BONUS TRACK: Closer

[Hermione Granger x Regulus Black]

Stranded in this spooky town
Stoplight is swaying and the phone lines are down
Floor is crackling cold
She took my heart, I think she took my soul

Closer / Kings of Leon [2008]

Fan casts: Regulus Black - Eoin Macken

Hermione shuddered as a gust of wind blew through her the chill whipping icy needles against her fingers, she stiffened slightly before steeling herself and marching forward at close to double her previous pace, her hands working furiously to tighten her insufficient jacket as she strode. It was one of those nights in late October where a sudden drop in temperature had taken everyone by surprise as if it didn't happen every year, she thought derisively. She maintained a fast pace but kept an eye on her footing as she detected the first signs of frost crisping the pavement.

Finally, her building was in sight, and Hermione fumbled in her bag for her keys, wishing she had for once headed Ginny's instruction to clear the thing out as her hand came across crumpled receipt after crumpled receipt. Working against her desire to get inside she stopped under the artificial glare of a streetlight to better be able to root around in her bag, it was the last of the illuminations before she would reach home and she would have no hope if she wandered further into the darkness. The inclement weather had made it much darker than it normally was, had she thought ahead of time she would have apparated straight into her living room from the office. Finally feeling a metal clink against the ring on her finger she pulled her hand up victoriously and raced towards the finish line, sighing in relief as she yanked the main door open and felt the warmth of the lobby flood through her.

Hermione pressed the button to call the lift as she opened her post box, pulling out a stack of muggle letters and scooting into the lift once it had belled its arrival. She was absently reading a 'local offers' pamphlet when an arm jutted out between the closing doors in front of her. "Hold the lift," a thick, decidedly male voice instructed urgently, and Hermione took a quick step backwards to reach the hold door button. The doors stuttered, eventually pulling back with a groan and a tall, slim man appeared between them, nodding gratefully to her before stepping into the space.

Hermione didn't recognise him, but then there were over a hundred flats in this block alone, she barely new above five people to speak to and that was only as far as a cursory greeting, she could hardly be considered a social being. He could even be visiting; she pondered to herself as the doors slammed closed and she stepped away from the illuminated panel to the back wall making some room for him to hit the button for the floor he wanted, but he remained where he was standing.

"It appears we are going to the same destination," he said, smiling warmly at her. She shyly smiled back; there was something about him, something familiar that she couldn't quite place.

The lift began its ascent, and she stuffed the ripped envelopes into her bag, it didn't appear that there was anything from Australia, not that she had been expecting it, her parents would need time to cool off to… her thoughts were derailed when all of a sudden the lift floor jerked violently, and Hermione was shunted forward, only just managing to place both hands on the wall to brace herself before the lights flickered and went out.

Great, just bloody great.

She reached into her jacket pocket for her phone to use as a light but as she grasped it, the emergency power came on. It made a horrid buzzing sound as it kicked in and then the lift was bathed in a dull light, coating everything in sight with a faint orange glow.

Hermione found herself in front of the panel of buttons again, and she turned to speak to the lifts other occupant, jumping a little when she realised he was a lot closer than she thought, standing almost directly behind her. They must have both been moved around by the aggressive stop. Her eyes unconsciously fell to his chest; she was eye level with the base of his neck, and he was just so… she flushed as she realised her mind had derailed and she could swear she heard a deep inhale as blood rushed to her face.

"I'll just try the alarm" she managed to stutter out before turning back around and cringing to herself at her uncharacteristic behaviour.

She pressed the tiny glowing yellow bell, and a crisp dialling sound rang into the small space, on an on the tone went but nothing happened, she tried again and again, but there was no answer. Huffing she pulled her phone out of her pocket and unlocked the screen, only to discover there was no signal.

"Damn" she cursed looking skyward.

"Problem?" the man asked silkily.

"Well no one seems to be answering the bell" she replied needless pointing to the button "and my phone hasn't got any bars… have you got a signal on yours?" she asked hopefully.

He shook his head, and she was about to say he hadn't checked when he spoke again "I don't carry one."

That was odd; Hermione had thought all muggles carried phones. She had only brought one recently, schooling at Hogwarts had left her somewhat behind in technology, but as she had opted to stay in muggle flats, she had to get to grips with things quickly so as not to stand out. She let her eyes sweep over the man again; he appeared to be about her age, no more than twenty-five, in any case, she would have considered that muggles without technology were slightly hippyish, but the man was immaculately turned out.

Hermione bit her lip and thought about what to do next, her mind went to her wand that was holstered under her skirt, against her thigh; she could have used it to get the doors open at least, but it was inadvisable to draw it in such a small enclosed space. The man was big, if he freaked out, she could very likely get hurt and then where would she be. No, it seemed it would be best to wait, the building was well managed, someone would have to detect that the alarm had been pressed sooner or later.

She shivered as the cool air seemed to seep in through the crack in the doors and the man shrugged his heavy coat off before holding it out to her. "Oh no, I couldn't, but thank you, though" she replied politely shaking her head.

He stepped closer, holding his arm almost against her chest "I insist" he said firmly. His accent was smooth and rich, aristocratic with an edge that she couldn't quite place. Though his tone seemed warm there was an air of command in his words, she didn't think he was likely to be persuaded; old fashioned values her Mother's voice chimed in her head.

"Thank you," she murmured, and he nodded. She moved to take the coat from him, but he stepped back, holding out the collar for her to put it on, feeling it was silly to try and resist a kindly meant offer twice in under a minute she moved to push an arm in. Once she had the thick coat on, she pulled on the sides trying to subtly snuggle into the much-needed warmth, only to still completely when she felt his hands on her neck.

"My apologies" he breathed against her already goose-pimpled flesh, "your hair was caught."

Hermione managed a nod before spinning abruptly, placing her back against the opposite wall, where her neck was safe from accidental touching, though she already missed the sensation. His jacket was big on her; the sleeves hung beyond her hands, and the double breasted front could almost wrap around her fully again. She turned her head under the pretence of freeing a trapped curl to sniff against the lapel, but she could detect nothing, not even the smell of the wool, no aftershave, no smell of man, nothing.

"It seems we will be here for a while," he said, seemingly without a care in the world. He leant back against the wall; now he was clad in just a dark blue jumper she could see better how his long, dark brown hair fell almost to his shoulders, thick eyebrows sat low above dark grey eyes and full lips. He was attractive, very much so, so handsome in fact that he was almost beautiful, would have been, were it not for the rugged casual air that offset his clean lines. He shuffled against the wall as if getting comfortable and pushed his long legs further out in front of him.

His mannerisms were so familiar.

"You are anxious to get home," he said cocking his head to the side, assessing.

"Yes" she admitted quietly, she didn't want to appear rude, but she did want to be at home right now, preferably with a glass of wine, curled up next to her grumpy cat in thick, sexless, pyjamas.

He smirked, and she seriously wondered for a moment if he had read her thoughts. "Why don't you pull out your wand then and get us moving," he said crossing his arms in front of his chest.

"How did you…." she began incredulously.

"I was a wizard" he interrupted.

"This is brilliant," she exclaimed jumping forward to reach into her bag. In the excitement she failed to notice that with all of their moving around, the long shoulder strap had tucked itself under her heel and as she stepped she was propelled forward, landing harshly on her knees and upending the contents of her bag as she clattered to the floor.

The man was on her in a flash, "are you ok?" he asked urgently, dropping down beside her.

"Yes" she breathed out, as pain lanced up her legs and she winced as she tried to climb "embarrassed more than anything," she leant down to pick up her things and her hands connected with her flat, compact mirror…

"Wait…" she said, her mind suddenly racing, "you said… you said was."

"I did" he confirmed in a quiet voice, and she started as she registered the sound was right next to her ear.

With shaking fingers she picked up the mirror and looked into it, only her reflection greeted her despite the man being crouched at her shoulder, and Hermione felt ice slip around her heart. For a moment it was as if she had seen the reflection of the basilisk from the second year again as her entire body went rigid. His hand on her hip brought her back to her senses, and she righted herself, despite her screaming knees, and stepped away from him.

"You're… you're…" she muttered without direction.

"Regulus Arcturus Black, at your service," he said with a slight bow and a wink.

"Your reflection? It wasn't… wasn't" she shook her head as her mind processed his words "Wait…. Regulus?"

"I expected you to recognise me sooner Miss Granger, I will admit, though it's not entirely gentlemanly to do so, to being a little hurt" his eyes glittered, and she realised with some confusion that he was teasing her.

Her brain couldn't process what he was saying, but then all of his little movements, his appearance, that was why she thought he had looked so familiar, he reminded her of Sirius.

Her fingers moved towards the pleats of her skirt, but it was too late.

"I don't think so," he said blankly while holding her precious wand aloft in front of her "thank you for keeping it in such an interesting place, much more fun for me than a pocket" his mouth pulling into a broad smile.

She felt her heart beat faster then, trapped; she was wholly stuck. "You're supposed to be dead" she whispered, her throat dry, keep him talking Hermione.

"Yes that" he responded in a bored tone "technically rumours of my demise were indeed correct" he explained.

Hermione shook her head trying desperately to organise her thoughts, "what... what are you?"

He smiled at her before creeping forward, the leisurely pace of a man, or whatever he was, who was holding all the cards, who had already won. Hermione heard a slick clicking sound as he opened his full lips and two large fangs descended into view. She backed against the wall, but there was nowhere left to go "look I just want to go okay, I won't tell anyone I've seen you" she said raising her hands in front of herself as if they would offer any defence.

"I'm so sorry Hermione, that's just not possible" he sympathised, actually managing to look sorry, somehow the conciliatory nature of his address made her so angry.

"Why didn't you?... The war" she all but shouted at him, he had left them all, left Sirius; his brother had thought he was dead.

If he was concerned by her yelling he didn't let on "I found once I was no longer living, mortal concerns mattered little to me, my parents would not have welcomed me back. They were better off thinking of me as dead" he said without emotion.

"Then why come here?... Why now?"

He flew in front of her then, his movements little more than a blur as he pinned her against the lift wall, his arms crowding her, before he stretched forward, tugging on a curl "can you not guess?" he taunted.

"What you happen across a girl to… to… to drink that just so happened to have a link to your former life?"

He moved back from her then, his cool grey eyes setting on hers, "it wasn't a coincidence Hermione" he said shaking his head slightly.

"What do you mean?" she panted.

"This took an incredible amount of planning, planning that I'm sure someone like you would appreciate," he said as he moved his head closer to her again, "I have learnt everything there is to know about you, everything I needed to know. I have been dead longer than I lived and I find it's time for some companionship."

"I can't offer you that… Regulus" she forced out the name, the word sounding strange.

"Maybe not right now," he said as he pushed his coat away from her shoulders "but tomorrow night you will be perfect."

Her eyes widened at the implication of his words, and a wicked smirk was the last thing she saw with mortal eyes, as the lights flickered again and the small space was plunged into darkness.

Driven by the strangle of vein

Showing no mercy I'd do it again

Open up your eyes

You keep on crying

Baby I'll bleed you dry