Sirius POV
The table in the Black library was buried under scrolls, tomes, and half-burned family ledgers. Remus had a pile on his left, while Newt was scratching notes in the center, and Nicolas leaned back in his chair like he had all the time in the world. I paced, because sitting still in this cursed house felt like a different kind of suffocation.
We were planning how to save Regulus.
Remus muttered as he skimmed a heavy tome, "If what Kreacher said is true, we'll need restraints designed for Inferi. Runes layered with blood magic because simple chains won't hold him otherwise."
Newt nodded distractedly, flipping through a battered bestiary. "Their reaction to flame is well documented, but if Regulus body still holds a tether to his soul, the fire will destroy him along with the curse."
I dragged another ancient book off the shelf, blowing dust off the cover. The crest stamped on the leather was familiar, but the words beneath it stopped me cold.
My throat tightened as I read it aloud. "Family love is always pure." That was the Black family's original motto? Not the poisonous garbage about blood purity plastered on every crest I'd ever seen.
How did a house centered on family begin to teach such nonsense? How did L'amour familial est toujours pur, become Toujours pur?
I stared at it like it had slapped me in the face. "Bloody hell! We weren't always like this," I muttered. "Somewhere along the line we twisted it. Took what was good and corrupted it until it was unrecognizable."
Remus glanced up from his book, with soft look to him and said. "Maybe that's why it's you, Sirius. Maybe you're the one who gets to bring it back to what it was meant to be."
I didn't answer, but I tucked those words deep down where they'd stick to the back of my mind. For once, I felt a little less ashamed of the blood in my veins.
Remus cleared his throat an said. "I found it. Binding runes for containing an Inferius without destroying them. But we'll need countermeasures too... in case Kreacher was right about the swarm in the lake." He tapped grimly on the passage. "Fire and sunlight are still the only guaranteed methods of killing Inferi. If Regulus isn't the only one down there..."
The silence that followed was heavy, the truth of the situation was left unspoken. If we failed, we'd need to be ready to burn him.
Nicolas finally spoke, voice calm but cutting. "Before you attempt this, Sirius, you'll need the second bloodline. You need two living ties of Black blood. Without that, no ritual we do will bring him back to you."
I scrubbed a hand over my face. "Narcissa."
Remus raised an eyebrow and asked. "Do you think she'll agree?"
A humorless laugh escaped me. "I'm about to find out."
The Parlor at Malfoy Manor
I hated asking favors from my family. I hated it more when it meant facing Narcissa and her smug husband. But this wasn't about me, this was about Regulus.
Narcissa sat tall in her chair, with her ice-blue eyes as sharp as ever. Lucius lounged beside her, his cane resting against his leg. "To what do we owe the pleasure, cousin?" she asked coolly.
I didn't waste time with pleasantries and just spit it out. "Regulus isn't dead. He's been cursed into being an Inferius by Voldemort when he tried to destroy one of his Horcruxes."
The words hit like a bomb. Narcissa's mask cracked for the first time since I walked through their door, while Lucius went pale. I think pales a good look for him, I thought. Finding humor in the small things is the only thing keeping me sane at the moment.
"You're saying the Dark Lord... split his soul?" Lucius's voice was low, almost strangled as he spoke.
"Yes," I said flatly. "We all know It weakens the magical core and with every time he split it, he tore himself apart becoming the deranged idiot he is now. Regulus discovered this foul fact when Voldemort used Kreacher to test the defenses he used to guard one of those pieces. Regulus died trying to retrieve it. His last order to Kreacher was to destroy it.."
Lucius actually looked sick and not the funny kind of sick. His hand clenched around his cane, knuckles white. "A Lord's magical core is his legacy. His family's future, to damage it willingly..." He cut himself off with a hiss. "Filth, he dared place such corruption in my home, in my private store room?"
That caught my attention. "What are you talking about?"
His lips curled with disgust as he said. "It was a diary, a gift entrusted to me years ago. I thought it was nothing more than a tool at the time. A weapon, perhaps. But if what you say is true, I suspect it was one of these... shards." He sneered like the word itself was poison. "I allowed that foul thing near my family. Near Draco, I was such a fool."
Narcissa laid a hand on his arm, steadying him, before she turned back to me. Her voice was clipped but firm when she said. "If saving Regulus requires my blood, you have it. Whatever else my husband may think, my loyalty has always been to family first."
Lucius inclined his head stiffly. "And mine, I will no longer put my faith in that half-life creature we once followed." His voice was firm in his new found convictions when he spoke.
For the first time in years, I believed him.
Black Library - Later that Night
The locket sat sealed on the table, its malignant aura smothered under wards and a thick iron box. Around it, all six of us gathered together Remus with his notes, Nicolas with his calm patience, Newt double-checking creature repellents, and Lucius standing stiff but resolute at Narcissa's side.
Kreacher hunched by the fireplace, eyes darting to me and then to the box. "Master wants Kreacher to lead them to the cave?" His voice cracked with fear, but there was something else there too. Maybe, hope and determination to save Reggie.
"Yes," I said firmly. "You'll take us to the exact spot where you left Regulus, and we'll bring him home, Kreacher. One way or another I will bring my brother back."
Remus slid a map across the table, already marked with wards and counter-runes and said. "We'll need layered protections around all of us. The Inferi will swarm at the very first splash."
Newt added without looking up, "I've got containment charms ready. If Regulus still has enough of his soul left to be saved, we'll need to restrain him without harm. If not..." His voice trailed off, grim.
I clenched my fists and with a shaky voice said. "If not, I'll do what has to be done."
Silence followed until Nicolas spoke softly. "Then it's decided. I suggest you go at dawn that way you have daylight as an aid. In A worst case scenario you run for the light."
The fire crackled as Kreacher muttered something under his breath, but when I turned to him his eyes were clearer than I'd ever seen them as he said. "Master Regulus will not be alone this time. Kreacher will save him."