Oops! This image does not follow our content guidelines. To continue publishing, please remove it or upload a different image.
~*~*~
"i'm going to see my cousin soon."
~*~*~
"blood traitor, potter," growled kreacher as he approached james, who had just been let into the house by regulus.
"kreacher, stop saying that," said regulus sternly, smiling at james as if to make up for kreacher's colourful and disrespectful language. which it did, it really did, and it always would.
"of course master regulus," said kreacher, who bowed at regulus but sneered at james as he went into his own room, that once belonged to his parents but he put kreacher's name on the door and so it was official.
"sorry about him," said regulus as he led james into the kitchen, "he's...well, corrupt."
"clearly," said james, "reggie, could i ask you a question?"
"sure," said regulus as he started making tea for the two of them, a customary thing you must do when someone comes to your house.
"do you know anything about a death eater spy in our ranks? the death eaters always seem a step ahead of us," said james, leaning against the counter as he watched regulus, still in disbelief at how handsome and grown up he looked. he really was something else.
"no," said regulus with a confused look on his face, "i haven't been to a meeting in a while, i just keep telling voldemort i've got a cold. apparently, that's enough to get his permission to stay off."
"are alice and frank really dead?" asked james when the kettle had boiled.
"i don't know if they're dead but bellatrix seemed to have hurt them badly, barty had a part to play in it too," said regulus, a wave of guilt washed over him and james could tell, "i should've gotten there earlier."
"don't blame yourself, you done great that night and what makes it even more admirable, is that you didn't need to. you helped us because you wanted to," said james, moving regulus' hair away from his eyes so he could look into them when he spoke, "you're doing brilliantly."
"how's sirius?" asked regulus, taking the topic of conversation away from him as he feared he'd get too emotional about the stress he was feeling and he didn't want to appear like he needed help. he knew james very well, and he knew that if he broke down in front of him, he wouldn't leave until he understood exactly why regulus was feeling the way he was. he didn't want to tell him about the horcruxes.
"he's dealing with and also avoiding his problems and issues with humour," said james with a bemused grin, "so, he's the same old sirius."
