Announcements all over
Mary MacDonald, Lily Evans, James Potter and Regulus Black were sitting in the kitchen.
"So can you survive that?" James chuckled.
"Can I- can I..." Lily stammered, "that's dangerous James, Regulus?"
"We know that it's dangerous, but it needs to be done. Dumbledore wants me to do it." Regulus agreed.
"I can't let him do this alone. We need the world safe for when we want children." James argued.
"Fine, I'll live through it." Lily groaned.
"I'll make sure that we're back home every few days. It's too dangerous to be around horcruxes." Reg assured.
"It'll be fine" Mary assured her now girlfriend.
"Hey Mary?" Prongs interjected.
"Yes, James?" She replied.
"You could move in for the time being." He suggested.
"I- I would but I don't want to take up too much space." Mary worried.
"Look I want to be transparent about this. This house is a bit of a temporary thing, we would usually live in my parents' house and not here." James started explaining.
"Why don't you?" She asked.
"Well, the house is big and that makes it hard to observe everything there. We will move back in there as soon as the war is over." He explained.
"Oh. That makes sense." She agreed, "if I'm not too much of a bother I'd love to move in."
"That'd be great, especially if me and Regulus are out and about for days at a time." James stated.
Mary and James had gone to Mary's home to get some clothes and other essentials for her to take to their home.
When they got back Mary proposed something.
"We should tell Marlene and Dorcas." She said.
"Oh, uhm sure. I don't know their addresses though. I was kind of busy and we lost touch a bit." Lily admitted.
"I'm pretty sure they're dating now and have moved in together." The dark haired girl remarked.
"Oh really? Well finally! Do you know their address then?" The redhead asked.
"Erm, yeah. I'll send them an owl, I'm sure if we meet up that might actually be dangerous." Mary stated.
"Meeting up too much in a war can always be dangerous." Lily interjected.
Mary nodded.
"James?" Regulus whispered. They were spying on a man who was said to have the diary of Tom Riddle, a horcrux.
"What is it, Reggie?" He replied.
"I- I might have to get the mark..." Reg admitted.
James said nothing for a few moments, making Regulus think that he'd messed up this time.
After all why would someone as wonder as James Fleamont Potter stick with him. A Slytherin, a bad guy, someone who had to be dragged out of his family home even though he knew that he'd die if he stayed there. Regulus was unable to be loved, he was just a void for darkness.
It's always been easiest alone for him and he wasn't doing James any favors sticking to him. He was probably annoying him and James most likely was already plotting how to get him to leave.
Regulus was about to sink into these thoughts when James' answer snapped him back to reality.
"Alright" he'd said.
"What do you mean by that?" Reg asked immediately.
"It's alright. I know you'd only ever get the mark because you need to. You're not in there because you hate people different from you, you're in there to help us." James smiled, it was a warm smile. A smile that made you forget you were fighting in a war.
"Thank you..." Regulus stammered.
Prongs only nodded.
"Can I ask you something?" James questioned suddenly.
"I mean, yeah sure..." Reggie accepted.
"You don't have to answer if you feel uncomfortable." James looked away.
"It's fine" Reg assured this time.
"How does the cruciatus curse feel?" He asked, "like what does it feel like after you've been hit by it?"
"As terrible as it sounds, you should ask Sirius that. He has more experience." Regulus started, "But as far as I know it different to everyone. Depending on what would hurt the most to you, all physical pain though."
"What's it feel like for you?" He inquired.
"It felt...like all of my limbs were being ripped out continuously without a break. I felt like my organs were being torn out of my stomach. I felt like I was going to die, but I didn't. It didn't stop and it didn't get less until our mother lifted the curse." Reg continued.
James nodded understandingly.
"Sometimes it would be that bad so that Sirius passed out from the pain, sometimes he'd scratch at his own body to try and get the curse to leave it... sometimes he'd be so bloody that I was afraid he'd never wake up again." Regulus finished, his eyes threatening to spill tears.
"I'm sorry." Prongs choked out.
"Why be sorry for something you can't change anymore. Both of my parents are dead now and Sirius had it way worse anyway." Reg chuckled uncomfortably.
"That doesn't make it go away, be less painful or less traumatizing. You're traumatized, you can mourn the child you were never allowed to be." James argued.
Regulus nodded this time.
Dorcas and Marlene were sitting in their living room when their owl flew in, carrying a letter.
"Dorcas darling, Mary has sent us a letter." Marlene smiled warmly.
"Really? What does it say?" Dorcas was eager to know the contents of the letter.
"Oh dear. Lily and Mary have finally started dating as well." The blonde announced.
"Oh, have James and Lily broken up then?" The dark haired woman asked in response.
"No, you know about Lily's arrangements with James." Marlene explained.
"Right, right. I forgot. I'm so happy for them, can you send them congratulations from us?" Dorcas suggested.
"Of course."