Dead girl walking
“Fuck is he breathing?”
“Regulus please,”
“Reg,”
Regulus sighs, rubbing his hands together. It was cold outside, the sky a dark shade of grey. He sat by the door, waiting for his return. He’d come back, right? He always came back. Minutes turned to hours, and before he knew it his parents were home.
“What are you doing boy?” His father, Orion, bellowed.
Regulus winced at his father's tone.
“I’m waiting for Sirius to come home.”
His voice was so small, so quiet that he almost couldn’t hear himself. Suddenly a hard hand came in contact with his cheek.
Except when Regulus opened his eyes, his father was not towering over him. It was Sirius.
“Sirius?” Regulus croaked. “You came home.”
There was a pained look on Sirius’s face now, realizing Regulus was in shock. He didn’t know what to say to his little brother, he didn’t know how to explain where they were, or how to explain what happened to so many people.
Regulus, taking in the look on Sirius’ face, sat up and looked around. They were not in the home they once shared, instead, they were in the woods, fire to the left of them, parts of the plane scattered around. Bodies. Blood. So much sadness, so much pain.
Standing up slowly, Regulus’ heart began to pound. Where were Evan and Barty? Where was Pandora? Where was he? He started frantically searching now, running, doing anything in his power to find his friends- No. His family. Until he felt someone grab his arm. He whipped his head around and was met with Evan, who wasted no time to pull him into a hug.
“I thought you died,” Evan shook, almost as if he was fighting every fiber in his body not to cry.
Regulus didn’t respond, instead, he just hugged Evan tight, afraid to let go. Regulus was not an affectionate person. He never tells someone he loves them, andnever hugs them, but seeing his friends alive, being alive, may have changed him.
“Where’s Barty?” Regulus panicked, pulling away from Evan.
“He's okay, he went to help Peter with the wounded.” Evan reassured, “Reg-” his voice broke, “A lot of people are not okay,”
Regulus nodded, expecting as much. Instantly, he returned to his cool demeanor, trying to take control of the situation. He had to be strong. For Evan, for Barty, for everyone.
“Pandora?” He asked, scanning Evans' expression.
“She’s a bit banged up, but she's alive.”
Regulus just nodded, eyes searching around him. He locked eyes with James, who had an unreadable expression, which was out of the ordinary for ‘James the open-book Potter’.
“We need to get a headcount, see who’s alive,” Regulus spoke more to himself, but Evan nodded. Most people were all together, crying, rummaging through stuff, or just staring blankly. Regulus knew someone needed to take charge, and he supposed that someone was going to be him.
“I’m not familiar with everyone on the team,” Regulus spoke again after a few moments. “I don't know everyone on the plane, so I won't know who is missing.”
Before Regulus had the chance to say anything else, a scrawny but tall man stepped forward. “Guys,” the man spoke loudly, “I know this isn't ideal, I know you're all scared, afraid, mourning our losses.” He paused, looking around at the group. “But we don’t know how long we will be out here. We don’t know what is going to happen in the days to come.” The group looked around frantically, scared.
“Alright coach,” James spoke up. “You’re not helping, no offense.” He shot the supposed coach an apologetic look. “Guys I think what Coach Lupin was saying is that we need to come up with a sort of plan. Try to be optimistic about the situation. We need to be smart about this.”
Regulus would never admit this aloud, but James was very brave. He was very admirable.
“I know you’re all scared, but we need to be a team now more than ever. We all need to gather as much supplies as we can find. Anything left of our stuff that will be useful.” James encouraged, his eyes flicking to everyone around him. There is a mixture of nods and a few words spoken amongst the team before everyone starts walking around gathering anything that may provide them some service. That's how Regulus found himself next to James Potter, standing over a girl's body.
“Mary,” James spoke up finally, tears welling up in his eyes. “She was so fierce. So kind,” He paused, reaching down to close her eyes. Regulus looked at the girl. He recognized her name. Mary Mcdonald was one of Sirius’ friends. She had been since they were roughly twelve. She looked unrecognizable now, her once beautiful curly hair was drenched with blood and fragments of bone. Blood had oozed from her mouth, forming a puddle of dark red around her.
James bent down next to her, sobbing uncontrollably. Regulus didn’t know what to say, didn’t know how to comfort him. Instead, he just placed a hand on his shoulder as a reminder that he was there.
“Do you want to take her with us? So we can bury her?” Regulus finally spoke. James did not respond, instead, he just stood up and nodded. Together, they picked her up and carefully carried her back to the crash site. Upon their return, there were multitudes of gasps, tears, and screams. They silently laid her down on the ground, James sitting down next to her with silent tears coming down.
“Mary?” a redheaded girl screamed, rushing forward. She collapsed to the ground, sobbing. The only words she spoke were “No. Wake up.” over and over again. Regulus stepped back to give them space.
“That's Mary's girlfriend, Lily,” a voice spoke softly. Regulus turned around to see their coach. “I’m Remus.” The man said quietly.
“Regulus,” He nodded, showing no emotion. Suddenly a voice spoke up.
“Has anyone seen Coach Dumbledore?” The voice belonged to a round, mousey-looking guy.
No one spoke up, they just shook their heads solemnly.
“It's getting dark. We will search for anyone missing in the morning,” Remus spoke up. “It is important to remember we don't know where we are, nor do we know what is out there.” He walked over to Lily, who was still clutching Mary's body tight. “Come on, Lily,” he sighed, patting her shoulder. When the girl stood up and numbly walked away, James picked up Mary’s lifeless body and set her inside the plane with the pilots who unfortunately died on impact.
The sun had disappeared now, and Regulus found himself next to Evan, Barty, and Pandora. They all gathered around the fire, trying to make light of the situation when suddenly Pandora spoke up.
“I fear this is all my fault,” she cried. The others look at her with raised eyebrows. “I got a bad grade in French, and I cursed the professor out in my head.”
Everyone bursts out into laughter, Pandora looking around at them before eventually laughing too. Sirius was the next to speak up.
“I told James if he didn’t stop tapping his fingers on the seat I was gonna crash the plane,” he chuckled dryly, looking at James unseriously. “Sorry mate, this is my fault.”
They all began to go around the circle sharing their dumb reasons they could have deserved this, everyone getting a good laugh in.
“I once slept with my sister's Latin tutor,” Regulus’ cousin Bellatrix confessed, getting laughs out of everyone but her sister Narcissa, who was sitting next to her.
Everyone seemed to be getting a kick out of these confessions. Everyone except for Lily, who was sitting away from the group, absentmindedly staring at the fire. Pandora approached her cautiously and sat down next to her.
“Hey,” Lily sniffled. “You don't have to check on me. I’m fine.”
“You're not, but that's okay.” Pandora sighed, looking at Lily now. “It's okay to not be okay, you know. You've got all of us to pick up the pieces that you feel are falling apart right now.”
Lily didn't respond immediately, but when she did, tears began coming down again. “I just don’t know what to do now. She died without me even having a chance to apologize. On the plane, she accused me of… you know,” she sighed hard. “Then before I could explain or apologize, or say anything, the door ripped open and she didn't have her seatbelt on. She went out before I could say anything to her.” Lily sobbed harder now. Pandora didn’t respond, instead, she just wrapped her arms around Lily and let her cry.
Eventually, everyone had drifted to sleep, but Regulus lay there wide awake. He thought he was alone, so he wandered off and found a tree he could sit down at out of sight. For a moment, he could let his guard down, he could shed his tears, andrelease all the fear that he had bottled up deep inside.
“Am I interrupting?” James spoke, sitting next to Regulus. Just like that, Regulus returned to his cold demeanor.
“What do you want?” he spits, his tone causing James to flinch slightly.
“Just came to see if you were alright I suppose,” James sighed. “You disappeared into the woods in the middle of the night with no light, no way to protect yourself…” he dragged out the last part.
“I'm fine,” Regulus said firmly. “Go back to my brother. I'm sure he wants your company.”
James grinned, standing up. “Thank you for earlier,” he said softly. “And for what it's worth, I'm glad you're alive.” and with that, he disappeared into the night.