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

Chapter Thirty-Two

She was about four years old when Carina started calling Regulus "Papa". They were playing outside when it happened, a game of hide and seek. When the girl found her uncle not particularly hiding behind the tree, she jumped on him while calling out loudly "I found you!". It was a happy day for them, Regulus was laughing, the sun was shining, and her grandmother was away, but then that happiness disappeared when she suddenly said, "I found you, Papa!"

It felt like a door was slammed shut, the door of that happiness as Regulus smile disappeared. She was too young at the time and did not understand why, but the memory imprinted in the back of her mind, for years whenever she called Regulus as such it felt like a taboo, but she would still slip with the word, calling him with that title and Regulus would always correct her until she turned the age of eleven. After receiving her Hogwarts letter and shopping for her things, the night before she left for school, she went to her father's room, deciding that she wanted to sleep in his room for the night.

"I went to church the other day." She spoke from the bed.

Regulus halted in his work and turned to her with an incredulous look. "You went to church? The Muggle church? I don't recall you being religious, who took you?"

"My governess."

Regulus sighed and shook his head. "Remind me to have a word with her about that. So, what did you find about the church?" If she ventured to a church she should at least have gotten something from the trip. A lesson or some sort of reflection.

"It was boring, the old man kept on talking even when people were already snoring," she shrugged. Regulus snorted, he placed down the quill and sat on the bed where his niece lay. "Then my governess and I went to see the priest, she asked him to bless me or something."

Teasingly, Regulus asked, "Did it hurt? The holy water, I mean."

Carina laughed. "No, it didn't, it tasted like ordinary water, though."

"Please don't tell me you drank it."

"I licked off the one that got on my nose," she grinned. "Stop interrupting! The priest then said something about Joseph raising Mary's child as his own, I didn't understand but I think Jesus Christ wasn't Joseph's son." Regulus took a breath; this was why he didn't want her exposed to such things until she was ready. "But even so, Joe treated him as his own."

"Oh, so it's Joe now?" Regulus snorted.

"And it reminded me of you." Regulus' smile fell, and Carina's big silver eyes looked at him. "I do you think of me the same way, Uncle Regulus?"

He smiled tenderly, and took her small hands in his. "They say that when a father has a son, he teaches him to grow and to defend himself, but when he has a daughter... no matter how old she gets, he will protect her no matter what the threat is. And the day you were born, I swore that I would protect you, Carina, and more so when your parents have passed."

"Then how come you get upset whenever I call you Papa?"

"Because, my dear, you already have a father, and it's Sirius. My brother."

"Can't you be my Papa too? You said that a father would protect their daughter from whatever harm, and you promised that you would do it for me, so that makes you my father."

Regulus chuckled. "I guess you're right..."

It was that night that Regulus gave Carina a vow, like how King Arthur's Round Table did in Le Morte d'Arthur, that he would protect her from any harm, from any pain, that he shall never lie to her and that he would always say the truth. A playful vow, still a promise that they both kept.