Draco pants as he finishes the climb to the fifth floor. It didn't really help that he had to avoid several prefects and ghosts since he decided to skip potions. But it was incredibly important that they reclaim Ravenclaw's diadem as soon a possible. It is the entirety of the world at stake after all! Draco finishes quickly moving over to where the Room of Requirement would be and glances around himself to make sure he was alone.

He nods his blond head and smirks in victory before beginning the required pacing. 'Storage room with the diadem,' he thinks with the first set of required steps. He does it again and on the turn to begin the third and final repetition, a voice breaches his thoughts.

"You know I did find it odd when I was informed that my little brother was seen wandering the halls. Especially since I knew he was supposed to be taking potions right now." A voice drawls out.

Draco's shoulders slump with defeat. Lyka was going to give him a wallop for being caught. He finishes turning and looks directly into the warm, laughing eyes of his elder brother. "Hello Lucius. Congrats! You caught me. Detention?"

Lucius laughs and it reminds Draco of thick honey. It was so strange to know that before decades of being a Death Eater, Lucius Malfoy was actually an enjoyable person who could actually laugh. "That depends on why you're skipping potions." Lucius glances towards the empty wall. "And I'm also curious as to why you're trying to access the Room. Are you feeling all right, Draco?" Lucius' eyes went from warm and laughing to fully concerned.

This was the other part that Draco could hardly believe. The fact that this Lucius was completely and utterly concerned about every aspect of Draco's life. But the version of Lucius from the future only cared about Draco upholding the perfect pureblood image. Then again, might have something to do with a certain Dark Lord. "Actually," Draco sighs for effect and puts on an anxious expression. "I was in Professor Slughorn's class. But I started to get really overwhelmed and found myself blanking out portions of class. Lyka noticed and called over Professor Slughorn to point out that I wasn't doing well. He relieved me and sent me to the hospital wing. But when I got there Madame Pomfrey was already treating Severus for something. And it just made me feel worse." Draco hugs his arms around himself and looks away from Lucius.

Lucius smiles sadly at his little brother, "And so you came to the spot I told you about for some peace and quiet." Lucius finishes the tale for Draco and quickly does three repetitions in front of the wall. A large door appears on the wall and Lucius opens it whilst beckoning Draco to follow him. The younger Malfoy does a victory dance in his head for managing to throw all suspicion off himself.

Upon entering the room, Draco realizes that it is a complete recreation of his dearly departed mother's solarium. The three walls Draco was facing were made entirely of glass panes with the occasional filigree ironwork heart design. And they showed what he knew to be a false rendition of the Malfoy gardens. He snorts as he saw his mother's favorite and most deranged peacock go racing past the outside of the windows. The rest of the room consisted of many potted plants. Some benign like the beautiful dusty pink roses and the white peonies that lined the entry way. And some not so benign like the bright red foxglove he had attempted to touch when he was seven. Draco wouldn't forget that scolding any time soon.

Draco slowly spins around as he moves towards the small white wicker table in the far corner with two matching chairs. He sits down and stares at the tea service for two that had appeared on the table since he began his way over. Without glancing up at Lucius, he mutters: "It's too bad father destroyed this place."

Lucius sighs deeply, "Well considering how scared you made him when you told him you thought foxglove was edible." Lucius calmly picks up the silver teapot engraved with peacocks in flight and began to pour them what smells of mint. It was then that Draco realizes that they were using a recreation of his mother's favorite tea set. Another thing that hadn't escaped their father's rage.

Draco looks up slowly, scrutinizing Lucius and trying to figure out if he truly meant that. "He could have just removed the poisonous plants. He didn't have to destroy the entirety of this room." Draco sighs and turns his head to watch as the deranged peacock began his usual assault against the window in an attempt to get to the two boys. "At least the Room got Pierre right. Would have been too odd sitting here and not have that incessant tapping."

Lucius smiles warmly whilst looking towards the irate albino peacock. "That is true." He picks up the silver teacup in front of him and takes a sip of the tea before fixing a concerned look on Draco. "Now do you want to talk about why it is that you had to leave potions?"

Draco also takes a sip of his tea and notes that it is some sort of sweet mint flavor. Not his usual preference but then again, Lyka had spoiled him by introducing him to coffee. "Just had a nightmare." Is all he could say to Lucius. Because how could he possibly explain to him that in another lifetime he was his father and had tortured a thirteen year old Draco with the cruciatus. Just for telling him that he wasn't going to follow in his parents' footsteps and join The Dark Lord.

Lucius sighs deeply, feeling mildly useless in this case. "Draco. How am I supposed to help you if you never tell me what these nightmares are about?"

Draco deflates and lets all of his exhaustion show; it was incredibly tired having to force himself to differentiate Brother Lucius with Father Lucius. While they were both incredibly different men, it was still the same face. The same face that moved exactly the same when in cold fury like he had been that night. "Because you just wouldn't be able to understand, Lucius," Draco snaps after a few moments of reminding himself that this Lucius was infinitely more gentle than what he knew.

Lucius frowns, the hurt evident in his eyes. He looks away from Draco to stare at some nearby stargazer lilies. Both Malfoys were silent for a very long time before Draco apologizes quietly. Lucius nods in response as their impromptu teatime continues in silence.

XxXxX

XxX

XxXxX

Regulus and Luna sat patiently outside of the charms classroom. Their defense class had let out early after one of Regulus' fellow Hufflepuffs had somehow set part of the room on fire while trying to disarm their partner.

"Professor Rousseau seems to be very competent." Luna says quietly. She adjusts one of her deep red teardrop earrings, causing Regulus to focus on it.

"That he does. Although I'm still curious as to how Brown managed to start a fire with the disarming charm." Regulus continues staring at the red teardrops, "Hey Luna...what exactly are those earrings?" He asks this gently as he watches what appears to be a small storm swirling inside the earring closest to him.

Luna smiles mysteriously, "Just a gift that I dreamt would go missing if I didn't wear them today." She shakes her head at him as the charm class ahead of them lets out. They watch the second years stream past them when Sirius stops in front of them.

Sirius looks between the two and seems to hesitate slightly at the sight of Luna. He blinks his grey eyes and opens his mouth. Sirius stands like that for a few moments before seeming to realize that he was making a fool of himself. He snaps his mouth shut, nods sharply, and runs off with a blush spreading across his face.

Regulus stares after his elder brother, confusion swimming through his mind. "You know, Luna. That was the most interaction I've had with him since I was sorted into Hufflepuff. You would think that he would actually want to talk with me more since I didn't follow the family tradition." He says this part quietly, tears beginning to well up in his hazel eyes as he looks at his knees.

Luna reaches over and wipes his eyes, "Cheer up, Reggie. I'm sure he's still wrapping his mind around the concept that you aren't like how he was expecting."

"She's right there, Reggie." A jovial voice says.

Regulus whips his head up, shock evident in his eyes: "Wha-" He calms down when he notices it's just one of the Rousseau twins. "Oh hello...um...wait I can figure this out..." The redheaded boy laughs and sits down next to Regulus as the raven-haired boy stares closer trying to identify the twin. Regulus squints for several minutes while both the twin and Luna giggle. "Fred! You're Fred!" Regulus smiles uncertainly, even though he was quite sure since while the twins appeared to be similar Fred's smile was always crooked.

Fred sighs deeply, "Now how is it that my mate's little brother can figure out that I'm Fred, but none of the bloody professors can? I mean except dad." Then he smiles that crooked smile of his again, "But anyway, you should really listen to Luna in this case. She hit the nail on the head here."

Regulus tilts his head in confusion, "What do you mean?" He turns his head towards Luna as she stands up and starts to head into the classroom. "Hey! Where are you going?" He motions that he doesn't want to be left alone with the redhead.

"You'll be fine, Reggie. I'll save you a seat next to me." Luna smiles gently at him. Then her and her stormy red teardrops disappear through the doorway.

Fred throws an arm around Regulus' shoulders and drags the younger boy into his side, causing the younger to yelp in surprise. "She's right ya know. I won't hurt ya. But she's right about your brother. He's having issues processing you ending up in Hufflepuff. Sirius is also pretty much blaming Lyka for it, too." Fred shrugs his free shoulder.

Regulus looks down towards his shoes, staring at the various stains as a small blush appears on his cheeks. "Well...technically Lyka is the reason why I'm in Hufflepuff. She told me to just be true to myself when we were on the train. And when the Hat started talking about putting me in Hufflepuff, my first instinct had been to demand it put me in Slytherin. To which I think I would have done fine there since I would have had Lyka, Dray, and Sevy there. But I instead decided to listen to Lyka's advice and didn't fight it when the Hat decided that yes I did belong in Hufflepuff." Regulus looks up and smiles brightly at Fred. "And honestly I'm happier than I ever thought I would be. All the other Hufflepuffs have been nothing but welcoming. And several of the older ones offer to help me with my homework when they see me struggling in the common room after curfew." Regulus slows down his speech and looks back to his shoes, completely missing the blush that had spread on Fred's cheeks when he smiled at him.

"Well I'll make sure that Sirius hears all that since he's being an idiot and not talking to you to hear it himself." Fred says quietly, giving Regulus a small squeeze around his shoulders before releasing him. "But now you'd better get into class before Flitwick decides to fully come out here." Fred breaks down in laughter as Regulus begins apologizing to Professor Flitwick, who had indeed been standing in the doorway waiting for his last student to enter the classroom.

After Regulus goes in with Flitwick, Fred stands up and walks a little ways down the hallway. "So did you manage to catch all of that?" He turns and looks at the older Black boy standing in an alcove.

"Yeah I did." Sirius mumbles.

"Good. Because your brother misses you. If it wasn't obvious by the fact that he was about to break down crying after you ran off like that." Fred throws an arm around Sirius' shoulders. "Now we should probably see about getting ourselves to transfiguration. I don't think Professor McGonagall will be too happy that we're already ten minutes late."