The Sun & The Stars - Jegulus Oneshots

I adored you, Madly, Extravagantly, Absurdly.

Okay, ppl I've been working on this new thing instead of writing on my other things. It is a Victorian-Age Trans-Regulus arranged Marriage Au. So far there are 4 chapters, I cannot tell yet how long this entire thing will be. I'm not sure whether I should post it chapter by chapter here or in a separate book. I sometimes feel like these one-shot books attract so much more attention than singular fanfiction (like, y'all don't really read my "Mastermind" fanfic) but I don't want this new thing to cloud up my ONS book.

What do you think?

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Summary: The Blacks want to marry off their youngest child. He begs Sirius for help and tells him a secret: He is a man and would rather die than be forced to be anyone's wife.
Panicked, Sirius arranges a marriage between his brother and his friend James Potter, knowing that Regulus can be the man he is in the English countryside in James' estate, which is a sort of safe haven for homosexual servants that are running from the law or are already convicted.

James wants to ensure Regulus' happiness, even at the expense of putting his life on hold for a while.
Regulus wants to ensure James doesn't fall into societal ruin because of him.
Sirius just wants to help.
And Remus is just a very tired butler who watches James and Regulus dance around their actual feelings (literally).

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Chapter 1

"This will be our oath and our act of possession" Teleny, 110

Sirius rarely visits his parents. He stays out of their manor as much as possible. It is a big house on vast planes of land, with enough space to keep out of his parents' way. Yet, he prefers to put as much space as possible between them. He'd put a whole ocean between them if the new country weren't filled with heaps of uncivilised people. So, he settles for England most of the time, although the English are only slightly more civilised than the Americans.

He only lowers himself to visit his parents at the bequest of his sister. She has always been his priority. He would do anything for her, even sit through hours of his mother's biting remarks while getting drunk on expensive reds.

So, Sirius took the journey from Paris to Aquitaine at her request. Sirius likes Paris. He has a charming home near the vacation abode of the Potter family, English nobility whose son he calls his best friend and brother in mind. It just so happens that said friend, James Potter, was visiting his mother in Paris and subsequently visited Sirius.

But his sister gets what his sister wants, so Sirius arrives at the Black Manor.

The greeting between Sirius and his parents remains formal and brief.

The dinner, however, seems twice as long as required.

His mother is complaining about the servants, the state of France, the economic stagnation, Prussia and Bismarck. Then she tears down any fashion, music and literature trend she can think of and requests her third glass of wine.

"You're getting old," she says to the servant, "if your hands are too jittery and you spill wine on my dress, I'll have you beheaded. Oh, what am I saying? You are too irrelevant to get beheaded."

So are you. Sirius thinks and empties his own wine.

His mother then calls her husband old and fat, but not as fat as Sirius' sister. It seems a miracle that she found herself able to squeeze into her dress this evening. It makes her look like an unsuccessful courtesan. Not at all, actually, she looks too cheap for that. No, instead, she looks like a common harlot.

Sirius looks at his sister, who barely reacts to their mother's comments. She looks too thin, Sirius thinks, too thin and too sad and yet, too indifferent. He must hug her later.