Strawberry jam and crumpets
Regulus POV
„Regulus!“
„hey siri“ Regulus chokes out. He’s not necessarily happy, but he’s glad that Sirius seems well.
Sirius furrows his brows when he sees regulus‘ tears falling.
„Oh reg,” Sirius said softly “please don’t tell me mother caught you”
Regulus shakes his head. „It was father. He caught me. I’m sorry, I’m so sorry Sirius please,” Regulus took a shuddering breath. “I know I promised. I swear I tried, but he was just quicker-“
Sirius cuts regulus off, widening his eyes “hey, hey, calm down reg, yeah?”
“I-“
“Come on, take a few deep breaths, for me, okay?” he says gently.
Regulus nods and complies, shutting his eyes, taking deep breaths. After a couple of moments, regulus opens his eyes again.
“Sorry, i don’t know why-“
“Don’t apologize, okay? You never have to apologize.” Sirius thinks for a moment “and im going to hurt father for whatever he did to you. I’m going to make sure he regrets it.” He adds firmly.
This almost makes regulus smile. Not Sirius being protective, well, that too, but the thought of his father being in pain somehow brings him joy. Must be the black family madness, he thought.
Regulus sighs. “Look Sirius, they’ve probably put some sort of spells on the floo to prevent me from getting out. They’re going to be more careful now that I’m the only heir they’ve got left.”
He had nearly forgotten that James was there with Sirius as well, until he perked over Sirius’ shoulder. James was biting down on the inside of his cheek. He did that whenever he was thinking. Not that Regulus noticed that or anything.
He looked determined. Determined to find a solution, to fix everything like he always does.
“Well, if you can’t leave on your own,” he began slowly, “then we’re going to find a way to get you out.” He sounded so sure. Sirius nodded at that. He didn’t want to leave his little brother behind. Again.
Regulus opened his mouth to say something, but was interrupted by the house’s wards. They sent a vibration through the air, as they always do, announcing that his mother had arrived home. If she had only just gotten back, that must have been out since around the middle of the night. How odd.
“Shit” he mutters to himself. “Sirius I have to go. We can talk again tonight.” maybe.
“Regulus, what are you-“ Sirius begins, but regulus already put the mirror back, right next to the old wine bottle that had never left its spot. His gaze fell upon it, and lingered, maybe for a moment longer than it should have.
Remembering that his mother was home, no doubt possibly seeking him out at any given moment, he pushed the dresser right back over the loose floorboard and tidied up any other messes he had made while looking for a way to contact his brother. As quietly as he could, he opened the bedroom door, and stepped out of the room. The moment he closed the door behind him, his mother comes onto the landing, having just come up the stairs. She was wearing her traveling robes, and looked much less presentable than she usually dared. The bun that her was tied into, was much more messy and loose, and she looked quite tired.
Regulus smoothly straightens his posture and keeps his composure.
“What on earth were you doing in there?” She asked, eyes narrowed, after examining him for a few seconds. Looking for something, anything that he might be doing wrong.
Regulus was quick to come up with a lie. He always was. He had to be. Sirius taught him that.
“I was only tidying up the room.”
He was careful to say ‘the’ room instead of ‘sirius’’ room, as he didn’t want Walburga to get upset over a name. “I assumed you wouldn’t want any guests we might have unintentionally stumbling into a mess in our home.” It wasn’t a very believable lie, but Walburga surprisingly didn’t call him out on it after suspiciously eyeing him.
“Speaking of guests,” she starts, her tone still indicating that she didn’t believe him, “we have some coming over after lunch. Make yourself look presentable, and not..” she makes some kind of hand gesture at him, which regulus thinks is supposed to be some sort of insult.
“Of course, mother. I’ll go freshen up.”
“Do not mess anything up.” She adds, sending him a cold look before she turns around and leaves regulus to himself.
He sighs, walking across the landing right back into his room. He really isnt in the mood for guests.
Remus POV
Remus has been looking forward to visiting James all summer. Not that he didn’t want to be at home with his mother, but it often got lonely without the other marauders, though he’d never admit it out loud.
He was eating breakfast with his mum at the moment. His dad was at work, he often was during the holidays. Pretty much whenever Remus was home, Lyall was working.
“Could you pass me the strawberry jam, darling?” she asked him.
Remus reached for the homemade jam he made with his mum a few days ago. It wasn’t half bad, considering they made a huge mess in the kitchen. A mess is what proves the food is good, his mother always said.
He loved her food, and basically anything she could make. Their holidays were mostly spent baking. Hope loved teaching Remus, and Remus loved learning from her.
“Here you go mum” he handed her the jar. “I’ll be leaving after breakfast to go to the Potters then” he added.
“Oh, yes, that’s right. Do you need a ride?” she offered.
“That’s okay mum. I’ll be going through the fireplace. They live quite far away.” he replied.
“Alright. Oh, then you must give them a few samples of the strawberry jam we made. I’m sure they’ll love it. I’ll go fill it into little jars for them.” She went right over into the kitchen, giving Remus no chance to negotiate, not that he wanted to. She always loved making her own stuff. She has always wanted to open her own bakery, with a little shelf where she could sell her own jams and spreads. Lyall called it stupid, said that it would never happen.
And as much as Remus tried to assure her that she, in fact, didn’t need his father’s approval to do whatever she wanted, she let go of her dreams, or pretended to.
Remus always hoped that she’d change her mind, he would love to help her out during the holidays. And not just in the kitchen of their home, but in a potential kitchen of their potential bakery.
Hope comes back with a cloth bag from Tesco which they always used for shopping, carrying the weight of the little jars filled with strawberry jam.
“Be safe and have fun, yes?” She gives him a quick peck on his forhead.
“Yes mum, I’ll be fine.” He answers, rolling his eyes, and she just chuckles.
He steps into the fireplace, calls out ‘potter manor’ and throws the floo powder into it.
When Remus steps out of the floo, he is immediately greeted by Effie and Monty, who had just been sitting on the sofa, playing a game of chess.
Effie gave him a big hug, saying she‘d missed him. Remus had to admit that he missed her too, because he did. She’s always been very hospitable and friendly.
„Moony!“ Remus pulled out of the hug, because he could recognize that voice anywhere. It was Sirius‘. Why was he here? Did the blacks finally let him spend the summer with James? No, James surely would have written that in a letter.
When Remus turns around, Sirius is already pulling him into a hug.
„Hey Padfoot, when did you get here?“ Remus asks.
„Last night, Long story.“ sirius answered, reluctantly pulling out of the hug. James, who had just been speaking with his dad, noticed remus‘ bag.
„Tesco,” James read on the bag “huh, what’s that? Some kind of band?“ he asked, looking genuinely confused.
Remus breathes a laugh, before deciding to mess with him. “Yeah, it’s a muggle band. I got the bag at a concert in Wales that I went to a few years ago, you’ve never heard of it before?”
James furrows his brows, seeing if he can recall a band names Tesco, and then confirming he doesn’t.
Sirius, not yet seemingly convinced by Remus, speaks “Are you taking the piss? Monty, is Remus messing with us?”
Fleamont, who just seems amused, decides to go along. “No, no, Remus is telling the truth. Oh, I remember Tesco. I went to a few concerts, all good fun.”
“Okay, enough of this tesco stuff, what’s in the bag?” James finally asks.
“Oh right, hang on,” Remus fumbles in the bag, then pulls a little jar out of the bag, filled something red. “It’s strawberry jam. My mum and I made it ourselves, well, she did most of the work while I just handed her the strawberries. She said I should bring some for you. It’s really good.”
“Oh, well that’s very kind of Hope, we’ll have to send her a thankyou letter. How about i’ll make some crumpets for tea later, and we can try them with some jam, sounds good?”
Sirius promptly nods his head. He loves Effie’s food and he loves Hope’s food. Having both of them combined must be heaven.
“Wanna go upstairs so we can catch Remus up on what’s been happening?” James asks sirius.
“Actually, can we go out to the backyard? I could use some air” he answers.
“Sure mate”
They sit under a tree in the grass in James’ backyard. It’s quite nice outside, the sun is shining, it’s warm and that perfect summer breeze is there. The boys catch Remus up on why Sirius is here. Sirius also explains that he and regulus had been sitting at dinner, that Sirius and Walburga got into a fight and that things went kind of downhill from there.
Sirius also gets kind of fidgety, fiddling around with the hem of his shirt, when he starts talking about how regulus got left behind and when he talks about how regulus talked to them through the mirror this morning but then suddenly vanished.
“So, you live here with the Potters now?” Remus asks to make sure he understood it all correctly. Sirius nods and hums in confirmation.
They move on to other topics, invite Peter and Marlene over for tea which Effie approves with delight, and Sirius and James zoom around on their brooms while Remus reads by the tree.
By the time Effie calls them inside for tea, Marlene and Peter have already arrived.
“Oh my gosh, Remus, did you make this jam?” Marlene asks, eyes wide when she tastes the strawberry jam.
“Oh, my mum made it. She’s really good at that kind of stuff” Remus answers sheepishly.
“Your mom? Is she single?..Is she hot?” Marlene adds after a few moments of consideration.
“Marls! Leave Remus’ mum alone” James feels the need to protect all mums from Marlene.
“Don’t worry James, Effie is still my one and only” she grins.
James groans, used to Marlene teasing him like that.
“But seriously, this is so good. Effie has got some serious competition because wow. Your mum should open a bakery.” Marlene tells Remus.
“She wants to” remus blurts out. “open a bakery, I mean. My father isn’t very fond of the idea though.”
“Well, I think I speak for everyone here when I say this is the best thing we’ve ever tasted.” everyone hums or nods in agreement.
“We’ll be sure to write Hope a letter, maybe she could give me a recipe or two to try.” Effie says kindly.
Mr and Mrs Potter clean up the table while they all catch up on their summers. Marlene had to leave early because her parents were out and she had to make dinner for her little sister Sophie and herself. Peter decided to spend the night, so they can all have a marauders sleepover. Really, they all just want to cheer up Sirius. They all sit on the bed in James’ room, talking about the most random things. A few hours into the night, they all finally fall asleep on top of each other, because, well, the bed is made for 1 Person, not 4. It’s peaceful.
They’re woken up in the middle of the night by a bright light. it’s shaped like a panther. No, a cat, a little cat. It’s a patronus, one neither of them recognize and it’s there to deliver a message. The cat opens its mouth.
“Sirius, something’s happened..”