#ancient enemies | Explore Tumblr posts and blogs

les-fleurrs-du-mal · 3 months ago

Text

ao3: les_fleurrs_du_mal (30 chapters posted and ongoing)

regulus black x original muggle character

[enemies to lovers]

summary:

Flora, the muggle half-sister of protective older brother Remus Lupin, finds herself hidden away during the First Wizarding War for fear of werewolf attacks. Her life is lonely and quiet until Regulus Black, a former Deatheater and an insufferable bigot, is also in need of sanctuary.

Chapter One

❦

Summer, 1978

It was some time after midnight when Flora awoke suddenly. Her curtains, which she’d left open after falling asleep from the sheer exhaustion of homework, twitched in the soft summer breeze of the still night. Welsh summers were never particularly warm, but this year had reached soaring temperatures. The air was still muggy when Flora woke in confusion, her skin prickly with sweat. The light of the full moon spilled into the room.

She moved only to push the books off her bed so she could get under the cool bedsheets, but was gripped with a sense of unease as she shifted her body and opened her eyes properly. A distinct creak on the stairs made her start. It was a slow, hesitant creak, like somebody was trying to be quiet.

Her parents had surely gone to bed, and it certainly wasn’t Remus. Not on a full moon. Flora pulled the sheet around herself, holding her breath to listen closer. She could feel and hear her pulse beating fast, gripped with a sudden certainty that she was about to die. She couldn’t move, insensible to all action. The footsteps continued up the stairs and moved down the hallway towards her bedroom. She hid deeper under her bedclothes, laying in dread of every second, her heart beating so hard and fast she was sure the intruder would hear it.

The door opened slowly and a small glowing light illuminated the room—a wand light.

“Flora?” A voice whispered, nervous.

Flora let out the breath she was holding and hastily threw back the covers, sitting up at once. “Sirius?”

His handsome face appeared in the dim glow of the wand light. His eyes widened and then softened with relief.

“Flora,” he rushed to her and took hold of her shoulders, looking her over quickly. “Are you alright?”

Flora noticed he was trembling. He stared at her like he wasn’t sure she was real, or more chillingly, alive. Flora was too bewildered to answer for a moment, wondering why she would not be alright, and why he didn’t turn the light on.

“Yes,” she answered distractedly, her eyes roving over his face. “Why are you here? Is Remus okay?”

Sirius blinked a moment, preoccupied with the inner whirlwind of his feelings. He looked at her softly and touched her face with platonic, brotherly affection. With the way he was constantly attached to Remus, Sirius may as well have been her brother.

She became suddenly aware of a second presence in the doorway. Sirius calmly turned his head and greeted a bespectacled boy with black hair, who also had his wand raised with a light emitting from the end of it.

“She’s fine,” Sirius said to the boy, who quietly breathed a sigh of relief.

“We’d better take her now,” he replied, stepping further into the room with a deeply disturbed look on his face.

Flora raised her eyes to look at James Potter, a boy she had heard plenty about from Remus and Sirius, but had never met until now.

“What’s happened?” Flora asked, her confusion and fear mounting as she observed the troubled looks on their ashen faces. “Where’s my mam? My dad? Remus?"

They didn’t answer her. They began to talk between themselves in low, anxious tones about taking her somewhere. When Sirius turned to speak to her again, he took hold of her hands and squeezed them gently. “I’m going to take you to the Potter’s house, alright? His mum and dad are there. They’re kind and they’ll make sure you’re alright. You’ll have to side-along apparate with me. Have you ever done that before?”

Flora shook her head slowly. “No, but why—”

“It will feel a little uncomfortable,” Sirius cut her off, standing up. “Like a tight squeezing, but it won’t be for long.”

James regarded Sirius with uncertainty. “Are you sure you’re alright to do it, mate? Maybe we should wait until Moody or someone more senior gets here.”

“I can take her,” Sirius replied.

“I think we should wait.”

“No, it could be a while yet. We need to get her out of here and somewhere safe,” Sirius insisted firmly.

Flora felt a sudden urge to scream as the realisation dawned on her, that something truly awful had happened. Perhaps she'd anticipated it for a while, unconsciously, through snippets she'd heard in murmured voices between her parents and Remus. Conversations she was not meant to be privy to. She understood there was unrest in the wizarding world, that her brother and his friends were helping. Now something had happened. She didn’t realise she was screaming until she felt Sirius’ arms around her, his voice trying to soothe her. She crumbled into hysterics, begging an explanation and fighting against him in order to flee the room and find out what it was for herself. Sirius held her fast, gripping her shoulders and looking to James for help. He looked just as lost as Sirius. They needed Remus. Flora knew as well as they did that she needed her big brother.

“Flora, Flo, please,” Sirius pleaded, “Calm down. Please calm down.”

“What’s happened? Tell me right now!” She sobbed wildly. At only fifteen years old, nothing terrible had ever happened in her life. She studied and worked hard at school, went to the pictures sometimes, read books. Bad things didn't happen to her. She was the 'normal' child, the one who sorely wished sometimes that she was magic like her older brother just so interesting things would happen. Now suddenly she didn't want it.

“Please,” Sirius tried again, speaking calmly. “Let me take you to the Potters. I’ll explain things there, I swear.”

“Is Remus there?” She asked hopefully, knowing it was a silly question. “And my mam and dad?”

Sirius shook his head. James hesitantly stepped closer and knelt down in front of Flora, looking at her. “We will explain everything shortly,” he said with solemn eyes. “But right now, you need to leave. It isn’t safe here.”

“Why isn’t it safe?” Flora asked with wide, tearful eyes. “This is my house.”

“Let us take you to my parent’s house. Everything will be alright.”

Sirius was able to ease Flora to her feet, rubbing her back in a useless effort to calm her down. In only her nightie, she was swiftly removed from her quiet home to face the worst news she could possibly imagine.

❦

Autumn, 1980

Flora stood at the kitchen sink, yawning and contemplating an early night with a warm drink and the new book she wanted to start. Darkness had gathered around the little stone cottage, summoning the owls that Flora presently heard hooting in the surrounding blackness of the trees. She scratched the side of her head and pushed a loose piece of hair behind her ear, splashing bubbles on her cheek as she did so.

Her days were slow: peaceful, mundane. She wondered when her brother would arrive — if he would arrive. He’d promised he would, but Order meetings often kept him late or away altogether. She tried hard to stay up on the nights he promised to come back, the nights he brought fresh food and provisions and the occasional gift to lift her spirits, but quite often she would secede waiting and go to bed. In the morning she would find that everything she needed had been restocked in the night, like some elf or fairy had been. He did not usually stay. But tonight, Flora so terribly wanted to talk to him, to see someone, anyone, and so she fought back the temptation of an early night. For someone who was only seventeen, going to bed each night with only the company of one’s inner voice was a dreadful thing. It made Flora feel like an old woman who had already lived the excitement of youth, and yet Flora had yet to experience it.

A long shadow outside caught Flora’s eye and she lifted her head to peer out. Her heart lifted the moment she recognised the tall, wiry figure of her brother at the ancient stone gatepost with his wand illuminating the darkness. She drew back from the old sink, shook her hands dry of water and bubbles, and rushed across the kitchen to the door. Without slippers and in only her pyjamas, she ran outside and down the path. It was dark and wet outside, but she hadn’t been out of the house all day and liked the cool, late summer air on her face as she hurried to meet her brother. It braced her, filling her lungs with the scent of damp moss and earth.

“Remus,” she half walked on the tips of her toes over the dirt path, careful to avoid treading on any sharp stones. She lifted her eyes and noticed there was a second person with him. Not that that was unusual. Sirius Black went wherever Remus went, like a pair. Sirius gave Flora his typical charming smile, a smile that admittedly always made Flora blush just a little too much, as he walked beside Remus. The young man was almost dwarfed by the latter’s height. Half a dozen shopping bags of food floated a little way behind them.

“Where are your shoes? Go back inside,” Remus said as he fixed his eyes on his younger sister.

“I’ve been inside all day. Did you get everything on my list?” She asked in a rush.

He shrugged his thin shoulders. “Most of it, I think. Sirius lost the list before we got there.”

Flora’s eyes sharply darted to Sirius, who quickly sought to defend himself. “It's fine. I’ve got a good memory.”

Remus snorted lightly. They all walked into the little cottage. It was a venerable, white-washed stone building with two ground-floor rooms and four upper rooms, rooms which had been added to over the years. The building itself was at least three hundred years old and had changed relatively little as far as anyone could guess.

Wales was an ancient land. There might have been an older building on the location of the present one, and the magic was heavy here, heavy enough that even Flora could sometimes instinctively feel it. It was not uncommon for her to go walking in the forest and stumble across fairy rings, which she was careful to avoid stepping in. As a child, if she listened very closely at night, she was sure she could hear the soft tinkle of music outside. Remus told her it was the elves, though Flora had never quite believed him, thinking he was winding her up because he was magic and she was not. But then her mother — their mother, who was a muggle — confirmed it to be true and so Flora believed. They were half-siblings, Flora and Remus, but close enough in age and upbringing to consider themselves full siblings. It didn’t matter that Flora wasn’t a witch. Frankly, Flora didn’t mind so much anymore, not with everything going on.

The cottage was firmly situated amongst the rolling green hills, overlooking the granite coastline of North Wales and little seaside town far below. The wizened old cottage was also heavily warded with protective and defensive charms, charms which protected its singular occupant. Remus said to protect, but to Flora, it felt like imprisonment. Worse still, she was almost always alone. The siblings had nobody but themselves to rely on, and increasingly Remus was unable to visit his younger sister. It was too dangerous, he said. Reports of werewolves in nearby towns and villages were becoming worryingly more common. He came now more out of necessity to deliver food and shopping and take a list of anything she needed or wanted. Today he had gone overboard, Flora thought, probably due to Sirius losing her carefully written list. But it quickly struck Flora as curious—there was too much food here for just one person.

“Right… bread, milk, eggs,” Remus began to empty the shopping bags onto the large kitchen table, which Flora sat down at and watched. He placed three loaves of bread down, two boxes of a dozen eggs, three pints of milk. “Jam… soup… uh, got you lots of fruit this time…chocolate…”

Flora studied him with a small frown, her chin resting in her hands. “Why’ve you got so much of everything?” She half exclaimed. “Half of this will expire by the time I get round to using it.”

Remus and Sirius shared a very brief, but tense look. It was a look that Flora caught immediately and it caused her to sit up straighter.

“What is it? Tell me now,” she demanded. Her soft Welsh accent lilted up and down as she spoke, which somewhat diminished the vexation in her tone.

Sirius smiled at her, speaking quickly in an attempt to distract her. “Shall we have a cup of tea?”

He flicked his wand at the kettle across the room and it began to heat up. Flora sat back in the wooden kitchen chair and folded her arms, eyeing them both with suspicion. Remus looked distinctly uncomfortable. He ran his hand through his thick fluffy hair and sighed through his nose quietly while Sirius busied himself with the tea. Sirius liked making tea. In fact, he enjoyed doing a lot of mundane household tasks (magic or no magic) simply because he never got to do it as a child. His absolute favourite was the microwave, which seemed to endlessly fascinate him no matter how many times he used it. He lived in a small flat with Remus in the muggle side of London, which Flora had only visited once.

Remus sat down opposite his sister. There was just a few years difference in age between them, but Remus always treated Flora like she was much younger. Since their parent's death, he had dutifully taken on a paternal role for his sister.

“Remember I told you before that things are getting more dangerous out there?” He began.

“No,” Flora replied dryly. “Tell me again."

Remus gave her a steady, stern look. “Flo.”

“Does bringing extra food make it less dangerous?”

Remus decided to ignore her sarcasm, continuing to speak levelly. Flora always thought he would make a very good teacher when he started talking like this.

“Well, every time I come here it does get a little more dangerous than the last.”

“Why’d you keep coming back then?”

“Flora,” Remus huffed, beginning to lose his patience. “Would you please be serious for a minute.” Flora glanced at Sirius, but he was fixated on making the tea with a faraway look on his face and clearly in no mood for jokes.

“I need to explain something to you—ask something of you, actually,” Remus went on.

“Me?” She frowned. “Why? What?”

“Well, I do really,” Sirius suddenly came to life, straightening up and looking over his shoulder. His face remained neutral, controlled. Flora waited, confused.

“Let me explain something first,” Remus looked at Sirius, “Before we get to that part.”

Sirius shrugged and resumed making the tea. Remus turned back to his sister, his face set and grim.

“The werewolves—”

Flora sighed heavily and turned her head away, not letting him get halfway through his sentence. “Not the werewolves again. I've not heard or seen anything."

“Flora, would you be quiet for five minutes,” Remus snapped with a deepening frown. He leaned forward across the table. “Just listen. Werewolf attacks have been reported close to this area. They’re getting closer and I’m seriously worried they’re looking for you specifically.”

“Why would they?” Flora replied, feigning an air of indifference. But her skin prickled slightly at this awful suggestion. That awful night was recalled back to her memory. She dreamt about it sometimes, only her dreams filled in the horrors she’d never witnessed. Remus had never told her what really happened, perhaps to spare her the thought of how their parents died, but in her heart she knew.

“Because they’re also after me. I’ve told you this before. Greyback wants me to join his—his pack. The Order believes that they believe hurting or kidnapping you would give them leverage. I’ve spent one full moon with them, but they don’t trust me. This isn’t just about protecting you as a just-in-case precaution, it’s crucial now that you stay put while I do what I need to do.”

Flora felt indignant at this. “I already do stay put! Where am I going to go?"

“You’ve left the wards several times. I know you go down to the beach, to the shops."

”I’m not likely to be attacked by a werewolf in broad daylight,” Flora said moodily.

”No,” Remus agreed, “but there are spies around. Someone could still easily grab you, daylight or not. I need you to stay here.”

“But it’s boring!”

”It’s safe.”

“Flora, listen,” Sirius began now in support of Remus. He brought over their cups of tea and sat down next to Remus. “You can’t leave.”

“So you’ve brought me all this extra food to prevent me from going anywhere? Half that bread will go mouldy before I get to open it.”

“No,” Remus rubbed his forehead with the palm of his hand, stretching his long fingers out and burying them in his hairline. “No, that’s not it.”

“This is the second surprise,” Sirius said as he sipped his tea. He glanced again at Remus, who was now rubbing his eyelids with the heel of his palm. When Remus lowered his hands, his eyes were a little watery and red from the pressure of his hand. He looked suddenly very tired, older than his twenty-one years.

“The other thing…” Remus started. His eyes met Sirius’ eyes.

“It’s my brother,” Sirius blurted out quickly.

Flora blinked. “Brother?”

“Yes, my younger brother.”

“I didn’t know you had a brother.”

“That’s because he’s a little prick. We don’t talk about him. He's, um, he was on the—you know, the other side of things. A Death Eater.”

Remus sighed heavily. Flora noticed he was gripping his cup of tea very tightly as Sirius struggled to explain whatever it was he was trying to explain. And this was odd because Sirius was never lost for words. He was always so sure of himself.

“A Death Eater,” Flora repeated when Sirius trailed off, prompting him to continue.

“Yeah, uh… well, ex-Death Eater I suppose now,” Sirius coughed softly to clear his throat. He swallowed thickly and his Adam’s apple bobbed noticeably in his throat. “He abandoned it all and came to find me. He’s hurt. Badly hurt. I still don’t fully know what happened to him because he won’t tell me. I thought maybe You-Know-Who had done something to him. But he's talking, giving us information that is useful to the Order, and so far it's been accurate, reliable."

Flora nodded slowly, keeping her large eyes fixed on the two young men. “Okay…”

“He’s not safe where he is,” Sirius continued. “We’re hiding him in our flat at the moment, but he can’t stay there.”

Flora was not stupid, and the realisation of what he was trying to ask hit her very quickly. But she held back, not speaking, and she waited for the horror of the situation to descend.

“Just to be clear,” Remus spoke up in a low, glum voice, “I don’t want this. I wish this wasn’t happening at all and I’m sorry.”

“Are you going to tell me that you’ve invited a Death Eater to come and live with me?” Flora demanded now, her voice growing increasingly higher as panic set in. She looked to her brother for help, but he was looking down obstinately at the table.

“Ex-Death Eater,” Sirius quickly corrected.

Flora glowered. “Oh, that's alright then."

“He won’t hurt you,” Sirius floundered. “I trust him.”

Flora scoffed, folding her arms across her chest.

“Please, just listen to me” he pleaded. Remus was clearly sitting out on the discussion, having known exactly how his sister would react. It was down to Sirius to convince her, and so far he wasn’t doing a very good job.

“He won’t have access to his wand,” he continued. “He won’t be able to do any magic."

“So he is dangerous?”

“No, it’s just…” Sirius rubbed his face now. “He’s not dangerous. Not really—”

“Not really?”

“Fuck’s sake,” Remus muttered with another very heavy sigh. “Let me explain it to her.”

“I wish one of you would,” Flora snapped in irritation.

“I was against it too, okay?” Remus began calmly. “I still am. I don’t like him but he’s been fairly reliable so far. He’ll be killed if he’s found. By the look of things, he nearly was killed."

Sirius’ face had grown rather pinched. He held his chin in his hand and frowned down at his mostly untouched cup of tea. His whole body, which he usually held in a careless, relaxed way, was now very tense and hunched.

“I just want him to be safe,” Sirius murmured without raising his eyes.

Flora was quiet for a long moment, glaring at the two of them. “So the extra food,” she began after a minute, “That’s for him?”

“I’m sorry we didn’t ask you first, Flo,” Remus answered softly. “We need to move him quickly though. It probably won’t be for long, mind. The Order will eventually find somewhere more permanent for him to go, maybe. But he’s not exactly their priority right now. He’s just a runaway, at the end of the day.”

“More like an escaped lunatic," Flora said indignantly. "I don’t want him here. I’m telling you no.”

“Flora, please,” Sirius looked up now. His soft eyes were huge and desperate. “I’ll be the first to admit he’s an insufferable little prick. He has his ridiculous airs and prejudices, but I swear he won’t hurt you. I wouldn’t have asked if I thought for even a moment that he would harm a hair on your head. Maybe it’s stupid, but I truly believe he can change. He just needs the chance.”

Flora sat back, halfway defeated. She found it very challenging to argue when Sirius was looking at her with eyes like that, and it did not help that she’d had a foolishly desperate crush on him since she was eleven. She knew she would cave the moment he asked. She reasoned she could handle a rude houseguest — she’d helped at the village pub when she was fourteen during the summer holidays — but she wasn’t so keen on her houseguest being a dark wizard who openly hated muggles. This would be odious, but she couldn’t deny Sirius anything.

“We already broached the subject with him,” Sirius went on when she didn’t respond. “We’ve made it very clear that he has to behave himself.”

“How long will it be for?”

Sirius shrugged. “Honestly, I don’t know. If he becomes too much to deal with, we’ll take him back to the flat until we can find another arrangement.”

“What exactly do you mean by ‘too much to deal with’?" She questioned carefully.

“Exactly what I said before. He’s a prick. I’m going to be completely honest with you, he will likely treat you with a lot of disdain because you’re a muggle. But whatever he says, take no notice. Just tell me and I'll sort the little bastard out."

“So he’ll just be rude?”

“At best, yes.”

“What about at worst?”

Sirius drummed his fingers on the table top. “He can be hateful.”

Remus sat up a little, as though a thought had just occurred to him. He touched Sirius’ arm lightly and shook his head, “Let’s not do this. We can find somewhere else for him to go. Why destroy her peace? She doesn’t need to know what people like him think of her.”

Sirius’ face dropped slightly. He looked a lot like a small child who had just been told no. Flora watched them curiously, feeling an odd swelling in her heart as she observed the pain and anxiety in Sirius’ eyes. Besides that, she was undeniably interested in doing something other than sitting around the house reading novels. When Flora had said life was boring, she meant she felt she was fading into the wings, always waiting, stagnant. She was so bored, lonely, and she resented her brother more and more everyday for keeping her here.

“Where’s he going to go, Moony?” Sirius was speaking in a low murmur to Remus. "He's not safe."

“We’ll find somewhere,” Remus replied with little certainty in his voice. “I promise.”

“He’ll be killed,” Sirius hissed. “They’ll find him.”

“They won’t.”

“One week,” Flora spoke up quietly, barely believing her own words as they left her mouth. She couldn't bear witnessing this. She didn’t have it in her to be cruel, and right now she felt cruel if she said no. “If he can behave himself for one week, he can stay.”

“Flo, you don’t have to—” Remus began hesitantly.

Sirius’ eyes lit up with new-founded hope though. “One week?” he replied quickly, latching to her words.

Flora nodded slowly. Her heart felt heavy but she couldn’t go back now. One week was fair, she reasoned. It wasn’t such a long time. And if Sirius’s brother turned out to be alright, then perhaps she would have a friend to fill her time with. As he was younger than Sirius, she assumed he must be her age. Either way, she reasoned, she had quite literally nothing to lose in letting him stay.

“One week. Okay,” Sirius nodded eagerly, “and we’ll visit every morning and evening to check how he gets on.”

Remus frowned. “I don’t think we can do that.”

“Well, I will anyway,” Sirius said. He then leaned across the table and clasped hold of Flora’s small hand. “Thank you. Thank you,” he whispered with great sincerity.

Flora coloured with pleasure, smiling a little in spite of herself as she relished in his joy and relief — joy and relief she had given. She knew her actions weren’t motivated out of any concern for his brother. Her motivation was purely for Sirius and herself.

“What’s his name anyway?” Flora asked, realising she’d never considered it.

“Regulus.”

“Of course it is,” she rolled her eyes gently and shook her head.

Sirius smiled, still grasping her hand in his tightly. He then kissed her hand, just like a knight in storybooks, placing a chaste kiss on her knuckles. Flora blushed to her ears and looked away, mortified and thrilled. And that was that. Regulus Black would be arriving the very next day.

77 notes · View notes