Regulus Black stood in the doorway of Lucius’ study smirking at the potions professor. He didn’t really notice that he wasn’t alone until one of the other occupants spoke.

“Please tell me you didn’t let him follow you through the wards,” a feminine voice hissed, though Regulus didn’t understand a word of it.

“Actually, the wards let him through on their own,” one of the young men replied, in English this time.

“Before or after Ryoshi?” The feminine voice demanded.

“How am I supposed to know?” The young man snapped.

“Either you followed him or he followed you!” She growled. “For gods’ sake it’s not that hard, Bastian!”

The young woman stood from the chaise she’d been sitting on and moved around Severus. The moment she stepped around him, Regulus’s breath caught in his throat. His eyes went wide as he stared at the young woman who was now standing in front of the older of the two young men. He’d never seen her anywhere but in his dreams and never this close. His feet moved of their own accord.

“It’s you,” he whispered still staring at her in shock.

Every occupant in the room stared at him in confusion.

“I don’t understand,” Severus began.

“You look like her you know,” he told her, completely ignoring Severus.

“Who?” She asked not bothering to look at him.

“Your mother.”

Her head snapped towards him and her eyes narrowed.

“How the fuck do you know our mother?” She growled.

“Thana!” The younger of the two men gasped. “You don’t have to be so rude!”

“And you don’t have to call me by a name I hate!” She snapped.

The younger man shrank back at her words.

“Bricriu, Visha, behave!” The older man ordered.

“Forgive me, I should introduce myself first. I am Regulus Black…”

“Uncle Reg?” Another voice interrupted.

Regulus turned. There in the hallway, just outside the door was his god nephew.

“Hadrian!”

The boy’s name had him crashing into Regulus in an instant.

“I missed you!” He sobbed into Regulus’s chest.

“And I you, little one,” Regulus whispered. “Surely things can’t have been that bad while I was away?”

The boy said something but Regulus didn’t hear a word.

“Hadrian?” Visha asked, concern lacing her tone.

At her voice, Hadrian’s head snapped up.

“Vi, what the hell was all that? Are you ok? What happened?”

He made his way to her and began to run his hands over her.

“Hadrian, relax I’m fine,” Vi sighed.

“Relax? You want me to relax after feeling the insane amount of power that just surged around us?!? And what was it about?”

Vi rubbed the spot between her eyes in what he could only describe as exasperation.

“Yes I want you to relax because the power was mine and I was reworking the wards around the property,” she shrugged.

“Ok,” he agreed. “But why would you need to rework the wards?”

“Ryoshi is a ward breaker and the bastard can’t fucking leave me in peace!”

“To be fair little sister, you did curse him,” Bastian pointed out.

“He deserves so much more than those after everything he put me through,” Vi huffed.

“He won’t be emperor,” Bricriu said. “Grandfather knows he’s power hungry.”

“Does he know what the bastard did to me?” Vi’s voice was low and dangerous.

No one answered her. In the silence, Regulus heard a soft melody. It was faint, almost as if whoever was playing it didn’t want everyone in the room to hear it.

“Hadrian, don’t, please,” Vi’s voice had become very quiet.

Regulus glanced at Hadrian. The boy he knew was gone. In his place was a young man he didn’t recognize.

“Ms. Oda, you should rest,” Severus said approaching the two teens. “You just used a great deal of magic reworking those wards.”

“Contrary to popular belief, Professor Snape, your magic replenishes quickly. However, it is your body that takes the heavy toll. Without proper training to develop your stamina, it is easy to exhaust yourself quickly. Mahoutokoro begins stamina training as early as 3 years old in Japan. I can do high level magic like that rather easily. My stamina was the highest among the student population at Mahoutokoro.”

“Only the student population?” Lucius asked. “What of the others at the school?”

“Kindly remember that there are many more than students at the school and they are very, very old. The older someone is the more stamina they can have. It’s not always the case, of course, but it’s the general rule.”

“And just how do you know that?” Lucius demanded.

“Come now Lucius, don’t be rude,” Narcissa’s voice floated through the room as she made her way to Vi. “You must be Draco and Hadrian’s other mate. Lovely to meet you, even under such circumstances. Let’s leave the men to talk, shall we?”

Regulus wasn’t sure what his cousin was trying to accomplish but it certainly wasn’t having the desired effect.

“I’d rather not have them discussing me behind my back,” Vi said through clenched teeth. “Let them say it to my face, if they’re brave enough that is.”

“Oh child, they are going to be talking about things far over your head,” Narcissa sighed.

“Call me child again and I will be glad to show you just how adept I am at understanding things I probably shouldn’t. After all, a princess must know how to navigate politics around the world.”

“Politics or not you are still too young for the conversations they will be having “ Narcissa snapped.

“Oh you mean like discussing Voldemort’s return?”

If Regulus didn’t know any better, he could have sworn a shudder went through his cousin at the mention of Voldemort. He also could have sworn Vi was standing taller, almost as if she were looming over her.

“I am no ordinary magical child,” she hissed. “I am far more powerful than Voldemort could ever hope to be and nothing he can do will ever change that. Let’s not forget his little secret.”

She looked to Regulus as she said that. Regulus looked at her in shock. How did she know about the horcruxes? He only knew because of Kreature.

“How do you know about those?” He hissed quietly.

“Japan is not like Britain, where all dark magic is taboo,” she answered calmly. “We believe magic is magic and prohibiting one branch simply because of the actions of a madman is inexcusable. Mahoutokoro encourages its students to study all magic so long as it does not endanger their life. The ritual my mother used to bind my magic would be considered dark by your Ministry’s standards and hers, especially as it was incomplete. While looking into it, I came across horcruxes. From there, it wasn’t hard to put the pieces together. Voldemort is not as smart as he thinks he is. And honestly, using something belonging to each of the founders is probably the stupidest thing he could have done.”

Regulus stared at her in shock.

“How did you know any of that?” Lucius demanded.

Vi tapped the side of her nose but didn’t answer him.

“You knew our mother?” The younger man asked.

Regulus turned to him. His coloring was darker than his sister’s but lighter than his brother’s. Regulus believed he’d been called Bricriu.

“I did,” he answered. “I met her while I was in America. I think she’d just had a big fight with her parents.”

“It was probably about their disapproval of her marrying our father,” the older brother sighed. “Okaa-san used to tell me how much they disliked her marrying into the Japanese imperial family.”