Lacerta Black -- James Potter --

53

Graduation wasn't like typical schools at Hogwarts. There was no diploma nor was there a ceremony. Instead, the seventh years boarded the boats just as they had when they had first arrived. Lacerta got in with James, Sirius, and Remus much like her first year when she had first met the older boys. Her entire side was pressed against her boyfriend's as she watched her brother look longingly at the scared boy next to him. 

Tears were shining in all of the Gryffindors eyes. Hogwarts had been a home for all of them and though she would miss it dearly it did not hold the same comfort to her as it did them. Instead, she felt as if all of her memories of Selwyn, Mulciber, Avery, Snape, and most regretfully. . . Regulus were being left behind. The failure that felt concerning her little sibling ached painfully in her heart just as the mark did underneath his sleeve. 

It felt like millions of pounds of feathers were flying off of her shoulders as the castle finally disappeared from view and was replaced by a shinning, red steam engine. She released her breath, and took a new one. One that was filled more with the worries of heading into the war. Of losing her best friends. 

Tonya was leaving at the station, not wanting to linger a moment longer than she had to. Mary would at least still be in the area. Lily had been inconsolable since the pair had decided it was best to break things off. 

Everything was changing.

******

They weren't together by any means. Remus had made that clear as he was with his new boyfriend, one of the Prewetts. Still, the lycanthrope had agreed to buy a flat with Sirius in London. Something that both gave Sirius an incredible amount of ill placed hope as well as a horrible amount of sexual tension that only got resolved by staying in the guest bedroom at Lacerta's and James's house. 

It was all the skirting around, the slight touches, the way his swollen lips looked after his boyfriend left. It was too much for Sirius at the best of times and unbearable at the worst. Missions at the Order were something that the new recruits wouldn't be a part of until they were properly trained by Mad Eye Moody. This offered Sirius no distractions. 

He wished desperately to be able to move on, but anytime he conjured a patronus he was staring down Moony and reminded that there was no other person that Sirius could ever be happy with. Then he was reminded that he had ruined it all.

Nothing was changing for them. 

******

Lily knew that she had fucked up as she threw her shirt back on over her bare chest. Tonya had left for America only a week ago and she'd already slept with her best friend. Mary looked lovely underneath the sheets. She'd been sad. So incredibly heartbroken and none of her friends, except maybe Sirius or Remus, would understand so she had turned to Mary.

A couple of drinks (maybe more than that) led to one thing and now she was running away from her naked, sleeping, best friend. Her heart was racing and tears were running down her face as she regretted everything. It wasn't even that she didn't like Mary.

Lily Evans had once been in love with Mary MacDonald before she had fallen with Tonya. Yet, she still loved them both and didn't understand any of it. She'd been in love with James once and felt like more of a slag as she tried to decipher all of her racing feelings. How could one person love two people at a time.

The redhead closed the door gently behind her as she raced out of the MacDonald family home to apparate away.

She wished she could change.

******

Regulus was soaked to the bone with everything dragging behind him as he had drunk all of the potion that Kreacher had shown him. The Horcrux hung in his limp, clawed hand as he tried to conjure a coherent thought. Everything important left him as he sat numbly on the rock with waves splashing up the sides into his face. The salt leaked into the cuts that covered his entire body.

The last thing he remembered. Inferi crawling up the sides to the island, dragging him underneath, water filling his lungs. Is he dead? He pinched his arm to see if he was either dreaming or a ghoul. Neither. 

He had seen other things in the cave. Sirius yelling at him for being a coward. His sister and her boyfriend dead on the floor. Pandora bleeding to death. 

Kreacher had been the one to get him out of the cave and he had died doing so. Still, he couldn't cry or frown or do much of anything as his mind was completely blank. He didn't know how long he'd been sitting but the shine was starting to rise over the horizon.

There were only three people he trusted in the world. His siblings and Pandora. 

Regulus Black was going to change the world.