Regulus Black stood over his mother Walburga, waiting for her to wake up.

Regulus and his brother Sirius's father Orion was long gone, likely at an inn in Diagon Alley with his mistress. Sirius, meanwhile, was upstairs in his bedroom, smoking the herbs and swallowing the pills that James Potter had introduced him to. Regulus knew because he could smell the strange scents of those herbs as these wafted into the living room.

Regulus could smell the wine on his mother's lips, too.

Walburga Black had never exactly been thrilled that her husband had taken a mistress. In the traditional pureblood rings of the Wizarding World, fidelity was extremely valued. Anything to do with family was extremely valued, because family equaled blood. But Orion had broken the rules, and while Walburga had tried to overlook her husband's disloyalty at first, she soon heard from mouth to ear that her husband's lover, a whore from a brothel in Knockturn Alley, was a half blood, she had abandoned all hopes of forgiving her husband.

And when she learned that Orion had conceived a child with his lover, she had turned to a favorite old comfort, wine.

In normal circumstances, Orion would have been blasted from the family tree, but enough scandal had been caused that year when Regulus's cousin Andromeda had run off with a Muggleborn, and the Blacks couldn't afford any more tarnishing to their name. So Walburga had made a deal with Orion: force his whore to have the pregnancy terminated by Healers at St. Mungo's, or have his reputation ruined and lose his sons as well. Still, however, the pain was too much for Regulus's mother to handle, and she continued to drink while her husband continued to pay visits to the half blood.

Regulus sighed, his mother still not stirring. Tomorrow the Malfoy and Yaxley families would be coming for dinner, and everyone would act like they were perfect, like Orion was the perfect husband and Walburga was the perfect mother and Sirius was the perfect son.

But as only Regulus knew, that was far from the truth.