Welcome to a new arc of Ink in Paper. I'm excited because now the war is in full-force again and things are about to change a lot.

I'm a bit insecure about this chapter. I believe I could've writte it better, but this was the best I could do. I hope you all like it! Have fun.

LEAVE COMMENTS.

THE OBVIOUS START OF REGULUS' ARC (HIS GREEK MYTH IS OBVIOUS AT FIRST SIGHT)

TW: VIOLENCE AND DEATH

Regulus couldn't breathe. His wand gripping hand trembled, his eyes were wide but unseeing under the mask, and his breathing was useless to calm his racing heart.

The Death Eater mask was heavier than he had expected when Evan shoved it into his hands, announcing that he had his first mission as Second-Lieutenant. He listened to the plan as attentively as he could while feeling his stomach rolling around, dealing with the nauseating fear silently as to not tip Evan on his real thoughts.

Now they all stood together in the alleyway near Diagon Alley, not even two streets away from Meera's inn. All men dressed in black robes, gloves and carefully masked. All shadows of the destruction they were about to bring over at the populated streets that mid-October day.

"Remember the plan. Half with me, half with Black," Evan said in a low whisper that was heard by everybody in that cramped space.

Barty was the first to move sides, standing right behind Evan while the others started to even think to prepare for the attack. Quickly after, Severus Snape moved to stand behind Regulus, Dorian Burke right behind him – it took him a moment to recognise the others: Arthur Sallow, Connor Avery and Andrew Macmillan. Snape was known enough; Burke was hated enough. Sallow was not someone that Regulus knew himself, but he knew of him – youngest son of the family, awkward and uncomfortable – and best friends with Avery, who was loud, boisterous and money-hungry. It was Macmillan that worried Regulus, he didn't know anything about the man who was a few years older than him.

Those were the men under his command.

Evan turned to Regulus, glanced down at his pocket watch before giving him a nod.

It was time.

They moved quickly, walking towards opposite sides of the street without stopping when people turned to look at them as they walked by. He could see a few people silently starting to walk faster and run once they were far away enough, they thought that if they were silent, then they were safe. It was hardly true. Once they were in the main street, anybody would be a target.

It was when Regulus stepped into the main street, seeing several people moving around that things finally seemed real. Very far away from where he stood, on the extreme other end of the street, more black cloaks appeared. Evan shot his wand upwards and sent a single loud exploding spell towards the sky to announce their presence. Behind Regulus, Severus did the same once he noticed Regulus had not moved at all.

That was when people started screaming.

Regulus ears started to ring.

Women, children and men screaming, loud or high-pitched. Cries of fear of the violence they knew it was coming, of the death that the group was known for devouring.

Regulus took longer than necessary or agreed upon to throw the Anti-Apparation spell over the street. A few people managed to Apparate away before the actual attack, but the ones that stayed were people searching for their other people, screaming people's names on the top of their lungs in a panic. It was that loyalty to their friends that would hurt them.

Spells flew all around the streets.

"STUPEFY!" someone screamed.

"EXPULSO!" Severus screamed back, pointing his wand to the left.

"CONFRIGO!" Dorian screamed.

Regulus fought as valiantly as possible, but the truth was that he didn't know what he was doing. Every training that he had about duelling and fighting came from the training the Death Eaters gave him once he joined, exhausting his magic as often as possible in his free time, but he had very little training compared to the people that were almost completely focused on the movement. Though he had a wonderful list of spells that his magic agreed with, but his situational awareness was lacking still.

Evan, for example, barely flinched when he pointed his wand right behind a woman and screamed an incantation to light the establishment up in flames, while Regulus did his best not to yelp, but his knees did fold, and he lowered his head in his obvious startlement. Regulus looked up in surprise when he heard Barty's scandalous laughter, choked out and ridiculous – it wasn't his real laughter.

Using a shield-spell, Regulus took a step back in shock when someone tried to attack him. He was quick to thrust forward, using another spell to push the person attacking him away.

It was a man in formal robes, face pale and bottom lip bleeding. He had almond shaped eyes, dark hair and tanned skin. The man's eyebrows were almost touching one another in his obvious focus, blinding by fear and rage. It didn't take much time for Regulus to recognise the man standing in front of him.

It was Edward Nakamura, the Head of Department for Finances.

The main target.

The man that Evan was supposed to kill. But Evan was burning stores up, too busy to care about the actual pan, and now Regulus was stuck fighting this man that had already dropped one Death Eater to the floor (and Regulus had yet to check if they were alive, whoever it was).

"You fucking –!" started Nakamura.

Regulus threw a spell, quick to cut off the man before he could get attention for himself. Perhaps, if Nakamura took his time in fighting, then he might have a chance to wait for the Aurors and survive.

"STUPEFY!" Nakamura screamed.

The spell hit Regulus' shoulder, throwing him to the ground. He groaned in pain.

Unfortunately, the scream caught someone's attention. One of the Death Eaters turned, looking straight at Edward Nakamura, wand already raising above his head for one spell that would turn tables for the duel happening. At the same time, Nakamura turned, trying to get away while he had the chance.

"INCENDIO!" Regulus screamed from the ground.

A horseshoe shaped ring of fire appeared, leaving the opening to Regulus' side. It would stop the Death Eaters from getting to Nakamura too early, but it would also stop Nakamura from running away and making it obvious that Regulus was helping him somehow.

Once Regulus finally stood up, Nakamura had already turned to him again.

"Expelliarmus!" Nakamura was quick to throw.

Shield. Shield. Shield.

For long second, Regulus mostly protected himself from the quick succession of spells that Nakamura shot him, until Regulus got some space to breathe by sending over a good bombarda to a garbage bin nearby, which exploded and sent shredded papers everywhere, causing Nakamura to flinch and back away almost into the fire.

"DEPULSO!" Nakamura yelled.

Regulus managed to block it, even though it still knocked him off balance.

"Stupefy!" Regulus tried.

Regulus felt movement right behind him and turned to look right away, finding another Death Eater approaching; the same one that had seen Nakamura before Regulus' fire spell stopped eye sights. It took him a moment before finally recognising him as Dorian Burke's eyes tightening in a smile.

"FOUND HIM!" Dorian yelled.

A few of the Death Eaters that were closer turned to look at the words, a few of them letting laughs escape through their lips. Satisfaction and contentment, finally getting to the job they were told to do. Now, all that was left was killing him.

Nakamura screamed. Regulus turned to look at him once more, only to find Death Eaters gathering near the fire, watching in obvious interest and excitement. For them, the mission was about to be finished, they had found the target.

Evan Rosier appeared near Dorian, laughing at the sight of Nakamura, surrounded and helpless. The poor man looked like a dear in headlights, a prey without escape from its natural enemy, the one that would without a doubt kill him. And Evan loved being the hunter, face to face with the prey.

With a Full-Body Bind spell, Nakamura fell to the ground, still as he cried through the ropes.

"You! We said that we would find you if you refused us again," Evan said, getting closer to Regulus. "Second-Lieutenant, our target didn't come alone. Find the others."

"NO!" Nakamura sobbed. "Please, stop. Leave my family alone!"

Evan turned to the man. "This is your own fault, you weak half-breed bastard. You were warned. You only got yourself to blame."

"PLEASE. NO!" Nakamura continued crying. "Not my family. Please, not my family!"

Evan rolled his eyes behind his mask, turning to Regulus while twirling his wand through his fingers.

"Second-Lieutenant, find me his family. Wife and two children. Find them..." he smirked, glancing at the man on the ground. "Kill them."

"NO!"

Regulus looked down. "Yes, sir."

He was glad he had been the one to be given the mission, because that meant he would be far away when Evan started the moves to take Nakamura with them to the headquarters, where he would be tortured for days until he gave every single information he could have about his business and the Riddle vaults that had been locked a generation ago. However, it meant that he would be the one trying to find a woman and two children.

And, unfortunately, found them he did.

...or least one of them.

He had been walking by one of the store-buildings, looking through the big window of the – now – empty restaurant, wand in hand, looking around for any movement when he heard the quiet whimper of fear coming from an alleyway.

Regulus froze in place.

A sniff. Then a little quiet and muffled sob. Then another whimper.

Regulus hated everything and everyone as he turned around to look at the alleyway, horrified at the sight.

Behind a dumpster, the points of little shoes appeared. The little boy was trying to disappear behind the garbage, only to not realise that even crumpled against the wall, his little feet would still be on the line of sight of people walking by. At some point (and Regulus had no idea how long he stood there, unmoving), the boy moved a bit, peeking from his hiding spot only to make eye contact with the Death Eater staring right back at him. He was Edward Nakamura's son, undoubtedly. Edward Nakamura had a baby just a few months ago, and he also had an older child – the one staring in horror at the mask staring back at him.

Regulus thought of taking his mask off to calm the boy down and get him home, but that would leave him able to recognise Regulus later, which was not something he was willing to risk. Still, the child wouldn't calm down with the mask but taking it off meant that the child would have to die for Regulus' safety.

"You should leave," Regulus said.

"I want my mama," the boy whined.

The Death Eater squeezed the wand in his hand.

"Where is she?" he asked.

"I want my mama, please," the child continued to cry.

For a moment, Regulus hated that boy's mother. She was nowhere to be seen, nor was the baby. Somehow, she had gotten away and had lost her older child in the crowd running away and screaming. He wondered if she had gone back to look for the child or if she thought that the boy was with its father, who still wasn't back either.

"Where do you live?" Regulus asked.

Looking around, he started to wonder which one of those stores would be the easiest to break into and which one had a fireplace connected to the Floo. Regulus needed to find some way to get that child away before someone else found him.

Through the corner of his eyes, he found a second-hand bookstore. One that he had been in before. One that he knew to have a fireplace connected to the Floo. The doors were made of glass, which meant it was easy to break through.

"HEY!" someone called out.

Trying not to flinch, Regulus turned.

Severus Snape appeared, hands in his pockets and looking skyward. Beside him, Dorian Burke seemed to be skipping through the streets in glee, face maskless and widened into a wicked grin.

"Did you find something or are you just standing there like an idiot?" Dorian asked, laughing at his own jokes.

"He just duelled someone that was much more trained than him. He deserves a moment of peace," Severus Snape said. He turned to Regulus. "We needed to get out, too. The man has good lungs. My ears are still ringing."

Regulus felt his stomach churn. "I'd hazard so. Glad to be away from there as soon as possible," he tried to say casually.

The boy went back to hiding. This time, his feet were a bit better hidden than when he had found him the first time, but from where he was standing, Regulus could still see the boy's shoes – at the least the red in the very tip. With the other men getting closer, Regulus was staring to get nervous. If they got closer, they would be able to see it, too.

Regulus stepped forward, trying to block their way closer to his place.

"Is it over?" he asked, shoving his hands into his pocket. "I don't think the family's here. If they were smart, they're far away from here. Many of these stores here have Floo connected fireplaces."

Dorian grumbled under his breath, pressing his lips together in disappointment.

"Next time, we need to get people into the Department of Transports. This shite is boring," Dorian said.

Severus looked between those two, narrowing his eyes. Once more, Regulus hated how smart Severus was, because he knew far too well something was wrong. He knew that Regulus hated Dorian and would not try to make more conversation than needed with the boy, he would rather die. From that moment on, Severus started looking around, searching for was Regulus was hiding. Even took a few steps forward while Regulus blocked Dorian's way, only to find the shoes moving again, trying to squeeze behind the dumpster.

"Oh..." Severus made.

Dorian quickly looked towards him. "What is it?" he asked.

Regulus cursed within his mind.

Dorian didn't wait for the answer, stepping around Regulus with a suspicious eye towards the man. He stood beside Severus and made a loud noise that sounded like a scandalous laughter.

"You bloody liar! You did find something!" Dorian said. He leaned forward, hands on his knees as if levelling with a child. "Hello there, lad. How are you?" he turned around to Regulus again. "Your orders were to kil it, mate. Why the hell didn't you?"

The boy started to cry again.

Regulus swallowed.

"Don't call me 'mate'. I am your superior," he replied as firmly as possible.

Severus looked between the two again, silent and observant as always.

"Regardless of treatment towards you, sir, you were ordered by your superior to kill the child," Severus said, hands slowly going behind his back and staying there. His posture was stiff. "You know the consequences of going against orders."

"I've never went against orders," he answered.

"But you know the consequences," Severus insisted.

Of course, he knew. He knew the pain. He knew the shame. He was horribly aware of what could wait for him now.

Regulus pressed his hands to the sides of his body, gripping his wand. He knew he had to admit his hesitation.

Avoiding the conversation, Dorian threw a spell, making the dumpster fly with a loud noise. The boy screamed, protecting his head with his hands, shaking like a pup left in the rain for too long. He looked a lot like his father like that, scared and crying, eyes wide, unwilling to lose anything that was happening around him. He looked brave, even through his tears.

"It's a child. What can he know?" Regulus said.

Dorian sighed, turning to him.

"What can the others know? Should they know you're helping his traitor half-breed escape because you were fucking pitying the boy?" Dorian asked, face sharpening in anger. "Do you want them to know that you're a fucking traitor, too?"

Severus watched Dorian for a moment, eyes narrowing again. Silently, he seemed to have realise something that he had been avoiding for a long time, because his face grimaced before he shook his head, disagreeing with Dorian.

"I'm sure that it's not that serious, mate," he said to his colleague. "It's a child. He's not even in Hogwarts' Age. He cannot be a threat. If you want the child dead so much, you can go ahead and kill him yourself."

"No!" Dorian said, crossing his arms in a tantrum. "It was his orders, not mine."

"I don't want to! He's too young! He's just a little boy. What sort of threat can he be to be or our cause that we cannot avoid at once?" Regulus said.

The disgust at the mere thought of holding a wand to a child's body and say that horrid spell made Regulus' face scrunch as he tried not to throw up right then and there. It was too much. He couldn't do that.

"Don't you recognise him? He's the son of the target. That Nakamura man went against us in the last financial meeting, asking all of us to be more open with our finances because it's public money. That will teach him a lesson! We'll drag his body back, show it to his daddy. It'll make him listen." Dorian watched the boy crying on the floor amongst the garbage that fell around him. His tiny shoulders would shake with each sob. "If he's crying like that out of fear. I wonder what his reaction will be to my cruciatus."

Regulus shook his head.

He didn't want to do anything against the boy, but he was unable to do anything for the boy. The helplessness was disgusting, the guilt was nightmare fuel. However, there was nothing in reach for Regulus unless he killed of his own. There would be blood on his hands regardless of his decision.

At least he didn't have to watch it.

Severus reached for his arm, holding him in place.

Regulus turned to look at him, glaring through the mask to demand him freedom.

Slowly, Severus shook his hand very discreetly from one side to the other. He took his mask of, making sure that Regulus could see the hesitation and second meaning under his dark eyes. He had something to say, something that nobody else could overhear, but that Regulus would find out soon enough.

But it wasn't Severus that spoke.

"Your sweet Luna lives in Bristol with her Muggle mother and Muggle cousin, and a bastard babe – pretty little thing, really, for a disgusting Muggle. Walks well, talks little for her age. She's what at this point, two?" Dorian said, smirking as he turned to his superior. "Near Barton Hill, right? Poor little place. I can't imagine how it was to you to go there after everything that you're used to. Disgusting, really."

The cold that washed over Regulus' blood made him feel like someone threw him underwater in a freezing lake. They knew of Luna's home, even if they didn't seem to know that she had moved away. Even if Luna wasn't there anymore, Regulus knew that Hope, Leticia and Sophia were. What could Regulus do but freeze in place, unable to breathe.

His hands were starting to shake, even against the sides of his body. He was dizzy and faint for a moment.

Dorian chuckled.

"Don't look so shocked. Our Dark Lord was the one that gave me the information, and the secret mission of knowing about how well you could do your job," he said. "And you failed."

Severus pulled Regulus' arm, pulling him closer to him, bowing his head. To anybody, it would look like he was whispering threats, while the truth was unbearably surprising.

"Refuse him and don't end the child now, you'll have nobody left to save by the time we're out of here. You won't even have the chance to say goodbye. They'll all be dead before sundown and her house will go up in flames. They talked about it," Severus whispered.

Regulus bowed his own head, shoulders sagging.

He had no way out.

Dorian narrowed his eyes from where he stood, wand lowering from pointing to the child on the ground.

"What are you two talking about?" Dorian asked.

Regulus Occluded.

He turned around, raising his chin. He was the only one with a mask still. He still looked a lot more put-together than the two near him.

"He's reminding me that we have a countdown and that your assigned duty was to watch the other group on the other side of the street if I were to walk away under my superior's orders. You shouldn't be here, Burke. Go back to work" Regulus lied.

Regulus was trying his hardest to sound like his father with those orders, the man that made his own son run away when he was younger in fear of his annoyance and anger after a long day of work.

Surprised and affronted, Dorian scoffed, watching Regulus with some amusement.

"I'll go, then," Dorian said, putting his wand in his pocket. "By the time I'm back, however, the child better be dead, or I'll tell everything to Rosier."

The boy sobbed harder.

Dorian started to walk away, leaving Severus and Regulus alone in the street to carry on the mission.

Under the robes, thrown on the dirty ground without much care, he looked smaller than he was. The boy was terrified. He had a scrapped knee, and Regulus wondered if that was what made him cry as he did, not the fear, after all he was just a little boy.

With Dorian and Severus without their masks, it was clear that the boy had no hopes to live. He needed to die for the survival of the cause.

"You're doing the better choice," Severus said.

His attempt to pacify Regulus' disgust was in vain.

"I..." Regulus started.

"You have no other option."

He turned to Severus, eyes widening under his mask, trying his best to keep Occluding his fear.

"That's not true! I could send him away. He wouldn't talk if we change his memory; he wouldn't even remember your face, let alone our voice," Regulus said.

"He's too young for Memory Magic. He would be a shell without a soul if you tried. You could, and most likely would, mess with his brain," Severus said, frowning at Regulus' futile attempt to appease the situation. "He needs to die, for your sake and mine. Don't you see? I was left here to make sure the job gets done."

It was hard to think through the loud crying of the boy thrown on the ground. There were no mastermind ideas popping into Regulus' mind for a way of saving the boy and himself and Severus at the same time.

"What if I find someone else and –"

"What? Brew Polyjuice that will last for hours on a corpse?" Severus asked, scoffing. He rolled his eyes. "You can't get out of this one."

"We can send him away. His mother and brother are most likely alive, they can live far away from here," Regulus tried again.

"How can you be sure that you can trust her?" Severus asked. "One word from her and you'll have no one else. Your parents, your girl, your friends. They will all die, and you'll be the last one to go. He'll make sure you're alive to watch it all happen. That is, if He kills you at the end at all."

Regulus looks down at his shoes.

Even then, he can see the boy's red shoes and the blood on his knee.

"Please, don't make me do this," he whispered.

The boy whimpered, fighting the ropes.

Severus sighed. He was glad he wasn't in Regulus' place, because he too would have trouble carrying out the mission with a child so vulnerable and so young. It felt cowardice to kill a bounded child that would not fight back even if they had a wand in their hand.

"You'll have blood on your hands regardless by the end of the war. Start now and it'll feel less jarring later one," Severus said as calmly as he could, even if he felt his heart pacing up. "Choose your battles, Black. I'm not fighting them for you."

There was no other alternative, nothing that Regulus' mind could muster last minute. He would need a proof that the job had been done, and he knew that Dorian would need to see the body afterwards and that Evan would want to see it as well, though not to prove that Regulus wasn't a traitor, but because of wanting to brag about it to Edward Nakamura later.

The boy tried to scream, but he just sobbed. The denim trousers darkened as he urinated himself, unable to stop his fear from taking over his body.

Regulus wondered if the fear the boy was feeling could be a torture.

He wondered if the death that was about to come would be merciful.

He gulped.

"Boy," he called out.

Those little eyes turned to his, big tears running down his face. His dark brown eyes seemed too much like his father's doe eyes.

Merciful would be too of a strong word, but painless – at least – could be a good enough option for that moment.

"It'll be just a second. It won't hurt," Regulus sad, lowering his voice.

"Please, no, no, no," the boy sobbed.

To make sure he wouldn't change his mind, Regulus reached for his mask, but his hand froze there.

If he took off his mask, he would show that he wasn't a monster, just a man, and perhaps that would end the boy's fears, but at the same time he knew that it would matter, because even without the Death Eater's mask, the boy last vision would be of the monster that killed him – face of a man or not.

Regulus didn't take off his mask.

He rolled his shoulders back and raised his wand. He closed his eyes.

It was Luna's face as she laughed that came to mind. And for a moment his selfishness made him feel less like a monster, because between her blood and an innocent's blood staining his hands, he knew his choice – he would rather be a filthy monster that would never deserve her than the one that caused her death.

He opened his eyes.

"Avada Kedavra."

Regulus couldn't stomach breakfast.

All he could do was ignore how his mother had asked him a question that he hadn't found his voice to answer, and stare at his father's newspaper. There it was – big and bold, ink in paper. His most obvious crime.

Andrew Nakamura, the seven-year-old son of Edward Nakamura, had been killed. His body, alongside three other people's, had been left in the main street of Diagon Alley in a pile, dragged from somewhere else. Edward Nakamura hadn't been found dead or alive. His mother had been the one to find him and the pile of bodies when she came back after not finding the husband and his son in their home or in any hospital. The mother going to Japan to be with her husband's family and would later on go to China to be with her own family, where the younger child would be raised away from the roaring war.

But Regulus knew that Nakamura was in Rosier Manor, in its basement, crying and grieving while in physical pain, giving a little information a day, begging for his own death.

"You need to eat," Walburga insisted.

Regulus wondered if that feeling in his stomach was what Luna felt so often that stopped her from eating.

"I can't."

Orion folded the newspapers, throwing it casually over the table to get a better view of Regulus' pale face and deep, dark bags under his son's eyes.

"The Diagon Alley attack, you were there," Orion affirmed.

"Yes."

"You killed someone."

Regulus looked toward the newspaper.

Andrew's smiling photograph waving towards the camera between his father and then pregnant mother. He looked so happy. When he smiled, his eyes became so small that Regulus wondered if he could see anything while smiling.

"Yes."

Orion followed his son's eyes and then looked at Walburga, trying to show her his concern without changing his facial expression too much. His wife could understand him even when he looked as blank as ever.

"You need to eat," Orion said again.

"I can't," Regulus answered again, voice firmer this time.

Orion sighed.

"I know," he mumbled, but it sounded like it was to himself.

Walburga did not eat anymore, but Orion ate his full plate before leaving for his job. Regulus did not go to the Academy that day, but he did end up eating a little bit and drinking a lot of tea; it made it easier to throw it up.

I hope you liked it. Please, leave comments!