I Will Follow You Into The Dark || Jegulus

87. Under Pressure

Halloween would be lonely. James knew that from the start. Even before they had to go into hiding, but it had to be this way. They couldn't take Harry out for his first Halloween, but it was for the best. 

James and Regulus did what they could. James wore stag ears, and Regulus wore cat ears, matching their animagi forms. They decorated their house with cobwebs, spiders, and colorful lights all over. James spent a lot of his time gardening or trying to figure out the muggle appliances that came with the house. 

"I hate this." James leaned back on the couch, dropping his wand at his side. "I miss Padfoot and Moony. I hope they're alright. Peter hasn't come by to give us any messages." 

Regulus bounced their son on his hip, humming the baby to sleep. "There's no point in worrying about them. They can handle themselves. We would know if they weren't alright." 

James nodded, "you're right, I just worry about them." he said, and Harry began to cry. James picked up his wand to entertain his son, shooting colorful sparks out of it, which made Harry giggle. 

 Regulus opened his mouth to speak, but before he could say anything, they heard a crash coming from the first floor. James set his wand down and stood up, listening for another noise, and when he heard footsteps, he knew there was an intruder. Peter would have knocked, or simply would have announced himself, he had no reason to sneak up on them. "stay here!" James said and dashed out of the room frantically, and from the bottom of the staircase, he saw none other than Voldemort, with Peter Pettigrew standing behind him. 

"Peter-" James reached for his wand, but it wasn't there. 

James left it on the couch.

"Avada Kedavra!" The dark wizard pointed his wand at James, the spell hitting him in the center of the chest. James collapsed on the stairs. 

"James-" Peter squeaked out a whisper, covering his mouth. 

"No regrets now worm tail. Go scurry away like the rat you are." Voldemort cast him off and set off up the stairs, not even bothering to maneuver around the limp body. 

Regulus set Harry down into his cradle, "Harry, I love you. Me and your dad love you. Remember that" Tears rolled down his face as he set the crying baby down and took a defensive position. Voldemort burst through the door with a spell. 

"Well, Regulus Black. The traitor. Sorry to see you're still alive." Voldemort sneered. 

"I can't say the same for you. You're barely even alive. Just a fragment of your former self. You must have felt all those Horcruxes being destroyed, right? Or have you broken yourself too many times to feel your soul die?" Regulus threw a curse at Voldemort, who shielded it. 

"Enough with the small talk. Hand over the boy and I will think of maybe sparing you. Your mother would be disappointed if I just killed you like this." Voldemort said with a smile. 

"I would never. You'll have to kill me." Regulus threw another curse that got blocked. Voldemort retorted with one of his own, the back and forth going on for a while. 

"I must admit, you are a formidable duel partner, but I am getting bored. I'm just doing what I must for the greater good of the wizarding world." Voldemort and Regulus both threw one at the same time, the bright bolts hitting each other. 

"Killing a child is what's best for the wizarding world!?" Voldemort's spell faltered for a split second, but then he began to overpower Regulus.

"You know, you're just as mortal as me now. And you have me to thank for that. Anything can kill you now. Even Harry could kill you." Regulus laughed. 

Voldemort sneered, and Regulus got closer and closer to death. He wished he could buy time, but for what? nobody knew where he was. Nobody could save him now. 

Regulus wished he could have said goodbye to James, and as he was hit with the curse, all he thought about was that he wouldn't have to say goodbye. 

𝄽

Remus sat in his bedroom, listening to the record that he had originally bought for Sirius. It was Queen, a band he had yet to introduce Sirius to. But one of their songs featured David Bowie, and Sirius loved him. Remus thought about what it would have been like to listen to this song with his friends. With Sirius. He imagined Sirius and James dancing to the upbeat tune, forcing Remus and Peter to join in. And maybe in another universe, they got that moment, but this universe was not that one. 

An owl came flying through the window. It was Effie's Owl that she rarely sent out, as he was so old. "Oh come here, old man." Remus held out his arm and the old owl tumbled over and landed. Remus grabbed the letter that looked as if it was written hastily. 

'Remus, Please come over as soon as you can. I have some bad news.' was all that was scribbled onto the parchment. Remus immediately apparated to the Potter's home. Effie and Fleamont sat in the living room alongside Dumbledore, McGonagall, and Hagrid, who was cradling a tiny baby Harry in his arms. 

"Where are James and Reggie?" Remus asked, "Why is Harry here?" 

Effie just shook her head, wiping the tears off her face with a tissue. Remus surged to hug her, "Where's Sirius?" He looked around the room "Does he know?"  He almost thought of asking for Peter, but he knew what happened, and that meant that they found their traitor. It was one of the Marauders, most unbelievable of all. Peter was meant to be a friend, a brother to them. 

"He murdered Peter, and countless muggles in London," Dumbledore said bluntly, which felt like a punch in the guts to Remus. 

"He wouldn't," Remus said, but Effie placed a hand on his. 

"Remus. We have to go to his hearing. I know it won't be easy-"

"He wouldn't. I know Sirius. He would never do that."

McGonagall stood up, "Well he did. I am sorry to be cruel Remus, but you have to accept it." 

Remus nodded. All in one night he managed to lose all of his best friends. His only friends. The only people who weren't cruel to him, the only ones who helped him every full moon when they found out about him. The ones that were with him through thick and thin, and loved him. And even after fighting with Sirius, he still loved him just as much as he had when he first fell in love. And this brought him back to the song he was listening to in his room, and the verse that Bowie sang. Cause love's such an old-fashioned word, and love dares you to care for the people on the edge of the night, and love dares you to change our way of caring about ourselves. 

Maybe in another universe, Remus got to share one last dance with Sirius, or got to be happy with him, or even got to see him one last time, even if Sirius didn't want to see him. There were a lot of thoughts about other universes, and maybe that was just the bowie fan inside of him, but Remus desperately hoped that there were. 

This is ourselves under pressure

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So how are we feeling? We've finally hit the chapter that I have been planning for almost 2 years now. I cant believe this chapter was originally supposed to be between chapter 12-20. I didn't think this fic would get more than 12 chapters, but here I am, 2 years later.  I won't drag on this fic any longer than I already have. I have the ending planned, and I would make a chapter prediction but I'm not gonna lie, the drafts I have written were way longer than expected. two of my drafts were meant to be one chapter, but it was too long to keep dragging on in one chapter (I like consistency idk) I might decide to merge them later on but for now they are 2 chapters. 

anyway, my next semester started and this one is going to be the busiest one yet. I have to do 16 hours of classroom observations, and that's going to be so fun to schedule around school and work. I think I'll have to do my observations in the mornings, which is going to be horrible, but due to my schedule, I am not free for 2 hours in the afternoon (while public school is in session) due to how late my classes end.