The Marauders: Year Six Part 2 #Wattys2017

Breaking Tradition

Maryrose stared at the clock. It was very plain, old fashioned, with big bells and it was ticking.

"He's been looking for this clock for some time," Regulus confessed. "He told me in the old Divination Chamber that he'd commanded Father to fetch it for him and Father died nearly two years ago." Regulus looked the clock over. "Kreacher said that he'd been commanded Father to fetch it from Hogwarts before Father died and not to let anybody have it except for him. But Kreacher gave it to me because my command over Kreacher is greater than Father's."

Maryrose stood up and went over to where he stood, holding out her hand and Regulus put the clock into it. She looked it over, "What's so special about it?"

"I don't know. Other than it won't stop ticking. If you try and hold the hands, it will burn you for trying." He held out his fingers to show her the scars that had been left when he'd tried it himself.

Maryrose stared at the marks, then down at the clock face.

"It belonged to Mopsus, that's all I know, because that's what Voldemort told me."

Maryrose sighed. "He had such a fetish with clocks, Mopsus I mean." She handed the alarm clock back to Regulus.

"Yeah, he did."

"But what good is the clock of a deadman?" Maryrose asked.

Regulus shrugged.

"Okay, so Voldemort wants the clock. You have the clock. Snape is here in Polyjuice as James... Do you reckon Voldemort thinks that James has the clock?" Maryrose questioned.

"Why would he think that?"

"Dunno," Maryrose answered. "And wait - if Severus Snape is Polyjuiced as James... where is James?"

Regulus hadn't been pushing that question out of his mind, afraid of how terrified he was to think up an answer. His stomach churned with the worry that suddenly bubbled up like acid in his belly. He shook his head, "I don't know. Dead or with Voldemort, I expect."

Maryrose looked near to tears. "He can't be dead. Not James Potter."

"I know. He's ... James Potter." Regulus didn't realize how much he looked up to James Potter until he'd said it but the moment the weight came from his tongue with the name, he knew he'd been admiring James from afar. Not in a romantic way, just in an inspired way. In the way one would look at any man or woman who was as strong a figure as James Potter was about Hogwarts. Captain of the Quidditch Team, star of the Quidditch Team no less, having done all the adventures as James, and caused as many smiles and goodness about the castle as he'd done. It was impossible, Regulus thought, to be a student at Hogwarts and not admire James Potter.

Maryrose nodded.

Regulus put the clock down on the nightstand. "I don't know how it all works together, I don't know what it means, but I know when he said... when he threatened you... my heart about stopped."

Maryrose laid her hand on his chest, right over his heart.

Regulus looked down at her palm against him and then back up at her. Their eyes locked. "I just wanted to... protect you," he said thickly, and he wondered at the funny feeling coming over him as her hand touched him like that, how he felt oddly alive like he never had before, like there was something on fire inside him, moving through his veins, molton and burning... but in a good way.

Regulus's voice was urgent and he said, "I won't let them take you away from me, I won't let them hurt you. I won't. That's why we're here, why we aren't going home. Because you're in danger there if they find you. And I'm not going to let them find you. I'll go to the bloody ends of the earth and I'll die there before they touch a hair on your head, Maryrose, I'll die!"