Dark Paradise by Lana Del Rey
And there's no remedy for memory, your face is like a melody
It won't leave my head
Your soul is haunting me and telling me that everything is fine
March 8th, 1975
Thoroughly plied with sugar from their trip to Honeydukes, Regulus stood with Ivy and Ariadne, overlooking the Shrieking Shack. The old, rickety house appeared similar to the rest of the cottages in Hogsmeade, with the exception of it being abandoned and looking like it.
"Think it's really haunted?" Ariadne asked.
The dark-haired witch moved closer to Regulus, who pretended not to notice despite the action setting his teeth on edge. A stolen glance at Ivy, who was wearing the same Slytherin scarf as him, told him that she hadn't noticed. Or, she had and didn't care. The latter seemed more accurate considering her behaviour since the Winter Holidays.
"Maybe," Ivy said curiously. "It doesn't feel haunted. Not like Hogwarts or… Selwyn Estate."
"You have ghosts at the Estate?" Regulus asked.
"No, but there's different types of hauntings. Some have to do with the dead and some with the living. If anything, the Shrieking Shack has something to do with the living. Hauntings tend to leave an imprint."
Regulus exchanged a bewildered look with Ariadne. He knew Ivy was prone to making ominous, borderline omniscient statements, but it always made him uneasy.
"How do you know if there's an imprint?" He raised a brow.
Ivy gave him a look, like he was the one being odd. "You can't sense it?"
"No," Ariadne sighed. "We need to leave or we're going to be late."
With a murmur of acknowledgement, Regulus set off after her, trudging through the snow towards High Street and the Three Broomsticks. Only after he lost his balance on the icy road and fell into a snowdrift, did Ivy cast a Warming Charm on them. Thankfully, by the time they stepped through the doors of the pub, he'd mostly dried from his stint in the powdery snow.
The Three Broomsticks was a little smoky, but otherwise just the kind of cosy environment he liked for studying, as it wasn't too loud but still had background chatter.
They found Theya at a table towards the back and walked in her direction somewhat hesitantly. She was lip-locked with her latest conquest, a fifth year Hufflepuff, Amos Diggory.
"Hey, guys!" Theya broke away to grin at them, her lips swollen. "You've met Amos."
Regulus mumbled his hello and ordered a gillywater from Madam Rosmerta as she passed by, thankful when Diggory got up to use the lavatory.
"I see you've been busy," Ariadne commented.
"Shut up," Theya glared at her half-heartedly.
"Busy isn't bad," the corner of Ivy's mouth twitched up. "In fact, I may have to take a page out of your book. At least, that's if I want a date for the Hallowe'en Ball next year."
As Madam Rosmerta dropped off their drinks, Regulus sipped his in stoic silence. He didn't want to attend the Ball, but he thought it might be a good opportunity to make Ivy jealous. He'd started snogging Vivienne Parkinson after the Winter Holidays, so maybe if they were still doing so by next year, he could take her.
"You could always snog Sirius," Ariadne shot an inconspicuous glance at Regulus. "He seems to be… willing."
Gagging on his gillywater at the thought of Ivy snogging his brother, Theya thumped him on the back. When he recovered, he followed everyone's sly gazes to the right. Having been caught up in his thoughts, he'd failed to notice Sirius at the next table, snogging a fourth year Slytherin, Lucinda Talkalot.
"You've heard about him by now, right?" Theya asked in a low tone.
"Everyone's heard about him by now," he grumbled.
Sirius was apparently attempting to shag every girl in school. He'd gotten quite the reputation for himself, though at the rate Theya was going, she'd soon be his rival.
"He's gotten quite fit, hasn't he?" Ivy observed.
"He's a blood traitor," Regulus sneered spitefully. "He only hangs out with halfbreeds and Mudbloods."
"Yes, well." Something in her gaze turned frosty, as though he'd struck a nerve. "We're allowed to see other people, remember?"
"I suppose I should go find Vivienne then," he smirked. "She's been seeing plenty of me lately."
"Fine," she drawled. "Go on. I'll be here, two metres from your brother. Though before the weekend is up, who knows? Perhaps we'll end up closer than that."
Fuming, Regulus snatched his coat from the back of his chair and stalked towards the door, unable to bear the idea of his Ivy locking lips with Sirius, of all people.
Ivy watched Regulus slam the door to the Three Broomsticks closed behind himself.
"What was that about?" Ariadne asked.
Diggory returned and made to take a seat so Ivy sipped her butterbeer.
"Amos," Theya gave him a sweet smile. "Would you do me a favour? I left one of my new fur-trimmed gloves in Zonko's, I don't suppose you'd fetch it for me?"
"Wouldn't want those delicate fingers getting cold," Diggory kissed her cheek.
He grabbed his coat and departed from the smoky pub.
As soon as he was gone, the smile dropped off Theya's face. "Delicate fingers, my arse. These fingers have been doing some rather indelicate things recently, which he mighty well knows."
Ivy made a face.
"Oh, whatever," she rolled her eyes. "Just because your sex drive hasn't kicked in yet doesn't mean it never will."
"You've been having sex?" Ariadne looked mildly disgusted.
"No, I've just been slowly exploring other stuff," Theya shrugged. "Anyway, Ivy, what was that all about with Regulus? You two have been strange since Winter Hols."
Ivy sighed, deciding it was time to explain since she'd been putting it off for months, and gave them a brief overview of her disastrous conversation with Regulus.
"Yikes," Ariadne frowned.
"Seriously," Theya glanced over at Sirius, who was still snogging the blonde. "But you're not actually thinking about…"
Ivy hesitated.
Since things imploded with Regulus, she'd started to fancy Sirius a bit. He had the looks, sure, but it was more than just the shaggy black hair or the muscles; he was good. A bit of a prick, most definitely, but he didn't buy into all the purist shite like Regulus. He voiced his opinions, talked to Muggleborns, and befriended blood traitors.
Maybe I don't have a crush on him, Ivy thought. So much as a crush on his life.
"I'm not going to snog Sirius," she finally said in a hushed tone. "I just said that to rile Regulus up. Things are bad enough between us without me swapping spit with his brother."
"Besides," Ariadne said stiffly. "Regulus was right, Sirius is a blood traitor."
May 12th, 1975
Ivy opened her Daily Prophet over lunch, as she hadn't had the chance to read through it during breakfast; her morning had been a whirlwind of slapping together half-arsed homework since she'd fallen asleep while finishing it the night before. She'd had a nightmare of a high, cold voice saying: You remind me of Bellatrix,and awoke from the dream so consumed with her own creeping thoughts that she accidentally went to class with dried ink on her forehead.
Reading over the headline and main article of the Daily Prophet, she raised a brow. Minister for Magic, Eugenia Jenkins, had been determined inadequate to challenge the rise of Lord Voldemort, as she was just replaced by Harold Minchum.
Pressing her lips together, Ivy recalled that over the Spring Holidays, her parents had started whispering again. This time, it wasn't Squib uttered in disgust; it was the Dark Lord spoken in reverence. While Ivy hadn't been invited to any meetings with said Dark Lord, her parents had started leaving the Estate for hours at a time, returning full of chatter about the upheaval of impure blood.
Glancing down the Slytherin table, Ivy pulled a list from her pocket.
It had been charmed to look like a list of homework assignments when it was actually a list of ideas on how to, as Marlene had so eloquently put it, fuck things up from the inside. She had thought about every which way to murder her parents and the Dark Lord, including poison, Muggle tactics, and pyrotechnics, but each plan she and Marlene conjured ended with Ivy in a casket.
The only item on the list she thought had potential was: Become a Death Eater. But she couldn't imagine being allowed to do so at fourteen.
Even so, Ivy had been practising her duelling and Occlumency skills every chance she got since an incident back in April. She had been staring into a crystal ball for a good hour, when in the depths of the white fog, she saw a man with slit-like scarlet eyes. She'd been so startled that she'd whipped out a Bombarda and shattered the glass.
"Ivy!" Theya's voice broke into her thoughts.
Hurriedly tucking away her list, she turned to see Theya, whose golden-brown hair was soaked with sweat as though she'd run from one end of the school to the other.
"The Gryffindors are going after Severus again," she panted.
Letting out a deep sigh, Ivy tossed aside the Daily Prophet and followed Theya out of the Great Hall and castle. Led onto the warm sunlit grounds, she could already see the commotion from a distance. Small figures stood beneath a tree by the Black Lake, already in the thick of a duel while others stood watching nearby.
Ivy's wand slid from up her sleeve into her hand as she and Theya drew closer.
The altercation was between Severus, Sirius, and Potter. Evans was involved as well, because of course she was, though she remained on the sidelines with Lupin.
"…Cut it out!" Evans was shouting. "All of you!"
"Theya probably went for some Prefects," Lupin told her.
"Nope!" Ivy sprinted past him, running to Severus's side as he shot a violet spell at the Gryffindors. She deflected a yellow blast of light that came her way, then threw out her own bolt of red.
"Come on," Evans groaned loudly. "Girls are supposed to be smarter than boys!"
Ivy shot a Conjunctivitis Curse at Sirius's head, one that he barely managed to block. Something about the interaction made him grin and she knew what he was thinking right away: I like a challenge.
Narrowing her eyes, she threw herself into an onslaught of jinxes and hexes, shooting one after the other so quickly that she had him sweating within a minute.
Theya, Evans, and Lupin continued being overdramatic, shouting at them like they weren't enjoying the fight even a little.
As she threw up a Shield Charm, then sent a Bat Bogey Hex Potter's way, she realised that she was having fun. Not only that, but she was a better dueller than all three of them. Blasting out a Leg-Locker Curse, she grinned upon spotting their weaknesses. Potter's was Severus, and vice versa, since neither of them paid much mind to Ivy. Sirius's was Potter, who he kept glancing at to make sure he was alright.
Ivy let Severus get a few shots in on his nemesis before ending things.
When Severus and Potter were between breaths, she took her chance.
"Arresto Momentum! Expelliarmus!" Her first spell hit Potter, though he was able to deflect her second.
Sirius watched the ordeal, giving her the time she needed to land a Conjunctivitis Curse. His eyelids began to swell and he sent a Redactum Skullus her way, which shot narrowly past her head as Potter went to his mate's aid.
"Expelliarmus!" Ivy hollered, Sirius's wand flying to her hand.
"Levicorpus!" Severus shouted at the same time.
Potter's ankle looked like it had been snatched from under him as he was lifted into the air, robes falling over his face in the process.
"Expelliarmus!" Severus gained Potter's wand, looking painfully smug. "Sectum-"
Ivy sent a Disarming Charm his way and found herself with all three of their wands. If she was being truthful, she liked the feeling of taking away their power. Perhaps a little too much.
"What was that for?" Severus barked, snatching his wand back.
"Just to see if I could," she lied smoothly.
While she was entertained by Potter aggressively punching the air as though that would let him down, she knew Severus wouldn't stop until one or all of them were in the Hospital Wing. It was part of the reason she'd joined in the first place.
"Levicorpus?" Ivy asked him, throwing Sirius's wand in the air and catching it. "Haven't heard of that one."
Severus ignored her, likely upset that she'd ruined his fun, and ran after Evans who was stomping up the hill towards Hogwarts with Theya at her side.
Rolling her eyes, Ivy walked over to Lupin, who was kneeling beside Sirius. He jumped up defensively, holding his wand out as she approached.
"Relax," she tossed the Gryffindors' wands to the grass. "Just came to return these. Keep your friends in check from now on, Lupin, I don't want to have to save their arses again."
"Save their arses?" He echoed. "Look what you did to Sirius!"
"You don't want to know," Ivy told him calmly. "How much worse it would've been if I hadn't stopped Severus from using that last spell. I'm talking about potential death."
"Then maybe keep your friends in check and don't let them use shite like that!"
She smiled patronisingly, knowing that he didn't understand Slytherins in the slightest. "Do fuck off."
August 22nd, 1975
"12 Grimmauld Place!" Ivy shouted.
Throwing the Floo Powder at her feet, emerald flames erupted all around her. She kept her arms tucked close to the sides of her dark green dress as several hearths zoomed past. When the Floo Network landed on her desired location, she remained in the fireplace for a moment, taking in Regulus's home.
It was much darker and older than the Estate; the architecture and decor looked its age, though the wooden floors were finely polished. Having Floo'd into the drawing room, she noticed the large windows that overlooked the street in front of the house.
As well maintained as the home was, she couldn't ignore the haunted imprint in the air. She hadn't believed much in Divination when she was younger, but now that she'd been in the class for a year, she'd begun to find some use in it.
"Come in," a cold voice said.
Ivy hadn't noticed Walburga Black standing by a massive tapestry that stretched all the way up the wall. Nonetheless, she obeyed, keeping her good posture as she ran through all the customs in her head.
"Good evening, Lady Black," Ivy said with faux respect, coming to her side. "Thank you for inviting me over for dinner. I've been looking forward to this for some time. And I must say, you've quite an extraordinary home."
"It's only fitting that we get to know our heir's future wife," Walburga smiled, though it was the same kind of dead smile that Bellatrix had.
"Of course. Feel free to ask anything you like of me. I'm at your service."
"As it should be," Walburga stuck her nose in the air. "Regulus is upstairs, getting ready for dinner. Why don't you join him? You can come down together. It'll be good practice for when you're married. Kreacher!"
A sickly-looking house elf popped out of thin air.
"Show our guest the way to Regulus's bedroom," Walburga ordered.
"Yes, Mistress," Kreacher began leading her into the hallway.
They made their way to a massive set of stairs, where a row of shrunken house elf heads were mounted against plaques on the wall. Ivy gasped at the sight of them, but didn't comment to Kreacher her thoughts on the matter, despite how revolted she was.
Upon reaching the fourth floor, they walked past a door with a plaque reading: Sirius Orion Black. Kreacher gestured to a half-open door, this plaque reading: Regulus Arcturus Black.
The house elf then bid her a respectful, somewhat reverent, farewell before vanishing.
Alone in the dingy hallway, Ivy knocked on Regulus's door and pushed it all the way open. His room was dimly lit but surprisingly clean. The Black family crest had been painted over the carved wooden headboard of his bed, while the walls were decorated with green velvet curtains, fine tapestries, and newspaper clippings of the Dark Lord.
They definitely surprised her, though not as much as Regulus, who was shirtless as he dug through a drawer of his dresser. He was lanky, but she hadn't expected there to be muscles beneath his robes. In fact, she hadn't imagined what could be beneath his robes at all.
"Hey," he said nonchalantly. "Give me a minute."
His words went in one ear and out the other as she recalled what Theya had said a few months ago. Just because your sex drive hasn't kicked in yet doesn't mean it never will.
Well, she was pretty sure hers had just kicked in.
That was, until she spotted the scars on him.
Ivy stepped into the room, shutting the door behind herself despite Regulus's protests. She walked up to him, perhaps a little closer than she needed to, to get a look at the marks. There weren't many, but she still knew where they had come from.
"What are you doing?" Regulus asked uncertainly.
"Your scars," she scowled. "I knew that your parents were like mine, but seeing them is…"
"They're pretty ugly, huh?"
"No," she said automatically, the thought having never occurred to her. "Don't even think- no. You're not ugly. What your parents do is ugly, but not you. Never… you."
He was quiet, face unreadable.
"Do you want me to kill them?" She asked softly. "I'm serious."
"No, Sirius is serious."
"Don't joke with me right now."
"Sorry," Regulus shifted on his feet. "You're just, um… Closer than you usually are. And I'm not entirely clothed at the moment, so…"
If she hadn't been thinking about those facts before, she definitely was now. Ivy's body was only a few centimetres away from his. In fact, her lips were only a few centimetres away from his as well. She was close enough that could lean right in and taste him.
Calm down, she ordered herself, simultaneously noticing a thin, medium length scar on his collarbone.
"I have the same one," she brought a finger up to touch it without thinking. "Almost in the same place."
Regulus's breath hitched at the contact and her silver gaze met his dark hues. She reached a hand up to her dress slowly, pushing the shoulder of the gown off to show him her matching scar. Ivy tugged the hem down a little further than she needed to, causing the top curve of her breast to show.
Watching his reaction carefully, she noted that his eyes dropped past the scar, before flickering back up. She felt him move closer, her skin going hot and tingly when something hard brushed against her.
"Stray Instant Scalping Hex, right?" Regulus sounded breathless.
Ivy nodded, at a loss for words.
Her mind was just... empty.
It never had been before.
He brought a hand up to touch her scar in return, fingertips feathering over it. Regulus brushed the top of her breast in a way that could've been accidental, but she hoped it wasn't. In response, she felt something stir between her legs.
She couldn't help a little provocation and moved closer, brushing her chest against his bare one. Ivy felt that hard something press more firmly against her hip and she was surprised to find that she liked it, knowing what he felt without him saying anything.
Regulus leaned in.
Instead of kissing her, he placed one hand on the small of her back. He reached his other hand up to tug at the black ribbons that held her hair in a bun. Maintaining eye contact, he pulled the long, white strands loose as Ivy's breath left her.
"You have no idea how long I've wanted to do that," Regulus twirled a strand of her hair around his finger.
Fighting against the way his words lit a fire between her legs, she analysed him.
There was a heady look in his dark eyes, which flicked to her lips, and the way his body shook ever so slightly told her that he wanted her. Wanted to devour her, dominate her, throw her onto his bed and tie her up with her black ribbons.
Damn it all.
Ivy brushed her lips against his gently. It was a restrained movement, incredibly so, for the kinds of thoughts that started rushing through her head. She was tentative and gentle, not wanting to scare him away when they'd barely even talked in months.
But Regulus didn't kiss her back gently at all.
He crushed his mouth against hers, strong arms pressing her flush against him.
She let out a needy sound she didn't know she was capable of making, her fingers sliding up his biceps, over his shoulders, and into his hair, where she instinctively pulled. Eliciting a similar sound from him, his fingers dug into her hips as his tongue begged for entrance into her mouth.
Granting him access in seconds, her tongue danced with his as she pushed her breasts up against him, wanting more, more, more. One of his hands thrust into her hair while the other slid down to cup her arse, deepening a need she'd never felt before, a need that demanded her full attention.
His mouth moved away from hers to roughly kiss her neck and she arched into him, fingers fisting his hair. His lips were soft, like she'd always thought they would be, but the way he bit her exposed skin wasn't. He was possessive and ravenous with her - it was everything that she wanted.
There was a rhythmic knock at the door and then the sound of it opening.
"Reg, Walburga wants us downst- Whoa."
Ivy broke away, her lips, heart, and somewhere else burning. Regulus's hands held firm to her waist, but his eyes glared over her shoulder. She turned to see Sirius in the doorway, clothed in black robes fancier than she'd ever seen him wear.
"Hey," Sirius had the audacity to check her out. "I see the appeal now, Reg. Selwyn in a dress does look irresistible."
"Sodd off!" Regulus growled, moving out of her grasp and slamming the door in his brother's face. "Don't make me Avada you!"
"Be down in ten or she'll break out the really bad Curses," Sirius said merrily from the other side of the door.
Ivy stood silently where Regulus had left her, unsure of what to do with herself as her thoughts were still churning with him and his body.
Oh, his body.
Touching her fingers to her lips, she found it hard to think about the Black family waiting for them downstairs when she had just been snogging Regulus. And if they hadn't been interrupted, she had a feeling much more than that would've happened. In fact, she was still tempted to make it happen.
"I need to get dressed," he broke the silence.
Regulus moved past her, careful not to touch her as he went to finish putting on his robes.
"I'll just…" Ivy started, feeling dazed. "I'll wait outside. Your mother wanted us to walk down together."
Tying her hair back up as she left, she closed the door behind herself. She pressed her back up against the wall beside Regulus's plaque and fixed her dress. Even after taking several breaths, she still didn't feel like she was getting enough air.
Ivy wasn't sure there was enough air in the world to calm her after that.
"Lucky you don't have any hickeys."
She nearly jumped out of her skin, not having realised that Sirius had chosen to linger in the hallway after bursting in on them. He was leaning against the opposite wall with an obnoxious, knowing smirk.
"Go away," Ivy snapped, the sexual frustration leaving her instantly.
"Don't you worry, I'll be gone soon enough."
She eyed him. "What does that mean?"
"It means that sometime soon," he smiled happily. "I won't have to live here anymore. You and Reg will be free to continue without interruption."
The idea of that was quite nice until she realised that Regulus would be alone with his parents. There would be no one to defend him from the wrath that seemed all too common in pureblood families.
Ivy had once taken the brunt of the pain for Hazel, no matter how bad things got, because that's what older siblings were supposed to do. But Sirius was selfish enough to leave Regulus alone with his abusers?
She clenched her jaw as he stepped into her personal space.
"Just so you know, I heard you and Reg talking back at Hogsmeade," Sirius winked at her. "If you still want to snog me, I promise I'll make you feel much better than he ever could."
Regulus came out of his room at the same moment that Ivy kneed Sirius in the groin.