A/N: The fun continues...
Chapter VIII: Forging Bridges
That night, Regulus did not manage to fall soundly asleep. He awoke on multiple occasions, his mind full of Andromeda, but even more so, worrying over what he was supposed to do to rescue their friends. Walking into centaur territory was nothing less than wilful suicide and he knew that very well.
Amidst these thoughts, he glanced out the window to see the horizon beginning to turn punk. He thought he might be able to catch at least an hour of sleep, before the Hospital Wing opened for visitors.
Yet, it was not meant to be. An unfounded frustration suddenly arose within him, and throwing aside the covers, he sat up on his bed.
Maybe it was a better idea to do it alone. Exposing Andromeda to the risk of being injured, or worse, killed on a rescue mission that was almost based on a whim, was not something he was willing to do. All the same, he would have to talk to her and convince her of this viewpoint. On the other hand, he knew that she would never accept the proposal. At the same time, she was admittedly smarter than him when the question came to magic, but he was the more powerful one. Perhaps, he thought to himself, they could find a way to cooperate.
Regulus shook his head of the thought. Something had possessed him. No, he would stick to preventing Andromeda from going with him. Risking her life was selfish, above all else, and he did not see himself as a selfish person, despite the presence of a seemingly overbearing ego...
The restlessness that gripped him meant trying to sleep would be a futile exercise, so he stood up and dressed, before going down to the common room to enjoy another half hour of peace and quiet, ahead of the day starting for all the other Gryffindors.
Then another fancy struck him. He thought it more sensible to wait in front of the doors of the hospital wing. That way, he was first in line, should other students be concerned just as him to see their injured friends.
Deciding impulsively on the decision, his legs carried him out of the portrait hole and towards his destination. As he expected, the doors were closed, but there were a few students out front, some restless and others falling asleep on their feet. He checked his watch once again and counted seven minutes to six-thirty...
Seeing Andromeda again made him nervous. He would have to promise her he would return, when there was no guarantee he would. Was that fair? In his mind, completely...
What would he do? Snatching three students from the hands of centaurs - he smiled to himself, realizing the impossibility of the task.
"Visiting hours have begun," came a squeaky voice from the door, as one of Hogwarts' house elves emerged in the entrance. "Please line up, tell me yours name and I shall lets you in!"
Regulus deliberately chose to hang behind at the end of the line. He wanted to think over what he was going to say....
"Sir?" the house elf prompted him. "Sir?"
He looked down at the little creature for two seconds, uncomprehending. "Malfoy. Regulus Malfoy."
"Is Sir Malfoy feeling fine?" the elf focused its bulbous eyes on the thoughtful student.
"Yeah, just a sore elbow, is all," Regulus waved him off. "I'll be fine, don't worry."
The elf did not wait for him to finish, but had already dashed off to find an available nurse. Regulus sighed, but focused his thoughts on the girl at hand, and directed his steps to the corner of the room, where he could see her.
Andromeda was still soundly asleep. He hesitated about waking her up, but tried nudging her gently none-the-less. She groaned in her slumber.
"Master Malfoy, Master Malfoy! I has a nurse!"
The excited elf's voice nearly startled Regulus out of his skin. Also, he no longer had to worry about waking Andromeda, because she almost jumped to the ceiling herself...
"Whatsgoingon!?" she panicked, halfway between trying to gain her bearings and the disorientation that followed her rude awakening.
"I'm so sorry, I'm so sorry," the young nurse turned beet red, as she stammered her apologies over and over.
"Did Kingston do something bad!" the elf pointed at himself, grabbed his long ears and his bulbous eyes welled up...he was about ready to punish himself.
"No, no, Kingston, you did nothing wrong," Regulus was quick to intervene. "You did nothing wrong."
The house elf visibly calmed down, but remained edgy.
"Miss Potter, are you feeling alright?" the nurse asked Andromeda, who in her own turn was calm, but looked grouchy for being awakened so suddenly.
"Yes," she said in a hard tone.
"I see the swelling is going down," the nurse's professionalism was not affected in the slightest. "It should go down completely by the end of the day."
"Thanks," Andromeda sounded more genuine this time. "Can I leave before class?"
"That is possible," the nurse nodded, "but it is our policy that someone has to be with you. We don't take broken bones lightly, you know."
"Oh, of course," Andromeda nodded. "I'll just go with Regulus here."
"Very good," the nurse nodded. "Now you, Mr. Malfoy. I hear you have an injured elbow that needs
attention."
"Well, it is nothing significant," Regulus tried to wave her off. "I'll be just on my way with Andromeda now."
"No, I'm afraid I cannot allow that," the nurse shook her head. "You're staying until I find what's wrong with it."
Regulus groaned inwardly. He did not want to be examined.
"Stretch out your arm," came the first order. He obliged, and the wand drifted the length of his arm.
"Just as I thought, a stretched muscle. Hold on for a moment and don't move."
The nurse muttered a spell under her breath and Regulus grimaced as his skin crawled with a strange feeling that turned cold, then hot, then stopped as suddenly as it had started.
"All done!" the nurse said. "Don't let me catch you in here too soon again!"
"I hope so too," he eyed her suspiciously.
"Have a nice day and take care of Miss Potter," she said before walking off to attend to her other daily duties.
"Ready to do?" he turned to Andromeda.
"You won't even let me change, will you," she chastised him. "Hold on for a moment, and turn around!"
"As if you have anything to hide." A playful smile danced on his lips as he said those words.
Andromeda was scandalized, but found the thought strangely flattering. "Yes! Yes I do! Now do it, before I hex you!"
He was trying hard not to voice another sarcastic remark, but still turned his back to Andromeda. "Let me know when you're ready."
Too bad she forgot about the mirror he was now facing...needless to say, he found it very difficult to remain as still as possible...
"All right, I'm finished," she called out to him.
How he wished the opposite were true. Regardless, he faced her.
"Why are you so red?" she cocked an eyebrow at him.
"No reason, no reason at all," he said quickly. "Let's go, before you catch some other sickness loose in this place!"
He grabbed her by the hand and hurried her out in front of him. Thankfully, she didn't take notice of the mirror...
"Wait a moment," she resisted as soon as they were in the hallway. "What are you on about!"
His brain slowly ground back into gear. "There's something I need to tell you."
"What?"
Regulus looked around. "Maybe this isn't the best place to talk about it. Let's go."
"Where are we going?" she inquired, her patience beginning to wear.
"Just trust me," he turned to her. "It's really important."
They mounted the stairs all the way to the seventh floor of the school and Regulus led Andromeda in front of a blank stretch of wall.
"This is the Room of Requirement," she observed. "Why are we here?"
"Because we need a private place to talk," he explained.
Moments later they walked into a lavishly decorated room, with an enormous burning fireplace, two very comfortable couch chairs, a wall library to the left of the entrance and an exquisitely carved marble table on the right. Right underneath their feet was a thick red and gold square carpet. Between the two couch chairs there was a smaller wooden table, supporting two steaming cups of peppermint tea.
"Shall we?" he offered the entrance to her ahead of him.
She still didn't trust him, but took the offer anyway and walked in. He followed and closed the door behind them.
"Take a seat," he instructed her. "It might make it easier."
She could almost feel the seriousness coming from his body language. This meant he was not trying to fool her in any way, but really trying to tell her something important. As such, she did not object and occupied one of the armchairs.
"Are you finally going to tell me what this is all about?" she asked him again.
"In a moment." Regulus took the cup of tea in his hand and took in the peppermint flavour before sipping it for the first time.
"It's about Jane," he began. "She has been kidnapped."
Andromeda was dumbstruck. "What?"
"You heard me. She has been kidnapped. I saw it happen."
"You saw it happen?" her eyebrows shot up. "What do you mean, you saw it happen?"
Regulus was growing a bit more restless, as he felt the weight of the task ahead fall on his shoulders again.
"It was yesterday, right before I ran into you in the tunnel. The centaurs took them."
"What centaurs?" Andromeda grew from untrusting to confused.
"His name is Bane," Regulus explained. "Yesterday, I was in the Quidditch pitch. Two other centaurs were present; one was carrying Otto and Albus and the other had Jane on his back. That's all I saw, before they all galloped into the Forbidden Forest."
"Wait, Jane has been kidnapped?"
"I would have told you sooner - "
"You would have told me sooner!" Andromeda erupted, almost swiping her cup of tea clean off the table between them. "You should have told me immediately and I could have done something about it!"
"Yeah, limped your way to death in the Forbidden Forest, real smart," he said, but there was no trace of humour in his voice.
She really preferred not to be on the receiving end of his instances of brutal honesty...
"Anything else you're forgetting to tell me?"
"No, except for the bit I kept last," he replied. "I'm going alone. You're not coming with me?"
She was outraged for the consecutive time this morning. "Not coming with you! Who do you think you're talking to!"
"The emotional Andromeda," his expression did not change in the slightest. "It's too dangerous."
"Well, what do you expect!" she steamed on. "This is why I'm coming with you!"
"No, you're not," his jaw tensed and his right fist clenched, as he stood up to make his point more impressive. "You're staying here, where it's safe."
She was indignant at this point. Jumping herself, Andromeda pulled her arm back and slapped Regulus clean across the face.
"That's Jane you're asking me to put in your hands," she said icily. "I can't allow it. There is no way. It's pathetic seeing you pretend to be high, mighty and noble."
He reeled from the slap and looked her straight in the eyes. "You still don't understand, do you?"
"Understand what?" her anger was giving way to frustration.
He approached her closer. "It's my fault. Therefore, it's on me."
"It's your fault?" Now she was genuinely surprised.
"It is," he nodded. "I saw them take Jane and my best friends. I could have done something about it and called Bane's bluff."
"I still won't stay behind," her voice grew softer.
"Look, I - "
"Be quiet," she put her finger on his lips. "We leave as soon as possible."
**
Regulus paced around his dorm, completely flabbergasted. Andromeda had managed to disarm him completely and change his mind.
He had no idea how she did it. Whether it was her intelligence, charm, presence, or combination of all of those that transformed his thinking...
His mind was divided between consuming itself with thoughts of her and focusing on the arduous task at hand.
Back in the Room of Requirement, when she slapped him, it hurt - yet, not him, but he felt as if his words had hurt her, taken something personal from her by trying to exclude her from his designs upon the centaurs.
He knew of Otto's interest in Jane, so a part of him hoped his friend would find sufficient motivation to at least be resourceful enough to unwittingly help him and Andromeda, once their rescue operation began.
Yet the prospect of facing a loaded crossbow by himself scared him. In a way, Andromeda was more than additional intellectual and magical help to the mission. She just might help keep him courageous and resolute - not that he would ever admit that to her.
In the end, he knew she was right. Despite the earlier fiery exchange, she was involved as much as he was, it was not fair depriving her of a chance to help recover a mutual group of friends and finally, the rational voice in his head told him he needed her help.
Now his thoughts turned to the logistics of the mission itself. It had been in his head for a fortnight, but he had not thought about the complexities of it at all.
They would have to make sure their absence was not noticed, at least for a while. If they snuck out under the cover of darkness and made it to the cover of the Forbidden Forest, they were safe from faculty scrutiny until they returned.
That is, if they returned. Chills ran down the length of his spine once again.
He considered taking one of the secret passageways to Hogesmeade. The trips to the school had been cancelled, but he doubted any sentries had been put on watch at the two tunnels he knew led to the village. If they did run across house elves, they could be easily intimidated into silence.
The other difficulty, the same voice in his head objected, was staying safe within the Forbidden Forest. Knowing that it was ominous even during the daylight hours, there was no guarantee on how long it would take them to find the living space of the centaurs, potentially avoid their traps and recover their friends, all the while watching for all the other dangers the forest offered.
What about the night? He had no camping equipment to speak of, and conjuring spells were not his strongest suit. The more pressing question, however, was that of food and he wondered if he could bribe a house elf into preparing week-long provisions for them without anyone noticing....
Andromeda's mother, Hermione, would probably skin him alive if he ever told her how he was intending to use house elves. Interestingly, Andromeda was not as vehement about them, but she still disliked it when they were treated badly. He hoped she wouldn't mind it, since the end justified the means perfectly in this case.
Should he take a Defence Against the Dark Arts textbook with him? Regulus fancied himself a capable fighter, but there was persistent rumour around the school and even in London, when he was last there, about the various Dark elements harbouring under the cover of the Forbidden Forest. They could run into an unexpected struggle very suddenly.
Maybe if he shared everything he had thought about with Andromeda, she would not be as snappish with him. He hoped, for the sake of the journey, that they did not fight. Even if she managed to infuriate him with her persistence and stubbornness, he could not forgive himself if she was hurt or killed. This is why he remained edgy about accepting her company on this trip...
A/N: Chapter 8 done...you can guess where we're going next.
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