Harry sat in Dumbledore's office. He was facing the headmaster. His office looked somewhat different than it did in the future. There were no significant changes to the decor, but he could tell that it was a different time.

Harry did not quite know how he had gotten here. He was back in his parents' seventh year. He had at first been excited to see his parents when he had first realized when he was. But then he remembered that he was fifteen, in the past, and with no way to go see his friends again. According to Hermione time turners only went back ten years and they did not go forward in time.

Harry had quickly explained his situation to the headmaster and he surprisingly believed Harry's story, as far fetched as it seemed to be. Dumbledore was explaining to him that he would have to continue working on his fifth year.

Harry had asked him what they would tell everyone. Dumbledore had explained that they would say that he had been homeschooled but that his parents found it to be safer for him to be at Hogwarts because of the war that was going on. Then he would continue his classes like normal.

Dumbledore let him pick his fake name, Harry decided that he would keep Harry as his first name and that his last name would be Johnson because that was the first last name that popped into his head.

Dumbledore then told Harry that he would have to be sorted into a house again. Harry agreed to this although he thought that he would get Gryffindor again. But to his surprise the hat belted out Slytherin.

Harry was about to protest the hats design, but Dumbledore cut him off before he could. Then he sent a message to someone he called Slughorn. Harry presumed that this was the head of the Slytherin house.

They waited in the office without talking to each other for what felt like an awkward amount of time. Harry wanted to start a conversation but he could not think of anything to say, even though his mind was swirling with questions.

Harry thought about what he knew about his parents' final year at Hogwarts. It was not much. He knew that this was the year that they would get together. He also knew that this was when the war against Voldemort was really heating up. He thought back to Snape's memory, he was still shocked to find out that his dad had been a bully. Although according to Sirius and Lupin he had stopped that by know. And that memory had taken place in their fifth year which had been two years ago too them.

He thought about all of the stuff that he had to prevent. The biggest two were his parents' death and Sirius's false imprisonment. He also hoped to stop the rest of the war's deaths. He thought about the picture of the order that Sirius had shown him, how happy they all seemed to be and about how most of them would eventually have a horrific fate. He also thought about Nevillie's parents and the stark difference between how they looked in that picture vs how they looked in that private word of the hospital.

Harry had absolutely no idea how he could prevent all of this, but he knew that he would have to try.

Harry was shaken out of his thoughts by the opening of the door.

"Ah, Horace and Mr. Blaclk. Come in." Dumbledore said.

Harry turned around in a fleeting moment of excitement hoping to see his god father. This excitement was short lived of course because it was not his god father that had entered but another man.

He compared this person to what Sirius had looked like in the memory that Snape had. This person was a lot skinner, although he did have some arm muscles. He had dark brown hair and hazel eyes as opposed to Sirius's black hair and grey eyes.

Despite the differences there was still a similarity between the two people. This confused Harry at first until he remembered that Sirius had a brother who had been in Slytherin. Harry figured that this must be him.

"Harry this is professor Slughorn and Regulus Black. Professor Slughorn is the head of Slytherin house and Mr. Black is the perfect for your year." Dumbledore said, confirming Harry's suspensions.

The Dumbledore explained the situation that he and Harry had come up with. Regulus and Slughorn nodded along sympathetically.

When Dumbledore concluded his summary of the fictional events, he told Harry that Regulus would walk him to the Slytherin common room while he would talk to Slughorn.

Harry got up and walked to Regulus. They stared at each other for a bit before Harry asked if they were going to go to the common room. Regulus nodded his head and then he started walking.

They walked side by side for a while before Regulus asked him in a soft voice about what it was like to be homeschooled.

Harry knew that he should have probably figured that someone would ask this question, so he probably should have came up with an answer so he would not put on the spot like he was now.

"Uhh, it was ok. I didn't like not being able to hang out with friends. But my parents are great, so I was not lonely or anything like that." Harry said, he came up with this on the spot so he hoped that it sounded legitimate.

"I do not know if I would enjoy being homeschooled" Regulus said "I guess it would be nice not being surrounded by a lot of people. But I don't think that I would enjoy being stuck in the same house with my parents year round. Especially if I am being taught by them."

This statement struck Harry as slightly odd. Based on Sirius's explanation of his younger brother he thought that Regulus would enjoy being with his parents or at the very least not hate it.

After this brief bit of small talk they walked in silence for a little bit of time, before Regulus looked up and starred at Harry with a look that made it seem like he just had a realization. "Why did your homeschooling affect you hanging out with your friends?" he asked Harry.

Harry thought about this for a little bit of time, although he hoped that this was not a suspicious amount. "All of my friends were going to other wizarding schools, so I only got to see them during the summer months."

Regulus seemed to buy this explanation.

"Why did your parents decide to send you to Hogwarts instead of continuing you home schooling?" Regulus asked Harry curiously.

"They felt that it was safer at Hogwarts." Harry said, then he quickly added "Because of the war."

Regulus nodded to indicate the fact that he had heard Harry's explanation.

Shortly after this conversation they reached the door to the common room. Harry looked up at the door. The last time he had been here was back in his second year when he and Ron were investigating the Chamber of Secrets. This thought made Harry sad as he knew that he would most likely never see Ron again.

Regulus then said the password and he opened the door, as he did this he turned to Harry and said "Welcome to the Slytherin common room. Follow me and I will show you to my dorm, it's the same one as mine so it will be easy."

The common room seemed to be distorted, Harry figured that this was because it was late at night. There was only one person in the room besides him and Regulus. That person appeared to be doing homework.

Regulus then gestured around the room explaining what different things were, Harry felt slightly insulted by the notion that he did not know what a fire place was but for some reason he could tell that Regulus did not meen it that way.

Then he walked Harry to the staircase, he told Harry that they would need to be quiet because a lot of people were asleep.

They then walked to Regulus's dorm room. Harry then realized that the Slytherin rooms had two less beds in them. It turned out that he and Regulus would be the only two sleeping here.

Regulus pointed to the bed closest to the door, " That's your bed. I hope you like it."

Harry nodded, then he got into bed.

As he laid down, he thought about everything that he had to do to stop the tragedies that would shape his life along with so many others.

As he slept he did not dream of a dark hallway, but that did not mean that he slept peacefully.

When Harry woke up he looked around at his surroundings to make sure that he had not been dreaming, but sadly his wish had not been granted because when he looked around he saw the dark green curtains and sheets of the Slytherin dorms. He also saw the water of the great lake through the windows.

Harry thought back to the year before, he remembered rescuing Ron from there in the Triwizard tournament. The thought of his friend filled Harry with a sense of deep sadness because he knew that the odds were that he was never going to see him, the rest of the Weasley family or Hermione again.

Harry looked to his side, he saw that Sirius's brother was still asleep so he assumed that it was early in the morning.

He could not tell what time it was because of the water that was outside the windows. He looked around the room to see if there was a clock but this was a futile attempt. Harry remembered that there had been some in the common room but he did not want to go out there.

Harry knew that in this time frame there were a lot of death eaters in the Slytherin house and Harry did not want to come face to face with a bunch of people that would soon terrorize all of magical and muggle Britain until he absolutely had too.

Of course he did not want to talk to people and answer their questions about why he was there and who he was. He figured that Regulus would do that for him.

Harry got up and got dressed, he also brushed his teeth and did everything that was required of him for classes.

Dumbledore had given him all of the books that he would need for his classes, so he would be able to attend them and he would not need to share them with someone. He was grateful for this.

Harry thought about his classes. He knew that a lot of the teachers were going to be the same as they were in his time but there were two that were not. He was going to have a new potions and defense against the dark arts teacher. He felt that this was a thing because he hated those teachers the most.

He hoped that the potions professor was a lot nicer than Snape and that they would actually learn something in Defense.

As he was arranging his books he saw Regulus stir, he sat up awake and he looked at Harry, "You're already up?" He said, half asking half making an observation.

"Yeah, I could not sleep. Because of the excitement." Harry told him.

Regulus nodded at this and then he went to get dressed.

Harry sat on his bed awkwardly waiting on him to get done. He knew that he could always go back to looking at his books but he did not feel like doing that anymore. He did not know why, maybe it was his nervous.

Harry heard the sink running. Regulus must be brushing his teeth Harry thought.

When Regulus came out of the bath room Harry sat up, he grabbed all of his books and put them on his lap.

"Are you ready to go to the great hall." Regulus said then he added "That is where we get meals and receive announcements. It is also were there is a sorting ceremony. But that will not happen until the begging of the year." He added, trying to explain what it was.

Harry nodded along to Regulus' explanation. Of course he already knew all of that about the great hall. But since Regulus thought that he was a new kid he did not know that Harry did not know a lot of things about Hogwarts.

Harry thought about finding out an explanation for the fact that he knew a lot about the magical school, in case he would slip up and say something that would not make sense. And knowing his luck he probably would.

"Yeah sure, I'm kinda hungry. Breakfast sounds nice." Harry said.

Regulus nodded at this and he turned around and started walking to the door and Harry followed him.

As they walked down the halls Regulus explained what they were seeing, although it did seem that he was talking to himself much more than he was talking to Harry.

Harry saw the way his eyes would light up as he described different kinds of ancient magic, types that Harry felt that Hermione could understand.

Harry thought that he looked remarkably attractive when looked as invested as he did right now. Harry shook this thought out of his head quickly, he did not need to get feelings for Sirius' little brother who was a future death eater.

Eventually they got to the great hall, thankfully there were not a lot of people in there. And based on what he saw outside the windows it was very early in the morning.

They sat down in the middle of the Slytherin table. The few people that were in the hall looked up when they entered. Harry felt that they were all looking at him, although this was possibly not true because Harry was very nervous and he very well could be imagining things.

"So how much do you know about Hogwarts?" Regulus asked = Harry as they were both eating.

"I don't really know, My parents told me all of the basics about Hogwarts and some other bits and pieces. I also have read some books about Hogwarts." Harry said grateful for the opportunity to give an excuse for some of his knowledge about Hogwarts.

"Oh, what books did you read." Regulus asked, suddenly very intrigued.

Harry froze for a minute trying to come up with a book to name.

"I read some of "Hogwarts a history" he said, remembering the book that Hermione had mentioned many times, he mentally kicked himself for not remembering this book, Hermione would have been very disappointed in him.

Regulus nodded and said "I have not read that one, is it good?"

"Yeah it was. It was pretty long though." Harry said with a tone that suggested that he wanted to stop talking about.

Regulus did not seem to pick up on this though and continued to ask him questions about the book. Harry barely got through them and he always answers short answers. He hoped that he got all of the answers correct. In case Regulus would go and check out the book, and based on his questions Harry got the impression that he would.

Eventually Harry amged to change the subject by asking about their class schedule.

"Well you will have the same schedule as me so you can follow me to all of the classes. I think that charms is probably my favorite class. Although I may be biased because that is my best class. What is your favorite class, you know that your parents taught you?"

"I really enjoy defense against the dark arts." He replied.

"That class can be fun. Oh, did you know that every year the teacher changes? The rumor is that the position is a cursed one, although that has never been conformed. Anyway because of this the quality of the teaching can change year to year. Like when my older brother was in his fifth year we had a teacher who barely taught us anything at all, all we did were work sheets. I was pretty lucky because in your third year you do not have any major test besides what the professor gives you. But Sirius had to take his O.WL.s that year, so it was pretty bad for him. But we are lucky this year because Professor Smith is really good." Regulus explained to him.

Harry, excited at the mention of his godfather asked Regulus "I did not know you had an older brother. Is he also in Slytherin?" of course Harry already knew the answer to the latter half of the question but he wanted to get Regulus talking about Sirius,

This, sadly, did not pan out.

At the mention of his older brother Regulus froze up. He should not have brought up Sirius.

Hell according to his family Sirius was not his brother anymore, Regulus did not like this but its not like he could do anything about it. Sirius was the one who had ran away; he had made his choice and he had sealed his fate when it came to the rest of the Black family.

But because of Sirius disowning Regulus was told not to bring him up, unless he wanted to be punished and Regulus did not want to be punished. He found himself to be very grateful that there were few Slytherins surrounding them.

His parents would not have known if he talked about or talked too his brother, but they could if one of his house mates brought him up.

Plus talking about his brother always made him feel bad. Despite the way he acted he was hurt that his brother left him all alone, and Sirius would not even talk to him anymore. He haf not exchanged words with his brother since he was fourteen and not for lack of trying on his part.

He then went to answer the new kids question.

"No, he is not in Slytherin. And he was disowned from our family around two years ago so please do not tell any one that I brought him up because I will get in trouble if that gets back to my parents."

Harry nodded at his statement after that, Regulus went back to reading his book. It was pretty interesting. It was about Ravenclaws diamond. Regulus had already made a mental note to check the book store for the book that Harry had mentioned the next time they went to Hogsmeede it sounded really interesting.

As he was reading he heard Harry ask him a question about their other classes.

"I do not really know how to describe them. Im sure they are not that different then what your parents have taught you if they both went to Hogwarts, most of the teachers here have been teaching here forever. Especially Proffeser Benns, he's like two hundred years old. He is even older than Dumbledore."

Regulus told him. As he talked Harry nodded along.

As Regulus was talking to him Harry looked around the great hall.

In the time after they had arrived there a lot more people had came in there.

He saw his father and his dad's friend group. He also noticed that they were staring at him and Regulus, they also seemed to be talking to each other.

Harry quickly looked away from them and started looking for his mother. Eventually he saw her, she was talking to a women who he recognized to be Neville's mom. He was struck by how alive they both appeared to be.

He remembered seeing Nevilles mom earlier in the year, there was a very stark difference between them. Harry realized once again how devastating this war was going to be to almost every one.

Regulus must have seen him staring at his mother because he said "That is Lily Eavns, she is nice and really good at potions. She actually tutored me in it last year when I needed some help. She is dating James Potter who is the boy with the black hair and glasses. He actually kinda looks like you. Don't tell anyone about the tutoring thing though if it gets back to my parents I will get in trouble."

This was the third time Regulus had mentioned getting in trouble with his parents. Harry gathered that they were really strict.

Regulus then went back to the book that he was reading and Harry started eating his food again. The awkward silence had returned.

It ended when Dumbledore stood up and addressed the great hall. He told everyone about Harry following the backstory that they had made up.

As he talked he gestured towards Harry.

As he talked the entire hall turned to look at Harry and this time he knew that he was not imagining it. Even though he was used to people staring at him being the boy who lived and all he had never fully gotten used to it.

So as they stared at him Harry looked down at his food as too avoid eye contact with the people that were staring at him.

When Dumbledore was done with his speech no one went to talk to him, thank god.

Shortly after that Regulus told him that it was time for their classes to begin. They both got up and started walking to the herbology classroom.

Harry was amazed at how little the classes had changed in the thirty or so years in the time between his education and his parents. He had been able to cost pretty easily in most of his classes.

Of course the two exceptions being Defense and Potions. Although he was doing pretty well in defense.

He was struggling in potions. Professor Slughorn was a lot nicer then Snape although he also had pretty clear favorites most of them seemed to people with a great talent in potions or were related to someone with a lot of influence.

His favorites were all in something called the Slug club. Harry was not in this club because of how much he had been struggling in this subject.

Slughorn had afford to have him be tutored by his mom. Harry had of course accepted this offer. He would have taken any opportunity to get to know his mother.

Harry was surprised at how fast he and Regulus were becoming friends. Based on the way that Sirius had described him Harry had assumed that he would be a lot like Malfoy, stuck up and annoying but he was really nothing like that.

He was actually really nice and helpful, he was also a very sweet and caring person.

Regulus seemed to hang out in the kitchens a lot, Harry had gotten to know the house elves down there very well. Regulus already seemed to.

They all seemed to like Regulus too. And not in the way that they liked Harry, it seemed like they truly valued him as a good friend.

Harry walked into the potions classroom. He saw his mom sitting in the chair, when he walked in she looked up and said "Your Harry right, I am Lily."

Harry sat down in front of his mother. This was one of the happiest moments of his whole life, he had dreamed of this moment for years.

Of course when he dreamed of it the circumstances were different, but he was still ecstatic.

He was sitting with his mom.

She was talking about something to do with potions but Harry was not paying attention. He was trying to study everything about her, that way if this was all a dream and he would wake up he knew what his mom was like.

His torturing session was done in what felt like too short of a time. If you had told him a year ago that he would be sad that his potions torturing was over he would have looked at you like you were crazy, but know he did feel like that.

As he left the room he turned around and stole one last glance at his mother. Then he left the room.

Harry opened the door to his and Regulus's door room. Regulus glanced up from the book he was reading. When he saw that it was Harry he put the book down and they started their conversation.

They had grown close over the time that Harry had spent in the seventies.

When Sirius had first explained what he knew about his younger brother Harry would have never guessed what he was truly like. But Regulus was a very delightful person and a great friend.

"So did you enjoy your tutoring lesions?" Regulus asked him.

"Yeah, I did. Lily seems to be a very nice person." Harry replied.

"She is. I don't know why she is dating Potter." Regulus said.

Harry thought about what he said about what he said about his parents relationship. It was an off hand comment from Regulus and a normal person would not pay it any mind but since they were Harry's parents he paid a lot of mind.

Ever since he had seen that memory in Snape's office he had felt odd about it. His mom had hated his dad for years apparently and just three years after that they were married and pregnant with him. What had changed between them?

He thought about what he had been told, about how his dad had changed. But he was in the year that they were dating and they were still terrorizing Snape and a couple other Slytherins. It just did not make any sense to him.

Harry then realized that Regulus had been talking to him while he was thinking this.

"-when I had her tutor me she really helped my grades go up. So I think that this will help you."

Harry nodded at this and replied "I hope so."

Harry smiled at Regulus as they walked in the lawn, they had just finished Herbology and they had a free period.

Regulus was telling him a story about Sirius and him when they were younger.

Harry laughed and Regulus smiled.

The marauders were sitting in the Gryfindor common room. Sirius was sitting on the floor with Remus playing gobstones. Since they were in their seventh year they only had a small number of classes to do.

James then walked in through the doorway and over to his friends.

"You will never guess who I saw in the courtyard today." James said with a devilish smirk on his face.

Sirius and Remus looked up at him from their place on the ground, their game laying abandoned on the floor.

"Who?" Sirius asked.

This made James smirk grow even wider. "Your brother… and that new kid. Do you know if they're dating, because it definitely looks like they are dating."

Sirius glared at James. How would he know if they were dating he has not talked to his younger brother in years.

Besides Regulus would never date someone who was not a pureblood, and based on everything he has heard the new student did not appear to be a pure blood.

He responded by telling James these thoughts.

James rolled his eyes and spoke still with that damned smirk on his mouth "Well, they seternedly looked like they were dating in the courtyard today, they were talking and laughing."

Remus rolled his eyes and James attempt to get a reaction out of Sirius.

"You know that we do that. Like all of the time, and so do most friend groups. You are reading too much into things." Remus said.

"Yeah but you did not see the way that the knew snake was looking at Regulus. And Regulus gave him that look back, and we all know how rare that is especially you Padfoot. If they are not dating now, then they certainly will soon." James said to his friends.

Sirius glared at his best friend for the second time in under a minute. Everyone knew that his younger brother was a sour sop for him and that they should not bring him up.

"If you are trying to make me mad it will not work. Me and Regulus are not close, I do not care who he dates, or what he does for the rest of his life. Besides you are wrong, Regulus is not dating the new kid because the new kid is not a pureblood and Regulus would certainly not date someone who is not a pureblood!" Sirius said, almost shouting at the end.

James's smile grew wider as he said " Well for someone who doesn't care, you certainly act like you do."

The glare that Sirius shot him after this made James shut up.

Remus trying to stop the awkward silence that had just occurred said "You know, that new kid kind off looks like you." he had wanted to say something that was not related to their previous subject but he could not think of any.

"Yeah, besides his eyes and the scar he could be your younger brother." Peter said.

"No, he doesn't. I do not look like a snake." James said this conversation clearly bothered him.

Sirius seeing an opportunity to get back at his friend said "No he totally looks like you prongs. Hey, did you know that Lily is tutoring him."

This seemed to get the desired effect on James because he said "What! She did not tell me that!"

"Despite what you may believe James, I do not have to tell you everything that happens in life." Lily said as she walked into the common room. She had a slightly pissed off look on her face and Remus gathered that it was from what she had overheard from her conversation.

"And for your information, Harry-" when she saw the looks of confusion she added "the new kid is very nice. You should not judge someone solely based on what house they are in. And James he dose kind off look like you."

"Lily, you have only interacted with him once, for all you know he is an undercover death eater. Besides it is not like you are the best judge of character, remember when you used to be best friends with Snivells." James said in a somewhat condescending voice.

At the mention of her former best friend in that way Lily grew angry "And you JAMES have not interacted with him at ALL! And I knew Severus since he we were seven, so excuse me if I want to hold onto that friendship as long as I fucking can." then Lily stomped off into the doors dormitory.

James gave a half hearted call for his girlfriend to come back.

After their interaction with Lily the marauders went back to what they had been doing before. But Sirius had a hard time concentrating on their game.

He thought about James' words, of course he knew that James was just trying to piss him off but he knew that there was some truth in what he was saying.

Regulus had been hanging out with the new kid a lot. And from what he had seen of his brother he rarely hung out with anyone, besides the quidditch team but that was because he had too.

It was not like he wanted to imagene his younger brother dating anyone, even though he did not like him anymore he was still some what protective off him and the thought of him dating someone was not something that he did not like.

Sirius made up his mind that he would talk to his brother about this. He of course hated the idea of talking to his younger brother, but this was something he needed to ghetto the bottom off.

Regulus walked all throughout the library. He was looking for hogwarts a history. It had sounded very interesting he had asked Kreacher if they had it in the Black Family Library.

He had said that they did not have it. This made since to him because they had very few modern books in there.

So he had decided to look in the library here. He had expected them to have it because they had almost everything.

But to his shock they did not have, he had even asked him if they had it in the restricted section.

He figured that they would have it in the book store at hogsmeade.

It was odd, though.

Sirius marched down the hallway, he needed to talk with Regulus about what James had told them. It could not be true, could it?

Despite the fact that he and Regulus were estranged he still felt a bit of an older brother protective over him and the thought about him dating anyone made him want to throw up. This feeling was amplified more so by the fact that the person he was supposedly dating was a snake. Of course Regulus was a snake as well but if Regulus was dating one then it would conform that he was too far on the darkside.

He checked the map again and seeing that his younger brother was near him he picked his speed up to the point that he was nearly running. When he saw his brother he put his hand on Regulus's shoulder and said

"Regulus!"

His brother turned around and Sirius saw a bunch of different emotions in his eyes, first it was surprise and shock, then it was hope, Sirius tried to ignore this.

"Is it true that you are dating the new kid?!" Sirius said, he was trying not to yell, but he was not really succeeding in that. '

The look in his younger brother's eyes changed to a much darker emotion, at first he looked hurt, but then he looked angry. Sirius had never seen his younger brother like this before.

"You have not talked to me in YEARS and the first thing you ask me is if I'm dating some one! You do not get to do that! And why would it even matter if I was!" Regulus yelled at him, this was so out of character that a lot of students stopped the walk to their classes to see the incident.

Sirius stood there motionless, at a loss for words. He tried to think off some but he could not, all he could do was stand there and watch as his younger brother stormed away.

And Sirius just stood there, thinking about what his younger brother had said.

Lily sat in the library, she had been spending a lot more of her time in here then she usually did.

Of course she had always spent a lot of time there, but now it felt like whenever she was in classes, her dorm, or tutoring someone she was here.

She just hated spending time with James, she knew that was a red flag when you were dating someone but she could not help her feelings. Hell she had considered breaking up with him a couple of times before but every time she had chickened out.

She felt very pressured to be with him. She knew all of her friends loved them together and she felt that if she were to break up with him they would all hate her. Back before they had started dating and when James was trying to get her to go out with him, they had all thought that she should say yes, and they all thought that she was crazy for not doing it.

She had also seen what happened to people who had broken up with a member of their group, Sirius had briefly dated Anna Smith but she had broken up with him. And after that her reputation was ruined, there were so many horrible rumours about her floating around that she could not even keep track of them all. And Lily really did not want that to happen to her.

Lily wished that she had never said yes to that first date, she had known that it was a bad idea but he had been so charming and it had honestly seemed like he had changed for the better.

That had not lasted though, he went back to being a dick soon after their third date.

So yeah, Lily felt stuck and she hated that feeling.

Lily heard foot steps so she looked up from the book that she was reading, or really just looking at while her mind wondered.

She saw Harry at the book shelf across from her table so she called out to him "Hey, Harry why don't you sit with me while you study."

Lily did not know why, but she felt a strange connection to him. It was very odd, she had only hung out with him twice and both of those times they were talking about potions. But she still felt the need to protect him and stuff like that. It was how she would imagine some one would care about their son or daughter.

But that was ridiculous because Harry was not her son.

Severus sat at a table at the library, minding his own business, happily reading a book, when Regulus Black came to his table, crying, and he sat down.

Severus was stuck and he did not know what to do. He could always get up and move, it is not like he had an amazing reputation to uphold. He could also continue to sit there but just pay no attention to the crying child in front of him, but that would be very difficult because Regulus was crying very loudly.

And the third option was that he could ask him what was wrong. Now normally he would never consider this, but he did have a soft spot for the younger Black sibling. This was because, unlike his older brother, Regulus was actually a very likeable and nice person.

It took him a while to decide what he should do, eventually he decided upon the third option.

"So, Regulus, while are you crying?" Severus said trying to sound sympathetic but because of how you usually sounded it could have been preseved to be sarcastic. But thankfully Regulus did not take it this way.

What Regulus told him made him hate Black even more, Severus knew that he was a shitty brother but this took the cake.

Lily sat down with Harry across from here. They were not talking to each other, both of them were looking at their books.

Lily looked up at Harry, she wanted to get to know him more so she asked him.

"So are you enjoying Hogwarts?"

Harry looked up at her with a slightly surprised look on his face, but he did answer her question saying

"Yeah, it is a lot better than being home schooled."

"I'm glad that you are enjoying it here. Do you ever miss your parents? I do." She asked hoping that this was not too personal of a question. Thankfully it did not seem to be because he answered her question

"Yes I do miss my mom and dad, although not as much anymore."

Lily nodded at this saying "Because you have gotten used to it."

Harry nodded although he had a far off look in his eyes, Lily thought that he must be thinking about his parents and she menatally kicked herself for bringing up such a sensitive topic.

Lily knew that she not only missed her parents, but she was also terribly worried about them as well. There was a war going on after all and people were dying and she knew that her parents were potential targets, this was one of the reasons she was conflicted on joining the order of the phoenix.

Of course she wanted to help defeat Voldemort and his army, but she knew that if she were to join, her parents would die and she did not know if it was worth it. James seemed to think it was, but his parents were magical and they could easily defend themselves.

Trying to get this out of her head she asked Harry what his favorite subject is, he replied with "Probably defense against the dark arts."

"I really like that class too. Although it does depend on the teacher." Lily said.

Then they talked about defense for a couple hours, until it was dinner time.

James was sitting at the dinner table with the rest of his friends. Remus and Sirius were sitting together and Peter was sitting on James's left, he had saved a seat for Lily on his right but she was not here yet.

He, as usual, had a very good day today. Hell he had been having a very good year, which was good because it was his final year at school and it would suck if it was not good.

He had actually been very scared that he would not have a good year because of the war against the dark arts that was going on. A couple of people had either died or vanished, and few of them were students at Hogwarts.

None of them were in his year, but it was still very shocking, up until July no students had been targeted. This had made his mom even more protective which was very annoying, he knew that she was just worried about him but still, he was of age, and one of the top students in his house, he can do what ever he wants.

So yeah, his summer had started out really badly. But it had gotten very good really fast, for one thing Sirius had moved in with him, he had finally moved away from his shitty family and he came to James's house.

Then James had been notified that he had been named head boy, now this had truly shocked, and not many things did. For one thing he was not a prefect and for another thing he had gotten more detentions then any other students at the school EVER, that was something that he was VERY proud off.

Not that he was upset about it, it was great,for one thing, it would amazing on his resume, for anther his parents were very proud of him, and most importantly his future wife Ms. Lily Evans was the head girl. This gave them a lot more couple time together.

So yeah, he had a great summer, a great day, and a great year, at least so far.

Severus was trying his best to confront a crying Regulus Black, he was doing so well but he was trying his best.

Eventually he got Regulus to stop crying, although he was very clearly still upset. Then Severus looked up at the clock that was on the wall across from him, shit it was dinner time, they needed to get to the great hall.

"Hey, um, Regulus it is dinner time. We should get going to the great hall." Severus said, trying his best to sound calming.

Regulus nodded, then he wiped his nose on his sleeve. Severus inwardly cringed at this, but he tried his best not to show it.

It seemed that he succeeded at this because Regulus did not seem to notice.

Then they both got up and started their journey to the great hall.

Lily and Harry both got up out of their chairs, Lily grabbed the book that she had been reading and pulled it to her chest. It was really good, unlike most of the books that she would normally check out this one was fiction.

The Hogwarts library mainly had non fiction books but it did have a small fiction section.

The book that Lily was going to check out was about a princess falling in love with a commoner, it actually kind of reminded her of the muggle book pride and prejudice.

She remembered reading that with her mom and Petunia, when they were all younger.

"Hey can you wait for me? I want to check out this book. It will just be a minute." Lily asked Harry.

He nodded and Lily gave him a grateful smile.

When she was done they both walked out of the library, she really liked hanging out with Harry, he was like the younger sibling she never had, despite always wanting one.

"Hey, we never scheduled your next tutoring session. What day works for you?" Lily asked him.

"Umm, I don't really care, almost any day, as long as I do not have classes." was Harry's reply to her question.

Lily nodded at this and thought about when she could tutor him.

"What about Tuesday at eight? In the evening of course." Lily asked.

Harry nodded and said that that would be fine.

Harry walked down the hallway, at times glancing at his mother. She did not seem to notice because she was too busy reading a book.

He loved hanging out with her, it was like his mom was a real person. Of course he knew that his mom was a real person but it never truly felt like that until he met her.

All though it was not all good. He had nearly split up and called her mom several times, he had not yet but he feared that one day he would not catch himself and he would give him self away.

So far he had done pretty well when it came to keeping his secret, although he had not really interacted with anyone besides his teachers, his mom, Regulus and a few other people that wanted to talk to him about being home schooled.

He alway hated that because he was always very scared that he would say some thing that had not happened yet or stuff like that.

He and his mom walked out of one of the two hallways that led out of the library. As they did this Regulus and some one who he identified as young Severus Snape.

His mom seemed to see them as well and suddenly the mood in the hall way got a lot more awkward.

Harry understood why, he remembered the memory that he had seen in his professor's office.

The two former friends settled on not acknowledging each clothes presence. And the two groups both ended up taking up different paths to the great hall.

When they eventually got there Harry went to sit next to Regulus at the Slytherin table, evidently they had gotten there first.

He went to go talk to his friend when he noticed that Regulus had been crying, Harry wondered if it was Snape's fault.

"What's wrong Regulus?"

James was eating his dinner, it was meatloaf, when Lily finally came into the great hall. He noticed that she was holding a library book in her hands.

"Hey Lily, were you in the library?" He asked his girlfriend.

"Yes I was." she replied as she was sitting down in the seat that he had saved for her. Then she looked up at Sirius and said

"Oh, and when I was coming back I ran into your brother and he was crying. What did you say to him, Sirius?!" Lily said, sounding pretty pissed although James did not know why.

Every one knew that Sirius's younger brother was a snake and most likely would hate Lily if they knew each other, based solely on her blood status.

Sirius for his part seemed to be slightly offended by the question and he said

"Nothing! All I did was ask Reg about what James said. And then he got all mad and started yelling at me and crying. He was the one that over reacted."

Lily glared at him appearing to not believe his friends answer to defend him James said "Yeah, that sounds like something the sneaky snake would do."

Both he and Sirius laughed at his statement although Sirius did not seem to be as into it as he usal did, Lily rolled her eyes, Peter started laughing with them but it sounded very fake and Remus seemed to be very uncomfortable.

After that they started talking about their day, or he and Remus did every one else seemed to be off in there own little world.

Then suddenly Gina Smith said "No, please god no." then she ran off screaming. Shortly after that they were all informed that her aunt had been murdered.

Then the great hall went silent.

Harry listened to Regulus as his friend cried about his confrontation with his brother. Harry tried to think of a way to comfort him, but he could not really think of one.

He thought about how Hermione and Ron used to confront him when he was upset

They were some of the only two people who had ever comforted him.

He knew that those would not work, because Regulus did not like being touched. Especially when he was not expecting it.

So Harry just sat there and listened to his crying friend.

The mood in the cafeteria had become very somber after the girl's announcement, Harry felt kind of bad about not remembering her name.

But then again she is not in his year or house, and he had just gotten there but he still felt very bad.

Harry knew that this was a bad sign. He had heard stories about the begging of the war from people who had been alive at the time.

And every single one of their stories had begun like this, with mysterious deaths and disappearances. Time was running out.

He needed to talk to Dumbledore about this, they needed to start figuring out a way to destroy Voldemort before every thing got worse, and it would get worse, it would get much much worse.

Regulus sat down in the Slytherin common room crying, it was really late at night and he did not want to wake Harry up. There was no one else in the common room, so he would not be upsetting any one else.

He knew that this was most likely a trivial thing to be upset about, and he shuddered to think what would happen if his mother found out if he was crying about this. He found himself to again be very grateful about the fact that his cousins were no longer at Hogwarts.

He just could not believe that that was the first thing that Sirius had said to him in years. How could he.

Sirius had not even asked him about how he was doing after he had left, but he had not.

Regulus remembered the night that Sirisu had run away, it had been horrible. He knew why Sirius had ran away, he was not mad at him for that.

He just hated how his brother talked about or acted around him. Sirius always acted like he was not there, even when they were in the very same room.

He was also not deaf, he had heard the way that his older brother had talked about him.

Of course, it was not directly said to him. But he had heard about what Sirius had heard him from other people.

"Regulus, are you ok?"

He turned his head around to see Severus standing behind him. He had a concerned look on his face.

Regulus tried to stop crying, he did not really want to worry Severus. But he could not, and he knew that Severus would not judge him for still crying about his brother. Regulus had comforted Severus when ever he would get upset with something that his father had done.

"No, I'm not." he said, his voice cracking at the end as he felt a fresh wave of tears roll down his cheeks.

Then he fell onto Severus's chest, then his friend started rubbing his back in an attempt to get him to calm down.

Regulus would normally not let people do this, but Severus was the exception.

"Is it about your brother?"

Regulus said "Yes."

Severus hummed in understanding and said

"He's a dick, you deserve a better family then them."

They stayed like that for a while, Regulus crying and Severus comforting him.

If some one had popped in there with no previous information, they may have thought that they were brothers.

Lily sat down on the couch in the Gryffindor common room reading the book that she had gotten from the library. She was trying her best to concentrate on it, but all she could think about was the nights events.

She thought about poor Gina, they did not really know each other very well. But they did have a couple of classes together and she seemed like a very nice person.

It was horrible what happened to her aunt. Lily knew that Gina had been raised by her aunt and uncle, so it was essentially like losing her mother.

Lily once again thought about what it would be like to lose her Mom, and her worries for them returned.

She also thought about what she had seen with Regulus Black crying and how Sirius had reacted to it.

How could he be so blase about his sibling. Lily would give anything for her and Petunia to have a good relationship again. And Sirius had a sibling who was actually willing and clearly wanted to have a good relationship with, but he did not care.

"Hey Lily. What are you reading?" Remus asked.

Lily turned around and smiled at her friend. She held up her book and showed Remus the cover, so that Remus could see the title.

"Romance by the river, I have not read that one. What is it about?" Remus said.

"It is a romance novel." Lily said.

"I kinda guessed that based on the title." Remus said in a joking tone, with a light smile on his face.

"I don't really know, I have not gotten very far in it yet." This was a lie, she was more than half way through. But she honestly did not want to explain it to Remus.

She knew that Remus would not make fun of her for it, but if the information got back to James he most likely would.

Remus most likely knew that she was lying but he did not push the issue any more.

His smile then disappeared and he had a some what awkward look on his face and he said "I wanted to talk to you about what happened at dinner today. I'm sorry that you got so upset about them joking around about Regulus. Is it because you tutored him?"

Lily nodded, that was part of it. But Lily could not explain everything to Remus, he was an only child, he would not understand.

Harry was very excited for the next saturday. It was the day that he was going to Hogsmead.

Regulus seemed to be just as excited about this, if not more.

He kept on talking about how fun it would be, and how excited he was to show him different things.

He had even made a plan for everything that they would do. He listened to his friend excitedly explain the history of Hogsmeade and he smiled at him.

James moved the ring back and forth in his hand.

It was very pretty. It had a silver band with a large diamond in the center.

It had been his great grandmothers, his mom had sent it to him after he had told him that he was planning to propose to Lily.

He was going to do this at the tea shop where they had their first date.

He was not even nervous, he knew that Lily was going to say yes.

It was very cold in the village, Harry could see his breath. The snow crunched under their feet as they ran around the village hand in hand.

Regulus was excitedly leading him around the village explaining the history of certain places and stuff like that, he sounded some what like Hermione when he talked about this kind of stuff.

Normally Harry would not really pay attention to this kind off stuff, it had never really interested him. But for some reason he really liked the way that Reg explained it.

Harry had seen a lot of these places before, although not all of them were the very same. It turned out that a lot of them had a different name.

Harry wondered if they had just closed down, or if they were victims of the upcoming war. He honestly did not want to know, although he figured that he would be forced to.

"-and that is the history of Honeydukes." Regulus said.

Harry nodded and then said

"Why don't we go in, we can get some candy."

Regulus nodded and then told him

"Sure, that sounds like fun." as he said this his smile grew even wider.

Remus stood next to Sirius in the joke shop.

It was very crowded, so people surrounded them. He knew why it was crowded of course, but it did not make him any less uncomfortable.

It was also very loud, he was barely able to hear his own thoughts.

Sirius was looking through one of the shelfs, no doubt looking for something to help with one of their up coming pranks.

Remus always hated this shop, it was the very personification of everything he hated about his friends.

Sirius got up with a bunch of small boxes in his hands.

"I'm done, we can go pay now. Then we can go to the shop that you have picked to go too." Sirius said then he started heading to the registore.

Remus did not follow him, instead he left the shop and he stood by the outside door waiting for Sirius. He was glad that Sirius had decided on what to get when he had, because he knew that if he was forced to spend one more minute in there he was going to burst.

He waited there until Sirius walked out, then he looked at him and said "So, Mooney where do you want to go?" with a big smile on his face.

"Honeydukes." Remus said

"Ahh, you need something to help feed your chocolate addiction I see."

Remus nodded and they both laughed and made their way to the candy shop.

Regulus opened the door to the shop and both he and Harry walked in.

Like most of the shops in Hogsmeade, Honeydukes had changed in the time difference between his parents time and his time there.

Regulus excitedly ran Harry around the shop, holding him by the hand.

He explained the different types of candies, pointing to each as he told Harry what they were.

Harry nodded along as he did this. Then he asked

"So, what is your favorite type?"

Remus and Sirius both walked into Remus's favorite candy shop.

Despite Remus knowing where every thing was located and he and Sirius both walked around the store.

Like Sirius at the joke shop, Remus liked to browse around the store. Although they both knew that Remus would get chocolate.

As he was looking around Remus saw Sirius' younger brother hanging around the new kid. He tried to distract Sirius so he would not see them, because he knew that seeing his younger brother would upset him.

But it did not work, Sirius did see his brother, although he did not go to talk to him or to confront him. Much to Remus's relief.

After that they, Remus quickly chose a type of candy to buy and they quickly left.

Lily watched in horror as James got down on one knee and asked her to marry him.

It felt like time had frozen, and not in a good way.

Her mind was filled with horror stories of people who had married young and to their high school sweet heart.

Her mother had always warned her against doing that. She had been married once before she had married their father, and she had barely gotten out with her life.

She also thought about Severus's mom, and how his dad was an abusive alcoholic.

Plus she and James had barely been dating for a year, which may sound like a long time for some people but not to her. She had always promised herself that she would date some one for at least three years before they are married, and she had told James that.

So she said the only thing that she could have

"No."

The whole castle was a blaze with people talking about the fact that Lily Evans had rejected James Potter's marriage proposal.

Of course they had not officially broken up yet, but most people felt that was coming up.

There were several reactions to this news.

Most of the gryffindors were shocked by this news, they were kind of the it couple of the house and most people felt that they were destined to be together. Most of them had felt like this ever since they had met in there first year

Some people did not really care. They felt that it was really weird to get so invested in other people's relationship.

Those were the two main reactions, of course there were several other small ones.

Some people, mostly girls who had a crush on James, felt that Lily was crazy for turning him down.

Severus, although he would never admit it, felt relieved.

There were also a lot of rumors that were spread around about why she had said no to the proposal.

Some of them said that Lily had cheated on James. And fewer said that James had cheated on Lily.

So, yeah there was a lot of gossip surrounding them.

Lily was at a table in the far end of the library reading her book. She could not spend one more minute in the Gryffindor common room.

It was hell.

She knew that every one was talking about her and James.

Most of her friends had refused to hang out with her, and that really hurt.

She wondered if she had any real friends at all.

Harry stood in front of the door to Dumbledore's off, the war had been ramping up over the past couple of months so Dumbledore had been going over Harry's memories of the future.

That way they may be able to stop it before it would get so much worse.

People were already disappearing, and a few deaths had been confirmed.

Because of him going to the headmaster's office, he had been missing some classes because of this. But Regulus had been giving Harry his notes.

Regulus sat down on his bed, he looked up when Harry walked into their shared bed room.

"Hi Harry, I have your notes." he said, while getting up to get them.

He walked over to his desk and got them off the top of it. Regulus had quickly found that it was too difficult to write two separate copies of the same notes during class, so he had started writing them after he got back from the classes.

Harry looked down at the notes that Reg had given him.

"Thanks." he said.

"Oh, it was no problem." Regulus said as he smiled at Harry.

And Harry smiled back.

Lily walked slowly back to the Gryffindor library, it was very late. The sky was dark and she could see her reflection in the large windows that filled the hall ways of her school.

She thought about what had happened in the library.

Lily had not talked to Severus since her fifth year, so when she had seen him come to the table that she was sitting at in the library she had naturally assumed that he was coming over to say "I told you so." or some thing in the same vein of that.

But that had not happened.

There was no gloating about James or anything like that, he had simply pulled out his book, sat down, and started reading.

It honestly reminded her of back when they used to be friends.

It also kind of made her miss that.

Severus, although he would never admit it, had been both shocked and happy when Lily had said no to Potter.

This had been the subject of the gossip at Hogwarts for weeks, in fact it had been the longest time that a single subject had dominated the gossip.

If he was being honest with himself, he felt bad for his former friend. Severus knew what it was like to be gossiped about.

Part of him wanted to go talk to Lily but he knew that it would most likely not be received very well.

It had been a month since the Hogsmead trip and people were talking about what they were going to do during Christmas break, this is what one Regulus Black would bring up to Harry Potter.

"Hey, Harry, do you know what you're going to do for winter break?" Regulus asked Harry nervously.

"Yeah, I think I am going to stay here." Harry responded.

"Oh, are you not going to celebrate with your parents?"

"No, they are in France. For my Dad's job." Harry said, proud of himself for coming up with this lie on the spot.

"Oh, part of my family is from France. It's very beautiful. What does your dad do?" Regulus asked him.

Harry meantly kicked himself, he needed to start coming up with stuff that did not lead into other lies.

"He is a banker." Harry said, hoping that this would not lead into other questions about his fake parents.

This worked because Regulus went back to what was the original object of his questioning.

"Well anyway, I was wondering if you wanted to spend christmas break with me."

"You mean, you want me to come over to your house?" Harry said slightly caught off guard.

"Yeah, well kind off, my parents are not going to be home. I would stay here with you, but my parents do not like it when I stay here over the holidays. They think that I will end up like Sirius." Regulus said.

Harry thought about it, he liked hanging out with Regulus, but he did not really like the Black family home, although he had to assume that it would look different, eventually he came to his decision.

"Yeah, sure. Sounds fun."

"Yay." Regulus said as he hugged Harry.

Then Harry hugged him back.

Severus was not very excited about the Christmas break, despite what some people at Hogwarts seemed to think.

His Father had been getting worse ever since he had lost his job, last year and he had been spending most of his time at the pub.

When he was not getting mad at Severus's mother and himself.

The only thing he looked forward to was seeing his mother. But that was it.

Back when he and Lily were friends he would look forward to being able to hang out with her with out having to worry about Potter.

But he did not have that to look forward to anymore.

So yes, he was dreading having to go back home.

Lily was actually kind of excited about going back home. But not just for the reasons that she normally would be.

In the past, she had always been super excited about seeing her parents again, Petunia had moved out a while ago.

Of course she was super excited about seeing them again but that was not the only reason that she was excited.

Know she was just happy to get away from Hogwarts.

Lily had always been some what of a social butterfly, so she had never really had any trouble making friends. But after she had rejected James proposal, every one had been avoiding her and she felt very lonely.

She was looking forward to seeing the friends that she had made in primary school again. She had kept in contact with a few of them, they had been told that she was going to a boarding school.

She was also happy about not seeing James constantly. Ever since she had rejected him, their relationship had been in limbo.

Lily wanted to talk to him, to explain why she had rejected him. But he would not hear it.

Remus had told her that he was very hurt about what had happened.

Lily walked out of the train car, and when she spotted her parents she ran to them and hugged them.

As they were walking to the car Lily turned her head and saw Sev walking to his car with his parents.

Lily felt bad for him, she knew that he may not have a great home situation, his father was well known to be a drunk. But Sev had never said anything.

Lily got in the back seat of her parents car. She nearly gasped when her parents said

"Your sister is coming to town, she is bringing her boyfriend."

Sirius was sitting down in the chair car, he had no one to talk to. Peter was asleep, James was still sulking about Lily, and Remus had gone to sit with Lily.ut what his

He had nothing to do, but think or read.

So he thought about the rumour that he had heard, about his younger brother and the new kid.

Apparently Regulus had invited him over to their family home, over Christmas break, while their parents were not home.

Now at first Sirius had not believed this, their parents would never allow some one over that was not already in their social circle.

And Regulus would never do something with out asking mummy dearest first.

But when he had seen them together in a compartment he knew that it was most likely true.

Albus thought about all of the information that he had been given by Harry Potter.

He knew why Tom Riddle had come back to life.

And it was exactly what he feared it would be.