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Wake Up, Regulus, Wake Up


“Wake up, Regulus, wake up. Wake up. Wake up, please wake up.” Regulus was rocking himself, crouching between the wall of the cave and the large stone he’d bent against to catch his breath. He could hear James Potter’s footsteps echoing through the cavern, could see his illuminated wand tip moving around the pool of black water. He watched as he hugged his knees and begged himself to wake up, as James inched further and further away, and his stomach twisted itself into knots. James would go around that corner any moment now, and when he did, when his wand light was out of sight, then the only light in the cavern would be his own wand light… just like in his dream.

“Please… Please wake up. Please wake up. You’re in your bed back at Hogwarts, warm under your duvet. You’re sleeping, having another nightmare. Wake up and get a cup of water, idiot. Wake up and find out this is all a nightmare and you’re fine and Maryrose is fine and none of this has happened.” His voice quavered.

James Potter’s wand disappeared ‘round the bend.

Regulus stood up slowly, his knees trembling… and he moved carefully, his body going through the motions though he so bitterly did not want to do it. He closed his eyes as his palm moved along the wall, keeping him away from the water’s edge… There was something dripping, great big drops of water fell and struck the pool, making the water ripple and Regulus’s breath caught in his throat as he reached the back of the cavern and he stood on the spot from his dream, his heart pounding in his ears. He inched toward the edge of the pool.

Please. If there is any mercy left in this entire universe, any good at all, please don’t let Maryrose be here in the water, Regulus begged any and all gods that may hear him.

Slowly,... he knelt down, and, eyes still closed, he leaned forward, took a deep breath… and prepared himself.

He opened his eyes.

There wasn’t anything in the water.

Regulus let out a breath of relief.

And then he heard a splash.

He turned around… and his eyes widened. There was a person… a man… climbing out of the water… with pale white skin, swelled up a bit, the torso already out, they were rolling to put their leg up on the ledge and struggling to get out, dripping water everywhere, a vacant expression upon his face…

Regulus couldn’t help it. He screamed. “JAAAAAAAAAMES!!!!!! JAMES!! JAAAAAAAMES!!!!!!!!” The scream echoed through the cavern and, unsure what else to do, he ran for it. He ran as hard as he could, intending to go diving ‘round the bend James had gone in, to chase him through whatever place he’d found back there, and maybe it let out some other place where this creature thing couldn’t catch up…. But even as Regulus ran for the tiny cavern, a thick cloud of squeaking black bats came roaring out, their wings rumbling, their sonars squealing loudly. Regulus slammed into a stalgamite in his efforts to get away from the bats in one direction and the horrible pale white figure shuffling closer toward him.

“Stupefy!” he cried, waving his wand at the figure - but it didn’t do anything.

Of course not. Stupefy worked on the nervous system of a man… this man coming toward him was no man at all, the movements he made had no connection to the nervous system. The body itself was not causing the motion - it was the curse it was under moving it along, like a puppeteer.

“JAMES!! JAAAAAAAAMES!!!! JAMES HELP!” he cried out.

“REGULUS?” he heard James’s voice reply - but the figure was nearly a top of him now. “I’M COMING, REGULUS!”

Panicked, Regulus turned about, noticed a stone that was cracked ever so slightly open… a slight glow within… and he hurriedly pushed it open, throwing himself through. Pale, bony white hands reached out and he shoved the stone into the mouth of the archway it filled, and he heard an odd, shrill, shrieking cry and a loud splash… The thing had been pushed back into the water by the force of Regulus’s door slamming.

He leaned his back against the stone, trying to catch his breath, his eyes closed, heart pounding wildly in his throat.

“That was close,” he breathed, clutching his wand.

When he opened his eyes again, he found he was standing nearly on top of another black pool. This cavern was even darker than the last, and the glow he’d seen from outside had been a reflection or something on the surface… But there was something there at the edge of the water… bobbing in the shallowest spots among the stones. Regulus stepped closer to see.

It was a pair of glasses. Thick black rectangular frames with cracked lenses. He knelt and picked them up, turning them over in his palms.

And then he saw her.

He forgot to breathe.

Maryrose Jenkins loomed there, just below the surface… her hair wild and bright white beneath the water… her fingers extended up toward him as though gesturing to him… Tears filled his eyes and instinctively, forgetting his dream, forgetting all of it, he reached for her. His hand sliced through the cold dark water and he grasped her about her wrist and he tried to pull her out. He would rescue her. He’d give her all of his air, all his blood, he’d pull out his own heart and put it in her chest - she deserved it more than he did, more than anyone else on the earth did. And he would be the one to give it to her…

But her wrist was cold when he touched it, the skin too smooth… and he shook as he held onto her.

“Maryrose, no,” he said thickly. “Wake up, Regulus. Wake up.”

And her hand closed ‘round his wrist, too.

And for a moment he had himself convinced that was a good thing.

He had a split second in which Regulus Black pictured pulling Maryrose Jenkins out of the depths of that pool, having her breathe in deeply, and wrapping his Slytherin sweater ‘round her shoulders to warm her up and they’d go back through that door and there would be James and Regulus would call for Kreacher and Kreacher would come and the three of them would disapparate back to Hogwarts, happy - healthy - whole.

But then the imperius that was once Maryrose began to pull Regulus toward the water.

“JAMES!!!!!!!!” he screamed again, panic rising up in his throat as he thrashed, trying to get away, “Let me go! Let me go!! Oh please let me go! JAMES!!” He drew his wand and turned it at her as she rose out of the water, gripping onto Regulus, refusing to let go. He found his free hand shaking as he tried to aim it -- but he couldn’t. He couldn’t set a hex on Maryrose - even if it wasn’t Maryrose anymore, even if it was Voldemort’s magic bewitching Maryrose’s figure and Regulus felt tears pouring over his cheeks, wet and hot and dizzying as he struggled and kicked at the rocks trying for some leverage, but the imposter just kept pulling and he was slipping and he remembered what happened next in his dream…. He would fall in and he’d just keep going down and down and down forever and he did’nt want to fall down, down, down. He was terrified and he struggled all the harder. “Oh please, please, please please,” he sobbed, “Please! Somebody help me!” He couldn’t hex her, even if his life depended upon it.

And suddenly there was a groaning of stone behind him…

A shaft of light…

Shrieking screams...

“Get’em off me! Get them off of me!!”

Lily Evans suddenly came tumbling through the door, falling across the stones Regulus had fallen over himself just moments before and she slammed to a stop just at the water’s edge and looked up.

She saw Maryrose Jenkins - dead - clutching onto Regulus Black’s wrist.

Inferi, she thought, and she leaped forward to help him.

“Ziaferin!” Lily cried and a red jet of light shot through the air and struck the inferius in the wrists, stinging her, making her let go and Lily cried, “Incendio! REGULUS, RUN!”

Regulus stared as Maryrose fell away, as her hands raised over her head and she fell back into the water, her arms splayed, her eyes vacant, her soul gone - all that was left was a body, controlled by something other than Maryrose herself and the thought of it seared his heart… the fire from Lily's wand fending her off, back into the water... and Maryrose disappeared beneath the surface.

He was numb.

He would never feel again, he thought.

“Regulus!” cried a familiar voice, “Regulus! Are you alright?” and there were arms ‘round him - familiar arms, strong arms, and they pulled him close, hugging him tight. “Bloody hell, you’re bleeding. Let me see.” And Sirius pulled Regulus’s palm into his own, stretching it open and he did the same mending spell as Lily Evans had done on him during the remedial potions class to heal the gash across Regulus’s palm… “Regulus?”

“Maryrose,” Regulus panted, staring up at his big brother through tears, “Maryrose is dead, she’s dead… she’s dead…”

Sirius pulled Regulus into his chest and wrapped his arms around his brother again, “I’m sorry Regulus, I’m so sorry.” And Regulus was sobbing great heaves, his spittle soaking the chest of Sirius’s shirt as he cried, his mouth wide open and his voice rocking the dark as he let out great choking gasps of pain. “Shhh, Reg… It’s gonna be okay… Hey… hey…. C’mon now… please, little brother.”

“She’s dead, she’s dead….” No matter how many times he sobbed it, it didn’t seem real.

And suddenly James Potter came running into the open stone door, jogging over the rocks that lined the shore of the black pool, wearing only one shoe, his wand aloft. “Regulus, I’m coming!” he was yelling as he barrelled in, ready to fight -- only to stop dead, shocked by the sight of Sirius hugging his brother and he was suddenly struck full force by Lily Evans throwing herself against his chest.

“James!” Lily Evans hugged him and he was about to ask what she was hugging him for when he heard the words that Regulus was saying.

“She’s dead… she’s dead… she’s dead… Maryrose is dead… Sirius, she’s dead! She’s dead!”

And James felt as though the entire world and everything in it had just come to a screeching halt.