Barty frowned. All right. It was an interesting question. Not really something he had asked himself in a while, not really something that seemed important, even. But everything was different with Regulus. No one had ever been in a position to care about him like Regulus. He leaned forward, gently stroked Regulus' hair back from his face. Caught his eyes and smiled. "You'd be amazed how resilient I am."

Maybe that, then. He pulled back again and shook his head. "I wasn't there that long. My mother was sickly. Dying. She talked my father into swapping places with me, polyjuiced, and I went home with him." Horrifying on so many levels, but it seemed easiest to just get it over with. "That was no freedom, of course. I spent most of the remaining years under Imperius. It's a toss-up, I reckon, what's worse."