Decree No.29 (HP AU)

New Beginnings

The Burrow.

It was precisely how Fred had described it. It leaned to the left, was built like tiered bricks in a balancing game, and smoke curled from its crooked chimney like the sigh of something too tired to care if it was out of step with the world.

Jessica stood on the edge of the garden, eyes on the front door, hands shoved deep into her jacket pockets. Bill and Tonks surrounded her, Pansy and Theo having dropped out somewhere along the New Forest, and they were glancing down to see her reaction. According to Bill, Dumbledore had insisted — demanded, rather — that they come straight to here if they managed to free Regulus from prison.

Speaking of Regulus, she turned around to see him beside her, unmoving.

He was now wearing borrowed clothes from Bill — a soft sweater, trousers a little too long in the leg — and he held himself like the collar was a shackle and the wind might bite.

Jessica approached him slowly.

"You okay?"

Regulus's eyes were fixed on the windows; they couldn't see any figures clearly, but from the sounds coming out of the house, it was obvious that there were a few people inside.

"It's...different in there," he answered, almost as if he was afraid of something other than complete silence.

She smiled faintly at him in response. "It always is with the Weasleys. You'll get used to it."

He didn't answer. The silence stretched as his eyes glazed over in thought.

Finally, just as Tonks was about to say something, he whispered, "I was dead to them, Jessica. To everyone. Even before the cave. I made myself a ghost."

Jessica's throat tightened. She didn't know everything about the cave yet, or anything really in depth about his so-called 'death', but she didn't push; she just stepped closer. This wasn't the right time for all that.

"Everyone deserves a second chance."

He looked down at his hands against the background of the Weasley farm grass like they were foreign things.

"I don't know who I am in this world," he admitted, "I was a soldier for a cause I came to despise. I betrayed Voldemort. I failed to destroy the Horcrux. I didn't die a hero. I just... didn't die."

Jessica reached up and gently touched his sleeve, glancing at Tonks for support. "Then start here. With us. You already have family with you."

He met her eyes as Tonks half-smiled in agreement.

"You really think they'll forgive me?" he asked. "After everything?"

Jessica thought of Sirius, who had fought so hard to shed the shadow of the Black name. She thought of Harry's tired eyes, of Lupin's grief, of Tonks's quiet hope.

"They don't have to," she shrugged. "You don't have anything that needs forgiving."

Regulus let out a shaky breath, then nodded.

"Then lead the way, daughter."

Jessica walked ahead of them, but she didn't want to lead. Every step felt like it belonged to someone else, as though her feet had decided for her. Bill and Tonks carried the weight of direction — they had the mission, the momentum, the authority. Jessica had only the pounding of her heart and the tangle of nerves clawing at her ribs.

With all the chaos of breaking Regulus out of incarceration, she'd barely allowed herself to think about this part. The aftermath. The Order. The possibility.

Seeing Fred again.

Or George.

Or both.

The thought pressed against her chest until she felt lightheaded, like her lungs were half-empty and her body was running on stubbornness alone. Three months wasn't long — not in the scope of war — but it was long enough to change things. To twist feelings, to dull them, to make you wonder if what had been there before had ever been real at all.