Chapter 3
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"I think I might throw up." Regulus mumbles, looking paler than usual.
Grace takes his arm with a squeeze. "You'll do fine. Just remember what we talked about regarding smiling and nodding your head to show interest. You'll do great, Black!"
Taking a deep breath in, he looks over to the witch. "Thank you, Grace." Taken back with him using her first name, she looks forward, feeling a blush come across her cheeks and immediately apparates them to the Potter's home.
Arriving in the backyard where the party is being held in celebration of the newly improved Quidditch field installed on their massive property, Grace quickly releases Regulus' arm as she spots her older brother in the crowd of guests. "Rem!" She calls, smiling as she walks forward with Regulus sticking close behind.
"You both made it!" The werewolf states looking between the two before moving forward to hug his sister. "Prongs hasn't shut up about how excited he is since you wrote saying he'd be your plus one." He gestures to the man behind his sister.
"It's nice to see you again, Remus." Regulus greets with the friendly smile he has been practicing with Grace since the night before.
Extending his hand for a firm shake, Remus returns the kind expression. "You as well, Regulus. Grace has said you make a good partner."
Nodding, he glances at the woman for a moment before back at him with a slight smirk. "'Tolerable' I think is a better word. I can barely keep up with her."
Grace laughs, earning an odd look from Remus, but just nods to the younger Black brother. "She always has been one to excel at anything she does. But I'm sure you're better than just 'tolerable'. She'd let you know otherwise." He nudges his sister's shoulder.
"MINI!!!!!" James Potter's voice screams through the crowd of party guests. Sprinting and weaving through everyone with his almost 7 year old son right on his tail, they barrel into the woman in an obnoxious and tight hug. "Grab a broom! Harry and I need you on the team!"
"Yeah, Aunt Mini!" Harry looks up at the woman, flashing his green eyes. "Pleeeaasseeee!"
"Sorry boys." She pulls out of the death grip of a hug. "Can't leave my guest unattended."
"Then he can play too!" Harry smiles at the stranger before his face grows in confusion at the man. "You kind look like my Uncle Pads."
"Harry," James squats to his son's level. "This is Regulus. Pads' younger brother."
"Oh!" The boy smiles running over to hug him. "I'm Harry! You want to play with us, right?!"
"Um, well I was a seeker back in school." Regulus softly replies, feeling unsure on how to properly interact with a child.
"Then it's settled!" James beams, slapping both Aurors on the back, causing Grace to stumble forward a step. "Regulus, you're with Sirius' team. Mini, you're with us."
Grace just shakes her head at the man. "I'm not dressed for flying, Prongs. Rem will take my place."
"Noooo." He whines at the girl. "No offense Moony, but you're the worst player we have. Pleaseee, you're wearing pants, what else do you need? I got helmets and pads you can use!"
Feeling a nudge hit her arm she looks over to see Regulus looking at her with a cocky expression. "If you're too scared to face me, you can just say so."
Feeling a warm competitive spark light in her chest, she crosses her arms and cocks her head. "Ohh, you're going down, Black."
Leaving the main party area, Grace provides Regulus a quick explanation of how it will be an altered backyard version of the game with no snitch, the teams will have 5 players each, first team to 150 points wins. Walking roughly a quarter mile on the property they finally reach the field where a few other guests and soon to be players are lounging about, drinking, and laughing. Among the group is the eldest Black brother, Sirius, looking uncharacteristically nervous as he watches the group come closer.
"What should I say?" Regulus whispers to Grace while they trail behind Harry, James, and Remus by a few paces.
"Hello would be a good start." She teases, leaning a bit closer than necessary for him to hear. Feeling his nerves calm slightly as her brown eyes shine under the clear sky he almost forgets the fact he's about to greet his brother for the first time in almost 8 years.
"Reggie!" Sirius' normally confident voice cracks as he calls out, waving towards the group. "Uh, hey!"
His nerves returning ten fold at the sound, Regulus stares like a deer in headlights at his older brother while walking forward, keeping Grace close to his side. "Say hi." She whispers, nudging his ribs.
"Oh! Uh. Right." He clears his throat, focusing on not trying to look like a fool. "Hello. It's good to see you."
Letting out a relieved breath, Sirius moves forward and pulls the young man into a tight hug. "Oh, Reg... I have so much I wanna tell you."
"Um, yeah. Me too."
Pulling back, Sirius smiles wide as his silver eyes beam. "There will be plenty of time for that though. For now, it looks like you're our new Chaser?"
"Mini!" James calls from a few feet away, now huddled with some of the other men. "You good with Keeper?"
Opening her mouth to speak, Sirius beats her to it, yelling towards James. "No fair!!! She can't play!"
"Yes, fair! She agreed!"
"No! No! No!" Sirius pouts at James, making Regulus see just how little the two men have changed personality wise since they were in school together. Memories of seeing Sirius run around with all his friends fill his mind and remind him of exactly how betrayed and hurt he felt in the initial years after Sirius abandoned him. "She can't play when I have Herb and Stewart on my team! It's unfair!"
"Why?" Regulus asks, curious to know and also to distract himself from the negative thoughts that are creeping into his head.
Sirius moves an arm around his brothers shoulder before pointing to two larger, jock looking men stretching near a table area at the edge of the field. "Both of them got the hots for Mini. Prongs realized last year and has been taking advantage of it ever since! They can never score when she's a Keeper and they never dare to hit her with a bludger if she's a Chaser! It's completely unfair!" Glancing behind his shoulder to Grace, he sees she has been pulled toward a broom rack by young Harry and is listening patiently to him explaining all the new brooms they bought, in celebration of the new field. "Oh, Merlin! Not you too!" Sirius' voice shakes him from his lingering eyes as he realizes now that he was smiling over at the woman.
"What?! Oh, no! No. We're not- no." He stumbles over his words, looking at his brother. "She's my partner at work."
"Oh thank you, Gods!" The elder brother lets out a relieved breath. "I can't take losing again! We must crush James to dust!!!"
Regulus finally lets out a soft chuckle at his brother's dramatics. "Trying to kill him? And here I thought you had claimed Potter as your new brother." As soon as the words leave his mouth, he realizes he said the wrong thing. Within a heartbeat, Sirius' competitive, but fun loving demeanor drops to one of betrayal. A look that seems to trigger memories within Regulus of their constant fights back at home, while Sirius is suddenly looking at the boy, now man, who he left alone in a house filled with pure blood psychos. "I've got to go." Regulus says under his breath, mind now racing and threatening to launch forward every awful thing he's wanted to yell at his brother from years prior.
"Reggie..." The older man whispers as Regulus turns and starts back to the house.
"Don't." He hisses over his shoulder, suppressing all the other harsh words he wants to scream as he continues to walk forward. Only the feeling of a smaller hand grabbing his arm to pull him back after he almost reaches the house, finally halts him.
"Where are you going? What happened?" Grace asks, releasing his arm while studying his eyes for any hint of what emotion he might be feeling.
"This was a mistake."
"Regulus, you knew this would be difficult b-"
His rage from the resurfacing memories of his brother and parents suddenly redirect as his anger spikes and is launched towards her. "I told you the party was too soon! I told you and you pushed me here! This is your fault, Lupin!" He yells, while her name leaves his lips almost as if it were an insult in itself.
Scoffing under her breath, she shakes her head at the man before taking a step back and apparating away. For Regulus, he assumes she now has apprated back to the field where she will shit talk all about him to his brother and friends, but the reality is that Grace apprates home. Guilt and anger filling her, she apparates to her empty apartment where she immediately starts the shower up and strips to sit on the floor of the tub, while the hot water rains down around her, calming her as much as it can given her racing thoughts. I shouldn't have brought him after only a day of us practicing. Dammit Grace!
I was selfish to bring him there for me.
I could have hurt him and Sirius.
I was wrong.
He hates me.
I was wrong...
I was wrong.
The thoughts race through her, and the idea of her being wrong especially pierces her perfectionist persona. Having pushed herself to be the best at everything her entire life, she can't stand being wrong, she can't stand failing... and to her this was a failure, she failed Regulus and because she failed him he had looked at her with such rage in his silver eyes that made her heart ache in an unfamiliar feeling.
I'm a failure.
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Sunday passes for both Aurors with no interaction from anyone. Regulus cooped up reviewing old case files to try and push his thoughts away from his outburst at Grace and walking away from Sirius. Grace cooped up reading or working on a jigsaw puzzle, trying to keep herself distracted from thinking of how selfish and stupid she was to bring Regulus to the party.
With Monday arriving, Grace arrives in office before anyone else, even the receptionist, Erik, hasn't arrived as the Auror comes in and quickly starts working on some of the paperwork for the more boring cases. As the morning moves forward, she tunes out the comments made from Hughes, Atkins, and Burton, regarding her blood status and lack of ability as a woman. Arrogant pricks. She thinks to herself silently, resuming her work.
Only an awkward throat clearing finally catches her attention again as she turns to see her partner standing by her desk with two cups in hand. "Um, good morning." He mumbles, clearly nervous to confront her. "I never see you drink tea and I saw a well used looking coffee pot at your place so I assumed you like it." He extends out the coffee cup from the cafe on the 3rd floor to her. "Didn't know what you liked in it and I don't know how most people take it so I just asked them to make the most popular coffee they had."
Grace stares silently for a moment, confused by the offer as she was expecting him to be furious still, but slowly takes the cup with a nod. Taking a sip she smiles. It tastes awful. She thinks as she represses a laugh from tasting the strongest black coffee she's ever had.
"I want to apologize for how I behaved on Saturday." Regulus continues, causing Grace's smile to morph into a look of pure shock. "I was in an emotional place and I lashed out at you inappropriately."
"No." She shakes her head. "I'm sorry. You were right. I shouldn't have forced you to come when you weren't ready. I didn't take into consideration how it would affect you. It was my fau-"
"No, Grace." He cuts her off again with a more forceful voice. "I agreed to go on my own accord and I raised my voice at you. That's unacceptable."
Nodding again, she maintains her normal business professionalism as she slides the file she was just reviewing over to him. "New case was dropped off, we'll need to head out soon."
"Anything good?" He asks, accepting the file and taking the seat next to her.
"31 year old male killed a 27 year old female in self defense over at Henry's Pub. He's been detained and is awaiting questioning. Witnesses are still gathered on site."
"Alright, let's head over." He stands up, pausing before moving fully. "Um, are we okay?"
She smirks standing up from her chair. "Yeah. Yeah we are, Regulus." Sending a wave over to the now present receptionist to inform him of their departure, she takes her partner's arm and apparates them to the crime scene.
With a crowd of witches and wizards wanting to gather, other Aurors have set up barriers to keep prying eyes away from the crime scene. Walking into Henry's Pub, Regulus motions for Grace to go view the body as he moves to speak with some of the witnesses. After gathering multiple statements all confirming the same story of the woman entering the busy establishment wand out, where she immediately began casting at the man. When her aim missed him and nearly took out a young couple seated behind him, he retaliated with a stronger blast, ultimately knocking her back into the bar where she snapped her neck upon impact.
"Anything over here?" Regulus asks, walking to meet Grace who is looking around at the casting patterns that hit around the pub.
"Only that she clearly isn't a trained duelist. Her attacks, while advanced spells, were almost all incomplete. See this burn mark here." She gestures to the back of the man's chair he was seated in. "It's a strong fire curse that if cast properly would have burned this to ash in a moment, but yet it only managed to scorch the first few centimeters into the wood."
"What are you thinking?"
"I'm not sure, but if I wanted to kill someone, I'd test out some of the spells I plan on casting... all these seem almost randomly selected."
"All the witness say she appeared calm and composed the entire time."
"Something is clearly off about this one... Let's go speak to the man, Jones was it?"
"Yeah."
"Alright, let's head there next. Was there anything else the witnesses said?" She asks as they start walking out the door to reach the wards preventing apparition.
"Just that she was a beautiful woman, well dressed for this side of town which one of the older women thought was odd. Everything else was consistent with what the initial report stated."
"Hmm. Alright, you okay to lead the interrogation today?"
"Not in the mood to put on your intimidating face." He teases.
She shoots him a glare that most men would cower from. "Not at all, Black. I just don't want to be too rough with him if he did just kill a woman in self defense. He's going to be fragile and you have a softer touch when questioning than I do."
"Understood, Lupin. I will be nice and gentle with him." Rolling her eyes, she grabs his arm and apprates him back to the Ministry.
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James Potter isn't one who normally snoops around the halls of the Ministry, but as soon as he heard the name 'Lupin' being whispered, he couldn't resist himself. Whether or not James would confront whoever was gossiping about his friend's little sister was yet to be seen as he couldn't quite hear.
Sneaking closer to the group of men who fail to notice his appearance, he finally tunes in to clearly hear and see Regulus Black speaking with two other Aurors James recognizes from the Homicide department.
"I can only imagine." The darker skinned man huffs under his breath. "Just ask the Chief to push her off your cases."
"I think there's some kind of confusion. I-" Regulus begins, but is interrupted by the other man.
"You must be working double to pick up that woman's slack. Doubt she can even cast a prope-"
"Enough." Regulus snaps, a bumbling rage in his tone and expression. "Miss Lupin is not only an excellent Auror, but she is by far the cleverest and most determined mind that has ever walked through these halls. Becoming her partner was my choice and I do not want to hear about it again." Turning, James watches Regulus leave the men in his tracks before apparating away for the evening.
Grinning ear to ear, the glasses wearing man immediately runs down the hall to apparate home where Remus and Sirius are sitting around a table smoking and playing cards. "BOYS!" James screams as he arrives next to them.
"MERLIN! What the fuck Prongs! Trying to give us heart attacks?!" Remus snaps, grabbing his chest.
Ignoring the comment, he rushes to take a seat at the table. "Ooooo I've found the perfect match for our Mini Moony!!!!" He coo's, practically shaking from excitement at the memory of Regulus complementing and defending the witch so vocally.
Remus eyes him skeptically. "Who is it?"
"Drum roll pleasssseeeee." He dramatically builds up, tapping his fingers on the table. "...One Regulus Black!!!!"
"WHAT?!" Remus shouts as Sirius stands up beaming with as much excitement as James.
"OOO! Gracey and my baby brother! I LOVE IT!!!"
"What is happening?!" Remus looks panicked at the other men.
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A/N:
I am loving this story soooo much! I cannot wait for some of the upcoming chapters I have planned! *Internally squealing!!!*
And yes, to confirm, the boys call her 'Mini' because her official nickname granted to her by the Marauders was 'Mini Moony' back in school.