Regulus Black
by Healer Teddylonglong

All recognizable characters belong to J. K. Rowling, and I am not earning anything by writing this story.
I am not a native speaker of English. Please excuse my mistakes.

COMPLETELY AU! Partly OOC.

It is my story, and I intend to write it the way I want it. If you don't like it, don't read it.
Reviews are very welcome, as they inspire my muse.

Regulus stared at the locket in disdain. 'So much work and risking my life for this best prank ever, and now I don't have a clue how to destroy it,' he growled to himself.

It was dark times, and the still twenty-one-year-old had made a grave mistake when he – upon his mother's instruction – had joined the Dark Lord's side. But he had decided to make up for it, secretly. However, on this evening, he realised that he could not do it alone. He needed help. First of all, he needed someone to help with the poison that was cursing his body ever since he had drunken the liquid that was supposed to keep the locket safe for its master. Secondly, he had no idea how to be a spy for the other side.

Whom to ask though? He had a brother, one year older than himself and firmly on the light side. However, also thanks to his mother, they were not on good terms, as his brother despised him ever since he had taken the Dark Mark. 'He was right,' he thought, 'I was just too young and stupid to realise it.'

Suddenly, a woman's face materialised in the front of his mind. 'Amelia Bones.' He knew the witch from school. She had been head girl when he was a third-year, and she had once helped him against a bunch of older Gryffindor students who had tried to harass him. Only recently, the witch had become the youngest ever head of the Department of Magical Law Enforcement. 'She'll be able to help me, and she will,' he reassured himself.

That decision in mind, he turned in for the night. However, sleep did not come easily. It was not only that he was feeling unwell due to the poison, but also that he experienced an excitement like never before at the prospect of changing his life completely. 'Good that Mother is dead, she'd kick me out of the family like Sirius,' he thought, when he made his way to the Ministry of Magic first thing in the morning.

HP

Amelia Bones had just made herself comfortable at her desk with a cup of tea and a pile of parchments to do some paperwork, when a guest was announced: Regulus Black.

Raising an eyebrow in surprise, as she knew Sirius Black and his friends quite well and had heard about the error ways of the younger Black brother; she nevertheless welcomed the young wizard in a friendly way.

"Madam Bones," he greeted her with apparent respect. "I'm sorry to disturb you, but I've come because I need help." He told her about how he had realised that he had been forced into making a great mistake and now wanted to make up for it. He described how he had hunted down a Horcrux and explained what it was, before he showed her the item and told her about the poison, which he needed to get rid of.

"Mr. Black," she said, thoughtfully, when the young man interrupted her.

"Please Madam, just call me Regulus. The Black name is too taunted to feel comfortable with it."

Nodding in understanding, the youngest of all department heads sent a white bird from the tip of her wand, following it with her eyes until it left the room through the nearest wall, and informed him that she was calling Croaker, the head of the Unspeakables.

"If anyone will be able to help you, it'll be them," she reassured him, causing Regulus to feel very much comforted by her assistance.

"Thank you so very much for your help," he said, gratefully. "I appreciate it very much."

HP

Ten minutes later, Regulus followed Croaker through the halls of the Ministry of Magic into the Department of Mysteries and further to the most secret part of the whole building, the rooms of the Unspeakables.

Everything looked very mysterious to Regulus. The Unspeakbles were wearing strange robes with hoods that hid their faces, and he was not able to see anyone's face, nor did he know who they were other than that they were Unspeakables.

Croaker led Regulus into an empty office and held a monologue of almost an hour about what it meant to be an Unspeakable.

Everything sounded hard but fair to Regulus, and after listening to the head of the Unspeakables for some time, he was sure that this was what he wanted to do with his life. He was made to swear an oath on his magic and his life to work for the light side and abate to the rules of the Unspeakables. Afterwards, he was told that he was from now on going to live with the name Raros, that he could forget his old name and life. Finally, Croaker brought him to the infirmary of the Unspeakables, where their own healers and mediwitches used to deal with injuries that should not be shown to the healers at St. Mungo's. From Croaker's explanation, Raros understood that their own staff was more competent than that of St. Mungo's and that they were surely able to help with the poison.

Raros spent five days in the infirmary, a time during which he had the opportunity to get used to his new position as Unspeakable apprentice. Croaker had promised him training for one year, before he was going to be recognised as a full Unspeakable.

'Thank Merlin I went to Amelia and asked for help. It was the best decision of my life,' Raros thought, when he was finally released from the infirmary and returned to the Black house for the night before his training was going to commence the following morning. 'After training tomorrow, I'm going to look for a new place to live,' he decided, not wanting to have anything to do with his former life anymore.

HP

After training the following day, Raros made his way to Gringotts, where he opened his own account under his Unspeakable name, before he transferred half the amount of money from the Black account to his own, enough for himself to buy a new house and comfortably live for the rest of his life. 'If I feign my own death, the complete Black fortune will go to Sirius anyway,' he soothed his bad consciousness.

To his relief, Buckbean, the manager of his new account, was very forthcoming and helped him find a house within days. It was just five years old and built on the small Scottish island with the name Inis Rún, located right on the cost near the main place of the island, Bally Sideways. 'Surely a good place for an Unspeakable to live,' he thought and bought the house, even if he had to admit to himself that it was slightly too large for just one person.

'Well, maybe sometime in the future, I'm going to have a family of my own,' he thought, feeling extremely annoyed when Amelia's face popped up at the front of his mind. 'I'm being stupid,' he thought, 'she's such a wonderful woman, she surely has a boyfriend.'

He only returned to the old Black house once more to retrieve only his most important belongings and left everything unimportant there, as his cover story would seem more believable if most of his belongings remained. Finally, he placed a small parchment on the kitchen table announcing his upcoming suicide due to the path that had been dictated him by his mother, knowing that Kreacher would find his message and inform Sirius or whoever would be interested, before the elf would find his way to Raros' new home.

'I hate that house,' he thought just what his brother's opinion had been when he had left for good six years ago.

HP

Ever since Lily and James Potter had left Potter Manor and had gone into hiding together with his baby godson, Sirius had lived in a small house, just next to the one in which Remus had rented an apartment. However, both of them used to spend their evenings together with their best friends.

It was a cold and stormy evening in the middle of October, when the always happy Sirius seemed strangely subdued, that Lily asked in concern, "Sirius, is something wrong? Are you ill?"

Sirius gave the wife of his brother in everything but blood a sad look, before he explained, "My brother's dead. Regulus. He made the wrong decisions, as he joined the Death Eaters, but he was still my brother."

Neither he nor James protested, when Lily pulled him into a bear's hug. There was no need for words to prove that they felt his grief with him.

HP

Raros thoroughly enjoyed his training with the Unspeakables, and he soon found into his new role as spy for the Unspeakables. Sometimes, he even had the chance to meet his brother, who was working as an Auror together with James Potter. Of course, the two older wizards had no idea who he really was but only knew him as Raros, the Unspeakable, who was about their own age and always friendly.

Croaker and one of their colleagues had efficiently managed to tamper with his Dark Mark. It was not visible anymore but still there, and even if it did not hurt anymore, it alerted him to the Dark Lord's summons, so that Raros could invisibly attend the meetings in order to spy. No one, not even the Dark Lord, would be aware of his presence.

In the early evening of Halloween, Raros once again attended a Death Eater meeting, hidden from sight by an Unspeakable charm, when he realised something horrible.

Peter Pettigrew was standing in front of the Dark Lord, who was praising him greatly for his invaluable assistance for a great step towards getting rid of the dangers mentioned in the prophecy.

Raros' thoughts went haywire. The Unspeakables were aware of just one important prophecy of recent times, and that concerned the Potters and their baby Harry. He knew and appreciated his brother's best friends well enough to feverishly hope that the matter with which Pettigrew had helped the Dark Lord had nothing to do with them. 'I hope they took Sirius as Secret Keeper and not Pettigrew,' he thought, however, feeling bad about the matter, he immediately left the meeting and returned to the office of the Unspeakables.

Unfortunately, those of his colleagues, who were still at the office, did not know who the Potters' Secret Keeper was, so Raros quickly made his way to the Department of Magical Law Enforcement, hoping that Potter or at least Sirius would still be working. Fortunately, Sirius was still there, trying to catch up on some paperwork.

"Auror Black," he quickly addressed the older wizard, very careful to not give himself out by addressing his brother by his given name. "Please allow me one question. Who is the Potters' Secret Keeper, you or Pettigrew?"

"Pettigrew," Sirius replied in apparent concern, frowning. "Why are you asking?"

"Because Pettigrew is a traitor. He sold them to the Dark Lord. You have to change the Secret Keeper and cast a new Fidelius charm immediately if it's not too late already," Raros replied, urgently.

A flash of horror spread over Sirius' face, as he dashed from the room, instructing Raros to alert Dumbledore to the problem and send him to the Potters' residence to re-new the Fidelius charm.

'If it's not too late already,' Raros thought in concern. From the fireplace in the Unspeakables' division, he called the headmaster and informed him that he urgently had to re-cast the Fidelius charm for the Potters with a different Secret Keeper.

With that he returned to his own office, waiting for information. However, neither did Sirius return to the Ministry that night, nor did the headmaster call him back, and around midnight, Raros stepped into the fireplace to travel to his home and get some hours of sleep.

HP

Only when he came into the office after his training late in the afternoon, he heard the horrible news. Lily and James Potter were dead, Baby Harry was left with a lightning bolt scar on his forehead after vanquishing the Dark Lord, and his brother Sirius had gone after Pettigrew, killing Pettigrew and twelve Muggles as he went.

"No, I don't believe that Sirius would kill anyone," Raros immediately protested. "And he wasn't the Secret Keeper. Pettigrew was."

"Speak with Bones then," Croaker instructed him. "Dumbledore told everyone that Black, sorry… your brother was the Secret Keeper, he made himself the boy's guardian and took the child to Hogwarts for the time being. Sirius Black has been sent to Azkaban."

"What?" Raros asked in disbelief. "Oh believe me, I'll contact Madam Bones right away," he then promised and rushed into the Department of Magical Law Enforcement.

HP

Amelia patiently listened to Raros' explanation, her expression growing sterner the more she heard.

"You are sure I suppose?" she asked in a firm voice, causing Raros to nod and explain how he had been attending Death Eater meetings as a spy.

"Very well," she finally said, sighing. "I'll look at this mess. First of all, I don't think that they just put Sirius into Azkaban without a trial. However, I'll confirm that and question him under Veritaserum. Frankly speaking, I don't believe that he did any of this either. Secondly, I'll speak with the account manager of the Potter vaults and enquire if the Potters left a will. As soon as I have news, I'll contact you," she promised, making Raros sigh in relief.

"Thank you Madam Bones," he replied, gratefully.

Amelia smiled. "You may still call me Amelia, Raros," she said, before she rose from her chair to leave her office behind him.

HP

Just an hour later, Raros received a bird message from Amelia. 'Thanks for informing me. Would you like to accompany me to Gringotts?'

'Of course,' Raros thought and quickly informed Croaker, before he made his way to Amelia's office for the second time that day.

"Sirius has indeed been sent to Azkaban," Amelia informed him. "It'll take until tomorrow morning, before he'll be back. Let me tell you, heads will roll over this. I've already spoken with Minister Bagnold, and she's as upset as I am," she added, shaking her head in clear annoyance.

Together, they headed to Gringotts and asked to speak with the manager of the Potter account. After a few minutes' wait, Raros sighed in relief, when Buckbean approached, who was also his own account manager.

"Madam Bones, Raros, what can I do for you?" Buckbean enquired, when they had made themselves comfortable in his office.

"We'd like to see the Potter will," Amelia replied in a firm voice. "We're not asking as friends, but as the head of the Department of Magical Law Enforcement and as an Unspeakable."

"I understand," Buckbean said, pensively, wearing a troubled expression. "The problem is that Mr. Dumbledore instructed me to seal the will, and as Harry Potter's magical guardian, it's his right to do so."

"Wait a moment," Amelia spoke up in a stern voice. "Who made Dumbledore Harry Potter's guardian and why? I've already spoken with the Registration Office, and they accepted Dumbledore as guardian just because he said so. I've already instructed them to set the matter on 'Pending' until further notice from my office. In order to clarify this question, we must consult the Potters' will."

"I'm sorry, Madam Bones, but I'm not entitled to make such a decision," Buckbean finally replied. "Please allow me to call Ragnok to decide on this matter."

"Of course," Amelia replied, wearing a grim expression.

tbc...