Regulus' POV
Regulus made his way over to the Potter’s house.
It was really quiet. Usually, he would see the kids playing in the yard and then he would walk over to join them, but for the last couple of days, there was no playing. But now James was sitting on his front porch, alone. Regulus had tried asking Sirius about it but Sirius told him that he didn’t know either. Apparently, James had been pulled out of school for the past week without any explanation.
"Hi, James." He said carefully as he sat down next to James. His eyes were puffy and red and there were tears streaming down his face. James never cried. There was something really wrong. Regulus assumed that when James cried he would be loud about it. If there was something bad enough in the world for James, the sunshine boy, to shed tears, it needed people’s attention. Yet, there sat James, silently sobbing alone.
"Hi Reg," He said quietly, not turning to look at him. James seemed to be trying to hide his face from Regulus, even though the harm had already been done. Regulus was fully aware that James was crying
There was something really really wrong. James was almost always smiling, and he definitely always smiled at Regulus. This just wasn't right.
He tugged lightly on the hem of James’ shirt. "What's wrong, James?"
James sniffled, wiped his nose with the back of his hand, and tried to say "My-" But then was cut off by hard sobs. Seemingly trying to talk about whatever happened made the crying escalate greatly. Regulus put his arms around the sobbing boy and hugged him tightly.
"It's okay," Regulus said quietly. He didn't actually know if it was okay or not. He had the feeling that it definitely wasn't okay, but whenever Regulus cried, James always told him that it was okay and that usually made him feel better. "It's okay."
James took a deep broken breath, "It's not okay." He choked out.
"What happened James?" Regulus tried asking again.
"My- My- My dad died." He finally managed to get out.
"Oh." He said. That's really sad. Regulus's dad had gone away a couple of years ago. Having dads leave really sucks, but James’ dad was a whole different story. James’ dad was everything a dad was supposed to be. He cared for James and was always kind. Then Regulus couldn’t help but think how crushed Sirius was going to be. Both Regulus and Sirius had a rough relationship with their parents, but they had very different ways of handling it. Regulus liked to pretend that everything was fine, that having a mother who seemingly hated him was perfectly acceptable. While Sirius liked to pretend that James’ parents were his too. James’ parents were always gracious enough to treat Sirius like their second son, so having a second father abandon Sirius like this would be crushing.
"He's- he's gone." James cried into Regulus’ shoulder.
"You will be okay," Regulus said as he hugged him tighter. He wasn’t sure if he was saying it more for James or for himself. Regulus needed James to be okay.
"No-" James shook his head abstinitly. "No, I won't."
"Yes, you will." Regulus continued.
"How do you know Regulus? You're only nine." James said a little more harshly than he usually spoke.
"My dad went away. And you told me I'd be okay." Regulus whispered. “Now I’m okay.”
"Oh, Regulus." James sighed as he wrapped his arms tightly around Regulus.
"So we will be okay." Regulus repeated softly, “I promise.”
"I hope so," James sniffled.
"Dads aren't supposed to go away," Regulus said.
"No, they aren't," James agreed.
"It really sucks," Regulus sighed.
"Yeah, it does," He said.
They sat together for a while in silence just hugging each other. Regulus didn't know if it was helping but she liked hugging James. So maybe James liked hugging her and she was making him feel better. James had made her feel better when her dad went away.
Though her dad didn't die. He just went away.
Regulus didn't really understand what dying was, but he knew that sometimes his mom's grandmother died and that made her mom really angry. James didn't seem very angry, he just seemed really sad. James wasn't supposed to be sad. James was supposed to be happy and smiley and call him Batman.
He came to the conclusion that dads were really stupid. Why would a dad leave James? He was the coolest. He was Superman. And he gave the best hugs and would always help someone when they asked.
People shouldn't make him sad. James said that Regulus was really cool too like Wonder Woman, so her dad was probably really stupid too.
“Why did he die?” Regulus asked.
“He was sick,” James said, “He had been sick for a long time but he liked to pretend he wasn’t, and now he is gone.” Saying this made James burst into tears again. Regulus didn’t think that James was likely to stop crying anytime soon. That was okay because Regulus didn’t have anywhere else he wanted to be anytime soon.