prologue
Prologue
1979
As Regulus was slowly dragged down beneath the inky depths of the lake, he was not afraid. Pale, cold hands grasped his ankles and chest, dozens of bodies pressing into him and pulling him off the slick rock where a stone goblet glowed softly green. Yet even as the light receded and he felt the breath finally escape from his lungs, icy water flooding his throat and body, Regulus only thought of one thing.
Hazel eyes, sparkling golden green in the sunlight and hidden behind a pair of thin rimmed glasses.
Dark, tangled hair a mess from windswept days and Regulus’s gentle hands.
A small, ivy covered cottage where he would be safe. A smiling, fiery headed wife and a baby that would grow up loved with his mothers eyes and his fathers courage.
The shining sun that deserved so much more than Regulus could ever give him. The only thing he ever really cared about. The only thing that mattered.
James had saved Regulus. He could not let Lord Voldemort hurt him now.
Regulus wasn't a Gryffindor, he wasn't brave or loud or bright. But he loved James Potter more than he could ever understand, and even as his eyes dimmed and the world slowly faded, he smiled faintly. James would live. Live and grow and fight, like he always had.
And Regulus,
He would never see his sun again.