Notes: This story is meant to come before 'The Last Day of All' (so read this first if possible) because for some reason I had the ideas in the wrong order. So the second part was written first and the two parts don't quite fit together but otherwise they seem OK. It's AU now, unfortunatly...
The day before
Walking down a street, and he suddenly notices how beautiful everything is. The light reflecting from the puddles, the colours and sounds of the traffic, a single drop of water hovering from a windowsill.
Maybe it's the rain. Everything seems fresh after rain. Or maybe it's because he knows he's going to die.
The young man speeds up, hurrying to get to…where. Where is there for him to go? What is there for him to do?
He can't keep going like this. But he can't stop either. Maybe that is why the world seems so clear and bright today, maybe it's because he's running on three hours sleep and hasn't eaten for a day.
The swish of a girl's dress as she pushes past him. Her hands are dark, like chocolate. Her eyes don't see him. She's just another number on another street in London, but today, for him, she is something special. He turns to watch her pass and he thinks she is the most beautiful thing he's ever seen. Her earrings are silver.
Keep walking. Lost on the road to nowhere. It will be dark soon, and he doesn't know what to do. Where to go. This should be the most terrifying moment of his life, but instead he feels exhilarated.
There's an excitement that comes with it, a freedom that comes with facing death. The knowledge that whatever you do, it doesn't matter because they're going to kill you anyway. The rules are gone, you've broken them, smashed them into the gutter. His life has always been made up of rules before, the sudden freedom is intoxicating.
And he thinks, maybe Sirius feels like this all the time.
A man in a dark suit hurries by him. His tie is gold, with swirling hints of skyblue. And suddenly Regulus wants to cry, because it looks so beautiful today. Everything is shining today, everything is good and golden. And soon he will never see any of it again.
Maybe it is the lack of sleep. The lack of food. The lack of everything. Because not so long ago he had everything he could ever want, and now he has nothing except the clothes he wears and the air he's breathing. And very soon that will be taken from him too.
He's shivering. It's cold and he's been running for too long. Maybe he should go home and wait there. Is there any point in running now? What use is it to keep defying when your defiance will go unnoticed. What use is a hidden rebellion that has already struck its greatest blow and is now helpless?
Regulus suddenly remembers why he is not in Gryffindor.
It's not just the thrill of sudden lawlessness that sets his teath chattering and his mind whirling, it's the worry. The fear that everyone you meet, or anyone you see, might be coming to kill you. Masks, that's all he knows of his fellow Death Eaters (he knows some; Bellatrix, Lucuis, Severus, but the rest are all masks, and he was a mask once too)
How do you know if a mask is looking for you? How can you hide from a faceless shadow? Who do you trust? In the dark days before the end-that-did-not-happen trust was more often broken than not. But Regulus had trusted nobody, because there was nobody who trusted him.
He'd pledged his soul and life to the wrong master. And now he was paying the price.
Keep running, keep running. His mind was trying to get away, but in his blood and his bones he knew it was no good. And when the mind isn't working the body takes over and somehow his feet fell into a rhythm, a pattern that he'd walked through London, too many times.
It was almost like a dance. And it began and ended at Grimmauld place.
And Regulus looked up at the house that was suddenly in front of him and decided his life would do the same.
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The next part is 'The Last Day of All' which for some reason got written first. As I said for that one, I don't really think Reggie died, but I am having far to much fun writing about his death to let that bother me. Regulus Black is such a wonderful character because we don't actually know that much about him, which means he can be whoever we want him to be…