As August settles heavily over the hills, the mountains come alive with blossoming flowers and heavy greenery. The sun beats down, yellowing the grass and drying up the marshy mud that is usually a year-round feature of the mountains.

In the days following their argument at the shop, Finn had tried to avoid Regulus to the best of her ability. Unfortunately, the house isn't that big and the warm temperature drives them both outside, so they end up being stuck in each other's orbit constantly. It grates on her nerves, but they're not as aggressive with each other as they had been in the first few weeks of their cohabitation so it's marginally easier to cope with his presence.

Most days, they spend the hazy afternoons outside in the warm sunshine. They maintain a healthy distance between them, and manage to exist civilly outside in the garden.

Despite her best attempts at dodging a sun-burn, Finn has been largely unsuccessful. Her love of laying out in the sun has bitten her in the behind, because now she's stuck with tender reddened skin over her shoulders and across her nose and cheeks.

As she smokes in the comfortable shade of the porch, she picks absently at where the burn has started to peel. It's another lovely day, and she looks out admiringly at the blooming greenery over the hills.

"It's hot." Regulus complains. He's laying out on the grass several feet away from where Finn is huddled on the porch, but he raises his voice to make sure that she can hear him. "How do Muggles live without cooling charms? I think I'm going to die."

Despite the complaints, he makes no move to get out of the sun. Finn just rolls her eyes at the dramatics.

"Stop moaning," Finn grumbles, still scratching at her peeling sunburn. "This sunshine is probably only going to last another week or so before it turns back to clouds, so you may as well enjoy it while you can."

She's hoping that he'll let them lapse back into silence again — the only reason they don't argue when they're outside like this is because they usually don't talk to each other at all. But instead of going quiet, Regulus rolls onto his side and squints up at her through the glaring sunlight.

"Hey. I have a request."

"Of course you do." Finn mumbles, a little resentfully. He always seems to be demanding more from her. "What do you want?"

Regulus' nose wrinkles a little when he notices the way she's picking at her sunburn, but thankfully he doesn't mention it; even though he himself has skin like porcelain and despite the hours he spends in the sun, it's as though he's impervious to sunburn. It's very irritating.

"You mentioned, when I first came here, that your uncle keeps an owl here." He says slowly, resting his chin in his palm as his other hand skims over the grass that he's laying on.

"Yeah." Finn says absently, finishing off her cigarette. "Keeps him in the barn out back. Uncle Al sends letters every so often even now — the owls drop them off at the little post box at the bottom of the hill. Uncle Al said that he won't find his way back cause of the spell, so he should just sit at the letter box until someone comes to get him."

Regulus nods decisively. "I would like to borrow it."

Finn eyes him curiously. When she had offered the owl to him before, nearly four months ago when he had first arrived, he had told her that his friends were all either dead, murderers, or willing to excommunicate him for living with a Muggle. Nothing has changed in his circumstances, so she wonders what his change of mind is all about.

"Who're you writing to?" She asks, stubbing her cigarette out on the sole of her sandal.

"None of your business." He says. The words come out sharp, perhaps sharper than he had intended, because he frowns a little and then says, "Sorry. That was rude of me. The Daily Prophet has a postal delivery service for products that are advertised within its pages. I saw a potions-making kit advertised on Wednesday, and I would like to purchase it."

"Oh." Finn says. Admittedly, she's a little mollified by the apology — it's the first one she's ever gotten from him, and it takes her so much by surprise that she's barely able to react at all. "Okay."

"I'll send away for it later," He says dismissively, before pushing himself up into a proper sitting position on the grass. "I have another request."

"Jesus," Finn mutters, slumping back against the wall of the house. "What is it?"

It takes a moment for Regulus to speak again — it seems like he's carefully considering his words. As he thinks, he cards his fingers through individual blades of grass at his side. Finn tries not to get distracted by the movement.

"Are you aware of the reputation your uncle has in the magical world?"

That's not what she had expected him to ask at all, and she ends up sitting up properly again so that she can squint at him.

"No," She says slowly. "Obviously not."

"He's one of the most prolific Aurors in Britain." Regulus says. "An enormous chunk of the dark wizards who are languishing away in Azkaban have been put there by him."

Finn just stares at him blankly.

"Azkaban is a prison for dark wizards." Regulus says, apparently misunderstanding where her confusion is stemming from.

"I don't understand why you're telling me this." says Finn — she had guessed that her uncle was important based on how often he was called away for work, but learning exactly how successful he is at his job is a little startling.

"Even amongst Death Eaters he's considered an intimidating man," Regulus is speaking slowly, as though he's still thinking over his words even as he says them. "And yet whenever you ask him for something, he folds so quickly it's difficult to believe it's the same man that every dark wizard fears."

"I really don't ask for things all that often, you know-"

"That's not my point," He interrupts, an edge of impatience creeping into his voice. "I think, no matter how often you asked for things, that he would do his utmost to give them to you."

"Okay," Finn says warily. Privately, she thinks he might be right. Whenever she has asked for anything, she's usually gotten her way so quickly that it's surprised even her. "I'm still not understanding your point."

He blows out a heavy sigh, then glances up at her from under his eyelashes. It's probably not intentional, but when he tilts his head the sun catches across the planes of his face. His cheekbones are sharp enough to cast shadows across his face, and his grey eyes are pale and piercing in the sunlight.

He looks almost other-worldly, the perfect picture of a magical boy sitting in her very own garden. He's far too pretty, and Finn scowls at him on reflex.

"Why are you frowning at me?" He scowls right back at her. "I haven't even asked for anything yet!"

"Yet!" Finn repeats, irritated. "Just ask!"

He's still frowning at her, but he ends up blurting, "If you asked him for my wand back, he'd probably say yes."

That is so ridiculous that Finn scoffs in absolute disbelief. He must have lost his mind if he actually thinks that she would advocate for his wand on his behalf.

"Why would I do that? So you could curse me the second you have it?"

"I'm not going to do that." He sounds irritated, as though it's a completely irrational thing for her to be worried about.

Finn doesn't believe him for a second. If he had his wand, there would be no guarantee at all that the next time they squabble or bicker he wouldn't use it against her. After all, he hasn't exactly made his distaste for Muggles in general and her specifically a secret.

She's not in the mood to argue further after having such a peaceful afternoon though, so she turns her face away from him in favour of looking out over the thick green forest at the bottom of the hill.

"I'll think about it." She lies.

Regulus nods with a pleased expression, then sprawls back on the grass and falls silent once more. Now that she's no longer having demands thrown at her, Finn manages to relax again.

They sit there in the summer warmth for a long time, but it's still only early afternoon when Finn pushes herself to her feet and goes inside to make lunch.

It's too hot and she's too sweaty and irritable to put any great effort into making lunch, so she ends up just throwing together a couple of lazily made sandwiches. She's not picky about eating, and if Regulus dares complain she'll have no qualms about throwing his share directly into the bin.

She's beginning to cut the sandwiches into triangles when he walks in behind her. He doesn't wait for her to plate them; instead, he marches up and snatches two right off the chopping board.

"Oi!" She snaps, swatting at him. "Will you fuck off! You're so rude!"

He snickers, and then his hand darts out so fast she almost misses it entirely as he snatches another sandwich up. He hurries away before she can hit him for real, though he doesn't go far. He chooses to lean lazily against the kitchen table as he eats the sandwiches in delicate little bites.

Grumbling, Finn turns back to her lunch. The bastard had taken more than his share, so she's left with only two very small sandwiches for herself. But whatever; she wasn't that hungry anyway.

"I've been thinking." Regulus speaks up suddenly. He's eaten the sandwiches almost startlingly quickly, but he doesn't move from where he's leaning against the kitchen table, his hips jutting out carelessly as he leans back on his hands.

"Careful now," Finn drawls lazily. "Wouldn't want to overtax yourself."

Regulus chooses to ignore that. "I would like to go for a walk."

That catches Finn's attention. Slowly, she lowers her sandwich.

"Okay," She says cautiously. "So go. Just don't get lost."

"Come with me."

A beat of silence passes, so laden with tension it's almost unbearable. Finn puts her sandwich down altogether; truthfully, she's not altogether sure she's heard what he said correctly.

"What are you doing?" She asks, her brows beginning to draw into a frown. At this stage, she's going to get premature wrinkles from  all the frowning Regulus has been causing her.

"What do you mean?" He plays at innocence, going as far as to bat his eyelashes at her. Irritatingly, the expression looks borderline angelic on him.

Finn's eyes dart over his face, looking for any hint of what exactly he's playing at. She was prepared to brush off all the requests he had made earlier, but this one is a step too far. She can't figure out what he would get from this particular request.

"Why would you ask me that?"

Regulus blows out a breath and rolls his eyes. A curl falls over one of his eyes, and he tosses his head back lazily to move it.

"What? I'm being nice."

"Yes." Finn says slowly, narrowing her eyes. "That's what's making me nervous."

He looks back at her for a long moment, his expression unreadable. Then he shrugs, shoulders jerking unevenly. "I want to go back to the lake we went to before, and I have been given strict instructions by your uncle not to leave the shelter of the Fidelius charm without your consent and guidance."

Surprised yet again, all Finn can do is gape at him.

"The lake you had a total meltdown at?" She asks slowly, unsure.

"Yes, obviously." He says, embarrassment sharpening his tone. He takes a calming breath before continuing. "That is partially why I would like to go back."

"Mmm." Finn finally picks her sandwich back up and bites into it, surveying him carefully as she chews. "Explain."

"I will." Regulus nods, but then his face breaks out into a cheeky, dimpled smirk. "I'll explain on the way down."

Finn heaves a dramatic, long-suffering sigh, but it's mostly for show. It's a truly beautiful day, and she does love to walk. Besides, though Regulus has been irritating, he has also been mostly civil to her, and the walk is the least off-putting of all the requests he's made thus far.

"Alright." She says at last, shoving the last of her sandwich in her mouth and speaking around it with her mouth full. "But you owe me."

The mud path leading down to the lake has dried up under the August sun, allowing them to march down the path with far greater ease than before. Though they kick up dust in their wake as they wind their way down the twisting path that leads to the lake in the valley, the wet mud that had splattered Finn's legs so completely the last time is mercifully absent.

Despite Regulus' promise to explain why he wanted to go to the lake in the first place, they walk in almost total silence. It doesn't feel awkward, however; Finn is happy to look out at the view of the lake beneath them as they walk, and Regulus is clearly occupied with his thoughts. The trees they pass on the way down are ancient, and their roots burst out of the ground in some places and twist into odd shapes. They both have to step carefully over them to prevent themselves from falling headlong down the incline.

As Finn is clambering over one of these overgrown roots, she curses herself for not changing out of the sundress she had been wearing to lounge in the sun; it certainly makes the hike a little bit more challenging.

When the steep incline finally levels out and they find themselves in the valley, Finn finds herself breathing a sigh of relief. The same brambles from the overgrown blackberry brushes scratch at her exposed legs as they make their way towards the dark lake stretching out between the two mountains, but at least her legs are no longer burning from the incline.

Blue and yellow wildflowers are dotted all around, peeking shyly through the grass, and Finn plucks one appreciatively to twirl in her fingers as they walk.

"Are you ready to tell me why we're here?" She asks at last, right as they emerge onto the silt beach at the shore of the lake.

Ahead of her, Regulus has paused to stare at the surface of the water. On such a calm day, the lake is like a mirror reflecting the blue sky and fluffy clouds overhead. It makes for a beautiful sight, but Regulus' expression is strained as he looks out at it.

"I told you before about the lake. In the cave." He doesn't tear his eyes away from the water as he speaks.

"Yes." Finn says cautiously. Absent-mindedly, she reaches out and pulls a handful of blackberries off one of the nearby bushes, popping them lazily into her mouth as she watches Regulus. "You said you nearly died."

Regulus' throat bobs as he nods. Just like last time, his gaze has turned very faraway as he stares out at the water in front of them.

"I- yes. They- I was dragged down. I was trying to fight back, but the water was getting into my mouth and nose and I couldn't breathe, and they were clawing at me-"

"Hey," Finn abandons the blackberries and steps forward, startled at the idea of him having another panic attack. "Maybe we should go back, there's no need for you to be here if it's going to cause unnecessary stress-"

She stops short of touching him, unsure whether physical contact with him would cause an adverse reaction or not given his state of mind.

Luckily, he blinks back to himself without her having to shake him.

"No," He says, shaking his head softly. "It's fine. This fear is a weakness, and I need to overcome it."

"Okay." Finn says slowly. "So you want to sit by the water for a bit?"

"No." He repeats. "I want to get into it."

Finn cracks a nervous smile, unsure how else to react. Maybe he's a little delusional, but surely getting into the water would be the absolute worst thing for him right now. He can barely even handle looking at the lake, she can't imagine how he'd react to actually getting into the cold water.

"I'm not sure that-" She begins, darting a look to the water, but she doesn't get to finish.

"It will be fine." He says bracingly, straightening his shoulders and standing tall. "If my mind begins to drift elsewhere, I will ground myself."

"Oh, will you?" Finn scoffs, irritated by his blasé attitude. "You didn't manage to last time."

That earns her a look of irritation. "I was caught unprepared last time. I didn't expect to wake up and find you floating in the middle of the bloody lake."

Finn really doesn't see how that would make any sort of a difference, but she just folds her arms and stares back at him instead of arguing. When he realises that she isn't going to fight him on this, he continues.

"It should just be a matter of burying the panic beneath a Legilimency shield." He says, as though Finn has any idea what that is. "If I bury the thoughts and memories deep enough, the negative emotions shouldn't surface at all."

Finn eyes him doubtfully. "That doesn't sound healthy."

"It's fine, I've done it before." Regulus says dismissively, still eyeing the lake as though it poses an enormous hurdle to overcome.

Finn hums, still unconvinced. "Alright. Well, off you go then."

As if he were simply waiting for her permission, Regulus reaches up and begins to unbutton his fancy shirt.

For some reason, it hadn't occurred to Finn that he would have to take his clothes off in order to get into the water. Alarmed, she turns her face away hastily to stare at the blackberry bushes. It feels as though she had lost her grip on the situation very quickly.

She hears fabric drop to the sand near her feet, and her eye twitches a little. What on earth is Regulus thinking? She had assumed, what with his reaction to seeing her in her underwear the last time they were at the lake and also his reaction to her shorts earlier that week, that he was the kind of conservative boy that would never be caught dead in his underwear.

The sight of his trousers on the ground a few feet away from her has her cheeks burning at the realisation that she was wrong about that.

She can't help her eyes from drifting just slightly to the side; at the very edge of her peripheral vision, she can see a vague blurry form. She thinks he's folding his clothes before leaving them on the sand.

"What are you doing?" He asks suddenly, and Finn jerks hard at the sudden question.

"Nothing!" She says quickly, her voice far higher than is entirely natural. "I'm not looking!"

"What?" Regulus sounds confused, but he moves past it very quickly. "Nevermind. Aren't you coming?"

"What?" Finn echoes him, before turning back around to face him.

She's so surprised by his asking her to join him in the water that she nearly doesn't notice his state of undress. Nearly.

She's seen him stripped to nothing but his boxers before the day she had locked him out of the house, but that had been ages ago and the boxers he'd been wearing then had been significantly looser. These ones are tighter, more form-fitting; they're clearly the briefs he had slipped into the basket when they had gone shopping.

Finn very firmly does not look, though she feels her face burning all the same.

When her gaze falls on his face, she sees that he's looking at her a little impatiently. "That's why I asked you to come. I am confident I can manage my Legilimency, but it will be easier to have control over myself if I know that there is someone to pull me out if I need it."

Finn starts to nod, but then he keeps going. "Although, I have my doubts about your ability to manage that."

"You're such an arsehole." Finn mutters under her breath, before turning her back on him again. "Look away."

She doesn't check whether or not he's done so before reaching for the bottom of her dress and pulling it over her head. It gets caught on her shoulders, and she ends up having to do an awkward and embarrassing little shimmy to get out of it entirely. Next come her shoes, and she pulls them off hastily without looking up.

By the time she's down to her knickers and bra, she glances over her shoulder to see that Regulus has taken several strides forward to stand just short of where the lake laps against the shore. He's not looking in her direction, but his ears have reddened and there's a subtle flush crawling up the back of his neck.

Slowly, she steps forward so that she's standing level with him. She had been expecting his eyes to have glazed over, the same as last time, but they're clear and alert as he watches the rippling water. When he doesn't make any move to enter the lake, she cranes her neck to peer into his face.

"You good?"

"Fine." Though his face is impassive, his voice reveals hints of strain. "You go first."

If she didn't feel so sorry for him, she might have refused. But as it is, she simply takes a breath and turns to begin striding into the lake.

Despite the heat of the day and the way the sun is beating down on them, the lake water is so cold that it physically stings. Finn has to take deep, controlled breaths to force herself further in, until the water reaches her hips. Then, she turns back to look at the shore.

Regulus is still standing there, watching her closely. His jaw is clenched and his shoulders are stiff, but once he sees that she's paused he begins to very slowly step after her. When his foot enters the water, his entire body freezes. The cold must come as a shock to his system, because it takes him a very long time to pull himself together.

Finn has just started to step back towards him when he manages to pull himself out of his descent into panic. He blinks, as though forcing his memories back, and begins to step forward yet again.

"Are you okay?" She calls hesitantly. This feels like a monumentally bad idea, but all she can do is watch him push forward into the lake.

A strange sort of expression has settled over his face; he looks cold and distant in a way that she hasn't seen since the first few weeks he had been with her. It's only now that she sees his face wiped clean of all emotion that she realises he had actually been growing steadily more open without her notice.

It's unnerving now to see him looking so frigid and aloof again.

"Fine." He says, and even his voice sounds distant. It's as though he's speaking to her from somewhere very far away.

"Okay." She's a little nervous, but she steps back further into the lake all the same.

She watches his face carefully the whole time — there's no sign of panic, but she's nervous that anything could set him off now.

"The water is cold." It's a stupid thing to say, but the tension is killing her and she can't bear it.

The distant expression on Regulus' face flickers for a moment, before deadening again. "Yes."

The lack of a snarky response doesn't make Finn feel better about anything. Fidgeting, she backs further into the lake.

Regulus follows her at a steady pace, his gaze absent yet stuck to her face. It's intimidating to be pinned under his gaze like this, especially when she feels so exposed in such a state of undress, but it's slightly comforting that he doesn't seem to be really seeing her at all.

Once the water hits her chest, Finn stops where she is.

Regulus keeps coming toward her, stepping cautiously until he's only an arm's length away from her. To her surprise, he is managing to keep his emotions perfectly under control. If she didn't know first-hand how panicked he felt around water, she would never have guessed that he felt negatively at all.

His breathing is regular and even, and his expression is entirely neutral if not completely closed-off. His grey eyes are like two chips of flint, stony and cold, and they stay fixed on Finn's face in a way that is intimidatingly intense. She tries not to quail under the force of his stare.

The lake reflects the glare of the sun, and in the bright light of the day the scars on his torso stand out in sharp relief. Finn tries not to stare, but she can't help herself. Now that she knows where they came from, the sight of them is so much worse. They're jagged and nasty looking, and the way they track unevenly over his body makes it painfully clear that they've been made by human nails.

They're everywhere too; Finn can't even bring herself to imagine just how many hands must have been grabbing at him, pulling him down into the water to drown him in that dank underground lake. It makes her feel ill — she can't imagine how he's bringing himself to do this.

"How are you doing?" She asks carefully, watching his face for any sign of emotion.

"Fine." He murmurs. "Let's go further out."

"I-" Finn hesitates, unsure. There's nearly a foot between them in height, and chest-level for her is still waist-level for Regulus. "If we go any further, I won't be able to stand."

"I'll hold you up."

"That's not what I-" It's too late for protests, however, because Regulus has already taken a hold of her elbow and is guiding her further into the lake.

The irony of the fact that Finn has ended up the more nervous of the two of them in the water hasn't escaped her notice, and she tries not to feel unreasonably annoyed by it.

When her feet no longer make contact with the sand beneath her, she grabs blindly for Regulus' arm. She's not worried about treading water, but now that she can no longer feel the floor of the lake beneath her she feels a stab of anxiety — the lack of stability and Regulus' vacant gaze isn't exactly buoying her confidence.

When her hand first brushes him he goes rigid, eyes blowing wide for a split second. She realises her mistake a moment too late — her hands are cold from the chill of the water, and grabbing him while they're submerged in the lake like this is probably the worst thing she could have done.

But Regulus' brief moment of terror only lasts for a split second. Instead of shoving her off him, as she had expected him to, he relaxes just slightly before he takes both of her elbows in his hands and uses her arms as leverage to keep her floating so that her legs don't get tired.

Finally, Regulus stops advancing into the water.

For a moment he just stands there, breathing. The lake water comes up to his naked chest, and he doesn't seem to notice that Finn is kept afloat only by her kicking legs and his hold on her arms.

"Shoving your emotions down so deep that you can't feel them doesn't seem like the best way to deal with trauma." Finn pipes up. She sounds like an armchair psychiatrist, but Regulus is still so stonily silent that she feels as though she has to say something just to break the tension.

His eyes flicker away from the vast stretching surface of the lake to rest on her face.

"Perhaps not." He murmurs. His voice is still unnervingly flat, lacking any kind of feeling or intonation. "But it helped me to get through many Death Eater meetings, and interactions with the Dark Lord."

Finn hums, still unconvinced about this particular method of coping. "It doesn't seem sustainable."

"It does not have to be sustainable."  He says shortly. "With the way the war is going, I don't foresee myself living long enough for it to be a long-term problem."

The most unnerving thing about that statement is the dispassionate way in which he says it — he clearly believes it entirely, but the Legilimency seems to stifle any emotional reaction he may have had towards his less-than-optimistic view of his future.

Finn is still frowning at him, but she decides to let it slide — it's probably not an appropriate conversation to have while he's already trying to battle through his trauma in the middle of the lake.

"I can swim by myself." She says instead. She tries to pull her arms from his grasp, but he doesn't let her go.

"I am certain you can." He acknowledges, still holding tight to her. "But I would prefer you didn't."

She wants to argue further, but his knuckles are practically turning white where he's gripping her and she doesn't want to press his already tenuous sense of calm in case it shatters entirely. She can only assume, based on the last time he had freaked out, that the sight of her swimming in the lake triggers some sort of panic response based on memories of his own struggle in the cave.

So while Finn doesn't argue, she still finds it painfully awkward. They've never been so close for such an extended period of time, and the fact that they're both barely clothed and shivering in the cool water has her feeling awfully uncomfortably in her own skin.

The only thing that's saving her from complete and total humiliation is the fact that Regulus hasn't looked at her exposed body with even an iota of interest, although that brings with it a different brand of mortification. It's possible that he sees her as being so far beneath him that seeing her barely clothed doesn't even bring with it a connotation of attraction. Not that she wants that, of course, but it's certainly a blow to her ego.

Regulus is still silent, clearly working through and compartmentalising his own thoughts; it's an odd thing to watch, as his facial expression doesn't so much as twitch. Finn's not very pleased that she's essentially just floating there in place, held up only by Regulus' iron grip on her, while he has his little crisis, but she figures it would probably be rude to say anything about it.

Finally, the apathetic dissociation seems to crack, and the ice in his eyes thaws a little. When his hands loosen on her, she sighs in relief.

"Okay?" She asks, flexing her arms experimentally in his grasp. It loosens further, until he's only holding onto one of her elbows.

"Yes." He says slowly. "Yes, I think so."

He turns then to look out across the lake. The mountains rise up around them like a cradle, and the sun shines through the leafy greenery of the trees above them, creating a haze of green in the air. Now that the coldness is beginning to fade from his countenance, it seems as though he's able to appreciate the beauty of the nature all around him.

As he tilts his head back to look at the white clouds streaking across the sky, Finn takes the opportunity to look at his scars again. There is a particularly painful looking one just over his collarbone, under the base of his throat — it looks as though someone had tried to decapitate him with just their nails. There's another awful looking scar over the skin by his waist, but this one is even worse than the others because now that Finn is looking closely at it she realises that what she's looking at is jagged teeth marks, as though a chunk was torn out of him from a brutal bite.

Her throat feels tight, and she has to turn her gaze away from the scars. Seeing that awful near-death experience painted across his skin makes her feel nauseous.

Now that his arms are outstretched in order to hold her, Finn catches sight of an odd inky blotch on the inside of his forearm. Regulus is still staring up at the clear blue sky, so she takes the opportunity to peer closer at it.

It's a tattoo. Finn can't quite help her surprise at that — she would never have pegged Regulus as a tattoo sort of guy, though now that she's thinking back, she recalls that she had seen several on his brother the night he had launched himself at her in her bed. This tattoo stretches almost the whole length of Regulus' wrist, depicting a skull with what looks like a snake protruding from its mouth. Now that she's paying attention she can see it move. It's a deep, jet black, far darker than any other tattoo she's ever seen on a Muggle.

She wonders briefly at its meaning, but doesn't bother to ask. Instead, her gaze falls to where his hands are still locked around her arms.

"Are you going to let go of me now?" She asks, gently tugging at his grasp.

Regulus looks down, blinking at where his fingers are wrapped around her arm. It looks as though he's forgotten that he was holding her at all.

When he finally lets go, Finn drops a little and has to tread water a little more vigorously in order to keep her head above water. In the absence of his touch, her arm is cold where his hands had held her.

"You shouldn't travel too deep into this lake when you are alone." Regulus says absently, turning again to look out at the water. This time, his gaze catches on an area about fifteen feet away from them.

"Why?" Finn follows his gaze, but can't see anything of interest.

"Looks like a kelpie lives here."

"A what?"

"There." Regulus raises his arm and points at the spot in the water he had been looking at.

Finn squints — she still can't see what he's looking at.

Ordinarily, she thinks that Regulus would have rolled his eyes or gotten exasperated. But under the weight of what must be his Legilimency shield, he simply bends his knees until he's closer to her height. Then, he points again.

"See where the water is rippling?" He asks, voice low.

This time, Finn catches sight of the movement that he's referring to. Almost as though it was waiting for her to finally see, a head breaks the surface of the water.

Finn startles hard, and flinches back into Regulus' chest. "Oh fuck! What is that!"

"Kelpie." Regulus says unhelpfully.

Big, bulbous eyes blink at them. The creature looks almost like a horse, but wrong somehow. Its coat is dark and sleek, its mane and forelock plastered to its long face as water drips steadily from it in streams. It's also skeletally thin — its ribs stick out sharply it looks like they're about to cut through its skin.

When it tosses its head, Finn catches sight of rows of very sharp teeth in its mouth.

"Oh, fucking hell, absolutely not," Finn blurts, attempting to paddle her way back to solid ground. "No fuckin' way-"

She doesn't manage to get very far before Regulus grabs her by the arm yet again. "Stop it."

"Did you see its fucking teeth-!"

"Yes, now be still." When she doesn't stop struggling, he abandons his grip on her arm and wraps an arm around her waist instead. "Hush. Your movements are only going to attract it closer."

Finn is self-aware enough to recognise the irony of the situation — the fact that it's now up to Regulus to calm her down due to a strange creature in the water doesn't escape her. She much preferred it when it was the other way around, and he was driven to panic because of an innocent sheep.

"What does it want?" She asks, voice high.

"It's harmless."

"Is it really?" She demands, craning her head back to squint at him. "If it's harmless, why does it have such sharp fucking teeth!"

She feels Regulus shrug against her, as though allowing her that point. "It's harmless so long as you don't make physical contact with it."

"What happens if I touch it?"

"Come on," Regulus says instead of answering her, "Let's go back to the shore before it comes closer."

She doesn't know why he bothers saying that, because it's not as though he waits for her to agree. Instead, he uses the arm he'd looped around her waist to drag her through the water back towards the shallows.

Finn can't even bring herself to complain about the fact that he's dragging her like a sack of potatoes — she's too busy staring fixedly at the kelpie's face as it stares back at her.

When it raises its body further out of the water, algae sluicing off its wide back, and takes a step towards them even as they retreat, Finn yelps and reaches back to grab at Regulus' other arm.

"It's following us!"

"Relax." Irritatingly, his voice is still cool and dispassionate. "It won't come out of the water."

Despite his assurance, the creature continues to step after them even as they get closer to the shore.

When they get to shallower water, Finn finally manages to find her feet again. She stumbles a little in the wet sand as the lake water laps against her chest, but Regulus doesn't let go of her. He keeps pulling at her, as though he doesn't trust her to walk on her own.

Finn shoves at the bicep of the arm that's locked around her like a prison, but he doesn't so much as budge. In fact, she's not entirely sure he notices her pushing at him at all.

"I can walk myself." She snaps, her nerves getting the best of her.

Regulus simply ignores her, tugging her along as though she's a child. It's irritating, but now that there's a distance being put between them and the strange creature in the lake, Finn becomes hyper-aware of Regulus' hold on her. The Legilimency shield must be very effective if it's successfully pushing down his disgust at the idea of touching her.

Despite the heat of the summer's day, as they emerge from the water Finn begins shivering hard. The arm around her waist is warm and firm, and unbelievably she feels goosebumps erupt across her skin in the places they're touching.

God, she thinks, I really need to start getting out there and touching more people if I'm getting this affected by Regulus of all people.

He finally releases her once they reach the shore, and Finn almost stumbles over herself once the support of his arm is removed from her. She turns around quickly in an attempt to keep the kelpie in her line of sight, only to find that it's hovering closer to the shallows. It has sunk a little further into the water, and unnervingly it blends into the environment of the water so well that it's almost difficult to tell where its body ends and the water begins.

"They live in fresh water, like lakes and rivers." Regulus says from somewhere behind her. "Have you never seen one before?"

"No." Finn says, shivering in her underwear as she stares out at the creature staring back at her.

Horror is beginning to creep in —  she swims in this lake all the time in summer, and she's never seen a creature like that before. Has it been there the whole time, lurking just under the surface?

"You have been lucky." Regulus says impassively. "They prefer Muggle blood over magical blood. It could have drowned you at any point, had you been caught unawares."

She was always unaware when she was at the lake.

"It's very thin," Regulus is saying, unaware or uncaring of the dismay growing on Finn's face. "This is odd territory for a kelpie — I can't imagine it gets very many victims around these parts."

Shaken and suddenly very tired indeed, Finn sits down heavily on the shore. The gritty sand sticks to her wet skin, but she can't bring herself to care as she lays back on the ground and closes her eyes against the glaring sun.

A shadow falls over her face, and she tenses before realising that it's just Regulus who's come to stand above her.

"That went well." He says. His voice has changed a little — he sounds more aware, more present.

"Let me lay here a while," Finn groans, flopping bonelessly on the sand. "I'm so tired. Fuck. Hey, make sure that thing stays away from me."

"Put your dress back on first."

"No." Finn says grumpily. "You didn't have a problem with my knickers when you were ordering me into the water and dragging me around in the lake. Fuck off and look away."

Her eyes are still closed, so when she hears a laugh she's sure that she's mistaken. In fact, she has to sit up once again to squint at him, only to find that she's not mistaken at all.

While her eyes had been closed, Regulus had sunk down onto the sand beside her. He's looking off into the trees behind them, though his lips have quirked into a barely-there smile.

"What's funny?" She asks suspiciously.

That makes him laugh again, so sudden and wild that it startles her. His Legilimency shields are beginning to fall, but his gaze is still vague and she's not sure that he's entirely back to himself yet.

"I'm at a lake in the middle of fucking nowhere, freezing my bollocks off in my underwear with a fucking Muggle."  His amusement is a brittle thing, but it's still a relief after the horrible coldness he'd exhibited in the water. "If my mother could see me now, she'd be sick."

Finn studies his face, curious; his eyes are a little wild looking, and he's steadily avoiding looking back at the water, but the colour is high in his cheeks and he looks vibrant and alive. It's a startling change from before, when his glacial expression had rendered him all in sharp pale angles like a statue.

"Your mother doesn't sound like a very nice person." Finn says absently, her eyes tracing his face.

Her gaze falls to his hands where they're buried in the sand — his fingers card through some shells, tracing their shape, and ridiculously Finn feels her face heat up at the sight of them. She doesn't know what's wrong with her all of a sudden, but she blames their close contact in the lake. Shit, maybe Regulus had been right when he had freaked out at her over physical touch. Maybe he had known that she was depressingly starved of touch, and that even the barest contact would have her looking strangely at him for hours after. God, she was a sad little person.

But she supposes she can't blame herself entirely. She is lonely and isolated in her house in the mountains, and Regulus is probably one of the prettiest people she's ever seen in her life. She's sure that no one could fault her for getting a little bit temporarily distracted by his fine features — it doesn't mean anything.

"You certainly are not the first to say so." Regulus says absently, still staring out at the blackberry bushes.

Finn starts, having lost track of the conversation.

"Right." She says thickly, nodding. She hopes that he doesn't ask her any questions about whatever they had just been talking about.

Mercifully, he doesn't continue that thread of conversation. Instead, he surprises her entirely with what he says next.

"Thanks."

Finn's head snaps up so quickly she almost gives herself whiplash. She wonders for a moment if she's actually hallucinating, but the chill she feels from the lake water feels real enough to convince her otherwise.

"What?"

"I'm not saying it again." He says brusquely, still staring fixedly out at the blackberry bushes. "It was kind of you to come with me. That's all I wanted to say."

"Oh." Finn swallows, a little mystified. It must have taken a huge amount of effort for him to force out that 'thank you', especially to someone like her. She wonders at the fact that he'd tried to at all. "You're welcome."

As they both lapse into silence again, Finn takes the opportunity to dart a look towards the lake. The water is clear and blue, reflecting the sky, and utterly still. There's no sign of the dark figure of the kelpie lurking in its waters at all.

Now that she knows it's there though, she doesn't know how she's ever going to get back into the water again. The knowledge that there may be something lurking just underneath the surface waiting to drag her down to the depths to drown her leaves a panicked lump in her throat — she wonders if this is how Regulus had felt the last time they had been here.

When she looks back to Regulus, it's to find that he's on his feet already and has pulled his shirt on. He's in the process of buttoning his trousers; bizarrely, Finn hadn't heard him move at all.

"Are we going already?" She asks, a little drowsily. She thinks she'd happily doze here in the sunshine until the sun goes down, but Regulus is already pulling his shoes back on with intent.

"Yes," He murmurs, straightening up and adjusting the collar of his shirt. "I think so."

Finn sighs, but pushes herself up off the sand. Before she can move any further, a pile of cloth hits her in the face — Regulus has just thrown her dress right at her head.

"Charming." She snaps, pulling it from her head so she can scowl at him, but he's already turned away again.

With his back facing her, Finn is greeted to the view of a myriad of scars that rival the ones on his front in terms of brutality. She winces at the sight of them — they're turning white from time, but they're still pink-tinged and ridged as they heal.

"You shouldn't come down here alone," Regulus is saying, unaware of Finn's gaze on his back. "That kelpie could have pulled you down and eaten you before you even knew it was happening."

Perturbed, Finn casts a quick look towards the water. It's still and peaceful, but she can't get the image of those sharp teeth out of her head.

"How do you know all this?" She asks as she stands. "Have you seen one before?"

Her skin is still wet from the swim, but she pulls her sundress back on nevertheless. Her underthings are still soaked and they cling to her uncomfortably, but there's nothing she can do about it until they get back to the house.

Regulus clears his throat; he's still stoically facing the blackberry bushes, giving her an illusion of privacy.

"Care of Magical Creatures." He says, before adding quietly. "It was my favourite class at Hogwarts."

"Oh." Finn says slowly as she slips her shoes off. "I've never seen a magical creature before today."

Regulus is halfway through turning to shoot her an incredulous look before he seems to remember that she's putting her clothes back on, and he does a strange double-take back to face forward again. It's odd behaviour — she's already dressed, and he had already seen her stripped down to her underwear anyway. Besides, turning away so courteously is a show of respect that Finn honestly didn't think Regulus was capable of. Perhaps he's going out of his way to show off the fact that he finds her utterly repulsive to look at.

"But there are loads of magical creatures around the place." He says, clearing his throat yet again. "There's a little pack of pixies that live in the willow trees beside the front porch."

Fully dressed and ready to go, Finn steps forward. Regulus must sense her movement, because he turns his head towards her and his eyes flick down once, as though checking to make sure her clothes were, in fact, on.

"Are you just trying to mess with me?" Finn asks suspiciously, squinting at him.

"No." He does look earnest, but Finn just doesn't trust him. "I'll show you the next time they're out."

"Okay." Finn agrees, and Regulus nods tentatively at her.

When they finally start the long walk back up into the hills, they do so without speaking. But despite the silence, it feels like things are different this time. It feels like maybe they've reached a milestone.