Monday, 25 July 1977

24 July 1977

Lena,

How's your summer been? Have you gone on holiday or anything, yet? I know you started taking those classes at the Dyslexia Institute. Also, why the hell was dyslexia picked as the name of, well, dyslexia! It's such a bloody hard word to spell!

Anyway, Layla gives her love. You should come over to Layla's soon! We can all hang out together. Layla's family is great, too. They'll like you, Layla and I are sure of it. They obviously won't like you as much as they like me, though.

I was wondering how Sirius is doing. How is he doing living on his own with Gwen? Are they getting along? Is he happy? I hope he's happy.

On another note, being a Death Eater fucking sucks, let me tell you. Everyone is absolutely mental and has the most insane ideals. They're planning more and more missions and aiming to kill Muggleborns and their families. I've written to Dumbledore all the information I know but I don't know if it's enough. And I'm so scared, Lena. Everything is so intense. I feel as if my skin is crawling whenever Bellatrix or Lucius take me to a meeting. I'm so worried if You-Know-Who will attend one of the meetings. I'm worried he'll be able to look into my soul and see that I'm a spy and I don't believe in him like the others do.

I feel bad ending this letter on a bad note, Lee, but I don't know how else to end it. Sometimes endings are bad, no matter how much we want them to be good.

Your best friend,

Regulus

Tuesday, 26 July 1977

25 JULY 1977

HI REGULUS,

PRETY BOLD OF YOU TO ASUME THAT YOU'RE MY BEST FREIND. JUST KIDDING, YOU'RE HI UP THERE ON THE LIST.

MY SUMMER HAS BEN GOOD SO FAR. MY PAIRENTS ARE GOING TO TAKE PETER AND I TO PORTAGAL IN THE SUMMER. I'VE ALWAYS THOUGHT THE SAME ABOUT DYSLEXIA TOO. THE CLASSES ARE GOOD. IT SEEMS TO BE HELPING.

TELL LAYLA I LOVE HER AND MISS HER TOO! I'D LOVE TO COME OVER SOON! WHEN IS GOOD FOR BOTH OF YOU? I'LL MAKE IT WORK.

SIRIUS IS GOOD! GWEN AND SIRIUS SEEM TO BE GETTING ON PRETY WELL. THEY HAVEN'T KILLED EACH OTHER YET. JAMES, PETER, REMUS, AND I ARE GOING OVER TO THEIR FLAT FOR DINNER NEXT WEDNESDAY. HOPEFULLY, THEY DON'T AKCIDENTLY KILL US WITH THEIR COOKING. AND SIRIUS IS HAPPY. I'M SURE HE'D BE HAPPYIER IF HE SAW YOU.

I'M SORRY ABOUT ALL THE DEATH EATER SHIT YOU HAVE TO DEAL WITH. I CAN'T IMAGINE HOW STRESSFUL THAT IS AND HOW YOU ARE FEELING. I WISH I COULD HELP YOU IN SOME WAY. BUT YOU WILL BE OKAY. I JUST KNOW IT.

AND I KNOW IT LOOKS LIKE EVERYTHING IS GOING TO ADD BADLY, BUT I PROMICE IT WON'T. I ALL WILL END WELL, I KNOW IT. IT HAS TO IT.

LOVE,

LENA

Wednesday, 3 August 1977

"So, what are we having for dinner?" James asked, plopping down on the couch after handing Gwen a bottle of wine that he had brought from the Potter wine collection.

Sirius, who was standing in the kitchen, looked down at the kitchen table and read off a recipe from the recipe book that Mrs. Lupin had given him and Gwen when they had moved into their flat. "Chicken tagine, rice, and some bread."

"You're baking bread?" Peter asked, leaning against the doorway.

"God, no," Gwen said as she uncorked the bottle of wine, which was white. She poured into the wine glasses. "We went to the bakery down the street."

"What's for dessert?" Lena asked, inspecting the pictures on the wall that Gwen and Sirius had hung up. They mostly consisted of friends from school, more of Sirius' friends than Gwen's. The Lupin, Pettigrew, and Potter families graced the walls. To Lena's delight, there was a picture of Regulus and Sirius on the wall. She'd have to tell Regulus when she saw him at Layla's.

"Just for you, Moony, Gwen made a chocolate cake," Sirius grinned.

"You know me so well, Pads," Remus said as Gwen passed him a glass of wine. "I'm sure it'll be great, Gwen."

Gwen nodded. "We're actually pretty good cooks now."

"Yeah, we've learned how to make chicken parmesan, chicken piccata, and chicken française," Sirius smiled.

"Can you make anything besides chicken?" Remus asked with a grin.

"Of course. We can make mashed potatoes," Gwen said.

Peter laughed and took a sip of his wine. "So, how's living together going?"

"Great. The only bad thing is that Gwen is in love with me now."

Everyone laughed as Gwen gave Sirius a deadly stare. "Stop telling people that!"

"But it's true! You said you were in love with me! You even kissed me!' Sirius said cheekily.

Peter choked on his wine. James was thankful that he brought white wine instead of red as he spilled his wine on the couch. Remus stumbled off the bar stool by the kitchen counter that he was about to sit on. "What!" Lena cried.

Gwen went completely red. It was a rare sight. Guinevere Rowle almost never got embarrassed. "It wasn't like that!" she cried as Sirius snickered.

"Then what was it like?" Peter cried.

Gwen sighed and collapsed onto one of the armchairs in the room. "So I was going on some dates with this bloke for a bit."

"You didn't tell me that," Lena said

"Well, I didn't want to say anything unless I knew it was going anywhere. Anyway, it was going pretty well and we were hanging out here, and then he just got so terribly serious about everything. He started talking about being together forever and all this stuff and I freaked out. So I told him I was in love with someone else so he'd leave me alone! And then Sirius walked into the living room and my date asked if he was the guy I was in love with and I didn't know what to do so I said yes," Gwen managed to say without a single breath.

"Okay," Remus said, slightly hesitantly. "But then why did you kiss Sirius?"

"Because I'm irresistible," Sirius grinned.

"You're as irresistible as a wand up my arse, Sirius," Gwen quipped. "Now go check on the chicken and the rice."

Sirius pouted but did as he was told and went to the stove.

"And because Sirius is an idiot—"

"Hey!' Sirius cried from the kitchen as he tasted the sauce the chicken was sitting in.

"—and couldn't catch on to what was happening, he asked what my date was talking about. Naturally, I went along with what my date thought and I professed my so-called undying love for Sirius. Sirius, being unhelpful as ever, started laughing because I suppose he realized that the thought of anyone being in love with him was absolutely ridiculous—"

""Hey!' Sirius cried as he sat back down. Everyone else laughed though.

"So, I was left with no choice but to kiss him in order to convince my date."

"And you loved it!"

"I most certainly did not!" Gwen protested. "You loved it. You slipped your tongue in my mouth!"

"Sirius, why would you do that?" Peter cried.

"Well, I like kissing people," Sirius shrugged.

"Oh my God," Lena said, shaking her head.

"Bon appetit," Gwen said as she placed the bowl of rice and the basket of bread on the table and Sirius put the chicken tagine down.

"It looks amazing, you two," James said. He scooped some rice on his plate and passed the bowl around. He put a piece of chicken on the plate and poured a large amount of sauce on it. He dipped a piece of the bread in the sauce and plopped it in his mouth. He began to choke.

"I think there's a bit too much spice in the sauce," James managed to say between coughs. He downed his glass of wine. It wasn't enough though. He opened the fridge and poured some milk into a glass and chugged it.

"Only for wimps," Sirius commented. Gwen nodded in agreement.

The others looked at them in hesitation. Lena began to scrape the sauce of the chicken the best she could. Peter put a spoonful of rice in his mouth and frowned. He would have liked to spit it out but he managed to swallow it.

"What's wrong, Pete?" Gwen asked.

"Well, it's um, just a bit burnt."

"Oh. Well, better over than under," Sirius shrugged.

Remus cut into his chicken and looked at it. Remus looked over at his girlfriend. She had a piece of chicken on her fork and was about to eat it. "Don't eat it, Lena!"

"What, why?" Lena asked, tilting her head.

"It's raw!"

And, sure enough, the inside of the chicken was still as pink as the shirt Gwen was wearing.

"Raw?" Gwen asked. She cut open another piece of chicken. It was just as raw as the chicken on Remus and Lena's plates. "How is it still raw? It was on the bloody stove for forty-five minutes!"

Sirius scratched his head. "Well, I forgot to take the chicken out of the freezer until just before I started cooking it."

Gwen let out a humph in annoyance. "It seems that Sirius and I have overestimated our cooking skills."

"I'm sure the cake will be quite good," Remus said positively. Gwen smiled at him kindly.

"Well, why don't we have the cake now and order some pizza and have it when it gets here," Peter suggested.

"Dessert before dinner? I don't see anything wrong with that," James said before pointing to the telephone. "Ring 'em up."

Gwen and Sirius glanced at each other, biting their lips. "We don't know how to work it," they admitted together.

Remus smiled. "There's no time like the present."

"Well, come 'ere," Lena said, as she took the phone off the hook. "Let me show you purebloods how it's done."