Diptych

Chapter 25

Edwin really wasn't as bad as Regulus remembered him being on a broom. Perhaps he'd been practicing away from school, or perhaps he'd just gotten better with age. He was still slower, more careful than Sirius was, very occasionally wobbling with the wind. Regulus tried to murmur reassuring words over his shoulder, whilst also knowing that Potter was flying nowhere close to his own capability, in order to remain behind them, that he was probably getting very annoyed with them back there. Not that he minded Potter being annoyed.

For the first half hour or so, Edwin said nothing to him. Regulus had attributed it to his fear of flying, but as his shoulders relaxed and he allowed his weight to fall back against Regulus' stomach, bracketed by his arms, Edwin's frown didn't disappear, brows knitted together. Regulus wanted to ask him if he was alright, to promise him that it was fine if he wanted to turn back and opt out of the task at hand, but before he could open his mouth to, his companion finally broke the silence;

"Your brother was complaining all the way up to the shed, you know?"

"Was he?" Regulus asked, feeling something drop inside him. Surely, he couldn't have said anything too terrible, because Edwin hadn't turned back when it had been far easier to, hadn't carried on back up to the castle and allowed Sirius to return to the group without him. Neither had he tumbled back down the hill to shake his fist at Regulus, point a wand in his face, anything like that. But still, if Sirius' complaints were the cause of Edwin's stress, it made him nervous to hear them.

"Is it true?"

"Which part?"

"About them all being muggleborn."

Regulus paused before he answered. He allowed his chin to drop to Edwin's shoulder, let out a deep sigh. The sky was clear enough, wind low enough that he didn't have to worry about the boy getting into a crash if Regulus confirmed it, if he decided to attempt a turn to throttle him. But he also knew deep down that it was probably something he should have mentioned to Edwin before they'd even left the castle, the correlation.

"Lupin isn't," he said, hoping the blow might be softened if indirect.

"But the rest of them?"

"Yes."

"Did you know that he was—" Edwin began, and then cut himself off. His jaw tensed, shoulders sharp lines that cut Regulus off. After a moment he started again, voice stronger, "it's not like it's a massive secret. The papers are saying it about one of them every other week. I bet your brother's said as much to you."

"Edwin, I didn't think..." He stopped, because what didn't he think? Edwin was right in that he'd heard the things Sirius had been saying for years, about Bellatrix and about Lucius; about their family at large. The only masked comments about the Dark Lord he'd heard from his brother were all negative, had all suggested the same thing. But, "Yeah, he has. But I've also heard what Sirius says about our mother, our father... I can only imagine the things he says about me when I'm not there. I didn't pay much attention to what he'd said." It was a weak excuse, but it was the only one he had to offer.

"Would it have stopped you?"

"What?"

"If you'd known." Up ahead, Sirius had ducked, was flying lower to avoid something, muggle litter carried by the wind or a bird, Regulus didn't bother to look, only pushed gently on Edwin's broom to be sure they followed in his direction. "How he feels about muggleborn people. Would you have still gone to him?"

"I don't know." It sounded horrid to say that. Especially to Edwin of all people. Some of the others wouldn't have cared. But that was sort of the problem, wasn't it? He knew that Bellatrix and Lucius would say those kind of things, the kind of things that Regulus would pretend not to hear, the kind of things Selwyn would say were okay as long as they were among pureblood folk. Regulus had always been surrounded by people like that. So could he say with any degree of certainty that it would have been enough to deter him from meeting the Dark Lord, when it was all Lucius wanted from him, when Tom had suggested he do so? He wasn't sure."But Edwin, I'm not—"