The Marauders - Order of the Phoenix - Part One

Russell Square Station

Regulus barely slept. He sat up in the living room, buried under what seemed like a thousand blankets, watching Doctor Who on the Potters' telly, a steaming cup of hot chocolate Lily had made for him before going to bed. The flat was so quiet and peaceful and he found himself staring at the ceiling just floating in the safety that seemed to wrap him up.

But of course the morning came and Regulus felt as though he'd only just fallen asleep when there was a flash from the floo of bright green light, which broke through Regulus's sleep with a tremor of fear. Flahes of green light were generally quite terrifying in Regulus's day-to-day life, and a he sat up quickly, nearly falling off the couch in his tangle of blankets.

But it was only the floo.

Sirius and Remus came through the fireplace, Sirius upholding Remus, both looking thoroughly exhausted. He paused when he spotted Regulus staring at them from beneath several layers of comforters and quilts that Lily had supplied. "What're you doing here still?"

"I stayed over," Regulus replied. He used the funny wand that controlled the Potters telly to switch it off and put it down on the table before the couch. The sound of the TARDIS fading out of view silenced as the screen clicked off and the picture faded off the glass.

Sirius hesitated, then helped Remus into a chair by the fireplace, turning about and waving his wand at the floo, bursting it into warm orange flames. "Can I take this?" he asked, turning and latching onto one of the blankets piled a top Regulus, "It looks as though you've a good deal of them."

"Yeah," Regulus nodded.

Sirius tugged the blanket away and turned about, nestling it gently over Remus in the chair before using his wand to flick a cuppa on the table beside him. "There you are, Moony," he said gently, handing the steaming cup to Remus carefully, "Drink, you'll feel better."

Remus smiled at the care Sirius was giving him and wrapped his palms thankfully about the cup so that the heat of it radiated through the ceramic and into his skin. "Thank you," he said quietly.

Regulus hesitated, feeling awkwardly extra in the room at the moment, and kept his eyes diverted downward to give Remus and Sirius as much privacy as he could, picking at a loose string on the quilt that was still wrapped about him.

"So you stayed the night, did you?" Sirius's voice elevated with a new tone as he changed his focus from Remus to Reguuls once again. Regulus looked up. "And I suppose you got to talk to Prongs?"

"I did," Regulus nodded.

Sirius thought for a moment, eyeing his younger brother with a slightly raised eyebrow, appraising him. Finally, after several moments of appraisal, met with Regulus's defiant stare back, Sirius asked, "And has your fucking foot fallen off yet?"

Regulus shook his head. "Not from a lack of your trying to hack it off with the door."

Sirius smirked. "Teach you right for trying to enter a home you weren't invited into."

Regulus shook his head. "If I wanted to enter a home I wasn't invited into, I could do it a lot more easily - and violently - than shoving my foot into the crack."

Sirius's lips twitched. "...than shoving a foot into the crack, ey?"

"Don't be dirty Pads," murmured Remus from behind his cup.

Sirius turned about, eyes glittering with delight. "Oh you caught it, too, did you?"

"Of course I caught it too, I've been hanging about you, haven't I?" Remus looked to Regulus, "Dirties the mind, this one does... Pure filth."