Regulus stared in surprise at Severus Snape, sure that he was a vision of the muggle medicine the mediwitch had given him. He blinked in a dizzy manner, his brow knit together.

"I am not a hallucination," Severus said, his voice low, answering Regulus's thoughts. "Your guard is down."

Regulus tried to open his mouth to ask a question and found his mouth exceedingly dry and all stuck together feeling. "How did.. y- you --"

Severus cut him off, "You're lucky."

Regulus raised his eyebrows. "D'you see where we are...?"

"Greyback returned to the presence of the Dark Lord after giving you that." Severus pointed to the wrapped arm. "And he told him what he'd done."

Regulus froze, staring at Severus.

"I told the Dark Lord that Greyback was wrong, lying, that he was mistaken about your scent. I lied to the Dark Lord for you. You likely felt the burning of a summons before I told him that."

Regulus hesitated, then, wincing to raise his arm, he pulled up the sleeve to show Severus the scarred remains of the place where his Mark had been.

Severus stared at the burned flesh, a look of horror and admiration flashed on his face before he could control it. "That explains why he accepted my words so easily..." Severus stared until Regulus pulled the sleeve back down and laid his arm to his side again. Regulus winced and struggled to get the arm back into a comfortable position again. Severus's voice lowered even further than usual, conspirational, "It will bring you comfort to know that Greyback was... severely... punished."

Regulus hesitated, then, "Dead?"

"No. But probably wishes he was."

Regulus's jaw tightened.

"You have to change your appearance again and your name and get the hell out of here before Greyback is recovered enough to come after you. I doubt he'll bother attempting to tell the Dark Lord again, which is both good and bad for you. Good because the Dark Lord won't know he's hunting you, but bad because -- well. Unchecked, Greyback can do whatever he sees fit with his prey." Severus's tone was was cold.

Regulus shivered. If Greyback at the Riddle House had been in any way "checked", he hated to imagine an unchecked version of him. 

"And he's burning with anger. I lied to the Dark Lord against him, but he sees it as your fault what was done to him... and after how long he was held in the crucio, it wouldn't surprise me if he is even more unhinged than he usually is."

Regulus stared at the same spot on the blanket as he'd done the night before.

"So my recommendation to you is to change your face and get the bloody hell out of the country. Go far away - as far as you can get - and don't ever come back, Regulus, or he'll come for you, and he'll most definitely kill you in the most horrible fashion he can come up with at the time... and anyone you are with..." he added, looking at the chocolate frog on the nightstand. "Which is why I am here. I know you've had Lily Evans here --"

Regulus whispered, "Potter."

"What?" Severus snapped.

"She's Lily Potter now." Regulus looked Severus in the eyes.

Severus's face was completely emotionless, but his eyes went from worry to panic to hatred and then... seemed to be completely dead and void of anything. He closed his eyes and the muscles in his jaw and neck tightened a moment as though he were swallowing a bitter pill, and then he he said, "I know Lily was here... and I will not tolerate you endangering her..."

"I wouldn't let anything happen to Lily Potter," Regulus said firmly repeating the name. "I wouldn't. She is --" he didn't have the proper words to say to describe how he felt about her. But he reckoned Severus could see it in his mind anyway. "I would die before I let something happen to her."

"Being around her, being near her... You're putting her in harm's way. If Greyback thinks hurting her would hurt you -- then she will become a target. If anything happens to her because of  you - I will feed you to Greyback myself."

Regulus flushed. "I'd feed myself to Greyback to save her, Severus."

Severus nodded. "As it should be."

"I'd feed myself to him before I let him get anyone else, though, to be honest," Regulus said. "Including you."

Severus chuckled, "Well. Aren't you the little hero. I cannot say I'd do the same for you. Or anyone else. Only Lily."

"Then I guess you're not completely evil." Regulus hesitated, then, "Severus?"

"What?"

"Do you know what Fingal's is?"

"Fingal's." Regulus hesitated, "Greyback said something about it to me before he bit me and -- I don't have any idea what it is or what it means. Is Fingal a death eater? Is his place the new headquarters or something?"

Severus stared at Regulus a moment. Regulus somehow managed to guard his thoughts, and he could tell it worked because Severus's eyes narrowed. "Greyback's thoughts are... harder to read for me.... than others. Being a werewolf, and being as... feral... as he is, his thoughts aren't always human." 

"Oh," Regulus said, disappointed.

"I suppose he was talking about Fingal's Cave."

"Fingal's Cave?" Regulus pressed.

"A sea cave," Severus replied.

Regulus had a severe sensation of  headrush, which was so similar to the feeling when he'd sat up earlier that he bent over the side of the bed and threw up into the bucket, which still sat exactly where James Potter had magicked it before.

Severus looked disgusted, his nose turned up in a sneer as he inched away.

Regulus gripped the side of the bed and the nightstand with shaking hands as he squeezed his eyes shut and tried to regain his composure. He muttered, "Muggle medicine," to cover for himself.

Severus murmured, "How... delightful."

"Yeah," Regulus muttered. 

The door to the hospital room opened and Regulus looked at his watch. It was morning and he looked at Severus with panic, and back to the door.

Lily Potter stood steps away, her eyes wide, staring at Severus Snape.

Severus Snape stood up, the seat scraping the tile loudly, and stared back at her.

James came up behind her and though he'd been laughing and smiling as he came in, he stopped abruptly, nearly walking into her back, when he saw Snape.

"What the hell are you doing here?" James asked.

"James." Lily's voice was firm.

James's mouth pressed into a line and he looked at the back of her head with an expression of nervous frustration, his jaw clenched. Regulus saw his fingers twitching to put his hands on her in a protective way, but also saw him drop his hands to his sides and flex his fingers open and closed as though the movement appeased his instinct.

"Severus?" Lily asked. "What are you doing here?"

Severus glanced at Regulus, then back to Lily. "He -- is dangerous -- to keep around." Severus had seen Lily thinking about a warm bed in a spare room, fresh sheets and the bag of Regulus's things sitting on a dresser in a room in a home - a home in Godric's Hollow, a home where she and James lived, where she and James had just come from - where they'd --- Severus turned away, shoving the thought of James Potter's morning activities out of his head with a violent sneer. He closed his eyes, but there wasn't a lot he could do to expel what he'd already stumbled upon in Lily's mind.... and even less to do about the fact that James's head was a horrible landmine of the same rubbish, and Severus felt sick and said, "Don't bring him home with you," he gestured at Regulus. "Protect yourself."

He started to shove past, but Lily grabbed his arm as he walked by, stopping him in exactly the same manner as he'd done to her a hundred times, her fingers digging into his skin as she stopped him.

James stared at her hand on Severus's forearm. The muscles in his arms tightened, his shoulders squared.

Her green eyes met his. Severus's dark eyes searched hers. Severus's heart felt squeezed, as though a fist had wrapped around it and taken hold of it. He felt a funny sensation - like skin crawling but deeper than that. He looked at the spot where she touched him - that was where it seemed to originate. He looked up at her again. "What are you --"

"Protect yourself, too, Sev," she whispered, and she let go of the spot.

Even stranger than what he'd felt while she touched him, he felt an even funnier sensation now, one that he did not like. It was one of absolute emptiness, of darkness, of hollowness. It was as though for a moment he'd been filled up with brilliant light, shimmering light and hope and -- and it had gone out. The second she let go of him, the second the contact broke. And he only just stopped himself from audibly gasping for air, as though his oxygen had been affected.

His eyes met James Potter's. 

A look of... pity? ...resided in them.

And that was the worst thing of all.

Severus shoved James out of the way and pushed out the door.

The tension in James's body went out of him the second Severus had left, and he went and grabbed the arm of the chair, inspected it as though expecting it to be greasy now that Severus had sat in it, and lowered himself down with a heavy sigh.

Lily stood precisely where she'd been for several moments, then drew a deep breath, and her face returned to it's normal cheery self. "The mediwitches say you can come home today!" she sing-songed. "I suppose it's been a time since you've eaten properly? It certainly looks it --"

"Kreacher feeds me just fine," Regulus said. Walls up, he grit his teeth, and stared at her.

"Well, it's - it's James's birthday, so we'll be celebrating, and --"

"I can't go with you."

"Of course you can," Lily answered.

Regulus shook his head, "I can't. I can't -- Sirius would never forgive you for it and I'd never forgive myself if something happened -- to - to any of you -- and Severus has just brought me some... information... I'd been hoping to find for a time and it's - very important that I go and - and do what I need to do."

"Don't be silly."

"I'm not being silly."

"You are being silly."

"And what about Sirius?"

It was clear James had no answer for that question.

"Sirius will --" Lily stopped, too. She also had no real answer.

"As much as I wish differently, you're not my --" Regulus paused. He'd been about to say parents, but stopped himself, changing it, "-- friends. You're Sirius's friends."

"We can be both," James said.

"You can't. Not if he's banished me from his life. And he has. And he is better off that way."

"He's not," Lily said.

"He is." Regulus was full of conviction. "He is better off without me and -- and I have things to do."

"What things?" James asked. 

Regulus shook his head.

"Regulus, you're not in any condition to be -- whatever you're doing. You'll come home with us and stay at least a few days until you're feeling better, then if you're needing to go do -- something -- whatever it is -- you can decide then. But you need a few more days. Your arm isn't healed - you can't even lift it properly yet." James's voice was firm.

Regulus grit his teeth. "I can't."

"You will." James said.

Regulus felt sick to his stomach. He took a deep breath. "Alright," he said.

Lily's eyes narrowed slightly.

"Good, now that we've sorted that out, let's get you up and we'll get home - they said you'll need support at first - the medicine -" James came over and he took hold of Regulus's good arm and helped him to stand up.

"Where's my wand?" Regulus asked, and he looked to the nightstand and spotted it.

"Here," James said, taking it up and holding it out to Regulus.

Regulus looked him in the eyes. "I'm really sorry. For everything."

"There's nothing to be --"

"Obliviate."

Lily gasped, "Regulus --"

"Petrificus Totalus."  James tumbled backwards, completely immobile.

Regulus turned to Lily. 

"Regulus - don't --" she said.

"I'm sorry. But I have to protect you from myself."

The vacant expression that came on her face cut him to the bone - knowing he'd done it to Lily was so much worse than having done it on James. He felt as though he had gutted himself and left his own heart laying on the floor as she, too, went stiff and fell backward into the chair.

Regulus grabbed the chocolate frog from the nightstand, glanced about for the things he'd taken from the Riddle House, but didn't see the bag of his personal stuff anywhere - which was rather unfortunate because along with the torn out pages of diary from the Riddle House, he'd also had the vials of amortentia, and several of his own parchments that he'd been filling out with notes from his research for the last three months.

"Damn it," he muttered, and he shook his head, frustrated.

He rushed to the door of the room, knowing the spells he'd cast wouldn't keep them immobile very long - he hadn't meant them enough for it to do any true damages or to keep them. He paused in the doorway and looked back at the Potters.

It really would be the last time he'd see them this time, he realized.

And he only had one more thing to say.

He hoped they could hear him.

"Tell Sirius that I am sorry that I was born."

He turned and left the room as quickly as he could. In the corridor, he used his good arm to hold onto his bad elbow, trying to support the arm so that it would hurt less as he moved quickly, stepping 'round mediwizards and witches and trolleys of supplies and he ducked to the stairwell and the moment he was in it, he paused for a second to let the hot tears rolling across his face come to a stop and he drew a deep breath and let it out in a stream, then wiped his eyes with his sleeve and he said, "Kreacher!"

CRACK!

"Master!!!!" Kreacher launched himself at Regulus, gripping onto his Master's leg. "Oh Kreacher has been most terrified for Master, why has Master not let Kreacher come to him, Kreacher could not because Master was thinking for Kreacher not to come and Kreacher has worried and so has Mr. Cadmus and --"

"I command you to take me to Number 12, Kreacher," Regulus said harshly.

Kreacher looked surprised by the tone of Regulus's voice. But he nodded, and disapparated.