Chapter 2
Pandora knew regulus wasn't going to be too happy with her when he found out what she was doing but in her defense he had said go and ask for Lily's help
so really she was just doing what he asked, because if he thought she wouldn't face her demons for him he was very wrong, so of course she could face her ex girlfriend in order to find help for him
It doesn't mean it was easy of course, the pain in her heart increased as she got closer to where she knew Lily and James were living together but she would do much hurtful things for Reggie
When she finally arrived she observed the place. it was close to a muggle town but it seemed safe enough for wizards to leave, the house was nice, very typical for the main couple in that romance movies one could see in the cinema this days, her heart hurted a little bit more at that but she ignored it, instead she decided to get done with this and knocked
A head full of read hair welcomed her when the door was opened. In any other situation it would either made her laugh Lily's shocked face at seeing her or she would moon over how bloody pretty the green eyed looked
"Pandora" she gasped looking her from head to toes "what-" she opened and closed her mouth a couple of times before the blonde decided to interrupt her
"Hey Lils" she said sheepishly "you look good" the last part wasn't supposed to be said it out loud but her brain-mouth filter have never worked properly
She couldn't deny though that She felt quite proud at the blush that invaded Lily's face when she talked, even so she decided to focus in her mission
"So, it's James home?" She asked after some seconds, Lily blinked a couple of time in confusion before frowning
"You are here looking for James?" She asked and if Pandora didn't know any better she would say the redhead sounded offended and somehow jealous, but that couldn't be so she put those thoughts aside
"For both of you actually, that's why I ask" she answered scratching her wrist absently, at least until she noticed the green eyes on that place "its- it's quite important" she emphasized when Lily just looked at her. That seemed to do the trick because the redhead got out of her stupor and opened the door whole
She observed the house when she entered. It looked exactly as she had imagined, warm, beautiful, family like. It hurted her a bit of thinking she could never had this, not with the person she desired anyway. His thoughts were interrupted when a male voice filled the living room
"Who was at the door Lily?" James asked drying his hands, it looked as if he was coming from the kitchen and he stopped mid way when he saw her, he looked quite...domestic there, she noticed, Lily too. For a moment she felt guilty for interrupting their life, they didn't deserve this, they deserved to be happy. But then she remembered the pale face of regulus when kreacher appeared them into her house, how for some very long seconds she thought he was dead, and she remembered that just James and Lily could help them, Could help him
She would live with the guilt if it was needed, but she was going to save her best friend, she had had the feeling this was the only way and her feelings were never wrong, so she took a deep breath before waving at James
"Hello Potter, long time not see" she said. The man looked at her and then at Lily, as If trying to figure out what was happening, he looked like wanted to ask but didn't know how so Pandora took pity on him "I came to talk to the both of you" she expressed, the brown haired nodded at that absently, his face was still confused and he was still alternating his gaze between the two women on the room, as if hoping for something Pandora didn't understand
The blonde dared to look at Lily, thinking about how to proceed and noticed that the green eyed was standing in the middle of the place, looking at her, waiting for Pandora to talk.
Yeah well, she was going to admit that she didn't think this through, she didn't know what to say now, she had hoped for a bit of help from the two other people in the room but those looked petrified and she didn't know what to do or say
"Okay this is awkward" she talked without meaning to do it, her mouth betraying her again. But those words seemed to brought the other two to the present moment
"Right, yeah sorry" Lily was the one to talked "do you want to sit? That way you could tell us what is happening" she asked pointing to the blue couch that was in the middle of the room, in front of it there were two individuals sits so it seemed perfect for this kind of conversation so she nodded
They moved to sit there and after some seconds of more awkward silence Pandora sighed In defeat, she was thinking in a way to soften the things she had to say but nothing came to her mind, so she decided to just said it and get done with this
"It's about Regulus" she started, that took the complete attention of the couple in front of her, especially James's who tensed at the name "he is in danger" she said
"What? Why? Is he okay?" The man interrupted her, panic slipping through his voice
"He is-" she paused, thinking about how to describe it and choose the safest and truer option "he is alive" she said "but I don't know for how long" she was interrupted once again this time by the redheaded
"Is he sick? What does he have?" She asked worriedly, Pandora felt her heart beating faster at that, Lily and regulus had never been friend but here she was, worrying about him as if they had been it, she smiled at that
"I think it's better if you guys let me finish before you asked anything" she proposed and they both nodded at that, the worry expression still on their faces "regulus betrayed the dark lord" she started again but James literally jumped from the couch
"What?! He did what?" He almost yelled, his eyes wide open as he stared at her "when? Why? How?" He started to ask one thing after the other "is he safe right now? Is he hurt?" Pandora had to raised her two hands in a surrender manner when James started to pace
"I can't answer all your questions at the same time" she said and James stopped to look at her, he was breathing erratic and Pandora vaguely asked herself how mad would regulus be if she caused James Potter to died of a Heart attack. The answer was a lot so she stood on his feet too
"He is alive, he is not hurt and he is as safe as he can right now" she said, she felt as if she was talking to child or to a scared animal, trying to calm him down "but that is why I am here, if you sit again I can finish my explanation" James seemed to understand that because he nodded before taking a deep breath and going to sit back where he was
She saw Lily putting a comforting hand on his shoulder when he did but she ignored it in order to continue with her words
"Six months ago regulus found out a secret that could meant the defeated of you know who" this time she did a pause, waiting for one of the two to interrupt but this time they seemed willing to just listen "part of the secret was an artefact the dark lord had hide in a dangerous place" she suppressed a flinch at images of the awful cave she had seen in regulus memories when she was trying to figure out what had happened, she forced herself to continue "when he realized what it was he decided to stole it in order to destroyed it and hurt you know who, and succeeded in that mission" she said though succeeding it's not how she usually see it "but he got hurt, really hurt. That's how I found out, i had to cured him myself because he was terrified of someone finding out what he had done" she pushed aside the memories of a half-dead regulus from her mind "but after he got better he decided that he was going to stop the dark lord, he had been in a mission all this months while still being a death eater as a way to collect information" she explained and when she saw the people in front of her looked like they wanted to talk she decided to quickly continued
"I fear he is driving himself too far, I have tried to explain him that he can't do it by himself but he believed he's alone. That no one would help him if he tried asking, so I have decided to do this, I can drink verisitemun if you wish but I promise you I'm telling the true" her voice broke a little when she added "I'm here because I don't want to lose my best friend and you guys are the only ones I could think of" she ended cleaning some traitors tears that had left her eyes
She realized none of them had spoken so she dared to look at them, they looked shocked, unmoving and overall as if someone had slapped them on the face
"I think maybe I should have soften the hit indeed" she said and at this both people jumped from the couch, she would have found that funny if it wasn't for the general situation
"How dare him?" Was the first thing James said for her confusion "how bloody dare him to play the hero that way" she was surprised to heard anger in his voice "I fucking told him that if he ever change his mind he had to called me and the tosser just went and put himself in danger like that?" He passed an exasperated hand through his hair "you know something? I'm very happy he haven't been killed for his stupidity because that let me the opportunity to do it myself" he mumbled "idiot, he used to call me an idiot and this is how he act?" He was pacing as he said all that
Pandora looked at him with sympathy, she understood the feeling, after regulus had gotten better that one time she had too yelled for how much of a reckless arse he had been, she was about to say something from that line of thinking when her brain kind of short-circuited as Lily's hands took hers
"And you are okay? I'm guessing you have been helping him" she said kindly, holding her hands with care and Pandora had to bit her tongue to not say something really embarrassing
"Yeah, I've been, I am" she answered "we are trying as best as we could but it's just the two of us" she sighed "and truly I felt like a sidekick, because he is the one that goes to death eaters meeting looking for information and he is the one that kept going into missions looking for more artefacts" she had never felt more useless than when she was waiting in her home for regulus to comeback from a hunting, praying to all the gods she knew the name of that he would arrive alive at least "we can't keep doing this by ourselves, and that's why I am here, you are the only ones we could trust" she said barely more than a whisper, Lily looked at her in understanding and something more she couldn't point, she was about to say something when James interrupted them
She tried to not get mad at the man for how many times he had interrupted her, she wasn't blind, it was obvious he cared deeply about regulus but Merlin she was thinking about silenced him with a spell at this point
"You said that, that you can just trust us" he said "and don't get me wrong I'm really happy you are here, that you are trusting us but what about Barty? Sirius?" He asked and she sighed at the question
"Evan died" she said simple "he died at the hands of an auror, Barty is blinded by the pain and he had decided on blaming his dead in your side, he won't help us" she explained, it hurted to think about her two friends but she didn't have time to grieve them, she would do it when she have been able to save Reggie "and about Sirius, well regulus is convinced the man wouldn't believe him if he told him he changed his mind about the dark lord, he is quite sure his brother hates him so he would never ask for help" she shrugged at the last thing, she didn't believe that part but convincing regulus was a lost cause, at least for her
"That's not true" James answered "Sirius part, it's not true" he specified "he would help regulus in a heartbeat, he loves him" he said and Pandora smiled weakly at him
"I think that too, but regulus is as stubborn as someone can be and besides you two and Sirius there is no one else we are completely sure are not the traitor in the order" she said, that was other reason why regulus was very adamant about working by himself, there were too many rats around. James seemed to understand this because he nodded at what she was saying but then Lily spoke
"Completely sure" she said frowning, her hands still on hers "you said completely sure, why do I feel like there is more than simply trust there" she asked but she didn't see angry so Pandora decided to explain what she meant with honestly
"You're a smart person and no offense but you are a muggle born, you know you would never be safe with the death eaters" she started and Lily nodded "also you and James had publicly refused you know who invitations and even fight him once" she added now looking at both of them "it's obvious that you are not the traitors and regulus had heard the death eaters insulting both of you so that was another proof" she paused a second and then decide to explain Sirius' too "with Sirius is mostly his great hate to anything pureblood related" she explained chuckling lightly "but also, well I attacked him" she added then and as if the time limit between interruption had expired the both of them did it
"What the hell?"
"Excuse me you did what?"
She rolled her eyes at looked pointedly at both of them, and wait until they shut up and let her continued
"Well it was in a fight of some order members against some death eaters" she explained "regulus was using his mask so Sirius didn't recognize him and try to curse him so I have to intervene" she shrugged, really it had been the logic step "I wasn't fighting with any side, I was just close there because regulus and I were going to investigate a clue when the battle started and I wasn't going to simply sit and wait" she added feeling the need to clarify that one bit "so yeah I paralyzed him when he had cornered regulus in a desolated alley, and then another death eater got there" she felt Lily hardening her hold but she ignored it "regulus had to knocked the girl out and erased her memory so she wouldn't said anything but he thought Sirius was unconscious so he just told me to move him to a safer place and stay there before leaving to assure the girl was far from there"
she remembered regulus fear when he had thought his brother was in danger, how he had begged her to kept him safe
"the thing was that Sirius wasn't unconscious just paralyzed and he saw everything" she continued "I let him go with his memories intacts because I thought it would be a good precedent for when I convinced regulus to ask for help, and the fact that both of us are alive it's a clear indication Sirius is not the traitor" when she saw that they looked confused she added "if he had been the traitor he would have inform the dark lord that I was intervening in the war and that regulus was a traitor, we both will be dead by know if he knew" she finished and the both of them looked at her horrified, she thought for a moment they would be angry but then Lily talked
"That was too reckless Pandora" she said "you both put yourself in danger there, you could have been hurt or worse" she added and the blonde almost laugh at that, she had been explaining how she attacked one of her friends and Lily was nagging her about being reckless, vaguely she heard James mumbled about Sirius haven't talked to him about this but she decided not to intervene about that
Instead she decided to enjoy the warm of Lily's hands and Lily's attention for some moments while the redhead told her off for her actions, gods how had she missed this. Her sweet moment was interrupted when she saw from the corner of her eye the clock they got in the living room, she needed to get going soon so she needed to clarify things now
"I know Lily I know" she interrupted the other woman monologue "I wasn't thinking, I just needed to help Regulus" she said "which leads me to now, so you guys will help us?" She asked
"Of course" James answered immediately, as if offended she have to ask "we can talk with the order and-" but Pandora interrupted him
"No" they both looked confused at her "I'm sorry but I don't trust in the order, not with the traitor still unknown" she explained "I'm not dumb I know we might need their help soon because this mission is getting harder and harder" she said sighing "but I can't trust them now, it's too much of a delicate information. The only person I trust you to tell all this it's Sirius, no one else, please promise me you won't tell anyone else, at least not for now" she asked them almost begged them to understand what she was saying
"Hey, it's ok, we won't tell anyone else" Lily promised smiling at her "but maybe we can tell Dumbledore?" The blonde was thankful she was asking because the answer in her mind was clear
"No" she said "I know he is working to end this war but I don't trust him either" she told them
"But if he is working to end this war as you said he is the best choice to ask for help" James said slowly
"He doesn't care what it needs to be sacrifice to end this war" she emphasized "we have been witnesses of how little he care for those he doesn't see an use for" she spit, remembering how Evan had begged him for help and he had refused him, how he had known that regulus didn't want to take the mark but had done nothing to help him, she was never going to forgive him for it "besides, do you know he is good at legilemency? He can read minds and he doesn't know who the traitor is? I don't believe it" she expressed, needing them to understand how little they can trust the old hag
" Hey, hey, it's okay. We won't tell anyone them" Lily calmed her, caressing her knuckles that were still between her hands "if you guys need a safe place we can figure out a way without asking the order" she said
"Tell regulus that" James intervened "tell him that I can find a safe place for him today If needed" then looked at Lily before adding "to both of you, the moment you ask for it we would be ready" he finished and Pandora felt overwhelmed for how good, kind and perfect this two were. they were really good to each other, it didn't exist someone more willing to help that the two of them
She nodded and after some seconds declared she needed to go, she gave them the information for a next meeting with regulus where they could discussed the plan more detailed and stood up to leave the place. she was surprised when Lily gave her a quick hugged, it didn't last more than some seconds but it was enough to made her heart beat uncontrollable. She regained some control over herself and manage to said her farewells and leave without embarrassing herself with things as declaring her feelings
When she got home she sighed before laying in her bed, she prayed that everything worked as she expected