"To the Dark Lord,

I know I will be dead long before you read this but I want you to know that it was I who discovered your secret. I have stolen the real horcrux and intend to destroy it as soon as I can. I face death in the hope that when you meet your match you will be mortal once more."

R.A.B

Blood. Regulus Black had seen the crimson liquid many times before but had not observed how beautiful it truly was. In potions it was very rarely human blood and if it was there was nothing special about it-he felt no tie towards it, when he saw the stuff leaking from students in the hallways if they did not have the emerald crest on their robes he would not spare them a glace but as he saw the red dripping off the pale skin of his companion he noticed how pretty it could look-especially on her.

"Mr Black if you insist on wading in here, dripping with mud-might I add, then at least have the decency to step aside whilst I see to Miss White," Madam Pomfrey snapped at him before fussing about the girl on the hospital bed in front of him. He didn't mind the healer's rant in the slightest; Regulus had grown up under the roof of Orion and Walburga Black and had come accustomed to being ordered around the place so he smiled to himself as he thought of his mother at home and what she would say to him running around the castle after some girl. He helped himself to the seat by the bed and watched as the wound started to heal. The blood on her face became dry and looked somewhat like crystals-tiny crimson crystals but the fresh liquid from the wound receded inside itself and started to vanish.

"Why isn't she awake?" Regulus asked, "Surely she should be awake by now if the bleeding has stopped?"

"Mr Black," Pomfrey snapped again but didn't look up from Hollie, "I don't think it is your place to judge my professional opinion with the scrapes that you Slytherins get yourselves into and my professional opinion is that Miss White should wake very shortly so please make yourself useful and dab her forehead very gently with this cloth." She must be having a very bad day,Regulus noted, as the healer roughly handed over the damp rag. Regulus placed it on Hollie's forehead rather awkwardly and started to dab.

Hollie White's chestnut ringlets pulled into her signature pigtails were covered in blood and her face, which was usually pale, looked a ghostly shade. Her chest was rising and falling slowly emphasising her Slytherin crest.

"Honestly," Madam Pomfrey sighed, exasperated, "that's the last thing I need," she said gesturing to the door of the hospital wing, "the whole of the Slytherin Quiditch team trekking in here. Wipe your boots!" Regulus chuckled to himself quietly as Madam Pomfrey started attending to a Gryffindor patient across from Regulus and Hollie.

"How is she, Black?" Avery called walking up to the hospital bed and looking down at the third year on it. "She looks a bit pale."

"She's always pale." Selwyn pointed out and Regulus nodded; she was.

"Keep dabbing!" Madam Pomfrey shouted from across hospital wing. Regulus rolled his eyes but pressed the cloth to the unconscious girl's forehead. A bit of colour was returning to her cheeks which was reassuring but she was still deathly pale.

"I knew we shouldn't have let the bludger out until we were outside," Jugson said, quickly averting himself of any blame. Slytherins were meant to be clever and cunning but to Regulus it was a mystery how Jugson was sorted into the same house as himself. He was a fair flyer, he'd give him that, but he was as thick as shit.

"No shit," Regulus said. Jugson, who had a particular attraction to trouble-or in Regulus' opinion was increasingly clumsy-and was profoundly known for it, had let the quiditch balls out of the chest inside of the small changing room. The vicious bludger had hit Hollie in the head and knocked her unconscious and left her with a nasty, bloody wound. Hollie couldn't fly at all; it was pathetic how bad she was but on the other hand Hollie had excellent quiditch strategies and ties to the department of magical games and sports so the Slytherin quiditch team kept her around during practices and games-she wasn't there out of choice but Regulus dragged her along, she was well-respected throughout the team.

"Language Reg," a hoarse voice from bellow chided. Hollie's eyes were open and she was trying to prop herself up on the hospital bed.

"Hey Holl, how are you feeling?" Regulus asked and Hollie groaned. He wasn't sure whether it was out of pain or because of the small crowd round her.

"What idiot decided to let out that fucking bludger?" Hollie demanded and Jugson took a step back from the seething girl on the bed.

"Language Hollie," Reg chided mockingly using the same town she had used previously which earned him a slap in the arm.

"Well?" Hollie looked around at the purely male quiditch team surrounding her hospital bed. She unsuccessfully tried to sit up straighter on the bed, rather quickly in Regulus' opinion, before crashing down onto the striped pillow.

"Holl?" Regulus lowered himself to the girl's level and put a concerned hand on her shoulder. She swatted his hand away before propping herself up once again this time with one elbow as she gripped the bridge of her nose with her free arm.

"Head rush," she said simply and he nodded understandingly before returning himself, rather awkwardly, to his full height.

In answer to her previous demand of who had released the bludger Jugson volunteered an answer, "We decided that it would be best to release them inside as if we did so out in the rain we may have lost them." Jugson's attempt to sound calm and collected was pitiful-the Slytherin drawl was something that he had not yet mastered.

Some of the younger Slytherins' protests were quite uncalled for, Regulus thought, as the team argued in the most un-Slytherin-like fashion with Jugson for his stupid reasoning for his actions. Despite Regulus being a younger member of the team, being a third year, he thought himself more respected and sensible than most of his teammates, being a Black, so remained silent trying to look bored at his teammates however annoying their outbursts were. He shared a look of annoyance with Hollie who rolled her chocolate eyes back at him. She took the scratchy bed covers off her body before swinging her petite legs over the hospital bed and stood up.

Pomfrey strided over to the commotion, "You lot are making such a horrendous racket that I can hear from the other side of the hospital wing. I have Mr. Lupin attempting to sleep-the poor boy is exhausted-so I do not appreciate the uproar." Regulus felt Hollie trying to shuffle unsuccessfully behind him in a failed attempt to shield herself from the healer. "Miss White return to the bed," she ordered and Hollie sighed angrily but nevertheless scrambled back under the scratchy bedcover. "Anymore of this and I'll call the headmaster."

The healer busied herself once again at the other end of the wing so Regulus smirked at Hollie who had her arms crossed and the most majestically unpleased expression on her face. "Bad luck, Holl," he said.

"Piss off, Black." Regulus chuckled.

"I wonder what Lupin's been up to?" Lestrange pushed himself to the front of the crowd of Slytherins and next to Lupin's bed. The sandy-haired boy was sleeping soundly; snoring lightly-despite what the healer had said. "The poor boy is exhausted." Lestrange's smile was rather unnerving.

Hollie's expression changed at once to that of a calm mask, her frame stiffening as she saw Lestrange, "Leave him," Hollie said looking over to Rabastan who looked like he was reaching for his wand, "Potter and Black won't be happy if you touch him." Regulus sniffed; Sirius was a painful topic of conversation for him but he remained impassive as it was dragged up. He should have seen it coming-if Lupin was lying in a hospital bed; the topic of the other Black brother wasn't far behind.

"I'm not scared of them," Lestrange muttered before taking out his wand and tracing is lightly over Lupin's dirt-speckled, exhausted face.

Regulus saw a flash of messy black hair and knew that the Gryffindors had entered the hospital wing. "Touch him and you die, Lestrange," Potter said, wand out at Rabastan. It was inevitable that Lupin was in a hospital bed and Potter and Sirius wouldn't appear eventually, Regulus just wished it has occurred later. Potter was flanked by Sirius and Pettigrew and it was most unfortunate that they had entered when Lestrange's wand was by Lupin's head.

"Relax Potter," Lestrange said taking his wand off Lupin but keeping it out pointed at the aggravated Gryffindors. It was typical for a Gryffindor to get his wand out and act rashly; a quality that Regulus liked to think he did not posses.

Hollie got out of bed and stood by Rabastan most likely to make the Slytherin numbers appear superior, Regulus thought, so he followed-making his usually shadowy presence known to his brother.

"Regulus," his brother acknowledged him with a small snide smile.

"Sirius," he replied with a curt nod.

"You lot can leave now," Hollie said to the Slytherins. There was an awkward, silent pause before Jugson nodded then meandered away down the wing and out of the door followed by Rowle who gave a small smile at Hollie before leaving through the large oak doors. Regulus' teammates did not move and continued to stare intently at the Gryffindors. "Leave now," Hollie reinforced with added malice this time-trying to disrupt and end the tension.

"They don't have to," Sirius said with a smile at his younger brother that made his feel almost feverish. Hollie pointed a wand that he didn't know she had at his brother. Regulus noticed the markings on the wand and felt in his pocket for his own and felt no wood within. Hollie had his wand.

"You may be eager to start a fight, Black, but we however are not," she said to the older boy with her eyes blazing. Her statement was untrue and the Gryffindors could see it on their faces-they were all very eager for a fight, to let out the tension, well except Regulus maybe, but Hollie most defiantly did not want to-probably because she was slightly concussed; her actions seemed to point to that conclusion. Regulus continued to feel uncomfortable as he saw his brother on the end of his own wand-his companion may have been pointing it but it was his own wand nevertheless.

Sirius said nothing in response to her angry statement but instead smirked down at the chestnut-haired female before replying, "You have something rather ugly looking on you head."

Hollie harrumphed and turned round and addressed the Slytherin Quiditch team. "Come back later when they have left," she gestured to the Gryffindors, "gone if you must but please go or Pomfrey shall never let me leave."

The team looked un-eager to leave but when the younger Slytherin female gave the quiditch captain, Rabastan, a stare which he dared not question he turned round to the others and said, "Let's go."

Regulus did not leave like the others and instead grabbed Hollie's shoulders and rubbed lightly. Usually she did not like contact with anyone so it was to Regulus' surprise that she did no shake him off and instead sighed deeply.

"She's a bad influence on you," Sirius called as he turned his back on his younger brother and walked towards the seat that was by Lupin's bed. If it was anybody else Regulus may have replied with a witty, maybe spiteful, comment but instead he sighed deeply too.

"Miss White I shall not tell you again," Pomfrey warned-who had somehow missed all the real commotion, "Get back to bed." Regulus heard Hollie grind her teeth together but she allowed him to steer her from the middle of the corridor of the wing back to her bed.

She scrambled in once again and looked angrily at Sirius who seemed to sense her gaze and turned round. He winked in a fashion that was somehow malicious and Regulus felt his stomach twist.

"Honestly," Hollie said angrily but Regulus did not respond. Hollie looked up at him, "Are you okay, Reg?"

Regulus did not reply once again but instead took the wizard chess set that was on the table next to the bed on the left side of the pair of Slytherins to which it looked like it belonged to a Hufflepuff that was sleeping with a twisted look of pain on his face. Regulus perched himself on Hollie's bed, by her legs, and held the set up in the air. She smiled.

"Black or White?" Regulus asked. It was out of pure tradition that he asked her the question; Regulus Black was nothing if not fond of traditions, as her answer was always the same, giving her own name, but there was something in her eyes that made him doubt her answer. It was as if she was planning something devious or laughing not quite maliciously at the expense of someone else that made him second guess it. She was looking rather intently at the row of raven pawns when she gave an answer she had never given before.

"Black."

He wasn't sure why it made him smile back at her.

Disclaimer: I do not own the Harry Potter Universe or its characters but I can still dream.

I've never really taken to third person up until now for some reason and I really like it. I don't know if this is something that I'm going to carry on with or not but I very much enjoyed writing it. So please tell me how I did. I'm quite proud of this ff but I'll most likely look back at it in a few months and cringe. Any suggestions or quires would be most welcome and if I get enough response I may consider continuing this on. Might. Criticism is also welcome but nothing too aggressive please but I'm always eager to learn how to improve. Thank you very much for reading and Please Review. Thanks...J.P xx