ILLICIT AFFAIRS...JAMES POTTER

twenty-nine

CHAPTER TWENTY-NINE
Not So Lord-y
December 15th, 1978.

Regulus was reading as he usually did these times. He didn't do much since he couldn't quite leave the house or his brother's friends would be on his tracks, which he was trying to avoid at all cost. He wasn't scared, he was confident and knew he could take them but parts of him didn't want to hurt his brother's friends.

Anyways, two nights ago, Kreacher had returned home in quite bad shape after the Dark Lord had borrowed him. The house-elf had tried explaining it so Regulus had done a lot of research in their family library, so he could connect the dots and last night, he had finally found something quite disturbing.

It turned out, their Dark Lord was not so lord-y.

He would have tried to contact Daphne but he couldn't find her anywhere, perhaps she didn't want to be found considering she was spying on his brother and his friends. Besides, Regulus had heard from his mother that Daphne was really angry about Evan becoming a death eater.

But, something didn't feel quite right. He couldn't just keep this to himself and the truth was that Regulus was kind of lonely. So, he found himself at Daphne's door on a very early morning, pondering if he should knock or not.

After long minutes, he finally built the courage to knock and waited. Surprisingly, Fabian Prewett was the one to open the door, "Godric, Black. Hello."

"Prewett," he greeted him. "Is my cousin here or are you just wandering in her flat?"

He snorted, "No, she's here. Come in," he said as he moved out of the way. "Tea?" He offered.

Regulus hummed, taking off his coat, "I'll have a cup of tea, please."

He spun on himself as he took some seconds to analyse the whole place. It had completely changed since she had moved in. The place was fully furnished and colorful compared to the places they had both grown up in. Weirdly, he found himself enjoying it.

"Fa--Regulus," Daphne's voice cut short as her eyes landed on Regulus who was in the middle of her living room. "What are you doing here?"

"I've--I needed to talk to you."

"Where were you?"

"Around," he replied casually, grateful that Prewett had stepped out of the room. "See, I've been reading lately."

"Reg..."

"Daph, listen to me," he pleaded softly. "I know our family hasn't been kind to you these past few weeks and I'm very sorry for that but--"

"You could have owled me," she cut him off. "I spent most of my days alone and you could have owled or visited me!"

"I know."

Daphne sighed, "Why didn't you?"

"I wasn't--I thought your reaction was disproportionate," he admitted, full of shame. "I didn't think Evan becoming a Death Eater was a bad thing."

"Why is that?"

He shrugged, "Because men can do what women will always struggle to do so," he said without thinking. He winced right after and continued. "What I meant is Evan and you are totally different, and I tend to think that Evan could be a little more reckless than you."