The Killing of Regulus Black

Chapter Five

With the shuddering of his innards that, for him, always accompanied the transition from the Muggle to the Magical world, Snape stepped with Lucius Malfoy from the fading neighborhood of Grimmauld Place to the front porch steps of the Victorian monstrosity at Number Twelve.

The house had walls of aged, smoke-eaten stone and a mansard roof. Between the third and fourth stories, Snape saw a marble string course of writhing snakes, their sinuous bodies intertwined. On the rooftop, a weathervane in the shape of a manticore spun in a sudden gust of wind.

Both Snape and Malfoy had their umbrellas up, for the wind drove the rain of a spring storm before it. Snape hung back a bit and allowed Malfoy to approach the massive black door with the silver serpent knocker.

A house elf answered Malfoy's knock. When the elf saw Malfoy, its mouth stretched in a toothy, obsequious grin.

"Lucius Malfoy, sir!"

"Kreacher." Malfoy was, as usual, all cool aristocracy. "Is Madame at home?"

Kreacher bowed so deeply his nose nearly touched the threshold. "For you, always, Lucius Malfoy, sir!" He straightened and eyed Snape, his huge eyes alight with suspicion.

"Master Apothecary Severus Snape," Malfoy said.

Snape came forward, his calling card in his outstretched hand. Kreacher dashed away and returned with a salver.

"I am sure Madame will condescend to notice a Snape," Malfoy said.

Snape, who was unused to house elves, could not remember seeing anything more ridiculous than the self-important, rag-clad Kreacher parading off into the gloom of Twelve Grimmauld Place, holding Snape's card aloft on the tray.

Presently Kreacher returned. "Madame Black will receive both gentlemen in the parlor."

Snape and Malfoy closed their umbrellas, shook them off and entered a hallway darker than the day outside. Kreacher took their cloaks and they leaned their umbrellas in an imposing troll-leg stand.

"One of Cousin Araminta's trophies," Lucius said, smiling down at the stand. "She wanted a mate for it: the leg of a full-grown Muggle male, to make an eclectically matching set. But the Dumbledore-Potter coterie in the Ministry always would block her Muggle-hunting bill."

They followed Kreacher, who announced them to Madame Black and gestured them into a stuffy parlor heavy with velvet and brocade. The floors, the sideboard and the bookcases were polished cherrywood. More serpents coiled in the molded plaster of the ceiling, above the cherry molding in each corner of the room. Snape's and Lucius's footsteps were muffled in the pile of a rich Oriental rug. A fire blazed in the fireplace, overheating the room.

Madame Black sat as if enthroned in a wing chair near the hearth, receiving, Snape was sure, the full blast of the fire's heat. With one pale hand, she motioned them to a horsehair sofa opposite her and, as Snape saw with relief, a little further from the fireplace.

Snape sat down gingerly, acutely aware of a Black in a sixteenth-century ruff glaring down at him from a portrait. The same Black simpered cloyingly when her eyes lit on Lucius Malfoy.

Madame Black looked at both of them with the same regal air her sons always displayed, that attitude of knowing she ruled, by birthright, everything and everyone around her.

"Lucius," she said. "How are you? And poor Narcissa--how is she?"

"I am well, thank you, Aunt Althea," Malfoy replied. "And Narcissa is as well as can be expected, given her delicate condition. But I assure you, I am seeing to it that she obeys her midwife's orders to the letter."

"Ah, good," said Madame Black. "I was a bit delicate with Regulus myself. The other one never gave me a moment's trouble. Until after he was born, that is."

Lucius murmured sympathetically, something to the effect that there was one in every family.

Madame Black cut him off coldly. "Forget him. I have."

"Done," Lucius said with an ironic little smile. "But I can't forget Regulus. Neither of us can. Narcissa can't help worrying about him, on top of all her other concerns. Bellatrix told her Regulus was unwell. That he's kept to his room for nearly a week."

"You have heard, then." Real worry filled Madame Black's eyes. "Regulus hardly ever comes downstairs, and only when he's sure we don't have guests. He won't leave the house at all. He won't speak to anyone but his father and me. And he won't tell us what's wrong."

"Is he ill?" Lucius asked. "In pain? Does he need a Healer? Master Snape here is an Apothecary at St. Mungo's. Perhaps he could recommend someone."

"Master Snape. I remember when your mother came out. And your father...." Madame Black's voice faded politely. She turned back to Lucius. "I'm certain Regulus isn't in physical pain. I'm his mother; I'd know. It's driving his father to distraction. Orion says there's something wrong at the center of Regulus's magical heart. My husband is sensitive, you know, and he was always very much attuned to Regulus. To both of them, actually, but Regulus is the only one who matters."

"Of course," Lucius said kindly. "It was when Narcissa heard that Regulus wouldn't see Bella. It troubled her, you know, Aunt Althea. Bella has always been a favorite with Regulus. Narcissa's the only one he loves better. Why, Narcissa was about to climb out of bed and come here herself. You can imagine how I felt, after her midwife had just told me that under no circumstances was I to allow anything to upset her. It was all I could do to get her to stay home as she's been ordered, and I could only do that by promising to come myself."

"You've always been a good friend to Regulus," said Madame Black.

"And so has Master Snape. Severus Snape." Lucius made a little bow toward Snape. "I hardly knew Regulus when he was in school, after all. But Severus was only two years ahead of him."

"Severus?" Finally Madame Black gave Snape a direct look. "Now I remember. You were in his year. He and Regulus used to talk about you sometimes. He didn't like you much."

"Sirius hated me, Madame," Snape said. Then, on impulse, he added: "And I hated him."

Madame Black's eyes gleamed coldly. A slow smile spread across her face. "Then you are my friend."

"You will let us both approach Regulus, then, Madame?" Malfoy asked. "He is home, you said?"

"He's home. Locked up in his room. And if you, his friends, can get him to come out, it will be more than his mother and father have been able to do."

"Thank you, Madame." Malfoy rose and bowed to Madame Black. Snape followed suit.

"Thank you, Lucius," Madame Black said. "And good luck."

#

"Your instincts are excellent, Severus," Lucius said. He and Snape were climbing the stairs to Regulus's room, beneath a bizarre-looking row of stuffed house-elf heads mounted on the wall. "To tell Aunt Althea that you hate her first-born son, the heir of the Noble and Most Ancient House of Black, is to tell Aunt Althea exactly what she likes to hear."

#

"Come, Regulus," Lucius said in soothing, honeyed tones. Spell-tones, Snape thought. "You can let us in. We're your friends."

"Who's 'we?'" Black said truculently, from the other side of his locked bedroom door.

"Good heavens, Regulus! Well. There's me, Lucius Malfoy. Your friend from way back. And your cousin, now. Your family. Don't forget that," Lucius said.

"Yeah, fine. And who else is there?"

"Severus Snape. You remember him from school, don't you?" Lucius paused. "He's one of us. You know that, too."

A minute passed in silence. Then Black said, "I don't want to talk to anyone. I told you, I'm not feeling well."

Lucius nodded to Snape. Snape took his wand from his pocket and cast the Shroud of Silence over them. Now they could speak freely, with no fear that the elf or Madame Black would overhear them.

"We come from the Lord, Regulus. He's missed you, but he isn't angry with you. All he wants is to talk."

Another silence. "Later. When I'm feeling better. All right?"

Lucius bit his lip in exasperation. His spell-tones were having no effect. Black was easily throwing them off, if he noticed them at all. But then, Snape had never known a Malfoy who was stronger than any Black. Not even one recently enriched, as Snape himself was, with the Lord's own power.

But why did Lucius think he needed to use magic at all?

"Lucius is telling the truth, Regulus ," Snape said. "The Lord doesn't want to punish you. He wants to understand. He told me so himself. I believe he wants to forgive you."

Black said nothing.

Yet Snape felt an advantage, and he pressed it. "They all lie about him. The Ministry, the Daily Prophet, the Order of the Phoenix. You've seen that by now. You, who have stood in his presence with Lucius and me, who have received the gift of his power from his own heart, as we have."

More silence. Snape glanced at Lucius.

Lucius was looking at him with wonder. "You sound like a true believer, Severus," he murmured. "Like Bella."

Snape turned back to Regulus's blank and solid bedroom door. "Let us in. All we want is to talk to you."

Another couple of moments passed. Then, with a scraping of the latch, the door creaked open a couple of inches. Regulus peered out at them.

"All right," he whispered croakily, as if he was at the end of his strength. "Come in."

#

Regulus's bedroom was a shambles. The bed was unmade, his clothes were left where he'd dropped them and books were left lying open, face down on the dresser, on the bedside tables, or simply flung on the floor. After Lucius and Snape had walked in, Regulus pushed a tray piled high with dirty dishes into the hallway before closing and latching the door.

"I don't want that nasty elf, that Kreacher, coming anywhere near me," he said. "He's a backstabbing, double-dealing piece of work. Sirius was right about him."

"But you're a member of Kreacher's family," Snape said. He looked around, wondering where in the wreckage he might find a seat.

"What's that matter?" Regulus snapped. "Oh, he does what I tell him. But he mutters. Everything he hears, everything he sees, everything he thinks. He muttered about Sirius all the time."

Lucius picked up a book and a wadded, wrinkled shirt from an armchair. He set them delicately on the floor. Then he brushed breadcrumbs off the upholstery and sat down. Snape, watching him, decided to remain standing.

"Don't worry about Kreacher," Lucius said. "He won't dare remove that Shroud of Silence from the young master's door."

"Shroud of Silence?" Regulus's eyes darted around the room.

"It's not in here, of course. It's outside, where it will do some good." Lucius smiled pityingly. "Poor Regulus. You are distraught."

"Well, why shouldn't I be!"

"Because the Lord knows your doubts and fears?" Lucius said. "But, Regulus, it's no crime to have doubts. It's no crime to feel fear."

Snape looked down at the floor as Lucius spoke, at another Eastern rug. The same serpentine theme he'd seen through the rest of the Black house was repeated here. This time the snakes slithered through a landscape of overlarge, strangely-colored ferns and flowers. Snape, who, as a Potioner, thought he knew his botany, found he couldn't identify the plant species.

He looked up at the walls. No ancestral Blacks stared back at him. Regulus had turned their portraits to face the wall.

Snape looked at Regulus. Regulus, seated on his rumpled bed, was gazing at Lucius with a glimmer of hope in his eyes.

"Feelings don't matter," Snape said. "It's what you do about them that counts. Why shouldn't the Lord hear your doubts and answer them? You haven't harmed him. Have you?"

"You'd never be so foolish as that, Regulus. Would you?" Lucius asked softly.

Regulus's eyes moved from Lucius to Snape. The hope in them had suddenly disappeared. They held no expression at all.

He was a Black. The Blacks were clever and very powerful. They knew how to keep their secrets.

Along with Occlumency, the Lord had taught Snape enough Legilimency to give him advance warning when another witch or wizard planned an attack on his mind. He'd need that warning, the Lord had said, when he returned to St. Mungo's, into the midst of the best Magical Examiners in Great Britain.

"Keep eye contact, Severus," the Dark Lord had said during his lessons. "The eyes are the window to the soul. The Muggle who said that was wiser than he knew."

Holding Regulus's eyes, Snape took a step forward. "So long as you haven't gone over to the Dark Lord's enemies, so long as you haven't betrayed him, you're safe."

"He can forgive anything but treachery," Lucius said.

"But treachery he can never forgive," said Snape.

"I haven't betrayed the Lord!" Regulus cried. "How can you think such a thing!"

Snape broke off his gaze and looked down at the rug, at the snakes sliding their way through the strange ferns and flowers.

He didn't want to know whether Regulus was lying. If Regulus was lying, then taking him back to the Lord would be delivering him to certain death.

"You can never kill for Voldemort.... You must not do it," Dumbledore had commanded Snape.

"I've never killed!" Snape had insisted to Moody.

Let the Lord discover Regulus Black's secrets. It was none of Snape's affair, was it? He was one Death Eater, one soldier in the Lord's army....

And in Dumbledore's army, the Order of the Phoenix.

"You have a talent for Occlumency, Severus," the Dark Lord had said at the beginning of their lessons. "All you need to do is learn to clear your mind."

"Clear your mind, Severus," Dumbledore had said, before entering Snape's magical heart to dispel the Lord's death and remove his power. "That will make it easier for you."

Snape looked up at Regulus, his mind clear of Legilimency, of all magic. Why had he thought he'd needed to use magic at all?

"You're very lucky, then, Regulus," he said. "If you have not worked against the Lord, if you have not betrayed him, then you're innocent. It is a wonderful thing to be innocent, don't you see? The innocent need fear no one."

"Would that we were all innocent," Lucius said unctuously.

Snape did not react. His mind was clear. The second chamber of his heart, that held Mother and Dumbledore, was buried under Occlumency, so deeply hidden he hardly felt it.

Regulus, however, looked sharply at Lucius.

"If you are innocent, then come with us to the Lord," Snape said. "He's missed you. He's asked for you."

Regulus didn't answer at once. Though his face looked worn, his eyes, fixed on Lucius, were bright and alert. Snape remembered hearing gossip, perhaps from Lucius himself, to the effect that Sirius Black was golden-powered, that Dumbledore had even asked Sirius's parents if he could apprentice Sirius in Examination.

Did Regulus share his brother's talent? Was he a Golden, too?

If he was, it didn't seem to bother Lucius. He looked straignt back at Regulus with a half-smile on his face.

"You'll get used to the killing, Regulus," Lucius said. "Everyone does, in the end. It's a very common complaint, actually, the inability to stomach killing. I never suffered from it myself. My digestion's quite good."

"The Lord loves best those who will kill for him," Snape said. "He knows their loyalty can't be questioned. They are bound to him forever. I tell you, you have nothing to fear from him. Don't stay away any longer. Come with us."

"Do you know, Severus," Regulus said, still looking at Lucius. "I've thought it over. And I think I'd rather stay home."

"Do you know, Regulus," Lucius said. "I think you'd better come."

"No, thanks, Cousin." Regulus's voice was a notch higher, a bit more tense, but steady. "I'll stay here."

Lucius rose and stood beside Snape. "Afraid that's not in the cards, old man. You see, the Lord said he just couldn't take no for an answer."

Regulus's hand went to his robes. He was faster than Lucius, but Snape had his wand out before either of them.

"Expelliarmus!" Snape cried. Regulus's wand flew to him. He caught it and slid it beneath his robes, into his coat pocket.

Snape and Lucius then stood side-by-side in front of the bedroom door, pointing their wands at Regulus.

"Now, really, Regulus. Don't you think you'd better come along?" Lucius said.

Regulus stared at him, angry and defiant, looking exactly, Snape thought, like Sirius on the verge of earning a detention.

"Get out of my house!" Regulus shouted. He strode to the fireplace and snatched the Floo powder down from the mantel. "Before I call the Aurors! Before my father has both of you thrown into Azkaban!"

Lucius clicked his tongue in mock exasperation. "You'd better persuade him, Severus. You know how clumsy I am. I might end up hurting dear little Cousin Regulus."

Snape stepped forward. "You shall come with us to the Dark Lord," he said quietly, as Regulus was thrusting his hand into the powder box. "Imperio."

Regulus Black would obey. His insolent defiance, just like his brother's, would submit to the power culled from the places in Snape's nature hidden under darkness, for Regulus Black, like every wizard in the world but one, was Snape's inferior.

Regulus struggled, though. The powder box slid from his hand to the floor, spilling Floo powder over the hearthrug. He stared at Snape, terrified, his mouth working. His golden power wrestled with the black Snape had called forth from his magical heart, black woven through and through with brilliant threads of red, like spun rubies. Lord Voldemort's power, uniquely his, the only purely red power subsisting in any wizard alive, combined with Snape's power. It gave Snape a strength he'd never known in the old days, when he'd been alone, before he'd met the Lord, before the Dark Mark had joined him to scores of brothers and sisters.

Regulus struggled. His breath came hard and fast, and sweat shone on his pale face. Snape, smiling, delighting in the test of his strength, fought back. "Come with us, Black. Imperio."

Like all the Blacks, Regulus was strong. But today, Snape was stronger. And, unlike Regulus Black, he had not abandoned Lord Voldemort. So Lord Voldemort did not abandon him.

Thus, the moment came when Regulus Black's golden power fled the red-seamed black power of Severus Snape and retreated into Regulus's magical heart. Regulus's face went slack. He spoke in a soft, dreamy voice. "All right, Severus, I'll come. Take me to our Lord."

#

Madame Black must have heard them descending the stairs, for the parlor door opened and she came hurrying out to meet them at the front door.

"Regulus, you've come down! Are you feeling better, then?" she asked.

"I'm fine, Mother," Regulus said calmly.

Snape stood close to Regulus while Lucius wandered to a window and lifted the heavy drape covering it. "Look, the rain's ended. And the sky's clearing. A walk to the Salazar Club and a couple of drinks there will set him up nicely, don't you think, Severus?"

"Yes, I do," Snape said.

"Excellent!" said Lucius. "We'll give you a call, Aunt Althea, if we're going to be late for supper. Come along, Regulus."

Snape stared at Regulus. "Come along."

Regulus nodded docilely. The three wizards left the house. They walked into the street, three abreast, arm-in-arm, Regulus in the middle, between Lucius and Snape.

#

They crossed the street into the rain-soaked, grassy common opposite Number Twelve, Grimmauld Place. Lucius gripped Regulus's right arm, Snape his left.

To a casual observer, the three of them looked like brothers, Snape supposed. Or friends. Not that Snape would have known. He had neither brothers, nor, at the moment, any friends.

"Excellent work, Severus," Lucius murmured. "Excellent. The Lord will be very pleased."

Snape did not answer. He was concentrating on keeping Black's powerful will locked inside his Imperius Curse.

"We'll want to Apparate back to my house. The Lord is there, eagerly awaiting the arrival of dear Cousin Regulus." Lucius smiled down at Black. Black, not responding, stared blankly ahead.

"Not here," Snape said. The rainclouds were scudding off and the sun was shining, its light reflecting off puddles on the sidewalks and in the road. Number Twelve had disappeared into the Magical world, and now Grimmauld Place was crawling with Muggles: people coming out on to the stoops of the run-down apartment houses and emerging from the grimy little shops. A bus lumbered past, loaded to capacity with passengers.

"Oh, no, not here. I know just the secluded alley we'll want. Narcissa and I use it all the time on our visits to Aunt Althea and Uncle Orion."

It had to be better than trying to hold Black under the Imperius Curse while they walked back to the park north of Grimmauld Place, where Snape and Lucius had Apparated in. Contending with Black's power was beginning to wear on Snape. He felt nauseous and lightheaded. He was out of practice. He hadn't cast an Unforgivable Curse since before he'd confessed to--

Snape broke off the thought. He was practiced at that.

They'd crossed the common and were walking past a greengrocer's with a "Closed" sign hanging in a flyspecked window.

"Here we are," Lucius said.

The alley, veiled in shadows, lay between the greengrocer's and an abandoned warehouse with boarded-up windows. Snape and Lucius led Regulus in.

It was like walking into the night. The sun shining outside the alley made absolutely no headway inside. It took Snape a moment to get used to the darkness, before he saw the ancient, cobbled way, still slick from the rain, and a couple of dented, empty garbage cans against the wall of the warehouse.

Lucius stopped. He released Regulus and backed a couple of steps away from him.

"No, Lucius, I need your help," Snape said. "We both need to hold him. I can't Apparate him alone while keeping him under the Imperius Curse. He's too strong."

"No need to Apparate. Not yet, anyway," Lucius said in a cold, quiet voice. He drew his wand. "Stand aside, Severus."

Snape looked from Lucius to Regulus. Regulus's face was still slack. But his eyes were alive again. And they were filled with fear.

Snape glanced quickly back at Lucius. The coldness had spread to Malfoy's eyes, had robbed his face of all expression. Distracted, filled with disquiet, Snape let his grip loosen just slightly on Regulus Black's arm.

Suddenly, yanking his arm away, Black broke free of Snape's grasp and of Snape's Imperius Curse.

"Lucius, please!" Regulus's voice was shaking. Trembling, he backed up a step, then whirled on Snape. "Severus, please don't let him!"

Finally Snape understood. "Lucius! The Lord said we were to bring Black back so he could talk to him--"

Black broke and ran toward the far end of the alley.

"Avada Kedavra!" Lucius Malfoy cried.

Brilliant green light flared in the dismal alley, illuminating mossy brick walls and filthy, broken cobblestones. Snape jumped aside. Even so, the spell sideswiped him, throwing him between the garbage cans. His back struck the warehouse wall. His head snapped back, and he felt it crack smartly against the bricks. Pain shot through his skull. The alley spun lazily around him. Dazed, he slid to his seat on the soaked cobblestones. And he watched Lucius Malfoy.

With a cold, calm look on his face, Malfoy approached the prone form of his wife's cousin, Regulus Black. Shadows dimmed them both, for the brilliant light was gone and the gloom had returned.

Lucius nudged Regulus in the ribs with the toe of his boot. No response. He bent over Regulus, lifted Regulus's head by the hair and stared into his face for a moment. He released Regulus's hair and let his head drop to the ground again.

Lucius straightened. Still looking down at Regulus, he smiled briefly. "There's a good lad," he murmured. He took a step back and lifted his wand over Regulus's still form.

"Morsmordre!" Malfoy cried.

Snape couldn't see the sky. But the Dark Mark that shot from Lucius's wand was so luridly green that it would stand out even against the clear blue of a rainwashed, sunlit spring day. The Muggles will see it, he thought groggily.

"Lucius!" Snape croaked.

"Ah, Severus!" Lucius pocketed his wand and hurried over. "I'm so sorry. I didn't have time to warn you as I ought to have done. But Black was getting away." He bent and offered a hand to Snape. "Are you all right?"

Snape took Lucius's hand and got unsteadily to his feet. Still swaying a bit, he stared at Regulus. Regulus lay face down on the cobbled alleyway, his hair a tangled mess, his arms stretched above his head and his fingers slightly curled, as if he were reaching for something which had just eluded his grasp.

"He's dead?" Snape said.

"I should think so. He was less than fifty feet away when I hit him. I'm not as good a duelist as you, but my aim's not that bad." Lucius looked closer, into Snape's face, then gave a short laugh. "Oh, Severus, don't look at me like that! I was only joking."

"Why did you kill him?" Snape asked. "The Lord told me he wanted to talk to Regulus."

"Of course that's what he told you. You weren't to know the real plan, that I was to kill Regulus as soon as you'd got him safely outside his house. You're Chief Apothecary on your shift at St. Mungo's. You might be called in at any moment to cover absences at the hospital, where you mix with all those prying Examiners. Who knew what they might pick up from you?"

Snape stared at him, aghast.

Lucius stared back. He was no longer smiling. "The Lord says you're unable to hide from the Examiners the mere knowledge that we've decided to get rid of somebody. Why not, I wonder? You hide the rest well enough."

Lucius shrugged. "None of my affair, I suppose." Then, with a smile, he looked down at Regulus. "We all have our own particular value to the Lord, don't we? I know mine. And I imagine you know yours."

Snape averted his eyes from Lucius and Regulus. Staring at the ground, he took a moment to clear his mind.

Then he looked up. "We have to get out of here, Lucius," he said, calmly enough. "The Muggles will see the Dark Mark. They'll be here any moment."

"Of course." Lucius stepped away from Black's dead body. "Let's Apparate home, shall we?"