The Godmother

20. if deception had a face

His tall cheekbones stood high and elegant and completed his poised position. He leaned against the doorframe as though he held the world in his palm. Regulus.

Elizabeth felt like a tornado had spat in her face. She stood, shocked and incomplete. A horror skimmed up her spine and began to choke her through roughly and thoroughly. It felt like deception had wrapped his hand around her throat and began squeezing.

"R- Regulus", Elizabeth stuttered. He stared at her, his dark eyes emanating that of what Sirius once shared. He looked at her with awe and some sort of lost-love-reunited look in his eyes. Like a lost dog finally found.

Before she could say anything, Sirius let out a thick, curdling roar and lunged forward. Regulus smiled and pounced with equal velocity at his brother. Sirius met him with speed and threw his hand high into the air then swung it down, hitting Regulus square in the jaw. Regulus looked like Sirius had just tried to tickle him and went to mangle Sirius with punches in the gut. It worked.

Sirius heaved forward in pain and fell to his knees. Regulus smiled even sinisterly and swung his leg beneath Sirius, painfully kicking Sirius. Sirius toppled over, groaning loudly. His wand fell from his hand and rolled onto the ground.

"Pathetic", Regulus muttered.

There was so much rage Elizabeth felt blind. She didn't notice how heavily she was breathing or how red her face had turned. All she knew was that suddenly, she was racing towards Regulus, her wand aimed at his face. Before she could say anything, he swiftly jumped forward and plucked it from her hands. He tossed it to Remus who caught it with surprise.

Elizabeth let out a shrill scream and threw her arm forward to slap him across the cheek. He caught her wrist with ease. Elizabeth raised her other hand to hit him. He caught it again. She was close. Too close. She suddenly felt like he'd taken over her brain and purposely ambushed herself.

She stood, mere centimetres from his face.

"Elizabeth", he breathed, "I've missed you." She could feel his cool breath against her face. She wanted to throw up. He killed her child. He was the end of everything good. The end of the beginning of Sirius and hers future.

"I hate you", she snarled. She mustered up a ball of saliva in her mouth and spat it at Regulus' face. He didn't flinch as it landed on his cheek

Elizabeth glared at him from beneath her eyebrows. How had he once again managed to overthrow their superiority? He gripped her wrists so tightly they'd grown white and sore.

"Who are you?", Harry demanded behind them.

Regulus' lips curled up into a sinister smile and he looked over Elizabeth's shoulder to the boy. He stood with his wand aimed at Regulus. But before Regulus could gather the chance to answer, Sirius shouted, "petrificus totalus!", and Regulus abruptly froze.

His skin was cold and still wrapped around Elizabeth's wrists. Elizabeth felt Sirius rush up beside her and begin to uncurl Regulus' rigid fingers from around her wrists. It felt like cement had dried around her hands, forcing her to stay like a sick slave. Sirius cursed as he tried to remove the fingers from Elizabeth's arm.

Sirius dug his fingers into Regulus' attempting the wrench the bony skin from Elizaebth. He hissed and picked up his wand, muttering a spell. The fingers bent like the prongs on a fork, slowly but surely. He bent them back until the last finger opened up and she stepped back, shocked that the method had worked.

She swallowed and looked up. She hit Regulus' frozen body. She punched him in the face. Then she stepped back. She turned. She looked at Harry. He was silent and still, watching them through narrow eyes. The was confused to say the least. He glared at Sirius then Elizabeth.