Truth
Marlene knows people think she’s a bit funny. And she is funny, Jamie always laughs at her jokes, but, well, people don’t think she’s that kind of funny. They think she’s weird. They think The Sight is weird. Sometimes she thinks it’s weird too. Cause she’s looking at Harry Potter, two years her junior, and she loves him a little. She loves him despite just meeting him because she Knows she’s meant to love him. It’s hard sometimes to know who she loves before she loves them.
There are a lot of different ways to be a Seer. Some are prophets and get prophecies when they come and don’t when they don’t. There are diviners, they really put the work in without any natural talent, and they depend on tarot cards and crystal balls to guide their magic. And there are Seers who, as the name implies, See and Know. That’s what Marlene does. She Sees and she Knows and there aren’t any instructions or off button though Marlene thinks everyone in her life had wished there was at one point or another. Everyone including Marlene herself.
Right now Marlene Sees all the ways Harry Potter’s Time is Wrong. She also Knows she will love him because he’s Jamie and Lils. It’s incredibly frustrating since she doesn’t know him at all. So Marlene pretends she doesn’t Know as she does for most things she Knows.
“You’re Harry Potter then?” She asks. Perhaps that still wasn’t subtle enough. She can’t remember if he introduced himself.
“Er,” Marlene Knows he says that a lot. “How did you-”
“I’m a Seer,” she interrupts. “Surely someone’s mentioned that by now.” Harry nods which confirms her theory that they brought him here to discern his identity. Likely Regulus's idea given his relief at her declaring Harry a time traveler.
“So,” she says energetically. “How’d you go back, why’d you go back, and when did you come back from?” she asks in rapid succession. Harry blinks at her a bit.
“Well,” he starts carefully. “I’m not entirely sure, I didn’t on purpose, and May 1998.” May. It was February now. The mismatch of the month seems intentional. Perhaps not his intention given he doesn’t know how he time traveled but someone’s. Perhaps he was meant to save Regulus. It is a big event with auspicious timing.
“Alright,” she says. “That’s enough from you. Regulus, tell me more about how you’re going to kill the Dark Lord as you put it.”
“By destroying the Dark Lord’s horcruxes,” they all stare at him blankly. “Horcruxes.” He repeats as though repeating the word will make them understand. “Bloody light wizards, horcruxes are magical items that a wizard can make to store pieces of their soul.” He hesitates a moment. “It’s very dark magic, even in my family it’s only been attempted once.” Harry looks up at him in surprise.
“You didn’t tell me that,” he says.
“It was a few generations ago and was an utter failure so there isn’t even any helpful data, I didn’t think it relevant,” Marlene looks between them and Sees. That’s their problem though.
“So You-Know-Who has a horcrux?” Jamie asks. Marlene loves Jamie, he’s smarter than he gives himself credit for, and she loves him extra for loving him before she knew how to See she should.
“He’s got seven of them,” Harry answers. They all turn to look at him.
“It’s only five or six at this point though,” he adds. Seeing is complicated by itself and Time is not helping with how Harry has made room for himself in it.
“What are they,” Regulus asks.
“Well you know the locket,” everyone turns to look at Regulus but Harry continues oblivious. “There’s the diary which was definitely the first one created since Tom made it when he was sixteen,”
“Tom?” James asks.
“Er,” Harry stumbles. “Yes, Tom, that’s his actual name, Tom Riddle Junior,”
“Junior?” It’s Lils this time. Marlene has to admit that the idea of a Voldemort Senior is a bit discomforting.
“Yeah, Tom Riddle Senior was a muggle, Tom killed his father after he graduated from Hogwarts. I think that was before he applied for the defense against the dark arts position but I’m not entirely sure.” Marlene shares a look with Dorcas who looks as befuddled as she feels.
“So maybe the locket was next I’m not sure. Ravenclaw’s Diadem had to be one of the earlier ones since he found out how to find it from Helena Ravenclaw while he was still in school. At some point, he got Helga Hufflepuff’s cup. The ring was a family heirloom so who knows when he transformed that. And I’m not sure if he’s turned the snake into a horcrux yet, I hope not, things get a bit tricky with living horcruxes,” Harry finishes.
“Living horcruxes?” Regulus asks appearing vaguely nauseous. Harry’s face darkens but he doesn’t say anything else. Guess he doesn’t have to.
“Well,” Sirius drawls. “That’s a lot of horcruxes to find.”
“Yeah, that’s pretty much why we're here,” for help goes unsaid.
“Well then,” Marlene adds brightly. “You’ve come to the right place.”
“So,” she says lowly. “Why now?” Dorcas Meadowes has known Regulus Black since she was 11 years old. He doesn’t change his mind. As different as they claim to be the Black brothers are as stubborn as they come.
He glances at her, a slight thing, out of the corner of his eyes.
“Afraid I’m not sure what you're referring to,” he says cooly.
Regulus Black’s mask of indifference is not unfamiliar to her. Even as young as 11 years old if Regulus didn’t want you to know what he was feeling you didn’t know. A helpful trait in Slytherin and likely the only way he got away with defecting from the fucking death eaters. Still, she’d convince herself she knew him. Until he got the mark of course. Now she doesn’t know what to think.
“Cut the bullshit,” she scoffs. “Why did you leave now?”
The others are busy talking to Harry but he still scans each and every one of them to be sure no one else is listening.
“Opportunity,” he uttered faintly. “I just- I just saw an opportunity to get out and I ran with it,” he breathes in sharply through his nose, a huffy little thing that’s a cross between angry and upset.
“That’s it?” She asks incredulously. “You just decided to join up with a bloody elitist murder cult and think yo-”
“That was not my decision,” he bites out. The others have gotten quiet at their raised voices. “You know I don’t believe in all that, that I would-” He cuts himself off breathing quickly through his nose and tilting his chin up to stave off tears. And she does know, or she thought she did at least. Muggleborns aren’t exactly popular in Slytherin but Regulus had never thought of her as any less. She thought she meant more to him than his name.
“Then why,” she asks not quite able to finish her question as angry tears build up behind her own eyes.
“I’m a coward,” he rushes out. “Ok? I was scared and I couldn’t-couldn’t,” he waffles a bit, near hyperventilating. “They’re still my parents, I know, I know, but I couldn’t just leave,” his eyes flick over to Sirius and startles at his matching glance. That seems to snap him out of his emotion as he realizes their conversation hasn’t been as private as first assumed. He snaps his mask back into place, shoulders straightening and if she hadn’t just been speaking with him she’d have no clue he’d gotten emotional at all.
“I didn’t have a choice,” he spits out shooting a venomous look in James’ direction before stalking out of the room altogether. She lets him.
“So you know where the diadem, locket, and ring are?” James always gets to work when he doesn’t want to process things. Marlene’s acting as though this is perfectly normal, Sirius is keeping a firm eye on the door his brother exited, and Dorcas, after a moment, followed Regulus out of the room and hasn’t come back. James and Harry get to work. She can see the way they look next to each other, with the same curved jawline and full lips. They have their hairlines high on their foreheads. But there are differences too, Harry has a paler complexion, higher cheekbones, and narrower bright green eyes. Things that make him look like her.
She wonders how old Harry is. Nineteen years in the future. Is he sixteen? He has a slight frame that’s skinner than it should be and he’s short, shorter than both of them. The paleness of his skin looks more like he’s sick than his natural complexion. Lily worries and she’s so sick of worrying. Worrying about everyone in this room and worrying about Peter and Mary and Remus even though the lot of them aren’t nearly worried enough about Remus. She’s worried about a sister who wants nothing to do with her and the loss of her parents is a fresh aching wound everyday.
When they’re stressed James works and Lily worries.
“So the cup was in Bellatrix Lestrange’s vault at Gringots and Luious Malfoy had the diary but there’s no guarantee Vol-Tom’s given them out yet,” Harry concludes. They must have been talking about where they’re going to find all these fucking horcruxes. A cruel part of her wishes Regulus and Harry had just done this on their own and not dragged the rest of them into it.
“And then how do we destroy them?” Sirius asks. She wishes Remus were here to mellow him out a little. Hearing from his brother had been a shock and if they didn’t quite believe it then Sirius flat-out refused the possibility. Of course, if Remus was here they’d probably just yell at each other some more so that wouldn’t actually help anything.
“Well, they have to be destroyed beyond all repair. We know basilisk venom works, and we think the killing curse would work on living ones, fiendfyre too,” they all glance at each other at that. It’s tricky to find but the Potters have the bank account and the potions connections to get a little basilisk venom but fiendfyre is notoriously impossible to control.
“And you just know where to get basilisk venom?” Sirius sneers. Harry twitches a little, like a repressed flinch, and Lily frowns. The way his brow scrunches up reminds her of Petunia so she looks at Sirius instead.
“Well there’s a basilisk in the chamber of secrets,” Harry says.
Jams and Sirius trade looks of incredulousness.
“Look,” James starts. “We know every inch of Hogwarts and we never found-”
“Never found the chamber of secrets or the room of hidden things,” Harry interrupts. “Yeah, I know, you disappear from the map if you go to either of those places.” James and Sirius share a look again. James is lucky she never gets jealous of Sirius being his soulmate.
“How’d you get the marauder's map anyway, we lost it our last year?” James wonders.
“My friends Fred and George got in trouble with Filtch and nicked it from his office when he went to deal with Peeves, they gave it to me my third year so I could sneak into Hogsmeade,” Harry answers and it’s so innocuous except for the fact that it’s not her or James that would sign the form.
“Sneak in during third year?” James asks jokingly. “You cause enough trouble your first two that we wouldn’t sign the permission slip?” Harry freezes in the middle of writing on the shared piece of parchment. The room feels cold at Harry’s hesitation like it’s a much bigger deal than a permission slip.
“You-” Harry starts biting at his bottom lip. “You aren’t the ones that wouldn’t sign the permission slip.” He tells them guiltily, and.
“Oh.” She says aloud.
James hesitates and then grabs at a new paper spastically.
“Well, it must have been a battle, doesn’t it? So we’ll just- we’ll just,” he looks up at Lily frantically for a moment before dipping the quill in new ink. “We’ll just be skipping that one, perks of knowing a time traveler I suppose, so just. Just tell us, won’t you?” His hand hovers over the parchment dripping ink in a small pool as he whips his head back and forth between her and Harry.
Sirius had gone still somewhere in the midst of James’ rambling moving his eyes from the door to James seemingly memorizing his features. It’s only when Sirius turns his eyes on her that Harry’s words fully sink in.
“I think I’m going to be sick,” he mumbles rushing over to the sink.
Regulus shakes out his cigarette dropping it on the ground before it can burn down enough to reach his fingers. It’s a nasty habit that his mother would through a fit about if she knew but she’s been a bit distracted lately with increasing pressure from the dark lord and father’s progressing illness.
“You better not be leaving that there,” Dorcas says moving her leg over the log to sit on it sideways facing him. “You won’t be able to blame Barty for this one,” she smirks at him as she says it. Regulus would argue that Barty’s penchant for bad decisions in his vendetta against his father is absolutely to blame for his cigarette addiction but Dorcas’ smile fades before he can attempt the joke.
“Marlene would kill you if your cig stub interfere in one of her rituals,” she adds nodding into the pit the longs surround, a pit which would more accurately be described as a crater, more than likely. He shoots her a look at that.
“Never seen a bonfire, until you’ve seen a Seer ritual bonfire,” she adds cryptically looking out at the crater.
“So you and Marlene just live together now?” He asks, maybe a touch too judgmentally. Her eyes dart to him out of the corner of her eyes. Definitely too judgmental.
“There’s a war going on,” she bites out. “People have made worse decisions than moving in with their girlfriend fresh out of school.” Regulus winces at that. “We’ve also been together about a year and a half now, Lils and James have only been together a little over a year and they’ve gone and gotten married, at least we didn’t do that.”
Regulus looks at her in surprise. He’d assumed Lily and James had been together longer than that.
“You can’t get married,” he settles on. She gapes at him in offense.
“I could too,” she protests squawking at him.
“Not in Britain,” he adds airily pulling a new cigarette between his teeth.
“Not in muggle Britain,” she counters. “But Marlene’s mum has connections, she’d find someone.” She says it with such surety that Regulus has to stare at her for a moment. He’s always dreaded the idea of marriage. Of being paired off with whomever his parents considered best for the family, likely one of his cousins given his family history. But Dorcas is right, smaller magical communities like sorcerer communes and witch covens were frequently open about same-sex couples and their wedding ceremonies.
“Are you truly considering it then,” he asks her softly. She glances back at him, a soft look in her eyes. It’s been a long time since she’s looked at him like that and he feels a sudden longing to be back at Hogwarts. Back with his friends.
“Yeah, maybe,” she mumbles. “I mean, Elspeth, Marlene’s sister that is, joined up with a coven out in Scotland near where her mum’s family is from. And Angus is visiting their dad’s family, exploring his options, so we could. Marls and I have talked and we don’t want to rush into it like James and Lils but, yeah. Maybe we will,” she ends softly, in awe, of her future, of Marlene herself, Regulus isn’t sure but his heart aches in a happy sort of way.
A week or so back when he was coming up with a plan that should have killed him he didn’t even know if she was alive. Now she’s talking about maybe getting married to her lunatic Seer. He’s glad that she’s ok even if that makes him feel all the more expendable. He should have died yesterday and she would still be considering getting married today.
“I’m glad,” is what he says instead because it’s true. Because it’s kind.
“Dor!” He hears from behind them. He whips around the same as Dorcas to see Marlene stumbling down the hill in hastily tied boots.
“James is having a bit of an issue, well actually Lily is throwing up and Sirius has disappeared upstairs somewhere and it’s. Well, it’s a right mess so could you-” Dorcas is up before she finishes her sentence and Regulus is following after her.
As they make their way into the kitchen Lily Evans is, indeed, throwing up in the kitchen sink and James Potter seems on the brink of a panic attack so Regulus makes his way up the stairs to look for his brother.
On the landing, away from the chaos of the first floor he can hear labored breathing from behind one of the doors and wastes no time in letting himself in regardless of the anger he’s sure to meet. Instead he finds a Sirius far to dispossed to be angry at him.
“Sirius, frère, arrêt,” he says quickly. “s'il te plaît, arrête. Tu n'as pas besoin de pleurer.” Sirius is hunched over the sink and Regulus pulls his hands away from his face to get his attention. Regulus naturally falls into the language of their childhood with his brother so near to him.
“Il meurt, James meurt,” Sirius stops and takes an ugly ragged breath in through his mouth. “Il ne peut pas, Il ne peut pas faire ça, tu ne peux pas me faire ça, s'il te plaît promets-moi que tu ne me feras pas ça Regulus.” He’s begging now. Sirius is begging him not to die, begging James not to die and Regulus never thought that he could inspire this level of pain in his brother. James always, James of course, but not him.
“Promets-moi. Promesse, promesse, promesse-” and Regulus has to end this now.
“Promis, d'accord? Je promets.” Regulus says and for the first time since he walked into the cave, Regulus lets himself feel tired. He feels the eight months of walking on eggshells around a madman. He feels Evan's fear, Bella’s madness, and Barty’s desperation. He feels the loneliness of losing Pandora and Dorcas. He feels like he’s 10 years old staying with his parents while Sirius goes to Hogwarts. He feels 10 years old and he feels like he’s losing his brother for the first time and he feels 15 years old and losing his brother for the last time and he feels 17 years old finally getting him back. He promises his brother in their native tongue that he won’t die on him and makes a promise to himself as well. When this is all over, he’s never going to lose his brother ever again.