You Only Live Once

CHAPTER 35

"How did you manage to do that to yourself?" Mira asked, her voice a mix of genuine concern and stifled laughter. She dipped a clean rag into a basin of warm water, wringing it out with practiced ease.

"I slipped" Regulus grumbled. He was slumping on the velvet sofa in the Slytherin common room, looking decidedly less like a powerful pureblood heir and more like a scruffy schoolboy.

"You... slipped?"

Regulus shot her a look of pure annoyance. "You might have seen the entrance to that place, Mira, but you haven't actually been down there. It's damp, it's dark, and it's quite slippery. The masonry isn't exactly kept up to code."

Mira paused, the rag hovering inches from the gash on his forehead. "So, let me get this straight. You managed to find a rare, ancient spell to mimic Parseltongue. You successfully broke into a legendary hidden chamber that hasn't been opened in decades. You found a cursed diary belonging to the most dangerous wizard of our time. But on the way back... you slipped?"

"Don't be so amused, sweetheart" Regulus muttered, though there was no real heat in it.

"What do you want me to do?"

"A 'Thank you, Regulus, you were so amazing and brave down there' would be a good start" he suggested, wincing as she finally pressed the cloth to his skin.

The world outside Hogwarts was growing colder and more dangerous by the hour. The war was no longer a distant rumble of thunder; it was a storm breaking directly overhead. Knowing their time at school was dwindling, Regulus, Mira, and Evan had formed a desperate, secret pact. They would find the Horcruxes hidden within the castle walls before the Dark Lord's reach became absolute. The diary had been the first on their list.

Evan had been the one to insist Mira stay behind. Since she didn't have magic, he argued she would be a liability in a place filled with ancient traps and giant serpents. She hadn't liked it, but she had spent the afternoon pacing the common room, her heart in her throat, until the two boys finally emerged from behind the stone wall, dusty and smelling of stagnant water.

They had skipped their afternoon classes with a flimsy excuse about a bad batch of cakes at Hogsmeade giving them a stomach bug. As soon as they were safe, Evan had vanished toward the boy's dorms, mumbling something about a date. He'd become a different person lately—frenetic, detached, and constantly seeking the company of a rotating cast of new flings.

Regulus, however, had stayed. He had handed Mira the diary—a plain, unremarkable-looking thing that felt unnervingly heavy—and let her hide it in the back of her wardrobe. Now, they were alone in the flickering light of the fireplace.

"Evan's become quite the man-whore" Regulus commented suddenly, his eyes following the trail of blood she was wiping away.

Mira chuckled softly, though her heart wasn't quite in it. "Cut him some slack, Reg. Breaking up is no easy thing. He's just trying to fill the silence."

"Why?" Regulus asked. It was a simple question, but in the quiet of the room, it felt heavy. He wasn't just asking about Evan; he was asking about the nature of loss itself.

Mira stopped cleaning the wound. She leaned back, her eyes drifting to the dancing orange flames. She thought about the way the world felt when someone you loved was suddenly gone—how the air felt thinner and the colors felt duller.

"Because..." she started, searching for words that weren't too heavy or too poetic. "Because how do you forget someone who felt like your other half? How do you just look past someone who used to stand out in a room full of people? "

"You don't" Regulus answered. His voice was a low whisper.

For a moment, he looked at her with an intensity that made Mira's breath hitch. She saw a side of him that he usually kept buried under layers of Black family pride and stoic indifference. He looked vulnerable. It was beautiful, in a way that made her chest ache.