Chapter Text
When the door of his chambers opened, Regulus already knew who the person entering was. It was not because of the usual reason, no one needs clairvoyant abilities to know their child’s footsteps.
“Well” The blond said throwing himself on his bed “So you’re going to meet your brother”
“Yes” He said, taking a sip of his tea cup “I am going to be in the vicinity of Sirius, that is correct”.
“And you are panicking” The boy stated, hanging upside down from the bed, shoes on the wall.
“I am not doing any such thing” He took another sip of his tea ”And get your feet off my wall, you’re going to stain it”.
The kid sat up, hanging his feet off the side of the bed now, and rolled his eyes “You so are, this is so dumb”
He put his cup down on the bedside table and turned to face Draco, crossing his arms over his chest.
“I am sorry my familial history is boring to you mister, but I’m not discussing this with you”
Draco frowned, a petulant expression on his face. "I never said it was boring, I said it was dumb” He put great emphasis on the last word “Because it is! And it is technically my family’s history too. You’re aware we are related, right?”
Regulus groaned tiredly, caressing poor Le Voisin as she jumped on his lap. “I had a vague idea yes”
To be honest, Regulus could never forget. Many thought Draco took after the Malfoys only for his pale coloring, but to someone who had grown up with Narcissa Black, the kid was a carbon copy of her. He had the same eyes as her, they crumpled their nose in the exact same way when they disliked something, even their smiles were the same. Draco’s nose was pointier and his hair was straight and almost white instead of Narcissa’s golden curls, but sometimes, all Regulus could see was his older cousin when he looked at him.
“You know, you are exactly like your mum” He blurted out.
Draco turned his head, trying to get Le Voisin to go to him “You’re the only one who ever says that” He mumbled “Everyone thinks I’m a Malfoy”
“Well you are not” He cut stagnantly “Those people are blind if they can see it. You are the proud heir of the most ancient and noble House of Black” He leaned back on his seat “You are just a very pale one, almost albino really” He teased.
“I’ll have you know some find it very appealing!” Draco defended hastily.
“I am sure you’re not short on admirers, darling” He said, trying not to sound as tense as he felt “I just hope you know that you can talk to me about it, when you are ready to accept their advances. In the far, far future” He said, underlining the last part.
“Atlante! That’s so disgusting!” Draco was completely red in the face.
“No one has been improper with you right? There’s nothing wrong with having crushes, it is a natural thing, even not having them ever, that’s also alright, darlin. But you are far too young to be acting on it” He said, a little panicked.
“Of course not! I do like someone” He said, blushing even harder “He is my age” he said, before Regulus could interrupt. “But I’m not acting on it, we’re just friends” He mumbles, looking down at the purring cat on his lap.
“Okay, I am here to talk if you ever feel like you need it. About anything” He said, looking at him pointedly.
“I know, I am here for you to talk too!” The boy exclaimed.
“You are a child. A child I have to take care of for that matter. My grievances with my brother are not yours to bear.” He stated.
“But I can help!” He insisted “You are too somber about it, you need a positive outlook on them”.
“Your aunts and uncles are plenty positive for me.”
“But they are biased! They don’t like Sirius” He stated as if it was obvious. “I am impartial in this situation.”
“There are many things you don’t know about, Draco. And I intend to keep it that way,” he explained.
“Well, whatever it is I don’t know, I can attest that I would never hate Luna. No matter what she did, because she is my sister.” He said plainly “So I’m sure Sirius will get over whatever he thinks he has over you “ He finished, letting himself fall back on the bed.
Regulus could only sigh “Okay, I’ll try to approach this situation with a positive mindset” He conceded. “Now tell me, how is that study group of yours going?”
“Oh Salazar! Don’t get me started on that!” The child said, shooting up. “Ronald Billius Weasley is going to be the death of me. How can such a smart person be so dumb? It genuinely baffles me! I’ll be trying to explain to him the most basic concept and he will not get it for the life of him, but then Hermione and I struggle with the most complex aspect of spell-casting and he’ll just solve it naturally! Like it’s ingrained on his brain or something. I want to throttle him” He said, thrashing and turning furiously on the bed, almost squashing poor Le Voisin in his tantrum.
“Then there’s Longbottom, thank god Theo’s able to get through to him because I cannot be with him sometimes” He said laying on his front. “He’s average at everything, and he could be great in some of his classes if he just stopped thinking he’s not worth the dirt off of snape’s shoe and started having some trust in himself!” He was exasperated.
“Theo is the opposite though, which isn’t much better! He’s so overconfident I’m sure he’s going to blow all of us up someday.” He turned and picked Le Voisin up harshly, dropping her on his stomach to cuddle her. “He’s brilliant, there’s no denying that but he’s obsessed with ticking things to ‘Get a better result’ He’s going to end up bald or worse.”
He sat up, Hugging the cat closely to his chest “Hermione is to focus on theory and rationality. We’re wizards for Atlante’s sake! Magic is not always logical!” He groaned “But she can’t wrap her head around that. Did you know she thinks the omens are just old wive’s tales and superstitions? She never believes me when I read them, and when I’m right she chucks it up to statistikis or something like that. It’s so frustrating!”.
He let go of the cat and started running his fingers through his hair “Then there’s Harry” He sighted “He’s so, so powerful, and so intelligent. But he doesn’t even care! He doesn’t realize! He could be the best at every class just on raw power alone but he’s such a goof! He’s got so much potential, but he prefers to laugh around all day! What I wouldn’t do for a fraction of his talent.” He layed back down.
Regulus understood how he felt, he’d been in his place many times. But he also knew he cared a lot for all of these kids.
“Well it sounds like they all shine in different ways” He responded softly “Maybe Ron’s and Harry’s attention is not that good for the theory aspects, but they seem to have a good head on their shoulders. Ron seems to be a logical thinker, so maybe try that approach when you’re explaining things to him, don’t just read the theory outloud:” He suggested.
“Same thing with Harry, he sounds like a practical learner. Try and focus on that too.” He picked his teacup back up. “Neville, he hasn’t been having an easy time at Hogwarts from what I’ve heard. It’s normal, many first-years take a bit of time to adjust. His problem seems to be his self esteem. Try encouraging him, supporting his efforts! Don’t be too hard on him”
He picked Le Voisin up from the floor “Theo is creative, but you need to make sure his overconfidence doesn't disgorge into a magical hazard. Make sure his experiments don’t get too wild, and if they do, come to me.”
Draco nodded “As for Hermione, not everyone has to believe in the same thing. Divination is not an exact science, it relies on interpretation, so statistics do play a part, She’s not wrong. She’ll open her mind to more lax ways of magic with time, just be patient and make sure to be respectful. Don’t let her disrespect your beliefs, though.” He stated.
“You are a great teacher, you’re aware of that right?” Draco asked.
“Well, I try my best” he shrugged. “Teachers must detect their student needs and meet them. It’s their job”
Draco got up from the bed “I have to go to class now” He mumbled. “I’ll see you later, okay?”
Regulus nodded.
“Thanks for the advice, don’t overthink papa, I know you”
And with that he left, closing the door behind him and leaving a smiling Regulus inside. He loved when he called him that.
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“Okay” James sat down at Lily’s sofa “How are we going to do this?”.
Remus, the girls and himself were all reunited at their home base, Lily’s flat, trying to come up with a plan on how to tell Sirius their next get together would have a Slytherin green tone to it.
“Well I for one think it’s not necessary to tell him” Marlene was longing on one of the loveseats. “He knows Dorcas was a Slytherin, and he knows she was a year younger. It’s common sense that Regulus will be at her house-warming”. She looked at them like it was the most obvious thing ever.
“That’s a pretty big guess there Marls” Laughed Mary “I wouldn’t jump to that conclusion. We weren’t really in sync with the Slytherin social circles back then, and we haven’t seen any of that crowd since graduation. Save for Dorcas obviously, but even then those too don’t interact much.”
Remus nodded morosely “His biological family is a sore topic for him. He at least deserves a heads up”
“I would like to know first if I was going to have to face Tuney” Lily agreed, the mood of the room turned serious.
“How would you do it then?” Asked Marlene, now laying upside-down on her seat.
“Well I would like it to be straight-forward.” She said “We are all adults, I wouldn’t like to be told to behave or anything like that. It would feel patronicing. There’s nothing Sirius hates more than to be treated like a child.”
“Maybe you should do it, Lils” suggested Mary. “You are one of his closest friends, and you can relate to this sibling angst situations”
James shook his head “I promised Regulus I would do it.”
“Well then if you promised lover boy you would do it…” Mocked Marlene.
“It was merely a professional thing!” He defended frenetically.
“mmhm, professional relationships” Mary teased, making Lily laugh.
“He’s my son’s teacher! we only meet in his office for official matters!”
Lily feigned a scandalised gasp “Kinky” she whispered.
He was hot all over. His face was beet red and he felt like he could explode from embarrassment any minute. He was about to say something when thankfully Remus came to his rescue.
“Okay guys, I enjoy making fun of James’ crush as much as anyone but we’re here to keep my husband from losing his mind so please, let’s focus.” He said, getting up from the sofa to pour himself another tea.
Marlen sat up on his seat again “If I had a penny for every time he drops the big H when talking about Sirius…”
“I would be able to buy Madam Malkin’s store from her” Sighted Mary
Lily gave her an amused look “It’s practically yours already Mary. That witch is a snotty first year away from handing you the keys”
“A woman can only hope” she responded.
“Focus” stated Remus, sitting back down with a freshly made cup. “We are trying to save my husband the heartache of unexpectedly coming face to face with his estranged little brother”
“Cha-ching" said Mary looking at Marlene. Both girls tried to contain their laughter, but failed.
“Focus!” Exclaimed Remus, more stern this time.
“Okay, but will he really care that much?” asked Marlene “He does hate the bugger, but as Lily said, we’re all adults! He’ll be able to play nice for a few hours.”
“He doesn’t hate Regulus” Remus denied. “It’s complicated”
“Well, he has complicated feelings around the matter. He’ll deal” She dismissed.
“A heads up would be nice, but I wouldn’t really go past that” Mary declared, laying back on her elbows”.
“I think both of us should go” James said, looking at Lily “Mary’s right, you can relate to him on this. And I have to keep my promise” He stated plainly “We both should do it”.
“Okay” She said.
“Okay” They all agreed.
Sirius and Remus flat was cozy and a bit messy and it gave James a sort of weird nostalgia from his Hogwarts days. The sofas were made of warm brown leather, every room had big windows that let the light in and there was always a record playing in the background. Sometimes, mostly when Harry was at Lily’s or now that he was at Hogwarts, it felt more like home to James than his own House.
When him and Lily walked through the floo Sirius was fooling around in the kitchen.
“Honey, I’m home!” He let out in a sing-songy voice. Lily was already rolling her eyes at him.
“Oh Prongs, my beloved!” He threw himself in his arms and James twirled him around.
“If I didn’t know you were head over heels for Remus…” Lily trailed off.
“I love my Prongsy with my whole heart, but he’s not my type at all”
“Neither are you!” He said indignantly.
“I don’t know about that” Lily teased, but fell silent when he saw the look james shoot her.
“Okay Sirius we actually came to talk to you about something” Lily said “We should sit down”
“Okay you’re scaring me” Sirius’ smile fell “Did something happen to Harry? Is that why you’re here?” His voice was starting to sound panicked.
“Haz is alright, that has nothing to do with it” James reassured “This is about something else”
Sirius seemed to calm down a little, but he was still on edge.
“Okay, so you know Marlene?” James asked after sitting down. Sirius looked at him like he was as dumb as an oyster, so he kept going. “Alright, so her girlfriend and the love of her life Dorcas and her are moving in together”
“James get to the point” Lily interrupted.
“Okay, okay. Dorcas is friends with Regulus’ crew and they are coming to the house warming party” Ha spat out.
“What?!” Sirius almost screamed.
“Okay Sirius, you need to calm down” Lily placated.
“You want me to calm down? It’s enough that Regulus Black Pureblood Extraordinaire is my godson’s head of house, and now you want me to interact with him when I’m with my friends too? no way”. He shook his head.
“He’s a good teacher to Harry, we have no complaints about him.” Defended James.
“And no one is asking that you both interact.” Lily explained “You just have to exist in the same room as him for a couple of hours, no more no less”.
Sirius didn’t look too convinced, but after a bit of huffing and puffing he conceded.
“But I’m not playing nice with anyone, if they want war I’ll give it to them”.
“We don’t doubt that” Lily laughed, but James could sense doom coming.
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Regulus was at Evan and Barty’s waiting before their fireplace with a tray of freshly baked Chouguettes on his hands, balancing his weight from one foot to another.
“Egg we’re going to Dorcas’ place not Azkaban, lighten up a little” Barty teased, can of beer in his hand.
“Don’t make him nervous B. You know who’ll be there” Evan defended, trying to fix his hair before the mirror.
“Sirius will behave if he knows what’s good for him” threatened Barty.
“Don’t B” He said “It’s Dorcas’ night, please behave.”
It didn’t look like it was going to be an easy night, but the sooner it started the sooner it would be over.
“Can you please hurry up? We’re going to be late.” He pleaded.
“Good things are worth waiting for Eggie” Shouted Evan from the bathroom.
“You’re not good in any way shape or form Rosier”
“Agree to disagree” Mumbled Barty, taking the last sip of his beer and going to grab another one.
“Can you please stop drinking? You can’t show up drunk!”
“Do you want me to be sober or nice to your brother? pick one, they are mutually exclusive” Barty said, letting himself fall down on the couch.
“Drunk you isn’t much more pleasant so I’ll go with sober” He said, snatching the drink from his hand and taking a sip himself.
“You said sober!” Barty protested.
“Liquid courage, shut up. Evan hurry up!” He shouted.
“Well I know you can’t see it but this beauty takes time” He replied, walking into the sitting room again.
“Yes it does Rosie, maybe little Eggie should go on ahead without us. We’ll catch up later” Barty’s voice was muffled in the last phrases, surely putting his mouth on Evan.
“If you start two start shagging in front of me I swear to Merlin and Morgana both I’m killing you.”
“No you’re not, You’re too afraid of Panda” Evan teased.
“Start walking. Now.” He said in a low voice “If these Chouguettes go colde, Atlantes help me, I’m putting you both on the ground.”
When they finally disentangled from each other, they flooed to their friend’s house. As expected, and as Regulus had warned, they were late. Everyone was already there and a weirdly catchy song was playing on the background, was it in Spanish? Regulus couldn't really tell. Dorcas was talking animatedly with Marlene, James and a curly-haired girl he didn’t know; Pandora on the other hand, was sitting very close to Lily Evans, talking in hushed voices. He pointedly didn’t try to locate anyone else.
Barty and Evan went straight for the kitchen, to grab a bite or to make out he didn’t know, so he simply went towards Dorcas and offered the buns.
“Thank you mister” She said with a smile “Did you make these?”
“Would I bring something store-bought to your house warming party, Meadowes?” He asked, feigning offence.
“So rude of me to even ask.” She mocked “Lads this is Regulus. Regulus, you already know James and Marls, this is Mary Macdonald. I’m going to take this to the kitchen” She said, raising the Chouguettes’ tray.
“Careful. The double menace is in there.” He warned.
He started talking to Marlene and Mary about the new Weird Sister’s album, trying to be as casual as possible. But he could feel James’ eyes on him. They’d started to compare how this compared to their first work when he felt two skinny arms wrap around his neck.
“Panda, you're choking me” He coughed up.
“You’re too whiny, and late”
“Guess whose fault that is” he shot back.
“He’s always been too slow getting ready. Anyways this is Lily” She introduced them.
“You must be Reggie! I’ve heard a lot about you!” She smiled, stretching his hand.
“Oh he hates that nickname” Pandora intervened.
“Sorry, I didn’t mean to-” Lily started to apologize.
“Don’t worry” He reassured “Reg’s fine, I know my name is a mouthful.” He smiled
After that little hiccup, the conversation seemed to flow between all of them, but a while later Regulus' stomach started to growl. A little ashamed of the sounds, he walked into the kitchen for something to eat.
“It’s a bit crowded here right?” a soft voice came from behind him.
“Well Marlene and Dorcas are very popular” He responded, leaning back against the table.
“I’m glad to finally catch you outside of Hogwarts though.” James smiled “I’ve been wanting to talk to you about anything other than Harry for a while”
That startled him, but he tried to not get his hopes up in what he was sure was in vain “Well, he is a remarkable child” He almost whispered.
“That he is, but you surely have other interesting things to talk about.” He felt the other man getting closer to his side and his cheeks started to burn up.
“I’m not that exciting” He said.
“You are, believe me.” The other man seemed to doubt for a second “Maybe we could talk a bit more privately sometime, would you like to go out for coffee sometime?”.
Was he reading this right? Was James Potter asking him out on a date? Surely not, this must be a friend's outing or something like that. He must have spend a few minutes looking at the man like a fish out of water before responding.
“S-sure, you already know when I’m free. Just owl me anytime” His voice trembled a little, but he’d managed.
“Okay, I’ll look for a time that’s good for the both of us.” The other man said softly.
After that they started to talk about that year’s quidditch season. That discussion got so heated in fact that Regulus didn’t realize there were other people coming and going to and out of the kitchen.
He was about to take a bite out of one of the pastries at the table when a sudden slap made him drop it.
“What the bloody hell is your problem mate” Someone shouted from the opposite side of the kitchen, Barty.
“That has strawberries in it Reggie, Are you blind?!” A panicked voice asked him, much closer than Barty. He hadn’t heard it in years, but you never forget a brother’s voice.
“Don’t call him that first of all” said Barty “And he is indeed blind you numpty! You’d know if you'd deigned to talk to him in the past decade!” He shouted, enraged.
“I didn’t get a word from him either!” Sirius defended.
“You didn’t seem to want it, you already had the perfect replacement” He rebuted, side-eyeing James.
“At least James accepted me, he’s real family”
“Don’t worry, Eggie has a family of his own that accepts him too. He doesn’t need you as a brother”
“Because he has you?! Don’t make me laugh!”
“Why can’t you have strawberries?” James whispered to him.
“HE’S ALLERGIC!” Both Sirius and Barty screamed in unison, and just like that, they turned to face each other and the blows started coming.
Sirius had landed a pretty hard hit on Barty and the other had his hair on a fist and was swinging for his nose before Regulus and James could stop them.
“ENOUGH!” Regulus shouted “Panda come get B, I’ll take care of this one”.
Regulus had taken Sirius into the guest bathroom, a small room with only a Toilet and a sink. He sat him down on the toilet and started looking for the iodine solution and the cotton in the first-aid kit.
“How do you know your way around so well? didn’t your guard dog say you’re blind now?” Sirius was clearly still on edge, but he wasn’t willing to take the brunt of his anger.
“I don’t know, you tell me” He responded, finally looking him in the eye with his milky-white stare.
“Okay you are blind” Sirius said “But my question still stands, how do you know where everything is? Have you been here already?”.
“I’m a clairvoyant Sirius” He explained.
“A proper Black then” He sounded irritated.
“It is a common ability amongst the Blacks yes, I might have taken it a step further than most of our ancestors though”
“You gave up your eyes for that Reggie?!” Sirius exclaimed.
“All is good in love and war Sirius, you should know better than most” He said, dabbing the wet cotton on his busted lip.
“Well it didn’t work out for you in the end did it? Voldemort lost”
“Oh it served me very well, believe it or not” He went for the open cut on his brow.
“Ouch! Be careful Reggie, that stung” He said retreating from his touch “Why are we doing this the muggle way anyway? I thought you were above all that”
“Healing’s more of Panda’s domain, you were an ass to her brother in law though. So you are stuck with the guy that’s pants at healing charms”
There was silence for a minute until Sirius spoke again.
“Is she a healer? I’ve never seen her at Mungo’s”
“They don’t allow dark healers at Mungo’s. She works at a private clinic in Knockturn, but they floo her in when they need her expertise.”
“So you’re still meddling with that?” Sirius said in indignation “Thought his fall woul’ve knocked some sense into you but I see I was wrong.”
“I am not a dark wizard Sirius” He said “Not that there’s anything wrong with it. If you’d paid a little attention to your studies you’d know there’s nothing more important to magic than balance. There’s no light without darkness, that’s why Evan and Barty work out so well.”
“Rosier declared for the light?” Sirius asked, voice confused.
“Of course not, Barty did”
Sirius shook his head “I didn’t expect that. So you too are a light wizard?”
Regulus snorted “Obviously not, im an earthly mage.” He stated.
“A what?” Sirius said.
“An earthly mage. There’s many different kinds of magic one can have an affinity for, just because the dark wizards are the ones that still observe the old rites doesn’t mean only the dark exists.”
“So you’re still celebrating the wheel?” Sirius asked?
“Yes, the others complete my circle. Draco is doing an affinity rite with us this Mabon, maybe his friends can form a new one”
“That Malfoy brat better not be putting ideas into Harry’s head.” Sirius said defensibly.
“Don’t call him that” Regulus said through gritted teeth.
“What? Brat?”
“No, Malfoy. He’s a brat alright, but a Black one. Cissy made sure of that”
“I guess that tracks” Sirius smiled sadly “She was always a stubborn one”
“Draco is just like her, you know?” He said “You could meet him if you wanted, you’re family”
“I am not anymore, I’m a Lupin now”
“Family’s not just a last name Sirus, I thought you of all people would think like me on that” He gave the finishing touches to his brother’s beat up face. “You see everything in Black and white Sirius. If you learn to find the gray, you know where to find me”
With that he left, closing the door behind him.
As he walked back into the sitting room again, he could feel the tension in the air. After focusing more on the ambience, he found the Gryffindors and the Slytherins standing on oposite sides of the room like a parted sea. The party was over.
“We should go. Dorcas I’m truly sorry about this. I’ll make it up to you” He swore.
“Don’t worry about it, just go home and rest” She responded.
He got on the floo.
“I’ll try.”