"Well, that went well," was the first cohesive and clear thing out of Romilly's mouth once the three of them had escaped to the nearest belltower outside of town and sent Reginald flying back to Romania.
The city in the distance was in chaos, people screaming, massive billowing towers of smoke coming up from a few places, and police and Aurors alike running wild, trying to minimize the damage. What a breathtaking view, Fae thought, grinning.
The second thing out of Romilly's mouth was, "So. You came crawling back after all."
Her dry and sharp words made Fae want to laugh. Clearly, she had some lingering ill will towards Regulus for having been stupid enough to leave them in the first place. However, Regulus wasn't having it.
Completely disregarding how covered in rubbish he was, the black-haired boy rushed toward her and swept the unsuspecting blonde up in a tight, spinning hug. "Romilly! I'm so glad to see you!"
Romilly yelped and looked like she was unsure whether she should panic or hug him back. "Fae, are you sure we got the right guy?" she asked.
Regulus laughed and set her down, holding her shoulders and pushing back so they could look each other in the face. "It's me!"
Romilly blinked and poked his cheek. "Fucking- did we break him? Did the Death Eaters fuck with his head?"
"Oh, I especially missed your sass!" Regulus cried, before launching himself forward to hug her again.
Finally, her brain caught up and Romilly immediately attempted to pry off his constricting arms and shove him away, scrambling like an unhappy cat. "Dude, what the fuck, get off! You're covered in blood and guts!"
"I don't even care, I'm free!"
Fae laughed delightedly and jumped on them for a group hug. "You're free!"
Regulus was free from the Death Eaters. He was home and he was never going back. They would never let him go again. Romilly continued struggling and eventually escaped their grasp, only for the both of them to yank her back into a hug, laughing wickedly and hysterically and free. Fae loosened her arms and stayed curled into Regulus' side while Romilly got out and stayed held to his other side. Regulus kept his arms around both their shoulders, unwilling to let go just yet.
They looked back out over Rome and the havoc they had wreaked. Two more Death Eaters dead, one captured by the Italian Government, not before Fae burned the fuck out of the magic receptors in his hands and snapped his wand, and one Death Eater to run home to his little boss and tell him just how badly he, and the others had failed. Voldemort would probably be enraged and, if she was lucky, kill off the messenger.
It wasn't like her to leave survivors or any of her enemies free, not when they could just turn right around and hurt her loved ones again. But, she needed one to go back and tell Voldemort that Regulus Black was dead. Regulus Black was dead and Kent Delacroix, soon to be Acosta, was here and free and free to tell her all of Voldemort's dirty little secrets.
"I think this calls for a celebration," Fae announced.
Romilly got to meet Kent and then Fae slipped under the Cloak of Invisibility while they raced down the stairs of the belltower. Well, those two raced. Fae jumped right off the top and spelled the ground beneath her to catch her like a beanbag chair. They met at the bottom, clasped hands, and apparated back into Rome.
Loose in the city once more, the first thing they did was pick the most expensive, extravagant, extra hotel they could find and rent out it's best room. There were long, luxurious baths and bubbles and champagne. Then there were spa services with service paid to be subtle, because money really does buy everything sometimes. Under disguise, it looked hilariously like a rich business man spending a weekend of debauchery with two escorts. They enjoyed hours of pampering and massages and hot tubs while Regulus pumped Romilly for every little detail of her adventures over the past few years.
When they returned to their hotel suite, there were massive spreads of food and more champagne and music and dancing that led them out onto their balcony. They twirled and twirled and got more and more drunk until they all fell over giggling. Then there was nothing except love in their silence together.
"It's been so long since I could just enjoy the stars," Regulus said a while later.
Fae hummed and snuggled deeper into his side. "Don't get too comfy - we need to move on and get to work tomorrow. This war won't win itself," she said, both a reminder to them and herself.
Romilly laughed wickedly. "More's the better. I pity that Dark Lord and I fear for the world should you ever turn dark."
"She's already plenty dark," Regulus said. Then he took another deep swig of his champagne and said, "I fear for the world if anything happens to Remus Lupin."
"What? Fae, don't tell me you're still into him," Romilly said, sitting up and leaning over Regulus' body to poke Fae. Or well, she was probably just pointing at her, but had swerved and fallen over a little too far. In the middle, Regulus wheezed under her weight, but looked quite comfortable for the most part and quite unwilling to move. Not that he could, still pinned between the two girls.
A sharp laugh escaped his mouth. "Oh, you have no idea. I was probably the most lenient boyfriend in the world - those two are super gross and what's worse is they don't even realize it." he said.
Fae dug her face into his shoulder and whined. She didn't want to think about Remus right now. Everything was good and happy and thinking of him just made the ache in her gut noticeable again. "Can we not talk about this?"
"Ohhhh is little Fae missing her loverboy?" Romilly teased, stealing the bottle from Regulus and taking another drink. She missed a little bit and some champagne splashed onto Regulus' bath robe.
"Keep talking, see what happens," Fae threatened. It was an empty threat and they all knew it - she was too drunk and relaxed and happy to do jack shit.
Regulus giggled. "You should've seen them at Christmas, all wrapped up on the couch with baby Potter, looking like a picture perfect family while poor Kent played chess with the weird uncle," he said, giving Fae a look full of wiggling eyebrows and drunken, loopy smirks.
"That's not-"
"And the look on Remus' face when I proposed, it was hysterical!"
Fae sat up a bit and frowned at him. "What? What look?"
Regulus and Romilly shot her twin, smug, shit-eating grins full of implication.
Fae blushed and flopped back down, stealing the champagne bottle and finishing it off. "You know what, no. I don't need to know and we don't need to talk about this."
Even though she'd really like to know. Sort of. No. No, she didn't need to know. She knew he probably would've looked sad, he'd always been nervous that she and Kent would get married and she'd end up moving away or something. Nope. No way would Remus have been jealous or heartbroken or anything and imagining that look on his face was not doing her any favors.
"So what are you thinking? Summer wedding?" Romilly asked playfully, summoning another bottle from their room. It soared out onto the balcony and then kind of just kept going right past them and over the edge, falling onto one of the lower roofs of the hotel. Regulus laughed hysterically and dropped the bottle of champagne he'd been summoning as well. It fell to the ground, miraculously did not break, and rolled towards them.
"WHAT!" Fae screeched.
"Try never - those two are complete chickens," Regulus said between gasps for air. "No, my bet is they'll just grow old and die together, still insisting they're just best friends."
"We're not-"
"Ha! You're probably right. Fine with me, being Maid of Honor and organizing a wedding for those two dumbasses sounds like a pain anyways," Romilly said sagely.
"Hey, who said you'd be the Maid of Honor?" Regulus argued.
"You guys suck," Fae whined, flopping around for the bottle of champagne that had rolled towards them. When she found it, she opened it and aimed the cork to shoot at Romilly. Then she refused to share. Her cheeks were still burning red - from the alcohol, definitely.
Of course, her best friends were cute and were unstoppable when they combined forces so they chased her drunkenly into the hotel room, pinned her to the bed, stole her champagne, and drank it down. Then they started eating chocolate without letting her have some, still just flopped on top of her, as they continued to tease her about Remus.
"Fuck this, we're celebrating! We need tequila!" Fae yelled.
"I second that!" Romilly said laughing.
They looked to Regulus in unison and he blinked at them. Then sighed and staggered to the phone to call up for some more liquor. "FIiiinnnneee."
"Thank you Regulus!" the two girls chimed. As he got up, Fae bucked Romilly off and then jumped on her to smother her with a pillow.
There was no way Fae was going to go out with Sirius every Saturday night, watch him get hammered, and then go shopping with him amazingly un-hungover at 6am the next day for years without learning how he did it. It was a bit of a brutal spell he'd invented, but the few seconds of discomfort were worth it. Especially because Fae wasn't sharing and now she got to drag her wrecked best friends out of bed, into clothes, and to the portkey at 5 in the morning where no one was around to see them. And then onto the train. They bitched and whined and moaned the whole time. Traitors fucking deserved it, ganging up on her like that.
She grinned at them as they gingerly drank their coffee and ate breakfast slowly.
"Alright, you both sufficiently alive enough to start this meeting?" she asked, not bothering to keep her voice down. There was no need to be quiet - Regulus had bought out the entire train car and they were set up luxuriously once again, settled into cushy chairs around a table as they world flew by.
"Define 'alive'."
"I blame you," Romilly said, shoving Regulus.
"Me?"
Romilly huffed and laid her head on the table, pressing it against a cold plate. "You kept buying more wine."
He scoffed. "You kept asking for more wine!"
"Guys," Fae said, voice extremely loud and sharp. They both winced and she smirked.
"Fucking bitch," Regulus said, moaning and settling his head on the table as well.
"I second that."
"I love you both too."
Eventually, they did sober up. Breakfast was eaten and squared away, leaving them in the train car with coffee and cakes. The attendants had been instructed not to return for the next hour on pain of death. Or with a few hefty bills slipped into their hands.
"Yeah, okay, let's get down to brass tacks," Regulus said.
Fae beamed. "Great! Regulus, you got everything on your way out?"
He nodded and began laying out quite a few things on the table, listing them off as he went. "List and photos of current confirmed Death Eaters, list of supporters, list of suppliers, four disguise-charmed pieces of jewelry, two Horcruxes, a taboo, and a partridge in a pear tree."
It was a gorgeous display. Everything was nice and neat, the lists written out cleanly and with plenty of photos. Kent's glasses were accompanied by an offensively large diamond ring for Charlese and two earring studs for Isla. Beside them, Tom Riddle's Diary and Helga Hufflepuff's Cup were sitting, smelling of rot and staining the cabin with darkness, but otherwise harmless. The curses had already been removed and shouldn't cause any emotional turmoil or magic fuckery while in close quarters.
"Excellent. Nice work."
Romilly eyed the Horcruxes and then flicked idly through the list of current Death Eaters. "Wow. You know, for some reason I thought He-Who-Must-Be-Wrecked's army was bigger than this."
Regulus shrugged. "Nope. This is it, so long as he doesn't get any more followers. And it's only getting smaller."
"Awesome," Fae said, reaching for the list herself. "Who can we strike out?"
There were plenty of names she recognized and many that she didn't, about 100 or so total. Kind of weak, considering he'd been working on this for years. But then again, how many rich purebloods even were there in the UK? And not all of them were on board, clearly. The list of supporters, financial, political, and supplies, was bigger, but not unmanageable. Oh, he'd ordered them in terms of importance and helpfulness. Regulus was as much a nerd as Remus was sometimes.
"Strike out Perseus Bellwether, Castillo Selwyn, Haron Slughorn, Evan Rosier, Jackson Hemmingsworth, Tiamet Reeves, Thomasin Manford, and Julius Jugson. Ah, better strike out Milton Mulciber as well. If he runs, they'll hunt him down and if he goes back and reports what happened, he's dead. Oh, and, Regulus Black, of course. Actually, let me strike that out."
That was 10 down. Best game of bingo, ever. "Lovely. Who can we expect him to send next?" Fae asked, eyeing a few names excitedly.
Regulus added a dash beside a few names on the list. "These six are his best trackers. He'll likely send them out in pairs to find us and then send another large ambush to make sure the job gets done this time."
"Not the Lestranges or Carrows?" Fae asked, disappointed.
"No, too important, he'll want them close."
"That's too bad, I was hoping to off them, use their bones to spell out a little something for their boss," she said. Then paused and hummed thoughtfully before taking out her most special, favorite notebook. " I suppose I still could when we get back in to London later. Would be a nice way to call him out for the finale. I'll have to add it to my to-do list."
Romilly gave her a fond smile and rolled her eyes, before turning to Regulus. "Any chance they'll find us?"
He shook his head and grinned. "Not likely, especially with where we're going. And we're covered if they get close anyways."
"What do you mean by that?" Romilly asked.
"Remember when I got revenge on Avery and Gibson back in fifth year for poisoning me with amaryllis? And we had that cute little charm that made them grow flowers whenever they said the magic word?" Fae asked cheerfully, conjuring a few flowers into the teapot for whimsical funsies.
The blonde mulled it over, came to a realization, and smiled. "How?"
Regulus was all too happy to answer. "With your guys' stunt in Paris, Volde-fuck called all his Death Eaters together to make her," he paused to point at Fae, to which Fae struck a pose, and then he continued, "the prime target. All I had to do was add a little curse to the tea, easy with Kreacher's help, and voila."
"That's brilliant" Romilly said, grinning sharply. "So what's the magic word?"
"Fae Potter, of course."
If Voldemort could use the Taboo to find people, then so could Fae, she figured. Or avoid them. It was a little different than the Taboo, and less complicated. Instead of cursing a word to ping anytime anyone used it, they had cursed a particular set of people to reveal their location everytime they said a word. Poor Regulus must be annoyed to hell and back with how aware he must be of Voldemort and his groupies right now. Taking one for the team, that boy.
"And as if that wasn't enough, Regulus has supplied us with some funny little shinys and I've forged us some identities to help us travel pretty undetected," Fae said, pushing each of the specialty Black charmed disguises to their respective owners and settling down the IDs and identification papers she'd printed. Learning how to forge documents and then print them had been a fun little side project at work.
Kent was back with a vengeance, but with slightly longer blonde hair. He was also now Kent Acosta, recently married to the tall, beautiful, pin-straight dirty blonde-haired Charlese Acosta, who was missing Romilly's freckles, tan skin, and rough, gloved hands. No thick-rimmed glasses or gapped teeth or sharp, squinty eyes. Instead, big blues and bold, plush red lips and carefully manicured fingers.
Traveling apart from them and rarely seen was the pale-skinned, red-haired, grey-eyed, curvacious and thicc Isla Reynolds.
"Oh ha ha," Regulus said, glancing down at his ID. Romilly glanced at her's, then at his, and then sighed and rolled her eyes.
Fae grinned. "I thought it was funny. Anyways, you guys get to pose as a couple on honeymoon and I'll either follow in the Invisibility Cloak or travel close by. The Death Eaters are looking only for me and I'd like to keep it that way."
It was imperative that Regulus never be discovered. If Voldemort knew he lived and was with Fae, then it was only a short jump to the Horcruxes. Not to mention, what would happen to him, or Romilly, if they were caught helping Fae. No, they had to lay low and stay safe.
"Right. So what's next?"
"Setting up home base."
The train took them 50 miles southwest of London to a small town called Petersfield. Fae had found it casually while mapping out a traveling route to Newquay and St. Ives way back when. It was actually exactly what she'd been looking for and later on, Regulus had gone out to scout the area. She thought it was funny, appropriately named for what would be the final showdown. Once off the train, they took a cab through the small town, the farmlands and the wide open plains, to an old, abandoned brick castle. A tourist stop - probably had some history that Remus would love to geek about.
Now, it was theirs and with some teamwork and a few complex charms, only the first few rooms and winding staircases remained available to any tourist who should happen to come by. They would loop through it over and over, thinking it much smaller than it was, and eventually leave, none the wiser that two clever witches and a wizard were inhabiting the rooms further back and plotting the downfall of a dark lord. And bitching about the lack of indoor plumbing.
"It's perfect," Fae said, spinning around what she imagined to be a throne room. "Obscure, discrete, and ready for wreckage with minimal collateral." There were a few more stone buildings around, the remains of some old battle front or tiny village. A church two miles between them and town. A few farms to the north. Ocean to the south. Some woods to the west. Mostly just rolling land.
"If you say so. I could stand for a few more amenities," Romilly said, idly casting cleaning charms around the king's bedchambers that they'd all most likely be sharing.
"Agreed," Regulus said, adding an insulation charm and some cooling. He hated summer humidity.
Fae laughed, conjured a large bed with tons of blankets and cushions, ran, and jumped on it. "I wouldn't worry about the quality of accommodations. We won't be here for long. We've got some Horcruxes to steal," she said, stretching luxuriously and then patting beside her for Regulus and Romilly to join her. They did - travel worn and slightly hungover still.
They rose again near to sunset, Charlese heading into town to pick up some dinner. Fae went over her plans whilst exploring the castle and Regulus found the kitchen. He pried open a brick inside the oven which was ancient and built into the walls. The Horcruxes were settled into the hole and then sealed them away, safe and hidden where nobody would think to look.
Over dinner, they discussed the Horcruxes. They laid out their food on a blanket in the middle of Fae's favorite room, the throne room, and Romilly asked Regulus all her questions, satisfying her curiosity. Then Fae explained what would happen next. The plan was to destroy them all at once so Voldemort would have no clue until it was too late. They knew of four so far, two of which they had and two of which they'd be going to retrieve beginning tomorrow.
Following the pattern of what objects were used, analyzing Voldemort's known timeline as he rose to power, and considering the nature of Horcruxes in general, Regulus and Romilly came to a pretty accurate conclusion. The diary was his first one - the dark form of it was shaky and his presence in it was clearly obvious. It was a test and it put the first one made while he was younger. Thanks to the dated printer's mark of the diary itself - a popular product from the early 1940's - they decided likely during his time at Hogwarts
The ring was hidden in the ruins of the Gaunt house. Regulus, a fellow pureblood and one of the sacred twenty-eight, of course knew about the Gaunt family and the scandal that had occurred in 1943 when the last known member of the family had killed an entire house of muggles and been sent to Azkaban.
Then Helga Hufflepuff's cup went missing and it's owner was murdered in 1946.
They didn't know when the locket had been acquired, but it was likely in that time period and through similar means. It was highly unlikely that Voldemort had made a Horcrux every time he murdered someone or every year or something. It was an extremely dark, unstable, magically complicated procedure. Couldn't just do it willy nilly. For the most part anyways. So he tested it with a personal possession, continued the trend with a second personal possession, and then moved onto culturally significant items which he had access to thanks to his job. Or perhaps he had chosen that job for that reason.
As it stood, that was two personal objects, and then an item of Hufflepuff and Slytherin each that he'd gotten while at Borgin and Burkes between 1945 and 1950. Horcurxes made in 1942, 1943, then in 1946, and highly likely at least one more before he left his job and disappeared. Six total, Regulus and Romilly were guessing. One more for Ravenclaw and Gryffindor each. Regulus had already looked through Borgin and Burkes, wondering if maybe there was another Horcrux hidden there already in plain sight with instructions for it not to be sold. No luck. But he did find a manifest of inventory for the last thirty years and had mined it for any item relating to Hufflepuff and Gryffindor, figuring Voldemort may have gotten his hands on them and hidden them before or without Regulus' help.
They'd also done extensive research on Gryffindor and Ravenclaw in general, notable figures and items specific to them in history. That left them with a list of 13 items which had gone missing at some point and could be Horcruxes. After retrieving the other two known Horcruxes, they'd be off on a treasure hunt, of which both had already found several leads in the past months. It had been one of Romilly's side jobs after all, and she'd actually already taken 2 items off the list.
Fae was wildly impressed by her best friends. And also, annoyed that it took Dumbledore of the no-longer-future so fucking long to figure it out. She hadn't quite figured out yet how to get them to Hogwarts to find Ravenclaw's Diadem or how to get them to come to the conclusion that there was no object for Gryffindor. However, she'd cross that bridge eventually. There was a good chance that they'd get there by process of elimination while Fae ran her own little errands, after all.
Meanwhile, they had some more time to figure out how to destroy the Horcruxes and Fae was more concerned about that. Fiendfyre was good and all, but she'd feel better if they had a few ideas, ideally to use simultaneously. Romilly and Regulus truly were pretty brilliant, there was a good chance they'd find something.
The next day, they set off for the ring. It was right where he'd left it - hidden in the ruins and cursed to hell and back. Romilly and Fae peered over Regulus' shoulder excitedly as he undertook the long and arduous process of rendering it harmless. Occasionally, they asked questions and pointed at the magic trace curiously.
"No don't fucking touch it! Do you even know how many curses are on this thing?" he said, slapping Romilly's hand away.
"Nope, hum a few bars," the blonde joked. Regulus then went on a rather lengthy rant about each and every curse and what they'd do to them. It was so cute, and reminded them of how he used to be with them in Potions Class. All serious and helpful and neurotic and adorable.
"You'd be dead in minutes," he said. And then made a noise of triumph as the last curse was gone. He cast a diagnostic for good measure and prodded it with a Wingardium Leviosa before floating it to Fae and letting it land in her hand, safe and sound. Romilly poked at it and then they beamed at their now exhausted friend.
"Thank you Regulus!"
The locket wasn't quite so easy. Most of it was the same as the movies, as far as Fae could tell. Finding the cave was no problem, even without Kreacher's help. Deciding who would spill some blood so they could get in, apparently, was.
Romilly and Regulus, because they were Romilly and Regulus, bickered incessantly over which of them would do it. Romilly, because she was used to little cuts and scrapes from her travels and Regulus looked like he hadn't so much as been breathed on the wrong way all his life. Regulus argued back, he'd been the one to find this, his elf's blood was on these walls, it would be him who handled it. Romilly, while impressed with his devotion to Kreacher, still said he probably had no tolerance for pain and she didn't feel like carrying him out when he fainted.
"Ladies, ladies, you're both pretty," Fae said, rolling her eyes, slashing open her arm, and flicking some blood onto the stone. It opened and Regulus and Romilly followed her in, pouting. It was gloomy and bleak and the boat ride was so extra. But it gave her the chance to look down and identify the Inferi deep in the waters.
"Better watch out for those," Fae said idly. She hopped out happily when they made it to the little island.
"Kid stuff," Romilly said with a nostalgic laugh. "The Egyptians used something similar to guard their tombs all the time."
"How do you know?" Regulus asked.
"Ran into some while going through a tomb, obviously."
"The fuck were you doing in an egyptian tomb?"
"Some poachers were using it as a base while they hunted Ra Winged Scorpions. Only found out about the Inferi when I chased them a little deeper in, cowardly bitches. Still, it was a good time. You know, Inferi are super weak to-"
While they chatted, Fae went ahead and started drinking. God, this stuff was vile. She got about six hasty scoops in, going for the shot method of just knocking it back as fast as possible to get it over with. The pain hit her hard on the fourth drink, by the fifth her hand was shaking and nearly dropping the scoop, by the sixth she was about ready to scream for Remus. She missed him and needed him so much and hurt so bad, where was he, she needed him, needed him, needed him to make it better. Fuck, fuck, ow.
"Fae, what the hell!"
"Gotta keep drinking it!" she screamed and then shoved her whole head in the bowl, powering through the pain, breaking her nose on the crystal, slurping the last few scoops down, and then biting the chain of the locket. Regulus and Romilly yanked her out and her limp body sent them all following onto the sharp, crystal island. Fae's whole body shook and she groaned and whimpered, like a young child with a fever. Everything hurt so fucking bad. She reached up slowly and took the locket from her mouth, holding onto it tightly.
Regulus and Romilly were looking her over and calling her an idiot and she focused on their voices, trying to stay conscious, even if she couldn't understand the words. At least, not until she felt Regulus peel open her eyelids and cast something over her body and command Romilly to get her some water.
"Noo… stay aw-away from.." Fae tried to say. Too late, bodies everywhere, fucking Merlin damnit.
"Shit!" Romilly cried as the Inferi burst out of the water. On instinct, she stunned it back into the water where 30 more were already rising out. Regulus heaved Fae onto his back and then turned to help Romilly, casting 'Stupefys' like his life depended on it. Through blurry eyes, Fae saw Romilly snarl and then wave her wand in a wide, complicated series of arcs before she shoved her wand into the earth.
"Hold onto me!" she yelled at Regulus, only moments before impact with the ground. Regulus and Fae managed a grip on her arm and hair respectively before wave after wave of shrieking, sparking, crackling blue light erupted from her wand and cleared out the Inferi around them, flinging them over and over back into the water and electrifying the lake.
"Glacius!" Regulus cast a moment later, freezing the pond over solidly. Fae held on tight as they ran across the ice and out of the cave. The last thing she saw was Regulus giving Romilly a wide-eyed look as Romilly turned and collapsed the cave with another powerful spell.
"What? I travelled the world, on my own, dealing with potentially dangerous creatures and definitely dumb and dangerous humans. I learned to defend myself," the blonde explained.
When Fae woke up, they yelled at her for hours. And then lectured her quietly, while cuddling her close and feeding her soup, because everything still hurt and she was cold and tired and just wanted to rest.
That stupid potion laid her pretty low for a few days, even with her lycanthropic healing. She was glad she'd taken it instead of letting her best friends take it and to mollify them - she commanded them to practice some spells while she rested up. Namely, the Patronus charm. Voldemort had access to Dementors in the no-longer-future. She had no clue if that was true now, but best not take any chances.
Through sheer force of will, but mostly competitive and show-offy spirit, Regulus and Romilly managed to produce corporal Patronuses within two days. Fucking unbelieavable, those two. Regulus got his first, a beautiful and graceful raven. Romilly was less than ten minutes later, a panther that she argued was more beautiful and more graceful.
"What's next then?" Romilly asked, eager to beat Regulus next time round. Fae laughed delightedly from her pillow pile on the throne and reached out to run her fingers over the bright light fur of her panther.
"You guys are something else. If we'd tried back in school, we really might've put the great and almighty Marauders to shame," she said idly. Then laughed, "I wonder how fast it would take you guys to become animagus. It took them two, three years I think?"
"And for my next trick-" Romilly trailed off, before transforming into a mirror image of her Patronus, except dark, sleek, and living.
"So cute!" Fae squealed, falling out of the throne in her haste to go pet the pretty kitty.
"You've gotta be kidding me!" Regulus whined, pouting over being outdone.
Romilly turned back a moment later with a triumphant smirk. "Come on, Regulus, where's your animagus form?" she teased.
He glared at her. "I was a little busy, if you don't recall, spying on Volde-fuck and getting all this information for us! I didn't have time to chase poachers for fun or learn cool spells."
Scoffing, Romilly sent a Jelly Legs jinx at him. "I wasn't just messing around, you know. I had stuff to do too!"
"Right! About that-" Fae said, breaking up their bickering. "I'm going to need your information now, if you please."
Because Romilly had done her fair share of information gathering as well, and Fae would need it for her next task. The tall blonde obediently revealed her findings. She had done a magnificent job and Fae gave her a big, wet kiss on her cheek while Regulus just gaped.
"How did you even find all that out? How are you alive?"
Romilly shrugged and grinned smugly. "A little help from Fae's friend, Celeste. Lovely lady, she is. Had lots of fun with her."
Then Fae was gaping because she knew that tone. "You slept with Celeste?!"
"Once or twice. She's incredible," Romilly said, sighing dazedly.
Fae continued to gape alongside Regulus and then threw her head back and laughed her ass off for hours. When she'd sent Romilly to Celeste's group for training, that is not at all what she thought was going to happen. But, well shit, she shouldn't have been too surprised. Fuck, that was hot. And Romilly was amazing as hell. Fae truly couldn't believe she'd pulled this off as well as she had. This was going to be so fun.
A few days later, she was all healed up and ready to go, primed with all the names, facts, and locations she would need. Currently, she was Isla Reynolds, traveling towards Lincolnshire. Kent and Charlese Acosta were off to Portsmouth to investigate some leads and they'd all meet back up in a few weeks. As Fae passed by London again, alone this time, she wondered. It had been a month since she'd left. How were they all doing.
How was Remus? Was he eating properly? Still working at Lucrecia's and going on missions for the Order and running through their woods? Was he okay? Did he miss her? Because she missed him so fiercely that she had to charm herself stuck to the chair as the train passed through. Peter had been keeping her updated enough for her to know that he was alive and well, and she supposed that had to be enough for her for now.
But good Gods, what she wouldn't give to see him right now. She carefully fingered the shells and stones on her bracelet, the one he'd given her for her birthday years back. The largest jagged scar coming down from her left shoulder tingled. She swore she could smell vanilla and laundry and books. Closed her eyes and could hear his laugh. The train passed through London and she went to Lincolnshire, bloodthirsty.
"Remus? You home?"
Sirius called out for his friend. He'd just gotten home a moment ago, coming out of the floo. He knew there wouldn't be dinner waiting on the table or anything. Since Fae left, Remus hadn't bothered with cooking. Hadn't bothered with eating unless Sirius reminded him, really. So it wasn't surprising that he wasn't in the kitchen, but usually he was close by. These days, Sirius usually came home to find him laid out on the couch or the porch swing or on the ground in the backyard, Fae's cassette player beside him and several of her mystery tapes littering the ground. He'd be staring up at nothing and on really bad nights, he'd be halfway to oblivion with a mug of coffee spiked with liquor settled amongst the tapes.
But today, the house was dark and he wasn't anywhere to be found. Perhaps chasing another lead, Sirius thought hopefully, maybe he should contact Moody or Lucrecia. Then he heard a loud clanking. Another loud smashing sound. A cry of anguish.
He followed the sounds and found Remus digging through a toolbox in the garage, pulling out tools, looking at them, and then dropping them hopelessly. Halfway in and out of the garage was the Thunderbird, the front left end caved in and smoking.
"What the- Merlin, Moony, what happened?!"
"I didn't mean to! I was just- I thought I'd just- I was going to try St. Ives again and I- there was this other car and I was thinking of- Sirius you have to help me fix this! Fae will kill me if she sees this!" Remus said, voice high and shaky.
Sirius rushed over to the car, looking over it and then running his hands through his hair wildly. "Kill you? Mate, that's Fleamont's car! That's Fae's baby! You'll be lucky if she kills you!"
The Thunderbird. Their dad's beloved car. The fucking Thunderbird. What was Remus doing driving while an emotional wreck? The bloody moron!
"I know! Please, Sirius! I don't know what I'm doing!" Remus cried, grabbing the toolbox and shoving it towards Sirius.
Sirius blinked at him and then suddenly, they were laughing. Because it was just like that time they'd spilled paint on her roller skates before she had a double shift at the diner or that time Sirius had borrowed one of her jackets for a night out without telling her and thrown up all over it or that time Remus accidentally finished off her coffee stash when he'd been on a stress-baking binge and had been frustrated with perfecting a new recipe.
They laughed and laughed. The Thunderbird was wrecked and smoking and Fae was going to kill them. And then Remus was laughing and crying. And then he was just straight up crying.
"I miss her so much."
"I know mate. I do too. Now come on, let's get to work," Sirius said. He tossed a handkerchief to Remus to dry his eyes, shucked off his Auror robes, and started fixing the car. Remus had really done a number on it, it was amazing that he'd gotten it home.
As he worked, they talked idly. Sirius talking about his day at work, Remus talking about his latest Order mission. St. Ives had been a bust and nobody had heard anything about Fae in two weeks now. The talking faded away and Remus took to stroking the white rabbit drawing on his arm. He'd charmed the ink to stay and it was beginning to kill the skin on his arm, turning it dirty and dry and gross. But Remus refused to let it fade away before he knew what it meant, if it would lead him to her.
And then Remus sighed and said, "Was it my fault?"
"What?" Sirius asked.
"Did I push her away?"
"What are you talking about?"
"Fae.. We've always been.. complicated. I guess. I've always… You know how I feel about her and that I… I hurt her back then. And I've been trying to fix it and make her see! But I've never just. Never told her or made it clear or committed, not like Kent did. And I've been trying, but still holding back because she couldn't possibly, but. You think she got tired of waiting? Got tired of me? Couldn't deal with how wishy washy I always am? Because I'm a coward and she realized I wasn't worth the trouble?" Remus rambled, progressively getting more sad and making less sense.
Out of all of that, Sirius understood two things. One, that Remus was blaming himself for whatever reason. Two, that he had no clue about the Fidelius Charm. Oh boy. This was going to be bad.
"Remus," he said, pausing his work on the car and coming around to kneel in front of his friend. "Don't you know why Fae left? Why the Death Eaters have been chasing her?"
"Why?" he asked, voice choked.
So Sirius told him about the Fidelius Charm. About how he and James had fought it, but Fae was stubborn as Fae and Lily had backed her up. They'd been steamrolled. And Sirius apologized, said sorry over and over, because he should've stopped her. Should've known what she was going to do.
Remus was very quiet. Silent. Silent up until the first scream of rage. And then he was very loud, yelling about how she was stupid and reckless and how she thought she was so invincible and self-centered and arrogant and out of her mind. He trashed the garage, but at least he didn't do any more damage to the car. Sirius watched him and when Remus' rage left him and he collapsed to the ground, Sirius held him.
"Why didn't she tell me?" he asked, crying once more.
Sirius sighed. He'd worked this one out almost as soon as he'd realized Remus didn't know.
"Because you were the only one who would've been able to stop her."
Remus let out a watery, bitter laugh. "Then why didn't she take me with her? We're a team. We're supposed to stay together because we're stronger together."
This one was easy too. "To keep you safe."
"That's not fair."
Sirius nodded. "I know. But Fae has never been fair or rational, especially when it comes to you."
And Remus was just as bad as she was. Worse, in a lot of cases. Sirius remembered how bad off Fae had been three years ago, when they'd gotten so close and Remus had cut it off, got cold feet and decided their hearts were better broken than united and full. Fae had been devastated and Regulus had kept him updated almost daily during that time, about how she'd lost interest in everything. Wouldn't eat, didn't listen to music, barely bothered with classes, was either violently enraged or soul-suckingly depressed at all times.
What Fae hadn't ever known, was how much worse Remus was. After Fae went to Hogwarts, Remus didn't sleep, he spent whole nights walking blindly through the woods. He didn't eat and or drink anything except coffee because it smelled like Fae. He let Lorelei drag him around on dates and to parties and didn't even flinch when she told at least six of her friends that he was a werewolf. He just said he wasn't much of one, nothing to be afraid of for sure. He didn't run. Didn't stretch or meditate or howl. Didn't read, unless it was for work. He didn't speak, only when spoken to, and barely then.
No, the only one who could get much out of Remus during that time was Euphemia, who somehow just knew exactly what happened and hadn't blamed him for bringing misery upon himself and her daughter. She just plucked him around like a marionette, kept him together with gentle love and strings until life began to trickle back in with Fae's visit to the hospital after that first full moon.
Remus wasn't quite as bad this time, but he was still a wreck. With no Euphemia, it was up to Sirius to keep him functioning now, he supposed. Keep him together, keep him alive even if it wasn't much of an existence. Fae would be back for Remus, of that he was sure. And she'd left him a clue, after all.
Sirius eyed the drawing on Remus' arm and then grinned, pulling the taller boy up. "Come on, that's getting really gross. Let's just go get it tattooed on."
Remus sniffled. Wiped his eyes. "Yeah, alright then."
Sirius hadn't thought Remus would agree so easily or actually go through with it, but he did. Even if he cried through most of it which made Sirius laugh which made him laugh and then they were both crying messes. He was a little happier after that, having her mark forever imprinted in his skin. They went home and Sirius taught Remus about basic mechanics.
And Sirius really thought about everything.
By now, things were beginning to make sense. Fae had a plan. Fae had a plan that had likely been a long time coming. She'd known exactly what she was doing when she demanded the Fidelius curse and was systematically picking off Voldemort's forces while keeping his attention away from her loved ones. And she was doing it with Regulus' help, he was almost certain of. That's why the battle in which he had 'died' had been so dramatic and public. His brother was alive and Fae was keeping him safe. So the least Sirius could do was look after Remus until she came back. And she would be back. She'd survive hell and back to see Remus again, he just knew.
So Sirius was determined to look after Remus and keep him more than just existing, but moving forward. That, and pick off Voldemort's forces from this side. Peter had called him at the office today, requesting that he call a meeting with the Order because he'd stumbled on some information about a meeting between a few dirty potion's suppliers and Death Eaters, one they could ambush. Take out a supply source and some of his lackeys, two birds one stone.
Sirius would go and show Fae that she wasn't the only one who could wreck some Death Eaters.
He'd show her that things were okay here.
A/N: Guess what Fae is doing in Lincolnshire? It's going to be a lovely bloodbath.
Oh, and please be aware that next chapter will be fairly brutal. Actually, moving forward, there will be some pretty graphic brutality through the rest of the story. So just... enjoy. I guess. I know I will.
Love you guys, have a great weekend!