One of Us | Jegulus

Nine

The next day Regulus tried to ignore Sirius even more than he already had.
Lupin seemed to have recovered very quickly as they now were sitting together in the living room once again, listening to the music in silence, both with their own book in their laps.
James and Sirius were laughing together in the kitchen and Regulus just hoped that they would stay there for a while.
Pettigrew had left the prior afternoon and wasn't back yet, he was living with his parents most of the time, as Potter told him before.

There was a knocking on the door. Regulus immediately started up and so did Lupin. He put the book aside and left the room. Regulus walked over to the couch and sat down straight, it wasn't as visible from the doorway as the armchairs.
He tried to listen to what was going on but he couldn't make out much since the music was now playing right next to his face.
At least it meant that there wasn't any fight, right?

After a couple of minutes he finally relaxed a bit again. He just picked his book back up when suddenly a little girl ran into the room.

He stared at her, bewildered. What was this about? He'd never seen her before. She must be about six years old and she was very strange looking. Her hair, for example, was in a bright pink.
She grinned as she spotted Regulus and came into his direction.
"I don't know you", she said with a bright voice and climbed onto the couch to have a better look at him.

He was still confused, but somehow couldn't help smiling back. "What are you doing here?", he asked.
"Mummy and I are visiting uncle Sirius", she said in a voice that stated that it was the most obvious thing.
Uncle Sirius? 
Could this be the daughter of their cousin Andromeda? The one who abandoned their family when she got knocked up by some Mudblood? He still could remember that day very clearly. It was a shame she brought upon the House of Black. He'd never seen his parents that furious, his mother even burned her from the old family tree tapestry. How old was he back then? Ten? Eleven? He wasn't sure.

"You look sad."
Regulus raised his head. He got lost in his thoughts. Quickly, he forced himself to smile again. "Of course I'm not, why would I be sad?", he answered lightly.
"Is the book sad?", she inquired and pointed at the book that was still lying in his lap.
He put it aside and shook his head. "No. It's an exciting story about, er... dragons."
He felt awkward, he never knew how to talk to children. But apparently she didn't mind.
"Oooh I like dragons! My friend Charlie knows the coolest stories. He told me that he has one in his bedroom!" She lowered her voice to a whisper. "But I think he is lying!"

Regulus chuckled. "Maybe you should sneak into his room and find out."
The little girl's eyes went big. "But what if there really is a dragon?"
"I'm sure it will be a super friendly one."
"Oh that would be so nice!"
Suddenly she climbed onto his lap. Taken aback by this gesture of trust, he stared at her.
She grinned back. "Can you tell me another dragon story? The one from your book?"
"Er, sure..." He recalled some of the tales he'd been told as a child. Meanwhile, the little girl started playing with his hair.

"DORA?! GET AWAY FROM HIM!"
Regulus jerked up his head. Of course it was Sirius standing in the doorway, staring horrified at the little girl.
Frightened by the shout, she jumped and almost fell, but Regulus caught her in the right moment and patted her back awkwardly.
"You scared her", he accused Sirius and glared at him over Doras shoulder.
"Don't. Touch. Her!", the older brother spat with a threatening voice and walked over to the couch.
"I'm not doing anything!", Regulus hissed. It was the exact same situation as the day before. It annoyed him tremendously. What did Sirius think, he'd hurt a little girl?!

He gently pushed the girl from his lap and stood up, arms crossed. In that moment James and a young woman entered the room.
"Regulus is that you?!"
It was indeed Andromeda, his cousin. He hadn't seen her in years, she was much younger back then, still a teenager. But somehow, she looked almost exactly the same.