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January 10th: Bury Me in Snow
I actually like this part very, very much. The darkest part of the story has just begun, and if anything goes right, this is the beginning of end of this series. There's this weird change of POV, but it's somewhat easy to iddentificate, and it just needed to be done if I wanted to bring Regulus in (whom I loved writing, by the way). I dragged Lily back in, just because I love her so much. XD
Title: Bury Me in Snow
Raiting: PG-13
Word Count: 1397
Author Notes: Tenth part in a series. Written for![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-community.gif)
blanketforts, with the promt Soup, which I managed to squeeze in at the last moment.
Fireworks series: Part 1 Part 2 Part 3 Part 4 Part 5 Part 6 Part 7 Part 8 Part 9 Part 10
Remus’ breath leaves him without saying goodbye, an invisible puff of air that he feels should be white, should be cold, should be powdered snow made out of oxygen.
Should be anything but the dread on the base of his stomach. Some people say the possibility of revenge tastes heavenly, exquisitely sweet with just a hint of strawberry icing.
They’re wrong. It tastes bitter.
---
Sirius speaks, about two nights before, and the rest listen.
---
Sirius finds Regulus playing chess by himself under the portrait of a Greek man in a toga, eyes so alike to his own fixed on the checkered game, the tip of his wand the only light along with the feeble moonlight. Sirius takes a deep breath, reminding himself why exactly is he doing this in the first place (an eternity of full moons nipping at the wolf’s fur, a thousand smiles from Remus’ lips he wants to keep in his memory forever), before lifting his chin and walking confidently towards him.
In the back of his mind, he can’t help but damn this world in which he needs an excuse to talk to his brother. Things used to be simple, siblings together as their mother shrieked in one of her madness attack, shadows and lights slithering in her vision and heavy fiery footsteps inside her ears.
Regulus turns his head when he hears the noise Sirius is deliberately making, but he doesn’t say anything, he just waits for Sirius to make the first movement, ready to devour his pawns and kill his king at the second move. This is their parent’s child, and Sirius feels a pang of regret for not having taken him out of Grimmauld Place. There would have been some hope for the small child that always stole his toys, then.
“Hello, Reg.” he keeps using the nickname, waiting for the frown in Regulus’ face as he scolds him for treating him as a child.
There’s none, though, and Regulus looks back into the board. He eats the white tower with his horse, and Sirius shivers. “Hello, Sirius.”
There’s no pleasantries exchanged. “So, did you get it then?” Sirius asks, trying not to sound as anxious as he feels, as the letter he had Owled Regulus just as he had got to Hogwarts after the funeral, the curves in his letters speaking of anger and desperation and confusion. No answer had come, but Regulus’ smile at lunches filled with people in between them had spoke on itself.
Information. That’s all he needs, all his brother can ever do for him.
“I was thinking, brother, do you remember that wonderful soup Kreacher used to make? I just miss it so.” Sirius says nothing (but remembers, the stiff dinners with the family, the silverware he had hoped would burn him just so he would have a way out). Regulus looks up at him, smirking with an expression so reminiscent of Bellatrix’s that Sirius wants to punch it out of his face. “I may. Or not. Who am I to judge when I’m not entirely aware of the reasons for my knowledge?”
Sirius grits his teeth, counting to ten in his head, trying to calm his temper. He reaches twenty-two, and he speaks again. “Look, you asshole, I’ve no time for your shit.” Regulus doesn’t look impressed. Instead he looks vaguely amused, an eyebrow raised in that gesture that annoys Peter so much when Sirius does it.
“Well I can hardly tell you if I don’t know the reasons why, now can I?” Regulus stands up, and this time, the fact that Sirius is still a couple of inches taller doesn’t give him any kind of comfort. This is a Slytherin negotiation, filled to the brim with loopholes and double intentions.
And still, Sirius doesn’t hesitate as he says “I’ll owe you a favor.” That gains Regulus’ attention, the words that for Purebloods sign a lifetime contract in blood with the Devil as witness. He smiles, predatory, so Black it feels like a blow in the gut to Sirius. “Do you, or do you not have the name?” Sirius says with his eyes almost closed, not bearing to see the future that has been written for his little brother.
Years later, Sirius would never forget when Regulus came to ask that last favor, grime on his face, tears on his eyes and a poisonous smell of Dark Magic all over him. Sirius closed the door on his face.
Regulus died the next day.
The candles have already gone out, and curfew has started some hours ago, but Regulus sits back with his chessman and his maddening grin. Only one word comes out of his lips.
“Rosier.”
---
The world moves again.
Remus doesn’t speak, doesn’t reason at all before he puts his shoes back on and runs down to the common room. He can hear yells behind him, but he can’t hear the confused voices of his friends as they run after him. He can feel Lily’s side as he crashes with her in the Common Room, but he can’t hear her yell of “What do you think you’re doing? It’s curfew already!” as he climbs through the hole, through the portrait, through the empty hallways.
He can count four pair of footsteps after him, and he is vaguely confused over this until he hears Lily’s ragged breathing behind. She asks for them to stop, and the three ignore her, while Remus’ brain doesn’t even acknowledge it. Remus runs as fast as he can, mindless but with one name running across his skull, down through stairs, moving and changing; through abandoned classrooms with layers of years and dust over their melancholic ache for students, through the marble steps (hopping over one, just at the top) and across the wooden doors, slightly ajar.
The storm is still raging outside, thick snowflakes darkening his vision in a lighted way, opposites in mere words. The snow reaches his knees when Hogwarts ends, and then the ground is white and the sky is dark and the world has turned itself upside down.
Remus wades through the coldness, legs getting damp in seconds and lips trembling out of the temperature, out of sorrow, out of anger. His wand is being clasped tightly in his hand, a part of himself he couldn’t get rid of even if he tried. He runs, jumping slightly in every step as to avoid the snow. A tingle of magic spreads around his back, but he doesn’t have time to think of just what exactly it is before Sirius tackles him from behind, a crude imitation of an earlier, warmer, fight.
“Get off!” Remus bellows over the deafening sound of the storm, snow coating his entire body as they roll with their momentum and the gentle slope. Lily shrieks somewhere behind them, and Remus punches Sirius in the jaw. Sirius returns the blow, and Remus’ left eye stings for a moment until adrenaline kicks back in.
“I won’t!” yells Sirius, as they struggle and try to hit as much skin as they can. “You’ve gone mad!”
“Let me go,” says Remus as his head sinks into soft snow, resurging with ice on his eyelashes, cold on his throat he can’t seem to swallow.
“I won’t let you do this, Remus. I will not let you lose your life over a stupid wish of revenge!”
Remus stills, for a moment, and amidst the veil of his blinding rage he can see Peter helping Lily through the Hogwarts’ gates, red-faced and looking somewhat scared. James follows, his wand lifted and a thin thread of light connecting it to himself.
He turns to Sirius, panting on top of him, and kisses him softly. “Goodbye,” he says, and kicks Sirius aside.
“No!” he can hear Peter say, and then they’re all running towards him, even Lily who doesn’t – shouldn’t – know anything about this.
He Apparates, muttering the name Rosier over and over to himself, wanting, magic searching for the recipient; world turning, swelling and bubbling before his eyes, whiteness trapped in his gaze (with an drowned voice in the back of his voice telling him sardonically he forgot about the three Ds). His body breaks into a thousand pieces, he is built again from scratch, he shifts, morphs; and then suddenly, he appears someplace else.
He is dimly aware of dark walls covered in rotten orange oxide, voices by his ear, and then the world goes black.
Title: Bury Me in Snow
Raiting: PG-13
Word Count: 1397
Author Notes: Tenth part in a series. Written for
blanketforts, with the promt Soup, which I managed to squeeze in at the last moment. Fireworks series: Part 1 Part 2 Part 3 Part 4 Part 5 Part 6 Part 7 Part 8 Part 9 Part 10
Remus’ breath leaves him without saying goodbye, an invisible puff of air that he feels should be white, should be cold, should be powdered snow made out of oxygen.
Should be anything but the dread on the base of his stomach. Some people say the possibility of revenge tastes heavenly, exquisitely sweet with just a hint of strawberry icing.
They’re wrong. It tastes bitter.
---
Sirius speaks, about two nights before, and the rest listen.
---
Sirius finds Regulus playing chess by himself under the portrait of a Greek man in a toga, eyes so alike to his own fixed on the checkered game, the tip of his wand the only light along with the feeble moonlight. Sirius takes a deep breath, reminding himself why exactly is he doing this in the first place (an eternity of full moons nipping at the wolf’s fur, a thousand smiles from Remus’ lips he wants to keep in his memory forever), before lifting his chin and walking confidently towards him.
In the back of his mind, he can’t help but damn this world in which he needs an excuse to talk to his brother. Things used to be simple, siblings together as their mother shrieked in one of her madness attack, shadows and lights slithering in her vision and heavy fiery footsteps inside her ears.
Regulus turns his head when he hears the noise Sirius is deliberately making, but he doesn’t say anything, he just waits for Sirius to make the first movement, ready to devour his pawns and kill his king at the second move. This is their parent’s child, and Sirius feels a pang of regret for not having taken him out of Grimmauld Place. There would have been some hope for the small child that always stole his toys, then.
“Hello, Reg.” he keeps using the nickname, waiting for the frown in Regulus’ face as he scolds him for treating him as a child.
There’s none, though, and Regulus looks back into the board. He eats the white tower with his horse, and Sirius shivers. “Hello, Sirius.”
There’s no pleasantries exchanged. “So, did you get it then?” Sirius asks, trying not to sound as anxious as he feels, as the letter he had Owled Regulus just as he had got to Hogwarts after the funeral, the curves in his letters speaking of anger and desperation and confusion. No answer had come, but Regulus’ smile at lunches filled with people in between them had spoke on itself.
Information. That’s all he needs, all his brother can ever do for him.
“I was thinking, brother, do you remember that wonderful soup Kreacher used to make? I just miss it so.” Sirius says nothing (but remembers, the stiff dinners with the family, the silverware he had hoped would burn him just so he would have a way out). Regulus looks up at him, smirking with an expression so reminiscent of Bellatrix’s that Sirius wants to punch it out of his face. “I may. Or not. Who am I to judge when I’m not entirely aware of the reasons for my knowledge?”
Sirius grits his teeth, counting to ten in his head, trying to calm his temper. He reaches twenty-two, and he speaks again. “Look, you asshole, I’ve no time for your shit.” Regulus doesn’t look impressed. Instead he looks vaguely amused, an eyebrow raised in that gesture that annoys Peter so much when Sirius does it.
“Well I can hardly tell you if I don’t know the reasons why, now can I?” Regulus stands up, and this time, the fact that Sirius is still a couple of inches taller doesn’t give him any kind of comfort. This is a Slytherin negotiation, filled to the brim with loopholes and double intentions.
And still, Sirius doesn’t hesitate as he says “I’ll owe you a favor.” That gains Regulus’ attention, the words that for Purebloods sign a lifetime contract in blood with the Devil as witness. He smiles, predatory, so Black it feels like a blow in the gut to Sirius. “Do you, or do you not have the name?” Sirius says with his eyes almost closed, not bearing to see the future that has been written for his little brother.
Years later, Sirius would never forget when Regulus came to ask that last favor, grime on his face, tears on his eyes and a poisonous smell of Dark Magic all over him. Sirius closed the door on his face.
Regulus died the next day.
The candles have already gone out, and curfew has started some hours ago, but Regulus sits back with his chessman and his maddening grin. Only one word comes out of his lips.
“Rosier.”
---
The world moves again.
Remus doesn’t speak, doesn’t reason at all before he puts his shoes back on and runs down to the common room. He can hear yells behind him, but he can’t hear the confused voices of his friends as they run after him. He can feel Lily’s side as he crashes with her in the Common Room, but he can’t hear her yell of “What do you think you’re doing? It’s curfew already!” as he climbs through the hole, through the portrait, through the empty hallways.
He can count four pair of footsteps after him, and he is vaguely confused over this until he hears Lily’s ragged breathing behind. She asks for them to stop, and the three ignore her, while Remus’ brain doesn’t even acknowledge it. Remus runs as fast as he can, mindless but with one name running across his skull, down through stairs, moving and changing; through abandoned classrooms with layers of years and dust over their melancholic ache for students, through the marble steps (hopping over one, just at the top) and across the wooden doors, slightly ajar.
The storm is still raging outside, thick snowflakes darkening his vision in a lighted way, opposites in mere words. The snow reaches his knees when Hogwarts ends, and then the ground is white and the sky is dark and the world has turned itself upside down.
Remus wades through the coldness, legs getting damp in seconds and lips trembling out of the temperature, out of sorrow, out of anger. His wand is being clasped tightly in his hand, a part of himself he couldn’t get rid of even if he tried. He runs, jumping slightly in every step as to avoid the snow. A tingle of magic spreads around his back, but he doesn’t have time to think of just what exactly it is before Sirius tackles him from behind, a crude imitation of an earlier, warmer, fight.
“Get off!” Remus bellows over the deafening sound of the storm, snow coating his entire body as they roll with their momentum and the gentle slope. Lily shrieks somewhere behind them, and Remus punches Sirius in the jaw. Sirius returns the blow, and Remus’ left eye stings for a moment until adrenaline kicks back in.
“I won’t!” yells Sirius, as they struggle and try to hit as much skin as they can. “You’ve gone mad!”
“Let me go,” says Remus as his head sinks into soft snow, resurging with ice on his eyelashes, cold on his throat he can’t seem to swallow.
“I won’t let you do this, Remus. I will not let you lose your life over a stupid wish of revenge!”
Remus stills, for a moment, and amidst the veil of his blinding rage he can see Peter helping Lily through the Hogwarts’ gates, red-faced and looking somewhat scared. James follows, his wand lifted and a thin thread of light connecting it to himself.
He turns to Sirius, panting on top of him, and kisses him softly. “Goodbye,” he says, and kicks Sirius aside.
“No!” he can hear Peter say, and then they’re all running towards him, even Lily who doesn’t – shouldn’t – know anything about this.
He Apparates, muttering the name Rosier over and over to himself, wanting, magic searching for the recipient; world turning, swelling and bubbling before his eyes, whiteness trapped in his gaze (with an drowned voice in the back of his voice telling him sardonically he forgot about the three Ds). His body breaks into a thousand pieces, he is built again from scratch, he shifts, morphs; and then suddenly, he appears someplace else.
He is dimly aware of dark walls covered in rotten orange oxide, voices by his ear, and then the world goes black.
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I can't wait for more of this :)
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then again, too much torture and the pitchforks might break out!
(but we all secretly love it anyway so it's okay :-D)
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Your Sirius/Regulus exchange is just what I imagine it would be like. And I like how you infuse that conversation with little details that say so much more:
No answer had come, but Regulus’s smile at lunches filled with people in between them had spoke on itself.
Love that for some reason.
Information. That’s all he needs, all his brother can ever do for him.
Powerful.
Instead he looks vaguely amused, an eyebrow raised in that gesture that annoys Peter so much when Sirius does it.
They are brothers, aren't they?
Just wonderful characterizations.
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They are so very alike, and the fact Sirius doesn't see it must be infuriating to everyone else. To think that he'd be the same if it weren't for Gryffindor... *shudder*
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“I’ll owe you a favor.”
...is such a very brotherly thing to do, and such a Pureblood thing to do, and such a perfect thing to offer to a Slytherin. That line works on so many brilliant levels.
Love it. Love. It.
Sorry for the comment spam. XD You killed my ability to write.
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Agh, that line was just so damn hard to do. I kept thinking and thinking just what could Sirius offer, and it changed time and time again. Then I tried that, and it just clicked. And now I feel like writing more Slytherin bastardness...
Don't worry, but NO! You must keep writing or I'll die of anxiousness!
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(oh, and by the bye, I'm going over to vote for you in the h_r contest...shame on me for not realizing that was you!)
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And if things go okay, today's chapter should be action-y!
(Thanks! I feel bad asking for votes, but I really liked how that story turned out. Why didn't you enter, btw? The posted art, was, uh, crappy in all honesty.)
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Hooray! I'll be keeping an eye out for it >:)
(it was sweet, you should continue it...and add it to the list of stuff for you to do XD;;; LOL!! Aww! Well I was going to enter it...almost a month ago, but the picture didn't come out very well. Plus I didn't know the art and the stories would be voted sperately...I knew art wouldn't hold up against good writing. Oh well, next time :B)
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Ooo, and actual fighting between the puppies, and Remus throwing the first punch and then apparating off. That boggled my mind a bit. Poor boy. He's so grief-striken that he's losing his hold on everything. *wants to hug him* You really do torture him so.
People have already noted this, but I love how Lily seems so juxtaposed against, well, everything around her. It's so appropriate, and if you think about it, it's visually fitting as well (I might have to art!geek and draw this). I can just imagine them all, gangly boys running through the snow, tawny or dark haired. And then this flash of fire red haired girl who just doesn't know where to be but knows she has to be there, and she stands out, and doesn't quite fit, but she's there all the same.
*ramble ramble luff*
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OMFG you win at life!! We might have to art!Geek together, since your description with the colors was just great. I'm an artist too, so I usually asign colors to characters and build them from there; and yes, Lily is as bright as her hair ^0^ *loves on you for being so damn awesome*
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(Am so going to do fan art for a fic for the first time evarrrr)
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You're breaking my heart. :(
Well in a good way because I love your writing and the plot is amazing.
Again and again I adore your way to describe the weather - the cold outside and inside. *shivers*
You finally kicked Lily inside this game of revenge, sacrifices, love and youth. And this girl kicks asses - I know it. *smirk*
The conversation between Sirius and Regulus was creepy because they're still brothers and there's still kind of a bond but at the same time there antagonists. You made that perfectly clear.
Sirius grits his teeth, counting to ten in his head, trying to calm his temper. He reaches twenty-two, and he speaks again. “Look, you asshole, I’ve no time for your shit.” Regulus doesn’t look impressed. Instead he looks vaguely amused, an eyebrow raised in that gesture that annoys Peter so much when Sirius does it.
One of my favorites! They're brothers and rivals and omg I love them. *lol*
I want to smack Remus. Trying play be the hero with taking revenge.
You're so stupid, Moony! Just get happy with Padfoot. *g*
“I won’t let you do this, Remus. I will not let you lose your life over a stupid wish of revenge!”
*cuddles Sirius* Really sweet. :)
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Because I'm totally evil and I feed on broken heartsIt's all for the plot!! *shifty eyes*Oh yes, Regulus is like a perfect copy and yet perfect opposite Sirius, and I'm so very glass that did come across. Sirius would've been just the same as Regulus without Gryffindor. *shudder*
Hehe, poor Remus isn't thinking straight. Poor thing, he needs so many hugs... Thanks so much, hon!
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Oh God, Remus. I really just want to run after him and yank him back by his sleeve - what the hell were you thinking, boy? Nyaah.
I won't quote it, but I ♥ the first part, the first sentence, like woah. Brilliant. And Regulus. Playing chess against himself, so metaphorical. And so dark. And gah. The whole exchange, Sirius' impressions, and
(an eternity of full moons nipping at the wolf’s fur, a thousand smiles from Remus’ lips he wants to keep in his memory forever)
&
In the back of his mind, he can’t help but damn this world in which he needs an excuse to talk to his brother.
Because they are so authentic and fucking tragic and and. *sighs* And Regulus is woah. And cruel, and such a Black.
The world moves again. Hogwarts, changing and twisting, and Remus running, running, the others at his heels, Lily's desperation and dread (I love that you included her in this), and and then the ground is white and the sky is dark and the world has turned itself upside down, which I want, and Remus apparting (plus amazing description) oh my, oh.
Very dark, incredible atmosphere, and so tense. Wow!
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Ach, you noticed the chess against himself. I was trying to turn this into a quiet foreshadowing, and yes, so very metaphorical. So glad to know you think my Regulus is woah! I love yours, so we should totally make them get to know each other. XD
*shoves description into your arms* take it! Thanks sweet.
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*falls off chair laughing*
(Sorry, I'm weird. *hugs her tons of pretty descriptions* Your words are going to be all over the place, hon.)
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(Reg and Reg are snogging in the background.)
...*spaces out completely & drools* (See, this is all your fault.)
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(Reg and Reg invite Anna for a steamy threesome. She goes, and stops complaining.)
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Oh... oh... a steamy.... oooooh. *passes out* (That was too much for her dear heart.)
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That's just my too great to hide love for Lily, hehe. XD Thank you!
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He is dimly aware of dark walls covered in rotten orange oxide, voices by his ear, and then the world goes black.
I like that part and the running.