Chapter Text
R E G U L U S
As soon as he and Bellatrix had told the generals and Euphemia the plan to get James to release the Grounders in the harvest chamber, Regulus and Euphemia headed back to the Elder camp to get hold of James on the radio and work out a plan with him.
If there was one thing Regulus knew about James Potter, it was that he had the absolute stupidity to be able to succeed in turning the acid fog off and releasing the army sleeping inside the mountain. James only had to stay the fuck alive along the way.
Bellatrix gave them an armed escort, which included Dorcas Medowes. Bellatrix’s sister was supposed to meet them about halfway.
Regulus was on a horse again. It was slightly terrifying, but as long as he did what Dorcas told him to do with his feet, he was doing okay. But the people in front of him were slowing to a stop, so Regulus huffed and pushed off his horse, walking over to where Euphemia Potter knelt beside the road to gather some water from a nearby stream.
“Why are we stopping?” Regulus demanded.
“You should drink too,” Euphemia offered a canteen to Regulus.
He waved her off with the back of his hand. “I’m fine, we just need to get back to the radio.”
Euphemia fixed him with a look. “We all want to hear from James, Regulus. But we can spare a few seconds to drink some water.”
“We’re almost back,” Regulus replied curtly. He glanced over at the grounders, who were looking at the surrounding woods suspiciously. “Skaikru scouts patrol these woods. Be careful.”
“They listen to you,” Euphemia screwed the lid onto her canteen and pushed to her feet, wiping her wet hands off on her trousers.
“Bellatrix told them to,” Regulus replied, furrowing his brow. “We shouldn’t have stopped.” He turned his back on Euphemia, heading back to his horse.
“Regulus, I know you don’t think you need anyone to protect you,” Euphemia said. He paused, half turning to look at her. “But you are Sirius’ brother, and he is like a son to me. I swear, the only thing I’m trying to do is help you. You can trust me. Trust that I know how to lead our people. That I know what’s best for us.”
“Trust is earned,” Regulus replied icily. “You’ve yet to get there.”
“Have I done something wrong, Regulus?” Euphemia asked. “I promise I’ve done nothing but look out for you.”
“Apparently,” Regulus nodded. “We’ll see, won’t we?”
Regulus did not trust Euphemia Potter one bit. She and James had bickered. He had watched how long it took Euphemia to wrestle with James before finally agreeing to help rather than hinder him. And James had been right. James had done the right thing again and again. Regulus trusted him, but he did not trust James’ mother.
“Mount up! We’re almost there.” Regulus said as he swung himself up onto his horse, just as he settled in the saddle, a gunshot ricocheted through the woods, the bullet piercing a Grounder who was on a horse just behind Regulus.
In the woods, hidden by trees, he heard a war cry go up as a shooter was discovered by someone. Someone was shooting at them. Someone was aiming towards their group, so it almost certainly wasn’t Elder guards.
“Mountain Men,” Regulus snapped, glancing over at the body of the Grounder who the bullet hit. He had been knocked off his horse, but was on the ground groaning in pain. Not dead then. Not yet anyway.
“Find them!” Dorcas snapped to the other Grounder guards.
The sound of a fight echoed from not too far into the trees, and Regulus slung himself off his horse. Dorcas followed him wordlessly, and they scrambled up a mossy verge and through some bushes to discover the Mountain Men on a little ridge. There were two hazmats, one was on the ground, by the looks of it, shot in the neck by a Grounder arrow. But the other one was up and fighting. Regulus was surprised to see that the man was up and fighting Sirius. It had been less than two days since Regulus had last seen his brother, but Sirius seemed to have undergone some kind of makeover.
His hair, which had grown to his shoulders by this point, was pulled back from his face and into a messy bun, and he was wielding a sword, but instead chose to grapple with the hazmat.
Sirius, it appeared, had slashed the hazmat's suit, and the man was in the process of collapsing to the ground, clutching at that tear.
Sirius moved forward with his sword.
“Stop!” Regulus scrambled out of the bushes. “Sirius, stop, we need him!”
Sirius froze, staring at Regulus with his sword raised.
“He’s from Mount Hallow, we need him alive,” Regulus insisted. “Check to see if he’s got a patch kit for his suit.”
Sirius shoved his sword into a holster on his back and hurried towards the fallen hazmat to check him for supplies while Dorcas moved to find a patch kit for the one writing in pain on the ground. Regulus glanced past Sirius to spot Narcissa standing at the other side of the clearing, watching him closely.
“Reg!” Sirius jumped up, scrambling towards his brother with some bits of paper he had found in the dead man’s bag. “Look, you and the commander are the targets.”
He thrust a picture, which looked to be from a surveillance camera, of him and Bellatrix talking.
“Fuck I’m glad I got him in time,” Sirius huffed, bending over and panting slightly from the fight, “Shit.”
“We have to warn the commander,” Narcissa declared, setting her jaw. The rest of Regulus and Dorcas’ entourage, including Euphemia had joined them with the horses at this point. Regulus saw Sirius and Euphemia glance at each other. Narcissa whirled to two grounders on horses and hissed at them to go and warn Bellatrix where Regulus had left her at the village. The men hastened to follow the command.
“The rest of us should get back to camp,” Regulus said. “We need to get him some medical attention.” He gestured at the hazmat man, who still appeared to be in a great deal of pain.
*
“Poppy, you take the gunshot wound, I’ll take the radiation burns,” Euphemia declared as they hurried the injured into the medical ward back at the Elder camp. “Alright, this one is from Mount Hallow,” she said as they lowered him down onto a cot.
“We need to keep him alive,” Regulus offered helpfully from the edge of the room where he was observing.
“There was a tear in his suit, but we fixed it in the field,” Euphemia said to a group of other doctors and nurses who had surged around to help.
“Hey,” Evan sidled up to stand beside Regulus.
“Any word from James?” Regulus asked immediately, not even glancing in Evan’s direction.
“No but-”
“Then why aren’t you at the radio?” Regulus snapped.
“Sirius just took my place,” Evan replied quickly, a clear bite in his tone. “Why don’t you back off-”
“No, leave it on!” Euphemia snapped towards a doctor who was trying to remove the hazmat suit from the injured man. “We can’t- the radiation-”
“How are we supposed to treat him if we can’t take the suit off?” The other doctor asked.
“I can rig up some scrubbers in the airlock,” Evan hurried forward, ignoring Regulus entirely. “Give me 15 minutes max.”
Euphemia nodded. “Good, do it.”
Evan hurried out of the room without a second glance.
“Do what we can for now,” Euphemia told the other doctor, “keep him alive for fifteen minutes. How are we looking over there, Poppy?”
Poppy looked up from where she stood above the Grounder who had been shot. “He’s gone.”
Narcissa crossed the room in two strides. And put her hand over the man’s face, closing his eyes. “Yu gonplei ste odon,” (Your fight is over), then she looked towards Regulus. “A killer lives and a warrior dies? That is your suggestion?”
“We need him,” Regulus replied. “He can help us beat the Mountain.”
Narcissa nodded and set her jaw. “I will get him to talk.”
“No,” Regulus replied, meeting her fiery gaze with one of his own. “No, not torture-”
“I think he may well talk because he’s thankful we saved his life,” offered Euphemia.
Narcissa quirked an eyebrow and suppressed a small smile. “Ah, weakness?” She turned on her heel and stormed from the room, not missing bumping Regulus’ shoulder on the way out.
Regulus glanced back over to the man in the hazmat who had apparently passed out and was lying quietly. “He’ll need a transfusion with our blood, like they do in the mountain.”
“We’ve got it,” Euphemia gave him a nod.
“Good, don’t let him die. I’m going to check on the radio. Let me know when he wakes up,” he snapped. Without waiting for her response, he turned on his heel. He gripped his own upper arms tightly with his opposite hands and squeezed himself together as he walked. He didn’t have time to catch his breath from the journey or what had just happened because he needed to go and make sure James was okay. All he could do for that was wait by the radio.
It was just another day on the Ground, and there was nothing more he could do about it. A stupid thing to do was to break down over it; the useful thing he could do was get hold of James.
James didn’t call before Euphemia sent someone to let Regulus know that the Mountain Man was awake. He left Sirius there, where they had been sitting silently shoulder to shoulder, listening to Mary’s SOS and praying to hear James’ voice instead. Evan joined Sirius as Regulus left.
Regulus found himself sitting by the airlock that Evan had rigged up to be radiation-free, eye to eye with a completely healed Severus Snape.
“The treatment really is amazing,” Euphemia marvelled.
“That’s why the kids are in danger,” Moody agreed. He huffed and pressed the intercom button beside the door again so that Snape could hear him. “Please answer the question.”
“Severus Snape. Mount Hallow security detail,” Snape repeated the same answer he had given every time Moody had tried to ask him a question so far.
“Yes, you already said,” Moody snapped. “But you don’t seem to be grasping the situation here. You should have died in the woods. We saved your life. Why not help us bring an end to this?”
“Severus Snape. Mount Hallow security detail,” Snape said again, his face remaining emotionless as he stared through the glass back at Moody.
“He’s not going to talk,” Regulus said, growing frustrated with the lack of progress. He buried his hands into the pockets of his trousers, and his right one connected with something small and metallic that he’d completely forgotten was in there.
“He will if we open the door,” Moody half turned away from Snape to look at Regulus with a raised eyebrow. Through the glass, Snape tensed.
Euphemia crossed the room to hit the intercom button again so that Snape could no longer hear them. “We are not doing that,” she stated, staring at Moody with a heated gaze.
“We need to know what he knows!” Moody protested. “Vulnerabilities, troop numbers-”
“Euphemia is right,” Regulus cut in. “Torture doesn’t work.” Euphemia glanced over at him. He almost winced at the surprise written across her features.
“Regulus, it could save the kids in the mountain,” Moody said.
“No!” Euphemia snapped. “I am the Minister-”
“Then act like one!” Moody barked. “I will support you as long as I think you’re doing right by us Effie-”
“I am,” Euphemia replied, glaring right back at him. “And if you disagree, convene a vote and take my place. Otherwise, do as I say or you’ll find yourself back in a cell, Moody.”
“I don’t want the title,” Moody replied. “I just want to save those kids!”
“So do I,” Euphemia said sternly. “My son is in that mountain. Of course, I want to save them. But torture is not the way. We earn his trust. He will tell us eventually-”
“You’re making a mistake-” Moody started.
“Enough!” Euphemia snapped. She turned away from Moody towards a guard hovering in the corner. “I want this man under 24-hour guard, do you understand?”
“Yes, Ma’am,” the guard nodded.
“Good, Alastor, go and check on the progress in weapons,” Euphemia said, not glancing towards the man. Moody shot Regulus one last heated look before storming away from the airlock. Euphemia huffed a heavy breath before heading off after him, leaving Regulus alone with the guard and Snape.
Through the glass, Snape stared at Regulus, and he stared back. Smirking slightly, Regulus pulled the small silver device from his pocket and waved it at Snape. He watched the man’s eyes widen as he realised that Regulus had one of the tone generators used to control the reapers.
Feeling smug at the slight panic in Snape’s eyes, Regulus turned and walked away without a word.
*
“Can you make more?” Regulus asked Evan.
Evan pressed the button on the little device, and it whirred to life, emitting its horrible high high-pitched noise. “Yeah, I can replicate that frequency.”
“Good,” Regulus nodded. “If we can neutralise the Death Eaters, then the tunnels are an option. I can’t believe I forgot I had that thing, fucking stupid.” He muttered the last bit under his breath, more to himself than Evan.
He was back in the engineering room with the radio, which was still playing nothing but Mary’s automated message. Regulus was pacing whilst Evan was sitting at a table, fiddling with the device Regulus had given him.
“Get on it,” Regulus told Evan.
“You don’t need to give me orders,” Evan snapped. “I got this.”
“Evan!” Sirius scrambled into the room. “Any word from James?” Sirius had been missing when Regulus came back from the airlock, apparently off on a patrol with some Grounders. Regulus would have to ask Sirius about that later. For now, he was busy.
“Nothing yet,” Evan replied.
“Fuck,” Sirius huffed. “Remus is still missing too. He should be back by now, right?” Sirius looked to Regulus with slightly wide, panicked eyes.
“They’ll be fine,” Regulus replied stiffly.
“They’d better be,” Evan muttered from his desk. “Your whole plan rests on James getting in.”
“He will,” Regulus snapped, turning away from his brother and looking back towards Evan. “It’s James .”
“Hm,” Evan hummed.
“Okay- fuck, I’ve got to get back,” Sirius stammered. “If James-”
“We’ll tell you straight away,” Regulus told him. His brother inclined his head and squeezed his shoulder before running back out of the room. Regulus really needed to speak to him about whatever it was he was up to with the Grounders.
“What did the hazmat guy say?” Evan asked, pulling Regulus’ attention away from the retreating form of his brother.
“Nothing,” Regulus admitted. “Just his name. But Effie found markers in his blood, which suggests that they’ve started using our people’s blood.”
“What?” Evan hissed. “It’s started? Why didn’t you lead with that?”
Regulus swallowed down a lump in his throat. He was doing everything that he could to not think about his friends in the mountain strung up by their ankles like the Grounders he had seen in the harvest chamber.
“Because it might mean we fucking failed, alright?” He snapped.
Evan set down the sound emitter and stared at Regulus. “You sound like you’re giving up.”
“Because it’s probably already too late,” Regulus swallowed another heavy breath.
“No!” Evan pushed out of his chair. “No, you don’t get to give up. You killed Barty, and I didn’t give up. I’m building a fucking tone generator, so you do your job!”
“What is my job?” Regulus demanded. “If you know what it is please fill me in because I’d love to fucking know!”
“I don’t know,” Evan threw his hands in the air. “To come up with something-”
“Elder Camp, this is Mount Hallow. Can anyone read me?”
The effect that the sound of James’ voice coming from the radio had was instant on Regulus. He felt as if every muscle in his body suddenly relaxed as relief overcame him. Just as he had been avoiding thinking about how his friends in the mountain were probably all dead, he had been avoiding thinking about James lying dead somewhere.
“Holy crap,” Evan muttered, turning towards where the radio sat in the corner of the room.
Regulus’ body was moving before he realised it. He hurried past Evan towards the radio.
“Elder Camp, this is Mount Hallow. Can anyone read me?” James said again. His voice was slightly distorted over the radio, but it was so unmistakably James. Regulus wanted to sob with happiness. He wanted to get on his knees and beg James to get out of the mountain and come home. He wanted to tell James how much he loved him. To apologise for what he had said the last time they saw each other.
But he couldn’t, because that would be weak.
Evan moved to scramble for the mouthpiece and shove it into Regulus’ hands.
“James?” Regulus said into it. His voice came out unmistakably weak and shaky, but he didn’t care.
“Reg?”
Regulus closed his eyes just for a second and let himself feel how completely relieved he was to hear James’ voice. He let it wash over him, just for a second. Then he snapped his eyes open and forced himself to focus on the task at hand. James was deep behind enemy lines. He was in danger. There wasn’t time for Regulus to dwell on the fact that he had been the one to put James there.
“Are you alright?” He asked into the mouthpiece.
“I’m fine,” James said quickly. “But that’s it for the good news. We have to talk fast, something's changed. Mary, Pandora, everyone, fuck- they just locked them in the dorm.”
“But they’re alive?” Regulus asked quickly. “All of them.”
“I think so,” James replied. “I didn’t get a good look, but if they’re alive, it’s only for now. Lily says that they’re already using them for their blood. Things are going to get ugly in here really fast.”
“Lily is with you?” Regulus felt his eyebrows shoot up at the name.
“She helped me escape,” James said quickly. “I’d be dead if not for her.” James paused for a second before continuing. “Reg, there are kids in here. Whatever plan we come up with, it has to not kill everyone in here. Please tell me we have a plan?”
“Yeah,” Regulus’ mouth was very dry. “We can’t do anything until you take down the acid fog. Evan is going to walk you through it,” he looked towards Evan, who nodded.
“Got it,” James replied. “What else?”
“We need you to figure out a way to free the Grounder prisoners,” said Regulus. “There’s a whole army down there and the mountain doesn’t even realise it.”
“Trojan horse. Good plan,” James said. Regulus was immediately reminded that James had spent just as much time listening to Sirius prattle on about myths as he had. It made a bubble of warmth emerge inside him. He quickly shoved it down.
“What does Lily think? Is it doable?” Regulus asked, determined to keep on track.
“She says it’s not a problem,” James replied immediately, giving Regulus the distinct impression that he hadn’t paused to check with Lily “But if I’m going to pull this off, I need you to buy me some time. It won’t be long before they realise I don’t belong here, and when that happens-”
“That can’t happen,” Regulus cut him off. “I’ll come up with something.”
“Come up with it quick, hey?” James suggested.
“Copy that,” Regulus replied. “And James?”
“Yeah?”
“You came through,” Regulus said, biting his bottom lip, which was quivering slightly. “I knew you would.”
“All I’ve done so far is managed not to get killed,” James said with a shaky laugh.
“Keep doing that,” Regulus told him briskly. He handed the mouth piece to Evan. “You’re up, get that fog down.”
Regulus’ mind was racing. He had to keep the heat off James. He had to keep James alive. And he knew exactly what he was planning to make sure that happened.
“Hey, what are you going to do?” Evan asked as Regulus turned to head out of the room.
“I’m going to keep them looking outside instead of in,” Regulus offered. “I have an idea.”
*
“Sirius, I need you,” Regulus stepped into Sirius’ eyeline. Sirius was outside the ship, training with a group of Grounders. Regulus still needed to speak to his brother about whatever the fuck he was playing at, but now really wasn’t the time and Sirius wasn’t Regulus’ biggest problem at that moment.
“What happened?” Sirius sheathed his sword immediately. He had been mid brawl with a Grounder, who shot him a distasteful look before moving away to train with someone else. “Is James-?”
“James is fine. He made it in. He radioed,” Regulus said.
“And Remus?”
Regulus winced slightly, realising a slight oversight on his part. “I didn’t ask.”
He could have lied. He could have, but told Sirius the truth- that he hadn’t thought to ask about Remus and James hadn’t offered up any explanation. He was through lying to his big brother. He needed Sirius. Needed them to be able to trust each other, so no more lies.
Oh, look at that, a new non-lying Reg, Barty teased from behind Sirius. Turning over a new leaf, are we?
Regulus elected to ignore Barty. He really wished that the ghost of his best friend would leave him the fuck alone.
“You didn’t ask?” Sirius huffed. “Thats so fucking typical-”
“We have bigger problems right now, Sirius,” Regulus cut in. “James needs our help.”
That got Sirius’ attention. Regulus knew that Sirius was worried about Remus. Of course, he was. But Sirius was just as worried about James. Regulus knew his brother. He knew that Sirius needed to be in near constant action; he suspected that was why he had elected to start training with the Grounders, to give him something to do. So, Regulus offered Sirius an actual helpful task, knowing that his brother would accept without hesitation.
“What can we do?” Sirius demanded.
“Do you think you can get your new friends to help me with something?” Regulus asked, eyes flicking over at the gathered Grounders who were watching the interaction between the two brothers with hardly disguised interest.
Narcissa was among them; otherwise, Regulus would have simply asked himself. But he had the distinct impression that she didn’t like him much, so he had decided it was better to go about this in a different way than he initially wanted to. After all, it was better for everyone if he kept her on side.
Sirius grinned. “You know what, I reckon I can.”
*
“No way,” a guard stepped in front of the airlock as Regulus approached with Narcissa to one side of him and Sirius on the other, flanked by more Grounders.
“Out of the way,” Regulus said carelessly. Behind him, he knew without having to check that the Grounders and Sirius had drawn their weapons. The guard’s eyes widened and he stepped aside, allowing Regulus to clearly see Severus Snape sitting inside the airlock.
When he saw Regulus, his eyes widened and he stood.
“Get dressed,” Regulus told him, jerking his head towards the man’s repaired hazmat suit which was crumpled up in a pile in the corner of the airlock.
“What for?” Snape asked.
“Talking are we?” Regulus cocked an eyebrow. “I haven’t got any answers for you until you have that suit on. Or would you prefer I kill you?”
Severus Snape had that glint in his eye that told Regulus he wasn’t the kind of man who would take death that easily when offered a different option. Regulus moved over towards the airlock controls and began fiddling with them. He was bluffing, of course, he also didn’t really know how the controls worked, so he easily could have accidentally irradiated the man. But Snape was far more useful to him alive at that moment. But Snape didn’t know that.
“Wait!” Snape snapped. “I’m getting dressed.”
Regulus grinned. “Do it quickly.”
Snape got dressed in record time. Honestly, Regulus was rather impressed. He wondered if the Mountain Men trained to put their hazmat suits on quickly in case of an emergency.
If you were in charge there you’d run drills like that, I know you would, Barty said carelessly. He was lounging inside of the airlock watching Snape shove the gloves of his suit on. You’d be fucking ruthless about it, I know you would Reg.
“All snug in there?” Regulus asked Snape once the man had secured the hood and visor of his suit.
“Yes,” Snape answered with hardly contained mirth.
Regulus fiddled with the controls until the airlock depressurised, and moments later, the doors slid open. “Fall in, Sargent, we’re going for a walk.”
Sirius moved forward to grab Snape’s arm and make him move as Regulus turned and started walking down the corridor towards the exit.
The guard who had originally blocked Regulus’ path was long gone. It was a surprise that no one stepped in to stop him until he was outside, almost at the gates.
“Regulus, stop!” Euphemia stepped into his path.
He met her steely gaze with his head held high. “No. I’m letting the prisoner go.”
“What?” Euphemia demanded, looking over to McGonagall and Moody, who had hurried over with her. “Absolutely not!”
“He hasn’t told us anything yet,” Moody said, eyeing Snape, Sirius and the Grounders warily.
“He doesn’t have to,” said Regulus. “He’s going to tell them something.”
Euphemia narrowed her eyes and turned to a nearby guard. “Get the prisoner back to the airlock now.”
“Yes, Ma’am.”
Two guards moved forward, and in seconds, all of the Grounders behind Regulus had their swords out. The guard's hands flew to the guns at their hips.
Regulus held his hand out to stop the Grounders from attacking. Euphemia turned back to him with her eyebrows raised.
“You may be the Minister. But make no mistake. I am in charge right now,” Regulus told her. He forced his shoulders to remain relaxed and his tone even. If he appeared calm, they would all think he had everything under control. He just hoped that they couldn’t hear the jackhammer of his heart.
“Narcissa, tell your people to stand down before this gets out of hand,” Euphemia said, her eyes not leaving Regulus’.
“No,” Narcissa replied simply.
Everyone was silent. Regulus suspected that the guards and the Grounders were all holding their breath, just waiting for the command that would start the fight. Regulus had no intention of giving it if Euphemia stepped out of his way. He really didn’t want to hurt Euphemia. James would be upset.
But at least he’d be alive, Barty said from over Euphemia’s shoulder. You’re doing this for him, aren’t you? You think saving James will fix the fact that you’re the one who sent him there in the first place?
Regulus tensed his jaw and refused to look at Barty.
Beside him, Sirius shuffled. He had never been good at staying still.
“People could get hurt,” Euphemia said carefully.
Regulus took one single step closer to her. They were the same height. He liked that he didn’t have to look up at her.
“Not if you get out of my way,” he said simply. “You need to trust that I know what is best for us.”
Euphemia stared back at him. Between them, the very same words he had just used, but in her voice, echoed.
“The Grounders trust Regulus,” McGonagall said tentatively. “Maybe we should, too?”
Euphemia stared at him for several more tense moments before she half turned to her guards. “Stand down.”
The guards lowered their guns. Regulus felt fucking triumphant as the group blocking them, including Euphemia, stood aside and allowed them to move towards the gates.
“Open the gates,” Regulus barked as he approached. “Now.”
Without question, the gates slid open. Regulus stopped and turned around to face Snape. Sirius stood behind Snape, still gripping the man’s forearm.
“Can you hear me alright through that mask?” Regulus asked, raising an eyebrow. “I want to make sure you get this.”
“Loud and clear,” Snape replied coolly.
“Good,” Regulus said. “I have a message for Dumbledore. We’re coming for him. You’re watching us, but you haven’t seen a thing. The Grounder army is bigger than you think, and even if you could find it, your acid fog can’t hurt them. And neither can your Death Eaters. So you have one last chance. Let our people go, and we’ll let you live. That’s a promise. It’s really that simple. Got it?”
Snape nodded.
Regulus narrowed his eyes, reaching forward to grab the pressure gauge from the man’s oxygen tank. Helpfully, the amount of air in the tank was displayed in hours. It read 10.
“It’s an eight-hour walk back to your bunker?” Regulus asked.
“Yes,” Snape confirmed.
Regulus pressed the pressure release, watching the hours on the gauge tick downwards until it finally stopped, resting at the 6 mark. “You’re going to do it in six.”
Snape’s eyes widened. “Six hours? That’s not enough! If I die, I can’t deliver your message.”
Regulus smirked. “That sounds like your problem, doesn’t it?” Snape glared at him and Regulus felt fucking vindicated. “Sirius, release him. Go on, Snape, run back to your president. Make sure you tell him what I said word for word.”
Snape didn’t hesitate. The second Sirius released his arm, he pushed past Regulus and started jogging away from camp. Regulus watched him until he disappeared amongst the trees.
“I don’t understand how this is supposed to help James,” Sirius said as the Grounders started moving away from them.
Regulus turned away from the trees to look at Sirius. “I just told him we have a secret army for them to worry about. The more they’re looking out here at us, the less they’re looking at James.”
Sirius’ eyes narrowed slightly. “You’re putting us all in the line of fire to protect James?”
“James is the key to everything,” Regulus replied. “If he dies, so do we. I’m just doing what it takes to protect him.”
Sirius’ fingers flexed on the hilt of his sword. His jaw ticked.
“Say whatever it is you’re so desperate to,” Regulus sighed. Bone deep exhaustion was setting in and he was itching to get back to the radio incase James needed him.
“Nothing,” Sirius said. “You just use that excuse a lot.”