Pandora had been several times told she was weird or, by kinder people, really particular. She knew she wasn't like others and she didn't really care, she could feel the forest breathe and the sun brightening, she didn't need people's approvation. She was an only child, she was used to being alone and she liked the freedom of it. But then at Hogwarts she started to enjoy other people's company too, after she met the Slytherins, Barty, Evan and Dorcas. And most importantly Regulus.
Regulus was cursed. He knew it since he was little, destined to always be the second in everything, never listened to, but he decided to commit to the role his parents had tailored for him. He acted like they wanted and thanks to his obedience and his brother's rebellion, their parents had let him go to school as a guy and stay in the boys dorm, he knew it was mean of him to ask them that cause they needed an heir, but he wanted this more than everything. So he went to Hogwarts, a strange kid, always lonely and well behaved, a studious one, professors would say. But he was a lot more than that, he had a whole world inside of him.
His roommates were Evan Rosier and Barty Crouch Jr. The first was friendly, but reserved, he had already saw him at some gatherings with important families, he wasn't part of the 28 purest, but he was probably in a shitty family as Regulus. Barty was a real extrovert, he reminded him a little bit of his brother, the same rebellious glint in his eyes, determined to dissapoint in every way possible his father, a member of the magic council and probably future Ministry of Magic. With time Regulus grow fond of him, because of his loud laughter and the bright light he emanated.
Pandora didn't get friends in Ravenclaw her first year, her roommates were kind, but not the type of people that wanted to hang out with her, so with the passing of time, she had got used to spend her lonely afternoons in the astronomy tower, with a booknote where she custoded all of her thoughts and ideas for inventions and also the code of a cryptic language she had created. She also collected there pages from magic newspaper about the weirdest things in the world.
One day Regulus couldn't sleep so he sneaked out of his dorm and went to the astronomy tower, where he found a young girl, around his age, deeply asleep. He woke her up and she smiled saying: "it was the stars voices to make me sleepy". She seemed totally crazy, but in the genius kind of way and Regulus felt immediately drawned to her. They talked a bit and in the following weeks they met up at the library to study.
Pandora liked Regulus, she could tell he wasn't like others and that he was as crazy as her, just better at hiding it. They studied together and she would talk about her ideas and he always listened, in a matter of days he had learnt the code and they would communicate with it during lessons. She then got to know Evan and Barty. Evan was calm and thoughtful, he seemed lightheaded, while Barty was like a storm and though he didn't really like her at the start, he later started to appreciate her and became really protective over her, like the other boys, given the Slytherin trio was definitely feared thanks to Regulus' notoriety, Barty's reputation and Evan's fugacity. He was the more chamaleontic of the group. Then there was Dorcas, a Slytherin a year older, she played in the Quidditch team with Regulus and they soon started to hang out all together.
Regulus loved his friends, they were to him everything family should've meant. But he was cracking, Sirius had gone away and his parents were more strict now, wanting him to take the mark.
Pandora knew, she had always had this kind of foresight, she knew her friends homes weren't safe and she knew Regulus was hiding a lot inside of him. She figured out his body was more complicated than hers and she knew he hated himself and that damn body so much to hurt himself. He never told her, but she could see how he dissappeared sometimes and how he would brace his stomach, touching some parts of it when he was nervous. She couldn't avoid how he acted, but she made it a mission to always be there for him if he needed.
Regulus was fucked. His parents obliged him to take the mark. He didn't want to, but after the use of crucio and some phrases along the lines of "you're not a real man" convinced him. He felt so heartbroken. He wasn't even seventeen and he felt like his life had just ended. All of his hopes, all of his dreams, had just disappeared and the hard reality was the only thing he could think of. His friends were a flicker of light in the darkness. But he knew sooner or later his own light would extinguish.
Pandora spent entire days with Regulus, hugging him when he couldnt do anything more that laying on the bed. She would tell him stories and bring him flowers, but she knew he was slipping through her fingers.
Regulus discovered Voldemort's plan to hide a horcrux in the cave and he planned to go there in June, when he would've almost finished the school year and then he would've finally put an end to all those messes. He felt happy to see an exit.
Pandora noticed Regulus was happier than usual and he got some color black, like he wasn't dead anymore, but she had this weird bad feeling at the bottom of her stomach telling her there was something wrong.
Regulus had decided that the day after the last exam he would've gone to the cave with Kreacher. He had wanted to left a letter to his friends, but he didn't know how to explain himself, so he just made little gifts and hid them under their beds. Dorcas got his broom, Barty some rings and piercings, Evan some of his best shirts he had always like. And Pandora got his quills.
Pandora was wandering around the castle when she got into Regulus. He seemed distracted, like fixated on something that was screaming inside his head. He smiled and said he had to go home for something. She knew it was a lie and as he walked away she grabbed his wrist. "Wait" she begged. "Don't worry, I'll come back tomorrow if not tonight". As he turned his back, a tear ran down her face, knowing she couldn't dissuade him.
As Regulus consumed his last oxygen he thought about Pandora. She would feel abandoned, but she had the others. So he closed his eyes, drowning in the deep waters, not fighting against Voldemort's inferni. And there, on the bottom of the lake, he felt at home, with water filling up his lungs.
He imagined Pandora flying up in the air, whispering sweet words.
Pandora didn't get up from her bed for a week. She felt like a piece of her had died. She was crying with the others when she felt this big fear, that she would've to watch all of her best friends die. She said it out loud and Barty chuckled darkly "don't worry darling, I plan to be the one grieving more".
The Blacks didn't do a funeral for Regulus, so his friends went on the isle in the middle of the lake, drunk and yelled to the sky, so angry that he had gone away. Pandora let a dove free in the air. Little did she know she would've done it again twice within two years.