ʏᴏᴜ ᴡᴇʀᴇ ᴏɴʟʏ ꜱᴇᴠᴇɴᴛᴇᴇɴ | 𝑅𝑒𝑔𝓊𝓁𝓊𝓈 𝐵𝓁𝒶𝒸𝓀 𝓍 𝑅𝑒𝒶𝒹𝑒𝓇

36 ✧ Instability and Madness

1978 November __________________ ׂׂૢ་༘࿐

The days grew colder as the year neared December, just as the days grew cold so had Y/N. She hadn't much to report of her own experiences with the death eaters, but rather was reporting everything Regulus had told her.

"This is great work!" Dumbledore praised the girl as she tugged at her black turtleneck jumper. She had been summoned to Dumbledore, in front of him was the work she had procured from Regulus. "Keep up the work!" He then insisted she stay for tea, so she found herself sitting in front of Hogwarts Headmaster with a fine china cup in her hand.

Dumbledore pushed a neat plate of Biscoff towards her, she smiled lightly and plucked one, with the same kind of elegance she had been raised to know.

"The sorting hat never makes mistakes, but with you I believe it did." Dumbledore very casually stated. "Nothing is as brave as what you're doing."

Y/N glumly laughed, her lips pressing into a fine line smile. "I disagree, I belong in Slytherin."

"Why?" Dumbledore raised a curious eyebrow upwards.

"Slytherin is not rooted in evil, I am simply an ambitious young woman who does what she has to for the people she loves, not the greater good." Y/N stated, dipping her biscuit into her tea. "The people I love just so happen to be good people, I'm not evil, just not good."

"What makes you think you're not good?"

"I've done horrible things, no good person does that."

"Everyone does bad things, no single living person has led their life completely righteous!" Dumbledore laughed loudly. "You're just a child, you've done nothing horrible, you have no sin."

"But... if I wrote you a list you would do the opposite of revere me." Y/N gulped.

"If I did the same, you would hate me too." Dumbledore smiled. "You would never forgive me for my wrongdoings, but it is always good to remember that we are just magical humans; we should not be expected to be pure."

"I suppose." She whispered under her breath. "I feel wrong doing this to Regulus."

"What exactly?"

"Lying, sneaking about, procuring information, and betraying his trust." Y/N sighed, taking a small sip from her tea, and putting yet another Biscoff on the side of her cup plate.

"This is for him, is it not?" Dumbledore raised an eyebrow in her direction.

"Yes."

"He will change his ways, I am certain of it." Dumbledore smiled. "With you as a partner, and how you help him grow!" His smile grew larger. "Besides, from these transcripts, he doesn't seem a bad person."

"He isn't, not really." Y/N swiftly affirmed. "He's just had bad experiences."

Dumbledore parted his lips into a toothy grin, within Y/N's eyes he felt his own experiences pour out. He hoped that Regulus would, in fact, be an undeniably good person like Y/N; if he was not, and was truly some prince of darkness, it wouldn't be long before the instability and madness sunk into Y/N.

__________________ ׂׂૢ་༘࿐

Y/N traced her fingers across Regulus' hand, feeling his palm, his pale fingers, and the coolness of his ring which was usually adorned. His hands were perpetually cold, his circulation must have been terrible, no matter how much she pressed his hands between her own they did not warm. She remembers how cold it felt when his hands slid against her body; the image of his body slick with fluids will forever be etched onto the back of her eyelids, when she closes her eyes it is him she will eternally see.

"Regulus." She whispered into his ear, her fingers still attacking his.

"Yes, love?" He hummed back, using his thumb to press her hand into his properly, stopping her fidgeting hands to rest in his.

"Should we... I don't know, give up our family duties."

"Hm?" He turned to face her properly. "Whatever do you mean?" His eyebrows knit together in concern. "You want us to stop fucking?"

"Oh heavens!" Y/N's eyes widened and her face felt hot to the touch. "That's not what I meant."

"Oh... apologies, I thought you meant family duties like... erm." Regulus cleared his throat. "Continue." He nodded.

"I just meant like... this whole thing with the... the... death eaters and the.. you know?" Y/N whispered softly, pressing her forehead against his. "We could just run away from it all."

The feeling of his cold skin against hers had given her enough comfort, she knew he hated this as much as she did, it would be ease enough for them to disappear; so long as they had each other, it would be alright. Y/N felt the cold air down her back as Regulus suddenly pulled away from his position against her.

"No." Regulus suddenly stated, a harshness to his docile tones. "We cannot."

"But why?" She was losing face as he spoke.

"We just... we just... we fucking can't and you know that!" Regulus sighed, one of his hands pinching the bridge of his nose, he stood up quickly. "You're not thinking straight, perhaps it's the cold air, go inside."

He stood there, unmoving, waiting for Y/N to walk away from him and to her respective dormitory; to which she did. She hadn't wanted to move, her feet felt glued to the floor, it took every ounce of strength within herself to start dragging her feet along the stone flooring.

When he was no longer in earshot, Y/N let out a little cry that she had been concealing from deep down. What a cunt.

__________________ ׂׂૢ་༘࿐

a/n
Hello everyone, I'm so sorry for being offline for so long, and for returning with a rather boring filler! I'm suffering from grave writer's block at the moment! I have almost all of the chapters pre-written, besides the next couple of chapters; a little inconvenient, I understand.

Please be patient, it's been almost 2 or 3 years since I started this book, thank you so much for supporting me all this time! <3