Ink in Paper - Regulus Black

Chapter Seventy-Seven

"They're just babies, Reggie. Little, tiny humans," she said.

"Don't call me Reggie," he grumbled, looking away, though his cheeks gained a pinkish colour.

She raised her eyebrows in silence. It still surprised her that something as simple as calling him as nickname, even one that he didn't like coming from others, would make him as flustered like that. Surely, the way she used the nickname freely when they were intimate was a heavy example as to why he avoided the use of it in public, but she thought it to be most interesting.

"Regulus," she repeated, "they're not scary, don't worry."

"I know they aren't scary; I'm just worried I'll hurt it," he said, crossing his arms like a petulant child, avoiding her comfort.

Luna let out a little hum. "They are quite... fragile," she agreed in a low voice. That made Regulus' shoulders tense up again. "I wouldn't worry about it too much, though. They're more resilient than they look. As long as you support their head, they can survive it."

"Don't use the word 'survive'," he complained in a voice just a step away from a whine.

She smiled at him, amused by his reaction and concern over a child he didn't even know.

"I'll teach you to hold her, don't worry, Regulus," she said. "But now, we need to talk about the one thing that is really important."

"Which is?"

"My grandparents will be there, the ones from my mother's side," Luna said, frowning a bit. "As the headmaster already said a few days ago, they're Muggles – completely unaware of our world, and they can't know about anything. They think Remus and I got a scholarship to a prestigious posh school in Scotland, and they'll probably assume that you're some posh politician's son."

"I am a politician's son," he reminded her.

Someone chuckled by the door. "And posh as hell," Remus added.

Luna looked over her shoulder to Remus standing by the open office's door, arms crossed and with a small bag thrown over his shoulder. She narrowed her eyes at the bag in interest.

"What's that?" she asked.

"Sirius sent Sophia a few gifts," he said, raising the bag to show it to her. "James got in the mood, decided to send her some gifts as well. Peter tried to throw some sweets in, but I reminded him that babies can' eat sweets, so he put it in a pretty box and said it was for Leticia – I said she was a Muggle, James and Sirius spent the night deciding what seemed 'muggle-enough' to send over."

"And what was decided?" Luna said, getting up from the sofa.

"Black liquorice and chocolate frogs without the spell are muggle enough," Remus said.

"And, of course, those two know how to get the spell off the frogs," Luna guessed.

"Oh, they spent the night figuring it out," Remus grumbled. "Easier than I expected to James. He's becoming scaringly good at things like that."

Dumbledore chuckled, shaking his head. "How interesting! Marvellous!" Dumbledore said from his seat.

Remus offered him one of the spelless chocolate frogs, which the headmaster took with some interest, opening the box and looking in absolute amazement at the stillness of the tiny fake frog. He made a little noise, inspecting it closely before biting its head off with great delight.

Regulus raised his eyebrows. "Are we leaving?" he asked.

He got up from the sofa as well.

Dumbledore glanced at the clock near his desk and made another humming sound before agreeing and pointing at the fireplace in his office.