Motion Sickness

Funeral

Everything was burning, Regulus couldn't figure out why? He thought the water would help. But he never actually got around to drinking the water, he felt something on his forehead and that's when he registered that he was no longer in the cave. He opened his eyes and was met with the greenest eyes he's ever seen, well he's seen these eyes before he just never realised how green they were. "Evans?" He asked, she smiled and gently rested a hand on his cheek.

"Morning sunshine, I was beginning to think you were going to be out of it forever." She told him. He managed to muster up a smile.

"Where am I?" He was convinced he was dead and this was some messed up hell, or heaven? It could have been a mix of both if he was truly honest.

"James's place, you showed up on the doorstep a few months ago and you've been out of it ever since." Lily explained. Regulus sat up straight. He couldn't be there, Kreacher was supposed to take him somewhere no one would find him, not where everyone would know where he is.

"I need to leave." He said, throwing the blanket off of him and getting up.

"Regulus." Lily sighed, "Everyone thinks you're dead, Kreacher explained everything to us about how you wanted to disappear so Sirius sent in an anonymous tip to the daily prophet that you died." Regulus looked down at his mark, "We've tried removing it but everytime we did it would grow darker." She told him.

"Guess that explains the burning." He said, "How- uh, how's James?" He asked after a while.

"Busy with auror training. I saw Pandora at your funeral." She said quietly.

"There was a funeral?" Regulus asked sitting back down.

"It was small." She looked down and played with her fingers.

"Was Dorcas there?" He asked, she shook her head.

"She was killed a week after Marlene was. She went after ten death eaters in cold blood and was killed by You-know-who himself." Lily explained. A piece of Regulus's heart broke in that moment, one that can never be fixed. He took a deep breath.

"Pandora doesn't know I'm alive?" He asked, Lily shook her head.

"She's made her peace, why ruin her happiness with Xeno." As she said that Regulus sensed a hint of regret in her voice.

"She never did tell me why you two broke up." He told her, Lily sighed.

"We wanted different things at the time, she wanted to leave England until the war was over and I wanted to stay and fight." She told him. Regulus looked down at his hands, he remembered telling Pandora about how they could run off to a place called America once the war started getting bad, neither one of them wanted any part in it. But then Regulus got the mark and that plan was no longer possible.

"I'm sorry." Regulus finally mustered up the courage to say something after ten minutes of silence. "For everything."

"You have nothing to apologise for." Lily told him, reaching to grab his hand, he retracted. She didn't say anything, she just sat there for a while longer before getting up. "I'm going to go help Euphemia with dinner, you should join us once you feel more like yourself." He didn't know what she meant by that. He felt great. More than great actually, he was determined to get to work so the minute Lily left Regulus called out for Kreacher, within a second he appeared in the room.

"Master Regulus, forgive me! You were calling out for the bloodtraitor and I didn't want to defy orders." He assumed the elf was talking about James but he knew deep down the person Regulus wanted to see more than anything was his brother.

"It's alright Kreacher, I'm not upset. Do you have everything secured?" He asked, Kreacher nodded and conjured up a wooden box, handing it to Regulus, he thanked him before dismissing him, allowing Kreacher to return back to Grimmuald place before his mother got suspicious. He spent hours trying to find a crack in the spell Riddle had used to split his soul but there was none, he didn't want to risk fire, the last thing he needed was being kicked out of the Potters' house because he set fire to one of their rooms so he used different curses, including some forbidden ones. The only curse he hadn't yet attempted was the killing curse, and before he could there was a knock at the door, he quickly shoved everything back into the box. "Come in." He said laying down on the bed with a random book he found laying around. He looked up and saw Sirius standing at the door. His eyes were red. Had he been crying?

"Hey Reg." He said, his voice barely above a whisper. "Mind if I sit?" He asked gesturing at the bed. Regulus nodded and Sirius took a seat at his feet. "Lily tells me you've been awake in here for hours, she was starting to think you tried to escape." Regulus managed to let a laugh slip before covering it with a cough.

"I hear I had a funeral." Regulus said playing with the loose thread of his jumper.

"Yeah, thanks for not waking up." Sirius attempted another joke, Regulus lowered his head, "Reg." He said, Regulus didn't look up, but Sirius continued, "Why were you in that cave?"

"Thought Kreacher explained everything." He knew very well Kreacher didn't mention the horcruxes, he wasn't allowed too, Regulus ordered him -as much as he hated doing so- to never tell anyone about what he was doing. That included members of his family.

"He told us you were in trouble with You-know-who and that you needed to disappear." Sirius told him, Regulus finally looked him in the eyes.

"I fancied myself a swim is all." Sirius didn't believe him. Why would he? Regulus hated swimming. He always said he hated the way his skin felt after he got out of the water, especially with his clothes sticking to his body.

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A/N: I wrote this in the car so enjoy.