Cursed Child Years 1-4 | Marauders Era

124 | The touch of his Love

The touch of his Love

Monday 25th June, 1975

Elizabeth sometimes forgets about the ruin tearing the Wizarding world in two, not often, it's always there in the back of her mind. But there are moments when she's with someone, or she'll see something or do something and the headlines in the Daily Prophet will cease to exist for a minute.

It happens a lot when she's with the Marauders, more than she'd like to admit. When those four boys sit down and plan a prank, writing ideas and bouncing off of each other's sentences and an hour later a small, hilarious prank has been concocted. When they're laughing without a care in the world, grinning and planning, she forgets.

It happens when she's with her girls too, not as often, but a lot. Mary and Marlene will be talking about Mary's Muggle magazine's, they'd be sprawled across the dorm floor and the two would be lying and flipping through pages, talking about the latest drama. Lily and James would be sitting on her bed, the curtains half closed as they write their coursework due the following week, brushing hands and blushing red. Those two different kinds of love allow Elizabeth to forget.

As she sits with her legs hanging off the edge of the Astronomy Tower, head in her arms resting on the railing and looking up at the night sky, she's forgotten.

"We should probably go back soon," Regulus whispers, legs crossed at the ankle.

"Just one more minute," Elizabeth whispers in reply.

"It's almost midnight, El."

"Exactly," she grins, fixing her gaze onto him. "What happens at midnight again? Do remind me, Reg."

His lips twitch as he tries to hide a smirk. "Monday starts?"

"Yes, but you turn fourteen too."

He rolls his eyes, his smirk gone altogether now. "It's nothing special."

Elizabeth lets out a scoff, protesting. "James has been hyperactive all week for your birthday and Sirius has been awfully quiet, which is out of the ordinary for him."

"It's my first birthday after I decided to stay with the Potter's permanently, and Sirius always grows quiet the week before."

"You don't seem awfully excited this year, why?"

"Nothing can be better than my thirteenth," he blinked at her. "We went to Switzerland, France and all of those muggle shops. Me, you and Barty dressed up and danced, it was incredible."

"You know we'd love to do it again, not just for you."

"Yes... I just want a birthday that's not over the top this year, where no one cares and nothing has changed."

"Why?"

Regulus was quiet as he looked up at the stars. "I don't want to forget."

"Forget what, Reg?"

"...Grimmauld, mother and father, my childhood."

Elizabeth frowned, not having expected this at all. She had had no idea that Regulus had been thinking of Walburga and Orion, of his childhood home and his blood family.

"You miss them?" She asked, shocked.

Regulus nodded slowly, biting his bottom lip nervously. "It's... I know I shouldn't, trust me, I know. It's just that it's my first birthday where I know I won't be receiving an owl from mother and father, that I won't be returning home in five days to a lecture of how I'm aging and becoming a noble Black."

"That's... good? Right?"

"I guess. When me and Sirius were younger they cared more, especially when it approached November for Sirius's birthday. We hadn't made any mistakes yet, we were everything we should have been back then and... father cared more about my birthday than mother, she always used to go above and beyond for the Black Heir's birthday. I never really had that experience of them loving me the way they did Sirius."