Disclaimer: If you recognize it, than obviously I don't own it. It's JKR's world; I merely play in it.

Author's Note: This has been wandering around in my head for a fairly long time now, and I finally decided to put it to paper before the muses yanked it back to give it to someone who would actually write it. Anyway, enjoy! Cheers! --- Loki

The Three Broomsticks was always crowded, even on a fairly nondescript Thursday afternoon in the middle of a March Leo refused to give up and leave to the lambs. It's probably the most popular wizard pub in Britain. I— well, technically Anna and I, but with me the cat goes without saying— were probably at the only table that wasn't full. We were waiting for my father, who had promised to meet me for lunch but, with a scholar's absentmindedness, had probably found something that related to his research and forgot. Again. I was used to it by now, and once or twice I'd done it to him myself, so I couldn't complain.

It was no surprise, really, when a woman approached from behind and asked, "Is that seat taken?"

I jumped and turned around. She was redheaded and a bit older than me, with a pleasant smile, and she looked about four or five months pregnant. "I don't think so. My dad was supposed to meet me, but he probably got caught up in his work again and never left the library."

She shook her head and sat down. "Sounds a bit like my husband. So what does your dad do?"

I shrugged, absently stroking Anna's back so I could grab hold of her if she decided to scratch this stranger. "He's spent the last twenty years studying the Hogwarts Founders' family lines, and Ravenclaw's is difficult to sort out and there are almost no leads on Gryffindor. So if he found even the more common surnames associated with those two, the librarian will not be able to drag him out of the library when it closes."

She shook her head. "I'm surprised. From what Sirius says, I would have expected Mr. Black to ignore Gryffindor's line completely."

I jumped. "How d'you know I'm a Black?" I demanded, as I was fairly sure I hadn't introduced myself to her before.

She chuckled. "It's not that difficult, really. You've got enough of a family resemblance to Sirius that he couldn't deny it, and anyway, my cat had kittens in my first year. Sirius took a female tabby home as a peace offering to his brother Regulus. A cat he hasn't been seen without since." She reached out and stroked Anna, who didn't protest as she normally did when touched by a stranger.

I jumped again. "Lily Evans?" I asked.

She laughed again. "Well, technically it's Lily Potter now. I've been married almost two years."

"Should've guessed that," I muttered, adjusting my glasses nervously. She was a Mudblood after all, and ever since . . . well, for the past year or so Mudbloods in general had made me uncomfortable. "After all, when James Potter wasn't practically joined by the hip to my brother he was chasing you."

"Such a flattering image of him," she observed.

"Up until you were seventeen yours was no better," I retorted dryly. "I seem to remember you telling him that you'd rather date the Giant Squid. Sirius sent you at least two love letters from the creature that summer. He might've done one or two more, after he ran away."

"He did. Well, I think the last one was from James. It was a bit less obnoxiously mushy. Petunia was convinced up until the handwriting changed that I really was dating some kind of magical squid."

I snorted into my butterbeer. "You're kidding. Not even my mum's that gullible, and my mum would believe anything of Mu . . . Muggle-borns."

Lily shook her head. "Well, your mother does know that there aren't any types of magical squid who can write, or at least send their love letters on dry bits of parchment," she pointed out. "Actually, that might have been one of the first practical jokes of theirs I actually found funny. It didn't hurt anyone."

"Unless it scarred your sister for life."

"Oh, to listen to Petunia talk she was already scarred for life, so that doesn't count," Lily told me airily. "After all, for the past five years she'd dealt with having a sister who was abnormal."

I blinked. "You're kidding. I grew up with Sirius, and the only scars for life I've got are from the time he managed to send the both of us off the roof. Everything else healed. Eventually."

"How did he send you off the roof?" Lily wanted to know.

"I'm still not entirely sure. I just know that he swore for years that it was actually Bella's fault," I answered with a shrug. I hesitated, watching Anna stretch luxuriously across the table and bat playfully at Lily's wedding ring. "What's Sirius up to now, anyway?"

"Well, he and James spent six hours yesterday trying to wallpaper the baby-to-be's room," she told me. "Neither Remus nor I knew a spell, so they had to do it the Muggle way." She smiled absently. "I don't think either of them entirely understood the concept. I had to get Remus over to help them, since I'm getting a bit far along to be leaning over."

I closed my eyes, and a shudder of mock-horror ran through me as I pictured the trouble James Potter and Sirius Black could get into with watery glue and a pair of rollers. "Wouldn't a simple sticking charm have worked just fine?" I asked, confused.

Lily smiled. "They needed a project that would keep them out of my hair for a little while. Had I wanted to paint it, after all, James would've just used a color-change spell."

I shook my head. "So when are you due?"

"Sometime in late July. The twenty-ninth or the thirtieth, I think."

"Well, my congratulations are in order," I answered. "That's one more family line, at least, that's going to continue."

"Hmm?" Lily asked. "What's that supposed to mean?"

"I'm starting to wonder about the Blacks. After all, my cousins are all girls, and Sirius won't commit to anyone. As for me. . . ." I shrugged.

"You're not quite nineteen, Regulus," she reminded me. "And Sirius just needs to grow up a bit more. You've both got plenty of time."

I shrugged. She was probably right about Sirius, but I wasn't so sure about me. After all, unless I learned to use the Unforgivables my days were numbered. And I didn't think I could learn to use them, for the same reason I was capable of holding this conversation. I saw Mudbloods as people.

Lily shook her head. "Well, if I tell Sirius I ran into his brother at the Three Broomsticks, I'll have to tell him what you've been up to."

Suddenly I became very interested in my mug. After a moment of my silence, Anna whacked me with her tail, which was like being hit in the face with a large feather duster. Absently I reached out and stroked her fur, still not looking up.

Lily reached over Anna and grabbed my shoulder. "Regulus, if you're in trouble you can tell me. Sirius'll only want to help. He really does worry about you."

"Like hell he does," I mumbled, although I knew as soon as the words left my mouth that even I didn't believe them. I sighed, and automatically I reached up to fiddle with my glasses again. "I'm in no more trouble than he is, ma'am, I promise." After all, he was in the Order of the Phoenix, so he was definitely on the Dark Lord's hit list.

"Since when have you called me 'ma'am'?" She wanted to know.

"Well, I can't precisely call you Evans anymore, and Mrs. Potter is the name of your mother-in-law."

She shook her head, smiling slightly. "You could call me Lily."

I hesitated. "All right. And I seriously haven't been up to very much. Mostly I've been helping Dad and dodging Mum. She's been hysterical since family started getting killed, and suddenly she's way too interested in when and if I'm going to marry."

Lily snorted. "Well, times are uncertain," she reminded me. She sat stroking my cat and watching me fiddle with my glasses for a moment or two, then got to her feet. "Well, I've got to get home, or goodness knows what James or Sirius will have done. It's like I already have two children. Take care of yourself, all right, Regulus?"

I nodded. "You, too . . . Lily. You, too."

Barely a minute after she had walked out the door, the Dark Mark burned. I swore and got to my feet, Anna leaping onto my shoulders as I did so. I paid my tab and told Rosmerta that if my Dad actually showed up, he arrived too late— I had another appointment. He'd understand what I meant by that. Then I stalked outside.

Before I Apparated, however, I wrenched up my sleeve to take a closer look at the Mark. It had just burned, so it was an ugly black, more like a bruise than a tattoo or a scar. "What the hell did I get myself into?" I murmured.

Even if Anna had been human, I don't think she could have supplied an answer.