Swallowed in the Sea

Chapter Seven: Part of A System, A Plan:

James made to run after them, but Lily held him back.

'They're letting us in to see Sirius,' she said, a bit cross. 'Where are you going?'

'I'll be right back,' he said, without looking at her and ran out of the hospital.

When he got out onto the street, the Aurors were gone. Kingsley was still standing on the pavement, apparently still waiting for Dumbledore.

'Kingsley,' James panted, 'where are they taking him? Regulus?'

Kingsley frowned. 'Why?'

'Are they going to interrogate him? Do you know anything?'

'They're taking him to Azkaban for now,' Kingsley answered. 'He'll be interrogated later today.'

'Do you think they'll let us be there?' James asked again. 'Me and Remus?'

'To be present at interrogations, you have to be on duty,' Kingsley said.

James swore under his breath and felt like kicking something. He was still on leave from the Auror-squad and Remus wasn't an Auror at all.

'Well, could you at least let us know what happens?' James sighed.

'Unfortunately,' Kingsley said, one eyebrow raised, 'Hestia and I have just decided to take the afternoon off. We're still looking for replacements.'

James blinked twice and searched Kingsley's face for any clues at all. 'Are you saying what I think you are saying?'

'Yes.'

'Since when are you allowed to look for replacements?'

'Since half the squad got killed or wounded,' Kingsley grunted. 'Replacements are allowed if they have shown capability before. I cannot see how an Auror on leave and a top-Order member are not capable.'

'Thank you,' James said and patted Kingsley on the shoulder. 'Really.'

'Yes,' Kingsley said, looking wholly unimpressed. 'I'll make sure Elphias has got your badges when you arrive at Azkaban. Interrogation starts at four.'

'Thanks.'

*

'Where've you been?' Lily asked, when James walked into the room. She was sitting by Sirius's bed and holding Remus' hand.

'I talked to Kingsley,' he answered. 'Remus and I can take part in the interrogation.'

'Who says Remus wants to?'

'Why wouldn't he want to?'

'Maybe he feels like he could do without collapsing again today. Maybe he just wants a quiet afternoon!'

'Fine, he doesn't have to come!'

'You're right, he doesn't,' Lily said angrily. 'He can go home and rest.'

'Well, that's fine,' James spat. 'I don't care.'

'I'm very flattered you care enough about me to have a row,' Remus said, and James could swear there was amusement in his voice, 'but I'd like to decide myself.'

James smiled and Lily went bright red and let go of his hand.

'Sure, mate.'

'Sorry.'

Remus gave them a half-smile, but then his face grew serious again. 'What time do we have to be there?'

*

James was nervous, as he stood next to Remus, ready to enter the interrogation chamber of Azkaban -which actually was just another cell, one of the rare empty ones. He could feel his heart pounding in his throat and if Remus felt the same way, he was darn good at hiding it.

'I'm goin' to be taking charge of the interrogation,' Elphias Dodge said as he flicked through a few folders. 'Moody was found inappropriate because he was emotionally involved. I'm sure I don't need to explain why.'

James gave a half-smile. Sirius had been his protégé during their training and he'd been more of a father to him than a teacher. Alastor Moody was a good man, he might be unorthodox, but his ways worked and he was good at what he did. But James knew Moody wanted to see Regulus hang just as much as he did.

'I'm going to be asking questions, Moody's going to take everything down.' James had rarely seen Elphias this down to business. He usually complained about everything and swore in every sentence. 'You two don't say anything.'

'He's ready for you now,' an old, balding man in a very old set of Auror's robes said as he closed the door behind him. 'He's got handcuffs on and he's bound to a chair, he won't be able to harm you in any way. Moody's in there already.'

'Thanks, Dorian,' Elphias said as he took hold of the door Dorian had just closed for no reason.

'You're welcome,' Dorian said gleefully. 'I'll be here, should anything happen.'

'I'm sure y'are,' Elphias answered. 'Come on, boys, let's get over with it.'

James looked at Remus as they walked inside. His face was completely neutral; in fact, James could vividly imagine that this was the face he put on when he went to his mother's for tea. He wished he had the same kind of restraint, because it was more than clear that James would never have it. The moment he saw Regulus, sitting on a chair and looking haunted already, he lost his cool, strode forward and hit Regulus in the face as hard as he could.

He felt Remus take hold of his arms, not even a second later.

'Calm down, James!'

Suddenly, a wand was pressed against his nose.

'Take it easy, there, son,' Alastor Moody said in barely more than a whisper. 'That's not the way we handle things here.'

He couldn't stop looking at Regulus, at his -quite probably- broken nose and the blood oozing down over his lips. At least, that gave James some satisfaction. He was trying to wrench himself loose from Remus' grip and he had to suppress a smile when he remembered that yes, Remus was indeed stronger than him in every single way. When he realized he wasn't going to get out of this unless he gave in, he glanced at Moody from the corners of his eyes and nodded.

Remus let him go immediately, but gave him a soft push as he did to demonstrate how much he disagreed with what he'd just done.

Moody cleared his throat. 'Well, you ready, Elphias?'

'Ready as I'll ever be,' Elphias replied while taking out a few sheets of paper out of the folder and examining them closely. 'Alastor, take note that the interrogation of Regulus Alphard Black takes place on the second of March, 1982 at exactly 1600 hours. He has been captured at St Mungo's Hospital for Magical Maladies and Injuries by Order-member Severus Snape as he tried to attack his brother, Auror Sirius Algernon Black, who's been in a coma in the hospital for two months after being ambushed by Death Eaters.'

James swallowed hard. Bloody Death Eaters. Nothing but a pathetic bunch of cowards, wearing masks and attacking people who couldn't fight back. He clenched his fists and gritted his teeth. He'd give anything to hit Regulus in the face again.

Remus must've noticed, because he put an arm on his shoulder and shook him softly.

Moody glanced at them both. James figured this was as friendly a greeting they were going to get form him.
'You're a Death Eater, son, we knew,' Elphias started. 'But we didn't think you'd be stupid enough to come back now your leader is gone.'

'He's not my leader,' Regulus grunted and some more blood dripped on his dirty robes. 'I'm not a Death Eater.'

'So you killed those two werewolves back in October for fun?'

'I didn't kill them,' Regulus spat. 'I wasn't even there.'

'We have tons of statements that say you did and were,' Moody said calmly. 'Statements of Aurors, mostly.'

'The Prewetts are dead, so I guess their word isn't worth much anymore. I didn't kill them.'

Remus tightened his grip on James's shoulder. He didn't know whether it was out of anger or because he wanted to stop James from reacting again. If it was the latter, Remus utterly failed, James couldn't restrain himself any longer.

'Liar!'

'Auror Potter,' Moody said without looking up from where the Quick Quotes Quill was scribbling furiously. 'Consider this your second warning. Three and you're out.'

'And I'm not a liar,' Regulus snorted, eyes fixed on James.

'Careful there, Black,' Moody said as he took a step closer to him. 'I just caught you lying about not killing those werewolves. You're only getting yourself in deeper.'

Regulus opened his mouth to say something, but Moody cut across him. 'And if you address Auror Potter or his friend Lupin directly again, I'm not going to stop him next time he tries to hit you.'

'I didn't kill them,' Regulus said again. 'Bellatrix did. I don't use Cruciatus to kill.'

James shuddered. Peter had been killed like that.

'Funny you should say that,' Elphias told him, one eyebrow cocked. 'We never mentioned they were killed by Cruciatus. Or that it was the Prewetts who saw you.'

Regulus turned as red as a beetroot and tried saying something several times, but he couldn't get any further than a few desperate sighs.

'You need to watch your words, son,' Moody said. James marvelled at how he managed to stay so relaxed. He'd had training to act like this, but James was ruled by his emotions- he'd never manage. 'I don't need to remind you that you could use all the help you can get to get out of this mess.'

'I've had worse, Moody,' Regulus growled. 'Trust me.'

'I bet you did when you faced the Prewetts back in October,' Elphias went on, seemingly unperturbed. 'They told us you had a nasty duel. Is that where you got the scar on your eyelid from?'

'No.' Regulus shifted in the wooden chair. 'Sirius pushed me down the stairs when I was four.'

'You've been enemies for a long times, then,' Elphias said. 'I bet you've always wanted to kill him.'

'He's my brother,' Regulus said, haughtily. 'I don't want to kill him.'

James ran a hand through his hair. God, if he could only have two minutes alone with that pathetic excuse for a human being.

'Don't lie to us,' Elphias said and James could see that he was getting angry. 'It's no use.'

'I'm not lying!' Regulus yelled desperately. 'Fine. I was there but I didn't kill those werewolves and I wasn't planning on killing Sirius!'

'Then what were you doing there?' Elphias asked in a low and raspy voice. He was standing so close to Regulus he must've been breathing on him as well.

'I was hoping that Sirius would be the one sent there,' Regulus looked at his knees, as if in resignation. 'I wanted to warn him.'

'For what?' Elphias asked.

'For Bellatrix. It was her idea to kill those two men. She'd just found out about Lupin here being a werewolf,' Regulus said as he jerked his head in Remus' direction. 'She wanted to use him to get to Sirius and the Potters.'

James looked at Remus who swallowed hard and bit his lip. He rubbed his eyes and sighed loudly.

'You've got to be joking.'

Regulus looked as if he wanted to say something to James again, but thought the better of it. 'Could you inform Auror Potter that I'm not?' he asked Moody.

'Are you mocking me, Black?' Moody asked threateningly.

'Listen,' Regulus said arrogantly, though James noticed there was fear in his eyes, 'if
you're not going to believe me, why are you questioning me?'

'You're not in the position to be bold, son,' Moody said harshly.

'I'm well aware of that,' Regulus said with a bitter smile. 'But if you're going to chuck me into Azkaban no matter what I say, I don't think you should be wasting your time on this interrogation.'

James was sure Moody was about to hit Regulus when Elphias Dodge cleared his throat while looking meaningfully at them.

'He has a point,' he said in his wheezy voice.

'Fine then,' Moody said, looking very put out. 'What do you have to say?'

'I wasn't at St Mungo's to kill Sirius,' Regulus started. 'I was sent to, but it wasn't my plan. I've been working against the Dark Lord for a while now.'

'Elphias-' James started, but Elphias held up a hand to silence him.

'No, really, I have,' Regulus said. 'I've occasionally sent some anonymous warnings to the Ministry or Dumbledore and-'

'Are you telling us you've been trying to take on Voldemort alone?' Moody said incredulously.

'Didn't you hear about the letters?'

Moody grimaced but nodded for him to go on anyway.

'Ever since Dumbledore supposedly defeated You-Know-Who-'

'Are you doubting him?' James asked angrily.

'Potter, that's three,' Moody said, wide-eyed. 'Go.'

James felt like kicking or hitting something, preferably Regulus. He couldn't leave now.

'Alastor,' Remus said reasonably and James thanked the heavens he was there, 'James doesn't mean it like that. Give him one more chance; I'm sure he'll be able to restrain himself now.'

Moody looked at them for a minute and then at Regulus.

'If he makes one more remark, you're both out.'

'Thank you, Alastor,' Remus said gratefully.

James closed his eyes and took a deep breath. How did he ever survive those months without his friends?

'Go on, Black.' Elphias waved his hand absently.

'Ever since You-Know-Who disappeared,' Regulus said and he stressed the last word while looking at James, 'Bellatrix and Rodolphus have been working on tying up the loose ends: killing people who could sell them out, cleaning out laboratories, making sure their names got cleared, all of that.'

'Somewhere along the line they decided that Sirius was a risk too, that he'd been alive long enough, so they wanted to send someone to kill him and I volunteered.' Regulus swallowed and looked around the cell. 'I never planned on killing him. I wanted to save him.'

'Could I?' Remus looked at Moody, who nodded at him. 'What you're saying doesn't make sense. The Healers have given up on Sirius. They think he won't recover. So how could you save him?'

'Oh, Sirius is far from dead,' Regulus said quickly. 'He's very much alive.'

'Then why would they only try to kill him now, if he is so much alive?' Remus asked. James noticed he sounded very impatient.

'You're all so naïve,' Regulus blurted. 'You know the Dark Lord has spies within the Ministry, within the Order, within your closest group of friends even and you didn't stop to think for a second that he has spies in St. Mungo's too?'

'Are you taking this down?' Elphias suddenly grunted.

'Yes, yes,' Moody replied, sounding annoyed.

'Listen, Lupin, this is going to sound horrible, and I'm not saying it isn't,' Regulus continued. 'Sirius probably would've woken up about a month and a half ago.'

'What?' Remus asked, eyes wide like saucers.

James couldn't even think of anything to say that fast. He felt as if the world was disappearing from under his feet.

'You-Know-Who has got spies in St Mungo's, obviously, who've been putting something in Sirius's medication. It's odourless and colourless and it keeps him unconscious for about a day.'

'Sarah-' James started.

'The Healers who've been taking care of him don't know,' Regulus said. 'They get a piece of paper from someone else and they just follow instructions about how to take care of patients and what medication they should get.'

'Why?' Remus said, it seemed as if he didn't know what to think anymore, or even what to say. 'What? Why- why would anyone do something like that?'

'They've asked you to let him go, right?' It was hardly a question. 'Bellatrix is sick like that. She wanted you to be the one to kill him. Your punishment for not coming over to their side and, of course, for being with Sirius. The Healers were told there was no hope. Once you'd given the order, you'd be notified one way or another of what you'd done.'

James's world started spinning. He couldn't believe all of this, this couldn't be true. He'd never felt so sick in his entire life. He put his arm over his eyes, somehow thinking that that would make everything go away, but instead, it made everything even worse. He felt his stomach painfully object to everything he'd just heard and threw up where he was standing.

He felt someone pushing him down in a chair, but all he could hear was a loud ringing in his ears and the thumping of his heart in his throat. His body wanted to keep on vomiting but there was nothing left and in protest of that, his body just shut down.

And all James could do to keep from fainting was running out of that tiny cell as fast and as hard as he could.