Cigarette Daydreams - Regulus Black X Reader

Chapter 98 - Heroes

Though nothing will drive them away
We can be heroes, just for one day
We can be us, just for one day

With the assistance of Arthur Weasley, we all apparated to the threatened street in London. It just looked like a typical suburban road, cars parked outside houses with flowers in the front garden, cats strolling the pavement probably looking for a tasty pigeons to catch. I noticed that some of the houses had a snake carved subtly into their front gates, if you were just walking past you would not see it but on closer inspection it was clear as day. Those were the houses that were marked for death.

"What happens now?" Sirius asked, looking around. His dark hair was tied up in a bun, held by his wand.

"We should stay out of sight." Arthur told us. As the oldest, by quite a lot, and the most experienced, he was clearly the leader in this operation. Although it rather felt like Dumbledore had sent a babysitter to keep an eye on the children. Arthur, however, treated us like equals. "Perhaps someone should give a signal when they see them."

"I have an idea." Sirius smirked and transformed into padfoot. He plodded over to the front of a marked house and laid down, rolling over on the pavement. If dogs could wink, then I could have sworn he did.

Arthur raised his eyebrows in surprise, it clearly wasn't what he was expecting but a good idea nonetheless. "Right! Well I think that's a good plan, the rest of us will stay nearby but not too close until Sirius... well, barks I suppose."

"I saw a pub down the road, it's nice weather, pub garden?" Marlene suggested and I nodded enthusiastically.

Padfoot barked in protest, clearly upset that he was not invited and it made James laugh.

"I think that's a wonderful idea." Remus smiled "Sorry Pads! No dogs allowed." He grinned over at Sirius who huffed.

We sat at a wooden table in the pub garden, everyone else ordered pints of different beers and ciders while I stuck with tap water. Drinking while pregnant was totally fine, in the sixties, but modern science said that it was bad for the baby and I figured with all the quidditch I'd been playing, I'd better not chance it.

"Very sensible y/n!" Arthur smiled as he took a sip of his Guiness. "I'd have liked to stay and have a look at those cars. Absolutely fascinating muggles are! Oh- does anyone have any muggle money to pay the people?"

"I do." Lily nodded with a smile. "My parents are muggles so I tend to carry it." She shrugged and picked up her kopperberg.

Arthur gasped like she had just said that her father was Brian May or something. "Really? Lily please tell me, how is it that a bicycle works."

"We'll um..." Lily began, not wanting to be rude. We stayed there until the evening, watching in amusement as Lily tried to explain many muggle things such as telephones, rocket ships and even rubber ducks until we heard three sharp barks from a dog.

"It's time lads." James quickly stood up and slammed some money down on the table to pay for our drinks before we rushed out of the garden.

"Oh god, won't the muggles see?" Lily frowned as we ran through the windy London streets.

"Muggles?" I laughed. "Muggles don't see anything."

When we got to the street, Sirius was human again firing defence spells at the enemy. "Take cover behind the cars!" Arthur yelled and we all obeyed. I crouched behind a red Mini Cooper that shook from the impact of the hexes and curses.
Sirius ducked in with me. "Good to see you." He smiled breathlessly and kept poking his head out to fire spells. As I followed his lead, firing hexes and even curses at them, I realised what what I had feared all these years had come true when I saw the love of my life, the father of my child and the man that I would marry on the opposing side with the death eaters. We locked eyes and the world fell silent. He looked just as shocked to see me there as I was. I didn't know why either of us were shocked. We were fools. He shook his head at me as if to say you idiot.