Dog Star Rising

Dog Star Rising

Author's Notes: Thanks to all my reviewers, especially Bottlebrush! To prove the canon-compatibility of Sirius's story here, I'd like to remind everyone of a few references: page 66 of the American edition of OOtP mentions creaky floorboards in the room where Harry is staying. (I hadn't realized this when I first wrote the relevant scene, but I love it!) Any who doubt that Dumbledore could have saved Sirius from the Veil in the way I describe should look again at the death scene. For some reason, JKR specifically tells us on page 806 that Dumbledore turned to the dais before Sirius fell through. Dumbledore also performs what I am calling a Remote Disapparition Spell on page 56 of HBP when he sends Harry's trunk--and owl cage containing a live Hedwig--to the Burrow.

Chapter Three

"A few weeks before that unfortunate affair in the Department of Mysteries, I made a discovery at 12 Grimmauld Place. You remember how bored I was--trapped in that horrible house, unable to really help with the cause. Moony, you were out of town on one of your missions, so I was there alone. That afternoon I was thinking, as usual, about the miserable childhood I spent in that place, and I remembered the space under a floorboard in Regulus's room where he used to hide things when we were kids. We'd cleaned out the room long before, of course--I think you may have been sleeping in it when you came to stay, Harry--but I hadn't thought earlier about that old floorboard. I didn't have anything better to do, so I decided to take a look. I didn't know what I might find--old comic books, fossilized chocolate frogs--but the thought of snooping into Regulus's secrets again after all these years appealed to me.

"Moony, you remember Regulus from school. He was two years younger than me, and when I tell you he was sorted into Slytherin, that probably gives the rest of you an idea what type of person he was. He was bright enough, I suppose, but a sneak and a tell-tale. He was the one who kissed up to my parents and let them know about anything I ever did that he thought might get me into trouble. I kept as far away from him as possible when we were at school, but I do have a few happy memories of us doing things together when we were little. I suppose I felt I owed something to his memory.

"Anyway, I went to the room and looked for the spot I remembered. He'd placed a Concealment Charm over it, but it wasn't much work for me to get past that. When I pulled up the floorboard, I fully expected to find nothing below it, but instead there was a leather-bound book. At first, I thought it might be full of Dark spells, but instead it turned out to be a diary--one that Regulus had kept during that last year of his life when he joined the Death Eaters."

"He actually left a written record of that?" Remus broke in incredulously.

"Well, the bloody little Fascist seems to have been quite proud of himself at first--Mum and Dad certainly were--and it's not as though he left it where just anyone would find it, either. I'm the only other person who knew about that hiding place, I think, and I don't know who else would have had the time, the inclination, or the knowledge of Regulus's thought patterns to work through all the Encryption Spells he'd put on the thing. I, of course, had nothing better to do, and it kept me amused while all of you were out doing 'useful' work for the Order. I thought that perhaps there would be some information inside that might help us. I had no idea how right I was.

"Regulus hadn't been out of school for very long at this point--he was barely nineteen when he died. He was ambitious--Mum and Dad had filled his head with stories of the glorious Black family history--and he saw Voldemort and the Death Eaters as a fast track to a position of real power. After he received the Dark Mark, he was eager to be given assignments that would let him prove his merit to his superiors.

"As it turned out, he didn't have long to wait. To show his loyalty and enthusiasm, he was told, his first grand task was going to be the murder of a helpless old Muggle woman. And he did it, too--the whole story was set down in the diary, how he strutted and posed for her, playing the great evil wizard he thought he was. He tortured that poor woman, terrorizing her with all kinds of displays of magic before he finally cast the Killing Curse that stopped her heart. And he wrote it all down like a conquering hero--I had to stop reading to vomit several times. I've never been particularly proud to bear the name 'Black,' but on that day I couldn't stand the thought that I'd ever been related to the man who wrote that diary.

"I may have waited a whole week after I read that entry before picking up the diary again. As I said, I was sickened by what I was reading and nearly decided to just destroy the thing and be done with it. I considered discussing it with you, Moony, on the evenings that you were in the house, but it felt like private business-family business--and I felt that you'd already seen enough of the ugly secrets of the Black family. But I couldn't get Snape's voice out of my head, either, telling me how worthless my life had become, how I was hiding out in that house like a coward. Finally, my desire to find something that might be of use to the Order for once, coupled with the fact that I was bored out of my skull, got the better of my disgust, and I went back to reading.

"It turned out that that murder marked a turning point for my little brother, and not just in the way I'd first thought. He was sure that once he'd completed it, he'd be let straight into Voldemort's inner circle. Instead, it made no difference at all that he could see in his status. Some of the other Death Eaters--spurred on, it seems, by Cousin Bellatrix--even started to make fun of him, asking him how much courage and skill it took to kill a weak old Muggle. When he tried to approach Voldemort himself and ask for what he thought was a suitable reward, he was laughed at. And Regulus discovered that he wasn't the cold-blooded killer he'd pretended to be, either. That old woman started to haunt his dreams at night; he couldn't face the memory of what he'd done to her. Gradually, he came to the realization that he wanted out, even though he knew that would almost certainly mean his own death.

"I wish he'd come to me then. We'd never been close, but I was still his brother--and a member of the Order. There might have been something I could have done to save him. Regulus, though, had his own bit of the Black family pride, and if I may say so, also the Black family style. He decided that if he was going to be killed regardless, he wanted to do as much harm to his enemies on the way out as he possibly could. I've already mentioned that his great talents from the time he was small were in sneaking and spying. He set out to learn some of Voldemort's secrets, and he started by investigating why the particular Muggle woman that he'd killed had been targeted.

"Her name was Agnes Cole. At the time of her death, she seemed to be just an ordinary Muggle old-age pensioner, but Regulus's orders had been specific--he had to kill her, not just any random Muggle. He concluded that there must have been a reason why Voldemort wanted her to die, and he started looking into her past. In her younger days, it turned out, she'd been the matron of a Muggle orphanage in London, and that's the next place Regulus turned his attention."

"Wait a minute!" Harry interrupted. "Mrs. Cole! I've seen her, Dumbledore showed me, she's the one--"

"Yes: the matron of the orphanage where Tom Riddle, later known as Lord Voldemort, lived as a child. Regulus had never heard the name 'Riddle,' of course, and had no idea what he was looking for. The orphanage itself had closed down about ten years before, but he was able to find the government office where its records were still stored. He broke in and spent an entire night skimming through them, looking for anything suspicious. When he spotted a forty-year-old record of a boy being granted a scholarship to a school called 'Hogwarts,' he knew he'd found what he wanted. He scanned all the records from that period, looking for mention of Tom Marvolo Riddle, and found some interesting tidbits of information.

"By this point, he had started to suspect who Riddle actually was--or who he later became, I should say. The mystery of Voldemort's origins, it seems, is a source of much speculation among the Death Eaters--when Voldemort himself is not present, of course--and Regulus was well aware that the dates of these records would have matched Voldemort's childhood. There was a photograph of Riddle in one of the files, and Regulus thought he could see a resemblance between the child and the adult Voldemort, though from what Dumbledore later showed me, Voldemort is now much changed from what he once was.

"He also learned that strange accusations seemed to follow Tom Riddle over the years. The matron had suspected Riddle of bullying, thieving, even of killing a child's pet rabbit, and there was one mention in particular of mysterious goings-on in a seaside cave that caught Regulus's attention. He was able to trace the cave's location, and when he visited it, he wrote that he found enough magical safeguards placed around it that he was sure something important was concealed inside.

"Regulus wasn't aware of Voldemort's habit of creating Horcruxes, per se, but he'd never forgotten a remark he'd overheard the day he attempted to ask for his reward for the murder. Bellatrix was nearby, and apparently made some joke about 'wittle Wegulus' thinking he was a big man now that he was killing old women. Voldemort sent Regulus about his business rather sharply, but as he was leaving the room, he heard Voldemort call Bellatrix his "Dark Goddess" and suggest that unlike her pitiful cousin, she might one day be found worthy to share his immortality. At first, Regulus assumed he had meant immortal fame, but as time went by and he saw proof of Voldemort's indestructibility when attacked, he wondered.

"From the time he discovered that cave, Regulus bent all his energies to trying to penetrate its secrets--"

"And all this time, Voldemort never suspected him?" Hermione interrupted, then blushed apologetically.

Sirius took another swallow of pumpkin juice, then smiled at her. "Apparently not. My brother was luckier than he had any right to be, but he did have an advantage in that Voldemort shared Bellatrix's low opinion of his abilities, and genuinely believed he wasn't important enough to keep close tabs on. He'd also studied a bit of Occlumency during his last year at Hogwarts--nowhere close to what Snape is able to accomplish, but enough to help. As it happened, Bellatrix had seriously underestimated 'wittle Wegulus'--and I have to admit, I was staggered as well when I read how he finally uncovered the secret of that locket.

"He didn't leave many details in the diary about what spells he used, first to learn what the locket was and where it was hidden, and then to steal it from its hiding place. I'm afraid Dumbledore was working with little more than vague hints when he and Harry entered that cave last June. I can tell you that it took months for Regulus to discover the cave's secrets, and that he found most of the spells he needed in the books of Dark Magic in the Black family library. We have quite a collection, going back centuries, and if you have the stomach for that sort of thing, you'd be able to learn more of the Dark Arts there than in the Restricted Section of the Hogwarts library--maybe even the Durmstrang library.

"However he did it, Regulus managed in the last few days of his life to remove that locket from where it was hidden. His last entry records his certainty that it was a Horcrux, and that he was now looking for a spell that would allow him to destroy it. He wrote that he was greatly weakened from the effort needed to penetrate Voldemort's defenses, and he had also been sure for some time that the other Death Eaters were starting to doubt his loyalty. That entry was dated the day before he died. We'll probably never learn exactly how he met his death, but one thing is clear: Voldemort still doesn't suspect the full extent of Regulus's treachery to him.

"When I read his description of the locket, I remembered where I'd seen it before--the day you three helped me clear out the glass cabinets in the drawing room. Remember? I wondered at the time why that locket was stored in the cabinets instead of with the rest of Mother's jewelry. It wasn't a piece I recognized, either, but then, the house was full of old objects, and I knew she might have acquired all sorts of things in the years after I left, as well. I was a bit suspicious when no charm I tried that day would open it, but at the time, I mostly just wanted all of that rubbish gone--I didn't really care to spend much time investigating what it might be.

"So there I was--I knew Regulus hadn't managed to destroy the locket, but I wasn't sure precisely what had happened to it during all the cleaning. Kreacher might have squirreled it away in one of his caches of 'valuable' objects; it might have been simply thrown out, or it might have gone to Mundungus. I'd been letting him sort through the rubbish bags and take anything he wanted to sell, and he'd have definitely wanted a gold locket if he saw one.

"And there was another problem as well. My little brother had managed to outwit Voldemort in a way I never would have imagined he could, but he'd been driven by a desire for revenge, and he apparently felt that revenge wouldn't be truly satisfying if Voldemort was unaware who had done this to him. The diary records how he left a second locket in the place of the one he took, and placed a note inside telling Voldemort what he'd done. Since the Horcrux had remained in the Black drawing room all these years undisturbed, it was clear that Voldemort hadn't gone back to check his hiding place in the months after Regulus died, and not since Wormtail brought him back two years ago, either. He might have done, though, at any time, and the note that idiot left for him would have led him straight to 12 Grimmauld Place.

"I contacted Dumbledore immediately. He agreed with me that we now had two problems: finding the missing locket and protecting the safety of everyone at Headquarters, which we'd never imagined might become a prime Death Eater target in spite of Dumbledore's Fidelius Charm. He was adamant that what we'd learned from the diary had to be kept a secret. The knowledge of this Horcrux is the most powerful weapon the Order of the Phoenix has ever had against Voldemort, and it must be protected at all costs. What other members of the Order don't know, they can't possibly reveal, either willingly or unwillingly, and we had to consider the likelihood that, if we have a spy in Voldemort's camp, he may well have at least one in ours.

"So I told no one, and quietly started searching the house for the locket when no one else was about. Dumbledore began some research of his own, which I believe he later shared with you, Harry. Then came that awful evening at the Ministry.

"All of us were there that night, so I'll just jump to the moment when--"

He hesitated, and Remus filled in quietly, "When Harry and I saw you die."

"Yes. Ron and Hermione, I know you weren't in the room at the time, but I assume Harry has told you how it happened?"

"Actually not," Hermione replied. "Harry's never wanted to talk about it."

"But we've heard," added Ron. "From Neville."

"All right, then. Briefly, I let myself get too cocky, and my dear Cousin Bellatrix managed to hit me with a Stunning Spell. I remember falling backwards, and the last thing I saw was Harry and Moony running towards me. I still see the horrified looks on your faces in my nightmares. Then everything went black.

"I woke up, several hours later as I eventually learned, lying on the old bed in the Shrieking Shack. Dumbledore was there with me, and he told me immediately that we'd won the battle and that no one had suffered any permanent damage, though the prophecy had been destroyed. I'm sorry that happened, Harry, though then and now, I care much more about your life then about any blasted prophecy. I wanted to go up to the school to see Harry right away--I'm not sure I was ready to believe you were really all right without seeing for myself--and also to stop in the hospital wing if I could, to check on Ron and Hermione. Then Dumbledore told me I couldn't go near any of you, that thanks to him, you all were under the impression that I'd been killed."

"Dumbledore--" exclaimed Harry. "He told me! That old--he told me that night that I wasn't nearly as angry with him as I ought to have been, that it was his fault you were dead!"

"He used a Remote Disapparition Spell?" broke in Remus.

"Yes. That's rather advanced magic, and most wizards who don't have Dumbledore's skill would never dream of using it on a human being, but for him, it seems to have been easy. He slowed my fall by just a bit, waited until just before I would have dropped through the veil behind me, then sent me to the Shack instead. To anyone watching, it would have been completely convincing."

"It certainly was," Remus replied.

"But why?" asked Ron.

"Well, he told me he hadn't planned it, exactly, but he knew when he saw me falling toward that veil that he'd found the perfect opportunity to solve several problems that had been worrying him. My 'death' was going to make it easier for me to help him search for the lost Horcrux in complete secrecy, and it also would help to protect the lives of the people that he and I cared about most. I didn't want to listen to any of this at first, of course. I raged at him--told him I was going straight up to Hogwarts to let Harry know I was alive, that even when I was a teenager I would never have played a joke this cruel on my friends. But he wouldn't let me leave, and he eventually convinced me he was right.

"Dumbledore explained what he'd learned from questioning Kreacher--how the Death Eaters had learned that I was the perfect bait to use in luring Harry into a trap. That night, it had worked perfectly--'And,' Dumbledore added, 'it would work again just as well. Do you really think that you could ever convince Harry to stay away if he knew that you were in danger? After tonight, he'll be a bit more cautious, perhaps, and he may not fall for another bluff, but he would still walk knowingly into a trap in order to save you. Next time, the Death Eaters will simply make sure that they've actually captured you. And then you will die--and you'll die knowing that you were the cause of Harry's death as well. Is that what you want?'

"Then Dumbledore went on to point out that my potential usefulness as a hostage would also increase the danger to everyone at Headquarters even further. Not only would we have to worry that Death Eaters might break in at any minute looking for the Horcrux, but they also might arrive at any time looking for me. Anyone staying in the house would be in harm's way--and since the summer holidays had almost arrived, that would likely include all four of you. There are no other people in the world who mean more to me. From that moment, I knew Dumbledore had won his case."

"But how could the Death Eaters find your house?" Ron asked. "Dumbledore had protected it with a Fidelius Charm."

"Sirius is quite correct, Ron," said Remus, regaining a bit of his professorial demeanor for a moment. "The Fidelius Charm is a very powerful, but also a very precise bit of magic. Years ago, when Dumbledore performed it to hide Harry and his parents, the spell was specifically keyed to the three of them. It didn't hide their house in Godric's Hollow, but even if the Death Eaters had searched the house, they'd never have seen the Potters--if Peter hadn't proven himself to be a piece of traitorous scum, that is. This time, the Charm protected the location of Headquarters--before Dumbledore died, none of us would have been able to reveal that location to anyone. Harry, you could still speak the address out loud when you contacted us there through the Floo network, though, couldn't you? You just couldn't have added that that was the site of the Order of the Phoenix's Headquarters, and the Charm would have prevented you from hinting or otherwise indirectly revealing that information as well. Sirius, however, was not specifically hidden by the Charm. Anyone looking for him who knew where the Black family house was located and could get past the other security measures protecting it would have been able to find him--and anyone else who happened to be present. The Death Eaters wouldn't have known that they'd found our Headquarters, but any of us might have been hurt or killed just the same as they tried to fulfil some other objective."

"And Bellatrix and Narcissa were both capable of finding the house," Sirius added. "They've visited it enough times over the years. We hadn't been worried about that when we chose it as Headquarters, because there was very little reason then to think that the Death Eaters would come after me. I was in hiding from the Ministry--there was nothing I could do that would be a threat to them. Virtually any of the other Order members would have ranked higher on their list of priorities. But now the situation had changed.

"If the Death Eaters believed me dead, however, they'd have one less weapon to use against Harry. And if the Order members believed me dead, it was less likely that anyone would want to actually live at Headquarters, so that even if Voldemort himself showed up looking for the locket, he wouldn't find it, and he wouldn't find any of us, either.

"So I finally accepted Dumbledore's arguments and agreed to stay out of sight. I was far from happy about it, but the alternative--putting all of you, and perhaps the ultimate success of our cause, in jeopardy--was unthinkable."