the little king

regulus black. eighteen. slytherin alumnus. proud member: murder squad death eater (unmarked)

[lilyevncs]

→ Regulus Arcturus Black b.1961- d.1979

[wnq-writers]

They told me you were gone and I screamed. I wailed, I cried and I screamed. As loud as I could. I halfway hoped that if you could hear me screaming on your way to heaven, you would turn around and come back to me.

hdhwrites (via wnq-writers)

[thebetterblxck]

i've lost your war, our kingdom is gone

It was done.  It had finally been done.  He wasn’t surprised, not really.  He’d been paying attention, after all, and it wasn’t exactly a long distance jump to make.  As the order was handed down, he felt almost numb.  Not surprised, not pained.  In fact, he felt strangely at peace.  Because a decision had been made for him, one he’d struggled with and one he’d avoided.  But there was no more avoiding now.  The next step with The Riddle had to be taken.

Because Regulus would not — could not — kill his brother.

He felt like he was walking through a thick and heavy sea as he left the room, left the Dark Lord and his most loyal supporters in the circle where they’d stood.  He couldn’t see their faces behind their masks but he knew who stood there, anyone would have.  

Bella was there, next to the Dark Lord as she so often was.  He wasn’t sure if it was sadness or anger that filled him at the thought of her smiling behind her mask.  No love was lost between Bella and Sirius and Regulus wondered if the gravity of what he was being asked to do was truly understood.  This wasn’t just punishing Sirius for what he’d done.  She stood there beside the Dark Lord with pride and glee, not a qualm in the world about asking Regulus to kill his own brother.  He wondered if she would feel the same were it her being asked to kill Andromeda.  A part of him, sadly, thought she probably would.  

Lucius was among those bodies.  The man who had stepped in to fill the void Sirius had created in Regulus’ chest when he left had never truly understood or accepted how Regulus could still feel such a connection to the traitor.  Regulus wondered, as he walked, if he could have done more to explain it.  To help him understand.  He should have trusted Lucius more, he thought as he exited.  Should have turned to him when things became too much to bear.  He was nineteen and too scared of looking weak to ask for help.  It had gotten him into trouble more than he could count with Cassie and yet he never had learned.  

Cassie.  She wasn’t there.  She could have been, she warranted a place, but her connection to Regulus kept her out of the circle.  There could be no risk of Regulus knowing before this meeting what would be asked of him and there could be no bias among those charged with making sure he did as he was told.  Severus, though, and Barty.  They could both be there.  Regulus wondered if they were, if they stood shoulder to shoulder with all the other faceless bodies and watched him as he made his way from the room with his head held as high as he could manage.  He wondered if they smiled, if they felt relief.  Once and for all, Regulus’ melancholy whining about his brother would be silenced.  Severus probably was.  He hoped with all his heart that this was hard for at least Barty to bear watching.

The door closed behind him with a sound that was both soft and thundering.  It closed not only on the room but on a piece of his life.  There would be no going back from this.  This was the decision he and Cassie had been avoiding as long as they could.  They worked to solve The Riddle, they swore it was what they wanted and yet they played the part of faithful Death Eaters.  Cassie followed orders, dirtied her hands, did as she was told whether or not she believed anymore in the reasons why.  That would end here, at least for Regulus.  She had promised to do whatever he’d been asked to keep his cover in tact but this wasn’t an option.  

As soon as he was a safe distance from the room, he turned on his heel and Apparated to their home.  The home he shared and built with Cassie.  He’d never planned to have a house like this.  A house he called a home and actually meant it.  He’d always imagined growing and marrying someone his mother chose, living in Number 12 until the house became his and his parents had passed on.  He’d not planned on falling in love, marrying that woman with his parents permission if not blessing, building a home with her.  They’d talked of children within these walls, had had their taste of them with Beni.  They’d fought and cried and laughed and loved.  

There was a chance they still would. It was slim, Regulus knew, but it was a chance.  He’d hoped not to be doing this alone.  He’d hoped they would have thought of something — anything — because alone the odds were not good.  He hoped, he thought of the best, but they were unprepared.  He was unprepared.  They didn’t know how to drain the liquid in the bowl, not yet, and that was the key.  It would be his own willpower against magic created by the most powerful dark wizard ever to live.  That was his only chance.  And he was not the Black brother known for being stubborn.

He sat behind his desk in his study.  Cassie wasn’t home from work, not yet.  He wished she was.  He was glad she wasn’t.  She’d try and stop him and she’d succeed.  He couldn’t deny her anything, not when he knew it would hurt her.  Seeing the fear and pain in her eyes would be too much.  He had to do this before she got home, before he could turn to her for help.  If all went well, he’d be home shortly after her.  She’d know nothing until it was done.  Regulus was too logical, though, too pragmatic to count on everything going well.  And if it didn’t, she needed some kind of explanation.  

He thought he’d go through sheet after sheet of ruined parchment trying to get the words right but as he started writing, they simply came.  His quill scratched against the desk and the only sound in the house was was that and his breathing.  And, if you listened closely enough, the pounding of his heart.  

It was as he tried to write to Sirius, as he tried to explain in words what couldn’t be translated that he ruined the parchment.  In the end, what he slipped into an envelope addressed to his brother was short and succinct.  It was all he needed to say and, he hoped, all Sirius would need to hear.  

Both letters written and sealed, Regulus had one last stop to make before he could be on his way.  He slipped the letters into the top middle drawer of his desk and locked it.  He wanted no one stumbling on them until and unless they were necessary.  It would be in the list of instructions he left Kreacher.  

At the door, he wrapped a cloak around his shoulders.  It was November now, the weather was solidly chilled if not cold.  He could have apparated there or used the Floo but he wanted the walk.  The quiet steps in the cold and crisp air to try and calm the maelstrom of thoughts buffeting about in his mind.  The last time he’d shown up at Lavinia’s door he’d been in a state.  He’d just fought with Cassie and he’d been a wreck.  Now, though, he was calm.  His normal air of being completely put together was in tact as if everything wasn’t preparing to crumble around him.  He almost felt at peace with it, now.  There was little uncertainty left and he found, as desperately as he hated the conclusion things had come to, it was relieving to have the decision made.  He no longer wondered what to do and when, he only had to check things off a list as he completed the tasks now made necessary.  

He hadn’t expected her to fight so much about it.  Well, he’d expected her to fight — she wouldn’t have been Lavinia had she not — but he didn’t expect her to be so affected.  Hadn’t expected her to beg him not to do whatever it was he was going to do.  Not as Cassie’s friend or Barty’s but just as herself.  As his own friend.  It had tested his resolve and he had wavered but in the end he knew there was no other option.  Not if Sirius was to stay safe.  And Cassie and Barty and Beni and everyone else Regulus would endanger by refusing the Dark Lord’s order and expecting everything else to remain the same.  

Lavinia knew it too, he though.  She’d grown up in the same world, she knew the stakes.  And so when it came to it, he knew she would do as he asked and look after Cassie and Barty.  She was the only one who could, the only one with any hope of keeping them together without losing it herself.  She would keep his secret, it would destroy Cassie quite literally if she didn’t, and she would help to clean up any mess he left in his wake.  He promised her he would do his best to make sure she had no promise to uphold and he would.  He truly would.  But as the seconds ticked by, he was less and less confident.

He didn’t walk back home, not this time.  His well polished calm was stretched to the limit and he didn’t want to be left alone with his thoughts.  Laying it all out to Lavinia, everything but the locket and the details about it, had made it all more real than he was prepared for and he suddenly felt a rush of adrenaline, a desperate need to get this done before he thought better of it.  He appeared with a crack in the foyer of the house — his mother’s house, not the home he shared with Cassie.  He couldn’t go there again if he intended to leave it — and found Kreacher in his cupboard in the kitchen.  

The elf wanted to return to that cave even less than Regulus wanted to see it but an order was an order and Kreacher always had been the most loyal to Regulus.  Before they left, the Black heir recited the list of things he needed from Kreacher.  If he didn’t come back, the elf was given the key to his desk at the other house and was to give both letters to Cassie.  (If Kreacher were to show up on Sirius’ doorstep with the letter, Regulus wasn’t sure it would be read before Sirius burned it thinking it a ploy by their mother.)  Then he was to go to Lavinia and tell her what happened — an abridged version — so she could go to Cassie as Regulus was sure his wife would otherwise lock herself away until she was too far gone to be comforted.

All that was left was to go to the cave.  

Getting there was easy.  Kreacher knew the way and Regulus followed him obediently, the way as a boy he’d followed him to the bath when it was bedtime or around the house when the elf was meant to be working.  He’d done it when Sirius was too busy to play with him or his mother was too disinterested.  He’d done it when he felt lonely or bored.  Kreacher had been the only person who had always been happy to see him when he was growing up and Regulus remembered that now as the small, old elf kept looking regretfully back over his shoulder and asking if Master Regulus wouldn’t perhaps like to go back and forget the whole plan.

Master Regulus would have loved to go back, to forget it all and never come to this place again, but that wasn’t an option.  Instead he shook his head and they made their way together through the hidden entry, to the boat that Kreacher told him how to raise, and across the glassy and foreboding surface of that eery lake.  

The locket Cassie had made, the replica she’d crafted painstakingly from pictures and notes, sat heavy in his pocket and he fingered it nervously as the boat glided along on it’s own.  It was no longer the only outward sign of his nerves, though.  Alone now with only Kreacher, his face had paled and his brow was permanently furrowed.  He looked sick and scared, more like a boy than a man.  At only eighteen, that wasn’t untrue.  

When they reached the island in the middle of the lake, Kreacher was eyeing the basin with fear filled eyes and Regulus physically had to turn the small elf so his back was to it and he could focus on the young master’s face.  

“Take this,” he said, his voice coarse and shaking.  He held out the locket.  Kreacher did a double take between the locket in Regulus’ hand and the basin.  “Once I’ve emptied the basin, you need to switch the lockets.  I need you to put that one —” he nodded at the fake Kreacher now held “— in the basin and take the real one.  I need you to keep it safe.”

“But Master Regulus cannot empty the basin, the only way to do it is to —”

"I know that, Kreacher, but it’s the only way.”

“No, Kreacher can do it.  Master Regulus will order Kreacher to return home and then he will leave Kreacher to do it like last time, he cann—”

“Kreacher.  Thank you.  Thank you for taking care of me even now but I can do this.  I just need your help.  Please.  Can you help me?  Can you do the things I’ve asked?”

He didn’t order, didn’t tell Kreacher what it was he had to do.  He wouldn’t, not here.  Not for this.  When the house elf nodded, huge eyes wet, it was of his own volition.  There was — however — one order he had to give.  

“Kreacher, no matter what happens to me, you must return home with the locket.  You must return and you mustn’t tell my mother what happened here.  You can tell Cassie, please tell Cassie, but my mother can’t know.  The locket must be destroyed.  Do you understand?”

Kreacher nodded again though there were tears now streaming down his face.  The sight shook Regulus to his core and the only thing he could do beside get back in the boat and flee was to step toward the basin.  He conjured a simple cup, nothing fancy or ornate.  It didn’t need to be, it was as simple as it’s objective.  He dipped the glass into the water, filling it, and took a deep breath.  He held the air there in his lungs for a moment, staring at the glass, before bringing it to his lips.  

He felt nothing after the first glass, not really.  A bit shaky, perhaps, but he wasn’t certain that wasn’t his own fear playing tricks on him.  Another glass made him sure the shakiness wasn’t just of his own making but nothing worse than that.  The more he drank, the harder he found it to take a satisfying breath.  He was wholly focused on the task at hand.  A couple more glasses followed in quick succession — he was eager to be done — and he dropped to his knees.  

The cave was blurry, his vision unable to focus.  He wasn’t sure he was there or not.  Maybe it was all some horrible dream, the cave and the locket and this whole terrible plan.  But dreams didn’t hurt this much, he didn’t think.  His whole body ached and burned, as if he was being burned from the inside out.  Hoarse and weak groans escaped his lips as he forced another glassful of the potion to his lips.  He cried out as he swallowed it, the glass falling from his hand as he fell forward.  He was supporting himself on all fours, barely, when the glass appeared in his vision again.  

“Master Regulus — must — sob — drink.”  

Kreacher stood next to him with red rimmed eyes brimming with quickly falling tears but a look of stubborn determination on his face.  He held the glass and coaxed it to Regulus’ lips.  Like a child, Regulus drank.  He remembered years past, being sick in bed and drinking awful potion after potion given to him by Kreacher as the house elf nursed him to health.  But this time, the more he drank, the more it hurt.  His whimpers turned to moans and those moans turned to screams.  All the while, Kreacher stood beside him, murmuring comfort and bringing the glass time and time again to his lips.  

Finally, after hours and minutes and years, the glass stopped coming.  

“Master Regulus will wait here.”

He was sobbing now, curled up on himself on the cold ground and he nodded at Kreacher.  The house elf disappeared then from his vision, up to the basin to do as he’d been instructed, and Regulus tried to withstand the burning sensation that was coursing through him.  Death would be a relief, a welcome respite from the pain that was consuming him.  He needed water, needed to dampen the fire that raged through his veins and under his skin.  Kreacher would be a moment, he had a job to do, and Regulus pulled himself with terrible effort to the edge of the island where water lapped at stone.

His hand slipped into the water, cupped to hold as much as he could, but he could not pull it back.  A white, clammy hand gripped his wrist.  It held tight enough to threaten bone and the cold seared through the burning he felt.  Where there was one, suddenly there were two, three, four.  They pulled and Regulus fought.  He scrambled weakly to his knees, trying to pull his hand free of their grasp.  He succeeded for only a moment but as he looked up, bodies with sunken eyes and dripping limbs emerged from the water surrounding him.  They chambled towards him, clamoring onto the island.  

“Kreacher, go.  NOW.”  

This was, unlike his voice moments ago, was a roar.  It was all he had left in him.  The tell tale crack that echoed through the cave told him that Kreacher had obeyed.  

He didn’t stop fighting.  Didn’t stop struggling against the hands that reached for him.  The more he fought, the more he came back to himself.  He wasn’t strong enough for this, not by any means, but the effects of the potion had begun to recede, bit by torturous bit.  It was not fast enough, though, and he felt himself stumble as hands tugged him towards the water.  The only sound in the cave was his voice as he flung weak curses and grunted through physical defenses.  Splashes joined as he lost ground and slipped towards the edge of the water.  

The cold shocked him and he paused for only a moment.  It was long enough for a force from behind to knock against him.  His chest splashed in the water as he fell.  Water filled his lungs and now he struggled to lift his head above water.  He managed only for a moment and took a breath before he was pushed down again.  The ground slipped from beneath him as he was pulled farther from the island into water that was far deeper than it appeared.  

He got one more breath in before the surface was lost to him for good.  

It was quiet beneath the water.  It had been quiet in the caves but the quiet was heavy in the water.  Though he struggled still, his movements were weaker and they were silenced by the water around him.  The light of the cavern — dim though it was — grew farther and farther away as he was pulled downward.  He closed his eyes.  He didn’t want to see it.  

The darkness behind his eyes enveloped him.  The pressure of the water closed in on him.  His lungs screamed for air and he fought desperately now not agains the hands that doomed him but against his own body not to breath.  He lost that battle too, though, and his mouth opened, gasping for air that didn’t exist.  Water rushed into his lungs and he coughed, which filled them faster.  

The burning returned, the lack of air scorching him.  And then it eased.  It slowed.  Like a blanket damping out flames, heaviness settled on him.  

And the pain — and his heart — stopped.

@indogyearsimdeadsirius, @bloody-avery, @swaddled-in-ice, @l-malfoy, @ruthless-bellatrix, @bartyebenezer, @lavinia-rowle​

[thebetterblxck]

indogyearsimdeadsirius:

I hope you used a condom. 

Oakshaft ‘79. Eighteen seventy nine. [ the grin splits his face ] It’s beautiful, yeah? [ his head tilts ] You know his Dad invented Sleekeazy’s, right? Besides, it was for my birthday, and you can’t tell me Bowie didn’t cost you a fortune. 

I’m a wizard, Sirius, there are better options.

It’s bloody gorgeous.  [ he rolls his eyes ] Yes I know who Potter’s father is.  [ he turns back to the broom ]  Technically but as it was meant to be your money it’s more like Bowie cost you a fortune.  [ he grins ]  It’s incredible.  Have you ridden it?  

[thebetterblxck]

@bloody-avery

I’m sorry your birthday gift is a bit late, it took some convincing your father.  [ he stands in the middle of the villa in italy, beni practically bouncing at his side ]  I wanted to do it right and — 

He shouted at Papa, Avispa.  Papa said no but Bujo wouldn’t leave until he said yes and he did, Avispa, he said yes.  

[ regulus grins, behind beni, his eyes lit up ] I know it’s not much but I thought a day like this — you and me and Beni without worrying if he’d get in trouble or how we’d sneak him back in — was the perfect thing.

[thebetterblxck]

andy-tonks:

@thebetterblxck

Tonks was bouncing slightly on her toes, clinging obediently onto Andy’s hand. She was excited to meet this other cousin. “Is that him, Mummy?” she asked, pointing ahead, and Andy smiled as she looked over. “Yes, dear, that’s him. Regulus, over here!”

He’d been the one to send Andromeda the letter, the need to reach out to her before everything went awry as he was worried it would was overwhelming.  He’d heard, thanks to rumblings through the family and thanks to Sirius, that she’d had a daughter and when he saw the littlest Black — well, Tonks — he couldn’t help but grin.  “Andi,” he said with a grin, crossing to her and her daughter.  “Thanks for coming.  And who is this little witch?”

[l-malfoy]

bearer of some news ;: 11 nov 79

[thebetterblxck]

l-malfoy:

The Black family house elf answered the door and Lucius looked past him to Regulus approaching. He was dismissed before Lucius could acknowledge him, though in all honestly, the man wasn’t likely to acknowledge the house elf ore than what would be necessary. A bit of a smile played at Lucius’ lips though he kept it tamed as he answered with the same sort of teasing. “I was beginning to be afraid I would just have to leave a calling card, Regulus.”

Lucius moved past the young man, stepping into his home and letting the other be responsible for the door behind him. “Let’s skip the pleasantries about how long it’s been,” Lucius added, turning to look at Regulus again. “Obviously there’s fault for both of us, but I don’t feel like spending the obligatory fifteen minutes alleviating one another.” He meant that it the best of ways. There were no expectations that he held between the two of them. Dropping the politeness and social hoops wasn’t a typical thing that the man did. It was reserved for a select few. “Let’s skip to the good liquor and catching up.”

The smile that he’d held back was there now as Lucius reached forward and gave Regulus a quick pat on his upper arm. It was good to see him and to see him well. He wasn’t sure what he would have done if Regulus had ended up in Azkaban when things went wrong.

Regulus chuckled as he closed the door behind Lucius.  “Your wife would be mortified to know you skipped pleasantries but I’m game if you are.”  It was nice to let the facade of formality fall, it was something he didn’t get to do enough outside of being with Cassie, Sirius, or Barty.  He had to be so careful so much of the time, it was nice to think that at least some parts of his life were still normal.  

He led the way into the living room, gesturing Lucius to one of the couches or an armchair while he made his way over to the drink cart by the window.  “What’s your drink?” he asked, pulling out two glasses.  He wasn’t much of a drinker himself — he hardly ever drank to be honest but a toast called for a glass filled with something so he poured himself two fingers of scotch.  

“Narcissa told me that the two of you have quite a bit of news,” he said as he walked Lucius’ drink to him.  “Congratulations are in order.”  He grinned and lifted his glass.  “I think I’m going to make a superb godfather, after all.”

[thebetterblxck]

indogyearsimdeadsirius:

Yeah? [ he scrunches his nose ] Did you bing bong? [ he says it with a very straight face, even as he’s bouncing and waiting for him to finish drinking ] Great. Thank you. Come on. [ he tugs at his arm and pulls him over to the bedroom - he’d have put it in the spare bedroom, but james and lily are still staying there, and he wasn’t going to shove a broom in their room. ] It’s like a million years old. 

[ the broom leans against two chairs he’s put in the corner of the bedroom. he’s going to mount some holders to the wall and have it rest there, eventually. but in the cottage, and not here. ] 

Isn’t it neat? 

Yes.  [ his face is as serious as sirius’, he has no intention of losing this game of chicken ] 

[ he follows him to his room and the minute he sees the broom, his eyes light up ] How old is it really?  [ he walks into the room towards the broom but before he picks it up he looks back at sirius as if he’s asking permission ]  How’d he find it?  This had to have cost a fortune.

[thebetterblxck]

indogyearsimdeadsirius:

I’m impervious to the world, Reg. [ he stretches like it proves some sort of point ] Are you done eating my food? I want to show you the broom James got me. 

Really?  Even to the idea of your kid brother being head over heels in love with Cassandra Avery?  You know I used to sneak her in the fourth floor attic and then down into my bedroom before we had our place together.  [ he holds up one finger — just a sec — and takes another drink from the carton ] Now I am.  Show away.

[thebetterblxck]

indogyearsimdeadsirius:

Going to happen. [ he wiggles his eyebrows ] Do it or I’m going to describe Remus and I making out in really good detail. [ he laughs ] Mum would be disgusted with you. 

Nope.  [ his smirk was smug ] You don’t want to start that fight.  I think I’ll last longer hearing about you kissing Remus than you would hearing about Cassie and I.  [ he shakes his head but he’s laughing too ]  I don’t doubt it.

[thebetterblxck]

indogyearsimdeadsirius:

It didn’t matter that he had no idea what to do in New York for these next two hours - or any idea what to do in New York at all, or what they could possibly be doing here once those two hours were up. 

None of those things mattered, because he was here with his brother and neither of them were hiding their faces. 

“I think I can roll with that.” 

He grinned at him because he was following his orders, and he briefly considered what would happen if he told him to get seven pizzas. Whatever, they’d put them in little bags and take it with them and that would be fine, because they were wizards. 

He threw Regulus a thumbs up. 

TIME JUMP

It was amazing how much pizza Sirius could eat.  It was amazing how much pizza they could both eat.  While they hadn’t finished all three pizzas, there was only carnage left of the third.  And if they’d thought London was big, it was a village compared to New York.  Two hours might as well have been two minutes as they walked up and down the streets just seeing what there was to see.

As they walked, they laughed and talked and the weight that typically hung over both of them lifted.  Regulus could have sword he was flying.  This was how it was supposed to be, he was sure of that now.  Easy and carefree, two young men enjoying being brothers and being in New York as if the world was theirs. 

Regulus began steering them towards 33rd Street as the time for Sirius’ real gift approached.  His grin grew as they walked, he hadn’t even told Sirius they were on their way, he’d simply begun pointing his feet in the right direction until the bright lights lit up both their faces.  He stopped, waiting for Sirius to stop beside him and notice the signs and posters and the name — David Bowie; One Night Only — on the marquee.

[thebetterblxck]

indogyearsimdeadsirius:

Thank you. Thank you for the knuts. [ he makes a sweeping gesture ] In the jar. You’re not at home. Drink from the carton. House rules. 

[ he looks at the jar and shakes his head ] Not going to happen.  [ but then he laughs and takes the carton ] Fine.  Heathen.  [ he drinks from the carton ] 

[thebetterblxck]

indogyearsimdeadsirius:

I’m sorry, but that’s twenty galleons worth of pretentious arseish type of behavior. [ he points ] Jar. We drink from the carton here, Reggie. 

@thebetterblxck

[ he raises an eyebrow and continues slowly and deliberately drinking from the glass ]  I’m not putting twenty galleons in your jar because I used a glass like a normal human being.  [ he drops in twenty knuts ] Satisfied?

[thebetterblxck]

indogyearsimdeadsirius:

“If you did anything else, Reg, I’d be worried about you.” They could certainly hold a grudge. Or a joke. If jokes were meant to be held. “It is my birthday, isn’t it? That means I get to choose the things we do.” He frowned. “Or well, it doesn’t. You’ve got my point.” 

He stared his brother right in the eye. 

“Do I look like a quitter to you?” He craned his neck to look at the pizzas. “Bring some home, give them to Beni. You’re a -” He waved his fingers around, like he was saying magic. “- figure it out. Live a little.” 

“Technically it’s not your birthday until tomorrow,” he pointed out with an annoyingly smug expression.  “And if I let you choose what we do, you won’t get the best part of your gift.  You get to choose what we do for precisely,” he looked at his watch, “two hours.  Then it’s my turn.”

Regulus laughed at the intense look of determination on his brother’s face.  “Alright, three whole pizzas it is.”  He stepped up to the counter, getting the attention of the man working behind it. 

“What can I getcha?” he asked.  

“We’d like three pizzas, please.  That cheese one there,” he pointed as he ordered, “that one with the meat there.  And —” he thought for a minute, “— that one there, with the — is that pineapple?”  

“Buddy, you mean three slices, right?”

“No, all three pizzas, please,” he confirmed, looking over at Sirius with a look that said I told you so.

[l-malfoy]

bearer of some news ;: 11 nov 79

[thebetterblxck]

l-malfoy:

@thebetterblxck​

More time had passed than Lucius would have liked to visit the Blacks. H’d spoken with Cassie often, but it had been a while since he and Regulus had crossed paths. Something that he knew he needed to remedy, especially in light of everything going on. It typically wasn’t standard of Lucius Malfoy to show up unannounced. Those who were either on his good side–his trusted side–and those who were on the polar opposite of the spectrum, were the only exceptions.

Regulus was like a brother to him, so it meant that Lucius would visit him on a whim. No sending word, just Lucius showing up and knocking. Just as he was doing now. Between keeping his department running, finding a new secretary, attempting to find the rat, and the news of Narcissa’s pregnancy, Lucius’ calendar was full up. It was draining, but Lucius knew he needed to carve out time to see his friend.

Lucius had never been quite as good at interpersonal relationships as he would have liked. In part it was because he’d been so entirely involved and enveloped in business ones. It was what he was raised to be good at–raised to be the best at. Everything was a transaction. Everything was meant to make something better for him. It meant that friendships weren’t really friendships. They were mutually beneficial relationships and investments. There were seldom few people that Lucius regarded differently and tending to those relationships were not his strong suit.

However, he was willing to try and times that he realized he had let it slip led to situations like this. Lucius stood stiff, his hands in his trouser pockets, waiting to see if Regulus was even home. It was an odd sort of position for a Malfoy to be in. They were not men who waited. No matter how many times he foudn himself here, it always felt a little foreign.

Regulus had been letting too much go by the way side.  If it weren’t for Cassie pulling him from the thoughts, and from his office, his life would pass him by and he wouldn’t even notice.  Some days, it still did.  One of the things he had let fall out of focus were his friendships.  Things with Barty had been difficult at best and while he prioritized Sirius and Cassie (one could make an exception for one’s brother and one’s wife) the rest of his relationships had seemed to go untended.  Something he wasn’t proud of or pleased with, when he stopped his work long enough to notice.  

Which, that day, he hadn’t.  Home from the office but without Cassie in the house, he’d walled himself up in his study to pour over books and letters and diaries, looking for what he could about destroying Horcruxes. It wasn’t until Kreacher’s tell tale crack pulled him out of his focus that he even realized someone was knocking.  He left his work out on his desk but locked the door to the study behind him for safety and when he entered the hall, he saw Lucius standing at the door that Kreacher had opened.  

Lucius had been as close as family ever since he began his courtship of Narcissa and Regulus hadn’t even managed to see him since his cousin had told him the news of the pregnancy.  He kept meaning to but then this and that got in the way.  If it wasn’t a lead on The Riddle, it was something with the business.  Though Regulus had been trained for the better part of his life to take over the family business, nineteen was younger than he’d ever thought he’d be when it became his responsibility.  It was a lot.  

He felt guilty seeing the older man at the door, guilty that he’d not made it a point to see him and congratulate him.  “Thank you, Kreacher, I can take it from here,” he told his house elf as he came up behind him at the door.  “Lucius, I don’t think I’ve ever seen you knocking on someone else’s door.”  He was grinning, teasing lightly.  “Come in.”

[thebetterblxck]

indogyearsimdeadsirius:

“No, you’re definitely not.” 

There were many things his brother was: frustrating, and quiet, and he could be angry and smart. His brother was smart and he used it. Sirius was smart and he didn’t. Regulus was caring and wonderful and important and Sirius still wanted to rescue him. 

He was twenty one years old tomorrow, and Sirius still wanted to save his little brother. 

“That’s when you’re going to rub it in.” 

He laughed. He laughed because he was right, and because this was the only place he could imagine being, now that he was here. A perfect place for the two of them, away from anyone they knew. 

Sirius stared at the menu with nothing even nearing concern. His brother didn’t know where to start but he did: not because he knew what he was doing, but because he was made of impulsive decisions. 

“Get the cheese one. And the one with the meats. And then you choose one, because it’s my birthday. You’re rich, you can get three pizzas.” 

It was silly how much it meant to him to hear that.  To hear Sirius’ opinion of him especially when it was good.  He wasn’t sure he’d ever grow out of that trait.  For as long as he could remember, no one’s opinion had been as important to Regulus as his brother’s.  There wasn’t much he wouldn’t do if it meant that Sirius would think he was as good a man as he could be.

“Of course I am.  It’s rare I get to be the one lording something over you and I intend to take full advantage of it, even if it is your birthday.”

His eyes widened as Sirius went on about what kind of pizza they should order and he couldn’t help but laugh.  He looked at the sizes of each whole pizza and wondered if that was right.  it couldn’t be right, could it?  To order multiple whole pizzas for just two people.  

“Do we order the whole thing?  Or just pieces of it?  You can’t possibly think we can eat three whole ones of those.  Sirius, they’re gigantic.”  

[thebetterblxck]

bloody-avery:

Cassie shook her head. “No, we’re not,” she murmured. “But we’re trying. Aren’t we?” It hurt to meet his gaze, to see how he was looking at her, without blame or anger anymore. It was stupid, to feel that he should still be angry, but Cassie was angry with herself, and it had almost been easier when he had been too. Though his anger had never really been directed at her, not in the way it had originally seemed. “Keeping it from you just meant I had to face it alone,” she mumbled. “What good does that do? We’re supposed to be partners. Eventually we’ll both get used to that idea, won’t we?” She kissed him quickly, her fingers interlacing more firmly with his before he tugged her from the office, and she led the way quietly back to their room. She paused a moment before she crossed the threshold, looking up at him. “I’m sorry for fighting with you,” she said; it needed to be said, she felt. “You didn’t deserve that.”

And they were trying.  With all they had.  But both had been raised to rely on none but themselves.  Cassie’s older brother was less than supportive and Reg’s — as good as things were now — had taught him that hard lesson long ago.  Sometimes people leave.  He hated to think that he kept so much to himself because he was scared Cassie would do the same thing but part of him knew that’s where he’d come by that behavior.  “We’ll have to, otherwise we’ll keep having this fight.”  He was smirking as he said it.  “Practice makes perfect, right?  I don’t want you to have to face anything alone.  And I’m sorry when I do the same thing, face things alone to keep you from feeling the burden.”  He stopped when she did, outside the door to their room.  It crossed his mind that for all the fights they’d had, they’d never brought it into the bedroom.  The thought made the corner of his lip turn up.  “I’m sorry too.  I came home in a foul mood, it wasn’t fair to put you in the middle of it.”