Disclaimer:Not mine, no money made. Thanks.

Author's Note Wow...lots of comments on that last chapter! Thanks to everyone...Mizz Moony, sorry for the scare, but it had to be done. Poor Reggie, his torment is great.If you flame me, though, you will recieve a long fanfic written just for you, shipping Reggie and Filch. Galleon to Galleon - Thank you!, Erin - Yeh'll have to see!, Pink Tribe Chick - More as requested! Yvonnia - Sorry to be scarey! Fallon Nicole - Thank you, hope this one's up to scratch. - d-26 - glad you are [possibly converted... Beautiful Enigma - I am so glad you liked so far, I agree it is great to explore the possibilities! xLazertx - Thanks, updated! allesrosa - Shirtless Sirius just for you...Seebear - Thank you...see if you like Cassandra more than Hermione does!

Summary:

"If we were alive today, we would never have met."

When the Order Of The Phoenix learn of Voldemort's latest plan to use the Veil to experiment with immortality, they embark on a mission to destroy it once and for all. Hermione Granger is nineteen, and in charge of finding the spell that will succeed in this task. But when the mission goes wrong and Hermione is pulled in, who can she possibly turn to for help now she's….well..dead?

Nine

A Fragment Of Soul

"Every man should have a secret..."

-

Hermione was momentarily speechless. The woman standing in front of her was taller than she was, and thin, so thin that her large head and great spectacles gave her the look of an enormous ant. She stared at Hermione for a moment, but it was when her gaze drifted over Hermione's shoulder to rest on Regulus, who was propping himself up on the blackened gatepost, that she gave a wide, gummy smile, showing small, brownish teeth and gestured to him.

"My dear young people," she said, her voice wavery and deep. "My dears……the Keeper sent his Patronus ahead to warn me of your arrival. Of course , I did not require it…I knew already that you would come to me."

Hermione was reminded sharply of another so-called Seer in the world she had left behind. She was sure she had read about a Cassandra Trelawney, great-grandmother of her one-time Divination mistress. This had to be her.

Hermione suppressed a snort.

"The Keeper said you'd let us stay the night. And help us find the Crossing." Hermione said, trying to sound polite but it came out rather curt. Cassandra looked momentarily annoyed , then rearranged her features back into the smile.

"Come in, my dears, come in." she said, gesturing more to Regulus than to Hermione, Hermione noticed.

Hermione waited until Regulus had joined her on the threshold of this strange cottage before they crossed it.

Inside the cottage was very different to the outside. All home comforts, Hermione thought, wryly, as she looked around. The place reeked of incense, so cloying and thick that Hermione almost took a step back when she first encountered the strong perfume. She wanted to cover her nose with her hand, breathe through her fingers and try to dilute the too-sweet, headachey aroma, but unfortunately, she could not do this without Cassandra noticing, and she thought it best to try not to offend the woman, even if she already felt the familiar pangs of irritation beginning saved over from her …Hermione thought back……great great granddaughter.

-

There was something deeply disconcerting about Cassandra's cottage. It was not the outside appearance, so much, in this place she had become almost accustomed to things not being what they appeared at first to be, but apart from the heat and the overpowering scent, the place seemed to possess a great deal more echo than one would expect from such a small room. Hermione shifted uncomfortably from one foot to the other, noticing that Regulus also appeared uneasy, looking about him hawkishly and peering sharply into every corner, at every one of the strange, gimcrack objects that adorned the dusty shelves and cabinets.

"It's quite all right, my dears," Cassandra intoned, interrupting their thoughts as she moved around the room,gathering up what seemed to be a bunch of old weeds and throwing them on the fire that responded by belching out even more copious clouds of yellow smoke."I know everything, everything."

Hermione doubted this severely, wanted to groan loudly and rudely at the familiar put-on ethereal tone, but instaed she just asked:

"What do you know?"

Cassandra gave an indulgent smile, the sort one might give to a curious child, Hermione thought, the night before Christmas. She ushered them closer to the fire, and they saw that on the fire was a large kettle, the same bright-painted red as the front door. Next to the fire was the predictable stack of teacups, but the 'tea' Cassandra handed to Regulus was not a liquid, but a gas.

"You are weak, my dear," she said. "Take this."

Regulus hesitated, his arms still closed over his chest, but the Seer woman approached him, putting her bony arm around him, and eyeing him in the most unnerving manner.

Regulus looked most uncomfortable with this arrangement, and extracted himself from her grip uncomfortably, and so obviously, Hermione thought, looking on, that she was sure the woman would be offended. Instead, however, Cassandra stepped back almost at once, hands clasped, and with a curious, satisfied smile on her face where it had not been before.

Regulus drank, or rather, inhaled, the 'tea' Cassandra had given him, and although it looked strange, he sighed, a sound of relief more than anything, and stood a little straighter, when he had finished.

-

The surreal sunset outside was giving way to dark fast outside.

" Is it…..er….is it all right if we stay here for the night?" Hermione asked tentatively, not feeling at all happy with the prospect of spending the entire night in the company of this woman but at the same time, seeing little choice in the matter. To her surprise, Cassandra looked scandalized, though, as if she had suggested something terrible.

"My dear!" she exclaimed. "No, no, no, my dear!"

"I'm sorry…" Hermione began, noticing Regulus toying with his wand again out of the corner of her eye.

"My dear…." Cassandra began again. " When this Realm is in darkness, it is the best time to study the soul." she said, her voice becoming even more silvery and Hermione thought, ridiculous.

"That is what I do, you understand, my dear young people, why I chose not to go on as most do, but to stay here and plumb the mysteries of the human psyche."

"Meaning what, exactly?" Regulus spoke now, his voice carefully measured, but Hermione could tell he was just as puzzled as she was, if not more so.

Cassandra did not answer at once. She ushered the two of them to the door, where outside the dark was falling rapidly, and opened a small cabinet. After a moment of rummaging amongst the various rubbish they could see inside, she withdrew a large rusty key, and slammed the cabinet shut with a snap, crossing the room to take a hairy, turqouise cloak from a nail and flinging it theatrically about her bony shoulders.

"What…what are you doing?" asked Hermione.

"I must meditate tonight." Cassandra said, peering at Hermione through her huge spectacles. "Company clouds my inner eye, and tonight there is much to be…oh! " she stopped speaking abruptly, as if she had been about to say something that she should not have. Then she held out the key to Regulus, who took it, dangling it between his thumb and long forefinger, raising an eyebrow.

"And this is?" he began…

"They key, my dear." Cassandra told him, with significance they both missed the meaning of.

"I can see that," Regulus said. "But why do I need this?"

"You need it, my dear boy, for somewhere to stay the night. The other cottage is not far, though it has been a long time…" Here she trailed off. "My sister's home, you see, but one day she decided she wanted to go on, and left me here. I always said that she never possessed the gifts that I do, but in any case…hurry on before dark, my dear, and I shall see you in the morning."

They were standing on the path, now, looking back at the weird, charred exterior of the house. Hermione looked at the darkening sky and looked back at Cassandra, who simply smiled, with a disturbing air of satisfaction, but Hermione could not tell what could possibly have made the old woman suddenly so smug.

She frowned, and looked at Regulus as Cassandra bade them goodbye and opened the gate and began to walk down the path they themselves had come here on. Hermione knew what lay at the end of that path. She turned to Regulus in alarm.

"Regulus," she said, urgently. "It's getting dark…she'll…shouldn't we tell her about..?"

Regulus was just staring at the woman in disbelief, so it was up to Hermione to catch her up.

"You can't….there's…" she began, but Cassandra cut her off mid-sentence, her eyes large and dewy and full of sympathy.

"I do not fear the forest, my dear. I feel sure that the spirits will have reverence for such an extraordinary soul, if you'll forgive me, as myself."

"But it's dangerous!" Hermione protested stubbornly, looking at the older woman in horror.

Cassandra's benevolent smile did not falter, though. She laid a claw-like hand on Hermione's shoulder.

"It may well be treacherous," she intoned mistily, "For those such as yourself, who I can clearly see do not possess the Sight. But for myself……." she smiled, clutching the violently coloured cloak about her, and with a small wave, she hurried away.

Hermione was left standing speechless on the path. Regulus was lounging on the gatepost, smirking.

"Don't laugh! " Hermione cried. " Should we go after her?"

"Can't see why." Regulus said. It's almost dark. She seems very sure she knows what she's doing in any case. Not really our problem, is it?"

"Oh, a very Slytherin attitude!"

"A sensible one, though. Stop feeling so responsible for everything. She must know what's in there in any case. And if she thinks she can handle it for the sake of her bloody meditation , (he said the word with heavy sarcasm, and even through her annoyance, Hermione couldn't help but smile a little) then so be it."

It seemed like the only thing to do was to find the other place before it got dark. They happened upon it only a short while later.

It was a short, squat building, whitewashed on the outside and with a view of the forest that it overlooked. Hermione was still wondering, agitated at the thought of Cassandra walking through there at night alone.

Regulus finally succeeded in turning the brass key in the rusty lock and with some difficulty, shoved the door open with his shoulder, leaving a dirty mark on his cloak.

Hermione brushed at his shoulder and began to inspect then piles of rubbish.

"This place is just full, utterly full…of junk." she exclaimed, and then jumped as she felt a movement snaking around her legs, something with fur.

"What the…."

Regulus laughed. "It's only her cat." he said, laughing, and picking up the scrawny, white creature. "It followed us here, seems the creature's got more sense than it's mistress."

"A cat…" Hermione repeated, and then laughed herself. The animal paid no attention to either of them, leaping out of Regulus' arms and jumping onto a low, metal bedstead under the curtained window.

The room was thick with layer and layers of dust. Regulus wrinkled up his nose, and after he'd carefully re-locked the door behind them, he went around the room, poking things with the tip of his ebony wand and vanishing the dirt.

"It's nice to see a man tidy up," Hermione muttered, thinking of Ron and Harry and still feeling unhappy and somehow diminished by the lack of a wand. Regulus smirked and eventually, he flopped down next to her on the bed, and pointed his wand at the small fireplace in the wall.

"Incendio!"

The flames sprang up, reassuring Hermione, who was just beginning to realize how close they had both been earlier, to not making it through the forest at all.

"This is nice, isn't it?" Regulus said sarcastically, stretching out. "Cosy. Don't you think?"

"What did those things do to you?" she asked him. "Why couldn't you walk?"

Regulus sighed. "They sap your strength. Your magical strength, that is. But I'm all right now. The tisane…"

"Well, she must know those things, then, to know a cure like that." Hermione said. " So she should be all right. Shouldn't she?"

"Of course." Regulus didn't sound really interested.

"I was really afraid for you." Hermione found the words were out whether she wanted to say them or not. He smiled.

"I was really afraid for me."

Hermione stood up, and walked around the room, running her finger over the now dust-free surfaces and staring at the fire for a moment, remembering something he;d said to her in the forest.

"Regulus," she said eventually.

"Yes?"

"You told me, in the forest, you told me something."

"What?" he raised an eyebrow expectantly.

"You said it wasn't me the Malevolents were after," She heard Regulus draw in breath. "What did you mean?"

There was a long silence. Regulus looked at the bare floorboards of the room, toying with the satin edge of the faded grey blanket on the bed, and eventually he answered.

"Nothing. I just wanted you to go, understand?"

"So why are you so tense all of a sudden? It's the same as when you wouldn't even tell me your name. I don't understand you. You kiss me, you save me, but you don't even trust me."

He swung his feet on to the floor and sat on the edge of the bed with his head in his hands, and when he did speak, it was with the air of a man about to be sentenced to hang.

"I have a confession to make," he muttered.

-

Hermione stood stock still, afraid of what she might be about to hear. The fire was too hot on the back of her dress, and she was being jabbed in the elbow by an ugly stone bowl on a stand to her left, but she didn't move.

"Go on." she said at last, as the silence stretched out between them. "After all," she said, pulling back the grubby curtain and looking out into the pitch dark. "I'm a captive audience, aren't I?"

Regulus smiled thinly, and then he began to spaek, very quietly.

"I wouldn't tell you my name at first," he said, "Because I thought you might know….what I did."

"What do you….." Hermione began, fearful, but Regulus held up a hand, and gave her a pleading look.

"You asked, so let me tell. Tell what I never told anyone before. I want to tell you, because I do trust you, no matter what you might believe, and I want you to understand."

He drew in a deep breath.

"I thought you might have heard my name before. And you had, but when you didn't say anything other than 'Sirius' brother' then I knew that nobody else had found out what I found out. And when we first met, I had no idea whose side you were on."

Hermione was indignant.

"I told you I was a Gryffindor the night you pulled me out of the swamp!"

"Not enough, Hermione." Regulus answered. "Peter Pettigrew was in Gryffindor as well, and he was passing information to Voldemort for ages. Before I knew."

"But you did know…and you never told your brother?" Hermione was incredulous. "You knew…"

"Yes, I knew. And I did try to tell Sirius, yes."

"You tried? Didn't you ever think of going to him for help? Joining the Order, if you were so afraid of leaving Voldemort?"

"You're painting Sirius in a far too heroic light, Hermione." Regulus said, with a sad smile. "As a matter of fact, though, you are right."

"Right? " Hermione asked. "Right about what?"

"Meaning that you were right about me going to ask for help."

"So why didn't you?"

"I did."

"What do you mean, you did?"

"I asked to join the Order of the Phoenix."

There was a long silence. Hermione stared at Regulus, trying to work out whether or not this could be true. Sirius had never said anything about it.

"I don't believe you," she said at last.

There was another pause as Regulus'eyes left her to drift onto the stone bowl by her elbow. A strange look spread slowly across his face.

"Then I'll show you." he said, quietly, pointing one long finger at the ancient bowl. "That's a pensieve."

-

A moment later and Hermione found herself standing on a dark and unfamiliar street. She heard a small noise, and Regulus landed next to her, his hand going immediately to his hair. Hermione laughed, and it rung loudly around the street, but she was abruptly silenced as she caught sight of a figure coming up the cobbled road.

It was a man, a tall man but his body was hunched over as if he was in great pain. He staggered up the road towards them, and Hermione backed away turning instinctively as if to hide. Regulus slid his hand into hers

"It's all right," he whispered close to her ear. "It's only a memory, remember?"

Hermione watched as the man staggered past them. His hood was over his face, obscuring his features as he dragged himself to the foot of a small stairwell hidden around the side of a dark building that, on closer inspection, proved to be a Chinese takeaway. A black motorcycle was parked in the alleyway.

"Ohhhhh…" Hermione gasped, recognising the motorbike at once, and almost at the same moment, the hunched figure reached the top of the stairs and raised an open hand with what seemed to be a great effort, and banged on the plywood door.

"Siri…" it croaked weakly. "Sirius!"

Hermione turned to Regulus, but his eyes were fixed on the black figure, who was calling again, banging again on the door. Hermione watched a few loose chips of burgundy paint flutter to the ground, and then , abruptly, the door flew open.

A much younger Sirius, maybe about twenty or so, stood in the doorway wearing no shirt and a pair of black army-style trousers. His hair was long and his feet were bare and Hermione was startled to see that he and Regulus really did look very much alike at that age. Sirius had his wand pointing at the caller, looking at him with narrowed eyes, until suddenly, to Hermione's horror, the black cloaked figure staggered and collapsed.

Hermione instinctively made to run forward, but Regulus caught her arm, and held her firmly back. She watched as Sirius-the-twenty-year-old darted forward and wrenched off the hood.

"Regulus!"

Hermione looked around at the Regulus holding her hand and he simply nodded by way of a response. The Regulus in the memory, who looked exactly the same age as the one she knew, was deathly pale and had his mouth slightly open, gasping for air, but Sirius looked far from happy to see him.

"What the hell are you doing here?" he spat, standing up and pulling his brother to his unsteady feet. "Brought some of your Death Eater mates to do me in? That your next job is it, Reggie, you pathetic little bastard?"

Hermione felt the Regulus standing next to her flinch slightly, and rub his face with his sleeve in a characteristic gesture. Oddly, the Regulus in the memory did the self-same thing..

"Sirius…." said memory Regulus once again sinking back to his knees and slurring his words, though he didn't seem as if he was drunk. "You gotta help. Help me."

Sirius laughed disdainfully. "Why in Merlin's name would I want to help you, Regulus? I thought you made your choice. We went our separate ways long ago when you sided with that mad bitch."

Hermione wasn't quite sure if he'd meant Bellatrix or crazy old Mrs Black. Both would be equally true, she thought.

"I never meant to…..I didn't…just please………listen……you've got to…Sirius…."

"I haven't got to do anything, remember. Now pick your filthy Death Eater robes up off the floor and get away from my flat before they come looking for you." Sirius prodded Regulus hard with the toe of his boot, and the Regulus in the memory groaned, and clutched his stomach again.

"Sirius!" he sounded like he was making one final effort.

Sirius, who was going back inside the flat, turned back and hauled his brother to his feet for the second time. He half pushed, half dragged him down the narrow metal staircase and once at the bottom, he pushed him roughly away.

"Get lost. Now. And don't ever think of darkening my doorstep again. Death Eater."

He looked like he was about to spit at his brother for a moment, but then abruptly turned on his heel and started back up the stairs, slamming the door behind him.

Hermione realised that she had tears in her eyes. The Regulus Black beside her simply stared impassively at the proceedings as his earlier self picked himself up and began to stagger back down the cobbled street. The two of them followed wordlessly, but neither they nor he had got very far when there were tell-tale popping noises signalling the arrival of others.

The black robed figures in their hoods, obviously Death Eaters, surrounded the earlier Regulus, and a harsh female voice that Hermione was positive belonged to Bellatrix Lestrange, spoke.

"Regulus Arcturus Black," she rasped. "We arrest you in the name of our Lord for treachery and abandonment…."

Hermione watched as they seized his arms. He was obviously too weak to put up any resistance, though what had weakened him, it wasn't clear. They disapparated, leaving an empty street, and she felt a tug on her arm, and then they were standing on the sickly pink rug back in Cassandra's sister's cottage.

But Hermione's mind was whirling suddenly. It wasn't the seeing Sirius as a young man, or watching Regulus arrested by Death Eaters, ostensibly sentencing him to be murdered. It was the name Bellatrix had spoken aloud.

Regulus Arcturus Black.

She stepped back from the pensieve, and wildly, on a sudden whim, she rifled throught he pockets of her dress in search of the handkerchief he had given her when they had stood by the stream. She'd not even looked at the letters embroidered in the corner in green, but now, Regulus watching her looking nonplussed at the sudden frantic movement. Hermione found the scrap of fabric and tore it from her pocket, flattening it to see the initials on the corner. The initials that, sure enough, spelled out RAB.

"You….." she breathed in utter shock. "It was you…you don't like water……the cave…it was you. RAB…all along. That's how you knew. You stole the locket. You're RAB."

Regulus might have pre-empted her words, because he had drawn his cloak close about himself and stepped back with a narrow, calculating look on his face and looking more like an ex-Death Eater than he ever had before. They stared at each other for a long, long moment, until he looked like he was going to say something. But before either of them had the chance, they heard the screaming.

Regulus drew the wand quicker than he'd drawn the sword on the banks of the lake.

"Stay here," he said curtly.

"No way."

"Then stay with me, and don't you dare let go. Expecto patronum!"

The silvery lion once again burst forth from the wand of the ex-Slytherin beside her, and they stepped out together into the treacherous night.

-

Blood pounding in her ears, Hermione clutched Regulus' hand as they ran through the dark, following the unearthly , twisted screams coming from the direction of the forest.

Regulus was white and scared, and she couldn't seem to catch her breath, the sense of foreboding now almost suffocating, almost tangible. Every fibre in her being wanted to turn and run like the wind, run back to the relative safety of the cottage, but her mind and her morals drove her on. She wondered what Harry and Ron would have done if they were her, but they weren't her, and they weren't here, and all she had now was herself…and Regulus.

-

The body, or at least, that was what it appeared to be from a distance, was slumped against the trunk of a tall pine just inside the black forest.

The two of them approached hesitantly, and it was then they caught sight of the now -familiar nightmare black shapes.

But this time, they were not attacking. They retreated, like dissolving vapour, through the trees and away, at the sight of the Patronus, glowing silver and magnificent as ever by Regulus' side, sweeping off into the misty depths of the forest, making a ghastly sucking, rattling noise that almost resembled laughter, mocking and awful.

"They're afraid, Regulus." Hermione said softly.

"They've had their meal." he replied tersely, his face stricken and tense as he approached the crumpled figure on the ground.

It wasn't until Hermione caught sight of the turquoise cloak, torn and hanging from a nearby branch that they both knew for sure.

Cassandra lay, broken and white, spindly legs twisted at an unnatural angle

"I told her….I said not to.." Hermione whispered through tears, clenching her fists. "She was so stupid…if only she hadn't…"

"It's no good, Hermione." Regulus said, quietly. "It's not your fault."

He bent over the body. Cassandra's eyes were open, but instead of the protuberant orbs that she had gazed at them with earlier, now there were empty sockets, gaping black maws in a hollow face.

The Patronus circled menacingly, warding off any potential danger, and it was by it's slivery light that Hermione first saw the glint of gold as Regulus prised apart Cassandra's stiff cold fingers.

"Oh, god." she gasped, her breathing suddenly shallow, as Regulus looked round at her.

"That's Slytherin's locket. And it's here."

Reglus was silent, and turned back to the locket, which had cracked open along it's golden hinge.

"It's open at last," he breathed reverently. "She stole it, the crazy woman stole it when she gave me the tisane. No wonder……"

He swore violently, kicking the earth up with the toe of his boot.

"Come," he said, suddenly sharp. "We're getting away from this place. If it was dangerous before…let's say it just got a damn site worse."

-

Hermione, too stunned to speak, let him lead her back to the cottage. She walked slowly over to the hard wooden chair by the fireplace, and sat down very carefully and deliberately.

Regulus leaned with his back to the door, as if to prevent her from running out , away into the treacherous night, or maybe to protect her from it.

There was a long silence, and eventually Hermione could no longer stand it. She put her face in her hands.

"You've got Slytherin's locket," she said again, her voice muffled through her fingers. "How is it that you have one of Voldemort's Horcruxes, Regulus? How is it you never told me, and how the hell did she get hold of it?"

She felt her voice rise, becoming shrill, and in a the next moment, before he could answer, she walked across the room to him, and held out her hand.

"Give me the locket." she said.

Regulus paused, and for a moment, Hermione thought he was going to refuse, but thenhe slid his hand into his pocket, and brought out the golden object, the object she, Harry and Ron had devoted so much time and care to searching for in order to defeat Voldemort. And now here it was.

"It's dead," he said, closing her fingers over it. "The memory I showed you is the night I took it. I went to my brother, thought I could tell him, show him, thought he'd believe me. I was mistaken, though, not that I blame him. I probably would have done the same to him, had the situation been reversed."

"I've spent my life since I left school searching for these.Risking my life, to search for these." Hermione said, her legs unsteady. "He had seven, Regulus. Did you know that when you left that note? Seven, not one. So many people died-" she stopped, suddenly realising again that she was one of them.

Her legs gave way then. Regulus put his arms out quickly to steady her and break her fall, and he held onto her as he laid her down on the over-stuffed bed, her head resting on his lap. He stroked her hair gently, running his fingers over it like he had never felt it before, or done something so intimate.

"Was it dead when you took it?" Hermione asked after a moment.

Regulus sighed.

"No. Cassandra stole it from me, just goes to show that she must have had some powers of perception after all, to know I had it in the first place, but in any case, it's a piece of soul, or it was. A powerful piece of soul, seeing that it belonged to one of the most powerful dark wizards in history. She took it from me, but she made a mistake, she knew it was a powerful magical object, but she didn't know why. The Malevolents were after me in the forest, not you, so I told you to run. I didn't want another person to pay the price for my actions. Such an exceptional piece of soul would be a banquet for those things. And you saw them…but it's open now, and I could never open it before. It's dead. The soul has gone, and the Horcrux is destroyed."

"Whoever thought those things could actually do anything good?" Hermione muttered."You should have told me."

"I was going to. I really was. I just…"

He looked away, suddenly colouring, and pushed back his hair, all awkward grace as always.

"Just what?"

"We met in this damned place, Hermione, and yet despite everything, you've made me understand that I should never have tried to face things on my own. If I'd known that before, things might have been different. It's too late now, for me, but it's not for you. My feelings for you now….." he stopped short. "Look, I didn't want to tell you, because I knew you'd try to do it yourself. I wanted to find another way. I'm sorry, I just didn't want to see you hurt."

Hermione looked at him for a long moment, remembering that kiss in the forest, how she'd felt when she thought she was never going to see him again, and she felt a sudden surge of affection for the man next to her. She sat up, and slid her arms around his neck.

He looked a little nervous, and she was sure he felt him trembling ever so slightly when they kissed, but he returned her embrace until she broke it, and on a sudden impulse, she asked:

"How did you actually die?"

Regulus drew back a little, pulling his knees up to his chest.

"He got my cousin to come for me. Bella, as you saw.. He knew that would hurt me the most….we used to…" He paused, and drew breath. " I used to love her like a sister…or perhaps, as she no doubt told the bastard, a little more than a sister. It was because of her that I joined up in the first place. Sirius thought it was our mother that wanted it, and she did, at first, but it was because of Bella that I actually went ahead. I wanted to impress her.; Sirius was always the one with the girls around him, even at school. I never really knew what to say, so I just shut my mouth. That's how it started, anyway. Bella asked me out with her one evening, and I thought……..well, never mind what I thought. But she took me to meet him. And it went from there."

"What happened after they arrested you?" Hermione asked.

He closed his eyes briefly, almost as if he was trying to remember the exact order of events.

"She must have known I wanted to leave by then, how I don't know, but she did, she always knew. We went to Headquarters, his old place in the country, his father's you know. He took me for a walk in the old orchard. And that's when he did it."

"The Avada Kedavra?"

Regulus laughed loudly and bitterly, sounding more like Sirius than ever, shut up in Grimmauld Place and going crazy.

"That would have been a blessing." he said, quietly. "It would have been quick."

His fingers were at his throat, slowly unwinding the black scarf he always wore. Then he reached down and folded up the hem of his trousers, lifting his head up as he did so.

Hermione gasped. There, across his neck, were angry red marks, and on his ankles, there was a long line of jagged scarring around each.

"He told me that the Avada was too good for me, that I was filth and a blood traitor." he said, matter of factly. "At first, I thought he might have guessed what else I'd done, but he never asked which is a blessing, or I might have told him, eventually. About the locket. But obviously, he never found out."

"But what did he do?"

"First, he cut off my right foot, then my left. He stood in front of me, asked how I was going to run away from him now. I went for my wand, but it was no use. He just laughed and didn't even bother to disarm me. He hung me instead, from one of the trees in his fathers old orchard, and left me to die that way. He told me I could be a deterrent, then I could at least be useful to him that way. Bella came out and looked at me, just before he broke my neck. She laughed at me, and told me I was weak, and that she never really cared a thing for me. And that's when I died. I woke up here, and ever since then I've been wandering around this place. I can't go back…and I can't go on."

Hermione realised tears were falling down her face. She reached out to touch the scars on his ankles, and though he flinched, just a little,he didn't pull away. She took him in both arms, crying and crying into his hair, until he pulled her towards him, kissed first her wet cheeks, and then her mouth, until Hermione found that it was possible to weep and kiss at the same time.

It was as if years of holding on to grief and rage and anger had come undone in Regulus as she held him, pulling him down onto the bed with her, fingers fumbling at the buttons on his bloodstained shirt.

They kissed together on the bed, and she felt him slide his own hands underneath her dress to stroke her legs. She lifted the dress over her head at last, and sank down onto him, bare skin on bare skin. Regulus groaned and shuddered.

"Oh," he muttered, sighing deeply with his eyes shut tight.

"Can we…can you…..can you actually….if we're here..nothing horrible is going to happen…I mean, if we do……the world won't suddenly implode, will it?" Hermione whispered as they moved closer.

His eyes still closed, he smiled.

"I don't think it will, no. But who cares if it does."

-

Hermione marvelled at how silent the world could be at night in this place where everything was dead, apart from the souls of the creatures that wandered here. She wondered whether, if she ever saw her friends, her parents, her old life again, whether she would remember all this, or if she'll have changed, irrevocably, in a way only she could see, or if it will be all remembered as one might remember a dream gone mad.. She tilted her head to look up to where Regulus was lying, his arms around her, wanting to talk to him, allay her fears, but he was silent, and when she saw his face, she knew why.

Long eyelashes lay closed in sleep on pale cheeks. Regulus Black for once looked completely at peace, without a care in this world, or any other, the locket glinting gold in his hand and casting glittering pools on the crumbling, whitewashed walls in the light of the guttering candle.

Quoted: Pirates Of The Caribbean, AWE [novel

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