Timeless

Regulus

I'd been grounded ever since the ball for “acting in a blasphemous manner and associating with the wrong sort.” I didn't know what it was I'd done wrong as it was a pureblood ball, the guestlist created by them and them only. S'pose it could've been my unwillingness to mingle and partake in every waltz… 

Or it could've been that guy with stars across his cheek and flickers of hope unlike I'd ever seen in his eyes. Someone may have overheard the conversation we held or maybe he hadn't been on the guest list, though how would he have gotten in if that was the case, my parents were nothing if not cautious. 

Whatever the case, I was stuck in the house now and had been for months. A part of me feared this would remain the case until my wedding day and I had never actually done anything in particular on my birthday to prompt the punitive measures, instead, it had been pre-planned as a way of controlling me til the day I'd promise away any last of my freedom. I didn't let myself consider this last option too much for it inspired emotions I did not know how to handle.

I was determined to prove to my parents I was worthy of freedom, or the amount of it I'd had up until the house arrest, and so I kept on reading the books they'd give me, practising the spells, which I hated as for some reason I found most of the books discussing the unforgiveables and even though it was bugs or rats that I was practicing on it was absolutely horrendous nevertheless. So I tried to find other tasks to impress them with, even managed to get down some of the posters that had strongly remained up on Sirius' walls for well over a decade. 

And sure enough, I ran out of things to do within the house, unless they would give some of Kreacher's tasks to me, which would've been humiliating to the family. 

So, nearly half a year's worth of hard work later I found myself outside again, walking down Diagon Alley to go fetch some magical items after meeting Lucius Malfoy and cousin Cissy in Knockturn. I let the outside air, as dirty as it was in the middle of London, wash out the dust-matted layers that had gathered inside and decided it was time for lunch. I headed to the Cauldron.

The line of wizards behind the counter was criminal, I was not about to stand in line for an hour, but neither would I starve. Or worse, go back home early just to eat. 

I stared at the door of the Leaky Cauldron, the one leading out onto the muggle street, it made me think about Sirius. He took me, once, to a muggle restaurant two streets over. I had the best meal of my life and he paid with some muggle money.

I didn't have muggle money.

I also had no guts to go out that door anyway so I went to stand in the long line instead. I wasn't the only one with that idea, though.

“Oh, sorry, go ahead,” a tall guy with coppery ash hair and scars running down his face gave me a polite smile. I'd seen him before.

“You're the scar-boy Sirius is marrying aren't you?”

“Excuse me?!” 

“Shit, I didn't mean this in an offensive way. You're absolutely stunning and I can see how my brother could be seduced-”

“Wait, are you Regul-”

“Shhh!” I shushed him before he called me by that out loud with so many people around us. I wasn't even supposed to be talking to him in the first place, if my parents found out… “It's Regina,” I whispered, “and I cannot be seen speaking to you.”

Understanding flashed in his eyes and he nodded. He was marrying my brother after all and I suppose knowing of the ways of the Black family was part of that package. I watched him start pulling a piece of fabric from the old bag hanging from his shoulder. “Meet me in the bathroom in five,” he said, “unless you actually have enough patience to sit through this line.” The line wasn't moving and my stomach whined loudly as if on cue. When I looked back up the man was gone.

I sighed and after a moment of pondering, cursing the tenacious line and the intensifying gurgling in my stomach, I headed towards the lavatories. 

There were three bathrooms and I had no clue which my brother's husband-to-be was in. I stared at them. 

The door of the first one slid open and I waited for someone to walk out, but nobody did. The guy who'd made it to the area and mistaken me for the beginning of a queue pointed at it, “I think this one's free,” 

I smiled dismissingly and headed to the empty-looking bathroom nobody had exited. I didn't need to pee but I didn't want to cause anyone to consider my actions dubious and risk the chatter reaching my parents. So I closed and locked the door just to stand there for long enough for it to be believable I wasn't up to anything.

“Muffliato” a charm was whispered just next to me and I feared I walked right into a trap, my hand flew to the wand in my dress pocket, “Oy, chill, it's just me,” the scar-boy appeared as if from nowhere, the same fabric from his bag now hanging from his fingers.

“What the- How did you? What kind of magic is this?”

“Oh,” my befuddlement dawned on him, and he handed me the fabric, “put this over you and look in the mirror, will ya?”

For a moment I just stared there, my brows pulled up in condescension but when the bloke's impression remained expectant I puffed out a frustrated breath and pulled the fabric, which turned out to be a cloak, over myself. When I spun to look in the mirror, however, my heart skipped a beat as I could not find my reflection no matter how hard I stared.

I pulled the thing off, “Where the hell did you get an invisibility cloak?! These are like, impossible to find. I would know, I was sent looking for one once and got the worst beating of my life when I returned empty-handed,”

“Prongs just had one, I think he got it from his parents, not sure when or how they got it but yeah, now we kind of share custody of it,”

“And Prongs is..?”

“You've met him. Pads sent him to the ball,” my mouth hung open at the realisation. Of course, my brother was close to the most perfect-looking fucking guy in the world. I wanted to strangle him. Or that Prongs dude. Or both of them. “Oh wait. James. Prongs is what we call him. James Potter, that's probably how he introduced himself,”

“No,” I shook my head, “no he did not.”

“He actually went by Prongs?! At a pureblood boogie? That's off the hook even for him-”

“No. He didn't introduce himself. As anything. That mannerless arse. And neither have you, by the way,” the company my brother held was really getting more and more on my nerves the more I saw of them.

“Shit, apologies,” he gave me a mocking bow, “Remus John Lupin, at your service,” 

I added him to my people-I'd-like-to-suffocate list but my stomach was still actively trying to partake in this conversation so I decided to postpone dealing with that. 

“So? You made me give up my spot in line so you better have an alternative plan for where we could grab a bite?”

“How would you feel about a muggle pub?” 

“Well I'd love to go but unfortunately there is no way I can be seen heading to the muggle dimension, especially with you,”

“What the hell do you think that is for?” he pointed to the cloak still on my shoulders. I'd underestimated him. Unlike my brother, he seemed to have things actually thought through. Maybe I'd like him after all.