My star in the sky

Over the next week Regulus slowly but surely got more comfortable at the Potter house. Eventually he started to call Mrs. Potter by the nicknames Sirius did, calling her "mom", "Effie" or simply calling her by her first name.
Mrs. Potter didn't mind, she actually openly preferred being referred to with nicknames or her first name.

After a few weeks Sirius became suspicious as to why Regulus never slept in a room on his own and why slowly more greenish Slytherin stuff appeared.
After discussing it, James and Regulus decided on just telling Sirius about them dating. Lily came over especially for this, "just to be there" she reasoned, "and I am dating the both of you too."
That went as well as one would expect.

"You- you're dating my brother." Sirius sighed, glaring at James and Lily, but mainly James.
"Sirius don't be mad, please." Regulus pleaded, "We talked about this, remember?"
"We talked about this?" He asked puzzled.
"At Grimmauld Place? I told you you'd get mad!" Reg accused.

Sirius' face froze. His brother did tell him and he'd promised not to get angry.

"You're right." He simply stated.
"And now you're-" Regulus yelled, but then he stopped, "I'm what?
"You're right, you told me that this is how I would react and you asked me not to. I did anyway. I'm sorry." Sirius explained.
"You- you're sorry?" Reg whimpered.
"I know that doesn't make up for me fucking up but I really truly am sorry." He apologized.
Lily hugged Regulus from behind, trying to support him in this situation.
"Can you accept that I am dating James and Lily? Can you accept us in a way that I don't feel uncomfortable about it?" Regulus questioned.
"It's a shock, really it is, but I won't stop you. I don't particularly like the thought of my best mate shagging my younger brother, but you're old enough to decide this stuff for yourself." Sirius told his brother.
After a moment of silence he clarified, "I'll support you, no matter what ok?"
"Thank you." Regulus hugged his brother.

Regulus was happy that his brother had decided to just accept his relationship, James was simply content that Sirius hadn't ripped his head off and Lily was just glad that half of the things she needed to do were done.
She still needed to have an important talk with her boyfriends.

"James, I need to talk to Reggie. Please for Merlin's sake, don't eavesdrop." Lily asked of James.
"Lily, please let me come?" James pleaded.
"James..." Lily chuckled.
"Jamie, leave your girlfriend." Euphemia warned from the living room.

Lily and Regulus sat down on James' bed.
"So what did you want to talk about?" Reg asked.
"I have been talking to Severus for about the past year." Lily admitted.
"THAT PRICK?" Regulus yelled.
"I knew you'd react like this, but please believe me that he's changed." She argued.
"Lils, people like that don't just change..." Reg sighed.
"I know, I know but hear me out." Lily begged.
"Lily honey. I think we should get James to join us." Regulus suggested.
"You really think so? I assumed it'd be better if I told you one at a time?" She asked.
"I do."
"Alright"
"James. Come up here." Regulus yelled for their boyfriend.

When James arrived in the room Reg explained to him what Lily had told him before.
James was reasonably annoyed, but Regulus wanted to try and understand his girlfriend.
"Can I?"
Regulus simply nodded, motioning for her to start.
"So, you know Dorcas, Dorcas Meadowes?" She assured herself.
Reg nodded again, James just looked confused.
"Well, we both became great friends." She smiled.
James looked very confused now.
"I also have friends James. My friend group isn't too far off from yours. Dorcas, Marlene, Mary and Me." Lily scoffed.
"You know that we have other friends outside of the marauders, right?", Regulus laughed, "I'm still friends with some other Slytherins, like Evan Rosier and Barty Crouch Jr. I actually think they're dating now."

"I know you two have other friends too. Just continue with the story about how I shouldn't kill Snape." James chuckled.
"Good. So, Dorcas especially noticed how badly Severus was treating me, way back in 3rd year. My friends all told me to confront him, as he was always telling me how I can't date anyone else but him and it started to piss me off." Lily started.
"As it should" Reg interjected.

"Yes. So all throughout 4th year I tried to talk to him about it. And then towards the end of the 4th year I told him if he couldn't get his act together, we'd have to stop spending time together in any and every way." She continued.
"As you should" James added.

"He accepted but we parted ways until and for the holidays anyway. All of 5th year you guys actually left him alone, I think it's because I asked you to or I hope at least, so I didn't really interact with him." Lily went on.
"That's good." James reacted.

"James don't be mad now, ok?" She asked, "At the beginning of the 6th year I thought 'hey, you haven't talked to Snape for a long while now, how about we look at how he's changed?', so I did."
Regulus looked at her skeptically and James looked pitiful.
"He...didn't really change much, so I told him that just because I was talking to him didn't mean I liked him. I told him that I am dating you and that he won't change that." Lily assured, "But it seemed strange to me how after not talking to me for over a year, like no contact at all, he could still be so 'in love' with me."
"That is indeed strange." Regulus commented.
"How did he even fall in love with you in the first place?" James inquired.

"That is what I asked myself as well.", She admitted, "I met with Severus all throughout last year, I told James I was meeting with a Ravenclaw to study. He acted jealous but at that time he was all over you anyway." She looked at Regulus.
Reg and James shared a look of embarrassment.

"Don't pity me. James and I had agreed that it was ok and he didn't neglect me." Lily assured the both of them, "We searched in books, we asked others and we took apart his childhood hoping to find a reason. I already knew that that wasn't real love, we were both pretty sure that it was simply am unhealthy obsession. In the end what we found out is really sad."
"What was it?" Prongs questioned.
"I could have told you if you wouldn't keep interrupting me." Lily defended.
"Shhhh" Regulus shushed.
"Sorry"

"So this is a bit upsetting, but Severus has given me permission to tell you. Basically his parents forced a heteronormative view on relationships on him but he is aromantic and therefore not romantically interested in anyone at all. So he just chose the closest friend he had, who was unfortunately me, to be 'in love' with. That's why he never fell out of love with me." Lily explained.
"Wow" Regulus was stunned.
"That's crazy." James admitted.

"Yeah, I know that it wasn't alright for him to treat me and others this way, but he recognizes his faults and he worked for my forgiveness." She concluded.

"So what now?" Regulus asked.
"Yeah, good question. What should we do now?" James agreed.
"I won't ask you to forgive and forget, but I ask you to just treat him kindly. I want him to be an active figure in my life and maybe our future kid's life." Lily stated.
"I'll be simply polite to him until I feel he deserves my forgiveness." Reg proclaimed.
"I'll be...nice to him." Prongs agreed.

Over the holidays James and Regulus made sure to tell the other marauders about Snape. They tried to convince them not to be mean or insult toward the other boy.
Sirius was harder to convince than Peter or Remus but in the end he did accept to be at least respectful.

James' 7th year was quite uneventful. Regulus suffered from anxiety and guilt all throughout it, because he felt his mother would appear to take him back.
But otherwise nothing really significant happened.

To Lily's delight all of the marauders were polite and respectful towards Severus.
Severus got more open and more tolerable. Even Sirius began sort of liking Snape after he befriended Remus.

During the next summer, Severus even attended the marauders' graduation party.