REGULUS BLACK'S LAST MISSION
three minutes
REGULUS AND KREACHER were once again, alone. This was how it started and this was how it ended.
"Master-" Kreacher started.
"This is not your place," Regulus scolded as he stared at the locket, sitting, innocently in the bowl.
The tears were still fresh on his face, the bitter taste stained his tongue. His insides were still lit aflame and he desperately needed water, but he persevered. He cast a spell and a duplicate fell from the air and into his awaiting hand.
He took the scrap of parchment from his pocket, neatly folded it and placed it inside. He ran his thumb over the face of the locket. He smiled, slightly.
"This is my time, Kreacher," Regulus said. "My brother always talked about having a purpose-"
"Master Regulus-" Kreacher protested.
"I won't hear it," he replied. "Should anything go awry, I need you to take the locket and destroy it."
"What about you, master?" Kreacher asked quietly.
"Never mind about me," Regulus instructed. "Anything not according to plan and you and this locket are gone."
"Yes, master," Kreacher gulped as he resigned himself to reality.
He stared at the locket in the bowl, thinking about his life and the one he probably wouldn't live if he took it.
It was the uncertainty that frightened him the most. The leaping into the unknown. Being known. If he found out, the Dark Lord could surely do anything he'd like to him.
Regulus's hand shook as he carefully picked up the locket as he faintly hummed Clair De Lune. He had expected something big and smashing to come down on him or a vision of someone and yet nothing happened. However, that heightened his nerves.
Kreacher stumbled back in fear, slightly disturbing the water in his haste. His eyes widened, he did the one thing he wasn't supposed to do.
Then, Regulus heard it, the deep rumbling. It seemed as if it was coming from the water. Several lights appeared below the surface. Regulus gulped as he stood, frozen.
Barely the second after he placed his fake locket down, the water erupted. Arms shot up and grabbed at him, clawing his skin, hungry. However peaceful he was, his heart beat picked up and his palms went sweaty. His breathing picked up and he stared. After all, he was only 18.
Bleary eyed, he accepted his fate.
"Kreacher, go!" he yelled as he thrust the locket into the house elf's hands.
"Master Regulus-" Kreacher protested as he tried to reach out to him.
"Now!" Regulus instructed.
Kreacher hesitated, but snapped his fingers and was gone in an instant. Regulus cried as the hands grabbed at him. He tried to struggle and reach for his wand, for a way out, even though he knew there was none.
Die at the hands of the dead or the immortal. He preferred the former. He hands had grabbed his satchel, dragging it in the water with him.
They tore at his clothes, not minding his screams in terror. The ear shredding cries of a boy who had accepted his fate too soon.
Who had found love, whatever kind it may have been, and lost. Who had found himself and lost it the very moment after. A boy.
Barely having lived life and life having barely met him. His potential, his endless potential, being halted and decimated.
His name having been written for the last time and his last grade having been given. Said his last goodbye to those he held dear and hugged his stupid, wretched brother for the last time.
Because Regulus Black was now slipping into the world of memory. The end of his story was being written for him.
He felt the hands all over him, pulling him down and forcing the water out of his lungs.
The satchel falling open, the remaining bread sinking due to the butter, his wand already lost.
And the sealed letter, that he had written by and from the heart, sinking with its master. The black ink pluming in the water that had once spelled: 'To Sirius '.
The luminous hands finally got the best of him as descended, his hair flowing out around him and his arms still reaching up, yet not looking to grasp anything. He closed his eyes and focused on Senara.
As he sank into the water, in acceptance, the little bubbles of life rose around him, making him look ethereal, like a phoenix rising.