(52 : AND THESE, WHO OFTEN . . .
DROWN'D COULD NEVER DIE )

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     "NO. HE CAN'T BE DEAD."

     Kreacher dropped a gold locket inlaid with a green letter 'S' in front of her. "M — Master Regulus ordered Kreacher to leave without him. He told Kreacher to find Miss Juliet because she would know what to do with the locket." He paused, sniffling loudly. "The last thing Kreacher saw was Master Regulus being dragged beneath the water and . . . he is dead, miss."

     Her heart felt hollow and her chest tightened. No tears fell. All she could do was shake her head in disbelief. "His wedding ring." It was an out of body experience, her voice was so close and yet it sounded so far away. Each breath she took felt like a knife in the gut, but she managed to mutter, "Tell me he was wearing it."

     "Master Regulus never took it off, miss," Kreacher replied solemnly.

     "You need to take me there." Juliet gasped for air and it was suddenly like she could breathe again. "He's not dead, Kreacher. He's not!"

     The house elf bowed his head. "Kreacher saw it, miss. Kreacher wanted to help, but Kreacher can't refuse orders. He — he is dead and now we must destroy what Master Regulus bravely died for."

     In her rush, the redhead knocked over a pot of ink as she frantically scrambled for her cloak. "There is no bravery in death, Kreacher," she half-spat, struggling to repress the onslaught of emotions that were attempting to claw up through her throat. Her emotions — the grief, the confusion, the hope — were so strong that she could have choked on them. "I — I need you to take me to the cave. Please. Regulus isn't dead! We need to help him!"

     "Kreacher does not wish to go back to that awful place. You are not Kreacher's mistress," the elf said stubbornly.

     "But Regulus gave you an order. You are meant to see that I destroy the locket and to do that, I must return to the cave," the teenager lied cooly as she narrowed her eyes and tilted her chin upwards, daring the house elf to call her bluff. "You are going to take me to the cave and help me pass through if you don't want to risk disobeying your master. Do you understand?"

     Kreacher scuffed his feet against the floor, grumbling. "Yes, miss."

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Juliet hated to be harsh with the house elf, but he wasn't the most helpful creature. Once Kreacher apparated her to somewhere along the coast, she fixed her mind on her friend instead of paying attention to her reluctant companion. Regulus wasn't dead, he couldn't be. Not if he was wearing the ring — the ring she had spent more than a year making on Lord Voldemort's orders.

A part of her had been worried about what the Dark Lord would do to Regulus after she left him at the altar, so she slipped him the immortality ring instead of a regular one. It was the only way she could think of to protect him from Voldemort's wrath, but it was also a risk. After all, the ring was untested and she had never told Regulus that she finished her task. Yet, that dumb risk was the only thing stopping her from succumbing to her grief.

     Kreacher abruptly stopped walking and pointed to a fissure in the cliff where the dark sea water violently swirled. "First, Miss Juliet must swim through there. Once inside, a blood sacrifice is required to pass any further," the elf instructed, his already sickly face appearing even greener. "Kreacher will meet Miss Juliet inside. Kreacher is able to pass through the wizard's wards."

     "Of course he would underestimate house elf magic." Juliet swore Kreacher brightened at the comment before he disappeared with a crack. "And of course it can't be as simple as Kreacher taking me with him."

     Precariously positioning her wand between her teeth, Juliet dove into the sea's opening without hesitation. Her adrenaline and ambition propelled her forward as she cut through the rough water with sharp, determined strokes. Although the waves attempted to push her back and the salt water stung in her tired eyes, she continued towards the dark slit in the rock face until she reached a small cave. Juliet lifted herself out of the freezing water and shivered, her clothes now soaked and the night air surprisingly cold for it being a summer month. However, she didn't dwell or dare waste time with a drying charm — not when Regulus had most likely been dying over and over again for hours.

     "Lumos," she whispered.

     From the edge of the cave, Juliet carefully moved the dim light across the walls in search of an entrance. One palm lay flat on the uneven cave walls, tracking where she had started. Soon enough, a faint glow formed the shape of an arch and alerted her of the entrance. In a smooth movement, Juliet sliced the palm of her hand against a particularly jagged part of the wall and allowed the blood to drip onto the rocky arch until the entrance parted.

     Heeding caution, she slowly stepped through the parted rocks and found herself standing on the outskirts of a great black lake. It was a vast space with the cavern stretching so high and so far that she couldn't tell where it ended. In the middle of the lake, there was a small island that she was barely able to discern amidst the inky blackness. The meagre light rays from her wand failed to penetrate the thick blackness, which perturbed the young girl more than she would ever care to admit.

     "Kreacher," she hissed into the abyss, "where did Regulus . . . die?"

     The house elf appeared with a pop and she fearfully clutched at her heart. "Master Regulus was on the island, near the water's edge, when he was p—pulled in."

     Juliet recalled the plans that Regulus had stolen from Abraxas. "Inferi?"

     Kreacher bobbed his head and she tightened the grip on her wand. Even with her rather inconsistent teaching in Defence Against the Dark Arts, she knew that only warmth and light were capable of stopping an inferius. However, she had never encountered one in person before.

     "You've been very helpful, Kreacher," she politely informed the elf. "I won't ask you to come any further. If you could show me how to reach the island, I'll be able to manage from here on."

     "Kreacher hopes Miss Juliet knows what she is doing as Master Regulus spoke of her rather fondly for a blood traitor," commented the elf as he used his magic to reveal a chain in the water. With a sharp tug, the elf used the chain to pull a rickety rowboat across the water. "Kreacher believes the dark wizard designed the boat to only hold one magical being, but it is otherwise safe."

     Her features were clouded with uncertainty as Juliet thought it didn't look very safe and the rowboat would need to hold two if she found Regulus. "Wait, I thought you went to the island with Regulus?"

"Kreacher did, miss."

"That can't be right then." Her eyebrows pinched together in thought. "You're as much of a magical being as Regulus, unless . . ." If Voldemort didn't consider house elves 'magical' enough to be a threat, maybe he wouldn't consider a blood traitor or a witch to be a threat either. But, could she really risk their lives on a hunch?

Juliet decided there wasn't enough time to plan like usually would, so she simply took the James Potter approach and clambered into the rowboat without thinking of the consequences.

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      The boat stopped when it reached the island and Juliet sobbed. It was a primal sound, a pained one, as the fragile thread she had been hanging from snapped with the realisation she had been in denial the entire time. Regulus was dead and she was every bit as delusional as Lucius Malfoy was telling the newspapers. Despite her best efforts, the only thing she had seen from the boat happened to be the white heads of inferi.

     "Regulus!" she cried out from the island, throwing her arms out and spinning around in search of him. "Please. I — I know you're alive. You have to be."

     But if he wasn't in the murky water, she didn't know where he would be. It was a large lake, but she had used her trip across to search the lake without disturbing what lived underneath. If the ring worked, Regulus would've been revived and human instinct would've driven him to the surface. Yet, there wasn't a single ripple in the water.

     With her legs pressed against her chest, she waited and waited and waited.

     And then she heard a splash.

     Brushing away her tears, Juliet noticed the surface of the lake was no longer mirror-smooth. Everywhere she looked, pale white hands were emerging from the dark water — men and women and children with sunken, sightless eyes were scrambling towards a disturbance in the middle of the lake. The undead army were swarming one spot in the lake, still entirely unaware of her presence as they concerned themselves with pulling on something. It was an eerie — yet strangely hopeful — sight.

     "Expecto patronum," she yelled out in a panic, rushing to think of a powerful memory.

Instead of her familiar black swan, a blinding stag burst from the tip of her wand and parted the crowd of inferi. In the middle of the water, Regulus Black was choking and flailing. For a split second, his blue eyes locked on a matching pair from where she stood on the island, seemingly confused as she glanced between him and her wand. Juliet didn't have time to think about her new patronus as the creatures in the lake changed direction, moving towards her with surprising speed.

With the attention now on her, she blanched. "Reg! There's — there's a chain. Hold onto it if you can't swim." Thinking fast, she cast the bubble-head charm to prevent him from dying again. "I'll hold them off. I am so glad you're — incendio — okay."

She knew that fire was the most effective defence, but the creatures were coming at her from all directions and she didn't want to drive them back towards Regulus. Although in a state of shock, the boy had found the boat's chain and was physically trying to fight some straggling inferi, his wand presumably lost to the lake.

     "Impedimenta! Carpe retractum!"

     A rope of light shot out of her wand and she pulled the lingering group of inferi away from Regulus. He was weak and exhausted, but it was the opportunity he needed to escape the water.

     Just as Juliet was about to shout over to him, a slimy white hand caught her ankle from behind. A piercing scream escaped her throat as she kicked the creature. Juliet landed roughly on her back and the creature crawled on top of her — its open eyes misted and pleading.

     "Mother?" whimpered Juliet, the creature's gaunt face and faded red hair awfully reminiscent of her own.

Now more of a puppet than a person, her mother reached to claw at her daughter's face with her sharp nails. Before the inferius could swipe at her, Juliet twisted her face away and forced her wand between their chests. As Juliet strained to say the incantation, she rolled out from beneath the creature and watched as the shell of her mother went up in flames.

     Juliet scrambled to stand again, shooting spell after spell from her wand. For a moment, she wondered if she would die there, with the zombie-like beings closing in on her.

     "You need . . . to cast  . . . protego diabolica . . ." Regulus called out between desperate breaths, using all of his energy to tug himself near the boat.

     Her throat dried up at the suggestion — it was a dark spell infamously used by Grindelwald, one that incinerated the caster's enemies and protected their allies. Even with her family's background, she had never used dark magic before. But, when one inferius leaped for her wand and almost caused the girl to lose her footing on the rocky terrain, her decision was promptly made. Hot, angry tears formed in her eyes as she exclaimed, "Protego diabolica!"

     Magic erupted from her wand, a ring of black fire surrounding Juliet and the inferi burning into nothingness at the flame's touch. Juliet quickly kicked the rowboat towards Regulus before it was consumed by the flames.

     "Go, Reg!" she begged, her tone tainted with hysteria as the flames uncontrollably grew around her. "As soon as you're outside, call for Kreacher. I'll meet you there."

     Untouched by the deadly heat, Juliet then ran through the flames and placed her wand between her teeth for the second time, diving headfirst into the lake.

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A.N: This chapter was originally going to be even longer, but there's a lot to process and I thought it would be best if I left it here. So . . . surprise?? Reg is alive. Her patronus has changed. And she saw her mum! The Reg thing has been planned for a while and I hinted that she gave him the ring during the wedding. I also debated a lot about whether her patronus would change into a stag or doe (if it all), but I don't think a doe makes sense for Juliet as a character. I also think being with James has brought out some characteristics in her associated with a stag — bravery, protection, rebirth etc — and it seems more common (as with Lupin/Tonks) that they change to match whilst complementary ones seem to be a more like a 'fated/natural' situation. I feel like I'm rambling, so any questions are welcome to be dropped in the comments.

Side note, I feel I shouldn't have to say this at all, but I don't appreciate negative comments on this book. Anything constructive, I'm open to, but if you don't like what I write, don't read.

Question, what would be the worst way to die?