Last co-authored with Tiffiny Smith, thanks for all your help!

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Regulus found himself tangled in something - the branches of a tree? After a moment of panic making sure it wasn't the Whomping Willow, he disentangled himself and peeked out at the ground below, where the other seven were getting their bearings.

What caught his attention, however, was the giant tower not ten yards away. Despite its forbidding appearance, it had some wide, decent-sized steps leading up to a door with an eagle-shaped knocker, the whole affair had some pretty windows, and there was a well-maintained path with a sign (or maybe three) on it leading to the road some distance away. Regulus couldn't read the sign (it was facing the road), but Potter made a beeline for it.

Then he stopped and stared.

"Well?" Sirius hollered. "What's it say? Where are we?"

"Whose place is this?" Alice asked, staring at the tower.

"The Quibbler," said Potter. "Editor, X. Lovegood. Anybody heard of him?" The pureblood name rang an old bell in his head, but he'd never met one personally.

"Lovegood?" said Frank, furrowing his brow in confusion, the same running through his own mind. Had his mum ever mentioned an oddball named Lovegood in school?

"Don't ask me!" Potter said back. "Listen to this: pick your own mistletoe. And Keep Off the... dir..igg...ibble plums."

Sirius darted over to a bush with radish-like fruits on them and threw one at Potter, who caught it and looked confused.

Regulus decided watching them was a waste of time and set about searching for the book, which was wedged in a windowsill just barely out of reach. He Accio'd it and started reading. Well, Luna was either the wife or kid of this X., and judging by the fact Harry was back off to school, either were likely. Either a student Harry was about to meet or the new DADA teacher.

It wasn't as if he was anxious to be away from here, at least he was finally in a respectable pureblood home again, only the second since all this madness had started counting his own. Yet, for the first time in his life, he didn't care. He had no inclination to get to know these people just because his parents would have wanted him too, not knowing who else they wanted him to befriend, Bellatrix at the top of his list he may start avoiding right along with Sirius now. Best to focus on the part of getting them out of here instead.

Right off the bat Harry was having bizarre dreams. His parents were mentioned, and Potter came back from the sign to join the others. Sirius's mouth was wagging noiselessly at the notion that Mrs. Weasley would cry over Kreacher's dead body. Out of it all, Ron and Hermione wearing crowns was about the most normal part of Harry's dreams, and the dark corridor with a door at the end stood out only because of how irrelevant it was.

Harry woke up, and everyone brightened immediately at the prospect of going to Hogwarts.

"Nothing too bad can happen there, right?" said Potter cheerily, and Regulus rolled his eyes at him. He wasn't the only one. Had he been listening to the past four books?

The hustle and bustle of getting ready to leave was a sharp contrast to the tranquility of the garden. Mother's shrieking, which nobody was bothering to silence, and which Regulus winced slightly at having to read aloud, only added to the distinction.

Then Sirius showed up in dog form, managed to insist his way into Mad-Eye Moody's guard (which was one short) and Molly worried on and on about everything (which Regulus was beginning to understand she thought of as her solemn duty, surpassed only perhaps by Mad-Eye) and causing Harry to liken her to Aunt Petunia, which raised instant protest from Lily.

"Mrs. Weasley is nothing like that vile woman!" the redhead fumed. "Their attitudes may be similar, but they spring from polar opposite motivations."

No one had the death sentence in them to argue with her even if they disagreed, which none did.

The group proceeded to the train until it was time to depart, and Padfoot said his goodbyes to Harry in far too human-like fashion, but it was absolutely ruined by Mrs. Weasley using his real name instead of Padfoot, or even Snuffles. Regulus still couldn't help pausing over the scene regardless as his mind wrapped around every oddity of it. Sirius, as a dog, which he still wasn't used to the idea of. Sirius giving a fond farewell to a godson he'd arguably spent more time worrying about than his own brother. He wanted to talk to him, the urge growing more desperate with every page, but there was a streak of pride deep in him that made the idea loathsome. Sirius would only listen to him now because he was starting to agree with him rather than just wanting to talk to his brother again, Regulus would just have to figure this out for himself.

Once on the train, at least Harry's problems took an easy center stage, Ron and Hermione mock-abandoning him for their prefect duties and leaving him in the company of Ginny, Neville, and the pre-acclaimed 'Loony' Lovegood, per Ginny's introduction.

She certainly did start off a sight, and only got more interesting the longer she talked. Loony did seem to support her, between the butterbeer cork necklace and wearing vegetation as jewelry. This odd paper, the Quibbler, was once again referenced in Luna's own hands, but rather than finally getting a peek at that article mentioning Sirius, Harry instead turned to Neville and they began chatting about some plant.

He admittedly would have grown rather bored with that very fast, if it didn't send some slime all over the whole compartment just as Cho Chang walked in.

Regulus nearly fell out of the tree laughing at the mental image, and even as he caught his breath back and glanced down he saw he wasn't the only one. Peter had been scaling the tree, to join him presumably, but was now only halfway up and clutching a branch precariously for support. Sirius had fallen into the dirigible plum bush and looked covered in them like he was trying to add to Luna's fashion statement.

Literally all of them had gotten a laugh out of it, even that Muggleborn Evans. He smiled to himself and reached down to offer Peter a hand to help him the rest of the way up, watching patiently as he got himself a more steady branch before continuing.

Regulus listened with some unfamiliar dread in his stomach as the two prefects returned to the carriage and explained their new duties, as well as explaining Malfoy was the Slytherin one, to no one's surprise. His parents were already talking about the party they'd be throwing when he got that badge come next summer, and they'd given Sirius a whole new level of shit when he hadn't gotten one. Neither boy had even thought that was possible until they'd seen it in action. Sirius had acted as if he hadn't even cared, and for the first time Regulus squirmed at his fate pressing in on him even sooner than he'd imagined. Now it was next summer that would be the real test instead of even waiting until he was of age and letting his parents down he didn't necessarily want what they did. He certainly had no desire to be a prefect, how would they take that news?

"Hey, you alright?" Peter asked quietly. He'd been picking off leaves and shredding them for his own amusement, he'd even been considering moving a branch over into a patch of sun and maybe closing his eyes and really enjoy this brief respite of anything horrifying happening to them or Harry, but he couldn't very well do that when Regulus started chewing on the inside of his cheek over something as silly as the prefect badges.

Regulus met his eyes in surprise for several moments, before smiling kindly and answering honestly, "I've been better." He glanced down at his brother though and kept reading instead of elaborating, and Peter nodded to himself, Sirius did feel like the problem and the answer on most given situations.

Sirius was too busy still laughing to even notice Peter had ditched them again, let alone Regulus was trying to catch his eye from ten feet above him. Luna Lovegood was a hoot, he wished she was alive and in school with them now! She'd be as much fun to pull pranks on as Evans, this blonde may even laugh along at them!

James was listing against him for support as they all heard the article about Sirius presumably being some singing sensation. "Well go on then Stubby!" James wheezed. "Give us a tune and I'm sure the Ministry will never look twice at you again!"

"Don't encourage him," Remus rolled his eyes, but far too late, Sirius began singing the last Sorting Hat song they'd heard verbatim.

Lily, Alice, and Frank didn't think he could make the next top charts or anything, but they were reasonably impressed he even remembered the thing from the beginning of their year.

Regulus seemed to be ignoring them above anyways and didn't let them have any more fun with it, predictably, as he kept reading the next article as well, something about Fudge murdering goblins into pies, it was just too funny! Sirius still hadn't climbed out of the bush.

"Oh stop you idiots," Lily finally had enough, her temper snapping, they literally could not take anything seriously! "In case you've forgotten, Sirius is a wanted man for multiple murders! How is laughing at this poor girl helping that?"

"Haven't forgotten," Remus scowled at her, instantly insulted she seemed to think otherwise.

"No harm in laughing off this drivel in the meantime," James finished, completely unrepentant as he grinned at her.

Lily glanced down and saw Sirius Black was still smiling, the first time she knew of he'd done so in the face of this bleak future ahead of him, and hesitated saying anything back.

Regulus hadn't really thought much of the article, no sane person would believe that long enough to hear anyone out, and yet the real story was just as convoluted. Instead he'd kept going, now killing any pretense of a good mood as Malfoy barged into the compartment. His blood chilled at the parting words he left, not in fact more arrogance, but a sly observation of apparently having noticed Sirius on the platform!

His idiot brother was already safe back at Grimmauld place though, he quickly soothed himself, whether he wanted to be or not. Malfoy, Lucius or Draco, were no match for him even if he wasn't.

His mouth was still much more dry than usual though as he forced himself to keep going, but Sirius' snort of disbelief echoing up below wasn't as comforting as he would have thought.

Things only got more grim as Harry got off the train, and Hagrid of all people was absent from his usual post. None of them could even imagine it, the giant of a man had been there every year for the lake ride, now even that was changing. Would nothing in this future remain the same?

Clearly not, as even the carriages were now being pulled by beasts! What was happening to this school?

Peter saw Regulus's disturbed look as he read about the description of those ghastly horse-like things, and shouted loud enough that Stoatshead Hill had likely heard. "Ha! Take that you arseholes, I wasn't making them up!"

"Huh," was all James and Sirius could manage to say to that, while Remus's eyes widened with just as much excitement as if he were hearing about Blast-Ended Skrewts all over again.

"Fascinating, I'm so f'ing sorry Peter! What do you think they even are? Why can only you see them?"

"I can too," Frank frowned at the lot, but even Alice gave him a look of shock for the declaration.

He shrugged and looked just a bit shy at all attention suddenly on him. "What? Hadn't come up."

"How about all the ruddy times the 'horseless carriages' were mentioned!" Lily accused. "What on Earth are they?"

"Don't know," he frowned and tensed his shoulders as still everyone was looking at him now. "I've tried looking them up, but as Harry's said himself, it's a pretty big library when you don't know what you're looking for."

"What kind of Ravenclaw are you?" Sirius scowled.

Peter just smiled that finally his friends didn't think he was playing some weirdly elaborate prank on them any longer. It was no wonder to him his dormmates often thought he was soft in the head, seeing things they couldn't. Now the next time he swore he saw one in the forest, they'd actually believe him!

"What does it say that this Loony girl can see them too though," Sirius grinned and looked up at Peter obviously. He flipped him off, and Sirius laughed.

James and Remus released a breath both of them had been holding for a painfully long time, things really were going back to normal.