Chapter Text
Regulus POV:
It’s been fives years since that night and Regulus still blames himself for not saving Lily, if only he’d been a couple of seconds faster she might still be alive. Maybe he and James would still have their dear friend with them, and Harry, who Regulus loves more than life itself, would still have his mother.
They tried their hardest, and over time things got easier, they have a routine now, they’re all genuinely happy as a unique family of three, but at the beginning things were rough. Both Regulus and James were grieving the loss of Lily, and trying to figure out if their relationship could still work after everything that had happened and after explaining to James that he and Barty only joined the Death Eaters because Evan was forced to. Not to mention that they were both clueless on how to raise a toddler by themselves. Regulus thoroughly more confused than James.
It took much longer for Regulus to forgive himself, than for James to forgive him. James accepted that Regulus did what he did for good reasons, and the fact that he almost died betraying Voldemort made it pretty obvious he wasn’t a true Death Eater. And he risked himself again to save James and his son. Besides James loves Regulus so much, there is hardly anything he wouldn’t forgive him for. At least that’s what James told him.
Regulus is interrupted from his thoughts by a pair of warm, strong arms wrapping around his waste, which belong to James. “Are you all right, love” James breathes into his ear, giving Regulus goose bumps. “Just thinking” Regulus says relaxing into James. They were standing on the back porch of their home looking out into their overly large yard. No one could see them because of the fidelius.
They stand stand there in comfortable silence for a while before James breaks the silence “I miss him” he says so quietly Regulus can barely hear him. He doesn’t have to ask to know that he’s talking about Sirius “I know” Regulus looks up at the Sirius star where James is already looking “me too” Regulus replies just as quietly, “I know” James repeats what Regulus said minutes prior.
After Regulus and James started dating, when they were back in school, Regulus and Sirius and were starting to repair the damage that their parents had caused their relationship. They were learning to be brothers again. But then Regulus broke his brothers heart again by joining the Death Eaters, and he died before he could explain to Sirius why he did what he did. Well he didn’t actually die, obviously, but Sirius thinks he did.
“He and Remus are probably living the high life right now, taking Sirius’ bike out every night” Regulus says trying to lighten the mood, it must work a little bit because James smiles before he says “probably fucking each other senseless after they get back too, Remus has a bit of a bike kink”
Regulus can’t help the surprised noise that he makes “I did not need that image of my brother” he groans, then they’re both laughing hysterically, James has tears in his eyes. They do this a lot, simply just because they can, they’re safe and happy, their son is soundly asleep in the house.
“Come on let’s go to sleep” James says lacing his fingers into Regulus’ and lightly tugging him into the house.
They are both already in their night clothes, so when they reach their bed they lay straight down and go into a spooning position, James as the big spoon Regulus as the little.
As Regulus drifts off to sleep he thinks about how far he has come, when they first got back together, Regulus couldn’t sleep with James arms around him like this, because it reminded him of the inferi. Now he can barely sleep without the warm embrace of James Potter.
~~
Regulus doesn’t know what time it is when he hears the door to their bedroom open. “Reg?” Harry says sniffling a bit, Regulus sits up and whispers “kitten?”. Regulus’ animagus form is a cat so he’s taken to calling Harry that nickname. James, who felt that it was unfair that Regulus gets to use an animagus related nickname for their son, calls Harry bambi.
After noticing that he was successful in waking Reggie up Harry pushes the door open the rest of the way and walks into the room. It’s then that Regulus notices his wet cheeks and puffy eyes. Regulus opens his arms indicating Harry to come closer, as soon as he’s within reach Regulus grabs him and pulls him into a comforting hug.
After Harry’s sniffling stops Regulus asks “Veux-tu en parler” softly, “j’ai fait un cauchemar” Regulus nods in understanding. “Puis-je dormir ici ce soir” Harry asks quietly “bien sûr” Regulus said without hesitation.
He tucked Harry in between he and James, even with the third person added they all still had plenty of room, as their bed was quite large. Regulus ran his fingers through the messy black hair that he’d come to love over the years. Glad that he could offer comfort to his son unlike his parents ever did for him.
Harry was a truly remarkable kid, at 6 years old he was fluent in both French and English, he could even do some basic spells using either James or Regulus’ wand. Recently he was starting to do some wandless magic, such as summoning a snack from the kitchen, or transfiguring a toy when he got bored of it, to both of his father’s surprise. Neither of them knowing if it was intentional or not.
when Regulus looked back up he met the eyes of James who has apparently woken up at some point during he and Harry’s conversation. James face was a mixture of concern and confusion, then Regulus realized that James had probably not understood a word of the French. “Nightmare” he mouthed, James face turned into one of understanding.
They both knew what Harry’s nightmares meant, they knew Voldemort wasn’t actually gone, just like they knew Harry was a horcrux. That’s part of the reason they have stayed hidden for so long, they knew Dumbledore would try to use him. The other reason is that they know about the prophecy and that death eaters are probably looking for him because of it.
~~
Regulus is the first one awake the next morning, quietly so not to wake the messy haired man and boy in his bed, he makes his way downstairs. “Kreacher” he calls, then the elf appears with a little pop.
“Did master Regulus call for Kreacher?” He croaks. “Please just call me Regulus, I am not your master”, he freed the elf years ago after the cave, but when they went to France the elf insisted on coming, so now he gets payed, which Regulus is pretty sure he gives back to them in secret, and days off.
“Kreacher can you please make some breakfast for us please” the elf bowed “of course” a little pause “Regulus”, he sounded like he had to force that bit out. “Kreacher will make young Harry some treacle tart, and would you like some tea as well” Regulus Smiled at the elf “I’m sure Harry would love some treacle tart but I’ll take care of the tea” Kreacher bows again then gets to making the treacle tart.
Twenty minutes later the tea and food is sitting on the table with a warming charm on it when Regulus hears the stairs creek. He walks out of the dining room and is met with the sight of a tall, messy haired man carrying his mini me with green eyes, both wearing glasses. It was obvious from a young age that Harry had inherited his fathers terrible eye sight.
Another thing that Harry gets from his father is that he is not a morning person. James walks groggily to the couch and flops down, Harry sprawled on his chest. Regulus can’t help the amused smile on his face as he walks towards them. When he’s standing in front of the couch he says “Kreacher made treacle tart”, that does the trick, Harry’s eyes snap open and he doesn’t waste a second before he is running to the dining room, he can briefly hear Harry thanking Kreacher.
The elf surprisingly has a soft spot for Harry, he’s always making his favorite foods and using his pay to buy him toys, not that the kid needs anymore. When Harry was a baby he over heard Kreacher singing Harry songs to get him to go back to sleep so he would not wake up Regulus and James. The songs were slightly concerning and violent but they did work, even now when Harry can’t sleep he asks Kreacher to sing them to him and the elf complies.
James groans then holds his hand out, Regulus rolls his eyes but reaches to grab it to pull him up, “you do know that you are both bigger and stronger than me, don’t you” he says trying to sound annoyed but honestly nothing about James Potter was annoying to him. “I know, I love it” James replies tightening his grip on Regulus’ hand “because I can do this” then he’s pulling Regulus down on top of him, Regulus let’s out a surprised gasp.
Soon Regulus has a leg on each side of James and their faces are just a couple inches apart “your so fucking beautiful, you know that” James says in that voice of his that makes you not able to doubt what he’s saying, then their kissing, James has his hands in Reg’s hair and pulls, Regulus gasps James uses this as an opportunity to put his tongue in Regulus’ mouth, just as Regulus has his hands under James shirt a pop sounds beside them and they break apart.
When Regulus looks over his shoulder he sees Kreacher awkwardly staring at the floor. Without looking up he says “Harry told Kreacher to get your attention, and to tell you to stop” then not wasting another second he disappears again.
“Stop being gross and come eat with me” Harry yells from the dining room. James snorts “he knows us so well” Regulus smacks him over the head before standing up and straightening his clothes. James gets up as well looking at Regulus with an offended look, Regulus gives him a kiss on the cheek for his troubles before walking to the dining room, James following closely behind.
Harry looks up when they walk into the dining and gives them a smirk that reminds Regulus entirely too much of himself. He ruffles Harry’s hair as he sits down beside him. “We were not being gross, for you information” James says as he sits on Harry’s other side. Harry gives him a look “yes, you were” he says after swallowing his food before speaking, because Regulus has taught him proper manners.
“What makes you so sure” James has his elbow propped on the table and his head resting on his hand, turned sideways so he’s facing towards Harry. “I know things” Harry says tapping his head, “are you sure, it sounds pretty empty in there” James says also tapping Harry’s head. “No it’s not” Harry says pushing James hand away “ok, if you’re sure” James says still sounding jokingly unconvinced, then taking some treacle tart off Harry’s plate and taking a bite.
Harry looks over at Regulus for help, but he just smiles and shrugs “don’t look at me, he’s your dad” Harry raises his eyebrow, “he’s your boyfriend” he says with sass, yep definitely him Regulus thinks. “You love me” then James in tickling Harry in the stomach, because for some reason he is super sensitive there, and Harry is giggling.
Regulus leaves them to whatever it is that they’re doing and goes to the room, because he’s pretty sure he heard a voice. He was right, when he reaches the living room he sees Narcissa’s face in the fire.
The Malfoys are the only ones who know they are alive. They hadn’t wanted anyone to know but since Narcissa helped hide him after the cave and Lucius is the reason he was able to save James, they couldn’t really get out of them knowing. Regulus also had to admit it was good for Harry to have another kid to play with, he and Draco were quite close.
“Cissy?” He asks as he comes to stand in front of the fire “Regulus, my apologies to bother you so early, but Draco has been asking for days to come see Harry, Me and Lucius have some business to attend to today and tomorrow. and I told him I would ask if he could visit, if you aren’t available today I can get the sitter to watch him while we are gone” she says primly, “of course, Harry has been asking to see him as well, send him through, we’re just finishing up breakfast”.
Malfoy manor was the only place their floo was connected to, but only Narcissa or Draco could use it or fire call through it, because they were the only ones in on the fidelius. Due to Lucius’ high ranks within the death eaters they all agreed that he should not know their location. Lucius was not loyal to Voldemort as he once was, he and Regulus were on the same side, both of them just wanting to protect their families. Lucius had been spying for Regulus for years.
Draco comes through the floo just a few minutes later “good morning Regulus, thank you for having me” you would not think this kid was six by the way he spoke, “good morning to you Draco, and of course your always welcome here” Draco nods, “Harry is in the dining room, let me take your bag” Draco hands Regulus his bag with a quiet “thank you” before walking to the dining room. He knows exactly where it is because he’s been coming to visit here since he was a baby.
When Regulus reenters the dining room he finds that Draco and Harry are sharing one chair and Draco is now helping himself to some treacle tart. Regulus finds some humor that Harry, who is still in his wrinkled night clothes and hair pointing in every direction, is sharing a chair with Draco who is in freshly ironed clothes and his hair gelled to perfection, they kind of reminded Regulus of him and James.
After everyone has finished breakfast and Kreacher has taken care of the dishes, even though James volunteered to do them, James asks “so what do you two want to do?” “quidditch” they both reply at the same time, “well that was easy” Regulus chuckles, then their all walking outside to the back yard.
Regulus is sitting on the grass watching them pass the quaffle around, James giving them tips as they play, after all if it wasn’t for the war he would have gone pro. Draco has really good aim, he could probably be a chaser like James was, Harry on the other hand was really good at diving to catch it when one of them dropped it, he’d be a good seeker like Regulus.
After a while James came and sat down next to Regulus, interlacing their fingers together, watching the boys pass the quaffle between each other. Regulus noticed that Draco dropped it a lot more than he should, probably because he could tell Harry liked to dive for it.
After a while of them playing Regulus made them get off the brooms while he and James went in the house to get drinks, because they’re not allowed to fly without supervision in case something happens.
Regulus asks Kreacher to get them some drinks then sits down, James sits beside him, then groans, “I think you were right” “I’m always right, but uh what exactly was I right about” Regulus asks with his head held high. James scoffs then bumps his shoulder into Reg’s “I think Harry is going to be a seeker” “I thought that was obvious” Regulus bumps James’ shoulder back, James smiles “I had some hope, that he’d take after me”.
When Regulus doesn’t say anything James keeps talking “he may look like me but that child’s personality is all you” regulus lays his head on James’ shoulder “I’m not sure if that a good thing or not” “honestly me either” James laughs, Regulus laughs too.
when Kreacher returns with the drinks Regulus gets up and walks back towards the door, but when he reaches it he looks back at James “has has your hero complex though” then he’s walking again, James catches up and opens his mouth to protest, but before he gets the chance they both freeze at the scene in front of them.
They look at each other with equally confused expressions and then back in front of them.