Harry was delighted to have a lesson with Hagrid on his first day. The class was introduced to hippogriffs, including Buckbeak. Harry got to ride on Buckbeak and everything was going well until Draco ruined it by ignoring Hagrid's instruction to not insult a hippogriff. The consequence was Buckbeak attacking Draco and causing him to have an injured arm. Draco milked his injury for more than it was worth.

Snape sighed as his third year Slytherins and Gryffindor entered his dungeon. He already had to deal with one Potter, but now he had to deal with one more in his class just as he was getting over the shock of Potter still being alive. And there was yet another in his first year class. He hadn't looked at the two new Potters as he had missed the feast on an errand. But at least having Potter's cousin's daughter wouldn't be as bad as having Potter's own son in his class. She was also a Slytherin, and not a Gryffindor. He would have preferred it if it was a trade in, but yet Potter's brat of a son would still be in his class as well.

After his usual introduction speech, he asked the class "Who can tell me the ingredients in a Shrinking Solution?"

Granger and another girl raised their hands. He had never seen the other girl but yet she felt familiar. He supposed she was the new Potter girl. Out of blatant curiosity of a Potter raising their hand in a potions class, he decided to let her take the question.

"You. You're the new Potter girl aren't you?" he asked, narrowing his eyes at her.

"Yes sir. Abigail Potter".

"You know the answer to my question?"

"Yes sir. Roots of Applewood, Shrivelfig and Hattonide", she said as he notice Hermione put her hand down in disappointment.

Snape was stunned. "Well, at least one of you knows. Ten points to Slytherin", he said, doing his best to control the shakiness in his voice.

"Thank you sir."

Snape felt a jolt in his stomach and he eyed Abigail Potter while explaining The Shrinking Potion. She eyed him with same interest as someone dear to him had once did in Potion's class. Even her palm was placed on her chin the same Lily's used to. Potter's son on the other hand usually looked bored with his back lounged in his seat just like his father used to during Potions.

He walked around the class as they brewed the Shrinking Solution and passed criticisms to most of the cauldrons. Draco Malfoy had an injured arm so he made Ron cut up his ingredients and deducted points from Gryffindor while making Ron switch with Draco when Draco complained Ron wasn't doing it right.

However, Abigail Potter was doing an excellent job on her potion and watching her work reminded him of his old dear friend. Even her smile when she talked with her friends was all Lily. But how? She was Potter's niece. She had no blood connection with Lily. Why was she reminding him more of Lily than her actual son did?

Sirius never imagined having to step inside 12, Grimmauld Place but here he was, entering the house he grew up in with both his bestfriends. They had tried researching about horcruxes in the Potter library after James had filled him and Remus in on his conversation with Dumbledore but there simply were no books pertaining to Dark Arts there. But Sirius knew there were plenty of books on the Dark Arts in the Black library. Deciding that Harry's well-being was more important than some resolve to never step into 12, Grimmauld Place, the three Marauders made up their mind to check the Black library.

As he expected, he heard his mother's portrait yell things like "Filthy blood traitors and filthy half-breeds entering my home. My own flesh and blood, a filthy blood traitor". Sirius yelled at her to shut up but she continued her screaming rant about their presence.

Sirius was surprised to see that the house was barely dusty. It didn't look like it had been abandoned for years. It looked like was being lived in. Was Kreacher actually keeping up the house despite there being no one living in it? Just then they heard a sound in the kitchen.

"It's probably Kreacher", he told his friends who nodded.

"Kreacher, could you please clean my room?" came a voice from the kitchen.

"Yes master".

Sirius, James, and Remus exchanged looks before heading to the kitchen.

Sirius gasped with his eyed wide when entered the kitchen to see a man who looked similar to himself sitting by the counter.

"Regulus?" Sirius had gone white. From the corner of his eyes, he saw his friends look just as petrified and confused as him.

"Sirius?"

"But … how? They said … you were … dead," said Sirius.

A few minutes later, the Marauders and Regulus were seated by the counter. Regulus had explained about how Voldemort tried to use him and Kreacher to hide his horcrux, a locket in a cave and how he had exchanged the horcrux for a fake one.

"Kreacher saved me with house-elf magic but I had to pretend to be dead and go in hiding as 'you-know-who' would have killed me if he found me. I was in hiding somewhere far away and secluded that I didn't receive any news from our country. I only recently heard that you-know-who had been vanquished. That's why I returned back home. I regret that I missed the deaths of both mother and father", he said ruefully.

"Why didn't you come to me about the horcrux?" asked Sirius. "Dumbledore would have protected you if you deflected."

"I didn't want to put you in danger. I thought it best if I handled it myself. Besides, didn't Dumbledore out you and James for being illegal animagi?"

"Right. habit of trusting the old coot. But my friends and I would have protected you".

"Why did he out you both?"

The Marauders explained Dumbledore's whole plan to him.

"I knew there was something untrustworthy about him", Regulus shook his head.

"Do you know anything about Voldemort's other horcruxes, Regulus?" asked James as Regulus flinched.

He narrowed his eyes. "Other horcruxes? But I only know of one that 'you-know-who' told my about".

Regulus was white with fear by the James had explained what Dumbledore told him.

"That's why we're here. We wanted to looks for books on hocruxes to research how to destroy them. Particularly, how to destroy a human one without harming the human," said Sirius. "We couldn't find any in the Potter library as they don't have many books on Dark Magic".

"I hope you're finally seeing the grey area of Dark Magic," said Regulus.

"What grey area? Horcruxes are evil. The only grey area I see is the need to have more books and knowledge on it in case we need to combat it".

"Where's the locket, Regulus? Have you found a way to destroy it?" asked Remus.

"The locket's in this house. Kreacher kept it safe. But we haven't found a way to destroy it. I've researched all the books I could find with information on horcruxes and the only way to destroy a locket horcrux is with a basilisk's venom which I don't have access to".

"That's what Harry destroyed the diary with", Remus nodded. "There must still be remaining basilisks venom on the sword and fang that we can destroy the locket with".

"Do any of the books have a way of destroying a human hocrcux without harming the human?" asked James, hopefully.

"Unfortunately, not as far as I looked".

"Regulus, would you mind showing us what you've found on hocruxes so far? And perhaps we might have luck in finding more", said Remus.

"Alright, let's go to the library".

Sirius and Regulus looked at each other.

"I know you think I was just some evil boy who joined the Death Eaters and didn't stand up for you to mother and father. But I wasn't brave like you and I'm sorry", said Regulus.

"I never thought you were evil. I just thought you were soft and stupid for blindly following them. When I heard you were dead, I thought you had second thoughts about being a Death Eater and was killed for it. But what you did by defying Voldemort and replacing the horcrux was rather brave and noble", said Sirius.

"I actually thought about you and how brave you were then and channeled that. I may not have showed it, but I did secretly admire how brave you were in standing up to mother" he said.

"I felt guilty when I thought you were dead. Part of me wondered if I could have saved you and I was a good enough big brother. But I'm glad you're alive", said Sirius as both brothers hugged it out.

=To be continued=

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