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In the Cavern


They apparated with a CRACK! onto the beach behind the Jenkin house. The sea was cold and steel blue-green and stretched away into the horizon ‘til it disappeared. A horrible wind was whipping along the beach, blowing sand so that it stung their faces and embedded itself into their clothes. Regulus winced against it, shielding his eyes with his hand and James was thankful suddenly for his glasses, they afforded him some sort of protection from it.

Regulus shivered and said, “Kreacher, I’ll call if I need you. Go home.”

“Kreacher will return to Master Regulus the moment Master calls him!” Kreacher replied, and he disapparated with another CRACK!

Not for the first time, James found himself thinking how handy house elves were.

“Where’s this cave?” Regulus asked, looking about.

James pointed off across the beach, “Down that way,” he said, and they turned and ran along the beach, their feet digging into the sand and spraying it about behind them as they went. Everything was damp and cold from the weather. Snow clung on in spots, but had mostly been washed away by the tides. The grasses quivered and shook with the wind. “Bloody hell, it’s frigid,” he complained.

Regulus nodded, and he tried to remember if Maryrose had been dressed warmly last time he’d seen her, if she’d be okay in this kind of cold… He decided then and there that when he found her he would give her his sweater, even if it meant being freezing cold himself, because she’d definitely need it more than he would…

Beside him, James was thinking similar thoughts.

They reached the rocks of the jetty and James climbed up and turned to offer Regulus a hand up so the shorter boy could get up there easily. When Regulus was up, James said, “Carefully now, it’s slippery.”

“Alright,” Regulus nodded.

James led the way, trying to be as careful as Maryrose had been when he’d followed her over these same stones. It seemed so much longer ago than just months since he’d followed along behind her over these rocks, yet also like just yesterday. He could hear her laughter in his ears as he did it, and he had a feeling if he closed his eyes he’d have been haunted by the image of her running and looking back over her shoulder at him, beckoning him on, eager to get on to their secret place, eager to kiss him… James remembered how he’d felt following after her and he marvelled at how lucky he’d been and wondered why he’d ever let a girl like that go.

Then they came to the stone that led down into the cave and James stopped and stood there on the rock, staring down at the black water within as it calmly licked the stone pathway below and he tried not to imagine there were faces and staring back at him. He pushed away the memory of that cold hand gripping his ankle and he turned to Regulus, “Alright, extra carefully now. And don’t touch the water.”

“Don’t touch the water?” Regulus repeated the command, confused by it. “Why not?”

“I dunno, just… just don’t.” James had a funny feeling like maybe touching the water would make that inferius come and he didn’t want to see that inferius again. He’d rather stay as quiet and inconspicuous as possible.

Regulus nodded. He could tell by James’s tone that this was not a thing to discuss.

James sat on the edge of the big rock and slid down onto the pathway, then turned to see if Regulus needed his help, but Regulus was already sliding down behind him and they stared at one another for a moment before turning to look at the mouth of the cave, yawning there before them. Instinctively, they both reached for their wants at exactly the same time.

Lumos,” they said together, and the wand tips illuminated and they walked slowly forward, their steps echoing as they entered the cave.

The moment he stepped through the mouth of it, Regulus felt a sickness growing in the pit of his stomach. A familiarity began to creep up through him, filling his veins with ice. He looked at James’s back - it was blurring from threatening tears. This cave, this walk way… He put one palm out and he felt the stone wall and the water on his other side, the looming blackness that threatened him… that blackness he musn’t touch…

He had been here so many countless times before.

“No.” He stopped suddenly.

James paused and looked back, “What?”

Regulus paused and leaned against a rock and felt his stomach turning and turning and threatening to empty itself out. “Oh bloody hell, James, this isn’t good. This isn’t good.”

“What’s the matter?” James asked and he bent, trying to see Regulus’s face. “What’s wrong?”

“I’ve been here,” Regulus choked.

“What?”

Regulus’s heart was racing, he was getting very dizzy, and he said, “I’ve been here, I’ve been here -- this is where I fall from! I fall and fall and -- and -- Oh Merlin. No. I see her. I see her every time. James. James, Maryrose is here. She’s here but -- but she’s --” and he started shaking violently, his knees giving out and he dropped onto the stone walkway.

James looked on in concern, “Reg --”

Suddenly there was a sound, way off in the dark behind them and James turned, lifting his want to illuminate the space there, the light reflecting off stalactite and stalagmites and he whipped his eyes around the curve of the cave, tapering down and away. There was nothing he could see. “Hello?” he called

At his feet, Regulus was wheezing.

James looked down at Regulus. “Sit here and catch your breath,” he said. “I’m going to look around this bend here.” He pointed, “I’ll be right there. If you need me, you can call me and I’ll come.”

Regulus nodded.

James turned and walked away, his trainers shuffling on the stone as he moved. He glanced back several times to see Regulus’s wand light still glowing in the dark, the mouth of the cave glowing brightly beyond, and he stepped over stones covered with algae and over uneven rocks and jumped a crack in the walkway. He glanced nervously at the black water and a couple water droplets fell from high up in the ceiling, pinging the water and causing wide ripples to vibrate over the surface in every direction, big hoops that spun out and out and out and out from the point where it had struck. James looked back one more time to check on Regulus before he stepped ‘round the corner and his illuminated wand was still there on the walkway behind him, so he assumed all was good, and he stepped ‘round the corner, holding his wand aloft. He took a step inside the small cavern off the larger one and squeezed between two close stones, holding his breath and standing on his tiptoes to squish through carefully.

He waved his wand carefully about. Hanging from the ceiling were hundreds of bats, their wings wrapped about their bodies like velvet blankets. James stepped carefully, looking down to see little piles of bat poo everywhere and some crabs scuttled hurriedly away from his feet. The stones were damp, a small crack of the black water running through the center. James straddled the crack as he walked, one foot moving over one side, his other foot over the other and he moved back and back and back until when he looked over his shoulder he could only just see the way he’d come in and he worried whether he was going too far, whether he ought to go back and check on Regulus - could he hear it if Regulus called him from here? He wasn’t sure.

James had just decided to go back - this cavern wasn’t seeming to go anywhere really - when he came to the end abruptly and found himself against a flat wall of stone. There was nothing here. He had to maneuver carefully to go back, there wasn’t really enough space to really turn around, so he shuffled backwards, his heart thumping, suddenly quite claustrophobic.

He was nearly back to the mouth of the cavern when he heard it.

Regulus was screaming.

Panic filled James and he struggled to push his way back out, and in his panic, he moved his foot wrong and his trainer caught in the crack down the center of the cavern and he struggled to get it out. He could hear the water splashing as he struggled, stones loosening and falling into the water. Regulus’s screams echoed and seemed to shake the stones and James yelled, “I’m coming! Regulus, I’m coming!” but he couldn’t get his shoe loose, so finally, he tugged and left the trainer there in the crack, tumbling forward and pushing himself back out the narrow entry way from where he’d entered the little cavern.

“REGULUS!” he yelled, and he raised his wand as he entered the main part of the cave, waving it about, bright light illuminating the cave, reflecting off the water… but there was no sign of the younger boy, no glow from his wand, and nobody anywhere. “REGULUS?” he yelled, “REGULUS!!!!”