drowning; REGULUS BLACK

9. wounds and bruises

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Dumbledore and Alastor Moody had finally apparated away from the men's house. Lily decided to go home to her parents as her mother was very sick, although she hated the fact that she'd have to face her sister and her rude comments about her being a witch, that was usual though. And lastly, James stayed with the two marauders.

As for Regulus, well, he was miserable. He had these dark bags under his bloodshot eyes,there were small, red wounds and pink-ish yellow bruises scattered over the pale skin of his face and frown lines marring his features and his brows had an almost furrowed look to them. The corners of his mouth were downturned in a frown. Regulus looked utterly dejected.

The weird black-ish bruise on his leg was getting darker and darker and the numbness was reaching his abdomen, at this point. Regulus groaned occasionally and got worried looks from Remus who was seated near him. Sirius and James were out in the front garden putting up protective charms, just as Dumbledore had advised.

It was now that Remus got up and walked towards Regulus when he groaned again as he attempted to touch the bruise.

Remus eyed the bruise with slight perturbation as it continued to darken.'' How.. did you- What caused this?'' He questioned.

''Hm? Oh... I don't... I don't really remember how I got that,'' It was true. Regulus couldn't really put a finger to how he got it. Yeah, it happened in the cave but the question was... how? Could've been the crystal coast of the small island? The sharp edges, maybe. Regulus tried to think exactly what had caused it.... but..

Oh. It all came back to him. The Inferi. They did it when they were pulling him in the water and Regulus had cast a lifting charm which somehow made the Inferi latch onto his skin to try and drag him in but he got out of reach. He debated if he should or should not tell Remus if it was the Inferi. Maybe he shouldn't...

Regulus decided against it. ''Uh... Inferi,'' Remus raised an eyebrow at him.'' I mean.. uh- Inferi did that,'' he gestured to the dark bruise. Remus was a quiet for a second and then looked horrified.''Inferi!?'' Regulus nodded, not making any eye contact. ''How!?''

Regulus' eyes widened just a bit at the question. ''I- I can't tell you that,'' Remus sighed, pinching the bridge of his nose. ''Okay, that's okay. But that looks bad, Regulus,'' Regulus did nothing but nod, again. '' Does it hurt much?''

''Yeah, very'' Regulus said with a low sigh.'' I have never seen anything like this before, but, if it hurts that much then it could be threatening..''

In that moment, just as Remus was speaking, Sirius and James came back inside. They looked at Regulus' miserable figure and then moved their gaze towards Remus who was staring at the younger Black and clearly feeling rather bad for the boy (man?).

''What's wrong?'' Sirus spoke up. Remus averted his gaze to the older Black,'' That bruise, on his leg, he says Inferi caused it,'' he shot Regulus a worried glance, who was now laying on his back and had his neck thrown back and resting on the sofa armrest.

''Inferi!?'' Sirius gasped. ''Those.. those regenerated corpses creatures?!'' Sirius looked utterly horrified even as he said it. ''With dark magic, yeah, we studied about them with professor Belby in 6th year,''

''Its all darkened and fuck.. is it harmful?'' Sirius did and also didn't want to know the answer. Remus signed, '' I don't know, Sirius, it.. well, is probably is harmful because y'know, they are beings created with dark magic and anything meddeled with the dark arts is extremely dangerous and Inferi, i dunno there's a big chance that it is but... one can never be sure,'' he looked sympathetically at Sirius, who looked uneasy. '' No, yeah, you can tell it is getting worse. I mean, look at his leg! It was like grey 30 minutes ago and now its almost.. black!'' Sirius half exclaimed in agitation.