Chapter Text
AUGUST 1994
They took the Floo to the Burrow and arrived in the middle of an argument.
Sirius pulled out a chair at the table and Regulus gratefully collapsed into it with his head spinning. Although he liked to believe he’d gotten slightly better at dealing with Floo travel over the years, it still hit him hard every time he stepped out of the fireplace.
And once his head stopped spinning enough for him to take in his surroundings, the first thing he heard was someone somewhere upstairs shouting.
“Sounds like the twins are in trouble again.” Remus said. “Maybe I should go see if they need a mediator to resolve whatever’s going on?”
“Might be a good idea.” Harry agreed. “I’m going to see if I can find Ron. He might know what the argument’s about.”
Remus and Harry hurried upstairs to find out what was going on, leaving Regulus with his brother. Sirius hovered impatiently by Regulus’s side.
“You can go investigate. I know you want to. I’ll be fine here.” Regulus told his brother. There was no way Sirius wasn’t dying of curiosity right now.
Sirius frowned at him, hesitating. “Are you alright being alone after Floo travel?”
“I’m fine.” Regulus assured him. “I’m used to it. Go on.”
He waved toward the direction of the commotion.
Sirius grinned. “I’ll go find out all the juicy details and come back to fill you in on the latest Weasley scandal.”
He took off upstairs as well.
Once he was alone, Regulus closed his eyes and focused on taking deep breaths to relieve the nausea that came with Floo travel.
A few minutes later, Sirius was back as promised. And he did have news. Laughing hysterically, he explained how the twins had tested their latest Wheezes product, Ton Tongue Toffee, on Percy.
Regulus did not find the situation nearly as funny as Sirius did. When they were in school, Regulus had been on the receiving end of too many similar jokes to find much amusement in it. Besides, he was getting a little worried about the direction the twins were going. He would have to have a talk with them later about making sure that their products were safe.
But before then, they were introduced to the two elder Weasley sons. Although he had heard plenty of stories about them, Regulus had never met either of them.
Bill, the Gringotts curse breaker, looked like a muggle rockstar. He shook Regulus’s hand with a grin. “I’ve heard lots about you, Prof.”
And it was extremely weird to be called Prof by someone who had never been in one of Regulus’s classes.
The brothers must have heard the nickname from his younger siblings, because Charlie, the dragon expert, also greeted Regulus with the same nickname. “Good to meet you, Prof.”
“You as well.” Regulus had been wanting to meet Charlie for a while. “I believe we owe you our thanks for your help in the mess with the Norwegian Ridgeback.”
Charlie laughed. “Happy to help. And we’re always glad to get another dragon to safety.”
They chatted for a while about the Dragon, including filling Sirius and Remus in on the full story of Hagrid’s dragon raising exploits. They’d only gotten a basic summary of the story yesterday when Regulus explained why Harry had met the Dark Lord in the Forbidden Forest during a detention he’d gotten in his first year for helping Hagrid smuggle a dragon off school grounds.
But they hadn’t heard the details of how Hagrid had tried to raise a dragon in his wooden house. Harry explained how enamored Hagrid had been with the dragon, and they all laughed at the story of Hagrid giving the dragon a teddy bear that quickly got torn to shreds.
Their discussion also came with the explanation that Norbert the dragon was actually female and had been renamed Norberta.
The relaxed atmosphere at the Burrow was a complete contrast to how tense and anxious things had been at Grimmauld recently. Regulus thought they deserved the break from everything they were dealing with.
Preparing for dinner was fun.
Bill and Charlie had a battle with flying picnic tables, which was actually far more entertaining that Regulus would have expected if someone had described it to him.
The battle had to end when Percy opened a window to shout that the noise was ruining his concentration on the Ministry report he was completing.
“Pity.” Sirius said as the tables settled back to the ground. “But I suppose Bill had already mostly won.”
Regulus gave his brother an incredulous look. “Are you kidding? Charlie works with dragons. If anyone knows the strategies for winning a battle in the air, it’s him.”
Sirius laughed and shook his head. “Charlie’s table already lost a leg. He was on his way out.”
“No way. That was just a lucky move by Bill. Charlie was going to pull ahead in the end.” Regulus said, enjoying this ridiculous debate with his brother.
“Nope.” Sirius shook his head again. “He was a leg down and going out.”
“A leg down and coming back.” Regulus corrected.
“They should make table battles an official sport.” Remus said as he joined the debate.
“That would be awesome!” Fred said.
“We should do something with that.” George said contemplatively.
They were interrupted by Molly calling out from the kitchen door that the food was ready. Minutes later they were all seated at the outdoor tables enjoying a delicious dinner.
Regulus ended up sitting at the end of the table next to Sirius with Remus on Sirius’s other side. The twins sat across from them, probably eager to hear more Marauder stories.
Percy had made a point to sit as far away from the twins as possible. He was at the far end of the other table with his parents and older siblings talking about his new Ministry job.
Once the meal was underway and Regulus was sure the Weasley parents were distracted at the other end of the tables, he addressed the twins. “I heard about you little experiment this afternoon.”
Both twins grinned.
“That was hilarious.” George laughed.
“It worked so well.” Fred added. “We weren’t sure if we had a marketable product yet, but now…”
Sirius grinned. “You two are going to have a brilliant business once you get going.”
“If you don’t shoot yourselves in the foot.” Regulus warned.
He got blank stares from Sirius and the twins at that.
“Reg, that’s a muggle phrase.” Remus pointed out with a small laugh.
Regulus actually had to think about it for a second. The magical world usually thought in terms of casting spells rather than shooting weapons. And although muggleborns had influenced the magical world enough to the point where some people might talk about shooting spells, the particular phrase he had just used was still most commonly associated with the muggle world.
“Oh, right. I suppose it is.” He agreed. “But that’s not the point. I mean that in the direction you two are going, you’re risking sabotaging yourselves.”
“How?” George asked incredulously. He sounded way too overconfident.
“There’s a fine line between pranking and bullying. You don’t want to cross that line.” Regulus said.
“We always did well avoiding that line when we were in school.” Sirius said proudly.
That got him incredulous looks from both Remus and Regulus.
Remus’s voice has a cautious, restrained note to it when he spoke. “I can definitely think of one time…”
“Except for that.” Sirius said quickly, suddenly looking very guilty. “Except for the one time I screwed up and went way over the line, we usually…”
“It wasn’t just one time.” Regulus said irritably. “Especially around your fourth and fifth years at Hogwarts. Your Marauders practically lived on the bullying side of that line.”
“We did not” Sirius said defensively.
“That does seem like a bit of an exaggeration, Reg.” Remus said carefully. “We made sure our pranks were safe.”
“Safe?” Regulus stared at the pair of them in disbelief. “As the victim of many of your pranks over those years, I can definitely tell you they were not safe. And during those two years, you were definitely the worst bullies in the school. Thankfully, you grew out of that. Your pranks during your last two years at Hogwarts were much safer. If you want to give the twins an example of how to prank safely, use the messes you created during those later years rather than the complete disasters before that.”
“Our pranks were not complete disasters!” Sirius sounded offended.
Several memories of his brother’s terrible pranks flashed through Regulus’s mind. He decided to use one of them as an example for the twins who were listening to the discussion with fascination. And if he was going to make an example, he might as well drive the point hard. “Okay, then let’s talk about your worst prank against Slytherin house.”
Both Sirius and Remus frowned in concentration.
“Which one was that?” Sirius asked.
Regulus was not impressed that they didn’t even know which prank he was talking about.
“The one at the beginning of your firth year that got you a month’s worth of detentions.” He prompted.
A bewildered look crossed Sirius’s face. “You mean the pillow prank?”
“I wasn’t involved in that one.” Remus said. “I had prefect duties the night you set that one up.”
“And while you were stuck with boring prefect duties, the rest of us were having fun.” Sirius said with a grin. “McGonagall totally overreacted to that one.”
“Overreacted?” Regulus repeated incredulously. As far as he was concerned, the so-called pillow prank had been the worse prank committed by the Marauders besides the Whomping Willow incident.
“Come on, Reg.” Sirius moaned. “Everyone was still getting back into the school routine after the summer. No one wanted to get up early and go to class. So… we thought it’d be fun if the Slytherin’s pillows followed them around all day.”
The twins laughed.
“Did it work?” George asked.
“It did.” Sirius laughed. “You should have seen them come running upstairs with pillows stuck to the sides of their heads the next morning.”
“It did look pretty hilarious.” Remus chuckled too. But he also cast a nervous sideways glance at Regulus. “And it seemed pretty harmless. Didn’t do much besides make a few Slytherins late to their morning classes.”
“Pity they didn’t go to class with the pillows still on their heads.” Sirius said. “Slytherins can’t take a joke and had to go running to the Hospital Wing.”
“I expect the reason we all ran to the Hospital Wing…” Regulus began dryly. “…was because the invisible glue you’d magicked onto the ears of nearly every Slytherin reacts poorly when in contact with skin for long periods of time. When you try to lift your head from your pillow only for the flesh to start ripping of your ear, I think you’d have run to the Hospital Wing too.”
There was dead silence at their end of the table.
Remus slowly turned to Sirius. “You used glue? On people’s ears?”
“Seemed the simplest way to get the pillows to stick to people.” Sirius muttered. He looked horrified, staring at Regulus with wide eyes. “Pete was out lookout. He let us know when another Slytherin was coming. James and I hid under the cloak by the stairs to the dungeons. Then we cast a spell we’d invented ourselves on the Slytherin’s ears.”
“A glue spell with a time delay so that it wouldn’t appear until most of us were sleeping.” Regulus guessed. “I figured as much.”
“McGonagall shouted at us for a long time after that one. Mostly about endangering people and irresponsibility.” Sirius muttered guiltily. “I didn’t really listen. I figured it was harmless.”
“It could have been.” Regulus said simply. “If you’d thought it through properly. You could have used a modified Summoning Charm to make people’s pillows follow them through the air. Or there is such a thing as magnetism magic. It’s more complex, but if it had been modified to a lower strength, that could also have worked. Of course, with both of those, you would have needed to build in safeguards to ensure that pillows didn’t stick to people’s faces and smother them. But with a little more work, it could have been done safely.”
“I assumed they had done something like that.” Remus stared accusingly at Sirius. “I didn’t realize they used glue. And on something as fragile as the human ear.”
Regulus thought about pointing out that since they’d used a magical glue it created a magical wound, which turned out to be quite difficult to heal. He thought about mentioning how badly that prank went for people who had long hair or earrings. He thought about explaining why most of the pillows in Slytherin had to be replaced because they were all either bloodstained or covered in magical glue that couldn’t be removed.
But he didn’t feel he needed to say any of that. It was years ago, and Sirius looked guilty enough. And more graphic details of how the prank went wrong really weren’t necessary for making his point.
“It could have been safe with a bit more work.” Regulus emphasized the important lesson he wanted the twins to take away from the story. “If it had been done safely, we would have all had a laugh. Or an annoyed sigh. We wouldn’t have had First Years developing a fear of Gryffindors and people of all ages afraid to go to bed over the next couple weeks. So that’s a business tip for you two. Don’t make joke shop items that could do so much harm that they make people fear you.”
Both of the twins nodded.
“I don’t think we’ve crossed that line.” Fred said. But he didn’t sound sure.
“Haven’t you?” Regulus said. He glanced down toward Percy at the other end of the table. He wondered if he was taking this lesson for the twins too far, but he had to get the point of safety across to them. So, he called down to the other end of the table. “Excuse me, Percy?! Just one question about the twins’ little prank this afternoon?”
Percy scowled but leaned forward so he could shout down the table. “Yes?”
“After you had eaten the Ton Tongue Toffee, could you breathe past it’s effects?” Regulus asked.
Percy took a second to consider his answer. “Not well. And it got worse as the effects of the magic worsened.”
The whole table heard this, and Molly looked ready to start shouting at Fred and George again. Regulus ignored everyone else and focused on the twins’ worried faces. “And that is exactly my point. You have to consider safety before something goes wrong, not after.”
“But he should have still been able to breathe out of his nose.” George said.
“Yeah.” Fred agreed. “His tongue should only have blocked his mouth.”
“The tongue extends back into the throat.” Regulus was frustrated that the twins had not considered basic human anatomy when developing their prank and joke shop ideas. “Did you build any safety measures into the magic to prevent his tongue from blocking the throat?”
“No.” George muttered quietly.
“Did you build anything into the magic to stop it after a certain length of time in case the person effected can’t reach their wand or is underage and can’t counter the magic?”
“No.” Both twins said at the same time. They both looked miserable.
“Some of your ideas aren’t bad. A little gross at times but not necessarily bad.” Regulus told the twins. “But nothing’s going to shut down your joke shop plans like accidentally smothering someone. You need to think of everything that could go wrong first and make sure it doesn’t go wrong.”
Both twins nodded seriously.
“Thanks for the advice, Prof.” George said.
Regulus took a deep breath, glad that the twins seemed to understand what he had been trying to tell them. Then he noticed that both Sirius and Remus were staring at him. “What?”
“I think you just went full professor mode there for a minute.” Sirius said. “Very impressive.”
“And you haven’t touched your dinner while you were teaching.” Remus said with a poorly hidden smile. “You’re food’s gotten cold.”
Regulus just rolled his eyes and returned his attention to his dinner.
“But if we’re still talking about pranking…” Regulus continued while he ate, trying to draw on his memories of safer pranks. “Jinxing the whole Slytherin Quidditch team to have red hair right before our match against Gryffindor… that was a better example of pranking. No one got hurt.”
“Although…” Remus added with a laugh. “We did sort of shoot ourselves in the foot with that one.”
Regulus laughed. “I remember. That one did sort of backfire on you.”
“Why?” Fred asked. “It sounds awesome.”
“They gave the Slytherin team an advantage.” Regulus explained. “Twice during the match the Gryffindor chasers accidentally passed the quaffle to the Slytherins. They mistook our red hair for the uniforms of their teammates. Easy mistake to make out of the corner of your eye.”
The group laughed. And the mention of Quidditch turned the conversation to the forthcoming World Cup game tomorrow night.
* * *
The conversation at dinner left Sirius feeling slightly sick. He genuinely had not realized that the pillow prank had been that bad. Nor had it occurred to him that the twins’ Ton Tongue Toffee could be dangerous. And it left him wondering how many of his school pranks had hurt people without him realizing it simply because he’s been sloppy about making sure they were safe. And he’d ignored whatever scolding came form the professors afterward.
He’d pretended not to be bothered as they finished dinner, but he really did need to talk to Reg. If nothing else, he felt like he should apologize for the pillow prank. And any other prank that had negative consequences, which Sirius had apparently ignored.
They planned to stay at the Burrow that night. It was the easiest solution to their transportation problem.
Reg insisted that he would not side-along apparate to the World Cup if there was another mode of transportation available. But he didn’t want to take the Floo to a location near a portkey, recover from that journey, and then immediately take a portkey that would make him sick again. He suggested that he would feel better if the Floo travel and the portkey were separated by a day.
The Weasley home was quite close to one of the portkeys, which made it an ideal place to stay the night before the match. And the Weasleys always welcomed them.
However, the house wasn’t that large. And since the two oldest Weasley children were also visiting, there was not much space.
Sirius, Reg, Remus and Harry decided to sleep in the magical tent they had purchased for the World Cup. Sirius set the tent up behind the house with a flick of his wand that night.
They all gathered in the tent after dinner. Sirius wanted to take the opportunity to talk to Reg about the consequences of Sirius’s school pranks, but a part of him wanted to speak to his brother about that privately. He decided to wait until Harry and Remus were focused on something else.
And anyway, right now, Reg seemed rather distracted in showing Harry the tent he’d selected for them.
Sirius would have probably bought a tent at random without looking into its features much, but Reg had actually been rather specific about what kind of magical tent Sirius purchased. Earlier that summer, he’d spent a whole day looking through magical supply catalogues reading about the size of various tents and what features they came with. He seemed especially focused on the types of beds the tents contained.
Then he’d sent Sirius and Remus off to Diagon with a list of which models of magical tents he approved of. Sirius thought his brother was being rather annoying about the whole thing and was tempted to purposefully buy a tent that was not on Reg’s approved list.
Remus quickly vetoed that idea. “Reg isn’t the type to put that much effort into choosing a tent if it didn’t matter. We should trust his judgment.”
Reg had only said he was looking for a tent that was “acceptable,” but Sirius conceded that there might be more reasoning behind his choice that he simply hadn’t shared with them at the time. They bought one of the tents on the list.
Now, as Sirius watched Harry explore the tent, he realized that the reason Reg might have been so particular about the tent might have been for Harry rather than Reg’s own standards.
“What do you think?” Reg asked as Harry walked around the spacious interior of the tent.
Harry smiled. “This is great. I was worried it would be too cramped. And the beds…”
Reg grinned. “About that… Let me show you something.”
Reg led Harry over to the bunk beds and sat down on one. “What do you think?”
Harry studied the beds with wide eyes. He reached over and patted one to test it.
“These are actual beds. Not just cots.” Harry said in amazement. There was an odd note of relief in his voice too. He turned and gave Reg a brief hug. “Thank you.”
Reg returned the hug. “No problem.”
“Reg was very specific about what type of beds were included in the tent.” Sirius said. “These are classier than the usual beds you get in magical tents. But I don’t know what you’ve got against the simpler beds you usually get in tents. Sleeping in a small bed is part of the adventure of camping.”
Harry suddenly looked a little embarrassed. “Sorry. I just really don’t like sleeping on cots instead of proper beds. Especially in small, confined spaces.”
It took Sirius a couple seconds to catch the underlying meaning to Harry’s words, and when the meaning clicked into place, he suddenly felt guilty for making a big deal out of it. He remembered what Reg had told them about Harry being forced to sleep in a cupboard when he lived with the Dursleys. Obviously, a full bed could not fit in a cupboard. Harry probably had some rather upsetting memories about sleeping on a cot in small, confined spaces.
And the reason that Reg had insisted on a spacious tent with proper beds suddenly became clear.
“Don’t worry about it.” Sirius tried to reassure his godson. “This place does look like it will be comfortable while we’re here.”
Harry nodded and then grinned. “I’m taking the top bunk.”
“I’ll be fine with this bed.” Reg said, indicating the one he was sitting on.
“I’ll take the other bottom bunk.” Remus said. He nodded to the set of bunkbeds across from the ones Harry and Reg had chosen. “Climbing in and out of the top bunk seems like far too much work.”
“That’s what makes it fun.” Sirius said. “The top bunk has the best view of the tent.”
“Surprisingly, a good view is not something I look for in the place where I’m sleeping.” Reg said with a laugh.
“But it does make the whole thing more fun.” Sirius insisted.
They all got changed into their pajamas. Remus suggested a game of Exploding Snap, which Harry and Sirius quickly agreed to.
As they played, Sirius couldn’t help glancing over to where Reg sat on his bed reading. And he noticed that the book was about how magical artifacts interact with living things.
To anyone outside their little group, it would have looked like a completely innocent book choice. But Sirius couldn’t help wondering if Reg was looking for clues as to how to deal with the horcrux in Harry’s scar.
Sirius and Remus had only found out the truth yesterday morning, and Sirius still didn’t feel like he could process the magnitude of the problems facing them. Reg had insisted that he wanted them to try not to worry about it until after the World Cup. But clearly Reg wasn’t taking his own advice.
He frowned slightly as he turned the page of his book.
Sirius yelped as his cards exploded out of his hand. He hadn’t been paying attention to the game, and now Harry and Remus were laughing at him.
He tried to return his focus to the game, but he could feel the troubled thoughts lingering in the back of his mind.
Reg and Remus insisted that they all go to bed an hour later. Harry and Sirius wanted to stay up but were reminded that they would have to get up at sunrise to reach their portkey on time.
As Sirius climbed up to the top bunk, it occurred to him that tomorrow would be the second time in three days that they had all been up before sunrise. At least the Quidditch World Cup was a better reason to get up early than having to hear nightmarish news about a horcrux in his godson’s head.
* * *
Regulus was not thrilled with having to wake up obnoxiously early to walk to the portkey. Sirius and Remus used magic to pack up the tent, which they would set up again on the World Cup campground later today.
Molly prepared breakfast for them before they left. Regulus just sat and stared at the food in frustration. Whatever his disagreements with Molly, the woman was a good cook.
“Aren’t you gunna eat, Reg?” Sirius asked through a mouth full of food.
Regulus gave him an irritated look. “I’m not going to risk it when we’re taking a portkey so soon. Knowing how magical travel affects me, I don’t want to risk getting sick the second the portkey lands. I’ll eat at the campsite.”
A look of concern passed across Sirius’s face.
Regulus didn’t need any pity over the loss of his magic and quickly changed the subject before his brother could comment. “Speaking of which, where exactly is this portkey?”
The Portkey was apparently at the top of somewhere called Stoatshead Hill, and Arthur assured them that the walk there wasn’t bad.
Not long after that, they set off into the predawn light of a clear August morning. Most of their group was silent as they made their way through the peaceful countryside.
But once they were a few minutes into the journey, Sirius stepped back to walk alongside Regulus. “I’m sorry.”
His voice was so quiet, Regulus barely heard it. He turned to his brother in bewilderment. “What for?”
“The pillow prank. All of them around then.” Sirius sounded miserable as he spoke. “We just wanted a laugh. But even with all out fighting back then, I never wanted to hurt you, Reg.”
Regulus almost laughed in surprise. He had never expected his brother to apologize for that. He shook his head. “It’s fine. That was a long time ago.”
“It’s not fine.” Sirius insisted. “I… We just… You’re my little brother. I’m supposed to protect you. Not…”
“Sirius.” Regulus interrupted. “It’s fine. It was years ago. And neither of us are the people we were back then. And honestly, I hardly ever think of those awful pranks anymore. It was a long time ago.”
It was really during Regulus’s sixth and seventh years at Hogwarts that his perspective began to change. Before then, he didn’t know if he could ever forgive Sirius for all his awful pranks or for giving their mother a reason to lose her temper more often.
But by the time Regulus graduated, he doubted if Sirius could ever forgive him for becoming a Death Eater. His crimes as a Death Eater were so much worse than anything Sirius had ever done. The guilt weighed him down. And he didn’t have the right to judge others for their mistakes.
“But Reg…” Sirius began.
“Just forget it, Sirius.” Regulus said. “It doesn’t matter. It’s a beautiful summer morning and we’re on our way to the Quidditch World Cup. Don’t spoil it by blaming yourself for something that happened years ago. We’re here now. That’s what matters.”
After casting one more uncertain look at Regulus, Sirius nodded. And they spent the rest of the short journey in peaceful silence.
Stoatshead Hill was actually quite steep, and some of their group started to get tired before they reached the top of the hill. Regulus was relieved that the trek up the hill didn’t tire him, but he did cast a couple concerned glances at how winded Sirius and Remus seemed.
Remus’s werewolf condition kept him permanently in poor health, and Sirius was still recovering from Azkaban. Hermione, Arthur, and Percy also seemed a bit out of breath. Thankfully, after about a minute of rest at the top of the hill, they all seemed fully recovered.
Then there was the search for the portkey. Strangely enough, Arthur did not know what the portkey was going to be.
Regulus had only taken a portkey a couple times in his life, and in those cases, the portkey had been handed straight to him. The idea of searching a hilltop for an object that might be a portkey seemed like rather poor planning. Surely if the Ministry had set up portkeys around the country, they could have also informed travelers of what portkeys would be in which locations. That way they would at least know what they were looking for.
Eventually, a voice called out that they’d found the portkey, but if didn’t come from anyone who had woken up in the Weasley house that morning. Cedric Diggory and his father held the old boot that would take them to the Quidditch World Cup.
Everyone on the hill made their way over.
Although Regulus knew Cedric from Hogwarts, he had never met Amos Diggory. Arthur took up the responsibility of introducing everyone.
Regulus was immediately irritated when Amos Diggory’s attention focused intently on Harry. And he immediately began bragging about how his son had beaten the famous Harry Potter at Quidditch.
That was already enough to get Regulus angry at the man. And then Amos Diggory began talking about Harry like he wasn’t even there. He only seemed to care about the legend around Harry rather than Harry as a person. And as for that Quidditch match…
“Harry fell off his broom.” Cedric argued with his father. “I told you it wasn’t a fair match, Dad.”
“But you didn’t fall off.” Amos gloated at his son. “Which means you’re clearly the better flyer.”
“Hey!...” Sirius started.
But Regulus got there first. “There was a dementor attack. That automatically makes any competition unfair.”
“It’s not unfair if the conditions are the same for both flyers.” Amos continued with the same smug expression. “Ced didn’t fall off just because of a few silly dementors.”
The entire group stared incredulously at the man who had clearly never been around a dementor in his life.
“Dementors feed off traumatic memories.” Regulus said, glaring at Amos. “They will automatically have a worse effect on whoever has the more traumatic past. And based on that, they automatically make any competition unfair.”
Amos’s smirk finally fell. He’d already drawn on the legend of Harry Potter in his own bragging, and he wasn’t in any position to deny that Harry had the more traumatic past.
Instead, he focused on Regulus. “And just who are you?”
“That’s Professor Black, Dad.” Cedric muttered. “He’s Harry’s dad.”
“Oh, yes.” Amos gave Regulus a critical look. “Ced’s told me about you. I must say I was quite surprised that someone like you…”
“We should gather around the portkey!” Cedric interrupted quickly. “It’s due to leave in just a couple minutes.”
“Right.” Amos seemed to quickly forget about their conversation as he held out the old boot. “Everybody get at least a finger touching the portkey.”
As they all moved around the portkey, Cedric caught Regulus’s eye and mouthed a quick ‘sorry.’
Regulus shrugged and gave Cedric a small smile to show he didn’t blame him. With the parents he and Sirius had grown up with, Regulus would never blame someone for their parent’s ideas.
The portkey activated a moment later and yanked them off toward the Quidditch World Cup.
As soon as the portkey landed, Regulus swayed on the spot, nausea overwhelming him. Sirius put his arm around his shoulders to keep him steady as they got out of the way of the site being used for portkey arrivals. And then finally, Regulus was able to collapse into the chair Remus had conjured.
Amos gave him a look somewhere between condescending pity and disgust before calling for Cedric to follow him to their campsite.
Before he left, Cedric turned to Harry. “We’ll definitely get that fair Quidditch match this year.”
“Yeah.” Harry tried to smile despite still seeming a bit bothered by the previous conversation. “Looking forward to it.”
With one last wave to their group, Cedric ran after his father.
“Obnoxious git.” Sirius muttered as he watched Amos Diggory leave. “If we were still in school, I would have jinxed him.”
“He’s like that when I see him at work too.” Arthur muttered grimly.
“Kid seems okay though.” Sirius added.
“Cedric’s cool.” Harry agreed. “He was one of the people that actually supported me second year.”
“Supported you?” Sirius asked.
“There was this big fuss about Harry being a parselmouth.” Ron explained.
“It was ridiculous.” Hermione added irritably.
“Once the whole school found out I could talk to snakes, people started saying…” Harry trailed off.
“It doesn’t matter.” Fred said. “They’re all idiots.”
“And Professor Black said there have been plenty of famous parselmouthes throughout history.” Hermione added. “So anyone who says it’s a bad thing is just being ridiculous.”
The conversation continued about the school’s reaction to learning Harry was a parselmouth.
As he was recovering from the portkey journey, Regulus wished they had agreed on another plan than everyone waiting for him. He hadn’t thought about it much earlier, but now he felt rather awkward about it. Everyone was waiting for him to be ready to walk to the campground. And although no one seemed bothered by the delay, he did feel a bit guilty for holding everyone up.
They had traveled in a large group, and now nine people were waiting for Regulus to feel well enough to walk to their campsite. They should have planned for just Sirius or Remus to wait for him. Then they could have joined the others at the campsite later.
As they waited, other groups arrived by portkey and left for the campgrounds.
Some of the travelers were clearly from other countries. One family spoke rapidly in a language Regulus couldn’t even identify. Many of them spoke some English. The ones that spoke other languages used translation charms to get directions to their campsites.
A couple Ministry officials passed by and chatted cheerfully with Arthur for a few minutes.
And then finally, Regulus felt well enough to walk.
He stood with a sigh. “I’m sorry for keeping everyone waiting.”
They all assured him that it was fine. They didn’t mind waiting. And although he was grateful for how patient they’d all been, Regulus wished he could feel less guilty about making everyone wait for him.
They set off toward their designated campsite.
Strangely enough, the campground was managed by a muggle.
Arthur was completely baffled when trying to pay for the campsite and Regulus had to take over. He really didn’t understand why so many people struggled with muggle money. It wasn’t that difficult. He’d learned during his years working at the muggle bookshop that muggle money was actually quite simple.
The muggle campsite manager, Mr. Roberts, commented on how many “weirdos” were around lately, and Regulus was just trying to think of how to respond to that when a Ministry official appeared and obliviated the inquisitive muggle.
The Ministry man then complained to their group about how many memory charms he was having to perform a day on the campsite managers and the fact that Ludo Bagman was apparently not bothering with anti-muggle security. He then apparated away with one last comment. “Must go check on the next site manager. If we’re having trouble with this one, the other ones might need some redirecting as well.”
Their group headed into the main campsite with Regulus feeling rather unsettled by the whole encounter. But all he could do was shake his head in disgust. “Ministry idiocy at its finest.”
“What do you mean, Prof?” George asked.
“That.” Regulus gestured back toward the obliviated muggle they’d just left. “That’s a disgusting way to run anti-muggle security. And a complete waste of time.”
“The Ministry has been working very hard on World Cup security for months.” Arthur argued. “They’re trying their best.”
Regulus scoffed. “And it’s disturbing to know that bullying muggles is the Ministry trying their best.”
“Memory charms aren’t harmful.” Arthur said. “And it’s essential that they…”
“They can be harmful if they’re strong enough or used repeatedly.” Regulus interrupted. “That Ministry man said he’s used ten charms a day on Mr. Roberts. And this campsite has been active for weeks. That’s not healthy.”
“They shouldn’t be allowed to harm muggles just to set up a site for the World Cup.” Hermione agreed. She looked rather upset by the idea.
Arthur sighed. “I doubt anyone’s even thought of the consequences of repeated memory charms. That is a fair point. But what else can we do? We can’t allow muggles to witness magic.”
“Then rent the whole campsite and send the muggle site managers on holiday?” Regulus suggested irritably. “Or at least have a good cover story. Or any cover story at all. Mr. Roberts said this looked like some kind of rally. Why not just tell him that’s the case. Tell him we’re a school reunion. Or a sports club. Or a gathering of performers specializing in illusions, which could go some way to explaining any magic he might see.”
Arthur was frowning now. “I have to admit that does sound more sensible.”
“And then you wouldn’t have overworked wizards complaining about how many memory charms they have to perform.” Regulus added.
“Performing that many memory charms does sound like a waste of time.” Sirius added. “Although the Ministry is quite good at wasting people’s time. They’ve wasted twelve years of my time already.”
Sirius laughed at his own joke. No one else did. And he got a lot of troubled looks for referencing his time in Azkaban.
But Regulus couldn’t help the small smile that crept onto his face. It Sirius could joke about his time in Azkaban, maybe that was a good sign.