Much longer than the last chapter. This is now the longest fic I've ever written and uploaded!!

warning; implied child abuse. Nothing specific but it's heavily implied. If it's going to be a trigger for you I'll upload a chapter with the fine bits form this one and summarize everything else so y'all still understand what happened in this.

Thank you everyone who's been reading and following and favoring. Y'all make me so happy.

I still haven't been sleeping much so I hope this is good. I did beta read it so it should be fine.

"so how are you going to do with rooming with other Slyitherins?" James asked Regulus. The boys were all hanging out in living room warming up.

"what do you mean 'other Slytherins'?" He questioned, offended on behalf of all good Slyitherins. He supposed he was one of those now

"only that they tend to be mean and aggressive"

"A couple things. One, just because you're a Slyitherin doesn't mean you're mean or aggressive. Most of us just want to avoid those Slyitherins." He defended. "And second, I'm not sure. I'll probably just act like nothing happened," he shrugged.

"that won't work. Mother will send a howler" Sirius reminded him.

"well we all know she sent you a howler every other day. Maybe she won't send me one." He hoped.

"I'll just avoid people connected to my family,"

He was lucky that his cousins had all graduated by now. If they were still there he'd be dead within the first week or forced to get the dark mark or both.

"Just don't tell anyone I changed sides. Not even your other marauders."

"but-"

"no. Sirius you can't tell anyone."

"why not?!"

"beca-"

"is it because then you won't be the most perfect popular heir of the noble most ancient house of Black?!"

"what?! No! I'm not e- there's so much wrong with tha- I'm not popular! You think I like being the heir?!" Regulus stammered.

"well you obviously do! You always loved being mother's favorite!

"whoa, whoa. How about we settle down, and maybe-" James tried.

"I HATED being mothers 'favorite'! Do you know how much pressure was on me?!"

"You didn't even care about what she did to me!"

"I didn't care?! I cared so much! Why do you think I never went with you?! Or that I didn't do anything?! It terrified me! And you kept disobeying and it kept happening! You didn't even care about what effect it had on me! I HAD TO BE PERFECT! WHIST YOU GOT TO DO WHATEVER YOU WANTED AND LEFT WITHOUT A SECOND THOUGHT! YOU LEFT ME YOUR OWN BROTHER! AND FOR WHAT?! James? Remus? Peter?" Regulus sighed "you left me."

"I DIDN'T-"

"HOW ABOUT, we all calm down now?" James tried again. "Let's all just, just go to our rooms"

"FINE!" Sirius stormed upstairs slamming the door.

Regulus waited for Sirius to be in his own room then he ran upstairs into his new room.

Once inside he sank to the floor. "Why did I say that? I was so dumb. I can't yell at Sirius. What if he decides he doesn't want me around? Where do I go?" And the tears started falling.

OoOoOo

"Padfoot, you ok?" James entered.

"I can't believe it."

"pads I-"

"I did leave him."

"what do you mean? I thought you said you asked him to come with you"

"I asked him, in the same room as mother and father" guilt was written across Sirius's face.

"it's not your fault. Sure you weren't perfect but you were in a very bad situation. What matters most is that you're both safe now."

"now..."

"really it's not your fault"

"I still blamed him"

"no. Sirius look at me" Sirius turned his head to see James. "You left only half a year ago, Reg just left. It's going to take time for both of you to heal and get used to each other again" Sirius nodded.

"can you go check on him?"

"alright" James have Sirius a hug then knocked on the door to Regulus room.

OoOoOo

Regulus startled as he heard a knock on the door against his back. He scooted over so that it could be opened, just in case.

"who is it?" He mumbled voice scratching from crying.

"it's James" Regulus didn't know who he was hoping it would be. Kreacher maybe? But he wasn't happy to see James.

"I want to make sure you're ok. Can I come in?"

Regulus mumbled something unintelligible.

"I'm going to take that as a 'sure James come on in!'" He opened the door. "You ok Reg?" He asked sitting down next to him.

"I'msorryIdidn'tmeantosayanyofthat" Regulus said in a rush.

"hey, it's ok. It's ok. It's not your fault"

"you're on my side?"

"I'm on your's and Sirius's side. You're not on opposite sides, you both made mistakes and said somethings that you shouldn't have. But, I'm going to tell you the same thing I told Sirius, what matters now is that you're both safe. And it's going to take you two, and me, time to get used to everything"

"I really am sorry"

"it's ok. I'm sorry too. I always knew that Sirius was like my brother especially after he left but I didn't think about how it would make you feel. I can't imagine what that was like"

"I hated you for it at first. Felt like I was being replaced especially when he clearly liked you better. But I know you didn't do it on purpose and I'm glad that Sirius had someone like you"

"did you mean it?" James asked after a bit.

"mean what?"

"mean that you hated being the heir"

Regulus nodded. "It was horrible. I was always the favorite. I was easier for them to manipulate. But once Sirius got sorted, mother and father basically gave up on him ever being what they wanted. He was just their play thing then. I did as I was told because I'm a coward"

"you're not a coward. You left and freed Kreacher. That must have taken so much courage. And it's not being a coward to stay safe"

"I was just running away"

"how about you tell me what's the bravest thing you've ever done. And I as the bravest Gryffindor tell you just how brave you were?"

"alright." Regulus knew that James wasn't going to take no for an answer. He thought for a moment.

"Not being a coward when they would punish us. You know all about what they did to Sirius but they did it to me too. He would protect me most of the time but once he left then no one protected me. When Sirius left. That was the scariest time of my life. I had to stay and pretend I hated him. I stayed because I thought if I left even worse things would happen to him."

"you're mega brave Reg. And you're smart. Honestly I'm surprised you aren't a Ravenclaw"

"don't call me Reg. And yeah, you remember how I was nearly a hat stall? Well it was for Ravenclaw or Slyitherin. Turns out that I wasn't creative enough for Ravenclaw and was so admin about needing to be in Slyitherin"

"I'm sorry for saying that Slyitherins are mean and aggressive. And I know that Sirius is really glad you're here, so am I"

"thanks James" James laughed.

"I think that's the first you've said my names since you got here. And don't worry we won't tell anyone else about you leaving"

"thank you"

"you're welcome but I didn't do much. Anyway do you want to go to the garden and practice for quidditch with me?" You did so much though. Regulus thought.

"ok,"

"do you want to see if Sirius will join us?"

"sure"

Euphemia came home to find James and Regulus flying and throwing a quaffle with Sirius commentating and being the referee.

"hey mum!" James waved. "I'm winning!"

"only because you're actually a chaser and Siri keeps making up new rules" Regulus said with mock annoyance, a small smile on his face.

"I'm the one who's actually winning!" Sirius called as he made James play without his glasses, and Regulus fly backwards for fumbling the quaffle.

"just be careful everyone. Make sure James doesn't run into something, he's blind without glasses!" She called going inside.

Don't worry from here on Regulus and Sirius are mostly good with each other. I feel like they had to say those things but now that they have they can be good brothers again.

Also I totally head canon James as the mom friend of the marauders so he did take on a role similar to my own mom when I get upset. Hope you're cool with that head canon because it might come up again.

I have a confession to make; I completely forgot about Kreacher so he doesn't even show up and this is the last chapter at James' house for a while I'm sorry to any and all Kreacher fans.

Again favorites follows and comments make me so unbelievably happy XD