The Marauders - Order of the Phoenix - Part One

The Storage Basement

Regulus Black's fingers worried over the small gold pendant that hung around his neck as he sat in one of the empty stalls of the Care of Magical Creature stables, opposite Oni Lamm. Shafts of dust-speckled light cut through the stables from high windows. Oni had a bowtruckle climbing over her hands, and Regulus watched the tiny, twiggy legs as the creature moved along over her warm brown skin. His fingers felt the etched lettering on the pendant, and he took a deep breath.

You are brave.

"So why were your Aunt and Uncle murdered?" Regulus asked.

"For show," Oni answered.

"How do you mean?"

Oni stroked the bowtruckle's leaves and he wrapped his arms around her thumb as she caressed his twiggy body gently. Regulus watched how the bowtruckle's leaves curled and unfurled, obviously enjoying the attentions of the girl. Regulus could feel his walls crumbling, melting away in awe of the tenderness with which Oni treated the creatures. It was as gentle as Regulus had ever seen anyone else treat them besides himself.

"They chose to walk away from the path toward dark magic," Oni explained. She stroked the leaf atop the bowtruckle's tiny head and giggled softly when he clutched onto her hand and made a funny purring sort of sound, something between that of a cat and the sound that a breeze makes in the treetops on a particularly windy day. "So You Know Who murdered them. To show what happens to deserters of his cause. He killed them like it was nothing."

Regulus's eyes turned downward to the ground and he picked up a small rolling shell of a creature that unrolled like an armadillo and scrambled into his palm, a twitchy rodent-like appearance to its face. "My Dad died like that," Regulus admitted. "Voldemort killed him in cold blood on the kitchen floor, left him laying on the tile in his own mess. Made an example of him."

Oni shook her head in regret. "I'm very sorry, Regulus."

Regulus shrugged the apology off. His body was running icy cold, his breath shivering with pent up emotion. He drew a deep breath, not wanting to be seen as weak, but also not wanting to appear weak to Oni. The thing about Orion's death was that his father had once been his hero - a hero that he'd since learned was a terrible, terrible man. He felt equal parts guilty for mourning his father's death, and guilty if he stopped mourning him. How could one justify mourning an evil person? Did it make a difference if the person was not evil specifically to you? But he had been evil to others, people that Regulus loved, even... And then there was the fact that Orion Black had been an example. An example of what the Dark Lord would do to anyone he learned was a traitor. Like Regulus.

Oni was staring at Regulus, her eyes wide with concern. "Are you alright?"

Until she asked, Regulus didn't realize that the features of his face had rearranged themselves into a grimace. He took a deep breath, swallowing back the emotion that talking about Orion had stirred up within him. "Oh - yeah, yes I'm alright." He studied Oni for a moment as she raised her eyebrows, silently asking him if he was sure he was really alright. "Sometimes, it's a bit confusing," he explained, "What it is that I think about my folks and their... work."

Oni nodded, "I know what you mean exactly."

Regulus reckoned she did. He could hear it in her voice when she spoke about her family, could see it clearly on her face. Regulus thought that perhaps he may just have found someone who really might understand him - the first time someone had since Maryrose.

"So. Do you like Hogwarts?" Regulus asked.

Oni let the bowtruckle down to the ground between them, where he scrambled to rejoin his siblings in their habitat. She smiled as the bowtruckle clambored onto a small branch of the tree, then she looked at Regulus with a smile. "A lot more now that we've met than I did before."