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So there's not much to say here since we're actually smack dab in the middle of a scene when we left off last time.
Without further ado, on with the show!
If Someone Cared Enough
Chapter 113: Dead Memories and Deader Bodies
The ride towards the island seemed to drag on for an endless about of time, each minute bleeding agonizingly slowly into the next as they sat there in the creaky rowboat. It was a stark contrast to the boat ride up to the castle in first year; though both were drawn out events that left someone twitching with anticipation, this ride held none of the joyous excitement and awe as the when children first beheld the wonder that was Hogwarts.
No, this journey was tense, anxious, the growing mass of island carrying nothing but foreboding promises.
Finally, the boat hit land, jostling the boys from their seats.
"Careful not to touch the water," Regulus reminded Severus as he carefully disembarked. His footfalls were echoing yet dull on the island, the vast cave's hollowness ringing with every step.
Severus took a look around once he was on land. The island wasn't very big, just a small outcrop of rocks that protruded from the water enough to walk upon. Clearly, someone had blasted away a segment of the middle to form a plateau and the outer ring still bore the jagged, teeth like stalagmites all the way to the water's edge.
Severus warily eyed the water lapping at the shore.
"Kreacher couldn't tell you what it was that grabbed him?" he asked, following the movements beneath the water. The most unnerving thing was how the surface didn't bare a single ripple, no matter how much the unknown beings shifted just inches down.
Regulus followed Severus graze, watching the water with trepidation, "No, he was too weak by that point. Could barely see a thing or even stand after he finished the potion. When You-Know-Who left him here, Kreacher felt like he was dying of thirst…it was when he tried to drink from the lake that he was attacked."
"What saved him?" Severus asked.
"He had orders to return to me once his responsibilities to the Dark Lord were over," Regulus answered, a sad smile painting his lips, "His servitude to me was the only thing that saved him. House elves can appear and disappear even in places where apparation isn't possible. That's how he got out."
"So Merlin only know what's in there," Severus said of the lake, a frown pursing his lips, "best make this quick and be on our way. We don't know if touching the lake is the only thing that lures it…or them, out."
"There was one other thing…" Regulus said hesitantly.
Severus raised a brow, "And that would be."
"Be it from the potion or whatever attacked him, I can't be sure," Regulus said, glancing worriedly at Severus, "But Kreacher smelled…like death."
Severus did not know what to do with that information, but it caused a sinking fear to grow like a chasm in his stomach and settle there like a lead weight.
The pair approached the pedestal cautiously, prepared to parry any charms or booby traps that may have been left to deal with uninvited guests. The fact that they encountered none unnerved Severus; it meant that someone as formidable as Voldemort was confident in the potion and lake alone to take care of all trespassers, that those failsafe's were that powerful.
Upon closer inspection the pedestal was not a pedestal at all, but rather a basin on a stand. A sickly pale green potion filled the basin, just as Regulus warned.
Glittering at the bottom of the potion, sat the locket.
"I take it this potion can't be vanished or charmed," Severus surmised, looking to Regulus for confirmation.
Regulus nodded, "I doubt he'd make it that easy."
Against his better judgment, Severus reached his hand into the potion, drawing a hiss of protest and panic from Regulus. To both their great relief, Severus's hand was stopped as if by an invisible force, but no harm came to him.
Regulus picked up a stone from the ground and transfigured it into a crude goblet.
"Best not to dally," he said grimly.
"Regulus, you don't have to do this," Severus reasoned.
Regulus would not be deterred, "Yes, I do. Kreacher was hurt because of me, and it was with my loaning of Kreacher that You-Know-Who was able to seal and protect this horcrux."
"Then let's take turns," Severus insisted, "Surely the effects will be cut in half then."
Regulus shook his head, "We don't know what lurks in the water, what has been put there to stop us. If we're both weakened, that decreases our chances of either of us making it out alive."
"But—"
"It has to be me, Snape," Regulus said firmly, "You're the better duelist. Whatever happens, I need you to have my back."
Severus frowned, his lips pressed into a thin line.
"Fine," Severus said in clipped response, "Just don't expect me to carry your ass out of here."
Regulus grinned wryly, desperate to latch onto any bit of levity in their current predicament. Carefully, he dipped the goblet into the potion, whatever magic placed on it giving way to allow him to fill his cup.
Regulus raised the goblet to his lips and paused, eyes set on his friend.
"If I can't go on," he said softly, "Make me."
Without another word, Regulus tipped the contents of the goblet into his mouth, grimacing as it slid down his throat.
"Doesn't have much of a taste," he noted, smacking his lips, "But the texture; it looks like water but goes down like sludge."
Filling the goblet again, Regulus took another drink.
A change came over Regulus almost immediately, his face pale, taking on an ashen hue. He stumbled back a step.
"It hurts," he groaned, clutching his stomach.
"It's taking effect sooner than expected," Severus muttered, stepping forward, his hand outstretched for the goblet.
Regulus held up a hand, halting Severus.
"Don't," he croaked, managing with a bit of struggle to dip the goblet in the basin again. His hand shook as he raised it to his parted lips, bringing his other hand up to cup the bottom and force himself to take another gulp.
His hand dropped to the side as he collapsed against the basin, cup barely managing to stay in his hand.
"I c-can't…" he panted, "Can't do it…don't…don't make me…"
Severus wanted above all else to take the goblet, drink his share and ease Regulus's burden, but he couldn't. Regulus was right; they'd need one of them capable enough to fight. Whatever was in the lake was specifically designed to catch the drinker at their weakest, the final defense if the person managed to drink the potion to it's final drop.
Given that the boat was designed to take only one adult, it was obvious Voldemort expected only one person to make it to the island, left alone to drink the potion and die by whatever dwelled in the water.
Steeling himself, Severus took Regulus by the wrist and guided his hand into the basin to refill his cup.
"N-no," Regulus protested feebly, pushing the cup weakly as Severus tried to bring it to his lips, "I don't want it."
His voice was shaky, eyes fading into delirium. Whatever effect the potion was having on him, he may not even know where he was another or what he was doing.
"Just a sip," Severus pushed, forcing the potion into Regulus's mouth, "A little sip."
Tears sprang to Regulus eyes as Severus offered him another drink of the potion, "It hurts…"
"This will make it stop," Severus lied, forcing him to drink again.
Over and over, Severus forced one gulp after another into Regulus as the boy sobbed and pleaded with him. More than once Regulus asked for death, gripped the front of Severus robes and begged for it all to end, but Severus couldn't grant him that mercy.
A little over halfway into the finishing the potion, Regulus began to hallucinate.
"Bella," he pleaded, "Bella please, I didn't mean to tear your robe. It was an accident."
Severus had just finished getting another mouthful of the potion into Regulus when the younger boy let out a blood curdling scream.
"My skin!" he sobbed, "Bella, please! My arm! What did you do to my arm! My skin!"
"Sev!" Lily called out in a panic, pacing the shoreline, "What's going on?"
Severus barely managed to get a struggling, crying Regulus under control, "It's the potion. It's making him see things."
"What potion?" Simone cried out, worry evident in her tone.
"The one in the basin," Severus explained, "Someone must drink it to get to the locket."
"Oh my god, will it kill him?" Lily shrieked, horrified.
Severus shook his head, pouring more potion down a whimpering Regulus's throat, "I don't think that's the intended purpose. Kreacher survived it."
"Kreacher's not the same species," Simone pointed out, "Who knows what it is supposed to do to wizards."
"I think the potion's supposed to weaken the drinker," Severus stated, struggling to make Regulus drink more potion, "So that they can be overpowered by what's in the water."
Severus ignored the girls' panicked cries from the shore, forcing Regulus to drink again.
"Don't hurt me," Regulus begged some imagined wraith of his past, "P-please, I'm sorry."
Severus grit his teeth; they would never finish the potion at this rate.
"You wanted to drink it alone?" he spat, tilting Regulus's head up, "Fine, but you aren't going to experience it alone."
Prying Regulus's lids open, Severus peered into the crying young man's eyes and instantly he was immersed in a childhood not his own.
A small, frightened Regulus crouched crying in the corner of a spacious, ornate library. Hidden behind an end table laden with various formidable tomes, he cowered as footsteps drew near.
"Regulus, you come here this instant!" Demanded a sharp, angry voice of a woman, "I know it was you who spilled peppermint oil on my antique rug. After I told you to stay out of that room! Now come out here at once!"
Little Regulus held a hand to his cheek and whimpered, a bright red welt standing out against his pale skin; a stinging hex.
"You must accept your punishment," the woman cried out, incensed, "I did not raise a sniveling coward!"
Regulus cried to himself, big fat tears running down his cherub face.
Severus slid into the memory with ease.
'She cannot hurt you, Reg,' Severus's voice seeped into the memory, blurring the edges of the feigned reality, 'This has already come to pass. She isn't here, isn't real. You survived this already. Focus.'
Little Regulus looked around, sniffling softly. The image slowly faded, melting away and being replaced by another image.
An older Regulus, perhaps a year or two off from his current age, stood in a dark clearing surrounded by cloaked figures. Cowering beneath the might of an shrouded figure with red, slit eyes.
"You're cousin tells me that you and your brother are quite close..." the shrouded one uttered, "That he matters quite dearly to you."
Nearby, Bellatrix grinned deviously and with relish.
"W-we...we were rather close when we were younger, my lord," Regulus answered nervously.
The man before him stroked his wand reverently, "And now? He's deigned himself a blood traitor...do you still care for him?"
"No, my Lord," Regulus answered quickly, "He is little more than a disgrace to my family."
"Oh?" The Dark Lord inquired, "Is that so?"
Regulus gulped, "My Lord?"
"Bellatrix tells me you were quite...heartbroken when your brother fled home recently...that you begged him to stay..."
Regulus's eyes widened, gaze darting to his smirking, unhinged cousin.
"Master, I only wished to convince him the error of his ways," he insisted, "H-he was the scion of our House...he needed to be reasoned with to our cause. I—"
He never saw the crucio coming, struck to the ground in withering agony.
"I'm disappointed in you," Voldemort sneered over Regulus's cries, "You should reevaluate...where your loyalties lie..."
Besides him, Bellatrix cackled.
'It isn't real,' Severus reminded Regulus, his voice floating through the memory like a fog, 'You've lived this already. It is nothing but a memory. Nothing more.'
Over and over, Severus walked through the horrors of Regulus most tragic moments, the terror and heartache of vicious punishments and betrayals by those he called family, called his allies. Bellatrix and is mother featured heavily in many of those moments, his brother rarely the source of pain. His father was a faceless, silent entity lurking in the background never answering his cries for help or mercy, cold unfeeling eyes the only remaining part of his visage.
At some point, Regulus dissolved into sniveling, whimpering pitifully and batting weakly at the goblet.
"Sirius, I'm sorry," he hiccupped, "I didn't mean to tattle on you…I didn't think mummy would punish you that bad…."
Regulus stood in his brother's doorway, watching in dismay as Sirius gathered his things.
"Don't try and stop me, Reg," Sirius said, blood dripping from a cut on his lips, his nose rushed and purple, bruises circling both eyes, "You may be happy playing mummy's perfect son, but I won't be a pawn for anyone."
"It's not like that," Regulus pleaded, reaching for his brother's shoulder, "They just want what's best for yo—"
Sirius slapped his hand away, whirling around.
"Is this what's best for me?!" he snarled, pointing to his broken nose, "Beaten if I don't fall in line? If I don't agree to join in on some sick quest to beat muggles into submission? They used an unforgivable on me, for fuck's sake. Their own son!"
"T-they were just upset," Regulus denied weakly.
Sirius stared him down, disgust warring with pity in his eyes.
"Have a nice life, Regulus," he spat, "If you ever come to your sense, come find me."
"No, Siri, please," Regulus begged, clinging to his brother's arm. Tears ran down his face as Sirius tried to shake him off, "Please don't leave me. Don't go!"
In reality, the robes he clutched were Severus's, crying into them as Severus held him tightly.
"Shh," Severus whispered, "I'm here, Sirius is here. I'm not going anywhere…"
He scooped up more potion, letting out a sob of relief to see it was the last.
"One more sip and it's over," he promised, "Just once more…for Sirius."
Regulus nodded, mumbling and hiccupping like a broken child, taking the last mouthful as tears slide down his face.
Severus wasted no time in snatching up the locket from the bottom of the basin. Carefully wrapping it several times in dragonhide for safety, he pulled out the fake and dropped it into the basin. Almost immediately the basin filled back up, green potion glittering in it once more.
"We did it," he cried with triumph, turning to Regulus with a smile.
Regulus panted, staggering to his feet.
"W-water," he gasped after a few minutes, his wits slowly returning, "Water, please."
"Right," Severus nodded. He pointed his wand at the goblet, "Aguamenti!"
Water poured into the cup, but just as quickly as it was conjured, it vanished.
"What?" Severus tried again, then a third time. Each time the result was the same; no water would stay in the cup.
Severus cursed, tossing the cup down; that's why Kreacher drank from the lake. Voldemort had intentionally made it so no water could be summoned or conjured, forcing the drinker to seek out the only remaining source and perished at the hands of whatever lurked below.
"Water," Regulus croaked, now clawing at his throat, "I-it burns…so thirsty…"
Dropping to his knees, he scrambled towards the water's edge.
"No!" Severus cried, leaping onto Regulus back. He wrestled the boy to the ground.
"You can't touch the water," he warned, getting Regulus in a headlock.
Regulus continued to thrash, reaching a desperate hand out for the lake, "I need it…I'm dying!"
Severus cursed, fighting to keep Regulus from the water. What the hell was he supposed to do. No water could be summoned and they hadn't thought to bring anything with them except themselves.
Except themselves…
"That's it!" Severus said. Pinning Regulus down with a knee to his back, Severus drew his wand across his own wrist in a vicious slash, wincing as magic sliced through flesh as easily as if it were paper.
"Come on, Reg," he grunted with exertion, flipping Regulus onto his back, "Stay with me."
Holding his bleeding wrist over Regulus head, he squeezed the wound harshly, grimacing at the pain.
At the first droplet to hit his face, Regulus opened his mouth, tongue darting out madly to catch anything that fell.
"That's it," Severus encouraged, pressing his wrist to Regulus mouth, "Think of it was water."
Regulus drank greedily, several hearty gulps as the warm liquid slid down his throat.
Eventually Severus pulled his arm away, smacking Regulus's hands off when the boy continued to reach for the limb, "That's enough for now. Can't have me weak from blood loss."
He got to his feet, brushing off his pants.
"Feeling any better," he asked.
Regulus took a moment to answer, breathing harshly like he'd run a marathon
"My stomach is killing me," he panted, "I don't think I can stand."
"Well, you're going to have to," Severus said, "Can't carry you into the boat."
Regulus gulped, smacking his lips, "What happened…did I say anything?"
"Best not to discuss it now," Severus replied simply, "Now come on, we need to get out of here before those things wake up."
He held his hand out for Regulus, hauling the boy to his feet with a bit of effort.
"You're heavier as a dead weight," Severus noted, pulling one of Regulus's arms around his shoulder, "Let's get to the boat."
"Not so fast," Regulus warned, "I'm still trying to get my footing—"
He stumbled over something, whatever it was making a dull clanging sound.
Severus and Regulus watched with horror as the forgotten goblet clattered across the ground, rolling into the water with a splash.
For a minute no one breathed, no one dared move a muscle.
Then something erupted from the water.
A boney, clammy hand of withered and rotting skin flopped up onto the shore, followed by another and then a head lolling on a pair of skeletal shoulders. Hair hung from it's peeling scalp in patchy tendrils, nose rotted away, lips hanging sideways off a decaying face.
"Inferi…" Severus gasped, clutching his wand tightly.
The creature scrambled onto the island, wobbling haphazardly on too thin, muscle-less legs draped into hanging, loose flesh. As quickly as it had come so did another and another. More of the wicked beings splashed and clambered onto the shore like demons leaping from the gates of hell, gnashing teeth and white, sightless eyes staring without seeing.
They moved as one towards Severus and the barely conscious Regulus.
"Shit!" Severus slashed his wand through the air, Sectumsempra severing two corpses' arms, another flick taking out one creatures leg. He blasted another's head clean off it's shoulders, it's flicking tongue hanging out from the stump of neck in a macabre display.
Nothing he tried did little more than delay the creatures. A loss of a limb, even a head had no baring on beings incapable of pain, of rational thought. Little more than murderous puppets on invisible strings, they advanced in a shuffling shamble, intent on grabbing, gnashing, tearing. They were never ending, for every one Severus struck down another rose up from the water to take its place.
"Try and look alive, Reg," Severus snapped, "Two wands would be preferably right now."
He whirled around to cut off a row of inferi's advance from behind them, blasting them back into the water.
Regulus managed to draw his wand, sending off a hex at random into the putrid crowd of fiends.
"A stunner?" Severus asked in disbelief, "Get your head on your shoulders; aim to kill!"
Severus severed one inferi diagonally under one shoulder, its top half sliding from its bottom to land with a sickening squelch on the ground. Not even that deterred the wretched thing, the torso on the ground dragging itself forward with its remaining arm.
Back on the rocky beach, Lily and Simone were beyond frantic.
"What do we do, Sim?" Lily cried helplessly as her boyfriend tried to fight off the growing crowd.
Simone did not answer, stumbled backwards in abject horror.
"They're corpses," she muttered to herself, eyes wide and terrified, "He's violated the sanctity of death…desecrated all that is sacred…dragged them from the beyond as toys…"
"Sim, snap out of it," Lily shouted, grabbing the older girl by shoulders, "They're going to die if we don't do something. What do we do?"
"Uh…" Simone shook herself, glancing helplessly around them, "W-we need to distract them. Call those things our way."
Lily needed no other instruction. Levitating a large rock, she hurled it at the creatures with all her might.
"Hey!" she shouted, "Over here, you freaks!"
Several creatures faltered at her voice, rocks bouncing off their mottled skin, drawing their attention.
"This way!" Lily taunted, "Fresh meat, ready and waiting!"
"Simone," she snarled, turning to the girl, "Help me out here!"
Simone gulped, clutching her wand, "R-right."
She pointed her wand at the shore the inferi were lumbering across on the island, "Bombarda Maxima!"
The ground beneath the inferis' feet exploded, sending boulders and rocks flying along with severed limbs and snarling, rotted heads.
Slowly more and more of the depraved beings turned their attention to the girls across the water. Some slipped back beneath the murky lake, intent on pursuing their newfound targets.
"There's too many of them," Simone cried, "We can't distract them all!"
"Then we need to herd them here," Lily called back, "Just long enough for Severus to get Regulus across in the boat."
Simone scoffed, "Herd them? They're not sheep; it's not like we can conjure a dog to chase them over here."
"Maybe not a dog," Lily muttered, eyes set on the distant shore. Determination coursing through her veins, she pointed her wand at the island.
"Incendio!" she yelled.
Fire sprung up between Severus and the inferi, causes the miserable creatures to stumbled back with terrified shrieks.
"They're afraid of fire!" Lily told Simone, "Keep burning the island; drive them off it!"
Following Lily's lead, Simone conjured a whip of flames, sweeping at the inferi and sending many of them diving into the water.
Severus looked up in surprise, relief mingling with concern on his features. Taking the only opportunity he would get, he shuffled Regulus over to the boat.
The girls kept up their assault, gradually engulfing the island in flames, the basin the only thing unscorched by the magical inferno, protected by whatever powerful charm had been placed upon it.
"Now what?" Simone asked, seeing the heads of the inferi bobbing up and down in the water as the creatures made their way towards them.
"Burn them," Lily commanded, wand gripped tightly in her fist, "Burn them all."
The first wave of inferi onto the shore screamed in fear and rage as fire engulfed them, skin melting from bone, the sickening smell of burnt flesh filling the air.
"Bombarda!" Simone blasted a group of advancing undead off the shore, their twisted bodied flying several feet out and crashing into the lake once more.
"Immobulus," Lily chanted. Several inferi froze in their tracks, the animated corpses unable to move.
Lily pointed her wand at them, "Confringo!"
The inferi before her exploded in a smattering of blood and gore, viscera spraying everywhere.
Their blood speckled Lily's face, but she didn't care, eyes set on her next opponent.
"We can't hold them off forever," Simone called out, blasting another cluster of the horde off the shoreline.
Lily slashed her wand at an inferi that got too close to Severus's boat, "Just until Sev makes it to shore."
She turned back to the water prepared to blast another inferi, only to freeze at the wretch standing before her.
Avery shambled out of the water, his limp, bloated body discolored and warped. Blue lips opened in a moan, his unseeing, milky eyes did not blink, didn't even rotate in their sunken, gaping sockets.
Lily could only stare, mouth going dry as the beast from her nightmares stumbled towards her.
"Lily," Simone snapped, "Shoot him!"
The Avery inferi ambled forward, unmindful of the skin sloughing off his legs, exposing sinew, showing bone.
"Lily!" Simone cried out harshly.
Lily's wand shook in her hands, almost a lead weight in her grip.
"So this is what happened to you..." she whispered shakily, "I-it's fitting…rotten to the core and now..." she gulped, "Rotten to the skin..."
"Shoot it!" Simone ordered, unable to take the creature out herself as more inferi advanced on her position.
Lily raised her wand, but...staring down the face that had haunted her nightmares for so long….when she opened her mouth no words came out.
She could still feel the phantom of his hands her chest, trailing her collarbone...touching her thighs.
"Lily!" Severus shouted in alarm as the boat touched land. He scrambled from the boat with Regulus in tow, desperate to reach his girlfriend before Avery did.
Lily's eyes flickered at the sound of Severus's voice and in that moment her gaze caught another familiar face lumbering onto the shore.
Mulciber looked no better than Avery, bloated corpse mottled and purple, discolored patches of flesh that looked like chicken skin. A look of frozen horror was still etched into his face, the lingering echo of his final moments.
Lily backed away from the terrible creature, his gnarly fingers reaching for her.
Truly he was as ugly in death as he'd been in life. A set of yellow teeth in a gnashing maw, one that once smirked as it's owner gazed down on it's victims. Hands still filthy and sausage-like. The same hands that sought to degraded, to harm.
Lily thought of Mary, crying on the way to St. Mungos as she struggled to recall what Mulciber had done to her, robed of her awareness of the event and unable to know how far he'd gotten...and a burning fire of rage welled up inside the redhead.
Lily leveled her wand at Mulciber, anger seared into her every feature.
"You'll never touch another witch again," she hissed.
"Not me," she slashed her wand, one of Mulciber's hands dropping to the ground, "And not one of my friends."
"This is for Mary," she said bravely, blasting the inferi to little bits. She turned to Avery, mere feet from her now.
"And this," she shouted, tears blurring her vision, "Is for me!"
Avery burst apart like a popped water balloon, his congealed blood splattering every surface. His entrails flopped and bounced across the ground, fingers and an eye rolling into the water.
Avery's head landed at Lily's feet, his jaw hanging off one side.
Sneering in disgust, Lily punted into into the lake and felt an invisible weight fall from her shoulders; never would she let that bastard hurt her again.
"There's too many of them," Simone cried, sending an inferi's head ricocheting off the wall and into the water with a plop, "We won't be able to kill them all."
"We don't need to," Lily stated, "They won't be able to touch us."
Simone turned to her, confused, "What?"
Lily took a deep breath, closing her eyes.
"Merlin help me," she muttered, "I hope I'm remembering this spell right..."
She looked at Simone.
"I know I've had my hangs ups with dark magic before," she bit out, "...but do not call me a hypocrite for this."
Raising her wand, Lily screamed, "Protego Diabolica!"
A huge ring of fire spread out around her, black flames eating up the beach and incinerating the closest inferi with a crackle of heat.
The inferi snarled and gnashed on the other side of the flames. No light to warn them off from the danger, they crashed into the flames, instantly turning to ash with alarmed shrieks.
"Step through," Lily commanded of Simone.
Simone blanched, sidestepping an inferi and bawking at Lily, "Are you mad?"
"Step through!" Lily barked, "You have to trust me."
Turning to the inferi rapidly convening on her spot, Simone swallowed. Closing her eyes, she rushed towards the flames, hands up shielding her face.
She fell through the flames with a yelp of surprise, tripping onto her hands and knees, "What in the world..."
Severus burst through the flames from the other side, panting.
"Reg," he called back over his shoulder, "I know you're scared...but you're going to have to trust Li—"
He didn't get to finish his sentence before Regulus fell through the flames untouched and landed face first on the ground.
"Well I'll be," Severus breathed, looking at Lily, "He trusts you."
Lily didn't have time to feel touched, the flame wavering and flickering, "We don't have much time. Hurry to the exit!"
Gathering Regulus up under the armpits, Severus and Simone dragged the young heir of Black towards the mouth of the cave, Lily behind them struggling to keep the magical barrier going.
It was halfway down the dark tunnel that the spell gave out.
"Run," she yelled, breaking into a sprint.
Seeing no other options, Severus pointed his wand at Regulus and levitating the boy, Regulus bobbing limply through the air as the group ran as fast as they could towards the entrance.
Behind them, the slapping clamor of wet slimy feet echoed off the walls, closing in.
"No!" Simone cried out, eyes landing on the wall up ahead, "It's closed."
"We need blood," Severus said, slitting his wrist once more. Reaching the wall, he smeared his blood against the rocks, painting them crimson.
All too slowly the wall gave way, the teens desperately squeezing through before it was even fully opened.
"How do we close it?" Lily asked frantically.
"It shuts on it's own," Severus explained.
Regulus coughed, "That will take too much time."
"They're coming!" Simone cried, pointing at the horde scurrying down the tunnel towards them.
There was a crack behind them, as deafening as the thunder overhead.
Thea stood before them, her hand clutched tightly by Minks.
"Virtus tempestas!" she incanted.
A powerful gust of wind shot out of the end of her wand, sweeping past the startled group. It barreled down the tunnel at breakneck speed, slamming into the twisting horde of rotting bodies and sending them tumbling back down the way they'd come.
The wall slowly closed, sealing the nasty creatures inside.
Thea pocketed her wand primly, looking down her nose at her wife.
"And you told me to stay behind," she sniffed daintily.
Severus huffed out a laugh, pointing triumphantly at Simone, "I fucking knew it!"
So how did you guys like that action?
And for once in a story about wizards, I actually had some wand magic happen for a decent length of time, lol. I'm sure plenty of you have noticed how little I actual do magic in my story ABOUT magic. I focus mainly on the issues plaguing Severus and Lily in and out of their relationship and frankly most of their cruxes are not things magic can fix but rather need words. Lots and lots of words.
Anyone recognize the spell Lily used at the end there? Thank you Grindlewald for giving me that idea. Dark magic fire that is more controlable than fiendfyre and allows allies to cross unscathed. I'm sure canon-wise its more complicated to do than Lily made it look. But we can't have fiendfyre be the answer because it would destroy everything in the cave and then Riddle would know yet another one of his horcruxes hiding places has been compromised. The black fire Grindlewald uses in the Fantastic Beast sequel doesn't look like it is designed to be hard to control, but rather that the user with enough skill and choose to turn the ring of fire into a more destructive inferno if they so wish. So in my headcanon, it could be summoned by a less experienced wizard, but be limited and snuff out on its own after sometime if the witch or wizard is unable to keep it going.
I'm sure many of you are glad Regulus is still alive. I intended to save him from his canon fate from the start, but ultimately I decided to have him be the one to drink the potion because I see Regulus as having a lot on his conscience due to his poor choice to side with the Dark Lord at such a young age. Primarily, his care for Kreacher drives a lot of his guilt. Kreacher being hurt and left for dead by someone Regulus thought he could trust, combined with the horror of knowing that person created a horcrux-literally split their soul-would weigh heavily on him. In his mind, he needed to make amends.
review please :)