A/N - Written for theresnomeaning.
This is very loosely based on the song Ab Initio by Tristania, and the writing style is based on that of From a Buick 8 by Stephen King (though not done particularly well).
The flashbacks occur in reverse order.
This wasn't how it was supposed to go. We didn't have it all planned, but we did have an end-point in mind, and this was certainly not it.
Here, in this graveyard, snowflakes falling lightly, melting before even reaching the ground. You, hunched in front of a gravestone, whispering your fears to a slab of rock when you should have been confiding in me.
This wasn't how it was supposed to be.
.oOo.
They looked up at the sky, watching the snake writing in the skulls mouth. Regulus tried to ignore the destruction beneath it. A family had lived there once - young, two small children, the little girl's doll lay broken on the path, her outstretched arm still reaching for it even in death.
He didn't know what the family had done to deserve this, but orders were always to be obeyed.
Later, hidden away from prying eyes, they would both question this, though neither would speak their thoughts aloud to the other. For now, though, the stood, side by side, hoping that
.oOo.
"everything will be okay," I whisper the useless words, knowing that you cannot hear them. Knowing that they come far too late.
You don't react, I knew you wouldn't, but I had still hoped that maybe you might have had some sense of my presence. It is only a minor disappointment when you do not. But still, I would like nothing more than for you to hear the words that I should have spoken sooner - when there was still time.
.oOo.
"Do you ever," Regulus began, trailing off and shaking his head. These were not thoughts he should be having. There should be no room for doubt. Severus would tell him that, he was sure.
"Do I ever…?" the older boy asked, briefly glancing up from the yellowed pages of his old text-book.
"No, never mind," Regulus said. "It's not important." And, at the time, he had believed that, only later realising
.oOo.
"I should have told you." There was no way of knowing now, how that might have changed things. Maybe we would still be together? Alive and fighting on the same side. Our own side. Fighting for us.
Or maybe this was destined to happen, and we would have found ourselves here, in this same graveyard - different circumstances, but same result. There was no way of telling. And to think, we had both been so sure. Back in the beginning.
.oOo.
"Do you really think this is a good idea?" Severus asked, watching Regulus carefully with black eyes.
"Of course. Don't you?" Regulus didn't look up from his homework, still writing in his elegant script across the length of parchment, dark hair falling across his eyes, the length longer than he would usually allow.
"Yes. I just wanted to know what you thought," Severus murmured, not taking his eyes off the other boy as he hurried to complete his assignment before his next class. Regulus could feel his gaze, but chose to ignore it for the time-being.
"It's what's expected of me. You know my family."
"But if you're doing this because it's something your family expects-"
"Severus," Regulus looked up then, "I am doing this because I want to. My family has nothing to do with it. You've seen his work. It's… Yes, there have been others, but none so… visionary. He is so much more than any man before or after could ever hope to be. And we are lucky enough to have been born in this generation."
Severus smiled, the expression forming slowly on his face as though he weren't used to casting it. "Good. I would hate for you to get cold feet."
"You shouldn't concern yourself with me. You should worry about yourself."
Severus laughed softly at that, smirked, and said, "at least I'm not the one running late for class."
Regulus shook his head, quickly gathered his belongings, and headed towards the door, turning his head to call over his shoulder,
.oOo.
"I'm already gone," I whispered. "Please, please, start taking care of yourself." There is no use you wasting your time here. This is a place for the dead, and yours is amongst the living. You should not be clinging so hard to something that is already gone.
You should move forward; build a life for yourself. But just know this:
I am not buried beneath the ground at your feet.
I will always be by your side, until the time that you are ready to release me.