Timeless

Regulus

Sirius finished my plate of food before I could protest, which I would've because if I had thought the muggle food in the pub with Remus had been great then this? This was beyond food. I don't know what magic James had put in there but it worked and that was dangerous. He was dangerous. I had to try and stay away from him because anytime I was near him I wanted to throw all my rationality out the window and-

Nope.

Anyway. Sirius. I was sitting on his bed now, listening to him ramble on about… I'd lost count of what he was on about at this point. It was odd, he was still just as much Sirius as he'd been 10 years ago. Everything, the whole world around us, had changed, but he'd somehow stayed that reckless and frustrating thing with a mind of mysterious ways. I didn't get him.

“Sirius, will you shut up already? You're giving me a headache,”

“I missed this,” he grinned at me. Proof of that broken logic of his.

“Right…. well anyway. Is there a point to this or did you drag me away mid-breakfast just to give me the worst headache I've had in a decade?”

“Glad to see you too. Now, we gonna cut your hair or what?”

“What?”

“I mean. You don't very much look like yourself right now, Reggie,”

“So? I have to-”

“Not here you don't. Besides, if you're staying for the wedding and, knowing you, plan on heading back home afterwards, then maybe it'd be better if you were, well, unrecognisable,”

He had a point, “You just want to give me a makeover again, don't you?”

“Maybe. May I?”

“Only. The hair. I pick my own outfits, thank you very much,” there was no need for him to see the scars I'd acquired since he left. Nor the twines of the unbreakable vow.

“Fair. Fine. I'll make do with that. As long as you promise not to wear a full black outfit to my wedding tomorrow,”

“Sure,” I knew that was to get me out of the black dress I was in but I didn't mind. I'd find something in his closet that'd fit, surely.

He dragged me to the bathroom and I watched from the mirror as my hair dropped strand by strand and somehow alongside it vanished some of the weight on my shoulders. The boy in the mirror looked more and more familiar, increasingly more like me. I'd forgotten the way my hair held wave when it was short, the lightness of it. I wanted to wash it now just to see if it would be even wavier afterwards. I'd have to take a quick wash after the messy haircut Sirius was giving me anyway, there was hair everywhere. 

I think I spent like two hours in the shower, might have, I got lost in my thoughts. When I got out and started wrapping towels around me, failing then to wrap one in my hair as usual, I laughed. I didn't have enough hair for it anymore. My hair was short. Short.

I laid out a pair of black pants and a sweater vest which I assumed was actually Remus' instead of my brother's. I then fetched my wand from the bathroom, I obviously couldn't keep it in my hair anymore. But for now, I had some transfiguration to do, the sweater vest was too big and the bra my parents had made me wear to bring out my chest needed to become the opposite - something to hide it. Thank god I was a wizard. 

After all was ready and I was covered from toes to fingers again, I finally stood before a mirror. I liked it. It was definitely unrecognizable, as it was supposed to be – unless I introduced myself as Regina or a Black I don't think there'd be a chance of anyone realising it was me attending the wedding. 

Also, my hair was wavier after the wash. Maybe it'd flatten as it dried but either way, it felt like I'd lost a part of a burden. 

When I opened the door I already heard yelling from the kitchen as well as the living room. Something on flowers or cakes, not sure. I slipped out the backdoor instead, grabbing a stray book from on top of a piano on my way out. I was not about to be pulled into the chaos of the day before a wedding. Besides, I had to be mindful and keep a safe distance between James and me, or else I might lose it entirely. It was disastrous enough that I was here, the last place on the planet I was supposed to be, I couldn't let things escalate any further, physical attraction or not. It was not like me to break any rules, take any risks. So I would keep a distance, see the wedding, then leave.