"He hates me," Regulus pointed out, not letting himself be deterred by the changing location again for long as he found Peter in the kitchen of this new home. It was probably a very nice cottage in the woods, quaint and simple with huge trees providing the perfect shade, but he took in none of it.

"No he doesn't," Peter tried to protest, ruffling bird seed from his hair, as he'd managed to land on top of a bag of it. "He-" but Peter stopped himself as he saw Regulus scrutinizing him, his hand. The way his right hand still shook, for he couldn't yet get the image of a glint of silver out of the corner of his eye. He'd been trying to pretend otherwise and thought he was managing it, nobody else had bothered watching him long enough for him to know if it was working though. "Yeah, a bit," he admitted quietly, lowering his hand and sitting on it instead to force himself to stop. It wasn't a large house, they could hear Sirius and Remus trying to cajole Frank and Alice to jump on a bed with them in the farthest back bedroom, and they weren't even being particularly loud for it, so he spoke softly. "Not you specifically," he tried to curb the blow, even though Regulus didn't look surprised at the confirmation. "Just, you remind him so much of your parents," he finished with an uneasy laugh.

"I could never make them both happy," Regulus sighed, slumping into the nearest chair, right on top of an Evening Prophet and covering up the most recent awful Skeeter article. "I don't know how to do anything right."

"That's not true," Peter protested at once, but he floundered there. He was used to being 'the youngest.' All of his friends treated him like their annoying kid brother, and he didn't even know how to talk to them about how he felt about that. If he had the words he wasn't even sure he'd use them, he didn't want to lose them all over again in whatever place he had with them. What good did he have to say to Regulus?

James paced restlessly about the house as he heard Alice begin. There couldn't be that much left, and then they'd start Harry's fifth year. This future containing his son would catch up to where he was in his life, about to end his own fifth year. James cringed and his pacing increased as he counted all of the many differences between them both, all that his child had suffered and been through while he'd been running around his school worrying only about what was right in front of him.

He couldn't even get his friends back to talking to each other, he could feel the distance between them growing more with every new location, and yet Harry's friends still stood by him through all of it. He listened to Hagrid comfort the trio and felt a great surge of exhaustion when his own name was spoken in such high regards by the gamekeeper. He finally had to acknowledge to himself he wasn't going to be able to fix this problem on his own.

Lily let her fingers trail along the lilac wallpaper, her feet shuffling along the warm carpet as it really sunk into her why this place felt so different from many of the homes they'd visited so far. This place had life in it that only a child could bring.

There was a little toy lynx up on a shelf, an orange ribbon around its neck frayed at the edges. An old coffee stain sat exposed on a worn chair right by a little side table that had a few pamphlets neatly stacked on it, as if Cedric still hadn't made up his mind about his career, Lily absently deduced. His parents were probably waiting eagerly for the summer months, to go over more options for him, because they still had time...

She caught herself trying to breath heavily, but a catch in her throat stopped that. She didn't even know this boy, not really, even after all they'd heard of him, but his body still lay fresh in her mind's eye. His final words, spoken right along with hers, to Harry. She absently heard, in the back of her mind, Harry getting on the train again, something Cedric should have been able to do one last time.

It wasn't fair, but then, life never was.

HPHPHPHP

So, the fourth book was majorly depressing for all involved, but thankfully they're now all officially at their turning points. The fifth book is where things will really start kicking into gear and more changes in their viewpoints and personalities will be obvious to all present in party.

Thanks so much for reading!