Today must be a terrible day to have Ophidiophobia, Teddy thought, as he sent his rescuees away and turned into his full winged serpent form to tackle whatever that serpent with a mirror for a face is.
Tackling it may have been a miscalculation, it turns out, as the moment he touches the mirror's surface he ceases to be where he was, and instead finds himself in an enormous cave, hovering above a lake practically boiling over with - people? Soggy, decaying people, making low moaning noises and shuffling, flopping, and dragging their way up onto a green-lit island in the center of the water.
On the island he can just make out a pedestal, and a heap of dark cloth, covering what might be a human, though their face is obscured by a mop of sweat-soaked black hair and half-buried in the cloth of his sleeves. Whoever he is, he does not seem to be reacting at all to the approaching horde.
Aaaah. What the hell?
Teddy manages to recover his presence of mind to remember that the proper reaction to seeing a defenseless individual is rescuing them. He catches himself with a powerful wing beat, trying not to hit the cave's ceiling in the process.
When his wings come down a second time his feathers launch themselves like projectiles. They zip about and into the lake. The water parts like the red-sea, pushing the... zombies? Is he seriously dealing with zombies?! His control over the water should be enough for them to be kept at bay long enough for Teddy to close the distance to the likely-human.
There are Really A Lot of (indeed!) zombies! His methods do give him enough breathing room to reach the island safely, though, at least for now.
The probable human's eyes are still covered, but from this close he can, at least, tell that they are in fact human. They're shaking, whether from fear, cold, or something else is difficult to tell, and they don't look up on Teddy's approach any more than they had in response to the zombies.
...Well, he's not injured. Physically. What Teddy can see of his expression behind the mess of his hair and his dirty robes is drawn tight with misery, however- he looks like someone who has just been told that everything he loves has been destroyed and it's all his fault. And he still isn't reacting to anything going on around him, apparently completely occupied by whatever is going on in the darkness behind his eyelids.
He struggles a little, now, but so weakly it barely makes an impression, "No- told you- leave me-" and then he loses whatever coherency he'd managed to claw together for those few moments, and returns to sobbing into his hands.
It takes a little while to get to the other light. Once he gets there, he'll find an empty shore, aside from a thick archway carved high into the cave wall just at the edge of the light's reach.
Before he can leave the room, the strangers stirs a bit, finally opening his eyes to take in his surroundings blearily. He stares at the snake tail for a long moment, before following it up to the human upper body. He blinks, and then looks away again, deciding to ignore the clear delusion.
"-blood," he says then, staring at one of the walls. "Should- said-" he gropes at his waist under his overrobe, searching for something, and eventually comes up with a knife, "Blood to open the way," he says, making to press the blade of the knife against his own arm.
He's still not in any shape to fight back, but he does try, and continues reaching for the knife as he answers, "I'm not- need to give the wards blood to open the path," he tries to explain, "Kreacher said-" he pauses, a little clearer headed now, and stares at the long, snake-like tail again. "Naga?" He gets out, "Another defense? Kreacher didn't mention..."
He sighs raggedly, reaching for the knife again, "The wards- keep us in the cave. One of us will need to bleed on the wall right- there-" he waves at the bit of cave wall in question, "To open them, allowing us to leave." He seems to be regaining strength as he speaks, though he's still quite unsteady.
"Should," he nods, "House elf worked. Thinks he's clever- bastard- abomination- deī how did I not see-" his eyes flick about frantically and he starts muttering to himself in another language, squeezing his eyes closed again.
Behind them, another wave of zombies starts clawing their way through the archway.
As soon as his blood touches the stone of the wall, it melts away, revealing a dark, rough stone passage and letting in a gust of fresh sea air and a trickle of light. The tunnel inclines down, a little bit, and he can see that the bottom of it becomes submerged a few meters in - it looks like they'll either have to swim out, or Teddy will have to fly carefully to stay between the roof of the passage and the water's surface.
Or alternatively can get a good chunk of that water and blast the wretched zombies. Then he can use the extra space to slither cross the passage.
He goes nearly to full form for this, not going full size and keeping the arms to carry the stranger. But he looks like a cross between a serpent and a bird with iridescent feathers.
That gets rid of some of the water, but there must be some larger body of it on the other end of the tunnel, because it's quickly replaced. The blast does give them some breathing room from the zombies, at least- though, if he looks back a ways into the tunnel, he'll find that none of them seem to be following them outside of the cave. The horde stops on the threshold of the passage, watching- and then are hidden from view as the wall his blood had banished melts back into place.
His passenger notices none of this, once again completely occupied by the contents of his head, still muttering indecipherably - some of the words sound somewhat familiar, so it's probably something romantic, at least, maybe even Latin? But Teddy still can't understand what he's saying, when he can even make out the words.
By making his way down the tunnel, Teddy will eventually find himself out in the open air again. The passage leads out to the open water at the bottom of a high cliff, and it looks to be the middle of the night, the moon shining bright above them on a backdrop of innumerable stars. There are a few rocky outcrops in front of him where he could stop for a moment, too, if he'd like.
It takes a bit of prompting, but after a few moments the young man seems to recognize the change in location, and realize someone is speaking to him, and he stops in the middle of a mumbled sentence and jerks his head up to look at Teddy.
"Wha-" he coughs on the word, "I- yes, I hear you."
"-Saint Mungo's is in London? But I can't go there, the aurors will take me-" he stops, noticing the tail and staring at it again, "I- what- who are you? What were you doing in that place? Are you one of the defenses I won't let you take me to him-" he gropes around his robes frantically, looking for something, but his still shaky hands make the task difficult.
Teddy restrains him with his hands, then remembering his magical powers, he glues some feathers on the hands. The stranger will find himself unable to hold anything.
"Sir... I just saved you from a bunch of walking dead," he tries not to sound like he is demanding gratitude. "I am Teddy, I don't know what is going on. I was somewhere else fighting a snake monster, and then I was in that cave."
He barely even notices that the feathers are making it harder, it's already hard enough, and he gives up on the attempt after a moment, distracted by the first words he'd said, looking up at Teddy with wide, frightened eyes. His hair falls back out of his eyes and Teddy gets his first good look at his features, then - he looks young, maybe nineteen at most.
"The inferi, are they still coming?"
"Yes... I have never heard of such a creature..." he gives a sharp shake of the head, trying to keep his attention on the world around him a little longer, "I- will call my servant," he decides, "He can take us somewhere safe. I don't think I can- that potion..." he trails off again, starting to shiver once more as his eyes drift to the right of Teddy's face, becoming unfocused.
There's a sharp crack! And then, suddenly, they are sharing their little rock with another... being. Small, wrinkled, greyish-green and spindly, the being is wearing a loincloth made out of a tea cozy and nothing else, and immediately upon appearing they throw their tiny body at the strangers feet with a cry of, "Master Regulus! You is being alive!" And start sobbing into his robes.
"Safe, yes," Kreacher nods rapidly, suspicion clearing completely in favour of adoration as he turns back to look at Regulus, and then he snaps out a hand to grab onto Teddy's jeans, and he is treated to the second unexpected teleportation of the night as they twist out of existence in that one spot and reappear in another one.
"Kreacher- Kreacher could... not many people is being safe for Master Regulus. Turned against the Dark Lord he has... Kreacher told no one, but He must know, He knows all, Kreacher cannot be going to Mistress Narcissa..." Fretting, Kreacher reaches up and tugs on his ears, "The traitor is being a healer, Kreacher overheard Mistress saying, but she would not come, no..."
"The Dark Lord is being a very powerful wizard, Master Regulus is serving him, just like Mistress Bellatrix and Mistress Narcissa's husband and all respectable wizards. But he is doing something... bad. Terrible. Master Regulus is asking Kreacher to take him to secret place where terrible thing is being hidden, Kreacher is doing so, and then Master Regulus is telling Kreacher to leave him!" Having gotten onto this tangent, Kreacher bursts into tears and falls to his knees next to Regulus, joining him in weeping into his robes.
This particular place is a small, windowless room, containing the bed, a desk, and three and a half walls of bookcases. The room is lit by what appear to be oil lamps, though they don't seem to be giving off any smoke, and much like the lamps the décor of the rest of the room appears to be at least a century out of date compared to what Teddy is used to.
There are two doors leading out of it, both currently closed.
There's a wide variety here- a number of them do not have titles, some of them only have dates, many are labelled in other languages - Latin features prominently, but so does French, Gaelic, German, and many more. The ones in English have names like '203 Unorthodox Uses for Harmless Charms' and '1001 Magical Herbs and Fungi' and 'The Interactions of Venus'.
The doors, if he checks them, are not locked - one leads to a bathroom, and one out into a short hallway featuring two more doors.
Yep, though at least he appears to have settled into quieter tears at this point. Regulus is completely unchanged - he might be sleeping, but if he is Teddy can't tell any difference from the way he was acting most of the time he was awake.
There's still those doors - the bathroom and the hallway. Maybe there's something explanatory in one of those?
Kreacher lifts his head a little to blink his large eyes at him.
"Mister Teddy may- look around, so long as he is not- touching anything," he says, haltingly. "Kreacher will-" he looks down at Regulus, takes a shuddering breath, "Kreacher will find help," he says, determined.
And then he vanishes with another sharp crack!
One of the doors leads into a combined living room and kitchen, furnished nicely if plainly, a few more bookshelves covering the walls not occupied by windows or counter space.
The other door - the one at the end of the hall - is, it transpires, an escape route. It leads out onto the covered porch of a surprisingly normal house, one of many on a surprisingly normal street, the sort he'd be able to find in any normal town he'd ever been to. The sky is still dark overhead, clear of clouds but starless from the light pollution. The street is silent, all other residents tucked inside for the night.
Perhaps slightly less weird? Or more familiarly weird? Some of it looks like fiction, both of the compendium of tales sort and of the novel sort. Tales from the Western Sky catches the eye from his vantage point, a large tome with the title etched in gold. One shelf up and to the right, a series of bright red books proclaim themselves the Lighthouse Hill series, volumes one to six.