Chapter 54

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Chapter 54 - Pain, guilt, and fury

23rd March 1979

Rosaline had never been a patient person, so she concluded that waiting for Sirius to wake up was excruciating. Whenever Regulus returned from his daily visit to Sirius's motionless body, Rosaline would rapidly ask him questions, such as, 'did his eyes flutter?', 'did his fingers twitch?', 'did his breath quicken?' She was firing so many questions at Regulus that he finally snapped. He told Rosaline very slowly and clearly to not ask any more similar questions and that he would inform her if Sirius was exhibiting any movement.

She felt like she was going insane waiting for Sirius to wake up so she decided to take on more jobs to steer her mind away from Sirius. Starting this week, she had packed her schedule with work. These mornings, since she had to wake up extra early, Regulus had been very clingy.

"Don't go yet," he would mumble sleepily, holding onto her fingers.

"Babe, I have to," she would lean into his touch and kiss him gently.

"You don't have to," he would tighten his hold on her and deepen the kiss.

Then she would reluctantly pull away from him, "Seriously, I'm running late."

Regulus would pout and let go of her then she would say, "I love you."

He would give her a small smile and say it back.

That was usually how Rosaline's days started and today was just the same, up till the point she arrived at Gringotts. Instead of finding her office empty, the familiar redheaded figure of Fabian Prewett was sitting opposite her desk with a newspaper and a small memo in his hand.

"Morning, Fab. Alright?" She greeted him light-heartedly.

Fabian spun around and burst out, "Have you read this morning's Prophet?"

"Haven't gotten the time yet, so no," she lowered her gaze to his newspaper, "What's going on?"

"This," he pushed the front page under her eyes and she read, 'St. Mungo's under attack'. She scanned the article quickly, which informed her that the patients and the healers of Mungo Bonham ward had all been killed silently during the night. It was reported by Healer Ophelia Cole, who screamed when she witnessed two healers falling dead after attempting to approach the ward. She then cast the life force detection charm near the ward and returned negative. Their cause of death remained unknown.

"Who did it?" Rosaline scanned the paper again to see if she had missed the name of the culprit.

"The Aurors are working on the case but they cannot do it without our help," he answered.

"Why? The Aurors seldom need our help," she tilted her head a little and frowned with curiosity.

"Because the Ministry believes that someone placed a complex curse inside the ward to kill everyone in it. Anyone who attempts to enter the area will be killed instantly. The Aurors are unable to break the curse on their own. Without breaking the curse, they cannot catch the culprit."

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