okay i feel bad for talking about jank and posting no jank because I'm self-conscious about my writing rn, so here's a reg pov teaser because im gearing up to hopefully post before the weekend. this is back in time in the BF timeline btw. we're doing a jump cut backwards to catch up with reg, yall.
Malfoy Manor is a place of peacocks and white brimstone. A broad-built country house set amid mists and cold cattle fields. It is a place of no small horrors—Regulus knows what they have been doing in the basements of this great house.
Bellatrix meets him at the gate. Her raven hair gleams like oiled feathers; her lips are pale, her eyelashes sharp and flat. She presses her face to the black iron bars and smiles at him—a Sirius Black smile. A sphinx thing. Teeth.
"My protégé," she says.
She tells him he looks ill. Too thin. Pity. Poor thing.
"But you're right on time," she adds, eyes wandering. "Come in."
Inside, to his small relief, he is not taken to the basement. Instead, Reg is received in the dining room: green candles casting a sour light, an unlit hearth yawning at one end, a long wooden table stretching through the center. Carved pillars shoulder the ceiling.
Voldemort stands in the shadow of one.
The Dark Lord is nearly as thin as Regulus these days—a bothersome observation. Regulus has always enjoyed being the sickest-looking person in the room.
The Dark Lord raises a hand and beckons him forward. Together, they pass through the doors and out into the gardens. They walk in silence. It's a great honor to be alone with the Dark Lord, and so Regulus stays silent.
Flowers bloom here and there; he has never seen them before: blue and white and grey. The Dark Lord pauses beside one and brushes a long finger against a blooming blossom. Touches, but does not pluck. "You have been faithful."
"Yes, my Lord."
"And for that," says the Dark Lord, "I grant you a choice."