The Marauders - Order of the Phoenix - Part Two

Master's Most Precious Object

Regulus Black sat in a booth at the curry shop downstairs of the flat in East London, his face buried in the menu, but also peeking over it now and again, watching through the window for any signs of the upstairs occupants coming home. It was about time that Sirius ought to be, but Regulus hadn't seen him yet. He sighed in frustration. All he wanted was to see if Sirius was looking like he was getting on okay.

He hadn't looked so grand at the funeral two days before - he'd been pale and hidden his eyes behind sunglasses. His hair, while not Severus Snape levels of greasy by any means, had been unkempt and dirty, and he'd been leaning nearly completely on James and Remus when the group of them all had left the cemetery, passing right by him on their way. While James Potter had seemed uneasy about the strange young man leaving flowers (at a random grave whose occupant he didn't know), there was no reason to believe he'd been detected. 

He couldn't stop thinking about Sirius. It was positively destroying him to keep from going to see his brother - but he knew that wouldn't be safe for anyone involved, and he knew it was better if he kept a distance.

Freddie Jenkins, however, was a different story.

Freddie Jenkins wasn't going to be noticed.

He leaned forward, thinking he heard a motorbike in the road but it drove past the turn to the alleyway between buildings that went back to the stair up to the flat. Regulus leaned back in his seat again.

"Are you ready to order?"

"Not yet," Regulus answered without looking up, and then, realizing that was rude, he looked up and he nearly choked. The waitress was Oni Lamm. He stared at her, wide eyed, as she, oblivious, folded back the top sheet on an order pad in her hand and held a pen, angled to write. "Sorry." He stammered, this time remembering to lower his voice and a bit of inflection as though it were an accent. 

Oni barely looked up from the pad. "Can I recommend the tandoori? Really good, if you've not been here before. My uncle makes it just spicy enough without overdoing the flavor."

"Your - your uncle?" Regulus glanced around the restaurant, his eyes falling on the man at the counter who Sirius said was always there and supposedly made the best of something called laddu, which Sirius had said he wished to be married to and which he was going to get Regulus some of for the birthday that was cut short. But how could that man be Oni Lamm's uncle? She'd said her Uncle was killed by Voldemort in Egypt.

Oni stared at him, one eyebrow raised. "I'll give you a few more minutes with the menu," she said, and she turned away.

Regulus watched her go, nervous, twiddling with the pendant around his neck.

Idiot, he thought. If you acted that idiotic around Sirius he would know you're suspicious in a second and probably blast you right out of your socks thinking he was offing a death eater spy or something! He shook his head at his stupidity - then realized he'd stopped watching the window for a minute - what if Sirius had come home in that short time and he'd missed it? He couldn't be hanging about the curry shop anymore.

Suddenly there was something pressing against the back of his neck, right into the spot where his spine and skull met. "You get up, very peaceful and quiet, and you come with me. Not a word out of your mouth until I say otherwise." The voice as Oni's; the tone was murderous, yet level and calm, and the wand jabbing into his spinal cord meant he had no real option.. So he slid out of the seat he was in and stood slowly.

Regulus walked slowly, nearly tripping over his own two feet as he went, the wand never once letting up pressure against his spine. Oni reached quickly into his jacket and withdrew his wand from his belt where'd tucked it, and she held it in her fist as she escorted him. She kept one fist closed around his elbow, guiding him through the empty curry shop, down a short corridor and through a door. It was the kitchen and it was hot and there were pots and pans steaming and bubbling, and huge jars of spices and big tub of chicken soaking in cumin and turmeric. She magicked the giant vat to one side and there beneath it was a trap door.