Unintended

Chapter One: Unintended Visitors

One day the demons came. From some circle of hell they rose up to the nameless place, sending the residents into a mad scatter. Regulus had a strong hold on Samantha's hand and dragged her through the streets, searching desperately for some shelter. The demons were fairly merciless, picking off folk at random and dragging them away. They were acting like the kings of their personal playground.

Regulus pushed Samantha into the doorway of a grey building, shielding her with his body. "What's going on?" she whimpered, clutching at his shirt front.

"I don't know," he whispered, turning to peek around the edge of the steps. He felt Samantha grab at his shoulder, a death grip with blunt nails digging into his skin.

Footsteps echoed down the street. A short and squat demon came into view, all wings and scales, although to Regulus's eyes he seemed like he should be dressed in a trench coat skulking along a back alley somewhere. "Oi, Hastur!" he cried out in a rough voice. "I think 'e went this way!" The demon looked around and paused, coming to a quick stop as his eyes locked onto Regulus's.

With every little bit of magic he could dredge up he glared at the demon, clenching his jaw just a bit to add to the effect. The demon simply arched a scaly eyebrow, nodded, and shuffled along. Regulus sighed deeply and turned back to Samantha, pushed up against the granite wall of the vestibule. Her eyes widened suddenly, and she bit her bottom lip hard. "What is it?" he asked.

Samantha reached a shaking hand out, framing his left eye with her thumb and index finger. Then she jerked it back hurriedly as she shook her head. "N-nothing," she murmured, leaving Regulus a puzzled mess.

For some reason, his eyes were burning.

* * *

Another day, Samantha met a young boy who called himself Jason Tencate. "Oh, I know this sad place is only for a little while," he said, settling down on the curb. "I'm going to go someplace better soon. My mom believes it."

Samantha smiled softly, marveling at the hope this little boy was still able to hold onto. "Well I'm glad you'll be leaving here soon. It's not quite fun."

Jason nodded. "The starlight spirits told me, when they took me away, they said that I'd be going to a wonderful happy place. Did the starlight spirits take you too?"

"I think so..." Samantha trailed off, remembering the glow in those first few moments in the field.

"Why aren't you a kid then? I thought the starlight only took the kids. They told me that too," Jason asked.

"I was a kid when they took me, but I've been here so long that I grew up, I guess," Samantha shrugged, not really wanting to think about the implications of that statement.

"I'm sure you'll find your place eventually," Jason said with the conviction that only the young can have. "Someone will get you to that good place."

That night Samantha burst out into yells, right in the middle of dinner. "Is that why I didn't die properly? Because some stupid fool thinks I'm still around back there?!"

Regulus shook his head, raising a fork. "Doesn't that seem a bit illogical to you? How can what someone thinks from your former life affect you now? It just doesn't make sense."

Samantha looked down at the table, a few tears dripping out of her eyes. "I just want to rest," she whispered through salty, wet lips.

Later that night Regulus found her in the bathroom, hacking off her long, dark brown hair with a pair of dull scissors. She didn't stop until the stringy bunches were lying on the tile floor, and the scraggly ends fell somewhere around her ears and nose, keeping her eyes well hidden.

* * *

Regulus found that conjuring things had become much easier since his death. Especially conjurings of the alcoholic sort. When he'd tried it as a young student, everything ended up tasting much like he imagined certain foul potions ingredients would. Now, however, he was able to manifest all sorts of fine wines. He and Samantha decided that they should get righteously pissed one night, so they grabbed a blanket, a few bottles each, and headed up to the roof.

Why the roof? The only answer they could come up with was that it was a change from the flat.

Lying back on the blanket, he knocked back a slug of darkly sweet Shiraz (Leaping Jackalope Vineyards, 1973 vintage, one of the finer wizarding wines out there). He stared up at the cloudy sky, with only a few glimmers of light sneaking through. "You know, Samantha," he slurred slightly, "me family's got a tradition of naming their kids after the stars." Regulus waved a hand towards the firmament limply.

Samantha stole the bottle from him, drinking deeply (he had discovered that she had never drunk before and was throwing herself into the task with the eagerness of a Hogwarts student's first adventure in firewhiskey). She lay down next to him, her head on his shoulder, and stared up at the dim stars also. "Really? Regulus is the name of a star?"

"Yup. The little king in the leonine constellation. Whole lot of the Blacks, really, are named after those twinkly little things." His hand waved towards the sky again. "Lessee, we've got an Arcturus, an Alphard, Andromeda, Bellatrix that stinking whore."

"Think you've mentioned that before..."

"Prolly. Then there's Orion; s'was my dad. And can't forget Andromeda! Ran off to marry a muggleborn, and got blasted off the family tree."

"You say that like it's a bad thing," Samantha muttered, burrowing deeper into his shoulder. It had suddenly occurred to Regulus that he had an entirely muggle woman snuggled up against him at the moment, and wasn't minding it one bit.

"When I was young and stupid I thought it was. I've had some changes in view over time though. And that whole killing and torturing thing the Death Eaters fancied? Really not for me. Don't like to get my hands dirty if I can help it." The truth of the matter was that he was scared to death of what he was being asked to do by them, especially to people who he finally realized were just like he was, with their own sort of magic he couldn't even begin to comprehend. He went for the wine again, spilling some over his chin and down his neck. "And then there's Sirius." Regulus blinked blearily. "Can't see his constellation. Always used to be able to find it, but now it's not there. Nothing in this sky looks right."

Samantha looked up at the sky also. "Where's Sirius?"

"A long, long ways away. My bastard of a brother. Stubborn arse, really. Ran away from the family at sixteen and never looked back." Regulus trailed off thoughtfully. "He always knew what he wanted, though. Knew that the pureblood mania of the Black family wasn't for him, and stuck to that." He sighed heavily. "I thought maybe that once I had escaped the Death Eaters for good I could try and catch up with him, make things better between us...didn't happen though. Sort of knew it wouldn't; they weren't going to let me leave alive."

"I miss my brother too," Samantha sighed. "I think I had a brother, years back. S'not quite clear. Fuzzy little forest animal. Called him a buttmunch."

"Buttmunch?"

She shrugged, shoulders moving against his arms. "It seemed like a good idea at the time."

Regulus smiled in the direction of the stars, imaging that he could see Sirius through the clouds. "Brothers are definitely funny creatures."

* * *