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. 

Teddy spins a blasting wave around the island to wash the zombies further away. Then he turns his top half mostly human to check on the probable humans. How are his vitals signs? Any obvious injuries that mean he shouldn't be moved?

...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. 

Okay. Okay.

Not really okay, but okay. He can make it okay. Huh... Teddy will wrap feathery arms around the stranger. Water can be drained from the robes, that ought to help. He looks around the large cave for any signs of... anything.

He can see another light in the distance through the gloom, far off across the lake. Other than that - and the ever present, writhing zombies, determinedly continuing to make their way towards the island - there doesn't appear to be much else in the cave. 

The stranger stiffens in his arms, but doesn't make any move to resist. From this close Teddy can more easily make out the fast, panicked breaths, interspersed with near-silent sobs. He's still shaking, but at least it's probably not from the cold now. 

Teddy strokes the stranger's hair, trying to be comforting. How sturdy are these zombies. Can Teddy club them with his tail (kept carefully frictionless to avoid being grabbed).

The zombies are clubbable! They fly back into the lake with a satisfying sploosh when he whacks them with his tail, leaving room for the ones behind them to make their way up to take their place. They don't seem to be very smart, these zombies, but there sure are a lot of them!

The stranger shudders in his arms, finally reacting a little by leaning just the slightest bit into his hand and making a choked, confused noise. 

"Kreacher?" He croaks out.

"What? I am Teddy. Hold on, I will get you out of here." He will move towards the other light, maybe it's another island, or an exit or something.

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. 

"Take it easy." Teddy slithers the two of them through the archway. Does this look like an exit or a dead-end?

There's another chamber just inside the archway, which appears to have no other exits. 

His passenger quiets a little in response to his words, but can't really seem to stop shaking, and still has his eyes covered.

Damn it. Teddy spends sometime clobbering zombies out of frustration and then he and the stranger can go looking for some other exit.

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. 

Teddy blinks at the stranger, then wrestling the knife out of his hands. "Hey. Stay with me and don't hurt yourself, okay? Can you understand?"

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..." 

"Wards? Kreacher?" Teddy says after a dumb pause. "I just found myself here. But I am trying to rescue you."

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. 

Teddy gives him a fixed smile. But considering he has no clue what is going on... "Should my blood work?"

"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.

Alright. He will do the crazy blood thing. He will try not to flinch too hard at poking his arm with the knife - the stranger can be held by his tail - then... "Blood to open the way."

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.

Teddy is still too shocked that it worked at all.

He tries to make reassuring noises at the stranger. And also to leave this place and get him to the nearest hospital. But leaving this place first.

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.

Yeah. He would like to do that. Also check on his passenger. "Hey, hey? Can you hear me?"

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." 

"Do you know which direction to go? The nearest hospital?"

"-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?" 

"The undead? They stayed back in the cave. Didn't want to cross the threshold."

"Good," he relaxes a bit, "Good... I..." he blinks up at Teddy, his eyes starting to go distant and haunted, and then he shakes his head, grimacing, "That potion..." he mutters. "I'm sorry, I'm not very- you said you- don't know how you got there?"

"No... I was called to deal with a monster attack, got there and there was a snake thing with a mirror for a face. I tackled it and then I was here. You mentioned London? This is in Britain then?"

"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. 

He is wondering if this guy is sufficiently alright to talk. Teddy gives the mildest slap to the stranger's face. A pat really. "Hey, hey, stay with me."

He breaths in sharply, hand jerking up to touch his cheek, "-apologies, I'm not-" he huffs, "This is ridiculous- Kreacher!" 

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. 

Gah. This causes Teddy's feathers to hackle. Remarkably cat-like for something that is three kinds of creatures none of which is cat-like.

Calm down.

"...Hi?"

Kreacher is too busy crying to reply to Teddy's greeting right away.

Regulus sets a hand on Kreacher's back and tries to keep focusing for a little while longer, "Yes- Kreacher I need you to take us to the safe house..." 

"-Ye-yes, Master Regulus-" Kreacher pulls himself together enough to look up at Teddy, "Who is it? Rescued Master Regulus, it did?"

"My name is Teddy. I am a he." He changes, so he is mostly human, wearing muggle-looking jeans clothes, albeit reinforced ones. Only his arms are still feathery.

"Hmmmmm..." the little being grumbles up at him, suspicious.

"Kreacher. Safe house," Regulus repeats.

"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. 

Teddy rubs his forehead and tries to not be too disoriented. Oh, also, he maybe should get Regulus on a comfortable surfice is there is one available.

There is a bed! Right there, next to where Kreacher popped them both in, conveniently placed so that Teddy barely has to move to set Regulus down on it. 

Teddy lays down Regulus in the bed. To Kreacher he asks. "Do you know how to help him?"

Regulus curls up on the bed as soon as he's been set down, burying his face back into his robes and shuddering, making soft noises of distress.

"Master Regulus is drinking a very terrible potion," Kreacher tells him, climbing up onto the bed and hovering worriedly over Regulus' form, "Kreacher is not knowing what it was, not knowing how to treat it - oh Master Regulus Kreacher is being sorry!" He wrings his hands unhappily. 

Teddy really wishes Felix was here. He would offer Kreacher a hug and mean it. Teddy is not comfortable with that. Poor creature. "Kreacher could get help? A doctor? Someone with healing magic?"

"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..." 

"Dark Lord? And hey, don't... be hard on yourself, it's not your fault. Why are people not safe?"

"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.

Teddy tentatively pats Kreacher on the back. "There, there, you did all you could."

Kreacher shudders under his hand and keeps crying.

This looks likely to go on for a while.

This is awkward. And Teddy is full of questions (Wizards?!?).

Maybe he should figure out his surroundings first. Where are they?

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.

Are the doors locked? Teddy eyes the books and reads the titles.

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.

What... the hell. He leaves the ones labelled after dates (Journals?) and checks the ones about Herbs.

It seems to be an encyclopedia describing the properties of various magical herbs, as the title promised. What is he looking for, venomous tenactula? Singing shrewbush? Gilting Gerberas? This book has them all!

Teddy is looking for... an explanation. For all of this. How is Kreacher? Still crying?

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?

"Do you mind if I look around?" He asks Kreacher.

It feels weird looking around someone's else residence, even if it's a temporary one.

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!

Disconcerting as hell. He will take an exploratory look through the hallway, Teddy doesn't want to be caught trapped in a place he can't fully shape-shift unless there is an escape route.

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.

Oh, good. His serpent eyes should be able to see some in this darkness, not that he has any idea where to run if necessary.

He goes back to the bookshelves in the living room area and takes a look, more weird titles?

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.

Teddy almost takes one of the novels to read, but remembers that he was told not to. By a weird creature that might take, bind him into servitude for disobeying or some other nonsense. Instead, Teddy returns to the bedroom.

The weird creature is still missing, but his Master Regulus is still where he was left.

The noise of Teddy moving around in his bedroom prompts him to twitch and mumble something that sounds like 'serious?'

"It's okay." He has no idea if it is. "Just rest. Kreacher went to search for help."

He shakes his head into the pillows, but doesn't respond.

Teddy sits down and... Is not sure what to do. He waits and keeps an eye on Regulus' state.