Chapter 2
November 1st; Potter Manor - Sometime Later
It's an almost deafening silence that greets the Potter Manor. Regulus and Severus are sitting on some of the chairs that take up the main sitting room in the manor while both refuse to acknowledge the weight that they are both currently feeling. Mellie pops into the room and places two cups of steaming tea in front of either of the men without a word and pops away. Regulus is the first to reach for it and takes a sip noting that it is the Earl Grey that James specifically bought for him knowing that it's his favourite, especially when he must stay up for hours on end the caffeine in it helping with that fact.
He looks towards Severus and notes he is drinking it as well, he seems to nod his head at the taste. Regulus assumes Lily must have talked about the kind of drink he likes as there is no other way for Mellie to know what Severus drinks or how he takes his tea. He feels a jab to his heart at the thought of Lily. He knows they left her body upstairs next to James under a stasis charm so that they can figure out what they can do.
"Did you know the house had a secret keeper? That's the only way Voldemort could have known where to find them."
Severus looks up at this with a slight grimace on his face at the reminder of what happened, "I didn't know but I can only assume that you know who it is."
"It was my brother the fucking prat. Bragged about it to others. He must have betrayed them somehow."
The older man nods at this but poses a question, "How do you know it would have been him? James and him were very close. Is there no other way the Dark Lord could have found out?"
Regulus lets out a scoff at this, "It's not like this would have been the first time Sirius let me down..... or anyone for that matter. He can be right prat without even trying."
A hum is heard coming from Severus before he places the cup down, "I would know."
"You would be one of the people who knows best aside from me, wouldn't you?"'
This isn't said in a rude tone but more of a statement of fact, "You'd be correct Regulus. I didn't realise that he was anything but kind towards you however."
Regulus scowls at this and places his own cup down before leaning forward, "Sirius has let me down many times in life and it wouldn't surprise me now if he let down the people he 'supposedly' cares about more than his fucking family."
"He seemed to show a lot of care towards James though."
"I love James but he's partly blind to Sirius in his own way. Lily understood my dislike for him for than James ever did, though I can understand they were best friends."
Severus hums at this before broaching the topic, fearing the reaction he might get as he has a feeling of the answer but wants confirmation on it, "What was your relationship with the Potters?"
"If you must know it was Potter-Black. We married in the old ways. So that I could have both of them," Regulus feels a couple tears leak from his eyes and furiously lifts his hand to wipe it away, "Kind of selfish of me I know. But I loved them dearly, they mean everything to me. Including my son."
Severus has no right to judge and just takes this whole situation in stride, something which Regulus is thankful for. "How do you mean your son? Unless I'm wrong James fathered the boy. I've never properly seen him myself but according to others he is a spitting image of James as a child but with Lily's eyes."
Regulus lets out a small chuckle at this, "You'd be almost correct. He'll end up getting my unruly hair and most likely some other features most people don't know that James and I looked fairly similar as young children before I grew into my hair more. James blood adopted him a couple days after he was born so he essentially is a mixture of all three of us, it's what Lily decided we would do after figuring out who actually fathered the boy."
He thinks back on the memory of them discovering Lily was pregnant and the discussion on how it would all work.
Unspecified Month and Time - 1979
Regulus apparated to their flat after getting into another row with his parents about him needing to take a bigger role with the Dark Lord like the rest of them have. It's not like he can tell his parents that the biggest reason is that he doesn't want to be involved with them in the first place because he's utterly in love with a muggleborn let alone one who has openly defied Voldemort.
He just feels exhausted, both mentally and physically from this whole mess, and it doesn't help that his grandfather is now bedridden which means he's the most likely candidate to take over for him since Arcturus can't let Sirius take over the Lordship right now with the current mess of the political climate. Leaving Regulus as the only choice since Arcturus refuses to give any power to Regulus' father as he no longer trusts his judgement.
That's something that he can understand but also hates because he doesn't want to be the new Lord Black, or more accurately the new Regent Black, and this is all Sirius' fault. It's not bad enough he decided to up and leave him with their parents but the prat also continuously denounces the Black family which means Regulus has to deal with more of his parents ire than he would like, more than his body can handle even with magic.
His parents talk about their love for their only 'good' child Regulus and disowned Sirius but did the prat think just because his mother says all these nice things about him when Sirius was still living with them that it would simply stay that way after the older man left? No. If anything now Regulus has to deal with both the pressure of the 'proper' pureblood but also the physical and mental abuse that their parents can no longer take out on Sirius.
He feels a scowl drift onto his face at the thought.
Regulus will never forgive Sirius for leaving him behind. Leaving a mess in his wake that Regulus has spent a decent amount of time in his life trying to fucking fix. Sirius just abandoned him as if he meant nothing. Sirius has always let Regulus down in his life and this was the final straw in his eyes. He will never understand how James and Lily can love the man so much. It has to be because they don't understand or just don't know the extent of what Sirius has done to him over the years.
All he wanted was for Sirius to care, to love him, to take care of him. He understands why he left but why couldn't he take Regulus with him. Why did he have to leave him like that. He barely acknowledges him at school. He mostly just ignores him. Probably assuming he had the same ideals as their parents and how would he know otherwise considering he never even bothered to ask Regulus.
James and Lily talk about him well enough and love the man. Regulus won't be the one to lay his burdens on them like that. They're too pure for that. Especially James. Lily knows a bit more about what happened between them more than James did. Regulus has a fear that even if he told James he might be too biased towards Sirius to really hear and understand Regulus. Lily disagrees and says that James would have an open mind like she did but that fear just won't go away. Eventually he will tell him about what happened between the two brothers since he is assuming Sirius didn't tell him everything.
He doesn't notice how long he's been standing in the living room in his own thoughts until he feels a small hand slide up his right arm and wrap around his shoulders. He feels a body lean into him before lips are pressed against his cheek and can't help but let an involuntary smile leave his lips before turning his head and looking down at the women. Lily smiles up at him before he leans down and presses a soft and gentle kiss to her lips.
She leans back and smiles at him, "Hello my love, you were standing there for awhile so I decided to come and say hello."
He feels his smile grow as he turns and wraps both his arms around her waist and pulls her into him which causes the women to lean her head against his chest right where his heart is beating strongly, "I'm sorry, Lily flower. I'm simply lost in my thoughts. You know how I can be."
The ginger haired women lets out a hum before her right hand goes to the back of his neck to play with his hair and using her left to lay against his cheek as she leans back to look up at him, "You're just as bad as James when he is figuring things out when he thinks of work. Or a prank." They both let out a fond laugh at the thought of the certain face James makes when he's deeply in thought.
"I missed you. I hate being away from you both but I fear telling my parents about the nature of our relationship will cause them to lash out and just hand me over to the Dark Lord for being such a 'disappointment' like Sirius."
Lily has a small frown grow on her face from the possibility knowing that it is a fairly accurate statement to what the taller mans parents would do. Neither of them notice someone come from farther in the flat to wrap his arms around Regulus' waist before leaning his chin on his right shoulder. Regulus looks to his right and sees James' usually smiley face in a frown.
James forces a smile on his face because the thought of Regulus not being with them makes his blood run cold, "Let's move this to the kitchen. Lily did say she had to tell us something after all."
- They all detangle themselves as Lily leaves first towards the kitchen to finish cooking since 'Merlin knows James is horrid and probably burned something'. The other two men stand in front of each other with James smiling up at Regulus with his lips slightly puckered out while the taller man rolls his eyes fondly before taking a couple steps towards the kitchen James reaches out and grabs Regulus' wrist causing the taller man to stop and turn back towards James.
James pouts and huffs a bit, "Am I not going to get a kiss? Only your precious Lily flower gets one huh?"
Regulus smiles fondly before stepping back towards James and leaning down while keeping his eyes open as James' eyes shut automatically in anticipation. Regulus leans in so their lips are so close together he can feel the other man's breath on his before whispering softly with a teasing lilt to his voice," No."
James opens his eyes abruptly as Regulus pulls back and steps away from him with a smirk playing on his lips. James mockingly glares at the taller man before trying to lean in again only for Regulus to once again take a step back. James now openly glares at him and crosses his arms in front of his chest. Regulus is about to give in because James acting like this makes his heart soar but before he can even do that James launches himself at Regulus and they both end up tripping on each other and landing on the floor with Regulus on the bottom and James laying on top of him with his hands braced on either side of his face.
Regulus looks up with a playful mirth in his eyes as James still openly glares at him. James lets his weight drop a bit more so that most of his weight is pressed against Regulus' hips which causes Regulus to raise a brow at the older man. Regulus wraps his arms around James's waist and lets one of his hands lay on the older mans butt. They both stare at each other before James fully drops his weight and put his hair into the younger mans hair and kissing him soundly.
Regulus hums into the older mans lips and squeezes the hand that's laying on his butt causing James to let out a soft grown into his lips. He feels himself smirk a bit more letting his hands roam over James' body appreciating the fact that quidditch kept his body fit adding the fact his now a hit wizard and the older man is rippling with muscle but not grossly so. James grind his hips down into Regulus making the younger man moan loudly into his mouth.
They make out more on the floor and end up rolling over so that Regulus is now on top of James and actively grinding down on the older man. Neither of them notice Lily come back into the living room who watches them for a few moments enjoying the sight she stumbled upon. James lets out a hearty moan at a particular grind of Regulus' hips and Lily now rolls her eyes at them.
"Boys."
Both of the men snap their heads in the direction of the voice and come upon Lily with slightly flushed cheeks with a relaxed stance leaning against the door frame. James sheepishly smiles up at her while Regulus openly smirks. Lily rolls her eyes again at the two before huffing and calling over her shoulder, "If you two don't come to eat I won't let either of you see the new teddy that I bought. I'll simply unwrap myself and enjoy some me time while you two can sit out the door and listen to what I do to myself."
Both men spring up and almost sprint towards the ginger haired women. James manages to get their first and throws Lily over his shoulder causing the women to laugh at his antics. She looks towards Regulus who now looks sheepish knowing she caught them. She almost laughs at the look on the younger man's face knowing he only acts all tough around James.
James gently places Lily at the head of the table before both of the men sit on either side of her. Both men know that no matter what anyone says the only person who should sit at the head of the table is Lily. They say thank you to Lily before all of them dig into their food. They have a pleasant conversation simply just catching up with each other and what each of them have done recently.
After James finishes his food, he happens to be the slowest eater out of the three simply because he gets distracted talking and forgets to put the food into his mouth, both men look towards Lily expectantly causing the women to roll her eyes.
"The teddy wasn't what I had to tell you both about."
James grins, "Yeah but that's just as good a news as any my love."
Regulus rolls his eyes fondly at James kissing up to Lily before looking into her eyes, "Well if that wasn't the news then what is?"
Both men notice Lily start to slowly get almost shy, which isn't something either of them is particularly used to. She sighs and debates whether to just rip the band-aid off or not. She decides to just go for it. She gets up and goes into the kitchen and pulls out two small boxes and walks back over to them and placing one in front of each of them. Both men look towards each other before James shrugs and begins to lift the lid, Regulus not far behind.
Both men stare confusedly into the box and glancing over at Lily who looks nervous. Regulus reaches in and pulls out what looks to be some plastic thing with something sticking out the end. He looks over it and assumes it's something muggle related. He looks to see that there are two lines in the hole are of the thing and notices there's some writing to the left and reads it before glancing back at the line. He pauses and looks up at Lily who smiles at him and nods her head.
Regulus jumps up and pulls Lily up before wrapping his arms around her and spinning her around causing the older women to squeal slightly at the sudden motion. Regulus places Lily gently back onto the floor and both of them look towards James who looks to be frozen with his mouth open staring at the thing in shock. James looks up at them and moves his head back and forth between the two who both just roll their eyes fondly at the man.
Regulus reaches his arm out and gestures to James to come towards them. The older man slowly gets up and goes towards them before the older man drops to his knees in front of Lily and placing his hands on her stomach reverently. Lily reaches down and runs her hand through James' hair fondly, Regulus shrugging slightly drops to his knees as well and copies James. James stares up at Lily with the most heartwarming mixture of love and adoration.
"You're pregnant."
Lily smiles and runs her hands fondly through both of the mens hair and nods, "I am."
Regulus looks up at her and back down to her stomach before looking up again at her, "For how long?"
"Long enough for my morning sickness to pass. At first I thought I was simply just sick and I didn't notice I skipped a couple months because of everything going on but when I looked under the sink a week ago I realised I haven't boughten any new hygiene products lately and decided to go to muggle London and grab a couple of tests."
James nods reverently hanging onto her every word, "But why did you not simply get checked at St. Mungos?"
Lily shook her head almost sadly at that, "I don't think it's a good idea to advertise I'm pregnant especially with Voldemort getting more desperate."
Regulus nods at this agreeing with her fully, "I completely understand. He's only becoming more fanatical."
James stills for a moment before looking between the two of them and glancing back up at Lily," Wait. But whose is it?"
Regulus pauses at this and looks towards James and nods his head, "Yeah wait, do we even know whose it is?"
Lily rolls her eyes for the nth time tonight dealing with the both of them, "No. Which is why we need to talk about it."
Lily removes her hands and reaches down to pull them both up. When they're all standing they all decide to move towards the couch in the living room and sitting down with Lily in the middle and one of the men on either side, neither of which has moved their hand from her stomach. They end up hashing everything out and deciding that the child will tale both the Potter and Black name with Gringotts but their actual birth certificate will be charmed to only show Potter until at least one of them decides that it's time to not hide it any longer just to be on the safe side. No matter who the father is the other will go through with a blood adoption through Gringotts so that they have all of their features instead of just two of them.
It would be a tough journey with everything going on plus adding a baby into the mix will only make it that much harder. It was decided that Regulus would take over as Regent for the House of Black and involve himself more with the Death Eaters to learn as much as possible to end this whole mess as quickly as they can so they can all raise the baby together. They would be able to do it as long as they had each other.
The baby would be loved by all three of them dearly. The three of them together will end this if they have to. So long as their child is alright everything will be okay.