The Witches' Road

When Regulus Black opened his eyes, he was on the ground.

The sky was abnormally blue, which was strange because on the Witches’ Road the sky was always black. Not like the sky of the night, more like a sky of shadows who moving like awful tentacles trying to grab everything below it. Regulus frowned his eyebrows as he gets back on his feet, the silence around him wasn’t normal, on the Road, it was preferable to hear some of the strange creatures who’s living here, rather than the silent.

Something has change, Regulus could feel it.

He doesn’t know what exactly, but he could feel it in his body.

Maybe the Road testing him again, maybe she lies to him by making him believe that he was finally at the end of the Road, that he wins all the trials. Maybe she just wants to see him fail for the first time, because Regulus infringes the rules by getting on the Road alone. The spell was very clear; a coven of Witches has to open the Road.

The world had become crazy, the Death Eaters was killing all the muggles born, even the half-blood was in danger. And the Black family was the worse, Regulus heard the screams of the victims in the Black Manor basement. His father, Orion, loves torturing the Wizards bringing by the others Death Eaters, usually his crazy cousin Bellatrix. And sometimes, Orion require Regulus’s presence and force him to torture the people in the basement. Regulus hates himself for that, because he was marked too, he was a Death Eater and he knew that if he doesn’t obey, his father gonna torture him and force him to do worse, because if he doesn’t, the Black family would be seen has a weak family incapable of control their only son. And if the Dark Lord knew one of his servants felt pity for the mudblood, Regulus was certain that the he would come to kill him personally.

When Regulus was marked, he wanted to die. All his world was falling apart; his parents was worse than everything, Evan starts to think that the muggle born deserved to suffer, that they don’t deserve powers and his twin, Pandora, stop talking to her brother. Pandora refused to be friend with them anymore, she avoids them at Hogwarts by passing all her time with a boy, Lovegood, that was in love with her since their first year. Barty joins the Death Eaters too, but only because he wanted to piss off his father.

With his family, Regulus didn’t have a choice, he had to be marked. During all his life, he was raised by hating the muggles born, by despising them. But when he met Pandora, she shows him that the world wasn’t as bad as his parents tell him. That the muggles born was humans being, that they deserved to be treated like equals, because magic doesn’t care about the bloodline, if a kid with muggles parents have magic in him, it’s because the magic wanted to.

Regulus saw Pandora avoiding them and his heart was crying, she was his best friend, the best soul he ever met in his life.

He also notices the change in Sirius’s look, because his brother knew that Regulus was marked, because he knew he doesn’t have a choice.

And during his sixth year, Regulus was alone. Barty and Evan have changed, Pandora doesn’t talk to them and Dorcas was the only one to act normally with him. They became close, he confided that he was afraid, because he doesn’t want to be part of this war, but he doesn’t know how to do and she tells him a lot of things too. She was the last one to talk to Pandora and she promised him to try to bring her back to Regulus. And she brings a spark of light when she tells him that she was madly in love with Marlene MacKinnon, a one-year older Gryffindor girl.

But when Dorcas wasn’t here, Regulus was alone, and even if he likes it, he suffered.

And in all this darkness, a new type of light came to him.

The sun.

James Potter.

When Regulus found the spell in a dark old book, he knew this was the kind of power he needs to defeat the Dark Lord. He was capable of it; he believes in himself. But first, he had to steal Salazar Slytherin’s locket to destroy it and then, catch the spell to open the Witches’ Road. The one that her mother was hiding in her room, because she was the most loyal Death Eater to the Dark Lord.

So, one night, when Walpurga was occupied in the basement with Orion, Regulus went to her room and searched the locket. He couldn’t be caught, but the anxiety to be discover made his hands shiver. His heart was beating hard in his rib cage, even when he finds it, he wasn’t relieved, because he knew his task wasn’t finish, in fact the most difficult has to come.

He observed the locket in secret during so much time, that he could exactly recreate it by memories, and he did.

He writes a note address to Lord Voldemort and place it in the fake locket that he puts  at the exact place the real locket was.

“To the Dark Lord,

I know I will be dead long before you read this

But I want you know that it was I who discovered your secret.

I have stolen the real Horcrux and intend to destroy it as soon as I can.

 I face death in the hope that when you meet your match,

You will be mortal one more.

R.A.B”

He knew where he has to go, and he had a plan.

If he succeeded to destroy the locket, he still had to try to enter the Witches’ Road because even if he knew he was a powerful wizard, the Dark Lord was more powerful than him. If he succeeded the Road, she could give him the thing he wanted the most, and Regulus wanted the power to destroy the Dark Lord definitively.

If he doesn’t succeed to destroy the locket, he still had to go to the Road because he couldn’t go home after stealing one the Dark Lord’s Horcruxes.

Regulus had the idea to go to a cliff he visited once with his family, in England. He was good at Apparition but it would be difficult because the cliff was really far away from his house.

He ordered Kreacher, his house-elf, to come with him because everyone know that house-elves were one the best traveler at Apparition. Kracher couldn’t refuse it, he was always with Walpurga but Regulus was the heir of the Noble House of Black and if he disobeys him, he would be killed.

So, they Apparated to the cliff, and Regulus spend all the night to try to destroy the locket, but none of his spells worked. The cavern was cold, dark and humid, some water falls from the top of the rocks and Regulus had to cast a warm spell, he can’t be sick, not at this time. The cavern was full of translucid rocks and Regulus doesn’t like the atmosphere, it was heavy and he could feel that something was watching him in the dark.

 He tried so hard to destroy the locket, but he failed all the time. Regulus was a bloody damn good wizard, but this dark magic was something else.

He was desperate, it had to work, he needs it to work.

When he understood that, he sat on the floor and he felt tears falling from his eyes. He wasn’t crying because he doesn’t succeed to destroy the Slytherin’s Locket, he was crying because he knew what he had to do.

He had to try to open the Witches’ Road, he knew that if he succeeded, he had to pass many trials made to lead him to madness, he knew that he would disappear during an indeterminate time, and so much could happen during his journey on the Road.

But he promised himself that he’s not gonna be gone for long.

The book said that the Road could open thanks to a coven of witches.

But Regulus wasn’t a witch, he was a wizard.

A powerful one.

He doesn’t need a coven; he needs a sacrifice.

The book said that the spell has to be cast by singing but Regulus has found another way to cast the spell, he still had to say it, but he’s not gonna sing.

Before it, he rise up a rock and shape a hole at the top of it, he made appear a little shellfish and place it on the hole. He levitates some of the water around us and place it on the rock.

Then he turns to Kreacher.

“If the locket doesn’t follow me on the Road, put it in the water at the top of the rock.”

“As you pleased, Master Regulus.”

Even if Kreacher looks strangely at Regulus, the wizard know he wasn’t in danger with him, because he was his master and Kreacher couldn’t disobey him.

“Don’t ever tell anyone what happen here.” Orders Regulus.

“Of course, Master Regulus.”

Then, Regulus curse the water on the rock. If the Road doesn’t accept the locket, which was probable, Kreacher had to put the locket on the rock, and if someday, someone try to get it back, they had to drink all the water. And they gonna suffer, because the water is going to act like poison in their blood. If Regulus doesn’t succeed to destroy the locket, no one could take it out of here.

“Seekest thou the road to all that’s foul and fair

Gather sisters fire, water, earth and air”

Regulus cut his palm and walked roundly, letting his blood marks a circle on the floor.

“Darkest hour, wake thy power, earthly and divine

Burn and brew with coven true and glory shall be thine”

The floor starts to shake and Regulus knew he had chosen his location well.

The Witch Hunt doesn’t happen only in the United States, Great Britan also knew dark hours and one day, some ridiculous witch hunters captured a hundred women accusing to do sorcery, the hunters lock them in the cavern and wait. The women were witches, and they tried to escape with their sorcery powers, but they failed. So, they became enraged, violent and they start to do witchcraft by using dark methods. They failed to escape and they died here. Their body became ashes but their souls, their angrysouls were still here.

They wanted revenge, Regulus too.

They were his coven.

“Down, down, down the road

Down the witches’ road”

The blood circle was complete.

Regulus go at it center and draw a reverse star.

“Circle sewn with fate

Unlock thy hidden gate”

The walls start trembling too and Regulus could feel the witches coming.

They were screaming at him, they wanted to participate at his spell, they wanted to feel their own power again.

“Matching ever forward ‘neath the wooded shrine

I stray not from the path; I hold death’s hand in mine”

The witches’ souls infiltrated Regulus. He screams in pain, they were so many, they wanted to feel his power, drink from it.

He couldn’t stand on his feet; his entire body was shaking of pain.

“Primal night, giveth sight familiar by thy side

If one be gone, we carry on, spirit as our guide”

Regulus feel like he was stabbing by hundred knives.

He leaned out of circle and threw up.

“Down, down, down the road

Down the witches’ road”

The witches were screaming in Regulus head, they invade Regulus’s mind, watching his dark memories, his fears, his entire life.

“Blood and tears and bone

Maiden, Mother, Crone”

Regulus felt his cheeks became humid and when he touches his face, he realizes it was blood.

His tears were blood.

“The road is wild and wicked, winding through the wood

Were all that’s wrong is right and all that’s bad is good”

He was exhausted, he wanted to stop.

The pain in his head was impossible to support, the witches were playing with his memories. Sometimes one appears and one disappears from his mind. He feels like he was lock in his mind, that he can’t do anything to escape.

They have won, they could take his body and do whatever they want with it.

“Through many miles of tricks and trials, we’ll wander high and low

Tame your fears, a door appears, the time has come to go”

This isn’t only Regulus voice.

It was all the witches’ voices.

They helped him.

Regulus doesn’t think to thank them, because the pain was so strong that he barely can’t move.

“Down, down, down the road

Down the witches’ road”

The blood circle starts to gets on fire.

“Follow me, my friend

To glory at the end”

Suddenly, the silent come.

At first, Regulus though he was dead.

He opened his eyes and he saw plenty of trees and a dark sky.

He had succeeded.

He was on the Witches’ Road.