Severus Snape was halfway down the stairs of St. Mungo's when he got a funny feeling in his gut. He stopped on the stairwell, hand on the bannister, knees bent between two steps, and had this sudden urge to run - not walk, but run - back to the room.

He turned around.

He was almost back to the floor Regulus's room was on when he heard the tell-tale crack of a disapparation on the next landing above him, though he hadn't heard any thoughts -- it had to be Regulus, he realized, or he would've heard the thoughts of the person there.

The knot in his stomach grew and he hurried, nearly tripping on the next flight of steps, finding the empty landing as he'd expected, and into the corridor. "Excuse me," he pushed around a couple trolleys and the mediwitches pushing them, and he strained, listening, sifting through the minds he was hearing, pushing outward to find Lily's even as he ran down the corridor toward the room.

Confusion struck him - it was James Potter's mind, not hers, but he knew if one was feeling it then she would be, too, and for the first time he actively listened to James's mind as he tried to sort out why he was confused, why they were there --

Snape burst into the room and found both Lily and James frozen in place in their chairs.

"Finite incantantum," he waved his wand first at Lily, and then at James.

James had a splitting headache, and he said so the moment he could move. He couldn't remember why he couldn't move, but it was rather good to get to move again, and he felt stiff as he stretched to crack his neck and back.

Lily was beside him doing precisely the same thing.

"Evans?" he asked.

"My stars," she groaned.

"Evans? Are you alright?"

"Am I alright? We're in bloody Mungo's - are you alright?"

"Aren't we here for you?"

"I - for me? No? I'm not hurt? I don't think. Are you hurt?"

James did a quick mental inventory of all his limbs. "I'm not."

"Then why are we at St. Mungo's?"

"Dunno," James said. He sat forward and looked at the empty bed before them. He looked around, disoriented. Something deep in his stomach twist as his eyes landed on Severus Snape in the doorway.

Lily's voice was trembling, "Severus?"

"What did you do?" James demanded, staring at Severus, "What did you do to us?"

"Where did Regulus go?" Severus asked, looking at Lily, completely ignoring James,

"Regulus?" Lily's confusion only heightened. "Is he hurt? Is he why we're here?" Lily asked.

"Regulus," James hissed. "Regulus, he must've been here." He looked at Severus, "That's what you're doing here. You're - you're helping him somehow?"

"I was, but I don't know what he's doing now," Severus answered straightly, his worry over Regulus Black driving him to civility with the one man that he never dreamed he would have civility with.

"Fenrir Greyback bit him," Snape answered. "Yes, that's why you're here."

Lily gasped, "Greyback? Oh my stars. On the moon? Is he a werewolf?"

"No," Severus answered. "But Greyback is hunting him, and that's what I came to warn him of, and it... appears Regulus may have decided to --" To what? To face the Dark Lord? No, that didn't seem right. What was he doing?

Severus was about to explain more from his point of view, when a sudden flash went through James's mind, and thereby caught Severus's s attention. A beach - a beach strewn with clocks and a particular watch in his hand... the time on it stopped, the face of it blank, but familiar. Familiar in James's mind, familiar in Severus's mind, too, for he had seen that watch - no less than five minutes ago - functional and glowing from Regulus Black's wrist.

"Those clocks," Severus said, looking at James. "Where are they?"

James blinked in surprise. "Excuse me?"

"The clocks in your head."

"Severus, stop looking at his mind!" Lily snapped.

But James was staring at Snape with a mixture of fascination and inquiry. "You can see them?"

"Yes, I can see it. What is that? A memory? Where are they?"

"It's a dream," James admitted. "I've been having it some time now."

Lily looked concerned, "What? What dream? You haven't told me about a dream...?"

"I didn't want to upset you."

"Think about that again," Severus snapped.

Lily walked over and put her hand on James's arm as he closed his eyes and thought hard on the dream, watching it play out in his mind's eye, knowing Severus was watching, too.

"That watch." Severus's words were sharp.

"I always wake up in a panic after picking it up," James explained.

James and Snape made eye contact.

"It's Regulus's watch."

"Regulus's --?" James suddenly saw it in a flash in his memory....

The mediwitch lifting Regulus's arm... yesterday? wait - the mediwitch - Regulus was here - and the heartbeat in the room, it had filled the room - and the witch held Regulus's arm and the watch - the watch was there. She stared at it to keep time as the beats of his heart thumped-thumped-thumped.

"That's a nice watch," she said, writing down the result on a chart.

"Thanks," Regulus said, "My brother gave it to me."

James reacted as though gut-punched, squatting down to keep his knees from giving out, his palm going out against the floor and the other hand catching onto Severus to balance. "Oh no. Oh no, no, no. Oh no."

"James?" Lily gasped and knelt beside him as Severus stood, the image of the waterlogged watch filling his mind as it burned into James's mind in horrible understanding.

"We have to find him," Severus said.

James looked up. "We gotta find the beach."

"A beach?" Lily asked.

"Yeah, the one in my dream."

Lily paused. "A - a beach with... with clocks?"

"Yeah, as many clocks and clock bits as there would normally be rocks or stones," James explained, "Though I reckon that's just symbolic and the actual beach would just have stones and sand and such on the shore."

Lily stared at James, her eyes wide. She'd seen such a beach once...

"Mopsus?" Severus asked.

Lily looked up at him - and he slowly knelt down so he was on level with them, looking at her with worry in his eyes.

"Mopsus?" James asked in a different way, looking from Severus to Lily. "What?"

"When you were --" Lily paused, eyes flickering to Severus, then back to James, "-- in - in Havmork, I -" She could still see the clocks, the spinning gold one so similar to one she had now at home on their mantel, and the watch that Mopsus had opened and prodded along to keep it ticking... She could still see the beach, strewn with rocks, the shore outside of the little house that Mopsus had kept his clocks in. "But I haven't any idea where that was," she said, seeing Severus's comprehension.

"Greece, most likely, if there is a Mopsus connection... but I don't think that's where Regulus has gone."

James looked helplessly between them, not able to see the vision Lily and Severus were sharing.

"I think mine might be the beach by Maryrose's house. Remember her birthday party? - on the shore by the Jenkins's house?"

"Sirius and I left her birthday party," Lily flushed.

"Well me and Maryrose went for a walk and we went by this big ol' cave... and -- well we were -- erm, you know -- exploring around a bit..."

Severus could see them pressed to the wall of a cave, snogging, and he rolled his eyes at the word exploring.

"...and there were -- well, in the water, there were loads of --"

"Inferi?" Severus saw the memory of the ice-cold, grey skinned hand reaching out of the water and grabbing hold of James's ankle.

James met Severus's eyes again. And a great many flashes of things James remembered about that cave rushed into his mind - a jumbled mess of memories that had and had not happened in this timeline, so many of which he couldn't even sort out which ones were true and which ones were remnants.

Severus's eyes narrowed as the flood jumped and jumped and twisted into things he knew never actually happened but were here in James's mind as memory.

But the thing that stood out to Severus was that it looked such a lot like Fingal's Cave. He remembered his mother telling him about the Giant's Causeway and the legends of a Giant bridge that spanned the gap between the shores of Ireland and Scotland... how it had crumbled away into the sea, leaving only the twin sites on either side of the sea, forever connected by myth and legend...

"Do you know what Fingal's is?"

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

The weight of the thoughts that had streamed through Regulus at that had been overpowered by the sudden need to vomit and Severus hadn't sorted through all the mess of his mind then, he'd been too overcome by trying not to be sick himself in reaction to Regulus's doubling over and retching loudly.

Now, Severus knelt in the hospital room, facing James and Lily.

"We have to find him," James said.

Regulus and Kreacher landed on the south east side of the cave's mouth, on a small outcropping of rock that extended into the sea. The tide was out a bit, and the rocks were covered with algae and silt so that Regulus could tell they would be covered up once the tide rose again. The gash in the rock face of the Island of Staffa caught the sun and the wet stone inside seemed hued in tones of brown, purple, blue, and green. The air smelled of brine.

He looked up at the huge gap in the rock wall and he walked slowly closer, his palm on the wall, bracing himself, being careful to watch his steps as he moved, leaning 'round the mouth of the cave to stare into its depths. It snaked away into the cleft of the rock, narrowing as it went, darkening, until it curved away far off in the distance, the sound of water ebbing and flowing echoing deep, deep within.

A sort of panic overtook him and he backed up, back into the sunlight outside, the darkness having frightened him. He looked up at the sky and the light, and he took deep breaths to slow his heart rate.

Regulus stared at the sea, stretching away. Barely through the haze, he could make out two points - one to the south east and one to the west that were other islands in the Hebrides, but between them - and it's here he started most wide-eyed - was an unending stretch of blue that went off into the thin line of the horizon unbroken. He pictured the map he'd been looking at. That stretch of blue curved with the earth and was unbroken all the way to America.

The thought made him feel incredibly small.

He hadn't spent a lot of time near the sea. Walburga and Orion had not been inclined to holiday at the sea the way many of their cousins were. Orion had taken them once or twice, but mostly they hadn't gone, and the few memories Regulus had of the beach consisted of Walburga screaming for him to stay close to the shore, where she could see him, and Sirius splashing him or dunking him under so that salt water filled his mouth and he would be spluttering and spitting and rushing back to Mother crying.

He'd never really paused to just stand and stare at it.

The dots of sunlight over the water cast a thousand diamond-like points of reflection and he thought of the Kelpie Eggs that Professor Kettleburn had back at Hogwarts that he never did get to see.

Transfixed as he was, he slowly lowered himself to sit down on the stones, his legs dangling over the edge of some of the hexagonal rocks that surrounded him. "Look at it, Kreacher, it goes on forever, doesn't it? Like the sky with stars in it."

Kreacher stood on a stone a couple feet away from where Regulus had sat down, his ears twitching nervously as he looked around. "Master, Kreacher should be taking us home, we should be going home, it is not safe for Master here..."

"It's okay, Kreacher."

"It's not okay, Master Regulus... It's not okay... Kreacher is very scared for Master... please... let Kreacher take Master home..."

Regulus stared at the water.

Kreacher moaned a little bit and tugged on his ears.

"Kreacher, why don't you go and get that gobstones set?"

Kreacher looked up at Regulus. "Here? Master is wanting to play gobstones here?"

"Why not. Go on, we'll have ourselves a little bit of a holiday before --" Regulus cut off. He glanced at the mouth of the cave. "Go on, Kreacher."

Kreacher looked about, as though to check the surroundings were safe enough to leave his Master for even a moment, then disapparated away.

It was quiet without Kreacher there, the only sound was the water as it washed against the stones and lapped against the rock wall behind him. He could hear the sound of the water echoing inside the cave, the way it does in particularly large seashells. He looked up at the sun and his eyes followed it's trajectory.

When Kreacher returned, he was golding the gobstones set, the stones themselves tucked into a velvet bag hung 'round his wrist. He balanced the stone on one of the larger stones near Regulus's knee and started setting it up.

"You know, we have the perfect seats for sunset," he said, pointing. "It'll go down just -- there. Or there about."

Kreacher was muttering to himself as he placed the gobstones across the board.

"I think I should like to see the sunset..." Regulus's voice was wistful. "I bet it's very beautiful from here." His hand absently slid into his pocket, moving over the locket that was his pendent in disguise.

It used to be when he rubbed the pendent, the words went through his mind in her voice - but now all he felt was a cold reminder of what lay further inside the cave... and echoes of the things that Liquid Nightmare might bring out of him... His fingers released the locket in his pocket and he murmured, "I need to see something beautiful to remember in there or I'll never make it out for sure..."

He didn't expect that he would anyway, no matter how beautiful that sunset was.

He didn't reckon he had enough happy memories in his entire life, if he stacked every one of them on top of one another, that could outweigh the bad ones.

There were such a lot of bad ones...

And they seemed to swirl in his chest... dark and liquidy... just waiting....

Like the water in the bottom of the cave below...

Kreacher looked up at Regulus. "Master?"

Regulus stirred his mind away from the dark things it had sunk into. "Is the board ready?"

"Yes, Master Regulus."

"Very good," Regulus looked it over. "Best 3 of 5?"

Kreacher's ears twitched merrily. "Yes, Master Regulus." He paused, then raised one hand in warning. "Master must be aware, though, that Kreacher has been practicing."

"Practicing!" Regulus hooted, and he smiled at his elf. "And how do you practice, Kreacher?"

"Oh Kreacher plays against himself, Master Regulus sir. He plays left hand versus right hand and Kreacher's left hand is the one that is getting most good at it. My left hand almost always beats my right hand, Master!"

Regulus smiled, "Is that so, Kreacher? Perhaps we should switch sides so you are playing with your left hand then?"

Kreacher looked at the board, then nodded, "Oh Master is right, yes, Kreacher shall switch sides."

Regulus watched as Kreacher dutifully rotated the board, and he bit his lips to hold back a laugh, his smile trembling as he looked at the elf.

What would happen to Kreacher after tonight? Regulus wondered.

"Kreacher?"

"Yes, Master Regulus?" Kreacher was biting his tongue, working at balancing the board just so.

"Thank you for everything."

Kreacher looked up at Regulus. "For what, Master?"

"For being my best friend."

Kreacher's ears lay back against his head and his eyes searched Regulus's. "You are Kreacher's best friend, too, Master Regulus," he said in a croaky sort of voice.

Regulus smiled.

They played many rounds of godbstones there on the rocks at the Island of Staffa. It was true, Kreacher was such a lot better than Regulus remembered, and, though there were a couple times that he let the elf win, there were a couple rounds that Kreacher's left hand truly did beat out Regulus's and Regulus praised the elf highly each time. Kreacher's ears flapped with joy at the praise, and the fear and sadness that had been in the elf earlier lifted and Regulus hoped that it would last, that the good memory wouldn't be completely obliterated by the ones that would come.

It was cold, but Regulus kept them magically warmed and they paused now and then to watch seals basking on the stones closest to the water, which jutted out toward the unending span of sea. There were a few birds that swooped through the air, too, and at one point the sky darkened and Regulus thought it might rain, but that had blown past, and he was glad for it because he so, so wanted to see the sunset.

As the day passed, the medication started to wear off, and the ache in Regulus's arm started to come back, a throbbing that seemed to match his heartbeat and he tentatively lifted the bandages to see there was a bit of blood seeping from the gruesome lines of black stitches that zig-zagged along his jaggedy edges.

When the sky started to turn lavender and pink, he helped Kreacher to return the gobstones to their bag, and with a wave of his wand he vanished the board and the stones away.

"Look at that, Kreacher," Regulus pointed.

Just as he'd thought, the sun was setting on the horizon line, a burning orange disk seeming to be falling into the water itself, turning it golden. It was so beautiful so as to seem imagined - like a painting come to life.

Regulus felt Kreacher climb up onto his lap. The elf sat sideways, but instead of watching the sunset with him, Kreacher pressed his face into Regulus's chest and his ears lay flat to his head. His narrow little arms wrapped about his Master's neck and he hung on tightly. Regulus stroked Kreacher's back gently.

He could feel scars on the elf's skin where Orion and Walburga had punished him in the past, and he closed his eyes, pained by the thought of anyone ever, ever hurting his poor Kreacher. One day, he realized, Walburga might be freed from Azkaban, and if she was, she would return to Number 12 Grimmauld Place and she would be Kreacher's Mistress again, and the thought that he might not be there to protect Kreacher from whatever might be fall him there was enough to make his resolve to enter the cave shake.

But he had to. He had to destroy the horcrux... whatever that might take.

If he didn't, then Voldemort might never be defeated - he was the only person alive who knew about the horcrux, and the liquid nightmare had been made for him, hadn't it? What if he was the only one besides Voldemort himself who could get the locket out?

Saving the entire wizarding world - and by extension, most likely the entire world, because once Voldemort had conquered one would he not use the power he had to go on and counquer the other? And what would keep him from mastering death itself with the Hallows, like Cadmus Peverell feared? He could free Grindelwald, if he wanted to, and together they could conquer anything... and if Voldemort could not die... well, what could would any effort of the Order of the Phoenix, or Albus Dumbledore, or any so-called Chosen One do?

No, the horcrux had to be destroyed, and if it meant dying... well, it was better he, he who had nothing left to live for, that did it, wasn't it? The only thing he had was this - this mission to see to it that Voldemort - Tom Riddle - that this snake of a human being never hurt another person, never stole away the life of another person the way he'd stolen away his - Regulus's - own life.

Bit by bit, Voldemort had killed him.

And maybe he, Regulus, wouldn't be the one to finish the job, but he could at least be one of the bit-by-bits that killed Voldemort right back.

Kreacher's scars were the closest thing to a purpose that he had beyond that.

"Kreacher," Regulus whispered.

"Master Regulus?"

"I command you not to let any Master or Mistress harm you in the future."

Kreacher shifted his head and stared up at the bottom of Regulus's chin as he spoke.

"You are not to listen if any Master or Mistress commands you to punish yourself, and you are not to accept being punished. If your Master or Mistress harms you, or orders you to hard yourself, then you are allowed to defy their orders."

There was silence between the pair and Kreacher whispered, "Why would Kreacher have a Master that is not Master Regulus?"

Regulus was silent.

"Kreacher does not want any other Master."

"You have others already, Kreacher, you have Mother and Sirius and any other member of the House of Black," Regulus said. "And if any one of them hurts you, then you are no longer obligated to follow their commands. Do you understand?"

Kreacher could feel Regulus's hand tracing the scars.

"Yes Master Regulus," he whispered.

"I command you to be loyal only to those who treat you well, Kreacher... Regardless of their blood."

"Yes Master Regulus," Kreacher said.

Having taken care of that, Regulus gently pried the elf off his chest and Kreacher stood on the stone beside Regulus as he stood up, staring at the last golden beams of the sun's light streaking up from the indigo-lavender horizon, the sky darkening like the closing of a lid over the earth. He dusted off his trousers and with a deep breath, he turned away from the light, feeling ready to step into the darkness.