Content Warning: Flashbacks that include mentions of childabuse
Bellatrix had taken Severus' challenge to heart, it seemed. She had led their little group, weaving in and out of the crowds of Muggles so quickly that Regulus found it hard to keep up.
"What is she even planning to do?" Severus hissed breathlessly beside him.
"Knowing Bella, I doubt she has a plan at all," Regulus said irritably. "You shouldn't have patronized her."
"I honestly thought she would give up, not rush off into the streets to do Salazar knows what!"
Regulus shook his head, narrowly avoiding running directly into an older gentleman in a business suit. "Blacks don't give up, Severus."
At the next corner, Bellatrix made a sharp left, then a right, and then another left.
"Do you even know where you're going?" Mulciber asked with an annoyed growl. "I'm really not in the mood to get lost."
"Of course, she doesn't know where she's going!" Avery snapped. "She's just dragging us around aimlessly. She hasn't got a plan or anything!"
Bellatrix spun around to face all of them and even under her dark hood they could see her piercing silver glare. At both of her sides stood the Lestrange brothers as if they were her bodyguards, arms folded over their chests. Bellatrix was reaching for her wand and Regulus, deciding it was time to take charge or watch his cousin start a duel with Killian Avery in the middle of a crowded street, stepped forward and grabbed her by the wrist.
"Bella, stop!" Before his cousin could argue, Regulus pulled her forcefully into another deserted alley between two buildings. "We get it, alright? We let you have your little adventure but I think it's time to call it a night before-"
"Excuse me," a raspy voice interrupted from somewhere in the shadows. It was so dark that Regulus couldn't see to whom the voice had belonged, but suddenly Bellatrix shrieked and twisted herself out of Regulus' grasp.
There was a man there, old and decrepit and utterly filthy, who had crawled out from somewhere and was clutching the bottom of Bellatrix's dress robes.
"Excuse me miss," the beggar wheezed again. "Do you have any spare change?"
Bellatrix's eyes widened in horror and disgust and she yanked her robe out of the man's grimy fingers.
"FILTHLY MUGGLE!" She spat, whipping her wand out in front of her to point it at the man. "How dare you speak to me!"
Regulus went to make a grab for her arm but she shoved him away with her free hand and he stumbled back against the brick wall.
"You see!" Bellatrix said lecherously as she kicked her foot out and sent the man flying backward into a heap on the floor. "You see what a stain the muggle race is! The Dark Lord is going to rid the earth of scum like this!"
The others had all come around the corner to see what the commotion was about and the man on the ground was slowly trying to pick himself up.
"Please," he choked out. "I'm sorry, miss! I just-"
"Silence!" Bellatrix shouted. Regulus tried to call her name again but she didn't seem to hear him, and if she did she didn't care. There was something terrifying in her eyes. Terrifying, but somewhat familiar that Regulus could not quite place until, with a sickening smile and twist of her wand, she cried, "Crucio!"
The old man let out a howling scream, of pain and fell back to the floor where his body writhed and twitched in agony. Regulus heard the other gasp, but no one dared to move to stop her. Regulus found that he himself could not move. He was fixated on the man's eyes, which were staring right at him, wide and fearful and seemingly pleading with him to make it stop. Say something. Do something.
"You stood there, Regulus." His fists clenched so hard his knuckles cracked. "You stood there and watched our father hit me." He took another step and Regulus was backed up against the stone wall. "You watched as our crazy mother used an illegal, unforgivable curse on me. You saw me, on the ground, in pain." Sirius' hand shot up and held his brother against the wall by his chest. "And you did nothing."
"Do you know what the cruciatus curse feels like, Reggie?" Sirius' voice rang in the back of Regulus' mind. What was he supposed to do?
"What was I supposed to do, Sirius?!" Regulus yelled, still up against the wall even without Sirius holding him there.
Sirius barked with laughter. "What were you supposed to do?! Anything! You could have said something! Done something! It may not have made a difference but at least you would have tried!"
"BELLATRIX!" Regulus shouted again. He took a step forward, reaching out to her, but before his hand could grab onto her sleeve he heard her shriek, "AVADA KEDAVRA!" Followed by a loud cracking sound and a blinding green light.
Then everything was silent and still. No one said a word or moved a muscle, all staring in shock at the crazed girl before them who was breathing so heavily her shoulders heaved and the lifeless lump on the ground that was the old beggar.
"Bellatrix…" Regulus' voice shook. "What have you done?!"
In the distance, he could hear the voices of muggles in the street, confused and frightened at what that sound and flash had been. People were running toward them. He finally wrapped his hand around Bellatrix's wrist. "We have to get out of here!"
—-
James and Sirius pushed their way through the crowds of panicked muggles, all of whom were chattering on about electrical fires and dangerous power lines.
"You don't think it's him, do you?" James asked as they ran in the direction from which the explosion had come. "Voldemort?"
"No." Sirius shook his head, though he wasn't completely convinced. "But I reckon it's some of his loony followers, out to make themselves known."
"Shit!" James stopped short and grabbed the sleeve of Sirius' jacket. "Look! There!" He pointed off in the distance. A group of hooded figures was huddled in the dark shadows of an alley.
In a fluid, identical movement, both James and Sirius reached into their back pockets and whipped out their wands, charging forward.
"EXPELLIARMUS!" They both shouted, but it was too late and the whole group of them had apparated away.
Sirius swore. He kicked the brick wall and ran a hand through his hair. "We could have had 'em. Imagine! We could have been given bloody Order of Merlin First Class, graduated Hogwarts early, and become Aurors on the spot!" He laughed, but James didn't respond. "Prongs?" He turned around and saw James standing off to the side, facing away from him and staring at something on the ground. "Oi, Prongsie, you alright?"
"Merlin…" James breathed out. Sirius frowned and walked up behind him. He looked at the lump on the ground that James seemed to be fixated on. His breath caught for a moment.
"Is… d'you think he's…?" Sirius asked warily. James nodded.
The body looked as though the life had been sucked right out of it. Sirius shuttered, he had never seen a dead body.
There was another loud CRACK and both James and Sirius jumped, turning around with their wands ready.
"You two!" Barked a strongly built man in Auror robes who had his wand pointed at them. "Drop your wands! You're both under arrest!"
James and Sirius immediately dropped their wands on the ground and held their hands up.
"It wasn't us!" James said. "It was some gang all in hoods. We were coming after them!"
"State your names," the Auror ordered.
"James Potter," James answered quickly, holding his head up a little higher to hide the fact that he was actually quite terrified.
Sirius hesitated with his own name. Something told him the name Black would leave him sounding anything but innocent. Both the Auror and James were looking at him expectantly.
"Sirius Black," A more familiar, gruff voice answered for him. There was a soft clunk clunk clunk on the pavement as Mad-eye Moody appeared beside the Auror. "And James Potter. They're Fleamont's boys, Falco. Lower your wand."
Both James and Sirius let out the breath they had been holding as Moody slowly limped towards them, his magical eye surveying them so intensely that Sirius thought it must surely be reading their minds.
"Did you boys see who did this?"
They both shook their heads.
"No sir," James said.
"They had their hoods up," Sirius added. "We saw the light flash and we ran to see what happened. We got here just as they disapparated."
"Hmmm…" Moody grumbled, still staring them both down. He flicked his wand and both of theirs flew off the ground into his hand. He held them out to the boys.
"Off with both of you," he said as they took their respective wands. "And don't let me catch either of you trying to play hero again, understood?"
"Yes sir," both boys answered quickly.
"Please don't tell my dad," James added quickly.
Sirius kicked him in the shin and Moody chuckled deeply. "Go home, Potter."
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