Kintsugi

After Regulus left his brothers room he found his niece crying by the door. He couldn’t hear her though, but it looked like she was crying. He kneeled down on the floor next to her and asked, “Ophelia? Are you alright?”

Ophelia discreetly undid the silencing charm, “Yeah, I’m okay.”

“Really?” Regulus sat down next to her, “Because sobbing to the point you felt that you needed to put up a silencing charm is not really the definition of okay. Yeah you aren’t slick.”

“Yeah I know, I need to work on that.” Ophelia admitted.

Regulus rolled his eyes, “That's what you took away from that. Come on, lets go back to my place and we can talk.”

“It’s Alex!” Ophelia blurted out before they could move, “I did a very very bad thing to Alex and you need to go to him because, uh-”

“It's okay love, you can tell me.” Regulus encouraged.

“I don’t think Alex is safe.” Ophelia said quietly.

Regulus sucked in a breath, internally panicking, “Okay, how about we take a walk down to Lily’s classroom and we can see if he’s there.If he isn’t we can send James and Lily to go find him. Then you and I can have some tea and talk. Does that sound like a good plan?”

Ophelia nodded, “Mhm.”

“Alright.” Regulus stuck his hand out to his niece. “Shall we?”
…

Once Sirius had fallen asleep Remus quickly slipped away from him and took a walk outside on the grounds of the castle to clear his mind. When that didn’t help he walked around inside the castle until he wound up in Hogwarts music room. He opened the door and lo and behold he found his classmate and friend Dorcas. She was playing a piece on the piano that Remus didn’t recognize. He sat down beside her and quietly listened. It wasn’t until she had finished the piece that Remus had let her know that he was there. “That was pretty, where is it from?”

“Wrote it myself,” Dorcas smiled once she realised who was sitting next to her, “So what brings you to Hogwarts’ music room?”

“Long night,” Remus sighed, “You?”

“Anniversary gift.” Dorcas said.

Remus’ jaw dropped, “Really. Marlene’s gonna love it.”

“Thanks.” Dorcas directed the conversation back to Remus, “So what happened.”

Remus opened his mouth to reply multiple times before giving up, “Man, fuck Dumbledore.”

“You can say that again!” Dorcas stood up and offered a hand to Remus, “I think this conversation needs a drink and a walk.”

Remus chuckled and the pair walked to Marlene and Dorcas’ quarters so that the pair could have a drink. She opened a big bottle of butterbeer and poured the two of them a glass. “So what's going on Rem?”

Remus sighed and began to relay all the events of the day to her. His explanation of the day merited another glass of butterbeer. “And, it's like I wish the old hag never involved us in this war!” Remus stood up, “We were children! Literally children. And we could have lost so much and there was so much hurt and to think about any other alternatives its just like-” Remus sat back down and continued after taking another long sip of his drink. “It wasn’t our war to fight in. So why us? Who happened to just curse our generation?”

Dorcas sighed. She has had her fair share of war trauma, between her and Marlene both having had a bounty over their heads because of literally nothing, she was not a stranger to the horrors of this war, both in the past and in the present day. “Remus,”

“Yes?” Remus whipped his head around.

“It isn’t your fault.” Dorcas said, “You never hurt your husband, that was all dumbledores and ol’ voldys doing but you. You never caused any harm to him.”

Remus had tears in his eyes. All day he felt like he had owed it to his family. To try to pull them together when they were falling apart, to be everyone's rock. He wrapped his arms around Dorcas in a big hug, “Thank you, Dora. Guess I needed to hear that.”

“ ‘Course Rem.” She smiled, “Come, I’ll walk you home.”
…
Alex for the 2nd time today found himself bolting. After what felt like no time at all (But in reality was most likely 5 minutes) Alex realised that she wasn’t going anywhere. He stopped in a random hallway in the dungeons before catching his breath and taking a slower walk until he arrived in his Aunt Lily’s office. He knocked on the door which was followed by a “come in” Alex quickly let himself in. “Hi, I was uh- I was wondering if I could do something with you? Y’know keep my hands busy.”

Lily looked up from what she was crocheting and saw the state her nephew was in and quickly summoned a chair for him to sit in, “Of course darling. I was just working on this. Would you mind helping me with it?”

“I, um, I don't know how to crochet Auntie Lily.” Alex admitted.

Lily smiled and scooted her chair closer to the boy, “I’ll teach you. This is quite simply your just grabbing the yarn here and pulling it through. And thats it. You think you can do that?”

Alex took the hook and yarn from his aunt. It took him a moment to get it but soon he understood and was quietly crocheting. Lily turned around and pulled out a stack of papers, “Well I need to grade these so if you could work on that for me it would be a massive help.”

“Yeah no problem.” Alex smiled, happy to help. The pair worked silently for ten minutes before Regulus and Ophelia walked in the room. Alex noticed the two walk in the room but didn’t say anything, so Lily who had no idea that anyone had even entered was a touch startled at the back hug she received from Regulus.

“Hi darling.” Lily smiled.

“You two alright?” Regulus asked.

“Great.” Lily replied. “Sirius alright?”

“Yeah,” Regulus backed away, “Okay, we’re going to go have some tea.”

“Alright love bye.” Lily called from over her shoulder. Lily went back to her work and didn’t notice the shaking boy until she heard a change in his breathing pattern. Lily who knew this all too well with James quickly whipped around. She grabbed her nephews hands, “Hey darling. You’re alright. Lets take some deep breaths together.” Lily helped Alex stabilise his breathing before asking, “Love, would you like to talk about it. If you don’t want to talk me I completely understand. Your Dad perhaps?”

Alex thought for a moment before replying, “Yeah, yeah, I wanna go to my dads.”

“Alright darling, you can use the floo.” Lily said quickly ushering him into the fire.

Once Alex had gotten home he went to the kitchen to find Sirius heating up some milk for hot chocolate. Immediately he noticed that his son seemed off, “Hey pup, are you alright?”

Alex shook his head and Sirius shut off the stove, “Okay, thanks for being honest. Can I get Dad for you?”

Alex shook his head again, “No, I want you.” Internally Sirius felt his heart melt. Externally Sirius grabbed his son's hands, “Okay, how about we sit down in the living room and we can talk this through?”

Sirius and Alex walked to the living room together and sat down. Sirius sat across from his soon. There was silence for a moment before Sirius asked, “What happened Pup?”

Alex looked at his dad for a moment feeling his body freeze up before he felt the tears he had been fighting all day make their way to the surface. Sirius noticed Alex still actively fighting to stop the tears coming from his eyes. He ran a soft hand through his son's hair before whispering, “It’s alright love. You can cry.”

And that's what broke Alex. He threw himself at Sirius sobbing uncontrollably. Sirius wrapped his arms around Alex and was slightly rocking them back and forth whispering assurances of “It's okays” and “I love yous” into his ear. After ten minutes Remus came out of their bedroom to find out what was taking Sirius so long. He was surprised to find a cold pot of milk on the stove and an open container of cocoa powder on the counter. He then heard something that sounded like it was coming from the living room so Remus went to investigate with a cautious hand reaching into his pocket for his wand. He walked to the living room and was quite surprised to find Sirius holding Alex who was sobbing into his chest. Remus shot a glance that said, “What's going on?” And Sirius quickly replied back with a look of his own saying “I don’t know.”

Remus sat down beside Alex. It took Alex another ten minutes before his cry’s were reduced to an occasional sniffle. No one said anything as they sat together in a loving silence, soaking up the love and warmth in the room. After a while Remus noticed that Aex was sleeping on top of Sirius and pointed it out to him. Sirius, who was zoned out stroking Alex’s hair, didn't notice until a tap on the shoulder came from Remus. He smiled at his son and slowly tried to move out from under Alex but quickly retreated when he saw him start to stir.

“Let’s just take him to our bed.” Remus whispered, picking Alex up. Sirius got up too and when they had gotten situated in bed Sirius quickly threw up a silencing charm so that they wouldn’t wake Alex up.

“What happened?” Remus asked Sirius immediately.

“I have no clue.” Sirius admitted, “He just came to me on the verge of tears and literally cried himself to sleep.”

Remus who was worried for his son and could tell that Sirius was too, tried to tell a joke, “Well today has been a roller coaster, hasn’t it?”

Sirius shot him a glare. Remus threw his arms up, “Just trying to diffuse the tension.”

Sirius smiled and leaned over Alex to plant a kiss onto his husbands head, “Love you Moons.”

“You too Padfoot.”
…

After stopping at Lilys office Regulus and Ophelia made their way towards Regulus; office where they sat down across from each other. They both waiting for a long time to speak before Regulus said, “So?”

Ophelia sighed, “I hurt Alex in a way I never should have.”

“Well thats quite a dramatic way to put it.” Regulus laughed.

“No, for real Uncle Reg. I was the worlds most giant arsehole.” Ophelia insisted.

“That can’t be possible.” Regulus wracked his brain for a moment before stumbling upon a realisation he quite hoped was not true. “Wait. You didn’t?”

Ophelia nodded, “I did.”

Regulus got out of his seat and paced for a moment before sitting back down again, “Wow, you know you fucked up majorly, right?”

“Yeah.” Ophelia sighed, “How do I fix it?”

“Well,” Regulus started, “Obviously, you have to apologize. But then again I don’t know if Alex would want to talk to you right now.” Regulus looked around for a moment before fnishing his thought, “Maybe give him some space. School is over next week and we’ll all be headed to Grimauld place in 2 weeks. Maybe send him a letter after school is over.”

Ophelia sighed, “Yeah that sounds good. I’m gonna go home. I have, uh. Work stuff to do.”

Regulus knew she was lying but let her go anyway, “Alright. You should let your dads know that you’re going though.”

“Yeah, will do.” Ophelia got up to give Regulus a hug. “Bye Uncle Reg.”

“Bye love.” Regulus replied, “See you at Christmas.”
…

Alex woke up the next day not knowing if he had been sleeping for a minute, an hour or an entire day. Somehow he was in his dads bed and not in his dorm so that was quite confusing. He got up and was greeted by his parents in the kitchen, making breakfast while they sipped on coffee together.

“Hi, darling.” Remus said when he noticed Alex walk in the room. “How did you sleep?”

“Uh, good.” Alex rubbed at his eyes, “Wheres Ophelia?”

“She left last night. Said she had some work stuff to attend to or something.” Sirius replied, “You want breakfast?”

“Sure.” Alex replied, making his way to the bar stools that lined their kitchen counter.after 5 minutes Remus joined the pair with breakfast in hand. They enjoyed their breakfast together, talking about upcoming events.

“We have lots of stuff planned this break haven’t we?” Remus commented

And that was true, much was in store for them.