Jean had just started to settle down, it was roughly 15 minutes since the group left, they should have been back by now, they were just going to pop in and pop out. No sooner had she thought of that when the loud crack rattled the walls of the Manor and the group re-appeared, Jean was shocked at the state they were in.
Frank and Alice who had held it together in the cave like the true Aurors they were, broke down the moment their feet landed on the plush carpet of Potter Manor. Neville rushed over to them as fast as he could and wrapped them both in a giant hug, the parents pulled their son in tightly and were not intending to let him go anytime soon. Memories of friends long passed flashed in their minds making them squeeze their son a little tighter.
Amelia was cradling Sirius in her arms as they both sat on the floor weeping at what they had saw in the cave, Remus was much the same as Frank and Alice, strong while in the cave but a weeping mess once back at home. The thought of Euphemia coming at them had shaken them all to the bone.
Jean was concerned for everyone, but no more so than for her kids. Harry and Hermione were still standing; however, they were both staring in shock at the young woman who was lying beside Regulus, trying to figure out who she was.
"What's wrong kids?" Jean asked walking up behind them and gasping when she saw the second body.
"There were two souls trapped... we don't know who she is." Harry said quietly then had an idea and looked up at his parents.
"Mum… Dad… do you know? I'd ask Sirius but he's currently out of it, Voldemort used our families for his corpses. We all had loved ones come out of that lake, but Nana popping up knocked him and Remus down hard and Amelia had to attack her own father." Harry filled his parents in.
Lily gasped as she looked over to the other two Marauders, Harry could tell she desperately wanted to hug them. James however understood and simply nodded then answered his question.
"I believe that young lady is Lucy Michaels. She was in Regulus' year at Hogwarts, was one of his biggest fans from Quidditch." James said remembering the vivacious young lady from her hatred of the Gryffindor Quidditch team.
"She was a die-hard snake fan even though she was sorted into Hufflepuff she would root for Slytherin when they weren't playing the Puffs." He finished.
With a croaky voice, Sirius, now on his feet and standing behind the kids added on to James' explanation. "She loved Regulus, would follow him everywhere. He eventually grew quite fond of her as well but could never take her home to meet the family. She wasn't a Slytherin after all and came from a mixed house. My mum would never stand for that sort of 'filth' in her house."
"Shall I go get the restorative draft that Amelia brought with her?" Remus asked, now out of his emotional state as well.
Sirius just nodded as he gazed at his brother. "Bloody hell, I'm going to be the much older brother now" Sirius said out loud with a huff. The group chuckled a little bit at his remark glad for the tension relief.
Remus signaled for Amelia to follow him and exited the room. They weren't gone long, but by the time they came back the group had removed the coffee table and had the stone bodies lying comfortably on two low lying cots with a couch on either side.
Amelia gasped as she handed the potion to Hermione, she apparently didn't see Lucy before she left, "My word, that's Lucy Michaels! What in the blazes was she doing down there?!"
She then looked between Sirius, Regulus and Lucy and it clicked…" She followed him, didn't she?"
Sirius nodded, "It appears so love, let's get that potion in them and see what they remember, and also see if Regulus will accept our help."
Amelia doled out the potion between the two of them, it would take roughly two to three hours to work, then they hoped that the pair would understand the changes that had happened while they were made of stone.
"Blast it all to hell!" Amycus cussed to himself while quickly getting a cool rag to place on his burn before applying some burn salve, he always keeps a jar in his potions bag for times such as this.
"What is going on in here brother?" Alecto said coming through the doorway that led to the basement where Amycus put up shop.
It was unknown why many potioneer's preferred the basement, it was crap for ventilation and always had poor lighting. He supposed it kept the ingredients cool without the need for too many spells. Either way it kept him well enough away from the creepy baby that is his master.
"Nothing my dear sister, I was brewing some other potions to sell when I burnt myself on accident that's all." Amycus said while applying the burn salve to his forearm.
"Why are you worrying about selling potions when our Master needs your full attention on his revival potion?" She questioned.
"Because we will always need money dear sister, be it for our master or for ourselves. That is always a necessity, and with most of the wealthy death eaters being fed to the dementors, it's better we start saving now."
Amycus didn't want to divulge to his sister that he didn't think their master would be revived. The body that he has been inhabiting has deteriorated much faster than what was expected. He also didn't think that the body could stand the amount of potion needed for the change, it was just a baby after all.
Alecto eyed her brother wearily. She could see there was more than what he was saying, she didn't pry however as she knew her Master had ears all over this place. Truth be told she wasn't feeling very confident in their Master herself; she was in a constant state of disgust when around the poor lad who their Master was inhabiting.
On top of that she had heard rumors while she was in town that he wasn't all that he said he was. She overheard Kingsley Shacklebolt explaining 'Tom Riddle' to the store clerk in the apothecary. If what he said was true, then they were following a half blood.
A half-blood that had no problem killing pure bloods simply because they messed up. Shacklebolt would have no reason to lie to the store clerk. And it wasn't like anyone knew she was a death eater, Amycus and herself had flown below the radar, they were never high ranking to begin with, that was until their Master needed servants apparently.
Tom had overheard the conversation between the brother and sister, he was pleased that Amycus was thinking ahead to the future but displeased about his dementor comment. That was something he is going to have to address as soon as he's back in a fully functional body.
Living in the safe house was one thing while he was impaired, but it would never do to make his return. With Malfoy out of the picture he wouldn't have a grand manor like he wanted to take over. This will take some investigative work to see who made it out alive while he was but a mere shade.
Tom Riddle might have overheard the verbal discussion between the two Carrows, however their similarities in thought had escaped him.
Back at Potter Manor the first of the two stone bodies were starting to wake up, being smaller in size Lucy was awaking way before Regulus. She slowly opened one eye, then the other and peered around. She could have sworn she was in a cave when she went unconscious, where the hell was she?
Sitting up a little the first thing her eyes landed on was James bloody Potter staring at her from a portrait above the fireplace; she started to roll her eyes as Lily came into frame. "Potter, where the hell am I?"
"You're in my families Manor house Michaels, and it's been quite a while since you've been anywhere but below a lake. My family should be along shortly to assist you, they had just left to get changed thinking it would take a while for the restorative draft to affect you."
Mouth hanging open, Lucy was piecing together what the portrait had just said. Below a lake? Restorative potion? REGULUS! Memories were bombarding her from right before she blacked out.
Seeing her internal thought process happen and where she must have ultimately landed Lily wanted to make sure she didn't freak out. "Lucy, please don't be frightened, Regulus is right next to you, it will take a little bit for him to wake up, the kids must not have thought about the difference in weight. They were so tired after the battle to get you two out."
Lucy was once more staring up at the portrait, she had no beef with Lily Evans, she was always helpful, and quite hilarious when pulling pranks on Potter.
She snapped her eyes away for a brief moment and saw the stone figure of Regulus laying in the cot next to hers, she could see that the potion was working but like Evans said it would take a while. They must have gotten petrified in that blasted cave. Thinking that she needed a way to pass the time till the 'kids' as Even put it would arrive, she decided to talk to the portrait.
"How did you end up in a portrait at Potter Manor Evans? I knew you liked this dumb jock, but this seems a little extreme?"
Lily laughed hard at the question, "This dumb jock is my husband Lucy, and he's changed quite a bit from his school days."
At that Lily's gaze landed on the stairs where two teenagers were walking down hand in hand and a smile grazed her lips.
"Ah, Lucy Michaels, let me introduce you to my son and his wife, Harry and Hermione this is Lucy Michaels."
"Pleasure to meet you, Miss Michaels." Hermione said softly while Harry nodded.
"We apologize that we weren't here when you woke up, we all thought it would take a bit for the potion to work so we all went to grab showers and fresh clothes." Harry added.
Lucy was looking between the pair of teens and the portrait, switching who she was looking at several times.
"Evans… I mean Lily, how… when… what?" Lucy couldn't string together her thoughts.
Lily's kids where teenagers, married teenagers, but Lily wasn't that much older than herself, how the hell could she have teenagers.
"Lucy, it's been almost thirteen years since you've last been awake, we have speculated that you must have gone after Regulus when he was sent away on a mission by Voldemort and ended up petrified like him at the bottom of a lake. We had Harry the following year and died the year after that from Voldemort himself." James answered her jumbled question.
Lucy was shocked into silence.
"Lucy?" Sirius said from the bottom of the stairs.
"Sirius? You're alive?" she asked before she could stop herself.
"I am as shocking as that is. Lucy I'm so sorry about what happened!" Sirius said solemnly.
Nodding, she looked back at the portrait, "You're right you know. I did follow him, I followed him on every mission in case he needed back up. The cave was tricky, I watched him get pulled into the water as I struggled to pull him back. The moment my hand touched the water I knew I was a goner. Or at least I thought I was."
Lucy glanced back at Regulus, "He wasn't really a death eater you know? Right?"
"We know now, yes. We discovered a lot of things over the last couple of hours thanks to Dumbledore." Harry said with anger still very evident in his voice, so much so that Lucy had no problem picking it up.
"That blasted old fool, I'm assuming you know that Regulus was a spy for him then?" Lucy asked and the group nodded.
"I never trusted him, he was always out for the 'greater good', greater good my arse, he was out for the greater Dumbledore!"
"Here, here" Sirius stated while raising his glass of water that was provided by Dobby.
"Lucy, although we didn't expect you to be revived first, I'm really glad you are. I'm very nervous about how I'll be received by my brother. We had a pretty nasty row right before he went on that mission, and I hate to say it, but I'm worried he will try and harm myself or my family." Sirius said with a serious face as he looked between the two sets of Potters and towards the stairs where some others were walking down.
Was that Amelia Bones? And Frank Longbottom holding hands with Alice Fortescue… I always knew those two would end up together. Turning back to look at the portrait of James and Lily she thought I guess them too. It was inevitable.
Finally landing back on Sirius' face, Lucy saw the worry in his eyes. She raised an eyebrow as Amelia took his hand in hers. "Bloody hell you two are together?" Lucy slightly shouted then immediately covered her mouth with her hands.
Amelia laughed at Lucy's outburst, "Yes Lucy, this scruffy nerf herder is mine."
"I knew I shouldn't have asked Hermione for movies to watch!" Sirius said gruffly while Harry and Hermione chuckled.
"Excuse me?" Lucy asked still a little shocked.
"I'm sorry Lucy, yes I'm dating Sirius, I know you've been through a lot, but Sirius does make a valid point. What are your thoughts on Regulus?" Amelia asked.
Lucy took a moment to gaze at Regulus, his body was no longer ridgid and the color was returning to his features, it won't be long now. Sitting down and grabbing his hand she looked back up at Sirius.
"Sirius," She paused trying to think how to put into words what she knew to be true.
"Reg loved you, a lot of the anger was a show for him to maintain himself amongst the death eaters and your mother. He was ecstatic that you got out, he could tell it was killing you to stay."
Sirius let a tear streak down his cheek while he was listening, and just nodded for Lucy to continue.
"He hated your mother just as much as you, but one of you needed to make sure that the family fell into the right hands. His end goal was always to run the family with you. I doubt you will have any issues when he wakes up. Dumbledore was the biggest manipulator in the land, that's what got him stuck, trusting in him was Reg's biggest mistake."
As she said this, she felt his hand squeeze hers. He was back amongst the living, neither of them has aged at all and she felt so discombobulated that she relished in the normalcy of holding his hand and squeezed back.
"Welcome back my love, things have changed." She said simply.
Alecto elected to go out to sell the potions with her brother instead of staying in the safe house, the nagging feelings she's been having the last few days have really been bothering her, and it was about time she made them known to her brother. She hoped she was doing the right thing.
"Amycus, could we stop here and take a rest for a bit to enjoy the fresh air? We've been locked in that house for days and I'm not looking forward to heading back in just yet."
"Sure, I'm quite knackered anyway, stayed up late brewing the wart removal potion." Amycus said with a yawn. "What's on your mind?"
Not sure how to start the conversation, Alecto put up a privacy bubble and checked for any trackers or detection spells before diving headfirst into her thoughts.
Amycus watching her set up all the privacy spells simply raised an eyebrow at his sister.
"Let's not go back." Was all she said.
"Why?" Amycus wanted to make sure her reasonings matched his reasonings before he jumped with joy.
"He's creepy, and I have heard things recently, things that make what he's doing horrible." Alecto was so nervous as to how to start the conversation that she didn't give much thought to continuing it.
"So you've heard about the Tom Riddle thing too then?" Amycus asked to which his sister nodded.
"Good, so I'm not the only one. I've never been the biggest fan of killing people to begin with, but to kill pure bloods while proclaiming blood purity while being a half blood seems a tad much." He finished.
Alecto released a big sigh of relief. "That's exactly how I viewed it too. We haven't changed from our ways, I still believe half-bloods and mudbloods to be below us, but what does it say about us when our so-called master is a half-blood?"
"Exactly" Amycus stated. "So, what do you propose we do? It's not like we can go back home, he'll send that giant ruddy snake of his after us."
"I say we go to Amelia Bones, she's about as fair of a person as you can get. Yes, we are death eaters, but maybe she will pardon us for turning in the maniac?" Alecto suggested.
We will have to make an excuse for being gone for more than a few hours, you know he'll get suspicious." Amycus thought out loud. "A meeting with Bones will take a while."
Nodding Alecto thought through some things, "What if we say we need an ingredient, one that will tip off the apothecary to what potion you are brewing, is there an ingredient like that?"
"Yes, but we already have it, we would have to figure out a way to destroy the bowtruckle's without him punishing one of us. This is one of the only potions I know that requires a live bowtruckle to brew with, and it's not like you can get them at the Magical Menagerie, they are a protected species."
"Come to think of it I'm not sure how Crouch got the dang thing to begin with." Amycus said while scratching his head.
"Let me take care of it, come on, let's head back in before he sends Nagini out." Alecto said with a sigh, she really didn't want to go back but understood why they had to.
The reunion between the Black brothers went swimmingly Harry thought. Regulus confessed quite a bit, it made them sick how deep Dumbledore's manipulations went. Using Sirius as a way to blackmail Regulus into being a spy, and Lucy to keep him there. It was no wonder she hated the whiskered old wanker.
After being locked in stone for many years, their bodies, although perfectly preserved, get worn out and tired rather quickly. And with the twins and Longbottom's slated to head home for about a week before returning, everyone thought it would do all well to rest and relax for a week.
This allowed Regulus and Lucy to get caught up on the recent happenings and learn a little of Harry and Hermione's story. They weren't comfortable telling them about the whole truth at this exact point in time, but they got a generalized run down.
Harry and Hermione were married due to a soul bond, how they discovered the room of requirement, which lead to their discovery. Nothing about traveling back in time or their journey into purgatory. That can all wait, they didn't want to overload them right away.
The Potters and the Blacks were sitting down for tea on a lazy Sunday afternoon when Regulus cursed out loud and grabbed his arm.
"What's wrong Reg?" Sirius asked concerned for his brother evident in his tone.
"Sweet mother of Merlin I forgot how much this damn thing hurts when the bastard is angry." Regulus said while rubbing his dark mark.
Harry and Hermione gazed at each other and held a mental conversation.
Do you think he's gotten a body back? In the last timeline the dark marks didn't appear to harm anyone while he was a shade or homunculus. Hermione thought.
It's a possibility I suppose, but I doubt it. Who would he have brewed the potions? One thing we know is that he's not gone.
Yea… So much for hoping.
Harry chuckled lightly at his wife before turning to Regulus. "Do you think you could make a list of all the death eaters you have knowledge of? We can get Amelia to look out for any strange activity in hopes of finding a lead."
"Yeah of course, wow Sirius your girlfriend really is the big wig of the department now huh?" Regulus laughed while writing down a list of names.
Amelia herself was currently in her office when a knock sounded on her door. With it being Sunday, her secretary was out, and without knowing who was coming in that door Amelia released her wand into her arm and activated her watch to be able to call for Sirius in a moment's notice.
"Come in" she yelled just as two people entered her office. Amelia knew of the Carrows from Harry and Hermione's descriptions from the last timeline. They were low level death eaters that in this timeline haven't done much in the way of getting in trouble, so they let them slide for now.
"Ah, Alecto and Amycus Carrow, what brings you into my office on a Sunday of all days?" Amelia asked wearily.
Once more Alecto didn't know how to start the conversation so went with her tried and true method of just blurting it out and hoping for the best.
"Voldemort isn't dead, he's currently using a small child as a host until he can regain his body, he's very weak and we know where he is, please help us!"
Out of all the things the two of them could say this was the absolute last thing Amelia was expecting.
"Please take a seat and let's discuss your situation."
Regulus had just finished his list of known death eaters from his time when the doors to the living room flew open and Amelia came storming in.
"Ah, my love, Regulus has just finished writing up a list of death eaters that he knows about that we can start looking int…. what's wrong?" Sirius stopped mid word as he noticed the expression on his girlfriend's face.
"Was Amycus and Alecto Carrow on that list?" She asked.
This peaked Hermione and Harry's interest as they knew those two were definitely death eaters and they were wondering where Amelia was taking this.
"Yes actually, they joined up the same time that I did. Very meek pair they were if I remember correctly." Regulus said confused.
"Well, they just came into my office today and confessed that they have been helping Voldemort and can lead me right to him. We have several problems to work out, but we got him!" Amelia said triumphantly.
"REALLY?" Harry and Hermione shouted at the same time.
A magnitude of questions was barreled towards Amelia to answer, to which she did taking her time with each answer.
Yes, the Carrows were safe, she left them in Shacks care at a safe house.
Yes, she got the final horcrux, they brought it with them for proof and it had already been delivered to the Goblins and disposed of in front of her.
Yes, she was aware that her stomach was growling through each question. No, she didn't care she was over the moon excited.
They discussed several hiccups that the Carrows believe would be an issue, Nagini, the safe house, and Voldemort himself.
It all boiled down to Harry asking the big question.
"So what's the plan?"