the view between villages

regulus 

contrary to very popular belief, regulus black does not hate christmas. he actually quite loves it. he didn’t back with his parents, who gifted dark artifacts and stuffy dress robes in place of fun toys and tasty sweets. now that he’s an adult in full control of his christmas experience, he’s quite in love with the entire holiday. 

and, for the first time since the end of the war, it won’t be spent alone in his echoey house. no, this year he’ll have a full home. 

unsurprisingly, regulus has been deemed host for this year’s celebration. he’s banned the potters, his newfound lovers, from his home for a full week before the holiday. he’s refused to even watch harry here while they shop. 

oh, god, the shopping was dreadful. he’d finished only a handful of days before christmas week, which meant almost an entire closet was filled floor to ceiling with wrapped parcels. thank salazar for the spacious sitting room downstairs. he’s finally finished decorating the house and, in all honesty, he’s impressed. 

he stands in the sitting room now, gazing around at all of the hard work he’s finally done with. there’s a huge tree in the corner draped with various tinsel and floating balls of light (those were a rather difficult charm to learn, but for the sake of christmas, he’d done it). the top border of the room is adorned by lovely strings of silver and green bells. holly sits on every mantle and windowsill in sight. the dining room, unnecessarily huge, is decorated with the same garland and tinsel as the tree. floating silver and gold orbs of light float around the house. mistletoe hangs from every single doorframe in the house, charmed to float around and initiate various shows of holiday affection. 

he’s excited. the first handfuls or guests should be here within the hour. james, lily, and harry should be here any second now. oh, he’s so excited. 

a loud pop sounds in the dining room. he knows without looking who it is — lily and james are the only wix keyed into his apparition wards. 

“reg!” lily sings from the dining room. wearing the smallest smile possible, regulus dances into the room. james tackles him the moment he steps in. 

“oh, this looks gorgeous, reg,” james gushes. his cheeks are pink and his smile is huge. lily looks just as excited as regulus feels, dressed gorgeously in a fleece dress and a tall pair of boots. she’s got harry on her hip, the little tyke dressed up in a similar jumper to her dress. his eyes are glistening as he looks around at all the lights. 

“i’ve spent all bloody week decorating by hand,” regulus huffs. “do you know how difficult it is to decorate such a high ceiling? i had to learn so many sticking and extension charms just to have enough tinsel, then to make it actually stay on the walls.” 

“i think it looks positively cozy, darling,” lily coos. the floo roars in the other room, signaling what is likely sirius and remus’ arrival. a dog rushes into the room and jumps up onto regulus, confirming his worst nightmare. as reg hits the floor, the dog transforms into his brother, grinning wolfishly at him. 

“you’ve got the stuff, right?” sirius asks. regulus grumbles as he nods and picks himself off the floor, kicking his brother in the shin in retaliation. “awesome! i’m stealing your kid, red.” 

harry squeals as sirius plucks him from lily’s hip, who merely rolls her eyes affectionately. regulus presses a gentle kiss to her cheek in passing to make up for his idiot brother’s actions. then he gifts james the same upon seeing the man’s puppy eyes. 

hidden away in regulus’ bedroom, the brothers hastily change their clothes and ready themselves and harry for the celebration. by the end, the three of them are dressed up in matching black slacks, grey blouses, and red sneakers. sirius has even managed to tease little harry’s unruly hair into the same half up half down ponytail. fully satisfied with their matching outfits, regulus fastens a necklace with a star pendant around each of their necks. 

“alright, haz. no eating this, yeah?” regulus hushes as he clasps the necklace. the little boy nods with an adorably determined expression on his face. 

“no eat,” harry repeats. regulus promptly melts, taking the little one into his arms and pressing kiss after kiss to his squealing face. “da! stop! no!” 

“all good, prongslet?” sirius asks once regulus has stopped his insistent show of love. his heart is bursting with the new title harry has given him — he’s been ‘da’ for about a two weeks now, which he’s tried to correct, but harry seems set on. harry nods firmly, grinning his little james grin up at sirius. regulus scoops the toddler up into his arms and wandlessly spells the door open, then leads the way for the three of them to descend to the downstairs of the house. 

apparently, they’d taken longer than he’d thought, because the house is full by the time they rejoin everyone. marlene and dorcas are sneaking finger foods from the dining room (he sneakily shoots a stinging hex at marlene’s fingers as she moves to swipe a tiny sausage), pandora, xenophilius, and luna are admiring the tree together, mary’s deeply engaged in what looks like gossip with lily and the black sisters, nymphadora and draco are wrestling in the sitting room, and james and remus are pouring themselves each a very full glass of wine. 

james drops his when he sees the three of them. as if drawn by a magnet, the man bounds over with the widest smile regulus has seen yet. 

“oh haz, you’re just dashing, aren’t you?” he coos. sirius makes an affronted noise, clearly offended by james’ acknowledgment of his son first. regulus easily hands over the toddler in trade for a soft press of lips to his forehead. 

“we even managed to find him matching shoes,” regulus points out. james looks from harry’s feet to reg’s and then to sirius’ and promptly squeals like a teenage girl. 

“i didn’t even notice! are those converse? i adore them,” the man gushes. lily chooses then to sweep over, cooing at her son and the two brothers and their matching outfits. 

“oh my precious boys! when did you even find time to get these?” she exclaims. sirius throws an arm around regulus’ shoulders (reg is proud to state that he only slightly flinches this time. progress is progress). 

“we got these just after their birthdays. remember our shopping trip that prongs was freaking the fuck out about?” sirius explains. regulus is not proud of the pink that climbs up his neck, though he does startle slightly at the new information he’s receiving. 

“their? when is harry’s birthday?” he blurts. lily and james exchange a look, then grin sheepishly at the younger black brother. 

“july thirty-first,” lily finally admits. james shakes his free hand jazz style. regulus gasps dramatically and spins to slap his brother directly in the gut. 

“you didn’t tell me we share a birthday! you arsehole!” he cries. harry giggles as he repeats the swear word, then repeats it some more with remus’ goading and encouragement. lily huffs. 

“i thought you knew! you have that stupid timeline — ‘before harry, after harry’ — i thought you were aware of it!” sirius shouts back. regulus slaps him in the gut again. 

“i thought it was before mine! you are such a bloody wanker sirius! i would’ve loved to know i share a birthday with my stepson!” regulus fumes. then freezes and promptly begins praying to the gods above that the ensuing silence doesn’t mean everyone heard that. 

“stepson?” james inquires. regulus sighs and waves his hand dismissively, throwing up his occlumency wards. the further he is from his feelings today, the better. lily catches his waving hand and weaves their fingers together. 

“son, i think you mean,” she hushes. regulus blinks around the tears in his eyes and meets hers, searching her face for any signs of malice she may be hiding. 

“he’s not mine, though,” regulus whispers. she rolls her eyes and presses a kiss to the back of his hand. 

“he already calls you dad. own the bloody title already,” she huffs. regulus smiles slightly and looks to his other lover, who’s grinning so brightly regulus is genuinely afraid his face is going to split in half. 

finally, after a few moments of swarming thoughts and doubts that leave him feeling nauseous, he nods. 

and then the entire guest list is squealing their congratulations. regulus startles at the noise, falling nearly flat on his ass. sirius is practically falling over with how hard he’s laughing. regulus makes a silent vow to hex his bollocks off later. 

“i’m super stoked for you guys,” marlene calls from the entrance to the dining room. “but i’m bloody starving. can we eat already?” 

regulus huffs a laugh through his red cheeks and gestures to the dining room with a wide flourish of his arm. marlene hoots and hollers the entire way to the table. regulus joins the group there, taking his rightful seat at the head of the table. james and lily fall in on either side of him with harry’s high chair directly beside him, then sirius and remus settle next to james and narcissa and draco plop down with lily. marlene and dorcas slump at the far end of the table, dorcas more gracefully so, and andromeda takes refuge with ted and nymphadora directly beside remus. this leaves pandora, xenophilius, and luna to sit beside little draco’s high chair and mary to seat herself directly across from regulus. 

regulus takes the time to gaze across the table. he notes the two empty chairs between nymphadora and mary and smiles through the lump in his throat. he’s quite pleased to notice the abundance of women at his table, which would’ve been remarkable unbecoming if pureblood society is anything to go by. it’s not, and the startlingly large amount of feminine energy present is more than welcome. regulus waves a hand, and food flies to the center of the table.

the dishes are mismatched, all separate porcelain and glass containers. this would also serve as a culture shock to his stiflingly pureblood parents. even the serving utensils sticking out of each dish are uncoordinated. james, pandora, narcissa, and ted take to providing for the children whilst remus piles copious amounts of food onto his plate. it is this and the cane leaned against the mahogany table that reminds regulus of the upcoming full.

once the children and remus are served, the adults summon spoons and tongs full of their own dinner to their plates. the cutlery and china match impeccably, because regulus hasn’t quite freed himself from the high expectations of a proper dinner party. regulus takes a sip from his charmed, self-replenishing glass of wine as he gazes around the table. 

perhaps it’s the alcohol. perhaps it’s the company gathered in his home. either way, he feels pleasantly warm. there’s an abundance of it flowing through his veins, filling his chest to the brim with a nostalgic sense of home. maybe not nostalgic, as he’s never been so contentedly connected to a person or place before, but it’s a familiar feeling.

it’s a similar feeling to the potter cottage and sirius’ london flat. to tea with dorcas and shopping with marlene. to tattoo sessions with remus and designing with sirius. to nights spent on the couch with james and lily and bath time with harry. it’s so remarkably home, this feeling in his belly. home is all the people at the table, gathered under gaudy tinsel and floating orbs of magic for the similar purpose of showering one another in unfiltered devotion. 

he only barely blinks back his tears as he feasts on the garlic naan he and harry are sharing and dipping in a strange gravy xenophilius had provided. so many cultures and flavors, preferences and indulgences, are gathered together on plates and in chairs, and it’s something beautiful for him to behold. he’s honestly afraid he won’t be able to keep the tears at bay once the gift giving commences. 

“all good?” lily asks as she pours a bit of juice into harry’s sippy cup. regulus contemplates for a moment, eyes sweeping over the smiling faces around him, and nods. everything is good. more than good, actually. 

once dinner finishes (which is decidedly a disaster, seeing as sirius and marlene engaged in a very messy food fight with the children), the celebration is moved to the sitting room. gifts are piled around the tree, the stack nearly rivaling the height of it. only the star and the top row of ornaments are visible over wrapped boxes. 

once regulus and sirius levitate all of the parcels to their rightful owners, there’s a significant gathering at each of their feet. he’s pleased to state that the children have the most gifts in front of them. 

“how do we want to do the opening stuff?” sirius asks him. regulus blows a few strands of hair away from his face as he stands in the middle of a rather large semicircle of stacked gifts. “one by one or all at once?” 

“we’d be here all night if we did one by one,” pandora says. regulus snorts his agreement. 

“maybe we could do kids first, adults after?” andromeda recommends. she’s barely holding nymphadora back from ripping open every package in her wake. “they seem to be far more antsy than we are.” 

“i like that idea,” lily states. regulus gives her a grateful smile and nods his assent. with the permission granted, all four of the children enthusiastically dive into their presents. it’s a pleasant mixture of magical and muggle toys and trinkets. nymphadora is especially excited about her sparkling new training broom from james, and draco is squealing over a plastic muggle vehicle from andromeda. he and harry babble excitedly about the fact that they’ve got matching toys, completely ignoring the stuffed quaffles james had given them. the man visibly deflates upon noting that his son is decidedly against being a chaser. luna accidentally sets fire to a set of muggle sparklers in her excitement, which leaves the sitting room smelling distinctly of fireworks once they’ve burned out. 

with the children done — harry is also ignoring the beaters bat sirius had gotten him — the adults begin. this process is much easier with the little ones distracted by their new toys (and very big, very fast light up sneakers in nymphadora’s case). it’s all going rather swimmingly, with either extremely thoughtful or extremely useful items, including regulus’ new electric kettle (from remus) and narcissa’s fancy cosmetic brushes (from dorcas). marlene had even gotten a set of tools for the motorbike she’s intent on fixing from sirius (though he’s been insisting for months that she’s only doing it to copy his level of punk rock). 

regulus picks up a small box from his pile, knitting his eyebrows together as he sees the tag on it. it’s from sirius. which is odd, because sirius is a major fan of large and extravagant gifts. he opens it up, marveling at the scuffed golden snitch laying inside. there’s a date etched on it, dating back to his very first quidditch game. he runs his thumb over the shiny gold of it, only barely holding in his tears, and looks up to his brother in astonishment. 

“you found it?” he punches out. he’d lost it years ago, right before sirius left home. realizing that both his brother and his comfort snitch were gone was probably one of the worst days of his life, not counting the several years after where he’d seen no improvement in the state of his future. 

“how do you think it got lost?” sirius hushes with a sheepish grin. regulus gulps down the lump in his throat, carefully removing the snitch from its box and letting it roll around in his hand. the fact that sirius had kept it after all this time… 

“open the one from me,” he insists to his brother. the man gives him an odd look, though he does rifle through the leftover gifts to find the one from him. it takes a few seconds to get the wrapping paper off, then another to open it, and regulus gnaws on his lip as he waits. sirius gasps once he sees what’s in the box, a hand flying to cover his mouth as tears flood his eyes. 

“no you bloody didn’t,” sirius breathes. regulus can see james anxiously shifting out of the corner of his eye, clearly curious about the gift but too polite to sneak a peak. 

“i did,” regulus responds simply. sirius sniffles away his tears as he lifts the object out of the box. it’s a small necklace, made of stainless steel due to remus’ affliction, and hanging from the chain is a ring. it’s small, meant for a child’s finger, and it holds a crescent moon carved into it.

it’s a call back to their childhood — sirius and regulus, curled together in the bay window of sirius’ room late at night, chatting away to the waxing moon. it’s such a fond memory for regulus, one he revisits frequently. 

“there’s a man on that moon,” sirius had whispered all those years ago. “and if you talk to him, he’ll be your best friend.” 

“even more of a best friend than you?” regulus had breathed back in wonder. sirius had nodded eagerly, eyes bright and smile big even in the dreary halls of grimmauld place. 

“he’ll be the bestest friend, reg. i’m just your big brother. a best friend means even more than having a brother,” sirius explained eagerly. “a best friend is like a soulmate. like someone you share your soul with.” 

“does that mean you’ll stop loving me when you get a best friend?” regulus asked, suddenly frightened and tearful. 

“never,” sirius had said fiercely. “i’ll never stop loving you, reg. best friends share our souls, but brothers share our bodies. you’ve got the same heart i do, reggie.” 

“but not the same brain, because you don’t like fantasy books,” regulus had replied. from there, it was a mess of giggles and good faith, a rare moment of happiness shared between brothers. it was the only time they’d been allowed to be children. all these years later, and regulus still thinks of it. he still thinks of the man on the moon, his very first friend. 

“i love you, oh my merlin,” sirius gasps out. then he charges forward and tackles regulus into a hug he hadn’t been expecting. immediately regulus stiffens, his skin crawling with the touch of the undead, and sucks in a sharp breath. 

“i love you too,” he manages to wheeze once he’s caught control of his body again. it’s so strange, to tell his big brother he loves him, but it’s healing. he can’t recall a time he’d ever said those words to sirius, especially not after sirius had been sorted into the enemy house. better late than never, he muses. 

“regulus arcturus black!” shouts pandora. regulus jumps, looking to her in alarm. his entire body pulls taut as he awaits her punishment. she hasn’t got her wand in her hand — no, instead she’s got a framed photograph, and tears are glimmering in her wide eyes. “i cannot believe you.” 

regulus breathes a sigh of relief and sends her a shy smile, twisting the rings on his fingers. lily is craning her neck, eager to see what pandora’s got in her hands. he already knows what it is — a photo, containing the moving faces of barty crouch jr and evan rosier. it had been taken during sixth year, right before regulus had gotten the dark mark. he considers it his last good day. evan and barty had taken him for a walk down to the black lake, then stopped to take photos with a charmed muggle camera. regulus has his own photo framed and on his bedside table, depicting the three of them laughing at the camera.

pandora’s got her own now, one he’d taken himself — barty cackling loudly and evan staring at him in wonder, then planting a firm kiss to barty’s cheek. unfortunately, it’s in black and white, and doesn’t accurately capture the flush that forms high on barty’s golden cheekbones. regulus doesn’t think she minds it much. it’s got evan’s dark skin and white hair and big eyes, and barty’s crooked grin and potion-dyed green bangs and pierced eyebrow pandora herself had done in fifth year. 

“i thought you might like to have a photo of them,” regulus says quietly. she sniffles wetly, hands shaking as she presses the frame to her heart. he can see the guilt glimmering in her eyes, and his heart clenches at the sight of it. 

“thank you,” she whispers. he can hardly hear it over the sound of the children babbling away to one another, but it’s clear what her lips form the shape of. 

“regulus, is it your goal to make us all cry?” remus asks flatly. regulus glances to him and raises his eyebrows. in his hands is another frame, one regulus knows to be the drawing he’d spent weeks on. it’s a sketch done in ink, one from a muggle contraption sirius calls an ink pen, and it contains the forms of both padfoot — sirius’ animagus form — and moony — remus’ wolf. at their feet sit two men, remus and sirius, crudely illustrated and coloured with shoddy watercolours. he’s honestly quite proud of it. he’s no artist by any means, but it had come out as well as it could have. 

“nonsense, remus,” regulus scoffs. “i did that in an hour. be happy you got anything at all.” 

“you miserable, lying sod,” remus snarks, though there’s a broad grin on his face and something tender in his eyes. regulus cracks only the slightest smile before dorcas gasps. his attention jumps to her and to the book in her hands. his cheeks flush on instinct.

he’d gotten her a printed copy of the silly fantasy novel he’d written in fifth year — it follows the journey of a girl named tabitha fields (roughly reflecting the meaning and connotation of dorcas’ name) who struggles with being a sapphic woman in an oppressive society. he’d managed to work dragons into the plot, and a pretty girl named marceline (with no tie at all to marlene mckinnon, even if it seems that way) (okay, there’s a heavy tie to marlene mckinnon. who is he kidding?), and a handsome trio of gay men named barcelone, erik, and reginald (no ties at all to barty, evan, and regulus) (again, heavy ties. he’s a sap). she’d begged for all of fifth and sixth year for a copy of it, but he’d downright refused to let her read it. 

“please do not make any comment once you’ve read that,” regulus says, monotone despite the thundering of his heart in his chest. “i haven’t edited it at all since fifth year. keep your opinions to yourself.” 

“not a chance. i’m going to phone you every single time i get choked up over this,” dorcas responds with a wide smile. 

“regulus arcturus, you absolute arse,” andromeda barks. she’s laughing, though, so it’s a good sign. she seems quite pleased with her silver necklace, carrying a pendant the house crest he’d given the tonks family. he’d insisted, because he’s got quite a knack for design and he adores houses with crests. narcissa now has one similar in her hands, only with the modified crest for the house of black, and she seems to be happy with it as well if her smile is anything to go by. he’d crafted it from the original crest, though he’d added his initials into the fray and a crude illustration of a lion carved opposite the serpent. 

“ted’s got a ring, in case he hasn’t gotten to it yet,” regulus says. ted laughs as he holds up his left hand, revealing the wedding ring on his ring finger and the crest ring sparkling on his thumb. 

“oh, i opened it,” ted muses. “thank you, reg. i’ll have to commission one of these for my pops.” 

“no need. i’ve sent one via owl,” regulus dismisses, waving his hand. “i do hope your father likes gold jewelry. i thought it might accent his skin tone.” 

“and you say you aren’t a sap,” sirius muses. he’s got remus struggling to clasp the necklace around his neck, remus’ big fingers seemingly unable to do up a small clasp. lily takes over after a moment of watching remus struggle, her little hands coming in handy. 

“wait until marlene opens hers,” regulus whispers to him. sirius chortles. they watch discreetly together as marlene rips open her multitude of gifts. she’s just gotten to the quidditch gloves from james, and the only one left is the one from regulus. she casts a hesitant look to him, then tears open the wrapping paper. then she gasps, hand flying to cover her mouth. 

“no you bloody well didn’t,” she snaps at regulus. reg merely inclines his head, fighting the smile threatening to break through. he’s quite upset that he’s so prone to smiling nowadays. curse sirius for bringing him into such a loving group of people. he only wishes barty and evan had gotten the same before they’d died. he’s got a few gifts hidden upstairs for them, fully intending to donate them to the less fortunate families. 

“regulus, i cannot believe you,” dorcas chortles out. marlene holds up her gift for the nosy people of the friend group — which is all of them, really — and hastily wipes a tear from her eye. he’d gotten a painting commissioned, one of dorcas, only she’s dressed in white and wearing a veil atop her long braids. marlene stands in front of her in a similar white gown, their hands clasped, both of them smiling. since weddings aren’t quite available for queer relationships yet — not until regulus takes his seat in the wizengamot and begins fighting for it — he’d gotten them a painting of their hypothetical wedding day to commemorate their devotion to one another. 

“you’re such a prick,” marlene wails, sniffling rather loudly. she sets the painting down and springs across the room, snatching regulus up in a hug that he’s fully prepared for this time. he can’t seem to hold the laughter inside. 

“who knew regulus black had a heart?” mary muses. she’s got a set of pristine silk dresses in her arms, ones regulus had spent quite a bit of money on, and atop them is a double set of vouchers to a nice restaurant in dublin. she’d confided in him a handful of weeks ago that she wanted to take her girlfriend, emmeline vance, to a nice anniversary dinner but she couldn’t budget enough money for the fancy restaurant she’d had her eye on since may. so, regulus had shouldered the financial weight, and now mary is free to take her girlfriend to an anniversary dinner in january. the dresses are also charmed to grow with them, so they can be worn at a later date in case of weight loss or gain. 

“i’m honestly terrified to open whatever he’s gotten us,” lily muses. regulus rolls his eyes, leaning into his brother’s side. all this emotions talk has thoroughly softened him up, and he’s quite hungry for physical touch. sirius seems like the safest bet, with everyone else at risk of hugging the life out of him. 

“us? i got you both your own,” he scoffs. he twists the jewelry james and lily had gotten him around his fingers. they’re a duo of rings, one from both of them, meant for each of his ring fingers. one carries an opal, and the other an onyx stone, and regulus is quite pleased with them. he loves jewelry the most out of every material thing in this world, and he had been quite choked up upon opening them. 

“cheeky bastard,” james mutters, but he’s crying. he’s got a frame in hand, one big enough to match the frames already scattered around potter cottage in godric’s hollow. in it is a moving photograph of lily and regulus and harry, donning matching gryffindor quidditch jerseys with james’ number and last name on them. it had taken quite a bit of time to transfigure the jerseys, and even more time to get harry to stop chewing on the neckline of his, but it paid off. regulus and lily can be seen doting over harry, cooing at him and ruffling his messy hair. 

“i thought you might like that. consider it a joint gift from lily and me,” regulus muses. james sniffles as he squeezes behind the children and makes his way to regulus, tugging him into a very firm snog. regulus accepts it, kisses back through his smile, and flings an arm around james’ shoulders. 

“thank you,” james whispers against his lips, entirely ignoring sirius’ gagging as he presses kiss after kiss to regulus’ laughing mouth. 

“you’re quite welcome, jamie,” regulus chuckles. james weasels his way back to lily’s side, ruffling harry’s hair as he goes. lily huffs as she takes her stand too, rushing to pull regulus into a more aggressive kiss. he kisses her back as best he can, seeing as she’s quite fierce and her mouth moves much too fast for his inexperienced lips. 

“bloody tosser,” she breathes, then kisses him feverishly again. he finds purchase on her hip bones, humming against the plush skin of her lips, and struggles to push back a laugh when andromeda wolf whistles. 

“kiss him again from all of us, lils,” dorcas exclaims through laughter. lily follows instructions quite well, snogging the absolute life out of him. then she traipses back over to her seat beside james, smiling as she tugs on her new slytherin quidditch jumper. it was his back at hogwarts, one he’d felt her ogling him in on match days. she’s got his name and number worn firmly on her back now, and he’d be lying if he said the gift isn’t as much for him as it is for her. seeing his name on her back is really doing something for him. 

“is that everyone who wants to neck my baby brother?” sirius asks, voice dripping with distaste. 

“i think i might want a go, actually,” mary jokes, fingering the soft silk of her new dress. 

“i’ll duel you for first in line,” marlene challenges, a playful grin on her face. mary scoffs as she sets her garments to the side, joining her other gifts, and pulls her wand into her hand. she and marlene send innocent stinging hexes to each other from across the sitting room, absolutely delighting the children who watch colours dance through the air. narcissa has to hurry and snatch up draco before he can touch one of the hexes. 

“alright, you can stop your pissing contest,” regulus calls to them. he’s grinning, perfectly content pressed against his brother’s side, his sitting room full of the people he loves. 

all in all, he thinks this is the best christmas he’s ever had. it’s the first he’s spent fully with family, out of stuffy dress robes and without strict etiquette. it’s relaxed, free, full of meaningful gifts and genuine kind words. there isn’t a single fake smile in sight, not even on his own face. 

his smile drops. a ripple flows through the house, a loud alarm blaring in his head. he hisses, pressing his fingertips to his temple. sirius places a palm on his shoulder, but he’s already rising to his feet, wand in hand and mask back in place. 

“take the children to the basement,” he shouts over his shoulder, already headed for the front door. “someone’s just entered the wards.”