Astronomy

Eight: Regulus

A few more weeks went by, and before Reggie knew it, it was summer. He was excited to be going home, but also a little sad. Sirius had decided to spend the beginning of summer with James. Reggie passed the days writing letters to Leo and Eve, drawing, and reading.
The days went by slowly. He spent time in his room, trying to avoid going downstairs and seeing his fighting parents, who seemed to be fighting over almost everything.
Halfway through summer, Sirius still wasn't back home. Reggie was sitting in the living room, drawing Neige, when his mother walked in, followed by his father.
"He needs to come home," she mumbled. "Who knows what he's doing over there."
His father frowned. "Leave the boy."
She looked around, and saw Reggie sitting on the couch. "Regulus, give me that parchment and quill."
He handed it to her, and watched as she quickly wrote out a letter.
"I'm telling him to come home."
***
When Sirius finally did come home, almost all he did was write letters to James, and some of his other friends.
It was the end of June, and Reggie was sitting outside, trying to read. It was his birthday, but he didn't really care. His family never really celebrated birthdays.
"Hey Reggie."
He turned around and saw Sirius holding a very burnt cupcake. "Happy Birthday."
Reggie smiled and closed his book as Sirius sat next to him. "Thank you," he said, grabbing the cupcake. He put it near his mouth, about to bite it, but he could smell that it was burnt. He glanced over at Sirius, who was watching him hopefully. Reggie quickly bit it and chewed so he wouldn't hurt Sirius' feelings.
    "Is it good?"
    "Oh, yes," he said. "Really good."
    Sirius smiled. "Good."
    They sat there for a few minutes, and Reggie ate the rest of his cupcake, hoping it wouldn't make him sick. Things were a little awkward between him and Sirius, but they were slowly making there way back to normal. Reggie had begun to accept that maybe things weren't ever going to be normal again.
    That night, Reggie sat on his bed, reading a letter he got from Leo. He was excited to go back to school and see him and Eve again, because staying at home all summer had gotten incredibly boring.
    He could hear his parents downstairs fighting about something, which just made going back to school seem even better. He couldn't believe he was already done with his first year; it felt like he was still in his first week of school. He was excited to go back, and also to go to the astronomy tower. He had read some astronomy books, and wanted to tell James more about the stars that he had asked about before.
He wondered what James was doing. Sirius had said he and his friends were staying at James's house at the beginning of summer, so Reggie thought that James was probably off doing stuff with them still, even though Sirius came home.
Almost all Reggie knew was that he wanted to go back to school.