raised from the dead


Barty hovered outside the door, prickling his ears for any sign of noise within, his wand held tight in his grip. He'd tracked Regulus down to this abandoned old house in Shropshire, after he'd been missing for the last two days.

It was just like Regulus to go off after some dark creature with the intention of trying to destroy or capture it himself. Even though Barty had told him time and time again that he would always go with him, Regulus never wanted to risk bringing harm to Barty, or anyone else for that matter. He would much rather go and get himself killed, if it meant taking some other dark being along with him.

They'd heard about the Living Shroud on the wireless a few days before. Someone had brought it over illegally from the tropics, according to the witch on the radio. The owner hadn't been seen since he went into his house.

A group of Aurors had gone in after they received information from the Brazilian Ministry for Magic that they were missing a Lethifold from their Being Reservation, and the last person to enter the reservation was a British wizard with a peculiar interest in Dementors.

Only three of the Aurors emerged from the house, all apparently white as sheets and shivering, and subsequently had to take time off work. It was all the information Regulus needed to insist on trying to catch the creature.

"The Living Shroud!" Regulus had exclaimed excitedly. "I've never even heard of it!"

Barty had, and he tried to tell Regulus as much, but he was already packing a bag. Barty rushed off to the library, demanding that Regulus stay put while he went to get some books that would shed more light on the situation, but by the time he returned, Regulus was gone.

Which led Barty to where he was at that moment—standing behind the door, where he knew a flesh-eating, aggressive creature was probably eating his boyfriend, if it hadn't already done so. "Regulus Black, if you're not already dead, I'm going to kill you myself," he muttered, before shoving his shoulder into the door and bursting inside.

The inside of the abandoned house smelled like damp and something more coppery and metallic—blood. Barty swallowed his apprehension and started climbing the stairs that were across from the threshold.

There was a creak from one of the floorboards above, and Barty paused on the stairs. He wanted to call out to Regulus, but he also didn't want to draw any unnecessary attention to himself. He knew all about this creature—he'd learned about it at school—and he knew just how dangerous they were. He had to approach this with caution.

So he hovered at the edge of the stairs, pressing himself into the wall as he moved onto the upper floor. He wandered over to the only closed door and pressed his ear to the wood. He could barely hear anything within, except a slight, rippling sound, like a breeze was caught behind a curtain.

Just as Barty was about to carefully turn the handle, he heard a sudden cry from inside the room.

"Regulus?" he called. "Regulus, is that you?" He grabbed the door handle, but it wouldn't budge.

"B-Barty?" the voice replied. It was Regulus; he sounded weak, almost muffled. "Is that you?"

Barty struggled with the door again. "Let me in!"

"I can't," Regulus moaned. "I can't get out. I'm—I've been trapped in here! I've lost my wand."

Wand. Barty seemed to suddenly remember his wand, and he tapped the door with it urgently. "Alohomora!" The door swung open, revealing nothing but darkness inside. "Lumos."

Barty's wand-tip illuminated, and he cast the light inside the room before entering. To his immediate horror, he realised there was a body on the floor—a pale corpse with his terrified white face glaring up at the ceiling. Barty put his arm over his face when the smell of dead and rot assaulted his nostrils. The body looked as though it had been chewed; there were great chunks of flesh missing from the torso and limbs.

"Barty!" croaked Regulus, and Barty turned his wand to the source of the voice. Regulus was hiding down the side of a moth-eaten double bed. His robes were ripped and his face was deathly pale. "I'm sorry—I should have waited—I'm such an idiot—"

"How are you alive?" whispered Barty. "Just relax! Where is it?"

"I can't relax! I'm nervous!" Barty could see that Regulus was bristling with understandable tension. He looked past Barty with wide, fear-filled eyes. Barty followed his gaze, turning his wandlight towards the boarded-up window, where a ragged black drape hung on the rail. It was fluttering, which was strange, because there was no way a breeze could come through the window.

Despite being almost gossamer in appearance, with sheer, silvery edges and an ethereal, floaty presence, Barty realised that it was thick, which was unusual for a curtain. He scanned back in his mind to all of his lessons and his books.

"It's full," he murmured. "It's still digesting…him," he glanced down to the half-eaten corpse on the ground. "That's why you're still alive. It's keeping you here…until it finishes him off and it gets hungry again."

"It's going to keep you here now too," Regulus whispered. "You shouldn't have followed me, Barty, fuck—"

"Be quiet!" Barty insisted. "I'm thinking."

"It's waking up!"

"How do you know?" Barty eyeballed the curtain, watching the way it flickered slightly, then billowed in an imaginary wind.

Suddenly, it slipped away from the window, pooling to the ground fluidly, gracefully, like inky liquid. Barty staggered backwards as it moved towards him, before rearing up in front of him, stretched outwards like some kind of horrible, raven-black bedsheet.

"Barty!" shrieked Regulus.

Without thinking, Barty aimed his wand at the shroud. "Inferno!"

A jet of flames shot towards the shroud, and it responded with a horrible wailing sound, almost like nails down a chalkboard. The flames enveloped the creature but didn't do much else—they evaporated quickly, leaving it rearing up, seeming only angrier than before.

"I tried that too," Regulus said, his voice wobbling, "I think it ate my wand."

"Regulus, stop talking!" hissed Barty. The creature was moving closer, it was practically quivering in the air. "Oh…shit…erm…" he racked his brain for something, anything. "Expecto Patronum!"

It wasn't a full Patronus—he hadn't been able to think of anything happy enough on the spot—but a stream of bright, silvery light emitted from the end of his wand. It seemed to be enough, as the creature screeched again and seemed to shrink inwards on itself, cowering away from the charm. When Barty's spell waned, it was nothing but a shivering black mass on the hard wooden floor.

"We need to go," Barty whispered. "I don't think it's dead. It's just…"

"Yeah," Regulus struggled to his feet, and Barty grabbed his arm to steady him, holding him upright. He was weak, so Barty had to practically carry him to the door. "What about him?" he asked, nodding to the dead man on the floor.

"I don't think there's much we can do for him now," muttered Barty. "We need to get out of here."

He half-dragged Regulus down the stairs and out of the house, then tried his best to run with him until they got to the street. They both collapsed to the floor, panting for breath, and Barty grabbed Regulus by the shoulders. "I can't decide if I want to kiss you or strangle you!" he hissed. "You're hopeless, Regulus Black." He threaded his hand into the back of Regulus's hair and pulled his face closer, pressing their lips together firmly. "You're an idiot."

"I'm sorry," Regulus murmured, kissing Barty back headily, "I won't go off again. I promise."

"No, you fucking won't." Barty stood up and pulled Regulus to his feet. "Come on, we're going home. I need a strong Firewhisky."


Written For:

- Assignment #1/Egyptology Task #6: Write about trying to hide something, or someone.

- Character Collection: 85. Bartemius Crouch Junior

- Insane House Challenge: 131. (creature) Lethifold

- The Yearly Musical: 10. I'm tense and nervous and I can't relax

- 365 Prompts: 32. (word) Gossamer

- Writing Club/Book Club: 16. (spell) Inferno

- Writing Club/Film Festival: 20. (plot point) Rescuing a person you love

- Writing Club/Showtime: 27. (color) White

- Writing Club/Trope of the Month: 19. (dialogue) "I can't decide if I want to kiss you or strangle you."

- Writing Club/TV Spree: 12. (action) Hiding

- Writing Club/Amber's Anime: 16. (drink) firewhiskey

- Writing Club/Elizabeth's Empire: 2. (word) hopeless

- Writing Club/Ari's AU Armoury: 21. (action) running away

- NeonFae's Nibbles - Chocolate Orange Northumberland Twists: 3. (pairing) Barty/Regulus, 4. (genre) Horror

Word Count: 1,325