The End
Jessica Dawn
"Let go of me!" He yelled while hands grabbed at him. They held him down while he thrashed, fighting to get away from them. This couldn't be happening, not again. This was Heaven? Surely, it was bright white, and he knew he had to be dead, but this was not what he'd imagined when his grandfather had sat him down at such a young age to explain the various afterlifes he could move on to.
"Sir, you need to hold still. You've been through quite a lot and we'd really rather not sedate you." A man's voice spoke, louder than any of the others, but he had to keep fighting. These hands - the Inferi had dragged him down, grabbing at him the same way all of these people were. Was he reliving it? Was he going to spend eternity reliving his death in different ways?
"Just let me go!" He yelled again, thrashing even more violently. He felt something slipped about his wrist, much tighter than any hand could grip him and he looked down. It looked just like his father's belt, though it wasn't being brought down on him, in fact it was holding him down to the bed that these people - no, these monsters - were trying to keep him on.
"Do you know where you are? What day it is? What is your name?"
"I am Regulus Arcturus Black of the Most Noble and Ancient House of Black, Heir to the Black Fortune and i insist that you let me go!" He was practically screaming, while murmurs of 'delirium' and 'insanity' and 'clearly he's delusional' and 'psychotic break' were being spread around him. How did they not know who he was?
"Son you've had quite a journey, you're dehydrated and you nearly drowned - we're going to need your real name in order to find your parents and get you back to them." That same mans voice from earlier had come about.
A woman's voice interrupted as they began to cut away his clothing, both soaking wet and torn to shreds, "He's got a tattoo. Left forearm."
"I've seen that before. Gang related, I assume. Last one was dead."
The murmurs started again, and he continued to fight, even as he felt another belt being slipped around his other wrist. "Please let me go. I've got to get back. I've got work to do. I'm not done. I need to get back."
"You need to rest." It was the woman's voice, the one that had commented on his mark. He shook, trying to curl onto his side. The belts holding his wrists prevented it. Somebody had put a blanket over him, and he felt a pinch in his arm, but he didn't have the heart to look. He wasn't done yet. He had so much more to do.
"Sirius." Remus had said, standing by the window of his flat, staring out at the night sky, "Are you expecting anything?"
The taller man had shrugged, getting up from the couch and his television show to join him at the window, "No. I haven't ordered anything, and nobody ought to be writing me by owl. It's much safer to use muggle mail for anything that isn't urgent, and even then, we've got the floo set up."
"Are there other wizards in this building? Other than us?"
"None."
"Then why is there a tiny owl carrying a parcel towards us?" Remus had asked, his arms folded over his chest. When the owl got closer, he opened the window to allow it access. It wasn't a familiar bird to him, but when she looked to be about a block away, Sirius had started pacing.
"That's Adhara. What the hell is he doing sending me an owl?"
"Who?"
"My fucking-" He cut himself off, unable to use the word. That word was reserved for Remus, James, and Peter. He could not conitnue to call Regulus his brother in good conscience. "You know who. I don't know what he's thinking sending me anything."
The owl entered, no bigger than Remus' hand, the package she carried even slightly larger than she was herself. She put it down before taking perch on Sirius' shoulder, pecking at his ear. He swatted at her, trying to get her off, but she'd always been a bit of a beast. She wouldn't stop until Sirius had opened whatever it was Regulus had sent him. He only managed to wait a few minutes - until Adhara had drawn blood - before he picked it up, and realized quickly that his name hastily scrawled on the outside of the wrap was not written in Regulus' loopy scroll, or even in his rushed note-taking writing, but someone elses entirely, though it was clearly using Regulus' fine emerald ink. He tore it open, a piece of cloth tumbling to the couch where he sat alongside a piece of parchment.
He opened the cloth first, pulling a locket from him. Almost immediately he felt a sense of foreboding. This locket was not a good thing, and it wasn't going to bring good things to him. HIs grip on it tightened as he grabbed the parchment, reading it over.
'Mudblood Lover
This needs to be destroyed and Kreacher has not the power to do it.
Master Regulus is gone.
The job belongs to you now.'
"Well?" Remus asked, staring at him from across the room. He had been attempting to get the tiny owl to snack on some bread, but she was having none of it.
"Well..." Sirius had mused, knuckles turning white around the necklace. The smile that had occupied his features while watching the television, before the revelation that an owl was headed towards them had come to him, "Regulus is dead. And he's left me to clean up the mess he left behind."
Just a quick little drabble written in a few minutes on a friend's computer while she was otherwise occupied. I've been working on new chapters for three different stories, and I've got no clue where this one has come from. I've long had a suspicion about a name mentioned in the books, and I'm not quite sure yet if this is the work where I explore it. Leave a review - let me know if I should write a second chapter and keep this one going as well. xx Jessica
