Chapter 1
10 September 1976
“Lupin”
Remus looks up from his book that he was barely reading, he was just staring at the page, hoping the words could be absorbed. He felt completely and wholly numb. He sees a familiar set of grey eyes, with flowing black hair. These eyes, however, had an edge to them, and the hair only fell to his ears.
“What do you want, Regulus?” he sighs.
“What’s going on between you and my brother? I know you’ve had a fight, basically the whole school knows.”
“Why do you care?”
“He’s my brother, Lupin, I… worry” Regulus says, albeit reluctantly “You’re probably the most bearable out of the 4 of your weird gang, it seemed smartest to ask you”
Remus doesn’t know what breaks the dam, the fact that the full moon had been only two nights before, the fact that since the incident, they had become even worse, resulting in scrapes and bruises that would be affecting him for a while, or the fact that Regulus’ face looked genuinely plagued with concern.
Remus just breaks down, tears falling onto the book that he had been half-reading, his throat becoming tighter, feeling as if his lungs had just stopped working.
Regulus’ face of concern, quickly becomes one of panic, bending down to Remus’ level, trying to make eye contact.
“Hey, hey, it’s okay!” He says, definitely uncomfortable, but sticking around nonetheless.
Remus looks up at him, hoping to find answers in the face so similar to the one that had caused him all this pain.
“Okay, breathe with me now” Regulus motions with his hands on his chest, adopting a more comforting voice that had been used many times throughout his childhood with Sirius.
Regulus breathes in, Remus following, then they each let out a large breath out. They repeat this three times, Remus relaxes from his panicked reaction, but this does not stop the tears from falling.
“He- He told him” Remus chokes out. He didn’t know why he was telling Regulus, someone who he had practically never interacted with. He felt like he wanted to scream. These days he didn’t know why he did most of the things he did anyway.
Despite the vague and cryptic sobs that had come out of Remus, Regulus seemed to assume a level of understanding.
“Oh” was all he said.
“What an idiot!” is what he said next.
It was at this point that Remus seemed to realise what he had just said, as well as gaining a grasp of how Regulus reacted to it. His facial expression shifted to one of fear.
“Wait, no!” Remus cried, trying to take it all back, “Don’t listen to me, just forget it!”
He had begun to hyperventilate again. Regulus stepped in before it reached the level it had been at before.
“Relax, Lupin, I already knew about your confliction”
Remus looks at him again, this time with confusion, having been snapped out of his panic.
“I’ve known for a while, you always disappear at the full moons” Regulus said, like it was obvious.
“How do you always know when the full moon is?” Remus asks, still in shock.
“Black family thing - we love our astronomy”
“Oh, right”
At this they seem to come to an awkward silence, that was until Regulus seems to remember about what Remus had told him.
“So, my brother, he told someone” Regulus said, matter of factly, though with a slight venom in his voice.
“Yeah” was all Remus could muster up.
“I’m going to murder him”
At this, Remus just laughs. The whole situation, now that he thinks about it, was completely and utterly ridiculous. Regulus, Sirius’ ‘evil’ brother had just comforted him from a panic attack, and was about to punish Sirius for an action that had seemed previously better suited for Regulus to do. Not only that but, Regulus had known about Remus being a werewolf, he had known and not told anyone, unlike his brother, who Remus had put so much trust in. So Remus just laughs. Hysterically. Until all he can do is cry.
Remus thought that now, Regulus would simply walk away, leave Remus to have a nervous breakdown and go do whatever it is Regulus does. But Remus was incredibly wrong.
In the middle of this deserted library, Regulus sits next to Remus and puts a comforting, yet unsure arm around him. Remus was surprised. Of course he was, but that doesn’t stop him from finding it actually comforting. He hadn’t received much comfort since the prank.
This was mostly his fault, as he insisted on pushing away his friends, probably punishing himself for almost killing Snape. He spent his summer isolated, his dad mostly ignoring him. He doesn’t do this with Regulus, he’s too tired to fight anything anymore.
Remus does not know where to go from there, so he simply shakes Regulus’ arm off of him and gets up. Regulus looks confused, yet he still has a level of concern in his eyes. Eyes that Remus can no longer bear to look at.
So Remus leaves.
—
Regulus knew about Remus’ condition, pretty much since the second moon he had arrived at Hogwarts. He had become suspicious at that point, but after the repeated disappearances he knew for certain. He also knew that Sirius and the rest of the group had come up with a method of helping Remus during the moons, as they had also begun disappearing with him at a certain point.
Regulus was good at noticing things, probably because he was almost always alone, it left room in his head for noticing.
Regulus noticed how Remus looked like a shell of a person, how he looked at Sirius when he thought nobody was watching, and how he refused to talk to any of his friends.
He now knows why.
Regulus often idolises his brother, Sirius was his role model growing up. However, the year that Sirius left for Hogwarts and was put into Gryffindor, they grew apart. His parents were not happy about this arrangement, and used it to drive a stake between him and Sirius’ relationship. By the time Regulus was sorted into Slytherin, any remnants of their relationship had disappeared.
Last Christmas, Sirius was kicked out, or he ran away. It was a bit of both. Sirius had been particularly rowdy that night, and had criticised Voldemort in front of the whole family. This led to many curses and hexes being shot at him, leaving him barely conscious. Regulus helped him into a fireplace in order to use the floo network and did not hear from him until he returned to school.
When he found out what Sirius had done, he knew that it would have made his mother proud. He also knew that it was a horrible and sickening act of betrayal.