Disclaimer: Sadly, I don't own any of the Harry Potter characters. Everything belongs to JK Rowling, and I'm merely allowed to play around with them. No copyright infringement is intended.
Part of this chapter is the dream Hermione had in chapter 20, near the end, so if you don't want to read it, you don't have to. :) Also, VOTE ON MY POLL, PEOPLE! That's it. After all, if you don't want them to end up married with one son, then you have to click on my username, then on my poll and say otherwise! And if you guys want to suggest names and stuff, just review, I promise I'll consider them. On with the story!
Chapter 27
-o-O-o-
"-and he was like 'I love your songs, so amazing and stuff, but how did you pass your N.E.W.T.'s in the US?' So I told him: 'Sirius, Jon Bon Jovi is a Muggle!'"
Everyone at the table burst out laughing. Sirius was staring grumpily at his girlfriend, but he was laughing too. "And what's more," Remus started. "Was that the next day, at breakfast, he was like: 'Hey, Moony, did you know Jon Bon Jovi was a Muggle?' trying to be a smartass. Anyway, I replied: 'Sirius, everyone knows Jon Bon Jovi is a Muggle!'"
A new wave of laughter erupted around the table, on this 24th of December 1979. The four Marauders, Lily and Hermione were sitting at a table, at Godric's Hollow, in James and Lily's house, having a nice Christmas Eve dinner together. At ten, all of them would go back to their respective houses to pass the last moments with their family.
But meanwhile, it time to have fun.
At quarter to ten, James stood up and started tinkling his fork on his champagne glass to attract everyone's attention. "People!" he called out, and had everyone's full attention. "If you remember correctly, you might notice that today is not only Christmas Eve, but it's also my-" Lily cleared her throat and James smiled sweetly at her, before correcting himself. "Our wedding anniversary."
"Whoo!" Sirius whooped, shaking his fist into the air.
James shot him a look and continued. "It seems that Christmas Eve is the day where I like to make announcement, because… I'm going to be a daddy!"
As he sat back down, Remus, Peter and Hermione started congratulating the couple, but all Sirius said was: "I want to be Godfather!"
Remus turned to him with a pout in his face. "I wanted to be Godfather!" he whined.
"I said it first!" Sirius said, a huge grin illuminating his face.
Lily shook her head. "Boys…" she muttered, before turning to Hermione. "You'll be Godmother, right?" she asked.
Hermione smiled brightly. "Of course!" she said.
Meanwhile, Remus was still pouting, and Sirius was trying to talk some sense into him. "Stop whining, Moony, you're ruining the mood." He sighed. "You know what? You can just be Godfather of my kids, once Hermione and I have a couple!"
Hermione spat her champagne out in shock, wetting Peter's shirt. Without even as much as an apology, she turned to Sirius. "Excuse me… What?" she asked him.
He just shrugged. "You and I both want kids later, right?"
She was still staring at him, while everyone else looked very uncomfortable. "Yes, but I also said-"
"-that we have to be married." he finished for her, before turning to face her with a smile on his face. "I've worked on that part." And with that, he stood up and told James: "Sorry mate, you'll have to leave us the spotlight tonight." He turned back to Hermione, pulled out a white, square velvet box and knelt down on one knee.
She was in a state of shock. "Sirius…" she whispered, her voice stuck in her throat.
He opened the box to reveal a ring, simple, with only a thin golden band and the biggest diamond she'd ever seen in her life. "Hermione Jean Granger," he said softly. "The first time I saw you, I elbowed James and said something along the lines of: 'You see that girl? That's the girl I'm marrying later.' He though I was totally bonkers-"
"Correction!" James spoke up. "I knew you were bonkers, I just didn't think you'd be that bonkers."
"Shut up, you dumb ass!" Sirius yelled at him. "I'm proposing, here." he turned back to Hermione, who had tears in her eyes. "But I knew I wasn't. We've had our ups, we've had our downs, but, like I told you once, I've always come back to you. I've spent the best moments of my life with you, Hermione, and I want us to keep doing this for the rest of our lives. Hermione… Will you marry me?"
And as Hermione stared into these characteristically grey eyes of his, she only thought of Regulus. A little voice in the back of her head nagged and yelled at her. 'Forget him! Get on with your life!' And so she answered, in a voice trembling with emotion: "Yes."
Sirius let out a sigh of relief, and stood back up. Hermione stood up too, and as everyone in the room started clapping, he pulled her into his arms and kissed her. As they broke apart and he slipped the ring on her left hand, she wondered if she had made the right choice.
She didn't have that much time to ponder over the problem, however, because she was soon submerged in hugs, kisses and congratulatory claps on her back. Only James was pouting, muttering something about "… my time to make announcements…"
-o-O-o-
It had been nearly two months.
Two months since Kreacher had come back, in that appalling state after a meeting with the Dark Lord. After a week of uninterrupted slumber, the elf had woken up and counted the story to his master.
And that gave Regulus an idea.
He was probably crazy for thinking that, but he wanted to end the Dark Lord. He no longer supported him like he did when he first joined. No, being a Death Eater had been okay at first, but it had caused him to lose so much…
It was awful. To witness your own father being murdered to create a Horcruxe was one of the worst things he had ever experienced, but it had made him realise what Voldemort actually was: a power hungry, discriminative, crazed megalomaniac.
Who needed to be destroyed.
The only problem was that, if he was ever going to try and take part in his master's downfall, he would surely be tortured. If he went to the Order of the Phoenix for help, they would kill him on the spot. There was only one option left then: Regulus had to die, but do it himself.
He wasn't going to regret it. After all, he had nothing to live for now. He didn't believe in his ideals anymore. He wasn't selfish enough to live just for himself either.
And Hermione hated him.
That was the biggest reason. One which gave him a want to die, not only as a last resort.
And so he had chosen that day, Christmas Eve, to do what he wanted to do. He wanted to die knowing she was happy. And so he roamed the streets of London, trying to clear his head. Then, in the distance, something gave him an idea.
A payphone.
He checked him pocket and found he still had a little bit of Muggle money on him, a few pounds, but it should do the trick. He climbed inside the booth and closed the door behind him. Sometime, about two years ago, Hermione had taught him to use a Muggle public telephone.
He put his coins in the slot, but then didn't know which number to dial, until he remembered something called… he had forgotten what it was called, but he knew it was in every payphone and had the names of all the people living in London, as well as their numbers.
He looked for it, and came upon a very thick volume with yellow pages. He took it out and looked for 'Granger'. When he saw that she was not on it, he remembered that she lived with his brother. He went back to the 'B' section, and luckily for him, found 'BLACK, Sirius' rather fast.
He dialled the number written on the page and pressed the phone to his ear. He heard several dull beeps; before Hermione's melodious voice came to his ear.
'Hello, you are at the residence of Sirius Black, Remus Lupin and Hermione Granger, but we are currently unavailable, so leave a message after the beep!'
He smiled slightly as the beep sounded. "Hermione…" he started, but found he did not know what to say. "I just called to say… I'm sorry. I should've listened to you all along and never taken the Mark. I should've thought about you… us more, and about what I was doing to you. I knew it was going to break you when you found out, yet I completely ignored it. I shouldn't have. Also, I listened to that song, with that Muggle singer… Erm… Oh, yeah, Stevie Wonder, 'I just called to say I love you'. The music was crappy but I loved the lyrics… Because it reminds me of us… Only I didn't call just to say 'I love you', but… Fuck, I love you Hermione. I'm not asking you to come back; I just wanted you to know, because you won't have a chance to after tonight. So yeah… I love you, always will, I'm sorry… And…" he sighed. "Shit, just… Be happy. Please."
And with these last words, he hung up.
When he stepped out of the telephone booth, he felt slightly lighter. Definitely not happier but… He knew that he had tied some of the strings there, and that made him feel more… Complete. He started walking towards his home again. It was now night time.
He passed a supermarket, which had a fake Santa Claus distributing candy to children and boasting about the special promotions they made for Christmas.
He took one look at them and gave a slight smile. The fake Santa caught him watching and smiled, shouting at him; "Merry Christmas, my boy! Ho, ho, ho!"
Regulus waved and continued his path. "That's right, merry Christmas... It's my last, after all."
And on he walked, cars on his right never stopping to look at him twice, because the whole world was blissfully ignorant of his very existence. And, for some strange reason, he wouldn't have it any other way. He turned left suddenly, walking for a couple of meters until he arrived in a more open, but abandoned, space. He passed a rusty sign that read 'Grimmauld Place'.
As he approached Number 10, the earth started shaking and pushing two buildings apart from each other. The man, however, seemed unsurprised by this occurrence. Between the two shaking buildings appeared a third, one with a plaque on it that said: 'Number 12'.
The man entered Number 12, Grimmauld Place, without so much as a glance around to see if anyone was following him. As soon as the door closed behind him, a shrill voice called out: "Regulus! Is that you?"
Regulus cringed and replied: "Yes, mother! I'm home!"
His mother entered the room, a pair of glasses perched on her thin nose and a book in hand, indicating her previous activity. "Where have you been?" she asked stiffly.
He sighed. "I went to see Severus, I told you." he lied smoothly. After all, he guessed she wouldn't be too happy to hear he had called a Muggleborn.
She glared at him. "Don't speak to me in that tone. You could have Apparated and been home for supper. I had to eat alone! On Christmas night! What sort of family are we?"
"A broken one, ever since father has left us." he answered, and she didn't dare scold him. Instead, she huffed and returned to the room where she had come from, probably to return to her reading. Regulus took of his snow covered cloak and hanged it besides the door. He knew his mother wasn't mad at him. In fact, he was just stating facts, so she had nothing to scold him for.
Scratching his subtle, he started climbing up the stairs to him room. He smiled when his eyes came upon the familiar sight of his name plate on the door.
'Do not enter without the express permission of
Regulus Arcturus Black'
Shaking his head slightly, he pushed the door open. Unsurprisingly, his room was one of the cleanest of the house. Among his poster and pictures, there was a single Quidditch scarf. A red and gold one. Banishing a memory from surfacing, he looked to the floor, where what looked like a dirty cloth bundle lay.
"Kreacher?" he asked softly, kneeling down next to the bundle. It stirred and from its contents poked and ugly head, shrivelled and sporting two huge, bat like ears. It turned around and stared at Regulus with its disproportionate eyes, as if silently asking him what the matter was.
"How are you feeling?" he finally asked.
"Much better, now that Master Regulus has looked after Kreacher." the elf replied, nodding softly. His voice wasn't croaky and he sounded well rested.
Regulus nodded. "Thank you Kreacher. Now, I'd like you to do something for me."
"Anything for Master Regulus." Kreacher replied, detangling himself from his bundle of cloths.
"Thank you. First, I'd like you to promise me you won't tell any of this to my mother." Regulus asked.
Kreacher gasped. "Not tell my Mistress? But she would kill Kreacher if she ever found out about that!" He shook his head. "No. Kreacher won't do it."
"But she won't find out," Regulus tried to reason. "If you don't tell her. I swear I won't tell her, Kreacher."
The elf gulped down. "Kreacher..." he croaked, as if these words were eliciting a huge amount of pain from him. "Kreacher won't tell." he gave in at last.
Regulus nodded. "Good. Now I want you to take me to the place where the Dark Lord made you drink the potion."
At first, the elf looked terrified, but upon meeting his master's soothing gaze, he nodded again. "Let us go, then." He took the man's hand and asked: "At the entrance or directly on the island, Master Regulus?"
He gulped. "Directly on the island, please." He was squished in the now familiar rubber tube for a couple of seconds until his feet hit the ground. He looked around and saw... Nothing. The cave he was in was absolutely pitch black.
"We have arrived, Master Regulus." the elf said, letting go of his hand. Regulus heard Kreacher snap his fingers and, instantly, a ball of white light appeared, illuminating the cave.
He was indeed standing in the middle of an island, the huge rock surrounded by murky water. The stone walls around the lake seemed damp, at first sight, but what really caught his eye was the bowl of potion sitting in the middle of the island. He approached it slowly, somehow dreading what he will find there. The liquid in it was green and opaque; making it impossible to be sure what was sitting at the bottom. The glow it emitted was somehow sickly, and made him want to retch.
Turning back to his House elf, he said quietly: "Kreacher, what happens here must never reach the Dark Lord's ears; if he were to find out, he would kill you and my mother, do you understand?" The elf nodded. Regulus inhaled and exhaled deeply, before continuing: "I am going to drink the potion. You are to keep me drinking, no matter what I tell you. Once the bowl will be empty, you will take the locket at the bottom and switch it," he pulled a golden replica from his pocket and placed it in Kreacher's hands. "With this one. Then you will leave, and never come back."
"But what about my master?" the elf croaked, probably dreading the answer.
"You are to leave me behind. After this, my life is of little value." he admitted bluntly. "You are not to tell my mother what happened. Ever. I want her to die ignorant. You are to hide the locket from her too, and you must destroy it." The elf nodded reluctantly again. "Now," Regulus said gravely. "A glass."
With another snap of his fingers, Kreacher handed his master a carved crystal glass, which he dipped in the foul potion. He held it at his lips, before pushing it away, at sad twinkle in his eye.
"One last thing." he said, staring directly at the wall in front of him. "If you see Hermione... Wish her a merry Christmas from me."
And, brushing a single tear he should never have shed, he tipped the glass back and swallowed a mouthful.
-o-O-o-
Cliffhanger! Please review! :) Remember, even if it's just a name, you can fill that little box up. Just tell me if it's for a boy or a girl. :) I'll consider every entry!