the weather vane will say it smells like rain today

[lancifolium]

WHO: Lily Evans & You!
WHEN: Throughout early June
WHERE: The farm mostly for now, hopefully branching out to the woods, the trials, etc.
WHAT: A catch-all! Some farm and forest based things, maybe the trials will make an appearance (hopefully)
WARNINGS: None so far, will update as needed

( starters in comments, both open and otherwise, feel free to hmu if you don’t see anything that suits either via pm or on plurk, or toss starts my way, whatever’s clever. if brackets are more your thing i’m good to match format. )

Comments

the slug club of the damned probably, for regulus

[lancifolium]

Some nights were awful. It was like those distant voices outside knew just what pitch to take to make her feel like her skin was crawling. It was a bit of a blessing that the farm was large enough to be restless without running that much of a risk of disturbing anyone.

She kept her wand close, the tip illuminated and lighting her way as she kept her eyes on the ground, hoping she didn’t have the misfortune of crossing paths with a rat. While it would be easy to dispatch them, it didn’t mean it wasn’t a horrid idea.

For what had to have been the millionth time she wished she was home, or somewhere with thicker walls and slightly less biting air. Well aware that there was no going back, only forward - or eastward as Karsa explained. Lily thought she was holding up quite well all things considered - and while that might have been the case during the day, the night was just too noisy.

It was wiser to keep moving until she got too tired to do anything but sleep.

One turn after another led her towards the study, catching sight of a light coming out of it and slowing, pausing just at the doorway to look inside.

While she could only make out one side of his face what made Lily gape was the wand the young man was using to light his way, just as she was, and holding hers aloft she stepped inside, her surprise written all over her face.

“Excuse me, you’ve got a wand.” Not the best opener and she knew it the moment she said it, but it was very late, and she was too surprised by the familiar sight of an obvious wizard reading by wandlight to be especially tactful.

Re: the slug club of the damned probably, for regulus

[royal_venant]

Regulus looked up sharply, being called to from the dark like that was startling.

But rats didn’t speak, and the forest people didn’t speak English. It was a voice too substantial to be from out in the night, too kind as well.

“Yes,” Regulus said. “So do you.”

Which should make hope soar in Regulus, this could be a possible familiar face. But just how familiar and from which side of the line? He wasn’t even sure he wanted to see anyone from home. But he supposed he was about to find out.

He closed the book he was more just looking at rather than reading because it was written in characters he’d never seen before. He stepped closer to the door.

“Who are you?”

[lancifolium]

It did make Lily hopeful, although she realized moments after stepping into the library, that maybe it shouldn't have. There was still a war back at home, and eventually, she was going to return to it, and there was no telling who this wizard was, or where his loyalties might lay.

"I'm Lily," she said, her voice quiet but strong as she held up her wand, illuminating her face while she sought a good look at the stranger's.

"Where do you come from? You're a wizard?" Being confronted with an unknown wizard was slightly less daunting than being thrust into a world full of strange magic. This was something she could understand the parameters of, and it inadvertently made her feel braver.

[royal_venant]

"I am. I'm Regulus-" Regulus started to say. But he'd come close enough to see who it was and he... well, he didn't know what he felt. Because on one hand, Lily wouldn't torture him. On the other... the only person Regulus wanted to see from his world was Kreacher.

"Oh, it's you," he said, he couldn't even muster the disappointment. His voice was just a matter of fact. A death and then a week with the forest people and his outlook on the world had drastically changed. "I guess it could be worse than you."

you knew it was coming

[lancifolium]

The wizard's name was unique enough that Lily could easily recall the last time she'd heard it.

"You're from the Slug Club?" Horace had his favorites, and the students among those ranks had all been invited to his dinner parties, regardless of house affiliation or year. She was sure that was where she'd last heard the name Regulus.

"The Slytherin Seeker?" she added, continuing to approach him, her eyes narrowing in the dim light cast by their wands, looking at him hesitantly.

"I remember you as shorter."

He had a late growth spurt!

[royal_venant]

Regulus made a face at the dig at his height. And yet, even as it rankled him, this could all still, it could be worse. Literally. The Dark Lord could be standing in front of him, ready to torture him for eternity. So the comment only rankled him a bit.

He went back to the bottle he'd left on the desk and took a drink. Bottles were quite easy to conjure. Wine was more tricky, but he'd had lots of practice before coming to this place. So it was rather decent stuff. Then he picked up a lit cigarette he'd had propped on a broken and empty spine of a book.

"I see you're still a know-it-all," Regulus said back to her.

He cast her a half irritated look that was really only ire directed at himself. Before he'd died, before he'd staked his life to take a stab at the Dark Lord, before he'd broken himself in service to that same Dark Lord, he would have sneered at Lily, spat cruelty at her in forms of vicious words, made her leave him alone. That was the way that was taught to him growing up. But after all his experiences, plus arriving here, a stranger amongst strangers, Lily's vaguely familiar face was better than the voices taunting him outside the farmhouse walls.

So the look faded, and nothing more cutting slipped his mouth.

[lancifolium]

Under normal circumstances, his calling her a know-it-all would have inspired a biting retort, but instead, strangely, it reminded Lily of someone else.

"You're Severus's friend! The quiet one! Not in our year, right?" She could remember sitting with Severus at a Quidditch match and him departing to go congratulate the Seeker - Regulus. Or, a younger, shorter version of him.

Regulus had been one of that ghastly crowd at school that her old estranged friend had fallen in with. While not as openly hostile as some of the others Sev had kept company with, Lily didn't doubt that Regulus was familiar with their ideals. He might even agree with them.

Which didn't make him an ideal candidate, as far as comforting familiar faces went, but - it was definitely better than Voldemort.

"Do you know if he's alright? Severus, I mean."

[royal_venant]

Regulus raised an eyebrow at Lily. She still remembered his name, interesting.

Regulus knew a few things about Lily and Severus. They'd been friends once. Severus had a massive hard-on for her. And then the 'lake incident' happened, and the two stopped being friends. And then for some unfathomable reason, Lily had coupled up with James Potter. He knew Severus still felt something for her, but there were things you just still never talked about with Severus.

Not many in Regulus and Severus' circle even cared enough about Severus to notice that summary of the history of Severus and Lily. But Regulus did that. He picked up little pieces of information like dropped puzzle pieces and tucked them away.

Regulus stuck the cigarette in between his lips, grabbed the bottle, and found a place against the bookshelf to slide down to the ground where he picked up another book to flip through.

"I don't know how Severus is doing," Regulus said. "Because, well I am here and, well-" Regulus gestured around them, as if to say Severus was not here. He took a drag on his cigarette and turned a page to look at a different rendering of the night sky.

"I didn't think you still cared about him. Not after you ran off and married the person most likely to gut him."

[lancifolium]

"Married?" She hadn't spoken to Severus the last two years of school, but she certainly hadn't spent any of those years marrying anybody. "What on earth? What? To who?" Aghast, Lily held up her ringless left hand, squinting at Regulus as though he'd sprouted seven heads.

"I'd only just gotten off the train at Kings Cross, hadn't I? Barely made it off the train," she took a step back, still thunderstruck. "Married? I was going to my mum and dad's."

Lily went still as a thought struck her, and she leveled a skeptical glare at Regulus. "What year is it?"

[royal_venant]

Regulus casually took another drink from his wine bottle as Lily, agast, verbally spewed objections at him.

"Huh," he said when she was done. It clicked for him just a little bit faster. "That's interesting."

It really was, but Regulus didn't want to think too deeply about the implications here. He wondered if this happened to others who shared a 'home'. What was time when space was irrelevant?

"Autumn, nineteen-seventy-nine."

[lancifolium]

Lily dropped her left hand, stunned all over again but for an entirely different reason. "It's nineteen-seventy-eight. School's just ended."

However strange the situation she handed ended up in here in this place seemed as it was, it got a lot more peculiar. "I don't even like anyone enough to marry them in a year," she muttered, still disturbed by the idea.

Looking away from him and to the satchel that hung on her shoulder, opening her old school bag up to root through it. After producing a few leaves from one of the interior pockets she was quick to transfigure them into a cup of tea, shaking her head.

"Did the war start? I mean, really start." Despite the fact that she was already thrown off by the bits of information Regulus had already given her, some things, however upsetting, she had to know.

[royal_venant]

If Lily was too wrapped to notice he'd already given away who she'd marry, then Regulus wasn't going to burst that bubble for her. He'd let it just hit her one night when she was thinking back on the apparently astounding claim that she'd married someone in such a short time. Regulus had always known his mother was planning his marriage so he'd always felt rather blasé about the topic.

He looked at her pityingly, but in a judgmental way. "The war started well before you left Hogwarts. But..." he shrugged. "I guess the Minister of Magic didn't recognize it until around that time."

[lancifolium]

To be fair it wasn't like Severus was particularly wanting for people to loathe. There were a few good candidates for 'most likely to gut him'. This was all a bit much, and she was overwhelmed, but the look he gave her provided ample distraction, and she couldn't help but glare.

Things were rubbish, but she liked whatever Regulus had to say almost as little as she liked her predicament. And she didn't like the way he regarded her - he looked at her almost like all of Severus's horrid friends did.

"Right. You've been very helpful," she lied. Her cup of tea in one hand, and her wand still glowing in the other, she gave him a nod. "Have a good evening." Not bothering to give him a chance to respond she turned, leaving the room.

At least he had been a diversion from the voices outside, however temporarily.