Regimentum ⪼ Sirius Black/OC

Omnia mutantur, et nos mutamur in illis

Chapter Nine | Omnia mutantur, et nos mutamur in illis

[All things change and we change with them]

Vivian is a little wary about attending the next Order meeting. Her unexpected run-in with Regulus weighs on her mind all day, and even the small tasks she attempts to distract herself with don't help to divert her thoughts from the encounter. She spends the morning before the meeting writing Gavin a letter in response to the one he'd sent several days before, but she finds that it takes her more effort than it ought to. She spends the first paragraph telling him that she's happy he's enjoying his time in Norway, but once it comes time to update him on the latest events in her own life, she is unable to come up with the right words. She's not sure what she should tell him and what she shouldn't. How much information should she put down in writing? What are the chances of her letter being opened by another's hands before it is able to reach his? Gavin doesn't know anything about the Order. Sirius had convinced her weeks ago that it would be a bad idea to disclose such information in a letter, and she had agreed. So instead, she writes about the latest happenings in her life and says nothing about Regulus or the Order of the Phoenix, even though she dearly wishes she could. She would very much like to have Gavin's take on everything. He would surely have a perspective different from her own. She gets about halfway through the letter before all inspiration leaves her, and Vivian sighs and pushes it away to finish later. She doesn't much like the thought of leaving Gavin out of the loop, and for the first time since they had said their goodbyes weeks before, she feels herself missing him very much.

In search of something else to distract herself with, Vivian wanders around the cottage for a time before making her way into the small living room, where Sirius had proudly placed the strange muggle music contraption. She eyes the round discs that he calls 'vinyls' and, bored, begins to look through them. As expected, she doesn't recognize most of the bands, though she's sure she's heard many of them by now. The artwork on the covers vary from dark shades to bright, primal hues, like the one her fingers linger on now.

"That's a good one," Sirius's voice suddenly cuts through the silence, and Vivian startles for one brief moment when his hand appears in her vision and he reaches for the one she was looking at.

She turns her eyes from his face to the cover of the record. The whole of it is a bright red, with one thin line of blue down the side. She raises an eyebrow at it and says, "It doesn't look very impressive."

Behind her, Sirius huffs and sighs, "You'll change your mind once you hear it, Vivi."

A quiet warmth spreads through her at the use of the nickname, which grows when Sirius wraps his arms around her from behind and muses, "You know, I still haven't brought you to a proper rock concert. We really need to change that."

She hums dryly, though notably doesn't try to wrangle herself out of his arms, and replies, "I'm not sure if that's a good idea, what with everything going on."

She feels him shrug. There's a grin in his voice when he says, "A little bit of risk makes living worthwhile. Besides, my latest goal is to get you completely hooked on muggle music."

At this, Vivian laughs and turns in his arms to send him an amused look. "Is it?"

Sirius smiles smugly at her and says, "Well you're already obsessed with muggle books. This is the next step."

She just laughs and murmurs, "...If you say so," but doesn't argue.

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At around five o'clock, Vivian and Sirius make their way to London, to the muggle pub that has been the backdrop of the last few Order meetings. After an entire day spent quietly worrying about how she's going to tell Dumbledore about her encounter with Regulus, Vivian is grateful that the wait is over. She's pleased to get this over with, at the very least, even though she's expecting her message to be taken with a heavy helping of distrust. That seems to be the way of things of late.