#timeline test

Dr. Minerva McGonagall had worked with Sirius when he first escaped Grimmauld, that much Regulus already knew, but he hadn’t realised that Sirius had kept seeing her in the years since. 

Regulus had been coming for 4 weeks and so far he had said almost nothing. He would always say hello, McGonagall would ask how his week had been, Regulus would reply fine and then they would sit in silence for the next hour.

“Regulus,” McGonagall said his name and he sat up so he could see her. “You’re never going to feel better if you don’t put in the work.” 

Regulus just shrugged and McGonagall sighed. She walked over to her desk and grabbed a stack of paper and some coloured pens. Despite himself, Regulus was curious. 

“I want to try an exercise with you,” she said in her lilting Scottish accent. Something about the accent was calming, even if she didn’t say much. Until today, apparently. 

McGonagall sat in the chair opposite Regulus and laid out some of the paper in a line in front of him. Grabbing a black pen from the pile and drawing a horizontal line across the pages. Then she put the other pens in front of him. 

“What do you want me to do?” Regulus asked, with some trepidation. 

“I want you to timeline your life.” McGonagall responded, like it was the simplest thing in the world. 

“I beg your pardon?” Regulus felt his breathing stutter in his chest. 

“I want you to jot down every key memory from your life. Happy and sad.” 

Regulus gulped and sat as far back into the sofa as he could, recoiling from the paper like it was going to sprout teeth and bite him. 

“The paper can’t hurt you, Regulus.” McGonagall was looking at him like she could see what he was thinking.

“Why?” Regulus whispered. 

“Hm?”  “Why do I need to write it all down?” Regulus could feel himself shaking, but he couldn’t stop it. 

“Because by naming the beast, we can learn how to slay it.” 

McGonagall got up and walked to her office door as Regulus continued to shake and stare at the paper. 

When she returned, Sirius was with her. 

It had been agreed early on that Regulus would go to his sessions on his own, but if Regulus, or McGonagall, thought he needed the additional support, then Sirius would come in with him. So far, Sirius had not been needed, but once again proving that she must be some kind of witch, McGonagall had gone to get Sirius without Regulus needing to say the words. 

Sirius sat down next to him and held his hand. “Ah, the timeline test,” he chuckled. “Yeah, this one took me a minute-” McGonagall coughed. “Yeah, okay. It took me thirty minutes to pick up a pen and Remus had to hold my hand so I could complete it.” 

Regulus squeezed his hand tight. “Siri,” Regulus said his brother’s name so quietly, he wasn’t sure anyone else would hear it, but of course Sirius had. 

Sirius tilted Regulus’ chin towards him and looked him in the eyes. “Reggie, it’s okay to be scared of this part. I was fucking terrified.” 

“Language, Mr. Black.” McGonagall scolded and it made Regulus smile a little bit. 

“Sorry, Minnie. Anyway, Reggie, this bit is gonna suck, like really fu-reaking bad. But you have to remember, no matter how deep down you think you’ve buried all those horrific memories from when we were kids, they aren’t that deep down and we need to talk about them. By putting them down on the timeline, you can see how many bad memories there are and then we can deal with them.” Sirius squeezed his hand again and then he was smiling. “And you know what the really great thing is, the reason that Minnie gets you to put down your happy memories too?” 

“Why?” Regulus asked, leaning on his brother for everything he could give. 

“Cause by now, the good outweighs the bad. You just can’t see it yet, but you will.” 

“Thanks Siri,” Regulus wrapped his arms around Sirius and the two hugged before Regulus pulled back. 

“How long do I have?” Regulus asked McGonagall. 

“As long as you need. This is a very important step and as such, you are my only client today.” McGonagall gave him a reassuring smile. 

“Okay,” Regulus nodded and picked up a pen. 

*

Two and a half hours later, Regulus and Sirius left McGonagall’s office. Regulus hadn’t felt this emotionally drained in a very long time and Sirius looked just as wrecked. He had called Remus to come pick them up, so they were sitting on the steps outside McGonagall’s office and waiting. 

Regulus had one hell of a headache, he was completely dehydrated and felt like he could sleep for a week. 

“Do you want to go home or come back to ours?” Sirius asked, once they saw Remus pulling up. 

“Can I come stay with you?” Regulus asked shyly, as Sirius helped him up. 

“Of course, you can.” Sirius replied as they got in the car. “I mean, to be fair, I was going to take you back with us anyway. But this way it was like it was your idea and it means Remus can’t be arrested for helping me kidnap you.”

“This is better,” Remus joined in. “I’ll be damned if I get arrested because of you again.” 

“What do you mean, again?” Regulus asked, puzzled by this strange revelation. 

“It doesn’t matter,” Remus and Sirius said at the same time. 

Regulus knew better than to argue with them and so he sat quietly in the back of the car as they drove back to Sirius and Remus’ house. 

Regulus started to doze off as they drove, he briefly heard Remus ask Sirius how the session had gone and when Sirius replied with the words “timeline test,” Remus hummed and nodded. 

They pulled up outside the house about a half hour later and Sirius helped Regulus walk inside. He was very wobbly on his feet and was going to fall asleep any second now. He just wanted to get into bed and sleep for a week. 

When they walked through the door, there were voices coming from the front room and Regulus was in no mood to be sociable. 

He stopped outside the living room door and looked pleadingly at his brother and Sirius smiled at him. 

Quietly he said, “Go on up to your room, I’ll make your excuses.” 

“Thanks, Siri,” Regulus smiled. 

As he started to walk up the stairs he heard the chatter stop and a very familiar voice, in a very concerned tone asked, “how is he?”