Diptych

Chapter 36

"If you have need of anything, don't hesitate to come back to me. I won't be annoyed if you come straight back," Alphard told them at the garden gate, fingers clinging to Sirius even as he released him from the hug he'd given. Regulus felt a pang of guilt; he wondered when his uncle had last had guests, and wished that they could have stayed a little bit longer, been there on nicer business. But Sirius and Potter were eager to get on, and if he was honest, he was too. Tom's presence had lingered over him more heavily under Alphard's roof than it had out in the open, or in the village they'd visited. He thought, perhaps naively, that by leaving he'd once again free himself.

"We'll stop in on the way back to school, if there's time," Sirius told him.

"Yeah, we've got to be back by Christmas Day, but there should be plenty of time," Potter added. Unless Regulus had miscounted, four days had passed since they'd left school; twice they'd slept out in the forest, one night had been spent in the room they had rented and another at Alphard's. That would make it the twenty-second, three days away from Christmas. If they were to turn around and head straight back, it was unlikely they would make it by foot. Of course, it would be significantly less risky to apparate once they'd discarded of the diary, so it was possible that Sirius meant to apparate back to Alphard's, and then onto the place Dumbledore had last spoken to them once it was all over. Not that he could understand their insistence that they be back before Christmas Day regardless, with all that clung to them.

"He's not really what I'd expected," Potter said. They hadn't been walking for long, could still just about make out Alphard's house behind them.

"What did you expect?" Regulus asked before Sirius could. Sirius probably would've asked with far less accusation hidden in his tone. But still, Potter answered with minimal offence shown.

"I don't know, I guess... I didn't expect him to look so much like..." He trailed off.

"Mother dearest?" Sirius finished for him, attempting jest but fist still clenching at his side in the moment he'd understood where Potter was going.

"Sorry,"

"They are brother and sister. Why wouldn't they look alike?" Regulus asked.

"I don't know, I just... The way Sirius always described him, I expected him to be less..."

"Less..." He repeated.

"Give it a rest, Reg." Sirius chided, and Regulus did. Though, it wasn't out of charity towards Potter, or even because Sirius had told him to. He'd slowed, almost coming to a halt as he surveyed the space around them. Sirius noticed, did the same, although he clearly didn't see the same thing Regulus had. "What?" He asked.

Since they'd left Alphard's house, they had been broadly following the course of the river. Not too closely, because it began some distance away and didn't exactly lead them to where they were headed (Sirius still wanted to look in on Dora before they were rid of the diary), but as it meandered eastwards they too drifted in that direction. All around, there were familiar sights. Regulus and Sirius had visited Alphard many times as children, and as such he didn't think anything of it when he felt that he'd tread the path they currently walked before. It was different when he noticed what he'd referred to in his youngest days as a 'pool' down by a willow tree.

"That's..." He trailed off, pointing one finger towards the pond. Sirius' gaze followed.

"Oh. Yeah."

"What is it?" Potter asked.

They had played there together as children. Not just once or twice; almost every day in the winter that Sirius turned eight was spent down by that 'pool'. Inspecting the frogs they'd watched spawn in the spring, splashing each other to induce screeches at how cold the water was, anything they could think of to pass the time. Once they had even built a fortress of snow, endeavoured to stay out there all night since they knew Walburga was unlikely to dampen her shoes searching for them. Sirius had thought it would be fun, to be unwatched and fend for themselves out in nature. Regulus, at that age, would have done anything Sirius asked, and besides that thought it might be nice to sleep beneath the stars. But in the end, their little fingers had stiffened and pretending that they were dragons with each puff of breath they let out lost its novelty. When their 'roof' began to fall in on their heads, the brothers reluctantly set off back to their Uncle Alphard's house, bumping into the man himself halfway there. Unlike his sister, he had set off in search of the boys once the sun began to set with no sign of them.