Chapter 19
Regulus kept watch while Hermione and Fred slept, he was very used to not having human needs, not like Fred who missed feeling normal. Hermione started muttering and contorting, the memories fresh in this place causing her nightmares.
A blanket fell on her, it was weighted, Regulus could feel it over his arm that was in turn holding Hermione to his lap. He looked up and saw Fred, awake, with his wand out, watching Hermione, James next to him having returned from wherever he was sulking.
“It helped my sister after she came back from her first year, she was possessed by one of his Horcruxes” offered Fred in explanation.
Hermione calmed down after it, Regulus kept massaging her scalp watching her sleep, Fred came next to him and sat putting Hermione’s feet on his lap massaging her legs .
James looked at the picture in front of him cautiously, he didn’t know what to ask first.
“You have changed Regulus”
“The Regulus you knew is dead” he said grinning at his joke “really James, I didn’t want to die but I sacrificed myself hoping for people to be freed from that monster and his followers, my family included, and I freed myself in the process…
…I’ll never again be pressured with Family expectations, punished with pain and death threats, following nonsensical doctrines that if I didn’t believe them false before, I would have done it, once I found myself dead in the same ship than anyone else no matter your blood status”
“So, what? you found love and happiness in the afterlife? With that girl?” he said in a disdainful tone
“Is that a problem ?”
“It’s not real, is it? You are dead, she, apparently, is not. Is it the bond that is manipulating your emotions? And she got bonded to what? Three ... .Four big families? They did say she was clever” James could recognize the bonds too “It would explain a sweet and caring Regulus Black better…”
“... better than twenty years of reflection and self realization? The bond didn’t give me a new personality James, it gave me the first opportunity I’ve ever had to express who I hid to be during my time alive”
“So you can also feel the bond? Is it scaring you? That's why you're having this little fit against Black? Or is it Jealousy? Of him or her?”
“I’ve been bonded before, I can feel bonds but not interested in having one with her or whatever is going on with your little group.” He continued disdainfully “You should wake her up and get going, you don’t want to be here when the scenery changes. Granger has already been through a lot on behalf of my son, I don’t want to add to her nightmares the horror of living with Petunia”
“We don’t want that either Potter but Hermione, Black and I are stuck with you, we cannot leave this… whatever you want to call it, without you, the bond with the Potter family you see?”
“So my options are babysitting the three of you here for eternity, moving on, or going with you?”
“So far moving on hasn’t been an option, It seems we cannot break our patterns without her help, she caught the snitch for me and the powers she has in her helped breaking Fred from his place in front of the mirror”
“You want me to let her confront all the evils in this chamber and follow her around like a lost puppy with you two. And when she decides to go back to the living, what happens to you then? Are you going to love her until she comes back?”
“Listen Potter,” Regulus was losing his patience, insecurity rearing its ugly head with James’s comments about Jealousy, the bonds and what would happen when she left them, but it wasn’t her fault, and James needed to get his head out of his arse. “We are going to take you from here either if you want it or not, you don’t look like you know what you’re doing other than sulking, if you follow us after, that is your problem, you can always have an epiphany and go follow your little squad to the beyond, but if you don’t want to join the bonded group stop talking about us”
“Black! Fred exclaimed “that was bloody sexy” and winked
Regulus blushed a deep red and James looked chastised
Hermione chuckled “Fred is right Reg”
“You heard all that?” Regulus asked throwing a look at James who was now looking very ashamed of this tone
“Not all but I have an idea of what was happening” she sat up cleaning the sleep out of her eyes “Mr Potter…”
He coughed “Hmm call me James” he said chagrined
“Mr Potter…” she repeated, he winced “I’m sorry to have interrupted your eternal torture with our unwelcomed offer to help. Your son as you said, cares for me and offered me the Potter token to try and save me from a very awful, very unfair ending, once I come back home, If I come back, I’ll tell him that even if he is head of the Potter family, his dead father begs him to please refrain from helping friends if it’s going to annoy his father’s unpeaceful rest…”
He was going to interrupt but she held out her hand indicating she wasn't finished, the two men besides her looked very amused and rightful with her polite way of ripping him a new one.
“...being dead doesn’t mean that your afterlife is less important than the actually living, I’ll relay the sentiment. However sorry I am to be a disturbance, I’m going to have to help you either way. Once we are over, I’ll ask my guides to send you to the best pithole they can find for you to keep suffering in peace alright?”
She didn’t want to be a bitch but she found pleasure in the prideful smiles of her … boyfriends?... let's go with that word, also it was easier getting offended than confronting the reality that she was indeed out of her depth and didn’t know where this trip was taking her to and what would happen at the end of the road, will she lose them ?
She stood up and said “ you can help or not, that is your choice… can you show us the way to the Horcruxes? I’d like to asses the situation”
“They change places everytime I visit, haven't seen one today”
“Very well, we should divide and conquer then” she cut the three top buttons off her blouse, and started the process of the proteam charm “Here”, she passed one to Fred and Regulus, Fred smiled to the memories it brought, Regulus looked at her questioning “If you find something tap your wand to the button thinking on the information, it will appear on our buttons, if it warms it means there’s a message, let's not take long, maybe a sector of five rows at the time and then we reconvene here”
“You don’t want me to do anything?” James asked not knowing how to manage his feelings about being left out, his shame for the lack of tact he showed and his fear of what would happen if he didn’t have this routine he had created for himself. Better the devil you know and all that
“I wouldn’t dare to inconvenience you Mr Potter. You may continue your day as you were”
They left him sitting there, each taking a different way, the dark thoughts that always attacked him when he was in the room with the Horocruxs grew tenfold with the new ammunition the newcomers just gave him. He stood up and went on to look for the Horcruxs too. He was dead so he couldn't grow anymore but his soul could grow up, using his time to help and apologize to the girl, woman, who helped his son so much would be a better use of his time than sitting in the sad sod’s corner.
Hermione was fuming and didn’t know to whom to direct her rage, herself for the selfish way she was leading this group, not even wanting to think about what would happen to these men If/when she left, the zero care policy she was employing regarding her bonds and bonded.
Ugh James Potter wasn’t so wrong to say those things and that thought didn’t help her humour.
In any case he doesn’t have the right to talk about her like that or to criticize their relationship, that’s none of his business. She chose to stay mad at him and give herself some slack, dead Hermione was all for not blaming herself about her situation.
In her haste of leaving Potter behind she didn’t share enough information with the others and now she was worriedly sending messages through the button.
H: “don’t touch them directly, use a piece of cloth or something”
R: “We can write on these things!?”
F: “this is an improvement, you get better with age Granger”
H : “also don’t wear them, obviously”
F: “Granger, can you send green sparks? I found something that I want to show you”
She did and waited for Fred, worried about what he found. He came running and kissed her, taking her by surprise.
“I thought you might be a little stressed and came to give a helping hand” he said in between kisses
“Fred, we have work to do”
“Is an enclosed space, there aren’t many places they could be, we’ll find them in no time. Let me distract you from your mumbling”
“ I wasn’t …”
“...Please Hermione” he was kissing her neck now sensual licks, his hands exploring and grabbing “I know you well enough, you forget I was present every fight you had with Ron and you would start mumbling curses under your breath” he pinched her nipple over her clothes and she moaned leaning her head back to give him more access.
His lips left her neck and he reached with his hand to hold her chin to him looking directly into her eyes.
“If you want me to stop tell me and I will, but I’ve been dying to have you”.
She released herself from his grip and attacked his mouth, her hand going to the hardness in his pants. He started this and he better not let her high and dry. Should she be embarrassed at how easy she was to convince? Problem for living Hermione, no need for silly social norms in the underworld.
He did quick work of her blouse, now three buttons less to undo, unclasped her Bra and stopped to look at her and groaned .
“Godric Hermione, these tits!!” He held one in each hand and buried his face between them “These are heaven sweetheart !! you’re so fucking beautiful!!” he took one nipple into his mouth nuzzling and suckling, his other hand having fun with her other nipple, and exchanged places. She had her hands holding his head to her chest, moaning loudly. His free hand went to her throat and squeezed gently, then to her bum, then to her center between her Jean and her knickers.
“Fred, take your clothes off,” she said, whimpering.
With his wand he divested them from their clothes, being careful not to lose them forever, he then took her by the back of her thighs and carried her to the wall next to them, he opened her legs and placed them around his waist, helping her lock her ankles behind him. “I’m going to keep playing with your amazing tits and you are going to ride my fingers, then, after you come, I’ll be fucking you against this wall”.
Fred was a surprise for her, she didn’t expect him to be like… well, this, during sex, every time he kissed her, the time over the kitchen table or the touches when they were alone he ravished her, he looked like he wanted to drown in her skin, and the things he said, Merlin!
She rode his fingers and moaned to every bruising kiss he left on her breasts, she was getting so wet she was dripping on the floor, he bit her and she came screaming his name, her legs squeezing his hips
He rocked his hips into her, getting his cock wet and ready, looking into her eyes while he said,“I survived the year you were on the hunt, when I wasn’t worried to death for my family, remembering dancing with you on Bill’s and Fleur’s wedding” he entered her stretching her deliciously and moved softly inside of her.
“During the day I would think of you laughing and smiling at me, telling me how you admired our inventions, remembered the feeling of having you between my arms” he kissed her and kept rocking softly, grinding his pubic bone into her, one hand behind her head protecting it from hitting the wall, the other holding her arse up to help him.
”But at night I would remember how delectable you looked in that little red dress, I’d remember finding you in the cupboard packing some last minute’s supplies and imagined fucking on the shelves” he increased the power of his thrusts “I was never so happy to have a room to myself, the times I fucked my hand thinking of you” He changed his angle and …
“Scream, Sweet, I’m coming too” he groaned.
Once she relaxed he pistoned hard and fast and came, hard, with a grunted Hermione