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[in_the_cracks]

"What necessities do you live by?" There's just enough edge to Telrim's cool tone to hint at her annoyance. As happens more often than she'll admit to her colleagues, the Controller's using the Sign area for personal reasons. She's leaning against the back of an armchair, arms folded. Sitting is for the weak, perhaps. "What facts of life that can't be changed?"

Comments

[in_the_cracks]

"Hm. Backing up your own soul. Not a bad idea, but splitting it - that sounds like a desperate measure. Someone who'd even do that to himself... I imagine the rest of you never stood much chance."

[darker_black]

"If it worked, I doubt whatever he came back as would be human. I'm not sure he is now. Not that it matters. The locket will be destroyed, and once he's mortal again he has more than enough enemies to finish the job."

[in_the_cracks]

She's still not quite looking at him, but her expression is puzzled for a moment. Then she nods. "Then when he needs it, his triumph will disappear out from beneath him. He'll gain nothing from what he's done to you."

[darker_black]

"Yes. And as long as he thinks I'm dead, he'll have no reason to target anyone I knew for the sake of revenge. My parents knows nothing of this, so they'll continue in their quiet support. Even Kreacher doesn't know why the locket needs to be destroyed. They'll be safe."

[in_the_cracks]

"You did well." She means that - if he'd been able to expose his enemy it might have completed his revenge, but that would be messy. The cost might be much higher than playing along a little longer.

She pauses. "Kreacher is the... house elf you trusted, right? I don't think you ever explained to me about house elves. I mean, obviously they're elves who live in your house, but..."

[darker_black]

"House elves... they're small creatures, a little shorter than the young Black Mages, capable of doing wandless magic. They're kept as servants, bound to a particular family. Kreacher's family has been bound to mine for generations."

[in_the_cracks]

"Oh." She sounds surprised. "That's an old-fashioned kind of arrangement." She considers for a moment. "But you must have been relying on him your whole life then. Having someone you could always count on... that's a powerful advantage."

[darker_black]

"Yes, and it's one I don't think the Dark Lord capable of understanding. House elves aren't loyal because of threats or empty promises, but because it's simply their nature. A house elf's highest law is their master's command."

"Sometimes... there wasn't really anyone else to talk to. I expect I know more about house elves than most of my peers who think the mark of a good servant is that you never notice they exist."

[in_the_cracks]

"True loyalty can't simply be bought." She looks at him properly, then, considering him with clear eyes.

"People who serve tend to be overlooked. I'd say it's a wise man who takes notice. You know a thing or two about loyalty too."

[darker_black]

There's a slight nod at the first. It was actually a dreadful insult to suggest paying a house elf, something he'd learned from those talks with Kreacher when he'd had no one else to talk to. It was like saying their loyalty had a price. It didn't. It shouldn't for anyone, but most considered house elves too far beneath them for there to be anything they could learn from them.

"Surprised to find that from someone sorted into Slytherin?" Regulus asks softly. "Not everyone in the house of snakes is treacherous. Some of us are only so if crossed."

[in_the_cracks]

Her eyebrows draw together a little, a hint of surprise in her regard. Perhaps something sad there, too.

"Regulus, I don't really know where you come from, or what you're supposed to be," she says gently. "All that matters to me is what you really are."

A chance to be judged on your own terms, human. Would you like that?

[darker_black]

Wizard. Black. Slytherin. Death Eater. Regulus has lived his whole life under a pile of labels and expectations. Things to uphold... and, due to the Dark Lord's critical misunderstanding of how Regulus had prioritized certain loyalties, at one time things to betray.

"I don't know what that is," is his honest answer. He finds it ironic, too. Untangling what Voldemort was up to had honed a talent he hadn't before realized for figuring out the motives of others... but it was no help at all in figuring out himself.

[in_the_cracks]

"It seems pretty clear to me," Telrim says. She drops her gaze as she speaks thoughtfully. "You're a dutiful son. You're just smart enough to know what doing your duty means, even if it's not what people want you to do. And you're loyal enough to do it anyway, no matter where that takes you."

She sneaks a glance at him, a momentary sidelong flicker of her gaze, to check his reaction. "You're an exile because you didn't abandon your people. You've had to step outside everything you ever knew to save it. But you're learning. And you're a good friend for someone to have at their back."

[darker_black]

Regulus has gone quiet for a bit, trying to make sure he won't cry. "Sometimes, I think it was easier when I was certain I was going to die. When I think about never going home, never seeing anyone again... it hurts. But if I had to do it over, knowing I'd be here, I know I still would."

"Although, it's a bit of a relief to know I won't see my cousin Bellatrix again..." The attempt to lighten the mood slightly is accompanied by a weak smile. "Even if I told her everything I knew about the Dark Lord, I think she'd more likely Crucio me than believe me."

[in_the_cracks]

Telrim answers with a hesitant smile of her own. "Sometimes being a safe distance from family isn't such a bad thing."

She hesitates briefly, then reaches out to touch his arm gently; an

"I... I don't know if it's any comfort at all. But for what it's worth, I- I'm glad you're here. And Mikoto would say the same... if Mikoto said things like that," she adds, her smile returning, with a wry edge.

[darker_black]

Unlike some in his former circle, Regulus does not believe Muggles are contagious or that you can lose your ability to do magic from getting too close to one. Although, admittedly, he had considered it a slight possibility before Mikoto's occasional lessons on genetics.

This means he doesn't pull away out of concern of 'muggle cooties'. Instead, he just hopes her hand doesn't get too close to where the Dark Mark was. Even though it had faded to invisibility, he knew it was still there. He had several theories on just what that meant.

There's a twitch more of a smile at the mention of Mikoto. "No, she'd never say that. But she might say that if I wasn't here she would have missed out on some interesting experiments in comparative magic."

[in_the_cracks]

Her touch lingers for a minute, almost as if to steady him before she withdraws. "Well, I'm sure that's true as well. But I don't think she's always able to understand how much people mean to her. Never mind admitting it."

There's a fondness in the way she says it, but a sort of regret as well.

[darker_black]

"And much of her focus is on finding a cure for her brother," Regulus reminds, "which is as it should be." With all he'd done for his family, Regulus is no hypocrite that would be upset by Mikoto's devotion to hers... Even if her emotional detachment made him feel like a bug under a glass sometimes.

[in_the_cracks]

"Right. Of course it is. But even with Kuja..." She pauses. "I just worry about her sometimes. She's been through a lot, and it's not over yet. But I think it's good that she has you around."

[darker_black]

There's a twitch of a smile at the mention of it not being over. "When is anything really over? Even when we die, someone picks things up and the world goes on..."

"I'm not sure where things on Gaia are going, not yet. And I've no wish to find myself trapped in another situation without knowing exactly what it is. But I am watching, and I'll help her if I can. I owe her at least that much."

[in_the_cracks]

"I appreciate that. It wouldn't be fair to ask you to throw yourself into the problems of another world, especially not so soon. You both deserve someone looking out for you." She gives him a smile. "And really, don't hesitate to call me if I can make myself useful."

Thank goodness for the meaninglessness of time in the Nexus. Even with the situation back home, she doesn't worry about making that offer.

Besides, if things go very badly, it really won't matter how many diplomatic obligations she breaches.

[darker_black]

"Thank you," Regulus says. It's also suspicious, but he makes sure his easy smile and civil tone conceal that he's thinking that. He's not really sure at all what Natasha really wants, but he's sure there's something. Everyone wants something. "I'm not used to having allies I can trust. Things might have been different if..." He sighs. "But, they weren't, and I tell myself I can't dwell on that... even though that's harder to do than it is to say."

[in_the_cracks]

He hides his suspicions well, and Telrim is quite preoccupied with her own concerns. The Controller doesn't suspect a thing.

Nonetheless she gives him an uncertain look and drops her gaze, because Natasha would be sad about that. "I guess it's hard for me to understand what it must have been like for you. I've never really had family, but there've always been people I could count on. I... was luckier than I realised, I suppose."

[darker_black]

"What still bothers me is thinking of the people I wanted to warn. My parents have to still appear loyal if they're to be safe. And if I told them... If they'd known what I was planning, and that I wouldn't be coming back, they would have done anything to prevent me from leaving the house. I would have found myself body-bound, Imperiused, and stuffed in a closet." He can't help a sad smile at the thought.

"My cousin Narcissa had only recently told us she was expecting. Her husband, Lucius Malfoy, is part of the Dark Lord's inner circle. I'm sure Lucius would be furious at some of the things I've learned. I could have gone to him, but the Dark Lord is a Legilimens. He can read minds. It's safer if there's no treachery for him to discover, and I couldn't put Cissy or the baby at risk. When the Dark Lord dies, Lucius will be lucky to escape Azkaban... though I think he'll have the sense to claim he was under Imperius and use a few bribes in the right places."

"Even Sirius. I even sent him a letter, asking him to meet me. I would have told him everything, since the Dark Lord already wanted him dead. He played so many pranks in school, he and his Marauder friends, I thought he might find something I overlooked. I shouldn't have even hoped my older brother would jump in to rescue me, even if that is what Gryffindors are supposed to be good at."

[in_the_cracks]

She can almost taste the hurt in his words, the betrayal of a desperate, youthful hope.

"Perhaps... perhaps he assumed you were still angry with him. Maybe he was afraid to read what you'd say."