All in the Family

Chapter 139: Draco's Detour

James immediately forgot his next course of action, but in his defense, he landed in paradise.

He never would have dreamed to even ask the book for something as fantastic as being dumped in the twins' joke shop, but he knew that's exactly where they were. He didn't even need to read the brilliant sign that glowed mirror like in the window, nor the empty cobble bricks of Diagon Alley beyond, no, the evidence was in every product label in sight!

Anti Gravity Hats– "Ruin a gentleman's day by making his hat fly away!"- to the Weasleys' Wildfire Whiz-bangs, his heart thrilled in delight to take in this place, imagining the floor packed with people of all ages here for a good laugh in such troubled times.

The eight of them were making enough sounds of delight for a whole crowd as is, there just was not something for somebody to love in here. In his hasty need to rush over and check out those Extendable Ears in person though, he actually passed Regulus scrutinizing a bottle of Magical Moustache Miracle Stubble Grow and forced himself to pause by the little spinning rack of potions before Peter or Sirius came over here.

Counting Quidditch statistics slowly in his head to make sure he didn't look like he was changing directions to punch the welp, he was minorly confident he'd achieved at least this when Regulus looked up and only scowled rather than drawing his wand upon him coming closer.

"If you're here to apologize-"

"I'm not," Potter said steadily.

Regulus glared up, cursing puberty more than anything Potter was so much taller than him and opened his mouth to give in detail how rude it was to continue interrupting people, still, before that look Sirius had given him flashed across his mind and he started chewing on his cheek as he thought through and replayed the scene in his head again.

It helped, to give his brother Potter's hazel eyes, remind himself it wasn't Sirius who may be actively hating him, but if he started shouting now Sirius may come over and just do the same. It wasn't a secret he'd back Potter first, he'd taken the diatribe for the man before after all.

Regulus looked beyond annoyed at him still, but surprisingly closed his mouth and just glared at him rather than continued shouting, already a good sign as far as James was concerned, but he leaned in close to make sure Regulus' little superiority complex wouldn't miss a word. "Listen, whatever problem you have with me, I hope you got it out of your system, but if not then you should know I'm not just going to stand there and let you shout at me like your bloody parents do to Sirius, nor will I tolerate you giving him hell he doesn't deserve. He's been through enough, we all bloody have while dealing with this."

"I, I didn't, I'm not-" Regulus spluttered in indignation, but James just kept glowering and watched with interest as he stopped after a moment and looked genuinely guilty now as he looked back towards Padfoot. "I don't want to be like them," he finally muttered, a note of defiance still clear in his voice as he continued to meet his eyes. "You're still an arrogant arse."

"I've been recently informed of that by my own kid thank you," James agreed, starting to lose that resolve not to hang Regulus up by his pants for at least this chapter, but Harry's face flashed across his mind and he held his hand still. "Anything else you'd like to say? Best get it out now."

At first James thought he wasn't going to answer, he was chewing on his tongue for some reason it seemed, but then he said in a very even voice, "you interrupt your mates. A lot. I don't know about the other two as much, but Peter especially. It annoys the shit out of me."

'What's it to you?' The insulted brush off was on the tip of James's tongue in outrage, but he quickly bit that off as he kept looking at Sirius' brother. If Padfoot was really going to try and start involving this kid in his life then he should probably get used to it now, and it was long obvious Regulus and Peter were good friends already. It seemed ridiculous to think at this rate that would just vanish when they got back out of this.

Instead he replayed the last conversation he'd had with Wormtail in his head looking to deny this, and felt just a tad guilty he hadn't actually heard a word, but that wasn't interrupting. He thought back farther, but he'd barely spoken to Peter, really talked to him since back during the third book now, if not longer. He and Sirius did have a tendency to talk to each other and only passively involve Remus and Peter when they butted in when the two got going. It wasn't something he'd ever consciously thought of, he and Sirius had far too much fun shouting over each other and getting the other to laugh harder next.

Alice was right though, trying to get the others to laugh this off was helping no one. He tried to make an effort right then to tell himself to watch that in the future.

He wanted to ask Regulus point blank his real question, but decided if he admitted to knowing of the levels of real abuse the Black parents had done to their eldest he would in fact not be able to stop himself hitting the nearest one in retaliation, so he was glad when Regulus seemed satisfied he'd not only said his peace but James had nothing to lob back and walked off.

Longbottom finally found the book and was reading about the youngest Malfoy. James glared out the window and listened with livid frustration this young Death Eater strolling around Borgin and Burkes with a 'mission' Snape had to help his mother with she had so little faith in, and his son was now actively trying to get involved. He refused himself a look at Evans to see if she was glaring at him for that being his fault too, because he couldn't deny he would be doing the same thing if given the chance, to thwart any kind of coming attack on his school.

Sirius appeared at his elbow just like always, smiling with such ease it made the entire thing worth it even if James still felt more agitated than ever for every Black but Sirius. He was already vowing in his head to give him paperwork to change that on his next birthday.

"So I heard you and Moony had some fun," Sirius lightly quipped, eyes resting on the rest of the bottles. It was still pretty funny to him to think about, mostly because neither party had any idea of the joke beforehand. He wished he'd caught the whole thing on camera just to laugh at their faces when it happened.

"Eh?" James looked at him in confusion, and Sirius was quick to elaborate on a convenient lie his eyes had landed on.

"Sorry about it Prongs, I doused him before we swapped, got distracted, didn't think whatever he did would fall on you," he smirked.

"You passed Moony a love potion?" James didn't seem suspicious so much as just unamused for once.

"Yep," Sirius remorselessly lied. "Was going to give Pete some Babbling Brew too, but I got caught too soon." James would laugh it off later when Remus finally got over his secret and they told him the rest.

"Well it didn't work quite right," James shrugged as he turned away and went over to look at some of the Invisibility Cloaks they had for sale, though none even came close to his, he was curious enough to see these knock offs. "He just made a pass at me, wasn't exactly all over you though."

"More of those wonky effects on werewolves I suppose," Sirius shrugged as he followed, and James didn't ask any further questions. Sirius still wasn't sure what the point of all this was and ditched Prongs as he got enamored by the Demon Box and nipped behind the counter for a bit of parchment and quill, hoping if he gave Remus this it would help him relax more.

James was more annoyed than he'd let on as Sirius came back shoving a bit of parchment into his pocket like he wouldn't notice something was obviously still going on, but he worked enough out for himself that it was clearly Remus who didn't want to tell. Sirius was just backing him on that, and if it was a gay thing he'd respect it and let Moony come to him when he wanted to, though he wished he knew how Sirius had figured it out so he could assure the same. Maybe he was entirely off the mark though and it was still something else, Padfoot was right about one thing, Remus was ever reluctant to share anything. He still wasn't sure what they'd done to so endear them he'd shared his werewolf secret all those years ago but was grateful for whatever that was and let the whole thing go.

Regardless, the two lost their heads when they found the Skiving Snackboxes and shamelessly shoved a box each into their bags.