Chapter 316: Regulus's room [bonus]
12 Grimmauld Place, Regulus's room.
He stood at the window with the London night spread out beyond it, Muggle streetlamps glowing in the distance, their dim yellow light spilling from the tops of the posts onto an empty street.
A world away from everything he'd just lived through.
Twenty minutes ago he'd faced the most dangerous wizard of the age, and under that man's Legilimency he'd held every secret behind a performance.
Now he stood at his own window, watching a Muggle walk a dog.
---
Christmas morning in Cokeworth came clear, the weather better than anyone had a right to expect.
A skin of frost lay along the rooftops down both sides of Spinner's End, melting now, droplets running off the slate tiles and dripping onto the sills with a soft tick.
The street stood near empty. Somewhere down the way a chimney sent up a thin straight line of smoke.