Disclaimer: As always I own nothing but the original characters and the situations all characters find themselves in. Everything else belongs to someone else and that's that. Hope you like, have a great day.

Asking Some Advice

Teddy walked down the hallway with a mug of fresh coffee and a bag of donuts baked within the last half an hour. He'd left the ring at his house in a drawer and he really didn't quite know what to make of the fact that he felt guilty about that. He'd taken it off after the touching incident in the kitchen last night which he still was confused about, hence his current mission to find out more about his new houseguest.

Setting the bribes on the desk Teddy smiled winningly at the man who sat behind the desk, the older Auror giving him a look that made it clear that he knew a bribe when it was offered to him. "Hello, Mr. Belldandy. Do you have a few minutes for me?"

"I suppose I have to, if I want my bribes." Helping himself to one of the donuts the older man bit into it and then washed down the sugary treat with a swing from the coffee. "So what do you want to know, Junior?"

Ignoring the junior comment Teddy rested his hip on the side of the desk, helping himself to one of the donuts since he'd bought the guy a half a dozen. "You went to school with my…with my grandmother's cousin Regulus Black. I was wondering if you could tell me what kind of a guy he was. I know you were in different houses and all, but I figured he probably wasn't someone who faded into the background. Or even if you could steer me towards some of his friends, girlfriends…anyone who knew him before he died?"

"You're right about him not being someone you'd forget, but friends? Girlfriends? No. Regulus Black was a true Black from the top of his head to the tips of his toes. Sirius Black was the exception to the rule. Every other Black, they had acquaintances, not friends. The only people close to Blacks are other Blacks and occasionally their spouses or lovers. Once Salizar Slytherin's line ran out the Blacks became the top of the pureblood families and they knew it. No one was good enough to be anything other than their subordinates in their eyes. As for girls, there were rumors he fancied Clary Whitewood, but I never bought that. Far as I could see Regulus Black didn't need anyone or anything and that was how he liked it."

Teddy couldn't imagine that, he'd had loads of friends at Hogwarts. No real girlfriends, or boyfriends for that matter since he hadn't come out until he'd left school, but he'd had people, lots of people in his life. "So he was a loner?"

"That's one way of putting it. Most self contained person I ever saw. He was always alone even when he was surrounded by people. He'd be part of groups, but anyone with eyes could have seen that they needed him more than he needed them. They were just another obligation, window dressing." A thoughtful look came into the man's eyes. "Everyone was surprised when they heard what he'd done, how he'd really died. Can't say that I was so much. His family meant everything to him. Dying for them, he'd do that without question. Nothing was more important to him than the Noble House of Black. And he never struck me as being vicious or heartless come to that, not like that cousin of his. A tight assed perfectionist prick maybe, but not the sort of man who would last long as a Death Eater. Blacks don't do well being led and told what to think by non Blacks. It tends to piss them off royally."

Teddy knew from personal experience that that was so. People who tried to tell his grandmother what to do or think tended to wish they had never been born once she started to tear the speaker to verbal shreds. "So…it's a safe bet that even if I talked to his Slytherin classmates I'd learn nothing?"

"That would be a pretty safe bet."

"What about Ceres Nottingham? You know her?"

The Auror grimaced. "Heard about you and the boss taking her in a couple months ago. Bout time if you ask me. She was barely holding onto her sanity even when she was in school. She was prone to emotional extremes and as far as I could tell she'd didn't have a conscience, morals, and didn't care about anyone but Regulus. She was obsessed with him and he hated her even more that the Muggleborns. He wouldn't have married her in my opinion. He'd have killed her first."

"Killed her first?"

"He was Black. He would have killed her instead of himself. Nothing is more important to a Black than their own life and the lives of their loved ones. You try to take that from them and they will mutilate you beyond recognition while you're still conscious."

He had to agree with the old man. "Sounds about right to me. Thanks for the info."

)

Hours later Teddy sat alone at a table, having just come back from the washroom where he'd made his change from female to male. He could have changed in front of the crowd even now watching his best friend dispatch with her latest ex, but he hadn't wanted everyone to know that minutes before he'd been the hot redhead Victoire's new ex boyfriend had been trying to feel up when she'd arrived.

When Victoire came marching back in she ignored all the stares she was getting and walked over to him, flopping down in the seat across from him. "Bastard. And you just had to wear that little black dress ensemble." She added with a dark look in Teddy's direction.

"Don't blame me because your taste in men is almost crappier than mine."

Sulking over the truth of that statement Victoire tapped her manicured nails against the table's countertop. A change in subject was needed, especially since she was tempted to leave the store again to finish her ex off. "So how was your day? How did yesterday go with the ring thing? Did you get it?"

It had been decided by those involved that the fact that Regulus's soul had been attached to the ring would remain unknown to the general public. No one wanted to deal with the legal ramifications, much less the people that would be interested in learning just how someone had been brought back from the dead to inhabit an inanimate object. But he figured that it was okay to tell Victoire since she was family, could be trusted, and would do nightmarish things to him if she ever found out he'd kept something like this from her.

So he told her the truth about the ring and what had happened to Regulus Black. And about his two brief conversations with the other man and how he wasn't sure what to make of the other man or how to handle the situation.

Stunned speechless when he'd finished explaining, Victoire couldn't begin to process all the implications of the situation. Or how it must feel to be in either man's shoes at the moment because seriously... "Well it was certainly an eventful day." She finally said lamely.

"And on top of that one of the Malfoys was checking me out. And I do mean CHECKING me OUT."

Victoire shook her head in denial. "Okay, I can buy that this psycho witch brought Regulus Black back from the dead and that he's currently living in a ring you now own, but there is no force on earth that could convince me that Lucius or Draco Malfoy was checking you out."

"I'm not lying. I felt it. Someone in that room was mentally undressing me." Teddy protested, keeping his voice down in case there were children and little old ladies within hearing distance. "And that someone was definitely male. I'd bet my own manhood on it. And the Malfoy men and I were the only men in that room at the time."

About to say he must have been wrong an idea occurred to her, one that had her sitting back in her seat as she mulled the possibilities over.

"What are you thinking?" Teddy asked, knowing that look in her eye well. She'd thought of something, something that she thought proved her own opinion.

"I'm thinking there was one more man in that room if you were wearing the ring at the time." And now Victoire's lips curved. "One who wouldn't have known you were related to him."

"Who are you talking…oh. Oh." Eyes widening Teddy had to open and close his mouth several times before he could articulate himself. "You think that it was him. That it was my…whatever Regulus Black is to me. You think he was the one who was checking me out."

"Has either Malfoy shown any interest in you or men in general before?" Victoire pointed out logically. "And that Auror guy you talked to said that the guy didn't have any girlfriends. Even loners crave sex, and he was pretty hot from the sounds of it."

His grandmother had lost contact with Regulus before the boy had matured enough to be interested sexually in either sex, and according to his godfather Sirius had talked very little about his younger brother. Could the younger Black have been gay? Had that bone meltingly hot male gaze come from the rigid, icy cold man he'd met the day before? It was hard to believe. But it also made more sense than one of his great aunt's men suddenly developing the hots for him, Teddy mentally concluded, turning the idea over and over in his mind.

"My advice, not that you asked, is not to ask him about it or bring it up." When Teddy gave her a questioning look Victoire rolled his eyes. "Come on, Teddy Bear, think about it. In his shoes, would you want your ancestor asking you if you were eye fucking him? And I'd lay odds that even if you asked him, he'd deny it. He was a teenager in the NINETEEN SEVENTIES, Teddy. Gay men were rarely openly out, much less capable of marrying or adopting children. And he was a Black, the only Black male after Sirius ditched, which means Regulus was expected to continue your family line. He'd probably castrate himself before he'd willingly admit that he was anything other than the ideal, heterosexual pureblooded male."

She had a point, a good one. He didn't get a lot of backlash for his sexuality, but he'd gotten his fair share of slurs, looks, and homophobic comments from people who didn't know any better or were just plain arseholes. So if he were to imagine what it would have been like to live in a world where he would have had to hide his sexuality from not just strangers, but friends and even family...where he wouldn't be able to publically date or show his lover affection on the street for fear of how others would react to it…ouch. Not that he was big on personal displays of affection, but not being able to even touch-touch.

A thought occurring to him Teddy's eyes went wide as he stared off into space, not even noticing Victoire snapping her fingers in his face as she tried to get his attention.

She had to whack him upside the head with the back of her hand before he focused in on her. "What are you thinking?" She demanded to know.

"Nothing important." He said absently, lying through his teeth. That was why Regulus had wasted all that energy making his arm solid the day before, he was sure of it. The man hadn't been touched by anyone since his death. If he had been touched it would have been by Nottingham, who Regulus had hated, or by one of Nottingham's victims, who Regulus would have known was doomed to die because of him. Regulus must have made his arm solid and asked him to touch him because…because the man had thought it worth the loss of visibility for a chance to be touched by a decent human being who wasn't trying to harm or use him.

As he had been harmed and used for decades.

"Victoire, if you don't need me for anything else, I think I'm going to call it a day and head home. I've got paperwork to do and a houseguest to talk to."

"All work and no play makes my Teddy Bear a dull boy." Leaning across the table Victoire gave him a smacking kiss on the lips. "Go to bed at a decent hour at least."

"Yes, ma'am." Returning the kiss Teddy winked and then got to his feet, heading out with one last wave good bye.

)

He had no sense of time, but Regulus figured it was at least two hours since Teddy had first put the ring back on and tried to call him like he was some moronic dog to be brought to heel by its master. He would not be treated like a dog, especially since he'd never liked them. He'd always been a cat person. But he was sort of curious as to what the man wanted, and being sure that enough time had passed Regulus opted to come into enough existence that he could get a sense of his bearing and the situation.

Looking around the room he was now in Regulus silently evaluated the unfamiliar room with open curiosity. It was obviously male decorated, though not in a bad way. The colors were earthy and the floors were an inviting golden wood. The furniture in front of the fireplace looked deep and comfortable, the bookshelves on one side filled with books and framed photographs. Turning his head Regulus's eyes widened at the sight of the large king sized bed that dominated one side of the room, a lone figure lying with his back against the headboard as he scribbled away on a piece of parchment. The man's hair was magenta today, and longer than the day before. His eyes were now green, but the body and face were the same.

Raising an eyebrow Regulus looked around the room, guessing it to be the man's bedroom from the looks of it. But he'd been under the impression that the man lived at Grimmauld Place. There was no room like this in his house.

Walking over to the fireplace to get a look at the pictures there Teddy browsed them, recognizing the man's father and the woman he assumed had been Andromeda's daughter in some of them. His brother was in a couple of them with Remus Lupin, the sight of his brother's teenage face making Regulus's stomach knot so that he automatically looked away from them.

His gaze falling on the mantle of the fireplace Regulus's eyes narrowed as he suddenly realized something. Talking a step back the Slytherin made a thorough study of the fireplace, speaking out loud without meaning to. "This…this is my father's room."

Looking up at the sound of an unexpected voice, Teddy blinked owlishly as he struggled to focus and figure out where said voice had originated from. "What the...?"

His curiosity had Regulus speaking again, though he remained invisible. "You made my father's room into your bedroom. It's very…different." Everything was different except for the fireplace. Even the carpeting had been torn up to reveal the original flooring.

"Oh. Yeah. And don't you mean your parents' room?" It had been the biggest bedroom, so logically it would be the master suite. Peering in the direction of the voice Teddy tried to make out the figure, but apparently Regulus didn't feel like even hinting at a physical form.

"No. This was my father's bedroom. Mother's room is through the connecting door."

O-kay. Well, if the woman's portrait was anything to go on he wouldn't have willingly shared a bedroom with her either. And since insulting the man's parents wouldn't go over well, Teddy thought it wise to change the subject. "I uhm…made your mother's bedroom into a bathroom. Sorry. That and this bedroom are the two rooms I've finished on this floor. Those, the kitchen, and the one parlor are the only rooms I've finished to their full potential. The others are works in progress."

His mother's room had been turned into a bathroom? Looking in that direction Regulus couldn't begin to imagine why the man would need that much space for something like that. Unless bathrooms had changed that much since the last time he'd had a body that required the use of one.

"I've always intended to leave your room and Sirius's alone. In case you were wondering."

Gaze turning back to the man Regulus's voice was cool. "I could care less what you do with either room. Besides, once you have a family you'll need the room, now won't you?"

That was precisely the opening Teddy had been hoping for. "I'd have to find a good man first. I'm a workaholic, so raising children on my own would probably not be one of my better ideas. And unfortunately my tastes leave something to be desired."

"You said a good man."

"That's right. I'm gay. In this time that's not something to be ashamed of or hide." Teddy's voice was soft, wishing he could see the other man so that he could measure his words by the other man's actions. "So if I do bring anyone home, it will be a he, not a she."

Regulus just stared at the man, unable to comprehend what the man had just so freely stated. The term gay wasn't one he was familiar with; they had not had happy sounding words for men who desired other men in his day. They had rarely spoken of men like that at all. To have one's sexual preference questioned was an insult that had led to duels and even death upon occasion. Yet the man before him said it so casually, like it was common, socially acceptable knowledge.

Could it be common knowledge? Was it known throughout the Wizarding World that his descendant was a homosexual?

But he held a place of authority, he was an Auror, Regulus thought in confusion. The man had been shown respect by his peers and the other men at that meeting before. Andromeda had not disowned the boy and the mantle had shown pictures of the men with a lot of people, people he was obviously close to.

Had the world gone topsy turvy after he'd died?

What sort of world were they living in now?