𝐓𝐇𝐄 𝐌𝐀𝐆𝐈𝐂𝐈𝐀𝐍 (2) || 𝘙𝘦𝘮𝘶𝘴 𝘓𝘶𝘱𝘪𝘯

𝐗𝐈𝐈. 𝐎𝐥𝐝 𝐅𝐚𝐜𝐞𝐬 𝐀𝐧𝐝 𝐍𝐞𝐰 𝐅𝐫𝐢𝐞𝐧𝐝𝐬

"We went to school together. Regulus was only two years younger than the rest of us. He was Slytherin, like the rest of his family. He excelled in Potions and Quidditch. He was a Seeker, and ended up captaining the Slytherin Quidditch team in his later years at school as well. James and Sirius played against him several times, but despite their shared... devotion of the game and their challenging nature when it came to matches, Sirius never spoke outright to his brother after a certain point. It was almost sad to watch."

"I'm an only child, you see, and coming from a family of both Muggles and Wizards, I couldn't understand turning your back on your own blood without a sound reason. But both made their choices in the end. I often saw Regulus going around with a girl in his year, a Ravenclaw I think. What was her name... what was it, what was it?... I think... Rosier rings a bell? Pandora Rosier? That was it. Yes, she was Evan Rosier's sister. I always thought there was something going on between them. Regulus and Pandora, I mean. They were always together, it was quite sweet. Though I believe she went on to marry Xenophilius Lovegood, if I remember rightly."

"Sirius' brother was best friends with Luna's mom? Huh... small world." Edith said quietly, a small sense of awe in her tone.

Remus chuckled. "A very small world indeed." The smile then fell from his face.

"Sirius learned of the death of his brother about half a year before Harry was born. The uncle I mentioned earlier was kind enough to send a letter to him, letting him know what they thought had happened."

"... No one stops being a Death Eater." Edith stated quietly, echoing the very words Sirius himself had said to her when her and Harry spoke to him in the Floo Flames a few months before.

Remus nodded solemnly.

"We think he got too far in. That he was caught up with this idea of being around people who shared his family's values, and perhaps his own. Maybe it all became too much, and Regulus tried to find an exit. But you don't leave that kind of circle easily. And if you do, you certainly don't make it out alive." Something behind Remus' eyes hardened, and Edith was overcome with the urge to hold him.

"... I truly hope that Harry, Ron, Hermione... that none of them ever need to be trapped in the middle of a war, fighting for their chance at a tomorrow. I wouldn't wish that upon anyone. We were too young to be fighting a war, anyone will tell you that. I came out a changed man. With new scars, physical and mental, my friends dead and gone, and a world that hardly even cared to look my way in the aftermath."

Edith pushed off of the table behind her, taking a few steps towards Remus before settling against the table behind him, bringing an arm up and around his shoulders.

A silence settled between them, and Edith rested her temple against the warm wool cardigan covering Remus' shoulder.

".... You deserved... so much more than what the world gave you."

Remus' soft silence almost seemed to stretch on for miles.

"And I'm just so glad I had the chance to meet you. To love you." Edith continued quietly, feeling Remus lay his head over hers.

With a breath that trembled, Remus' shoulders dropped with a released tension.

"You're the best of me, Edith. You truly are." Remus admitted quietly, not allowing the rest of the world to hear his words. They were for her, and her alone.

"You're the best of me too." Edith's words were as soft as his own, and she closed her eyes, reaching over with her free hand to cradle both of his in-between her own.

Together they watched and listened as the small, fiery leaves burned with the shades of autumn daintily drift down from the endless sky above the cosy classroom.