When I again became cognizant of my motor functions, I was on the other side of the room, behind the sofa Rabastan had been sitting on before. My back was pressed against that of the sofa, and I was trembling all over.

Every inch of me was drenched in sweat. I could feel my toes squishing in my wet socks. The knuckles of my wand-hand, still clenched around Malfoy's wand, were bloodless and numb. My breath came in gasps.

I think it was the silence that shook me awake. I didn't hear anything but my own panting, and the rapid clicking of the tip of Malfoy's wand against the floor as it shook in my fist.

And then, suddenly, a sharp little whine.

I stopped shaking and held my breath. I concentrated on nothing but hearing, listening. A thousand other little noises hit my eardrums.

A moth's body hit the globe of a lamp, a dog barked from far away. Clocks ticked, a breeze rattled the windows, my own heart thudded pathetically in my chest.

The whine was clear and sharp as cut glass. I almost thought I recognized it.

I sorted through my scrambled mind.

Images peeled off other images and sounds in beating static rushes.

And finally there I was, in Malfoy Manor, pressed between the sofa and the wall, with God knows what tableau behind me, and Moey's voice keening from the cellar stairway.

I turned and crouched, my fingers hooking over the back of the sofa, fingertips running over the carved wood, and hoisted myself up, first peeking over the back with one eye.

It looked like the group of them had all just simultaneously lay down for a nap.

Malfoy was still crumpled in a pile near the stairway, with Macnair by the kitchen hallway, his boots pointed up and his chest flopped over at an angle to the floor. Rabastan was nearest to them, his upper half draped over the seat of an armchair, one leg bent back under him and one stretched out in front. My eyes traveled from him across the room to where Evan lay, flat on his back, cornered between the sideboard and a bookcase - he would have been taking cover, unarmed as he was. I could only see his legs (sad, wasn't it, that I could recognize him even from the shine on his shoes and the smart crease in his trousers), and I was confident as I could be that I hadn't even been on that side of the room. Snape was only a few feet away from him, on his side, with his back to me. Whether he was faking or not, I didn't know, but I was just glad we didn't have to interact anymore.

The room was otherwise largely undisturbed. A side table was overturned, a vase was shattered on the floor, the tulips that had once sat in it spilled across a shallow pool of water. And of course, the top was blown off one armchair and the kitchen hallway looked as though it had been thrown in a woodchipper and hastily pasted back together. But other than that, even Narcissa wouldn't have been too scandalized. And well, even if she still needed to swoon, the fainting couch was yet in tact.

I sighed and raised my head the rest of the way up, throwing my arm across the back of the sofa.

My fingers met with skin.

Met with a body.

My throat constricted and my fingers retracted, curling back into a fist.

I'd forgotten about someone.

I'd forgotten about Nott.

I fell back down and pushed myself away from the sofa.

For a long second, I didn't blink, my heart didn't even beat. There were more sounds, words, unweaving themselves from the static.

And I knew what had happened.

But.

But maybe.

I jumped to my feet and jutted my head over the sofa.

Nott's flat, dirt-colored eyes stared back up at me, glassy and dim. One of his arms was folded back under him, one hung off the cushion.

My hand hovered by my ear before I thrust it down, and with trembling fingertips, felt the side of his throat for a pulse.

I didn't find one.

I reached down with my other hand and felt on each side of his neck. Up and down, from his ears to his collarbone.

Oh, God.

Even his flesh was growing cold.

There wasn't a mark on him.

I shook my head, but even as I did the memories were becoming realer. I could hear my own voice saying the words.

But there wasn't time for this now. I pulled my hands away and turned back toward the plaintive whine coming from the stairwell.

"It's okay, Moey," I called, running across the room and jumping down the steps. "I'm okay, we're gonna be okay." But even as I said this, I was noticing injuries I hadn't felt minutes ago. One spell had burned a hole straight through my - James's - over-shirt and scorched the flesh of my shoulder. My other arm, my dead arm, was mobile again (clearly), but still tingling from blade to fingertip. And even my run across the room had been hampered by a limp.

Moey was crying. She shook her head, and hid her tiny face in her long hands, but the tears flooded through her fingers and splashed on the floor.

I knelt down on the stair by Sirius and put my hands on his shoulders. "Sirius, can you hear me?" I asked, tilting my head, peering up into his face.

His mouth twitched, and his eyelids stopped fluttering momentarily, but he didn't say anything, didn't move his head.

I remembered the feeling of touching Nott's still, cooling - he couldn't have got cold so quickly, could he, it must have just been my hands - and grabbed Sirius's hands, rubbing them between my own.

They were warm, pliable, I felt the blood pumping through his fingers.

I let out a shuddering breath and stood up.

"Okay, let's go." I looked down at Moey and put my hand on top of her head.

She kept crying.

"It's okay, you're going to be fine. But when we go upstairs, I want you to close your eyes, and just hold onto my leg, okay? I'll lead you, but don't open your eyes until I tell you."

She nodded and took her hands away from her face.

I did a little spellwork, and stuck Malfoy's wand in my pocket before hoisting a featherweight Sirius up across my shoulder.

When we stepped out the door, we were greeted by the middle of the night. Hanging lamps lit the Malfoys' drive.

Narcissa was still expected home. She could be back any minute.

I told Moey to keep walking as quick as she could and increased my own pace to an unsteady jog, my gait lurching with my limp. I couldn't let her open her eyes until we were off the property, out of sight of the gates.

She could probably feel it, though. The pull. All house-elves felt it.

She kept stumbling and whimpering, but I didn't dare slow down. I just kept mumbling streams of encouragement between sharp intakes of air.

The drive was a mile long.

By the time we reached the gates, I was panting hard and shaking.

They must be coming to.

They must be coming.

Pain shot through my leg from knee to hip with every step, and Sirius's body rubbed against the burn on my shoulder, setting my whole arm on fire. My nose, which had once felt numb, was starting to regain feeling, the feeling of a chisel blade lodged halfway up the bridge.

I was disoriented, coming to the road.

I didn't know which way to go, which way there was a town.

I couldn't risk trying to Apparate, with an unfamiliar wand and three of us to bring along. Even a little splinch, with Sirius like he was now - it didn't bear thinking about.

But we couldn't just stand here.

I picked a direction and dragged us down the road.

Once we'd gone almost the length of the Malfoys' drive over again, I grew tired of stubbing my toes against stray rocks, paused, and knelt down.

"Moey, will you pull the wand out of my back pocket and hand it to me?"

She stumbling around to my back, still making whimpering sounds.

"Moey is not seeing a wand," she said miserably.

"What?" I felt Sirius's body weight sinking down into my shoulders, getting heavier. The spell hadn't lasted very long; it must have been the damn wand. "Moey - shit-" I bent over and struggled to maneuver him gently to the ground.

When the back of his head touched the road, I jumped up and stuck my hands in my back pockets.

"Fuck!"

I went to my hip pockets and turned them out, my breast pocket, my waistband.

"Moey!" I spun on her. "Have you seen it? Where is it?"

She trembled and took a step back from me. "I is not-"

"Shit. Fuck! Well, look for it, dammit!"

She nodded, halfway looking glad to have been given an order. I fell to the ground on my hands and knees, and started running my palms over the pavement, trying to peel my eyes wide, as though it would help me see in the dark.

"Fuck! Shit." The damn thing could've fallen out any time since I put it in my pocket, since we left the house.

I got back to my feet and looked down at Sirius lying there, and Moey crawling around, her long fingers probing, and down the road, back towards the Malfoys'.

I could still see - barely - the faint twinkle of lights on their gates.

I couldn't.

They would find us, if I went back. And what were the chances I'd ever be able to find it? In the dark, basically a damn Muggle.

"Shit. Goddammit." I punched the air.

"Fuck. Fuck! That's-" mine, Sarah's, James's, Evan's, and now Malfoy's. "That's five wands already. What, God, you want me to be a fucking Muggle? Well, thanks, thanks so goddamn much you great bastard," I shouted at the sky.

"Moey is not thinking the wand is here," her small voice said. "Moey is not feeling it."

I kept looking at the sky for a minute and didn't respond to her. It was a clear night, with only a sliver of a moon. I could see Sirius – his star – low in the east, bright as ever. Leo had been out of the sky for months, now, though, and as a child I always had trouble finding Alpha Leonis – Regulus – my star, anyway.

"I know. It's okay. Shit." I put my hands on my head and took a deep breath.

We had to go, magic or not. They'd be coming. And they had their wands, and wits, about them.

I turned around, finally, knelt down by Sirius and wrapped my arms around his ribcage, trying to hoist him up over my shoulder.

"Fuck." As deadweight, Sirius felt like about 30 stone.

I managed to kind of drape him over my back, but I couldn't hold onto his broken leg, and struggling to stand up, I knew my own gimpy leg wouldn't carry us efficiently for long. I was unsteady even kneeling, all my weight on my right knee.

I looked up, down the road in the other direction. Away from the Malfoys'.

There were two little glimmers of light up ahead, twinkling like the lights hanging on the Malfoys' gate.

I didn't remember seeing them before.

I squinted hard, and the lights sharpened.

They seemed like they were getting bigger.

Coming closer.

And quickly.

"Oh, shit. Shit, fuck. Moey, we've got to go." I nearly toppled over trying to stand up, and cried out when I stepped hard on my bad leg, staggering to keep myself upright. "This way," I grunted, taking a step towards the side of the road.

Moey scampered ahead and disappeared, all but her long ears, into the tall grass.

The lights were coming so fast now, and I could hear a low rumble, shaking the ground, growing louder as the lights came closer.

I almost froze looking at them, my mind running, my heart rate accelerating.

I was so busy trying to think what kind of spell this was - what kind of power - it didn't even occur to me that it wasn't, not at all, until I was nearly blinded, and finally recognized the harsh squeal of brakes and the smell of burning rubber.

A/n: Fuck, guys, house-elves are annoying.
Well, except for Kreacher, who is perfect in every way. Anyway, sorry about that.

So, I don't really know anything about astronomy, but I think I've placed the constellations correctly. I basically just tried to be as vague as possible lol. But my research on the topic has led me to believe more than ever that Regulus must have been born in August (and therefore be a Leo not just by name but by birth), because: "If your sign is Leo, your good traits are: dominant, creative, extroverted, generous, ambitious, independent, positive, faithful, loving, and confident. Your not so good traits are: bossy, pompous, intolerant, patronizing, dogmatic, arrogant, interfering, self-centered, and lust for power" is pretty perfect, I think, give or take a few traits (like uh, "positive", I doubt it). But all the "not so good traits" fit him really well lmao! Of course, Harry is canonically a Leo, also, and I don't really think any of these fit him (other than a few of the good ones). Leo seems like a pretty Slytherin constellation to me, despite a lion being the house mascot of Gryffindor and all. Tbh I could go on about the symbolism of all this for a long time, but who cares, so I'll shut up.