Reg had spent all his time in Hogsmeade on Saturday with Emma, but he’d told some friends he’d meet them in town on Sunday.  He’d gone down early to browse the bookstore a bit more, distracted as he was the day before.  He was on his way there when he caught sight of Narcissa, a small smile tugging at his lips as he recognized his cousin.  “Cissa,” he called to get her attention, changing direction to join her.  

Sirius’ words still wrung in her mind as Narcissa found her way out of the shop. The tears weren’t spilling now, and she had fixed her makeup, but her fingers still shook and the blonde was sure she was going to go mad before she made it back to the castle when she heard a familiar voice calling out her name, the only voice she would have lied to hear. As she turned towards Regulus she swallowed, pulling a smile onto her lips.

The smile wasn’t the kind Regulus was used to, not as bright perhaps, not reaching her eyes.  He couldn’t peg exactly what it was that seemed off but a flash of worry for his cousin ran through the Slytherin boy and he closed the last of the distance between them with a bit of a rush to his step.  By all accounts she looked as if everything were perfectly fine, makeup and hair in place, eyes clear and wide as always, and yet Regulus couldn’t shake the idea that something wasn’t quite right.   “Hello, love,” he said with a soft voice, kissing her cheek in greeting.  “How are you?” he asked, eyes probing and filled with concern, though his face was carefully schooled as always.

“I’m alright.” She murmured, looking up at her cousin. Salazar, her looked like his brother, and she wanted to badly to just fall into his arms, but Narcissa would not do it, not here. She couldn’t do it here. The worry on Regulus face was clear to her, she knew him too, and the manicured facial expression did nothing to hide his concern, and so she reached out, weaving her fingers with his, more than she had allowed herself to do with Sirius. There was comfort in knowing both of the Black brothers still loved her, and power too. Narcissa might not have been strong, but she was loved by those who were, and she was smart, almost better that way. She looked back over her shoulder, towards the castle. She wanted to be alone with him, to tell him she had seen Sirius, but she couldn’t not here, and their dorms were so far. Maybe she wouldn’t tell him at all, maybe she would just curl into his arms, and stay there for hours, asking him the answers to riddles she had found. 

Her words opposed the look he saw in her face, not to mention the way her fingers curled around his, and he knew he was right in worrying. She glanced behind her towards the castle and when she looked back, Regulus knew what she was thinking.  Or at least could take a very educated guess.  "Come along, darling,“ he said, using the hand holding hers to lace her arm through his.  He led her away from the hustle and bustle of the town, students swarming about in front of the shop windows.  Few paused to give them more than a second glance, to see the two youngest Blacks arm in arm was not an uncommon sight to those who knew them and to those that didn’t it was hardly interesting to focus on two strangers walking through town.  In that fashion they made their way into the Three Broomsticks, as it was much closer than the castle. "Just a moment,” he said, leaning over to press a kiss to Narcissa’s cheek as he approached the bar.  After a few murmured words with Madame Rosmerta and with a practiced exchange of coin, Regulus returned to his cousin with key and two butterbeers in hand.  He led the blonde through the crowds and up a flight of stairs to the private rooms one floor above.  Claiming one as their own he set the drinks down and locked the door behind them, taking the extra step to cast a silencing charm around the room before turning with an expression now free of all guards back to Narcissa.  "What’s wrong, love?“

She watched him speak to Madame Rosmerta, head held high. There was something oddly soothing about seeing Regulus like this, in perfect control of the situation, handling matters in order to give her just what she wanted without her ever having to say a word. In another life, Narcissa could have fallen on love with him, the way he held his shoulders, the way he coaxed a private room out of the bartender, though those chambers were explicitly not meant for students. She still wished they could have gotten a hotel room, not because they needed more privacy, but because she just preferred spaces with a bit more class, but that would spawn far too many rumors, and it was not worth the pleasure it would give her to have a proper space. So she murmured thank you to her cousin as they climbed up the stairs and said nothing else until the silencing charm was cast. “It’s nothing for you to worry yourself about, my darling.” She said, hoping not to have to upset him by telling him about Sirius.

Now that they were alone, any vestiges of the mask he wore around the world faded from view.  His concern was etched with clear intensity on his features, he had no secrets from Narcissa and felt no need to hide this concern from her.  At her answer, he raised an eyebrow to show his disbelief of her words.  “If it is worrying you, Cissa, it worries me,” he informed her, crossing the space between them so he could place hands on her arms.  “Come, tell me what it is.  How can I help if I don’t know what has upset you?” he asked as he led her to the benches along the wall, sinking down onto one of them beside her.  He was generally of the opinion that he could and would attempt to fix any of her problems.  Or at least help her bear them so they would bring her as little pain and distress as possible.

Some days she admired the way Regulus could cast away his mask so easily, and display what lay beneath. Narcissa’s was painted onto her features, and she’d forgotten how she was to peel it off most of the time, even when she just wanted to fall into Regulus’ arms. “It shouldn’t.” She said with a soft sigh, but she wove her fingers with his, and lowered herself down to sit beside him with perfect grace. It would not be fair to ask him to bear this weight for her, not the weight of his own brother, who had no right to impose himself on Narcissa, let alone Regulus through her, but keeping secrets from her cousin seemed sinful. “Sirius came to see me.”

It was not lost on Regulus that while he may have come to terms with Sirius, not all of the Blacks had done so.  Even for him, the separation Sirius had imposed on all of them was difficult.  He liked to believe he didn’t care, that he was past all of that, but there were days he knew he wasn’t.  Days he hated that Sirius had left and was angry things couldn’t be the way they had once been.  It seemed that, though this wasn’t one such day for him, it was for Narcissa.  “What happened?” he asked, as she mentioned the older wizard.  He didn’t want his cousins to think they couldn’t speak to him on this.  They were family, as much as Sirius was, and he wouldn’t let his own opinion on it color that relationship.