Year Three
This year has started off significantly better than the year before, minus Peter escaping Azkaban, Regulus is thoroughly enjoying having Remus at school with him. Regulus pushed very hard to get Remus into the job, and it was all completely worth it. They’re not even a couple of weeks into the school year and Remus is already competing with Regulus for the students’ favorite professor, not to mention he loves the job. It’s also nice for Regulus, because as close as he is to Poppy and Minerva he can never really gossip with anyone like he does Remus.
Which is why he’s headed over to his room now, not knocking before opening the door, assuming that Remus doesn’t have anyone in there considering his office hours ended an hour ago. He’s surprised to see Remus standing beside a cabinet, looking at Draco, who has his arms crossed defiantly. They both look over when Regulus opens the door, Regulus immediately apologizing.
“Oh, I’m sorry, I didn’t know you had anyone in here,” Regulus apologizes.
“It’s alright, I did boggarts with my Third Years today, I’ve been having students who weren’t comfortable doing it in front of the class do it with just me,” Remus tells him.
“That’s very nice of you, Professor Hilne was not nearly that nice,” Regulus jokes.
“Thank God I didn’t do boggarts with him,” Remus laughs, “My worst nightmare.”
“I just took the zero and what came with it. Mad-eye was the one to finally teach me Riddikulus after that one in HQ almost killed me,” Regulus returns a laugh, looking over as Draco greets him in the beat of silence.
“Hi Professor,” He greets, rushed and a bit timidly.
“Hello Draco,” Regulus greets, “How are you, dear?”
Draco shrugs, taking a step closer to Regulus, back to Remus, “Alright.”
“Have you done your boggart yet, dear? Do you want me to go so you can finish?”
“No,” Draco quickly denies, “You don’t need to go.”
Regulus looks up at Remus, who is clearly thinking about something a minute before suggesting, “Draco, would you be more comfortable letting Professor Black do your boggart with you?”
“I’m not doing it at all,” Draco denies, looking back at Remus, “I don’t have to.”
“You need to do it, either it’s in front of one of us or I have to give you a 0,” Remus calmly tells him, “I’ll go up into my office and close the door, I won’t hear or see anything.”
Draco huffs before mumbling, barely audible to Regulus, who he’s facing, “I’ll do it with Professor Black.”
“Alright, that’s perfectly fine,” Remus smiles, Regulus impressed he heard that, although Remus’ hearing has always been very good. Remus walks up to Regulus, handing him a clipboard. It’s got all of the students in the Third Year Gryffindor-Slytherin period on it with simply a check box next to their name. “He can try as many times as he’d like, all he needs to do is successfully cast Riddikulus. You can’t help him while the boggart is out but you’re welcome to help before and after. Just come and get me when you’re finished.”
“Mhm, alright,” Regulus nods.
“Thank you, Reg,” Remus smiles at him before going to the back of the room and up the stairs that lead to his office. Regulus walks up to where Remus was standing but doesn’t get to say anything, because the moment the door shuts Draco explodes at him.
“I’m not doing this, Professor! I’m not letting this stupid boggart come out here and I don’t have to! This assignment is useless!”
“Draco, take a deep breath,” Regulus advises, “Professor Lupin is right, you need to do this, it’s very important to have this experience in a place with someone who knows how to fight one off. Trust me, my dear, I did the same thing you did and skipped the lesson, and the first time I encountered one I had no idea what to do. This is important, and no matter what comes out of the cabinet I will not judge you for it. It won’t be worse than any of my boggarts have been.”
Draco keeps his arms crossed, staring at Regulus defiantly for a minute before rolling his eyes and taking his wand out.
“Remember, you need to think of something funny, concentrate, and don’t let it scare you. I’m right here to step in if you need it, there’s nothing to fear,” Regulus assures him, smiling, “I know you can do it, dear.”
Draco looks between Regulus and the cabinet nervously before stepping up to it, the door of the cabinet flying open. Standing inside is Lucius, storming out of the cabinet with Narcissa standing behind him, crying.
“Draco Lucius Malfoy! How could you have disgraced the family like this? Our only child, unable to even cast a simple dark charm, this is ridiculous,” He yells at his son, Draco standing there completely stunned as he just lets the boggart yell at him, “Do you know what you’ve done to us? Your mother and can never be respected again, and it’s all because you couldn’t have just grown up and-”
Regulus can’t take it anymore, the horrible rhetoric reminding him so clearly of the way he was treated when he was younger. He steps in front of Draco, the boggart swirling into an unidentifiable blob for a moment before forming into Cynthia, looking at him with pure anger in her eyes.
“You’re no different than them, you’re just like your mother-” She starts to spew at him, Regulus flicking his wand and not even needing to mutter the incantation for her to change into a strange, colorful clown outfit, her giggle momentarily filling the room before Regulus casts the boggart back into the closet, turning around to see Draco cowering behind him, tears running down his face.
“You’re alright, it’s not real, my dear,” Regulus assures him, holding out his arms for a hug. Draco walks right into it, clinging onto Regulus and crying. Regulus lightly rubs his back, trying to process what he just saw. Draco’s parents are not treating him well at all, putting the same, horribly crushing pressure on him that Regulus was under. It must be a very genuine fear, too, because Draco was completely unable to register that it wasn’t real and just froze. Weird, since his normal reaction is flight, so this must have terrified him.
“I can’t do it again, I can’t try again,” Draco brokenly tells him.
“You don’t have to, I’ll tell Professor Lupin you cast it and you don’t need to worry about it. It’ll be ok,” Regulus assures him, “But, my dear, can I ask you something about what happened?”
“Mhm,” Draco hums, stepping back and wiping his eyes, “Nothing you can ask me you haven’t seen.”
“Is that happening a lot at home?” Regulus asks, “Are your parents saying that often?”
“You know the fucking answer,” Draco angrily answers, “Of course they are.”
Regulus sighs, looking at Draco sadly, “I’m sorry, dear.”
“It’s fine, I can handle it,” Draco dismisses him.
“You don’t need to do it alone, I’ve told you before, I’ve been where you are and I’m always here to listen about anything,” Regulus emphasizes.
“Well, you got through it and you turned out fine, I don’t need any help,” Draco crosses his arms, “You were fine, I’ll live, I’ll be fine.”
“But you don’t need to do that alone,” Regulus reminds him, “If there’s one thing I wished I had at your age it was someone to talk to, and especially because you don’t have a sibling to share anything with like I did, I want you to remember that I’m here to talk to, even if I can’t fix things.”
Draco looks down at his feet, kicking them a moment before just saying, “Ok.”
Regulus smiles, thrilled to have finally gotten him to say ok to that offer. He never has before, the moment filling Regulus with relief that he finally got to him. The two stand in silence for a moment before Draco mutters to him.
“Can I go?” He asks.
“You never need to ask, dear,” Regulus reminds him, “I’ll see you in class, Draco, have a good evening. Come and see me if you ever need anything.”
“You too,” Draco replies, walking out of the room. Once the door shuts, pure anger washes over Regulus. He has to take a moment to breathe before he can even think about getting Remus, so filled with resentment for Narcissa that he can’t even think straight. He thought they did it, he thought maybe all of that parental pressure and pureblood culture in Draco was his father, that Narcissa played no role in it and his generation of Black family children finally broke the cycle. But there she was, a part of Draco’s biggest fear, crying at him. She’s just like her mother, ruining all the work that Regulus and Sirius and Andromeda and even Bellatrix did not to create another generation of kids fearful of their parents. If she couldn’t have changed, she shouldn’t have ever had a kid.
Regulus finally collects himself enough to turn around and go up the stairs, knocking on the door to Remus’ office. It opens a moment later, Remus sitting at his desk with some paper, looking at Regulus confused.
“Why are you furious?” Remus asks, gesturing at the chair in front of his desk and chuckling, “You’re just like your brother, you turn bright red when you’re mad.”
“That’s the worst thing you could have ever said to me,” Regulus says as he shuts the door and sits down in the chair.
“Sorry, it’s just true,” Remus laughs, “But what happened? Why are you so angry?”
“We got so close, Remus, between the 5 of us we got so close to breaking the generational abuse and guess who drops the ball,” Regulus complains to him.
“Narcissa?”
“Of course it’s her, she’s so delusional, just like her fucking mother,” Regulus huffs, “Told us her whole life that she wasn’t like our family and was going to stop believing it just like Sirius and Andromeda and I did but she’s abusing her son. She thinks she’s so nice and progressive when she’s doing just what our whole family did, putting the pressure of the world on a 13-year-old boy. She doesn’t remember what that did to Sirius and me? She doesn’t remember anything that happened as kids? Is she stupid?”
“Haven’t you known this was happening?” Remus asks, “Sirius was telling me how you talked about Draco acting just like someone who was being raised with that pureblood culture around him, and I agree. He’s a mini-Sirius right now.”
“No kidding, it was even worse First Year, I’ve been working on it since I met him,” Regulus agrees, “But I thought it was just his father, I never liked Lucius and I knew that he was going to be a disgusting father from the day that he walked into my house and got along with my mother. But Narcissa? She’s not just letting it happen, she’s participating in it? God, that is infuriating.”
“Are you going to talk to Sirius about it?” Remus asks, “He’d probably be just as angry, if not angrier.”
“Yeah, but Andromeda is really going to be angry, I’ll have to talk to her about it if I want someone to understand how bad it is because Sirius never liked Narcissa,” Regulus tells him.
“Mmm, yeah, if there’s something the three of you like to do it’s gossip,” Remus comments.
“You’re one to talk, Remus, you and I have done it over dinner every day this week,” Regulus laughs, “You’re just as guilty.”
“Alright, fair, but that’s entirely Sirius’ fault, I was never a gossiper before him,” Remus counters, “But, the important question, did Draco counter it? The boggart, did he do the charm successfully?”
Regulus hesitates a minute before deciding that Remus will more than understand, “No, but I promised him I would tell you he did. You can’t fail him, Remus, that was horrible.”
“I’d be a hypocrite if I did, it took me years to finally master countering mine,” Remus nods, “I’m going to be honest, I don’t plan on failing anyone who tries on this assignment, even if they don’t cast it successfully. It feels very unfair when some of these fears are very real.”
“Whose have you seen already?” Regulus asks.
“About half of that class went today, not too many bad ones- Harry’s, oh shit, I didn’t tell Lily and James about Harry’s,” Remus remembers.
“What was his?” Regulus questions, a million possibilities flying through his head.
Remus sighs before beginning, Regulus knowing whatever it is it’s going to be a good story.
“So you would think that…”
***
Regulus sighs as he looks back over the 4th time Draco has revised the same test, Regulus staring at the same, strange guesses he’s been putting down every time. Regulus has continuously told him what to look for in the book for help, when he can come to talk to Regulus, what other students he can go to for help if he doesn’t want to sit with Regulus and learn it. He’s given him countless resources but yet Draco still is just guessing for every problem. Regulus doesn’t correct any of his work, writing on the top corner ‘Come chat with me after class’ before placing it on his pile of make-up tests to hand out. He gets up and walks around, handing out corrected tests that are largely perfect scores after the third correct, though he still hands them all out upside down. Regulus doesn’t show any different behavior when he hands Draco his, trying not to indicate to the entire class anything. He returns to his desk when he finishes, Regulus continuing to do grading for his next class.
When the bell rings to release for class, Regulus gives his goodbyes to the students to say it to him, having to wait until everyone is out of the room for Draco to walk up to his desk. Draco doesn’t say anything, visibly very nervously standing in front of him.
“Sit please, dear, and take out the test I handed you,” Regulus encourages, Draco sitting in the chair he has pulled up to the front of his desk from class today, putting the test down in front of him. “You know that I always allow revisions, as many as you need to, but this is the 4th time you’ve turned in this test and they all haven’t had any work on them. I want to be here to help you if you don’t understand, but I can’t try to see what you’re getting tripped up on if you don’t write anything down for me. Do you have a class right now, dear?”
Draco shakes his head.
“Alright, would you mind doing this first problem here for me?” Regulus asks, pointing to the first question on the test, to which Draco just wrote a number. Regulus hands him a pencil to do it with, too.
Draco twirls the pencil in his hands for a minute before throwing it down on the table, sitting back and crossing his arms. “I don’t fucking know, this makes no sense, you never taught us any of this. It’s all stupid predictions and charts, maybe if you were a better teacher I could do it. I shouldn’t have taken this class, my parents were right, you’re not teaching me anything.”
Regulus knows that Draco is just lashing out because he can’t understand, Regulus calmly replying, “Calm down, please, take a deep breath. We’ve gone over this plenty of times in class and I’ve given you lots of supplements and resources to work on this particular unit and you haven’t taken them, dear. I understand you’re struggling with it but you need to reach out, dear, I can’t read your mind about what you’re struggling with.”
Draco just keeps yelling, “None of this shit-”
“Excuse me,” Regulus firmly stops him, “Watch your language, please, and there’s no need to yell. You need to calm down before we can continue working on this, alright?”
Draco huffs, looking away from Regulus and not answering. Regulus gives him a minute to collect himself before he presses any further.
“Are you ready to try this problem again?” Regulus asks, Draco shrugging and continuing to look away from him.
“Sure, fine,” Draco dismisses him.
“Alright, do me a favor and underline all the important information,” Regulus requests, “We talked about this at the very beginning of the year. What types of things do you think will be important here?”
Draco shrugs, not looking over.
“I can’t do it for you, my dear, you need to work with me,” Regulus calmly reminds him, “What information looks important here?”
Draco looks back at Regulus, looking down at the paper again before shrugging, “I don’t know.”
“Do the names seem important?” Regulus asks, Draco shaking his head, “Does the day of the year seem important?” Draco nods. “Great, that’s right, underline that for me please.”
Draco draws a line under the date in the problem, Regulus smiling at him.
“Good, now what about how many people there are?” Regulus asks, Draco shrugging. “What do you think?”
“I don’t know, I don’t get it,” Draco shakes his head, “None of this makes sense to me, I don’t know how it works.”
“Ok, let’s try something else,” Regulus nods, going into his drawer, taking out a blank piece of paper and rewriting the first problem on the test. He takes the test and flips to the back page, where the four charts, two on letter-based numerology, one on destiny numbers, and one on dates and values. He walks around the table and pulls up another chair to sit next to Draco so he can explain it next to him rather than in front of him. He points at each part of the problem as he describes it, “So, the first step is to identify what the problem is asking,” He underlines the question, “It wants to know what Ara and Atlas’ Agrippian relationship destiny number would be, right?”
“Mhm,” He nods, still leaning back but looking at the paper nonetheless.
“Ok, so that’s step one,” Regulus writes it down under the problem, “There’s step one. Now step two, let’s look at what’s important,” He writes that down too before looking up at Draco, “There are two important pieces to this problem, what do you think they are?”
“The date,” Draco mutters, Regulus nodding.
“Mhm,” He underlines the date, “What is the other thing? Look at the charts, what other thing would we use to make a destiny number prediction? What are some of those numbers set equal to?”
Draco leans forward looking at the charts and then the problem before looking at Regulus and almost fearfully suggesting, “Names?”
“That’s exactly right, excellent,” Regulus smiles, underlining the names, “The charts are always going to help you, I will never give you a chart that you won’t need. Now, we know what information we need and why we need it, so now let’s look a bit closer. What kind of number does this problem want?”
“Relationship destiny number,” Draco tells him, more confident this time.
“Exactly, do you remember what a destiny number is?” Regulus asks, “It’s alright if you don’t.”
“Uh, it’s, uh,” Draco struggles for a minute, “Number from someone’s name.”
“That’s right, it’s the number that comes out of someone’s name,” Regulus nods, “What part of the name makes the numbers?”
“The letters,” Draco answers.
“Yes! Wonderful, the letters,” Regulus takes the test paper and flips it to the first page, writing out both of the names and spacing them out enough and writing lines under each of the letters. He pulls off the last page of the test so Draco can look at the charts. “Can you match each letter of the names to the chart?”
“Which one?” Draco asks, “There’s two.”
“Mhm, there is, let’s look at the problem-”
“Agrippa,” Draco finishes, beginning to work on what Regulus asked him. Regulus just smiles, seeing the confusion and tension begin to disappear from Draco’s demeanor. Regulus jots down this step on the blank paper he’s been adding to and Draco looks up when he finishes, Regulus just needing to glance it over to see it’s right.
“Perfect, great job. Now, it’s alright if you don’t remember, but what do you do for a destiny number?” Regulus asks, the tension returning to Draco’s face. He shakes his head. “That’s alright, dear, a destiny number wants you to add it.”
“But aren’t there other ones?” Draco asks, “Where you don’t?”
“Yes, there are, and you can tell because of this,” Regulus underlines the space between relationship and destiny in the question. “Adding is what is called the base function for this,” Regulus circles ‘destiny number’, “Prediction because it is alphanumeric, which means it works with letters and numbers,” He writes down the word on the paper he’s writing the steps on. He underlines ‘alpha’, “Alpha like the alphabet and,” He underlines ‘numeric’, “Numeric like numbers. That’s how you remember.”
“Mhm,” Draco nods.
“So if it doesn’t want us to add, we will see words like,” He jots down the words and the functions as he lists them off, “Deductive, when you subtract, multiplicative, when you multiply, fractionate, when you divide, and pure, when all numbers are in a big number representing the name, you just put them in order. Does that make sense?”
“Yes,” Draco nods, looking at the problem for a minute before leaning forward and starting to write under the problem, Regulus just smiling at him. It clicked, whatever didn’t make sense clicked but Draco is too proud to admit anything out loud, so this is his way of telling Regulus he understands it now. Draco has a tendency to run away from things he doesn’t like, and Regulus has a feeling that this subject just got lumped in with that. He was writing random answers to run from not knowing it, so Regulus is glad he gets to help.
When he finishes, Draco sits back, pushing the paper over to Regulus. Regulus reads it and just beams, all of the work being completely correct.
“Perfect, dear, this is all correct, wonderful job,” Regulus praises him, not missing the way Draco’s eyes light up at the simple praise, “Do you want to do the next one?”
Draco nods, looking at the problem a minute before looking at Regulus, hesitating before timidly asking, “Can you walk me through it?”
“Of course,” Regulus smiles and nods, beginning to talk him through the problem just like the last one. Draco has made huge strides this year, and it’s only the beginning. There’s hope, Regulus thinks, of preventing him from going through what Regulus and Sirius had to. There’s hope he can have a support system who understands him, break out of the bad, fear-driven habits when he’s young, and learn he is lovable. Regulus can keep him away from all that dark magic, he knows he can.
And no matter what happens, he’s not giving up on him. Not by a long shot.
***
Music blasts throughout Regulus’ classroom. Regulus’ entire immediate family is somehow at Hogwarts. Remus works here, Cynthia always comes with him between Winter and April Break, Sirius is here on patrol, James is here to help Remus out with the full moon, and Lily is here just for fun. It’s nice to have everyone here with him, Regulus thoroughly enjoying the company.
Regulus is sitting on his desk, Cynthia in a chair to his right. Remus and Sirius are both sitting on desks pulled up next to one another, Sirius with one knee up and Remus with his legs stretched out in front of him on another two desks he’s attached to the one he’s sitting on. James and Lily went to Remus’ room for something, but they should be back soon.
Regulus looks up from where he’s chatting with Cynthia when he hears the door open, flicking a hand in the direction of the radio to turn it down to a volume suitable to talk over. He sees Draco peek his head in, and Regulus quickly assures him before he runs away.
“Come in, dear, sorry, lots of people in here but you’re not interrupting anything,” Regulus tells him, Draco hesitantly walking into the room, He has a piece of paper in his hands, looking down at the ground as he walks up to Regulus, only looking up when he reaches him. He hands Regulus the paper, not saying anything. Regulus sees it’s the extra problems from the book Regulus asked him to do after he met with him last week about not understanding what they were learning, Regulus smiling at him. “Thank you, let me look at these right now, alright? So I can get them back to you now with a couple of days before the test.”
Draco nods, Regulus walking around the desk and sitting down in his chair, beginning to grade the work. Draco just stands there awkwardly, although Regulus knows that’s not going to last long.
“Oh my God, wait, you’re Draco aren’t you?” Sirius questions, Regulus biting his tongue to tell him to stop. He does look up, though, seeing Draco turn to him.
“Yeah,” Draco nods.
“It’s nice to finally meet you, kid, long time of just hearing about you and never actually seeing you,” Sirius comments, Draco just maintaining his stare. “That death stare is your mother’s, you’re just like me, kid.”
“Sirius, you just met him, God,” Regulus stops him, “Couldn’t be a little nicer?”
“I’m not being mean, I’m just marveling at how right you’ve been in telling me he’s just like I was, same stare and everything,” Sirius corrects him, looking back at Draco, “It’s not a bad thing, kid, don’t worry about it. I’ve just heard quite a bit about you, great to see you’re actually real.”
“Heard about me?” Draco questions, “From who?”
“Some of Reg-”
“Sirius,” Regulus threatens, not looking up from what he’s grading.
“Professor Black, my bad, but some from him, a lot from Harry though. He loves to talk about you,” Sirius tells him, Regulus not even having to look up to know Draco is probably beet red right now.
“Harry talks about me?” Draco almost eagerly asks, Regulus looking up to confirm his suspicion. Draco is, in fact, very red, and the smile on Sirius’ face tells Regulus he knows what’s going on.
“Yeah, practically every time I see him on break he’s got some crazy tale about you. It’s not normally bad, you two just butt heads, trust me, I was the same way when I was your age,” Sirius tells him, “You’ll get along one day, the two of you are very similar from what Harry has told me.”
Draco crosses his arms, although the motion is very flustered. Sirius smirks, continuing.
“You know, when I was in school, there was this boy-”
“Ok, no more, stop it,” Regulus cuts him off, “No story with that sentence starter ever ends well.”
“Hey! I’m just giving him some personal experience, I see nothing wrong with that,” Sirius argues, Regulus just giving him a deadpan stare, “Ok, maybe that was a little explicit, I won’t mention it.”
“I’m sorry about Sirius, he’s a little too friendly,” Remus apologizes, giving Sirius a death glare. Sirius just laughs, all of them looking over when the door opens and James and Lily walk back in.
“Oh, you have a student here, Reg, do you want us to go?” James offers.
“No, it’s fine, come in, I want you to meet him anyway,” Regulus says, James and Lily walking into the room more, “This is Draco.”
“Oh my God, you’re Draco! It’s great to meet you,” James greets, “I’m James and this is Lily, we’re Harry’s parents.”
“It’s nice to meet you, Harry talks about you all the time, finally good to put a face to the name,” Lily greets him, Regulus watching Draco flush even harder. James, who has no self-control, leans around to look at Regulus wide-eyed, Regulus giving him an ‘I told you so’ look back.
“He does?” Draco asks, “About what? Why?”
“Nothing bad, at least not terribly,” Lily assures him, walking over to lean against a desk, “Just about how the two of you argue a lot, although the way he describes it seems very mutual. Harry has a tendency to be a little bit short-tempered sometimes, so I wouldn’t doubt he likes to argue and yell. He doesn’t talk bad about you otherwise, though, and Professor Black has told us good things to supplement Harry’s unreliable storytelling, no need to worry.”
“Oh, uh, ok,” Draco nods, looking to Regulus almost for help. Regulus is sure he’s very uncomfortable, so Regulus gestures for him to come over to the table.
Cynthia gets up, “You can sit here, Draco.”
“Thanks,” He awkwardly mutters, taking her seat as Cynthia goes over to talk to Lily, James listening in. Regulus shifts Draco’s focus to the work he did, beginning to explain where he went wrong and methods on how to remember certain processes and fix mistakes. Draco nods but doesn’t really say anything, Regulus getting all the way to the last question before someone else comes into the room, this time the new guest being Harry, wearing his Quidditch clothes.
“Hey kid,” Sirius greets first, catching James, Lily, and Cynthia’s attention. Draco also looks back, Regulus sure that this is going to end horribly.
“Hey Harry, how are you?” James greets, Harry walking up to him as James gives him a hug, “How was your day?”
“Long,” Harry sighs, “I’m tired.”
“Did you practice all day today?” James asks, “You’re all dirty, too, whatever you did it must’ve been good.”
“Mhm, I really want to win my first match back, I’ve been very out of practice, Dad. I fell a few times, though,” Harry tells him, looking up while still wrapped in James’ arms, “Are you and Mum coming?”
“To the match?” James asks, Harry humming in affirmation. “Of course we are, buddy, you know I can’t pass up on a Quidditch match.”
Harry laughs, “Except last year, you passed on last year.”
“I wasn’t allowed to come last year, bud, that’s not passing,” James argues, Harry laughing again. “If you want to talk about passing, look at Uncle Sirius.”
Harry looks back at him, still wrapped in his dad’s arms. “You never come, Uncle Sirius, Dad is right.”
“I’m busy protecting you kid, but I’ll be there this time, I promise,” Sirius assures him. Harry smiles at him, looking over at Regulus next.
“Are you coming, Uncle Reg?” Harry asks.
“Of course, bud, I’m always there,” Regulus answers.
“And you, Uncle Remus?” Harry asks again, cheesily smiling at him.
“Yes, I’m coming,” Remus laughs, “You’re funny, Harry.”
Harry just laughs, leaning against his dad. James ruffles his hair, leaning down and giving him a kiss on the head. Draco apparently has had enough of it and grabs the paper off Regulus’ desk, barely muttering anything to him.
“I’ll talk to you tomorrow,” He tells Regulus, barely audible, before walking out of the room and shutting the door behind himself. Regulus sighs, knowing that that interaction was going to end in Draco just being very jealous.
“What’s his problem?” Harry questions, furrowing his brow.
“Hey, that’s not nice, don’t talk about people like that,” James scolds, “Try a different way.”
“Why did he storm out of here?” Harry questions again, this time a little more deadpan. James just keeps staring, Harry sighing and askign again, “Why did he leave?”
“Thank you, Harry,” James says to him, but he just looks to Regulus for the answer.
“We were just finished,” Regulus lies without missing a beat, shrugging, “He just came to show me something for class, nothing big.”
“Mmm, ok Uncle Reg, whatever you say,” Harry dismisses him, Regulus just shaking his head. He makes eye contact with Sirius, both of them sharing the mutual look of knowing Regulus was lying. Sirius could probably have told from across the room that Draco was jealous, especially after Regulus had told him what’s been going on at home with Draco. Sirius breaks the stare when Remus starts talking to him, the two whispering something. Regulus walks around to sit back down on the desk, Cynthia walking up to stand next to him, looking over and smiling.
“He trusts you a lot, looked right at you for help” She whispers, “Have I ever told you you’re a very good teacher?”
“Mmm, I don’t know, maybe I am,” Regulus shrugs, Cynthia chuckling and giving Regulus a kiss.
“You are, and I’m sure he appreciates it, having someone like you to talk to,” Cynthia answers.
“Yeah, only if I could get him not to run away when he feels anything negative,” Regulus sighs, “Task for another day, I guess.”
“You’ll get there,” She assures him, “Certainly didn’t take you overnight, it’ll take time with him too.”
“Mhm, I’m working on it,” Regulus nods, “He’s better than he used to be, at least he came to me for help. Huge improvement from when he almost failed Astronomy First Year because he refused to just let me help him.”
“Bit by bit,” She says, “This was just probably very overwhelming.”
“Oh, I’m sure it was, especially Sirius,” Regulus agrees, “It’s good, though, I’m trying to subtly condition him to do what I did.”
“Run away? Really?” She asks, almost shocked.
“Yeah, best choice I’ve ever made, and I’m afraid because he’s an only child there are just no options for him. He doesn’t like it at home, he’s scared of it, he’s jealous of this, so why not offer it?”
“Have you?” She questions, Regulus shaking his head.
“Not yet, it hasn’t been the time,” Regulus answers, “One day it’ll feel right and I’ll plant that seed, but not now.”
“I trust you, you’ve lived it,” She nods, “Passing down the tradition.”
“One hell of a tradition to pass down,” Regulus chuckles, Cynthia laughing.
“You’re making Mrs. Potter proud, though.”
Regulus smiles, “And that’s all I want.”
***
Regulus has been very worried about Draco since he saw Harry and his parents. He hasn’t been coming to Regulus for anything, and on the most recent test he completed a good portion of the questions had random numbers with no work again. Regulus knew exactly what that meant but decided not to comment on it until after he turned in his second revision, which, to no surprise, he did the same thing on.
Draco walks up to his desk after the bell rings, not saying anything and just holding out the test.
“Come sit, dear,” Regulus encourages, Draco taking a seat in the chair in front of Regulus’ desk, “A lot of this test is completely correct, I know you know the first three-quarters of the unit very well, but there is a handful of questions you keep answering with no work. If you don’t understand it I need you to come to me, not just settle for putting something down and not justifying it. We can work on it now, but I want to break that habit, dear, I’m always available.”
“Mm,” Draco just hums, clearly not listening.
“Do you want to work on it now?” Regulus asks.
“Sure,” Draco mutters, “Whatever.”
Regulus looks at him skeptically for a moment before asking, “Dear, is there something wrong? Do you want to talk about it?”
“There’s nothing wrong, Professor, everything is fine. I can do this by myself and I don’t need to ask you anything,” He annoyedly answers, Regulus really confused by this strangely defensive reaction from him.
“I know you can do this by yourself but it’ll be easier with help,” Regulus reasons, “You’ve come for help quite a bit about lots of things and I think it’s been very beneficial, right?”
“Mm,” Draco hums, Regulus just accepting that as a yes.
“So I don’t want you to stop that, ok? If you’re worried about something then you’re always welcome to talk to me, too, I want to help you as a student and a person,” Regulus reminds him, “I enjoy talking to you, dear, about anything. It’s not taxing or a burden, or anything.”
Draco crosses his arms and looks away from Regulus, muttering, “You have other people.”
“I do, especially this year I have lots of people who are in and out of here all the time, but I can have you too, dear,” Regulus tells him, “There’s not a finite number of spaces in my life, especially not when it comes to family.”
“We’re not family,” He counters.
“Why?” Regulus questions, “Why are we not family?”
“You have a family,” Draco tells him, “I’m not in it, that’s fine, I don’t need you anyway.”
Regulus contemplates his answer for a minute, trying to assess if this is the right time to offer him a spot in that family, but it doesn’t feel right. This isn’t the time, this is just a time for Regulus to assure him that he’s here for Draco, not a time to encourage him to run away. “I do have a family, and you’re in it, Draco. We’re family, we weren’t close for a lot of your life but now we have the opportunity to be, and I’m allowing you to make that choice, but I don’t want it to be influenced by the family that you met the other day. Not only that, dear, but they all loved to meet you. Sirius has been asking me when you’ll be in my room so he can talk to you again. Your Aunt Andromeda has never met you, dear, and she still loves to hear all about you. There is no divider, you’re just as much a part of Sirius and I’s side of the family as you are your own.”
Draco rubs the back of his neck, Regulus suppressing a chuckle at the nervous habit Draco definitely picked up from Harry. After a minute, Draco looks up at him, mumbling, “We’re not the same.”
“We’re not,” Regulus affirms, “But we are still family, and nothing is going to change-”
Regulus is cut off by the door flying open, looking up to see Sirius standing in the door, Regulus rolling his eyes at Sirius’ cheeky smile.
“Can you sense when I’m busy?” Regulus questions.
“No, but I can smell a cousin from anywhere,” Sirius walks into the room, grabbing a chair and pulling it up next to Draco, sitting on it backward, “Hey Draco! How are you doing?”
“Uh, alright,” Draco replies, giving Sirius the same annoyed look he gives everyone else at school. Sirius laughs.
“You got a sour face, kid, that comes straight from your mother,” Sirius tells him, “She used to stare daggers at me when I was a kid, well, I was shoving Reg around but whatever.”
Draco maintains his stare, “Why are you talking to me?”
“Because I want to! You’re my cousin, kid, of course I want to talk to you,” Sirius replies, “Why aren’t you talking to me?”
“I don’t want to,” Draco weakly counters.
“Yeah right you don’t,” Sirius dismisses him, “I know you do, more interesting than whatever Reg is trying to teach you,” He pushes the test away from the two of them towards Regulus. “I’m not going anywhere, so either you talk to me or listen to me talk to myself, but I’d much rather you talk to me.”
“What is there to talk about?” Draco clips back.
“Everything, I know nothing about you and I want to know everything, so start spilling,” Sirius encourages, Draco looking over at Regulus.
“Sorry, dear, Sirius can be a little much sometimes,” Regulus gives him a death glare, Sirius laughing.
“Hey, I know how to talk to myself,” Sirius argues, looking back to Draco, “And you are just like me, you don’t even understand. When I was your age I stared at Professor Binns so hard he gave me detention. Well, I also told him to fuck off that day, too, so maybe that was part of it.”
Regulus sighs, Draco clearly suppressing a laugh. Sirius notices although he doesn’t show it other than the very subtle change in his expression.
“I wasn’t nearly as smart as you are, though, kid,” Sirius picks up the paper on the table, “Sorry that you have to do all of this, my brother teaches the most boring subject in the world.”
“You never took it, Sirius,” Regulus argues.
“Didn’t fucking have to, the description was boring,” Sirius counters, “I took Muggle Studies instead, now that was interesting. Did I get beat to all hell for taking it? Absolutely. Was it worth it? Definitely. What do you take, kid? What are your other two specials?”
“Care of Magical Creatures and Divination,” Draco replies, Sirius nodding.
“You still have time to take Muggle Studies, you could drop this stupid subject,” Sirius proposes, tossing the paper back onto the table.
Draco shakes his head, though he doesn’t explain further.
“Ah, fuck them if they tell you if you’re not allowed,” Sirius pats him on the shoulder, “Once you start rebelling, kid, things are so much better. I used to do things just to piss my mum off. One time I hung up a whole bunch of pictures of girls in bikinis in my room, I’m gay! I don’t even like women, but it made her so angry, that was hilarious. And you know what? She never suspected that I was going to school and sticking my tongue down a boy’s throat-”
“Sirius, Jesus Christ,” Regulus stops him, “He’s 13.”
“And I was 13 when I did that, and trust me, Draco, I was putting much worse things in much worse places at your age,” Sirius says, Draco letting out a small laugh. Sirius beams, clearly very excited he got him to laugh, “I can’t help with school like Reg, but if you ever have boy troubles, I’m the one to come to. I’ve caused quite a number in my day, Remus and I had a very rocky relationship when we were younger. It worked out, though, so I’ve got the knowledge to bestow upon you. Don’t ask me about girls, though, I know nothing about them. The closest I ever got to kissing one was the time I accidentally ran into Lily in the corridor trying to run away after Remus and I had an argument about my mum. And it wasn’t pleasant, I felt gross for days. Nothing against Lily, though, she’s wonderful, just not for me. Boys, though, I have you covered.”
Draco smiles at him, flushing a bit. Sirius doesn’t press, though, Regulus figuring he picked apart Draco’s subtle reaction and already knows everything he needs to. Sirius gets distracted, though, when something vibrates, Sirius taking what looks like a small enchanted scroll out of his pocket. He opens it, groaning before getting up.
“Fucking Dumbledore, why did I agree to work for that fossil a second time? I’m patrolling the empty part of the dungeons now, why? There’s nothing down there.” Sirius huffs, “Whatever, keeps me busy, I guess. Do you wanna come, Draco? I’ve told you an awful lot about me but you’ve told me nothing about you.”
Draco looks over at Regulus, almost for permission, Regulus just smiling. “Go ahead, dear, we can do this later,” He assures him, Draco nodding.
“Ok, I’ll go,” He tells Sirius, Sirius laughing and ruffling Draco’s hair. Draco lights up, beaming back at Sirius. Sirius just smiles, looking back and winking at Regulus as they walk out. Regulus just smiles at him, not surprised that Sirius picked right up on what was making Draco upset. He just wants what Harry has, a loving, caring family who just wants him to be happy. Regulus is more than happy to give that to him, but that only means so much. Coming from Sirius too, though, Regulus hopes this is laying a good foundation for Draco.
So he can remember there are always people out there rooting for him.