Prompt 28 - Outsider POV
@wolfstarmicrofic July 28, word count 817
Part nine of werewolf Sirius
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Regulus couldn’t feel much of anything any more. He’d given up. He had no idea how long he’d been in the dungeon. The Dark Lord himself had dragged him down here when he’d been caught leaving that accursed cave. Voldemort mustn’t have realised that the locket in the basin was a fake. His last coherent thought was that he hoped Kreacher had hidden the real one well enough.
He had a hacking cough that would overcome him, choking him, making breathing impossible until it had passed. It was during one of these fits that he swore he heard screaming and his brother’s voice, but then it suddenly stopped and all he could hear was snarling. He fell asleep and didn’t hear another sound for weeks.
Then the screaming started again until it turned into a low howl, whatever it was howled over and over for hours until the screaming started again, and then it was silent again for days and days.
This new routine happened twice more before he heard the unmistakable sound of someone being dragged out of the dungeons. He was too weak to cry out for help. Whoever it was didn’t come back.
He stopped eating, unable to keep the foul sludge down any more. He drank when he could, and the bucket was refilled twice a day. It was always icy cold and stung for hours if he drank too much at once, but it was what kept him going, though for how much longer he didn’t know.
Then, after what felt like years, there was a familiar popping sound. He cracked open an eye and saw a small, large-eyed creature approaching him. He laughed a scratching whisper of a laugh, he’d finally broken, his mind was playing tricks on him.
More time passed, but not much, and then the pop happened again. His head was tilted back by tiny, spindly hands and a small amount of sweet liquid dribbled into his mouth. Three more vials were pressed to his lips and he swallowed them automatically. He lost consciousness again.
His eyes burned when he woke next. There was light in the dungeon and warmth. Candles floated around the space and a fire blazed quietly in the centre of the room. He had to squint to see, as his eyes were so used to the darkness. There was a house elf stooped over a cauldron, stirring something mouthwatering.
“Kreacher?” His hoarse voice cracked as he breathed out the name.
“No, Master Regulus, Rorbey is being sent here by Master Sirius,” Rorbey squeaked in his high-pitched voice as he spooned some broth into a bowl and pushed it into Regulus’s bony hands. “Rorbey make yous better Master Regulus. Eat up, eat up,” The elf motioned with his hands and Regulus took a bite of the warm liquid, he groaned with pleasure as he greedily guzzled the broth. Rorbey's words only sank in once the bowl was empty. Sirius had sent him. Sirius knew he was alive. Sirius was saving him. That absolute hero-complex buffoon was going to lord this over him for as long as they both lived if he managed to get Regulus out of there.
Rorbey stayed with him for a few days. Feeding him and bringing him potions. He’d even brought him books to read so he had something to pass the time. “Master Regulus, Rorbey must be going back to Master Sirius. Rorbey promised, sir.”
“Can you take a message?” Regulus asked. The elf nodded. Regulus told him what he wanted the elf to convey, but he should have known better than to expect an elf to say crass words to their master. The elf popped away and Regulus was left alone.
Rorbey came back quickly and handed over a scroll of crumpled parchment and a bent self-inking quill. He scrawled out a note for his brother and handed it back to Rorbey before the ink had even dried.
He sat and waited with Rorbey while Sirius and Remus came up with a plan to get him out. Days, weeks, he wasn’t entirely sure. Then Rorbey disappeared without a word. He heard what sounded like thunder above him and howling so loud, it made its way down to him. The candles and the fire went out, and then the screaming began.
Regulus retreated to the far corner and watched the door as the howling drew nearer. He had nothing to protect himself with and only realised when the door to his dungeon burst open, revealing a ginormous black wolf. No, not a wolf, a werewolf. Its jaws dripping with blood and its piercing blue eyes trained on him. It let out a low growl and stepped into the dungeon, blocking out the slivers of light from the corridor behind it. So this was how he was going to die. He looked into those icy blue eyes and recognised them.
“Sirius?”
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