high adventure! → regulus black

[3] muggle culture

⋆☆.* ✧✰ .✦⋆*☆

THE NEXT MORNING, the pair stopped by the general store and bought up a variety of supplies, including food, water bottles (because magic could provide water), a map, and whatever else they thought might be useful for however long they were left to their own devices. Stella paid for it all using Regulus's money, as he still had yet to decipher "Muggle money", and then they were off again.

Not that she'd admit it to Regulus, but Stella was still trying to come to grips with the whole "magic" thing. One minute, she had lived in a normal world, where people were normal and did normal things, and the next, she was exposed to something she assumed to only exist in stories. Dark forces, and magic, and—god damn, she was on the run with a wizard! They were running from a bunch of Dark wizards whose main priority it was to capture them! And on top of everything else, Regulus himself was a (supposedly) reformed Dark wizard. The more she thought about it, the less likely it seemed that he was making it up, but she couldn't help but remain a bit suspicious. He was reluctant to help out the resistance efforts against that Voldemort guy, and while that could be attributed to him wanting to stay alive a little longer...what if he was having second thoughts? What if she was being conned?

Okay, so maybe she was being a bit dramatic, but with everything going on, she had every right to be, damn it. At that point, she wasn't sure what to believe.

"If you don't mind me asking," she began as they walked, this time across a large, empty field. They had left the village over an hour ago, and the sun was high in the sky, warming up the otherwise mild day.
"But what exactly is your plan? I mean, we need to keep away from those Death Eaters, I know that much, but didn't you say something about wanting to help bring Voldemort down?"

"Trust me, I'd love to, but it's a tad more complicated than that."

"Complicated how?" He glanced back at her for just a moment, then returned his gaze to the path ahead.

"My brother...he and his friends joined this organization called the Order of the Phoenix. It's a secret society, not that it's that secret, and they're the primary resistance in this war. I reckon they wouldn't be too happy to see me if I showed up."

"Except shouldn't they know you're on the run?"

"They'll think it's all a elaborate ruse, no doubt. Sirius and I never did see eye to eye as children, and last he knew, I was an aspiring Death Eater and our family's crown jewel." He said the last part bitterly, and Stella couldn't help but feel a bit sorry for him.
"I-I'll figure something out eventually, but for now, we have to keep going." She knew when someone was trying to end the conversation, and that was clearly his own attempt; he didn't like to talk about his brother, that much was obvious. She had never had a brother herself, unless you counted Daniel, but—

"Shit," she murmured mostly to herself, though it must have been loud enough for him to hear, as he stopped in his tracks and turned to face her, nearly causing her to run into him.

"What? Are you all right?" he asked worriedly.

"Yeah, yeah, everything's fine, but Daniel! God, he's going to be so worried about me, I said I'd ring when I got to my hotel! With the chaos and everything though it completely slipped my mind and—"

"Wait, who's Daniel?"

"He's my best friend back in London, we're like siblings, we've known each other since we were little, and his family took me in when I was eleven."