Scene XIII, Dance of the Knights
The spring sun shows me your shadow,
The spring wind bears me your breath,
You are mine for a passing moment,
But I am yours to the death.
- Rosamund Marriot Watson (1860–1911)
Regulus hates doctors.
Doctor Augustus Pye is sat across from Regulus. He’s a big man. His moustache is almost perfectly even and groomed. It annoys Regulus how put together the man is and how he just watches people in varying states of disarray all day.
TRANSCRIPT 6th SEPTEMBER - REGULUS BLACK
A: Hello Regulus, how is your morning
R: Alright
A: We might as well get straight into it. Can I tell you a story, Regulus?
Regulus nods his head.
A: Once there was a young boy, He lived with his mother and his father. His father was a painter. His mother stayed at home, practising the art of herbalism.
R: What does this story have to do with me?
A: Patience, Mr Black
R: Call me Regulus
A: One night in 1858 a man broke into the property. Thomas was his name. Tom was a cynic and a conspiracy theorist. He was convinced that witches lived amongst us. Once inside the house he set a fire in the room of the parents, killing everyone inside the house. Except for the son.
R: I still don't see the point in your story
A: The son managed to get out of the house and run a few yards away. When he reached the largest tree on the property he was hit in the head.
R: Did he end up here with brain damage? I'm really sorry but I don't see the point of this conversation
A: His name was James Potter and he died under an oak tree
Pictures were placed on the coffee table in front of him. One of the manor. He had never been inside the building but he had seen it from a distance. Another picture was placed before him. This time of the oak tree he used to read under.
“Does it look familiar?” Augustus asked.
Regulus couldn't answer. Regulus couldn’t breathe. He gripped the seat under him. His vision was blurred but he persisted. Forcing his body up out of the chair and then leaning on the table. His hand brushed the photos.
Regulus couldn't answer. Regulus couldn't breathe. The boy which he had spent hours with under the oak tree never existed. Was never alive. All in his head. A figment of his imagination. James wasn't his muse, he was the art. He wasn't his love. He wasn't real. They were right. They were right . They couldn't be. He refuses to let them be right. No. He remembers James. He remembers how he used to touch, how he used to look at Regulus with the type of love he used to only read in his books. He remembers it all so clearly. He remembers that it was true. He would not let a stupid doctor tell him it wasn't.
“No.” He looks Doctor Pye dead in the eye. Regulus is a petty person. He’s hidden his brother's favourite coats during the winter time just out of spite when he went off to boarding school and left him. He doesn't take his eyes away from Pye as he takes the glass of water from the desk and pours it onto the photos. The ink bleeds, and the water drips to the carpet and through the wood. He feels a satisfactory smirk tug at his lips as Pye gapes at the mess. Regulus only walks from the room and down the hall.
He goes to the oak tree. In the courtyard. He lets himself be held by James. He doesn't feel the tears on his cheeks. He doesn't feel anything. He feels numb.
Appointment notes:
Regulus Black is unstable. He refuses to acknowledge the inexistence of his hallucination. No progress has been made. The surgeon Eustace Burke will perform Trephination on Mr Black in two weeks. If any progress is made during that time it will be ignored and deduced to an act of deception of the patient.
—
“I’m not real.” James was sitting on the edge of the lake. Lily was on his right, running her hands through his hair like his mother used to do.
“Oh darling, you are real.” Lily held him so tight. Her eyes were red-rimmed. James hadn’t shed a tear yet but Lily was crying for him. “You might not be alive but your thoughts, your feelings, that's all you.”
“But I thought I was alive,” His voice broke, it only made Lily want to hold him tighter.
“James I’ve known you since you died,” Her breath hitched “Every moment, every second you had, you lived . You may not have been alive but you lived.” Her arms and his were tangled in each other. He felt empty. Hollow. Invisible. He knew that something had been wrong. His whole life, from the night he got lost in the rain, the night he died, had been a jumble of parts that barely fit. He kicks himself how he didn't notice it earlier. He should have known.
“Every moment since we met was to help you in this moment.” Tears kept falling down her cheeks, she was crying for the boy who never got to be. “You had such a long life ahead of you, the universe thought you should get the chance to live it before you move on,” Lily spoke as she combed her hands through his hair.
“So I have to go?” James looked up at her. He took the strands of her hair nearest to him and he twirled it in his fingers. He dreads having to leave Regulus. Even if Regulus had already left. He wishes that for one second he could have him in his arms just to bid him farewell. For one moment. That's all he needs. All he wants is to have forever. But it cannot be. It never will be.
“Not yet. There's one thing you have to do before you can.” A voice said behind them. Pandora. Her braids rested on her shoulder and her eyes were pitiful. She came to a stop next to them. Her dress was barely touching the water as she sat down next to them.
“Come with me?” She held out her hand. She has always been so pale. With her hand reaching out to him, the dark colours in her dress and hair make her look like she’d never seen the sun. He briefly wonders if she is cold. But the warmth of her hand when he takes it proves him wrong. It's like no time has passed. He was in Lily's arms.
Now he’s at the gates of a place he’s never been. The weather feels like it's taunting him. Lightning. Thunder. The gates are black. The gates are tall. On the gates, up the top are words James can't make out. He takes a few steps back, almost tripping on the cobblestones, to get a view. Lancaster Lunatic Asylum.
“Pandora, what are we doing here?”James grabbed her hand. Desperately hoping to be far far away from here.
“Regulus is in trouble. His brother came and found me earlier and I-”
“What kind of trouble Pandora,” James had warning in his voice. His newfound ghostliness would not stop him from helping Regulus out of whatever this place was. If anything it helped him.
“Let’s go, we haven’t got much time.”