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Sirius was half asleep when the car pulled up to the Hogwarts Campgrounds, slouching back in his seat, groaning when it rolled to a stop. He felt his brother wriggle in his seat beside him and Sirius glanced over at him, noted his nervous expression and twitching hands.
“Hey,” he whispered, reaching above and grabbing his elbow, directing his attention over to him. He sat up straighter and turned his body over to him, rubbing soft circles into his skin. “Don’t be nervous. It’s not too bad.”
“Yeah,” Regulus scoffed, eyes cast down. “It’s not too bad that we get sent to a camp for Christmas because our parents don’t want us there.”
“ Hey,” he was firmer this time, and Regulus looked up at him. “Don’t say that. You don’t know that,” he rolled his eyes. “You’ll make friends here. There are lots of other eighteen-year-olds.”
“Why are you still coming here? You’re twenty, you don't have to come to Kids Christmas Camp. I don’t have to come here. I can spend Christmas with you somewhere else.”
“I spend my time here because I am a councillor. You spend time here because I don’t want you to spend Christmas on your own. This is your first year here. This is my fourth. I’m not letting you stay here on your own.”
He sighed, hands twitching together again. “I don’t know why I’m here,” he whispered, and Sirius heard the emotion in his voice. “They never asked me to go somewhere else before.”
“That’s because you were younger, Reg,” he grabbed one of his hands. “You weren’t able to go anywhere else, they couldn’t send you away.”
“You came here from sixteen. You did it.”
“That’s because I left. They didn’t even know I was gone, Reg, and I couldn’t stay there. I’m sorry they are doing this to you now, but trust me, you’ll have a much better Christmas here than you would with them. Believe me.”
He only nodded, turning his face to stare out the window and Sirius sighed, patting him on the knee gently before moving to open the door, a wide smile already forming on his face as he looked over his Christmas home, seeing children already running around and adults chasing after them. He was going to make this a good Christmas for Reg. No matter what.
He popped open the trunk, grabbing both of their suitcases out and walking around to Regulus’ side, leaning against the car while he got out. He nodded over at his case and smiled again when he received an eye roll and it was snatched out of his hand.
“Okay, he started, walking over towards the main house, Regulus right behind him. “We’ll find out which cabin you’re in first and get you set up and then I’ll show you around myself.”
“Are you allowed to do that?”
“My brother, my rules,” he heard a snicker. “You better hope you’re not a member of my cabin Reg. That behaviour will not be allowed,” he teased as they pushed open the door.
“Yeah, whatever,” he murmured from behind him and he grinned.
His grin widened as he caught sight of two people and before his brother could question it, his suitcase was on the floor and he was sprinting over, slamming into both of them.
“You are too old to be doing that now, mon fils,” Dumo whispered to him while Celeste stroked his hair back from his face. They all turned back to face Regulus, whose eyes were downcast, feet scuffing against the floor. “This must be Regulus? Sirius talks about you all time when he’s here.”
He looked up, smiling softly and Sirius beckoned him over, wrapping him under his arm. “Yep, this is Reg. These are Pascal and Celeste Dumais, the heads of camp.”
They waved to him Sirius grinned when it was returned, pulling him closer towards him. “Nice to meet you Regulus. The first year is always the hardest but you should be fine. The councillors are all very friendly, along with the staff and kids. You aren’t the first and won’t be the last to arrive who has never been here before, so you don’t need to worry about that. And you have Sirius here, of course. It doesn’t look like he's going to let you leave his side,” Dumo teased and Sirius scoffed.
“He can leave every once in a while. I’m not going to hold him captive,” he turned his body to face the Dumais directly. “Right, I’ll sign him in and get him unpacked. Which cabin is he staying in?”
Celeste checked her list, scanning down until he found his name. “We’ve put you in Snakes…but if you want to you can move to one of the cabins in your brother’s area? Slytherin rooms are on the other side of camp, so if you want to be closer to Sirius you can stay in a Gryffindor cabin? Whatever you decide.”
Sirius turned to Regulus whose eyes were already on him. “Where do you wanna go, Reg?”
He glanced around at everyone, twisting his hands together. “Um…can I unpack in my original dorm?” They nodded at him. “But…can I stay with Sirius for tonight? And maybe tomorrow as well?”
They hummed having a silent conversation with each other. “You can tonight. We’ll have to see about tomorrow night, we don’t want to go back with your roommates after too many nights away.”
Sirius grinned at the way Regulus face lit up and turned to Dumo. “My cabin this year is which one?”
“You’re in the cabin you normally stay in while you’re here. Lions,” he pumped his hands in the air. “James is with you, as always. Remus and Lily have got the Griffins this year.”
He nodded along, face no doubt comically happy. “Right. Them two together in one cabin against me and James in the other? On opposite teams in challenges. Really decided to pit the couples against each other this year, huh?”
He saw Regulus’ eyes snap up to him out of the corner of his eye, but he ignored it, for now, suppressing a smile. “Yes, well, when James and Lily are together it’s a nightmare, when Remus and James are together it’s a nightmare…I have no doubts you two will be even worse.”
“Hm…imagine if you put me and Remus together?” He laughed himself.
“And deal with the constant kisses and hugs? No thank you,” Celeste laughed and Dumo nudged her slightly. Sirius froze up slightly, and he felt Regulus do the same beside him.
“Yeah,” he rubbed the back of his neck, slowly reddening. “We should go and unpack,” he pointed behind him and then tilted his head in Regulus’ direction. “I’ll come by once I’ve shown him around. Is Remus here yet?”
“You are more likely to know that than I am, mon fils. But no, he’s a couple of hours away,” he nodded, reaching for Regulus’ arm.
“Right, so I’ll come by after I’ve seen Re,” he heard their snickers from behind him as he pulled Regulus out of the room and back into the grounds.
“Whose Remus? Who are James and Lily?”
“Unpack now, answer questions later. Come on, leave out some clothes to bring with you to the Lion cabin and we’ll put the rest in the Snakes. You want me to help you unpack?”
They walked in through the door of the cabin, the rest of Regulus’ roommates clearly not here yet, and Sirius directed them both over to the bunk in the far corner. “Um...yes, please. If you have time.”
He leant forward and ruffled his hair. “I’ll always have time to help you, Reg. If we get done quick enough, I can still show you around before lunch.”
*
Regulus sighed, sinking down on his newly made bed, Sirius flopping down next to him. “Well…that took far much longer than it needed to. You brought so much stuff, Reg! We’re here for a week and a half!”
“Yeah, well maybe I’m planning to go somewhere else before I head home,” he groaned out, Sirius rolling over, digging his elbow into his side.
“And where might that be?” He smirked, turning his face away. “Oh, no, tell me where you’re going.”
He glanced back, nervous now and shifted onto his side. “With you, if you let me. I don’t want to go back home. Please don’t make me.”
Sirius’ face softened and he pushed himself up onto his elbow. “I’m not going to make you do anything. If you want to stay with me for a while, you can stay with me, absolutely. If I had it my way, you’d never be back in that house. Ever. But it’s up to you now, Reg, where you want to stay. You’re eighteen. You can go anywhere you want.”
He cleared his throat, nodding and looking away. “Cool. Okay,” he could feel Sirius’ smile from over here and tried to suppress his own. “How long until lunch?”
Sirius checked his watch and cursed quietly to himself. “Half an hour or so. Don’t have time to show you around completely but we walk past the main areas. I’m sure your roommates can show you the rest.”
He nodded again, dragging himself into a sitting position and stretching, wincing at the cracks of his bones. He sighed, standing up, watching Sirius groan as he did the same. He followed him out of the room, squinting at the bright sunlight and down the steep hillside to what looked like the main campsite.
“Right,” Sirius clapped his hands, and Regulus tried not to jump, scowling when his brother laughed under his breath. “This here is the Black Lake. You can go there whenever you want to, but try not to encourage the younger children to go there without a councillor or leader. You’ll go skating sometime later while we’re here since the lake has frozen over. But there’s not much else to do there during the winter.”
“Why is it called the Black Lake?” He peered over to look down, but all he could see was the frozen water.
“In summer, the water is so dark you can’t see anything beneath it. Even now if you clear away the frost you won’t be able to see anything but black.”
He looked down again, backing away from the surface slightly. “Huh…”
“So this is the Owlery. Don’t worry, there are no actual owls there but it’s an activity area in the camp where the younger ones write letters to family members while they stay since they don’t have a phone,” he nodded along, smiling when he saw young children bustling out holding glitter-covered paper. “The building next to it, is the Ravenclaw dorms. Two different cabins, the Ravens and Eagles. Across just over the other side of the lake is the Hufflepuff dorms. Again, two cabins, the Badgers and the Weasels-don’t laugh!”
He couldn’t help himself, snickering softly. “The Weasel Cabin. Who came up with these names?”
“The old founders of the camp. They named the dorms after themselves. I know,” he rolled his eyes. “Okay, the huge building in front of us is the Great Hall. We eat there, we have full camp meetings as well as small cabin group meetings, depending on the day. We’ll head there now and you can go beyond that with another councillor or roommate if you want. Now, though, we’re eating because I don’t know about you but I’m starving.”
Regulus nodded in agreement and they both started walking down. Sirius stopped suddenly and turned to him with a grin before taking off, laughing older his shoulder at him. He stayed frozen in shock for a moment before sprinting off down the path, hot on his brother’s toes.
“Merde, Sirius, a bit of warning next time,” he huffed, stopping by the door, leaning against the wall.
He heard him snicker. “You’re at a camp, little brother. Do you think you’ll be sitting out of activities like this?”
“I didn’t think I’d have to be running in the freezing cold and risk slipping on ice and injuring myself.”
“Always so negative. This will happen, bad, that will happen, even worse. Lighten up, Reg.”
The room was deafeningly loud when the two of them walked into the hall, and Regulus cringed slightly, closing his eyes and shuddering. He never liked too much noise. He felt Sirius grab his arm and lead him in a different direction and he found himself backed into a corner.
“It’s okay. I’m sorry, I didn’t realise so many people would be here today. Most people arrive tomorrow when camp is actually supposed to start. Will you be okay eating here?”
He nodded slowly, his ears slowly losing the ringing feeling and he blinked his eyes open. “Yeah, it’s fine. ‘M getting used to it now.”
Sirius straightened up. “Okay. You’re eating at my table today though, I’ll sit with the Lions instead of the head table-”
“You don’t need to do that. You don’t.”
He nodded anyway. “What kinda brother would I be if I let you eat here for the first time on your own. Anyway, there always has to be a councillor on the table, so I’ll just switch with James. By tomorrow you should be with the Snakes.”
He was dragged over to a table and plopped down in between two boys, Sirius clapping him on the shoulder before making his way to the head of the table, making quick conversation with others along the way.
“Hi,” the boy beside him said and he jumped slightly in his seat. “Woah, careful there. I’m Leo, nice to meet you.” He was tall, unnecessarily, tall, with blonde hair, a tuff at the front streaked grey. His eyes were blindingly blue, bright and powdery, filled with mischief and joy.
“I’m Regulus,” he answered back after Leo raised an eyebrow. “Sirius’ brother.”
“Oh, you’re the infamous Reg. He talks about you all the time. This your first year?” He nodded and cocked his head in a silent question. “This is my third. Been here since I was fifteen. My ma’s the cook here so we spend Christmas here instead of me being on my own back home. How come you’ve never come with Sirius before?”
He frowned glancing down at his empty spot and felt Leo tense up beside him when he noticed. He could tell he was going to apologise and he really didn’t want that, so he mustered up the best smile he could. “Someone had to stay with our parents, didn’t they,” he knew Leo could see it was fake, but he didn’t question it. “So, what do we do after this?”
Leo hummed taking a sip from his glass. “Well, we eat, sit for a while, wait for Dumo to give his welcome speech and then enjoy the day until dinner at six. You can just hang with me if you want? Are you in the Lion cabin or just here because Sirius forced you to be?”
He huffed out a laugh. “That obvious, huh? No, I’m in Snake cabin. I’m…not a fan of loud noises and this place is…pretty loud. So he wants me here to keep an eye on me.”
Leo gave him a soft smile. “He cares about you a lot, doesn’t he?”
Reg returned it. “Yeah, he does,” he turned to where Sirius was sitting, talking animatedly with his hands, glancing in his direction every now and then, grinning at him widely.
“Can you skate?”
He turned back to Leo. “Like…on the ice?”
“No, on your knees,” he teased. “Yes on the ice. After we’ve finished up in our cabin, we’re going skating. You wanna come with us? It’s just going to be me, Kasey and a few of the younger ones. Oh, and James and Sirius most likely,” he pointed out each person, who smiled at him kindly.
“Yeah. Yeah, I’ll come,” his voice was strangely soft and he smiled to himself, before focusing his attention back to the table around him, the food being placed in piles around them. “I’ll come with you.”
He looked back to Sirius, his eyes already trained on him and gave him a huge smile, before looking back down at his plate, Leo placing all kinds of foods on top, explaining to him with words he wasn’t listening to. He closed his eyes, feeling his smile softening until it was just kept to himself and he let out a small disbelieving laugh. Somehow, he had a feeling he was going to enjoy it here.