And Counting || Silvanna Snape

Chapter Eight

Sorry guys, missed an update! Enjoy this one :)

"I wonder what I'm doing sometimes," Marlene told her as they shared a pot of tea. They were in a lovely cafe in Derbyshire, but the December rain pounded on the window next to them, and they were the only customers there. If anything it gave the place a cosier feel, sheltered from the bitter elements that raged. Of course, it was a muggle cafe, and they were both disguised. "Mary and Reg are engaged, and they've gone away to sit out the war."

This was news to her. She wasn't even aware that they were still together, let alone gone.

Three.

"And I think," Marlene said, "that's what we should've done. We should've gone away, waited for it all to be over."

Silvanna's teacup clattered into the saucer as she put it down. "You told me to do this," she hissed, aware that one of the waitresses had begun to stare. "I would never have done any of this if it wasn't for you and the others - I'm married Marlene-!"

"I know that," she replied, also glancing around. "But I sometimes think 'what if you didn't have to?'"

"Are you saying this was all for nothing?" she snapped.

Marlene's face softened. "Don't be silly-"

But Silvanna didn't hear her out. She stood and pulled her coat around her, storming towards the door. "Where are you going?" Marlene called after her, but the door had already slammed shut.

She couldn't sleep that night. She tossed and she turned, thinking about how happy Mary and Reginald would be away from the shitshow of Wizarding Britain.

She stilled as a door opened and closed nearby, closing her eyes and steadying her breathing, clutching her wand under her pillow. It had to be Regulus, but that offered very little comfort.

Her bedroom door opened, and closed, and she heard his heavy breathing as the mattress sagged next to her. He'd sat down on the edge of the bed.

She tried not to flinch as he brushed the hair from her face, the charade of sleep still kept. She wanted to know what he did when no one was watching.

"I have to do something tonight," he whispered softly, not wanting to wake her, "and when I return, everything will change. For the better, I promise." He paused, and the rain pattered on the glass of the window, rhythmic and soothing. "If it goes wrong - I want to say thank you, Silvanna. Thank you for being the person I fell in love with."

She stiffened as his lips brushed her forehead, before he got up again. The door opened, and closed. So did the one in the hall.

She opened her eyes, staring up at the carved canopy of her bed. "What the fuck?" she whispered to herself. Because - what the fuck?

She leaped from her bed, nightgown billowing as she thundered into the hall. "Regulus?" she called. There was no way - no way - they weren't going to talk about what had just happened. Her mind swirled at the thoughts running through her head, bouncing off he walls and never getting anywhere, never settling down.

She called his name several more times and searched every room in the house, but he wasn't there. She was alone, again.

So she went back to bed. She curled up, and eventually she drifted into a short-lived sleep.

Four.

"Mistress Silvanna!"

She sat up in bed, pulling the blankets tightly around her, squinting through the darkness as the tiny creature on the floor next to her bed, hunched over and pounding on the carpet with his fists. "Oh, Mistress!" he cried.

"Kreature?" she asked, frowning. What was he doing here? Her mind was still groggy from sleep, and she couldn't quite peice everything together. And the noise he was making - "Kreature - stop!"

He did. He stood up, back straight, tears and snot running down his face. He was dripping a puddle onto the floor, and she saw he was soaked from head to toe. She reached forward and wrapped a blanket around him to stop him from shivering, before rubbing at her eyes.

"Tell me what happened."

"Master Regulus took me to a - a cave," he stammered, hicupping as he cried. "And he's dead, Mistress!"

He began to wail, and pounded his head against the bedpost.

"Stop!" she repeated, and although it wasn't forceful, he did.

Regulus was dead.

"Go home Kreature."

He reached into his pocket and pulled out a locket. "He said to destroy this." He placed it in the palm of her hand, and a shiver ran through her body. He apparated away.

Regulus was dead.

The rain had stopped. He was never going to return - so how could he make everything change for the better? He could never keep that promise.

Because Regulus was dead.

She took a long shower. She got dressed, into a black dress. She did her hair, her makeup, had a coffee. And now the sky was light.

She didn't put the locket around her neck. She wanted nothing to do with it, not today. She stuffed it into her bedside draw, and apparated to Grimmauld Place.

They already knew of course; Kreature had told them. They sat with tea things between them, no one drinking a drop, all their faces stoic and unreadable, all their moods downtrodden and broken.

"Did he tell you where he went?" Walburga asked, staring at her while Orion looked into the fire.

She shook her head, no.

"Kreature won't say a word. He was ordered not to."

Silvanna did not mention the locket. Instead she said, "I'm not pregnant, Mrs Black."

And then she left.