A Boy Drowned
Pandora stirs in her sleep, stuck in a dream. No, not a dream, a nightmare. Pale hands clutching a quill, scribbling quickly across a page. She can’t make out any of the words written before the scene before her faded away into the next.
A cave by the seas, the strong waves crashing into the surrounding jagged rocks. A boy slowly, hesitantly walks into the cave. Pandora couldn’t see the boy’s face, only behind his figure as he walks deeper and deeper into the dark, shadowy cave before it faded away again.
The next scene unfolding before her is the boy getting pulled underwater by an army of Inferi, dragging him further and further into a lake within the cave. He gasps desperately for air again and again. At this sudden moment, a series of images flashes through Pandora’s mind. A locket with a glittering green ‘S’ on it, a letter hidden inside. A familiar set of steely grey eyes. Rough waves against cave rocks. A dark mark against pale, pale skin. And finally, a pale hand scribbling out a signature at the end of a letter: “R.A.B.”
The boy in the cave struggles to break free from the Inferi until the water fills his lungs and his eyes drain of life.
Pandora wakes suddenly, panting and gasping for air herself. “Regulus” the name slips from her lips, barely a whisper in the dead silence of her room.
She bolts upright, almost running across the room to the fireplace in her room. She attempts to floo call Regulus but for some odd reason, floo access to the fireplace in his room was blocked. Tears run down her cheeks as she frantically rushes to her desk. Grabbing a piece of parchment and a quill, she rapidly scribbles together a letter.
She sends the letter off with her owl to find Regulus, promising the owl extra treats if the letter arrives as quickly as possible. She impatiently waits and waits to receive a letter back but when her owl returns hours later with the same letter she had sent, Pandora knew. She was too late and there was nothing she could do about it.
Days had passed and the papers never reported Regulus’ death or even that he was missing. Pandora and her friends had grieved the most. One of their dearest friends was gone and Pandora was left to deal with her guilt in silence.