Epilogue
Regulus’ POV
I feel fire, burning, clawing it’s way through my chest and out of my throat. Coals scratching and embers shooting up and out. I jerk up coughing, and spewing water. As I fall back my head hits hard wood below me. I blink, my eyes burning and itching, adjusting to the room around me before I can totally register where I am. The room before me is dimly lit. I’m lying on the floor, James and Sirius kneeling next to me each with a hand on one of my shoulders. James. I glance up at him, seeing his bright smile, his warm face and I start hyperventilating. I remember the cave, the inferi, the locket. I remember everything. He wraps an arm around my back, the other coming up to hold my head, his hand running through my wet tangled hair. James. He’s here, and he rescued me. He came for me. My breathing slows and I sink back into his lap and let his warmth radiate through my cold body.
I take in the rest of my surroundings. Sirius is still next to me. His cold stare a statue, eyes looking forward narrowed. He is looking forward at Dumbledore, Moody, numerous high ranking aurors, McGonagall, and Effie Potter. I startle, fear gripping me as I see them. I try to scramble up to my feet feeling the need to flee, but James pulls me back down, shushing me and rubbing my back in between my shoulder blades. My breathing is heavy, but I glance up and make myself make eye contact with Dumbledore. It is in this moment that I’m weak, my walls like crumbled concrete around me, and I know he can sense the pleading in my eyes as his bore into me, twinkling in the shadowy light of the room.
“Where are we?” I ask, struggling to speak. My throat is raw and each word feels like being stabbed over and over.
“We brought you to an Order safe house,” says Sirius, not taking his eyes off of Dumbledore,
Moody or the aurors. He’s challenging them; I can tell by his voice. He’s waiting for them to make a move or show that they don’t trust me. “We apparated you here directly from the cave, explained the whole thing. Told them about…” he stops. He winced clearly pained by what he’s trying to say.
“Pete,” Remus finishes for him. He spits the name out with disgust as if keeping it in his mouth any longer would cause him to be ill. I didn’t notice him at first, but he’s standing a ways back, leaning against a wall arms crossed over his chest. I look from Sirius to James, and turn to look back at Remus. They believe me. They know that I wasn’t a traitor.
“Well?” Asks Sirius, addressing Moody and the other aurors.
“Yeah, well?” Asks James, a little less strongly. His hand squeezes my shoulder. Gaze flying longingly to his mother, the pleading in his eyes is clear. He’s begging for this to end well. To end well for me - for us. But, villains don’t get happy endings. I knew that even if James and Sirius and Remus believed in me that didn’t mean the others would too. I was prepared to die in that cave; I really was. Now that I knew I had saved James and my brother I’d take whatever punishment was coming my way. Willingly.
Moody makes his way to us on the floor. He kneels before us with a growl, Sirius lunging forward. Remus comes forward to hold him back.
Moody brings his face close to mine to look directly into my eyes and says, “Well done boy.“ I look back up into his marled face, unbelieving. Behind him, Dumbledore stares at me, his eyes twinkling blue in the dim light, a small smile on his face.
From across the room, Effie Potter says, “We’ve got it from here.”
—
Sirius’ POV
The rat was gone as soon as we got out of the cave. Of course he was. The bloody coward had
to have known we’d come close to finding out he was a traitor and he fled. Remus and I had looked for him after we got Reg back to the Order safe house. We checked the usual haunts, pubs, homes, hangouts. He was nowhere. Finally, my brain kicked in and I figured he’d probably be hiding as a rat. He’d stick to his animagus form to hide from us. Coward. I dropped Remus home and transfigured myself into Padfoot to go looking some more.
I couldn’t feel the betrayal as strongly as Padfoot, but I was wounded all the same. It stung, and my dog sensed the brokenness of our pack. I walked for a long time, hunting the scent of Wormtail. Stalking the creature that betrayed us, betrayed James. After Regulus told us everything he’d known, Remus and I took off immediately to find Peter and make him pay for what he’d done. I wanted him to look me in the eyes and confess his sins. Look at his pack mate and tell me that he’d really done it.
Finally, after hours of sniffing out the pest I found him. I should have known he’d come back here, back to the shack where it all began for us. I found him sitting in the corner of the back bedroom of the shack. He was cowering and sniffling into his shirt sleeve.
“Oh, Pete,” I sighed, transfiguring back into my human self. “Why?” Looking at him hurt. The pain came rushing back as Sirius took back over my body. My friend, Peter, who wasn’t really my friend. Peter, the boy I’d known for so long, a brother, willing to sell us all to Voldemort. And, for what?
“I just don’t want to die,” he whimpered. I snarled and then I laughed. It was so simple and so idiotic I didn’t know whether to find it funny or sad.
“So, better that you let your friends do the dying for you?” I growled out at him, watching him cower some more. “Me? Remus? All this time? It was you who sold out James and Lily? You who told Voldemort about Harry? How could you? We were your friends!”
“Not - not really,” he stuttered. “I needed protection and-“
But, I’d heard enough. Nothing he could say would matter to me. Nothing could change the way I felt. I raised my wand, and watched as the man I once loved like a brother hid behind his hands and shook on the floor before me as I transfigured once more into a black dog.
—
Barty’s POV
What they said about the dementors of Azkaban is true. Sit in their presence enough and you’ll surely go mad. It’s a good thing I already am. Mad that is. After we sent the goody Gryffindor boys after Reg, Snape and I apparated back to Grimmauld Place waiting for the Death Eaters and Voldemort. We were prepared to fight, waiting for Voldemort to realize that his Horcrux had been destroyed. I was ready to kill him, or die trying anyways. Fortunately for us, or unfortunately I guess, the Aurors came before the rest of the Death Eaters did. They were looking for Voldemort too. Snape was able to get off on a technicality and some good words from Dumbledore. I, however, given that I’m responsible for many deaths and countless other suffering, wasn’t so lucky. I landed myself a dark and musty cell in good old Azkaban.
It’s rather lonely here, but I don’t really mind it too much. I sit in silence for most of the day, counting down my sentence for killing all of those people. For my war crimes. The days are long. But the agonizing screams that echo off of the walls lull me to sleep each night. The Dementors stalk back and forth in the halls sucking the happiness out of the prisoners as they pass. But, I don’t have any happiness left in me anyways. Not without Evan. They can’t take anything else from me.
Today, the guards approach my cell and beckon me forward. “You’ve got a visitor,” they say. I haven’t had any visitors besides Regulus, and I told him not to come anymore. No point. I follow the guard to a holding room and wait to see just who deems me important enough to visit me. I’m sure the surprise is palpable on my face when my father walks through the door.
“Son,” he says, eyes downcast, as he takes a seat across from me.
“Father,” I manage to choke out. It’s been weeks since I’ve spoken out loud.
“How did this happen Barty?” He asks. I just stare back at him for a moment, and shrug. “How did I fail you so much?”
I don’t know what to say. So, I just turn my head away. I haven’t spoken to my father in years and don’t really care to do much speaking now.
“When you’re released, I want you to come back home with me, son. I want to make it up to you.” We sit in silence after that. I make no move to show I heard him or care what he has to say. He gets up to leave. I don’t look at him. I don’t feel much of anything really.
The gaurd comes back and I stand up to go back to my cell, but he pushes me back down. “One more visitor,” he says.
My breath catches when she walks through the door. Pandora Rosier. A mirror of Evan, floating towards me to sit across from me. She sits down and smiles and I can’t keep looking into her eyes so I look away.
“Hi,” she says. Her voice is so sweet. It bounces around my brain, dripping down into my senses reminding me so much of Evan. I hear his laugh echoing through my mind, his jokes, his kind voice saying my name. “Barty,” she says breaking me out of my memories.
“Pan, why are you here?”
“I want you to know that I’m here for you,” she says, smiling at me. “When you’re released. I want you back in our lives. I know you’ve done some terrible things, but I think Evan would want us to still take care of each other.”
I look back up at her, “Our lives?”
She slides a photograph towards me - a sonogram. She smiles and holds her belly. As she does she cups my cheek. I smile back at her, the first time I’ve felt genuinely happy since I lost Evan.
—
Tom Riddle’s POV
My Death Eaters and I have been hiding for weeks. I know the Order are getting close, but I can’t let them track us down. They’ve found a way to kill me and I’ve gone into hiding to avoid the death I know is coming. I know the Death Eaters are sensing my weakness but I can’t let them see it. I can’t let them see that I’m losing. Hiding in the last safe house I know of, we’re running low on supplies, and men.
I feel the pain before it registers why it’s happening to me. My locket. Someone has it. And someone has just destroyed it. The locket tying a piece of my soul to this world was destroyed and I feel it’s agony as it goes. I drop to my knees screaming in pain in front of my Death Eaters who I’m sure are frightened and unsure of what to do. The looks on their face, though aren’t that of fear but of disgust. Oh, but this pain is unbearable. Oh, how it burns. I hear the voices of the men around me asking what they can do to help but I can’t speak. My body is shattered and with the remnant of my soul destroyed I know I am human once again and I can barely think past that. I writhe on the ground in agony unable to do anything else.
As I finally come to my senses, thinking to address my men and move forward, jets of bright light shoot through us and around us. I rise to my knees as men fall around me. Dead. Mulciber. Dolohov. Malfoy. Men I didn’t care to remember. I get to my feet as a line of Aurors circle around me. Mere man as I am, I know now I am about to face my demise. What I don’t know, is that my end will come from the figure walking towards me. No, stalking towards me. He walks with purpose, cloak billowing around him. Rage runs through me as I watch the man before me hold a wand to my chest. He’s laughing as he does it. The Horcrux locket swings back and forth in his other hand. I grimace as I stare down my death, and stare into the face of the one who brought it upon me. Regulus Black.
—
Remus’ POV
Peter’s body was discovered three days after Sirius and I had gone looking for him. His body was intact, human form, but bloody. The Aurors ruled it a mauling. A large animal must’ve gotten to him while he’d ran, they’d said. When Sirius returned that night I didn’t ask any questions. He’d came home sweaty and exhausted, full of mud, but otherwise unharmed. He collapsed into our bed and slept peacefully until the next afternoon. We never spoke of that day or Peter Pettigrew ever again.
Our lives moved on swiftly, and not a single thought was spared to the man we once knew, or the boy we thought that he was. I found myself wrapped up in wedding preparations, of which I was wholly unprepared for. A Black wedding, Regulus told me was set to be an outrageous affair. I was thankful for him in that season. He was a voice of reason and sanity as Sirius got more and more wrapped up in the planning and having his brother back helped ease some of that stress.
But, Regulus was right. The whole affair was turning out to be quite the spectacle and Sirius could sense my discomfort. I’d finally reached my limit when Sirius asked whether I wanted one or two lions for the reception and just about called the entire thing off.
So, being the romantic man he is, Sirius came up with another plan. One Thursday morning in early spring, we ran to the forbidden forest with only James, Lily, Regulus, and baby Harry in tow. I married the love of my life underneath the forest canopy, the pink light of dusk shining through the tree tops, faeries twinkling above us and nothing but love filling our hearts.
—
Lily’s POV
Sitting across from him hurts. I can feel it in my chest; my heart is splitting in two all over again just from looking at him. Severus looks odd sitting across the table from me, sipping tea from a little pink teacup. I’m not used to seeing him, in fact I haven’t seen him in years. He looks different. His face is worn, sallow, but the handsome man I once new is still there. His hair has grown out considerably and it falls over his eyes as he drinks from the cup. The black mixing with the pink florals make me giggle and he looks up, black eyes narrowing at me quizzically.
“Sorry,” I say, looking down. He reaches out a hand gingerly to mine and I flinch away. He’s so sad as he looks back at me, so I move my hand back a bit. Our fingertips touch, just barely, but it’s enough for him to relax his shoulders. He bows his head and sighing, says, “I’m glad you agreed to see me. I didn’t think you would.”
“I wasn’t sure until this morning that I would come,” I respond. I tuck my hair behind my ear and sigh. “What is that you wanted to meet for?”
Severus runs a hand through his hair. He places it on his forehead and sighs, “When we heard that the prophecy was about you and James and your child I thought that that I was going to lose you forever.” He looks up at me, eyes pained, screaming for me to give him any scrap of emotion. “I didn’t think there would be a way to save you. And then, Black found one, and I promised myself that if I made it out alive I’d find you again and make things right.”
“Sev-“ I start.
“No, I need to get this out,” Severus pleads. “I have loved you since the moment I first saw you when we were children, and I have never stopped. I was so cruel to you all because of my fear of being cast out by a group of people that were just wrong. Because of a man that that was wrong about everything. I will never forgive myself for the way that I treated you and some others as well but mostly you. I can never take back what I did but, is there any chance we can move forward and try to be a part of each others lives?”
The pain of our past haunts me every day. I can still hear his taunts, the slurs he spit out, the laughter with his friends. I can feel his betrayal, white hot as if we’re sixteen again. The knife of his choices twists in my gut and the fear of never knowing what happened to him lingers.
“Lily?”
But, I think maybe we could get there. Because, I’ve missed him every single day. Yeah. I think. “We can try to get there,” I say.
—
James’ POV
Regulus is bouncing a very jolly baby Harry on his knee. He looks so uncomfortable but dammit if it isn’t the most beautiful thing I’ve ever seen. I love him so incredibly much. We’re sitting in our sun room, celebrating Hallows Eve 1981. Harry is dressed as a black cat and Regulus is smitten.
Lily walks in with a bowl of popcorn and plops on the couch next to Regulus, brushing a finger down Harry’s cheek and tousling his already messy hair. “Popcorn, Reg?” she asks.
“Don’t mind if I do,” Regulus says reaching into the bowl and taking a handful of popcorn out. He eats his snack and settles back into the couch slinging an arm over Lily’s shoulder. Their casual friendship makes my heart swell and watching them both care for Harry and each other is something I will never get used to. Regulus hands Harry over to Lily as he begins to reach for his mother. As soon as he’s in her arms he snuggles into her lap and yawns. She looks over at me and I smile at her. I couldn’t have picked a better mother for our son if I’d tried.
“Are Masters’ in need of a drink after all that popcorn?” I hear Kreacher croak from the kitchen. Since he’d come to live with us at Regulus’ request, we’ve been pampered night and day with food and beverage. “‘Is alright, Kreacher,” Regulus calls back. “Why don’t you take the rest of the night off?” Kreacher grumbles, but still makes his way up the stairs to his room. Regulus, ever indebted to the elf tries his best to honor him every chance he can.
There’s a knock at the door, and I go to answer it accidentally leaving my wand behind on the floor. Grinning, I open the door to a very happily dressed up Sirius (in full quidditch robes holding a broom) and a frowning Remus (wearing a huge golden snitch around his waist).
“Come on in and join the party boys!” I say leading them into the sun room. We join Reg and Lily (Harry close to falling asleep in her arms), and get ready to spend the night together where we all belong. I look up to see Regulus smirking at me from his spot on the couch.
“James this kid is incredible,” Regulus says, rubbing a hand over Harry’s now sleeping back.“And I love that he has-“
“Yeah I know, Lily’s eyes,” I reply rolling mine.
“Well, yes but no,” laughs Regulus. “He has your grin. He’s going to light up all of Britain with that smile.”