"I'm here for the show."

The theater door opened and Regulus stepped through into the auditorium. There was quite a crowd indeed, a good deal of nervous looking witches and wizards glancing about, and death eaters interspersed throughout, masks in place. Most of them were easy to recognize, even with their masks. Regulus glanced around, trying to spot anything that might tell him which way James Potter had gone.

"Was wonderin' if you were going to come," came a voice at his elbow and he glanced over to see Barty Crouch, shadowed by a couple other of the lads from Slytherin.

Regulus looked him over, letting his face curdle into one of disapproval or haughtiness. "Of course I came," Regulus replied. "I'm surprised you're here, rather. Usually you and --" he nodded at the rest of the gaggle of lads behind Barty, "-- hide behind the excuse of being at school."

Barty scowled. "Well it wouldn't do any good for the entire bleedin' house to be gone missing all the time would it?"

"Oh. Is it the whole house now?" Regulus rolled his eyes. "Like any one at Hogwarts would even notice with how daft they all are half the time." His eyes were scanning around, searching for any sign of James.

"Daft sure but not enough to miss it if all of us leave at the same time every other day!" Barty snapped. "Besides, they notice you goin' off with your stupid house elf... not all of us have that luxury to snap their fingers and go, some of us gotta actually work to go when the Dark Lord calls, and he appreciates that, he said that --"

Regulus cut around Barty suddenly, interrupting the obnoxious droning, "Really, your family has an elf too. If you really wanted to, you could come as quickly as I do."

"I can't use Winky!" Barty said, "I can't risk getting caught by my Father."

"Well," Regulus shrugged. "I guess it's more important for some of us to be here than it is for others... Excuse me a second." He'd just seen a curtain move awkwardly in what anyone else might've assumed was a draft, but he reckoned he knew better and so he stepped around Barty and the crew that had followed him, making his way around the edge of the auditorium.

He loitered around by the wall for a few minutes, looking around, slowly inching closer to the curtain. A man walked past with a tray full of high glasses with drinks on it and Regulus motioned and took one of them, taking another step closer to the curtain and sipping slowly. The glass covering the movement of his lips, he said, "I know you're there."

No response.

"You're lucky," he murmured, looking down as he lowered his glass, "That nobody else saw you. Your trainers don't exactly blend in with the scenery... nor do they entirely fit under your cloak."

When there was still nothing, Regulus smirked. "And by the by, what are you? Twelve? Wearing house sneakers... Merlin. You know you graduated, yeah? It isn't even that great a house, I mean--"

"Shut your trap, Gryffindor's the greatest house and --"

"There it is." Regulus's eyes twinkled. "Knew I could get you to talk."

Silence.

Regulus laughed. "Look, just stay close to me and keep your shoes covered, will you?"

He wasn't sure if James would obey or not, and he didn't have a chance to answer again as Barty Crouch came back over.

"Reg. You see that?" he pointed across the room.

Regulus looked where Barty was jabbing his finger toward. A group of men and women were talking in the main aisle between seats in the lower orchestra section, surrounding Bellatrix Lestrange, who was showing off some rather cool magic that had a great fiery snake coiling among the gaggle of onlookers, the tail of it hissing and sizzling as it moved wherever her wand bade it to.

"Bella's always quite the spectacle," muttered Regulus. "She and my dear brother are alike in that respect." He rolled his eyes.

Barty stared at her. "She's damned hot is what she is. Look... at... that."

Regulus made a face. "She's my cousin. And besides that, she's married."

"Yeah. Well. Lucky bloke." Barty was practically salivating.

"She would never go for you, Crouch," Regulus rolled his eyes. "The only person she'd ever quit Rudolphus for is the Dark Lord himself." Regulus watched Bellatrix cackle merrily as she spun about. "Reckon she'd do that in a heart beat if the opportunity arose, the way she simpers over him."

"Who wouldn't?" Barty said, "Any woman would be a nutter not to."

Regulus took a sip of his drink to mask his disgust.

They stood in silence, watching the theater fill up, and Regulus wondered if James was still right there by him or not. He glanced at Barty, who was still watching Bellatrix. "Do you know what he's dragged us all out here for anyway?"

A feverish glee rose up on Barty's face. "What? You haven't heard?"

Regulus shook his head.

"Well my, my, my... For someone who cares sooo much, I'd have thought you'd have known!" Barty was grinning manically.

Regulus glowered. "Forget it, I'll go and ask my cousin." He moved as though going to go and ask Bellatrix, but Barty quickly reacted.

"Wait, wait. I'll tell ya, you don't gotta go bothering Bella or anything..."

Regulus stepped back and slammed into James, whose cloak luckily stayed on. At least Regulus knew where he was now. He cursed as the drink spilled, though, and acted as though he'd merely been clumsy.

Barty snickered.

"Shut it and tell me already."

"Well Narcissa Malfoy told me just now as we were walking in that the Dark Lord's going to be having some fun. Seems he's got one of the blighters from the Order of the Phoenix."

"Oh?" Regulus felt sick, but he somehow managed to stay calm. He felt suddenly extremely aware of James, though, and he found his mind suddenly starting to kick into plans for getting James out of the theater as quickly as possible.

Barty chuckled, "Yeah." He lowered his voice, "And there are some members here that think they're undercover but they ain't... we know exactly who they are and where they are, and the Dark Lord ain't havin' no mercy on 'em."

Regulus stiffened.

Was he talking about James?

There was a sound toward the front of the stage - a masked figure was on the stage, and a wave of his wand had the lights up. Barty grinned, reached into his cloak and withdrew a mask, pulling it over his eyes. "I want to be up close for this one, you coming?"

Regulus shook his head.

"Stay in the shadows then," Barty said, and he set off down the row toward the front. It was no surprise that the haughty git went right for the seat nearest to Bellatrix as he could get.

Regulus muttered, "How many are here?"

"I dunno," James whispered.

Regulus stepped up behind the crowd as the seats filled, lingering as long as he could in the back, hoping the orchestra would be full and he'd have an excuse to stay standing. He was in luck, and he ended up in the far left of the room, under the overhanging loge.

Voldemort was suddenly there, standing upon the stage, having climbed up from the front, and applause broke out, of all things. Actual applause. This was easily the biggest gathering Regulus had seen, it wasn't just the inner core that typically sat around Malfoy mansion, but many people Regulus had never laid eyes on before. Some were not even proper witches and wizards. He saw goblins in their bankers uniforms, a couple hags with hoods pulled low over their eyes, and even a couple trolls, which he wondered at how they'd gotten in, given the central London entry point through the theater lobby. Everyone stared with rapt attention at the Dark Lord before them.

Voldemort smiled, and he waved at the applause, like he was some sort of celebrity, like he was one of the Beatles waving to an adoring crowd. "Good evening to you all, my friends... my true family..." he said with simpering looks about the crowded room. "I am here today to share with you the joy of gaining another step closer to the destruction of the social order as we know it..."

More applause.

Voldemort seemed to glow.

"Tonight, we have among us, people from all races, of all ages. Tonight we are united as members of a magical community, brothers and sisters united by the Pure Blood of our Ancestors."

Regulus bit his lip.

"Tonight, we are strong. Strong enough so as to crush the resistance to our rise to power! Tonight, we conquer an enemy!" And he waved his palm, the curtains behind him parted, and there, in the air above the stage, there hung two forms.

"Shall we show the Resistance what happens when you stand up against true power?" Voldemort asked, amusement and pride saturating his voice.

More applause, wild applause, ground shaking applause.

Voldemort waved to the curtain to move and there was revealed two floating forms, slowly spinning in circles, both struggling - though one far more energetically than the other... after all, one had been tortured far longer; the other was a fresh catch.

One was Benjy Fenwick.

The other was Jasper Odair.

Regulus barely breathed. He reached out to feel for James, but there was no James there. "Fuck," Regulus whispered, and he felt his hand twitch to his wand. Whatever was about to happen... it was about to get really messy.