Forget-Me-Not → Regulus Black

The Wise Words of Dumbledore

A scream filled the small, dingy room. Everything seemed to temporarily pause for a brief moment as her eyes blurred, her surroundings blurring with her. And then there were voices, so many voices; some confused, some scared, some terrified even.

And then there was someone speaking; soft and kind and loving that it put her temporarily at ease.

"Aurelia, I—"

The soft voice was interrupted by a chorus of others; the familiar sound of Regulus bounced across the room like an echo that you would hear in a cave.

A cave.

Her head pounded even more — but her eyelids were too heavy, preventing her from opening her eyes.

It felt — for a moment — as if she was plunged inside a lake, drowning with no means of escape. 

A lake.

And then they came.

They had white, cloudy eyes and skeletal bodies; they resembled zombies almost, but different...

They were coming closer, and closer, and closer...

But then they stopped.

A deathly green light filled the lake right as another voice seemed to be arguing.

Lily.

"Is she alright?" Lily seemed to be saying frantically. "Will she be alright?"

"She will be, but she needs rest."

"Do you think—"

"We can discuss this after, but at the moment all she needs is a good night's sleep."

Night?

She tried to turn but her aching body failed her; keeping her in place. She tried to speak to let them know that she was fine but her mouth failed her too. She tried to open her eyes but they failed her. She felt like screaming, but the voices died away and there was no one left to hear her.

But then there was.

"I'm sorry," he was saying desperately. "I'm so, so sorry." Tears poured down the sides of his face as he looked at her, but he ignored them. "Please, please..."

"Mr Black, it's time—"

"PLEASE!"

And then it all stopped.

The world suddenly stopped spinning, and for the first time Aurelia thought everything would be alright.

Everyone was alright.

The air was dismal when she woke up; there were no birds chirping, no bees buzzing, not a single sound could be heard.

Aurelia stretched her arms as she tried to remember the past events that had occurred the previous day, yawning widely — still half-asleep. 

"What a fine morning it is."

Aurelia jumped at the sound of the voice, but once she saw who it was she smiled wryly.

Dumbledore was looking out the small window in the Hospital Wing before he diverted his attention to Aurelia, surveying her through his half-moon spectacles.

"It doesn't seem like a nice morning to me, it's darker, almost; more gloomy..." Aurelia trailed off mid-sentence.

"Would you say it's a depressing morning?"

"Is that not what gloomy means?"

Dumbledore let out a hearty laugh, his blue eyes twinkling in amusement. "Ms. Livierre, you seem to be a smart student, are you not?"

"I'd like to think I am," Aurelia responded, her tone dripping in self-doubt.

"Then you ought to know that happiness can be found, even in the darkest of times, if one only remembers to turn on the light."

Aurelia furrowed her brow. "I swear I've heard you say that before, word for word," she paused. "Do you recycle your quotes or something so you can use them in the future?"

"You are, in fact, the first person that has noticed!" Dumbledore said excitedly. Suddenly he turned more serious, his once twinkling eyes were now dimmed. "You could have been seriously hurt yesterday."

Aurelia snickered.

"Ms. Livierre, it's not the time—"

"Sorry, that just reminded me of someone."

Dumbledore nodded understandingly. "As I was saying, had it not been for the circumstances, it could have all gone terribly wrong."

"What 'circumstances'?"

"Would you care for a lemon drop?"

"A— a what?"

"A lemon drop. They're a kind of Muggle sweet I'm rather fond of."

"Um— sure."

Dumbledore handed the candy to Aurelia, before he diverted his attention back to the window. Aurelia was just about to pop the candy in her mouth before a pair of feet sounded across the room. Dumbledore turned, "Why hello, Poppy."

Madam Pomfrey inclined her head in acknowledgement. "Aurelia, dear, if you're feeling fine you can leave—"

Aurelia grabbed her stuff.

"—and if something hurts later on—"

Aurelia opened the Hospital Wing door.

"—make sure to come back!"

Aurelia saluted her, "Right, right. See you later then!" She closed the door, skipping her way through the castle's halls.

"If she wasn't my favorite student at the school I would probably reprimand her," Madam Pomfrey muttered.

"Poppy, we mustn't have favorites," Dumbledore reminded her.

"Just yesterday you said how amazing James is, you don't seem to compliment any other student the way you compliment him."

"It's a Potter thing," Dumbledore admitted. He sighed, "Regulus Black was very adamant on seeing Ms. Livierre, was he not?"

"Very adamant. And I thought Sirius was bad, he's nothing compared to the younger of the two."

"I should have never made that bet."