Friday 7th July 1978 pt.2
Lilys pov-
Lilys’ only resting in her room, researching blasted war tactics, pasting new copies of the daily profit onto her cork board, looking over notes of the meeting she had with Dumbledore that Remus wrote to see if she missed anything in her sleep deprived state, when the patronus came through.
It soared through the window, almost leaping and doing tricks as if it was still in the water, glistening its way through her room, a bright glittering white light shining like a beacon making her irises shrink as she stared intently at it, waiting for it to speak.
“Cornwall, muggle village, Sennen Cove, attack, back up.” came the voice, distinct and warning, a mere messenger for Lily to listen to.
The dolphin had only just faded out of sight before Lily was getting up, moving and spurred into action by Pandoras voice.
Because this is the first chance they have had to infiltrate an attack by the death eaters, the first mission they have an advantage on, and Lily is not going to let them mess it up.
She needs to get there first, with her people, with Marlene, Mary, Dorcas and Peter. Needs to warn them so they can get there first, before Dumbledore gets there, because if it is a mission with her people, all of them, on both sides of the war, she wants to be there the entire time to keep an eye out for the boys.
So, ever grateful she gets dressed every day even if she has nowhere to go, she clutches her wand in her hand before marching off and down the stairs, immediately fleeing her room, her feet running over each other quickly, before she finds herself blasting into the living room, sending colourful sparks from her wand out and into the house to get everyone’s attention immediately.
Before they even moved into their new house, back when they were still at Hogwarts with all the after school plans still in the planning stage, one of the first things they had all made it very clear they wanted was emergency procedures. So they worked on safe words and apparition points. They planned out a potions labs and all their individual wards. They came up with signals that could be shown by mere colourful sparks being emitted from ones wand.
The latter of which she is doing now, the sparks from her wand disappearing off in lew of a warning they are all well attuned to, having had Lily and Remus drill it into their heads over and over again.
If you see sparks, you move, asap.
More than asap even, there is no possibility about it. If you see green sparks, you drop everything and anything you are doing, and move.
If you see red sparks, you run. You get out of the house, and only once you are safe, safe and in the clear, do you assess why the person sent off red sparks and figure out how to save anyone who was potentially left behind.
She can’t see anyone actually listening to the last part of that rule specifically, leaving someone else in the house, waiting to save them, can’t see her friends doing that, even if they all know it’s the safer option.
Fuck, she came up with the rule and she doesn’t think she’ll listen to it.
But she can hope.
So, she sent off green sparks, a mere summons- granted an emergency one, and once she has done so she pauses in the kitchen and waits as calmly as she can, trying to quell the already rising adrenaline as she hears thuds beginning to sound all over the house. Footsteps running around both above and below her head from where she waits, tapping her foot in the living room. Only stilling and putting on an heir of composure once the first person enters the room.
It’s only the first time they’ve used the sparks in the near week they’ve been in this house, and it’s made evidently clear in the way she watches all her friends join her in the kitchen, their eyes already manically darting around the living room when they enter, bouncing around in their skulls, as if worried Lily had meant to send red sparks, or that they themselves forgot which way around the colour codes work.
She smiles gently as they quickly filter in one after the other. Marlene and Dorcas taking up the rear, each dragging the other into the room, Marlenes buttons all messed up from where they’d clearly had to hurry away from something.
She resists the urge to smile at the sight, at her friends blatant happiness, by instead allowing her mind to focus back in on the mere thought that her other friends could be going off to some fight right now, and so, the second she has her other 5 friends attention she immediately begins to spew directions out.
“Sennen cove, raid, Cornwall, now.”
And she watches as her friends, one after the other, start to run from the house towards the end of the apparition wards, wasting no time in a way she can’t help but let out a relieved breath in response to. The anxiety of it all easing slightly at the knowledge that they are actively moving to help, that there is no real waiting around still to be done.
And just as she thinks that, she looks to the side to see Remus start to move, following along with the rest of the group, bringing up the rear, and she quickly reaches out an arm to grab his, “Let me take this one,” she offers, demands, hopes, “you know it’s meant to be only one of us going to fight at a time.”
“Sirius-“ he tries weakly, his face crumpled and distraught at the first piece of war knocking on their doorstep, at being away from his boyfriend, at losing control over the one part of his life Sirius had always promised him he wouldn’t lose control over.
“Sirius needs this plan to work, and us not to waste time arguing.”
“Fine,” he grunts, and she can tell it’s only because he is desperate to make sure Sirius has back up on the way, in case Sirius is indeed one of the people there, “me next time.”
“We’ll alternate, yeah?” she offers with a kind smile, despite wanting to take all the missions herself, despite wanting to keep him safe. She offers it anyway, because she needs to go, and an agreement will end this discussion the quickest. So when he offers a brief, somehow shaky yet still steely nod, she takes it for the slight acceptance it is and bolts out the front door. Pausing only to send out another brief patronus with only the information required to Dumbledore, before apparating off to the location herself.
When she lands, she immediately breaks off into a sprint in the direction of all the noise and yelling.
From what she can tell it’s meant to be a raid, an attack. Something to scare both the muggle and wizarding world, and she deals with it as such.
Despite all her friends knowing she views them all as equals, despite wanting their little alliance to be a democracy, stemming in friendship. She knows she came up with this 3rd side to the war, knows they look to her, and that all becomes painfully evident the second she arrives at a warzone and they are all falling into line at her command.
And she runs faster.
She brushes past all the houses already up in flames, past the spells being fired left right and centre, narrowly dodging one sent just over her shoulder.
She ignores the manic cackles she learnt to associate with Bellatrix years ago in Hogwarts, ignores the fact that one of the deadliest death eaters is here and instead decides to be grateful she took Pandoras advice and sent for back up before allowing her war brain to take over.
The one of logic and reason, one where emotion shouldn’t be a factor. Even if that intention doesn’t always work.
“Count?” she yells out into the field of spells as she finally arrives in the throws of battle, her voice loud and attracting attention causing another round of spells to be sent in her direction, but she does not falter, merely sends some back and looks to see if the death eater attacking her has a snake cuff around his wrist.
“10” calls back Peters frantic voice somewhere to her left, clearly stressed but pulling himself together slightly to co-operate with Lily.
“Groupings?” she yells one more time, because she can already see some of the death eaters running off towards the houses, towards the screaming. Some of the noises clearly coming from kids.
She forces her stomach to stop twisting at the sound and brings her attention fully to focus on the field she’s on.
“4 offence, 6 defence.” Marlene calls back, her voice strained from where she is hurling spells left right and centre, but out of the corner of her eye Lily can see her eyeing up James and Sirius, indistinguishable to most people due to their masks, but Peter was right, to their friends, to their ex friends, their stature, their gait, everything about them is crystal clear.
They know who they’re fighting.
Even without the flash of silver snake cuffs on 4 of the boys arms, cuffs she told them to put there so she would know who not to target, she knows who she’s fighting.
And Marlene most certainly does too, so Lily wants her out of here, gone before she decides to start biting off more than she can chew. Before she starts running on pure spite.
And whether they are somehow on the same page or not, whether Sirius sees the dilemma written across her face or not, she hears Sirius call out with an offer to give her a reason to send Marlene away.
“Crouch, Rosier, raid. Me and James will fight.”
“6, 4” she hears Mary yell from somewhere to her right, the yell breaking into her train of thought as she tries to plan tactics out, including the new movement Mary is directing her to.
“Marls, Pete,” she yells out over the noise of more houses bursting into flame, flinging another spell in the direction of the herde of death eaters, “Extraction.”
And immediately, at just her word, both of them are running off in the direction of the fire to save as many muggles as they can before the others can get to them, or to get them out of houses if it’s already too late.
“Lily?” comes Dorcas’ voice, slightly more cautious from where she is stood off to the side, throwing curses at any death eater that deigns to lay their eyes on her, and although her and Dorcas are close, she knows a lot of the other girls trust for her comes from Marlene, who she just sent away.
“Bella.” Lily yells back, immediately sending who she views as one of her best fighters to the best fighter on the other side. And although Dorcas was wavering before, she takes the command in her stride, rushing off towards the shrieking witch, her wand extended, spells already flying from it, sometimes without her even moving her lips.
And Lily doesn’t want to stick Dorcas against her, after all, Bella could probably win against them 3 on 1, maybe even 5 on 1 if she has the right mix of adrenaline and motivation.
But she needs to stall until the orders reinforcements get here, so she watches as Mary turns to Sirius, some personal vendetta mixed with regret lingering in her gaze as they set into a duel, spells flying everywhere, watching as her friends follow her every word, and she can only hope she is doing the right thing, sending out the right instructions.
And she wants to check, ensure Sirius is fighting hard, even if it is against Mary, because Mary will know if he isn’t, but her vision gets caught when moving towards them.
Because she was right, Peter was right, friends, ex friends. If they were true friends at any point in your life- even once, you will always see them under a mask, instead of the disguise it intends to be, their cover merely feels like a veil, a distortion not a mask.
And right now, she can see Severus.
And her lungs seem to stop functioning for a moment, the twist in her stomach from hearing children scream that she had managed to push away, back and pulling taught.
Because why?
Why does he have to be here?
She feels her breathing quicken before she forces herself to relax, forces herself into composure, she does not want to feel affected by this, she can not afford that, not now.
She does not want to prioritise her feelings over the people screaming and the buildings burning in the distance, the yellow burning her eyes, the sound of spells being shouted behind her shoulder.
But she gave Reg a chance, she gave him that because she couldn’t bring herself to believe he was bad.
So why did she turn so easy on Severus? Yes, he called her a mudblood, yes she gave him plenty of chances, and he didn’t take a single one.
But isn’t Regulus the same? She broke him, his mask because she figured out what it was hiding, and his denial couldn’t avoid that.
She caught him, so he wouldn’t feel as bad when he failed to keep her out of his plans.
What if Severus has reasons he is hiding too, reasons he wants to protect her from? He never did seem to deem her capable.
What if-
But her train of thought gets cut off by a rogue spell hitting her shoulder, and she looks up just in time to see snape sending one of his own towards her, it barrelling quickly in her direction, towards her chest, before she manages to dive out of the way.
And she can’t help but regret it slightly, dodging.
What if it was a light spell, a harmless one, merely sent to keep up the ruse he was attacking. How will she know how far gone he’s gone- if he’s gone at all, if she can’t see how bad he’s willing to hurt her.
If she let him hit her, she could know-
But just as that thought crosses her mind, another spell is sent towards her, one from James this time, one she knows isn’t fatal, and at the exact same time she hears Mary scream. And she jolts back into herself with force.
He isn’t worth them.
Because she isn’t just responsible for the 4 she bought with her, she is responsible for 4 of the boys in robes, she is responsible for Remus back home.
For Regulus, who isn’t here, and she can only hope that’s a good sign.
For Pandora who is waiting for them to finish this.
And 1 life isn’t worth 11. The 11 she is responsible for.
She used to talk about the trolly problem with Regulus a lot in their days at school, what was worth what, if you could really give different lives mathematical value, if the majority can really be deemed more important.
They used to fight over it all the time, her arguing how you shouldn’t just write someone off because there are more people on the other side.
She is starting to think it was a metaphor for their lives. After all she had always refused to give up on anyone, and he refused to prioritise the one that was left alone, and- though he wouldn’t admit it- she is sure he saw that one person on the other track as himself.
But maybe this war was built to make them question things, because right now she is stood here, and she is going to fight, she is going to prioritise the majority.
She will ask Reg to keep an eye on Snape for her later, that’s the best she can do. If she doesn’t want to risk the others, that’s the best she can do.
She will keep an eye out for the one. She is still herself, she doesn’t want to leave him alone, stranded on the trainlines, but she can’t risk the majority either.
Because they are her majority, and that may be an unethical decision, choosing based on personal preferences.
But she just going to have to accept that fact.
So she turns on her heel, fully facing the two boys facing her, and fights.
As the second spell of the night hits her, her chest already bleeding, her head now joining in, she finally hears the pops of apparition in the distance she had been waiting for, desperately needing, hoping for. And she is almost slackening her grip on her wand, before she sees a flash of familiar brown hair and pulls herself together.
“EM!” she all but screams into the night, because night has already fallen, she doesn’t know if night was far off when they arrived and they had been fighting for painful hours, or if they had left later in the day than she had thought, but her heads dizzy, and she sees salvation in the form of Emmeline Vance.
But there were 4 cracks of apparition she heard, and so, looking towards the direction she heard them in, she manages to see Emmeline running in their direction, flanked closely by Gideon and Fabain who are almost acting like guard dogs.
Or at least, that was the case, until Lily called out for help and then, seemingly without a second thought, the other girl was ditching them and sprinting towards Lily, throwing herself next to the other girl as she started firing off her own spells at James, her hair whipping and tickling Lily’s arms lightly from where it swayed into her direction when she had so abruptly stopped.
“You ok?” she hears the girl whisper, and Lily notices the subtle way she is slowly moving herself in front of Lily, as if readying herself to take on the 2 vs1 by herself.
But Lily merely nods, not even sure if the older girl sees it before she is yelling new orders out at both her friends and the new arrivals, finally noting that Moody is here too.
“Dorcas, Gideon!” she yells when she notices Moody taking over from where she was duelling with Bella, “Help Peter and Marlene with extraction.” And Dorcas merely nods before running off, seemingly desperate to get back to her girlfriend.
Gideon however looks slightly to Lilys side where Emmeline is still duelling rather skilfully, only allowing himself to move in the direction Lily sent him when he sees Emmeline nodding towards Lily as if telling him to listen to her.
Once that is cleared up, she notices Fabian seemingly looking to her for her guidance too, and as she sees Mary run off in the directions of the burning houses and a now retreating Sirius, she merely nods in their direction and says,
“Fight.” Before returning to her own.
Remus’ pov-
When Pandoras patronus came, Remus didn’t see it.
In fact, the only way he knew a patronus was sent at all- let alone Pandoras- is because that was what was previously agreed upon. And it couldn’t be a patronus from the order, otherwise Lily would not have had to send another one before she left.
It’s all part of the plan.
Before they all split up upon leaving school, after they had all been let in on part of ( if not all) of the plan at hand, Regulus had took it upon himself to ensure they all knew the plans, the protocols.
He did it to such an extreme, numerous times a day, that he ended up even dragging them into unused classrooms into the middle of the day to quiz them.
And he had made it exceptionally clear, that if any messages needed to be passed, anything deemed an emergency or of extreme importance, they would have to be sent through Pandora as a middle man.
Ater all, she is the only one who can be deemed a neutral voice in the war, one that not too many people would recognise the sound of, if the Patronus was sent at an inconvenient time. Ensuring that no one figured out the two sides of the war were talking.
It also meant that if the Patronus was seen, it couldn’t be linked back to a heavily, incredibly heavily (Regulus and Evan went a little bit overboard) warded safehouse. Therefore deeming it the least risky form of emergency communication.
Although Regulus did make it very clear that a patronus was only to be sent in case of an emergency, and that if anyone put Pandora in unnecessary risk with unimportant information that could’ve waited he would end them, he did reluctantly admit it was the safest form of communication when needed.
After all, they’re already meeting at her house once a week to go over plans, so hopefully it shouldn’t have to be used too often, only for emergencies which is all he permits them to use it for anyway.
Well, he says they’re meeting at the safe house- Pandoras house- once a week, but Remus isn’t really invited.
Everyone seems to have come to a joint conclusion that the 3rd side of the war needs someone on the good side that is always aware of who on the bad side can be trusted. That way, if something happens to Lily or him, it shouldn’t hit them both, and one of them will be able to keep looking out for the boys in the death eaters.
It’s this line of thinking that means Remus isn’t meant to go on missions with Lily, this kind of thinking that means one of them should always be around, accessible, to the friends they live with. This kind of thinking that makes them like heirs on different planes, this kind of thinking keeping him away from his best friend.
This kind of thinking that means he isn’t going to get to check in with Sirius frequently, considering they’re planning to use the meet ups to discuss, whatever it is Remus doesn’t know. It makes it very obvious that Lily is the only one out of the two of them that would actually be useful at meetings.
So he stays back, he gets calls for battle, and he lets Lily risk her life.
They have a meeting with their friends, where they can check in, see them safe, and he stays back.
It’s suffocating. He has it easiest arguably, and he already feels like crumbling.
And it’s only been a week, he doesn’t know how he’ll last.
He doesn’t even know which of the boys are actually there, how many are at risk, if its Regulus or James or Sirius.
The unknown of it all riles him up so much that by the time it turns dark he finds himself storming out of the house to apparate away and find his friends.
Fuck what his friends said, If Lily didn’t want him there she shouldn’t have let him hear where it was they were going, he’s waited half an hour already, that’s plenty of time.
All thoughts of staying behind to help out the injured, all thought of logic and reason flying out the window as he turns on the spot, apparating away and falling into the sickening sensation.
When he lands, he manages to do so smack in the middle of a crossfire of spells, all rationale and reason leaving him left him apparating without a care in the world other than getting to his friends, and therefore forgetting to apparate a bit further off than where he thought his friends would be for proper safety measures.
Regulus would kill him if he found out.
“Lupin!” comes an angry shout from somewhere behind him, and he almost gets so caught up in his thoughts, thinking it’s Regulus there, until a sheet of bright red hair brushes his shoulder as an arm pulls him back and out of the line of fire.
And oh, Lily would kill him too, shit.
Unlucky for her, killing him in the middle of the fight is just dumb, so, after a very intense glare which he imagines could kill if she really wanted it to, he instead finds her yelling instructions at him before turning back to the fight.
“House now, help fight, help evacuate, help something.” She all but yells out, clear frustration dripping from her voice and he immediately falls into line, following her orders, tearing his gaze away from James who is fighting another girl half-heartedly (he’s going to have to work on that if he wants to keep his cover) and runs off in the direction of the burning down buildings, some already collapsed in on themselves, screaming somehow managing to get louder and quieter at the exact same time, nerves rattling through him.
And he wonders what he’s going to find there, who he’s going to find there.
Sirius?
James is here, surely Sirius is too, surely Voldemort hasn’t split them up yet?
And he runs faster.
When he gets closer to the burning buildings the screams no longer sound distant and muffled, they are clear as day and soul crushing as he watches walls fold in on themselves one after the other, some screaming cutting off abruptly as each wall falls, the mere suggestion of what that could possibly mean making bile rise in Remus’ throat.
But he keeps running, he runs and he doesn’t stop. He hears the yells of his friends, and the curses being muttered, and he runs. He runs until he reaches Peter and can help him pull an unconscious muggle man over their shoulders between them, starting to help him away.
From what Remus can tell, the other muggles have been apparated away as they are saved, presumably to some safe location where they can return once the fight is over to wipe all their memories, but this one is too injured to apparate, so for now, they just need to settle for getting him away from the fight.
As he moves through the crowd he feels the man weighing him down, despite what his emotions have been telling him all week, it’s not too close to the full moon that he should be utterly pained all over, but that doesn’t make lugging an unconscious man any easier on his knees.
But still he pushes through, his friends have been here longer, fighting longer, his other friends are in the snake pit. He can handle a dodgy knee that he’s been dealing with for years.
He casts a miniature protection charm around the three of them, focusing on holding that up rather than all the screaming. Focusing on the man they are actively saving rather than the voices that keep being cut off by blood curdling screams.
Choosing to believe that the screams being cut off are people being apparated away, not the alternate. He can’t deal with that, can’t focus on that.
So he lets the weight of the man consume him, focuses every morsel of his energy on moving him across the battle field he is sure the man used to consider a home, and keeps moving.
Moving, this entire war is about moving, moving forward, moving on, moving past. It may not be healthy, but healthy only becomes a concern if you survive, and to survive you can't focus on what’s good, or necessary. What’s practical, to survive you have to take things in your stride, you have to move on, not acknowledge the falling bodies around them.
Not focus on your boyfriend on enemy lines, not focus on the people surrounding him that are causing bodies to drop left and right.
Not focus on the fact that, like it or not, you were responsible for those bodies, and it is the first day into this war, and you have failed.
You keep moving.
“Pete, stay here, heal him.” Remus instructs quickly once they’ve manoeuvred the man around the side of the building.
“No, I’ll-“
“You’ve been fighting for an age already, take a break. Let me help.”
“But-“
“Please.” Remus adds, and he watches as Peters expression falters, looking at him so deeply, with such earnest, such care, such blatant emotion on his face that easily reminds Remus once more of the fact that Peter doesn’t know his two friends haven’t actually abandoned him, that they’re going to come back. That they are on his side still.
He forces even more guilt away, more bile back down his throat, and runs off once Peter has nodded at him a sort of approval, back into the throngs of battle.
When he is fully in the battle once more, the one on the insides of the houses this time, he quickly takes stock of what he can see. Fabian is running off to help with more extractions, Marlene is 1vs2ing Barty and Evan, so she’s safe.
Mary is fighting Avery and Mulciber, whilst Dorcas if off to the side working in sync with Gideon to take down the Lestrange brothers, their wands flying in perfect tandem, working off of each other, and Remus is almost sure they’ve never even met.
So he takes himself over to Mary, cutting in and trying to help lighten the load.
“Hey Rem.” He hears her breath out, her voice not too strained, clearly showing of that she’s fine, whilst still not full of enough energy that Remus would feel comfortable leaving her behind again.
“Hey, you’re doing well.” He jokes, riling up the two they’re fighting, James and Sirius’ influence of chaos in highly inconvenient moments apparently rubbing off on him, that much is clear from the way he watches Mulciber’s spells start to get darker, firing off more rapidly, one after the other, pushing Remus into more of a defensive stance than anything else.
“Watch it mudblood.” He spits, and Remus takes that pause in casting to flip the roles, putting himself on the offensive and pushing Mulciber into defence, progressing on him slowly as he watches the other man unwillingly back up into the wall, his wand work not slowing, the spells falling off his tongue getting faster. But he doesn’t gain momentum back.
Remus manages to get a hit on his wand arms shoulder with a cutting curse, watching as the other boy grunts but continues to push through it, apparently seeing it as extra motivation to fight back.
They stay in a sort of stand off for another few minutes, spells being thrown back and forth, most of them not even landing, until Remus catches sight of James running in his peripheral vision, trying to escape the girl that had been fighting with Lily earlier who is actively chasing him down, throwing spell after spell at his retreating form, and at this sight Remus allows himself to slip up.
He refrains from blocking a spell, letting himself get hit in the shoulder, ultimately giving Mulciber the advantage, and lets him start pushing back, and Remus does something he never wanted to do.
He calls for help.
And as the only current person that is known to be on his side that can get to him without putting themselves at risk, he sees the brown haired girl turn on her heal away from James and run towards him without hesitation, throwing herself between him and Mulciber, an act of bravery for someone she doesn’t even know that he cant help but feel guilty for.
He didn’t need her, not really, still, that guilt doesn’t last as he sees James get away and finds his eyes falling on Sirius, the only other person on the field currently not fighting, they lock eyes for a moment before engaging in a duel, the sort of tension Remus usually enjoys from watching the other boy at work gone as he looks into his cold eyes.
Cold unfeeling eyes, and he is transported back into every time the brothers ever came back from home after the summer, every time they seemed broken. And the fact that they have both willingly lodged themselves in that place for the foreseeable future.
And he remembers they have a job to do, and they cant fake it.
So he fights it, he ignores the snake cufflink so unnecessary on the arm of a man he would know blind, and he fights.
He looks at the mask, and he fights.
Fully.
Spells keep ricocheting, the odd stinging hex, or cutting jinxx managing to make their way through, but any bigger spells only seem to be sent off when no ones looking and Sirius can aim to miss, causing a big yet non-fatal explosion behind them.
Eventually, as they continue to fight, he can see Sirius’ focus drifting away and to the side, and when he follows his boyfriends line of vision, he finds his eyes falling on James and Peter. Duelling.
All of a sudden, they are both moving whilst fighting, spells being fired with slightly less focus as they try to move closer towards the other two without making it look intentional until they are right next to them, both firing spells back and forth whilst keeping an eye on one boy each.
As Remus feels Sirius let up for a moment, he chances another glance to his side, seeing where James and Peter are both so obviously fighting weaker than they should be. It means they are matching, but neither are being safe about it.
Neither are looking particularly loyal to their respective sides, and it’s a problem, and he can see in Sirius’ face it’s a problem. And he makes a mental note to confront Peter about it later, drill in the fact that these two boys are no longer their friends, ignore the guilt at lying to him once more.
When he still doesn’t even fully know what he’s lying to him about, that somehow makes it worse.
But he focuses back in on the duel, watching James and Peter out of the corner of his eye.
Watches as Peter fires a spell.
Watches as James deflects it with Protego.
Watches as the spell bounces right back before Peter can block it.
Watches as Peter falls to the floor, and James freezes.
It all feels very in slow motion after that, everything stilling as he wills himself to go to Peter, knows he cant stop fighting Sirius, knowing James needs to move, but the other boy seems stuck staring at his friend.
Remus sends a quick bombarda at Sirius, intentionally throwing off his aim dramatically so it lands near James instead, shocking the other boy into action. Moving away from Peter, heading towards the houses to, presumably, keep causing destruction.
He watches as Sirius keeps fighting him, watches as another death eater spots Peter and heads towards him, a satisfied laugh falling from their lips, watches his body in a movement he doesn’t remember telling it to do as he throws a curse at Sirius.
Watches as it’s deflected.
Watches as it lands exactly on target.
Watches as the body heading towards Peter flies back.
Watches as a dark mark appears in the sky.
Watches as people around him start to apparate away.
Watches Peter as his chest starts moving up and down slowly, feeling himself fall to the floor in a way he didn’t choose to do. Watches his hands grab Peter, pulling him close to his chest.
“Fuck.”
Pandoras pov-
The first time the patronus came through from her friend she was merely sitting outside staring at how the grass swayed in the wind wondering how life went so wrong that people decided a war was the way they wanted to live.
Thankfully, when Regulus got her the house and started setting up the wards she managed to convince him to leave her a little outdoor space so that she could actually get fresh air and breathe. He seemed reluctant at first, not wanting more potential space that things could go wrong in, not wanting more ways people walking by could detect her, smelling the flowers, her perfume, know she was there.
But inevitably he knew he was trying to seclude a free spirit, and when she reminded him she was only going into hiding for him, he pretty much immediately caved.
Nonetheless, she was grateful for the outdoor space and the moment to breathe in the fresh air when the first sign of war came leaping through her garden in the form of a familiar black cat.
Once she heard the message the whole way through, Regulus' familiar ramblings that he would deny he does but she knows to be a lie, she quickly sends off her own patronus, the glittering dolphin diving away before disappearing into the night to reappear wherever the red head she sent it to was.
It was a very efficient message, unlike Regulus', that simply stated the location and the phrase 'back up' merely meaning it’s a severe enough situation to warrant order attention as well as just their friends.
And from what Pandora heard 10vs5 definitely warrants order back up.
Her friends may be good, they're not that good.
Dorcas is incredibly skilled, Barty and Evan could probably make a couple diversions and help out. But ultimately, all the people fighting, even if on the same side of the war, need to make it look like they're not.
Even if it's really 6vs9, it can't look that way.
So a simple request of back up is necessary, she can only hope that this all works out for them, and that James and Sirius are as strong as Regulus seems to attest to and don't get taken in by the non-enemy enemy.
Once the patronus is off and out of sight, she finishes off her tea and wanders back into her house to rifle out her horcrux notes and go over them, waiting for Regulus' inevitable arrival.
In the end he doesn't actually take long, not that she expected him to. With it being the first time they've had to breach her wards for an active war related effort (in the sense of a patronus), she was expecting him to come running through whether or not he'd forewarned her, to go over the wards and ensure her safety once more.
So she allotted the time for roughly three apparations and getting to a safe point In order to throw of anyone who might be following him, and is perfectly ready for his arrival in the 5 minutes it takes between receiving his patronus and hearing the crack of apparation outside.
Predictably, he doesn’t immediately come in, first going over all the wards the entire way around the house, covering every inch of the perimeter, muttering under his breath, only looking in through the window for 2seconds to make sure she's alive, and then, only after about 10 minutes of this routine, does he waltz in the front door ready to chat, and most likely rant about why he isn't on the mission with the other 4 idiots most likely.
"Reg!" she calls out happily, trying to ease him slightly with a sense of normalcy, and it slightly works as she watches his shoulders drop from their tense stature a fraction.
Not fully, never fully when he's this stressed, but it's something.
"Has anyone been here?" he asks quickly, glancing around slightly in his periphery, clearly trying to portray himself as being at ease and failing miserably.
"No," she relies calmly, "and what kind of greeting is that?" she scolds lightly, moving forward to wrap him into a hug, which he leans into, but only slightly, she can still feel his head swiveling around, taking in their surroundings.
"Reg," she starts, pulling back slightly to take in his face and force him to look at her without ever letting go, "I'm not a bad witch and I'm not oblivious, I would know if there was someone in my house."
She watches his eyes as that sinks in before slowly pulling him into another hug, one he fully sinks into this time.
"You're right, sorry."
"Don't be sorry, relax. I know we discuss war in this house but I also want this place to be a reprieve from out there. Please give me that." she asks softly.
He pauses for a moment, before looking up at her, visible regret pooling in his eyes slightly, "I’m sorry for trapping you here."
"That too," she scolds again, "stop apologising, you may have convinced me to be here but I do have free will thank you." he still looks unconvinced, but she chooses not to linger on it, instead turning around to boil the kettle.
The truth is, she doesn't resent him for it, she hates her predicament, hates that he talked her into it. But she also didn't lie, she has free will, and she would never hold Regulus accountable for pushing her to use it.
"Coffee please." he murmurs, walking over to a stool and pulling a notebook out to start to write.
"You'll have tea, I don't need you bouncing over my walls."
"I don't bounce." he glares at her but she merely levels him with a glare of her own.
"Tea or hot chocolate."
And the spiteful little stubborn shit he is, he opts for a hot chocolate and she feigns annoyance but really the whole normalness of it all merely puts a smile on her face.
Once they've both settled down with their drinks, Regulus seems so buzzed with a need to start analysing whatever the fuck is going on that she can no longer hold him off as he breaks into speech.
"Ok, I've been taking notes of what was said in the first meeting, offhanded comments, who's closer to who, rankings etc etc."
"Anything relevant?"
"Nothing to my current knowledge but I'm not leaving anything to chance."
"Okay."
"So, anything you've found?" he asks, looking up at her after he finishes whatever he was writing in his notebook.
"Just some theories."
"Go on." he encourages, an eagerness and trust in his eyes that warms her slightly.
"Right, based off of what Kreacher has told us, it is clear he has more than one horcrux, correct?"
He nods briefly in response, staying quiet to let her speak.
"So, historically speaking, and only in reference to official documentation, the most horcruxes one has made seems to be 2."
"So he will want to go to at least four?"
"Exactly," she says, beaming at their similar train of thought, "you said he's petty but also desperate to prove power. So although petty would cap it at three, the rest of him would want to go higher."
"Right." Regulus affirms, not questioning, clearly knowing she's not done, knowing to just wait, and she loves him for it.
"So I'm thinking he split his soul into 7." she offers, grinning, waiting for him to tag on.
He pauses for only a moment before breathing out "The magical meaning of numbers."
"Precisely!" she exclaims, quickly clapping her hands for emphasis.
"What If he deems 7 as a magical number for how many horcruxes he should have, not how many times he should split his soul. What if we're looking at 8 splits?" he asks, furrowing his brows, asking the questions she knew he would ask, because they have the same understanding, the same brain, and she loves it.
So she doesn't reply, she merely looks back at him and waits for him to figure it out himself.
After a mere minute he is whispering out, "His souls more important," she nods eagerly, happy at their back and forth that they used to do so much at school before they started working on this war, "he'd want the power of 7 to be connected to him, not just what's away from him in objects that aren't as 'impressive' as him."
"Exactly.”
They both pause, looking at each other for a moment, the excitement of her findings fading out of her quickly as she watches Regulus’ face fall.
“We have to find 6 horcruxes.” He whispers, looking utterly defeated in a way he so often tries to hide.
“5,” she corrects quickly, it’s not much of a difference, but it’s a small victory and she is going to force him to take it, “we’ve found one, we just need to get it. It will work quicker than you know.”
“We know where one is because I was lucky enough to have the house elf he decided to use for a mission, and I wouldn’t even call that luck because Kreacher was crushed at the end of it. How are we meant to get lucky like that 5 more times, how can you possibly see that statistically happening.”
“I don’t,” she concedes, because it’s true, the odds are stacked against them, but that doesn’t mean anything when it comes to Regulus Black, and she knows it, he will sort it, and she will do whatever she can to get him through, “But I know you, and luck isn’t a thing for you, if anything you’ve always been unlucky-“
“Wow, great pep talk Panda.” He scoffs, rolling his eyes, but she sees pre-emptive defeat in his face, and she grabs his hands, clinging onto them as she continues as if he never interrupted.
“You don’t need luck, you don’t need pep talks. You have been unlucky your whole life, and yet you keep coming out on top. You had a shitty family from birth, but you found a new one. You nearly lost your brother, so you got him out. You were pushed into a war you didn’t want to be in, so you found a new way to fight.” She argues, staring imploringly into his eyes, squeezing his hands.
“You do not need luck Regulus Black, because as unfair as it may seem, whenever you have been unlucky you have come out on top, and I don’t see that stopping anytime soon. You have just been given the unluckiest hand you could have received, and all I see that to mean is that this is going to be your biggest win.”
“Everything else-“ he starts, voice breaking slightly before he schools it effectively back under control, taking control of the situation as he always has, and she knows he always will, “I had help, you guys found me, I didn’t find you. Sirius had Potter, he had somewhere I could send him. Kreacher was hurt and I found an advantage. If anything, I’m a jinx.”
“You found advantages, you saw kind people, you let them in, you saw Sirius had an option you made him take it, you saw your elf hurt, and instead of flying off the handle, you looked at it tactically. And you still have us Regulus, you will always have us. 4 people have just joined the death eaters for you, I revoked my freedom for you-“
She watches him go to cut her off, apologise again most likely, and she cuts in again, “And we all chose to do that, so don’t you dare feel guilty. My point is, you looked at what you had, the shitty hand, you found the flicker of hope, and you clung. And you survived, and you are going to survive this war, and you are going to figure it out, because that is what you do.”
They stare at each other for a bit longer, Regulus slow blinking at her, before he firmly squeezes her hand back, “Ok.” He confirms, looking around as if coming back into himself, “”Ok, ok,” and he starts getting up, “Where’s your potion room?” he asks, looking around once more, before he settles his gaze on her face.
“My-“ she tries, forcing confusion onto her features, but he doesn’t let her,
“I know you, your experiment room, bomb room, potion room, whatever you want to call it. You wouldn’t stay here without it, where is it?”
She pauses for a seconds, sighing, “Follow me,” she offers, walking reluctantly in the direction of the library to the book case where she painted the Leo constellation up the side of it.
“Sentimental sap.” He mocks, his voice contradicting him, full of love.
“Don’t te-“ she goes to start.
“I wouldn’t, it’s your place, but if I already knew it was here I might as well use it.” He offers her a weak smile, before looking back expectantly at the bookshelf, waiting for her to open it up into her secret room.
She walks up to it slowly, withdrawing her wand and slicing her palm slightly with a spell, gently grazing it over the constellation on the wall before tapping the Regulus star with her pointer finger, then her wand, causing all the blood to travel to that point and then fade away leaving a brighter shining star.
She waits 5 seconds then pushes gently watching as the door makes way for them to enter into the new room she had managed to conceal and make with a few extension, cloaking and creation spells.
Once she is finally in the room, the walls all a diluted cream colour so she can see the results of her work littering the walls, but not too bright it’s overwhelming, she walks up to the cabinet in the centre of the room, tapping it twice to transform it into a stove before turning to offer Regulus a cheeky look, “I assume you bought your own cauldron?” she asks with a smile, watching as he rolls his eyes but doesn’t protest the assumption, instead moving forward and pulling one from his pocket that he must have hidden in there with an undetectable extension charm.
“So what do you need to make?” she asks curiously, peering over his station at the ingredients he’s laying out, it’s not like she can just read the recipe, he has everything memorised so he never needs a guide.
“Draught of living death.” He murmurs, flicking on the switch to bring the cauldron ready to a boil to brew.
“Oh, have you made it before?”
“No, not that difficult though.” He shrugs, passing off the expectation of difficulty easily.
“Only you would say that.” she smiles, before walking over to other side of the room to grab a potion book so she can look up the potion in question, flicking through the pages before reading out what she lands on.
“The Draught of Living Death, despite its name, is not a certified way to kill a person. The Draught of Living Death is more commonly known to be an illusion of death. Placing someone in a state of suspended animation that has been known to sometimes trick even death itself. The Draught of living death is the only known thing that can cause a person to both experience death and still come back from it.”
“Yep, that is what this does.” He murmurs again, tilting his head slowly so he is at eye level with what he is now carefully pouring into the potion.
“What does he need it for?” she asks curiously, lifting herself up and onto the counter next to him, swinging her legs back and forth whilst she watches him at work.
“No clue,” he looks up slightly, sadness tinging his eyes in a way he is failing to quell, “It’s not something you can ask him about.”
“I know, but still, no ideas?” she tries.
“Probably an attack, he probably wants to use on some muggles, make a statement.” He scowls, moving slightly to grab the next ingredient.
“Right.”
“Anyways, do you think you can come up with a way to stop this without getting us all killed?” He jokes, his voice strained,
“I’ll have a think.” She murmurs, a weak smile on her face as she knows they probably stand no chance at all…