Harry Potter One Shots (Vol. I)

Under the Cover of Darkness (Regulus Black)

So, after a lot of struggling, this one shot is finally up. 

This was requested by asdfghytun. I tweaked your request a little bit, but I hope you still like it! 

As always, this isn't edited 

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Life after leaving Hogwarts was a strange mix of caffeine-fuelled research sessions, exchanging letters with friends that I hadn't seen in weeks and being forced out of my bedroom by concerned parents who insisted that I wasn't acting my age. I wasn't too sure I agreed with them. Of course, there were very few 18-year-olds who spent almost their entire waking moment obsessively researching and compiling an endless pile of said research. But, I knew for sure that there were 18-year-olds, potentially hundreds of them, who stayed awake deep into the night, writing letters to their friends under the aide of candlelight.

Even now, under the flickering light of candles, I was sitting at my desk. The desk, pushed under the window, was bathed in light from the moonlight and I found myself mentally complaining that I couldn't have my main light on. If my parents managed to see the light coming from under my door, they were sure to come in to check on me. Until now, I'd been able to keep them out of the room, to keep them from seeing the true extent of my work. If they saw the papers that plastered my walls, they would only worry more and I didn't want that.

Reaching the end of my letter I was writing back to one of my closest friends, I signed it with my name. It was a letter I should have responded to a couple of days back, but I'd hit a productive streak and didn't want to risk jinxing it by switching my focus. But now that I'd hit a dead end, as I always seemed to do, I had the time to write back to her.

Putting my quill down, I made sure that the ink dried before folding it three times and tucking it into the envelope. Sealing it at the back and double-checking the address on the front, I beckoned my owl forward and attached the letter. Opening the window, I let her fly out, watching her as she disappeared into the night sky. As I went to shut the window, my hand tightened on the handle.

Someone, a group of people, one by one, had apparated onto the edge of the property. From afar, I couldn't see them, but I didn't need to see them to know who they were. Just the swooping of my gut told me who they were. Wordlessly and wandlessly extinguishing all light from my room, I shut the window as inconspicuously as I could. Eyes trained on the window, I grasped my wand and held it at my side, keeping an eye on the small group who were making their way towards our home. There were only 4 of them, but that was more than enough.

I took only a moment longer, just another second, to gather myself and then I was calling out loudly for my parents, shouting for them to wake up even from the confines of my room. Making it into the hallway, I heard them call back anxiously what was going on just as the front door was thrown open with a bombarda. Hidden upstairs, I had a split second to think - did I continue to rush to my parent's room to join them, or did I return to my own room and get rid of everything? It was both a difficult and easy question. Even though I wanted to be with my family, with my parents who emerged from their room to deal with the intruders, I had to take the option that would cause the least damage.

Rushing into my room, I scanned my covered walls. It was months worth of research I needed to get rid of, but I could not allow them to find any link to the Order. Moving quickly, far quicker than I'd ever moved, I ripped all the papers down from the walls and put them in a messy pile in the middle of the room.

Charming the door shut, I set the papers aflame. The roaring of the flames wasn't enough to smother the sound of my heartbeat in my ears. Quickly, I cast a dome around the papers, not allowing the smoke to seep out into the room.