The Marauders: Year Seven Part One

Christmas Morning at the Shrieking Shack

Regulus was waiting in the meeting room for the Order of the Phoenix for James and Lily, on a stool that sat in the corner. He'd picked up a book from the shelf at random - Defenses Against Death by Hermanuspo Gigas Inclussus - and begun flipping through, his eyes roving over random entries in the text while he waited. His mind was much more on what he would tell James and Lily about what he'd done - giving Kreacher the locket to guard - than it was on the entries on necromantic talismans, the illustrations of which looked rather gruesome... He turned the book over, thinking it ought to be in the Restricted Section of the library, rather than a shelf in the Order's meeting room... 

James and Lily came through the door and Regulus put the book down on the shelf. "Hi," he said, standing up, his nerves returning at the sight of them.

"Hey Regulus," James greeted him and, in a complete surprise to Regulus Black, James crossed the room and hugged him. Pulling back, he asked, "How are you?"

Regulus was stunned for a moment - he couldn't recall the last time he'd been hugged, and he was thrown off by the gesture, so much like something he'd seen James do to his brother. He nodded in response to James's question because the words to speak had escaped him.

"You're alright, even with the locket?" Lily asked, worried. She put a hand on Regulus's shoulder gently and Regulus looked at the spot where her palm touched his arm and then back to her, and he had to swallow back the feeling of tears that might threaten his eyes if he wasn't careful.

"Yeah, I'm alright," he answered, his voice thick. "I really am, I told you lot I would be, and I am, just as I promised."

James studied Regulus. "Are you sure?"

Regulus nodded, "I am."

James looked to Lily. "Well, I s'pose we're okay then." He turned back to Regulus. "I felt awful when I realized that I'd forgotten to take the locket before holiday. I was worried it might be making you a bit mad like it had done to everyone else that touched the bloody thing."

"I'm not mad," Regulus answered. But he wondered if he ought not to check on Kreacher a bit more often now that the old House Elf had the locket. Would whatever it was that made it hiss and shriek have an affect on the elf? No sense taking chances. He would check Kreacher the moment he got back to his dormitory, he decided, or, if someone was there, the next possible time he could sneak away to do it.

James's voice was very serious. "If it starts to bother you, you owl me if I'm away or come and get me if I'm here, alright? And I'll take it back from you and I'll deal with it myself, whatever it takes. I don't want you suffering for it, you've got enough rubbish to contend with."

Regulus nodded.

"Promise me."

"I promise," Regulus said, and he felt guilty because he'd broken it before he'd made it, and James Potter was being so kind to him, kinder than anyone had ever been, and he wondered if that made him, Regulus, an evil person for not telling James right away, right then. But he couldn't stand to disappoint James, not now, not ever. James was one of the only people on his side - right beside Maryrose Jenkins, of course. Telling James what he'd done might cause him to stop being kind to Regulus, might make him despise him the way Sirius did.

And that was the last thing in the entire world that Regulus wanted.

James looked all over the castle for Peter. Lily had said she had something to do really quickly and would catch James and Peter up, but Peter must have really gone to Hogsmeade, James decided, and wasn't anywhere to be found in the castle. He went down to the entrance hall to wait for Lily there so they could return to the Shrieking Shack in time for their miniature Christmas celebration with Sirius and Remus and, hopefully, Peter, too, once he arrived from his day at the Hogsmeade Christmas festival.