Chapter 69: The Price Of Betrayal
{A/N: Here's Another Update....}
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{"Your face is burned inside my brain...I lost my way...Your taste of stale flows through my veins...The cost of hate...Cause you'll never understand me...You want me to stay...You're see-see-see-calling but I can't hear you...I'm not listening anymore...You're subject to falling but I can't save you...I don't see you anymore...The race of slowing down the pain, I found a way...The pace of speaking so mundane, the sound of gain...But you'll never make me happy...So I've extinguished the flame...You're see-see-see-calling, but I can't hear you...I'm not listening anymore...You're subject to falling, but I can't save you...I don't see you anymore"} Calling,Taproot
Cemetery, Cokeworth, England, Muggle World...
Swollen clouds of ominous gray took up every aspect of clear sky that had been the forecast for the past few weeks but it had not seemed to bother the solitary wizard cloaked in black as he stood alone in the local cemetery gazing down at the headstone before him. He had been as silent as the stars when looking down at the grave site, his dark eyes of obsidian fixated upon the words engraved in the cold gray stone not so unlike the stone of his former cell in Azkaban Prison. The name on the headstone had belonged to his dearly departed mother and it had been two years since he had visited given his imprisonment.
"Hello Mother." said the voice of a solemn Regulus Snape as he stood with a single white rose within the grasp of his pale hand.
The clouds seemed to have gotten their fill of being swollen and burst forth causing a heavy down pour as the eldest son of the late Severus Snape stood staring at his mother's headstone as if the weather had little effect on him despite the onset of rain soaking him from head to toe.
A good distance from him, a woman dressed in black with rather familiar eyes of amber watched as Regulus gripped the white rose tightly causing the still attached thorns to burrow deeply into the pale flesh of his palm causing it to bleed as he stood in silence over his mother's grave.
He had been annoyed that his private moment had been interrupted by the unwanted company of his former lover, no doubt seeking a favor from him given what the wizarding world now knew of the real leader of the Serpent Brother's Of Destruction.
"What are you doing here?" he asked making it clear that not only had he not been in the mood for company but that he had not forgotten her betrayal in the least.
Hermione Granger had been caught off guard by his apparent coldness but she had not been too surprised. She had joined Harry Potter in condemning him to life in Azkaban for a crime he had not committed.
"R-Regulus...I..." she began unsure how to approach the topic of her greatest folly concerning him.
"Save it." hissed the elder son of the former Potions Master. "I have no interest in hearing anything more you have to say...as you can see I have come to pay my respects and do not wish for company."
"Regulus please...just hear me out..." insisted Hermione trying her best to get him to see reason in terms of her actions concerning his imprisonment.
The raven haired wizard stood as if trying to compose himself for a moment before swiftly confronting her with his eyes blazing with fury.
"I am to hear you out now?" he asked in an embittered tone. "I seem to recall asking the same of you but those pleas had fallen on deaf ears...I have nothing more to say to you witch no get out of my sight."
Hermione stood trying her best to keep her tears at bay, not even the rain could hide how truly sorry she had been in that moment for not even considering the possibility that Harry might have been mistaken about him.
Never one to give up, the witch tried to reach him once more knowing all too well that he had been beyond her, a good two long years of unjust torture in Azkaban beyond her.
"Reg...please I...I'm sorry..." she began reaching out for him. "I didn't mean to...there was all that evidence pointing to you I wasn't thinking straight..."
"Fuck you." growled Regulus snatching away from her as he placed the rose onto his mother's grave before glaring back at the witch whom had meant so much to him two years prior. "You will always be Potter's whore."
If Hermione had not known any better she would have mistaken him for his father in that moment as Regulus swiftly took his leave of her not in the least interested in reconciliation or even civil communication with her or anyone else aside from The Malfoys.
As she stood alone in the rain looking down at the blood stained white rose resting against the slick gray stone. It was only then that the ramifications of what she had done truly hit her. Regulus loved and trusted her and she turned on him at the first sign of trouble only to ensure that he had been driven further from any type of connection to anyone outside of his own family.
The set up had been quite similar to what happened to his father and Harry's mother whom had been as close as any two people could have been before the inevitable betrayal that lead to their broken relationship and her subsequent murder at the hands of the despot Voldemort.
She didn't doubt for a moment that just as Voldemort had done to Snape all those years ago, Arcturus would attempt to sway the lonely wizard to his cause and he would have the ultimate means of enticing Regulus into his ranks given that they shared the same blood.
Tears continued to stream down the amber eyed witch's cheeks as she recalled the price her former Potions Professor had to pay in the end to make everything right again and how long he had suffered in the wake of all that had happened before meeting his eventual demise due to the despot and his eerie serpent.
Even if Regulus never forgave her for her betrayal, she vowed to keep him from following the same tragic pattern as his Potions Master father, whom had been the living embodiment of what a lifetime of pain without end could do to a person.