Regulily au (with regency themes) pt. 1
Iāve decided Iām gonna just start posting all of my half baked (and slightly more than half baked) fic ideas bc I start to write them and I never finish them. Anyone is welcome to take them and write, just please credit and then send me the fic so I can consume the things I donāt have time to write (I donāt care if you think itās bad I will read it and I will be happy). Anyway to the fun stuff.
Okay, so, basically, Orion has been made Proxy for house business because Arcturus is too old to do it but canāt pass the title of head of house until he dies due to some archaic House Black rules of succession. In this Au the Dragon pox virus that kills the Potters was brought by an asymptomatic member of the Wizengamot, who caught it while on vacation, and it becomes a lot more widespread than in canon affecting a lot of the Wizengamot, including the Potters.Ā
Ofc wizards are stuck in the past and donāt understand that people can be asymptomatic. So since Orion shows no signs of having it he goes about his business as normal and ends up spreading it to Walburga and Regulus (who is 16 meaning Sirius has left atp) who get really really sick. Obviously nothing can be done bc Dragon Pox has no known cure aside from hopes of a strong enough immune system so both Orion and Walburga die with Regulus barely hanging on.Ā
Arcturus, afraid to lose another grandchild, and the only heir no less, puts his affairs in order and pulls out an ancient (and very illegal) ritual that would allow him to take any illness as his own from one person directly related to him. He goes to do the ritual and he has one last conversation with Regulus basically saying hey weāre rich, everyone important is in a bad position with head of houses, heirs and spares dying left and right, right now is the time to shape the future you want for the Wizarding world. This could either be him implying that heās for or against progression, whatever you want works but in my head heās for bc heās already lost two very cared for grandkids due to pure blood ideology (Iām a sucker for grandparents who donāt understand but love their grandkids anyway). Then ofc he sacrifices himself and basically dies there and then because heās already so old and sickly and Regulus himself was so ill he was practically on his death bed.Ā
Okay so now the fun part. Regulus gets better overnight and, due to the need keep their government alive and working, is allowed to take his place as head of house and on the Wizengamot, even though heās just 16 (I intended for this to be a no Voldy au because thereās already a lot going on, but if you do make it one this could be a good canonical reason why he hasnāt yet got the dark mark, you could put his birthday any time after winter break meaning he would have gotten his dark mark during the summer but the Dragon Pox struck first). He isnāt as well trained as someone of his position usually is because he was never supposed to take over, but, with Sirius leaving heās only had a little less than 2 years to learn the role of heir and all of the rules, etiquettes, and expectations that come with that role meaning he is woefully unprepared for the Head of House role. But, heās a fast learner and refuses to be an embarrassment after his Grandfatherās sacrifice.
He realizes that His grandfather was right and this was the most opportune time to strike. He decides he is going to make the wizarding world a better place so that no little boy has to lose a loved family due to blood purity or has to watch his best friend of 16 years and the one that raised him (Kreature and other elves because I refuse to believe the blacks only had one elf, just that he was the last to stay alive) be tortured and scorned for not being human as if they are not sentient. He is still a slytherin though and knows he has to go about this carefully, a small expression of doubt here, a sizable donation there, and build as time goes on. He soon realizes he canāt beat pure blood ideology without making a clear stand against it with his name, his money, and most importantly, his way of life.
Understanding this he decides the best and fastest course of action is to marry a muggle born witch. He very quickly has one name in mind that could truly make a difference, the brightest witch of an age, Lily Evans. Regulus is not a man who settles for second best and, well, if he can make James Potterās life a bit more miserable after stealing his brother, well thatās just a bonus.
He pens an owl to Lily basically says that he would like to express his apologies for his behavior and ask a favor from her. Understanding that she might be wary because of his past actions and statements he has Dorcus (his only half blooded friend) help him find and make reservations to the most expensive Restaurant in London. He tells Lily he will meet her there and pay for dinner to show that he is serious about this.Ā
Lily tentatively agrees to meet him for dinner. She isnāt sure what he wants but she ultimately decides she can always say no and trusts he wouldnāt break the statute of secrecy so easily. Their meeting being at a muggle restaurant reassures her a bit more of his intentions; why else would the poster boy for Slytherin Pureblood Prince go there? Plus, as her mam says, a free meal is a free meal. She brings her wand anyway.
When they meet, Regulus is in very obviously in awe of everything muggle making Lily relax a bit. They make small talk as they look over the menu and get appetizers, before they even order appetizers Lily makes Regulus show her that he correctly converted wizarding money to muggle money (he did and she nearly faints at the amount he brought deciding there and then she was not gonna look at that check). After they order and theyāre waiting for their food Regulus apologizes for everything he can remember doing or saying about her or any other muggle born or half blood. This is a proper apology, no excuses, just an explanation about how Regulus came to the realizations what he was doing was wrong but being unable and unwilling to change due to both comfort and fear of reprimand from not only his peers in Slytherin but his family as well (Sirius had both the Potters and Gryffindor as an escape Regulus was in a very different situation). They may not have been perfect but they were his and he is one of those people who put his family over everything. He also tells her what he has been trying to do to make up for his past sins now that he is in a position to do so with very little reproduction.Ā
Lily hears him out, she is still upset of course, but she can acknowledge his efforts in trying to change. Ofc she calls him out on any of his bullshit if she hears it (bc again she doesnāt have much to lose) and makes him reconfront his own bias and even naiveness to what it was truly like not to be at the top of the food chain making him reflect on himself. Seeing this reflection Lily becomes fully at ease, she visibly sees him trying and for now she can look past everything to help him in making Wizarding Britain a better place.
What she doesnāt expect is for him to ask her to marry him. He explains how he came to the conclusion he did and explains that her being everything pure bloods said she couldnāt be (smart, powerful, beautiful, successful, etc.) was what made her the perfect person to try and reshape their world with. He tells her that as things stand now she will always be overlooked on a job or apprenticeship because of her blood status if she complained her voice too would not be heard. He explains that as his wife she can not be so easily dismissed. He explains why purebloods are so rich and have so much power and some of the rules that come with that, the important one being Blacks were at the top and as both a woman married into the family and one immediately becoming the Lady of the house at that, she, supposedly, would be a higher rank than most pureblood women. Of course her being muggle born would dampen it a quite a bit, but there were still customs that were followed religiously, ones that would not stop just because of her blood status. Her name would hold a lot of weight which can be thrown around not just for herself but other muggle borns as well evening the playing field for the first in hundreds of years. And, being as talented as she is, she could completely tip the scales of this Cold/Civil War (depending on if Voldy is alive or not).Ā
Lily takes this all in with as much grace as she can. As dinner comes to a close she tells him she would think about it. He acknowledges that thatās all he can ask of her to do but to let him know if she decides one way or another. He even offers to send an owl every Friday in case she has any questions or an answer, something she immediately agrees with. He pays for her and they go their separate ways.
Over the next week Lily thinks over the offer and writes a list of questions to him: What their relationship would look like, if she would be expected to have children, what would happen should they fall for someone else, what she would have to learn as the Lady of the house, etc. etc.
In my mind thereās a lot of pureblood lore that Iām too tired rn to expand on that answeres some of those questions but one of the things I wanted to include was courting. So in his response Regulus lays out how he expects their Relationship to be privately but also publicly and all the rules that come with that. He explains that one of the biggest pureblood fears is that they will lose all of their cultural practices, such as ritual work and the observation of their holidays, because of muggle borns. He says he is willing to compromise on a good amount of things especially anything relating to blood purity but he would like their relationship to be as close to Wizarding traditional as possible both because he genuinely agrees with their importance, but also, it shows that muggle borns are not the sole problem for their cultural erasure just the easiest to blame (this comes off the idea that pure bloods isolate themselves and then judge others when they donāt stick to their status quo).
Lily, not even realizing there were many wizarding traditions, immediately becomes interested in learning. Regulus explains the best to the best of his abilities over letter and sends her books from their library. Lily begins to understand how Pure Blood ideology got so bad from fear of change on the pure bloods part and a need for some type of acceptance on the muggle borns part both feeding into each other and making the whole mess worse. It is then she decides to agree to marry Regulus hoping the two of them can change things.Ā
Iāll write pt. 2 tomorrow bc itās 5am and Iāve been typing for 2 hours lol. Sorry for any typos or grammar errors at some point I got too tired to care when I made a mistake or had run on sentences š
lmk what you think so far :)
