RISE OF THE FALL | R.B.

XXXV.

Disclaimer: The Harry Potter World belongs to J.K. Rowling.

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CHAPTER XXXV.

"What?"

Reia froze, and she suddenly felt extremely panicked.

She fought the shaking of her hands and laid them firmly on her lap after clasping them together.

Regulus didn't reply, and he averted his eyes away from hers.

She hadn't been expecting that. And he knew it. She knew that he knew it from the look in his eyes—that guilt, and that helplessness.

She wanted to feel sorry for him, but her mind was reeling and too preoccupied at the moment.

After a long moment of tense silence because both of them were too afraid to speak, Reia finally broke the quiet.

"So?" Reia said, crossing her arms, "Are you going to do it?"

She shouldn't feel angry. She shouldn't.

She repeated that in her mind as he finally dragged his gaze back to her face and responded, "I don't want to."

"And you know we sometimes do things that we don't want to do."

Regulus swallowed, looking nervous under Reia's intense stare, "Yes, I know."

"So?"

"I—I won't kill you, Rei," Regulus said, shaking his head, "I would never do that. But I don't know how to explain that to my mother. She is upset because my father passed away, and she wants me to do something to stand out. But I'm not prepared to destroy myself trying to do something that I don't even want to do." He swallowed again, and Reia swore that she saw his eyes glisten with tears.

That softened her resolve and her anger—she wasn't even sure whom it was directed towards—faded.

"We'll think of a way."

It wasn't a promise.

But it was comforting to hear.

***

"Lula," Reia said with a little laugh, "You probably shouldn't do that."

Lula was climbing the tree beside the Black Lake, and she yelled back down, "Reia, you probably should join me! It's cool up here!"

Lula Montague was perched up on the tallest branch of the tallest tree beside the Lake.

"I would prefer not to," Reia said dryly, "Wouldn't want to break the rules, would I?"

"Of course not," Lula said sarcastically, "Sure, climbing up a tree in a Wizarding School with magic is against the rules. We literally play with Mandrakes, which can kill you if you just accidentally hear its scream. And we fly on brooms. Which is actually like way higher up than this. Come on, Reia."

Lula clearly was not scared of heights at all. She'd played Quidditch every single year, as one of the Chasers. She'd been phenomenal, and her family had always bought her the best brooms on the market. That, combined with her skill, made quite the Quidditch Player.

"Fine, fine. But if I fall, I swear, Lula Montague..." Reia muttered as she grabbed hold of the first branch and lifted herself up.

"You won't fall, Reia," Lula said, sounding quite exasperated. She climbed down a few branches to help Reia up, and when the two of them were finally sitting on the highest branch together, they listened to the quiet rustling of the leaves and the sound of the lapping water.

Reia slipped a few times, but she always managed to grab onto the branch in time to hang on.

At first, she was nervous, but after a while, the nerves faded away as she became immersed in the gorgeous scenery.

"Where's Regulus?" Lula asked, breaking the silence.

"He's...somewhere with Professor Dumbledore," Reia said, "I'm not sure what they're doing or speaking about. Reg just told me that the Headmaster wanted to talk to him..."

"It doesn't matter, anyways," Lula shrugged, her lips curving up into a bright smile, "Isn't the view beautiful?"

"Mmhmm," Reia murmured, but her mind really was still stuck at the thought of what Regulus was doing.

He'd been busy a lot of the time in the past few days, often spending little time around Reia and constantly being called to the Headmaster's Office by Dumbledore.

She hadn't questioned it. It was Dumbledore, and she respected him, somewhat.

Even though he had excluded her from his conversations with Remus.

She still remembered that feeling of emptiness and loneliness when Dumbledore had told her to leave the room so that he could speak to Remus, and only Remus.

But she'd trusted Dumbledore enough to give him the locket that she and Regulus had retrieved from the Cave.

Not only was he the only one that she could trust would take care of the Horcrux well enough and had the power to keep it from the wrong hands, she didn't know who else to give it to.

She didn't want to give it to Slughorn because she wasn't close to him and didn't trust him with something as dangerous as a Horcrux containing part of the Dark Lord's soul.

McGonagall? No. The Professor didn't even know Reia that well at all.

Reia's only option was Remus, but he'd scold her and tell her it was stupid of her to go and retrieve something so dangerous from such a dangerous location with Regulus, somebody that Remus didn't trust.

Also, she had no idea where she'd be able to find him in the first place.

So she'd gone to Dumbledore, almost instinctively.

She hoped that she had made the right decision.

"Reia?"

Reia snapped out of her thoughts and answered, "Yes?"

"Are you okay?" Lula looked genuinely concerned as she cast her a glance, "You zoned out there for a moment."

"I was just..." Reia shook her head, "enjoying the view. I got a bit...carried away by it."

Lula didn't look like she believed her, but she didn't push the matter, and Reia didn't say anything else.

The two friends just sat in silence atop the tallest tree beside the Black Lake, enjoying the view and trying not to worry too much about what was to come once they left Hogwarts.

Author's Note:

Thanks so much for reading this chapter! You really get to see more of Lula Montague in this chapter, and I actually like her quite a lot at this point ahaha

Vote and comment to let me know if you enjoyed it or if you have any thoughts you'd like to share, I'd love to see them!

Thanks so much <3