As the summer began to come to a close, and school was only two weeks away, Euphemia and Fleamont finally made it home. The summer had gone by pretty quickly, the Black brothers were doing really well, however, Regulus was nervous to meet the elder Potters, but kept an open mind due to James' kindness. Remus had gone home to spend time with his parents for the rest of the summer but would be meeting them on the platform when school starts.

The weeks had gone by pretty easily, and the schedule they had created in the first couple of weeks together stayed the same. However, Regulus had begun to have fewer nightmares, but James still came in to check on the younger boy every night regardless of the nightmares. Regulus greatly appreciated James' actions, and did his best to keep an eye on the older boy, as he wanted to make sure that he was ok, but knew he wasn't.

The morning Euphemia and Fleamont came back home through the floo, James was startled from his place in his favorite chair. His mother had told him that they were coming home soon but had never exactly specified. Regulus was immediately filled with anxiety because he was worried the couple wouldn't like him and send him away. Of course, the idea was crazy and improbable, but Regulus didn't know that.

Immediately James jumps up and hugs his mother tightly. Obviously, he loves his father, but his mother just has a special place in his heart. After the hug, Euphemia moves to hug Sirius, just as she had hugged James. Fleamont also proceeded to greet the boys as well. Regulus stayed back but was greeted first by Fleamont while Euphemia fussed over James.

"Hello, you must be young Mr. Regulus. I'm Fleamont, don't bother with calling me Mr. Potter, same goes for my wife, she detests being called Mrs. Potter. She does enjoy being called Mia, and you can call me Fleamont, or Monty. I don't mind," he put his hand on Regulus' shoulder in greeting. He isn't like his wife, in the way she loves giving everyone giant hugs, but he still shows affection in his own way. Regulus doesn't know exactly what to do so all he does is smile and nod at Fleamont.

"I am, and it is nice to meet you. Thank you for having let me stay here," was all Regulus was able to say before Euphemia came over and enveloped Regulus in a hug. He had felt slightly uncomfortable at first, but in the end, he had decided that the hug had actually felt quite nice, and he would like to have more of them.

"It is so great to finally meet you, please call me Mia. I don't want to hear any of the Mrs. Potter business. I am already an old parent, don't make me feel any older," She gave him one of her award-winning smiles, and Regulus took note of how James had Euphemia's smile. Regulus also chuckled a bit to himself when Euphemia had immediately shut down being called Mrs. Potter, just as Fleamont had warned.

The greetings otherwise went by quickly, other than Euphemia fussing over each boy. She wanted to make sure each one of them was in good health and spirits. Also, she would chastise the boys if she noticed something that was the opposite of her idea of good health. Fleamont watched his wife adoringly from the side, taking joy from the interactions.

-

All of the boys were sitting at the table when the Hogwarts owls came in delivering their letters. When James received his letter, he noticed that the letter was heavier than normal. He had opened it and out fell a captain's badge. He had become the Gryffindor Quidditch captain, and he was in shock he just stared at the badge that was sitting on the table.

It didn't take long for the other people in the room to notice James' silence. Regulus looked at the badge and smiled, he was happy for James. He had pieced together that James was putting a lot of extra work into quidditch and was glad he was being rewarded for it but hoped that it wouldn't cause his behaviors to increase. Sirius grinned and clapped James on the back, startling James, and beginning the boy back into reality.

"I can't believe it!" James exclaimed jumping up from the table.

"I can though, Prongs! You were the obvious choice, Mr. best chaser Hogwarts has ever seen. Also, no one puts in as much effort as you do. If they had chosen anyone else I'd say they were blind!" Sirius was just as excited as James, if not even more. Sirius was a super supportive friend, it was the least he could do since James was such a good friend to him.

Euphemia then wrapped her arms around James. She had stopped what she was doing in the kitchen, leaving the dishes half done. The dishes could wait, but her son couldn't.

"I am so proud of you James! I told you that all of the extra work would pay off in the end!" Euphemia loved her son more than anything in the world. How could she not? She had always wanted a child, but for the longest time, she had thought that she would never be able to have one. Then all of a sudden a pregnancy finally stuck just as she was about to stop trying. James was her little miracle and was so happy that things were going right for him.

Regulus watched everyone celebrate, and was content just watching. He didn't want to impose on any moment that they wanted to have. All of those thoughts went away when James in all of his excitement hugged Regulus. Immediately, Regulus' mind went blank, he was not prepared for the strong arms of James to be around him. The hug made him feel warm inside, and in turn, made him smile.

The celebrations lasted a little longer, and they all had fallen into comfortable conversation. They were talking about things that they were excited about for the upcoming year, as the letters reminded them of how truly close they were to going back to school.

"Well, I think you boys should go to Diagon Alley and go and get your school supplies!" Euphemia supplied. That, however, made Regulus' stomach twist a bit. It hadn't occurred to him yet that there was a chance that Sirius and he might not be able to access their vault, and would have to depend on the Potters to help them buy their school supplies.

"That's a great idea, Mum!" James stated. He was super excited, so Regulus didn't want to mention his concerns quite yet. "How about we go tomorrow? That'll give us a little bit of time to prepare." James mostly wanted the time to prepare for himself to get his anxiety a day to work itself out. He didn't like super spontaneous plans if he could help it, he liked preparing for things a little bit, even if it was an hour or two.

"Sounds perfect James," Euphemia said as she made her way to finish cleaning up the kitchen. She had a few more tasks she wanted to complete that day, so she wanted to get them done as quickly as possible.

-

The rest of the day was spent hanging out. They played quidditch and flew around for a few hours, just trying to waste time. They then moved back inside to play other games in the living room. Sirius was enjoying himself and was oblivious to the other two's inner anxiety about the next day.

That night James went up to bed first, he was exhausted, but also just needed a moment to himself to work through his anxiety. He sat on the floor of his room and tried to calm his nerves, and ended up going down a rabbit hole of every possible thing that could go wrong the next day. He was having a hard time grounding himself, and it wasn't like he wasn't trying. He was running his hands over the carpet of his bedroom trying to use the sensation to remind him of what was real, and what was a made-up scenario in his head.

Regulus had gone upstairs and had wanted to see James. He had noticed over the summer that James' presence oftentimes made him feel calmer, and wanted to have that feeling after his day of worrying about the next. He had knocked on James' door and was confused when he received no response. Sirius was still downstairs, and his room's door was open with the light off Also, the bathroom was empty too. He knew that James had to be in his own room due to the light peeking through the door, and the fact that he obviously wasn't in the other rooms of the house.

Against his better judgment, Regulus pushed open the door to find James sitting on the floor distressed. He was concerned when James didn't even look at him when he walked in. He closed the door behind himself and walked over to James. He didn't want to startle the older boy, but he wasn't sure what he should do.

After a little bit of thinking, Regulus sat down in front of James, wanting to be on the same level as James, hoping to startle him less. He then very cautiously placed his hand on James' knee, just like he had the night he had found James distressed a few weeks prior. Immediately, James looked at Regulus in alarm and confusion. He quickly covered up his surprise and smiled at Regulus.

"Oh, I'm sorry I didn't notice you come in. I was super lost in thought was all," James chuckled a bit, hoping to make the situation seem less concerning.

"I just wanted to make sure you were ok. I did come in here to talk to you about something, but I can't remember what it was anymore," Regulus lied about forgetting, but he felt bad if he dropped his anxieties onto James. Instead, he grabbed James' hand and pulled him up so that they could sit on the bed.

The two crawled so they were sitting at the top of James' bed, their backs against the headboard. Regulus brought up easy conversation topics like quidditch to try and ease both of their nerves. They talked for a while, then suddenly while Regulus was telling a story he noticed that James had stopped responding. He was surprised to see that James had fallen asleep. It had never happened before since Regulus always fell asleep first.

He didn't know what he should do but didn't want to wake the sleeping boy. Regulus knew better than anyone that James needed the sleep. He had stayed there for a little while, but then he decided to lay James down comfortably on his bed. He moved painfully slowly as he was way to afraid that he might wake James. After what seemed like an eternity to Regulus, but was only like two minutes, James was laying down with the blanket over him in his bed.

The second James was laid down Regulus turned off the light and closed the door behind him. For a moment he was just going to go to his room, but when he saw Sirius' light on, he decided to confide in his brother about his worries. He knocked on the door and a slightly disheveled Sirius opened the door. Sirius looked as if he was halfway through getting ready for bed, and that made Regulus feel bad that he was interrupting. However, Sirius was his brother and would do anything for him.

"Is everything alright Reg?" Sirius asked with a look of concern on his face.

"Yeah, there is just something that I wanted to talk about. It has been on my mind all day," Regulus didn't know what else to say to introduce the topic while just standing in the hallway.

"Of course Reg. Come on in," Sirius pushed the door open farther so that Regulus could enter, and they both moved to sit on the bed.

Regulus had expressed all of his concerns about the next day, and Sirius listened while he talked and waited until Reg was done speaking before he said anything. It turned out that Regulus shouldn't have been worried about anything pertaining to the Diagon Alley trip. Sirius revealed to his younger brother that he had been expecting himself to run away sooner or later, and for the last several years Sirius had been stealing extra money from the Black family vault. The amount of money Sirius had would be more than enough to get them both through Hogwarts and maybe a few years afterward.

The Black brothers talked for a while after that. It had been a while since just the two of them had talked about anything serious. After they ran away, the topic of conversation between the two tended to be more lighthearted, as they wanted to spend time getting happier and unburdened by their past. They had finally reached a point where they could have a heavier conversation and it not send them back in their healing.

-

The next day was an event. James was up early like always, but the Black brothers slept in. Normally, the Potters left early to go to Diagon Alley because they didn't want to deal with the crowds if they could avoid it. However, since Sirius and Regulus slept in they got to Diagon Alley early afternoon.

The crowd was thick in the alley, and the crowd made James anxious. James' hands were shaking and he didn't have his cup or anything to hide it, so he did his best at hiding it by picking at his fingernails. He didn't want anyone to notice how stressed the crowds had made him since he wanted the day to go well for everyone else.

They started by getting their books, which was the most important part. It had been hard to find their books since there were so many people taking the books off the shelves that the poor staff couldn't keep up restocking them. After about an hour and a half, they were finally moving on to their next stop, which was just picking up spare potion ingredients that they needed for class that year to practice for their exams.

They went to a few more places including Madam Malkin's. Then their last stop was Quality Quidditch Supplies. They had somehow managed to spend nearly two hours in the shop collecting things they needed and looking around at everything that was there. James had wanted to make sure he had everything and all of the stuff he had looked nice since he was now captain.

All of the boys had a good time overall in Diagon Alley. James was able to push most of his anxiety aside after the second shop after knowing he had gotten all of the required things he needed for his Sixth year. Regulus and Sirius were happy because they had finally had a school shopping trip that was enjoyable, and wasn't under the watchful eye of Walburga Black.

Euphemia had apparated all of them back to the Manor and magically packed all of their supplies in their school trunks. She knew that they didn't need to start packing as of yet, however, she didn't see the harm in having one less thing to worry about for the upcoming school year.

The rest of the evening went over pretty well. Well, all except for when Regulus had noticed James subtly throwing away most of his dinner. Regulus stayed silent yet again, but he didn't know how much longer he would be able to watch James do self-destructive things. That night he had another nightmare, and there was James like always ready to help him.

- 

It is currently almost midnight on Sunday the 8th for me. So technically this chapter is not late. I am just glad I got it done. This week was long and hard for me. I was stranded while traveling, but did manage to make it home, however, this week had been super busy and I have been exhausted. Thank you all for your patience and please let me know what you think!