Settling His Own Mask Over His Face, Fenrir Offered Thorfinn A Curt Nod. He Fell Silent For The Rest

There was something poetic about the way Regulus had run into Andromeda and Narcissa in almost the exact same spot, just a few days apart. One interaction had left him full of confusion, but he understood Narcissa on a level that he'd never managed to reach with Bellatrix. They shared one overwhelming feeling - the burden of family expectations. He shot a smile back, partially because he was glad to see her and partially because this was an interaction that he wouldn't have to overthink. "I'm glad you had a good time. I'd love to travel more - get out of the dreary grey weather and see the world. I hope I won't have to wait till my own honeymoon to get away," he said with a grin. "I suppose it felt a bit like a bubble, didn't it? The outside world kept out, and it's just you and Lucius to worry about. It must've been quite peaceful."

"Mm, of course. At least it went smoothly, there's nothing like feeling at home," he murmured, thinking of his own home - a little piece of the world that he had carved out, just for him. It was a place of safety, and comfort. He was glad Narcissa found that at the Manor, just as she had at home. "I found something at work actually that may interest you. Once I've done the necessary work for the department, I'll see if I can smuggle it out for you to take a look at," he said, having stepped closer and lowering his voice so that they would not be overheard.

"I'm fine. Just the same as ever really - work, keeping my parents happy, and balancing everything else in between. You know how it is."

"Oh, Regulus, hello." Turning around to see her cousin, Narcissa offered him a warm smile. Like most people, she hadn't seen him since her wedding and the weeks since had been such a whirlwind that she'd not had the chance to make an effort to reach out, but she was happy to see him now. "My honeymoon was wonderful, thank you. Greece was beautiful from what we saw of it, perfect weather, delicious food. It was definitely a sad day when it was time for us to return home to reality." She nodded.

"Life at the Manor is good though. I spent so much time there over these last few years that it wasn't as much of a transition to move in fully as I thought it might be." She shook her head. "Lucius is still getting used to having my hobbies under his roof, mind you, but he has his birds so I think it makes us even." Narcissa chuckled. Peacocks and cursed items were hardly the same but that wasn't the point.

"And what about you though? How have you been keeping? Anything that I've missed these last few weeks?"

Aaron Taylor-Johnson as James Frey ⤷ A Million Little Pieces | dir. Sam Taylor-Johnson

Frowning at the woman, Regulus stood straight though his body was still angled in a way that he was blocking the shelf. "What about I'm browsing this shelf currently did you not understand?" he muttered grumpily. "There's no common courtesy these days for the British tradition of queueing and waiting your turn. Go ahead," he said, staring at the man behind Greta who was also eyeing up the shelf that Reg had been browsing. "But make it snappy, I want to take my time choosing the best ingredients."

Greta had had a bit of a cold recently and she decided to slip into the apothecary and get herself some medicine so that she would feel better quicker. As there was someone at the shelf she needed to get to, taking quite a while she cleared her throat, apologetic smile on her face when Regulus turned around. "I just need some cold medicine and then I'll be out of your way."

@battle-scvrs

VILLANELLE Killing Eve / 4.08

Pandora never seemed to shy away from him, and it was that amongst other things that kept drawing him back. A firm hand pressed against the small of her back, pressing her to him. When the two of them were like this, the rest of the world seemed to fade away - there was only the curious, beautiful witch in front of him, and the hours that they could snatch away for themselves. Desire burned within his veins at the brief sharpness of her teeth, and he hummed a noise of approval. "Over, and over again," he vowed with a smirk.

Pandora's attention felt almost as powerful as the spell that had held him, though he knew that she was looking with a curious eye to see whether the magic worked. He'd spotted the brief flash of surprise in her eyes, though he knew that he had made it clear that Magnus was his only family. Anders Greyback was an unwelcome memory, but that was all. Fenrir hardly thought of the older man at all these days, and the only time he did was on mornings when he woke up with Magnus after the full moon and saw his son recovering better than young Fenrir ever had cooped away in that cellar under his father's hateful eyes.

Brushing the decades old bitterness towards his father away as Pandora summed up his patricide with simple words, Fenrir couldn't help but agree. "Fucking arsehole is more like it," he said, moving his arms to support her as she jumped him. "Oh, I know I am," he grinned, walking a few steps backwards to a nearby tree that he could press Dora against. After a few moments, he drew back ever so slightly, speaking against her lips. "Are we going back to mine? Do you need that clock still?"

A shiver rippled down Pandora's spine with the words he confessed to her. There were those she spent time with, but there was an appeal when she was the object of their desire and wanted to take her. Her teeth grazed along his bottom lip when he pulled from the kiss, a wanton need burning in her amber hues from him. The last thing she ever wanted to do was to tame Fenrir, it was his beast that called to her, captured her in this world they had built within the woods. "I know you will. You always make good on your word." There was sexual innuendo wrapped in her words, the anticipation slowly breaking her.

There was an intimacy formed being confined in his arms with him helping her achieve success with her spell. That he would be willing to take a risk for her and Fenrir would never know how much that would mean to her. Intent hues studies his facial features, his words, they surprised her, but she did not judge him. Pandora knew there was more to the story and when he was ready, he would tell her - her attention turned elsewhere.

An ecstatic smile appeared on her lips. It worked. Pandora couldn't contain the feelings that swirled inside of her, that all she wanted to do was to celebrate with him. "He was probably a jerk anyway." The words slipped free and she didn't waste time, wrapping her arms around his neck and jumping up that she could coil her legs around his waist. "You are so sexy." She murmured softly before capturing his lips in a heated kiss.

Much of the war was still being conducted in shadow. The Dark Lord had not made a grand claim for power yet, he hadn't grasped at the ministry - those things would come. The fact that the Dark Lord wanted to keep his true plans hidden for now didn't change the fact that people were being cut down on battlefields, that people had life changing injuries, and families were being shattered in the process. It was war in every way, and it was growing worse with each passing day. As Caradoc fell silent, Regulus picked his wand up again and continued patching up his boyfriend as best as he could. He wasn't an outstanding healer, but it would do for now.

"You did what you had to in the heat of battle. When faced with opponents who will use the killing curse without thought, sometimes stunners simply won't work. They may not be able to find out. He does have a daughter," Reg nodded in confirmation. "But if there weren't witnesses, they may not be able to figure it out." He froze at Caradoc's pleading, and he was torn. He wanted to protect Caradoc, but he knew that it was putting himself at unnecessary risk. "...I promise," he said after a beat of silence. "But if they come for you, I will fight on your side. I want you to know that. If it means breaking my cover early...we'll just have to deal with it."

“This is war.”

For some reason, those words of Regulus’s rang in his ears. Memories of his father teaching him about all of Britain’s wars, but mainly World War I and World War II, in the hot summer air, flashed through his mind. Stories of fallen soldiers, the looks on his parents faces when he solemnly told them about the war in the Wizarding World and the danger muggle-borns and muggles were in. Instead of understanding him, accepting him like he thought they finally might, they just held Caradoc’s younger siblings tighter and told him that if he wasn’t going to give up a life of magic, he could leave. They didn’t express any concern at all for their eldest son or the position he was in.

“I killed a Death Eater,” he repeated, a little louder this time as he had to repeat it to believe it. “The Death Eaters will find out and they will want to know who did it. He—he has a daughter, I think. I don’t know if she’s aligned with the Death Eaters or not. I should look into that . . . Somehow, I’m in even more danger than before. Reg, you have to promise me you won’t do anything risky. If you try to protect me, they’ll know you’ve betrayed them.” He looked at his boyfriend with pleading eyes. “I can’t lose you.”

Reg put the stopper back in the bottle of dittany, watching as Caradoc's skin started to knit itself back together and the wound looked several days old rather than fresh. With the most immediate issue dealt with, Reg cast a few cleansing charms over his boyfriend before casting a general diagnostic charm. With his magic indicating Caradoc's other wounds, Regulus was about to start healing again when Caradoc's words made him freeze.

From his position on the floor, Reg let his wand drop into his lap. He reached to take Caradoc's trembling hands, his gaze resting intently on the other man's face. "This is war, Caradoc. It's life or death, you had to do what you did to stay alive. He would have killed you without thought, and he wouldn't have gone home and felt a single scrap of guilt. I'm glad it was him and not you. And I'm glad you came straight here."

Biting down on his lip for a moment, Regulus was silent for a moment. "Did anyone see Edward die? Anyone that might identify you, that might retaliate?" Regulus might have started feeding the Order information, but to protect Caradoc he would fall back on his arsenal of dark magic and he would feel no guilt about it.

Caradoc inhaled sharply at the feeling of the sting from the essence, watching Regulus work on handling the wound. He had other wounds, yes, but he wasn’t really thinking about any of it. The pain was there, but it was nothing compared to what was haunting his mind. Something had happened tonight that would change his life forever. What if the Ministry found out?

“I killed Edward Avery,” he said, knowing that Regulus would recognize the name as a Death Eater. “I-I didn’t mean to . . . He was attacking us, he was going to kill us, I didn’t . . . Reg, I . . .”

He trembled, partly from the pain, partly out of despair. He had never dreamt that this would happen, even though he had been trained for it. Caradoc thought Regulus might hate him. “And everything fell down around us and I couldn’t move and I didn’t know what to do, Reggie.”

"I don't have cheese fondue nearly as often as I want to. Unfortunately I haven't convinced my five year old son that cheese fondue is delicious yet, so my recipes at home have shrunk down to kid friendly meals...which mostly means chicken nuggets," Fenrir said with a snort. "Grilled peaches and goats cheese sounds incredible. I feel like that would be good with some spice to cut through the sweetness of the peaches, some fresh chili on top perhaps. Yes, I'll owl it across to you later once my shift finishes. No point you trying to make an imitation, I don't mind sharing my recipe."

"It is one of my favorite cheeses. I always use it when I make fondue. Oh, goat's cheese is lovely, I prefer it paired with fruits or vegetables in a cold dish, rather than a main, if I'm honest. It is more of a summer cheese for me, I made a good salad with grilled peaches and goats cheese in my book that I've heard good reviews about from people that have tried it." Balsamic vinegar, leeks and goats cheese worked well together, she could see the recipe it come together in her head when he described it. "Really? Oh please, that would be lovely."

While Fenrir loved their physical relationship, it was the quiet moments like this where he felt like there was the potential for more. There was the undeniable issue of their difference in species, but for now, that didn't matter too much. Shifting slightly so that she could fit better on the couch, Fenrir leaned his head against hers. The warmth of the fire, a full stomach and the softness of the witch in his arms were the perfect concoction for a Christmas nap but he wouldn't dishonour Pandora or her time like that. "When they talk about the magic of Christmas, they don't talk about how feral five year olds can be with wrapping paper."

Noting the way that Pandora wanted to swiftly move on from discussion of her own day, Fenrir just snorted at the mention of Octavius. "I'm sure he fucking loved that. Someone will make a respectable man of him eventually," he sniggered.

Fenrir would not bring any of his hook-ups near Magnus, not wanting to expose the boy to any undue risk - or confuse him as to why his father was with different women. Fenrir and Pandora still weren't exclusive, but it had been some time since anyone other than Pandora had truly captured his attention. If it were just up to him, Fen would introduce Pandora to Magnus the next day. "I think it might be time. I would need to check with Nance though, see how she feels about it. She's almost as protective as I am, if not more. I will speak to her this week and see how she feels, if that's okay?"

Pandora leaned into his touch, resting her forehead against his, embracing the moment between them. She could see the tiredness in his eyes, shifting her body between the back of the couch and his, letting a leg drape over his waist, a palm coming to rest on his chest and her head on his shoulder. It was spending their time like this that mattered to the witch.

"My day was like the rest, besides a fancier dinner and a few extra family there." Pandora really didn't want to bore him with the irrelevant family talk, not that much attention was placed on her, which she preferred, blending into the wall, allowing herself to eat and quietly dismiss herself from the table. "Normal pureblood talk about marriages, for Octavius."

"One day, I want to be there with you two." Pandora let the words free in a soft tone. She knew all about Nancy and their co-parenting, impressed that they were able to do so. She also knew her feelings for Fenrir and they had discussed how to proceed with Magnus involved, which she agreed, whilst they figured them out. "I'd like to meet Magnus, if you think we are at that point." Hues glance up at him, the pad of her finger circling absentmindedly on his chest. She knew what she wanted.