A/N: This story seems to have gathered more interest than I thought it would! Thank you for all the reviews, favorites, and alerts.

Harry's first burst of accidental magic happened when he was five, during Walburga Black's burial. Regulus resented the fact that the kid's first time out of the Black family home in years had been for that kind of occasion, but it wouldn't have been fair for him not to be present. The only other two people in attendance were Regulus' grandfathers, Arcturus and Pollux, and although both were surprised at finding out he was alive, they refrained from asking who the boy who kept pulling down his pointed hat on his forehead was.

Harry had clearly been on the verge of crying for the whole service, and when a tear finally escaped him, he gasped in shock and suddenly disappeared. Regulus tried not to panic, it was normal for accidental magic to happen when strong emotions were involved, and chances were the kid simply apparated back home, so he immediately went there to check.

12 Grimmauld Place was quieter than it had been in recent memory, the eerie silence making Regulus feel uncomfortable as he started climbing the stairs. He had a good idea of where Harry might have ended up, and as he slowly pushed open the door to the master bedroom his suspicion was confirmed. Sitting on the bed was Harry, hugging his knees and sobbing silently.

Comforting people had never been something he was good at, and Regulus was unsure of what to do or if he should have said anything at all. He sat down next to the boy and simply held him into his arms. It reminded him of when Sirius would do the same for him, after a particularly harsh punishment from their parents, and the memory of the warm feeling of being so close to his brother was enough to almost make him cry as well.

They stayed like that for a long time, until Harry started breathing normally again, without tears and sobs, and looked up towards the Black crest placed above the bedroom door.

"She'll be mad that I cried. Pure-blood children shouldn't cry over trifles." he said, his voice raspy.

Regulus felt a pang of emotion at those words. Walburga might have been more loving with Harry than she had ever been with her own children, but some things were simply inevitable. He was almost glad that she died before she could fill Harry's head with pure-blood supremacist propaganda, even if the fact that she considered him almost her own child and did her best to raise him as a proper pure-blood wizard had been fascinating to watch.

"This is one of those situations where it's acceptable to let out your emotions, Harry." he ruffled the boy's hair and then gently coaxed him off the bed "Why don't you go clean up and then we eat dinner? I'm sure you're hungry."

-x-x-x-

Before long, it was decided to change the bedroom arrangements. Until that point Regulus and Harry had both been sleeping in Regulus' room, but now it was time for the man to move to the master bedroom, and to stop being paranoid and let Harry have a room all for himself. And he wanted to let him have a very specific room.

"You will sleep in Sirius' old bedroom from now on, so you can have your own room."

"Sirius?"

While Walburga lived, as much as mentioning Sirius' name was forbidden. Harry had asked, once, about the names removed from the tapestry of the Black family tree, and the succinct answer about whoever it was that should have been next to Regulus had been 'he ran away'. The kid wasn't stupid, and realized it was best to not bring it up again.

Regulus has no idea how to explain things to Harry, but he didn't want to lie to him. It wouldn't have done any good to wait too long to tell him what really happened to his parents, and maybe it was time to start disclosing the truth.

"Sirius... is my older brother. He was also your father's best friend."

At that, Harry perked up, an excited look on his face at the prospect of learning something about his parents. All he knew about them was that their death was the reason why it wasn't safe for him to leave the house, and Walburga had once told him that his father was from an old pure-blood family, which had filled Harry with pride.

"Tell me more about him, please!" Harry jumped up and down, eager. "Wait, can we see his room first? Can I move my things there?" without waiting for an answer, he took off.

Shaking his head in amusement, Regulus ignored his mother's portrait rude comment about running inside the house and followed the kid.

"Sometimes he acts like he had a Snitch for breakfast."

-x-x-x-

Regulus looked down in disgust at the muggle clothes he was wearing, and then at Harry, who seemed to be radiating pure excitement at the prospect of finally properly visiting the outside world. They were going to visit a muggle doctor and buy Harry a pair of glasses, so the poor kid would stop giving himself headaches every time he sat down in the library room to read a book.

It was also Harry's birthday, and Regulus had promised him that they would spend the whole day out. The muggle world was safe for Harry, and keeping him confined at home until it was time for him to leave for Hogwarts wouldn't have been a good idea, no matter how much Regulus was tempted to do it. He idly wondered what Sirius would have said if he found out his brother had turned into a stereotypical apprehensive parent.