Chapter Text
A month later, Minerva took one of her night strolls through the halls of Hogwarts in her cat form, when she heard voices coming from the astronomy tower. When she arrived on the top of the staircase, she suddenly noticed who the voices belonged to. The thing was that James Potter and Regulus Black, the owner of those voices weren’t just talking. They were fighting.
“You know exactly that this”, James pointed to Regulus’ arm and Minerva got a bad feeling, “goes against everything I stand for.”
“You think I wanted this?!” Regulus screamed right back. “You think I want to murder and torture people just out of fun. You think I had a choice in this?!”
“You always had a choice Regulus. You could have left like Sirius. You could have come stay with me.”
“No, I couldn’t.”
“Yes, you cou- “
“No, I couldn’t.” Minerva held her breath.
“You- you’re so stupid. I am not Sirius. I am not brave. I am fucking terrified. She would have killed me if I didn’t- she would have killed Sirius if he hadn’t left. But If I wouldn’t have stayed, she would have forced him back right away. I paid for his freedom. ME. It was him or me and he left. HE LEFT. So it had to be me. So don’t tell me I had a choice because I didn’t.” Regulus who tried to stay calm before now screamed. Tears were running down his face.
James flinched at that. “My love-“
“No. don’t “my love” me right now. Don’t- You thought- You thought I would want this?” Regulus now whispered sounding tired.
“Reg, I’m Sorry. I- didn’t think straight-“
“You never think straight, Potter” Regulus said, tear marks still visible on his face.
“I-. Regulus Black was that just a joke?”
“No.”
“Yes, it was!” James started laughing. He knew it was a completely inappropriate moment to laugh but he couldn’t hold back. Regulus, who still looked at him, also laughed a tiny watery laugh and suddenly Minerva knew they were gonna be okay. After they both calmed down, James went over to Regulus and put his arms around him.
“My love, I’m sorry. I just said that because I was hurt, still am a little to be honest. But I should have let you explain.”
Regulus nodded and put his head into Jame’s neck breathing in deep.
“I will tell you about what happened exactly but- can we just, stay like this for a moment? Can we talk about it tomorrow?”
James wiped away Regulus’ tears when the younger boy looked up at him to ask.
“of course, my love.”
Minerva felt that she listened to enough of their private conversation already and walked back down from the tower, ignoring that the two boys technically weren’t allowed there after curfew.
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Years later they had a new face joining the table of professors in Hogwarts after Slughorn’s sudden pension. Regulus Black, now smiling up at his old professor sat down next to her. “Hello Professor, it’s nice to see you again.”
Minerva looked at her former student who had helped immensely with ending the wizarding war by finding out about and destroying the Horcruxes. “Hello, Mister Black. Please, now that you’re no longer my student, call me Minerva.”
“Okay Minerva but only if you call me Regulus, or at the very least Mister Potter” Regulus answered still smiling with a glint in his eyes Minerva never wanted to not see again.