Deleted scene from Black Sheep.
Sirius had known that the Crouch New Year party would not be a pleasant affair, but he was happy enough in his little corner. The Abbots' little girl had ran over and asked to braid his hair before her father dragged her away, apologising profusely. And he had danced with Lily and Mrs Potter, and even James once they had a few drinks in them. The Prewett brothers were there, as were the McKinnons, minus Marlene (who had found herself on assignment that night), and a few members of the Bones family were in attendance. Even the Longbottoms were there, bursting with the news of a sudden, unexpected pregnancy. Well, Augusta was bursting, Frank and Alice simply followed her around looking quite exhausted as she announced the news to every witch and wizard in attendance...individually.
But his attention was fixed firmly upon the Black family, and their circle of admirers. There was not a family they had not married into by some extent. Last he had checked, he and James were distant cousins of some sort. He remembered his mother gave him such a hiding when he suggested that marrying a pureblood would amount to incest with the state of their family tree.
His parents had dragged him to many similar functions as a child and he hated them all. They did not travel within the same social circles as the Potters, but there was some overlap. The best events were the ones he could escape with James at.
How long had it been since he had seen them? Even now, being in the same room...
'Don't waste your thoughts on them, love,' Mrs Potter said, reaching out across the table to lay a gentle hand on his arm.
The first time she had referred to him as her "boy", her "son", as a happy slip of the tongue, he had been breathless and speechless. She had been more of a mother to him than Walburga ever had, so to hear that she considered him part of her family...it was a happiness he had never felt before.
He had everything he needed with the Potters, but that didn't erase the years that had come before them. It didn't erase Regulus.
'I'm not thinking about them,' he lied.
'You're thinking about your brother.'
'Honey, you can lie to yourself, but you should know better than to lie to me.'
All at once, he felt sheepish. He never dared show her anything less than full respect, was never cheeky to her the way he was to Walburga.
'I know you're speaking to him again.' Sirius looked over to her and she tightened her grip on his arm. 'You are a grown man. A highly intelligent grown man, and I trust you to be capable of making your own decisions. He is a big part of your life, you can't forget that.'
'James has been talking to you, huh?'
'He may have shared a thought or two.' The frown upon her ageing features told him that none of it would have been favourable. 'He cares about you, perhaps a little too much sometimes. This isn't easy for him either.'
None of it was easy, for any of them. He couldn't stop thinking about the locket, about the things the shadow figures had said. They echoed the doubts that Regulus himself had expressed, offered an unfiltered glimpse into his fearful mind. All Sirius wanted to do was take him aside and talk him down, tell him that he was all wrong and that he would never, ever be alone. But they weren't children any more, and even Sirius wasn't sure that he could be what either of them needed him to be right now.
'Why don't you invite him for dinner sometime?' Mrs Potter asked. 'We'd love to have him over.'
'He's not like me, you know.'
Mrs Potter raised an eyebrow.
'I remember the letters Hogwarts used to send us,' she reminded him. He felt his cheeks burn. 'You weren't always the easiest child yourself.' She then smiled again, and gripped his arm one last time before letting go. 'But children are never easy. Life is not easy. He's only ever seen the world through Black-tinted glasses. You have a chance to open his eyes now. Don't let that pass you by.'
She rose to her feet and kissed him on the head. Sometimes, he just wanted her to keep talking, so soothing were her words. But their truth stayed with him and he turned again towards his old family. For a moment, Regulus glanced over to him, apparently thoroughly bored with Lucius Malfoy's company. Then...he smirked. And so did Sirius.
Maybe their cause wasn't such a lost one after all.
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