Everything At Once
By: BonaFake
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Author's Note: Thank you so, so much for the absolutely wonderful response on the first chapter! Regumione is one of my favorite rare pairs and I was honestly kind of writing this for myself, not expecting anyone to read. But you did and that's wonderful. Thanks to reviewers pianomouse, Kat A Coop, Nautical Paramour, alex-hp7, anon, maraudersanarchy, Filiasfamilias, and Guest! I think I got around to answering everyone's questions and responding to reviews? But if not then oops and I'm a horrible organizer.
And I'm doing something super fun on tumblr, where I'm BonaFake. Since finals are coming up and I'm remarkably stressed out and really just not having a very good time right now, I'm letting people come in and request rare pairs for drabbles and over the next two weeks, I'll do ten of them! Requests have already been submitted for 7 out of the 10, but you can pop over and do a few more! (Also, Percy/Luna's ship name is Lunacy. Juuust putting that out there).
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The first thing that Harry did when he and Hermione pulled Regulus Arcturus Black out of a lake filled with Inferi was to promptly vomit onto Hermione's shoes. The second thing, though, or really more like third after helping Hermione to take off her shoes, was to look this guy in the eyes. The steely gray eyes that he knew. It was awkward, granted, that this kid was younger than he was, and yet seemed to look so much like the only father figure he'd ever had.
"I-," he tried to get out, only for Regulus to fix him with a cold gaze. No, those eyes weren't really anything like Sirius. They felt like ice. Harry knew who this kid was.
"I- You're Regulus Black," he said dumbly.
"Yes," the dark haired boy replied simply. Hermione, Harry noticed, had just narrowed her eyes at him. "What do you think the year is?" she asked.
"1979," he said firmly, and glanced at her to see if anything was wrong.
Harry looked at Hermione with a confused expression on his face. What the hell was going on here? She shook her head. "Alright, then," she said calmly, or as a calmly as she could manage. "Let's get out of this fucking cave and get some fresh air."
Regulus- if that was truly who he was, nodded. They began to walk out of the cave, Harry behind Hermione so that she didn't try any of that stepping off the ledge shite, because he knew now. He knew what she had been trying to do, and what he wouldn't let her do. Regulus trailed behind him, gray eyes looking so much Sirius's that he wanted to lose his lunch yet again.
"How did you get here?" Harry asked, not sure when Hermione was planning to tell him that he'd time traveled.
"I- My friend showed me how to get in."
"Why?" he asked. Harry was pretty sure that he knew why, of course, but he wanted Regulus to tell him.
"I can't tell you that," Regulus responded, shaking his head.
"Why not?"
"Because it's a secret, and to be perfectly honest, I don't trust you," he said, looking at Harry coldly. He wasn't quite sure what to say to that.
"You're really Regulus Black?" he asked, looking at the boy suspiciously. True, he looked quite a bit like Sirius, with dark hair, a pale complexion, and those steel cold eyes.
The boy rolled his eyes. "How many times do I have to tell you? Yes, I am."
Hermione tapped Harry's shoulder. "Let's just get out of the cave and then we can talk."
"Fine," he said crossly, still wanting to know more about their entire situation.
They stepped out of the cave in the bright light. Harry squinted in the sun, still adjusting after the darkness of the cave.
"So," Hermione prompted. "You're Regulus Black."
The boy nodded. "Yes."
"Why were you in the cave?" she asked, looking at him carefully. Harry briefly wondered what her end goal was. Didn't Regulus have to admit that he'd time traveled or something? He quickly shrugged it off. Hermione always had a plan in mind.
Regulus sighed. "Can I trust you?"
Harry nodded, trying his best to seem trustworthy.
"Alright," he said slowly, looking at them. "Do you believe in magic?"
"Oh, Merlin," she said, looking at him with amusement. "Did you really think we were muggles?"
Regulus stared at them. "Yes. You didn't have your wands out. What kind of wizard doesn't carry a wand with them when they're seeing Inferi?"
Hermione waved the question away. "We'll explain later. Let's get back to you. What were you doing in there?"
"I was- There was something I had to find," he practically whispered. Harry found himself straining to hear the quiet boy.
"What was it?" prompted Hermione. "A person? An object? Inferi tissue for research?"
"An object. A- a horcrux," Regulus whispered. "Do you know what that is?"
"Yes," Hermione said.
Regulus nodded, and then swallowed. Stiff upper lip and all that, Harry thought. Perhaps it was something that had been taught to the Black children from a young age. He supposed that was probably the truth.
"It was- it was a locket," Regulus said, twisting the hem of his sleeve around in his long, slender fingers. And it- it belonged to the Dark Lord."
Hermione nodded. "What did you do with it?"
"I went through all the steps to get the horcrux, and then- then I sent it off with my house elf- the one that I told you about," he said, glancing around nervously. "I just- I wanted to get rid of it. And then, because the potion that I had to drink to get the horcrux, I had to drink water. The inferi came out and they pulled me in."
Hermione nodded carefully. "I thought I was going to drown," he whispered. "You saved me. Thank you."
"I- that's what we do, right?" Hermione said, turning around to Harry and giving him a small smile. Save people, he thought bitterly. Yeah, that's what we do. Save people like Ginny or Neville or Ron. He bit down on the tip of his tongue to keep from sobbing out loud or collapsing in hysterical laughter.
"Tell me about yourselves, then," he said, blinking and acting like the last few minutes or so hadn't happened.
"Well, my name is Hermione and this is Harry. The year is 1999 and I'm twenty. Harry is still nineteen.
"Wha-" Regulus stuttered, looking at Hermione in astonishment, disbelief. "That- that can't be right."
"I- it is, somehow."
"Do you know?" he asked, looking so, so lost, Harry felt his own part of him that was lost go out to him.
"No. But we'll figure it out somehow. I promise," said Hermione. "Are you- will you come back with us?" she asked.
Regulus shrugged. "Alright. Nowhere else to go."
Harry looked at Hermione. "You'll have to fly with Harry- I hate brooms and there's no other way of getting back to the Order, you see," she said in a rush, looking at Regulus quickly.
"Wait, what?" Regulus cut in, looking stunned. "You're Order members?" he asked with a slight sneer.
"Yes, and damn well proud of it," Hermione fired back, narrowing her gaze. "Didn't you want You-Know-Who gone?"
Regulus's haughty expression faltered a bit at that. Hermione shook her head when he opened up her mouth to speak. "No, you know what, Regulus? You need to figure out your own reasons for stealing the horcrux. It doesn't matter right now. We have to go."
"Why?" asked Harry, curious now. "Did Kings say something about that?"
"And you haven't explained everything to me yet," Regulus said. "Why am I here?"
"We'll try and figure that out when we get home, alright? Right now we need to go."
"But-" he said, before being cut off by Hermione completely.
"Stop it, Harry. We've got to go. Hold the Invisibility cloak over yourselves and get going."
He nodded. Harry knew better than to question Hermione when she was acting like this. "Alright," he said, and motioned over toward his broom. Regulus followed, still looking as if he was suspicious of everything that was happening. Harry didn't blame him, of course. He didn't have all the facts. And he was a Slytherin, which automatically made him the kind of guy that didn't trust very easily.
Harry considered Regulus as he got onto the broom. He did look an awful lot like Sirius. But there was something about him that was a lot shiftier than Sirius's playful expressions. And Regulus, according to Hermione, was something of a hero. He'd defected from the Death Eaters, after all, and had tried to destroy Voldemort's horcrux. In Hermione's opinion, that made him a hero and a good guy. But Harry wasn't quite sure.
Was heroism defined by actions, or motivations? Harry tried to puzzle through it in his head, wondering what the truth of the matter was. Draco Malfoy, who had probably already returned to Headquarters, he thought, smiling, would be a hero by both measures. He'd defected from the Death Eaters, which was heroic in of itself, and done it for the right reasons, too. By Harry's measurement, the boy was a hero.
But Regulus? He was an enigma.
Harry kicked off of the ground when they were both on it with the Invisibility Cloak over top of them. He turned back to look at the boy. Regulus was pretty young, wasn't he? Eighteen, Sirius had said, when he died. He wondered how he'd survived. It probably had something to do with the time travel thing, but he wasn't sure. Hermione would figure it out. She always did.
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When they arrived back at the house, Kingsley Shacklebolt was waiting for them, along with Draco. Harry grinned at the sight of his boyfriend, who he hadn't seen in at least two and a half weeks. "Hey," he said, grinning.
"Hey," Draco said, a smile turning up the corner of his mouth.
"How was the, you know, other station?" asked Harry.
"I really can't say," Draco said, pinching his lips together. Harry desperately hoped that meant he would tell him later. "Who's this?" he asked, jabbing his finger towards Regulus, who had just crawled out from underneath the Invisibility Cloak.
Harry frowned uncomfortably. "Oh. We've got a lot to explain. Can we come inside?"
Kingsley glared at them. "Where's Hermione?" he asked, looking actually somewhat nervous. "Is she alright?"
"I'm pretty sure," said Harry.
"You know her," Draco said, smiling. "Granger couldn't fly to save her life."
Harry cocked an eyebrow. "Well, maybe," he amended.
"Wha! Argh! Gah!" came from the sky and a Hermione that was coming down faster on her broom than should ever be considered safe. Harry cringed as she smacked into the ground, broom handle lodged almost up to her hands.
Draco grinned. "I stand corrected."
The group ambled inside, Kingsley looking suspiciously at Regulus. Harry didn't blame him.
"Alright, kids. Start talking," he said, folding his hands on the table. Harry gulped.
"Harry and I went to the horcrux cave and Regulus Black was in there," Hermione said in one breath. Kingsley laughed.
"That's a grand story, Granger," Draco said, smirking. "How about the truth now?"
"It is," she said, glancing at Harry for affirmation.
"We can wait all day for the real story, or Harry can tell us," said Kingsley, folding his arms across his chest. "Harry? The truth, please."
"What Hermione said was right," he said, mimicking the leader of the Order's posture. Draco half-smiled behind his back. "We did."
Kingsley sighed. "How do we know for sure that he's Regulus Black, anyways?" he asked.
"Because he told us exactly about the, well, you know," Hermione said, gesturing around her neck. "The- the thing."
"The soulbit?" Kingsley said, looking at them with scrutiny. "How do you know he's not just some Death Eater impostor?"
Hermione rolled her eyes. "Because he's not. I've been practicing the- the thing," she said, gesturing to her forehead.
"Legilimency?" he asked. "How do we know that he's not just occluding?"
Harry frowned. When had Hermione gotten into Regulus's mind? Was she lying? "Because I had to break through the shields. Honestly, Kings, you're going to be the Minister of Magic. You've got to be more accepting of your future citizens."
"I'm not yet."
"Semantics," she said, waving it away. "So, thoughts on the newest member of the Order of the Phoenix?"
"We've got things to consider, Hermione."
"Fine. Whatever," she said. "Reggie doesn't want to join anyways us, does he?"
Hermione laughed with a mean twinge to her voice and eyes. For a second, Harry tried to watch their tete a tete, and there was some sort of staring contest he wasn't part of. It looked like Hermione won, but he wasn't sure.
"Don't call me Reggie," he said, arms crossed like a petulant child.