Another Prisoner, Another Professor

"They were embossed with his initials," continued Black before Harry could say anything. Despite its desolate tone, there was something calm about his voice. "The woman who found it brought it home because it was pretty and her husband - she's a Muggle, he's a wizard - recognized the goblin-wrought silver. He took it to the goblins to see if they knew who it belonged to and they did. At the moment it's with the Aurors." With a flick of his wand, Black lit the candles and the darkness vanished. "It looks as though they're going to search more of the woods. I have no idea where this is going to lead - it could produce nothing or it could end with the Malfoys in Azkaban for murder. Either way, I want you to do something for me."

"All right," Harry said nervously, after a moment had passed.

"I realize this is something like an ideal scenario when it comes to your feud with Draco - "

"No, it's not," Harry said at once. "I mean, if your brother's - it can't be ideal for me if it's bad for you," he finished awkwardly.

Black gave him a small smile. "I don't want you to mention it to Draco in any way, shape, or form. Even if the Aurors don't find any evidence pointing towards the Malfoys, the fact that they're searching near their home is enough to make things very tense around here. It doesn't need to be worse than the Malfoys will make it. Understood?"

"Yeah," said Harry. "Worse than the Malfoys and Snape will make it, I bet."

"Yes, I imagine Snape will want to use this for his own ends." Black took a deep breath and exhaled slowly.

Harry sat down in the other red armchair. "If they found your brother's button, he could be alive, couldn't he?"

"He could," said Black, "but I doubt it. Who would he still be hiding from? The Ministry? If the Malfoys could manage to avoid conviction, Regulus could as well - I don't think he could have done anything worse than they did. Voldemort wouldn't trust Regulus with something enormously important when he had braver and more experienced people at his disposal. No, I think it's as I've said before - the Death Eaters realized he was more weakling than warrior and decided to get rid of a potential liability. The only thing that doesn't make sense is Narcissa..."

"Who?" asked Harry.

"Narcissa Malfoy, Draco's mother. Regulus's cousin. She has her faults, to put it lightly, but she's always been very loyal to her family, the non-disowned members, that is. Still, I suppose Lucius could have done it on his own and never let her in on the plan. Or Regulus could have tried to change sides, but there's very little probability of that. I never saw him doubt the notion that pureblood wizards were superior. No, I think he's dead. I've thought it for some time now and this doesn't give me any reason to change my mind."

A thought occurred to Harry. "But - the Malfoys are really good at getting away with stuff. Wouldn't they know better than to leave a button sitting around in the woods? I mean, if they killed him and buried him somewhere, they'd look at the body and realize the button was missing - " With a small jolt of horror, he realized how awful he must sound, and mumbled, "Sorry."

"That's all right," said Black. "It's a good point. Still, they're not flawless. Everyone makes a mistake somewhere and this might be the one that brings them down."

"Do you think that'll happen?" Harry asked. "They've got away with everything - "

"The Aurors who investigated them before are still in the department," Black said. "Except for Alastor Moody. The Malfoys are something of an old grudge for them and I think they'll do their best to put them in Azkaban. The odds are that the Malfoys are going to have a public scandal on their hands no matter what comes out of this. And the Malfoys fighting a public scandal are a force to be reckoned with, which is why I want you as far away from this as possible."

"They can't do anything to me, though, can they?"

"I don't think so," said Black, "but you're associated with me and I'm associated with Regulus, and the Malfoys never throw one handful of dirt when they can throw two. I'm trying to stay out of this myself - I want to keep this as the Malfoys versus the Aurors, not the Malfoys versus me. It's bad enough that I've already secured a firm place on Draco's list of enemies."

"You're not scared of Malfoy!" Harry exclaimed, and then wished he'd kept quiet.

"No, Draco doesn't make the list of the very few people I'm afraid of, but all the same, I'd rather not have the rest of the wizarding world reminded that I was tried for being a Death Eater and that I founded a school for werewolves and that I used to be friends with an escaped murderer. And I'm sure you'd rather not have the rest of the wizarding world reminded that you've committed offenses that would have got anyone else expelled from Hogwarts and that you broke the Decree for the Reasonable Restriction for Underage Sorcery twice."

"The first time wasn't me!" said Harry heatedly. "It was the Malfoys' house-elf!"

"They'll use anything they can. If I were you I'd avoid breaking school rules and getting on anyone's bad side until this whole thing is over."

"Yeah," said Harry, "just what I'm good at, not breaking school rules and staying off of people's bad sides."

"Believe me," said Black, "I sympathize."