Hey everyone. This story was written for both Angel's Event: The Pumpkin Patch, and Potions: Draught of Living Death assignment on Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. For Angel's Event: The Pumpkin Patch my prompt was C9: (restriction) rare pair. For Potions: Draught of Living Death I choose to write for task 1 which was to write about someone thought to be dead turning out to still be alive. I chose to write about Regulus for the assignment. For my rare pair I kind of paired Regulus/Harry together with mentions of one sided Regulus/James. I hope you all enjoy the first chapter of Second Chance. Word count is 662.
Regulus doesn't remember how he escaped the inferi in that cave the night that everyone was told he was dead. He remembers downing the potion or poison or whatever it was and going to the water line to get a drink but after that he remembers nothing. He knows he must have told Kreacher to tell no one he's alive but that's all he knows.
"Sirius," came a voice from behind him that sounded just like his older brother's best friend James's voice, "Wait up."
But that's impossible James is dead he knows that much. He's been reading the Daily Prophet since the day he 'died' and he read the whole story about the Potter's deaths. That must mean the boy, because that's what he looks like, behind him must be James's son Harry. Whirling around he's about to go along with the boy and play like he's Sirius. He can be Sirius for a few minutes. Right?
"I'm sorry," the boy, Harry, tells him. "I thought you were someone else, sir."
"I'm Regulus," he tells Harry holding his hand out for the boy to shake. Standing this close to Harry he could tell this 'boy' was more of man than he'd thought at first glance. "You must be Harry Potter?"
The boy nodded. "I just thought you were..."
"My brother. Everyone loved my brother a lot with the exception of our mother." A feeling that Regulus had never felt came over him all of a sudden. Harry looked so upset Regulus wished could get away with pulling him into a hug.
"If you're Sirius's brother then you must have known my parents too. Right?"
For the first time in his life Regulus was glad to have long hair that could easily be used to hide his face. He'd never admit to it but he'd felt something for his older brother's best friend James. When James had gotten together with Lily had felt somewhat betrayed even though he'd never told anyone about his feelings for James. Looking at Harry now he somehow felt that this man who looked so much like James could be his second chance at love.
"I did know of your parents," Regulus told Harry looking him up and down trying to take in every inch of the boy who looked like James. "I never actually met them but I did hear about them constantly from my friends and my brother."
"Did anyone tell you about what happened to Sirius?" Harry asked and Regulus had never been more thankful for a change of subject than at that moment.
"No. What happened to Sirius?"
"Bellatrix Lestrange killed him a few months ago in the Department of Mysteries. I'm so sorry." Harry then did something that made Regulus's heart beat speed up. Harry pulled the other man into a hug.
"Do you want to go somewhere were we can talk about what happened?" Regulus asked hoping Harry would say yes. He wanted to spend as much time with Harry as possible. Maybe he'd suggest them having a regular meeting. A date as it were the next time.
"I'd like that," Harry replied with a small smile. He couldn't help but wonder why the older man kept studying him as though he might change form or something. But for a reason Harry couldn't put his finger on it didn't really bother him. "I know this great dinner in Surrey. They have fantastic coffee and pie."
"That sounds like a good idea." he smiled thankful that Harry had suggested the idea and he didn't have to be the one to broach the subject. "Shall we?" He pointed to the car that he'd acquired some years ago.
"Yeah."
As he followed the directions that Harry was giving him Regulus felt this was his time. He wouldn't make the same mistake he'd made last time. He'd be up front with Harry about his feeling for him and hopefully Harry would feel the same way too.
I hope you all enjoyed Second Chance.
