Regulus owled work saying he was ill the next day, he pretended to Hannah to be going to work but instead spent most of the morning trying to learn occulmency. At lunch, as agreed the week before he returned to his mother's house.

When he entered his childhood home he made his way down the stairs to the kitchen were his mother was sitting with a unfamiliar girl. Kreacher noticed him standing in the doorway first and squeled with excitement at seeing his favourite family member. "Master Regulus!"

"Hey Kreacher." He wandered over kissed his mum on the cheek before extending a hand to the girl sitting across the table. "Hey, I am Regulus. You must be a friend of my mother's."

"Hello, it's so lovely to meet you, I am Nanette Verlie."

"Nanette is originally from France. Isn't that interesting?"

Regulus nodded and feigned interest. The rest of the lunch it appeared was an obvious set up, planned by his mother. He managed to supress his irritation enough to be polite but when his Nanette finally left he couldn't stop himself. His mother asked him why he was so angry at the set up but he had no answer to give. "I can hardly say I am in love with someone else" he thought.

After storming out of the house he walked back to the flat wondering if he was in love with Hannah. It had l been a passing thought but was there truth in it? He still hadn't reached a decision when he arrived back at his flat to see Hannah asleep on his sofa, an old novel, tattered novel still in her hand.

He got up and threw the blanket on the back of the reclining chair over her and stared down at her delicate features. Yeah, he was in love with her. He thought back to his grandmother's comment on Boxing Day two Christmas's earlier. She had been right. But he had been too cowardly to admit it. Too cowardly to fight for her, to risk his relationship with his parents, to risk his friendships, to risk his life. No, instead he had let her break up with him.

He sat on the coffee table, still staring down at her. So what was he going to do about it, his answer; "I need to be brave. I need to do something to make me worthy of her love."

After a few moments thought he got up left the flat. He apparated in the hall and soon found himself knocking on the door of a semi-detached house in Perth. A few minutes later Maude opened the door.

"Regulus!" she looked shocked and afraid.

"Hey Maude."

"What do you want." She was being deliberately rude and Regulus supposed she had every right to be, after all as far as she was concerned he was a dangerous death eater.

"I need to talk to Thomas about something… urgently." It was then he heard Thomas's voice yell; "Maude love, who is it?"

She looked back and forwards between her hall behind her and Regulus, but in her hesitation Thomas got up and came to the door himself.

"Regulus! What are you doing here."

"Hoping to talk to you,"

Thomas looked back puzzled and nodded his head.

Maude piped up "I don't think it is a good idea."

Thomas stared at Regulus again before saying with confidence "Regulus may be a deatheater but he is my best friend. He won't hurt us."

Maude went upstairs to give them privacy and Regulus and Thomas walked into the modernly decorated living room. Regulus saw the wedding picture on the mantel piece with a smiling and waving Thomas and Maude.

"Congratulations."

"Thanks. We figured we should do it as soon as, you know, just in case. Life is short."

"Yeah," Regulus nodded, the image of the man whose death he was responsible for flashed in his memory.

"So what do you want?"

"Advice."

"I thought you got all the help you needed from the Dark Lord now," Thomas replied scathingly.

Regulus laughed awkwardly, "no. The Dark Lord and I…. well…. I don't quite agree with his methods."

"Interesting. I thought he was the saviour of the magical community."

"He is evil."

"That much is obvious," Thomas looked angrily at his old friend, "or at least to most of the wizarding community."

"No. No. More evil than you know. Or think you know."

"So what advice can I give you? What do you want?"

Regulus nodded, "I…. I want…. Hannah."

Thomas looked shock at the mention of the girls name. After Christmas in their sixth year Regulus had returned to Hogwart's utterly miserable, and only mentioned her name once saying they had broken up. Thomas had still been caught up in his own misery at that point and was too busy trying to get Maude back to help his friend. Thomas felt a pang of guilt and wondered for the first time if that is why Regulus had thrown himself into the death eater movement? Anything to replace the hole of the girl he liked.

"Have you seen her?"

"Yes. She is staying in my flat at the moment. Tommy I am in love with her and I don't know how to get her back. How did you get Maude back?"

"I was honest with her. I made her listen to how much I cared about her."

Regulus nodded.

"You know, none of this matters if you are a death eater right? You can't stay together."

Regulus nodded his head. "I know. We cannot be together until Voldemort is gone, defeated. Otherwise no matter where we go, for the rest of our lives we will be in danger. I have been foolish, and a coward but that's going to change."

"What are you going to do?"

Regulus stood up ignoring Thomas's question. "Thanks for your help old friend."

"Reg, please tell me you're not going todo something stupid like try to take Voldemort down from the inside."

"It was good seeing you."

Regulus walked out the door, his friend following him, desperately trying to stop him from leaving, to talk some sense into him but Regulus apparated as soon as he reached the door step.