Once upon a Midnight Dreary - Regulus Black

Chapter 7

ℑt was late in the afternoon and the sun was setting by the time I woke up again. My mouth was dry as sandpaper; my head ached and I was stiff from lying propped up against the pillows oh-so uncomfortably.

At first, I couldn't believe that all I had seen and heard was not a dream. My forehead felt feverish and sweaty as if Theo's palm was still burning it. He had never touched me like this before; the way he had patted my head was almost affectionate, but his words counteracted his actions. He must have been drunk when he said all of those strange things, seemingly talking to our dead mother... He might have been hallucinating after returning from the mission. Whatever the reason to his uncanny behavior was, I was more interested in finding out why he would poison me mere hours before the task.

"You're finally awake." Louisa's sudden appearance put an end to my meditation.

I looked up just in time to see her come through the door, holding Theodora in one arm. She had a goblet in her free hand; the cup was filled with a shimmering, transparent liquid. Her colorless hair lay in braids across her shoulders and she wore a pink frilly dress. She looked like she was about to go out, her attire appropriate for those fancy soirees that she enjoyed so much. She walked over to my bed and set the glass down beside me on the nightstand.

"Theodore told me to get you a healing potion..." she explained.

After yesterday, I was reluctant to consume anything that had to do with my brother, and I left the potion untouched. While I was busy recalling the intense pain from yesterday night and Theo's stony face as he watched me collapse on the ground, Louisa leaned down and thrust Theodora into my hands.

"Hold her. She's been whining all day. You're the only one that can get her to stop."

Contrary to her words, Theodora only emitted a few barely audible whimperings. As soon as Louisa gave her to me, she fell silent and rested her curious eyes upon me. She was two-week-old already; I would have liked to think that she knew who I was because every time she wasn't asleep or crying, she kept staring at me keenly, as if she wanted to tell me something important.

"Where's Cobmy?" I asked Louisa, my hand stroking Theodora's dark brown hair. "Why are you here?"

"Right... you don't know," Louisa sighed wearily, casting a sidelong glance at me. "There was an emergency trial this morning, and she got executed early in the afternoon. Cobmy's gone."

I blinked at her, caught off guard. "What?"

"Theodore pulled a few strings, so the papers won't lay out this story."

I figured this would be a long anecdote because she seated herself on the edge of my bed. She smoothed her dress over her knees, fixing her distracted gaze upon her daughter.

"It's going to be hushed up. Our family doesn't need this type of attention."

Though I was intent on not drinking anything that had been provided by my brother, my throat was so parched that I could no longer restrain myself; I needed to sip at the cool and refreshing potion before I could talk.

"Where is he?"

"He was still at the Ministry when he sent me a letter to explain things. Luckily, he knows the judges at Wizengamot, otherwise Cobmy's trial would have lasted for months." Louisa stifled another fatigue sigh. "Concerning the circumstances, they made an exception and concluded the case in a day. There was clear evidence, anyway."

I had a throbbing headache that made thinking extra difficult. Her words indicated that our house-elf had been executed after a fake trial, and Theodore was the one behind the whole thing... But it all seemed so ridiculous that I needed to make sure that I was wrong, and Theo hadn't done such a thing.