Revelations

Over the next several long months, Reginald became increasingly withdrawn. The twins noted that he'd flinch with increasing frequency and alternately hiss and curl into the fetal position, or cross his arms tightly across his chest and whimper. He also frequently forgot to eat and was looking so peaky that the others discussed breaking the rules to get him appropriate treatment. He'd taken to missing community meals again, and so frequently that the others had started bringing meals to him.

"Reg?" Geoff said, edging through the front door with some food one evening. His twin was close behind him but pulled up short, whispering harshly under his breath.

"Reg? REG! Oh, jeez, I think I know what that sta. . . "

"Leave it!" hissed Geoff.

"But he's Mum's . . ."

"LEAVE IT!"

"But Gi . . ."

"I SAID LEAVE IT!"

* * *

One morning, everyone save Reginald was outside kicking a black and white spotted ball around when a strange-looking bird with red and yellow plumage and something tied to its feet soared to the end of the street.

"Was that . . . " asked Joe.

"It was!" Mary Anne replied, and they both looked at the others with raised eyebrows.

At dinner time, a solemn looking Reginald with a heavily bandaged arm slipped through the door, holding a newspaper which he tossed on the table. Although they hadn't seen the paper in nearly twenty years, they immediately recognised the layout of the Daily Prophet.

Over Four Decades of War Finally Over

Harry Potter, known to the Wizarding World since he was a year old as "The Boy Who Lived," confirmed last night that he had finally and incontrovertibly defeated the man masquerading himself as Lord Voldemort. Although Potter declined to give specifics, he did say that the return to power that occurred in 1994 was not going to occur again and offered a serpentine-looking body with red slitted eyes as proof. He, along with other members of the vigilante group known as the Order of the Phoenix, said that some very powerful Dark Magic was used to provide immortality for He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named, but that this method had been both discovered and dealt with.

Meanwhile, some of the Death Eaters, the former supporters of The Dark Lord who comprised a terrorist group, are still at large. Most notable is Severus Snape, known to have murdered the Hogwarts Headmaster Albus Dumbledore. Rumours have placed him as Headmaster at Durmstrang Institute, a position Snape was purportedly granted as a reward for his fealty. However, as Durmstrang Institute remains Unplottable and protected by a Fidelius Charm, it is unlikely that we will receive cooperation for international extradition.

In addition to the ten thousand Galleon reward offered by the Ministry, Harry Potter himself has offered an additional fifty thousand Galleon reward for anyone who is able to deliver Snape for trial.

"It's over," he said quietly, upending a hollow cylinder the paper had been wrapped around. Several thin sticks of varying lengths were poured out, which he set on the table. Everyone reached for a specific one, and as he took his, he remembered the voice of the man who'd given it to him. "Black Walnut and dragon heartstring, fifteen and a half inches, stiff ... my, my, you worry me, young sir."

Reginald sighed and walked desolately back to his house.

"What's eating him?" asked Joe.

The red-headed twins exchanged a look. "Um, I think it's because we can't go back."

"But why can't we? Why can't he?"

Bertram sighed. "Things aren't safe yet. They may never be."

"Then why do we have THESE?"

"I don't know. We'll find things out slowly. We always do."

Several more months passed, and suddenly one day Reginald burst through the door, frantically waving a newspaper.

"Did Snape bring you here?" he gasped to all in attendance. When he was met with shocked silence, he flung the paper at them angrily.

The headline nearly leapt off the paper.

DUMBLEDORE'S MURDERER CAUGHT!

Severus Snape, long time supporter of You-Know-Who and reported murderer of the beloved Hogwarts Headmaster Albus Dumbledore, has been captured. He was scheduled for an immediate Dementor's Kiss, but the public demand for an open trial has encouraged the Ministry of Magic to relocate the trial to the Quidditch World Cup stadium.

The trial is scheduled for noon tomorrow. Attendance is limited to citizens under the rule of the British Ministry. Anyone who wishes to attend is advised that there will be a Dementor in attendance, as sentencing is expected to be carried out immediately.

They all read it before staring at him in obvious alarm.

"I KNOW Snape!" Reginald insisted. "He brought me here because I had defied the Dark Lord," he said, tearing back his sleeve to reveal his left forearm, which he thrust at them.

A few recoiled in shock at the scar there, but the twins shrugged. "Oi, whattaya think he was always flinchin' and hissin' about, eh?"

"If he brought you here, then you owe him a life debt," Reginald continued, nearly frantic, and thrust two other papers at him. "Before . . . before it happened, Dumbledore told me Snape had made an Unbreakable Vow. To who, I don't know, and I don't care because it doesn't matter. He said that he was going to die, and that it was going to happen with his consent."

"Easy, mate, we're going with you," the twins said in unison.

"So are we," Mary Anne replied as Joe nodded.

"I think we all are," Curtis mused.

* * *

They were all a little unaccustomed to travelling, and thus it took them a little bit longer to arrive at the stadium than they'd intended. They could hear the charges being read out over the roar of the jeering crowd.

"Shit!" Reginald said and bolted toward the stadium door ... which was locked.

The twins, in fast pursuit, nearly slammed into him. "Shit!" they said, waving the wands that had been returned to them in vain.

"Hang on," Reginald said, then disappeared into a black snake which flattened itself and slid under the door. Seconds later, the door opened.

"Wow, when'd you learn that?"

"Later. C'mon!"

By now the others had caught up with them, and they all raced down the hall, just as the prosecutor was asking Snape if he had a statement to make in his own defence.

Silence greeted them and they burst through to the pitch.

"And now, propriety dictates that I ask if anyone will speak in this . . . man's . . . defence," he said with a glower to a shady-looking old man with a long white beard.

"I will!" declared a gasping Reginald, who immediately turned his attention to Snape, who appeared to have been pelted with rotten vegetation, among other things. "Sah ess eeee heth ee hash!" Reginald gasped at Snape.

Snape shook his head, his exasperation visible even from the rear. "Sesh sheth e sash," he replied with such sarcasm even the non-Parselmouths in the audience, which, of course, was everyone except Harry, could detect it.

"Who the hell are you?!" barked a young man (about the same age I was when I went into exile, Reginald thought to himself) with messy black hair and haz . . . no wait, those are green . . . eyes.

"I am Regulus Arcturus Black. I don't believe I've made your acquaintance."

By now, the attention of the audience had turned to the rag-tag bunch of refugees, and an astonished growl rang out from the audience. "CARADOC?!"

"Yes, Minerva ... and I also speak in Snape's defence."

"As do I," said the woman they'd come to know as Mary Anne.

"And you are?" said the flustered looking prosecutor, obviously wondering how they'd gotten onto the pitch.

"Marlene McKinnon."

Just then, the twins emerged from the hallway, and a woman screeched. The entire audience turned to see a red-haired Molly Weasley plummeting down the steps as she shrieked, "GIDEON! FABIAN!!"

"Er, right, Moll ... nice to see you too," Geoff, aka Gideon, said.

"Snape got us away from five Death Eaters during an attack, you know," Fabian, aka Frank, said, glowering at the prosecuteor.

"And Benjy Fenwick," said Bertram, who'd gone unnoticed.

"Now wait just a minute!" growled Alastor Moody. "We found parts of you spewed all over your house!"

"It wasn't me. Snape Polyjuiced a chicken and then cast a Reducto on that."

"Well, I, uh, I," sputtered the prosecutor.

"I believe my brother left a statement as well," said the bearded old man as he descended regally from the stands. "Miss Granger, if you would be so kind . . ." he said, which tore Hermione Granger's attention away from Harry Potter just as she was hissing at him. "'R.A.B.' Harry . . . it's Regulus Black, Sirius' brother!"

"Shesh e sa seth eee sass?" Regulus hissed at Snape, confusion evident on his face.

"Senesh sneth hasash ess ee se sanash se ee sess."

Harry looked back and forth between them in shock. "You KNEW about the Horcruxes?!"

Snape simply rolled his eyes.

"Of course I knew about the Horcrux, you idiot boy . . . HORCRUXES?!?!?"

"Mmm. Six of them," Snape drawled quietly.

Regulus whimpered and swooned and was caught by the twins. "What's a Horcrux?"

"Don't ask," Hermione said under her breath, fiddling with something as the old man poured a vial of a silvery substance into a small stone basin in front of it.

"What are you DOING, Hermione?" Harry demanded.

"Harry," she said hesitantly, "do you remember what happened when you confronted Voldemort?"

"Of course!"

"You remember the very last spell that was verbally cast?"

Harry scowled in fury. "He was only out for himself! He still killed Dumbledore! I don't care if he's the one that cast a Killing Curse at Voldemort!"

"Harry . . ." Hermione said, "this is Professor Snape we're talking about. When did he ever cast a spell verbally if he didn't want you to know what he was saying?"

"HE KILLED DUMBLEDORE!"

". . . Harry . . . " Hermione whispered, swallowing hard. "Those notes from Fawkes ... they weren't from Dumbledore."

"OF COURSE THEY WERE!" Harry thundered.

Hermione chewed her lip and shrank back. " . . . No . . . Harry . . . Viktor . . . he saw Fawkes . . . at Durmstrang . . ."

Harry blanched and sat down hard. He didn't notice the encroaching darkness as the old man waved his wand.

"And now, if you'll all direct your attention to this projection?"

The entire stadium gasped as an image of Albus Dumbledore faded into view.

* * *

Author's Notes:

This was supposed to be a one-shot. *facedesk*

A good picture of an Equatorial Spitting Cobra with a flared hood can be found here: http://www.ecologyasia.com/images-a-j/black_spitting_cobra_0028.jpg

I didn't have any particular reason to call chapter 3 "Union of the Snake", other than there were two snakes working in tandem in that chapter. I wasn't even listening to the song at the time, but it seemed quite fitting, all things considered.

Snapdragon on SugarQuill came up with an EXCELLENT theory that Regulus Black was himself actually an heir of Slytherin.

The Parseltongue conversation isn't particularly important, but goes something vaguely like this. "Why didn't you tell me you were on trial you idiot?", "Parseltongue is ineffective for covert conversation when the one you're trying to hide it from is a Parselmouth, you know", "What's he saying about my brother?", "Your brother was his godfather, and he found the locket, and was on a quest to destroy the horcruxes".

I think it was Accioslash who turned me on to the idea that Snape was a Parselmouth.

Alwaysthequiet1 came up with the "Snape as Durmstrang's new Headmaster" theory.

I came up with the four decades of war thing because Tom Riddle met with Dumbledore, asking for the position of Defence Teacher, 10 years after Tom met with Hephzibah Smith, a position he took right out of Hogwarts. He was born end of December 1926 according to the Lexicon's best guesses, which would mean he turned 11 in December 1937, and so started school in September 1938, which would have put his graduation around June 1945, which would have put that meeting with Dumbledore in the mid-1950's. The Lexicon is probably not off by more than 5 years in either direction, particularly given that Jo has said that Tom ran off to fight with Grindelwald, and that the war with Grindelwald roughly coincided with WWII. Now, with the Pensieve memories, he was working at Borgin & Burkes right after he graduated, so it might be that he was a little bit older. But Dumbledore refers to the early followers of Voldemort as "Death Eaters", and makeindirect reference to their crimes, so it seems like they were already terrorising some people.

Many thanks to Bekithewitch, Kymster, MaskedOne, Kask, Sly Severus, AzureLunatic, MaryJ59, ButterflyKisses and BridgeTester for helping me out with the plot (chapter 5 was a real bear for me!), and Bekithewitch and RobisonRocket for betaing!

References:

http://behindthename.com/nm/b2.php

http://www.hp-lexicon.org

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/

http://www.thesaurus.com