CHAPTER THIRTEEN: VENOM

Flora hardly spoke to Regulus the day following their unexpected truce. She rose early in the morning, having been unable to sleep for her mind reeling over Remus and Sirius, and began a sporadic itinerary of household chores. She cleaned the oven, scrubbed the kitchen floor, dusted, vacuumed. When Regulus came downstairs later in the morning, she said nothing, brushing past him like he was a stranger on the street. She went back upstairs to strip her bed, still avoiding Regulus' eye as she carried the bedding back down to put in the washing machine.

"Can I do yours?" She asked, glancing aside at him as she walked back towards the stairs. Though she wished to speak little to him, she also wished to maintain a facade of indifference towards him. She felt disorientated not just by the revelation of her brother and Sirius, but by the weight and closeness of the conversation she'd had with Regulus. She hardly felt sure it had really happened.

Regulus was carefully making himself a cup of tea, his eyes heavy and dark from an equal lack of sleep. He came to attention at her words, his eyes shooting up. "No, don't go in my room," he said abruptly, swiftly abandoning his tea.

Flora gave him a funny look, raising an eyebrow. "I won't look at your wizard porn," she replied. "I just want to wash the bedding and any clothes you need doing."

Regulus shot back a dark look, aware of the heat rising in his pale cheeks as he fumbled with his words, struggling to find a snappy retort.

"I don't have wizard… that's not the point," he said curtly, striding across the kitchen to block her path. "I'll bring it down later."

Flora changed their bedding every week. Normally, Regulus stripped his own bed and left it in a bundle on the landing for Flora to collect, like a chambermaid. She would leave fresh, folded bedding for him to put on his bed, which Regulus detested but steadfastly refused to let Flora do for him. As of late, he certainly did not want her finding evidence of his embarrassing activities.

Flora sighed and rolled her eyes. "I wanted to put the washing on now," she grumbled but assented, stepping away from the stairs. Regulus relaxed and went back to making his tea.

"Are you not going to make me one?" Flora asked, eyeing the tea.

Regulus huffed loudly through his nose and opened the cupboard to retrieve another mug. The begrudging manner in which he did this made Flora feel oddly better, as it was a good indication things were back to normal and they could forget what had happened.

Flora went to sit in the living room and turned the television on just to break the silence in the house. She'd never found car adverts so interesting until now, especially as Regulus carried in her tea and stiffly sat down at the far end of the sofa. He too fixed his eyes on the small television screen. They sat in silence, both sullenly sipping their tea and warily stealing glances at each other when the other wasn't looking.

When Regulus finally brought down his bedding to be washed, Flora was nowhere to be seen. He noticed her shoes, normally at the door, were gone; her coat and red scarf were also missing. His jaw clenched, irritated she'd got up and left without saying a word, and more irritated still he was standing there with his arms full of washing at her special request. He dumped the bundle of sheets by the washing machine and went over the kitchen window to see whether she was in the garden or further beyond. He noticed at once that the garden gate was not latched, indicating she'd likely gone into the woods.

Regulus moved away from the window and treaded back into the living room. He lazily sprawled himself out of the sofa and picked up one of his old Quidditch magazines, idly flipped through it, put it aside again. He was both restless and listless. He wanted to go out and look for her, but also didn't want her to think he was doing exactly that. He'd said too much already, done too much, and he felt like a fool. He'd never imagined something like this could happen to him.

When he heard the gate latch some two or three hours later, he expected to see Flora coming up the garden path. But instead he saw Remus, determinedly striding up with his long, gangly legs. Regulus felt with absolute certainty that nothing good was about to happen. He got up from the sofa and went to the front door before Remus got there, opening it, not wanting to let him think he could take him by surprise.

Remus had a grim look in his eyes as he approached, his jaw set. He never bothered to hide his dislike of Regulus when Sirius wasn't around; when Regulus had been hiding out at their flat, Remus had been cool towards him, avoiding any conversation unless it was absolutely necessary. He could tolerate him at best, but at present, it looked like his tolerance had run out.

"Is Flora with you?" Remus demanded when he was three feet away, forgoing any pleasantries.

"No," Regulus frowned, folding his arms. "She went out."

"When?" Remus shoved past him into the house.

"About two hours ago, maybe," he said with a withering glare, disgruntled at being pushed aside.

"She's stepped outside of the wards."

"Oh," Regulus felt a stirring of unease. Remus kept his eyes on Regulus, studying his stony expression.

"You don't know where she went?"

"How should I know?" Regulus felt suddenly defensive, like he was being interrogated for a crime to which he'd already been accused and condemned.

Remus gave him a contemptuous look, his sharp gaze unwavering. He could be remarkably intimidating when he wanted to be.

"She didn't say," Regulus continued brusquely, feeling the heat of the look. "She left when I went upstairs to bring the washing down."

To prove his innocence, he pointed at the heap of bedsheets on the floor by the washing machine. Remus' eyes followed the direction he was pointing, then snapped back to Regulus' face with displeasure. Regulus knew he was being scrutinised and he didn't like it.

"And you didn't think to go look for her?" Remus asked.

Regulus curled his lip, "Why would I do that? It's been peaceful these last two hours… until you showed up, at least."

"She could be in trouble!" Remus snapped back. "Sirius is out looking for her. I hoped maybe she'd have come back to the house."

"She's only been gone for two hours."

"There are werewolves all around this area, or had you forgotten?" Remus stepped closer, squaring up to him.

"And you're leading them straight here with your potent werewolf scent? Very wise. Perhaps next time you pay us a visit, you'll find bits of us strung up in the trees like Christmas decorations."

"If she's in those surrounding those woods…"

"Well, there you go. That's where you'll find her strung up."

"Would you shut up?" Remus snapped back.

"You asked. And by the way, I'm not supposed to leave the wards either," Regulus reminded him coolly.

"Frankly, Regulus, I don't care whether you leave the wards," Remus glared. "I'm trying to keep my sister safe, not you."

Regulus shrugged. "I wouldn't expect you to care. You've made your opinion of me very clear."

"Good. Because I have no intention of coddling a Death Eater," Remus retorted. He turned his body slightly towards the door, which was still partway open. He wanted to go search for Flora, but was too provoked by Regulus.

"I'm not a Death Eater."

"You're still a slimy little prick I've had to burden my sister with. She's been nothing but kind to you and you sh-"

"Burdened?" Regulus cut him off briskly, "Spare me. The only person burdened here is me, having to deal with your idiotic muggle sister. If she wants to go out there and get herself killed by werewolves, let her. It'd be nice to have the house to myself, so long as I have my wand back and a house elf to do the cooking and cleaning." He suddenly wanted to hurt Remus, to strike where it would really hurt. He knew Flora was that weakness. He wanted a fight.

"Watch it, Black," Remus warned.

"Though, of course, a house elf isn't as pleasing on the eye," he drawled on. "But at least a house elf would know its place, wouldn't it?"

"I can turn you out of this house any moment I like, Regulus," Remus warned, his anger mounting.

"Yes, perhaps. But you wouldn't," he replied. "Not while my brother bats his eyelashes at you."

Remus' eyes flashed with anger. His hand was twitching for his wand, but he kept his hands at his sides. He took a step forward though, glaring at him darkly, "You can say whatever you like about me and Sirius, but I will not tolerate your insults towards Flora."

"I said she was easy on the eye."

"You'd better not lay a damn finger on her," Remus growled, his voice filled with menace. "I swear to Godric, if you even try—"

"You don't have to worry about that," Regulus sneered, fully enjoying how riled up Remus was getting. "I would never lower myself to that level. It'd be perverse, like mating with a beast."

Remus drew his wand and stepped towards him rapidly. "You insolent little fu—"

"Remus."

Both of them turned. Flora was standing in the doorway, and behind her was Sirius. Though she had said her brother's name, her eyes were fixed on Regulus; it was a look that silently told Regulus she had heard a significant portion of his words. She looked away when his eyes met hers, and she came forward to embrace Remus, who held onto her with relief.

Sirius stared at his brother stonily, a terrible look Regulus knew all too well when he had done or said something that went too far.

"Flo, where the hell have you been?" Remus said, exasperated. "I told you! I told you not to leave the boundaries!"

"I'm sorry," she replied, her voice flat. She offered no explanation.

Shame and horror flooded Regulus at once. He stood there helplessly, his mouth agape, wishing he could take back the words that had fallen from it. He barely heard what the two siblings were saying to each other, as if he were suddenly in a vacuum. He didn't know whether to leave or remain standing there, to wait until Flora, Remus or Sirius spoke to him, but it seemed now like his presence was forgotten or unimportant to them. They ignored him completely, eventually moving into the living room together, which Regulus took as his opportunity to quietly slip away.

He went upstairs to his bedroom, shut himself in, and pressed his knuckles to his eyes and cursed harshly under his breath. There would be no recovering from this. Flora would likely want him gone, sent back to his brother or to a member of the Order, never to see her again. That was what pained him most of all. But he'd said those words, she'd heard him, and there was no way of explaining why he'd said it — only that he'd simply wanted to get a rise out of Remus, but even then he wasn't sure it had just been a desire to provoke Remus. It was sheer malice, a desire to hurt someone so that they could feel the years of emotional pain he inwardly bore. But he'd hurt two people, and the latter was more important to him than he cared to admit. He hadn't meant to hurt her, and yet — "you always do." Her words from last night came back to him suddenly, horribly.

Now in the sanctuary of his bedroom, he found he felt no better. The stillness around him was a torment to his torrent of his emotions, and he simply couldn't stay still. He turned to grab the door handle, hesitated, let go, then took hold of it again and swiftly pulled the door open. But he couldn't bring himself to go any further. He could hear the low murmur of their voices below, slightly heated, clearly in the midst of a heavy discussion. He retreated, shutting the door again, and curled up in the middle of his bed.

"He doesn't deserve to stay here," Remus said bitterly. "He's a fucking case. He's not getting his wand back after this, by the way. He can fuck off."

"I know," Sirius said, his voice heavy, tired. Flora noticed he seemed increasingly tired lately.

"We should find him somewhere else to hide," Remus went on.

"But we don't exactly have a lot of other options," Sirius reasoned, "Nobody wants him."

"Yeah, wonder why. What a mystery."

"And you think I do?" Flora spoke up, indignant. In truth, as hurt as she was, she didn't want Regulus to leave.

"Well, no, but… you seemed to be getting on better with him lately."

Flora frowned. "Clearly not. He just called me a beast."

"I know…" Sirius paused. His voice was gentle, unsure as he continued. "But he-he didn't mean it. He's just- just complicated. He doesn't mean half the things he says."

"Complicated?" Remus scoffed, siding with his sister.

Sirius shifted uncomfortably in the armchair he was seated in, looking down at his knees. "Yes, complicated," he repeated, knowing it was a weak excuse. "He's-he's not used to being around muggles. He doesn't—"

"Don't try to make excuses for him, Sirius," Remus interrupted grimly. Though determined and resolute in his opinions regarding Regulus, he'd do anything for this man. He hated how right Regulus had been in that aspect.

Sirius sighed heavily, burying his hands in his long, tangled hair. Flora watched him, feeling that familiar flutter in her stomach whenever he did things like that with his hands or hair. The butterflies sunk quickly though and she forced herself to look away.

"I'm not making excuse for him, Moony," Sirius said firmly, looking at him again and then looking at Flora, holding her gaze. For a moment, Flora wondered whether Regulus had lied about him and Remus. It was a small hope that wormed its way into her heart as he held her gaze, looking at her with such softness. If he was queer, she thought, surely he would not look at her in that way.

Sirius looked away and lowered his voice further. He knew he was treading dangerous water, asking too much. "I'm trying to make sense of him, alright? I just…I know he didn't mean it. He's just—he's messed up. He's a mess."

Flora was not mollified by Sirius' well-intended words. "A mess? A mess? He's insufferable."

Sirius grimaced, knowing he was beaten. "I didn't expect him to go quite that far," he admitted. "I knew there'd be some bumps in the road, but I had hoped he would warm to you overtime. And recently, I really thought he was. I didn't think he'd stoop so low as to call you…"

"Yeah, well what'd you think it'd be like shackling me up with the Third Reich?"

Remus snorted without amusement at the comparison. "Yeah, please remind me again why we're protecting the likes of him?"

Sirius looked forlorn, his eyes wide and pleading. "He's my brother."

Flora caught the look shared between her brother and Sirius in that moment. Remus' eyes softened and Sirius didn't break his gaze. It all seemed so obvious to her now and her hope was dashed. She looked down at her lap, fiddling with the hem of her dress, remembering Regulus' kindness from last night. She wondered how someone could stand there in the kitchen and hold her hand while she cried, and then the next day condemn her as something as lowly as a beast. She felt her eyes prick with tears suddenly. She felt stupid, insignificant. Sirius would never love her and Regulus would never respect her. She stood up, hiding her face, and left the room without being able to speak.