Hey! Thanks again for the comments and subscribe/favorites.

As I said, I'm keeping the sunday update for now, I've been doing a lot of rewrites and I don't want to deliver a rushed chapter.

Anyway, here is the last part of summer, I hope you enjoy it!

The manor was quiet for a few days and not even the Lestranges were around, leaving Draco and his mother alone and finally in peace, but everything was not how it used to be, there was a permanent sensation of alertness, so even when no one was there to see them, they never relaxed as they used to. However, Draco made a purpose to keep his mother company, so they would sit together as he studied, sometimes she would even ask him about his interest in healing and charms to understand more what exactly her son wanted to do with it.

Neither of his parents had done anything with their school studies. Lucius, despite the good grades, had taken over the administrations of their land in France and the political activities that came with their social connections and their Wizengamot sits. Narcisa had assumed the house and the family's social standing, either by organising parties or making sure they were invited to any event of importance. It wasn't forbidden to look for formal work or go after developing a talent, but the past few generations of Malfoys had not done so, staying only politically involved. Not that Draco wanted to have a healer's job at a hospital for the rest of his life, he had plenty of ideas of what he wanted to do, he knew he liked creating enchanted objects, his time helping Fred and George and his sigil work had only confirmed this, so Draco believed he could find a nice path by mixing his two interests.

He hated not having his father's opinion on the matter, but at least he could share this with his mother and pretend, just for a while, he could make simple plans for his future and his career as if there were no war around them.

Almost at the end of the month, Rabastan came back alone to take his mother to visit Regulus grave, something his mother did every other year when she was around at his birthday.

"Aren't you still a wanted criminal?" Draco asked

"The Black lot is a private property" said the man "you should come too, you've been holed up in this house since you came back from school"

Draco didn't really want to go to a cemetery and he knew in a few days his Hogwarts' letter should come and he would have a nice excuse to go to Diagon Alley, but he also didn't want to be alone in the house in case anyone showed up, it was not unusual for the Dark Lord to appear unannounced, so he decided it was best to go with them.

They were surprised when they arrived to find Andromeda and her husband there. The man immediately took out his wand to point it at Rabastan, but his wife forced his arm down and shocked her head, silently telling him to not do anything.

"What brings you here? You don't usually visit" asked Narcisa calmly, but not addressing her sister's husband.

"I wanted to think… Much like Regulus, Sirius left no body to bury, but Dumbledore asked me if I wished to make a symbolic burial"

"I see…"

"Making a grave here would not mean they are actually side by side, so I wanted to know what it would feel like to be here with an empty grave, would it mean anything?"

"For the dead I doubt it does, graves are for the living" said Narcisa

"Would you mind terribly if I put up something for Sirius?"

"Didn't Potter want him on his own lot?" Narcisa asked curiously

"I don't think the boy has any condition to organize a funeral and I doubt he knows anything about it, if I'm not mistaken his parents were buried in Dumbledore's lot in Godric Hollow"

"It's in Godric Hollow, but it's their own lot" said Rabastan, talking for the first time "the cottage was inherited"

"You've been there?" asked Narcisa looking at Rabastan with a surprised face

"I've been reading old copies of the prophet to know what happened after I got arrested" he said

"Either way" said Andromeda not particularly interested in the topic, but not changing her calm demeanour "I don't think anyone would risk Potter in such a way for this, so it's up to us. Would you mind?"

"No, but not next to Regulus"

"I was thinking near uncle Alphard" said Andromeda pointing to a location a bit further down and Narcisa nodded "It's just you and me now… unless you're counting Bella this days" the woman finished mockingly and Narcisa snorted in a way Draco had never thought he would see from his mother.

Andromeda came closer ignoring her husband's not very discreet attempts to keep her away.

"My house is open if you even need it" she said quietly, but looking at her sister's eyes

"I'm good where I am" said Narcisa

"If you're ever not good, you know where to find me"

"I got it Andy" said Rabastan

"I'm afraid to tell you Lestrange, that prison might have given you time to think, but it didn't allow you to grow and I doubt the solutions from fifteen years ago will work as well as it once did"

"You should have said that to Sirius" said Narcisa ironically

"Oh he heard it plenty, but many times unfortunately, for the wrong reasons" she said with a sad smile "any warnings this time?"

"He is more unpredictable, but also more focused on the big players"

"At least until he takes those out of the way" said Andromeda and her sister nodded "Do you want me to send you something when I finish with Sirius grave"

"There is no need, Bella is around a lot"

"Good luck with that" said Andromeda mockingly and the two sisters looked at each other and mutually moved to a short and tight hug before Andromeda walked away back to her husband and out of the cemetery.

"Andy doesn't change, does she?" asked Rabastan

"She is more patient and she is way more alert this time, but then I think her daughter is an auror"

"I never understand you two, are we friends with her?" asked Draco confused, looking at his mother, they had acted just like that when his grandfather died and he knew Andromeda would send Christmas cards, but apart from those occasions, they never really met with the woman and his mother.

"Absolutely not, we haven't talked to Andromeda since she ran away" said his mother trying to look serious and hold a smile, but Rabastan snorted.

"And you got mad at Reg when he did that" he said

Narcisa didn't give the man an answer and simply conjured some flowers to decorate Regulus grave. Draco just shocked his head amused, his family took Slytherin's cunning to another level.

"I'm glad we came" she said with a small smile. In times like this, comfort was rare, but apparently it would find you when you need it.

—

As Draco had predicted, his letter arrived a few days later and the absence of any absurd book gave him hope that perhaps they would finally have a year with decent staff. He also had received an owl a few days before from Pomfrey with a list of books he could buy, so he was excited to go to Diagon Alley.

They decided to wait a day or two to see if the Dark Lord would try to reach Potter while he was after his school things, but there was only silence, whatever he was doing, he had been busy for a while, so Draco's mother decided to just go while things were quiet. Draco wanted to wait, he wanted to check the plan with Rabastan so he could also go to Borgin and Burke, but the man hadn't shown up since they went to the cemetery and considering they didn't know what he was doing, it was pointless to wait for his return.

Going to Diagon Alley used to be a cheerful and fun event, but this time it was a depressing experience, the place was very different, darker and many shops were closed. Draco wanted to separate from his mother so they could each take care of something and leave as soon as possible, but his mother was very against the idea, worried about his safety. He doubted that he had anything to fear at the streets, he was more worried someone would see his arm, his mother was not weak at magic, but a glamour was not her expertise.

So he was stressed and distracted when Potter and his friends walked in on him.

Draco had so many worries during his summer that he had not actually stopped to give much thought about what he was going to do about Potter when they actually saw each other, so he just froze, both of them looking at one another and waiting for the other to react.

"Malfoy… hey" started Potter a bit unsure "How… how are you? How was your summer?"

Draco was so shocked by the tentative conversation that he didn't know what to say, looking at Weasley and Granger they also seemed to think Potter was an idiot, so maybe he really had lost it a bit.

"Are you going to make it worse by screaming at me?" said Draco muttered, no real hit behind his words, but he was very defensive, their last conversation hadn't ended very well and he wasn't sure what to expect from the boy.

The anger that he had expected since the beginning appeared on the boy's face, and Draco thought his initial greeting had just been an automatic reaction, but it was soon replaced with a guilty face and Draco was lost once again. Potter barely opened his mouth to say something else when he was interrupted.

"Mr. Potter, how… interesting… to see you here. It had been quite some time" said his mother when she appeared and that was like a switch for Potter, because he was back to his angry face.

"Indeed, your husband was even arrested on the meantime, seems like he really did learn to be in two place at the same time after all"

And Draco wasn't sure what that last bit was about, but apparently his mother did because she too turned less pleasant.

"Yes, shame Sirius never learned that" said his mother with a fake pleasantness that was quite vicious.

Potter took his wand out to point at her.

"Harry, no!" said Granger

"No fights in my store!" said Madam Malkin just as quickly.

But if Potter was trying hard to control himself, his mother had not even moved a muscle, she was looking at Potter with a curious eye that Draco didn't know what it was looking for, maybe she wanted to see his reaction.

"Will it take too much longer?" asked Draco to Malkin, really wanting to leave before things went downhill.

"I'm almost done"

"Then hurry up please"

It was a tense silence until the woman was done in record time and they were able to leave without exchanging another word with the golden trio. The entire thing had been very confusing, but Draco couldn't get himself distracted, so he shoved all his thoughts to the back of his mind and kept going.

He finished getting most of his things and was able to leave his mother at Flourish and Blotts before going to Borgin. Passing through the twins store was both nice and sad, he missed them but knew it was best to not to go in, It didn't mean he couldn't laugh at the joke on their sign.

Things with Borgin were easy, the man still had great respect for his father, but he couldn't really help with the cabinet at Hogwarts. Still, he had half of a plan and that was better than what he had before. He was so distracted with that, he didn't notice he was once again just looking at the Weasley's Wizard Wheezes.

"Are you really just going to pass through without even a look inside?" came the voice of one of the twins and as Draco turned, he was able to see George at the door looking at him.

"I really shouldn't" he said, but his face must not have been too convincing because George still came to him and grabbed his arms to go inside the store.

"Tell people I forced you and you put up a big fight not to" said George with a smile and Draco couldn't help but smile too.

It was like stepping on another world entirely, the store was full and more alive than anything Draco had seen in a long time and he felt better than he had the entire summer.

"Look at this, my favorite git!" said Fred as he came closer and put his arms on Draco's shoulders "how are you?" he asked softly in his ear.

Draco had no answer that he could give him there, he felt awful because the Dark Lord was keeping him on a leash, his mother was going to be alone in the house with him and Draco had to finish an impossible mission if he didn't want to die. All of that without even adding Potter to the equation. So without anything to say, he took a leaf from his mother's book and just threw himself at Fred in a desperate desire to be hugged and sheltered for just a few seconds and Fred, as usual, gave him exactly what he needed.

"Don't be a brat Ginny" said George and Draco released Fred to turn and see the girl looking at him as if she wanted to strangle him, her mother, at her side, looking at him curious.

But just as soon as he detached himself from Fred the door opened and Draco's mother entered with a furious glare.

"Don't do that to me Draco" was all she said and he knew exactly what she meant, he should never have been so weak as to get inside the store in the first place.

Fred looked like he wanted to say something, but Draco just shook his head no and went to his mother.

"Stay away from my son" She said looking at the Weasleys present, but none of them said a thing.

The door opened again and the golden trio came in and were clearly startled by the situation they walked in, which gave his mother the perfect opportunity to grab Draco and leave the store as fast as possible.

"You're my only son, Draco, please don't throw your life away for a Weasley"

And once again Draco was given repeated words from his past and it was the first time he wondered if maybe he had been caught by a karmic circle after all.

"I'm not… it's not like that"

"I'm your mother, I know you, but there are better boys if you must"

And Draco was touched as much as he was shocked that his mother knew and cared about it.

"There is really nothing there, he was just the one who helped me realise"

"Then I wish he hadn't, I've watched Regulus wasting away for love, I can see you do that too"

"What do you mean? What happened to Regulus?" Draco asked surprised, it was so rare for information about the boy to be so freely given.

But his mother looked at him very sad and gave him no other word until they were home. She pretended all was well and Draco thought maybe she would just ignore everything, that she had just been too emotional on that moment, but later she took him to a secluded room in the manor and gave him a wooden box, very simple, but clearly full of meaning if she had kept it so well hidden.

"Every since you took the mark I've been thinking if I should say something, but I didn't want to put you at more risk and sometimes, Draco, knowledge is more dangerous than everything" she said

"I've been practicing occlumency, I can't let him know my real feelings either, but he doesn't seem to interested, he is just playing with us"

"Yes… There are plenty of people he thinks are unimportant, those he believes are too weak to be of any value. That is a very good place to be, Draco, you don't want to get his attention. Being with a Weasley is calling for attention"

"Is that what Regulus did?" said Draco, changing the subject, not letting his mother run away from the topic. She took a deep breath, but then looked straight at him.

"Regulus was deeply in love once, but Sirius' departure and our family position at the time meant he had to make a difficult choice. He swore loyalty to the Dark Lord but to the love he lost he swore he would destroy our Lord. Regulus thought being so close would lead him to a weakness and a way to kill our Lord… he was willing to die trying if needed and it seems that is what he did"

Draco was speechless, everyone only had good things to say about Regulus, how loyal he was to his family and to the cause, to think he had been plotting against the Dark Lord for years was a shift on everything he believed so far.

"Who was it?" he asked, because he had no illusion that if his mother knew so much, she would not know who it was that Regulus had loved so ardently, and considering her reaction, it was likely someone he shouldn't have loved.

"Someone who is dead, so it doesn't matter, I just want you to understand that Regulus made choices that he paid for with his life, please, choose yours carefully"

"Do you think he ever regretted it?" and his mother looked immediately sad.

"Not even for a second" was her softly reply "and that is what I hate the most…" she looked down at the box and passed her hand over it as if cleaning some dust that wasn't really there "Perhaps this will be more interesting to you than it ever was for me" she said giving him the box "Regulus never wanted anyone to know, but he was sentimental enough to keep a few things… just know that letting your heart guide the way, can cost you more than you can pay"

Draco returned to his room with the box that contained all of the things Regulus thought were too important to destroy but that he didn't want anyone to see. Curiosity was obviously burning within Draco, Regulus had been the mystery no one talked about and now it made a lot more sense why. His mother and, most likely, Rabastan had kept this secret the first time, so even if Regulus was now dead, if anyone ever suspected he had been a traitor, those associated with him would also pay the price, so they kept the lie by keeping their silence.

It was the biggest prove of how arrogant the Dark Lord and his followers had always been, they all looked at this little trio and named them weak or stupid, so they never looked at them twice.

Not only them I suppose, Pettigrew did the same thing to Dumbledore and the Order of the Phoenix.

It was the oldest trick in the book and yet it was always effective for as long as there were those too blinded by power to look at another, those who were too full of themselves to realise there was fighting in silently enduring adversity.

No wonder they had been so worried about Draco, they thought, and turned out they were correct, that he was going to follow that path, except that Regulus had pushed too far, apparently because he was too in love to care, and that was indeed a good warning for Draco to keep in mind.

He carefully sat on his bed and opened the box. Inside there wasn't much: a few letters and memos, a group of pictures with a very weird looking camera, a little coin bag, a memory box and a black thing Draco had never seen in his life.

Obviously he started with the strangest thing, as one always does. It was made of a strange material and it was a bit bigger than his hand, but it was light. A tape was clued to the front part, which was also a bit transparent, and on the tape in a delicate handwriting was a message "so you never forget" and obviously Draco had no idea what that thing could possibly do to be memorable, but he notice some of the buttons on the thing and started pressing, none of them seemed to work until one of them opened the thing. Inside was another strange thing and he had to be very careful taking it off, it was made of similar material but white and a bit transparent and the middle had two holes where it was previously attached to the black thing, it seemed like inside there some kind of tape and indeed the button part was open and the tape was there, but it was nothing Draco had ever seen before. This too had something written on it with the same handwriting "Brink of Love" and that too made no sense either. Not wanting to break the thing before he could figure it out what it was, he put the white thing inside the black one and closed it, putting it aside.

The bag didn't have coins, but it had been expanded and inside there were a few clothes, muggle clothes, which puzzled Draco. He put it aside to inspect the memory box, they were rare and extremely expensive, but he supposed the Blacks had more than enough to buy it. Unfortunately what made them so good was that they could be blood locked, so only certain people would be able to access it, it had been traditionally used to preserve old family secrets, so Draco, not being a direct descendant of Regulus, could not unlock it and whatever memory his cousin had chosen to keep preserved would never be known by anyone.

He got to the letters and the memos, some of the letters were from his mother some were from her time at Hogwarts and others told Regulus all the changes she was facing with a married life, he put those down as soon as one of them implied a bit too much than he ever wanted to know about his parents intimacy. Other letters were from Sirius, clearly in his first year and excited to tell his little brother all about Hogwarts and his brand new friends. It was strange to think of a time when Sirius and Regulus were close, it clearly had meant something to Regulus for him to keep his brother's letters. The last letter was not signed but it was written with the same handwriting of the message on the black thing and contained only a strange poem apparently called "Yesterday". Draco didn't know what part of Regulus life that poem was about, but it matched quite well with his own life at the moment and the longing for a "yesterday" that was better and easier than the present.

The memos were a completely different thing, they were love notes, some of them only said things like "tonight - the music room", one of them even asked "cupboard after classes?" and some were explicit like "my arse is already hurting from flying, so you might as well, at least I will have an excuse". There were entire conversations there, only they didn't have Regulus' side of it. None of them were signed and from what some of the notes said Draco had understood that they were hiding even then. It was probably a risk for Regulus to have kept this, but every note, even the obscene one, had always a heart on the corner and Draco thought that was actually really sweet and most likely one of the reasons they were never thrown away.

The pictures were something Draco was excited about, the first one was Regulus catching a snitch and considering the move he made, it seemed like it might have been the famous one Rabastan had mentioned, he could see a few of the other players stopping to look. The other pictures threw him off because they were static muggle pictures and Draco had no idea why or how. One of them was Regulus, dressed as a muggle, but with a really nice jacket, singing with a pretty ginger girl. On the back there was a date and an explanation "karaoke night - we won", the next picture also had the same girl and a ginger man that he supposed was related to her and they were both dancing while a blond woman laughed on the back because the man was obvious in the middle of a very ridiculous dance "a real family". There was a picture that was from a street, with a nice looking house "1976 - muggle street - Cokeworth" and the name more than the pictures rang a bell, but Draco couldn't quite remember what it was. Another picture had four boys on it, one Draco was surprised to recognise as Potter's father and the head on his lap was Sirius, the other two boys could only be Lupin and Pettigrew. The boys looked happy and carefree, in fact Sirius looked on the verge of sleep, because Potter was talking to Lupin but his hands were on Sirius' hair. The back had what Draco had assumed was Regulus handwriting saying "the idiots" but Regulus' words we crossed and under it was written "The Marauders", which had been exactly what the Elf had called them last year. The other picture was of a young Rabastan, an innocent shine on his eyes as he looked away at something with a silly smile on his face "Bas admiring his Ravenclaw". Another had a Slytherin girl smiling and showing off a beautiful ring "The soon to be Mrs Greengrass" and Draco took another look at the picture, noticing the woman he knew as Daphne's mother in the face of the young girl in the picture.

The last two pictures were a bit of a shock to Draco and he knew he was blushing: one picture had a naked boy spread on a bed, lying on his stomach with his face turned to the other side so Draco couldn't see it from the angle the picture was taken, but his hair and the bed were a mess and didn't take a genius to know what had happened just before the picture. "Each time I touch your skin I feel like mine is the one that it's burning, I want your body to be part of mine so I can take away all your pain and make it mine, but lose myself in pleasure and give it all to you" that was bigger than a simple "I love you" it was intimate, a piece of love that hurt if not expressed and that told him more about Regulus than anything on the box.

The last picture was just as intimate, it was Regulus, a picture that had clearly been taken by his lover, his hair spread on the bed or glued to his face because of sweat, a bit of his naked chest was visible, covered in love bites, and on his face a beautiful smile, almost a laugh, and all the love the felt for the man behind the camera "Happiness" was all it said and indeed, if a feeling could be turned into a picture, happiness could only ever be that one.