Regency in Diagon Alley [Theodore Nott | Harry Potter AU]

Chapter Twenty-Three

"How did you escape London?" Regulus spoke for the first time since he came to McGonagall's home in Hogsmeade.

It was late at night when Regulus knocked on the door, waking Sirius from his deep thoughts. McGonagall was gone for the week, she preferred to sleep at her lodgings at the castle when it was the weekday. As the Deputy Headmistress and Head of Gryffindor, she has duties that went beyond the teachings of the classroom and running the school. Not to mention the sudden interest of Dumbledore to launch the Tri-Wizard Tournament for next year.

Since Regulus arrived with a pouch of money to pay for his living arrangements, the brothers did not utter a word. They just sat there in the living room, far from each other, eyes looking at the fire. The sound of burning and snapping wood was the only conversation that was heard.

Sirius did not dare speak up, he knew that whatever he was to say, Regulus would either shut it down or imagine that he had not spoken at all. He deserved that; he knew he deserved that. The anger, the silent treatment, the black eye that has finally healed. So, they sat in silence. He observed his brother who was so deathly still that he thought that maybe he had imagined him being there, until Regulus spoke his mind.

When he did not reply, Regulus went on. "Nott placed a spell around London to trap you. How did you escape?"

He shrugged. "With magic. Every spell can be broken. The maze he placed to trap me, I realized it when I cannot seem to reach my destination... remember those stories that our nanny would tell us? About when elves or faeries try to play tricks on humans, we do this ritual. Who would have thought that it would work with that spell as well?" He chuckled at the thought, but Regulus remained unfeeling.

"The reason it worked is because Nott is half-nymph, he must have used his mother's magic to do it."

Sirius sighed, he massaged the bridge of his nose and asked, "Did Carina like the gift? Who did you say it came from?"

"Her godfather, who she never heard of until now. She wrote back asking about him."

"And?"

"I only told her Lupin's name, and that when he came to the house it was only to drop by to see her. I told her he is a nomad. Hopefully she would believe that lie." Regulus closed his eyes, everything he wrote on that letter as a reply felt like a viper's venom. Lying to Carina... he will never forgive himself for it. "She liked the dog. Named it Oberon."

"Shakespeare." Sirius mused, his mind drifting elsewhere. "Did she see that play?"

Regulus's jaw twitched. "Yes. I brought her to the Theater to see it. She liked Robin's mischievous character, but she fancied the name Oberon."

He smiled. "Emmanuelle loved Shakespeare. She could recite any line from any of his Sonnets... she would always read to me those Sonnets whenever she can."

Silence.

Then Regulus started reciting a particular sonnet of Shakespeare:

"Farewell! thou art too dear for my possessing,
And like enough thou knowst thy estimate.
The Charter of thy worth gives thee releasing;
My bonds in thee are all determinate.
For how do I hold thee but by thy granting,
And for that riches where is my deserving?
The cause of this fair gift in me is wanting,
And so my patent back again is swerving.
Thy self thou gav'st, thy own worth then not knowing,
Or me, to whom thou gav'st it, else mistaking,
So thy great gift, upon misprision growing,
Comes home again, on better judgement making.
Thus have I had thee as a dream doth flatter:
In sleep a king, but waking no such matter."

Regulus finally met his brother's eyes and saw anger in them. Sonnet 87 by Shakespeare. About unrequited love. He too had his moments with Emmanuelle, where he would watch as Emmanuelle read to little Carina poetry or Shakespeare's Sonnets as her daughter would always giggle whenever she would say any rhyming word at the end. Or maybe Carina's giggles were the result of the duchess making funny faces or tickling the child's tummy.