the_noble_black | oo1. [Accidental Video]

[The video feed clicks on with a wet, sopping sound. The sound of waterlogged fabric slipping along itself. There's a resounding thud as the figure crashed to the floor. It's hard to see, at first- whirling, obscuring robes, collapsing in on itself, water flung off of fabric and skin and blurring the camera.

Black, waterlogged hair, clinging to soft, pale cheeks. Gray eyes, visible just for a moment, before the boy convulses on his hands and knees, retching, emptying murky water from his mouth, his throat, his lungs. The water tinges pink; blood stains at his lips. He trembles, shakes, screams, and the weight of his wet cloak overpowers him, drags him down into the ground his nails scratching bloody marks into the floor as if he's still drowning. There's only a flash of his left forearm, but the traces of a tattoo should be burned enough into the memory of anyone who cares to recognize it.

But this isn't about Regulus Black being a Death Eater, it's about Regulus Black being dead.

Or- close enough, anyway.

The feed goes black after another long moment]

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A year too late, unfortunately.

-oh.

[He doesn't know what to think about that.]

...my brother?

Did not reproduce, thankfully. Azkaban may have interfered with those plans had he ever made them.

_{[Not to mention the whole dying bit about fourteen years later.]}

Azkaban.

[He goes quiet for a moment, thinking.]

Good. He needed it.

[It's meant to sound coldhearted, and a small part of it probably is. But Regulus, for all he disliked his brother, would rather have a living one than a dead one. And if Azkaban and Hogwarts were the only two places Voldemort couldn't reach, then that was where his brother needed to be so he couldn't do something stupid and get himself killed.]

He hardly learned anything after he managed to escape.

_{[Read, he died anyway.]}

Severus.

[He heaves a sigh.]

Just tell me.

You'd have to ask something, in that case.

How long did he live?

Thirty-seven years.

Bastard.

[He lets out a vague smile though.]

And how old are you?

If we are including the year I have been stuck here... Thirty-nine.

Congratulations on outliving them, then.

[Sliding back to the floor- standing is too much effort right now.]

Alright- multiple worlds. I've had people talking to me through the brick over there- [he nods] -and you mean to tell me that they're not from earth?

Not a difficult achievement, considering their combined intelligence.

_{[Looking over at the 'brick'.]}

It is called a PCD and you'll have to learn how to use it. And no, not all of them.

Severus, it's a shiny brick. It looks like a radio.

[Poor boy, growing up in the seventies]

...are there different versions of earth?

It is not dissimilar.

_{[Don't worry, it took Snape a bit to get used to it too. Bloody Muggle things.]}

Apparently.

If you say there's more than one of my brother running around-

I would have summarily hung myself had that been the case.

Good.

[Important things first.]

...Other Death Eaters?

Complicated.

_{[There's no change in Snape's expression when he pronounces this one word, no shift in body language, nothing. Someone's been waiting for this question ever since Regulus was capable of speaking somewhat coherently.]}

Who else is here?

[Pressing the question. Out of anyone, he knew, Snape was the only ally he had and he didn't even know if he was that anymore. Still- better Snape than Bellatrix or Fenrir. Not that Regulus could trust him, not really- but if nothing else, he was a source of information.]

From our world, Harry Potter, Hermione Granger, Ronald Weasley, Luna Lovegood, Draco Malfoy, your brother, Remus Lupin, Rubeus Hagrid, Lily Potter-- [Still no emotion.] And Tom Riddle, who is the Dark Lord's younger self.

[Half the names he didn't recognize, the other half he immediately disliked. Regulus pressed his lips together for a long moment before the last name was uttered. His eyes widened slightly, posture snapping up in a sudden rapt attention.]

-Tom Riddle?

You've spoken to him already?

He told me that I was from his future-

[A look of disbelief and vague horror. He knew next to nothing of Voldemort's past- didn't know how dangerous the young dark lord could be, but if he was anything like his older self...

Regulus stands suddenly, and it makes him dizzy.]

Potter and Weasley and my brother, why hasn't he killed them yet?

_{[Snape's eyes narrow slightly at Regulus' reaction, but he reaches forward immediately to steady the boy anyway.]}

The Dark Lord is not stupid. He will not tip his hand if he does not have to here. Potter and his friends have kept mostly quiet about his future, presumably in an attempt to keep their perceived advantage. [After all, one cannot kill indiscriminately if one has to behave.] However, I do believe your idiot of a brother has recently made himself a more specific target than most.