James, Lily, Marlene, Emmaline, Peter, and Regulus sat down 'round the table in the flat in East London, having set the table for their dinner. Steaming meat pies sat before them with rolls coated thickly with butter and great steins of butterbeer or cups of tea, depending on the drinker's preference.

Regulus found himself coming off quite shy as he watched the others talk excitedly, making jokes and smiling about at one another. He felt as though he'd fallen into an entirely different world. Such a contrast it was - this dinner table compared to the ones he'd shared at various Death Eaters houses, consorting with the followers of the Dark Lord! At those dinners, the conversations had been entirely political, with the Dark Lord leading in his drawling voice. They'd been tinged with a fear factor that left the entire room feeling volatile and dangerous. More than once, someone had been murdered at those dinners - either a Death Eater for failing to follow the Dark Lords orders precisely as they'd been told to do, or else a blood-traitor for some other offense that Regulus could never quite fathom. He'd eaten very little at those dinners.

Here, he felt his instinctual guard slowly dropping, his shoulders quietly releasing tension as he watched James Potter talking, gesturing with his fork and the way Lily's eyes crinkled when she laughed. He shared shaky smiles with Emmaline, who sat beside him and kept turning to check his foot wasn't hurting him, and he laughed along with the others when Marlene made a joke that was positively hilarious. Although Regulus couldn't remember the last time he'd had a true family dinner - it had been long, long ago since they'd all sat together with their guards down around one another in the Noble House of Black; probably before Sirius ever went to Hogwarts - but he recognized the atmosphere, and he realized how much he longed for it.

The only thing that could have made the night any better was if Sirius had stayed and been a part of it, Regulus thought.

"Save room for dessert," Lily cried as she got up, the meat pies near to gone, "I've gotten an ice cream cake from Fortescues!"

"Ah - did you see Jasper, then?" James asked, standing and picking up his plate, as well as Marlene's and Peter's.

"I did," Lily nodded, collecting Regulus's and Emmaline's plates. "We'll be right back with the dessert!" she promised, smiling 'round the table.

"How is the ol' bloke?" James asked, following Lily out to the kitchen with the plates.

Regulus didn't hear how Jasper was, though, for James and Lily had gone out of the room and Marlene launched into a debate with Emmaline about whether or not an ice cream cake could properly be called an ice cream cake, as it was not really a cake. ("It's in the shape of a cake," Emmaline said. "But it isn't made of cake!" Marlene retorted.)

Regulus turned to Peter. "How've you been this summer?"

"Me? Oh... oh, I've - I've been alright," Peter replied, though the truth of it didn't reach his eyes.

"Are you living here in the flat, too? I've not fully grasped who lives here and who's just visiting," Regulus admitted.

"It's really James's flat," Peter answered. "I suppose all of the rest of us are visitors, but Remus and Sirius have their own room. There's a guest room and the couch pulls out, though, so there's always an assortment of us here... I stay as much as I'm welcomed to."

"I should imagine you'd be always welcomed, since you're one of the Marauders," Regulus said.

A funny look came upon Peter's face then. "I s'pose so."

"Something the matter, Peter?" Regulus asked.

But Peter just shrugged and looked down, avoiding Regulus's eye contact.

James and Lily returned then, carrying the ice cream cake, which turned out to be raspberry and lemon flavored layers and they cut it into slices, handing out platters and spoons to go 'round the table. Regulus reckoned he'd never tasted anything quite so good as that ice cream cake in all of his life.

"So you go back to Hogwarts tomorrow, do you, Reg?" James asked when they'd all started eating their dessert.

Regulus nodded.

"Sixth year?"

"Yes sir," Regulus replied. Peter and Marlene both snorted at the word "sir" and Regulus's cheeks turned red.

James laughed good naturedly, "You must be excited."

"I guess," Regulus answered. "I'd probably be more excited if I wasn't going back to Slytherin house with all that lot..." He hesitated, "...and without all of you lot." He scooped a bit of ice cream up in his spoon to keep himself busy.

"Well you can always owl us anytime," James offered.

"Yes, anytime," Lily nodded. She smiled at Regulus warmly and Regulus felt his stomach flip just a bit.

When the ice cream cake was gone, Marlene and Emmaline announced they were retiring for the night and Lily quickly went to pack some of the left over meat pies for them to take home with them, and was distracted making plans for the following week for when the pair of them would visit again. This left Peter and James at the table with Regulus, and though Regulus would have rathered for Peter to leave the table as well before he spoke with James - he didn't want to put it off any longer, so he cleared his throat and put down his spoon.

"James, I really must talk with you."

James nodded, folding up his napkin and putting it to the side. He turned to Regulus, "Alright. Go on, then, I'm listening." And it was quite clear from the expression on James's face, the focus in his eyes, that he truly was giving Regulus his undivided attention. Peter was still eating hungrily and seemed to be quite distracted.

Regulus shifted, looking rather uncomfortable. "It's like this... you know how you sent me to go and get the werewolf saliva? Back at the end of term?"

James nodded. It was a touchy subject - they both knew - because Regulus had asked Severus Snape to help out with the mission and Snape, being the snake he always had been, had found a way to steal the vials of the dangerous werewolf venom and squirrel them away beyond Regulus's reach. The mission had been counted as a failure, since the aim of it had been for the Order of the Phoenix to control the werewolf venom - not for it to simply slip from the hands of one Death Eater to another. This, James realized, was why Regulus was so nervous acting about what he had to say.

Regulus took a deep breath, "It's just that... All summer long, I've managed to keep track of Severus, and I've managed to follow him near about to anywhere he went. I tried to keep most of my spying a secret so he wouldn't know exactly how much I knew - but to let on enough that he knew I did know at least a bit of what he was up to. However, now that summer's coming to an end and I'm on my way back on the Express, then there won't be anyone keeping an eye upon Severus Snape any longer. And hell knows how long it'll take before he's sold that bloody venom right back to the werewolves?"

James's brow furrowed deeply with concern.

Regulus leaned forward. "So I - I -" his face grew darkly flushed, "I stole them. I stole them all back from Severus."

James blinked in surprise at the sudden turn the talk had taken. "You what???"

Peter had finished eating and was concentrating, it seemed, upon arranging his silverware on the plate in a proper manner.

"I stole the vials." Regulus reached into the pocket of his trousers and produced a small leather coin pouch, opening it and withdrawing a key. "Here."

James took the key, recognizing it instantly as one from Gringott's. He looked up at Regulus in surprise.

"It's to the Black family vault. The vials are in there. You can go and fetch them, then send the key back to me with Kreacher." Regulus took a deep breath, "Then, do something with them, anything you like, but don't tell me. I want to be able to honestly say that I don't know where they are or exactly how or when they disappeared from the safe."

"But how am I supposed to get something out of the Black family safe?" James asked, laughing nervously, "Surely it's a high security vault you lot have and --"

"You'll need a member of the House of Black present."

James opened his mouth to argue, then realized that Regulus meant Sirius.

"He can also summon Kreacher after. To return the key. And once the key is returned, I'll get it back home on the holiday and we'll be finished with the whole rubbish of the venom."

It did seem a neat and elegant plan, James had to admit. He looked at the key in his palm, then back up at Regulus. "Excellent job, Reg."

Regulus nodded, embarrassed, and shy to take the compliment. He'd been the one to mess up the original plan, after all, and, at least to Regulus himself, this gesture barely changed the fact that he had lost the bloody vials to begin with.

Which made what he was about to do feel quite hard for him.

"May I stay here the night?" he asked.

"Here?"

"Yes, I - I think it rather wise I try at minimizing the visibility of myself coming and going from here, and it's late, the street is crowded still. I just don't want to be seen and I --"

"Of course you can stay!" James interrupted. "Regulus, you needn't have asked at all, you're welcomed any time, any time at all."

Peter glanced at James, then at Regulus, and back down at the table.

"We'll take you to King's Cross in the morning. Have you got your school things?"

"Kreacher can take them to the station for me," Regulus answered. He was melting out of the stress-filled mode he had been in already, his jaw unclenching and shoulders loosened. He felt safe there at the flat, and the only worry was what Sirius might say when he found out Regulus had stayed.

Lily returned then and set herself down at the table. She smiled and held out a package to Peter, "Last of the cake," she said, "I thought you might like it."

Peter nodded and took the package. "Yes. Thank you Lily." He got up, "Well I'll just be on my way then."

"You're not staying?" Lily asked.

Peter shook his head, "Not tonight." He stood up quickly and held up the take away Lily had given him. "G'night then." Before anyone could say much, he'd gone by floo out of the flat.

James looked at the floo in concern. Then, "What's on with him?"

"Dunno," Lily answered.

"He said something about only staying when he's welcome to me before," Regulus offered.

"He's always welcome!" James laughed, "Wormy knows that."

Regulus shrugged.

"Perhaps remind him next time he's over," Lily suggested.

"Yeah," James nodded, "I will." He stood up, yawning and stretching, sore from his day of work between the Auror Training Center and the house, he'd barely rested all day and now that his stomach was quite full he felt rather sleepy. "Reg, I think I'll tuck in myself, but you're welcome to watch the telly or whatever you like. Guest room is that door just over there, make yourself at home." James smiled.

"Watch telly?" Regulus sounded surprised. "You lot have a telly here? Like the thing the muggles watch?"

"Yeah, and some films too," James replied.

Regulus looked incredulous.

Lily laughed, "I'll show you how to use it, Reg," she suggested. She stood up and kissed James's cheek, as he yawned again, and said, "Then I'll be in, love."

"Alright Evans," James said through his big bear yawn. He nodded to Regulus, tucking the Black Family vault key into his pocket. "Thank you, Regulus. Very much." He ruffed the younger Black brother's hair, then wandered off down the hallway to his room.

Lily watched him go, then beckoned Regulus, "Come on, I reckon you'll rather enjoy telly. You simply must give watching Doctor Who a go, it's mine and James's favorite."

"Alright," Regulus said, smiling, and feeling as though the entire world had, mercifully, been lifted off from his shoulders.