The Bug Collector | marauders

Disenchanted

tw: mentions of abusive households

"He's gone. He left." Regulus said again, and this time he spoke calmly. Dully.

The boy's tears had not yet dried on his skin by the time he had retreated back into himself.

"You'll have to explain a little more, Regulus." Rose responded while stepping away from the boy to grant him some space, playing with the sleeve of the green jumper she had worn to bed as she did so.

A jumper that originally belonged to him. His family name written in large letters across the back.

Regulus took a deep breath and began to speak.

"Sirius did another thing only he could do, ran away. We can't both be him. We can't both prance around with our Gryffindor ties undone and be friends with whoever we want. One of us had to be a Black. It's always been me, and now that he's gone it will have to be me forever. Alone." He said, bitterness and distain coating his voice.

Rose was unsure of how much about the so called "Ancient and Noble House of Black" she was actually meant to know, what little she did know showcased an old family full of pureblood tradition and control, because of that Rose couldn't help but see the other side to this story. The side where one of her best friends finally escapes his tyrannical family.

Regulus himself told Rose he didn't hate his brother, but at times it didn't seem like Reg loved him either.

He surely wouldn't now.

As a silence settled between them Regulus took a look at his surroundings, letters littered the walls, candles sat unlit in the darkness, and a framed green moth was propped up on her desk next to a small black box Rose didn't recognize. She'd decided he must have brought it along with him and sat it there before she got up.

He walked wordlessly over to some of the letters and ran his fingers over a common signature.

Sirius O. Black

"You all have the brother I once had. You, James, Peter, the werewolf." He spoke monotonously, as if that fact did not bring him any pain now, but once had.

"Regulus...." Rose began to apologize but felt it would be futile, so instead she asked about the werewolf statement.

"How do you know about Remus?" She asked, voice soft and unassuming.

"I'm observant, and you call him bloody Moony. What else was I meant to think? In any case if I was unsure before you've just confirmed it". He said plainly as he continued to look around the room.

Something about him seemed too fine. It was as if he was in a forced type of neutral state.

"You should have a bath, I can set out some clothes for you, we probably wear the same size anyway. If anything mine will be too big on you." Rose suggested.

When she felt emotional or trapped in her own head she would have a bath, open the small window next to the tub to feel the sunbeams on her skin and smell the grass on the ground below.

He gave a nod in agreement and Rose promptly looked through her things and pulled out some green flannel lounging trousers and an oversized t-shirt with the print of a 60s music festival on the front.

"It was my dad's. He got me and Lily one too but they're too small to wear now so I keep his." Rose said as she folded the items and began leading the way to the hall and then the bathroom, taking extra care to be quiet.

She sat the clothing items on the counter and started running the bath, checking the temperature intermittently the way her mother would do for her when she was young.