Chapter Text
Regulus learned a lot of things over the summer. Most notably, that he was more adaptable to change than he thought.
Sirius was acting up more than usual, and Walburga had lost her patience. Some days, Regulus was sure that Sirius already had a touch of the Black family madness, especially when he would get hysterical.
There was no reason for either of them to react the way Sirius would, when Walburga reached that fever pitch shrill. When her temper was unleashed because of something Sirius did or said– he would go from antagonistic to shrinking away, finding a corner to slide into, hands coming up over his head, and he would rock back and forth, muttering no, shh, no.
That’s how Walburga had found him, on his last day at Grimmauld place. She had wrapped lithe fingers around his bicep and yanked him from the floor, other hand pulling back, ready to hit him. Regulus was glad he had been there to catch her wrist.
Sirius was sobbing, slumping back to the floor, as Regulus, for the first time in his life, yelled at his mother. Because she’d never hit them before, and he was not going to let her hit his brother. Couldn’t she see what Regulus saw? He wasn’t doing any of this on purpose.
She had left, and Regulus had tried to comfort Sirius, but he really had no idea how.
Sirius had left that night. He hadn’t even said goodbye.
Walburga had been quiet the rest of the summer. Regulus knew she was heartbroken that she had run her eldest son out of the house. Their father was faring even worse. One night, he had heard them arguing over Orion wiring Sirius money via. The Potters, with whom he was staying. From then, he hadn’t heard a thing about him.
It was a melancholy atmosphere, and it was lonely, but he adapted. He had to.
When a letter came with a vaguely familiar looking plump old barn owl for Sirius, Regulus had taken it and opened it, because like he suspected, it was from one of his friends who he’d yet to update on his current circumstances and new living situation.
The letter was from Remus Lupin.
Regulus didn’t think much of him, really. Remus was quiet, and unassuming. He hadn’t interacted with him enough to think anything of him.
He didn’t read the letter, but to see who signed it off, and only so he could write back.
But Remus replied again, this time addressed to Regulus, and he asked him how things were for him, and Regulus felt he had to explain that things were fine, and that Sirius had been too much for their mother to handle. That things were quiet now, if a little boring.
And he sent the second letter off, thinking that would be the end of it.
Except it wasn’t.
Remus continued to write, and continued to ask questions about Regulus. He responded quickly, and it made Regulus feel nice, that someone was interested in hearing what he had to say. So he wrote back.
He’s not sure when the letters ended up multiple pages long, with questions returned. They had a lot in common, and the things they didn’t have in common were new things they could share with one another.
Regulus caught himself anticipating the sight of Remus’ owl more than anything. He wondered if the reason the owl was so plump was because she was just too cute to say no to. It was the big pleading eyes that watched you as you read, until you’d finished writing the return letter. He wasn’t sure if she was pleading for treats or something to do, but he had tried to dismiss her one day, and she had not been happy about it. She would, however, be happy to stay the night should it take him longer to write his return.
She was a peculiar owl. He found he quite liked her company.
He found himself feeling sad, as summer came to an end and he was preparing to go back to school, and it took him a moment to figure out why. Because he had never felt bad about going back to Hogwarts, and he didn’t particularly want to stay home. It took him until the 30th of August, realising this would be the last letter he wrote to Remus this summer, to realise why he was feeling low about returning to school.
He wouldn’t be able to write to Remus anymore.
His quill had hesitated on the page, wondering if he should address the elephant in the room. Remus hadn’t, despite mentioning that he was looking forward to returning to school in his own letter.
Would their friendship translate into real life? Or would they go back to being casual acquaintances. Perhaps the letter writing would pick up again during the next summer. Or perhaps Remus would be too busy. Maybe he would have moved on, or forgotten.
There was the house rivalry to contend with, Slytherins and Gryffindors the greatest rivalry of all the houses. There was also Sirius. They were best friends. Sirius would not be happy if he found out Regulus had a friendship with his best friend. They were his friends. You would think Regulus would have learned his lesson when James had come over during the first summer, before Regulus started school. They had gotten on well, then, and Sirius had not spoken to either of them after that for over a week.
Would he react terribly now? A lot had changed since then. A lot had changed, even in the summer, and he hadn’t heard from Sirius at all. Maybe he didn’t think him a brother at all anymore. Perhaps Regulus didn’t exist to him. If that were the case, he wouldn’t then mind that Regulus wanted a friendship with Remus outside of their letters.
Because that’s what he wanted, he realised. So in his final letter to Remus, he signed it off with:
“I look forward to speaking more with you soon, Remus. I’ll see you at the station?”
He could not have imagined one summer could hold so much change.