The Light At The End Of The Fight

Title: The Light At The End Of The Fight

Rating: PG-13

Summary: This story picks up three days after the end of ‘Remember To Forget’. Most of Hermione’s memory has come back an she has joined Harry on the hunt for the horcruxes. Along the way they will learn the true fate of Regulus Black and more about each other than they had ever dreamed about knowing. Rating may go up in future chapters. of ‘Remember To Forget’ is not necessary, however there will be references to events and explanations to several things that weren’t explained.

Authors Notes: So I was curious, very curious, as to how you all jumped to the Snape conclusion… Now, just one more note. When you have the characters voice in your head, it’s in my head as a sort of mash up of accents from Desmond from ‘Lost’ and Fat Bastard from ‘Austin Powers’. Combine them in your head and you get what I’m picturing…

Two

Hermione’s mouth was opened in a silent scream as Harry flew off his feet, his wand soaring through the air as a tall man with long, matted black hair and a gaunt face. Harry hit the floor with a loud thud and the man took a few more steps into the room.

‘Who the fuck are you, brother?’ he asked, staring down at Harry.

‘I might ask you the same,’ Harry said. Hermione drew her wand and aimed it right at the stranger.

‘Put the wand down, missy,’ he said looking at Hermione. ‘I don’t want to fight ya- just yet anyway.’

‘Who are you?’ Hermione asked again. The man smile cockily at her.

‘I think I asked first,’ he said, looking back at Harry. ‘Who are you and what are you doing in my mothers house?’

‘Your mothers house?’ Harry repeated.

‘Yes, my mothers house,’ the stranger hissed. ‘I am Regulus Black, and if I’m not mistaken, this house is the ancestral Black home.’

‘But you’re dead!’ Hermione exclaimed before she realized what she had said. The stranger looked up at her and laughed.

‘Missy, if a tree falls in the woods and no one around to hear it, does it make a sound?’ he said and Hermione just looked at him.

‘What does that-’ she started to say, but he cut over her.

‘So if someone tells you that someone is dead, and you don’t see a body, are they really dead?’ he asked and she was confused.

‘Regulus Black is dead,’ Harry said firmly.

‘And what am I? A clown?€ A beef kebab?’

‘An imposter!’ Harry said, getting to his feet again. As he pulled himself up, Hermione raised her wand and summoned Harry’s wand, without uttering a word. It left the mans hand and soared straight across the room and Harry caught it easily.

‘Oh that was clever,’ he said, pointing his wand at Hermione. ‘Quite talented, you are.’

‘You don’t know the half of it,’ she said firmly. He laughed sharply.

‘Neither do you,’ he retorted.

The scene was frozen for several moments. Harry and Hermione had their wands pointed at him firmly, whilst his wand lay slack at his side.

‘Ok, listen, don’t believe me when I say who I am,’ he said. ‘But I’ve got an idea that will make you change your mind.’

He conjured up a chair and sat down, tossing a stunned Harry his wand.

‘Bind me to this chair. Leave me here, for as long as you want. No appearance changing spell or potion works for longer than an hour, with the exception of those who can metamorph. So if I’m still like this in over an hour, I’m the real deal. Understand?’

Harry looked at Hermione, more for confirmation of the information. She was nodding slowly, as she waved her wand, silently binding him to the chair. Harry pocketed both his and the strangers wands.

‘We’ll be back in an hour, if you’re lucky,’ he growled, stalking past the now tied up man, back out into the hallway, Hermione following.

‘I’ll be right here, brother!’

~*~

Harry and Hermione made their way down to the kitchen. Hermione sat at the table, nervously chewing on her finger nails. Harry paced anxiously from one end of the kitchen to the other.

‘It’s impossible,’ he spoke finally, stopping at the other end of the table to Hermione, palms flat on the table, staring at her.

‘It doesn’t seem to be,’ she said faintly. ‘Regulus Black appears to be alive, and bound to a chair upstairs.’

Harry resumed his pacing.

‘It just can’t be…’ he trailed off and looked back at Hermione, panicked. ‘He’s a death eater! Sirius said! Regulus was a death eater! He could escape!’

Harry was at the door before he heard Hermione’s little cough.

‘Do you really think I didn’t think of that?’ she said darkly. ‘Those ropes that I binded him to the chair with? I jinxed them. He can’t escape without being seriously cursed.’

‘He could take the curse off!’

‘He doesn’t know there’s a curse!’ she said exasperated. ‘It’s a bit hard for him to prepare for a curse he doesn’t know is there. Please, come sit down.’

Harry stayed where he was for a few more moments and Hermione could hear his ragged breathing. His hand slowly dropped from the door handle and he took a seat opposite Hermione.

‘We’ll give him an hour, maybe a bit more. Then we’ll go talk to him. Find out what he has to say.’

Harry just nodded. He looked down at his hands, then looked back up at her, his face still very serious.

‘So… how… how are you?’

It was a mark of how well they knew each other that Hermione knew he wasn’t talking about how she was in general. They hadn’t spoken much about the events that had led to them being here, and Hermione felt that that moment wasn’t particularly appropriate to be discussing how she was feeling after only finding out three days ago exactly what she had forgotten for almost two whole months. It was weird- the attack on her had set her mind back six months, and she had recovered what she’d forgotten from those months. But now she had lost almost two months of her life, two months where she had been trying to catch what she’d missed.

‘I’m good,’ she said, nodding her head slowly. ‘I’m doing good, Harry.’

Harry nodded as well, before resuming his pacing. She sighed softly.

Today just wasn’t their day.