year seven - playlist explanations
lover by taylor swift
the prettiest star by david bowie
both of these songs can be tied to sirius and remus's wedding, for obvious reasons
abstract (psychopomp) by hozier
"see it how it shines"
this is lily's song! it's her damn song. if you don't know, a psychopomp is a being that transports souls from earth to the afterlife, and i knew from the beginning that lily was going to be the one to resurrect regulus because it just made perfect sense to me. i listen to this song and i think about how desperately she wanted her son to live and how she wanted to watch him grow up, how she transcended the veil between the living and the dead just to save her son from heartache.
la leçon particulière by francis lai, et al
"lyrics"
omg this song, it drives me crazy. i imagine it during chapter 129 when regulus comes back from being attacked at the wedding and throws himself into james, letting him have him because he believes they won't see each other again
desperado by rihanna
"you need me
there ain't no leaving me behind"
james leaving with regulus under the direction of others but also because there was no way he was going to let regulus leave with out him
friends by chase atlantic
"tell me we weren't just friends"
regulus and james longing for each other
in noctem by nicholas hooper
regulus and james's journey begins
you know i'm no good by amy winehouse
i think this song belongs to james. i know that a lot times it's tied to regulus, but in this part of the fic, it just feels like james longing for regulus and being unable to grasp him, but his want is no longer patient, it feels heavy and never ending.
do i wanna know? by arctic monkeys
"have you no idea that you're in deep"
regulus denying his feelings for james because he refuses to examine it deeper
i love you, i'm sorry by gracie abrams
"i might not feel real, but it's okay"
regulus and james being messy and not being together despite just sleeping together right before leaving on their mission
me and the devil by soap&skin
"hello satan
i believe it's time to go"
i think it's easy to forget how dark this time is for regulus and james. they're living through dangerous times together and as time goes on, they see darker versions of each other.
angel by first aid kit
"i love you even if you don't love me
i love you even if you can't love me"
this song is about loving each other in a broader sense, but i always listen to it and imagine it as james trying to push aside the hurt he feels so that he can see that he loves regulus regardless
wasteland, baby! by hozier
"i'm in love, i'm in love with you"
this song is sooooo jegulus, especially right before they get together in this fic. the realization that they're hopelessly in love with each other while they're both mutually suffering, unable to grasp what they truly want.
i'm yours by isabel larosa
sailor song by gigi perez
just the two of us by grover washington
i think these songs emulate the feeling of regulus and james crashing back together and living through a few soft weeks of domesticity
arsonist's lullabye
"don't you ever
tame your demon
but always keep 'em on a leash"
james following regulus into battle to kill the lestranges, and ultimately killing a man himself
shake it out by florence + the machine
"i like to keep my issues drawn
it's always darkest before the dawn"
a moment of triumphant once the lestranges are dead and the next horcrux is destroyed
die with a smile
"if the world was ending,
i'd want to be next to you"
regulus sticking right by james's side as he nearly dies from a werewolf bite and goes through his first transformation.
count me in by early winters
delicate by taylor swift
sunlight by hozier
waters by lou ridley
radio by lana del rey
if i could put all of these songs into a blender and add them to this list as one song, i would. they all remind me of drarry slowly getting closer and unknowingly falling for each other.
i, carrion (icarian) by hozier
"i do not have wings, love
i never will"
i can only think about draco. poor draco. who spent his entire life trying to live up to his family name while falling under the weight of his care for harry and this unknown creature inheritance. the violence in his chapter (ch. 144) is so similar to icarius falling from the sky, he flew to close to the sun, and in this case, that means letting himself get too close to harry.
lovegood by alexandre desplat
the beginning of malfoy manor
joke's on you by charlotte lawrence
this song always makes me think of how regulus's youth and continued presence throws voldemort off of his thirst for power and his desire to kill harry. regulus doesn't feel triumphant in the moment, but we the readers know that voldemort is making a fatal error by focusing on him.
borderline by tame impala
"i wonder how i managed to end up in this place
where i couldn't get away"
regulus realizing that voldemort is going to continue to torture him and sirius, likely killing sirius in front of him
rolling in the deep by adele
"you're going to wish you
never had met me"
even with all the help he gets, regulus is voldemort's ultimate enemy at the end of their time at malfoy manor. he was after harry but regulus distracted him and by the time that scene ends, voldemort can only think about regulus while regulus is very intent on killing the man.
youth by glass animals
"i'll make you fly
you'll be happy all the time
i know you can make it right"
originally this song made me think of james looking at and interacting with harry, but the more i listen to it, the more i feel like this is harry and regulus. their father-son connection that feels tense and volatile at times but is still so filled with love
lily's theme by alexandre desplat
the final battle begins
eat your young by hozier
i imagine all of the teenagers being pulled into the fighting, and regulus realizing that they're all still so young. also, this attaches to dumbledore's final act in my mind, the final push to get harry to do what he wants him to do.
sidelines by phoebe bridgers
"had nothing to prove
'til you came into my life
gave me something to lose"
regulus seeing everyone at hogwarts before separating from james once again
which witch by florence + the machine
skyfall by adele
courtyard apocalyse by alexandre desplat
all three of these songs remind me of the final battle, they're in no particular order
a new beginning by alexandre desplat
this song is without a doubt what i imagine at the end of the war, right after voldemort is killed
love me not by ravyn lenae
"don't loosen your grip, go a hold on me
now, forever, let's get back together"
i think this song is actually about a situationship or something, but i kept listening to it and all i could picture was regulus and james slowly falling deeper in love in the years after the war. if you want to have a nice little moment, i recommend closing your eyes and listening to this song and imagining regulus and james slowly aging together, living with tons of people and then living together, sneaking around and being loud and in love. just them.
first light by hozier
"but after this, i'm never gonna be the same
and i am never going back again"
this album came out a few months after i started writing this fic and when i first listened to it all the way through, i immediately began attaching songs from the album to characters from the golden king. i even made a tumblr post about way back when. a bit after that i decided to spend some time creating an actual playlist for this fic and the plan to attach songs from this album to my characters fell away, but even still, through all of it, imagining regulus at some point after war thinking about all the versions of himself that had existed since he first died in the cave, all i could think about was this lyric. he's never going to be the same, he knew it from the moment he started his hero's journey, and he's never going back again. i think that's what is so transformative about this story for me. he changes and is changed by the narrative and by his own choices, he grows and shifts and reforms over and over again. just like the rest of us do.