InsaneJournal

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Well, the man might look wary but at least he wasn't still yelling. Al also couldn't blame him for being on edge. Arriving in Colligo was strange enough without finding the city eerily silent and seemingly all but deserted. He would have been hard pressed not to react the same way, really.

Seeing no reason not to answer the question honestly, Al shrugged slightly. "The Inferi," he responded simply as he glanced over his shoulder to make sure none of the creatures in question were present. The coast was still clear but he knew that could change at any moment. Looking back to Regulus, he added absently, "Or something similar. It's a wonder they didn't arrive here before I did."

His own wand in his pocket - not necessarily a smart thing to do in a war-torn city but certainly something he was glad he'd done before approaching the stranger - Al pushed his glasses back up the bridge of his nose. Green eyes swept over the newcomer's form before finally searching the man's face. Again that same sense of familiarity he couldn't quite place was there, but he ignored it for the time being. It wasn't important. What was important was surviving, and that meant trying to clue this man in to a few things in a very short period of time.

"You just arrived, yeah?" he questioned as he tipped his head toward the library. Al might have thought that was the case, with all signs pointing to it being true, but he was far too Slytherin to simply assume anything. Doing such a thing in his House never ended well.

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Well, if nothing else, Al now knew with relative certainty that the man was a wizard. Granted he didn't know who he was, but the fact that he thought he might be in Hell certainly didn't bode well. Still. Al wasn't going to leave the guy to fend for himself in a strange city where the undead roamed freely. No, if he could put aside his personal feelings to help Peter Pettigrew, and to be cordial with Tom Riddle, Jr., he was fairly certain he could handle whoever this man was and whatever he'd done to think he deserved Hell as a punishment.

"No," he answered with a shake of his head, "this isn't Hell, muggle or otherwise." Although it was certainly starting to feel that way, these last few weeks. Refusing to think on that too long, Al instead did his best to explain where they were and what was going on.

"This place is called Colligo. We can't seem to leave, despite our best efforts," he stated. "It's a bit mad although the Inferi are fairly new. They don't appear to be entering flats, however. It might be in both our best interests to move in that general direction." Pausing for a second, Al considered the man then finally decided to just introduce himself and see if, should the man reciprocate, he might recognize him from back home or if it was simply a feeling that he'd seen him before when really he hadn't.

"Since I'm liable to forget my manners again should the situation become dangerous, my name is Al," he said simply. "Al Potter."

He normally would have left it at Al but he was curious if the man was going to have any significant reaction to his last name.

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By the time Regulus was standing by him, Al's own wand was also drawn but not aimed. He had no interest in dueling someone at the moment and, really, it wouldn't be very productive for either of them. Besides, he didn't even know who the man was and Al wasn't about to hex first and ask for identification later.

Heading back the way he'd came, as he'd managed to bypass Inferi on his way over and was hoping the same would hold true until they were closer to the flats, Al could feel the man looking at him. Studying him. Normally he'd just ignore it but he'd deliberately used his last name in the hopes of a reaction. It seemed he had the starting of one, when the question about James was asked.

It was a loaded question for him, really. He was related to two men with the same name. However, no matter how much his brother might wish it, there weren't that many people from their world who knew about him and didn't know about Al. Which meant this man was likely asking about the other James. Again though, Al didn't want to assume.

"Yeah," he answered, casting a sideways glance at the other man. "There's my grandfather, James, and my brother, James Sirius, though I believe you're thinking of the former." His tone was casual although he was still rather tense. That was primarily due to the city-wide situation however, not the man beside him.

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Al had to resist the urge to glare at the other man. He knew it wasn't his fault that none of this made sense. He also knew he wasn't doing a very good job of explaining things properly. Mostly that was due to his own thoughts and emotions being all over the place, as well as the exhaustion that hung like a black cloud around him. He wasn't tired in that he needed sleep. He was just tired, wholly emotionally bereft and struggling to help this man while still trying to keep himself together. It wasn't easy but, at the same time, Al appreciated the distraction even if it wasn't necessarily a pleasant one.

"It's this place," he replied thinly, glancing around to ensure their sudden stop hadn't alerted anyone who might be lingering nearby. He spotted a couple peering out through slits in a series of boards covering a window of a nearby shop, but the fear that they showed told him they weren't the enemy. But that didn't mean the enemy wasn't somewhere nearby.

Noticing a child's satchel a few paces away, school books partially scattered about and splattered with bits of blood and other things that Al refused to even consider, he swallowed down the bile rising in his throat and looked back to Regulus. "Folks are from different times, as mad as it sounds. Almost as though the whole bloody place has a time turner it twists about whenever it feels like it," he said, tone hushed yet certain.

"For example, it's currently 2010 in this city," he went on, "yet it was 2024, for me, before I wound up here." He shrugged lightly. "It's like that for a fair few, really." His mouth opened, he intended to say more - well, ask the man's name at least - when the sound of a faint grunt caught his attention. Turning quickly, wand raised, he spotted the shadows first. Moving closer, much too rapidly to be a person, and nearly at the end of the nearest alley already.

"Right," he muttered as he settled his gaze back on Regulus. "I do believe we should have this conversation on the move." Personally, he'd prefer not to have the conversation out in the open at all, but he didn't trust his own focus enough to perform a Side-Along Apparition and without a clear destination in mind asking the other man to Apparate on his own wasn't going to work either.

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"Considering you asked me about my grandfather, I'd say yes," Al replied simply, also glancing over his shoulder to check on the approaching zombies. Then Regulus asked about Apparating and, for a split second, Al was sorely tempted to point his wand at the man and hex him until he was unconscious.

"Destination," he instead said flatly before pausing and spinning on his heel. Wand already raised toward the mouth of the alley, Al cast a blasting hex at the corner of the building. Bricks and rubble crashed to the ground, blocking a good portion of the sidewalk between them and the zombies. He looked back to Regulus and nodded toward the apartment buildings in the distance.

"You've never been there, yeah?" he questioned. "Do you really want to risk splinching yourself trying to get there without a clear destination in mind? It isn't as though we can pop on down to St. Mungos and patch you back up again." He paused, doing a quick sweep of the area as he led Regulus down the street. "And before you bother, I'm not certain I can manage a Side-Along, given the circumstances."

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While Al was certainly a Potter and, in the right circumstances, had his fair share of the infamous Potter Arrogance. However this was not one of those circumstances. That wasn't to say he couldn't hold his own against the inferi. He could. But not in large numbers like this. Numbers, he told himself, that wouldn't be honed in on him if not for the shouting of the man beside him.

Levitating a large broken shard of glass from a shattered shop window, Al managed to slice through several of the zombies at once with a few sharp jerks of his wrist. He heard Regulus' shouting but didn't immediately pay him any mind. Instead he managed to slice through another dozen or so of the creatures before the spell gave way and the glass crashed to the ground. Quickly he looked to Regulus, still a bit torn as to what to do but knowing he had to make a decision and now.

Side-Along Apparating that likely wouldn't work or opening his mind to someone he didn't even know. Neither choice was a very pleasant one. The first rule of being a Slytherin, after all, was to never open your mind to a stranger. Yet he couldn't in good faith risk a Side-Along. Not without any means to help them if he screwed it up.

"I can get myself there, just not you," Al finally bit out, his decision made. "So get what you need and go."

Dropping the barriers he had around his mind, barriers that were second nature to him after all this time, he focused on his and Scorpius' flat. Attention to detail was a strong suit of his and he thought on all of those details now. The stain on the carpet leading into the dining area. The gaudy fabric of the sofa in the living room. The knick-knacks and baubles, the rarely used television, the sight of the cityscape through the doors leading to the balcony. He thought of all of it, imagining it with absolute precision. Nevermind the rest of his thoughts, his memories, everything that made him who he was. Yes, all of that was there if the man chose to see it, but in the forefront was his and Scorpius' flat. He thought of it harder than he'd perhaps thought of much else.

Then he waited for Regulus to go, the part of him that was far more Potter than Slytherin refusing to leave until he was certain the other man was able to do so as well.

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The flat materialized around them and Al exhaled slowly. He didn't relax, though. Just because they were free of the zombies didn't mean things were fine. At least, not for him. And they only seemed to get worse the second the voice of his best friend rang out across the room. Pulling free of Regulus' grip, Al slid his wand into his pocket and turned to Scorpius.

"Sorry, mate," he said simply. He met his friend's gaze for a second, wanting him to understand that he'd simply had to get out for a while, but also not sure he would really get it. Not that it mattered. He'd made it back safely.

The comment about the puppy made him glance toward Regulus, one corner of his mouth quirking upward in a ghost of a smirk. "No," he said smoothly as he looked back to the blond haired wizard. "Nothing out of the ordinary, at least." His gaze slid back to the newcomer to their flat.

"This is Scorpius Malfoy," he introduced his friend with a wave in his general direction. "And this is..." He paused, head tilting a little. "Actually," he said slowly, "I never got his name. Just found him standing on the steps of the library, shouting his head off." A brief pause before Al added, only partially joking, "And if you so much as hint that I'm rushing about like some sort of Gryffindor with a savior complex, I will hex you, Scor."

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Regulus Black. The man was Regulus Black. For a moment, it was all Al could do just to stare. The ability to speak, to even really form coherent thoughts, seemed to have left him. His mind felt as though it was in a tailspin, unable to comprehend that the man he'd just been fighting alongside was the man who would be the first to uncover Voldemort's true intentions and do something about it. He was a hero, in Al's time, in his own right.

Unable to help himself, Al began to grin. Then he chuckled softly. Then he began to well and truly laugh.

"Well, this is certainly something, isn't it?" he said after a second of enjoying the sheer absurdity of the moment. He stopped, glancing to Scorpius before looking back to Regulus. "It's an honour to meet you, the circumstances aside," he said simply and sincerely. Pausing for a second, he tacked on, "And you might want to have a seat, there. You're looking a bit faint."

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Al snorted lightly, more than used to Scorpius' teasing by now. Had he had to say honour? No, he hadn't. However he'd had his own reasons - primarily the insinuation he was some sort of idiot when he couldn't Side-Along Apparate - for wanting to push Regulus a bit closer to the proverbial breaking point. Hey. He might be a Potter, but he was also a Slytherin. Using his cunning to get his own was to be expected.

"Considering you spent nearly as much time with my family when we were growing up as I did, you haven't much room to talk," Al said as he shot Scorpius a light smirk. There was still a heaviness to him, a sorrow that he doubted would ever go away entirely. But, for the moment, the pain of Lily's death wasn't in the forefront of his mind.

Moving around the sofa, Al casually waved his wand toward Regulus once he was fully behind the man. Normally he wasn't one for casting spells behind someone's back, but he was simply drying the man's damp clothing. He didn't feel like being hexed for his trouble.

"I don't know, Scor," he said conversationally as he came around from the other side of the sofa. Leaning lightly against the armrest, he glanced toward Regulus. "This place is fairly mad, but it starts to grow on you a bit, after a while." Green eyes swept across the man's face, his light tone growing a bit more somber.

"Also, you might as well get used to folks knowing what you did. There aren't very many here who haven't heard about it." Thanks to those damned books, of course, but he wasn't going to mention those just yet. Poking a bit at the newcomer was one thing, but the man was a hero in his own way. Al wasn't trying to break his brain too much.

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Al let Scorpius explain, internally wincing a bit at the 'Voldemort's dead' proclamation. He really felt he could've eased him into that a bit even if it got the explanation out of the way quickly. Dropping into the other chair, he merely stared at his friend for a moment when he began tooting his own Malfoy horn.

He was tempted to say something but opted against it. Bickering back and forth even jokingly could only be carried so far. So he let his friend have his moment and looked to Regulus. Studying the man for a long moment, he finally said simply, "My dad's the one who defeated Voldemort and, after Kreacher told him what you'd done, he made certain, back home, that others knew you played a part in it all in your own way."

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