The air inside Hogs Head, an isolated pub in the Hogsmeade village, was thick with the pungent smell of firewhiskey and other alcoholic beverages.
It was already dark outside despite the fact that it was only 5 pm. Inside the silent, empty pub, an auburn haired woman and a black haired man were sitting face to face at a table in the furthest corner of the room.
"Reg, I'm telling you, I saw absolutely nothing! Harry's going to be fine, Lily's gonna be fine, James's gonna be fine! Heck, everyone's gonna be bloody fine!" Diana exclaimed, barely keeping herself calm. "No one's number turned red. I don't understand why Dumbledore, out of all the people in the world, is freaking out over what Trelawney said! I'm telling you that woman is a bloody fraud!"
Regulus slowly passed a glass of water towards his infuriated friend who was slightly trembling after her long rant. She took the glass with a sigh and took a big gulp.
"I'm already aware of all this. You told me all this last time, Dia." Regulus said in a soft tone. "How everything is going as of now and if Trelawney's prophecy comes true then...the dark lord is going to be defeated... once and for all. And Harry is our only chance."
Diana heaved a sigh as she looked downwards trying to stop her trembling hands. "Reg, there are some things I haven't told you yet."
He frowned. "What is it?" He already had his suspicions about it but he chose to give her time.
She remained silent for a moment before continuing in a hushed tone even though they were the only ones in the pub. "The day- the day Harry was born my parent's numbers became red..." her voice trembled. "And up until now, the numbers are still red. But no one's number in the order has changed colors."
Regulus remained silent, looking at her with terrified eyes.
"You know what my power- or should I say curse- is. People always die when their numbers turn red; there was never any exception. This fucking curse would have been a lot more useful if I could see their death date but no, no- I just see their birth date. Fucking birth date!" She inhaled a shaky breath. "But why are only my parents going to die?... why? Why mine? Why me?" Diana's voice was becoming frustrated and angrier by the second. "Yes, Voldemort is gonna lose but at what cost? My parents have nothing to do with it. Are they in danger because I'm their daughter- because they gave birth to me? Are my parents going to die because of me? Because I'm Harry's godmother or is it because I became Lily and James's secret keeper?... Why me? I can't even do anything to protect them since I don't even know the exact time of their d-death... I just know that their time is up. That they're going to die because of me and I can't do anything aside from watching. I wouldn't be able to prevent it. I never could. I'm spending every single day in nothing but fear, Reg... What should I do? What am I supposed to do?"
Regulus reached out and slowly held Diana's shaking hand who was on the verge of having a mental breakdown. She was panicking, sweating and trembling in sheer terror. He held her sweaty hand tightly in his cold ones as she looked up at him with her teary hazel eyes. Regulus tried to smile. He had his own share of problems right now but he didn't want to share his burden with her, especially when she was already crashing down like this. He hardly ever saw her like this but he understood her completely- her parents were her weak point.
"Dia, breathe," he said calmly.
Diana took a deep breath obediently.
"Calm down."
She nodded, still shaking a little.
"Have you told all this to anyone else?"
"No."
"Not even Sirius?"
"... no."
"Why not?" He frowned.
She avoided his eyes. "He wouldn't understand. He never does."
Regulus sighed. There was something definitely going on between them but Diana always refused to share them with him. Even though he became a little upset when she kept it a secret from him, he knew very well why she did that. Because he was his brother, even after everything that had happened.
"Why didn't you tell Dumbledore?"
"Dumbledore has enough on his plate already. And honestly he is prioritising Harry's well being above everything and I totally support and understand it but cruelly speaking, the impending deaths of my muggle parents would be the least of his problems right now."
Regulus knew that sometimes Diana didn't really like Dumbledore's plans and how he worked around everything. But even after everything her loyalty for their ex headmaster was beyond any doubt.
"Where are your parents right now?" Regulus asked.
"At our vacation house. I didn't tell them anything and I'm intending to keep it that way," she said quietly. "But I think they're suspecting something is going on."
Regulus thought for a while. "I don't really understand why only your parents are going to die."
"Neither can I. But I think I might have a general idea." She said with a troubled look. "Maybe because I became Lily and James's secret keeper, Voldemort is going to decide to hunt down my parents in order to gain information from me. Or worse he might torture them until they die if I refuse to betray my friends."
Regulus's eyes widened but he wasn't quite surprised. He knew what Voldemort was capable of doing and what Diana just said absolutely made sense. If Voldemort figured out that Diana was James's and Lily's secret keeper then he wouldn't hesitate to kill Diana's loved ones in order to know their location; after all, their son, Harry would be the one who'd defeat the dark lord according to the prophecy.
Regulus felt revolted just by thinking that he joined the ranks of such a vile wizard under the influence of his parents.
"I knew I'd be endangering my close ones when I became their secret keeper. I knew who I was up against. I thought I knew what I was up for. I thought I could do this for my friends. But- but now that I've finally faced my worst fear- I don't think-- I don't think I can do this, Reg! I don't want my parents to d-die..." Tears rolled down her cheeks and Regulus felt her heart break in pieces hearing her. "I'm a coward, Reg. No wonder I'm not a Gryffindor."
Regulus said nothing in return; he simply held her hand tighter. And that was the only comfort she needed rather than some words of comfort.
Wiping her tears hastily she suddenly looked up at him with a determined gaze as if she came up with a solid plan. "I've decided what I'm going to do."
He frowned. "What is it?"
"There's no way I'm going to betray James and Lily, not even if the hell freezes over. So the only way I can protect everyone is if I don't be their secret keeper anymore. I'll tell Lily and James to make Peter the secret keeper. That would be the safest option for everyone. But we're gonna do it secretly. We will not even tell this to Dumbledore- that we're changing the secret keeper. Because I know for a fact that he'd reject this." She said calmly. "Then I'll go into hiding with my parents. I will protect them like they've always protected me. I won't let them die because of me."
"Are you sure about Peter?" Regulus scrunched his brows slightly. "He always seemed a bit..."
"Yes, I trust him with all my heart." She said firmly. "Peter is trustworthy, I can assure you that. I would've picked Remus or Sirius. But Sirius being the godfather will put him to even more danger. And Remus is not a safe option either because even though I trust him with my life, everyone including Sirius has suspicions about him because he's a werewolf."
After that for a while, they planned some more details and tried to find if there were any loopholes in the plan; they wanted it as foolproof as possible.
"I can probably suggest something to you, Dia, if you need to gain more inside information about Voldemort's plans and his death eater circle," Regulus said hesitantly. He still wasn't sure if what he was going to say was a good idea.
Diana looked upa him curiously. "To gain more inside information? Tell me."
"You can become a death eater as a spy. Like Severus."
There was a moment of silence in the faintly lit room. The wind was blowing hard outside, rattling the windows.
Diana blinked. "What?"
"You heard me the first time." Regulus closed his eyes, preparing himself for bombardment of questions.
"Oh, no, no, I just want to make sure if what I've heard is right." She looked at him bewildered. "Have you literally lost it, Reg? Or are you actually serious?"
"I'm Regulus." He scrunched his nose.
She narrowed her hazel eyes at him before he let out a hearty chuckle. "Sorry, I saw you guys doing that joke among yourselves all the time at school so I just wanted to try it for once."
She snorted at the memory. "Yeah, we did do that joke a lot back then. Sirius was fed up."
"Back to what I said earlier," Regulus continued. "If you choose to become a death eater, you can gain more information. And most importantly, I think your parents will be out of danger that way. I hardly think the dark lord will go against death eaters' closed ones."
The last line caught her attention and she thought for a while. "But I'm a mudblood. Voldemort loathes mudblood." She scrunched her nose in distaste.
She very well knew that it was a foul word for the muggleborns in the wizarding world but she used it anyway; she honestly didn't care. She always said that it was her own way of retribution. She said that it was the way of rebelling for a timid Hufflepuff like her. Although Regulus hardly agreed whenever she called herself timid.
"I'm quite confident that I can convince him. I joined his ranks at an early age and he trusts me enough to let me in his inner circle of death eaters. After the Black family has been his supporters since the beginning." There was a bitter lump at the back of his throat while saying all this. "He knows that you're Harry's godmother. He wouldn't know about your plan to change the secret keeper so he'd be more than delighted when he'd find out that you betrayed Dumbledore. I'll tell him about your extraordinary ability and say that you can help us by telling us if Harry's actually going to die or not."
Without speaking a word, Diana listened to his plan with full attention and it sounded like a good plan to her. This way she might be able to help her friends and keep her parents out of danger too.
But the plan itself was way too dangerous.
If Voldemort, the strongest dark wizard of all time, gets even a sniff about their plan, not only Diana will be killed in an instant but Regulus too.
"It's too dangerous." Diana stated.
"Yes, but also, it will protect everyone." He said in return. "And you don't have to worry. I will protect you there. Severus is also there as a double agent so I'm sure he'll help us out too."
"I'm not worrying about myself, you blithering idiot!" She snapped. "I'm worrying about you!"
Regulus chuckled. "Well, you don't have to worry about me. And when it comes to the terms of our abilities as wizards, I'm way better than you."
"Oh, please! You aren't even close to me!" Diana huffed. "Plus, I'm older than you. Show me some respect. If Nene was here she would've poked your eyes right out."
As soon as the last line fell out of her mouth, she became silent. The thought of a certain short, black haired girl instantly occupied her mind.
Regulus was quick to notice that too. "Speaking of her, have you got any news about Shinobu?"
Diana shook her hand gravely. "Since the day her mom literally kidnapped her from Hogwarts, I haven't heard a word from her. I sent loads of letters too but got no response. Remus is still devastated obviously."
"Things would've been a lot easier for us if she was around..." Regulus muttered.
"No wonder her mom took her away. Scary woman, her mother, I mean. She once glared at me with those red eyes and I seriously thought I'd faint." Diana sighed.
They stayed silent, reminiscing their last memory of the said girl.
"But whether you inform Dumbledore about the change of the secret keeper or not, you have to let him know that you're becoming a death eater as a spy." Regulus stated. "Even if you don't inform others or Sirius, let Dumbledore know about this plan."
"I was planning to do that. But no way in hell I'm telling Sirius. He'll flip, literally will do a backflip in the air." Diana said.
"I kind of want to see that." Regulus said thoughtfully, holding his chin.
"Me too." She snorted.
They laughed together, though not that loudly. Even in the darkest times something as trivial as this would make the two best friends laugh wholeheartedly.
If she only knew back then that those happy memories will become nothing but ashes of her pain in the future, twelve years later.
"By the way, I would have to get the death mark too, right?" Diana's face contorted in disgust.
"Dark mark." Regulus corrected his friend with a sigh. "And, yes."
"I can call it whatever I want. Dark mark, death mark- all the same." Diana said nastily. "It'll be hard hiding it from Sirius."
"If you stop sleeping with him for the time being, at least until the war is over then I think you'll be fine." Regulus smirked lightly when a flushed Diana slapped his shoulder.
"It's him whom you should be worried about!" Her face was red and tried to change the topic. "So when will you take me to Voldemort?"
Regulus had always flinched a bit whenever she uttered the forbidden name so easily, though he could never convince her to say anything else other than that.
"Tomorrow." Regulus answered shortly, staring straight into her eyes.
_
A/N: Hello everyone! I know this is super such a late update as I took some time from Wattpad but this book has gained so much attention since then that I'm suddenly motivated again.
I've read some comments about how it didn't make sense that everyone believed that a hufflepuff and muggleborn could be a death eater and betrayer.
Look. Not all Hufflepuff are loyal, kind and meek. Stop the entitlement. Loyalty, kindness are the qualities/ideals Hufflepuff house values the most, yes, but that doesn't mean every single student under the Hufflepuff house is like that. That's practically something impossible to achieve for every house. Peter Pettigrew was in Gryffindor but he still betrayed his best friends. Andromeda, Regulus and many others are in Slytherin but they fought against Voldemort. Same things can be said about Ravenclaw and Hufflepuff.
Not all Ravenclaws are smart and quirky and all Hufflepuffs might not be loyal and kind either.
Seriously stop.
And thank you so much for your votes and wonderful comments really. Your comments really make my everyday a tad better.
Let me know if you find any spelling mistakes or grammatical errors because it's unedited. Vote and comment if you liked the chapter.
Word count: 2445