Chapter 15
26 March 1977
It had been a week since Regulus agreed to escape Grimmauld place. There was 6 days before Regulus would have to go home. Unless he came up with a plan, of course.
Him and Remus had been discussing what to do. Remus would come up with something and Regulus would tell him all the reasons why it wouldn’t work. His current plan involved polyjuice, it wouldn’t work
“Remus! None of these will work.”
“We’ll figure it out! I promise!”
Remus was being very passionate about the whole thing. Regulus know that Remus cares about him, it’s endearing. But it may have blinded him a bit when it came to planning. He was so driven by love that he didn’t even consider that something wouldn’t work.
Regulus was trying, but he has always been a pessimist.
“Okay, okay I’ve got an idea,” Remus’ eyebrows were furrowed.
“Okay, here we go, let’s hear it.”
“Right, so, you’ve been, you know, cursed, by an unforgivable?”
“You know what the answer is, Remus.”
“”Right, yes okay, so, what if we send them a letter, basically saying that we have evidence of them doing it, and that we would go to the ministry if they don’t let you go.”
“Firstly, we don’t have evidence for that, and secondly, my family make up around half of the ministry anyway.”
“Okay, scratch that, nevermind.”
They were going around in circles, they both knew. Remus was desperately grasping at ideas.
“What about Andromeda?”
“What about her?”
“Well, she got out! How did she do it?”
“She basically just left, they were so disgusted with her after they found out she got with a muggle that they just let her leave. She got a bit cursed, but that was all.”
“Oh”
“Yeah, older siblings have a much better escape route than the rest of us.” Regulus smiled sadly.
“Hold on, I’ve had another idea.”
“Oh no”
“What if they just forgot you existed.”
“That would be wonderful, Remus, but unlikely,” Regulus snorted.
“No, no, we can use magic, we can make them forget,”
“Even if they forgot me, the rest of my family wouldn’t, and they would remember Sirius,”
“Okay, so what if we just changed their memories, like, what if we make them think you ran away with Sirius, and they’ve just kind of accepted it.”
“Well that could work, but there isn’t a spell for that, and the rest of my family would still know.”
“Well, none of them have seen you since Sirius left, right?” Remus stood up, “They could just assume that your parents kept it a secret, right?”
“Well, yeah, but-”
“We could make it a spell, right?”
“I suppose, but-”
“Like, obliviate deletes memories, but it fills the gaps with something, we just have to figure out how to change what that something is,”
“Remus! How would we even cast a spell at them?”
“They’d be at the station, both of them, right?”
“Yes..”
“So as you’re leaving, cast the spell and I’ll find you,” Remus moves his hand animatedly, “My dad’s not going to come to pick me up because I can apparate now, I’ll bring you with me,”
“To where?”
“I told you, my dad’s getting me a flat, well he’s already got it, I just need to move in,”
“I thought you were going to the Potter’s for Easter?”
“I’ll just tell them that I can’t, that my dad wanted me at home,”
“Oh”
Regulus couldn’t find anything wrong with the plan, other than the possibility of not being able to create the spell, but Remus was right, if anyone could do it, it would be them. He was just having trouble accepting that he could actually break free. That he would have a future. A future that he could create.
“I- I’m going to get out,” Regulus said quietly, before collapsing into Remus, “Thank you, I was so scared, Remus”
“It’s okay, I know you were, you’re going to be alright.”
Remus is probably the only person that he act like that around. Once upon a time he would have cried into Sirius’ arms, but that ship sailed.
He wouldn’t call Remus a brother, he knows Sirius and Potter call each other brothers - a fact that he tries very hard not to think about - but he doesn’t feel that way about Remus. Remus is just his person, and that’s enough.
“We’ll start our research tomorrow, okay? And we’re going to do this,” Remus says into Regulus’ hair.
—
After his and Regulus’ meeting that night, Remus went back to the dorm, as normal. What wasn’t normal though, was Sirius, who was sitting on his bed, looking straight at Remus, with multiple pieces of paper in his hand.
“Uh, hi, Sirius,”
“Who’s Toebeans?” Sirius says, sounding distant and cold. Remus panics.
“No one”
“Hmm. They call you Gibbous.”
“Um yeah,” Remus stands awkwardly in the doorway.
“The moon phase, right? And there’s multiple dog jokes in here,” Sirius speaks quickly, his words laced with venom, “Must be serious”
“Um, well-”
“What the fuck, Remus?!” Sirius starts yelling.
“Sirius-”
“Made me think of you, aw so sweet, we really should just run away together,” Sirius begins reading from the pile of notes. Remus doesn’t know why he kept them, it just felt wrong to throw them away, he’s regretting it now.
“Oh and my personal favourite I bet Sirius was annoying” He says it in a high pitched voice.
“What’s going on?” James emerges from his bed.
“Oh, didn’t you hear? Remus has been secretly seeing someone!”
“Oh that’s great, mate,” James smiled, Remus didn’t know what to do.
“No it’s not great!”
“Sirius! I’m not seeing anyone!”
“Oh yeah, because nicknames and heartfelt messages mean nothing!”
“We all have nicknames for each other!” Remus throws his hands up, “And James literally sent me a note covered in hearts the other day!”
“He what?!”
“Sirius, the notes are just from one of my friends, we just don’t really advertise our friendship”
“Why not?!”
“Because he didn’t want to!”
“Guys! It’s late!” James cuts in, “Why don’t we talk, properly in the morning.”
“Fine!”
“Fine!”