Mobius

Barty's sent Reg at least half a dozen owls and hasn't had one response.

His parents have canceled their social engagements for the summer.

That brother of his dared show to up in Diagon Alley three weeks ago on some loud and smelly Muggle contraption, and nobody can figure out how he got the gold for it.

His father hasn't been to the Ministry in weeks.

But he doesn't panic until the day he gets to London and shows up on the front step of Number Twelve, where he's greeted by a house-elf who slams the door in his face when he asks if Regulus is at home.

He's asked his father if the Department of Magical Law Enforcement can open an investigation into the disappearance of Regulus Black and go to Grimmauld Place and see what could have happened, but his father says that Reg is of age and so many people are missing, and they can't do anything unless his next-of-kin enter a report.

Barty knows that in a different world he would be next-of-kin but here he's still a kid with a father who doesn't care, who's more worried about missing Mudbloods than the heir to a powerful family, and his O.W.L.'s aren't enough currency to buy answers. But he does know how to get to his father's office at the Ministry, and maybe he can find some help there.

He shows up in his father's office one day and with the help of a purloined Invisibility Cloak he sneaks into a meeting of a few Aurors. He pulls off the cloak as he slips through the door and begs Alastor Moody and Augustus Rookwood for help, for advice, for contacts outside the Ministry who can help him find Regulus, or at least learn what's happened to him.

Rookwood is aloof but Moody actually has some advice about vigilance and stealthy tracking charms but neither of them is willing to doctor with the Trace to determine whether any magic with Regulus's signature on it has been performed anywhere in the UK. He's over seventeen, Moody says, so it won't work. If it was that easy to track magic, they'd never have a hard time tracking Dark wizards.

Moody's explaining a little trick with Shield Charms when the door slams open and his father slams him with a Stunning Spell that knocks him out in his chair. When he comes to, he's in his father's large office, the plaque proclaiming his status as head of the Department of Magical Law Enforcement gleaming on the wall.

Moody is watching him and he knows that the Auror was the one who turned him in, all that time that he'd thought the man had been helping. Barty blinks as his father speaks softly and angrily, the disappointment so evident in his tone as he asks why Barty took advantage of the Ministry for his own personal reasons, why Barty had risked bringing shame onto the family if this scandalous manipulation ever became public, whether Barty truly understood the risks in being associated with Dark wizards like the Black family.

He sits in silence in the office while Moody leaves and his father gathers up some things and brings him home, and it's a week before he's allowed out of the house again.

He haunts the Leaky Cauldron in Diagon Alley, goes undercover along Knocturne Alley eavesdropping for answers, or even a clue, but nobody mentions Reg's name and it's almost as if he's been forgotten. He's been in touch with some of Reg's classmates and some of them seem to think he's gone to a Quidditch camp in Australia, or Austria, or possibly Arkansas, so Barty dismisses everything they say as wholly noninformational.

He has to go back to school in less than two weeks, and he's panicking. He'd be willing to even talk to that Sirius Black at this point but nobody's seen him since the first of August. Barty would suspect he's gone missing, too, like other blood traitors, and he only cares because Sirius would be someone to talk to about Regulus.

Word of his quest to find Regulus seems to be making the rounds, finally, and Regulus's cousin finds him at a table at the back of the Leaky Cauldron when he's done getting supplies for the upcoming school year.

"My cousins have never gotten along, you must know this. And with the friends Sirius has had since he went to Hogwarts and was so humiliatingly sorted, Regulus has long been in danger. I fear that this summer...." Her voice trailed off and she looked worried and upset.

Barty's hands clench into fists and he almost feels the pulse of his wand, as if it wants to attack, to scream, to destroy. "He wouldn't have killed his own brother; you just don't do that to family, no matter what. He must've taken him somewhere; he can't be dead. I'd know it."

"Of course you would, sweet boy. But while you may have known the contents of Regulus's heart, you haven't accompanied him to any of the meetings or other.... other projects he's been involved with this last year. Unfortunately, I fear his brother may have learned that Regulus
had become a true follower of-" Her voice turned to a whisper as she continued. "Of the Dark Lord."

Barty blanched. The Dark Lord, the man his father had railed against, and had even obtained permission to use Unforgivable Curses against? And Regulus was one of his disciples? Yes, magic was might and blood purity was important but....

"Your father isn't worried about your friend, is he? But the Dark Lord is terribly worried about Regulus, and if you want to have help in finding him, you could consider who will be more of a help, and who has spent this summer as a hindrance." Barty blinked and took a long pull
of his butterbeer. "The Dark Lord suspects that behind Regulus's disappearance, we will find Sirius and his friends, including those he went to school with - the Potter and Longbottom boys especially. If you come with me, later this fall I suspect, if you please the Dark Lord,
you'll be given a chance to question them and either rescue Regulus, or seek your revenge. Are you interested?"

For Regulus? To save Regulus, or - Barty's heart broke to think of it - to avenge Regulus? If he did this just to get information...

"Yes. Yes, of course. Tell me what I have to do."

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Author's Note: Thanks to GwendolynGrace, Copperbadge and Allyson for amazing beta-comments!