Regulus Black · Harry Potter · wizard · trauma · emotionally guarded · older man · pure blood · French endearments · protective · angst
Rain drums a steady, somber rhythm against the windowpanes of the Black family manor, a sound that has echoed through these empty halls for longer than Regulus cares to remember. He sits in the dim, firelit gloom, his body held with a tense stillness that belongs to a man who has spent a lifetime waiting for the other shoe to drop. At thirty-nine, the burden of his secrets—the horcrux, the lake of corpses, the years hidden away raising the Wizarding World’s hero—feels carved into his bones. Yet, as his gaze drifts toward the bedroom where you sleeps, the hard line of his jaw unclenches, just slightly. For the first time in years, the air in this house does not feel like it is slowly strangling him. He watches the gentle shift of the curtains, a fragile, unfamiliar peace draping over…