Title: Family love
Summary: Written for Karen / skyefullofstars with the prompt "Harry(age 40) and one of his sons are cleaning out an attic in Number 12 Grimmauld Place and finds and old trunk. When the trunk opens they find..."
AN: Well, this story went absolutely no where I had planned, but it really wanted to go there, so I just kinda let it. Some brotherly Sirius/Regulus. Not betad, sorry for any mistakes.
Disclaimer: I don't own Harry Potter.
Harry unlocked the door and slowly pushed it open. They had had regular trips to the attic when the kids where still small, putting away baby clothes and the likes when they weren't needed any more, but they usually just put it right inside the door, and it was due for a clean-up. There was a layer of boxes and suitcases in front with all of their things, then came Sirius' and Regulus' old stuff that Harry had packed away a few months after he moved in there and behind that again was old Black things that hadn't been destroyed in 'the great purge' where they had removed anything dangerous.
He looked over at James, as the ten year old scrunched his nose and looked around. James had not wanted to do this, but they had agreed that if he helped out with cleaning the attic, he would get to join George, Angelina, Fred, Roxane and Teddy for their summer trip to the states. They would have sent him with anyway, but the attic needed cleaning and James needed to learn to sometimes work for what he got.
"Okay, son, here's what we are going to do. All the boxes that says 'Ginny' goes outside, your mum will look through those, same with any boxes that has any of your names on them. The ones without any names are mine, so I will look through those later. Then comes the fun part; we need to look through everything else and figure out what to throw away and what to keep."
James heaved a great sigh. "Fine."
They started lifting boxes and moved them outside the door, ready to be taken down the stairs later, and Harry pushed his own boxes into a corner, saving them for later, and after an hour or so all the boxes were out of the way.
Harry knelt down next to two old trunks, one with the initials S.O.B. and one with R.A.B. Sirius had made a joke once that he was indeed a son of a bitch, so the initials fit him perfectly, and Harry had to smile when he saw it again now. When he had put the things away 12 years ago, he had still been hurting from the loss, but now he was able to remember Sirius fondly instead, and there was less of a chance of crying.
James sat down next to him, and dragged his fingers over Sirius' initials. "Was this uncle Sirius' trunk?" his voice had become quiet and a little sad, and Harry knew he was wishing that he had gotten to meet the man that gave him his middle name.
"Yeah, and this here was his brother's, your uncle Regulus. " Both Black sons were talked about regularly in the Potter household, just as Fred, Remus, Tonks, Dumbledore and Snape, so James knew perfectly well who they both were.
Harry opened his Godfather's trunk first, and they started sifting through it. Surprisingly enough, it was actually not all that messy. Harry didn't know if Sirius had kept it like that or if he had cleaned through it before he put it up here, but to the right there was two stacks of books, with some parchment put down in between the books and the trunk wall. On the left side was a bunch of old clothes, which turned out to be mostly Hogwarts robes and a strange mix of hats, mittens and scarves, ranging in size from James' size to Harry's. In the middle of the trunk, there seemed to be a mix of old assignments, pictures, old prank stuff and a bag of some old candy. Harry vowed to look through the papers later, but for now they pulled down the small compartment that was in the lid of the trunk. It was a regular thing in the old trunks, when the lid was more rounded and looked more like a treasure chest than an actual trunk. Harry had found out when he had gone through his parents' trunks 12 years before, and it had been where he had found the most interesting things; letters, diary and pictures.
Sirius' was again surprisingly neat, but Harry suspected he had been in the trunk right before he died, as the letter on top simply read 'Harry' in the now not familiar handwriting. He quickly pocketed that letter for later, and reached for a pile of photos as James took another letter lying there.
Harry looked at each picture with a smile. They were of The Marauders, of James and Lily together, of Sirius and James and of newborn Harry. Then there was the newer ones, with Harry, Remus and Sirius after he got out, and one with Harry, Ron and Hermione in their fourth year.
"Dad?" James broke Harry out of his memories, and he looked over at his son.
"Yes?"
"What did uncle Regulus do?"
"What do you mean?"
James offered up the letter he had been reading as he tried explaining. "He keeps talking about being sorry and hoping uncle Sirius can forgive him. What did he do?"
Harry took the offered letter. It had clearly been read before, many times, with the creases well known and used, and some slightly darker spots on the parchment
Dear Sirius
(Dear brother)
If you are reading this, then either my plan succeeded and I died finishing what I set forth, or the Dark Lord has found me out and killed me. I pray it is the first, though it is impossible to know from where I am sitting.
I am sorry Sirius. You were right, he is a madman, and I wish more than anything that I had listened to you. I cannot blame other than my youth and a childish belief that mother and father knew best. I deeply regret that this made me lose not only a brother, but a friend, and all I can hope is that I have redeemed myself in your eyes.
I hope against hope that by the time you are reading this the Dark Lord is dead, and that you are safe and whole, though I do suspect otherwise. I am only one man, and there is so little I can do, but I can do something. I am doing something.
I will not tell you what he has done, for it should not be talked about, but I am going to take him one step closer to death, even though it will probably kill me in the process.
I am writing you this letter, hoping you will one day find it and perhaps look at me with kinder eyes than the last time we met.
All my love
your brother
Regulus
Harry blinked a little, eyes shining with tears, and he looked over at James, who was staring at him with large eyes.
"Regulus, he... he made some bad choices growing up, and he had to pay for it. But in the end he died trying to protect the people he loved, and that's how we remember him, okay?"
James nodded, a little sadly, and climbed up into Harry's lap, putting his arms around his father and hugging him. Harry circled his son and hugged him back, comforting and warm.
"I love you, dad." Harry smiled and kissed James on the forehead. James was a born prankster and loved fooling around, but he was surprisingly deep for a ten year old sometimes.
"I love you too, son. I love you too."