When Barty entered the afterlife in the summer of 1995, Regulus couldn’t help being happy. Of course he had hoped Barty would live a long life, but that didn’t stop him from being overjoyed to see his best friend again.
Barty would have been in his early to mid thirties, but in the afterlife, he was eighteen again. That was how it worked. Here, they had a chance to be young again, properly.
After a rather emotional reunion for both Regulus and Evan, as well as Dorcas and Pandora, and even James, they got to talking.
For Regulus, there was one thing that was more important than anything else: he had to stay updated on his brother’s life.
This was especially important now, because no one had died since Pandora, and she had been so far removed from everything that she had brought little to no news anyway.
“How’s Sirius?” Regulus asked immediately.
Once Barty began talking, however, Regulus almost wished he hadn’t demanded to know. For so long, he and James had been clinging to the delusion that Sirius had lived on happily with Remus and Harry and that he would die peacefully of old age among people he loved. They couldn’t have been more wrong.
“Well…” Barty looked extremely uncomfortable, and Regulus felt his heart drop.
“What happened to my brother, Barty?” he pressed, more urgently this time. He glanced at James, who was white-knuckling his chair and had gone three shades paler.
Barty cleared his throat and turned to address James, stubbornly refusing to meet Regulus’ eye.
“I have to start by saying that I really don’t know much of what happened to your side following your death, James. I knew you’d died, of course, and that Voldemort had died too that same night. And I knew that your son, Harry, he survived. It was all anyone could talk about, really. My first instinct was to look for Sirius, but no one said anything about him. I assumed he was dead too. I looked for him for a long time, trust me, but it was as if everyone was deliberately not telling me where he was. In hindsight, they probably thought I would have helped him. They were right.”
“What do you mean helped him?” James blurted out frantically. “Why would he need help? What happened to him?”
Regulus was just as worried, but he reached out and grabbed James’ hand in an attempt to calm him down. He gestured at Barty to continue.
“As I was saying, I really did try to find him for a couple of months. But then…Then Evan was killed by Alastor Moody. And I- I kind of lost it. You, uh, you remember Frank and Alice Longbottom?” Regulus and James nodded impatiently and he continued. “Well they’ve always been really close to Moody, so when Bella decided to torture the Longbottoms for information, I just…went with it. I didn’t raise my wand on them, I couldn’t, but I didn’t stop Bella either. I knew they didn’t have the information, and I let her torture them anyway. We were caught. Packed off to Azkaban by my own father to save his reputation.”
Regulus’ heart ached for his best friend and he grabbed Barty’s hand, giving it a reassuring squeeze. Next to him, Evan seemed to be on the verge of tears.
Barty glanced at Regulus gratefully before speaking again. “Right, so, Azkaban. Horrible fucking place, I tell you. When I got there, they took me to the top, the highest security section for the most dangerous Death Eaters. They put Bella and Rodolphus in a cell together, and next to them…” He swallowed painfully. “In the cell next to them was Sirius,” he finished, his voice barely above a whisper.
Regulus was certain he could feel his heart shattering in his chest. “No. No, no, no. Why was Sirius in Azkaban, Barty? And in the highest security section for the most dangerous Death Eaters?!”
“They dumped me in his cell. Probably thought it was funny. We- We exchanged stories. He told me all about Voldemort coming after you, James, and how you and your family had to go into hiding. He told me about the Fidelius charm, about how he convinced you to make Peter Secret Keeper at the last minute. But Peter was the spy, and he sold you out.”
“Yes, we know all that,” James waved dismissively, urging Barty to get to the point.
“Well, the problem, James, is that everyone else still thought Sirius was Secret Keeper.”
The full meaning of those words hit them like a ton of bricks.
James was near hysterics. “No, no, no, not Sirius, not Sirius, not Sirius, goddammit! How could they believe that, how could anyone think that Sirius would ever - fuck, no, no, no!
James folded in on himself and dropped his head into his hands, and Regulus desperately wanted him — needed him to stop. He couldn’t bear to see James in pain, especially not when he himself felt like all the air had been punched out of his lungs.
No one said anything for several minutes, everyone processing the information in their own way.
Barty eventually cleared his throat and added, “I believe Sirius broke out. Uh, sometime in the summer before last. Latest I heard, he was trying to get to Hogwarts, supposedly to kill Harry. We all know the second part’s a load of bullshit, but he was trying to get to Hogwarts.”
Regulus slumped back into his seat and exhaled shakily, feeling like he could breathe again, if only slightly better. Sirius had escaped from Azkaban.
Yeah, after spending twelve fucking years in there, an unhelpful voice in his head pointed out.
“But why?” Lily asked. “Why was he trying to get to Hogwarts?”
“I don’t know anything else, I’m sorry. I reckon Dumbledore set something up for Harry, though, since he couldn’t live with Sirius, so don’t worry about your son.”
James ran his hand through his hair erratically. “I’m not worried about my son, goddammit! I’m worried about my…my…my Sirius!” he whined.
Despite the heavy atmosphere, Regulus cracked a smile. “Your Sirius?”
“My Sirius,” he repeated petulantly.
“Wouldn’t he be my Sirius, considering he’s my brother and all?” Regulus asked, amused.
James huffed in annoyance and glared. “Yes, but he’s my…my…”
“Sirius,” Regulus finished, laughing. “Your Sirius.”
James pouted. “You’re making fun of me. Stop it. That’s mean.”
“I thought you liked it when people were mean to you?” Lily joined in, smirking.
Regulus grinned at her and she winked back.
“ ‘Oh, I’m in love with Reg’ ,” Marlene mimicked, falling back dramatically, “ ‘Oh, he’s so mean and grumpy and he hates me and he’s so pretty, don’t you just love him?’ And before that it was all, ‘Oh, I’m in love with Evans! Oh, she’s so mean to me all the time and she’s not at all interested, isn’t she amazing?”
“I don’t sound like that,” James muttered. “And that was in, like, third year. Lily’s my best friend now. And she’s gay.”
Marlene gasped. “I thought I was your best friend,” she said in mock offense.
“Don’t worry, Marls, you’re my best friend,” Mary quipped cheerfully. “Besides, we all know Sirius is James’ best friend.”
James shook his head. “Remus and Lily are my best friends. Sirius, he’s so much more than that, he’s my… he’s…”
“Your Sirius,” Barty finished, making everyone laugh and James scowl.
“This is bullying. I can’t believe this. It’s homophobia, actually. I will not stand for this kind of discrimina-“
“Oh, we’re just so homophobic, aren’t we?” Dorcas interrupted, draping herself across Marlene’s lap.
“Oh yeah, we hate the gays,” Evan added, leaning in to kiss Barty’s forehead.
“Disgraceful sinners, the lot of them,” Lily agreed, gently stroking Mary’s cheek.
“I can’t with those bloody queers.” Regulus tsked and intertwined his fingers with James’.
“Okay, that’s enough, you guys are making me feel lonely,” Pandora interjected fondly. “I think we can stop bullying James now.”
“Thank you, Pandora,” James said, shooting a glare at everyone else. “Always knew you were my favourite.”
The room immediately broke out into protests.
“Shut up, James, I’m your favourite,” Marlene argued.
Regulus rolled his eyes. “Oh please, we all know I’m the favourite.”
“Nah, it’s me, I’m one of his best friends,” Lily said shaking her head.
“So am I!” Mary and Marlene exclaimed in unison.
“He won’t ever admit it, but me and Rosier are his favourites for sure,” Barty drawled confidently.
“Everyone stop arguing,” James intervened, looking rather pleased about being fought over, “You’re all wrong. My Sirius is my favourite.”
Everyone laughed, and Regulus found that, for once, he wasn’t even jealous. After all, Sirius was everyone’s favourite.
Regulus’ too.