Excitement trickled through Harry, but he was not immediately sure why. He read the

Sign again. Hermione was already a flight of stairs below him.

“Hermione,” he said, and he was surprised that his voice was so calm. “Come

back up here.”

“What’s the matter?”

“R.A.B. I think I’ve found him.”

There was a gasp, and then Hermione ran back up the stairs.

“In your mum’s letter? But I didn’t see –“

Harry shook his head, pointing at Regulus’s sign. She read it, then clutched

Harry’s arm so tightly that he winced.

“Sirius’s brother?” she whispered.

“He was a Death Eater,” said Harry. “Sirius told me about him, he joined up when

he was really young and then got cold feet and tried to leave – so they killed him.”

“That fits!” gasped Hermione. “If he was a Death Eater he had access to

Voldemort, and if he became disenchanted, then he would have wanted to bring

Voldemort down!”

She released Harry, leaned over the banister, and screamed, “Ron! RON! Get up

here, quick!”

Ron appeared, panting, a minute later, his wand ready in his hand.

“What’s up? If it’s massive spiders again I want breakfast before I –“

He frowned at the sign on Regulus’s door, in which Hermione was silently

Pointing.

“What? That was Sirius’s brother, wasn’t it? Regulus Arcturus … Regulus …

R.A.B.! The locket – you don’t reckon -- ?”

“Let’s find out,” said Harry. He pushed the door: It was locked. Hermione pointed

her wand at the handle and said, “Alohamora.” There was a click, and the door swung

Open.

They moved over the threshold together, gazing around. Regulus’s bedroom was

slightly smaller than Sirius’s, though it had the same sense of former grandeur. Whereas

Sirius had sought to advertise his diffidence from the rest of the family, Regulus had

Striven to emphasize the opposite. The Slytherin colors of emerald and silver were

Everywhere, draping the bed, the walls, and the windows. The Black family crest was

Painstakingly painted over the bed, along with its motto, TOUJOURS PUR. Beneath this

Was a collection of yellow newspaper cuttings, all stuck together to make a ragged

Collage. Hermione crossed the room to examine them.

“They’re all about Voldemort,” she said. “Regulus seems to have been a fan for a

few years before he joined the Death Eaters …”

A little puff of dust rose from the bedcovers as she sat down to read the clippings.

Harry, meanwhile, had noticed another photograph: a Hogwarts Quidditch team was

Smiling and waving out of the frame. He moved closer and saw the snakes emblazoned

on their chests: Slytherins. Regulus was instantly recognizable as the boy sitting in the

middle of the front row: He had the same dark hair and slightly haughty look of his

Brother, though he was smaller, slighter, and rather less handsome than Sirius had been.

“He played Seeker,” said Harry.

“What?” said Hermione vaguely; she was still immersed in Voldemort’s press

Clippings.

“He’s sitting in the middle of the front row, that’s where the Seeker … Never

mind,” said Harry, realizing that nobody was listening. Ron was on his hands and knees,

Searching under the wardrobe. Harry looked around the room for likely hiding places and

approached the desk. Yet again, somebody had searched before them. The drawers’

Date: 2015-12-11; view: 763