Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

Regulus had graduated from his master's program in the spring. His degree was in studio art with a specialization in painting. He knew it wasn't the smartest choice but he enjoyed his degree,it was a well needed break from his childhood and teenager.

He graduated summa cum laude at his university for his undergrad and then went on to study and get his master's. They all studied at the same university for their undergraduate degrees which made living together easy but now they had moved back home for Evan's residency program.

Regulus had yet to find a single job that would take him over the summer. He had even started applying to fast food and coffee shops, just needing any form of income. 

He had moved in with Evan and Barty when he was eighteen. At the time they lived in a luxurious three bedroom apartment, fully paid for by their various parents. When they were nineteen Barty and Evan got outed to their parents, they were immediately cut off from everything and Regulus' parents expected him to cut them off as well.

When he didn't. His parents cut him off instead. Leading them to move into a cramped one bedroom apartment, they slept on a bunk bed that Evan had scored from a house that was being foreclosed.

Regulus slept on the top and Evan and Barty shared the bottom bunk cuddling each other. They struggled more when Evan went to medical school, wanting to become a medical examiner, and Regulus who went to grad school. 

Both of them worked through their post-undergrad education but their hours were short with their degrees which meant they primarily relied on Barty who was the GM for the local Spencer's store. 

Evan was in his residency now, he didn't earn much money, but it was better than medical school where he had his clinicals and didn't get paid. 

They got by on rent, barely. Regulus did odd jobs whenever he could find them, he even picked up Doordashing when they weren't going to make rent, but he hadn't gone so low to go into Uber, he didn't want people in his car.

He received a rejection letter from McDonald's and felt like slitting his throat with one of the dull kitchen knives. 

"I'm killing myself," he announced and went over to his window, he pushed it up and locked it so it wouldn't fall on him. Then put half of his body outside looking down at the street, sitting on the frame.

They didn't live in the best neighborhood, which meant they had cheap rent, but it also meant Regulus got a view of some of the most interesting people he had ever met. Like one man who was sitting on a bench that Regulus was convinced told crack for a living.

"No you're not, just come work with me," Pandora suggested, who was gathering Evan's notes together and putting them in neat little piles. He still practiced his anatomy cards every night.

"Doesn't Lupin work with you?" Regulus scoffed as he looked out into the street. 

Pandora worked at a high school. She was a science teacher who's classes changed depending on the year. He also knew that Lupin, one of Sirius' old friends was an English teacher there and the thought of working with one of his older brother's friend was torture.

To say him and Sirius were distant, was an understatement. They were nine years apart and when Sirius fled from the house Regulus was only seven. He knew his brother existed but that was most of what he knew about him besides his name.

"I don't have any education credits or a teaching certificate," Regulus pointed out, also the thought of teaching kids wasn't pleasant to him. He didn't like kids, even if they were teenagers.

"The school year starts in a couple weeks and our substitute teacher pool is incredibly low," Pandora sang out as she started organizing Evan's books next.

"I hate children."

"They're teenagers."

"Still children."

"I'm just offering you a job," Pandora shrugged with a smile, "If you look online it should come up."

Regulus went ahead and applied once she left the apartment. He got a call the day after and a job right after a short interview with the principal who sounded like he walked out of a children's fantasy book, Albus Dumbledore. Regulus didn't have much room to walk as his name was Regulus Arcturus Black, his family was home to unique names.

They struck a deal that Regulus would only substitute for their high school with the possibility for him also going to the middle school that was attached to them. It wasn't physically attached and about a ten minute drive away but they had the same name, same mascot.

He didn't care too much as long as he was promised some pay.

It was only a week in before he was called in, he wore a turtleneck and a pair of slacks as he walked into the school with his eyes down as he went to the front desk, "Hello, I'm here to sub for Mr. Brennan."

"Hello! Come behind the door and I'll show you how to clock in," the woman at the desk showed him where the machine was and which buttons to press. It was easy enough and he was given the room number for the classroom he would be talking over. 

They went around and introduced him to everyone, the only person he remembered right away was Mary Macdonald, one of the counselors, and that was because the look of her office was overstimulating for Regulus, it was like a playground had thrown up everywhere.

He went inside and there weren't any students yet, he looked around and assumed it was a math class with all of the math pun posters on the walls, it made him want to throw up just like the playground. He grabbed a whiteboard marker and wrote Mr. Black on the whiteboard in his fancy cursive his mother had ingrained in his mind and muscles.

He sat down and looked for a sub binder but there wasn't one, fabulous. He looked for any note on what to do or what to say but there wasn't. Some students started to enter, he had no idea what ages they were. He felt so out of touch.

The bell rang and he took out the attendance sheet the front desk had given him. He went through the names without issue until he saw it, "Harry," of course had James' kid in his class. 

"Here," Regulus already knew who he was before Regulus read his name out. He looked just like how Regulus remembered seeing James for the first time. James was the only friend Regulus had ever caught a glimpse of.

It was only a quick second and then they were gone. Once Regulus grew up he had looked Sirius up online, it was easy enough since Sirius didn't try to hide who he was or where he was.

On his Instagram there was him kissing Remus Lupin's cheek. He had remembered the name from childhood, he looked rougher around the edges than Regulus expected.

He also saw James again. He was still the same boy that Regulsu had caught a glimpse of when he was younger but he was older. There was also one key difference, he had a kid. His kid was all over his page through the different years. 

Harry was an exact copy of James, from his dark tan skin, to his glass, to his messy curls that needed taming, though his eyes were green, not brown. 

"If I ask you what you're learning about, are you going to tell me the truth?" Regulus asked as he stood up and got some giggles from the classroom.

"We're working on this packet," said a girl who was sitting next to Harry, she looked like the preppy type. The class groaned as some people glared at her.

"Thank you… Ms. Granger, correct?" he asked as he picked it up and looked through it. It looked like a preview packet from the year prior, it looked like Algebra II from a quick glance as he put it down, "What is this class?"

"Honor Pre-Calc with dual credit," the girl answered again. Regulus nodded as he went back to the board.

"So you don't need my help do you?"

Some people in the class shook their heads, "Just work on your packets then, if you need help we'll see what I remember from school," he sat down as he tapped on the desk. He should've brought a book. 

He instead continued to snoop through the teacher's items. He had a picture of his family on the desk, a wife, and two little girls. He had his degree in his drawer from an easy to get in state school, Regulus thought it was smart that he hid it. 

The bell rang again before he got too bored, he figured all of them would leave but Harry came up to his desk with the same mischievous smile he remembered from Sirius, "Are you related to Sirius Black?"

It made sense to him that Harry knew about Sirius, he was probably considered an uncle with how close James and Sirius were, without missing a beat he shook his head, "Never heard of him before."

Harry glanced at him like he didn't believe him but the girl from earlier was pulling him away, "Come on Harry, I need to grab something out of my locker," and he went away with that.

The rest of the classes before lunch were uneventful, he didn't recognize any of the names besides Harry's and he was thankful for that. 

During his lunch period he texted Pandora and she said she was free in her classroom. He went in and saw her over at her desk, "Hi Reggie!"

"Don't call me that here, don't want students to accidentally overhear," he closed the door and brought a chair over to her desk, sitting down in it, "You could've told me Potter had a kid here."

"Figured you would've guessed with Lupin teaching here," she shrugged unbothered as she took out a salad and took a big bite.

"Cunt, are there any other surprise kids I should know about?"

"No, that's it. I think you know all of them."

Regulus knew Draco was here, the kid would likely be mortified the moment he realized his uncle was teaching where he went to school, and there was also Luna, but that was it, "Wasn't too bad though, they seemed too scared of me to try pulling anything over on me."

It was true, one student almost tried something but all it took was a glare and they got shut down. 

Regulus went home and neither of his friends' were there waiting for him, Barty usually worked closing and Evan was rarely home with his residency. He had a bowl of cereal and checked to see if there were any openings for tomorrow. There weren't any on the website so he shut his laptop and decided to draw on an old fast food napkin until he passed out.

He didn't have any job at the high school until two weeks later, he had subbed for three days at the middle school in the meantime.

When he arrived he grabbed the clipboard and looked at the room number and attendance sheet, "Oh there's a new student today, here let me add it," one of the women in the office grabbed the clipboard and grabbed a pen.

"Thank you Ms. Macdonald," Regulus looked for a name tag but didn't see one.

"No problem," she smiled and handed it back. Regulus looked down at the name, Edward Tonks . He hid his reaction as he looked back up.

"Thank you, I better get going now," he went out of the office and stared back down at the name. He had heard that name once when he was younger. He wondered if this was her son. 

He went to the room and a small smile found its place on his face as he realized he was subbing for the art teacher. It was a large room, the size of two normal classrooms put together. On one side there were many studio desks, Regulus guessed twenty-four without counting them, with stools to each of them, a long whiteboard in front of them at the front of class. In the middle of the room there were larger studio tables with dried paint all of them, each studio table had several stools that went with it and then on the other side of that, it was a closed off space with pottery wheels.

There were two doors to the room. One by the smaller desks and then one by the larger desks. 

His first two classes went well, the students were just working on various different projects, one was a painting class and the other was a drawing one. For the next class he stared at the attendance list in confusion. It looked like there were four different classes in one. 

The students started entering and he ran across the hallway to Pandora's room since she was directly opposite to his room, "Mrs. Lovegood, do you have a moment?" he smiled tightly.

Pandora went over to him, her heels clicking against the floor, "What's wrong?"
"What is this?" he handed her the clipboard, "Why does it say there's four different classes?"

"Oh, it's because of budget cuts. She isn't able to have an allotted time period for her APs, so they do their work on the bigger tables while she teaches the other classes. These are all of the APs, they can handle themselves," Pandora explained with ease like what she said made sense. 

Regulus nodded, "But that's not fair on the APs."

"The kids are just lucky the art program wasn't completely cut," Pandora gave him a sad smile and then went over to a kid calling her over.

Regulus went back into the art room, almost every single seat was full, including the ones at the bigger tables. He noticed immediately that Harry was in his class with his friend from earlier.

"I'm going to go through attendance and then we can go over the assignment," attendance was easier than he expected. He learned that his supposed nephew was in one of the AP classes, he was sitting at the table with dark blue hair.  

"This is Introduction to 2-D art right? What are we working on?" there once again, wasn't any notes left for him.

The students showed that they were just working on color wheels and shading different shapes. He went over to the AP students, "Do you guys know what you're doing?" he asked and they all nodded in response. He looked over at Edward, "Do you know what to do?"

"Not exactly, I was in it at my last school, but I don't know where anything is in here or what I'm allowed to use," he shrugged. One of the students helped him find his way around. Regulus sat down at the desk and called the front desk to let them know that one student was absent then stood back up and walked around.

He mainly stood around the AP students since he was interested in what they were doing. They had to put together a portfolio with a clear theme, some of them were painting, others drawing, and there was even one student who was a sculpture student.

He kept trying to think of something to say to Edward but when the bell rang and he went to his next class, he still didn't have anything in mind. Three days later he was subbing for the same math teacher again as he went to go to Pandora's room for lunch like he normally did, a woman who was covered in blue paint went down the street crying.

Regulus turned around in his spot as he watched her run over to a corner of the hallway, trying to wipe the paint off of her. A woman came down the hall in heels, she seemed to be in a rush and glanced over at Regulus before glancing back over at the woman, "Ms. Jones you can't run away from your classroom."

"Those kids are monsters," the teacher walked away from her, "I'm done, I can't take anymore," she walked out of the building and the woman blinked before chasing after her.

Regulus walked over to the art room and glanced inside, there was blue paint covering the desk and the chair. He looked at the students and noticed that in the back of the room, there was Harry and Edward snickering to themselves.

He nodded to himself and almost jumped when someone touched his shoulder. He had turned around and saw the woman from before, "Are you currently subbing for a class?"

"Yeah Brennan but he has lunch right now," Regulus answered as he glanced back in then down at her badge, Minerva Mcgonagall, Vice Principal .

"Any chance you could switch to this room?" she asked quietly.

"Yeah, can I ask something inappropriate?" 

"You can try."

"Did she quit?"

"Yes…" McGonagall looked off at the trail of blue paint.

"Do you have another art teacher?" he asked curiously, was it rude of him to try and get a job right after someone quit? Probably.

"No we don't, I'll talk to the principal and we'll put out a listing soon."

"I just thought I should let you know that I don't have my teaching certificate but I do have my undergrad and master's in art," he looked at her with a sly grin.

"Would you be interested in getting an emergency permit?" she asked curiously.

"Absolutely."

It wasn't very hard to get his emergency permit and since rent needed to be paid, Regulus was more than happy to try and teach kids how to draw. Mary had given him a binder for the AP students and the AP program, due to his master's, he could continue to teach them, but it explained what was expected of the students.

He did his own research at home, watching different videos of the student's portfolios who went to other schools. Regulus came in for his first official day, it was the open house which meant he would be there until late at night but he had made aware of that the day prior.

The students already knew that he was taking over, but now it was official. He had a curriculum to follow that helped him know what was expected for the students to learn, he let him finish their previous assignments as it gave him time to figure out what he was doing next.

In total he had eight different classes in six period slots, Introduction to 2-D Art, Honors 2-D Art, Drawing I and II, Painting I and II, Sculpture I and II, AP Drawing, AP 2-D, and AP 3-D. He didn't have a planning period like the other teacher's which meant he was doing his planning during lunch.

The day passed by quickly until the final bell rang, someone stepped through the door and Regulus' eyes shot up. It was Remus Lupin with a cup of tea, the man from the photo who looked older and more tired than he remembered.

"Sorry, I just, I used to come in here prior to open house," Remus apologized and was about to head out when he gave a second look at Regulus, "I'm sorry this is rude to ask, but I heard from the other teachers that your name is Regulus Black?"

"Last time I checked," Regulus got up and went over to his whiteboard, he erased what was currently on it and wrote his name out with open house beneath it.

"Are you related to Sirius Black?" Remus asked as he stepped his tea bag as he watched him write.

Regulus looked back at him, what were the odds that Remus knew he was? "No," he lied and leaned against the board.

"Really?" Remus asked, he could tell Remus didn't believe him one bit, "Siris doesn't know you're here, but I assume there aren't very many Regulus Blacks from around here."

Regulus sighed, "How many people come to these open houses?" he asked, changing the subject.

"You'll be lucky if you get five parents," Remus answered with a light laugh, "Do you want Sirius' number or address? Hell, even email."

"Get out of my classroom," Regulus gave him a tight smile that was meant to be a threat, he didn't want to think about his brother or family when parents were about to arrive. It got Remus to leave the room and Regulus took out a sketchbook. The hours passed and no one visited like Remus said they wouldn't. 

That was until a woman knocked on the door, Regulus put his sketchbook down and looked up at the woman. She looked too young to be a parent of a teenager, she had a punk rock style going on with her leather skirt and ripped long sleeve shirt, even her ripped fishnets and her light pink hair that went down to her chin, "Sorry for being so late, I just got off of work," she walked over to his desk. 

Regulus stood up and shook her hand, "No need to apologize, which student is yours?" 

"Teddy," the woman answered and sat down on one of the stools.

Regulus froze, he didn't recognize that name, "I apologize I'm new, which class is he in?" he asked as he grabbed his clipboard of attendance.

"AP Studio Art: Drawing, third period, you may know him as Edward," she answered.

Regulus set the clipboard now, Tonks. He looked back up at the woman, she definitely wasn't his cousin, she would be too young, was Edward his great-nephew? "I know him. Is there anything in particular you were curious about?"

"Not particularly, I just like to get to know his teachers, especially since we're new to the school."

"What brings you to the area? Work? Your husband's work? Family?" Regulus didn't actually care but he wanted to know how she fit into the Tonks bloodline.

"I wanted to move closer to my mother again, I don't have a husband, I'm a single parent," she answered with a little nod.

"Ah, well. There isn't much to know about me," Regulus shrugged, he wondered if she was his niece.

"What did you go to school for?" she asked as Regulus looked at her facial features, she looked like she could be a part of the family.

"Painting," Regulus answered and gestured to his degrees behind him that he had hung up earlier that day.

"Can I ask something possibly inappropriate?" she asked and Regulus nodded, "Do you know Andromeda Black?' She sounded desperate. Not in a bad way but in the way Regulus thought it sounded like she was looking for scraps.

"Why?" Regulus asked as he regretted almost not just saying no.

"She's my mom… she doesn't talk about her family often and my son, he's struggling with the lack of a support system. So I was wondering if you were part of that family to help broaden the people he can go to," she explained quickly standing up again.

"You don't want your son around this family," Regulus said as he looked away from her, "And I'm sure our counselors will be happy to help if an issue arises."

"But why do you think the family wouldn't be good for him?"

"I'm not going into it," Regulus sighed, he didn't want to open the door to his family again but between Edward and Remus he felt like he wasn't going to have much of a choice this year.

"That's… alright," the woman said defeatedly and it almost made Regulus feel a little bad, almost, but not quite.

Regulus wondered if Sirius knew he existed, Sirius would be the type of person she was looking for, but he wasn't about to reconnect with his lost brother over some kid, "What's your name by the way?"

"Just call me Tonks," she smiled.

"Okay Ms. Tonks, I don't have a candy bowl but I think some of the other teachers do," Regulus tried to make a joke but it fell flat onto the floor. 

She started to walk out, not impressed by the lack of humor, "Thank you."

Regulus wasn't sure what she was thanking him for, "You're welcome," but he'd take the credit anyway. No other parents showed up, he locked both of the doors to the art room behind him and went out to his car. He had a feeling that he should've kept applying for the McDonalds job instead of taking this one.

Chapter Text

Remus was locking up his classroom and walking out with his bag full of essays, homework, his notes, and various different pens when he almost ran straight into a woman, "I'm sorry miss," he said as he took a step back.

"It's alright," she fixed her skirt as she took a step back and looked at him with a wide happy smile, "Holy shit, hi Remus!"

Remus froze as he looked at the woman. Should he recognize her? He looked at her pink hair and clothing and honestly couldn't remember her. She looked like she could be related to Sirius with the way she was dressed.

"Hi," he greeted her with a warm smile, "Do I have one of your kids?"

"I don't think so, it's Dora by the way, Nymphadora," she introduced herself once she realized Remus didn't recognize her, her smile dropping a little.

"Dora," Remus said as if that rang a bell in his head but he was still confused.

"You don't remember me do you?" Dora laughed.

"No, I don't," Remus told her honestly with a slight cringe expression on his face.

"We used to have a thing going on, about seventeen years ago."

"Ah," that would explain it. Seventeen years ago Remus spent most of the time so high on drugs he didn't know his own name, all of them were, "I was not in a good headspace during that period of my life, so I apologize for not… remembering you."

"I knew you were in a rough spot, you seem better now."

"I am," Remus was ten years sober in two weeks, same as Sirius. They had quit at the same time, they went through the withdrawals together in their shitty apartment. 

"I'm happy, Remus, I'm really happy for you," Dora reached out to touch his arm, she took it back when she glanced at his hand, "You got married."

"I did," Remus nodded, "Five years in October," he flashed his gold ring, it was a simple band. He had asked Sirius to marry him when their AC went out in the middle of summer, they were at James's house after Harry had come back home. James and Lily were still on house arrest so they had all gone over to throw a small party.

Remus got all caught up in the moment and asked Sirius in front of everyone. Sirius had always said that he was never going to marry someone but yet, on Halloween, they got married in a courthouse surrounded by their friends. 

"She's a lucky girl."
"Yeah he is," Remus was openly bisexual and in a gay relationship, he got dirty looks from the other teacher sometimes but it was worth it whenever he saw a student's eyes light up when he mentioned it. If he made one kid happy, that was enough, "So you have a kid here? Student?" 

"Kid, he's a junior."

"My best friend has a kid that age," James and Lily had Harry when they were seventeen, Lily was pregnant when she walked across the stage but she didn't have the baby until the summer. Remus paused, Juniors could be sixteen, "How old is he?"

"Sixteen."

Remus gave her a look, full of pleading.

Dora didn't move as if something would happen if she breathed too hard, "I- I don't know."

"You don't know?" Remus asked as he put his hands on his sides, he could have a kid. A kid he knew nothing about, a kid he could have been a deadbeat dad to for the past sixteen years.

"You weren't the only one Remus, I don't know. I had no way to contact you or I would've told you, fuck, I mean. I didn't even know that you would be here and now," Dora ran her fingers through her hair as she was almost shaking . 

"I don't blame you, this is just a lot to process during an open house. What uh, what's his name?'

"Edward but he goes by Teddy, or Ted, he hates his full name."

Remus bit the inside of his cheek hard, "That's a good name."

"It was my father's," Dora breathed out a little shaky, trying to shake off the nerves.

"I'd do a test if you wanted, if he wanted," Remus figured now was the time to offer, even if it wasn't really for them, it would be for him. Remus didn't want to be left alone with his thoughts about possibly having a son.

"That would be a long conversation he would have to agree to," Dora rolled her lips together in a thin line.

"Here's uh, here's my number," Remus went into his big and ripped off a piece of paper from his notebook, then grabbed a pen and wrote down his number quickly.

Dora took it from him, "Thanks," she sounded sincere as she took the paper, "I gotta get home and cook dinner, but I'll text you."

"I should get going too, my friends are expecting me," Remus watched as she walked away. He let a solid breathe out and turned to go to his car. James would have alcohol at his house. He needed a drink.

"I wonder if they know each other, I'll have to ask what's his name?"

It was a short drive to James' house, he jumped out and walked in, knowing that the front door was unlocked.

"You're late," Harry turned around on the couch, Remus looked at what he was watching, it was some dumb movie. He never considered Harry his kid, he was his nephew but not his kid. Remus had always wanted a family, when he was younger he dreamed of four kids and a white picket fence.

That never came to him. Just bottles of alcohol and whatever pills one of his friends managed to score. 

"I'm like twenty minutes late," Remus walked over to him and ruffled his hair, putting on his award winning fake smile that even James still believed, "Where's your dad?"

"I don't know," Harry rolled his eyes, "Want to help me with my school work?"

"Do you mean I do your work and you tell your teacher you did it?" Remus asked as he glanced in the kitchen, looking for one of his friends.

"No," Harry gave him a smile and the sound of footsteps came from the top of stairs, more men's voice.

"You're late Moony," Sirius sang as he quickly ran down the stairs and put his arm around Remus' shoulders.

"It was open house, something you should've gone to Prongs," Remus pointed at James who flipped him off before making his way into the kitchen.

"Harry, do you want me to talk to your teachers?"

"No."

"See," James grabbed a beer from his fridge and tossed one to Remus and Sirius.

"It doesn't matter what your teenage son wants, just talk to the teachers, we're begging you to talk to us," Remus opened the beer with the bottle opener on his keychain, he would prefer something stronger but it would raise eyebrows if he asked.

"You're my son's teacher, how is he doing?" James grinned and headed out to the backyard, the two men following James got just like they had done in school, they were always trailing after James.

"He's doing good but you could talk to his other teachers," Remus suggested with another fake smile as he sipped on his beer sitting down in one of the lawn chairs.

Right when Remus was about to tell them what happened, Harry followed them out with a binder of school work, "Did you know that Uncle Pad's brother is teaching me?"

Remus watched as Sirius spilled beer all over his shirt, staring at Harry and then his eyes moving to Remus, an eyebrow arched, "Is he telling the truth?"

Remus sighed, he glared at Harry who just smiled innocently in return, he looked at the three men then got up, "I think Heromine wants to call me," he rushed inside.

"Remus?" Sirius asked as he set his beer down.

"Regulus may be teaching at the school," Remus had been hiding it from his husband. He had overheard a Mr. Black subbing for some classes and originally thought Sirius did it as a joke, that was until he caught a glimpse of Regulus.

He didn't know what Regulus looked like until then but he knew it was him. He had spent so many years staring at Sirius, he could tell the man was related to him. And when Regulus' paperwork started, Remus officially knew it was him.

He knew he would've told Sirius but he didn't know how he would react so he thought the best thing was ignoring it all together.

"What does he teach?" Sirius asked as he glanced down at the grass under the lawn chairs. James had a nice back yard, the lawn chairs were not great but they were special, no matter where James lived, the chairs followed.

"Art," Remus answered, "He got a degree in it, two I think actually."

Sirius sucked the beer out of his shirt and then took it off, "Cool."

There was tension in the air, Sirius' family was a sensitive topic, even in their thirties it still was, "He's doing good Sirius."

"Good," Sirius gave a real smile and finished off his beer, Remus watched him with worry as he finished off his own beer, "That's really good Remus."

Maybe now wasn't the time to mention a possible child.

Regulus had come in early, he was starting his new projects today and wanted to make sure that everything was good. There was a closet in the corner of the room where the canvases were kept, he got them out and put them down on each of the desks as his painting class was his first one.

There was a knock on his door as he looked over at Edward entering the room, "Hi, I was wondering if I could hang out until school starts."

Regulus sighed but nodded, "Is there a reason you're at the school an hour before it starts?" he asked as he got the paint ready near the sinks.

"My mom dropped me off and I don't want to go to my physics class before it starts," he laughed as he sat down where he normally sat during his class period.

"You have to leave when the bell rings but you can stay in here till then, have you figured out an idea for your portfolio yet?" Regulus asked as he tripled checked over everything and then started to ready the sets for his drawing class.

"Yeah, I think I have a pretty solid idea."

"Can I know it?"

"Not until my first piece is down," Edward shook his head with a smile.

Regulus sighed, "Just make it good."

They coexisted in silence until the bell rang and Regulus kicked the kid out. His classes went well, the students seemed actually interested in the projects he had created. Third period came around and he saw Edward go over and grab some pencils and paper, he was sketching something out.

Regulus explained the project, they had to make a drawing using a monochromatic color palette, it was just a still life and supposed to teach them about color values. The students started on it and he walked over the APs, checking in with them. Most of the ideas were good, the only student he was really concerned about was Edward but that was just because he was behind the other ideas.

He waited till the end of class to walk over to him, looking over his shoulder, Regulus couldn't tell what it was, "What are you thinking of using?"

"Oil pastels," Teddy answered as he put the piece in one of the lockers under the table.

"You are willingly going to work with oil pastels?" Regulus asked as his next class started to enter. He had nothing against the medium, it looked beautiful when handled and used correctly but Regulus had always struggled with it, they never blended correctly, and when he got close, the pigment would wipe itself away.

"Yeah, I like them," Edward grinned, "Gotta head out Mr. Black."

Regulus went over to his desk, the next class was pottery, which he admitted wasn't the best at. He knew how to fire the works and work with a kiln. Luna came up to him to show her idea for the bowl, "Does this look good?"

He was having them sketch out their ideas before they started on them, "Yeah it does," he glanced at it just to make sure it wasn't a dick, which he didn't have to worry about with Luna.

"I was wondering if you're going to continue the Art Club, are you?" Luna asked as she grabbed her sketch back.

"What?" Regulus asked, looking up from what he was working on.

"Art club, the art teacher always sponsors it," Luna continued.

"No, I'm not doing that."

"Why not? They say that creativity is how it opens our soul," Luna skipped back to her desk. If Luna didn't look like a copy of Pandora, he would have guessed that Xenophillius had reproduced on his own, that child had his brain.

Regulus' classes went by with ease once again and he went to go to Pandora's room but she was already gone. He stopped a random teacher in the hallway to ask where Lupin's class was, he found it by the number they told him.

Remus was still sitting at his desk. He looked up at the door, "Hello Regulus."

"Hello, I was wondering, if you knew how bad it would be if I cancelled Art Club this year?" he asked as he walked up to his desk. On the wall behind him there was a photo of him and Sirius, they looked all lovey dovey, it made him sick.

There was another photo of their happy little friend group all together.

"It would be horrible," Remus looked up from what he was working on, "The students want it, they'll be sad."

"I don't care if they'll be sad, I don't want to host it," Regulus complained as he kept staring at the photo.

"Too bad you're the art teacher," Remus shrugged.

"Hey babe, I'm here to-" Regulus turned around to stare at who came in the room. It was Sirius Black. His brother. His brother was in the same room as him. His brother. 

"Sirius," Regulus said as he read out his visitor's badge, he was spinning his car keys in his hand.

"Regulus," Sirius looked down at the badge around Regulus' neck.

"I should go," Regulus started to leave but Sirius was body blocking the door.

"Don't leave," Sirius swallowed, "Harry told me you taught here but I figured you wouldn't be in Remus' room."

"I was asking him a question, it's what co-workers do," Regulus was thinking about jumping through the window to avoid this.

"Why are you working here? We both know you have more than enough money to last you several lifetimes," Sirius rolled his eyes as he still didn't move from the doorway.

"Got cut off just like you but what would you know about it? You left your kid brother in an abusive house," Regulus shrugged with a smile, "Do you know they hit me?"

"Regulus…" Sirius said quietly, "I couldn't bring you, they would've sent the cops, wait, you got cut off? Are you okay? Where are you living?" His voice started to edge on concern.

"I'm fine Sirius, I have a job as you see," Regulus lifted his badge.

"Show me where you're living."
"No."

"How am I supposed to know you're not living in your car or on the street then?"

"I'm living with Barty and Evan, I'm fine."

"Show me."

Regulus ended up bringing Sirius back to his apartment. Remus too, but that was because Remus' car was in the shop. That's the reason that Sirius was at the school to give him a ride home. Regulus opened the door, there were a few empty Amazon boxes near the entrance.

Sirius walked in and looked around with a grimace, "Is the wall paper normally like that?" 

Regulus looked over at the wall Sirius was referring to, the wallpaper was ripping down from the top corner. Water damage visible behind the wallpaper and on the ceiling above the spot, like it was threatening to cave in.

"Yes Sirius," Regulus sighed.

"Why are there only two doors?" Sirius asked opening both of them, one led to their tiny bathroom where even Regulus struggled to fit in the shower and the other one lead to the bedroom with their bunk.

"Because there's rooms behind them."

"Why aren't there more rooms?"

"Because it's a one bedroom apartment."

"You said three of you live here though."

"Clever as always," Regulus walked over to the window, he looked out down below, he could've killed himself when Pandora was over.

"Move in with me," Sirius crossed his arms, trying to put on his parental voice.

"No," Regulus opened the window.

"I have three guest bedrooms, take one," Sirius didn't even glance over at Remus as he offered.

"No thank you, now get out or I call the police," Regulus sat on the window frame, looking out to the street.

"Reg-"

"Out Sirius," Regulus spat as he thought about throwing himself off just to get the last laugh at Sirius. He couldn't just waltz back in, give him a room, and then act like nothing bad happened, like Sirius didn't leave him in that house. He heard the door close and he still thought about throwing himself out of the window. 

Remus was sitting in his classroom. Sirius wasn't handling the new brother news the best. After they left Regulus' apartment, Sirius had dropped him off then said he was going to the store.

He did go to a store, a liquor store. 

Remus made him dump the bottles out and throw them away the moment he stepped through the door. That's what they did, they checked each other, they kept each other from diving too far off of the edge.

It was after the day but he was staying late to check up on grading the essays, there was a knock at the door, and he was expecting it to be Regulus or Harry, "Come in."

It was neither of them. Instead it was a teenage boy, blue hair, lip piercings on either side of his bottom lip where the black jewelry shined from the sun coming in from his window.

The boy was tall, only a few inches below Remus, he was skinny, borderline being lanky instead of lean, "Are you Mr. Lupin?"

"I am," Remus flipped over the essay he was grading, "I don't believe you're in my class, are you wondering about the Shakespeare club? Because I don't host it." It was a common mistake a lot of students made.

"No, I uh, I'm Ted," he laughed walking up to Remus' desk, with each foot step, Remus felt his heart drop one floor lower, "My mom doesn't know I'm here. She doesn't even know that I worked out what she said, she tried covering for you, but she's not very good at lying."

"Sit," Remus got up and walked over to the door, closing it, and then walking back over, opting for leaning against the front of his desk instead of sitting down as Ted sat down, "Why are you here?"

"Do you think I'm your kid?" Ted asked with a laugh.

Shit, he was getting right to the point wasn't he, "I don't know."

"You look like me."

"I think it would be the opposite, you look like me," Remus corrected him.

"Same thing."

"It's not."

"Okay, so you're just here to ask questions then?" Remus asked as he tried to redirect the conversation.

"Basically, mainly wondering if the whole abandoning thing was on purpose," Ted leaned back in his chair, messing with one of his lip rings with his tongue.

"There is a high chance you're not my kid," Remus sighed.

"I'll take that as a no, did you date my mom? Were you in love with her?" Ted asked.

Remus wished he didn't have Sirius throw the liquor out, "Why don't we start with a test before the questions? We will see if I am… your father. And if I am, we go from there."

"Okay you figure out the semantics to that, and text my mom when you see," Ted out up and patted Remus on the shoulder with a smile, "See ya later dad."

Remus knew the teenager was just joking around, trying to annoy him or get him to say something dumb, but Remus couldn't help the way it made him giddy as a real smile found its way onto his face.

Chapter Text

Harry was a good kid. He rarely got in trouble, he had good grades, and he never missed school. Yet this was the third meeting this school year. 

"We know Harry hasn't had many behavioral issues till now, have there been any big changes in his life?" the counselor asked Lily. James was supposed to be here but he would never show up.

James wasn't a bad dad he just struggled with the discipline part. He thought Harry could do no wrong which left Lily at the meetings alone. 

"No, there haven't been," Lily shook her head.

"No new partners or house?"

Lily shook her head again, "I moved out five years ago and haven't brought anyone home around Harry," she had girlfriends but none of them had ever lasted long enough for her to introduce them to him. They had a checklist a mile long they had to finish before she introduced them.

"And James?"

"Not that I know of," Lily grabbed one of the fidget toys off of the desk, rolling it between her fingers. Her and James were still friends even when he called the engagement off. It was the best for both of them, they were too unhealthy for each other, bringing out the best and worst parts in each other. 

"We know that Harry had a… rough childhood to say the least," the counselor carefully said as Lily's eye shot up, staring directly into the woman's. Mary MacDonald. She knew her name, she learned it from their first interaction three weeks ago, "And we're worried that has something to do with it."

"Harry's been in therapy for the past six years," Lily made sure of it, he went twice a week when they started and now he went once a week even though he claimed he didn't need it anymore.

"And that's wonderful but sometimes that type of trauma leads to developmental issues later in life," Mary continued.

 Lily felt sick as she gripped the toy in her hand tighter, "He's just doing pranks. James did pranks all throughout school," she wasn't sure who she was trying to convenience more, her or Mary.

"I've heard the tales," Mary laughed, "But it's just something we need to keep an eye on, while I have you here. We noticed that Harry's grades are slipping, primarily in math and art class. It's the beginning of the year which is why we're so concerned."

"Art?" Lily asked, "How do you fail an art class?"

"That's something you'd have to ask the art teacher, I apologize for keeping you the entire open house or you could've talked to him in person. I can provide you with his email though," Mary grabbed a sticky note writing the math and art teacher's emails then passed it over. Lily took it and stared.

Regulus Black - Art - [email protected]

Regulus Black. As in Sirius' brother Regulus Black. Lily felt like a headache was coming on, "Thank you, is there anything else you need from me?"

"No, I hope your husband can join us next time," Mary smiled.

"We're not together," Lily sighed as she got up, "We are separated."

"I apologize Ms. Evans, habit," Mary cleared her throat as she looked down at her desk.

"It's fine," it wasn't, "have a good day," she walked out of the office with her head in his hands. She called James but it went to voicemail, she considered driving over there but she had a shift at six in the morning the next day so decided against it.

Lily was so busy she wasn't able to talk to James until the football game Friday night. She went to them whenever she could, Harry had made varsity the year prior and she always showed up like the supportive mother she was. She saw Remus, Sirius, and James all huddled up together like they normally were and walked over to them.

"Talking about how you peaked in high school?" she asked as sat down next to Remus.

"Obviously Lils," James grinned, handing her a diet Dr. Pepper and Reese's.

"Thanks James," she opened it and took a drink, when you dated someone for so many years, those things you didn't just forget.

"Didn't know your brother taught here Sirius," Lily said as the marching band was setting up for pregame. The football players going to one side of the field to practice, Lily spotted Harry and gave him a big dramatic wave, she could see the way he rolled his eyes from all the way away.

"I didn't know either until a couple days ago," Sirius leaned into Remus, "This guy decided to hide it from me, for weeks."

"For like two weeks Padfoot," Remus cut in.

"Still hid it from me, what else are you hiding from me?" Sirius asked jokingly but Lily noticed the way Remus's eyes failed to crinkle as he laughed and how he bit his lip as he laughed. Remus was hiding something else from Sirius.

"Nothing you dramatic oaf," Remus laughed as he teased him.

"Speaking of oafs, look at the other schools' teams," James pointed at them. They looked like grown men. Harry would be fine. He was always fine, he was built like his father, he could take a hit or two, but the thought of anyone tackling him made Lily ill.

"That's not very nice, they're children James," Remus rolled his eyes.

"They're massive," Sirius agreed with James. He always agreed with James, if James said the sky was neon green, Sirius would be the first one to agree.

"He'll be fine," Lily bit her lip as the marching band played, none of them got up for the national anthem like normal, and then the game started soon after. Lily intently watched as Harry threw the ball down the field.

He was the quarterback and Lily winced as she watched him get tackled the play after.

"They have helmets for a reason," Remus mumbled over to her, knowing how she got during a game sometimes.

"But do they have to hit that hard?" The kid who tackled Harry had to weigh a hundred pounds more than he did.

"Yes, it's sports," James nodded as he watched, getting up to scream at the ref during one call, "Bullshit!" he screamed.

Remus looked over at Lily as Sirius also got up, "Want to get another drink?"

Lily looked down at her mostly full diet Dr. Pepper, "Sure," the two quickly got up as Sirius and James continued to scream at the adults down on the field. 

Once they reached the bottom the two broke out into quiet laughter, they did get in line for concessions though. Sure they were overpriced trash but Lily liked supporting the school.

"So what are you hiding from Sirius?" Lily asked curiously, not letting go of the lie she saw him tell earlier.

"Nothing," Remus whistled as he shrunk in on himself, trying to make himself look smaller.

" Remus ."

"I may or may not have a kid I just learned about this week," Remus whispered as he leaned in close to her ear.

Lily had to have heard him wrong, "What?"

"I may or may not have a kid," he repeated, "I- I met up with an old fling, not in that way, and she dropped that she has a kid the same age as when we used to mess around."

"Oh you're fucked," Lily laughed loudly, attracting some looks from those nearby.

"Shut it," Remus groaned, "He may not be mine, I ordered a paternity test, it'll be here next week. Then we do it, ship it off, and three days after that I can prove I don't have a kid."

"Or you'll prove you have a kid, how old is he?" 

"Sixteen."

Lily's mouth dropped, "You're telling me this entire time we could've had matching birthday parties for our kids?" 

"You're not taking this seriously."

"I am too, you have a kid. And you got to miss the blow out diapers, so, consider yourself lucky," Lily laughed as they made it up to the front, she got another pack of Reese's and Remus got a Coke. They got their drinks and then went off to the fence near the field to continue watching the game.

"He can't be mine," Remus sighed.

"Do you think he is? Have you seen him? Does he look like you?" 

Remus went quiet as he sipped on his Coke, telling Lily the answer to her questions.

"He's absolutely yours," Lily continued to laugh.

"Sirius doesn't know," Remus cheered when they moved up on a play.

"You should tell him."

"I know but after the Regulus thing, I don't want to throw more things at him. What's up with you?"

"Nothing is up with me."

" Lily ," Remus raised an eyebrow at her. That was the thing with Remus and Lily, they knew everything about each other, without even having to say it, it was the same thing James and Sirius had with each other.

"Harry got in trouble again," she sighed, "James didn't show up, again. The counselor thinks it has to do with his trauma."

"Mary is a good counselor, did you ask her why she thinks that?" 

" Mary didn't tell me, though, I didn't exactly give her a chance to. All she said was that childhood trauma could lead to these issues."

"She's not wrong, look at Sirius," Remus joked, a bit of dark humor, "But Harry did go through shit. It's bound to fuck him up a little, even if it's hard to admit that as his mother."

James and Lily weren't the best parents when Harry was gone. They were addicts and bad ones at that, Lily barely managed to stay off while she was pregnant. She didn't even slip up during breastfeeding, but once Harry was weaned off, that's when the drugs came back in.

James hadn't stopped smoking that entire time and was overjoyed when Lily joined back in. They weren't neglectful parents, they still took care of Harry, whenever they went to the doctor or to the daycare, they always said how loved Harry was, how smart he was, how good of parents they were.

That was until Lily got pulled over for speeding. She didn't even realize she was but she was so tired from her college classes that she didn't register it. She had just finished smoking a joint and her car still reeked of weed.

She still remembered the cold metal of the handcuffs against her wrists. It wasn't her first time getting arrested and it wasn't her last but it was the mark of the fall. It was the beginning of the jail time, of the court cases, of Harry being sent to her god awful sister's, of the house arrest it was the beginning of the end. 

When they got Harry back Lily, James, Sirius, and Remus tried to press charges against her sister and his husband, anyone could see how damaged he was. The housewife act worked for Petunia well, no one would believe Lily, the drug addict, over her. 

Lily tried to make up for the lost time, she tried to make up for everything but it was one of those things she could never fix. She had failed at being a mother.

"But what am I supposed to do Rem? I don't know what else I can do except to put him in more therapy," Lily wanted to do more for him, she just didn't know what to do, she took him to trips whenever she could or whenever he wanted, she got him on the weekends as James had primary custody over him.

They never fought over custody but when they got him back, they were already separated by then, even if they were going to live in the same house for the time being. By the end of the court cases, Lily had far more charges than James, and so the court put Harry in his primary care.

Lily tried her best to not get upset at it. She knew James was a good guy and a good father, but she couldn't help the way she missed her baby during the week. James didn't work though and Lily spent most of her day at work normally, so maybe it was for the best even if she still hated it.

"Love him, support him," Remus answered.

"Are you saying I don't already do those things?"

"No, I'm just saying keep doing them. The best way to make sure nothing bad is happening is to keep a clear line of communication. Let him feel able to tell you whatever he's doing without fear of punishment."

"I do, at least I think we do," Lily nodded. Harry was close to both of his parents, Lily wasn't sure if there was even a favorite between the two of them, but the trauma was trauma. It wasn't something that was just going to go away, and Lily would still catch things even now.

"You're good parents Lily, you just had a rough start."

"We're good parents now, we were shitty parents before," Lily corrected him.

"Nah, you just had slip ups."

"Remus, if you saw us on the news without knowing us, you would be thinking differently. I don't even remember his first words or his first steps because I was too high off my ass, those things we can't get back in life," Lily looked back at James and Sirius who had seemed to calm down, "We should head back."

Remus was quiet, "Yeah we probably should."

By the end of the game all of them were near the spot Harry would come out. He did shortly, a hoodie and jeans on instead of the bulky uniform. Lily walked over and gave him a big hug, "You did so good out there."

"Thank mom," Harry chuckled as he hugged her back, Lily was thankful he never had the no mom that's embarrassing stage, at least he hadn't had it yet.

Lily pulled away and James gave him a big high five, "You did great son."

"Thanks dad," Harry laughed as he high fived him back, "I think the other kids shoot up steroids."

"You could always shoot up to fight back," James suggested with a laugh and Lily hit him in the back of the head.

"No, no one is shooting up anything," Lily gave James a mothering look.

"Don't worry I'm not dumb like dad," Harry laughed, there was an awkward beat of silence as Harry continued, "Can I have twenty bucks? Ron and Mione want to go out."

James opened his wallet and passed over a couple twenty dollar bills, "That way you can cover for everyone."

"Do you need a ride?" Lily asked, they were going to get Harry a car. James wanted to gift it for his sixteenth birthday but Lily wanted to make sure he wasn't going to crash the minute he got in it. Harry had yet to prove he was trustworthy enough for that. 

"Please," Harry gave her a side hug. 

"Come on kiddo, I'll see the rest of you at James' house yeah?" Lily asked and they all gave a nod up. After football games they usually went over to James' and drank beer until they got bored of what they were watching, she could talk about the meeting there.

Harry and Lily got into her car, "Where are you guys going?"

"Denny's," Harry buckled his seatbelt as Lily started to drive.

"Why..? I will drive you somewhere nicer," Lily laughed as she glanced over at him. It was hard to believe that he was old enough to drive his own car, in Lily's mind he was still the young boy who was obsessed with hot wheels. 

"Because it's where we always go," Harry took out his phone and grinned as he tapped away.

Harry put on the rock station as she drove, she giggled when she glanced over to see what station it was. Of course Sirius had made him just as much of a fan of rock as him. "Just text me when you need to be picked up alright?"

"Yes mom," Harry rolled his eyes dramatically. The rest of the drive was silent, except for the few words Harry or Lily would occasionally sing.

Harry got out of the car after giving his mom another hug then went into the building, Hermione and Ron were already there, sitting in their normal spot in the back. His phone was going off, teammates asking him to go to their party. He'd go once they convinced Hermione, or whenever she wanted to go to sleep.

"You should get your head checked out," Hermione said once he sat down, leaning across the table to grab the side of his head.

"You're mental, he's fine, let the poor man rest," Ron scoffed as the waitress came up to get their orders. It was the same thing every time, a round of strawberry milkshakes for everyone and two orders of fries. 

Rarely they would get actual food.

"I'm sorry I'm an actual friend Ronald and want to make sure Harry doesn't faint in the middle of pre-calculus," Hermonie blew the paper from her straw at Ron's face, causing Harry to laugh quietly at his friends. He could faint in the middle of pre-calc and not miss much, math came easily to him.

That's why he was still able to get a hundred on last week's test while having a forty percent in the class already. 

"He's not going to faint, you treat him like a vase," Ron did the same to her, the straw wrapper flying somewhere under the table.

"I'm not a vase," Harry added. He had enough scars on his body to prove it.

The chair next to Harry got pulled out as Teddy sat down next to him. Harry didn't speak to Teddy much, mainly just in art class and between classes, but as far as Harry was concerned, he was a genius. 

The third week of school Teddy set up a contraption to have paint explode on the old art teacher, Harry would've felt a little bad if it wasn't so funny, "What's up losers?"

"No one invited you to this table," Ron's face went from a friendly smile to a scowl. He wasn't the biggest fan of Teddy, which even then was an understatement, Harry thought he was just dramatic but Ron was insistent that he was trying to replace him. Even though Harry kept telling him that he was irreplaceable.

"Ted's always allowed," Harry gave Ron a look telling him to chill the fuck out. 

"We're not in elementary school anymore, no one needs to be invited to a table," Hermione smiled at Teddy as the waitress came over to them, dropping off their drinks.

"Do you want anything darling?" the waitress asked Teddy.

"No thank you," he shook his head and she went back to the waitress area.

"How painful is it to get that pierced?" Harry asked him pointing to his eyebrow piercing. Teddy in total had snakebites, his eyebrow pierced, and a bridge piercing, "Not at all," he shrugged.

"Do you have ink?" Harry wanted a tattoo but he couldn't even convince his dad to sign off on it, his mom was a lost cause he knew. He had thought about asking Sirius to pretend to be his dad and to take him.

"Yeah one on my chest," Teddy nodded as the waitress brought him over the water. He sheepsily said, "Thank you."

"Your mother must be really chill," Ron's scowl was sipping already, "My mom would tie me up and feed me to the birds if I did that."

" I would feed you to the birds you did that," Hermione giggled as she took a drink.

"She hates me," Ron rolled his eyes at her.

"I sure do Ronald," Hermione rolled her eyes in return, "What are you doing here Teddy? Just stopping by?"

"Yeah, I live close by," Teddy nodded, "Figure I'd come here and see if someone was here but she's not."

" She ?" Harry asked with a smirk as he sucked on his straw as the fries sat down on the table.

"Yes she, her name is Darla and she makes a wonderful grilled cheese," Teddy messed with one of his lip piercings as he grinned, "Is this what you guys do after games?"

"Yeah," Hermione nodded, "It's tradition at this point."

"Why not do something more fun?" Teddy asked, glancing around the mostly empty Denny's.

"Fun like parities?" Harry nudged Hermione under the table with his foot, "We should go to the party."

"Parties are drugs and alcohol," Hermione shook her head, "I don't want to get so high I can't remember my name."

"You act like they're going to have acid or ketamine," Harry sighed, "It's just weed and cheap beer."

"And I don't need to get addicted to weed."

"Can you even get addicted to weed?" Ron asked out loud as he stared up at the ceiling.

"Yes," Hermoine said.

"No," Teddy said at the same time.

"I don't think so," Harry shrugged, "Anyway, why? Do you know any good spots?" he asked Teddy, he had his football friends parties but sometimes those weren't the best.

"I know a couple, depending on how punk rock you wanna get."

"I'm going to go home if you two are going to a party," Hermione sighed, "I have to volunteer in the morning."

"You coming Ron?" Harry invited him but Ron looked Teddy up and down and the scowl returned.

"No, I'll take Mione home," Ron had a cheap car that got from point A to point B, their milkshakes were barely touched as they started to get up. Harry tossed two twenty dollar bills on the table, it would cover the cost and a hefty tip on top.

"Don't do something dumb…" Hermione told Harry with a motherly tone as Ron put his arm around her as he glared at Teddy, it wasn't in a romantic way, more of a protective way.

"I won't," Harry winked, "I'll text you when I'm home."

The trio hugged and Ron and Hermione walked out together, he turned to Teddy as they started to walk out, Harry not sure where they were headed but didn't care.

"Are you going to piss your pants if you see some crazy shit?" Teddy asked as they walked alongside a street.

"No," Harry laughed, "I won't run my mouth either if you're worried about that."
"Nah you don't seem like a snitch."

Lily was at her house when she received the text from Harry. It was so late she assumed that he was at Ron's house but that wasn't his address. She put on her shoes and drove out to the address he sent. It didn't take her long to find him, he was sitting on the edge of the street with someone next to him.

She pulled over and then got out, she could tell just by looking at her son that he was drunk, "I thought you were at Denny's?"
"We moved," the boy who she didn't know answered, from far away it almost looked like a young Remus with blue hair, up close the vision faded with the piercings, "I didn't want to leave him till you got here."

Lily knelt down next to Harry, "Get in the backseat," she told him, keeping her voice flat, it would do no good to discipline him while he was drunk, it would wait till the morning. 

Harry groaned as he stumbled up, walking over to the car door and struggling to get it open. He managed and then flopped inside. 

Lily looked towards the other kid, "Are you going to yell stranger danger if I tell you to get in my car?"

"I should."

"Get in."

"I live close by," the kid seemed sober, at least sober compared to Harry but she was still stressed at the idea of him trying to get himself home.

"Are you worried about me telling your mom?" Lily asked, she would tell his mom, but he didn't need to know that.

"No, I'm not, I just don't want to intrude."

"Get in, make sure Harry doesn't throw up in my car, since you got him drunk," Lily got back in her driver's seat as the kid got in the back next to Harry, keeping him up right as she followed the directions he was giving her. Eventually they arrived at a small apartment building where the railings around the stairs were falling off and half of the windows were taped shut.

"Thank Mrs. Potter," the kid said as he started to get out of the car.

"It's Evans, not Potter, and you can call me Lily," she looked in her back mirror with as friendly of a smile as she could muster this late in the night. She had to work in four hours, she was just happy it wasn't one of her twelves, "Have a goodnight kid," she considered going to the door and waking up his parents but Harry sounded like he was ready to throw up so she decided against it.

She drove back to her house and helped him out of the car and to the room she kept ready for him. The room hadn't changed much since she had got the house. It was decorated with a variety of football, soccer, and rock band posters. He had a couple of trophies and medals over here but most of them were at James'. 

"I'm grounded aren't I?" Harry groaned as his head hit his pillow.

"Yep," Lily helped put the blankets on him, "We'll talk tomorrow once I get back from work alright?" 

"Fuck…"

"Language Harry," Lily sighed and went into the guest bathroom, she grabbed a bottle of ibuprofen and water then put it on his nightstand. She walked through the hallway back to her bedroom and sat down texting James who honestly still may be up.

to: james

harry is grounded for two weeks

please actually follow through with it this time james

Chapter Text

Regulus had managed to avoid Sirius or any mention of him over the weekend. Evan even had Sunday off so they hung out like they were teenagers again. Complaining about whatever was bothering them and then drinking the pain away.

Monday morning Regulus was writing on his whiteboard as he explained, "I want all of you to turn in your project on my desk,  once you're done with that. We're starting a new project. I want each of you to choose something meaningful to you, something that brings happy or positive emotions. It could be an object or a memory," he set down the whiteboard marker. 

Walking over to the counters with the sinks as he continued, "Then I want to pick something that makes you feel the opposite. You need to combine these two things in one piece, we'll be going further into contrast colors for this assignment." 

Regulus picked up the couple of examples he had created, they were meaningless pieces he had made over the weekend just to show what he wanted. He put them on the board, "See how one side is blue and the other is orange? Those are contrasting colors, the same with purple and yellow, or blue and orange. They don't have to be fifty fifty split, but there needs to be an obvious separation. I want you to sketch your ideas before you start on the official project. You can use whatever medium you want. Any questions?"

No one raised their hand or even bothered shaking their heads, he hated when they did that. "Wonderful," he sighed and went to his desk, setting out the tray for the current projects they needed to turn in.

Regulus glanced over at them as they were turned in but didn't say anything until Harry put him there. Regulus grabbed the paper and looked up at him, "Is this your finished assignment?"

They had to color some fruit in one color, the fruit didn't look like fruit, which Regulus expected frankly, but the main issue was that they were barely colored or shaded. It looked like a child scribbled over them with a crayon.

"Yeah," Harry shrugged, it was clear he didn't care about this class, which Regulus didn't care about, but he wanted the kid to at least pass.

"I'm not going to give you the chance to redo it if you turn this in," Regulus warned him then went back to grading another class's work. Harry mumbled something under his breath and walked away with the paper, but not back to his desk next to Weasley's. No, he went over to Edward's desk.

Regulus raised an eyebrow as he kept sneaking glances over at them, still keeping his main focus on the projects. Near the end of the class Harry came back up to him with a new paper.

The work clearly wasn't his. It was a lovely drawing of some apples and oranges in blue oil pastels. Edward. 

"Harry, did you make this?" Regulus asked with a deadpan face, making it clear he didn't think Harry drew this.

"Yep," Harry grinned as he pointed to his signature, "All me."

The bell rang and Harry went to collect his backpack. Regulus would have to call his parents for cheating as he put a zero in the gradebook. As he started typing one out to both James and Lily, he got an email from Lily Evans.

Hello Mr. Black,

I spoke to Ms. Macdonald last week and was made aware of his grades. I apologize for the late notice but was wondering if we could have a meeting today if possible? My work schedule is a bit of a mess so it would be wonderful if today could work.

Regulus read her signature for her email,

Sincerely,

Lily Evans | She/Her

Registered Nurse | Emergency Room St. Joseph's Hospital

Regulus emailed her back,

Hello Mrs. Evans,

The late notice is not preferred but is fine for today. Please bring Mr. Potter with you. I can meet anytime after 3p.m. I will stay till 5p.m.

Sincerely,

Regulus Black (he/him)

Art Department 

When the day ended Regulus didn't have to think long on if she was going to show up as soon as it hit three fifteen she walked in. It was hard to mistake her for anyone but the woman on James' social media. "Where is Mr. Potter?" Regulus asked, noticing a lack of him.

"James won't be here," Lily shut the door behind her as she walked over to his desk. 

"Why not?" 

"It's not important," Lily dismissed him as she sat down on one of the stools.

"I would appreciate it if Mr. Potter was here," Regulus glanced down at the information he had written down about the two of them when he was originally going to contact them, "Let's see how busy he really is."

Regulus picked up the school phone and dialed his number, it only rang once before it was picked up, "Hello, who is this?"

"Hello, this is one of your son's teachers, I was expecting you for a meeting. Are you busy right now?" Regulus didn't want to meet James honestly, but he also couldn't afford to get fired, and if he had failing students, the odds of him getting fired were up there.

"Yeah Lils told me about that, I'm uh, very busy," there was the sound of a TV in the background.

"Mr. Potter, this is about your son. Don't you want to at least know what is being discussed at the meeting?" 

"Not really," James hummed into the phone, "You're not going to leave me alone until I come, are you Regulus ?"

Regulus hated the way his body reacted at the way James said his name, it was deep and rough on his tongue. No, bad Regulus. "I prefer Mr. Black, and you're correct."

"I'll be there in ten minutes," there was a click on the line and Regulus put the phone down.

"He'll be here soon, in the meantime, I can grab Harry's things," Regulus gathered Harry's work together and grabbed a couple sketches of Edward's to prove his thinking behind the still life assignment.

Lily sat quietly as Regulus put the items on one of the desks, there was a phone call to his desk and Regulus picked it up, "Hello?"

"Yes, there is a man here saying you have a meeting with him for his son, just making sure before I let him inside."
"Yes that's correct."

Two minutes later, James Potter waltzed into his classroom looking around, "Wow this hasn't changed at all since I was here, hello there Regulus."

"Mr. Potter and sit down Mrs. Evans," Regulus stayed standing up as James chuckled to himself and sat down next to Lily.

"Harry has been struggling to take his assignments seriously which resulted in the poor grades," Regulus picked up two projects that were half done at best.

"I don't see the issue, it's art class, it's not like it's important,"James snorted as Lily shot him a look.

Regulus wanted to die again, "You may think that Mr. Potter but art is a valuable skill that can transfer into other areas. In addition, if Mr. Potter is failing any class, he will be ineligible for sports."

" What? " Of course football is what caught James' attention. He was a dumb jock from a while away.

"Yes, Mr. Potter. It also will affect his transcript if Harry wants to go to college," Regulus continued as James finally went quiet, "If you agree to help, I could possibly allow him to redo these assignments. Not for full credit though but enough so he isn't failing."

"How do you expect us to help?" James asked.

"Just checking in, making sure he knows that completing his work is important. I won't give him extra time in class but I'm hosting art club tomorrow and he is welcome to come then to work on his assignments," he still couldn't believe he let himself get talked into hosting it by Pandora over the weekend.

"Is there anything else?" Lily asked.

"Yes, earlier today Harry turned in a project that another student made for him. I'm willing to just put it in as a zero until he makes it up for less credit, but if it happens again. I will be contacting the administration," Regulus held up the piece Edward clearly did.

"Bullshit," James laughed as he got up, "This is ridiculous."

" James ," Lily sighed defeatedly as she looked over at him.

"No, he just comes in and thinks he can assume Harry of cheating on his assignments, it's bullshit," James walked over to the papers picking it up and pointed to the signature, "See that's Harry's signature, that means he did it."

Regulus was wondering how this man was older than him and behaved like a child, "His classmate Edward did it for him, if you take a look at his work you will see similarities. He also used oil pastels and Edward is the only student who uses them."

"I'll talk to him about staying after school tomorrow, thank you for giving him a second opportunity," Lily said, speaking quickly so she could cut in before James did. 

James stormed out of the room and Regulus considered banning him from the classroom. 

"Sorry… about him," Lily said, "He's just protective over Harry."

"Protective?" Regulus raised an eyebrow, "That's what you call that?"

"Harry didn't have a usual upbringing and because of that, the moment anyone even gets close to harming Harry, James he- he overreacts," Lily explained.

Regulus stayed quiet for a moment, "If I'm being honest, I just don't want to lose my job. And the more failing students I have, the more of a risk that is. I'm not singling him out, I need him to pass."

"We'll get him passing," Lily promised. 

Regulus gathered his personal items on his desk, "I'll be going then since you are here so early. Thank you for that by the way," he didn't want to be left waiting for hours wondering if they were going to show up.

"Of course, thank you for letting me show up on short notice. Have a good day Re-Mr. Black," Lily waved and then left the room. Regulus didn't bother correcting her since she corrected herself as he shut off the lights to the room then locked up and went out to his car.

Pandora insisted that he bring snacks for the club meeting tomorrow. Regulus didn't have snack money but he pulled into the grocery store parking lot and went inside. 

He grabbed the weekly ad and a basket then went to the snacking aisles. All of his ideas on what to bring cost far too much. He went on his phone to see if there were any online coupons as he heard, "Regulus," behind him.

Regulus turned around to see James Potter with a cart, inside was a variety of Lunchables and chips, "I'm here for my students Mr. Potter, please act like a civilized adult."

"I didn't even do anything yet," James glared at him and then his look softened, "Sorry. For yelling at you and cursing in your classroom."
Regulus didn't expect him to apologize, the shock of it evident on his face, "I'm not going after Harry. I just need him to pass and he's not."

"I- I know." James nodded as he grabbed a box of Goldfish and tossed it in his cart."I just get frustrated when people…" he trailed off not finishing his sentence.

"So what? You want me to treat your son like an angel?" Regulus raised an eyebrow, "Just pass him without him doing any work?"

"No, I'm sorry. This uh, these are for you by the way as an apology," James gestured to the cart.

"You got me Lunchables to apologize?" Regulus asked, laughing at the end of sentence from the sheer audacity of James Potter. "You didn't even get me the pizza one, guess you don't really mean it."

"I can go get the pizza one right now," James started to push the cart but Regulus stood in front of it, not letting him escape the aisle.

"Why did you get me a bunch of children's snacks?"

"For art club. When I was in it they always had food and figured you won't say no to donations," James explained, Regulus swore James was a little pink in the face, but he decided it was just the lighting of the store.

"And how am I storing Lunchables in an art classroom?" 

"I didn't think that through."

Regulus laughed harder as he put his basket in the cart, he could put up with James Potter if it meant free snacks, he shut off his phone and shoved it in his pocket, "Let's put them back then."

They did put the Lunchables back and then got a couple boxes of Capri Suns and water. "Thank you by the way Mr. Potter."

"Please call me James, Mr. Potter makes me feel ancient. Harry already makes me feel old enough," James stopped pushing the aisle in the middle of the home goods aisle since there was no one in it.

"Okay Mr. Potter," Regulus giggled to himself as he looked at the candles. He loved candles but with his limited budget it just wasn't practical to waste his money on them anymore. There was a cinnamon vanilla one he bet smelled fantastic, he walked over and opened it, sniffing it. It smelled like a bakery.

"Okay Mr. Black," James rolled his eyes then cringed, "I can't call you that. It just makes me think of your father."
Regulus cringed in return, "Please don't mention my father."

James gave him a curious look, his eyes darting over various features on Regulus' face, "Why? Aren't you your parent's pride and joy?"

"Not anymore," Regulus snorted and put the candle back on the shelf, taking another off of the shelf and smelling it, "I figured Sirius told you I got disowned."

"You got disowned?" James asked as his voice softened, the corners of his eyes relaxing.

"Not officially but basically, I got completely cut off, hence the teaching job."

"I just assumed you wanted to be a teacher."

"No," Regulus shook his head, "I wanted to be an artist or a professor at some pretentious university. I didn't want to be an underpaid art teacher at a high school teaching my brother's best friend's kid," he dreamed of spending long hours in a large studio, his paintings hanging on the wall.

Regulus guessed he did have his own studio now, but a classroom was still different from a large open space just for himself.

He could've had the future, where he got the large studio if he stayed with his parents, but if he stayed with his parents he wasn't sure how much of a future he would've had.

"Are you a good artist?" James asked, grabbing one of the candles and joining Regulus in smelling them.

"Yeah, I am," Regulus was confident in his work. He wasn't one of those artists that constantly felt like their work was bad, Regulus was good at painting and he knew it.

"What's your favorite scent?" James asked him, gesturing to the candles.

"Warm scents and lavender, but not any other floral scents, why?"

"No reason, you should show me sometime, bring me to your studio." He couldn't tell if James was joking. Regulus looked deep into his brown eyes but found no answer.

"Unless you're asking to go to my apartment, I'm going to turn you down. My studio was my living room," Evan and him would constantly fight over the space in the apartment. Which led to an almost macabre scene of notecards of various organs next to paintings done in a tenebrism style. 

James put on a smug smirk, "That depends, are you inviting me back to your apartment Regulus?"

"You wish," Regulus rolled his eyes, putting back the candle. "Let's go check out."

James pushed the cart up to one of the registers and helped the cashier bag everything as it was scanned. Regulus stood to the side as James paid for everything and then even brought it over to Regulus' car, helping him put the groceries in his trunk.

"Thank you again Mr. Potter," Regulus said as he shut his trunk, the paint was coming off near the bottom of the frame of his car, but he loved his tiny white car. He had bought it with his own money, so it was special to him. 

"I'm happy to be able to help, sorry again for earlier… He'll be there tomorrow, I promise," James nodded and looked like he was about to go in for a hug before he turned on his heels and almost jogged over to a pristine looking car. It wasn't anything fancy but it was still clearly expensive.

Regulus wasn't sure what to make of James Potter. He was so… different, he was loud and packed full to the brim of emotions, he wasn't sure if he hated that or if that intrigued him.

Regulus was putting out the various snacks on a table he had stolen from the supply closet in the back of the gym. Pandora had told him there were all sorts of things back there, it was like a flea market but everything was free and in horrible condition.

Pandora was helping him, setting up the drinks in a bucket of ice she had gotten from the lunch ladies. There was a bigger turn out then Regulus was expecting, the students were talking to each other and gathering on the far side of the room.

"What do I even do with them?" Regulus asked Pandora, the sheer number of the teenagers was almost intimidating. 

"Just let them hang out and give them color pencils to doodle with," Pandora shrugged as she walked over the students greeting them.

Harry walked through the door, his friends next to his side, who he remembered were Hermione and Ronald, "I'm here."

"You can join the other students, you just need to work on your work," Regulus told him and the trio went over to join them. 

He walked up to the board and wrote, Art Club. Meeting One.  

He went over to the cabinets and took out the containers of old color pencils, not the nice Prismacolor ones that were reserved for the advanced students, the Crayola ones. And took out some printer paper then put it on the counter. 

"Have fun," he announced and went over to his desk sitting down. Now what? He was caught up on grading, Pandora was talking to her daughter so he couldn't pass time with her.

After five minutes of nothing Regulus went into the closet with the canvas. He grabbed one of the larger ones, a 36x48. He had painted on far bigger canvases but he was limited by his options. 

He grabbed one of the easels next to the pottery wheels and brought it over to his desk then put the canvas on it. There were aprons in the closet that he also grabbed then put tubes of the primary colors in acrylic paint including white then sat down on his desk chair.

Regulus had no ideas in his head for what he wanted to paint so he just started with a blue underpainting. Mixing the magenta and the cyan together and then diluting it with water before smearing it on his canvas. He wiped the excess on his apron before grabbing a thinner brush and taking a more concentrated part of the paint.

Regulus lazily sketched out a man leaning against a wall, his hands covering his face like he was upset in the paint. He didn't have much of a plan but that never stopped him. 

"Are you going to take a break from that anytime soon?" Pandora asked, sitting on the corner of his desk.

"I just started," Regulus blinked and he was doing the color blocking the man already, he looked around and some of the students had left. He had been working on this longer than he thought he had.

Harry came up to his desk, the color wheel redone with the shading of the shapes. The shading was half decent actually, he had the monochromatic project also finished, the red gradients from the shading were smooth in all of the fruits, "Did you actually do this yourself?" Regulus asked, looking down at it.

"I did I swear," Harry sounded like he was being honest and Regulus could usually tell when people were lying through their teeth, "I also worked on a sketch for the next project," he passed over a piece of paper. Regulus took a look at it.

It was an interior piece of a staircase. The cupboard door opened to reveal a room. A thin mattress looked like boxes. It was all colored in one flat color of blue, except for a blanket on the mattress, it was orange.

Regulus was a mandated reporter now and with one look at this, he knew he would have to call someone, "Are these actual memories?" he asked. Not with doubt but he didn't want to make a phone call claiming James Potter was shoving his child under the stairs if it was something Harry had just seen in a movie.

"Yeah they are," Harry nodded as more students started to clear out, "I used to live with my aunt and uncle and they were," he paused, "They were the way they were."
Regulus understood what he meant, not needing him to explain anymore as he lived through something similar, "Did you tell anyone?"

Harry chuckled, "Yeah, I think the whole town knows but you, but is this good enough?"

"Yeah, it's good enough, I'm not giving you full credit on these but it will be better than the F's you have," Regulus grabbed all of the art including the sketch for the next project.

"Thanks Mr. Black," Harry gave him a dopey grin then went back to his friends. Regulus would still report it to the admin, just in case Harry hadn't told anyone. He wasn't going to let another kid fall through the cracks if it was a bigger issue.

Regulus knew what it was like to mention things to teachers, hoping that they caught on to his small hints, too afraid to speak up and say the entire truth. Nothing came of it. The teachers never noticed the bruises around his wrists or the occasional blackeye, not that it was their job, but he just wished anyone could've noticed. 

When the last of the students left including Pandora he made his way to the office. None of the administrative assistants were there, all of them must have gone home but there was a light on in one of the counselors' offices. 

He knocked on the door as he entered seeing a stressed out Mary MacDonald surrounded by stacks of paperwork, "Sorry to barge in but I was wondering if I could ask about something."
"Of course Mr. Black," she put on a cheery smile, "What is it?"

"I received some rather distressing news about Harry Potter, he claimed it was reported but you know, I have to double check," Regulus explained and thought about sitting down but wasn't sure if she'd be able to see him over how tall some of the stacks were.

"Is it about his aunt and uncle?" Mary asked.

"Yes."
"We're… aware of them, what part of the story did you hear this time?" Mary asked, leaning back in her chair.

"The cupboard."

Mary's cheery smile fell almost into disgust, but she was still trying to mask it with a flat face void of emotion, "Yes. They kept him in the cupboard until Ms. Evans and Mr. Potter got him back."

That part confused Regulus. Lily and James seemed like the ideal parents, at least from their social media, but Regulus knew what it was like behind closed doors, it was easy to appear all perfect to the outside eye.

Sirius won't stay friends with someone who lost their kid due to abusive parenting which is why it made it so confusing to Regulus.

"I see. Wait did you say Ms? Not Mrs?" Regulus asked, he had just assumed Lily and James were married.

"Yes?" Mary asked, tilting her head, "Any reason why you're asking?"

"I was just under the assumption that they were, together," Regulus said honestly.

"It's inappropriate to discuss student's parent's relationships Mr. Black," Mary laughed quietly to herself and went back to what she was working on, "Anything else?"

"No, thank you," Regulus left the office and took out his phone. He typed in Lily Evans James Potter into his Google bar. It didn't take long for several articles on James and Lily to pop up.

Mother Charged with Drug Possession of Narcotics

Potter Drug Bust

Regulus breathed out quickly and put his phone away, not bothering to even open the links, as he went back to his classroom gathering his things. Drugs would make sense for losing custody of their kid. He felt like he shouldn't know that information though, even if everyone else did, it felt wrong knowing it. 

For once he regretted looking someone up. He looked down at the drawing Harry did and then put his paints away, leaving his canvas up. It would be fine for the night, probably. He went back to his apartment and made a bowl of ramen, covering his feelings up with sodium packed chicken flavoring.

The next day Regulus continued working on his painting during his spare time, which for how many classes he had, there was a decent amount of it. During the third period Harry walked up to him, placing a lemon candle on the desk, "My dad asked me to drop it off."

Regulus looked blankly at the candle and then up at Harry, "What?"

"My dad, he told me to give it to you, I don't know," he shrugged and went back to his desk. Regulus picked up the candle, Fresh Lemons . He smelled it and almost coughed at how pungent it was while his nose crinkled up.

It hit him. That's why James asked what his favorite scent was, but this, this wasn't a warm candle. This was lemon. The gesture still made him smile to himself as he got up and walked around the room, looking at everyone's projects. Most of them were rather shit but that's what he expected from an intro art class.

He glanced at Harry's and it looked like he was actually taking his time with it, it looked good from the minimal sketching Harry had done in graphite. 

Regulus continued walking through the desks and walked over to Edward's project slot. It looked more like a self portrait of himself but the lighting on him was almost fluorescent in various colors, it reminded him of a club. "It looks good so far," Regulus told him honestly. 

"Thanks, I still don't really know what I'm doing," Edward admitted as he blended the pastels together.

"Neither do I," Regulus glanced over at his canvas, he had a couple ideas but wasn't sure which way to go with it. "What's your theme?"

Edward shrugged, "I don't know how to put it in words yet, just trust me that I have one."

"You're going to have to figure out how to word it for your artist statement."
"I know but I have a whole year," Edward shrugged again and put his head back down to keep working. Regulus let him be and glanced at the other projects before returning back to his canvas, he needed to darkened the shadows. That's what he would work on next period after making a quick stop to Remus' room.

Once the bell rang Regulus was quick on his feet to make it to the English hallway, he already knew which one was his classroom from his last visit. Remus was sitting at his desk, typing away at his laptop.

"Mr. Lupin," Regulus approached him and Remus looked over at him.

"Regu-Mr. Black," Remus corrected himself with a sharp smile, "To what do I owe the pleasure?"

"I was wondering if you could give me Sirius' number," Regulus said quickly. Remus looked at him with excited eyes as he quickly scratched it down on a sticky note then passed it over to Regulus, "Thank you."

"No, thank you," Remus told him earnestly which made Regulus almost feel bad for what he was doing. Almost. He went back to his classroom and took out his phone, texting the number.

to sirius:

What is James Potter's number?

Regulus knew he could've asked Remus for his number but that was weird, asking your co-worker for his friend's number. Asking his estranged brother for his friend's number made far more sense to him.

He put his phone on silent as the next period came in and he needed to make sure they didn't eat the clay. He knew that was really only a risk with children but he didn't trust the teenagers.

Chapter Text

Regulus didn't get on his phone until the end of the day. He may have been ignoring it on purpose but he had also been busy. A few of the pieces had cracked in the kiln and he was helping the students' repair their work.

He hated how he was starting to enjoy his job. The horror. As he was cleaning up from his last clean he did finally check his phone.

from sirius:

Who is this?

from regulus:

Regulus Arcturus Black

He stared at the lemon candle on his desk and picked it up, tossing it behind his hands before sitting it back down. He heard his phone go off.

from sirius:
Oh thank god. I see you're still dramatic as ever. I've never answered the phone "Sirius Orion Black."

How are you Regulus?

from regulus:

What's James' phone number?

Regulus technically had James' phone number. However, if he messaged James out of the blue without saying that he got his number from the school system, he felt like that would be creepy. He wanted to text James and make fun of him for the lemon candle, and thank him, well, maybe thank him.

from sirius:

Why do you need James' number?

from regulus:
Because I want it. Duh.

Regulus grabbed his paintbrush and went back to what he was working on, painting small feathered wings onto the wings next to the man. 

from sirius:

Why???????

from regulus:

Just give me his number Sirius.

from sirius:

Is this about Harry? Is he alright?

from regulus:

Yes, he's fine Sirius.

from sirius:

So why do you need his number?

from regulus:

Because I want it. Give it to me or I block your number.

Sirius sent over a number, Regulus plugged it into a new message with a cheeky smile. He loved getting his way.

from regulus:

Hi. I hope this is James or I'll be gutting my brother later. Lemon is not a warm scent you buffoon .

from james:

Please don't gut Sirius, I rather like him with his organs inside his body. And what do you mean? Lemon is a warm scent. It's warm like summer.

from regulus:

…

Why did you get me a candle?

from james:

Because I wanted to. Why are you texting me?

from regulus:

Because I wanted to.

Regulus sat the brush down and brought his legs up into his chair, pressing them into his chest as he leaned back in the chair, smiling like an idiot at his phone.

Remus was sitting at an ice cream parlor with his laptop in front of him, it was covered in stickers he had accumulated in his teaching career. Some were from Sirius and Harry, others were from students. His little friend group used to spend long nights here and then go to James' until Effie and Monty forced the boys to go to bed.

It had an Americana diner vibe to it. A checkered floor with red walls and lights that hung from the ceiling.  Remus had a double chocolate malt milkshake that he was nursing as he waited on Dora and Teddy to show up.

Originally they were going to go over to his house or Dora's apartment but they figured a neutral meeting ground was better.

The doorbell went off and Remus watched the two of them come in. Teddy was wearing a Metallica shirt that Sirius would approve of, his jeans were two sizes too big and all scuffed up. Dora was dressed a lot more formally, a blouse and a pencil skirt with her purse over her shoulder like she had just left from work.

"Hey," Remus got up and walked over to them, he looked over at the minimum wage employee who was on their phone on a chair behind the counter, then back at the pair, "Do you want something? My treat."

"No thank you," Dora shook her head as Teddy walked up to the counter looking at the options.

"What am I allowed to get?" he asked, glancing at his mom and then back at Remus.

"Whatever you want," Remus assured him.

"Can I have two scoops of Blue Moon in a waffle cone?" Teddy asked the worker and they got up, scooping it in the cone and then passing it over to Teddy. Remus paid for it and then sat down at his table again. 

Dora and Teddy sat across from him as he opened his laptop with shaky hands. He had gotten the email that the test was done and the thought of opening the results made me anxious. 

Remus wasn't sure what he even wanted the result to be. It wasn't that he didn't want to be Teddy's father, it was just, figuring out he was a father was a big deal. 

And at the same time, he wanted to be Teddy's father. He wanted a kid so badly, it was the only thing him and Sirius disagreed on, and he wanted Teddy to have a father, sometime to help teach him life skills, someone else besides his mother to run and cry to.

Teddy licked the ice cream as he looked almost bored to be there on the surface, but under it, he could see the anxiousness on his face as Dora looked as stressed as Remus was. He turned his laptop screen so everyone could look at it and then clicked the message. 

He felt his blood run cold as he read the message. It was quiet in the room until Teddy snorted, "So, were you in love with mom?" He echoed his question from last week.

Remus kept looking at the lab result, Probability of Paternity: 99.9999%.

"Teddy," Dora scolded him as she ran her fingers through her hair.

Remus cleared his throat as he looked over at Teddy, "Maybe once," he didn't even remember her, but he couldn't tell him that, "But I've been in love with the same man for a very long time now."

It felt like his heart was going to pop out of his chest or he was about to have a stroke, or both at the same time.

"How do you have a kid and then fall out of love?"

"I don't know," Remus answered honestly. James and Lily were proof of love for the longest time in their teenage years, they were so clearly obviously in disgusting love, and when they had Harry it just made Remus believe that more.

That was until James had his breakdown, Remus still wasn't sure if James had ever told Sirius about what happened that night.

"Can I call you dad?" Teddy asked, still keeping the bored tone of his voice but he leaned in closer to the table as Remus swore he saw his eyes widen in excitement.

"Uh, sure," Remus looked at him with cross eyes, wondering how Teddy was moving so quickly through this.
"Can I come over to your house?" Teddy asked with hope in his eyes. Sirius was at home. Remus still hadn't told Sirius about any of this. He wasn't trying to keep it a secret but after finding out Regulus was here and alive, he wanted to wait.

And then Regulus texted him and Remus was originally happy. He thought it was the beginning of the brothers becoming brotherly again, not that they were ever that brotherly to begin with, but instead Sirius told him he just wanted James' number.

Remus was so busy with the whole, 'may have a son' thing, he didn't have the brain cells to spare on worrying about why Regulus wanted James' number. Once Sirius calmed down from that, he thought that it would be the perfect time to bring it up.

That was until James showed up at the house and went on about how soft Regulus' hair looked. Sirius got up and walked out in the middle of the conversation, he didn't come home till late that night, not even talking to Remus as he got into bed.

So yes. Remus still hadn't told Sirius. "I don't know," Remus answered, "My husband is home right now."

"And am I not allowed to meet him?" Teddy asked, Remus asked as some of the light started to die in his as the melted ice cream ran over his fingers and rings.

"No- yes, you can meet him. It's just," Remus took out his phone, "Let me make sure he's okay with visitors."

He got up and went outside onto the downtown street, it was a Thursday evening so it wasn't that packed, a couple families and groups walking in and out of the shops. He called Sirius who picked up before it even got to the second ring, "Everything okay Moons?"

"Yeah, I was wondering if I could bring some people over," Remus' voice was shaking as he spoke, his jaw tense as he tried to relax his shoulders. He should tell him now and here but the words died on his tongue.

"Who?" Sirius snorted, "We have the same friends."

  "Someone you've never met before, she's an old friend and her son," Remus could feel his heart beating out of his chest.

"A mystery woman? Is it a mistress?" Sirius joked and Remus almost threw up at the words, "Yeah come over Moony, see you later, I love you," Sirius made a kissing sound on the phone and hung up before Remus could say anything else.

There was no way to avoid what was happening. Sirius was going to likely have a melt down, but it was a melt down now, or a melt down in two weeks. He went back inside and approached them trying to tune out the ringing that had started in his ears, "Ready when you are."

It didn't take long for them to arrive at his house, "Woah, your house is huge," Teddy said as he looked at it in awe. 

Their house was fairly large, not as large as James' though. It was far bigger than two men needed but Sirius insisted on buying a proper house once they were clean. It had four bedrooms, one for them, one for Harry, and then two that were currently being used for storage.

Remus walked up to the front door and held it open for both of them. He could hear Sirius coming down the stairs, "Hi Moons and the mistress," he laughed. The smile on Tonks' face fell.

Remus went inside and walked in as Sirius stopped on the final stair. He stared at Teddy and then at Remus, and then back at Teddy. He watched as Sirius put the pieces together in his head, Remus knew he would, with a smile he said, "Oh, you are an actual mistress."

"She's not, be nice Sirius," Remus gritted out as the ringing in his ear got louder.

"Looks like she is," Sirius stepped onto the floor walking over to her, he looked her up and down clearly judging her, "And what's the mistress' name?"

"Nymphadora Tonks," Dora answered honestly, she didn't look scared of Sirius or even uncomfortable by his judging presence which Remus had to give her credit for, just a neutral face on. Sirius started to laugh, loud and almost painful as he looked at the three other people in the room.

Sirius didn't say anything as he maniacally laughed his way into the living room, grabbing onto the couch cushion tightly, "Really Remus? My cousin ?" 

Remus was going to kill himself in front of his son. "Your what?" 

"Tonks. Andy's kid right?" Sirius asked with a sharp, almost murderous grin as he turned around to face her. Remus walked up to him as Dora nodded, the realization setting in on her face, he grabbed him by the wrist and dragged Sirius into the kitchen.

"What? Don't you want the other cousin?" Sirius sneered as he grabbed his wrist back out of Remus' grip.

"Sirius. I didn't know she existed until earlier this month," Remus told him, grabbing him by his chin tightly so they were forced to make eye contact.

"Clearly you did. How is she better than me? Does she actually make you happy? Did she give you the kid you've been begging for the past five years?" Sirius scoffed.

"You really think I would abandon a kid I knew about?" Remus said quietly so the others couldn't hear him but with a harshness to his voice still. 

Sirius went quiet as he looked off to the wall, trying his best to avoid eye contact with Remus, "Is he yours?" he gritted out.

"Yeah," Remus loosened the grip on his face, kissing his cheek softly trying to help defuse the tension, "He is."
"And how sure are you?"
"Lab result sure."
"How long have you known?" Sirius took a step back crossing his arms, the defensiveness back up.

"I found out for sure today but I found out about him two weeks or so ago."

"And you didn't think to tell me?"

"You were dealing with so much."

"Remus. This is a kid. This goes over everything."
"Well you had Regulus and James and I didn't want this to be another thing on your plate and-" Remus got cut off by Sirius kissing him. Remus' hands found their way to their natural position on Sirius' hip and face, he deepened the kiss as Sirius laughed into his mouth.

"You're a fucking idiot Remus," Sirius mumbled.

"Yeah but I'm your idiot."

Once Sirius and Remus gathered themselves they walked back out to Teddy and Dora were awkwardly waiting in the entrance room, "I apologize for how I behaved, welcome to the Lupin house."

"I like your tattoos," Teddy told Sirius who was wearing a cutoff shirt that showed off his muscles and ink, under any other circumstance it would make Remus drool.

"Thanks, you got any?" Sirius asked, Remus could still tell Sirius was on edge but he was trying to relax, and Remus would take that. 

Seventeen years ago Sirius and Remus weren't dating. They were, sort of. It was more messy than anything else. Going to each other whenever they needed someone, someone to hug, or kiss, or to use them until their brain was empty. It wasn't until many years later were they officially together.

"Yeah, I have a dragon on my chest," Teddy nodded with a grin as Remus gave a look of horror to Dora. The boy was covered in piercings which was bad enough in his opinion.

Dora raised an eyebrow, silently challenging him and Remus decided to not push his luck.

"That's badass, he's not your kid," Sirius pointed at Remus who just rolled his eyes and let out a long breath of relief. 

"Thanks Sirius," Remus couldn't help but let out a little laugh.

"Is that a 1957 Sportster?" Teddy asked as he pointed to the motorcycle on Sirius' bicep. Almost every inch of Sirius' skin was covered in tattoos, they had started to go up his neck now that he had ran out of space.

"You know bikes?" Sirius asked, his eyes lighting up the last of the tension in his body slipping away.

"Not really, I just know them casually," Teddy answered with a shrug.

"I have one," Sirius grinned, "If you want to see."

"You're fucking joking," Teddy laughed and Remus cringed at the curse word coming out of the teen's mouth, he knew he said far worse when he was his age but now that he was older, he struggled with listening to them curse.

"Not one bit," Sirius started heading to the garage and Teddy followed them. 

Remus looked over at Dora who had a smile on her face, "They're going to be a while, I'm sorry about earlier by the way, that's partly my fault. I should've warned him before you came in."

"It was entertaining," Dora shrugged with a giggle as she looked around the room, "Just you two live here? Isn't it a little big for that?"
"Yeah, it is. Sirius insisted on it though, sometimes our friend's kid comes over, he's basically our nephew," Remus shrugged, "I uh, didn't know you two were related."

"I didn't either, my mother refuses to even tell us the name of her sisters. I only know her maiden name," Dora picked up a photo sitting on the table near the door. It was Remus and Sirius winking dramatically at the camera, a sunset behind them.

"Do you want coffee?" Remus offered and she agreed, they went into the kitchen, walking past the door to the garage. Remus took a small peek inside and could see Sirius nerding out over his bikes.

Since Sirius didn't have a job, still using the funds he had gotten from his uncle once he ran away, he spent most of his time working on whatever bike he could get his hands on. Usually he just resold them for dirt cheap once he was done but the prized bikes stayed in the garage.

Remus started the coffee pot, "I can't believe you let him get all of those piercings."

"Have you been a single parent before?" Dora sighed, "You do anything to try and bring them joy whenever you can. He wanted them, so I caved."

" And a tattoo?"

"And a tattoo."

They stood in the kitchen in silence as the coffee machine dripped coffee down into the pot until Remus got mugs out from the cabinet, "What are you wanting me to be? Are we going to meet up once a month? Or do you want to do weekends? Or do you want me to never be in his life again?"

"What are you comfortable with?" 

"I will be in his life as little or as much as you want," it was the least Remus could do. She already had him for sixteen years on her own, his comfort didn't matter in this.

"Is your husband going to mind?" 

"He'll deal with it," Remus shook his head. Sirius would likely mind but as long as he could keep rambling about his bikes to the kid, it would make everything easier.

"Maybe we could do this weekend as a test then, if that's okay with you," Dora offered.

"That works with me, is there anything I should know? Like allergies?" Remus asked as he filled the mugs and then sat them down on their small dining room table.

"Not allergies, but I should be honest. Teddy has struggled with his mental health before, I keep trying to convince him to see a therapist but he doesn't want to and I don't want to force him into it, but you should be aware just in case something… happens," Dora explained, occasionally throwing glances over at the door, Remus guessed to make sure Teddy wasn't listening in.

"Okay, thank you for informing me," Remus gave her a warm smile, "Anything else?"

"No, I don't think so," she shook her head.

Teddy and Sirius came through the door, Sirius flashed Remus a smile as he shut the door behind him.

"Did you know he has the frame of a 101?" Teddy asked his mom as he words rushed together.

"A what?" Dora laughed.

"It's a bike model," Teddy answered excitedly, "Are you planning on repairing it?"
"If I can find the parts," Sirius nodded, crossing his arms. He walked over to Remus, he bent over to grab his mug and took a drink from it.

"That was mine," Remus looked behind him at Sirius as he tried grabbing the mug from him.

"It's ours," Sirius winked and sat the mug back down. 

"Remus was wondering if you'd want to stay here this weekend," Dora told Teddy, grabbing him by the arm comfortingly.

"Oh shit, actually?" Teddy asked, sounding like he almost didn't believe them.
"Actually," Remus nodded, "We do have a football game tomorrow, which you're welcome to come with, and then we could do whatever you wanted the next couple days."

"You two watch high school football?" Dora giggled as she took a sip from her mug.

"Harry plays," Sirius said as he sat down next to Remus. 

"Who is Harry?" Dora asked.
"Harry Potter?" Teddy asked with curious eyes, "I know him."
"Yeah, that Harry," Remus confirmed.

"Can I do my own thing if I go?"

"Yeah but warning, James and Lily, our friends, will likely want to meet you," Remus told him, "But If you're not ready for that, I'll tell them that."

"No, it's fine," Teddy shook his head, "So what. Do I just go to your classroom after school?"

"Yeah that would probably be the easiest." 

"Cool, is there anything I need to bring but clothes?" 

"No," Sirius shook his head leaning into Remus as Remus put his arm around, pulling him in closer.

Remus offered to cook for the two of them but Tonks insisted on taking him home since it was a school night. That left Remus and Sirius with the two mugs of cold coffee.

"A son, shit Moony," Sirius was the first between them to speak.

"I know," Remus poured out the coffee and then washed out the mugs, setting them on their drying mat.

"What does this mean for us?" Sirius asked, coming up behind him and wrapping his arms around his chest.

"It means whatever you want it to mean Pads. I can't ignore him now that I know he exists but that doesn't mean you need to be a dad as well. I know how you feel about that," Remus had a rather bitter look in his eyes as he turned around in his arms, "I know how much you'd hate to be one."

Sirius breathed in sharply as some of the longer pieces of his hair framed his face, "You married me knowing what I wanted."

"I know… which is why I'm telling you. You don't need to be his dad, but I do. I know it's so awful for you, unable to keep me from having a kid anymore," Remus sighed as he started to walk away from Sirius, going towards their staircase.

"Don't walk away from me Remus, you always had a habit of running when it got tough didn't you," Sirius scoffed leaning against the door frame out of the kitchen.

"Is it the fear of becoming your mother or do you just get off on ruining my life? He'll be here this weekend Sirius. You're welcome to go to James' if you care that much," Remus went upstairs, going into one of the spare rooms and sitting down amongst the boxes. 

He'd likely give Teddy Harry's room for the weekend but he could transform one of the guest rooms into a special one for him, maybe he could even take him out shopping to pick some things out.

He knew he couldn't hide in the room forever, he would have to go back down to Sirius and apologize for what he said. 

Remus breathed through his nose and then went back downstairs to go talk to Sirius but he was no longer leaning against the frame. He went to the garage expecting to see Sirius working on one of the bikes but he opened the door to the light being off.

He flicked on the light and didn't see Sirius so went into the living room. Remus went around the house and didn't see Sirius anywhere. He looked outside and didn't see Sirius' car, shit . 

At least Remus' car was back and out of the shop so he wasn't stuck at the house, he texted James.

from: remus

is sirius with you?

Harry was rubbing his arm as he got out of practice, his backpack hanging over one shoulder while his heavy duffle bag hung over the other one. He called his dad to pick him as he waited near the parking lot.

He considered walking home and making himself carry the heavy bags home. It was a decent walk from the school and it was still hot enough to cook an egg on the sidewalk, but Harry deserved it. It was the same as when Uncle Verson made him lift heavy rocks in the backyard, going back and forth until he passed out from heat exhaustion.

The good part of his brain won and he did end up texting his dad.

Hearing the sound of an engine, he looked up to see Sirius' car. It was a black recognizable Impala that Harry forgot what year it was from. It was pristine in every way, Harry swore he saw Sirius spent more time polishing the car than doing anything else.

"You're not my dad," Harry said as he opened the passenger door and threw his bags at his feet.

"Rude, I think James and I are practically twins," Sirius laughed, his sunglasses covering his eyes but Harry could tell that he rolled his eyes by the way his eyebrows went up. 

"You guys look completely different," Harry raised an eyebrow at him and put his seat belt on. 

Sirius pulled out of the parking lot, turning on the radio to rock music that was way too loud in Harry's opinion but he wouldn't say that outloud. "Why did you pick me up?" 

"Your dad said I could, I'm staying at your house tonight," Sirius shrugged, his leather jacket shining in the sun. 

"Are you and Remus okay?" Harry asked, he knew that Sirius would tell him. No matter what happened Sirius always told him the truth which he preferred rather than Remus and his dad that would constantly sugarcoat whatever was happening.

"No but we'll be fine, I found out he has a son and you can imagine that has led to some issues," Sirius explained as he pulled into the driveway of his house. 

"What the fuck? Like actually?" Harry asked the bad thoughts getting pushed down by pure confusion.

"Actually. His name's Teddy, do you know him?"

"Ted is Uncle Moony's son?" Harry asked not to believe him, Teddy was cool. Not to say Remus wasn't cool, but Teddy was cooler than Harry was.

"Unfortunately, which means I'm sleeping here for the night."

His dad was waiting outside sitting on the steps outside the front door. Harry got out his bags, "Hey dad," he waved and James got up to let Harry inside, "You should listen to what Sirius has to say."

Harry glanced at Sirius and then at his dad, who gave him a weird look before going inside. The house was always more lively when Sirius and Remus fought. It didn't happen often but it was often enough that Harry remembered the last time. James and Sirius were singing Taylor Swift at one a.m., the positive was that Remus was too tired to give out tests when they fought.

Harry went up to his room and shut his door. Putting his bags down near his desk then sitting in his desk chair. He looked as he phone lit up, Canvas going off.

He grabbed the phone and saw that he passed his history test but he still had a D in the class. The issue wasn't knowing the material, it was actually doing it. That's why he was able to get a hundred on the test but a zero on most of his assignments. Harry had been struggling with the motivation thing the entire school year and summer, motivation to do assignments, motivation to try getting a girlfriend, motivation in keeping up his friendship with his friends.

The only class Harry was doing any work for was art. He had brought the project home with him to work on it tonight, along with a few pencils that Mr. Black let him bring home.

After he did the work in art club, he realized that drawing was just as fun as football could be, and relaxed his mind a lot more, while getting less bruises.

There was a knock on his door and Harry looked over to see his dad opening the door, "Sirius and I are going to go out, want us to bring anything back for dinner?"

Harry shook his head, "Not really that hungry. If that changes I'll text you."

"Okay, I'll be back later," James came over to him and ruffled his hair then gave him a hug before walking out, leaving his door open.

It didn't take long before Harry heard the front door open and shut and he knew he was alone. He should've said something to his dad. He knew he was supposed to.

It was a healthy mental health exercise or whatever nonsense his therapist told him. Whenever he had bad thoughts he was supposed to bring them up to a trusted adult. In the beginning Harry was actually decent at doing it, he would usually tell one of his parents and they would help scare the bad thoughts out of his brain. 

But now Harry was older and the thought of opening up to his parents… he'd rather shoot himself in the foot. Harry felt his head start slipping earlier in the week, what triggered him was stupid and he thought it would just go away but now, four days later and the thoughts still plagued his mind.

It was a one off conversation from Ron, about what his parents used to do when he was young and suddenly Harry was back in the cupboard clawing at his stomach. He could never get back those years and the events still affected him more than he let on.

It would've likely gone away but then his grades kept getting brought up and he kept dropping the ball during practices sometimes literally. He was performing so badly the coach was thinking of putting him on the bench tomorrow. How fucking embarrassing. Have his parents and their friends show up just to see their precious boy sitting on the sidelines. He should've tried harder, should've been better, but he didn't know how to get the motivation to do so.

Harry didn't realize he was clawing at his wrist until the skin started to burn from the irritation. He shook his wrist once he realized and grabbed his backpack, taking the paper his art project was on and putting it on his desk.

He took out the pencils and kept working on it, right now everything was in faint outlines and sketches. Mr. Black told him to make sure the outline was solid before going in with color. Well, he didn't say it like that, he said it in his normal pretentious way, but it's what he meant.

Time passed and he didn't know how much of it had passed before his stomach growled in hunger. He put the pencil down and went downstairs into the kitchen. His friends always loved the kitchen whenever they came over, insisting it was something they'd find in a millionaires' mansions, it was besides the point that he did live in a mansion. 

He grabbed a bowl from the cabinet and the cereal box, opening it and then just staring. The thought in the back of his head told him to put the cereal back and to go back until he finished working on his project. It was good to feel hunger, it kept him focused, it kept him disciplined, it reminded him what happened when he slipped up. And he did slip up, at practice, at school, even in not telling his dad about these thoughts. He deserved to be punished, that's what his aunt would say.

Aunt Petunia always found a reason to punish Harry, even if he was being punished just to remind him to stay in line. It could be something as simple as he missed a spot when cleaning the kitchen tile and then they'd make him clean it over and over with bleach until there were chemical burns on his hands.

Harry poured the cereal, Lucky Charms, into the bowl before he stopped himself and then grabbed a milk carton from the fridge, checking the date first, he never could be too careful considering his dad bought groceries about once a month. The stupid Leprechaun on the box staring back at him, mocking him.

He opened the drawer and grabbed a spoon, the largest one he saw at first glance, swallowing down the Lucky Charms before he could stop himself. 

He blinked and the cereal was once, the milk around his lips still, licking his lips he set the bowl down in the sink, rinsing it out and then putting it back down. The thoughts started to come back, he didn't deserve to eat. 

The hunger was good. Harry didn't have an eating disorder. At least he didn't call it an eating disorder. He didn't want to be skinnier or "healthier" he loved his muscles that he worked hard for in the gym, and he loved the way food tasted.

A small part of him loved the hunger even more than the muscles or the feeling of being full. The aching feeling that spread into his bones was as good as alcohol. It reminded him that no matter how old he got, how fast he ran away from that small yellow house his aunt and uncle lived in, he was still the same boy he was a decade ago. That no matter what he did, he wasn't good, he couldn't be good, he was born bad. 

Harry walked to the bathroom and stared at the toilet and then at himself in the mirror. It wouldn't be the first time he made himself throw up, it wouldn't be the last either. He instead fell against the door, putting his face into his hands as he shook against the tiles.

He didn't hear the door open, or the footsteps, not even the sound of Sirius' keychain he had clipped to his pants that jingled as he walked. He didn't hear his father's voice against his ear, he only came when he felt hands on him. 

Harry blinked rapidly as he looked up, his father crouching next to him, Sirius nowhere to be seen but Harry could feel his presence in the house. "You okay?" James asked softly, removing his hands from Harry.

"Yeah, just uh, tripped," Harry lied and the look in James' eye told him that he didn't buy it.

"You tripped onto the bathroom floor against the door and then needed to have a panic attack?" James asked standing up and gesturing for Harry to do the same. 

Harry grabbed onto the bathroom counter and pulled himself up, "I didn't have a panic attack," to be fair, he didn't, he just spiraled a little.

"Okay, what happened?"

"Nothing," Harry grumbled, shoving his hands into his front pocket.

"Harry…"

"I'm fine," Harry moved past James, shoving into his shoulder. He was finally at his dad's height, they were exactly the same height, the same build, and it made it a lot harder for James to stop him as Harry started to go to the staircase.

Sirius was in the living room where Harry expected him to be, he went past the two of them and went into his room slamming the door behind him as he kicked his duffle bag and sat back down in his chair.

Harry twisted his neck as he wanted to break the pencils on the desk or to punch a hole in his wall. He gripped the arms of his desk chair tightly, so tightly that his knuckles were turning white as he tried to slow his breathing.

Practicing the breathing exercises his therapist had taught him didn't help, he grabbed his phone to send Teddy a text, they had exchanged numbers at one point but hadn't sent each other a text.

from: harry
Hey
down to party tonight?

from: teddy
always lmao want to hit up one of my spots?

from: harry

sounds good to me. Send address then give me fifteen

Harry was grounded, technically. However he knew his father and he knew he wouldn't watch him to make sure he stayed in his room. 

He went into his closet and changed into one of Sirius' old band shirts he had stolen and a pair of jeans that fit him well before shoving his wallet, house key, and phone into his pocket. Teddy texted him the address. It was a five minute bike ride. 

After listening to the door, he heard Sirius and James in the living room, laughing about some nonsense. Harry quietly went down the stairs which was to their backs, then snuck into the entrance room and out the front door.

When he was younger he would have to sneak around to get food if they ever left the cupboard unlocked, which helped him sneak around both his mom and dad's houses. It was easy enough to get outside and he grabbed his bike that was chained up to the front.

It was a short ride when he started to hear the noise, he threw his bike into a bush, hoping that was enough to prevent it from getting stolen, then saw Teddy walking down the street. If he couldn't harm his body by starving, or throwing up his food, he could drink until the bad thoughts went away.

Chapter Text

Sirius stayed at James house the entire night, Remus barely slept because of it. The emptiness in the bed made it cold without Sirius. He went to work and was setting up for his first period, setting a book on each desk, A Separate Peace . He kept checking his phone periodically through the first three periods waiting to see if Sirius texted him but he didn't, he started to get more anxious, he always got this way when Sirius ran off. 

Even when fifth period arrived, there was still no text from Sirius. Just one from James from last night, confirming that Sirius was at the house. Harry entered the room, dark rings around his eyes. It made Remus almost excuse himself out into the hallway to ask if everything was alright but he decided to wait till after class. 

They were currently covering Hamlet, which was one of Remus' favorite plays and usually the students liked it as well, even enjoying his funny worksheets. The class went well but near the end he said, "Harry can you come here."

Harry came up to the desk, yawning as he approached, "What's up?"

"Are you alright?" Remus asked quietly, "You look like you didn't get much sleep."

"I'm fine, just tired from my pre-calc class," Harry said and Remus stared at him for several seconds, trying to tell if he was telling the truth for lying. 

"You know you can always come to me right?" Remus asked quietly like before, he tried to be there for every kid. Every student of his he wanted to help, Harry being James' just increased that want.

"I know Uncle Rem," Harry yawned again, "I gotta get to class."

"Alright, go on," Remus sighed and waved him on, the concern not fading from him. He just hoped that if something was going on that Harry was talking to someone, anyone really. The thought continued in the back of his mind into his next two classes, then by the end of the day. He bounced anxiously around, waiting for Teddy to show up.

Teddy showed up a few minutes later, his backpack more full than Remus had seen it before, "I'm here," he looked around the room as he kept both of his hands on the straps of his bag.

"Ready to go?" Remus asked him, grabbing his satchel and putting it over his shoulder. 

"I was wondering if I could stop by the art room and grab my projects before we leave, if possible. If it's an issue I don't have to," Teddy shrugged.

"That's fine, the art room is on the way out to the teacher parking lot," Remus walked out of his room, locking up once Teddy was out. He started to walk away and noticed that Teddy tested if it was locked then followed him, only to turn around again and check if it was locked again.

Remus thought it was odd but didn't question it as they headed to Regulus' room, who was still in his room, painting at his desk, "Hello Mr. Lupin, Edward," Regulus greeted them, "Is everything alright?" he asked.

"Yeah, just grabbing my projects," Teddy said as he walked over to the far side of the room. Remus decided to follow him in, he always loved the colorful classroom and was pleasantly surprised when Regulus didn't change much of it. He walked up to Regulus' desk, noticing a lemon candle.

"I didn't take you for a lemon man," Remus commented with half a laugh.

"I'm not, James got it for me," Regulus didn't look over as he kept working on his painting. Remus wasn't sure what it was, there was a man who looked like he was doubled over in pain, a pair of fake wings behind him, it was a little dark for a high school setting in his opinion but then again he was teaching Hamlet. 

"James got you a candle?" Remus asked, disbelief clear in his voice, why would James get Regulus a candle? It's the same confusion he had when James kept going on about how he wanted to touch Regulus' hair… oh… oh no. 

Sirius may actually kill himself this time.

"Ready Teddy?" Remus asked, he needed to solve this as fast as possible, not wanting any suicides on his doorstep.

"Can I ask why a student is going with you Mr. Lupin?" Regulus finally looked over at the two of them, paint brush resting in his mouth.

"Funny thing Mr. Black, he's actually my dad," Teddy said with a smile, "Don't you see the resemblance?" 

"Oh. Of course, have fun then Lupins," Regulus said without missing a beat, turning back to his art, as if that wasn't ground breaking information, maybe it wasn't, not to him at least.

"Good day Regulus," Remus nodded and then headed out. He pretended that the phrase Lupins didn't warm his heart.

They walked out into the parking lot, he took Teddy over to his car, it wasn't as nice as Sirius' vehicles but it was the nicest car he had ever owned so he cared for it like he own child, he got in and unlocked the door for Teddy.

Once Teddy got in he started to drive to his house, "Do you know how to drive a car?" he asked curiously.

"Yeah, I learned in one of my friend's cars back at my old school," Teddy answered looking out the window. The ride was more awkward than Remus expected it to be, he didn't know what to ask, what to say, how to behave, what was appropriate or inappropriate. 

"Do you move around a lot?"

"No, but mom wanted to move back for family or some bullshit like that," Teddy sighed.

"I don't know if it helps but you have me now, and Sirius," Remus smiled over at him, turning on the radio but keeping it low.

"You're really going to play dad to a kid you just found out about?" Teddy asked, eyeing him as if he didn't trust Remus.

"Yeah, I am," Remus told him seriously, he didn't care if he barely knew him. He was going to try his hardest to be there for him as much as the kid wanted him to be there.

He parked outside the house and noticed that Sirius' Impala was there, he sighed in relief as they got out, putting his satchel on his shoulder again. He locked the door and saw Sirius sitting on the couch, old guitar in his lap, strumming along to an old they used to sing to each other.

"Hi sweetheart," Remus greeted him, Teddy silently gagged as he walked in behind him.

"Hi Moons," Sirius got up, sitting his guitar down, "Hi Ted," he waved to the kid, "We have snacks in the kitchen if you want any, anything in this house is free range. Except for the garage, touch one of my babies and your mother is losing her's."

"Sirius!" Remus crossed his arms, scolding the adult man. 

"What?" Sirius made a face, "When are we meeting Lils and James there?" He was referring to the football game.

"Two hours, want me to make some dinner before we go to the game Teddy?" Remus asked him, wondering if the other two were also feeling the anxious and awkward energy in the room or if he was just in his own head again.

"You don't have to, I can make myself food," Teddy said, awkwardly standing in the room with his bag.

"I'll make some food soon, let me show you where you'll be staying," Remus said, putting his bag in one of the chairs in the living room and then walking up the stairs, leading Teddy to the bedrooms.

"This is mine and Sirius'," he gestured to the door near the top of the stairs, "You can get one of us whenever you need to, even if it's the middle of the night," they always told the same thing to Harry and just like Harry would, Teddy rolled his eyes.

"These bedrooms are full of junk but we're planning on cleaning one of them out and making it your room, until then, you are going to be sleeping in here," Remus opened the door on the far end of the hall, "This is where Harry normally sleeps, so it should have everything you need."

"Thanks," Teddy set his bag down on the bed then his projects on the desk, he looked around, "Thank you. Seriously. Most guys would just beg the mom to not bring up child support and you took me in immediately.." Teddy looked at him with soft eyes, he almost looked small like a kid.

It made Remus wonder what he was like as a kid. Was he a terror like Remus was? Always accidentally breaking into things he shouldn't. Or was he sweet and soft, like everyone thought Remus would be. 

"You're my son, I'm not going to leave you out to dry," Remus said leaning against the doorframe.

"Are you naturally a good person or is that some deep rooted childhood trauma talking?" Teddy asked humorously.

"I like to think I'm a good person and my childhood was great, but my husband had a traumatic childhood and another close person to me did too. So consider it a mix of both I guess," he wouldn't tell Teddy the other person was Harry, that was an invasion of Harry's privacy. At least it was in Remus' opinion.

"Sirius wasn't lying by the way, every place is free range Just don't go around breaking stuff please," Remus told him and then backed up a couple steps, "I'm going to go talk to Sirius about something but feel free to settle in. You're welcome to come downstairs whenever."

"Thanks… dad," Teddy said, it sounded like he was being sincere, not using it as a mocking name. Remus couldn't help the smile that spread across his face as he headed downstairs. Sirius was playing guitar again, his hair half tied up into a bun while there were strands of hair around his face.

"Hi Padfoot," Remus sat down next to him, "I was worried about you."

"I'm shocked," Sirius mumbled as he continued playing.

"You're not your mother and I know you don't like making me miserable," Remus sighed, feeling genuinely torn up about the fight, "I'm sorry."

"I'm sorry… it's just. It feels like everything is hitting at once and every time I feel like I can finally breathe, it's another thing, and a kid, I mean Remus a kid… I can fuck him up. I can ruin him even if just a weekend," Sirius said, looking over at him with wide eyes, pleading eyes. The silver in them never looked so blue.

Not blue like the ocean. Blue like Sirius' antidepressant medication. Like the episodes Sirius would have, refusing to eat or even get out of bed until Remus dragged him out, forcing meal shakes down his throat.

"Have you fucked Harry up?" Remus asked softly as he put his arm around Sirius, holding him close to his side. 

"Yeah, I fucked him up real bad. James and Lily would've never been on that shit if it weren't for me," Sirius put his guitar down and fully snuggled into Remus' side. It wasn't a secret that out of the friend group, the biggest users were Remus and Sirius, and it wasn't even close.

"I'm just as responsible as you are, but now, we're better. Name one time we've gotten close to hurting Harry," Remus kissed the side of his head. "We got this."

"We don't fucking got this," Sirius laughed but he sounded better, "I don't want to fuck the kid up anymore, I mean not having a parent, it must fuck you up, at least slightly."

"You didn't have parents Sirius," Remus murmured against Sirius' head, playing with his loose strands.

"No, the issue is I did have parents," Sirius continued laughing but it sounded more distant now. "Speaking of my horrible childhood, how is Regulus?"

Oh, well Sirius. I think that your brother and best friend are in cahoots . "Regulus seems good, really good. I've heard good things from some of the students I have, about how the new mysterious art teacher is really cool," this wasn't a lie. Most of the students loved Regulus, even if he didn't seem to like the students.

"That's good at least," Sirius leaned up to kiss Remus, it was soft and quick, but it made Remus feel all warm and fuzzy inside, Sirius' kisses always had that effect on him. 

"I'm going to go look at what we have for dinner," Remus announced as he got up, going into the kitchen and looking through the cabinets to see what they had. He realized that they should've gone to the store before Teddy got here but maybe they could go tomorrow, he could even let Teddy get some snacks he'd like.

He grabbed a pot and filled it with water then set it on the stove to boil. While he was waiting on that he started to cook some chicken. In the middle of working on his meal he heard loud laughter in the other room, it sounded like two voices, unmistakably Teddy and Sirius. The fact that they were getting along was Remus' one saving grace right now.

He just had to figure out how to tell Sirius that he was pretty sure James liked his estranged brother.  First he was going to talk to James, make sure he got the facts straight before going to Sirius but Remus knew James. This was definitely a crush.

Remus finished dinner forty-five minutes later, he would normally move faster but his knee and back were starting to flare up, so it took longer than expected. He went to the door into the living room, "Dinner is done boys," he silently winced in pain before putting a smile on and then sitting down at the table. 

Remus had already set the table and transferred all of the pots and dishes onto the table. Putting a glass of water down at each of the plates, "Can I set you both anything to drink?" he asked as he started to get up once Teddy and Sirius came into their kitchen and dining room, which was just one large room connected together.

"Do you have soda?" Teddy asked and Remus nodded, getting up to get it for him when the pain started to get worse. He tried hiding it but Sirius caught it.

"Want me to get it Moony?" Sirius grabbed him softly.

"I'm fine," Remus said through gritted teeth, not wanting to look weak in front of his son. He started to take a step but as his knee didn't want to bend, he gave a nod to Sirius to continue.

"We have Coke, Diet Coke, Dr. Pepper, and Sprite," Sirius told Teddy, looking back at him. 

"Dr. Pepper please," Teddy told him and Sirius brought it over then handed the cold can to Teddy. "Are you okay dad?"

"I'm fine, I just get pain in my back and legs sometimes," Remus figured it was better to not hide it from the kid. "Sometimes it's in my hip or my ankles, sometimes in my wrists, or my neck, it just depends on the day."

"That doesn't sound fun," Teddy opened his can of Dr. Pepper and took a drink.

"It's not," Remus confirmed, grabbing some pasta and then passing over the bowl to the other two.

"I'm just… built different? Is that what Harry says?" Sirius said, causing Remus and Teddy to laugh. Earlier in the year Remus had broken Sirius' brain by explaining the complete up to date lore of the Skibidi universe after one of his students used it in an essay comparing it to 1984 .

It unfortunately was quite a good essay. Remus wanted to fail the kid for even including it but it ended up being the top scoring paper of the unit. 

"Please don't use teen lingo again," Teddy laughed from where he sat.

"What? I'm cool with the youth. I even have a motorcycle," Sirius wasn't even that old but with his proper upbringing he had a habit of sounding like an old man occasionally, that and he was married to Remus who acted twenty years older than he was. 

"Can I ride one of them?" Teddy asked with a grin.

"No way," Remus said.

As Sirius spoke at the same time, "Absolutely."

"Sirius, he's not riding a bike. I'm not sending his mangled corpse to his mother," even Remus would put his foot down occasionally. He would kill himself if Teddy or Harry got hurt on the bikes, so he didn't let Sirius let them on when the engine was on.

"I was riding them when I was his age," Sirius argued.

"We were shooting up heroin when we were his age, are you going to allow that as well?" Remus asked him casually. Teddy looked at the two of them with wide eyes, a couple noodles doused in alfredo sauce hanging out of his mouth.

"Fair point," Sirius dropped it and went back to eating. 

"Did you two do any cool drugs?" Teddy did not drop it. 

"No, no drugs are cool," Remus answered as he cut his chicken.

"Some drugs are cool," Teddy disagreed, swallowing the noodles.

"No, Remus is right, no drugs are cool. Some drugs provide cool episodes or effects but once you're done with that, you're just left with an empty cold feeling of wanting to use over and over again," Sirius answered, looking down at his plate, moving his food around his with fork, "Don't do them, it isn't worth it."

"Oh," was all Teddy said, the emotion around the table turning sour.

"What's your favorite subject at school?" Remus asked, changing the subject with a smile.

"Art," Teddy answered quickly. "I'm working on a portfolio for it, Mr. Black has been helping him out, he's a pretty good teacher."

" Mr. Black ?" Sirius asked in a disgusted tone, Remus kicked him under the table, only to feel Sirius kick him back.

"He's your brother isn't he?" Teddy asked, eating more of his food.

"Unfortunately," Sirius sighed, eating a couple bites of chicken and then downing his water.

"What are the projects you're working on?" Remus asked and kicked Sirius once again, causing him to choke on the water going down his throat.

"Right now it's an interior of a kitchen," Teddy answered, "I'm using oil pastels, Mr. Black thinks I'm crazy for using them but I like the way they work."

"I don't know anything about art," Remus admitted, "Sirius knows a little though but he's more on the creating side of things. Not the painting side."

"I'm a better artist than my brother, trust me," Sirius said cockily, causing Remus to laugh. He hadn't even seen Regulus' art before to his knowledge but that was just the way Regulus and Sirius had always been, knowing nothing about each other but still fighting, even when Sirius hadn't spoken to him in years, he always said he was the better brother in any subject.

"Really? Do you have any art pieces?" Teddy asked, fully believing Sirius apparently.

"Er, no, but I can if you give me a day," Sirius said.

Remus chuckled at him, he couldn't wait to see whatever Sirius pulled out of a hat.

Remus and Sirius were ready for the football game, both adorned in their old schools' merchandise, Sirius' hair still up in the half up, half down, hair style. Teddy came down the stairs in the same outfit as before, he had been hiding out in the room for the past half hour, saying that he wanted to work on his project for a bit before they left. "Ready?" Remus asked him.

"Yeah," Teddy nodded and the three of them left in Remus' car. Sirius didn't trust that bringing the Impala, too worried that some teeanger was going to key the car.

They arrived at the parking lot and Remus parked then got out with the other two. James and Lily happened to be close by, talking to each other next to James' car. 

"Those are our friends," Remus told Teddy before walking over to the two of them, "Hey."

Lily turned to him with a sweet smile, she clocked the kid and blinked a couple times before staring Remus with wide eyes.

James was the first of them to speak, "Hey Moony. Why is there a kid with you? Have you been hiding him in a basement?" he asked giggling.

"He's my son," Remus answered, enjoying the look of shock and confusion on his friends' faces. He had told Lily about the possibility of having a son but never told her the follow up.

"So you were hiding a kid in a basement. Remus you can't do that," James whisper yelled. 

"Hey, if I'm good he doesn't even handcuff me to the furnace," Teddy said without missing a beat. Lily gave a muffed laugh.

"Oh that's definitely Remus' kid," James said in response, "How did you spawn a teenager out of thin air?"

"He grew me in a lab," Teddy grinned.

Sirius snorted as he put his hands in the pockets of his jacket, leaning against James, "I found him in the attic of my parent's house."

"Oh god, not only is he a victim he's also got the Black crazy gene," James joked but Sirius gave Remus a look, silently asking him if they were going to reveal that Teddy actually did have the Black crazy gene. Remus shook his head, not enough that James or Lily would see it but enough to send a signal.

"Be serious Remus-" James started only for Sirius to cut in.

"Actually I'm Sirius."

"Shut up Sirius. How did you get a kid?" James asked him, crossing his arms, "And why am I just finding out about said kid?"

"Why don't we go inside, get our seats, and then I'm sure Remus will explain," Lily suggested and everyone agreed, even James who was side eyeing Remus. Sirius paid for everyone's tickets and they went up into the bleachers together, even Teddy. 

"Explain the kid," James said the minute he sat down.

"We recently found out about each other, I met his mother during the open house. We realized that the dates would match up so we…" Remus glanced at Teddy, "We tested for it. He is my actual kid James and will be staying over for the weekend at my place… so, be nice to him." 

It was awkward to explain to Sirius enough in his kitchen at home in private and a whole other level of awkwardness to explain it to James in public, with Teddy right there.

"I'm always nice you asshole, hi Teddy, I'm your uncle," James introduced himself, holding out his hand. Teddy took it with a chuckle. 

"That's James, don't call him uncle," Remus told him.

"I'm Lily," she introduced herself.

"I'm going to get snacks, do you want anything Teddy?" Remus asked.

"Dr. Pepper?" Teddy asked but quickly followed with, "But it's cool if not. I have some cash on me if you want it by the way, to help with the ticket and the soda."

"Keep your money, I'll be back," Remus got up and Lily followed him down the bleachers and to the concession stands.

"I can't believe you didn't tell me the moment you found out," Lily told him once they were out of earshot of the group.

"I was dealing with over things Lily, like, I don't know, having a kid," Remus said, putting his arm around her. 

"How's Sirius coping with it?"

"We got in a fight the first day, that was Thursday," Remus told her.

"Wait. You found out Thursday and you're having him over this weekend? Don't you worry about that being a little fast?" Lily asked as they got in line.

"I don't know, is that, you're a doctor, you'd know," Remus was just trying to do whatever was best for the kid.

"I'm a charge nurse and I work in the ER, not peds or psych," Lily corrected him, "I guess just do whatever feels natural but don't put too much on him at once."

"I'm trying not to, I just want to be there for him, I already feel like shit knowing I'm the reason he didn't have a father in his life for the past decade and a half," Remus moved with the que.

"If you had known about him, would you have stepped in?" Lily asked.

"Probably, I know why you're asking that but I still feel like shit, and it's just another thing Sirius has to deal with now," Remus thought he was going to go insane from trying to keep everything together, trying to not make one side too upset.

"Sirius is an adult, he'll be fine."

"We both know Sirius has his limit before he is not fine," before he broke.

"He'll be fine Remus, I mean what's the worst thing that is happening right now? He has a step-son all of sudden? I think he'll live."

"I think James likes Regulus." 

"Do you have proof?" Lily asked, moving closer to Remus as she whispered. 

"Not anything solid but I'm going to ask him about it later," Remus ordered their drinks and candy when they got to the front then paid for it. He collected them all and started to head back, Lily trying to help him carrying something but he told her no. Remus always tried to do things on his own, even if it was trust carrying back snacks.

Lily tried initiating and he wasn't sure if she was doing it because she wanted to just help a friend out or she was doing it because she took pity on him. Remus had a long list of health issues that went along with his self pity, always assuming that whenever someone reached out a hand they were doing it because they pitied him.

Sirius only did it once, it was before they had turned to the drugs, before everything went to shit. Remus had chewed him out and made him promise to never do it again. 

He went back to the rest of them handing out the snacks as he sat down, pain shooting through his spine up his neck, his eyes becoming hazy as the pain numbed him.

Sirius caught it but he didn't say anything, Sirius rubbed his thumb along the side of Remus' leg, telling him he caught it and he's here. Remus tried giving him a smile but it was probably more of a frown.

"Do you play sports?" Sirius asked Teddy so the group had something to focus on, less likely to catch what was happening to Remus.

"No I don't, I've tried every sport the only one I've come close to being decent it is my skateboard," Teddy answered, it made sense that he was into skating, he looked like a kid you find at the skate park with his jacket that had cyber sigilism on the back of it. 

"Is skateboarding a sport?" Lily asked, looking like she disagreed as kick off started.

"It's a sport when you're ten feet in the air," Teddy laughed, he wasn't really paying attention to the game.

"That sounds like an ER visit," Lily shivered.

"Don't listen to her, she didn't let me feed Harry grapes for two years once she started working in the hospital," James teased her.

"Children choke on grapes all the time, you'd be shocked how often it occurs," Lily rolled her eyes, hitting James then Sirius on the chest in rapid succession.

"He was thirteen Lily, I hope he knew how to chew by then," James laughed.

"Why did I get hit? He's the idiot that spoke against you?" Sirius asked, leaning against Remus without thinking, causing another shot of pain going up him. Remus let out a shaky quiet breath as he closed his eyes, trying to swallow the pain as best he could. 

"Because you two are a package deal, one says something dumb the other gets hurt as well," Lily explained with a giggle, screaming a cheer when the team did something good. Sirius and James joined in one the screaming and the cheering but Remus white-knuckled the metal bench. He'd be fine, he could get through this.

By half time Remus wasn't sure he was going to be able to get up on his own and by the end of the game, he knew at a minimum he wasn't driving back, but he got up, masking the pain as best he knew how. He didn't even know who won the game but by the quiet of everyone else he'd guess they lost.

"I'm assuming you and Pads aren't going to come crash with us?" James asked Remus, patting him on the back. Remus felt the pain go from James' hand and spread down to his hips.

The conversation of Regulus had completely slipped his mind due to focusing on just getting through the game, "Uh, no, gonna have a family night or some shit," Remus sighed then cringed as the curse word slipped through his mouth without realizing. He shouldn't curse when his students could be behind him at any turn. 

"Have fun with board games and hot chocolate," James gave him a side hug and Lily came up to him doing the same as Harry came over to the group changing out of his uniform.

"Good game Harry," Remus could normally give the kid a hug or a high five but even the few steps over to him made him nauseous at the pure thought. 

"Yeah sure," Harry mumbled and Remus could see the poor kid beating himself up behind his eyes. He'd text James to check in on him once he was home, not wanting to do it in front of Harry. 

"Ready to go?" Sirius asked him, grabbing his hand lightly, soft gentle touches. 

"Yeah, ready, can you-" Remus started to ask but Sirius reached into Remus' front pocket and took out the keys, not needing him to finish. "Have I ever told you I'm madly in love with you?"

"A few times," Sirius winked with his signature grin, "Come on Moony," he brought Remus' hand up to his mouth, lightly kissing the back of it.

"Gross, you two are gross, I just met you," Teddy gagged and started to walk to the parking lot where the car was.

 "What are you homophobic?" Sirius jokingly asked Teddy, shoving his shoulder a little.

"I wasn't before but now I am," Teddy shook his head with a laugh.

"Yikes, do you have a boyfriend? Girlfriend? Friend?" Sirius asked as they started to get in the car.

"I have friends," Teddy snorted, "No friend friend, not yet at least. I'm working on my four month plan for her right now."

"Are you sure you aren't James' kid?" Sirius gave a hearty laugh as he started to pull out of the parking lot.

"Hey, I have my own twenty year plan with you," Remus laughed with Sirius, he was only half joking, he didn't have a laid out list of things he was planning to do to get Sirius' to be his forever, but that was the general plan.

James on the other hand when he was thirteen had a forty step plan to get Lily Evan's to be his, it was decorated in highlighters and stickers, in James' defense, the plan worked. 

"You know just how to swoon me, Remus Lupin," Sirius blew him a kiss.

They arrived home and Remus got out of the car, the pain only worsening, he unlocked the front door and went inside, making a beeline to the living room and laying down on the couch. He struggled to get his legs up on the couch but was happy that Sirius didn't help him since he could do it on his own.

"Do you want to watch a movie? We could make popcorn, I'd offer to make cookies but I uh, am bound to the couch at the moment," Remus offered as Teddy took his jacket off, draping it over the back of one of the chairs.

"If you really want cookies I can help," Sirius offered and Remus felt a shiver of horror run through him, Sirius couldn't bake. 

"Actually?" Teddy asked, Remus thought of telling him no but he looked so happy .

"Come on, Moony, pick a movie while we cook," Sirius kissed his forehead then went into the kitchen with Teddy, the door shutting behind him. This is how he was going to die, from a poisonous cookie his son and husband created.

Chapter Text

Sirius was pouring gummy bears in the bowl, it started as normal chocolate chip cookies but it didn't look colorful enough in Teddy's opinion. Sirius scoured through the shelves and found some old ones, agreeing with the teenager. They added blue food dye after the addition.

"I feel like there's not enough sugar in this recipe," Teddy said as he looked at Sirius' phone where the recipe was being displayed.

"I was thinking the same thing," they had run out of granulated sugar so he just substituted the rest with powdered sugar, he stared at the rest of the bag and decided on adding the rest of it in.

They had substituted a lot of the ingredients and hadn't measured most of them either or if they did, they used heaping scoops. Sirius grabbed a pan and the two of them started to create various shapes then putting them on the pan.

"You're really good at art, aren't you?" Sirius asked as he looked at the sculpture Teddy was making out of the dough. It looked like a wolf, next to that one was a snowman with a little hat. 

Teddy covered his cookies with his hands, trying to shield from Sirius as if he was embarrassed, "They're just okay. Your brother is good at art, I'm uh, I'm just average."

"If you're just average then I'm shit, and I'm not shit in anything so you must be good," Sirius put them in the oven once they finished, as far as teenagers went, Teddy was a pretty cool one. He wasn't some little shit that Sirius had to worry about running off crying or trying to do his makeup in his sleep. 

They finished cookies and Sirius took them out of the oven, plating them while they were nice and warm. The shapes were no more, all blobs of the previous sculptures but neither of the boys were upset about that, Teddy went to go bite into one but Sirius stopped him, "Let Moony try the first one."

They brought the plate out to Remus who looked at them with hesitant eyes, "Are these going to kill me?"

Sirius scoffed, "You have no faith in my baking skills."

"You're right, I don't," Remus said with a flat look but picked up a cookie, he started to take a small bite but with a pleading look from Teddy he sighed and took a larger one. Remus immediately got up from the couch and ran over to the small trash can they had near the door spitting the food out into the trash can, "That tastes like pure chemicals."

"No it doesn't," Sirius took a bite and Remus was right, he didn't know what that taste was but it was almost like toothpaste but without the minty flavor. He didn't put toothpaste in it, at least he didn't think he did, the more he thought about it the more he thought he may have. Sirius swallowed it and forced a smile, "Yummy."

Remus blinked at him and sat back down on the couch with a grunt, "Have fun with your chemical cookies."
Teddy took one and spit it out like Remus did, "Why does it taste like that?"

If only they knew they knew they had mixed up the teaspoons with the tablespoons when it came to the baking powder and baking soda.

Lily's day started at five am. She rolled out of bed with a slight hangover, thanks to James and put on her scrubs. They didn't drink much but it didn't take much for her to get drunk nowadays, she always joked about how her tolerance went around in a circle, she used to be able to handle bottles and feel sober, and here she was with a massive hangover after a couple drinks.

Since Lily had a fifteen hour shift day, Harry was staying at James' for the weekend. She put her shoes on and headed out. Normally she'd drink some coffee but she was running late so went straight to the hospital.

When she got there the night charge nurse looked at her with tired eyes, "Night shift was a wreck, they're still recovering so take it easy on them, I'm telling Anderson the same." 

"Fantastic, how were the interns?" Lily asked, she preferred the night ones to the day ones, they were too full of life during the day. 

The nurse laughed as Lily sat down in the chair pulling her hair up into a ponytail, "Odds on Lucas not talking shit the moment she walks down here?"

"I don't take losing bets, Evans."

Lucas was part of the management always barking at the ER to speed up their times for getting patients in and out, it was utter nonsense, there was no way to get them out faster without more beds or staff. 

An hour in and it was slow for it being the ER, no one was saying anything though since they hadn't had a bad case yet.

"How is it in your cave?" Evan asked her, leaning over the counter. Evan Rosier, first year intern, usually worked day shift but tonight he must have been on night. Hated talking to patients and hated talking to nurses even more. She already had pushed to have him written up when he cursed at one of the nurses but he was alright for the most part.

"My cave is lovely, I'm thinking of setting fire to the village soon, are they switching you to nights?" Interns referred to Lily as the dragon, a stupid nickname she had earned when she screamed at one of them a year and a half ago, they said her hair was like the fiery breath. Since Evan got here he joked about her having a cave where she hid away like a dragon.

"For the next four days I'm strictly on nights, does the village include me?" Evan asked with a pout, "You know you love me Evans."

"Don't you have a boyfriend?" Lily asked as she worked away at a form. 

"Yeah but MILFs are hotter than any man I could get," Evan bit the inside of his cheek as he looked at her, Lily wasn't sure if he was joking, she really didn't care. 

"This MILF is gay," Lily giggled, "Love a set of tits and I don't see one on you."

Evan rolled his eyes muttering a, "I'm gay too but at least I play along," then went over as Anderson came out and gestured for him to come over, the interns got sent out of their little quests as the bay went off, Lily got up paging Anderson then ran over to the doors watching as the stretcher was brought in. She recognized the woman. It was her son's school counselor. Shit. She looked fine on the surface at least, "How are you Ms. MacDonald?" she asked her as they went over the curtains closing around them with the medics. 

"I'm fine, I just hit my head. My roommate called the paramedics, something about head trauma," Mary groaned as she was transferred into one of the beds. 

"Head trauma is a serious thing, how bad was the fall? What were you doing when you fell?" Lily asked, thanking the paramedics as they left, going outside to give Anderson the medical information. 

"I was just getting up and walking around then passed out, it's not uncommon," Mary told her, grabbing her head.

"It's not uncommon for you to randomly pass out?" Lily masked her sheer amusement that this woman wasn't dead, how did someone just ignore random spells of them passing out?

"Yeah…" Mary tilted her head as Anderson walked in.

"Thanks Evans, I got this," he smiled at her as Lily walked out going back to her desk but not before she looked back twice at Mary. It was different when she knew the person on one of the beds, even if she barely knew them. She didn't know what she'd do if one of her friends came in or worse Harry. She shook off the thought and went back to her paperwork.

The shift wasn't as brutal as she expected, getting off almost on time, only fifteen minutes late. With a yawn she got in her car, Mary had gotten discharged after her tests came back to back sure there wasn't any brain bleeding, she was referred to her PCP to look at the fainting. 

There weren't many groceries at home so she stopped at a diner on the way home since it was still open, she didn't bother changing before she went in, not caring who saw her in her scrubs. She was sucking down a minty milkshake when someone sat on the opposite side of the booth. 

She looked up and saw Mary there, this wasn't creepy at all. Even if it was creepy at least Mary looked nice in her knitted dress that went up her neck, a burnt orange color that complimented her skin.

"I uh, I wanted to thank you for earlier," Mary said with a smile, her hands bundled in her lap as she was hunched over. 

"It's my job… literally," Lily said, a little coldly and noticed that Mary bit her lip and started to get up, mumbling a sorry and now Lily felt like an ass, "What are you doing here?"

"Third wheeling, my roommate and her girlfriend are over there, so I figured I'd give them a break and say hi," Mary said and nodded over to a pair of women at another table, making kissy faces at each other, it made Lily giggle.

"Are you willingly being a third wheel or did you get dragged around?" Lily asked eating one of her fries. She knew what it was like to be a third wheel, going on enough dates with Sirius and Remus, something about trying to get her out of the house.

"Dragged around, she doesn't trust me to not faint on the ground," Mary explained and Lily felt more bad for being an ass earlier.

"I mean, I'd probably react the same way if I were her. Do you set up an appointment with your PCP?" Lily tried to separate her work from her personal life but that was almost impossible for her.

"I did… sorry for bothering you this uh," Mary stumbled over her words and started to get up again.

"I see you at work all of the time, it's no different than that," it was probably inappropriate to talk to her like this, it also likely broke several workplace rules, she was a patient, and worked at her kid's school, but Lily was never one for the rules, even if James would be inclined to disagree.

Mary laughed, "I guess that's fair isn't it, I have to say I prefer my office over yours."

"My office is clean, sterile, yours is full of nick nacks," Lily finished offering Mary one of her fries and she grabbed one, thanking her quietly before eating it.

"I love my trinkets, they're like a part of me, plus the students love having something to do while I talk about their bad grades or me having to explain why we can't threaten teachers," Mary grabbed another fry as she spoke.

Lily laughed brighter this time as either the roommate or the girlfriend of the roommate walked over to them, she had short blond hair that was in a borderline mullet, "Is this your girlfriend Mary?"

Mary looked at the other woman with pleading eyes and a bright blush on her face, "Marls, this is-"

Lily decided to have a bit of fun, probably inappropriate fun, but fun nonetheless, "I'm Lily and if I am?" she bit her lip playfully as she leaned back in the booth.

"Oh, are you the cute ginger Mary is always going on about?" Marls asked, Lily wondered what that was short for. Lily gave Mary a curious look, she had a thing for gingers? That's cute. 

Mary's face even lit up even more, a curl falling over in front of her face as she got up, "I have to go now," she grabbed Marls' arm and quite literally dragged her out of the dinner.

Lily giggled and finished eating, getting out her card out of her wallet as she wondered why Mary was in such a rush until she thought about it… wait. Was she the ginger? She couldn't be but with the way Mary reacted… she needed to get to Remus' house.

She paid and drove to his house, she got out seeing both Remus' and Sirius' cars out front and frantically knocked on the door. Neither of them answered the door, instead it was the teannger she had met the night before, "Hi Ted right? Where's your dad?" she asked and he just nodded with a chuckle in reply as he moved to the side. Remus and Sirius were cuddling on the couch.

"I need a phone number," Lily stood in front of the TV, Sirius groaning in reply.

"What?" Remus asked, yawning as he sat up a little, keeping his arm around Sirius.

"Do you have Mary MacDonalds number?" Lily asked, they were coworkers, it wasn't the weirdest question she had ever asked him.

"Why?"

"Cause I want it," Lily thought that was reason enough for it.

"God you and Regulus are similar," Sirius laughed as he sat up with Remus, Teddy sitting down in one of the chairs as the kid pulled out his phone.

"Why?" Lily asked confused but happy as Remus pulled out his phone with a huff.

"Regulus kept bothering me about giving him James' number, not telling me why, just because he wanted it," Sirius yawned, nestling against Remus, they were cute all domestic like this.

Lily grabbed Remus' phone from him, a little surprised that he was actually giving her the number but there it was in a contact on his phone, "Oh does the crush go both ways?" she laughed and watched as Sirius froze against Remus. Oh no. Remus didn't tell him.

Remus never told her that he told Sirius but she assumed they did, they didn't hide things from each other. He had waited long enough to tell Sirius in her opinion. "The what?" Sirius asked, his voice sharp.

"The nothing," Lily said, putting the number in as quickly as she could, then put her phone in her pocket while tossing Remus' his.

"I think this is where I go upstairs," Teddy said running upstairs as anyone with a pulse could feel the tension in the room.

"It's a joke right?" Sirius asked, looking towards the stairs and making sure that the kid was gone. 

Remus winced, "I don't know. I just put the pieces together, I know nothing about Regulus but with James it's… it doesn't look good."

"I'm killing him," Sirius decided as he got up and Lily and Remus both surrounded him, knowing that Sirius wasn't thinking straight so there was a chance he'd do something dumb, not kill James dumb, but punch James dumb.

"We don't know for sure, it's just a guess," Remus told him, putting his hand on Sirius' shoulder.

"I'm going over to his house," Sirius said while Lily and Remus met eyes. They couldn't stop him, only try to lessen the blow.

"I'll drive you," Lily offered, not wanting him to drive in this state, she saw plenty of victims of car accidents from distracted driving, anger counted as a distraction. "You can stay with Teddy," she told Remus looking up at the stairs.

"Let's go now Evans," Sirius grabbed, not even putting on his shoes as he left the house going outside. 

Lily grimaced, mouthing an 'im sorry' at Remus before leaving out with Sirius, she heard Remus groan from behind her and start going up the stairs. This wasn't going to end well.

James had been trying to get Regulus to come over all day, he kept saying no which was making James pout. Regulus wasn't giving him a good answer, not explaining why he didn't want to come over. 

He was on the phone with him, watching some TV show in the background while Harry was up in his room. Harry wasn't hungry with dinner so he was also eating an additional serving of the food he made, it was… okay. James wasn't known for his cooking though, they were lucky he was able to feed Harry on his own. 

"You should paint me sometime," James suggested with a giggle, he was also trying to convince Regulus into letting him see some of his art. Regulus was being all mysterious though. James would be more upset if it wasn't so hot.

Regulus laughed, "What? Want me to paint you like one of my french girls?" he teased as there was a knocking on his door, it reminded him of the police. James jumped as he grabbed his phone, going through the different drugs remembering the last time he took them making sure he would test sober until it hit him that he was completely sober. 

"Gotta go, goodnight," James hung up on Regulus, tossing his phone down before he got up and answered the door feeling relief when he saw Sirius on the other side and not the police. That was until Sirius grabbed him by the shoulder and pinned him against the wall. Lily was behind him, looking at them with worry.

"What are you doing with Regulus?" Sirius asked as James felt his head with the wall, ow . He winced as he looked at Sirius, he looked pissed off.

"I was just talking to him," James said, confused about what Sirius had heard.

"He's here?" Sirius asked to let go of him and looked around the corners of the room.

"No, no, I was just calling him," James waved his arms, not wanting Sirius to tear up the house.

"You were calling him at eleven fucking pm?" Sirius asked, arms crossed, the vein in his neck sticking out. 

"He's nice to talk to you."

Sirius studied him, blinking at him slowly as his nostrils flared, his hair a mess towards the top, "He's nice to talk to?" he repeated slowly, "James. What are you planning on doing to my brother?"

James didn't know. He still wasn't sure what his plans were, Regulus was cute, he was nice to talk to. His hair was so fluffy on his head, James had been tempted to reach out and touch it every time he had seen it. He had bought several candles for Regulus, he was planning on delivering them in person, he had managed to get his address from him so was going to swing by tomorrow.

"I don't know, be his friend. Am I not allowed to?" James asked, still wildly confused on why Sirius was at his house near midnight with Lily, it felt like there were several pieces of the puzzle he was missing, including the puzzle box.

"No!" Sirius yelled, causing James to take a step back, he wasn't scared of Sirius but he knew Sirius would throw a punch if he wanted to, "You're my friend, not his."

"Sirius… we're in our thirties, aren't we a little old for that?" James frowned, he knew that they were brothers with issues to put it lightly, but maybe he stupidly thought that since they were older it would get put past them. He didn't expect them to be buddy-buddy but at least they could tolerate each other… he hoped that they could at least.

Sirius looked at him with betrayal in his eyes, "So you're choosing him over me?"

"Jesus christ Pads, no, I- Lily why are you here love?" James turned over to Lily softening his voice, who was awkwardly standing to the side of the two men fighting. 

"I drove him," Lily answered, glancing over at Sirius.

"You can go home Lils, I'll get him home," James gave her a hug, subconsciously kissing her cheek, "Have a goodnight."

"Good luck," Lily whispered and left the house leaving him with Sirius.

James breathed in deeply then turned to Sirius again, "I'm not replacing you. I can't replace you, the only person who comes over you is Harry," he told him with a firm tone, wanting Sirius to know he was being serious.

"Yeah sure, are you going to make Regulus Harry's godfather next?" Sirius mumbled, picking at the skin around his nails. 

"No you dumbass, are you going to freak out if I go to his apartment tomorrow?" James asked, raising an eyebrow.

"He's a child James," Sirius said, still on guard.

"He's twenty six," James' eyebrows furrowed, he loved Sirius but he was… well… Sirius.

"I can't believe this," Sirius groaned, "You're a traitor. A blood traitor."

"Are you going to knock me out or something?" James asked, just wanting to know what he was getting into.

"So you are courting him?"

"Courting? What- Are we in the 1800s Sirius? No. I'm just friends and if something happens then something happens, which… he's cute, what am I supposed to do, not have eyes?" James won't be mad if something happened, he liked to imagine Regulus giggling as James ran his fingers through his hair.

James heard his glasses crack before he felt the impact of Sirius fist on his fast. Sirius was unfortunately a lot stronger than most people gave him credit for. James felt the pain bloom from his nose as he looked at Sirius with hazy eyes. He grabbed his nose as he felt something wet on his lips. 

Sirius grabbed his own face in shock as there was a noise of Harry running down the stairs, "What happened?" he heard Harry ask. James took his glasses off then covered his nose, feeling blood pool in the bottom of his palms.

"Nothing," James said as he tripped over, grabbing onto the wall, "You broke my fucking nose," he whispered to Sirius, too delirious from the series of events to even be angry at the man. 

"I have to drive your dad to the doctor," Sirius said as he looked around for James' keys.

James took them out of his pocket and felt Sirius' snatch them out of his hand.

"Did you hit dad?" Harry asked with wide eyes and a slight laugh, "What did dad do?"

"Dad was being dumb, are you okay being by yourself?" Sirius asked and James went to go hit him but his nose had another wave of pain so he went back to nursing his nose. He regretted asking Lily to leave, she would know what to do working in the ER.

"Yeah, I'm good, shouldn't we just call mom?" Harry asked.

"No, your mom worked a long day today, I'll be fine," James didn't want to bother Lily, especially after a long shift, he'd be fine waiting in the waiting  room.

"Come on Prongs," Sirius took out some bills and threw them on the table just in case, they always left money with Harry then they got into the car. The moment Sirius pulled out he asked, "Why my brother? Why not anyone else? What is even good about him?"

"His hair looks soft. He likes the smells of warm candles, not lemon though, he says lemon isn't a warm scent and when he quirks his eyebrow up you can hear it in his voice," James said dreamily, quietly chuckling to himself while he thought of Regulus then twisting his face in pain when the laugh caused his nose to move. 

Sirius looked over at him with a disappointed look as he defeatedly sighed, "When am I going to have a break?"

It didn't take James near as long to get looked at as he guessed it would, probably something about the broken nose put him over the people with a slight cough. The nurse led him over to a bed, Sirius on his tail, the tension between the two of them still there but not near as bad as it was prior.

A man entered the door next, he was dressed like a doctor with his scrubs, looking at James and then doing a double take at Sirius, "Oh Regulus is going to have a field day with this one," the man laughed, "I'm Dr. Rosier."

" Evan ," Sirius sneered and Evan blew Sirius a kiss before grabbing the stool and sitting down on it, "I thought you can't treat people you know."

"I don't know James, I only know what Regulus tells me," Evan grabbed a clipboard, "Now sit still James, Regulus tells me you're hyperactive and I don't want to cause you any more pain than you're already in."

Evan lightly touches around James' nose and he winces in pain, "How did it break?"

"He punched me in the nose," James rolled his eyes looking in Sirius' direction.

"You were talking about my brother in disgusting ways," Sirius barked back.

Evan raised an eyebrow, a small smirk on his face, and then it fell away, "It looks like a clean break which means you won't need an X-ray or CT scan, I need to go talk to my attending but then I'll be back," and got up to leave without a second glance.

"I hope they call the police on you," James grumbled, whining when he touched his nose again, the area felt so hot on his face.

"Which one of us was in handcuffs last?" Sirius rebutted without thinking then looked at James with a look of horror, "I'm- shit- I'm sorry, that was-"

Sirius is cut off by James' wheezing and whimpers in the mix from the pain of laughing. "Nice one Padfoot, gonna call me a bad dad next?" he laughed loudly, even getting looks from people outside of the curtain range.

"If you keep it up," Sirius muttered to himself but James still caught it, most people would take offense but James just shrugged it off, reaching out to push Sirius back.

"Asshole."

"Cunt."

"Bitch boy."

"Brother fucker."

"Fuck I wish," James groaned resulting in Sirius shoving him so hard he almost fell off of the bed but caught himself at the last minute, "Rude."

"I'm breaking your nose again after this."

Chapter Text

Regulus wasn't disappointed when James didn't show up over the weekend. Anyone who said otherwise was a liar, he just… well, he was fine. James texted him frantatic apologies the next day, explaining all that happened. Evan had explained that he saw a James Potter in the ER, saying that James had a crush on him but Regulus didn't believe him. Evan was just messing around with him as he kept talking to the couple about James.

It was hard to not talk about James. He was so full of life that he almost suffocated Regulus but if this was how Regulus died, he wouldn't complain.

When asked what happened to cause Sirius to punch him in the nose. James flat out told him it was because he liked him, in a romantic way. Regulus still hadn't replied to the text because how did one reply to a text like that? 

He was in the middle of his class, looking over Teddy's shoulder as the oil pastels smudged into each other. It was a kitchen, the knobs on the stove were neon red and about five times larger than they should've been. "Have a fear of stove knobs?" he asked, raising an eyebrow.

"No," Teddy laughed as he worked, the pastels rubbing over his fingers, dirtying them. "I have this thing, in the middle of the night I get all worried that I've left the stove on. Even if I hadn't used it that day. Because what if I turned it on and forgot?"

Regulus didn't know what the kid was talking about but nodded like he understood, it wasn't his place to judge the kid for his thinking, "And your stove relates to your portfolio how?"

"My portfolio is my mind. The different parts of it, this is one of the parts," Teddy explained and Regulus understood that at least, he had done numerous works based on the things his mind plagued him with. He walked through the other students, looking at their work until he arrived at Harry who had finished his sketch.

"Are you ready for the next part?" Regulus asked, the lighting wasn't great but it was decent, especially for being a beginner class, so he'd let him start working on the final project for the unit.

"I think so, I was wondering if I could paint it?" Harry asked, picking at his nails as he glanced between the project and Regulus.

"That's fine, the canvases are over there," for the students who wanted to paint the project he had set out some smaller canvases for them to work on, along with the cheaper paints and brushes. 

Harry got up and Regulus went over to the sink at the back of the room, grabbing a sponge and a butter knife. He started to clean the dried paint around the metal, using it to try and distract himself from James Potter. James Potter who openly admitted that he had a crush on Regulus.

For the next week Regulus distanced himself from James as much as he could. And then Remus was in his classroom again, asking Regulus if he planned on helping with homecoming like that previous teacher did. Regulus agreed, needing an excuse to distance himself further away from James, and he learned that Remus was in charge of the homecoming committee so it wasn't like he would be under some tyrant.

The worst part with the James issue was that Regulus wasn't even disgusted or upset at James for liking him. He was disappointed in himself for liking James back. In the late of night he would scroll through their previous messages, smiling like an idiot at the stupid jokes James would send him. Every day Harry dropped another candle off on his desk and Regulus thought of burning them in the kiln. Instead he put them on the coffee table at home, lighting them as he worked on a sketch.

James had started to text him less and less, which meant that the distancing was working, or at least Regulus thought it was working. He couldn't date James, it was a recipe for disaster. James was Sirius' best friend and the father of one of his students. Regulus couldn't risk losing this job. Not when rent was finally not a worry of being paid. Even if for the first time he felt himself wanting to talk to someone more, wanting to get to know them, not only what made them tick but what made them laugh and smile.

Remus and Pandora were in Regulus' classroom after hours, writing different ideas down for the homecoming theme.

"Paris is overdone," Pandora scratched out one of Remus' ideas and replaced it with, tropical jungle .

Remus laughed, "I'm not doing a jungle theme. What about an enchanted garden? I think we have some decorations in the storage closet that would work well." A couple other teachers flooded into his room and Regulus regretted agreeing to let them use his classroom to discuss.

"I love a good enchanted garden, I think it's been ten years since we've done it," one of the teachers commented. Regulus just gave a noise of agreement not really caring what they did. Which is how Regulus ended up choking on spray paint fumes.

They had split up the duties to the different teachers and since Regulus was the art teacher he was given all of the art tasks. Which he preferred over figuring out the logistics of the event. And Pandora was helping him.

They had already made two of the banners and were currently spray painting a bunch of flowers into different colors. Remus had texted him saying that some parent volunteers were coming over to help them work and Regulus wished they wouldn't, he was fine working by himself. 

"Regulus," he heard from behind him and turned around to see the one and only James Potter. He should've expected that James would've volunteered. He had a thick bandage over his nose as his glasses laid carefully on this nose, right above the bandage.

"Mr. Potter, I didn't know you liked art," Regulus sent Pandora a worrying glance who just laughed to herself, choking on the fumes herself and turning away to cough.

"You like art, so I'm here," James pointed a finger at him, "And I can paint some things. Surely there's some grunt work that needs done." There was, Regulus put him on painting some cheap statues a shade of grey so Regulus would be able to paint over it and give them better detailing then what came on them originally.

"Been busy then?" James asked as he picked up a paint brush, swiping the paint over the statues, beads of paint flowing down the sides. 

"Yeah, homecoming," Regulus mumbled as he picked up one of the smaller brushes and started to do some detailing work on the flowers. He still had enough time to text James back, but James didn't need to know that. So maybe the ignoring James thing wasn't working as well as he thought it was then.

Pandora got up from off the ground, sending Regulus a playful look, a grin on her lips, "I'm going to go make sure Remus doesn't need us to finish anything else by today," and Regulus glared daggers into her. She knew what she was doing, leaving him alone with James. 

As Pandora walked away James turned to Regulus, in a quiet voice almost whispering, "I missed you."

Regulus looked over at him with wide eyes, causing him to paint a streak down the side of one of the flowers. He didn't even notice the mistake due to the way his heart was beating in his chest. No one had ever missed him before. Sirius claimed he did, but if Sirius truly did miss him, he would've left a card or done something to get out of that house. James had left him a gift, all those stupid candles, he didn't know what to say, he muttered out, "I'm sorry." He sounded pathetic and weak. 

"What?" James tilted his head and Regulus didn't realize how scared he was until this moment, his hands almost shaking.

"I'm sorry," Regulus repeated a little stronger this time. The deeper part of himself was scared to let James in, to let him see the mess that Regulus was beneath his cold exterior. James made him smile an hour after knowing him. He made Regulus attached to his phone a day after they met. It was too fast, too much, too quickly. "James, I'm your son's teacher, it's highly inappropriate to message you outside of working reasons."

James' face fell, "Oh, so you weren't busy then were you?"

"I mean. I was busy." Regulus said, the energy around them becoming sour at the touch.

"Is it just the school? Or do you not feel the same way?" James asked, the large paint brush falling by his side.

Regulus bit his lip and focused on the flowers in front of him, cursing when he realized his mistake. James walked over to him, looking around to see who was near them. They were outside the school, in the back near the parking lot so they didn't get high off of the paint fumes, though Regulus wished he were high at the moment, it would make it easier.

It was after school when the students were either at practice or home and most of the other teachers had gone home, except for the few on the homecoming committee who were in the gym, helping Remus set it up.

" Regulus ," James said, grabbing Regulus' face by his chin. His hands were softer than Regulus expected them to be, guess that came with being unemployed. 

"This is inappropriate Mr. Potter," Regulus looked down at the ground, worried about someone checking them like this, more worried about how his body was reacting to James touching him. He was warm all over fighting against his want to lean into James' hand more.

"I don't care," James laughed quietly, "Yes or no?"

"That's besides the point," Regulus pulled his face out of James' grip, it didn't matter what James was asking, the answer had to be no. He focused on the flowers again when he felt wet on his cheek. James had just brushed paint on his cheek with a giggle.

Regulus wiped it off with his sleeve, he knew how to get paint out of his clothes, "I can't believe you just did that."

"I can't believe you won't confirm or deny if you think I'm hot," James laughed and swiped at him with the paint brush again, this time it got on his nose.

"You're hot but the ass part of you is making me question it," Regulus laughed without realizing it and retaliated by swiping at James with his paint brush, getting it on his chin, making sure to not accidentally get his bandage wet with paint.

"I've been told my ass is rather hot as well."

The two of them kept getting paint on each other until Regulus had a decent amount of grey paint covering his face, neck, and hands, while James was covered in pink paint, bringing out the warm undertones in his skin.

They started to actually scrap, the paint brushes being pushed aside as they wrestled on the pavement of the parking lot. Regulus was still careful to not touch the still healing nose as he ended up getting pinned under James, the heat of the asphalt going through his clothing. His wrists being trapped under James' hands. He blinked up at James, meeting his brown eyes with Regulus' silver ones, "Admit it Regulus."

"That you're an asshole with an ego the size of a lake?" Regulus challenged, a smile appearing on his lips.

James pressed him harder into the asphalt raising an eyebrow at him.

"Okay, fine, I may slightly want to indulge in you but it is still inappropriate," Regulus said as James let him get up, both of them brushing the dust and dirt off of themselves. 

"Indulge in me? Am I dessert?" James asked, laughing as he picked up the paint brush again. 

Regulus did another cursory look around making sure no one was around them before leaning in, trying his best to think of something flirty and playful in the moment, neither of which anyone had ever described Regulus as, but if he was going to do this and potentially ruin his career, he wasn't going to do it half-assed, "Makes sense for how much I want to eat you."

James winked at him before Regulus could cringe at his own words, he couldn't believe he just said that in front of James who was able to flirt like it was his second nature. Regulus sounded like a loner on the edge of town who had never met another person before. He needed to pick up a book on flirting or ask Barty for advice.. James went back to painting the statues like nothing had just happened between them, "Speaking of eating. Me, you, the ice cream shop downtown this Saturday afternoon?"

Regulus choked on his saliva, not expecting James to dive straight in, but at this point he really should've expected it. "Maybe we should go out of town."

"Nah, just trust me," James waved him off but Regulus couldn't help but be nervous.

Pandora came back, a bundle of papers between her arms, "Remus has we're good once we finish these for the day. Are you going to be volunteering to supervise the dance?" she asked James.

"I think Remus knows better than to trust me to supervise," James laughed. Pandora looked at the paint on James' face and then looked at the paint on Regulus' face, giving Regulus a curious look but not saying anything out right.

The three of them finished the tasks for the day and James was helping Regulus transfer them into the art room for them to dry without risk of the weather damaging them or a student stealing them. The classroom was admittedly a mess between all of the projects of his students and now the projects for homecoming. James walked through the classroom glancing at all the art when he looked right at Harry's canvas which was propped up against one of the walls. James walked up to it, picking it up.

"That's his most recent project," Regulus said, as he tried to organize the space somewhat, the clean freak in him starting to freak out. It reminded him of when Evan's notes were all over their apartment. 

"Oh," James said, his voice turned down, quieter than he normally was as the playful expression on his face from before was now replaced with a look of remorse. It looked wrong on James, "Did he tell you what it's of?"

"He did, more or less," Regulus obviously didn't know the details of how it happened, but he remembered the news articles. 

"I'm not a bad dad," Jame put the canvas down against the wall again, turning to face Regulus. He looked weak as he hunched over, his eyes glossing over, he didn't look like the James Potter he met.

"I didn't say that you were," Regulus' eyebrows furrowed.

"But you're thinking I am. Did they tell you how it happened?" James asked, readjusting his new glasses on his face that Regulus just realized were new. He didn't question what happened to the last pair.

"No, they didn't," Regulus wasn't going to tell James that he had searched them up after leaving MacDonald's office.

"I got arrested for drug possession. Lily did too. I'm clean now, been clean for a while, but we weren't clean then. He got sent away while we fixed ourselves up. He uh… he still flinches when I yell during a sports game on the TV. He starves himself, just like they did, and he doesn't even think I notice. Regulus I… I'm not a bad dad, but I don't know what to do." It sounded like James was trying to convince himself more than Regulus that he wasn't some abusive monster hiding in the shadows.

Regulus moved closer to him, trying to be soft. He had never been good at the whole, emotions thing. To Regulus it was easier to block out feelings then try to process them, but James had been breaking down those walls since he met them, maybe it was his turn to help James, "I never thought that you're a bad father. I was raised by a bad parent, I know how to look out for them. You're not that. You're a fucking idiot, a questionable parental figure even. You're not bad. You should talk to a counselor though, a therapist, a social worker." 

"I fucking hate social workers. And he already has a therapist," James said, shoving his hands in his pocket. Regulus felt that there was a reason for the hatred of social workers so he didn't defend their honor in the moment, but he would once the air was a little clearer. 

"Wanna go to my apartment?" Regulus asked, feeling like the middle of his classroom wasn't the best area for this conversation. He thought of going to James' house but there was a risk of Sirius crashing in or Harry being home, James gave a stubble nod, "Still got my address?"

"Yeah," James said, his voice was shaking. 

"Can you drive?"

Jame gave another short nod. "I'll see you there then, okay?" Regulus asked, softer and more gentle than he had talked to anyone in a long time. He could do this for James.

Regulus drove to his apartment building with James trailing behind him in his own car. He parked in his area in the parking spot, Evan was at work so James could park in his spot. They got out of their cars at the same time.

"You live here?" James asked, his words were hazy as he looked over the building.

"Yeah, problem?"

"It looks like a crack den."

"I think it's heroin, not crack," Regulus said in a deadpan voice, which at least got James to let out a little laugh as they went upstairs to his apartment. It did look like a drug den in James' defense but the rent was cheap. Regulus opened the door, Barty jumped and turned around like a scared cat.

"I thought you had your- hello there," Barty said, a piece of cheese pizza hanging out of his mouth.

"Hi I'm James," James put on a smile and a show like he always did, walking inside and looking around the apartment, acting about the same as Sirius did. Grimacing at the walls and trying to avoid stepping on the parts of the floor that were deteriorated.

"I know who you are," Barty said, sitting back down and kicking his feet up, "Why are you here?"

"His name is Bartimeus and James is here to talk so stay here," Regulus said, leading James into the cramped one bedroom with the bunk beds. There wasn't much standing room left causing the two of them to be so close Regulus could feel James' breath on him.

"I didn't know this is what the Black family fortune bought," James said as backed further away from one of the walls that had a mysterious stain on it, causing him to be pushed into Regulus. He didn't know what it was, it was there when they moved in and no matter the amount of bleach they had sprayed on it, the stain persisted.

Regulus snorted, "It doesn't. I got cut off which is why I lived in a one bedroom mold infested apartment with my best friends."

"Move in with me," James said looking down at him without missing a beat. Regulus let out a little laugh looking at James like he was fucking insane.

"I'm not moving in with you. Anyway, we are here to talk about you. About what to do with Harry," Regulus changed the subject, ignoring the way he felt a blush creep up the back of his neck.

"We are circling back to this conversation after. What do I do?" James asked, glancing at the bottom bunk, "Is that safe to sit on?"

Regulus tilted his head biting the inside of his cheek before deciding to open the door, "When's the last time you and Evan fucked?"

"Too soon for you to be happy with the answer," Barty called back and Regulus shut the door shaking his head.

"I wouldn't sit on it. Personally. We could sit on the top bunk but you're too tall I think," Regulus offered and watched James climb up the ladder, he was too tall to sit down but just laid down inside. Regulus climbed up with him realizing how tiny the twin bed was, their bodies were flush against each other even with Regulus sitting and trying to give James his space.

"What do I do?" James repeated, his head on Regulus' pillow, his body in Regulus' bed. Regulus wouldn't mind being pinned down here but now wasn't the time for those thoughts.

"More therapy?" Regulus asked, not sure why James thought that he was a good person to ask for advice on parenting from. 

James rolled his eyes, "Trust me. Doesn't work, he's already in therapy. He used to go more often but it didn't help," he mumbled.

"Have you tried just talking to him?" Regulus asked, "As in, asking why he flinches? Why he still has issues with eating? Or have you just asked what's wrong and expected him to spill his guts?" 

James looked off in thought, "I feel weird asking him those things, they feel too personal and I want to give him his space. I don't want him to close off more than he already has."

"You're his father James, you're meant to be in his personal space. Especially if something bad is happening," Regulus said, not being able to stop himself as he reached out, brushing James' hair out of his painted face. 

"I'll talk to him after practice, he gets off in an hour."

"Make sure to actually talk to him, as in have this conversation," Regulus remembered Lily mentioning James' lack of parenting skills, he didn't want to have this talk with James just for it to fall through.

"Speaking of conversations, you should move in with me."

"I'm not moving in with you, I'm content here," Regulus rolled his eyes, lightly hitting James' in the shoulder, "Plus even if I were to move in, you should ask the other person you live with and then there's Barty and Evan."

Regulus wouldn't move in with James, he wasn't that insane. The only way he would do something that idiotic was if he had no choice and even then, he would sleep in his car, or worse, on Sirius' couch. 

James laid in Regulus' bed looking up at the gorgeous man as his man spiraled deeper and deeper inside of his skull, the only thing keeping him from going insane there and then was the sound of Regulus' breath. He didn't mean to ask for Regulus to move-in, in some weird 'let's rush and get married' way. He just didn't like the idea of Regulus living here. He'd take Bartemius and the other friend if Regulus wanted even. 

With a grunt he left the comfort of Regulus' bed, trotting out of the apartment after giving Bartemius a wave and a smile, only getting flipped off in return. James gave him an odd look but descended down the stairs. He could do this, he could talk to his son without feeling like a powder keg about to explode. When Harry should be done with practice, he was already parked outside of the locker room, sitting in silence with no music as he went over the conversation time after time in his head.

James' eyebrows furrowed as he watched the other kids come out of practice, either getting in their own cars or their parents'. He waited an extra half hour, thinking that maybe Harry needed to talk to his couch about something. When Harry still didn't appear, he texted him asking where he was not wanting to jump to conclusions.

to: harry

Hey kiddo. I'm at the school, where are you so I can drive around and pick you up?

James waited an additional fifteen minutes and he couldn't deny the gut feeling inside of him that felt like he had tar running through his intestines. He texted Sirius next.

to: padfoot

Sirius did you pick Harry up from school?

Then Lily.

to: Lils

I know you're probably busy but did you pick up Harry from practice?

Lily was probably still at work and Sirius replied back with a quick no. The tar in his gut thickened as he gripped the wheel with tight hands, half tempted to call the police right there and then. If he hadn't had such a bad relationship with the police department he probably would've called them there and then but he drove around the block looking for him. Sometimes Harry would walk home but he would at least text James that he was. 

The thought of his phone dying crossed his mind and prayed that was the reason he wasn't replying to him. Another twenty minutes passed and James had driven around the majority of the town. Sirius and Remus were also helping look around town for him as James went home to make sure that he wasn't there. When the house was empty he texted Regulus.

to: Reg <3

Harry is missing. I'm going to have a fucking panic attack. 

from: Reg <3

Breathe James, I'll come over okay?

It was ten and Lily, Regulus, and James were all pacing back and forth in the living room. Remus and Sirius were still out looking around. James had called Lily once Regulus came over and calmed him down enough to. He went through the hospital and called the ER desk knowing that she'd be there. When he explained what was happening Lily left the hospital and went to her house making sure that Harry wasn't there then came to James' house.

She was on the phone with the police explaining what the issue was, while James could hear the choked up tears in her voice as she ran a shaky hand through her hair. 

The idea of driving to the liquor store and drinking until the anxiousness left his body was prevalent. He wasn't going to do something that dumb now, not when Lily was about to start sobbing at any moment, and not when even Regulus was looking at James with a concerned expression on his face.

There was a noise at the front door, a jingle of a key and then the quiet shut of the door. James thought it was Sirius and Remus, a blissful thought of ignorance of it being Harry in his heart but his brain doubted it was him. When he turned the corner he saw Harry standing there, he was wearing the same clothes that James had dropped him off in. The same backpack over his shoulder. 

"Harry James Potter," Lily came up behind him, her strict motherly voice being broken between voice cracks. 

Harry's eyes darted back and forth quickly between everyone standing there, his hands buzzing as if he had too much energy inside of him. He laughed, "What?" he asked with a grin, as if he didn't know why Lily was freaking out.

"What? What? You've been missing for hours and I just get- I don't even care," Lily said as she walked up to him wrapping him a large hug, Harry's arms wrapped around her. James could hear her almost silent sobs as she didn't let go of him.

Harry shot James a confused look as he didn't pull away from his mother. Lily sniffled as she pulled away, "I'm going to go make calls, let everyone know you're safe," she wiped at her face and took out her phone to call off the police as well as Remus and Sirius.

"Where were you?" James asked him as Regulus retreated with Lily giving the father and the son some space. 

Harry shrugged with the same grin on his face, lazily tossing his bag off of the floor, "Out with friends," his speech was floaty and borderline slurred as his fingers continued to dance, trying to output all of the energy inside of him. He mumbled something to himself, fighting with the sleeves of his jacket, taking it off and tossing it on the bag. James looked at Harry's arm, the slightest bit of what looked like dried blood on it, a thin streak running down his forearm from his elbow.

James' eyes relaxed from worry into happiness when he saw that Harry was okay but now they were morphing into horror as he realized Harry was high and it wasn't weed.