𝒊𝒏 𝒘𝒉𝒊𝒄𝒉 orion black dies of a
blood curse and scared for her
status in a world of death eaters,
walburga black insists her son joins
her for a holiday away.
Oops! This image does not follow our content guidelines. To continue publishing, please remove it or upload a different image.
── IN WHICH THEY HAVE DINNER GUESTS
. . .
WHEN REGULUS AWOKE Melina was no longer beside him, no longer within his room.
They had managed to walk back to Verica in the light of the moon alone, clouds clearing just minutes after having soaked them through, and he believed they had sat on a bench outside the church for a moment too long and had fallen asleep. Then, sleep hazed in their minds and clinging to one another with a tight squeeze of fingers they had wandered back to the Villa in a haze of dawn as it approached, stumbled through the front door with a renewed energy to touch and kiss and hold and had found his room in a struggle of intimacy, pushing through and collapsing on his bed in welcoming.
She was prettier then ever then, in the half-light and haloed by the white bed sheets, curled up in a dress of pink-peach like the sunrise they had observed and as she danced across his heart, they had fallen into a slumber. But when he woke up, hours later, it was not to her call or touch or beckon, but to a sharp pounding on his door.
His head thudded merrily in memories of the night before and he hastened, to push himself upright and stumbled to the door. There was the click of the lock and he swept it open.
"Mother." He said, the image of Walburga Black the last he had wanted to see.
"Regulus." She greeted sharply, eyes darting over his shoulder and into his room, as though she expected to find some illicit meeting ongoing within. "What in Salazar's name have you been doing all day."
"Nothing." He replied, all too defensively. "Sleeping."
"Sleeping." She repeated.
"I stayed up too late reading." He lied, easily, some energy harnessing what magic he thought he had left in him to block his mind of anything but that thought. So she could tell of nothing but his untruths. "I fell asleep, at some point. You've woken me up."
She looked on, disapprovingly. More than anything, she disapproved entirely of the laziness he was exhibiting, somehow Victorian ideals of activity shining through. "You should not be wasting your time as such. I expect to see you at breakfast and lunch, not lounging about as though you have all the time in the world."
"But Mother, I do have all the time in the world." He replied, in a manner all too similar to Sirius's way of words. Her eyebrows pinched. "Do I not? Is there plans already to return to London?"
His mother stared, for a moment. "No, there are not. However I do not expect you to spend your time doing nothing."
"I'm not doing nothing, Mother." Regulus replied. "I'm reading, I'm listening to music. I'm spending time with Melina, as you asked. There is not much more I can do."
