AN/ Hey everyone, this is my first songfic-ish story. It's a two shot, so the second chapter should be up sometime soon, like within the next couple of days. As always reviews are very nice and I would love to get one! To those who read my normal stories, I should be updating sometime this week too. Also, please vote in my poll! Alright, I'll stop talking now and let you read, enjoy!
I enter the bar and glance around, seeing who's here and who isn't. Of course, since it's a muggle bar, it's mainly muggles and people I don't know. However in one corner of the bar sits a solitary man, who I would recognize anywhere even though I hadn't seen him up close in years. His hair is longer than I remember, and his eyes slightly haunted with from the affects of war. There's a small silver scar that's on the right side of his face, starting at the ear and ending at the collar bone on that side.
At the end of my days,
When I'm called to go,
into the open arms, of the Holy Ghost.
To have lived such a life, as I have known,
Will fortune follow me, now that I'm brave no more?
Smiling sadly, I weave through the crowd and come up behind him. His leather jacket is slightly worn from use, but hums slightly with magic only detectable to other magic users. I can smell the Old Spice aftershave that he uses, and the Winston cigarettes that he smoke, but there's a slight undertone of a thunderstorm that has always been there, ever since I have known him.
"Is this seat taken?" I ask, and watch as he jumps and spins around to look at me with wide grey eyes.
"Reg?" he whispers.
I smile, "Hey Siri."
"The seat isn't taken. Have a drink with me?" he asks.
I nod and order a beer. Taking a sip I glance at my brother and sigh.
"Where'd it go wrong Siri? Where did life get so fucked up?" I ask. I can't help but to think about how different our lives are, and how different the paths that we have chosen are.
He shrugs, "Couldn't tell you. To be honest I think that we all were born fucked up. Well, I was at least." Sirius laughs, "God, Reg, I can't tell you how much I missed talking with you like this. Just you and me, and whatever's on our minds."
I grin, "I have too. I'm sorry that it stopped, I think that was partially my fault."
"Mine too." He pauses to think for a moment, "Why don't we pick back up at that point? In all reality, what's stopping us?"
I stare at him incredulously, "The fact that there's a war that you and I are on two opposing ends with? The fact that you and I might end up fighting each other at one point?"
Sirius shrugs, "That's exactly the reason why I'm saying it. Reg, you know that I'm fighting at nearly every major battle. There's going to be a day that I don't come back. I don't want the regret of not getting to know my brother on my mind as I die."
I look at Sirius and notice that he's staring intently at me. I swallow and can feel myself breaking down slightly in my resolve to have this by my goodbye. I can feel my determination to do what's right starting to waver in place of the urge to stay and getting reacquainted with my brother.
'Just for tonight,' I think and smile at him, "Yeah, we can do that."
Sirius smiles like when we were young and having fun, "Great. We'll either have to find a place to meet or I can key you into the wards around my flat."
"You could always come to my place. I live on my own now and have a small flat in London." I twirl the bottle on the edge of its bottom.
"You've got your own place?"
"Yep, I moved out of Grimwauld place a couple of weeks after graduation, "I tell him, proud of that little fact.
"That's great Reg! Wait a moment." he calls the bartender over and orders a couple of shots of some of the really expensive whiskey.
"What's that for?" I ask.
"A small celebration for everything I've missed," Sirius says, "Your sixteenth, seventeenth and eighteenth birthdays, graduation and for you moving out. I'll give you your actual present later."
I hold up a hand, "You don't have to get me anything."
"It's a present I've been meaning to send for a while, but couldn't cause I didn't think that you would get it or want to get it," Sirius explains with a half shrug.
Oh, if I could spend my days,
free from the prison of your gaze,
then I could die a happy man.
I can feel myself wanting to spill my guts and knowledge and plans to Sirius. It's something that can be traced back to when we were kids. With one look Sirius could always get me to tell him anything. He could tell what I was thinking and how my emotions were, and I could always feel his gaze sending me messages of warning, cheer, encouragement and disapproval. I know that if I spend too much time with Sirius right now that I might never take care of the Horcruxes.
"Hey, I have something that I need to take care of." I pull out a piece of paper and write my address down, "Why don't you come over tomorrow and we can talk and have a couple of steaks?"
Sirius nods, taking the paper, "Alright."
I finish my drink and stand to leave, shrugging on my coat while I did so.
"Reg?"
"Yeah?"
Sirius swallows and looks at me with all seriousness, "Be careful."
I nod, not even thinking about the possibility of me lying to him right now. I give a smile and pat him on the shoulder once before making my way from the bar and out into the cold London night. Walking along the street I find an empty alley and head down it. I pull my coat tighter around myself and look around to make sure that there isn't anyone nearby. The only thing I see is a large black dog at the end of the alley, so I apparate away.
Landing on a rock in the middle of the ocean I scowl at the spray that drenches me and at my own stupidity. Kreature had said that the place was by an ocean.
"Kreature!" I call, hoping that he will respond.
There's a light crack and the elf appears, "Master Regulus?"
"I need you to take me to the place that the Dark- that Voldemort took you to," I explain.
Kreature nods with wide eyes, lightly grabs my arm and apperates us to the cavernous room. I glance around, in slight awe at the size and then notice the platform on a small rock island in the center. I frown, knowing that it would not be so easy as to swim across. Voldemort is very apt at inferi, and I am not in the mood to run into one of them.
"Kreature, do you remember how Voldemort brought you across the lake?" I ask.
"Yes, he pulled on a chain and made a boat appear that took us across," Kreature croaks.
I feel with my magic before grabbing said chain. Pulling, I notice that there is a slight drag on the chain, as though something was being brought up from the water. As the chain begins to pile up on the bank I wonder at how large the boat would be and if it would allow both Kreature and me to travel through at the same time. Probably, seeing as that Voldemort would not consider a house elf to be of great importance.
"Reg, I don't think you get it," Sirius huffed, "It doesn't matter what a life is. If it's a house elf, a unicorn, a dragon, a werewolf, a muggle or a witch or wizard, all lives are important. No one person is more important than another because of their birth."
I shake the memory from my thoughts and finish pulling the boat up. Helping Kreature in I then climb aboard and steady myself as the small boat lurches into motion. As it glides across the water I notice inferi under the water. Definitely do not want to go for a swim. The boat stops at the bank and I climb out and walk to the center of the island to the crystal bowl set in the center. There's a liquid in it, but I can see the Horcrux at the bottom. It's a locket. I try getting rid of it every way, except for the only way that I am certain will work, and none of the other attempts to rid the potion from the basin work.
"Kreature, I order you to make me drink this entire potion, no matter what I say or do. You are not to drink any of it. When all the potion is gone, you will take the locket that is at the bottom and replace it with a copy with this note inside it," I order, handing him the note I've written, "You will then go back to Grimwauld place, and try to destroy it. If you cannot, hide it in father's study. Do not tell Mother, Bellatrix, Narcissa, Lucius or any other Death Eaters, including Voldemort, about what has happened."
Kreature looks at me with wide sad eyes and nods.
Sighing with reluctance I grab the cup, dip it in the potion, and bring it to my lips. I close my eyes and take a drink. Pain floods my senses, but within a moment it goes away. I keep taking drinks until I cannot anymore. I drop the cup and start shaking. Horrible memories come rushing at me, and I cannot keep reality and memory separate.
Waiting for the sorting, being placed in Slytherin and knowing that this was the beginning of the end for my relationship with Sirius.
"You're a no good blood traitor and I wish that I had drowned you the moment that I had given birth to you!" Mother screeches at Sirius, "You're a stain upon this family and its name!"
"I don't care! You all are just a bunch of evil bastards!" Sirius roars back before running from the house, slamming the door behind him.
I stand in the center of the circle of Death Eaters, Voldemort behind me and Bellatrix behind me. I know that there are only two options. Death, or being marked. I certainly do not want death, and the only logical thing to do is be marked. I hold out my left wrist and hold back a scream as the mark is emblazoned upon my skin.
"Master Regulus, you must drink this," Kreature says, "Drink this, it will help the pain go away."
There's a girl with curly hair and grey eyes standing in front of me, terrified. The other Death Eaters are running around, killing, torturing, and enjoying themselves.
"Either kill her or torture her, Regulus," Snape says, "There's no use keeping a mudblood like her alive."
I wince and send a spell at her. She's killed instantly, and Snape leaves. I cannot get the sight of her grey eyes from my mind and end up throwing up in a corner. She was the first and only person I ever killed.
My body convulses as the crucio hex runs through my nerves. I try thinking about how the spell is mainly mental and only one-one hundredth actual pain, but the information does not help and I finally let out a scream of pain. The spell is released and I lay there, twitching, and trying to catch my breath, hoping that there isn't another round coming, knowing that there is.
Watching the only girl who I ever loved be killed right in front of me and not being able to do a thing about it.
"Master Regulus, you're almost done, just this last cup," Kreature says, lying, "Just this last cup and the pain will stop."
Finding out that Voldemort was making Horcruxes so that he would never die, and realizing that he really was the psychopathic hypocritical maniac that Sirius had called him. Knowing that I was serving that maniac and wondering if I was even remotely sane.
Being told that it was my job to kill Sirius. That he was becoming too much of a pain to the Death Eaters and that they wanted him dead, and knowing they thought that I would be the best person for that job while I also knew that I would rather die than kill him.
Lying to Sirius that we could get to know each other again, while knowing that it was more than likely that I would be dead within the next five hours.
"Master Regulus, the potion is gone and I have the locket. Look, I have the locket, you're going to be ok," Kreature says.
I can feel the potion running through my veins, making me extremely weak. Something tells me that I would not be able to make it back home.
"Kreature…remember my…orders," I rasp. Kreature looks at me with wide eyes, tears welling up in them. It's apparent that he's trying to fight the house elf magic that he is tied to, but in the end he apperates away with a crack and a sob.
I drag myself to the lake, suddenly feeling the need for a drink of water. I know that the inferi will attack me the moment that I touch the water, but cannot help it. I cup my hand, scoop some water and take a drink. The inferi grab me and start to pull me in. Instead of resisting I merely slide into the water, knowing that I do not have the strength to fight them. That I cannot even think of a spell to cause them to leave me alone.
When I am released, from this mortal low
I'll take my leave, but I don't want to go.
When fate delivers me, all I'll ask for
Is a place to rest, and shelter for my soul.
As I am pulled deeper into the depths I cannot help but to think of the dog star, and how Sirius had always loved dogs when we were younger. I smile as I think about how much he would have loved to see that big black dog that was at the end of the alley tonight.
