Hiraeth | Regulus Black

Chapter One Hundred and One

No matter what, life had to keep moving on. Time had to keep ticking by and moments had to keep passing them. There wasn't time to stop and grieve or pause and have a break.
They had to keep going. They had to make it to the end.

Over a year had passed and autumn had sunk its claws into 1981. The three of them, still tucked together under one small roof in the outskirts of West London, had found a new routine over the rolling months.

Sirius had stopped going on as many missions and jobs for the Order and more people were going missing than ever. He had even grown more quiet as he spent so much of his time worrying about James and Lily's safety as they had been under protection with their new baby for a considerable amount of time.

Esme and Regulus, on the other hand, had been broadening their horizons in the muggle world. This had recently manifested itself in some rather extensive movie marathons.

That was how they found themselves watching some old black and white muggle movie that rainy afternoon.

"I don't understand what's going on." Esme complained quietly as she rested her head against Regulus's shoulder.

He chuckled, shook his head, and replied, "That's because you fell asleep and missed about thirty minutes."

It did feel a little strange to be relaxing and watching movies with a wizarding war raging on outside, but there wasn't a great deal they could do.
Occasionally their dark marks would burn - either signalling that the Death Eaters were being gathered together or it was a feeble attempt to lead them into a trap.

They also couldn't help the Order, because the Death Eaters had blocked that as well.
The Ministry were under the influence that Esmerelda Avery and Regulus Black were very prominent and dangerous Death Eaters and they were actively hunting them down.
The upside to this was that they had a fair bit more time for reading and watching movies.

"I'm not as bad as him." She gestured over to Sirius.

Regulus chuckled, "I'll give you that one." He glanced over at his brother, who was on the side perpendicular to theirs. He had been sprawled across the sofa dozing deeply before the title for the movie had even flashed across the screen.

"Do you think he's doing alright?" She asked quietly.
"Well..." He thought for a moment, "He's been spending a lot of time working on that bike of his in the shed. That's got to be a good distraction."

"It is."

Esme and Regulus glanced at each other before looking back over at where Sirius lay. He was still for a moment, before he slowly stretched out his body, lay on his back, and turned his head around to look at them.

"You're awake." Esme stated.
He nodded, "Thanks, Sherlock."

"You haven't been to visit James or Lily in a long while." Regulus pointed out somewhat tentatively, unsure of how to press the matter.
Sirius hummed then replied, "I can't."

"What do you mean?" He frowned slightly in confusion, "I thought they'd moved to a permanent safe house."

"I didn't mean that." Sirius clarified, "Of course I could go and see them."
Esme added, "I was going to say, because you're their secret keeper, aren't you?"

"Yes." He lied.

At this point, Sirius was struggling to even keep track of what was going on.
It had really all started when James and Lily had declined Dumbledore's offer for him to be their secret keeper, instead choosing to rely on the loyalty of their friends.

They had approached Sirius first, as everyone expected they would.
But Sirius couldn't get this thought out of his head. This constant, incessant nagging.
The Dark Lord had been gathering followers at an exponential rate and one of the groups that had joined his side was the community of werewolves, who had consistently ostracised from the rest of the wizarding world.