She's A Liar [T.R. & R.B.]

II

2| Soft lies

Regulus Black was the pride of the family and he was proud of it. It hadn't been particularly difficult, after the disgrace of his brother Sirius being sorted into Gryffindor it had been relatively easy to get into his mother's good graces.

At school he was an honours student. He was in the Slug Club, the Quidditch team and had graduated with top grades. Despite his harsh childhood, he was pleased with the way he had grown up, with the right values, an essential purpose. Or so he thought.

It had come to his attention that Lord Voldemort's great undertaking was more serious and real than he had expected. Did he believe that his mission was more...political? He believed he wanted to achieve through laws and reforms the exclusivity of Hogwarts. He hadn't realised that in reality, Voldemort wanted to extinguish the Muggleborns.

At first - he was ashamed to admit it - the news had not shaken him as much as it should have. If he had to be honest, he wasn't interested at all!He had grown up in a house where they told him how disgusting and inferior they were, it was only natural that he should have come out this way. He was lying to himself, trying to find some shortcut to ease the burden of his mistakes.

Sirius had grown up in the same house and had never blindly believed what their parents told them. Maybe that's why he was the favourite, he was a puppy with a mind made of clay that you could malleague for your own purposes. Gross.

He had joined the ranks of the honoured dark lord and with the promise of becoming powerful and respected by his lord, he had succeeded. He was even considered his right hand man, second in command and he was only eighteen. That was, of course, before he saw Voldemort torturing house elves.

At that moment something clicked in him. He realised that such a man - so cruel as to torture harmless creatures just because he 'could' - could not be the bearer of morally upright values. But then again, who was to decide what was morally right?

It had been a long reasoning that had included several interventions outside his psyche. His brother -first- had warned him about it long ago and when, on the rare occasions they spoke, he told him about his brilliant friends and when he had revealed to him that among them there were also Muggleborns he had been speechless.

Another essential testimonial was his aunt Andromeda, who had been erased from the family tree to marry a Muggleborn Hufflepuff. If she had given up her entire family for him, perhaps Muggleborns couldn't really be so terrible after all. No?

But it was his best friend, Althea, who had given him the impetus he needed to understand how absurd the situation was. She had listened to him for hours, as he complained and explained and then summed it all up in one simple sentence:

'So you think you're on the wrong side.'

'well yes'

Althea never expressed her true opinions, she changed them depending on who she was talking to, so to help him she had summarised the Muggle War for him.

For Regulus it had been an epiphany. Everything was finally clear to him and he was certain he was on the wrong side. But his mark burned on his forearm and he carried the weight of a sin he didn't know how to expiate.

It certainly didn't help to be the favourite of the man he was going to fight and today, on a gloomy day, some newcomers would arrive and he prayed desperately that he could make them realize their grievous error.

-

Mr and Mrs Malfoy's mansion was the most convenient place to gather but Regulus didn't like it at all. It was mostly identical to his parents' only more...bare and cold.

As he sat down, to the right of his mother, a shiver ran through his body. Lord Voldemort was staring at him with an expression that conveyed nothing. Total emptiness. he could have been planning his murder or perhaps he was thinking about lunch and no one would ever know. He knew he was a powerful man and the same age as his parents but when he looked at him...he seemed closer in age to his cousins.

It was an honour to stand in that room in his presence, it was an honour to receive the mark but for Regulus the days had passed when he did not doubt the justice their Lord announced to distribute.

When the meeting began Regulus could not concentrate, some might have mistaken his attitude for arrogance but Regulus was terrified.

He had heard terrible stories about people who let their lord down, people who were no longer there and people who owed him favours and would be willing to sacrifice what was most dear to them to avoid facing the wrath of the dark wizard.

He was only able to awaken from his state of anxiety when the protagonist of his own nightmares called out to him. "Regulus I'm sure you will be thrilled to find out that you will be joined by another young recruit," his voice was as soft as velvet, it sounded like it was crawling inside your head carefully clutching your thoughts and actions. "I'm counting on you to train her brilliantly."

"Yes, my lord. Excellent news, I won't let you down" but he was lying through his teeth. He didn't wish anyone to end up in the clutches of that monster.

And just as he was pondering what kind of tragedy could have befallen that family that caused them to join Lord Voldemort's ranks, he heard Lord Voldemort greet the Yaxley family with his disgusting, cold smile and he froze.

Althea Yaxley stood in the doorway, her posture perfect and a radiant smile that clashed with the gloomy atmosphere of the room, but the worst thing was not seeing his sweet little Slytherin girl-beloved even among the Gryffindors-he didn't have time to focus on that.

Not when he saw Voldemort's gaze meet hers and never let go. He followed her with his gaze until she sat down, watching her figure with avid interest, and Regulus swore he might vomit. The worst thing was the aura around his friend, she was neither intimidated nor terrified.

Althea Yaxley looked just what she was: a little girl infatuated with an older boy.

Regulus didn't want to believe his eyes.

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I noticed that there are new readers... hi! <3