Supernova

So I've been working on this for a while now, and I think I'm finally ready to share it. These are some of my favorite Regulus fics that I've read.

This is based on my personal preferences, which means you'll find mostly gen and rare pair fics, canon universe (but not necessarily canon compliant), with morally gray characterizations of Regulus

I grouped them by length and topic and included what the main ships are, if any. There may be other background pairings, past relationships, etc. Some do have M/E ratings, archive warnings, etc., so be sure to check the tags!

under the cut because it's pretty long

Submitted Propaganda

Sirius Black/Fleamont Potter

-He was in a blood mania when Sirius left. (I'm trying to push it as late as possible. Generally boys starts to do these things when they are 13-14 but Draco was 11, maybe I should write him as one from the start. Feels unrealistic but also realistic Idk. Sirius' little influence might push it a bit later.)

-He died just before or just after when Voldemort started to kill everyone standing in front of them. This might be an influence on Regulus' sacrifice??, not unrealistic, the theme troughfully written for Draco. 1979. The dates doesn't match because order was founded before 1978, but they could be preparing for the war, it was inevitable, maybe they just hurt muggles at that point, I doubt Regulus cared about muggles. We don't know if Voldemort hunted muggle-borns in the first wizarding war, and don't have enough information about Regulus to guess if he would care. (Draco did) But Snape would, so I'm guessing it started as a ruling over them thing. People just didn't know how much Voldemort was willing to harm.

-He ran away and died the next day ( this is important) I believe they learned it from the tapestry, or there is some kind of magic that tells Voldy if one of the DE is alive or not. He wouldn't have let him go otherwise.

-Oh Regulus volunteered Kreacher himself, so eager, probably the only thing he did for him personally. He wasn't important enough. Interesting. He was 16 (likely in sixth year, depending on his birthday if he was in 79' class) when he joined and a year later, 17 when Voldy took Kreacher. When Kreacher returned he was worried... very worried.

When Regulus started believing in the pure-blood ideology: I would guess he's very similar to Draco and learned it from a young age. It wouldn't be something he had given a lot of thought to pre-Hogwarts, probably, but the seeds would be planted early on, and being in Slytherin alongside a bunch of other future Death Eaters would only reinforce that type of thinking

The war: in Sorcerer's/Philosopher's Stone chapter 1, McGonagall and Dumbledore mention the war lasting 11 years. So it started in 1970, just before the Marauders et. al. started school. Sirius does mention his parents supported Regulus when he joined but got cold feet later - I would guess it became more brutal, more out-in-the-open, and they started targeting magical families (i.e., not just Muggles and Muggle-borns).

This part:

I'm guessing it started as a ruling over them thing. People just didn't know how much Voldemort was willing to harm.

I think this was for sure the case for Regulus:

"For years he talked of the Dark Lord, who was going to bring the wizards out of hiding to rule the Muggles and the Muggle-borns" (DH, ch. 10)

I'm not sure how much this was an actual shift in how Voldemort presented himself vs. Regulus projecting his own goals and ideology onto him, but it's not a typical Death Eater mindset during the second war. It actually sounds more Grindelwald-ish.

Though he must have known at least to some extent that Voldemort was willing to use violence, because he did have the newspaper collage

How they knew Regulus was dead: my personal headcanon is that Voldemort can sense whether the Death Eaters are alive or dead through the Dark Mark, but the tapestry also makes sense.

Regulus's age/the timing of his death: it's hard to know exactly without knowing when he was born. Personally I like to give him a summer birthday, and have him as a Death Eater from the summer after 6th year (just before his 17th birthday) to the summer after 7th (just after his 18th). But the only thing that's actually said in canon is he joined at 16 and died about a year later, so it can be pretty much whenever.

With these infos I think it's safe to create a kind and soft but also prideful canon compliant Regulus doesn't confradict canon. "Stupid idiot, soft enough to believe them, he was probably kind to Kreacher." Are the only personality descriptions we get from him and it's funny how all of these contradics fanon Regulus.

He sees muggle-borns and muggles as lower beings but also house elves. You can be kind to people you see lower than you so he may be kind to them. Also slurs are always not welcome in polite company. And I think it's canon people don't talk like Draco even if they are blood-purists. He was just an another level.

I don't think Regulus got out of his way to bully people. Maybe some insults and slurs if they get into their nerves. I'm planning to make him and Sluggies fave student of their year "Dirk Cresswell" academic rivals. He's a muggle born so we may see some real rude blood purist Regulus there.

But generally people looks at him and thinks how can you look this aproachable and be a fucking blood purist, kind of vibes.

I plan to make him the opposite of Sirius in every way. Majorly on purpose. If Sirius is a rude and loud manece, I will be proper and kind kinda thoght proccess.

Also, I would love to read a fic from Regulus’ pov in which he is a blood supremacist and fully believes in pure-blood ideology. I want him to be the canonically ‘bad guy’ without his character being ‘innocent baby’-shaped, while he still believes in his own morals and actions and would consider himself the ‘good guy’ (like a lot of people in reality did/do while doing objectively bad things) (Do I have to mention n*zis?). In the end, he either dies a villain or has a drastically change of his morals and believes.

In the second kind of scenario, it’s even possible to include Sirius or James.

a perfectionist

never cared about what other people thought of him

knows what he wants and how to get it; he’s cunning and determined, and he will never go down without a fight

had a (maybe not so) small crush on james all throughout their hogwarts years

fast runner, thanks to his long legs, which often gets him out of trouble (quite literally)

doesn’t like borrowing cigarettes from other people, he’s picky with what he smokes

sleeps in sweatpants

knows how to throw a mean punch

he often falls asleep in james’ bed because they always have hours-long conversations before going to sleep. he’s also a light sleeper

has a high alcohol tolerance

enjoys reading, unless it’s the reading he has to do for classes. he’s a big fan of albert camus

has a happy trail

he’s a very unpredictable person, and therefore no one expects anything of him, not knowing what they should look for

has a very high pain tolerance

wary of most people. the only person which he truly lets his guard down with is james

moved out of the potters’ as soon as he could into a small apartment in soho and it was, in his opinion, the best decision of his life — he finally was independent

word count: 137

It’s a sad sight: Remus staring longingly at Sirius, Sirius twirling his hair as he laughs at James’ unfunniest jokes, James chasing after Lily. It’s pitiful really, Peter thinks snidely, I’m glad I’m not involved. Well, not involved except when he has to pretend to listen to James’ monologues about Lily’s hair, her eyelashes, her whatever. It’s a miracle James hasn’t noticed the pain in Sirius’ eyes, the resignation and envy in Remus’. They used to rule the school, delighting in the power they abused—but now they’re “grown up” and “more mature”.

Can he really be blamed then for going to Sirius with his “worries” about Remus, his suspicions? He’s the only one who’s noticed how Remus’ pining stares are starting to be reciprocated—so he takes his power back, by destroying it.

like, it’s introduced to us by Fred and George, who have inexplicably figured out how to open it, and we briefly see Remus (who is endlessly pained by reminders of his fallen friends and the tragedy of the Marauders, imo) interact with it at the end of the 3rd book - but I just feel like the map had way more to show than just what the twins figured out.

I mean. you’re going to tell me that a group of students who became animagi by their fifth year and essentially wizard-coded an interactive map that had personalized responses for various people it didn’t like wouldn’t customize it?

you’re going to tell me that James Potter didn’t have a special Map Password that would weed out the extraneous people and only show him his loved ones, just to check in that they were safe every now and again? you’re going to tell me that Sirius Black wouldn’t have enchanted the map to fly open and go nuts every time Death Eaters approached his brother in a classroom? you really mean to tell me that the Marauders didn’t have some special alternative incantation than ‘I solemnly swear I am up to no good’ that would have shown them which secret passageways were the safest to take any particular evening should they need to get to the Shack or, alternately, just take a trip to Honeydukes?? you really want to tell me that???

or like, if Lily happened to pick it up one day by mistake, the map would instruct her to say something like “for once in my life, I am up to no good” and instead of a map (because as she is not yet dating James, this is still a well-treasured Marauder secret) it’s just various incredibly cheesy love poems dedicated to her written by Sirius but made to seem like they’re written by James

McG absolutely knows that something is off but instead of digging, she just says “You better show me the essay about history of transfiguration.“ and the maps doesn’t hesitate!!

like james potter???? boy who stands up for all of his friends all of the time and calls out the injustices in the world as he sees them??? you think that doesn’t start with himself first and foremost??? like if you can’t can’t stand up for yourself and bite back, how are you gonna recognize it when it happens to your friends and loved ones ????

- remus is so badly mischaracterized, the shift from him being a soft sensitive kid despite the violent nature of his condition was so so important but now he is turned into this mean angry alpha male. i feel like the point of him being so sensitive was to contrast w him being a werewolf ya know. bring back weird and awkward remus

- gay ships that are just there because they’re gay is pretty strange. i’m speaking of the whole jegulus/pandalily/whatever new thing ppl come up with i don’t really understand the point of just thinking that making a couple gay makes them more interesting. seems a little counterproductive .

-jily loosing its popularity is killing me. bring back my 7 year slow burn prophecy beautiful love story they are the most important ship

-sirius being a feminine dramatic gay twink. this man was a motorcycle owning rebel strong guy. and believe it or not he CAN be gay and still be that. him being gay ( in our head canons) doesn’t mean he’s a woman

- turning gay ships into basically a straight relationship by making them so stereotypical ( wolfstar w feminine af sirius and strong man remus)

- shipping character that died and fought against a certain ideology and people that were actively apart of the problem is kinda crazy. like jegulily? my brother in christ regulus wanted her dead.

-fanon regulus. he was a strong willed DEATH EATER he wasn’t forced into it or abused by his family. it.is.stated.in.the.book.

-deatheaters are interesting characters BUT don’t tell me people are babying and glorifying them in a effort to explore their complexity.

-some of you are blinded by the fancasts and forgot all about what the characters are.

- the new fan casts are meeeh. they’re not all supposed to be supermodels…

- jegulus taking over the fandom is insane.

-andromeda should be getting the regulus treatement she is what you made regulus into.

-frank and alice should be more loved.

- the romantization of that whole pureblood supremacist squad is NOT cute.

-james potter my beloved.

- i don’t really like the idea of the casanova being remus. i feel like it would james or sirius based on how remus talked about his high school years

- jily is way too important to the universe to be discredited.

-lily evans being put behind regulus is CRAZY. my girl did not die for this bs

-sirius being criticized for leaving is wild. regulus was not abused and didn’t even want to leave. sirius was mistreated.

- i kind of like the idea of the developed character of walburga. sirius said she wasn’t a deatheater. and i like people writing her as a more complex character.

- as much as i love wolfstar, james and sirius’s relationship stays the central point of the gang.

-ships have taken way too much importance over the friendships of the group.

-i feel like a people make female characters into lesbians ( like lily ) just because they are strong characters and it’s weird.

- yes once she got married to james she was lily POTTER and she was a mother just like james was FATHER they’re is nothing wrong with that.

- jegulus/ any ship between a member of the order and a deatheater is just plain stupid sorry but if your head canons goes completely against the core of a character it’s just a wrong statement.

before you start “LEt pEoPle dO whAT thEy WaNt” these are MY opinions

like you want regulus to be a rebel that fought his family? there’s literally sirius and andromeda

you picture this into jegulus? andromeda left her family for her husband.

you want jegulus cus enemies to lovers? that’s literally james and lily

you want a tortured sibling relationship because of different opinions? bella and narcissa

most of you have forced this idea of them being forced to be evil but you know what real characters you can like for that? the potters were a pureblood family that resisted that ideas. the weasleys as well.

if you need to change completely the characters entire person to make them likable maybe it’s just that they’re not likable.

But I think James "I would kill for you" Potter and Regulus "I would die for you" Black has so much force