"I knew what it would cost me," he said. Most of the Dark Arts took a certain amount of conviction to perform correctly. And there was always a price. Some of them balanced the ledger in more horrific ways than the spell Regulus had used the other night. He knew. But vanquishing an army of undead trying to destroy them first gave a person one hell of a reason to pay up when the cost could be localized only in the castor.

Regulus knew he could still turn around and keep walking. Let the awkwardness hang between them. Because what was Lily Evans to him? The answer was: the only person he'd known from home. Home. Whatever that had been for him. A face still far better than the Dark Lord's.

"I won't ask you to do any magic you don't want to perform," he said, filling in the awkwardness with debris to build that bridge again.