𝒮𝓉𝑜𝓇𝓂'𝓈 𝒜 𝐵𝓇𝑒𝓌𝒾𝓃'

August 23rd, 1994

𝒞𝒽𝒶𝓅𝓉𝑒𝓇 𝒮𝒾𝓍

"Who are you writing to?"

It was a quiet morning. Just quiet. It is a strange atmosphere to describe, to pinpoint. But it was the sort of quiet that felt like a reset. Nothing but the hum of the air to disturb the peace. One of those mornings where you just seemed to take extra notice of the way the light comes through the windows. One of those mornings where you just seem more aware of the space around you.

No stress on your mind stopping you from noticing those small things. Your mind just so at ease after much time spent racing that it has space to see the world almost like it's the first time again.

Remus sat at the table, papers and envelopes laid out before him. The owl he and Iris had bought a week was in his cage in the corner of the room, watching Remus write and prepare the letters he would soon deliver. Iris had insisted he finally have an owl of his own, now that he had a more permanent residence and that she would be expecting weekly letters once off at school.

Also, Iris just liked the idea of a pet... Sam was a very spoiled owl.

Remus glanced up at Iris, watching her throw some bread into the toaster, "Alastor Moody had asked for detailed notes on where all the years had left off last year. He is doing Dumbledore a favor and filling in as your defense professor for the year... should be intere--"

"Who's Alastor?" She tapped her nails against the jar of jelly she grabbed from the fridge, absently staring at the toaster in hopes it would be done quicker.

"Mad-Eye Moody." Remus smiled as the answer perked her up. Iris suddenly paying much more attention to him.

Her eyebrows knit together as she turned her head to Remus, "Isn't he... well, a bit off the rocker? Should he be around children?"

Shrugging, Remus just finished off his letter and began folding it to put away in the envelope, "As I said, you are in for an interesting year."

Distracted again by her toast, Iris just grumbled under her breath as she prepared her breakfast. Then making her way to the empty seat at the table, she watched Remus begin another letter, "And that one is for?"

"Sirius. He asked how you are doing."

And there it was. The awkward air that seemed to settle over the room anytime Sirius Black was brought into conversation. It wasn't really for anything specific... Iris found it easy to accept his innocence. But to her, Sirius Black was one big... unknown. A man who existed in a handful of baby pictures.

James and Lily Potter were at least a constant in her life in the memories of her father and Remus... but Sirius was the man they both banished from mind after he had been wrongly accused.

It was a strange thing, having someone who, at least at surface level, cared about you enough to question how you are doing... while you can't even say when you have ever given them so much of a second thought.

Sirius Black was as good as a stranger to Iris, one she felt no connection to and could easily just think of as one of her father's many old friends. Maybe if he was her only link to her father, the only person she could ask about his younger years... ask about what kind of man he was. Maybe then she would care... but for that, she had Remus.

But one thing sat on her mind whenever Sirius Black was brought up... "How well did you know Regulus Black?"

It was an innocent question, hardly should have caused Remus to freeze to the extent he did. Iris noticed the way he seemed at a loss for words and was quick to clarify, "Just my father named me after him... all I know is that they were friends, and he became a Death Eater. Just has always felt like a huge piece of my father that I have never quite understood. He cared enough about a Death Eater at some point to honor him in me...."