Ev

As they neared the end of the passageway, the ivy grew thicker, encompassing every surface of stone it could touch until the path became completely enclosed in it.

Regulus spun then, his eyes stabbing precisely into James'. "You will remember these are my friends, correct?"

James' smile brightened. "Come on, Reg. I've really been looking forward to it."

James tried to push in through the ivy, his stride all too confident. A firm hand gripping onto his shoulder stilled him, however, even from half a foot below his eyeline.

"Yes, but, if you're afraid of Barty, you will not survive Evan's stare alone."

"I'm sure I'll be fine." He poked Regulus' cheek innocently, earning him the harshest glare he'd ever seen the boy produce. "I mean it. I'm just excited to properly meet them."

Regulus nodded once, a sharp nod, before his hand pressed into the thick ivy before them. With the sparse flying of blue sparks, the ivy coiled back up into the fascia, and Regulus stepped through.

Evan silently stuck up a middle finger, the black "B" adorned with roses mirrored by a black "E" with bats beside it, Barty pouting dramatically at the two from behind his own hand. "What the fuck, Reginald? Come hold my hand instead."

Regulus only rolled his eyes and stuck up his own ringed middle finger in response before plopping down on a tree stump in front of Pandora.

She was in deep focus, her long white dreads pulled into an elastic behind her, the few framing her face curling into the ground before her. Her head was bowed a bit, hands gently brushing against a small white stone. Her thumbs pressed into the large round crevices, gentle touches coaxing old gray matter from somewhere far beneath the surface. She set the stone back, wiping her hands tenderly in the dirt, her long sleeves dragging behind, and grabbed another from the pile.

This stone was longer, more abnormal. James adjusted his glasses as he watched her pull the stone from the pile, brown eyes focusing in on-

"Regulus!" James whispered, eyebrows extending up over the ridiculously large frames of his glasses.

"What?" Regulus' eyes were already piercing, almost daring him to continue.

James swallowed. "You said it was a little get together."

Reg nodded. "For the tradition."

His eyelids practically snap. "Yeah, you said it was your special day! Forgive me, Regulus, but I believe you somehow managed to forget the part about the massive collection of bones front and center, yeah?"

Evan snickered a bit from across the garden, his eyes lazily drifting towards the hushed bickering. "Potter boy's shitting himself."

Regulus shot James a harsh look. "It's fine, I promise. You'll see."

James only gave him a slow nod, his eyes dismaying the situation as incredulous through them despite it. His pinky traced the edge of Regulus until he allowed him to curl the two, his stomach threatening to be sick as his mind tried to rationalize in dangerous places.

Pandora lifted herself from the remains, rot now clinging to her skin instead, clothes tainted with the stains of death. And yet, she smiled peacefully.

"Tonight, the earth finally welcomes back in its kin, so that my friends may finally know rest."

She turned then to the pile, tan hands retrieving an off white skull the size of her torso and holding it up to the moon's grace. "Evan?"

"An elk." His eyes traced the antlers extending past her arms, nodding when he was certain.

Pandora nodded, turning the skull to face herself. She brought a hand up to the skull's cheek, as if comforting the elk itself. "It's alright now. You were a beautiful creature. You may rest now."

Pandora stepped down into a grave dug beside the pile, placing the skull down into it with the tenderness you'd expect with a newborn child, placing a kiss to the cleaned skull before emerging again.

James' shoulders eased a bit then, his face filling with a strange endearment for the powerful scene before him, the beauty in the witch's simple act. Regulus caught it immediately, his eyes finally at rest from the way they'd been diligently watching him. His top lip pinched up.

There were seventeen graves dug that day. By the fifth, James' smile had stretched to his ears. By the sixth, he was crying. The rest of his hand found the comfort of Regulus' embrace, his heart inexplicably warmed. Regulus had been right- Pandora truly did care for every creature- alive or dead- that deserved the mercy of a kind soul.

When the seventeenth grave was filled (a mooncalf, Evan explained), Pandora knelt down in front of them all, a solemn calm falling between the group. James stood from his spot on the stump and knelt beside her, his eyes fluttering closed over warm cheeks as he breathed deep over them, his hand coming to the earth in front. Crossing his heart, he muttered a prayer to the god his mother had told him about as a boy.

Something in James' heart changed that night. He saw at once all of the lovely things Regulus had always seen in them, the twisted beauty lingering under the surface, unraveling gnarled roots to reveal an almost martyrdom that ran deeper than anyone else but those present could understand.

Pandora's tradition grew just as sacred as the full moons were to him, just as unexplainably necessary.