The party went on late into the early morning with the last guests leaving around four. It was a slim moment of light in the otherwise darkness of the war, a desperate ringing in of the year, praying for a better one. Not even a year out of Hogwarts, and yet two of their friends were dead and one missing.
Sarah Vance and Dominick Fortescue left behind grieving sisters in Emmeline and Alice, who took comfort in their friendship and boyfriends, or fiance in Alice's case. Benjy still hadn't gotten around to asking the question, but Frank Longbottom put twenty galleons down on him asking before the end of '79.
Mary McDonald, on the other hand, vanished without a trace three days after graduation. The last anyone saw of her, she was headed to see Dumbledore, some mission or another for the Order. At least, that was what she told Lily. Dumbledore himself couldn't recall having seen Mary since graduation and claimed that he had no meeting scheduled with her either. Lily searched for three months before stopping. She said it was better to hope that Mary had run away to somewhere safe than to know for a fact she was dead. She buried her grief in the arms of James Potter, who had inexplicably given up in his pursuit of her sometime during their fifth year, just before she and Mary got together.
James himself found a reprieve for his own grief in the arms of Lily Evans, a deeper grief than most. Where Lily could hope that Mary was alive out there, somewhere unreachable, away from this war, James knew that his love would be tied to it until death, a twisted fate in the form of a mark on Regulus's arm. While neither had stopped loving the other, any contact needed to end, for the safety of both involved. The dark lord would jump at the opportunity to kill the new Lord Potter; Dumbledore would seize the chance to make a slave of the current heir Black. Which is why James Potter fell into an uneasy sleep at five in the morning on the first of the year with his mind not on the beautiful redhead in the bed beside him, but with thoughts of dark curls, sharp cheekbones, and silver eyes, and a longing sadness in his heart.
---
In the moment that James Potter opens his eyes, he knows that something has changed. That something is terribly wrong with the world, as though all the joy has died, and all the light has faded. His hands shake as he puts on his glasses and lifts himself out of bed. His knees tremble as he walks out of his room towards the one Sirius and Remus have claimed as their own. His fingers waver as he reaches for the doorknob and opens the door.
"Prongs?" Moony's tired voice calls out through the silence.
James crawls into the bed beside Sirius, who lays there as though petrified, eyes staring unfocused at the wall. At the touch of their hands, it's as though every wall shatters, and tears begin to fall from James's eyes.
"Prongs? What is it?" Remus sits up, awake and alert, terribly worried for his friend.
Unable to speak, James simply closes his eyes, sobbing into Sirius's chest.
"James, what?" Remus, incredibly confused, turns to his boyfriend. "Sirius, darling what's going on?"
This seems to have snapped Sirius out of his daze, "Regulus." At the sound of that name, James falls apart even further. Sirius can't help but bring a hand around his back and pull him in even closer.
"What about Regulus?" Remus asks, though the tremble in his voice suggests that he already knows. He hesitantly lays a hand on Sirius's shoulder as tears begin to fall from Padfoot's eyes as well. There's nothing in the world that could break both James and Sirius so profoundly as their love for Regulus Black, and there's only one thing in this life that could have them both so terribly shaken without a word of contact. Somehow, Regulus Black has died.
"I can't feel him anymore. I didn't notice it before, but he was always there, just behind my heart. That space is empty now." At this, Remus pulls both Sirius and James into his arms. Sirius has begun to shake, and James's sobs show no signs of stopping. Nothing he says can fix this. There is nobody to curse to ease the pain that the two people he most loves are suffering. All he can do is hold them.
As Sirius and James sob themselves into a lull, Remus can't help but shed a tear at the thought of the quiet boy who shared his library table. Who always said yes to a shared piece of chocolate. Who always had a sarcastic remark for his brother's jokes. Who always had a shy smile for the captain of the Gryffindor quidditch team. Who died at seventeen bearing a mark he didn't want, estranged from the two people he loved most in the world. A thing Remus always knew they had in common, their profound love for James Potter and Sirius Black. The two people that Remus would give a limb to take the pain from right now.
His only hope, in this moment, is that Regulus Black died knowing just how loved he was.