AN ISLAND IN THE MIDDLE OF THE SEA

Tap. Tap. Tap.

The sound of something beating on the window woke Sage out of an already-forgotten dream, and she sat up straight in her bed, reaching across the ocean of blankets, only to find the space next to her empty.

She frowned and continued to pat the sheets and pillows until her hand touched something crisp and crinkly.

It was a sheet of parchment, scribbled on with ink that boasted Sirius's terrible handwriting.

Sage,
Gone back to James's. Only for a night or two. Didn't want to wake you—you've barely been sleeping these last few weeks.
Get some good rest, gorgeous. I'll see you in a few days.
I love you.
Sirius

She sighed, standing up from the plush comfort of the bed and tiptoeing over to the window.

Regulus's owl was sitting on the sill, an envelope clasped in its beak.

Sage hastily undid the latch on the window and threw it open, quick to usher in the owl and shelter it from the rain that poured outside.

"Son of a bitch." She hissed when the bird nipped at her fingers, drawing blood. As soon as she'd taken the envelope out of the owl's beak, it flew right back out the window.

"Stupid bird." She muttered, and she waved her wand to light the lamps that were scattered across the room.

Her dark eyes scanned the paper inside of the envelope, and her eyebrows shot skyward when she reached the end of it.

She flew over to the closet and threw on whatever clothes she could find as fast as she could, shoving her feet into a random pair of boots that she'd kicked into the corner of the room that afternoon.

She was rushing to leave so much that she had to remind herself to slow down, breathe, and focus on where she was going.

Professor Muskic, the Apparition instructer that had granted her her license during sixth year, had taught heavily about the dangers of splinching—if you weren't focused and calm, or if you didn't have the image of the specific place you wanted to Apparate to in your mind, you'd certainly splinch yourself.

Sage didn't want to have to find a healer at two in the morning if she did end up splinching herself.

So she took a few deep breaths, closed her eyes, and pictured the Leaky Cauldron in her head. She saw its swinging, worn-down sign, and she could practically hear the chime of the bells above the door.

And before she knew it, with a loud cracking noise and the sensation of being squeezed on all sides, she was standing in front of the tavern.

When she entered the pub, the barkeep only gave her a nod of acknowledgement before going back to whatever he had been doing before she had arrived.

"Sage." Regulus's quiet, sullen voice came from a secluded booth, far from any watchful eyes.

She found him with the hood of his cloak up, hiding his curly dark hair from the rest of the pub.

"Are you alright?" Was all she said in return, sitting across from him at the table and grabbing his shaking, cold hands in hers.

He shook his head. "No. Does anyone know you're here, with me?" He asked, still nearly silent.

"No—your brother was gone when I got your letter, and none of the staff saw me leave."

"Good. That's good." Regulus let out a relieved breath. "By morning, everyone we know will think I'm dead. And it has to stay that way, alright? You have to go along with it. You have to play the part of the grieving best friend."

All the blood drained from her face. "You faked your fucking death? Bloody hell, Reggie." She exclaimed.

He was quick to slap his hand over her mouth, dark eyes wide with panic. "Shut up. Please. It's the only way I can make it out alive. And where we're going tonight... you have to do everything I say. Because if we aren't careful, well, I'd have faked my death for nothing."

"So after tonight..." She swallowed thickly. "After tonight, I'll never see you again?"

He nodded, almost imperceptibly. "I'll be out of the country, out of your life. I'll be watching over you, though. You just won't see me."

Sage took a deep breath, trying to come to terms with the fact that she would essentially be losing her best friend of almost seven years.

It's better to know that he's out there somewhere, alive and well but in hiding, than to have to bury him and know for a fact that he's gone forever, dead and somewhere you can't follow him, she thought to herself.

"Alright. Where are we going?"

He leaned back against the booth, looking at her with surprise. "I didn't expect you to agree to that so quickly."

"Well, I either lose you for good, or I wait for the war to end so we can be together again." She said with a shrug. "It's an easy choice, really."

Regulus sighed unhappily. "Even after the war is over—even after he's dead, I mean—there will still be people who supported him. As long as there's blood-supremacists out there, people who knew me and think I'm dead, I won't be able to come back, Sage."

She grabbed his hand once more, squeezing it tightly. "I don't care. Whatever you need me to do tonight, for the rest of my life, I'll do it, if it means keeping you alive."

His bottom lip trembled, and for a moment, he looked like he was on the verge of tears. But the years of hiding his emotions must have kicked in, for the brief image of vulnerability was gone and replaced by a stony expression.

"Are you ready?"

"As I'll ever be."

☾

Regulus had one arm wrapped securely around her waist, the other gripping his wand so tightly that his knuckles went white.

They had Apparated onto a rock in the middle of a tumultous sea, and if it weren't for his hold on her, Sage would have fallen into the choppy water.

"Don't worry." He said, voice rising to be heard over the roaring waves. "I've got you."

He still held her close as they carefully climbed down the rock, to where a small boat, chained to the rock, was rocking against the sea.

They were silent while they took turns rowing towards a jagged cliff that looked imposing and downright murderous in the dark of the night.

There was an opening in the cliff's face, and they steered the tiny boat into it. Inside was a small cave that had no passages or hallways, just a wall of rugged stone.

"It requires a blood sacrifice." He told her, more quiet now that they were no longer in the middle of a near hurricane.

She immediately held her hand out to him. "Here. Use my blood." She offered.

He scoffed and looked at her like she was stupid. "No. I'm already putting you through enough pain tonight. Let me do it."

He pulled a dagger out of the pocket of his robes, wincing as he dug the blade into the palm of his hand. Harsh red liquid bloomed from the wound, and, still grimmacing, he smeared the blood onto the wall in front of him.

The wall disappeared, and behind it was utter and complete darkness.

"Incendio." She whispered, holding her wand up high.

The tip of her wand roared to life with white-hot flames that lit up what was in front of them.

It was a lake, eerily calm and motionless in comparison to the sea they had left behind outside. And on its shore was a boat, smaller and more rickety looking than the one they had used to cross the tretcherous waters before.

Regulus helped her into the vessel, making sure she was seated before getting in himself. He used a spell to propel them across the flat water, and in the light from the fire provided by her wand, Sage could see dark shapes moving under the moving water.

"Reg, there's something in there." She said lowly.

He looked back at her for a moment. "I know." His voice was strained, as if he was harboring more information than he ever wanted to have the burden of knowing.

They reached the other side of the lake, where an island made up of what looked like crystals sat above the water.

Protruding out of the island was a large, clear-cut object, almost like a podium or pedistal.

"Come on." He ordered, all but dragging her onto dry land.

Her curiosity got the better of her, and she approached the object, looking at it inquisitvely. The top of it was hollowed out like a bowl, and inside of it was some sort of murky, wretched-looking liquid, as well as a crystalline cup.

She went to pick up the cup, but his voice stopped her.

"Don't!" He snapped, grabbing her wrist to prevent her from touching anything. "Oi, look at me."

She did as she was told, meeting his heavy gaze.

His hands came down on her shoulders, squeezing almost painfully to ensure that she listened to him.

"In that basin is poison. It won't kill you, but it'll damn well incapacitate you." Regulus told her sternly. "I need you to make me drink it. I'm not going to want to. I'm going to beg you to stop, to take me home, to fucking kill me if it will make the pain stop. But you can't, alright? No matter what, once I start drinking it, you cannot let me stop."

Sage looked like a deer caught in headlights. As terrified as she appeared, she swallowed down her fear and nodded gravely.

"Alright."

He knelt in front of the basin, shaking hands reaching for the cup.

Unsure of what else to do, she wrapped her arms around his shoulders in a rare display of affection.

The first sip of the poison was not too bad, judging by the wince on his face. While unpleasant, it looked like he could stomach it.

But the second sip left him keeled over in pain, writhing and grabbing for her.

"It hurts." He whimpered, sounding more like a scared child than a man of seventeen.

She bit her lip, stroking his hair, and scooped a bit more of the poison into the cup. "I know, Reg. I know. But you're doing great."

She forced his mouth open, much to his disdain, and poured a third helping down his throat.

The sharp, metallic taste of blood exploded on her tongue, and she realized she'd bitten her lip hard enough to pierce the skin and draw blood.

"Please. Please, Sagey. Make it stop."

Sage hated to see her best friend in so much pain, but she had to keep going. She had no other choice than to follow his previous instructions, and she let the fifth scoop of poison trickle onto his tongue.

He had gone pale, and his skin was cold and clammy. She just kept stroking his hair, trying to provide any sort of comfort that she could, and kept the flow of poison going.

"Alright. Alright, love, last sip. You can do it. One more. For me. You can do it." She said, words slurring together as she rushed to dump the last cup down his throat.

As soon as she had poured it into his mouth, he collapsed, crying out as the jagged crystals dug into his back.

"I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm so sorry. You're alright. You're fine." She said, over and over and over again, unsure if she was reassuring herself or him.

He fumbled weakly for her hand. "The locket. You have to get the locket." He said, blue-tinted lips trembling around the words.

Sage's eyebrows furrowed. "What locket?"

His hand, shaking and pale and ghostly, pointed to the basin. "The locket."

Her gaze snapped over to where he was pointing, finding that, at the bottom of the bowl, a necklace of green and gold was resting as if it had been there all along.

He dug into the pocket of his cloak, pulling out an identical locket and forcing it into her hands.

"Switch them."

☾

The last thing Andromeda Tonks expected to arrive on her doorstep just before dawn was a pair of shaking Slytherins, drenched from the rain that came pouring down from the sky in gallons at a time, one—a girl, older than the other—holding up her friend that looked like he was an inch from death.

"Wha—Fontaine? Regulus? What are you doing here?" Andromeda asked, shocked and sleepy from just being woken up.

Sage's dark eyes were nearly feral. "Do you know any antidotes to poison?"

Andromeda Tonks hadn't seen Sage Fontaine in half a decade, since the older woman had left Hogwarts and been disowned from the Black family.

"I—Yes. I do. Come in before you both get pneumonia." Andromeda said, growing more and more awake the longer she was in the presence of the two.

She helped Sage drag Regulus inside, slamming the door behind her, and dumped the boy on the sofa in the living room.

"What did he take?" She asked, voice rising with concern.

Sage twitched, scratching at the chain around her neck. "I dunno. Some sort of poison—not deadly, but he's in a lot of pain."

Andromeda nodded. "Ted, darling! Can you get me a bezoar, a bit of ground unicorn horn, and some mistletoe berries?" She shouted in the direction of the stairs, where a tall man with sandy blond hair and kind eyes was descending with a small child perched on his hip.

It looked like the man—Ted—was about to say something, but when he saw the situation before him, he shut his mouth abruptly and nodded.

He came back a few moments later, arms laden with ingredients while the child trailed behind him, rubbing her eyes sleepily.

"Do me a favor and mash these together, will you?" Andromeda said to what was presumably her husband before turning back to Sage. "Can you watch Nymphadora? Play with her for a little while while I try to save your friend?"

Sage froze, hands that had previously been running through Regulus's matted hair going still. "I guess."

She left the living room, casting one last look at Regulus over her shoulder, and went to where the child—Nymphadora—was sitting on the stairs.

Nymphadora was an odd looking child; her hair was a neon shade of pink, and her eyes were a kaleidoscope of colors, changing from blue to brown to green to grey in the span of just a few seconds.

"Er, hello there." Sage said awkwardly.

Nymphadora regarded the older girl distastefully. "Who're you?"

Sage faltered. "Well, my name's Sage. You're Nymphadora, yeah?"

"Obviously."

☾

"Thank you, Andromeda, really. But you never saw me, alright? I was never here. Sage was never here." Regulus, back to full health at last, said with warmth in his eyes.

Andromeda furrowed her eyebrows at her young cousin, crossing her arms. "I assume you made the right choice, then? If you came here, asking for my help."

Regulus looked to Sage. "It was her idea. She's the reason I made the right choice, that I'm alive to have a choice to make at all."

The woman laughed and pulled Sage into a kind hug, finding Sage to be stiff and unrelenting.

"Well, either way, I'm glad you chose the right side after all. You're always welcome here, Regulus Arcturus Black. And don't worry—according to everyone in this house, I haven't seen you since you were twelve."

are we ok?