All in the Family

Chapter 58: Owl Post Again

I finished the third book again! Whoooo!

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It already felt like a lifetime ago they'd fallen into something as simple as a classroom. The desks sat in the moonlight, grafiti polished and spare quills already tidied away by the house-elves. The stools were stacked neatly on top, and the desk sat at the front of the classroom surveying the unusual calmness. It must be Flitwick's, Regulus guessed, his was the only one with a cushion in place. He found this a lucky chance, having landed on it, but also wincing just as much to see Sirius landing painfully upon a desk knocking both stools to the ground. The combined noise of the other six all doing the same was enough racket to rouse Filch to them in mere seconds on any other given night.

When the seconds trickled by and the mood of the room saturated the air, he decided he'd rather be caught out of bed.

Having the, pleasure, of knowing Sirius his whole life, he knew everything had not been smoothed over in their short time apart during the last chapter. While he'd found the book floating along in the lake, and taking the time to carefully dry it, he'd considered seeking these four out to make sure they weren't killing each other in the meantime now that they weren't stopping that monster from killing them. He found himself legitimately worried about his older brother, the injuries he'd received in the pail moonlight trapped in that cage had seemed nasty even surrounded by matted fur.

The problem was, he'd realized while crouching over every page and taking the time to let each letter dry to stall for time, Sirius wouldn't feel the same. His brother, all three of those idiots, had long since known what their friend was, and they not only tolerated it, but defended it.

'What would mother and father think?' Had been his first disgusting reaction after making sure he hadn't received a scratch himself, before remembering all they'd been wrong about yet again. This was different though, right? Just because they'd been ill-informed about You-Know-Who, didn't mean they had to be wrong about everything. Proof of what mindless beasts werewolves were had been inches from his throat, and Sirius was protecting that?!

He'd tried another question as he sat on the lake edge, dry book in hand but no will to seek anyone else out without his own answer at the ready. 'What did Sirius and his friends get out of it?' It baffled the mind he still wasn't sure. Were they treating Lupin like some dangerous pet like Hagrid would? What benefit came from having him around? Surely just the act of advanced Transfiguration practice they'd voluntarily done to be around him couldn't solely be it.

Regulus tried to go back over all he'd seen for context, but it wasn't providing much. The 'friendship,' they supposedly had was clearly as flimsy and feeble as parchment, the amount of time's he'd seen them all turn on each other. Now here he watched the proof layout, as Peter remained as far away from them as possible for his future misdeeds. They'd been no better to Sirius a mere month ago.

He watched as Potter summoned the book in a detached sort of voice, not looking at anyone, even Evans. It came shooting out of Flitwicks desk, and he began reading like it was the most boring of History of Magic text. As if refusing to show any emotion would hide the enormous riff all could see.

A mad dash of Harry trying to get back to the Hospital Wing in time should have been exciting, or at least something new to think about, but nobody seemed to be paying him much attention. He wondered briefly what Longbottom and Smith thought of all this, why they were avoiding each other's eyes and Evans was standing apart from everyone just as much as Peter, but then he decided he didn't care. For the first time, he didn't want another purebloods opinion, he was sick of where that had led in the past to more lies, but the problem was he didn't know how to put together his own.

Strangly, he found his answer was pity, as he watched Peter. He watched Potter reading about Snape destroying Lupin's career as the DADA teacher and how that instigated anger from him, by the point of which Harry went to confront Lupin he was shouting to so loud he was unintelligible. He threw the book to the ground and began pacing the length of the room furiously. It was pretty obvious every pent up emotion he'd been trying to keep a hold on was coming out on this one problem, he wasn't holding his tongue for one word over Snape, and Evans wasn't evens saying anything to the contrary. She just watched him vent with the same dark, calculating green eyes as if she were studying a particularly complex potion.

Lupin calmly picked up the book to finish, but tried to remain partially behind Sirius the entire time to do it, not looking at anyone, voice so quiet it was a wonder anyone could hear. Sirius, for his part, was dismantling stools to get his own frustrated energy out, by hand.

Mostly, he watched Peter, who was having to do an awkward sort of dance to stay out of Potter's way whenever he passed. He noticed the way his eyes kept flickering to Sirius and away, but how he kept avoiding looking at Potter at all. Then he got angry, as he realized Sirius was doing it again. Treating someone like dirt in his boots just because they weren't acting how he wanted them too. Was Sirius going to treat him like a pariah the rest of his life because of it though? Was he irredeemable now because of choices he'd made to stay alive?

As Lupin wound down the chapter with Sirius getting a last parting letter to comfort Harry, he saw Potter circling back to him and thanking him for looking after his future godchild, telling Lupin and even laughing while he said he didn't hold a grudge against him for anything, and his anger boiled over.

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Haha, whoops, another all Regulus chapter. I swear I don't do it on purpose, but I find once I get into his head it's hard to get back out. I'm sure you're all so disappointed.