Chapter Text
Regulus never intended to live. When had he intended to do anything?
Damnit. He was really fucking cold.
Drenched in water, from where he had no idea, but his skin pricked as he felt it clawing into his bone marrow and spearing ice through his nerves, aggressive grey and red gashes remnants of the inferi. His whole nervous system was trembling up and down, breaths shallow and tangling themselves in his throat. He gasped long and hard, hands digging into the ground and knees in discomfort from jagged terrain. Everything hurt so much physically it was becoming emotionally burdening as well, head stuffed with needles and ears drumming broken glass in his temples.
He called out towards the distant lands, but silence was forced down his throat once more. A melting, laconic grey ceiling and an empty, ever-growing flat field of ashen green, fog wilting into ghostly shapes that spun until he couldn’t breathe again. Wind whipping up shapes and edges across his skin, white shirt and black pants turning into weighted, cold slime as it glued to his skin. Pushing himself up, he tried to find any bit of shelter, but the nature was unforgiving this evening. The ocean roared beneath him, angry at him for living.
The ravenet stared down at his hands, a million questions tormenting every movement.
“Who the hell am I…?”
He knew he shouldn’t cry, but if he couldn’t remember his name, then maybe he could forget this later, too.
Oh, he shouldn’t cry. But he was just scared.
“It’s raining…” He whispered, voice cracking like a broken violin string.
———————————————
“Where the fuck is he?!” Sirius snapped, almost foaming at the mouth, words ironed into knives as she drove the question again and again into the table, glaring at James.
The black manor was never this loud, it was unimaginable. Marauders, Valkyries and Emeralds all gathered around one table, such solidarity unseen in too long. Narcissa was with Lucius, working on their own plan with Bellatrix. Andromeda was already out hunting with Ted.
“Pads, none of us know. Sit down, please. We can still find him, he wouldn’t—“
“No, James. What wouldn’t he do anymore?! He left you a bloody owl, but he couldn't even half-ass me a note! Not a single fucking word!" Her hands slammed onto the table like thunder.
“Shut the fuck up!"
All heads turned. Black hair mauled with green, face carved jagged and a lanky posture leaning over the chair, his entire presence felt inappropriate to the tense situation. Barty was gripping the black, wooden armrests so tightly they’d begun to splinter.
“He’s gone, you bastards. Now if you call could do him a favour and shut up for Merlin’s sake, then perhaps we’d have been able to actually figure something out instead of watching you two idiots argue like wild dogs. Unlike everybody else here, our Pandora here has shit worth talking about. Pandora, if you will…”
The blonde stood up, eyes that had been covered in fog as she witnessed the argument now clearing up to an unsettling, bright focus. Her words drifted out in an awkward manner, different from her usual sharpness or occasional dreamy quality:
“It was different. My dream— I mean. Very confusing, to say the least.”
Wistful, like a willow tree’s final breath. The smile graced her lips as she gazed towards the end of the dining room, curiosity for whatever was there passing over the heads of everybody else. Her lower lip trembled briefly.
“I saw him in some large body of water, and there were rotten hands grasping at him. It was still water, so probably a lake. He kept saying something, but I couldn’t hear it. Like I was drowning with him too. But I know that it was inside somewhere; like he’d fallen into a large hole, or a cave. I saw a necklace, too. It had a jewel.”
Sirius couldn’t help but scoff — necklaces and water brought them nowhere closer to saving her brother. Evan shot him a harsh glare, nose scrunched up at the ravenette.
“Anything else, Pandora?” The brother asked, despite knowing that she’d repeated multiple times it was all she could remember.
“No, sorry.” She sat back down.
Remus cleared his throat, pausing for a moment as he met everybody’s eyes, then laid out his thoughts:
“Well, we’ve at least narrowed down that Reg is in some sort of lake or deviation from an ocean or river. It’s safe to assume that it’s a cave… And you mentioned a necklace?”
The man paused, scars on his face folding as he frowned.
“And you’re sure that the necklace has significance?” Remus asked again.
“My dreams never show me anything unnecessary.” The seer reassured, leaning her chin on her right palm, she went back to her headspace, attempting to find more clues.
“There’s thousands of bodies of water in Britain, how the hell are we going to weed him out from all of that?!” Sirius sighed, exhausted.
Lily broke through, hand clutching Mary’s tightly:
“James, do you have any ideas? You’ve been awfully quiet, but I don’t mean to press if you don’t have anything. You were the only one out of any of us to receive a note.” She pointed out, and all heads turned towards the brunet.
He sat up straighter, massaging a sore shoulder.
“His note didn’t have anything useful about his location, unfortunately. I assume it was on purpose, and he’d cast some sort of charm on it so that it ripped itself up right after I read it, so I can’t bring it even if I wanted to.”
“You must remember it, at least partially?” Barty prompted, raising an eyebrow.
“Er— Yes, somewhat. He mentioned leaving flowers at a specific shoreline after his death, and that was —“
Padfoot jumped up.
“Well that narrows it down, you idiot! Where is the ocean? That has to be where he is, or close to!” Her excitement, despite its irrationality, was infectious throughout the group.
Remus nodded in agreement:
“I’m only agreeing because we quite literally have no other leads.”
Barty stood up, chair whining against the weathered floors. He walked over and stood behind Sirius, hands gripping the back of the chair.
“Sirius and I will go. Evan should stay with Pandora in case she has more visions. James can decide for himself—“
“— and keep the group small for now, in case we find other leads we need to immediately send people to check.” Remus cut in.
Mary and Lily were on board with the idea, offering their help in other potential locations where Regulus could be found. Evan was content with Marlene grumbled about wanting to get in on the action, which was backed up by Dorcas.
“I think everybody is qualified to go.” She reinforced, “it’s not like we can’t apparate or multitask, and in case wherever the two of you are heading is dangerous, we can back you up.”
“No. You already pissed off that noseless fucker back at Malfoy’s manner, if he found you outside you’d be slaughtered.” Barty retorted, “but I suppose we can bring one to three more people. Any volunteers?”
After a bit longer of debating positions, Remus drew up a list of each person and their roles:
“Currently, we have Crouch, Padfoot, Prongs and Marlene going out to find Regulus. Mary and Lily are staying back to help me consolidate plans and other potential locations, as well as working on theories on the situation. Evan will try to get Pandora to have another vision, though it’s unlikely. Dorcas will go to the Malfoy Manor to see what the Malfoys and Bellatrix have, and also update them on our current plans…”
The brunet adjusted something in his papers, then looked up:
“Any objections?”
———————————————
Dark, desaturated sapphire waves lapping up and rolling down a monochromatic, lifeless shore. James stood right next to Sirius, their hold on their wands hardening. Barty was already walking towards the shore, Marlene still clearing the scenery around them.
“Well, Prongs, if you don’t save my brother I might have to drown you too. We’re far out from England, if anyone’s going to find your body it’ll be rotten by the time they get to you.” The ravenet chuckled with an empty tone, elbowing his friend gently.
“I’d drown myself too, frankly.”
“I think there’s some kind of cliff or ledge across from here, like, in Ireland.” Marlene shouted out from behind a bush.
“Merlin’s beard… He can’t have gone that far, can he?” James stammered in horror, hearing her words, “I mean… could he?”
“Honestly, mate? I don’t even know what he’s capable of anymore.” Sirius admitted, a heartbroken cloud passing over his face.
“Let’s go, then.” Barty kicked sand at them, already taking out his portkey: a pair of broken glasses he’d stolen from James. The boy made a face at that, but the four quickly gathered around it, and were sucked into a dizzying, sandy hurricane.
———————————————
Regulus didn’t want to die here. But it feels like it’s been forever since he’d lied down and simply watched the clouds drift. Dozens of souls blinked down at him in all their heavenly, white purity. Could he have joined them?
He was so tired, his hands and feet had long ago given up and gone numb, and he couldn’t find his wand. His clothes were dried now, but offered no comfort against the still, freezing night. He felt like hoarfrost; a decorative layer, soon to be peeled from this world. Death would be comfortable here, yes, it would. The boy closed his eyes, head lolling sideways as his consciousness quickly slipped away against the black canvas of the night.