[summary] James/Regulus [VoldemortWins!AU] A week after Voldemort rises to power, and everything is far from what anyone expected.
A/N — Written for round 8 of QL — what would life be like a week after Voldemort rises to power? — with the optional prompts [word] allegiance, [word] moonlight, and [song] Centuries by Fall Out Boy.
And thank you to firefly for beta'ing.
And this is for tonight
I thought that you would feel
I never meant for you to fix yourself
.oOo.
They sat huddled around a table in the mostly-empty library, the room only illuminated by the light of their wands. Few dared to venture freely around the castle anymore; only the brave and the stupid. Not even the Slytherins were safe from his wrath.
James spread the map out on the table, and everyone leant closer.
"Is there really any point in this?" Alice asked. She was standing to the back of the group, arms folded across her chest and eyes trained on her feet. "We've already lost."
"Then why are you here?" Sirius asked. She opened and closed her mouth uselessly a few times, then shrugged.
"Because I didn't want to be alone," she said. By the sound of it, she'd already given up and, looking around the table, James could just see a group of dejected faces, eyes downcast, who didn't know what else they could do.
"It's only been a week," he said. "There's still–"
"Dumbledore's dead," Peter said. It was the first time James could remember him speaking in a long time, actually, and he wondered what that said about him for not noticing. Then again, there hadn't been much to say. "You-Know-Who has the Ministry completely under his control. What good are we gonna be? We're still at school."
"We'd be better off running," Alice whispered.
"Seriously, why are you here?" Sirius snapped, turning to glare at the girl.
"They'd find us. We can't hide forever," James said, trying to defuse the situation but was ignored.
"I told you. I'm the only one left," she said slowly. "I didn't want to spend another night alone in the dorms." Marlene pulled her into a one armed hug.
"You can stay with us," she said, but Alice shook her head.
"They've started checking." James nodded.
"We'll need to get back soon—" he turned to the map "—before they…" he trailed off, slowly turning to face the door.
A group of Slytherins stood watching them and, before James could say anything, all wands were pointed in their direction.
"If we were going to attack you, we would have by now," a familiar voice snapped.
"Regulus?" Sirius asked, he took a step forwards but didn't lower his wand. "What are you doing here?"
"I– I would f–feel a lot more comfortable, if– if you lowered your wands," a blonde girl stuttered. She was at least a head shorter than all the others, and her eyes kept darting around the room as though she were waiting for an attack. Normally, James would brush it off as unnecessary nerves, but given the situation, her fear was understandable.
"Lower your wands," he said. "Regulus is right."
"Since when are you on a first name basis with my brother?" Sirius asked but lowered his wand none-the-less.
"You're going to Filch's old office, right?" Regulus asked. "Where they're keeping some of the Mu– Muggleborns."
"They're Mudbloods," a boy to Regulus' left snapped — James thought his name might have been Dolohov, but he wasn't entirely sure — but was quickly quietened by his housemates.
"Why do you care?" Frank asked, speaking for the first time that evening.
"Because they're not just taking Muggleborns," the girl from before said. James nodded.
"We don't have time to go through the plan now," he said, folding the map. "We'll meet outside the Hufflepuff Common room."
"What if we get split after?" Marlene asked.
"Go to the Transfiguration Classroom. The one with the Boggart. No one'll be there."
"I can see why," someone muttered, but James chose to ignore it.
James pulled Regulus to the side as everyone was trudging from the room.
"You don't have to do this," James whispered. Regulus shrugged off his grip, about to object. "No, I'm serious, Regs. You're a Pureblood in Slytherin; this is such an unnecessary risk."
"I'm not gonna sit back and do nothing," Regulus said, making no attempt to keep his voice down.
"You're underage, you–"
"And I don't need you trying to protect me, or save me from myself," Regulus said. "You taught me to stand up for what I believe in. Or to fight against what I believe is wrong."
James watched him go, waiting until he was the last in the room before casting a quick Nox and heading into the dark corridors of the castle.
.oOo.
"I'm not looking for someone who can save me.
Life rafts might keep you afloat, but they rarely get you anywhere, and I've got places I wanna go."
Andrea Gibson
.oOo.
James pushed open the door to the unused Transfiguration classroom slowly, dreading what he'd find inside. It had been a bad idea — they'd known that from the start — but as soon as he opened that door, he'd see how monumentally stupid they had been to think they even stood a chance.
Five.
Six, including him, remained, sitting as far from each other as possible. He supposed most of them had carried the same hope as him — that they wouldn't make it — but were instead left with the grief and guilt over lost friends.
He didn't bother to light his wand — no one else had — and instead relied solely on the moonlight filtering in through the grimy window.
"Some allegiance, huh?" a girl asked; she sat huddled in the corner, alone. James knew she was in Ravenclaw but couldn't remember anything else about her. He supposed it didn't really matter, not anymore, and if it did, he couldn't bring himself to care. "They probably only let us go as some kind of sick joke."
James looked at each of the Slytherins in turn, stepping closer to the dark haired boy with his head in his arms, relief flooding through him. He reached out, almost touching him, when the boy sat up.
Crouch.
James recoiled quickly.
"I just want to know one thing," he croaked. "Did any of you know?" he asked, looking around the room desperately. "Did any of you know what he was going to do?"
He was only met with silence.
.oOo.
Some legends are told
Some turn to dust or to gold
