Chapter 9
WARNING
This chapter gets slightly dark later on.
Months went by and Hermione came up with a plan.
Maybe there was still time to change his mind. She doubted he would ever follow in his older brother's steps and abandon his family entirely, but she could still make him make some friends, and twist his already stretchable ideas even more.
She couldn't take Regulus out of Hogwarts to go to a muggle pub or a gallery, but she had him read muggle books, eat muggle sweets and talk to muggleborn students, although the last one didn't go so well the first few times and she had to give it up as the students always ran away terrified of his stare.
"What good does bringing mud-bloods do for anyone? You should bring me some more of those muggle biscuits instead" He said after Hermione's another failed attempt.
"But you already like the biscuits" She said sitting back in the chair after getting up in a hurry to try and catch the runaway student, she earlier managed to talk into joining her for a study session. The poor thing sat paralyzed, no doubt waiting for scary Regulus to eat her.
"Ah, so your master plan was to make me like them, so that you could now deprive me of them?" He drawled, upset about the lack of his favourite snack.
"Of course not, you can have as many as you want" She said passing him the bag of fresh biscuits that arrived in the mail for her this morning.
"I don't know why you still bother" He said stuffing his face with them "They always run before I even have a chance to say anything unpleasant to them"
It was getting harder for Hermione to find any volunteers. Majority of the student body began to avoid her as well due to the rumours that she was looking for pray for her master. Regulus found them especially amusing but Hermione was at her wits ends.
She could see Regulus too was getting annoyed but he never told her to stop. He never lashed out at her even though she could see he sometimes was close to it when he had a worse day or when she pushed him too much.
They never discussed the kiss, feelings between them became more apparent over the rest of the winter break and gradually they got even closer. They never were very affectionate with each other but the little rare gestures like hugs or kisses on the cheek, holding hands when no one was watching, were significant for both of them.
They were nothing official for obvious reasons, it simply wasn't safe, for either of them, but Hermione knew his feelings for her were genuine.
Days were calm and went by slow, until finally the dreaded Easter came.
Ever since they went their separate ways from the train station, they haven't contacted each other. Regulus thought it would have been safer that way, suspecting Voldemort might have tasked someone with watching him before the initiation.
Hermione focused on her research. It's been a long time since they worked out how she got here and Dumbledore gave her the new time tuner. But they still had nothing on how to send her back to the time she came from.
A week went by and Hermione started to get impatient, she missed him and was worried about him but she couldn't go to his house and risk being seen.
Then, two days later she was woken up in the middle of the night.
"Regulus, is that you?" She asked the shadow.
"I'm sorry for coming here so late, to your bedroom, I know it's improper but I… I just needed to see you" Regulus was standing in her bedroom, a few meters away from her bed. It was dark but she could feel he was upset. His voice sounded unstable. She lit the candle next to her bed.
"Come closer, here, sit with me" She patted the space next to her. He reluctantly did as she asked. He didn't look at her. They sat like that for a few minutes, and then he unbuttoned the sleeve of his shirt and pushed it down to reveal the dark mark.
"Here" He showed her. "I got it three days ago." He whispered as she traced it with her fingers, down the vile tattoo on his left forearm.
"Why didn't you come earlier?" She asked softly looking at him but he still avoided her eyes.
"I wanted to wait it out, in case they were still watching me. And, I couldn't face you"
"Has anything, happened during the initiation?" She asked softly.
Regulus sighted loudly.
"To become a death eater, to get the mark and join his inner circle you must first show, loyalty, to the Dark Lord." He swallowed hard. "Apparently, my young age didn't err, make me an exception. They brought in a muggle girl, a child. They said they wanted to test my magical… ability. Do you know what the Unforgivable Curses are?"
"They are the most powerful and sinister spells known to the Wizarding world. Cruciatus curse, Imperius curse and the Killing curse, they carry an automatic life sentence in Azkaban" She replied in a quiet but steady voice.
"I used them on her. She couldn't have been older than thirteen. Do you know what she said when I tortured her? She said her older sister is a witch, she was so desperately trying to tell me about it, like that could save her life." His lips curled into a sneer and he sniggered cynically.
"And then she told me her name. It sounded familiar but it was only after I had returned home that I remembered where I heard that name before. The name of her sister. It was Jane Collins." Hermione gasped, and he finally looked her in the eyes.
"I killed your friend's sister, Hermione" He said in a heavy, broken voice. "It is an honour to be branded by him as one of his own, but I find myself unable to fall asleep, I can't stop hearing her screams in my head."
"If you could fall asleep easily after what you did you'd be a monster" She stated. "It's the first time you killed someone Regulus, an adult would struggle to sleep, you are only 15."
"I am a monster. I became one three days ago." He swallowed hard. "That little girl... She begged me to stop but I had to do it. I didn't want to but I had to do it." A tear escaped from his eyes and ran down his face, and suddenly Hermione found tears forming in her own eyes. "I'm so sorry" He whispered and she threw her arms around him. They cried together for hours until they fell asleep in each other's arms.
Few weeks later Hermione sat in her Divination class.
Back in her third year, Trelawney said Hermione had no talent for her subject, which was quite ironic considering Hermione was a descendant of Morgana, who was a seer.
Thankfully for her it was her great aunt Amelia who inherited that particular skill, which seemed to have been the second most troublesome in the family, Klaus's gift of seeing the dead being the first of course.
Hermione smirked thinking about her Divination professor whose only predictions seemed to be those of the deaths of her students. It seemed ridiculous that the same Sybille Trelawney was sitting only a few meters away from Hermione. She was a skinny girl, dressed in Ravenclaw robes and with thick large glasses. She still boasted about her great ancestry and predicted only death.
Hermione hoped that by the 6th year, divination would get more practical but she was wrong. The old hag who currently taught, kept on talking some gibberish to the lot of them that sounded irrational and far-fetched. They were meant to be combining crystal gazing with bibliomancy for the rest of the month. Hermione couldn't help but wander off to where her mind seemed to take her often these days. And more precisely Regulus.
Returning to Hogwarts after Easter was quite a challenge for him. Jane was walking around crying and looking miserable for weeks and somehow Regulus happened to always be nearby with an image of untainted guilt plastered on his face.
For a few weeks after he had gotten the mark, it hurt pretty bad. She saw him wince in pain at least four times a day even though he tried to hide it around her. Of course, Grandfather Claudius found out as her great aunt Amelia had a vision.
He made some druidic ointment to ease the pain and showed her how to make it. Hermione was of course delighted to find that it came straight from one of those dark books she always avoided, but he told her that such dark magic can only be helped by something equally as dark, and she couldn't argue with the logic of it.
When they returned to Hogwarts after the summer, she sometimes sneaked out to the potions lab at night to make more of it as through the mark stopped hurting, it burnt every time Voldemort called his death eaters to him. Regulus of course couldn't leave the grounds and respond to the call but he could still feel it.
He tried to hide the pain from her at first but after she began making the ointment for him regularly, he was slightly lowering his guard if it was just the two of them. He was to stay vigilant at all other times. If anyone found out there was a death eater on school grounds, Regulus would find himself in a mortal danger
It was now October 1977, over two years have passed since Hermione travelled back in time.
During the summer Regulus was called for very often. He rarely spoke of what he saw or had to do but quite often Hermione found herself having to make very strong sleeping potions and hold him so he could fall asleep.
A few times he had come to her crying after he returned from whatever mission Voldemort had him go on. He revealed to her that there were some amazing perks of being in his inner circle, all the power and knowledge was priceless, Voldemort had been teaching him some powerful dark magic, things ordinary wizards couldn't even dream of.
But not all of it was so wonderful, because at the end of the day Regulus had to pay up by doing his bidding and some of it was… more than a 16-year-old could handle.
Voldemort was testing him, and it was getting easier doing what he asked for, with no emotions and no feelings attached. But, when he came back home or went to see Hermione after the job done, it all started to come out crushing down on him. He said he was only glad he could keep his humiliating moments of weakness behind the closed doors, where nobody, especially the Dark Lord, could see him.
Other than a several sleepless nights, and less time spent together, nothing much changed for them. Hermione was impressed with Regulus not allowing himself to be wholly consumed by the organisation he was now a part of and whatever Voldemort was teaching him, he was still the same boy he was when she first met him.
One good thing that came out of those teachings was that Regulus was able to come up with a theory and Hermione connected pieces together into a plan that would take her back to her time, had about fifty percent of succeeding and it all depended on Draco Malfoy.
The theory was that if Hermione jumped in the lake with the time tuner and an object that was there when she left in the future, it could take her back to that exact moment. So, Hermione thought about it and the answer led to the only person who was there with her when she fell in. One thing that Draco had in the future on him (If he jumped in after her) that they could obtain in the past was the Malfoy family ring.
It was unlikely that Draco went swimming with it on in the Hogwarts lake more than once. So, the plan was get the ring, jump into the lake with it and the time tuner and hope it works.
But to make sure that Draco gets the ring in the future, Hermione would then have to send the ring with the time tuner back to Regulus, which would also let him know that they were successful and that she got back safe. Provided Draco Malfoy was a gentleman enough to dip his privileged ass in the Hogwarts lake in attempt to save her.
They decided that Regulus would retrieve the ring from Lucius Malfoy during the Winter break. So now all they had to do was wait.
Hermione was staring into the crystal ball thinking about Regulus. To her surprise the fog began to change its form. She saw biscuits, a black crow and books...
But that meant… Regulus?
Biscuits were a very clear sign, the black crow was in the crest of the Noble House of Black, and the books must have referred to his fondness for learning magic, especially the dark sort...
"Did you see anything Miss Granger?" The professor asked.
"No, no I didn't, just the white fog"
Hermione reached for a book that was on the table and opened it on a random page.
Water, thirst, locket, sacrifice
What?
Hermione shook her head. Thinking it must have been wrong she closed the book and re-opened it but it opened on the same page.
Dismissing the strange afternoon lesson as result of stress and too much day dreaming about Regulus, Hermione forgot about it and carried on with her daily life. It wasn't until a few days later that she thought about it again after she accidentally looked into Regulus's cup and saw the tea leafs had formed into a grim.
A dread filled her body for it mean death. She hoped it didn't mean anything, maybe it just meant that he was a death eater and not that he would actually die? Feeling restless Hermione wrote a letter to her great aunt Amelia asking her for druid cards. They came a few days later with a reply from her aunt. She put them away for two days, debating whether she should use them or not.
She finally gave in after she uncovered something disturbing in ancient runes. It was a game they played, randomly picking runes and exchanging them to read the numeric meaning, that would give them their lucky and unlucky number and a spare that forces both to come to pass. When Regulus passed her his selection she could not help but notice the symbolic meaning of the runes:
The Spiral - represents the journey from blind to enlightenment
Triple Moon - represents the phases, life death and rebirth
The Ankh - essence of life force energy, following infinity, eternal life
Did that mean Regulus would learn of something and that would lead to his death? The spare meant immortality but how did all that tie together? She couldn't ignore it anymore; the signs were too many to ignore. After the lesson Hermione went straight to her room and took the cards out.
After three different readings Hermione decided the message, however vague, was clear. Regulus would die in the near future and not of natural causes.
She decided not to tell him about her discovery, and instead she found a new goal.
How to save Regulus from his early death?
Defying fate was not a fool's play, and defying death was definitely something she would have to put a lot of effort in.
After weeks of research she was running out of time. It was very likely that she would have to return home after at the winter break if Regulus was successful and if they wanted to return the ring before Lucius noticing it was gone. Hermione had wasted time looking though the legal sort of magic. She knew she wasn't going to find anything in those types of books, but it was worth a try. She moved on to the Restricted section and found something that could have just worked.
"What do you know about Blood magic?" she asked out of nowhere, making Regulus look up at her like he was seeing her for the first time.
"May I ask why the sudden interest?" He tried to scan her face for any clues as to why did she ask him about such dark pureblood magic when in all the years he knew her, she never shown any interest in it.
"Well, you see I came across it in one of these books and it seems to suggest it's all mighty and powerful but it isn't even widely practiced as it's personal to each pureblood family that inherited it and I just thought they make such a big deal out of it in this book like it's so important but it's probably nothing, never mind, forget I asked" She wasn't going to ask him directly about it, she had to rill him up a bit first.
"But it is important" He hissed. "Blood magic is so powerful it can even reverse death" Oh is that so….?
"How?" She blinked happy that Regulus was walking straight into her web.
"By using blood of course. Pure blood. Otherwise it wouldn't be strong enough." Surely druidic blood of a descended of the great witch Morgana Pendragon would be sufficient.
"Teach me" She demanded, startling him.
"I beg your pardon?" Regulus asked looking at her as if she went crazy.
"Well it's not like you have anything better to do right now, and I want to learn it just in case" She watched as his eyebrows narrowed as he was examining her face no doubt looking for her true intensions.
"You do realise it's a very dark magic, right?" She knew, but it's not like Harry or Ron or anyone in the future would find out besides as long as she didn't make a habit of using it, Hermione would be fine. She thought it through.
"Yes I know, but it doesn't matter. Show me how it works" She insisted.
"Why do you want to learn it so badly?" he looked at her with suspicion in his eyes. She couldn't blame him, her request stood out from the norm and she knew she couldn't fool him. "It's not like I don't want to teach you but this is a very strange request coming from your mouth"
"Because you said it's important and I wanted to see things from your perspective" She made an excuse but he still wasn't buying it. "And I need it for something in the future, but I can't tell you about that"
"Is that so?" He smirked amused. "I'm intrigued Hermione." He was looking at her fondly. She felt bad for manipulating him like this but she was breaking her own rules to save him.
"Fine. Meet me in the Come and go room at midnight" He said with a smirk. Success! Hermione kissed him on the cheek and left to prepare herself.
The midnight came and Hermione found herself sneak out of the common room. Something she became accustomed to over the years and something that became a habit since the start of the 6th year. She slowly made her way to the Room of Requirements in the darkness, not wanting to wake any portraits.
It was very dark but Hermione knew her way around the castle too well by now. Walking down one of the corridors, she felt the energy in the walls shirt and stopped to see the entrance appear before her.
There it is…
She opened the door and entered quietly. Stealth was key in not getting caught as she learned over the years. Her friendship with Regulus turned out to be educative in more ways than one. She thought all this hanging around a Slytherin had impact on her.
Hermione noticed Regulus immediately. He was drawing some symbols on the floor with white chalk. She walked up closer. There were some very old books piled up on the side. A candle, few vials, a digger and a rat in a small metal cage.
"What's the rat for?" She heard herself ask.
"The sacrifice part" He replied shortly. She felt uneasy with the straightforward and unbothered tone in which he replied, but then she remembered he must have done this many times by now. Killing that is. She wasn't a fool, she knew Regulus had by now killed many people, killing a small rat must have felt like nothing much to him.
Hermione sat down between all the symbols he drew and he sat down right across, facing her. He put the three books in front of her.
"These are full of spells, curses and rituals that the House of Black collected over the centuries. It's kind of family only and I shouldn't really be showing these to anyone because, you know, each pureblood family has their own and others aren't really supposed to know about Blood magic but you're very convincing so here we are." He said but Hermione knew he was enjoying this more than he was letting on. He opened the first book and turned the pages to show her all kinds of spells that were in it.
"There is quite a lot of different things here, you can curse someone, kill someone, save a life or extend it. I used that one before, that's how my father is still here and not five feet under ground, pushing up the daisies.
The formula is the same, they all require the use of pure blood, few drops is enough. I have no idea how it would work for you since druids have their own blood magic but I don't know anything about it yet, so do feel free to share if you ever choose to explore that part of your grandfather's library."
Regulus showed her how casting the spell worked. He asked her if there was anyone she wanted to curse or kill but she replied with a very decisive NO, making him chuckle.
"Honestly Hermione, I have no idea why you insist on learning this." He said feeling conflicted about her request.
He then suggested they would try and extend Orion's life.
Regulus told her the spell had to be redone every couple of months, as he was killing rats to do this. So, it was only convenient that he could show her how the blood magic worked and get that renewed in the process. He told her that the spell only kept him from dying from the curse he was under, but it wouldn't keep him from dying is someone was to kill him for example using the killing curse, or by poisoning him.
Regulus opened the book on the spell he needed to use. He had Hermione recite the spell for him as he sliced the palm of his right hand and let the blood drip onto the page. He then took the rat out of the cage and asked her if she wanted to do the deed.
He looked genuinely surprised when she said yes.
She passed him the book and he gave her the rat and the dagger that still had his blood on it. He instructed her on where to stab it and Hermione, reciting the words from the book, thrust the blade in.
Regulus finished the spell off and the candles went out. The candles weren't a big part of the spell; they were there to let you know that the spell was complete.
Regulus was staring at the girl in front of him. She has been looking at the blood on her hands for the past few minutes as if she were in a trance. He didn't expect her to say yes, and when she did he still thought maybe she back out and ask him to do it instead. But she did it and he suspected the druid in her gave her the strength to do it.
Hermione was a gentle and a soft girl, and not everyone could do what he did, especially at their age. Killing wasn't something you could get used to and it certainly wasn't easy the first time one did it. No matter what or who you killed.
"Are you okay?" He asked her and she seemed to shake it off. She slowly replied she was fine, but her eyes didn't leave her hands. He closed the book and got up. He took his wand and performed a cleaning spell leaving her hands without any more red stains on them. He apparated the dead rat away and moved closer to Hermioner.
"Come here" He said softly embracing her. She hugged him back. They sat like that for a long while.
There was a difference between killing a human and killing a rat, but it was the act of taking away life that counted. Later Hermione asked if she could borrow the books for a short while and he agreed. He even suggested that he give her some of his blood in a vial, in case she needed it.
For the next few days Hermione studied the books in search for anything that would protect Regulus from his early death. She found a binding spell of a sort that meant she could tie up their lifelines together, meaning that one couldn't die as long as the other was still alive.
The spell alone couldn't stop him from being killed but it would keep his soul from dying for as long as she was alive, and that meant she had a chance of bringing him back to live after she returned to her time. It wasn't ideal, but it was all she had.
Hermione enacted the ritual. She felt like she was invading on Regulus's trust by using his blood in this way, but she needed to do this. She couldn't let him just die.
She wasn't using all of it, she kept some of his blood to take with her to the future.
She sliced the palm of her hand and watched the blood drop. The spell was long and complicated. And it was painful. After completing the spell, the candles went out, which left her feeling exhausted.
Hermione cast a bunch of protection spells on their blood. She then transfigured the vials into two silver pendants, one for her and one for Regulus. She engraved the runes of The Ankh and The Triple Moon on the front and the back and finished the second part of the enchantment.
She of course had to conceal them, Regulus was too clever, he would work it out in no time. The runes meant the essence of the life force energy against the phases of life, death and rebirth. She couldn't believe the darkness she was dipping her fingers into but she couldn't stop now. She poured a small amount of blood in both and sealed them. After casting some last protection spell on the pendants to ensure their unbreakability, Hermione cleaned up leaving no trace of her activities and went to sleep.
"Were you trying to kill me last night?" Regulus came up to her before breakfast, and dragged her into an alcove, he was looking down at her with his arms folded. It looked like she wasn't the only one who felt the pain of the spell, she was using his blood as well as her own after all.
"I'm done with your books I will return them later to you. I couldn't find what I was looking for I made us some nice pendants." She said showing him her own that was around her neck.
"This one is for you" She took the other pendant out and reached around his neck to put it on him. He didn't hear her whisper a spell that made sure he would keep it on. He looked at it and then hid it behind his robes like she did. "I put some protection spells on them so don't try to open it, because if you do, both of them will stop working" She added.
"Is that all you did last night?" He asked looking into her eyes.
"Yes, of course." She lied easily with a smile on her face. They were in an empty corridor, that was rarely used. Regulus pushed her gently against the wall and kissed her.
"I hope you know you have my full trust and my greatest affection, that's why I will let this go" He drawled against her lips. "But don't for a second think you have me fooled Hermione. I know you did something more than just a protection spell, I felt every bit of it. As much as I, myself love to experiment, I would prefer if next time you disclosed the details of your midnight indulgences if they involve me, do you understand?" He said in a soft tone but every single world slowly pierced through her soul and it made her blood run cold.
He took a step back. "Thank you for the pendant, it is beautiful like you. I will never take it off" He smiled not breaking their eye contact.
"No, you won't be able to. I might have made your attachment to it more… permanent, shall we say" She tilted her head innocently, and his smile slipped. His hand automatically reached for the pendant noticing he in fact couldn't remove it.
"You little minx" He smirked. "When did you become so sneaky and so devious" He hugged her, looking at her with affection in his eyes.
"Must be your influence" She winked.
He laughed.