Jan 10, 1978
"You got a detention?" James guffawed on the bench across from me, potatoes spewing out of his mouth as the hilarity of the situation ensued.
"I don't want to talk about it," I seethed, stabbing my chicken angrily with my fork.
"It was brilliant," Remus beamed at me. "The most beautiful bat bogey hex I've ever witnessed."
"Now normally, I don't condone that sort of thing, but I have to admit that Avery had it coming to him," Dorcas added matter of factly. "And then when he punched Mulciber in the panic," she brought her fingers to her mouth in a 'chef's kiss' sort of gesture, "Perfection."
"Clearly Professor Smythe didn't find it very funny," I replied with a glare in her direction.
"Oh she definitely found it funny," Remus laughed. "She waited until AFTER she properly scolded and punished you to do the counter jinx."
"Tell me it's true," Sirius plopped himself on the bench next to me and I could only groan in response.
"It's true," Marlene grinned from across the table.
Sirius sandwiched my cheeks in between his palms and leaned in to plant a wet and messy kiss on my lips. "Marry me."
"Can't. I have detention."
"So it's true then?" Peter asked as he sat on Sirius' other side. "You punched Avery AND Mulciber in the face?"
"Gods, who told you that?" I whined as I tried to pull myself out of Sirius' grasp.
"Leah Dunningham in Hufflepuff," Peter responded.
"She lied," I glared down at my potatoes.
"It was so much better, Wormy," Remus began. "Avery was being a right fucking git. Called Mary a -" he stole a glance down the table at Mary who was pointedly ignoring me while angrily stabbing at her roast chicken, Lily flashed me a soft look from her spot next to the other girl. "well it was awful. So Ginevra 'balls of fucking steel' Cole turned around and said 'shut up Avery or I'll make you shut up."
"That's not-" I tried to correct him because it wasn't entirely true. What I'd actually said was What was that? But it wasn't nearly as dramatic as the retelling, and so Remus continued.
"Then Avery said it again."
"And then she hexed him," Mary slammed her fork down on the table. "You hexed him."
"Mary-"
"I didn't ask you to defend me, Ginny. I can stick up for myself perfectly fine. I was ignoring it - because the only way to get them to stop is if they don't get a rise out of you. I told you to ignore it."
"I know, Mary. I'm-" I apologized.
"I don't want to hear it. It's already been worse, all bloody day. Mudblood this and magic stealer that. I was handling it," Mary spat. The students surrounding us had fallen silent to listen to her berate me. "You can't let them see you react."
"Mary-"
"And you lot," she turned on the boys whose cheeks grew red under her heated glare. "Egging her on? It's not a game. They're threatening me."
"Mary, you should go to Mcgonagall if-" Marlene tried to interject.
"If I went to Professor McGonagall every time I was threatened by a Slytherin I'd be kicked out of school for my own safety. Right, Lily?" Mary turned her gaze toward the redhead next to her who nodded slightly while avoiding everyone's eyes. "I want to hex them too," she softened, "I want to hold them down and beat them senseless until they forget what those words fucking mean. But I can't. They're not worth it."
"I'm sorry," I whispered, feeling tears threatening the corners of my eyes.
"Thank you for standing up for me," she replied just as quietly. Around us students returned to their meals, sensing the drama had ended but the wave of shame Mary's words brought made me feel as if the fight was far from over. "Avery deserves every awful thing he gets, Mulciber too, but shit like this just fuels their fire."
"They've put muggle-born students in the hospital wing for less," Lily added sadly.
"I'm so sorry." A single tear slipped past the barrier I'd tried to erect and Mary and Lily both offered me a small smile.
"I won't lie, that was the best bat bogey hex I think I've ever seen," Mary smirked.
"And I know it wasn't planned, but Avery breaking Mulciber's nose in the aftermath was bloody poetic," Lily conceded.
"Anything for you two," I shrugged with a watery smile. It wasn't quite a forgiveness but I'd take it. My Weasley temper had gotten the best of me and, despite my trying to leave it be, I'd lashed out. Avery deserved the hex, Mulciber deserved the broken nose, and I deserved the detention. I glanced up at the clock that read 10 minutes to 7. "Off to serve my time."
James offered me a salute followed by a grimace, a soft smile from Remus, a thumbs up from Peter, nods from Dorcas and Marlene, and Sirius stood up with me.
"I'll walk you there, Red," he held out his hand to me before turning back to Mary and Lily. "You two don't go anywhere alone, alright?"
"We're not children, Sirius," Lily snorted.
"We're all agreed then," he turned his attention on the group and everyone offered a nod or a shrug in confirmation before he turned his attention back to Lily. "If anything it's to protect the Slytherins from you, Evans."
Lily rolled her eyes, but Mary gave him a grateful nod. She mouthed a thank you at him that went unnoticed by everyone else and he gave her a nod of his own as if it were nothing to be grateful for before tugging me down the path between the Gryffindor and Hufflepuff tables.
It was at 9:30 that I found myself leaving Professor Smythe's classroom after I'd been released from the strangest detention of all time. When I arrived she lectured me for five full minutes about the importance of not acting rashly, on the dangers of hexes, and on how my actions might affect others. When it was over I was full of guilt, red-faced, and ready to take whatever punishment she thought I deserved. I was expecting lines, or recalibrating telescopes, or scrubbing the cobwebs from her windowsills, instead, she sat at her desk and told me to complete the assignment that was due on Friday - offering to answer all questions I might have. It took me an hour and a half to complete, and then she took it, graded it, and handed it back telling me to fix the mistakes before turning it in Friday. It was without a doubt the strangest detention I'd ever experienced.
As I made my way toward Gryffindor tower I felt a little confused, but altogether accomplished as it was one of the harder assignments I'd had on my list to complete before Friday. I turned the corner to the fourth floor with a slight spring in my step, humming to myself. As I made my way down the fire-lit corridor, I watched as 2 figures appeared in my path, dark and looming causing my pace to slow and the tune I'd been singing to myself drew to a halt. The figures moved slowly as if they'd coordinated it, toward me. I stopped my walk and waited for their faces to be illuminated by the torch light.
"Ginevra Cole," the voice on the left drawled, tasting the words as they fell from his lips as if he were a predator savoring the flavor of his latest prey. "Fancy meeting you here." He stepped into the light and I put a face to the voice.
"Oleander," I replied. "How's the nose?" The light danced across his face as he sneered and reached up to touch his now healed nose.
"Think you're funny, do you?" He spat.
"Hilarious," I shrugged and turned my attention toward the other figure that loomed beside him. "I don't think we've ever actually met, I'm Ginny."
"I know who you are," he smiled ruefully. I glanced between the two of them, my heart racing as they stepped closer as if they were hunting for their next meal. My wand was tucked away in the bag I had slung over my shoulder before I'd left Professor Smythe's office, and my hand twitched a little when I realized that I was defenseless. "Enjoyed detention?"
"Mmhmm," I nodded slowly. "Enjoyed the hospital wing?" Rage lit up his features, a look fearsome and threatening only made worse by the firelight that danced across his pale skin. I couldn't help but smirk in satisfaction at the look until I remembered my predicament. Alone. In a corridor, with 2 boys I'd attacked earlier in the day. This is bad.
"Madam Pomfrey misses you," Avery smirked at me. The glint in his eye and the look he shared with Mulciber cued me into just how wholly and truly fucked I was, but I fought against my instincts of flight and only raised my eyebrow in response.
"I somehow doubt that." I looked toward the end of the corridor, just past their heads, and wondered how fast I could run.
"I did have a question, Ginevra," Mulciber interrupted. He took a step closer and instinctively I took a step back of my own, the move did not go unnoticed. Mulciber leered at me with a threatening smile.
"It's Ginny."
"Not for long," Avery scoffed and my eyes widened at the threat.
"Shut up, Felix," Mulciber spat without looking away from me. "Whose side are you on?"
"What?" I asked him.
"Christmas Eve you were so excited about everything the Dark Lord had to share, but today you attacked us for calling a Mudblood, mudblood," He tilted his head to the side a little making him look like a snake about to sink its teeth into it's most recent catch. He took another step toward me and I fought every instinct inside of me to stay still. This made him smile, a dark, crooked, wretched thing that held no warmth in it. "So I say again, whose side are you on?
"Are you going to tell on me?" I taunted him, praying that he wouldn't notice the waver in my voice. "Something tells me that the Dark Lord won't care that you were hexed by a classmate."
"Maybe not," Avery took a step into me as well, and now they were standing within touching distance nearly shoulder to shoulder. My heart sped up again. "But the Dark Lord doesn't take too kindly to blood traitors - or were you not paying attention?"
"She's right, Felix," Mulciber interjected. "The Dark Lord won't care about things like this. He'd much rather we take care of things ourselves. Show some initiative." I'm not sure how it was possible but my heart beat even faster and I felt a bead of sweat fall down my back as they eyed me with promises of something awful behind their stares.
"I think you're right, Olli," Avery grinned wickedly revealing a row of straight white teeth that glinted in the torch light. I darted my eyes between the two of them, wondering how I was going to get out of this. They were taller than me, definitely stronger, but if it came down to it I might be able to outrun them. My mind made up, I tightened my grip on my bag and looked between them,
"Well as fun as that sounds, curfew's soon, so do excuse me."
I turned on my heel and took off back the way I came at a full sprint. My move granted me seconds of a head start, but I heard their feet pounding behind me before I'd even gotten the chance to turn the corner. I surged forward, desperate to make it away from them, but found the pounding getting closer with every step. Their shouts of protest were getting closer as they moved to overtake my stride. Knowing they would catch up, I flipped open my bag, still running, and searched for my wand inside it. As I grasped the wood, I felt a hand wrap around my ponytail, yanking me back against a hard wall of a body, and sending searing pain through my scalp. My bag fell to the ground and my wand slipped out of my fingers before rolling across the corridor.
"Stupid fucking bint," the hand around my hair pulled tighter and I could smell the stench of Mulciber's hot breath on my cheek. His grip on my hair was tight, but I'd go bald before I let anyone take me without a fight and so I drove my elbow into his gut. The grip on my hair loosened as he doubled over giving me the leverage I needed to break free. As I turned myself out of his grip, another set of hands wrapped themselves around me, pinning my arms tightly to my side, and immobilizing me.
"That was unwise," Avery seethed in my ear. I tried to shake him off of me, but the grip was tight, and my movement only made his grip stronger.
"Get the fuck off of me!" I yelled, praying someone would be out walking the corridors nearby.
"Shut up," Mulciber grunted, righting himself and flicking his wand in my direction. I opened my mouth to shout again but found I was incapable of making any sound at all. My heartbeat quickened and the panic set in. I drove the heel of my shoe into Avery's foot.
"Fucking bitch," he cursed but didn't release his hold on me. "You're gonna regret that." I opened my mouth to tell him just how much of a regret his mother likely found him to be until I remembered the silencing spell.
"I like them like this," Mulciber smiled evilly, twirling his wand between his fingers as he stepped closer. On my back, Avery held me immobilized, and Mulciber on my front left barely a breath between us. I stopped trying to hide my ragged breathing and unbridled panic as I continued to try to shake them off. Mulciber reached out to touch the necklace that lay against my collar bone - the necklace Sirius gave me…the necklace that was meant to protect me. "Black isn't here, love."
"I'd kill him too if he were," Avery brought his right arm up and pressed it against my neck - not quite cutting off my airway but getting very close. I struggled again but it did nothing.
"Should've known she was a filthy fucking traitor," Mulciber eyed me with cold and cruel eyes as I felt him press his wand into my chest. "So tell me, were you spying, or were you just there for the fun of it?"
I gave him a withering glare as if to say: why are you asking me a question when I can't even reply? He chuckled darkly before flicking his wand and releasing the silencing spell.
"Fuck you," I said once I found my voice and spit onto his face. A trail of saliva ran down his cheek and he reached up slowly to wipe it away. The look in his eyes promised pain.
"You stupid fucking cunt." He brought his left hand up and backhanded me across the face. The taste of coppery blood in my mouth alerted me to the fact that his signet ring had clipped my lip. I turned back to look at him with a withering glare. With nothing left to lose, I spit the bloody saliva at him again. He raised his wand and I knew that I was in for it. In my panic, I brought my knee upward -driving it into his groin - and he doubled over in pain. Behind me, Avery's grip loosened slightly and I took the chance to duck my chin lower biting hard at the arm that had been clamped tightly around my neck. Avery howled in pain and threw me into the stone wall. I heard my body slam into the harsh cold stone before I felt it. The pain shot through my spine, taking all the air in my lungs, and leaving me gasping on the hard floor as I tried to scramble to my feet again. In the panic, I rolled to my stomach and tried to crawl away, but my attempt was thwarted by cold fingers that wrapped around my ankle and pulled me backward.
"You'll pay for that," one of them - I couldn't be sure which - shouted. Still gasping for air and trying to orient myself, I rolled to my back and kicked at the figure holding me. My foot connected with something hard. "Grab hold of her, you idiot."
A pair of hands reached for my wrists and I let out a scream as I continued to fight the two boys off. Scratching, clawing, and kicking out at any limb that tried to touch me, I fought.
"Avery! Mulciber!" A booming voice stopped both boys in their tracks, and I felt hands wrap around my wrists and drag me up to a standing position. This time I was Mulciber at my back - his breathing heavy and his grip iron-like - with Avery leering before me. "What are you doing?"
"Regulus," Avery replied without turning toward his housemate, "wasn't expecting you for at least another half hour. Running early on your rounds?"
"Answer the question," Regulus replied.
"Just teaching your brother's blood traitor bitch a lesson on behalf of the Dark Lord," he grinned evilly - the promise of pain in his eyes.
"You speak for the Dark Lord?" Regulus asked him. He was in my view now looking nothing like the scared and desperate boy I remembered from Christmas Eve. His uniform was in perfect placement the tie knotted neatly at the base of his throat, shirt tucked in, robes perfectly ironed, and prefect badge gleaming just above the spot where his heart might be. When our eyes met I sneered at him and tried to shake Mulciber off of me.
"We're showing initiative," Mulciber's hot breath on my neck sent a chill through me and I drove my elbow backward but he shifted out of the way to avoid the brunt of it.
"Tell me, Olli, were you hit with a confundus charm?" Regulus' tone was bored as the hands clamped around my wrists grew tighter. He leaned into the stone wall with his shoulder, hands in the pockets of his trousers, eying the situation as if he were a parent reprimanding a child in the middle of a tantrum.
"What?" Mulciber replied.
"Or did Felix's fist knock something loose this afternoon?"
"Fuck off, Black," Avery snarled.
"You're going to kill a student - Dumbledore's niece, no less - in the middle of a corridor as a favor to the Dark Lord. Am I right?" He looked between the two boys with little more than a raised eyebrow, his tone laced with derision. When Avery made a move to respond he held his hand up to silence him. "It was a rhetorical question." He pushed himself off the wall and sauntered closer to us. Mulciber's grip loosened slightly as he drew near. "While I agree that filthy blood traitors deserve death, it would be wise to think before murdering them in a Hogwarts corridor. What use are you to the Dark Lord in Azkaban?"
"We didn't think-" Avery started but Regulus cut him off with a scoff.
"Clearly." His eyes met mine for the briefest of seconds and I saw the boy from Christmas Eve again. He was nervous, searching for something, hoping he'd found it. "Now leave, before I give you both detention."
"What about her?" Mulciber asked him.
"I'll take care of it," Regulus replied. "Off you go." Mulciber and Avery sent a look of loathing with a promise of something far worse later my way before slinking down the corridor. "And Avery?" His words stopped both boys in their tracks as they turned back to look at us again. "Never speak for the Dark Lord again or I'll make you regret it - am I clear?"
"You think you're all that with your new little mark don't you, Black?" Avery sneered. Regulus withdrew his wand from his pocket with lightning speed and before anyone could react he flicked it at the other boy. A deep gash spilled blood out of his cheek. "What the fuck?"
"Do it again, and next time I won't miss," Regulus replied. "Off to bed now." Both boys turned tail and ran down the corridor. I felt piercing blue eyes on me as soon as they were gone and I regarded him with caution.
"I had it sorted."
"Looked like it."
Neither of us made a move as we sized the other up. He looked tired. His cheeks were pale, and almost gaunt, nothing like Sirius. His eyes, while striking, seemed to be missing a spark I'd come to associate with his brother. His frame was thin, but not in the seeker's build way - in the Ginny Weasley first year way, in the skipping meals, afraid to sleep, grappling with demons way.
"You look like shit," I said bluntly and his cheek twitched almost like he might laugh.
"You're one to talk." I looked down at my disheveled uniform, and wiped my chin - my palm came away bloodied.
"Touche." He reached into his pocket and handed me a white handkerchief, the corner was embroidered with the same Black family insignia I wore around my neck. Nodding in thanks, I wiped the blood and spittle from my chin. I eyed the left-hand side of the corridor where my wand lay in waiting. Regulus followed my line of vision and scoffed as he stalked toward it. Gasping I ran toward him as he bent to pick it up, ready to fight him just like I'd fought Mulciber and Avery, but by the time I was within punching distance he was holding it out to me in offering. I eyed it warily, wondering if it was a trick, he only rolled his eyes in response. Taking that as a sign I reached toward it slowly, wrapping my fingers around the hilt and pulling it from his grasp.
When our eyes met again he regarded me with a calm suspicion, as if he wasn't sure just what to make of me, still deciding if I was friend or foe. Blue eyes met brown, and for the first time since meeting him, I didn't see Sirius behind them. The eyes that regarded me were colder, waiting for me to make my move against him. He was guarded. I wondered if he'd ever had the chance to be unwary - to be free.
His eyes flicked down to the pendant that hung around my neck and narrowed when they came back up to meet mine.
"Do you know what that means?" He asked me slowly.
"Yes, but I expect you're going to tell me anyway."
"It means he plans to marry you. It's an old tradition, when the Black family heir courts his intended he gives her that to mark her to the world as his."
"I know."
"You didn't strike me as someone who'd take kindly to being thought of as a possession."
"Neither did you." His eyes flared with a fiery rage.
"Why were you there on Christmas Eve?"
"I was invited."
"Yes, we all know of Lucius' obsession with Sirius," He mocked. "But why did you show?"
"Any excuse for a party," I shrugged. He only rolled his eyes in response.
"They know it was you."
"What? Malfoy's engagement fall through? Shocking."
"Mousehole." He studied my reaction carefully but I knew better than to let him see me sweat.
"What's that?" He shook his head, calling me an idiot with the gesture, and started to walk away. Confused, I followed him. "That's it then?"
"That's it." He turned the corner and kept walking but I was hot on his tail.
"You come to find me just to say that?" He turned abruptly and I nearly collided with him.
"Let me make one thing clear, Cole," He spat. "I didn't come to find you. You just got lucky Mulciber and Avery share two working brain cells that are competing for third place. I should've let them finish the job."
"Why didn't you?" He only sneered in response and took a threatening step closer to me. "If they believe it was me, and the Dark Lord wants me dead, then why did you stop them?"
"That's why," he pointed his wand at the pendant that hung just below my collar bone. I felt my heart racing under the threat that was a wand pointed at my heart, but I made no move to back down. Regulus' blue eyes seared into me like a white-hot brand, as he continued to glare down.
"Family loyalty supersedes the dark mark?"
"He's not my family."
"And yet, you came to warn me." For a second the wand twitched in his hand and the heat in his eyes faltered. "Why are you here, Regulus?"
"I'm on rounds."
"Maybe we should agree not to lie to each other."
"Careful, Cole, no one's here to protect you."
"You are." There it was again, the faltering behind his eyes - a flash of something close to doubt.
"Piss off." The look was gone.
"Why are you here?" I whispered. The wand he held in his hand remained trained on me, but I was no longer worried about what he might do with it. That look was back, a look I didn't know him well enough to understand, but one I knew meant he wouldn't hurt me. Whether the pendant around my neck offered protection or the boy before me lacked the conviction to follow through with his threats, I didn't know - but I did know he would do me no harm.
"Rosier and Malfoy told the Dark Lord it was him. Rosier was punished, and now the Dark Lord wants Sirius dead."
"Why are you telling me this?"
"Rosier, and Malfoy know it was you."
I said nothing in response.
"Rosier paid for his mistake, and now he has it out for you."
"An eye for an eye?"
"More like your life for an eye," He said as he lowered the wand.
"I'll be sure to keep an eye out." He huffed a breath that sounded suspiciously like a laugh.
"Do that."
"Why did they say it was him? Why lie?"
"I don't know." He ran a tired hand through his hair.
"We agreed," I reminded him. He chuckled darkly in response.
"Pureblood politics. Petty jealousy. Lust."
"They want him dead."
"Yes."
"But you don't."
We eyed each other for a long moment, wondering what this meant. Did it mean Regulus was on our side? No, far from it. But it did mean something. It meant there was a crack, a ripple in the water, that might help us in the end. Somehow it could help us - if only I could make the crack in the foundation bigger, shake the building, and then send it tumbling. I had to find the crack.
"He misses you." Regulus rolled his eyes in irritation. "You miss him too."
"Like I'd miss a rock in my shoe."
"And yet you don't take the rock out?"
"The rock left."
"The rock had no choice."
"The rock-"
"Can we stop pretending we're talking about a rock?"
"He chose his side. I've chosen mine."
"Then why are you helping me? Helping him?"
"Don't act like you understand what we've been through - what I've been through," Regulus took a threatening step toward me and I had to crane my neck up to look at him.
"I don't understand. No one understands what you've been through. No one except him." He snorted, it was the least refined I'd ever seen him, for a second I thought there might be a normal human trapped beneath all of that pureblood propriety.
"Piss off Cole."
"You're both so bloody stubborn." I started to turn away, making my way back toward the corridor and my bag that lay forgotten in it, but a hand gripped my arm and turned me back around.
"We agreed not to lie to each other."
"I didn't lie," I shrugged his hand off of me, and went to gather my things.
I heard his shoe clip along the corridor behind me as I slung the discarded bag over my shoulder. For a second I thought about leaving it. I thought about turning the corridor and walking away from Regulus Black, the death eater. But this wasn't just a death eater, this was Sirius' little brother. This was another life to be saved, another chance to be given, another change to be made. As I righted myself and turned back toward him, my mind was made up. I walked toward him slowly, taking in the sunken cheeks and tired eyes surrounded by a face that looked so much like his brothers. My heart ached.
"Dumbledore's Army," I said.
"What?"
"When you need a way out, it's through Dumbledore's army." I started toward him, heading in the direction of Gryffindor tower, but just before I passed him I reached my hand out and grasped his arm - his left arm - the arm that bore Voldemort's mark. "Thank you for finding me."
"I didn't do it for you."
"I know." I smiled sadly at him.
"Are you going to tell him?"
"Do you want me to?"
He was silent, studying me with clouded and tired eyes.
"It'll be our little secret." I started down the corridor, but the clip of his shoes on my back caused me to slow and turn. Brown eyes met with swirling blue and for a moment I saw someone else, someone I knew, someone I loved. He hesitated before holding his hand out to me - a peace offering of some kind. I looked down at it, at the hand of a death eater, and wasn't sure what I was thinking as I reached out to grasp it.
"Keep him safe?" Regulus whispered. A wave of emotion washed over me as I shook his hand, the fingers cold, and the grip firm. This was Sirius' little brother, the one he tried to protect but couldn't save, asking me to succeed where he had failed. They hated each other, almost as much as they loved each other. With shining eyes, I nodded.
"When you're ready, come say hi," I replied, and left him behind me - standing alone in an empty corridor, neither my enemy nor my friend. He was just Regulus. Sirius' little brother. On his own.