The war was over, again.
Everyone seemed to respond with the joyous feeling that had been produced in the end of the first
Friends were reunited.
Muggles were safe.
Graveyards were filled to the brim.
Many of the smart few that went into hiding resurfaced earning surprised reactions from loved ones.
This included an ex death eater Regulus Black.
Regulus had hid from the age of 17, now he was 36 and felt the same giddy excitement the crowd surrounding the usually bare streets around him.
He felt ready, he missed his friends, he missed his life, and as much as it pained him to say. He missed Sirius. He missed the protective, supportive, annoying older brother he lived his life without. He missed James, his sun.
Throughout the years of his disappearance he would tell himself they were fine, they had lives. Sirius lived with that lupin boy that he never stopped talking about or clinging too.
Dorcas and Her Marlene finally realised their love for each other.
Pandora would spend her days in her comfortable solitude, among her plants and potions.
Barty and Evan escaped the clutches of the Dark Lord and ran away together
And James. Oh James. He would’ve been with that red headed girl who he never failed to catch his attention. They lived happily together. A perfect pair. not like him and regulus. they were far from perfect.
They all lived happily together in the make believe world Regulus created in his mind.
They were okay. They were safe. They were alive.
There was no doubt they were alive.
They were too strong. Too powerful. Too unstoppable.
Regulus needed them. Needed to apologise. To explain to Sirius. To James.
He needed to talk to James.
———————————————
Regulus found his way to Potter Manor as fast as he could, knowing that he couldn’t handle being left in suspense for too long.
When the house came into view he smiled slightly. The house was just as Sirius had described.
A big red brick building with green vines cascading down to meet the bushes at the bottom. It had a yellow door, of course.
It seemed that it had not been targeted during the war, leaving it a clean relic of the past.
The front door was open just a crack, enough to see the emptiness of the house, no person in sight, odd he thought. A thin layer of dust on the stairs let regulus know that nobody has been here for a while at least.
Cautiously Regulus crept into the hall of the massive house, noticing immediately the many family portraits and pictures.
They seemed to being with early Black and whites of Euphimina and Fleamont, and ended with pictures of the couple joined by two teenagers, James and Sirius
The house was very neat other than a handful of cardboard boxes left in the living room.
Curiously Regulus opened one of the boxes and revealed many miscellaneous items, a pile of letters, some family photographs and a handful of baby clothes.
Looking at the pictures he notices that the family had changed, along with James and Sirius a red headed girl joins the frame, clutching to James arm.
Oh
The next one is of James and the Redhead both cradling a newborn, he had James complexion along with his messy tuft of hair, however his eyes were a dazzling green.
Oh.
The other pictures continue to feature the same people, however Regulus refuses to look at them.
He turns to the letters next, it seemed that they all had a different date on them, going all the way back to 1976.
All of them were addressed to the same person. The same two words written out in James scratchy cursive
My Star.
Oh.
He opened the first letter.
1976
My star,
I miss you, this is dreadful. i can’t believe i have to spend a whole year without you, im too needy for this.
But i’m willing to do it, so long as i get you in the end.
i’m going to start my auror training tomorrow, Sirius keeps joking about becoming men or something like that.
I think he’s a bit nervous.
Can i tell you a secret reg?
I’m terrified, it’s all getting real now, at school we could just pretend that nothing was happening. But we’re adults. We have to help.
I know you don’t like it, me putting myself in danger. But i promise i can do this, you said it yourself, i’m the bravest man you’ve ever met.
I’ll hold you to that forever.
God i miss you.
I’m going to go and watch you star all night long.
I love you so much.
Your sun.
Regulus smiled sadly, the memories flooding his mind.
He used to think these memories were enough to cast a patronus, but even these had a sad seen covering them in his head.
He opened the next one.
1977
My star,
Hi.
I’m seeing you tomorrow. I can’t wait.
I’ve missed you so much reg.
I know you haven’t been responding as well but i know it’s just you being nervous.
I keep thinking about you. If you’ve changed. If you still have the smile i’ve dreamt of every night.
Did you cut your hair?
Please tell me you didn’t, i love your hair.
And your eyes. And your smile. And your scowl.
I love all of you actually, every last bit.
My auror training has been going good. I’ve finally been allowed to go on missions.
We can start actually helping now.
Even though i’m still scared, i need to help.
What else am i supposed to do.
I miss you, so much.
i can’t wait to see you, and kiss you. God i want to kiss you.
Please hurry up and get here.
I love you.
Your sun.
He had tears in his eyes now, his hands began twitching as he ripped open the next letter.
1979
My star,
I don’t know why i’m writing this.
It’s not like you’re going to see it.
How would you?
How did this happen reg?
You used to say the world would be better without you.
How could it?
A world without you is a sky without stars.
Regulus you are a star, you are the reason the sky is bright.
Thousands look at you every night, thinking about how beautiful it is.
You’re so beautiful.
I can’t look away Regulus, i cant.
I stare up at the sky wondering if you’re
okay.
Wondering if it was just a lie.
The sky dosent lie.
The sky is ever changing. Every time you see it you see something new. It’s always beautiful. You’re always beautiful.
I loved you with all my heart Regulus.
and now. Now you’re gone. All that’s left of you is a Newspaper. Nobody will ever know about how beautiful the sky was. About how beautiful we were.
I never stopped loving you Reg.
I never will.
I love you like the sky loves the stars.
I love you. I love you. I love you. I love you.
Your sun. Always.
A sob clung to Regulus’ throat, as he read the final three words.
Your sun. Always.
And he was, he loved him through it all.
No matter what he told himself he always new. He would always love James. No one else could replace that feeling.
He was crying, hard. Tears streaming down his face as he tried to regain control of his breathing.
He didn’t know how long he had been there.
But before he knew it, a car drove into the driveway of the house.
A woman approached the door, she had curly brown hair and a dark complexion
One she stepped foot in the living room, She jumped at the image of Regulus with a tear stained face.
“Are you alright?” She asked worried.
Regulus tried to respond, tried to say anything, but all that could come out of his mouth was laboured breathing and uncontrollable crying.
Immediately, the woman came to his side, muttering things about breathing.
Regulus didn’t know how long passed until he could make understandable words, but the woman sat patiently with him until he could explain himself.
“I’m sorry.” He said simply, still trying not to cry.
She then inspected what was in his shaky palms and the a look of a realisation flooded her face.
“You-You’re Regulus Black?”
“Yes.” He said, looking down ashamed.
“So you were James’s…”
“Yes.” She didn’t know how to word their relationship, neither did he.
“Is he here? Can i see him?” He asked hopefully, looking around her.
Her expression the turned sad, almost crying herself.
“Oh honey. James… He didn’t- He didn’t make it.”
His mind went blank.
No.
No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No.
“No. He- He can’t have..”
“He was killed in ‘81.”
He can’t have died.
It’s James.
James dosent die.
That’s not the end of the story.
“He- No…” He started to fumble again.
“What- what about… the ..others. Remus?”
She nodded sadly.
“Dorcas?”
She nodded again
“Pandora?”
And again over and over the names he gave her were replied with sad tilts of the head. Each one made him want to scream.
And finally
“What- what about… Sirius?”
To this she nodded again, tears flooding her eyes.
Regulus lost it, He began sobbing again.
What was the point?
They’re all gone.
Every single one of them.
Dead.
And all regulus could do was sit with a box of memories.
A box of memories he never got to see.
He can’t talk to James
————————————
A year later
Regulus was sat in a coffee shop in Diagon Alley when he saw him.
He had the same dark complexion, Along with the unrelenting black hair.
But his eyes were different.
A vibrant green.
His forehead was marked like a strike of lightning. It was him.
“Excuse me.” He tapped the boy on the shoulder, making him twist around with a confused face.
“Can i help you with anything?” He sounded rather annoyed, however he probably deals with this on a regular basis so Regulus let it slide.
“Im sorry to bother you, You are Harry Potter, Right? James’ son.”
He seemed kind-of shocked at the mention of his father.
“You knew my dad?”
Regulus smiled
Yes this is definitely James’ son.
“I did. I knew him very very well.”
Harry smiled at this, seemingly excited to know someone that new his parent.
“Could you- I don’t know. Tell me about him?”
“Well i was about to offer that actually. Would you like to join me?”
He grinned at that and sat down opposite from the raven haired man.
He had his arms on the table leaning forward eagerly.
“How did you know him?”
“Umm, he and i were very close.” He said slowly thinking of how to word it.
“My brother and He were best friends. Sirius Black.”
He looked a bit shocked at this.
“So your Regulus then?”
“Indeed i am.”
“Wow, you look so different then what i’ve heard.”
He knew this was true.
His hair was much longer, only cutting it when he needed to.
He wore muggle clothes in his last rebellion against his blood purist teachings.
Overall, Regulus appeared to be happy, however deep down he knew it wasn’t the case.
“Yes i suppose so.”
He pauses for a minute, preparing himself.
“Your dad was something, he was always there when you needed him, he was the most caring person you could ever meet, even if you hated him like i did.”
“You hated him?”
“Oh yes, despised him actually.
We were quidditch rivals. House rivals. Constantly fighting over Sirius.
We were impossible. The worst match.
But i loved him.”
“How if you hated him so much?” Harry asked, clearly confused, He didn’t blame him, anyone would be.
Regulus sighed wistfully.
“Your dad was very special to me, no matter how much i say i hated him. Anyone with eyes new it wasn’t true.
I knew we weren’t right for each other, that was obvious, he was going to become a quidditch star and i was going to continue the Black family legacy.” He said this with a sarcastic tone, earning a laugh from Harry.
“But in the end, he was the only one that saw me , that saw past the part i had to play. i had to be the evil slytherin death eater, while he was the hero.
But he knew i wanted to be the hero too.”
“What happend?”
“Well, in my final year of school, i was forced to join the death eaters and i had to leave him behind, i then betrayed them and faked my own death when i was 17.”
“i came back a year ago, to see if i could reunite with him and my brother. I never realised that they passed so soon.”
Harry looked down with a frown at that.
Regulus carefully inspected the boy.
“You’re so much like your father you know?”
Harry scoffed at that.
“Don’t tell me. is it the hair?”
Regulus chuckled
“That and your smile. James had the brightest smile known to man. it matched his personality.”
Regulus smiled softly at the memories “He was my soleil. and i was his étoile.”
Harry smiled quickly asking for more and more. Eager to know his dad and Regulus complied, sparing the crude details, he told him everything.
Hours had passed and goodbyes were given.
Regulus watched the boy strut down the street, feeling accomplished.
Yeah, That’s James.