Oh, Regulus! *wibbles* This is lovely, and sad and wistful, and for such a short story, you really nailed so many layers of their complicated relationship!

I had to giggle at this line though: (Later, for some reason, he'd always smelled a little like wet dog when Regulus got close enough to sniff. He had never asked about that. He'd thought maybe it came from associating with mudbloods.) Hee!