Remus suddenly realized why Alphard was here. He wanted his help in getting Sirius back in with his family. Remus couldn't help but recoil against the idea. He tried to imagine what James would do if Alphard had shown up at his doorstep making the same request. Somehow, he thought that it would have involved a creative hex or two.
Remus had been quietly happy for Sirius when he had gotten out of Grimmauld Place. He had been convinced that it was destroying him. He had just seemed happier when he had gone to live with James, relieved of all the burdens of being the heir of his family.
And somehow, he couldn't help but think that the Black family had destroyed its sons in any case. Everyone had been so ready to believe that Sirius had betrayed the Potters because he was Black -- it was in his nature, they had said. Peter's work had been easy for him in a way. Everyone had wanted to believe that the Black and the werewolf were actually evil. He had been thrown away into Azkaban because of his name, none of his blood family, who had to have known that he hadn't been involved in Voldemort's scheme, willing to speak up to free him. And even after he had escaped, his life had been ended by his own cousin.
And after Sirius had left, Regulus had been the one that had stepped up to fill his big brother's shoes - which had promptly landed him a space as a Death Eater, a career that had been rather short-lived.
Remus wondered if Alphard knew all this, knew how both of his nephews died, essentially killed by their own family. He wondered how he could explain all of it, explain that that was why Sirius couldn't return - and that was why Remus would never dream of asking him to. Because it also didn't help that they would never be approved of and if the Blacks ever found out he was a werewolf -
"He won't," Remus answered bluntly. "His parents should leave him alone. That's the best you can hope for."