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Disclaimer: For the final time on this story I claim I don't own it. Nor do I make money from it. This is fan fiction, enough said.

Oh and I don't own the song, I don't even know who does, sorry I borrowed that too…..

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Arielle had sent the letter, all we had to do now was wait. Regulus paced up and down my hall, burning holes through my carpet. Regulus had decided to use my new place as a meeting point because he couldn't risk Bellatrix snooping around, she was already to nosey as it was.

I thought Regulus would have been calm with his old school friend around but she only seemed to bring more emotion out of him. She sat next to me watching him in his anxious state.

I looked to the blonde girl next to me. She smiled at me before going back to humming a familiar tune. I frowned trying to remember how it went. Something about pockets and fading away. I shook my head as the door flung open.

Dorcas Meadows was truly a sight. She was a person I would instantly turn my nose up at in the street despite her family being one the purest still around. Even in her oddly assembled outfit she oozed confidence. She stuck out her hand for reach of us the shake.

"Dorcas Meadows. We've meet a couple of times, but you were both snotty faced kids back then." She groaned. " God that makes me feel old."

I studied her for a moment, her face a lot different then I originally remembered. The first time I saw her I thought she would have been in her late twenties or early thirties but she was older. Her age was etched with elegant smile lines and her long fringed covered her lined forehead. She had to be closer to forty, even her wild shaggy blonde hair couldn't hid that.

"So formal." Arielle swung her feet back and forth. " Seems so unnatural on you." She looked over at Dorcas, who laughed.

"I can do formal, you know. It is completely beneath me but." She sighed dramatically, causing Arielle to laugh. " How do you do Lady Arielle? It has been quite some time since we last conversed, how have you been? What of your family?"

"Is conversed even a word?" Arielle laughed.

"It is, my dear." Dorcas shook her head smiling. " How appalling, has the education department really fallen that far? No wait, I don't want to know the obvious. Shall I continue?" With Arielle nod of approval she turn to the Black pair. " And who might the fine young gentlemen be? And who is his stunning lady friend?"

"Regulus Black."

"Narcissa…Malfoy." I was still getting use to the change. It was hard saying that. Malfoy. It wasn't as if I regretted marrying Lucius it was just the feeling of being a Black anymore. Loosing my name was like loosing part of my identity. As if I had lost a piece of me.

I almost felt detached from my family. I was no longer a Black, I was a Malfoy. It was unnerving. The hardest part about it was that my marriage was pulling Regulus further away from me.

"Ok, now that the formalities are out of the way." A smirk lingered on the woman lips. "What can I do you for?"

"Simple. I want out."

"I'll assume you mean the death eaters, shall I?" She waved off his interruption. " The only way out is death, ironic isn't it?"

Regulus's eyes narrowed. " Fuck up, is more like it."

Dorcas dropped her hands over Arielle's ears. " You can't say that in front of young ladies. You play gentleman until you tie them down then you can be as crude as you want. Don't you know anything?" Regulus laughed as Dorcas winked. I cringed. There was something so incredibly wrong about hearing the bitter despair in his forced chuckle. " But in all seriousness kid, anyone that decided to have a change of heart doesn't tend to see the next sunrise."

"I know." He paused looking thoughtful. " And that is why I am going to take as many down as I can."

" Interesting." Dorcas spun her wand in her fingers before tapping it to her lips. "Hmm. Ever thought of being a spy? You could work for me and the Order."

"Really?" It was the first time in a long while that I had seen real life behind those eyes. I shut my own eyes, unable to look at him. That light he had lost had been my fault and now he was just as trapped as before, but this time if things went sour, there would be no punishment just death. I shuddered opening my eyes.

"Truly." Dorcas's eyes twinkled.

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"Dorcas and Regulus often meet here at the manor. As the months passed Dorcas had Regulus doing all kinds of things but mainly she wanted information. Some night he would look terrified and others he was almost smiling. I never knew what was going on but whatever it was, was big." Narcissa studied Harry's face. " It wasn't until one night I found them yelling at each other, did I realise the time for Regulus had come."

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"I will not do nothing!" Regulus was yelling, anger burned through him. I stood back silently watching them. They hadn't noticed me slipping into the room, their argument was the centre of their universe.

"Then you must run!" Dorcas seemed almost as upset as he did, perhaps more.

" I don't want to run!" He screamed back. " I am not a coward!"

I let my eyes flutter shut, choking back the sob rising to my throat. I knew exactly what he meant, I knew how much it meant. It didn't matter if it was killing him as long as he wasn't like his brother. The abandonment he felt when his brother left, ran deeper then any other trace of emotion. Regulus had been dead since he left. Broken like shattered glass. He would never walk away from his family, no matter the cost. Even if that meant his own life.

I could feel the tears rolling down my cheeks as Dorcas's voiced had dropped.

" Then you will die."

My heart ached at the clarity and calmness of her tone but it was nothing to the emotions that flooded through me as I caught Regulus final words.

"I don't care."

And with that said I slipped back out the door without being noticed.

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The next time Regulus came too me, he handed me an envelope. He made me promise not to open it yet. I was crying, begging him to stay. He shook his head, not saying the word I knew he meant too.

Goodbye.

"Cissy, come on please don't cry." He was begging me silently not only for my sake but for his. He frowned suddenly before a slow smile crept across his lips, his hand landed on my stomach gentle. " Not when you should be smiling. His going to be just as beautiful as his mother and as arrogant as his father." His words only made me cry harder as I throw my arms around his neck. I didn't know how he knew, I hadn't even told Lucius yet but somehow he always knew. "Your going to be a great mother." I laughed, tears still flowing down my cheeks.

"Thank-you." I think he knew I meant it for everything. It was my acceptance, my goodbye.

It broke me as he pulled away, leave my life forever. I spent that night sitting outside with Lucius. I had watched the stars for what felt like decades but I had never seen a star fall, not until that night.

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Harry seemed to know Narcissa wasn't talking about the light in the night sky. He looked almost remorseful as he looked at her.

" What happened to Regulus killed a part of me. I could never quite look at Bellatrix the same. She was the one to confirm what I already knew. It was only when she told me about what they did to Dorcas Meadows did I truly feel the existent of the situation. Dorcas had died a heroes death. She had died trying to protect Regulus. She fought hard, no simple death eater could bring her down. Voldemort had to kill her himself." Harry noticed how close Narcissa was to tears. " She only got about three lines mention in the post. She went up against Voldemort killed dozens of death eaters but not a word of that mentioned in the paper. Just a tiny little death notice just below Regulus's." She sighed sadly.

"Regulus was killed in mere seconds after her fall, already half dead from his mission. " Narcissa wiped a tear from her eye. " He was only eighteen." Harry felt for her, he knew how hard it was loosing someone you love.

"I was distraught. Only the letter he had left me, eased my pain. I was proud to know that he had taken a piece of the Dark Lord's soul with him. At least he tried to make a difference."

"You knew? You knew all this time and yet you did nothing?" The accusation was on Harry's lips.

"Yes, I knew and still did nothing." She stared at Harry long and hard.

"After everything I had already been through I wasn't about to go off and save the world. I had lost almost my whole family, in a way I felt as if I had. But then I gained one. Draco was born the next year, I had a child to protect and I did it the best way I could. It was only two years after Regulus's death, the Dark Lord was defeated by a infant, barely a month younger then my own son. Then Bellatrix was taken to Azkban." The pain was written in her eyes. " I thought, it was all over. I never thought…" She took a shaky breath, going back to her story.

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Regulus's funeral was unbearable. I couldn't even look at his parents, my Uncle and Aunt. Nor could I stand to speak to Bellatrix, she was one of them. A death eater. A killer.

The only thing that broke my downward spiral of despair was the gentle singing. I followed the voice up the hill from where my family stood in silence around his grave. There she stood, wispy blonde hair blowing around in the air, her song faint but true. A letter still clutched in her hand.

"Catch a falling star and put it in your pocket. Never let it fade away."

I stayed and listened to her sing. Her voice wasn't beautiful, just steady and that's all I needed. We never spoke. We just stayed until the sun left the world behind.

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"He left several copies of this letter with those he trusted the most. One he sent to Sirius himself. One he passed on to Arielle in hope her talented tongue could get Sirius to read it. And the last one, he left with me."

Harry's head snapped up.

Narcissa pulled out a weathered envelope and handed it across to him. He flipped it over, opening the Black crest wax seal. His eyes glued to the hastily written letter. The final words left unsaid.

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Dear Sirius,

There is nothing I can write down on paper that you would believe, this is not a confession of guilt, nor is it an apology for what you think happened. I could tell you the truth but you would never believe me, you may not be part of my life anymore, but you are still my brother.

I hope one day you'll know the truth for what it is. I hope that you lived long enough to realise, I, was never your enemy.

This letter is just to tell you I love you, and goodbye.

I know I am not going to see the day out, it's funny knowing this is the end, and the only one I want to see, is you.

I hope that you can forgive me, but I don't think you will. It was nice knowing you brother, see you on the other side. Just so you know you were always the brighter star.

Love Regulus

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Harry's hand shakily folded the parchment back into the envelope. He looked over to Narcissa, her eyes watery.

"Did Sirius ever read this?"

"No." She whispered.

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As Harry walked away from Malfoy Manor he felt lost. He had been searching for something else. Someone to blame, someone to praise. He felt neither, and his mind was more twisted and torn up then before. It didn't matter which side of the fence he heard the tale from, they both ended in the same sticky way. He was no villain, nor was he a hero. He was just a kid born in the wrong time and in the wrong place. Harry wonder if Regulus really had much more of a chance at life then he did.

Circumstances, times, people, the stories were all the same. Some lived, some died. He sighed thinking of the letter.

Perhaps, some stories were not meant to be shared.

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AN. And so the story ends.

So…… what did you think??