Chapter 427: Regulus's Freedom
Sirius said nothing for a long while.
Some of what Regulus had said made sense to him, some of it didn't, but it had gone in.
He watched the treeline of the Forbidden Forest stack itself into layered silhouettes under the low sun, turning those three questions over and over.
What his relationship with magic was. How he understood magic. How magic, himself, and the world fit together.
No answers came. But for the first time, some questions struck him as worth the trouble.
His voice pulled Regulus back. "Let me ask you something."
He turned, and the look in his eyes had sharpened past where it had been. His mouth opened, closed, while he arranged the words.
"You said magic's got something to do with me, and with the world." He came at it slowly, stumbling over it. "So if I wanted to do something, something really hard, maybe impossible... but I felt like it was the right thing, and I went and did it, would magic help me?"
He thought a moment longer, and added it quieter. "Would the world help me?"