Chapter 20
Regulus and James sat, one in front of the other, one looking at his hands on his lap, the other didn’t stray his eyes from the former’s face
“For someone who doesn’t want to be involved with our little group you looked like you were waiting for an invitation”
“I just stumbled upon them, I saw the sparks and had just arrived when you found me”
“See, If you told that to someone who wasn’t watching you from the other end of the hallway while they could listen to them, they might have believed you. I’m not judging, well… yes, I’m judging, but I’m sure Fred did it on purpose to make you burn, and If Hermione feels the bond with you like she does with us, then she wouldn’t care”
“It won't be like that, I already had a marriage bond, maybe it will be a familial bond”
“If that’s how you treat family then you really are into the Black side of the Family”
James was ashamed, he didn’t know what to do with himself.
Was he a voyeur? He didn’t know, he had only been with one woman and it had been for no longer than three years, that didn’t give him enough time to get to know his likes and kinks, and Sirius talking about his conquests wasn’t something that he liked to encourage, not when Peter, bloody Peter, was in the habit of saying crass and disrespectful things about the girls.
He didn’t want to look too closely into his whole attitude and his reactions to these people, especially Hermione, who he regretted being rude with, but he could and he would be honest to himself. That was so hot, she was a goddess.
The admiration towards this imaginary being, who Remus and Sirius talked about, was easy to come by, no one talked ill about her, but after hearing her speak and stand for herself, seeing her lead and cast spells that older wizards and witches would find difficult, and to top all that seeing her… like that.
“Look, here comes your adoptive daughter! What a shame! With the way she was checking your size, your arms and your legs when we arrived here I’m sure she wouldn’t have minded calling you daddy, nice dad belly by the way”... “There you are! James and I were waiting for you, we found five”
“Reg, thank you, that’s great!” she said, hugging him. He nuzzled her cheek glaring at James behind her, and kissed her, she welcomed a long kiss before shying away
“I think it is hard for her to understand that we don’t care if she kisses the other,” said Fred, understanding. “The bond doesn’t leave space for jealousy sweetheart. Give Reg the kiss he deserves”
“I thought they called her the brightest witch of her age” before ending that sentence James internally groaned, He didn’t need to raise his eyes to know Hermione was wincing and the other two must be staring daggers into him. What was his problem?
He coughed and changed the subject like the well adjusted adult he was.
“How can we destroy them? I’ve tried everything, they don’t even answer or react to me, only the feeling of uneasiness”
“Well..” Hermione the gracious thing that she was, gave him an out, letting the comment slide, he needed to apologize, eventually “They can be destroyed by fiendfyre, basilisk venom or a goblin made weapon that has been touched by either. Even if any of you know how to cast fiendfyre we are in a closed space without escape so let's not risk it”.
“How do you propose to do this then Hermione?”
“Well, Regulus mentioned that the magic I carry could be the key in each situation, and when I …” she coughs and blushes “When I was with Fred I had an Idea”
“With Idea she means Epiphany, and there were two if you were wondering”
“Fred, please”
“There was a little bit of that as well” He winked at James, Was he aware he saw them?
“ANYWAY, I think if we can all channel the magic and I employ the super summoning gift of the Malfoy’s magic I could maybe, somehow, summon Gryffindor's sword”
“If I knew being delusional was your plan I wouldn’t have worried”
“Excuse You, I’ll let you know that…”
“Lovely, James is an Arse but I think maybe he’s…”
“Ok, I know you might think these are rose tinted glasses, but Hermione, Ron and Harry pulled impossible things and she was the one helping them out of trouble. Yes, turning back in time to release a convicted mass murder, and jumping on the back of a dragon was unorthodox, but she saved hundreds of people, including your dear marauders, even the evil one and your brother too, Regulus. So show some bloody respect..” “... I have to say Prongs, you’re the right example when they say not to meet your heroes”
“Fred Guideon Weasley I’m going to kiss you now” she jumped him, what a rush she felt when he defended her like that, so sexy.
“I apologize Lovely, It was rude, what Potter said, and me not even giving you the opportunity to try”
“You’re not used to it, and this time I’m the one with the plan and also the one with the hunch that nobody believes , that was Harry’s part ..” a look at James who again, didn’t know what to do with himself “I don’t believe in destiny or prophecies, and please if what I’m going to say ends up being true, never tell this story to Luna Lovegood, but she told me something that I decided to interpret as I’m gonna find a way…
…Also Regulus, there are two Gryffindors in need of help here…”
“Three” James interjected
“I apologize Mr Potter but I’m not counting on you”
Ouch
“Reg, the sword comes in help of Gryfindors in need” she counted with her fingers “it came to Neville from the inside of the sorting hat, if that’s not interdimensional traveling I don’t know what is, and it destroyed two Horcruxes, if you think about it, it destroyed immortality. Ok, that last part was a bit of a reach on my part, but I have this feeling…”
“Lovely, again I’m sorry, let’s try”
“I’m…” cough “I can try with you if you let me” James said
“that’s not even close to an apology Potter” Fred chastised
“Fred Leave it. Ok, like last time?”
Fred smiled salaciously and Regulus purred.
“Not exactly like last time, behave you two. Everyone take a hold of my arm,and before you say something extremely hurtful like you are bound to do Mr Potter, yes it’s a concealment charm, yes very powerful, yes I’m hiding something and no, it is none of your business”
James took a deep breath “Granger, Hermione, I’m sorry”
“Apologize when I’m right, I’ll enjoy it more”
Please let me be right, please let me be right, Morgana if I’m right I’ll let Luna read my tea leaves every month for a year.
Each man took a part of her left arm, Fred held her hand and massaged it, Regulus took her elbow and kissed her shoulder, he then posed his chin on it looking at her with an infatuated smile.
Who would have thought that the taciturn boy in the quidditch team photo was such a puppy? She smiled and kissed his nose, James took her arm carefully, respectfully. yeah you better show some respect.
She started casting, she added the wand movements, the runes designs and the internal chanting that she thought to be overkill when she read it. Minutes passed, two, three, nothing happened
Please, please, please, I’ll accept all of the scrapbooks without complaint
The walls shook, the crystal balls clicked. The Weasley-Lovegood household was getting the best version of Hermione, not even Minerva Mcgonagall had seen such a perfect Hermione Granger in the wild.
They looked up where the noise was stronger, a shiny object fell from the ceiling, Fred and Regulus in an almost practised effort pulled Hermione away from the falling sword.
James, who couldn’t comprehend how it was possible, didn’t move away and the pommel fell on his forehead.
Bang!
“Merlin’s wrinkly… arghh”
“You may apologize now” she said, crouching to take a hold of the sword and passing it to Fred. “Reg, Lovely, can you transfigure me a quill, I have a love letter to write”
________________
“I should do it” …”This diary possessed my sister I want to do it”
“Ok Fred just, don’t let him get too much into your head, Tom Riddle was very charismatic”
“Well little Tommy is going to pay…” his breath hitched and his eyes went wide with realisation “Hermione? Is Mery’s…”
“Yes Fred…” she coughed “We suspect the same, we’ll talk later”
James wanted to ask but he was on Hermione’s bad side and was very eager to get out of there so he sipped it. He shared a look with Regulus in a silent agreement that he would tell him if necessary or soon after this ordeal.
Fred was writing in the diary, Tom Riddle’s diary, Voldemort’s diary, James shivered, and a ghost-like figure appeared, a boy younger than them.
“Oh, thank you for stopping by, I just wanted you to see me destroy you” Fred swung the sword and the diary was cut in two, a high pitched metallic sound screeched out of the thing and resonated in the cavernous room, they all cringed and covered their ears, this day was going to be very long.
They all took turns destroying the artifacts, diadem, the cup, the ring…
“That’s how he got to talk to us? The original stone in the ring was the resurrection stone?”
“Yes, in that moment he was The Master of death. I was so proud of him when he let the stone be lost in the forest and he snapped the elder wand. The days before being abducted and thrown into The Veil I wanted to kill him, if we had kept The Hallows maybe I would have escaped those harpies”
James closed his eyes frustrated with himself, he threw accusations at her and he hadn't even asked how she ended up here, alive in the Veil, with bonds to several families, quite against her will for his understanding.
He now hoped he was indeed destined to stay with them after this, he wanted to ask her everything and help her get back at whoever did this to her.
It was the turn of the locket “I remember what to say for it to open, just, this one was very violent in my time, I wasn’t there for the destruction but it played into Ron’s insecurities so we need to be prepared for mind games” Hermione looked around expecting a volunteer
James, in an act of contrition offered to be the one to do it.
“Are you sure?” Hermione asked softly, he didn’t deserve her consideration “You’ve been in a very dark place metaphorically and literally the last few years, maybe it is too much material for it”
“Thank you Hermione, and again I’m sorry for how I’ve been, I used to be nicer, kinder, happier, I think these things own me a lot, and I owe you a lot too, I’ll do it”
“Ok, James” she accepted the apology. She started speaking in a hissing language, parsel, Merlin that was creepy, but the locket opened and he wasn’t ready.
Harry and Lily walked out of the black smoke
“YOU HAD one JOB” the words shot through his chest and he was lost.
___________
“We need to help him…” Hermione cried over the roar of James screams of grieve and regret “You two take him away I’ll do it”
“Lovely…”
“I’m literally more charged in power than the both of you, you’ll destroy Nagini and whatever Harry’s one is.
They agreed and tackled James out of the way.
The locket took its time to attack Hermione, it was enough for James to recover and apologize again. Potter really needed to up his game and stop needing to apologize, but after seeing what he was feeling about the circumstances of his death…James Potter really needed a break and someone to talk to.
The smoke transformed into a young man, a Malfoy for the look of his hair
“You call yourself a witch? Couldn’t even defend yourself, I’d be alive if the one fighting next to me was a legitimate witch”
It changed, Hermione was paralyzed, the boggart like magic transformed in a girl, blonde and with soft curls, her throat was ripped off, “It should've been you not me”
It changed again Remus Lupin only older with a young woman holding his hand “It should've been you”
Sirius “If you had stayed in your muggle world …”
Was that Bellatrix? Older, gaunt, deranged and dirty “You can conceal everything you want but you’re still a filthy mudblood, I should have carved your face”
A couple in their forties, the woman with Hermione’s hair, the man with her eyes “This is what you sacrificed us for? A world that treats you like mud under their shoes. These are the people you chose over us? Every Christmas and summer, only living off your letters until you got rid of us?” Regulus couldn’t move, the hurt of Hermione’s heart, the secrets it had revealed, the torment.
James was apparently in his second wind, or it was easier to confront your demons when you notice that people around you are as haunted as you, he took Hermione’s hands and with her they swung the sword and cleaved the locket in two.
Fred was crying next to Regulus, looking pale, Regulus’s eyes would take a while to come back to their natural size.
Hermione’s knees faltered and James helped her keep up right, maybe there was hope for the guy, she put a hand on his chest and gently pushed him off her, maybe not. Regulus stood up and held her, James took the sword from her hands and she broke up in sobs, they sat together, Hermione on Regulus’s lap.
Fred helped James, he guided him to a seat, and summoned the weighted blanket he had for Hermione, he put it over James’s shoulders, James thanked him and they both waited for Hermione to calm down, they couldn’t hear what Regulus was saying but her breath started to slow and the picture they painted hurt and filled James’ heart with wonder at the same time.
Fred saw what was happening and gave Hermione her space, but her pain was so strong that he felt it at a cellular level, he made sure that James was taken care of and when Regulus, thank Godric for Regulus in times like these , gave him the signal, he approached.
Both of them kissed her eyes, her cheeks, her shoulders and her hands.
Hermione took a deep breath, pecked the both of them and leveled James with a serious look.
“Mr Potter …James, If we destroy the two Horcruxes left, have you decided what you’re going to do?” her voice was hoarse, she had been screaming under the Horcrux power.
“If I have a choice and you allow me, I’d like to follow you and help you if you need. I’ve noticed I’m a little emotionally stunted and I haven't been acting very mature, but I’d like to make it right with you three, especially with you Hermione” He took a deep breath. “I wasn’t like this before dying and If Regulus is any indication I've wasted my time here becoming someone worse than I was”
Hermione observed him and accepted his words.
“What I’m about to tell you three is really delicate and personal, If you are coming with us James, you’ll learn it sooner or later and I’d prefer not to talk about this twice, you, reluctantly, trusted me with your magic and the sword, I’m trusting you now, don’t make me regret it…”
“...The couple you saw were my parents, they didn’t lie with what they said, I was a terrible daughter, in the end. After Dumbledore died at the end of my sixth year, when we discovered the locket was fake and that there were more Horcruxes, the war was imminent, Sirius had died so, Harry, Ron and I lost a trustworthy adult in our life, and everybody was busy protecting their own, I …” she choked on a sob “I didn’t know how to protect them and If being a muggle-born and Harry’s friend wasn’t enough to become a target , I had already fought Death Eaters the last two years …” her tears were cold and she couldn’t stop them
“Tell us Lovely, we are here for you, whenever you’re ready” Regulus snuggled her
“I.. I obliviated them, gave them new identities, erased any memory of them ever having a daughter and gave them a craving need to move to Australia. I haven’t been able to find them… “ Her voice was hoarse and she was hyperventilating “I visit the house when I’m sad and nostalgic, It's not longer my house, they had to to rebuilt it, Death eaters blew it up”
“I’m so sorry Hermione, sweetheart If I had known”
“There was nothing else to do, none of the Aurors had the time”
There was silence among them, somber and sad. Each of them choked listening to her, in their group there were those with loving Families, who understood her desperation and hurt, and there were those who made sacrifices that no one would ever know about.
After a couple of minutes Regulus broke the silence “Bellatrix …”
“Ah, number twenty on my top five favorite Blacks” she gave them a hollow chuckle “I told you about the hunt partially, they made the word Voldemort a taboo, they knew Harry insisted in calling him that so they would send snatchers to the locations it was last said, they found us, I had enough time to send a stinging hex on Harry’s face but it wasn't enough and they suspected. They dragged us to Malfoy Manor and Bellatrix wanted to interrogate me…”
Hermione pushed her left sleeve up to her elbow “After thirty minutes under the cruciatus and not talking she got bored…” she revealed the scar “There, don’t ask me about it again”
She stood up and left them, she didn’t know how long she’d been there but she hasn’t been alone in enough time, if she was home she would’ve been in her dark hole mode hours ago and visiting the Monolit at Hogwarts, it wasn’t healthy, not her new way of pushing things away and living life without wondering or second guessing, nor her coping mechanism before, but at least she had time to sort her thoughts.
The rage, hurt and helplessness that the three of them shared was thick in the air, Fred was trembling, but Regulus looked somber and James didn’t know he didn’t miss that look in the younger Black brother until he saw it again.
The sad, sulking and serious expression in Regulus’ face represented what the other two couldn't phantom, what being under torture, under the cruciatus could do to a person.
“I’ve been sitting on my arse, surrounded by what I thought was the worst thing I could feel” Said James standing up “I’m not doing it again. I’m finding the snake and the nauseating alien looking thing. Hermione already suffered through all of this helping one Potter, I’m not making her do it anymore”
Fred looked half impressed with his speech but not impressed enough “Are you done having your head up your arse? I’m not against you pulling your weight but if you’re doing this to look better in front of her only to keep putting your foot in your mouth I’m not vouching for you”
“You don’t need to help me and I understand, I don’t blame you either, but she trusted me, us, with what she told us, what we saw, her and the locket… You heard what it told me, I’m not letting her do my job.”
“Very well. Black, stay here for when she comes back, I love her…” cough, chuckle “Don’t tell her, I haven’t told her yet. I love her but I think you can understand what she needs right now, more than me, I’ll grow up eventually, and I’ll start being more than ‘the funny one’ but I’m not ready right now”
They left, and Regulus had the opportunity to feel. He felt so small, he was free from his family when he died, he never thought what others might suffer from them as well.