EUPHORIA & LUST. regulus black.

025

"mother, no—"

"walburga, you know he can't," bellatrix interrupted. "he's not strong enough. as much as i'd love to see him suffer for the shame he's brought to our family, you need to think about this logically."

"i am thinking logically, bella!" she shrieked. "he deserves punishment greater than death."

"i don't disagree, but this could go wrong," bella reasoned.

"mind your business," walburga glared at her niece then turned back to regulus, one hand on his shoulder. "kill her."

the words both athena and regulus were dreading shook their worlds. regulus stifled a sob, pulling his wand out. "please..."

he looked to walburga and she simply shook her head, tutting. "your actions have consequences. it's time you finally learnt that."

he lifted his wand, tilted it so it was facing athena and whispered, "avada..—"

before he could finish the spell, he fell back, into his mother's arms, uncontrollable sobs escaping him and echoing off the walls. he couldn't help it — he dropped his wand, not caring about any consequences from this.

he lifted his head from her chest, collecting himself for a moment but ended up collapsing back onto her shoulder, crying all over again. his eyes flitted to the door of the room and his head shifted a little against her shoulder. at the slight movement, athena's heart leapt. did he just nod?

she couldn't tell what he was nodding at, but she assumed it was a person in the doorway and she shifted to see. as soon as she moved her head to look, she knew she had a mistake.

walburga jerked away from regulus, pointing a wand at him. "what are you doing? what is she looking at?"

she let her guard down while he hugged her, but she caught herself, cursing her foolishness.

she turned around to see what athena saw, then fell to the floor a second after.

nott and the other death eater got their wands out, turning to the door and whispering to each other.

bellatrix walked over, her wand twirling through her fingers. "what's going on, you're asking?" she turned to the death eaters.

"lestrange! someone's there," nott yelled.

"madam lestrange to you, fucking bastard," she shot back. "i know someone's there. i told them to come."

athena started shaking — people bellatrix called couldn't be good people. the truth really hit her, all over again. she was going to die a painful death.

regulus fell to the ground, next to her and held her tightly to his chest, like she was the most fragile thing in the world, like she might've slipped through his arms at any second.

"hello, cousin," sirius's voice was heard by both regulus and athena and they both looked up at the exact same time.

"you made it," bellatrix responded as she lowered her wand. there was a shuffle and people stepped into the basement.

sirius, james, evan and barty. they were under james's invisibility cloak. regulus should've known. but why were they called by bellatrix?