Chapter 19
4th April 1977
Today was Remus’ first full moon as an adult who lives by himself. His dad would normally lock him in the basement with a variety of spells to keep him in place, but now he was given special permission to return to Hogwarts and use the shack. Madame Pomfrey would be there to help, but she would normally apparate to his house the morning after anyway.
Remus was somewhat relieved to know that he could use the shack, as things were normally better there, and Regulus would be able to sneak in easily, which he insisted on doing. Remus was, however, slightly hurt by the way his dad had pushed him aside so easily. Once he legally didn’t have to look after him, he pushed him out.
Remus’ relationship with his dad was an almost nonexistent one. His mother had died a year before he went to Hogwarts, and after that his dad seemed to decide that he had no reason to care about Remus. Before she died, they had been poor, there was no other way to put it. But afterwards, his dad seemed to put everything into his work, and they soon became much richer.
His dad preferred this life to his old one, so he left all reminders of his old life in the past, the house, the city, the car, everything. However, unfortunately for Remus, the werewolf son, who looked just like his mother, was the spitting image of everything that Lyall was trying to leave behind.
Remus was able to understand this now, but the younger him had shed many tears over this fact.
Now, though, Remus had pretty much gained an acceptance of it, he knew that he was more privileged than most, for the flat and the allowances that seemed to be gifts of guilt, so he took what he could get, and tried to move on with his life.
Remus wasn’t even sure what his dad did for work, or why he owned so many properties, because they probably hadn’t had even a semblance of a conversation since Remus was 11.
“Remus?” A slightly panicked voice called across the flat, it was coming from the bedroom.
“What’s up, Reg?” Remus called back.
There was a shuffling sound coming from the room, before a shrill “Help!” yelled back.
Remus ran through the kitchen, stopping in the doorway of the bedroom. He took one look and burst out laughing.
Regulus was stood on top of his dresser, crouching a little, he was looking down at the ground, where a spider stood, very innocently. Remus wouldn’t call the spider big, either, it was around the size of half of his palm.
“Kill it!” Regulus cried.
“I can’t believe this!” Remus laughed.
“Shut up!”
Remus bent down to pick up the spider, “You’re scared of this little thing?”
“Yes!”
“You live with a literal werewolf, and you’re scared of a spider?” Remus held the spider up, causing Regulus to shriek.
Remus laughed again, “Okay, okay, fine. I’ll put it outside.”
Once the spider had been carefully put outside, and the window shut once again, Remus heard the small thump of Regulus climbing down from the dresser.
“I hate you,” Regulus pouted.
“Oh, well,” Remus replied.
“What are we doing today?” Regulus asked.
Remus thought for a moment. He wasn’t feeling too restless, despite it being the day of the moon, and it woul probably be good for him to get some fresh air.
“What do you wanna do?”
“I want to visit Andromeda.” Regulus replied, slightly shyly.
“Do you know where she lives?”
“Yes, she gave me her address right before she left.”
“Do you want me to come?”
“No, I think- I think I have to do this by myself,” Regulus added on, “You should visit my brother and his friend today.”
“You know his name is James.”
“No I don’t.”
“Sure you don’t”
“I don’t see what his name has to do with anything, I’m leaving.”
“Bye, Reg!” Remus called happily behind him.
He ran to the window and watched as Regulus crossed the road, he had gotten much better at surviving as a muggle. This seemingly sudden decision to go out by himself had been a surprise, but Remus knew that he wouldn’t want a big preparation, or a talk about it.
Right after Regulus had first escaped, they had put on a spell that seemed to dampen his presence. It would make him go unnoticed by pretty much anyone, including his parents. People would be able to see him, and nothing would seem out of the ordinary surrounding him, but if he walked past his parents, they would keep walking as if he wasn’t even there.
This allowed him to go out in public without any risk - well at least from his parents.
Remus ate his breakfast leisurely before apparating to Potter cottage. James had sent him a letter right after their encounter, basically saying he was welcome any time.
He pushed through the door, not bothering to knock. Remus wasn’t normally so relaxed entering other people’s houses like this, but he had stayed in this house before, and it always seemed to have an effect on people that made it feel like home.
“James?” Remus called up the stairs.
He heard cursing, a loud thump, and Sirius distinctly hissing “it’s him!”.
“Moony!” James cried as he emerged form the top of the stairs.
“Hey, Prongs!”
James pulled him into a one armed hug at the bottom of the stairs, whilst Sirius appeared at the top of them, his hair looked like it had been recently brushed, and his cheeks were slightly flushed. He looked good.
“Hey, Pads,” Remus smiled up at him.
“Remus, hi, hello,” Sirius smiled nervously, James coughed, like he was trying not to laugh.
“You gonna come down, mate?” James looked up at him.
“Right, yep, come on.” Sirius ran down the stairs, walking past both of them and moving into the kitchen.
“Come on then, Remus.” James smiled cheekily.
Remus was incredibly confused, but he followed nonetheless.
“So what have you been up to?” James asked, biting into an apple.
“Not much, I did some shopping for the flat, but that’s pretty much it.” Remus lied easily, “What about you guys?”
“We did some shipping as well, didn’t we Pads?”
“Yep, and we watched a Quidditch game.”
“Oh yeah! We’ve also played some Quidditch, obviously, and Peter came over a couple days ago, so we hung out with him a bit!”
“Sounds like you guys have had fun!”
“Would have been more fun with you here, Moony,” Sirius replied, fighting off James, who looked like he was trying to nudge him in the side.
“He’s right, how come you couldn’t stay with us again?”
“My dad wanted me to move into the flat early, I told you this, James,” Remus rolled his eyes.
“Why don’t you come stay next week?” James insisted.
“It just can’t,”
“We could come stay with you!”
“No!” Remus responded, probably too quickly, “it’s a one bedroom flat, so it wouldn’t work.”
“I’m sure that at least one of us wouldn’t mind sharing a bed,”
“James,” Sirius cut in, “he said no, let it be.”
“Fine!” James gestured to the living room, “come on let’s go play exploding snaps.”
—
Regulus wasn’t nervous about travelling across the city by himself, he had done so before. He wasn’t nervous about running into his parents either, Remus and he had come up with a solution. He was nervous, though, about seeing Andromeda again. He had heard from Sirius that she ha gotten married to the guy that she ran away with, and she’d had a kid with him.
Regulus knew this anxiousness was probably misplaced, she had given both Sirius and him her address in case they had ever wanted to get out. Both of them did end up escaping, but neither of them had gone to her.
Regulus was worried that she no longer had a place for him, they were never close, it was Sirius that she had favoured, and Regulus was closer to Narcissa. He was going to miss her.
But there was no doubt that Sirius had talked to her about him, and how he had chosen to stay. How he had supposedly agreed with his parents’ ideals.
Despite these worries, he had to see her.
Regulus had always lived in a large family, surrounded by many cousins and aunts and uncles. He used to love some of these people, even if the war had shoved a stake between all of them. His family had always been competitive, so the desperation to prove themselves had eventually driven them all apart.
But Regulus had realised that his family had decreased from dozens, to just one. Well, two, if he and Sirius ever sorted themselves out.
Upon this realisation, he remembered that he still had Andromeda’s address, so he had the opportunity to expand his family ever so slightly.
It seemed silly to think these things, which is why he hadn’t told Remus about it, well, that and the fact that he didn’t want to admit to Remus that he considered him family.
Once he reached Andromeda’s door, he hesitated. He looked up at her house, it was small, surrounded with shrubbery and flora, it was cute. It was the complete opposite to what Regulus was used to, which was probably the point.
After a minute or so of simply being stood there, he gathered the courage to know on the bright blue door.
The door was opened after only a few seconds. A man, with sandy blonde curls and bright blue eyes, holding an infant with bright red hair, stood in front of him.
“Can I help you?” he asked cheerily.
“Um, I’m Regulus.” He tried weakly.
“Uh, hello Regulus, look I’m sorry, I’m not interested in buying anything.”
“No no, um- I’m Regulus Black,” he tried again.
“Oh? Oh!” he called over his shoulder, “Andy? Someone’s here for you!”
“Who is it?” Dark curls came into view.
“Um, hi” Regulus gave her a half smile.
“Oh, Reggie!” She cried, before pulling him into a tight hug.
He wrapped his arms around her, the hug was familiar, it was nice.
She pulled back frantically, “Oh, are you safe?! What are you doing here?”
“Uh, can I come in?”
“Sure, sure!” she grabbed his hand, pulling him into the small living room. He sat on one of the squishy bright yellow sofas.
“I’m gonna put the kettle on.” Ted called over to her.
“Alright!” she called back, “So, what is going on?”
She smiled warmly at him, still holding his hand. The gesture so minimal, but he felt himself begin to cry.
“I, um, escaped.”
“Right, okay,” she sounded concerned, “do you need a place to stay?”
“No, no, I’m with a friend, he’s great,”
“Okay that’s good,” she sounded relieved, “are you safe?”
“Yes, I’m very safe.”
“Okay, good, that’s the difficult stuff out of the way.” She smiled again, “does Sirius know?”
“No, I, um, haven’t told him yet,”
“Do you want me to? I know sometimes it can be easier if someone else does it for you.”
“No I’ll do it, I’m just, you know, settling in.”
“Do you wanna talk about it?”
“No thanks, I just- I just wanted to see you,” he smiled at her.
“I’m really happy to see you, Reg, you have no idea,” her smile faltered slightly, “can you, um, tell me how my sisters are?”
“They’re fine, I think, I haven’t seen them in almost a year, but I think Sissa’s getting married.”
“Wow, okay, that’s wow.”
“Yeah, I know.”
“Come on, meet my family,” She wiped tears off of her face, before pulling on his arm, directing him into the kitchen.
Regulus spent the afternoon playing with his younger cousin, chatting with Ted about muggle things, and trying very hard with Andromeda not to think about the rest of their family.
Overall it was a good day.
Once he arrived in the shack, after flooing to Hogmead and travelling up as a cat, he sat on his ledge and let himself think about Sirius. He didn’t want to end up like Andromeda and her sisters, and he thought he had ruled out that possibility after running away, but he would have to talk to Sirius at some point. He would have to make an effort.
When Remus arrived, he transformed back and gave him a smile.
“How was your day?” Remus asked.
“Good, really good,” Regulus smiled again, “how was yours?”
“Good,” Remus smiled back.