Disclaimer - I don't own Harry Potter. This was written for Froday Flash Fiction challenge (the second regular challenge for October 2021) and is a part of my Granger Yet series which is a series where Regulus is Hermione's biological father.
Upside Down Mirror: Granger Yet
Bonding
"Sorry."
The one word couldn't even begin to cover what he wished to say, yet Regulus found himself unable to say anything more than that one word, what with his voice locked up for some magical, unexplained reason.
"What else could it be that's preventing me from telling the Granger family how sorry I am for so many things?"
Regulus looked down at his hands as he sat there in the waiting room of the small cottage hospital run by Olivia's parents—who were now his parents despite the lot he'd gotten caught up with before the Granger family came into his life, yet the more he came to know and care for the Granger family, the more he wanted to break the spell over himself.
"You don't have to apologize," Mrs. Granger smiled at him as he sat nervously on the couch during what the Granger family called family night. Tonight, family night consisted of just him and Olivia's parents while Olivia and her older brothers were out doing something else for family night, leaving Regulus to feel quite awkward in dealing with his in-laws.
Except, he did need to apologize, for the way he thought of things in the past. Regulus swallowed, looking down at his hands as Mr. Granger stood up, leaving the room. "Did I make him feel uncomfortable? I mean, it's always been awkward for others to be around me, what with how strange I am. Even my perspective on Pureblood supremacy isn't quite right."
"Here."
Regulus looked up at Mr. Granger, wishing the words would start coming out of his mouth, but he thought he discerned concern on the man's part, but he held out a pen and paper.
"If I'm frustrated with the way communication is going, you must be as well. Olivia—she told us your current lack of verbal skills doesn't properly reflect your intelligence levels."
Regulus took the pen in his left and the pad in his right, but his left hand shook. Mrs. Granger touched his neck lightly as he attempted to write with his left like he usually did. "Well, that is indeed a problem, that you're left-handed."
Mr. Granger sat down next to him, carefully taking the pen and paper from Regulus and shifting which hand they were in which—holding the pen in his right hand was frustratingly unfamiliar. "It doesn't matter how messy it is, or how long it takes you to do it. You need to feel free to communicate with us as you need to, so write what you want to say."
Hesitantly, Regulus wrote in rather big, sloppy letters. "I'm sorry."
The letters were twice, maybe even three times the size of his normal letters. Mr. Granger spoke softly. "I know, but what for?"
"For underestimating Muggles."
"What is a Muggle?" Mrs. Granger asked while Mr. Granger sat there listening, or more of reading what Regulus had to say.
"Someone who can't use magic."
"Oh. Us. Why do you say you underestimated us."
Regulus lifted his head, contemplating how to answer. "We don't interact. Not since the late sixteen-hundreds when the statute of secrecy went into place. I'm broke that statute when I let Olivia know about magic and further when I showed up here. It could cause problems for you."
"So. You're our kid. What does it matter?"
Regulus' eyes blinked, his head turning to look at Mr. Granger.
The man placed a hand on his shoulder, which made Regulus tense up, but when Mr. Granger looked him in the eye he found himself looking away. "It doesn't matter if you're biologically ours, you are our child."
"He's right you know."
In the back of his mind, he knew Walburga would majorly object to ever hearing Muggles say such a thing about her flesh and blood, yet there was something else. "Would you say that knowing who I got involved with before coming here?"
"Olivia told us that you hung out with the wrong crowd, but were having some doubts about them."
"I thought they believed what I did."
"They didn't?"
"No."
"So, what did you believe?" Mrs. Granger continued asking most of the questions.
"I'm not sure how to explain that without going into what they believed, and if I do you'll be mad at me."
"We'll hold judgment until you tell us what you believe."
Regulus glanced over at Mr. Granger, but there was something—Regulus couldn't place his finger on it, but he continued writing in the sloppy handwriting with his right hand.
"In wizarding society, there are Purebloods, Half-Bloods, and Muggleborn." Regulus stopped, waiting to see if the Grangers would clue in.
"Let me guess. Muggleborns have Muggle parents?" Mr. Granger's question made Regulus nod his head. "And Purebloods are those without Muggle ancestry?"
Regulus felt his facial features twist before writing down, "Toujours pur."
"Toujours pur? That's French for…"
"Always pure." Regulus scribbled down onto the paper. "That's the motto of my family. I've likely blasted off the family tapestry for marrying Olivia."
"That…" Mr. Granger paused. "That's cruel." Regulus heard the man take a deep breath. "No wonder you asked what you did." Regulus' eyes blinked. Mr. Granger noticed his confusion and pointed to the place where Regulus asked if they would still say he was their kid if they knew. "The answer, my dear boy, is no. We don't do things that way."
"But the Death Eaters weren't about making a world where we no longer had to hide from Muggles peacefully. There's nothing peaceful about the Dark Lord, but I…" Regulus stopped, his eye twitching as he thought about the numerous Infiri in the lake in the cave. There were too many.
did you do any of that?"
"Indirectly."
"What does indirectly mean?"
"I came up with new spells and potions, plus did research stuff which I know they definitely used to kill and torture innocent people."
"Start by forgiving yourself."
Regulus looked up at Mrs. Granger, who smiled at him, yet the way her forehead twisted he knew she was worried. Mr. Granger nearly made him jump out of his skin when he patted him on the shoulder. "She's right. Plus, did you know they were doing that."
"I…" Regulus choked on the word, but then scribbled down. "I should have known."
"You don't turn eighteen until the end of July."
"I should have known because Bella tortured me when I was younger."
"Bella?"
"My cousin."
"She…"
"It's the family madness. It's why I'm so messed up."
"You're not messed up, Rabbit."
"Yes. Yes, I am. I'm smaller than the other males in my family. I'm meek. I've never interacted with others properly. Making eye contact is difficult. So many things. I can't…" Regulus sucked in his breath, a few tears dropping down onto the piece of paper he was writing on.
"Those are nothing to be ashamed of," Mr. Granger said.
"Plus," Mrs. Granger pulled him in close. "I like how you're the smallest of our boys and even if you were to have a sudden growth spurt and that not be the case, I'd still love you for who you are."
"And what your cousin did. What they did, even if they used your ideas. That is not your fault. You're only at fault for the things you directly did."
"The ministry of magic would likely not agree. And…" Regulus took a deep breath as Mrs. Granger continued to hold him. "Regarding the belief of Pureblood's being superior to Muggleborn. The belief is that the purer the blood the stronger the magic, which is why families like mine like to keep their bloodlines pure. But…"
"But what?" Mrs. Granger asked.
"It's where the madness comes from, isn't it?"
"Inbreeding. It can cause a defect," Mr. Granger muttered.
"It can, but…" Mrs. Granger shook her head.
Mr. Granger cleared his voice, taking over from his wife... "You're not defected, Rabbit."
"I feel like it. I never fit into Slytherin."
"Is that your school?"
"It's the house I was sorted into at school." Regulus continued. "Purebloods do have an advantage over Muggleborn, but doesn't that mean Purebloods should be kind and help them?"
"Well, yes. That does make sense."
Regulus nodded his head. "I don't think my family was right in insisting that magic runs stronger in Purebloods. I mean, there was a time I did believe that, but Lily Evans disproved that. She's a Muggleborn, a year ahead of me, and graduated at the top of her class. Muggleborns still more often than not struggled, but isn't it because they didn't grow up around magic as we did? I also thought…"
He paused. "Thought what?"
"I was under the belief that if you are superior to someone in any way that you don't hold that superiority against them, but if they need help you help them. And, if wizards didn't have to hide from Muggles, that would remove the disadvantage to some degree that Muggleborn has, right?"
"You put a lot of thought into this."
"You think so."
"Yes."
"So, what I'm sorry for is being naive. I believed Muggles hadn't advanced in the same way we had, but I also got involved with the Death Eaters who…" Regulus stopped writing what he was originally writing and instead wrote. "I don't want them to hurt you. By you, I mean the entire Granger family."
"Well, I hope so as well!" Mrs. Granger piped up. "But that also means you Rabbit, as you're a part of the entire Granger family now."
"Correct." Mr. Granger squeezed his shoulder. "I personally don't see anything we need to forgive, but what matters is that you feel that way, so I do forgive you."
"Agreed, but let's not forget that you need to forgive yourself, Rabbit."
