out of inn: letter-sending

[not_the_lion]

It took some doing, but in the end, Valentine's advice (and the inn's insistence that Regulus use the strangest parchment he's ever seen, until he had something workable for the final run) paid off. What he's sending off to Sirius basically says that they need to talk, this is not a joke of any sort, and Peter's willing to mediate if necessary.

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[pjpettigrew]

The answer, when it arrives, is a right mess, all scrawls and scribbles and scratch-outs.

Regulus,

Talk? What do you want to talk about? Did Mother put you up to this? What do you mean, Peter will mediate? Don't tell me you two are actually friends. I always thought that was some sort of joke on your part--one that he was too naive to see through. At least he's an agreeable sort, if you really want a mediator. But I don't know what we need mediation for.

Things are crazy, and almost at a standstill extremely busy for reasons that I can't talk about though really, anyone with a newspaper could figure it out.

James is kind of lost, as I think he was looking forward to a war and heroics over the moon with happiness over Voldemort's death. As are we all, of course. There's a rumor that Dumbledore was murdered by some rare and deadly poison that looks like heart failure. Has anyone checked Snape's whereabouts? I can see him as a poisoner. No, I'm NOT saying this because he's a Slytherin.

Remus is a wreck...you know, scratch that. Why would you care about Remus anyway?

I don't even know why I'm talking to you. This is stupid. And confusing.

If you really want to talk to me, I think I know a place where we can meet privately and talk. If you tell anyone about it, I'll--well, I won't either, but I'll be really mad. And I'll sic Kreacher on you.

Can you sneak out to Hogsmeade? If you can, meet me near Madam Puddifoot's. No one in their right mind ever goes there.

I still don't understand why you're writing to me.

Did I mention how weird this is?

Sirius Procyon Black

[not_the_lion]

...Well, at least Regulus won't have to bother with a Howler. (Though some of the cross-outs are probably a bit more entertaining than Sirius intended them to be.)
And while he may not be the world's greatest expert on Hogwarts' secret passages, he's very good at being unobtrusive. So he sends back a note that he can certainly try to get there.
And once they've agreed on a time, he manages it. Sirius, he can't help thinking, has strange tastes in rendezvous points.

[pjpettigrew]

At the appointed time, Sirius is waiting for him near Madam Puddifoot's. In some sort of an effort to blend in better with the populace, he's wearing robes--at least, he's wearing them over his black leather jacket and his blue jeans. (Well, what else was he going to wear while riding his flying motorcycle?)

He looks about anxiously, hoping that Regulus will show up soon.

[not_the_lion]

And before too long, Regulus does show up.
"Well?"
He's got a number of questions, but those are waiting until they're... wherever it is they're going. At least the fact that Sirius showed up at all goes some way toward disproving Peter's theory about their mother trying to keep them from talking.

[pjpettigrew]

"This way." With that, Sirius turns around, heading toward the Shrieking Shack--which is every bit as boarded up and bespelled as it ever was.

Sirius raps on a boarded-up window. "Oi, Peter!" he hisses in a way that is the very definition of "lack of subtlety."

Peter doesn't answer. But a second later, part of the wall near the window unlocks, looking almost like a open hatch.

"Well, come on in," Peter's voice says, floating up from the hatch. "Quickly, before someone notices."

[not_the_lion]

Regulus does so, only considering the rumors that the place is haunted for a moment. For one thing, it's been rather quiet this year...
Once Sirius is inside as well, he says, "Didn't anyone ever tell you to write your rough draft on a different piece of parchment first?" The 'well, I was flustered' excuse only goes so far, after all.

[pjpettigrew]

Sirius pouts childishly and shuffles his feet. "Well, I didn't have any other parchment, did I? I don't write tons of letters; I'm not a bloody foreign correspondent. And I wanted to answer before I lost my nerve. It's not like I hear from estranged brothers craving a reconciliation every day of the week."

[not_the_lion]

"Fair enough, I suppose. To cover the first of the questions you crossed out, no, Mother did not put me up to this. After all the trouble she went through to disinherit you, do you think she'd actually encourage me to talk to you? She doesn't know a thing about this, and I intend to keep it that way.
"Mostly, I want to know why you stopped talking to me in the first place. I think six and a half years is quite long enough to be confused on that front."

[pjpettigrew]

"Yes," said Peter dryly. "After six years telling Regulus what you wanted to say when you wanted to talk to your little brother, I should like to know that too."

"Mostly because I was mad," Sirius replied, collapsing onto a helpless sofa. "I never fit in at home, you know that, and yet, when I got Sorted into Gryffindor...that was pretty miserable too."

"He was awful in the beginning," Peter told Regulus. "Half rebel and half pureblood princeling. Fought with James all the time. Mocked Remus. Hated me."

"I wasn't that bad--"

"You were. The only time you acted like a Gryffindor was when it would irritate the Slyths or your parents. Or both." Peter's tone gentled somewhat. "Come on, Sirius. Tell the truth."

"Yes. Fine. All right. I didn't fit it, not at first. Though by second year it wasn't too bad. And time for the new Sorting, and we'd palled around a bit at home before school, and I thought, well, maybe my brother'll be in Gryffindor. And then I won't be the only odd man out any longer. But instead, you got Sorted into Slytherin.

"And for some reason, that felt like a betrayal. Like I didn't even know you, really, because the brother I knew wasn't all about ambition and cunning, and yet the Hat was supposed to see you for what you really were. I didn't know what to believe. I thought everything--even our being friends as kids--was a lie."

[not_the_lion]

Regulus considers that for a bit.
"...So essentially, it was you being a stubborn git. And me not pressing the issue because the idea of Mother running interference was not my idea of a pleasant time." In that sense, at least, the silence was probably good for both of them.
"I don't suppose you'd remember, but my Sorting definitely wasn't as short as people got used to for Blacks. The bloody Hat didn't know where to put me. I ended up in Slytherin largely thanks to my self-preservation instinct. There's more than one kind of ambition in the world, you realize.
"Besides, telling kids what the heart of their personality is before they hit puberty is something of a flawed system. The Hat's hinted as much more than once." And if Sirius is allowed to have grown up, Regulus thinks he's deserving of the same consideration.

[pjpettigrew]

Sirius opens his mouth to bellow, then deflates as if the air had been let out of him. "Yeah, that's about right. I was a stubborn git." He squints at his brother. "You didn't belong anywhere? The Hat was down to self-preservation?"

"You'd have known he wasn't like the rest of your family if you just listened to me for a change," Peter says with considerable exasperation. "Well, maybe a bit like Andromeda. But definitely not the rest of the clan."

[not_the_lion]

"Well, it did think I'd do quite well in Ravenclaw. And it was probably right, but after your stellar example, I didn't much feel like giving Mother an easy target." And they both know she likely would have done it.
"And don't go spreading this around, but of the two of us, I'm the one who pumped Bella for the information that led to last week's excitement. I really don't think you have to worry about me following in the grand family tradition after that little escapade."
To say nothing of a certain nightmare (briefly) come true.

[pjpettigrew]

Sirius just staaaaaaaaaaaaaares. He knows he couldn't have heard right.

"Go on," says Peter, who has a distinct smirk on his face. "Tell him the rest of it. This should be good."

[not_the_lion]

"A fair amount of the groundwork here is Peter's. But essentially, Voldemort isn't the major problem here - he's the current largest symptom. If we're going to convince anyone to look past the recurring Dark Lords and fix the situations that let them keep cropping up every generation or so, though, there can't be a civil war getting in everyone's way. So I got some information out of Bella at Narcissa's engagement party, and handed the locations over to someone who could help.
"And for the record - this bit you can tell people - Dumbledore wasn't poisoned, he did have a heart attack. Just after the Daily Prophet came in. The house elves sent up breakfast just in time for him to faceplant into his porridge."
Regulus is far more amused by that than Sirius likely will be, but... well. Accurate information is good, and it might go some way toward helping Lupin cope.

[pjpettigrew]

Sirius turns from one to the other. "Wait. Let me get this straight. The two of you are plotting a revolution, and you, Regulus, got Voldemort assassinated? This is some sort of misplaced April Fool's joke, yeah?"

"No joke, Sirius," Peter replies firmly. "We're more about reform than bloodshed, but as Reg said, the Dark Lords that pop up ever few years or so are a troublesome and distracting symptom. It's hard to get people thinking about fixing the problems that propel Dark Lords to power when they're mostly worried about survival. And after we get rid of Dark Lords--well, it's always after a long and bloody war, and people just want to get back to the status quo, because it makes them feel safe.

"Not this time. This time we take care of the problems. We eliminate the problems and the prejudices the Dark Lords exploit; that way there's less that the next arsehole can exploit when he comes into power."

Sirius rubbed his face. "...I'm still stuck on the fact that my baby brother, who I always thought was the traditionalist of the family, got Voldemort assassinated."

[not_the_lion]

Regulus shrugs. "He doesn't have much right beyond the species rights bit, and he lacks common sense. Trying to fix the problems that let him get somewhere will be better for everyone in the long view."
He's still using the present tense for a reason.