that Regulus could be free.

After the deaths of the Potters and Bellatrix's involvement with the Longbottoms he altered the plan. Partially because he didn't want to be alone, and he still loved his brother, for all that he and Sirius had been estranged.