Settled by one of the tables that shared a view of the street outside, Éponine impatiently waited on Regulus' arrival, hoping he would show sooner rather than later. It had been a battle in itself to convince Euphemia and Fleamont to leave her at the Leaky Cauldron, as they claimed it was no place for her to be by herself. The three came to the agreement that the couple would do a quick round of shopping around Diagon Alley and then return for Éponine. They made it abundantly clear that they weren't anticipating Regulus to show up.

She was sure between the letters she had sent to them, Sirius had managed to talk to Euphemia and Fleamont in person. He more than likely voiced his doubts about his little brother suddenly switching sides, and Regulus abrupt departure from the train station, left Éponine with little ground to argue on. She told them, of course, that she was certain that he would arrive at the Leaky Cauldron and then everyone would have to give Regulus a chance.

But as time went on, Éponine could feel the overwhelming shadow of a doubt, looming over her. Regulus had claimed that he had been thinking of going to his parents' home throughout the train ride, however, failed to mention it until they were just outside of the station.  Éponine wanted to believe that he simply hesitated to mention it sooner because he was nervous about her reaction. Obviously, she didn't want to go back to Grimmauld Place when he asked her, but she didn't want him to go either.

His reasoning though didn't sound that far-fetched. It was very possible that Walburga and Orion were out, visiting family members over the holidays to keep up with appearances for the sake of their reputation. And she knew how much Kreacher meant to Regulus, so returning for the house-elf didn't sound as crazed as others would make it out to be. Not to mention, Regulus wanting to reach out to his father one last time, she couldn't hold it against him either. She had never tried to reason with her parents after she had left, but that was because there wasn't much of a relationship for her to want to save.

Memories of Walburga and Orion flooded her mind as she sat quietly with only Toulouse keeping her company. Before Walburga had called her a "wretched whore" or whatever was the insult of the day, Éponine remembered how she had finally seen the other side of the woman she had feared for so long. Those vulnerable moments that made Walburga more than just a member of the Black family, but a mother, a wife, a friend. As for Orion, he had always treated Éponine with kindness and she would be the first to admit, it hurt her more to betray them than it did her own parents.

Éponine hadn't thought about her parents in so long, she wondered if they actually missed her? Maybe not enough to change their ways for her, but did they miss her at all? Near the end, they seemed to abandon her, but Walburga claimed they always asked about her in their letters. She never understood why they just couldn't make time for her, rather than making it seem like she wasn't important anymore.

It doesn't matter, Éponine told herself as she reached out to scratch Toulouse between his ears, it wasn't like they were going to change, so there was no sense in reminiscing or asking all the "what ifs" that were never going to happen.

"Nin, dear," Fleamont's voice brought her out of her heavy thoughts, noting the couple had returned as planned. She looked outside to see that it was dark and her heart skipped a beat in her chest.

"Just a little longer," she pleaded with them, " only a few more minutes."

"Nin."

The voice that called to her didn't belong to Euphemia or Fleamont, but rather James, who appeared at his parents' side. He didn't look upset to see her as she had initially anticipated, thinking he would side more with Sirius than her.

Taking the seat beside her, James reached out a hand and placed it over hers gently with a small smile.

"Why don't you go home with Mum and Dad?" he told her. "No sense in spending the night hanging around here-"

"I know he's going to show up, James," she said, " unless...unless something happened to him. What if he went back there and Walburga and Orion were there? What if they're not letting him go? He said he was going to come, James. He said...he said he was going to make the right choices, I believe him!"

James glanced back at his parents, both wearing troubled expressions as Éponine's voice grew frantic the longer she spoke. A few of the other patrons of the Leaky Cauldron were already eyeing their table and James didn't want to draw any more. With a small sigh, he took her hand and pulled Éponine to her feet.

"I'm going to wait here a little bit longer, Nin," he said, " and if he doesn't show, I'm going to talk to Sirius. If something has happened and Regulus is being kept at the Grimmauld Place against his will, we'll get him out of there-"

"James!" Euphemia gasped. "I don't think that's-"

James wasn't looking to argue with either of his parents or Éponine as he gently guided her towards Euphemia and Fleamont. He collected Toulouse, handing the cat over before giving Éponine the rest of her belongings. Afterwards, he settled himself in the same chair that Éponine had been sitting in.

"Go home, Nin."

The sound of cracking echoed in the alleyway as Regulus found himself nearly falling over into a puddle. After being forced on a trip of side-apparition, his balance was off, but Bellatrix wasted no time, yanking him by the back of his shirt to hold him close and upright. Within seconds, he found his face pressed up against the cold stone wall of the surrounding building, but he didn't dare cry out as he felt Bellatrix's wand pressed into his spine.

He had been foolishly caught off guard by Bellatrix's present inside the Grimmauld Place and it showed with how easily she had disarmed him. His wand was taken from him and placed in her possession, leaving him with no other option but to listen to his older cousin or face her wrath with no chance of mercy. She had grabbed him roughly from the armchair he had fallen into and pulled him up to his feet.

"How did you know I was going to be here?" he finally found his voice to ask. "How did-"

"Eyes and ears everywhere, Regulus,"  she told him, " did you think you were going to be able to walk away so easily? Did you forget the mark on your arm, the pledge you took for him?"

"I don't understand, where...how-"

Suddenly, she grabbed him by the chin, forcing him to look in the direction she wanted him too. Across the way, was the Leaky Cauldron, but that wasn't what she wanted him to see, but rather, two dark hooded figures, standing in the alleyway opposite of them.

"Your little letter to Sirius was heartwrenching, but it told us everything we needed to know and what we needed to do in order to get here."

Regulus felt his skin turn ice cold and it wasn't from the stone of the building. "My letter? You read my letter but...I...the letter never made it to Sirius, did it? You interfered!"

"If it makes you feel any better, the owl didn't suffer. It was a quick death," she cackled. "But I had a feeling that you would still run home, Regulus. You're too easy to read. I sent Aunt Walburga and Uncle Orion to a nice little dinner and waited. Sure enough, you showed and is that little Éponine over there in the Leaky Cauldron?"

His stomach dropped as he spotted Éponine in the presence of James and his parents, talking over something. She had waited for him, longer than he expected, but it showed that she believed he was going to come.

"My, she grew into such a beauty, didn't she?" Bellatrix whispered in his ear. "I'm sure some of the other men would agree. She would make a nice plaything for them, Ernest Nott would approve-"

Regulus started thrashing his body about in hopes of freeing himself from the strong grip of her hands, but instead, Bellatrix only pushed him harder against the wall. His face scraped against the stone, causing a stinging sensation but he didn't care about his own injuries. The fact that Bellatrix was threatening Éponine to become nothing more than a sexual plaything for Nott and the other Death Eaters had left him nauseous before sending him into a fit of rage.

Growing frustrated with his behaviour, Bellatrix knocked him to the ground and placed her knee into his back before leaning further down to continue taunting him.

"Please!" Regulus managed to gasp out. "Please, don't hurt her! Don't do it, Bellatrix. I'm begging you, just hurt me-"

His voice was drowned out by the sound of her laughter. "Oh, I do plan on hurting you, Regulus, your betrayal cannot go unpunished. You're just lucky the Dark Lord didn't wish to carry out your punishment himself. And as family, I suppose I could go a little easy on you. I'll tell you what, we'll make a deal. I won't touch a hair on precious Éponine's little head, I'll let her go, but you're going to have to prove your loyalty to the Dark Lord."

"H-how?"

One of the hooded figures from across the way, made their way over and only whispered low enough that Regulus couldn't figure out who it was. Not that he had met every Death Eater in existence, but he wanted to know who he was going to go after. Bellatrix's hold loosened as she received information before she stood upright.

"Oh, it's your lucky day, Regulus, the gods are smiling down on you. Éponine gets to leave here to enjoy a nice Christmas with her little blood-traitor family, and you? You get a nice family reunion with your brother because guess who's going to be paying you a visit at the Grimmauld Place possibly tonight?"

"No!"

Regulus went to scramble to his feet, ready to attack Bellatrix with no other option but to tackle her, but he didn't make it as he was knocked back into the stone wall. Pain shot up his entire back, knocking the air out of him as he gasped for a breath. But he continued to shake his head, saying "no" over and over.

"Just punish me! Leave them out of it! Just punish me. Kill me if you must-"

"That would be too easy, Regulus. And really, if I kill you, who's going to defend little Éponine from those hungry wolves? You're lucky, the Dark Lord doesn't wish to spill the blood of the pure, but when all of this is over, Éponine will have to beg for mercy and take her punishment for being a blood-traitor, as will Sirius. They may not be so willing if you're not around to reason with them, maybe you could be what saves them."

Unable to help himself, Regulus started to cry, feeling overwhelmed by the sensation of being trapped. He knew there was no sense in begging Bellatrix, she didn't care about his feelings if he was family by blood. Her form of mercy was nothing more than a drawn-out punishment, rather than a quick one.  She knew exactly where to hit him the hardest to make it hurt the most it could.

All Regulus could think of was regret, knowing he never should have gone back to the Grimmauld Place.

He was pulled up to his feet once more by Bellatrix so that they were making eye contact.

"We better get going, Regulus," she said, " you have a visitor coming, it would be rude to keep them waiting."

"Bell-"

"And if you don't do exactly as I tell you, I will feed Éponine to the wolves personally, and make you listen to her screams."

A/N:

I'm sad.