"Oi!" James jumped back as someone appeared in his fireplace.

"what are you doing here?" Sirius had his wand drawn pointing it at the figure. Now that the flames had cleared James saw that it was Regulus and a house elf.

Regulus Black. The person who let horrible things happen to Sirius. The person who hung out with bullies. Despite everything James still felt saddens and pity tug at his heart after knowing everything that both Black brothers had been through.

"answer the question. What are you doing here, you Death-eater-want-to-be."

"almost was." Regulus said with a weak chuckle.

"what?" James asked, his wand in his hand now too.

"Bella tried to give me it. I-I ran, freed Kreacher" he nodded down at the house elf who was wearing a emerald green shirt that was too big for him.

"and stunned Bella."

"wait, is this 'Bella' Bellatrix Black?" James asked his eyes wide. He had luckily never met the girl but he had heard the horror stories of her.

"yes, keep up Potter. … I mean," he stopped and changed his tone a guilty look on his face. "I'm sorry for being rude to you. Can I stay here for tonight?" Regulus asked voice suddenly so soft and scared. He tried to hide it.

James looked to Sirius, he had lowered his wand but gave no indication of letting his brother out of the fireplace.

"Kreacher is sorry." The elf said quietly.

"Sirius, I-I'm so sorry, I never wanted to hurt you. I just…" he spoke the next bit so quietly that if he wasn't right in front of him James may not have heard anything. "I didn't think I could ever make it out of that house- I'm a coward I know. But please, please forgive me, just long enough for me to be able to find somewhere else to go." Tears swam in Regulus's eyes.

Sirius pulled his brother into a hug.

"hey mum do you think we have room for another Black runaway?" James called.

"oh I think we can manage," his mum approached slowly. The boys separated, tears sliding down both of their faces. James knew both of them would kill him if he ever dared mention that they cried.

"I assume you're Reg?" Euphemia asked, as the two wiped their faces.

"yes, ma'am I'm Regulus Black" he bowed slightly "and this is Kreacher, he is a free elf."

"hello, I'm Euphemia Potter you can call me Elffie. And you can stay here as long as you want." She smiled. "We have an extra bedroom, Sirius wanted to share with James so that room could be all yours, or you could share with Sirius, I don't think James's room can fit three people though."

"I'll take the empty bedroom, thank you."

"it's no problem, dear. Would you like anything specific for dinner?"

"anything is fine," Sirius had told James that Regulus was actually a picky eater but he assumed that Reg didn't want to bother her.

"alright, you can go put your stuff in your room, do one of you want to show him around?" She asked her sons.

"I'll give the tour" James volunteered after a moment.

"what would mistress like Kreacher do?" Kreacher asked.

"Kreacher, you're free now, you can do whatever you want, as long as you're respectful to the Potters." Regulus told him.

"Kreacher wants to help, Kreacher can help with dinner if mistres- if Mrs Potter would like," he offered.

"thank you, I would appreciate that very much."

"I'll help too." Sirius offered.

"alright as long as you don't touch the stove, we don't need you almost burning down the house again," Euphemia said leading them to the kitchen.

"alrighty then, Reg this is the living room,"

"I can see that, and don't call me Reg."

James continued to show Regulus around.

"this is mine and Sirius's bedroom," he opened the door to a very messy room with red and gold and quidditch junk everywhere. Regulus let a small laugh escape his lips.

"what is it? Too messy for you?"

"well, yes, but this looks shockingly similar to Sirius's room back home. I thought it was just to make our parents mad!" He chuckled and James smiled.

"Yeah, he can be messy sometimes." James agreed.

"and this will be your room, Reg," James crossed the hallway and opened a door to a bedroom a similar size.

"don't call me Reg. And, and thank you, for letting me stay,"

"no problem, I'm glad you were able to get out of that house," the two stood there for a minute in awkward silence not quite sure what to say.

James had been told horrible things about Regulus and seen Regulus being awful to people but he also knew the young boy was in nearly the same situation as Sirius, just without real friends. He also knew that Sirius wanted Regulus to come with him when he left. And now that Regulus was away from the Blacks he seemed so scared yet hopeful.

"do you want any help unpacking?" James asked.

"No thanks, I don't have much so it'll be fast," James nodded

"I can let you know when dinner is," he went back downstairs to help with dinner and talk to Sirius.

"are you happy to see you brother? I know you wanted him to come with you," James asked his brother, as they set the table together.

"I don't know. Like I'm happy that he got away from it all but he's also been a jerk and I don't know if I can trust him." James nodded that was understandable.

OoOoOo

Regulus got to unpacking, he looked around the room. It was nearly the same size as his one back home, it seemed more comfortable though. The walls were off-white and the windows let in tons of light very different from Grimmauld place.

he put all his school stuff away in the desk, and lined up the books he brought with him on one shelf of a small bookcase in the room, he sat his rings and whatever stuff was in his trunk before in the nightstand, and he put his clothes in the closet.

He didn't bring much so it didn't take very long to unpack.

Once he was done he decided to just sit on the bed and read. No one would get mad at him if he was only reading. He didn't really want to re-read the books he brought with him right now but he also didn't want to take the other books without permission so he settled for a book that he hadn't read in a while.

"hey, dinners ready," James poked his head into the room.

"alright" Regulus sat his book on the nightstand and followed James downstairs.

They say in awkward silence when they ate. Regulus didn't really mind he was used to eating in uncomfortable silence. The dinner itself was great, it was one of his favorite meals in fact. He suspected that Kreacher was reasonable for that.

"so, do you want to tell us about what made you leave? You don't have to if you don't want to tell us of course," Euphemia asked him.

he thought for a moment, Regulus normally wouldn't have said anything but Euphemia had been so nice and was letting him stay there, she deserved to know and he also wanted his brother to know.

"oh, um yeah. Well Bellatrix and Narcissa and their boyfriends were visiting and Bella thought it would be a good idea to give me the dark mark…I just kinda ran to my room grabbed some of my stuff and gave Kreacher a shirt. We were about to leave when Bellatrix found me, she figured out what I was doing, started saying I was a traitor, I stunned her and told her she was the real traitor."

"you told Bella she was the real traitor?! That's awesome!" Sirius exclaimed before promptly going back to ignoring him.

"that was very brave of you to leave. You're welcome to stay here for as long as you want" Euphemia told him with a comforting smile.

I'm sorry that James's dad isn't here but I'm writing characters I've never written before (Kreacher and Elffie) and I didn't want to add one more so let's just say that he's on a business trip or something.

I really hope you like this chapter and that it's all in-character

again please follow like and review (I still take constructive criticism)

have a amazing day/night