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Pranksters or Pranked?
Regulus drew his, Barty’s, and Evan’s vials from where they’d buried them in the roots of the weeping willow tree on the banks of the lake. Wind and rain whipped its way through the hanging branches and leaves, pelting them.
Barty and Evan stayed crouched behind him, Barty with a wide grin on his face, not at all deterred by the horrid weather. His brown and green hair was plastered to his forehead, but it did nothing to block the manic look in his eyes.
Evan was a step back, alternating between keeping watch and checking Regulus’s progress, his pale eyes almost as stormy as the weather around them. Anyone who didn’t know him wouldn’t catch the flicker of excitement that sparked like lightning.
Regulus finally unearthed the vials, messily smearing the mud off the glass surface, examining the shimmering contents. When they’d buried them months ago the potions had been grey and boggy. Now, they held an iridescent quality, swirling in the containers like the wind tossing the rain about outside the shelter of the willow.
Regulus stood, holding out Evan and Barty’s vials to them. Barty snatched his while Evan grasped his gently, tilting it up and down and watching how the potion moved.
“Any last guesses on what we’re gonna be?” Barty asked, ecstatic.
Regulus shrugged. Honestly, he had no idea. He wasn’t even entirely sure what he was hoping for. What would be better? Something large and fierce that would be good in a fight? Something small and fast, able to slip between blows? Or something common, able to easily blend in and gather information without anyone ever knowing he was there?
Realistically, when he’d asked Barty and Evan to become animagus with him, he really hadn’t thought that they’d get this far.
He’d snuck into Sirius’s room to try and get a thing or two to remember him by. He wasn’t foolish enough to think they’d talk to each other anymore, not after Sirius had left without saying goodbye.
Things had changed when Regulus came to Hogwarts. Things had been tense when after Sirius had been sorted into Gryffindor, but it’s not like the Black family had any alternatives, Sirius was the only heir. As much as their parents hated it, as much as their parents punished Sirius for the sorting, there wasn’t anything that they could do.
That didn’t mean that they hadn’t heavily discouraged Regulus from following in his brother’s footsteps. Regulus still wasn’t sure how much of his mother’s rage that followed was strategic vs. just not having another target for her anger.
Regulus still fingered the scars from that particular outburst occasionally.
When it was finally Regulus’s turn to face the sorting hat, he hadn’t allowed it to put him in Hufflepuff or Ravenclaw like it had originally intended. If there was one thing Regulus had learned growing up as the unwanted daughter of Walburga and Orion Black, it was that he was expendable.
The only purpose a daughter had was alliance-building. To marry a stuck-up pureblood to give birth to and raise a new generation of stuck-up purebloods that would continue the cycle until they were all dust in the dirt.
The main problem was that the Black family already had an abundance of daughters for building alliances. Bellatrix had tied them to the Lestrange family and Cissy had unified them with the Malfoy family. Andromeda had gotten away, but to the adults, she wasn’t family anymore.
The point was, the main alliances that had been hoped for in his generation had already been made. They didn’t need another girl; they needed a spare heir. That was the only reason Walburga even deigned to get pregnant again.
Barty argued that if his parents pulled their heads out of their arses, they would realize they already had a spare, but that would never happen.
And to be entirely frank, Regulus was glad his parents didn’t know about him. Not only would they likely kill him for existing, but in some alternate reality where they accepted him for him, he would then be the heir, which he had absolutely zero interest in.
Instead, he had spent the last few weeks of his summer break between fourth and fifth year laying low, paying heed to the shouting matches his parents had as they attempted to get Sirius back from the Potters without incriminating themselves or making the ministry look too closely into their parenting styles, and packing his things so he’d never have to come back.
He had told Barty and Evan his plan when they’d met on the train. To his horror (and secret glee), they immediately began planning how the three of them would get a flat together without their parents catching wind.
They had also told Dorcas and Pandora, but they both had good relationships with their parents and weren’t planning on moving before graduation. And when they did move out, both were planning on moving in with their partners.
Pandora was already looking for apartments with Xeno, and, well, they weren’t entirely sure of Dorcas’s plans.
Dorcas had begun to pull away a bit when she began spending more and more time with Marlene and her Gryffindor friends. They had understood, but it had still hurt. Especially when Regulus had seen Dorcas spending time with Sirius and his group.
Part of Regulus had believed that, despite the fact that they hadn’t been close since Regulus had forced his way into Slytherin, as well as the fact that Sirius hadn’t bothered to say goodbye, they would still reconnect once they were back at Hogwarts. Sirius had gotten out, and Regulus had a plan to get out, so they could be brothers again. Hell, Regulus could maybe finally tell Sirius that he had a little brother.
Needless to say, that hadn’t happened. Sirius hadn’t looked his way even once, studiously avoiding him. Regulus wasn’t sure what he had done to deserve the way his brother treated him, but he was so tired of chasing after him. He had Evan and Barty, and as rambunctious as they could be sometimes, they were his brothers.
All he really had left of Sirius were the few things he was able to scrounge up from his room during the packing stage of his plan. Which is where this all began, really.
Under a floorboard in Sirius’s room, Regulus had found notes detailing out Sirius and his friend’s plan to become animagi. At first, Regulus had found it unlikely and incredulous, but he had to give credit where credit was due. Despite their chronic inattention, Sirius and his group were actually quite smart. If they had truly put their minds to it, there was no reason for Regulus to suspect that they’d been unsuccessful in the endeavor.
It even made sense. Regulus had worked out in his first year that Lupin was a werewolf. It wasn’t exactly well hidden. His love for all things magical creatures also hadn’t helped with that secret either. At first, he’d wanted to help, but he quickly realized that the help of a nasty Slytherin wasn’t wanted by the marauders.
But, theoretically, an animagi wouldn’t be at risk on a full moon from a werewolf.
After working it out, Regulus had been flushed anew with determination. Maybe it was the younger sibling in him speaking, but anything Sirius could do, he could do better.
Also, Pandora had been giving him books about others who were transgender, as well as studies about it, trying to help him adjust and be more accepting of himself. One of the more scientific studies she’d passed his way had theorized what would occur if a transgender individual underwent the animagus transformation. Would their body match their soul post-transformation?
It had never knowingly been done, but it was a risk Regulus was willing to take. If there was even a chance that one of his bodies could match who he truly was, there was nothing Regulus wouldn’t do to achieve that.
He’d also read that one didn’t feel emotions as strongly when in their animagus form, which was an added bonus he was looking forward to.
Barty had picked up on what he was doing almost instantaneously, vowing to do the process with him. And where either Barty or Evan went, the other always followed.
They’d tried to tell Pandora, but she’d been tied up in her latest experiment and had told them to leave her be.
They’d listened immediately. They’d been around one too many of Pandora’s experiments exploding to be in her makeshift lab willingly.
And, as for Dorcas, she’d barely been around, so they hadn’t had the chance to bring her into their scheme. It had all progressed much faster than Regulus had planned, which Barty was surely to blame for.
He was both the smartest and dumbest person Regulus had ever met.
He had no doubt that Barty would pull off 12 O’s on his OWLs, but he also didn’t trust Barty to know how to make toast without burning down the castle.
How Barty had figured everything out for the process while also working on all of his OWLS and not losing steam, Regulus didn’t know.
The current plan was to give the girls the research after the fact if they wanted it so they could join them later.
Evan swiped the gathering moisture from his forehead, scowling, drawing Regulus back to the present. “Remind me why we couldn’t do this in your room, Archie?”
Regulus uncorked his vial, giving it a sniff. It may not look boggy anymore, but it certainly smelled boggy.
Joy.
“
You have to bury the vial outside until a lightning storm. We’ve been over this, Evie. Believe me, I don’t enjoy looking like a wet rat any more than the two of you.”
Barty cackled. “Imagine if your animagus form was actually a rat, Archie! Oh, that’d be too good.”
Regulus turned to him slowly, offended. “My animagus form isn’t going to be a rat! There’s nothing I could have possibly done to deserve being turned into a literal rat.”
Barty smiled, the sharp undertone he carried with him ever present. “It’d be so unfortunate. But, we’d be able to sneak you into our dorm more easily if we could just stick you in our pocket.”
Regulus conceded the point. He’d never been able to get into the girls' dorm in Slytherin, much to his elation. At least until he realized that he didn’t have anywhere to sleep, that is. He’d been friends with Evan before Hogwarts and Barty had attached to him like a barnacle on the train, so he’d quickly learned that their dorm had a third bed that no one was using. After months of jumping around sleeping in abandoned parts of the castle and one sleep-deprived dare, Regulus and the others had realized that he had no problems getting up to the boys’ dorms.
It had felt very validating, though it was something he wished they’d figured out sooner.
Because he wasn’t out to anyone but his friends and he hadn’t been successful yet in getting away from his family, they still had to be extremely careful in sneaking him up to their dorm, their caution genuinely bordering on paranoia.
“As fun as it is speculating about who’s going to be a rat by the end of the night,” Evan cut in, “we’re running out of time, so maybe we should just get on with it and actually see what we turn into.”
Barty uncorked his vial and brought it up to his lips, dipping his head to Regulus. “No time like the present.”
Together, they chanted amato, animo, animato, animagus before they all forced themselves to drink their potions in one go.
Immediately, fiery pain ripped its way through Regulus’s body, coursing like fiendfyre through his blood. He folded at the hips before collapsing, writhing in the mud, vaguely being aware of Barty and Evan doing the same.
Fear sparked. Did they make the potions wrong? Had they missed a step or chant? Barty and Regulus had been meticulous in their research and Evan had been there all the while, steadfast, making sure that their research translated into actions and they stayed on track. How could they have possibly messed this up?
Regulus tried to move, to claw his way to his friends, to apologize for dragging them into this hell with him, when the pain changed. It didn’t go away, but it was almost like it had changed frequencies, seeping lower and embedding itself into his very being.
Right when the pain finally dug itself in, changing into a dull ache, Regulus felt his body shift and change in the span of a single heartbeat.
When Regulus finally opened his eyes, everything was blurry and cloudy, like the world was taking place behind a filmy window. He curled up, shocked when his entire body compacted into a neat ball, scaly legs tucking in close.
His sense of smell had been dialed to eleven, smelling rain in fur and musky damp feathers.
He tried to focus and rolled his way to the first smell. Whatever it was, it was smaller than him, with leathery wings and dewy fur. It sniffed him right back, a wet nose nudging his face. The thing chirped, though it sounded muffled and nuzzled itself under Regulus’s chin fondly.
The little light they had was suddenly blocked out as Regulus heard the dull rustling of feathers. He instinctively curled himself around the thing, turning his back towards whatever loomed over him. The thing made a chittering noise and wriggled, scuttling its way out from Regulus’s hold. It made a few awkward hops before spreading its wings and standing upright, flapping them at the big thing excitedly.
The big thing made a booming, ominous clutter with its beak before mirroring small thing’s pose, also flapping excitedly.
The difference was big thing’s wingspan absolutely dwarfed small thing’s, so the wind that was created with the beating caused small thing to tumble head over heels, ending up sprawled on the ground and tangled in its own wings.
The gust caused an already balled up Regulus to simply roll over the uneven ground until he hit the stump of the willow, where he decided to stay, hopefully unnoticed.
He wasn’t in luck, because a moment later, the massive beak was gently prodding at his back. When he didn’t respond, only curling into himself tighter, the beak pushed him a bit,
rolling him around like a quaffle.
After a moment of peace, Regulus poked out of his shell, trying to make out something clear from the gargantuan towering over him.
All he could make out was a pale pink beak, nearly white eyes, and pristine white feathers. There was a black ink spot on big thing’s head, which when Regulus looked at closely, he realized it was small thing clinging contentedly.
Small thing was definitely Barty. No one except Barty could ever look that content lounging on whatever big thing was.
Besides, the coloring, at least from what Regulus could see, of big thing matched Evan’s albinism.
Regulus fully unfurled, stretching his way up to Evan and Barty, making breathy little humming sounds. Evan reached right back.
Regulus would have been content to stay there longer, but a moment later, he was being tackled by Barty, who used his long wings to stretch Regulus out. After Regulus got over his shock, he quickly responded by closing around Barty and rolling away with him as he shrieked.
Large footsteps chased after them as Regulus rolled away, slightly oblong due to his passenger.
Regulus hadn’t noticed that the heaving footprints had stopped, too busy giving Barty a taste of his own medicine, when suddenly he was being picked up and faced skyward.
Regulus and Barty froze, but then Barty chittered like he was laughing when he saw Evan’s mirthful eyes.
Evan had managed to shift back and was carefully cradling Regulus in his palms, unwinding him from his sphere. “Alright, that’s enough,” he said, “Give me back Bee.”
Barty slipped out of his hold, quickly winding his way under Evan’s arm and up to his shoulder, sliding up into his hair, the position eerily similar to the one he had held while Evan was an animagus.
Evan breathily chuckled at Regulus, lifting him up slightly to look under him, before bringing him back down to eye level to examine him.
“Of all the things I was expecting, this certainly wasn’t one of them. I have no idea what you are, Archie. It’s a good thing I didn’t take Bee up on his bet.”
He carefully put Regulus down, making a get on with it gesture at him. “C’mon, we have class tomorrow. Change back and we can figure out what we are in the library tomorrow. We can change back in the dorms if we really want to; none of us are too big.”
Regulus took a couple steps back from Evan and concentrated on himself. A moment later he was sprawled out on his stomach in the mud, mirroring the stance he’d been in before switching back.
He could hear Barty laughing at him as he pushed himself up. He’d have to practice transformations - make sure that he landed on his feet. He made an attempt at dusting himself off, but admitted defeat when all he did was smear the mud on himself further.
He looked up at Evan, Barty still nesting in his hair. “It worked,” he said, unable to contain his excitement.
Evan returned the look. “It worked.”
Regulus got his first real look at Barty. He was adorable. There was no way that Regulus was going to let that go. He was a little black bat with a tiny body and encompassing leathery wings, a single finger/claw protruding from each wing tip. He had dark, pupilless eyes that reflected light and the tiniest face.
Regulus gestured to Barty. “You going to turn back so we can get to bed, or…” he trailed off.
In response, Barty made his way down Evan’s torso, surprisingly nimble, and made his way into Evan’s front trouser pocket with a content squeak. He poked his head out shortly to make a nod towards the castle before burrowing back in.
Evan laughed. “At least one of us won’t be getting wet.”
Regulus sighed and started the walk back. “I don’t know about you, but I couldn’t see or hear for shit. My sense of smell was good, though, better even.”
Evan nodded. “That makes sense. You seemed confused, more so than Bee and I.”
“So, Temmy’s a bat. I didn’t get a clear look at you. Any guesses for what you or I are?”
Evan shook his head, looking baffled. “Not a clue, mate. I’ve never seen anything like you before, though you kind of reminded me of a niffler, but only if the niffler had a shell instead of fur.”
“Animagi turn into animals, not magical creatures. Though that would be interesting,” Regulus paused, considering the possibility. There’d never been an animagus that was a magical creature, but it’s also not like the pool of study is large. Animagi were extremely rare, most wixen not bothering to go through the process. He supposed it could be possible, though not likely. “Scaley?”
“Scaley,” Evan affirmed. “But you also had fur, I think? Only on your underside in tufts, but I couldn’t see very well. All I know is that I’m some massive bird. My beak was heavy.”
They quieted as they approached the castle, not wanting to run into Filch or alert any of the ghosts to their presence. Once they finally successfully made their way to the dungeons, Regulus went to break off, but Evan was too quick, grabbing his arm.
“It’s late,” he whispered, looking around and double-checking that no one was still lingering in the common room. “Come back to the dorm for tonight. We’ll sneak you out in the morning, I promise.”
Regulus hesitated, but eventually allowed Evan to drag him along and up the stairs until they reached the dorm that belonged to Evan, Barty, and, tentatively, Regulus.
Evan tried to put Barty on his bed once the door clicked shut, but he kept winding his way through Evan’s hands, clinging on tight. It didn’t take very long before Evan gave up with a shrug, flopping down on his own bed and placing Barty to sleep on his chest. A moment later Evan let out an oomph and a full-sized Barty sprawled out on top of him, nuzzling into his neck, making himself right at home.
Regulus clucked. “Absolutely no shame.”
Barty just burrowed himself deeper. “Shame is a societal construct.”
Regulus paused, his shirt half thrown off, tangled around his head and shoulders. “Obviously.”
Deciding to let Barty and Evan be Barty and Evan, Regulus slipped into the bathroom to get ready for bed. The fluorescent light of the bathroom highlighted the cavities in his ribs, exaggerating the shadows of the bruises blooming around his them.
He usually didn’t bother taking off his bandages to sleep. He knew, internally, that he should. Knew that if he broke his ribs he’d be done for. But it didn’t matter what he knew internally. What mattered was the voice in his head that sounded suspiciously like his mother, screaming. What mattered was the sick feeling that spread from a hunk in his throat, spilling down like oil, sickening and contaminating, making him feel both dizzy and heavy, ungrounded and weighed down. The feeling that permeated his very being, pulling him down to the dirt that was worth about as much as he was.
There wasn’t much that held the broken bits of him together, kept him from dissolving into the dust of the earth. The bandages that allowed him to be him, even if no one else knew it because of the horrible pleated skirt and the long, suffocating hair. Barty and Evan, holding him up and together when no one else even knew he was falling apart. Steady. If no one else was there for him, Regulus knew Barty and Evan always would be. Pandora, with her esoteric knowledge and mad experiments that got him out of his head and made everything quiet, even if it was temporary. Dorcas, fierce but kind, there to snark with him in complex situations, throw punches and curses in simple ones.
Unfortunately, Barty, while being people-smart wasn’t his forte - being Regulus smart was. And even if he was off his game, Evan’s brain was geared to being people-smart. Add in how well he knew Regulus, and Evan would catch him off his game immediately.
So, the bandage had to go. Barty had done research when he realized Regulus was wearing it and knew that Regulus was absolutely not supposed to sleep in it. Wasn’t even supposed to wear it all day, whenever possible. No matter how little attention they were paying to him, stuck in their own world, they would notice if he tried to sneak into bed with it on.
While the bruises around it were bad, they were nothing compared to the bruises where the bandages actually lay. The heat rash under the bandage didn’t help either.
He quickly smeared a bruise salve over them before tugging on a baggy jumper, pulling the long sleeves over his palms. He dropped the bandages in a bin under the counter. He’d befriended most of Hogwarts house elves, but Nippy insisted on being the one to do his bandages, happily and discreetly cleaning them regularly.
He left the attached bathroom with a quiet click, trying to ignore the quick once-over that Barty and Evan aimed his way. He slipped under the hodgepodge quilt that had been a gift from the house elves. He had one in his makeshift dorm that he used more often, but as soon as the house elves learned that he lived in both dorms, they had manically made him a second, much to both his dismay and gratification.
He hadn’t visited the elves in a couple of days; he’d have to make time to visit them in the kitchens and in their housing. He’d knitted them a couple of more blankets that were ready to be delivered.
It was a habit he’d started as a kid. While Cissy preferred embroidery, Dromeda loved to knit and crochet and had shown him before she had left. He’d continued the practice whenever he missed her, becoming quite good. Once, he had tried to gift Kreature with a scarf on a drafty day at Grimmauld, only for him to burst into tears, distraught. His mother had beaten him silly, screaming at him for undermining her and trying to get rid of her elf. Sirius hadn’t been home, out at an event with their father as heir, shocked when he’d come home to see Regulus’s state.
Sirius had explained to him that if he had been successful in giving Kreature the scarf he’d made him, Kreature would no longer serve their family. Sirius knew this from experience. He hated Kreature and had tried to slip him clothing several times to no success.
Regulus had been horrified that he’d almost sent one of his only friends away. Instead, he’d decided to crochet him a black blanket with little stars scattered throughout it. Kreacher had cautiously taken it from him, not quite over his earlier scare. Once he realized that the gift wasn’t dangerous in any way, he had enthusiastically taken it, using it as an added layer of warmth for his den.
After Regulus had come to Hogwarts and befriended the house elves, he had quickly realized the only furnishing they had in their little abodes were worn-out and thrown-out scraps of laundry. He’d quickly gotten to work, crocheting and knitting as many blankets as he could in his free time. He hadn’t yet successfully made a blanket for each house elf, but he had made a respectable amount and was still going.
Which was how he ended up with his quilts. The house elves had quickly reciprocated, making a quilt out of said scraps for him.
For the materials that they had available to him, the elves were surprisingly artistic in their endeavors and Regulus treasured every last quilt they gave him.
Regulus pulled the blanket over his ears, blocking out the whispering and breathy laughs coming from Barty and Evan and closed his eyes, his body quickly falling asleep.
…
The next day saw the three of them in the library at the first opportunity. Earlier, after breakfast, they’d gone back to their dorm and transformed again in front of the mirror so that they’d be able to see what they really looked like. That way they’d know what to look for in the library.
Regulus was slightly upset to find that Evan’s bird form was almost as tall as him. He had been excited to be the tall one for once. The coloring of the bird definitely mirrored Evan’s albinism. Snow white feathers, eyes so blue they were almost white, like ice. His massive beak was the same pale shade of pink as Evan’s lips. He also had long, slim legs that led to clawed talons and a wingspan wider than he was tall. Regulus had no idea what kind of bird Evan was; it certainly wasn’t an animal from the UK.
They hadn’t really needed Barty to transform again; it was fairly obvious that he was a bat. But Barty took the opportunity to position himself on Evan’s head again like an inefficient hat, and it frankly wasn’t worth arguing with Barty when he put his mind to something.
Regulus still wasn’t able to see very well when he transformed, so he was entirely reliant on Evan and Barty being observant. He was still small, though not smaller than bat Barty, and he immediately had fun curling up and rolling about the room. He had been right the night before; his sense of smell was definitely better this way. He quickly made his way over to a loose brick in the wall, where he discovered Barty’s coveted snack stash, stealing some and rolling away before Barty caught on, much to his dismay.
Once Barty had caught him and wrestled his biscuits free, he’d held Regulus up to the mirror, not that he could make himself out.
Evan leaned against the doorframe. “I’ve got nothing, mate. I’ve not a clue of what you are.”
Barty tilted his head. “I’ve got an idea, but I want to double-check it. But that’s not important right now. Archie, look. You were right.”
Regulus squinted in the mirror, trying to make out what Barty was alluding to with no success. He did see Evan’s face break out into a smile, though. Regulus tried to make a questioning sound, though he wasn’t sure how well it translated.
Barty hugged him close before spinning him around. “You were right, Archie. Even magic knows that you’re a boy.”
The realization of what Barty was saying shot through him like lightning.
The theory had been right.
Even now, hours later, Regulus still had a slight bounce in his step as they made their way to their undesignated designated spot in the library, Barty having gone ahead to pick out the books he’d had in mind.
“Any updates on the flat?” Evan asked as he placed his bag at the table by his seat.
Regulus had stolen a fair amount of money from his parents before he left for the school year. Enough to buy them an flat where they could all live comfortably. He’d thought about contacting Alphard for help; he’d always been his favorite uncle, but Alphard was a bit … eccentric. He also didn’t trust Alphard to keep it quiet from Sirius. So instead, he’d managed to reach out to Dromeda and Ted.
He’d never really fallen out of contact with them, though he’d never been able to respond before. Dromeda had sent him gifts and messages occasionally at school, always with a generic post owl, letting him know that she was still there, even if they couldn’t see each other.
So, once he had gotten to school, his trunk expanded to hold the extra things he’d taken since he had no intention of ever returning to Grimmauld, he had reached out, asking if she knew how to transfer galleons to pounds. They’d set up a time to meet up, and Regulus had snuck out of the castle to meet her at Hogsmeade. After telling her what he had in mind, she’d put Ted on buying the flat since he was more familiar with the muggle world, though she went along to approve of his choice.
Regulus knew she wouldn’t approach Sirius on his behalf. She knew all about estranged siblings.
Since Regulus was technically paying for the flat, Evan had gone home one last time over Yule break to steal his inheritance, insistent that he would help contribute to their household expenses while Barty had stayed at Hogwarts with him. As much as Barty hated his father, Barty’s mother loved him. He’d told her what they were planning, and she had set up an account for him, promising him that she wouldn’t let his father go after him. Her only request was that he meet her for lunch occasionally.
Barty’s mother was amazing. He had no idea why she ever agreed to marry Barty Crouch Sr.
“It’s taken care of,” Regulus said, setting his things down as well. “Dromeda has the deed that she’ll give me when she picks us up from Hogsmeade. She’s going to wait on furniture, though, so we can choose what we want together. Are you sure you’re still okay with sharing a room with Temmy?”
Barty plopped a couple of books onto the table with a bang. “Why wouldn’t he be? I’m a delight.”
Evan grabbed the encyclopedia on African birds and flipped it open. “You’re a parasite,” he said without looking up.
Barty flipped a book open, landing on the anatomy and drawings of a bat. “Evidently, magic disagrees.”
Evan put his book down and traded it for Barty’s. “‘While often content when properly socially stimulated, when bored, bats often produce atypical behavior, such as lethargy, fighting, and increased vocal activity.’ It also goes on to talk about bats being highly intelligent, curious, and bold. If that doesn’t fit you to a T, I don’t know what does.”
Barty dropped his book to instead look over Evan’s shoulder, reading about his animal manifestation. Regulus snatched the book, trying to find Evan. It wasn’t as difficult as he thought it would be; there wasn’t exactly a plethora of birds measuring at over five feet tall.
“‘The shoebill,” Regulus interrupted Barty and Evan’s bickering, “is a bird that primarily resides in eastern and central Africa in swampy habitats. They possess a docile and calm temperament, though they are known to be fiercely territorial when infringed upon, preferring a solitary lifestyle. They are monogamous, often only having a single mate that they’re fiercely protective of. For hunting, they prefer observation and quick strikes to outright fights. They are known to eat fish and even small crocodiles.’ Crocodiles, huh?”
Barty plopped himself down in Evan’s lap, smiling up at him. “Monogamous, huh?”
Evan flushed red. “What, did you think you were getting rid of me?”
Barty looked around before giving him a quick kiss. “Of course not. You’re my one and only, Rosie.”
Regulus balled a stray piece of parchment and lobbed it at them. Barty turned around with a snicker. “How homophobic of you, Archie, I didn’t know you had it in you.”
Regulus leveled him an unimpressed glare. “He says to the trans gay man. Let me be a hater.”
Evan hugged Barty from behind, resting his chin on his shoulder. “Yeah, Bee, let him be a hater. What else were you expecting?”
Barty just laughed and pulled out another book, flipping through it leisurely, obviously not having any luck with what he was looking for.
Regulus kept reading about shoebills, looking at the section about the ominous, deep clucking noise described in the book. He’d only read for a couple of minutes before Barty started cackling, Evan and Regulus rushing to shush him before Madam Pince intervened.
A smothered laugh emerged from where Evan was covering Barty’s mouth. He pointed to something on the page, showing it to Evan. A soft smile grew on Evan’s face as he read. “Oh, that’s perfect,” he said. His eyes moved up to Regulus, looking him up and down.
“‘The Armadillo, originally from South America, now in central and southern North America, is generally known as timid, shy, and solitary. They are skittish around people and prefer to be active at night, though they can be playful around those they are comfortable around. Though they are shy, they can also be fiercely territorial. When forced into a corner, the armadillo’s primary reaction is to use their armor and roll into a shell, preventing many predators from harming them. If avoidance is not successful, armadillos have been known to lash out with claws and teeth, fighting, but only when necessary.’”
Barty lay his head down on the table, cushioning it in his arms, still giggling. He suddenly stopped, looking up. “This means I’m the only extrovert.”
Regulus leaned back, incredulous. “You’re just realizing this now?”
Barty scowled. “We’re going to more parties.”
“Over my dead body.”
Evan snorted as Regulus scowled. “Not necessarily. We can just roll you through the hal–”
Evan was cut off by a booming whoop. Regulus looked over to see Sirius and his group marching their way into the library, speaking loudly and unashamedly. Lupin tried to hush them a bit, but he quickly gave up his half-effort when Sirius threw his arm around his shoulder. They shoved a Slytherin second year out of their path, making their way over to where Lily Evans and Mary McDonald were trying to study, Potter sprawling out in front of Lily, cutting her off from the book she was referencing. He caught Lupin shooting Lily an apologetic glance as she went beet red, her face closing off as she leaned away from Potter.
“For fuck’s sake,” Regulus scoffed as he watched the exchange. It was one thing to watch the group bully Slytherins, it was another thing to watch Potter unashamedly pursue Evans. He watched for several more minutes half heartedly, watching as Sirius and Pettigrew closed ranks around Potter, Lupin standing a pace behind, eyes on the ceiling. Watched as Evans grew more and more frustrated, Mcdonald looking like she was gearing up to join her.
Regulus closed his book with a thump, pushing his chair back with a screech. Barty and Evan looked at him questioningly. He just ignored them.
It was time to see how far Sirius’s avoidance of him went.
Regulus shoved Potter out of the way with his bag, taking the seat next to Lily. She turned to him, surprise evident in her face. They didn’t interact much at all, they couldn’t, not with Regulus’s parents being the way they were. They were partners in advanced potions, the ordinary level not challenging enough for him. He’d hoped to take the advanced class with Barty, but Barty had no interest in doing more than necessary to earn his 12 O’s. Evans and himself worked together well and professionally, but they’d limited it to within a class setting.
Regulus pulled out the essay that they had finished a couple of days ago, ignoring the invading troupe to a studious level.
“I was looking over the portion of the paper with the shaved unicorn horn and pixie wings. What impact do you think witch hazel could have on the development process?”
Evans caught on quickly, quickly pulling out her own parchment, smoothly covering the grade that Slughorn had already written at the top. “Good point. Witch hazel would perpetuate the cleanliness and create added purity, wouldn’t it? The real question is would the witch hazel interrupt an already functional potion, or would the benefits of adding it outweigh the costs?”
Regulus fiddled with a quill. “No way to know until we try it. We can have Slughorn supervise if we’re worried about it. Do you think it would be more beneficial to slice and steep the witch hazel in its raw form, or would it be better to use the already extracted oil?”
“Depends on how potent we would want it.”
“It would be best to probably make three batches, ya?”
“Three?”
“One with the raw form, one with the extract, and a control – you lot are still here?” Regulus asked looking up while also looking down his nose at the boys. From the corner of his eye he could see Evan smothering Barty, though he could still tell Barty was cracking up from the heaving of his shoulders. Evan’s eyes were glittering with mirth and he looked one moment of eye contact away from losing his composure.
Potter opened his mouth a few times, gaping. He finally ended up gesturing between himself and Evans. “We were having a conversation.”
“That’s not what it looked like,” Regulus hummed. “We’re busy,” he said, shooing them away.
Potter puffed up a bit. “It was important.”
“Marauder business,” Pettigrew cut in.
“Observation clearly isn’t your forte. This is a library. We’re working. Take your musketeer business somewhere where it belongs. I heard there’s a traveling carnival that will be stopping in Hogsmeade soon. Maybe you can show them your tricks and they’ll take you on.” Regulus turned away, prepared to gesticulate theory for the completed paper as Potter and Pettigrew sputtered about “musketeers?”
McDonald covered a snort with a cough and Evans’s lips were quirked up. He saw Potter step forward, only to be caught by the arm by Sirius. “C’mon, Prongs, it's not worth it.” Potter still hesitated before looking at Sirius’s face and acquiescing.
Potter heaved a dramatic sigh. “You wish is my command, Padfoot. Until next time, Lily flower.”
“Careful, Potter, threats are reportable and actionable to aurors,” Regulus said without looking up.
Lupin surprised him with a laugh this time, though Potter was simply looking at him like he’d never met him before, numbly letting himself be pulled away by Sirius.
Regulus rolled his eyes. Prongs and Padfoot. They weren’t even trying to hide it, the bumbling prats.
Once he was sure that the fools had left the library in peace, he began packing his stuff back up, silently signaling to Barty and Evan that they were leaving. Just as he was finishing up, he was hit in the forehead with a paper crane, flapping where it had crashed the table. He looked up, eyebrows raised, looking at McDonald, who was mirroring his expression, though she had a bright smile on as well. Evans was simply looking at him expectantly.
“Did you need something?” Regulus asked.
McDonald tilted her head. “Where the bloody hell did that come from, baby Black?”
Regulus shrugged. “They’re wankers.”
McDonald waved him off. “Obviously. But you’ve never done anything about it before. Why now?”
Evans tilted her head back and forth. “It’s a fair question. Not that I’m complaining. I’ve been working for years to get them to leave me alone. You pulled it off in under a minute.”
McDonald leaned forward, resting her weight on her elbows. “Tell us your secrets.”
“It’s not that complicated. Sirius prefers to live in a world without me. I sit next to you, Sirius leaves. Sirius and Potter are attached at the hip, ergo, Sirius runs away from me, Potter and Co. trail in his wake,” Regulus said, waving the feathery tip of his quill in the air.
McDonald pursed her lips together and puffed out a breath of air. “That got depressing fast.”
“Not really. Siblings can suck,” Evans said, looking down and picking at her fingernails.
Regulus considered her for a moment. He hadn’t known that she had any siblings, though he supposed, he wouldn’t, as they wouldn’t have been likely to have been invited to Hogwarts. Two muggleborn children coming from the same family was practically unheard. Regardless, he stood up, seeing Evan and Barty waiting in the periphery. “That they do,” he said with a shrug, trying to bury emotions tied to Sirius that he didn’t like rising to the surface.
He left with Evan and Barty without another word, vaguely hearing the two girls lean together and start whispering behind them. The three of them walked in silence for a bit, before Barty grabbed his arm and pulled him behind a tapestry that they’d found in first year that led to a passageway that ended in a small, cozy alcove.
Once they were in the small room, Barty sprawled out on the floor, a dreamy look in his eyes.
“You, Regulus Arcturus Black, are my hero. That was amazing. You actually stopped them mid-scheme/harassment, I don’t know, take your pick. I’ve been waiting for years for someone to finally stand up to them, beyond Evans rejecting Potter at every opportunity, that is,” Barty said, one finger pointed skyward, lazily jerking with his words.
“It wasn’t that big of a deal –”
“-- It was monumental,” Evan cut him off, though he didn’t look upset, only considering.
Regulus threw his hands up. “I subtly made my brother and his friends piss off. Someone had to do it!”
“Yeah, someone had to, but its never been you,” Evan pointed out. “I’m not saying that like its a bad thing. I know why you’ve kept your distance from their pranks and bullying in the past. But we haven’t moved out yet or finished warding the flat–”
“--Dromeda’s working on the wards already, they’ll be set up when we get there,” Regulus grumbled.
“--But the year isn’t officially over yet. Your parents can, though it's unlikely, still request to see you through an appointment. I thought the plan was to lay low until we’d pulled this off? Not line our ducks in a row before they’d hatched?”
“Barely anyone was in the library, and Evans and I are partners for Slughorn. Pretty much anyone who saw us are just going to assume we were actually working on our essay, it’ll be fine. If I do get a letter from Walburga, I’ll just pull the grades excuse. As much as they stick by blood purity, they won’t argue upholding it at the expense of my grades slipping,” Regulus reassured.
If there was anyone who proved that blood purity was a hoax, it was Lily Evans. She and Lupin competed for the top slot in every class except potions, and that’s only because Regulus and Severus were in their potions class.
And then there was McDonald. The 6th-year boys in Slytherin underestimated her for her blood status and femininity, but she had and could beat them in a fight any day.
Watching her break Mulciber’s nose was one of Regulus’s favorite memories.
“What if we can do both?”
Regulus and Evan turned to Barty, who had sat up, a mischievous smile and maniacal light gleaming in his eyes.
Whoever that look was aimed for was well and truly fucked.
“What do you mean?” Evan said, leaning his weight against the stone wall and crossing his arms.
“What if we put the 'marauders’ in their place?”
“What, start a prank war? You know Dumbledore favors the Gryffindors. If it were traced back to us, we’d end up in at least twice as much trouble as them. Which, as Evie was right about, we can’t afford. Not yet, anyways.”
“Which is where the subtlety comes in.”
“Temmy, you haven’t been subtle a day in your life.”
“He’s right, Bee,” Evan cut in, “Where are you going with this?”
Barty clutched his chest. “I beg both of your pardons? I positively exude subtlety.”
Regulus and Evan just stared at him dryly.
After a moment he waved them off. “Alright, fine, so subtlety isn’t my strongest suit. That doesn’t mean I can’t pull it off when necessary. But I don’t need to, I have the two of you for that. When do the loons set up their pranks?”
Regulus looked at him for a moment before answering. “Impossible to say for sure, but if I had to guess, usually at night. They clearly know the castle well; otherwise, they wouldn’t get away with half the shite they do. Also, they have Lupin. He’s a prefect, and he’s a prefect that’s willing to turn a blind eye for them. He can tell them when the patrols end and they can sneak out after the fact.”
Barty smiled, all teeth. “And that’s when we strike.”
“None of us are legilimens, Bee. What did you have in mind?”
“Mates, we’re all animagi. We wait outside Gryffindor Tower, and when they leave, we freak them out. I can fly close to them, make them feel something whipping around them without being able to see it, especially not in the shite lighting they’ll be working with. Archie can roll around behind them, freaking them out and tripping them up. I’m telling you, Archie, you rolling around on the cobblestone floor is a funky sound. And we can set it up so Evan’s in the rafters, making that eerie clucking sound. The castle echoes so much that they won’t think to look up, it’ll sound like it's coming from all around them. We can even switch up, night to night, changing locations. That way they won’t be overly cautious in one place–”
“--Less likely to catch us that way,” Evan hummed.
Barty pointed at him. “Exactly!”
Regulus shifted. “It still won’t work.”
Evan and Barty turned to him. “Why not?” Evan asked, eyes sharp.
Regulus considered for a moment. “Potter has an invisibility cloak.”
Barty flopped down with a groan. “Who in Merlin’s name thought that was a good idea?”
“And how do you know about it?” Evan chimed in.
“For whatever subtlety Barty lacks, Sirius is worse. I heard him talking to Potter over the summer about it, planning out a prank. I’d bet they all huddle under it until they split up, safer that way. We won’t see them when they leave or know which way they go.”
Barty chewed on his lip before his smile slowly grew again. “Doesn’t matter. In fact, them using the cloak will just freak them out more.”
“How so?”
“Archie, you can’t see or hear for shite as an Armadillo. Why? Because your sense of smell is so good that it compensates. You’ll be able to smell them as soon as they come out. I’ll be able to use echolocation to find them, too. They’ll think they’re invisible, but we’ll be honed in on them the entire time.”
Evan perked up, looking at Regulus. “Bee might actually be right.”
“Might?” Barty squawked.
“We could actually pull this off. And we know that they’re animagi but they don’t know about us. They don’t really know anything about us. We hold all of the cards here,” Evan continued, still ignoring Barty’s offended pout.
Barty bounced over the Regulus. “Archie, c’mon, say you’ll do it. Imagine their faces!”
“I won’t be able to see their faces,” Regulus retorted drily.
“Okay, imagine how freaked out and panicked they’re gonna be when they realize someone outplayed them. C’mon, you know you want to.”
Regulus turned away from them. It would be fun. It would also be nice to get revenge for all of the exploding breakfasts, red dye, and sabotaged quidditch kits, even if no one knew he was responsible.
It could even be fun.
Regulus closed his eyes and took a deep breath, tilting his head up. His shoulders slumped as he turned around, looking both Barty and Evan in the eyes.
He tilted his head at them and let himself smile. “When do we start?”
…
James was still reeling from the interaction with Rigel earlier and he could tell Sirius was as well. Thinking back on it, that had probably been his first interaction with her. She hadn’t sat with them on the way to her first year, though he’d briefly caught a glimpse of her arguing with Sirius, saying she needed a chance to make her own friends, just like he had.
He still remembered how Sirius had come into their compartment, grumbling all the while that he could have introduced her to Gryffindor’s in her year after the sorting ceremony. James had been excited to meet the little sister Sirius had gone on and on about during their first year, but he supposed he could wait until after the sorting. He knew how important she was to Sirius, and he didn’t want her to be cross with him because he’d interrupted her first chance at socializing.
Sirius changed his tune pretty quickly after Rigel was sorted into Slytherin.
Before befriending Sirius, James hadn’t had any problems with those in Slytherin, aside from entitled Snivelous, he supposed. The hatred and dislike for those like Mulciber, Avery, Yaxely, Wilkes, and Nott came later when the boys really buckled down on prejudice and blood purity. James’s parents had raised him to treat people with kindness and to always pay good deeds forward. They weren’t upset with him standing up for the muggleborns when the elitists decided to go after them.
But the hatred of Slytherin had started with Sirius. After Sirius had been sorted into Gryffindor, his parents had been livid, going so far as to send him a howler, though it was in French, so James still didn’t know what had been said. Instead of having the effect of shaming Sirius, forcing him to fall into line, Sirius had buckled down after that, declaring that he was going to be his own person, nothing like the rest of his family.
And what was more like his family than the Slytherin house as a whole?
For every nasty thing Sirius’s parents sent his way, he directed just as many hateful feelings and deeds to the Slytherins at Hogwarts.
His cousin, Narcissa, a few years ahead of him, had tried to talk to him on several occasions, but never with any modicum of success.
James had been a bit cautious at first, worried about what his parents would say if he went all out like Sirius was. But once Sirius had returned from Yule break that first year, his spirit dimmed, James had decided to jump on board, no reservations.
He knew that his parents were upset about his mindset towards Slytherins, but they hadn’t been able to change his mind, and he hadn’t been able to change theirs, so they were at a standstill. As long as James didn’t cross any serious lines, his parents had decided to leave them be.
James hadn’t begun to question his mindset until the beginning of this year.
Everything had been great. They’d successfully completed the animagus transformation over the break, Sirius had finally managed to escape the hell that was Grimmauld place, him and Moony were tentatively exploring their feelings for each other, and things were just generally looking up.
The only thing that would have made things better would have been if Lily had finally returned his affections.
No matter, they would get there. He was sure of it.
Then, everything had changed.
While James knew his hatred and intolerance of all things Slytherin and green came from his relationship with Sirius, he knew that Sirius singled out Snivelous because of James.
Sometimes their pranks bordered on cruel, but as the years went on, Snivelous began giving as good as they gave it, so James became less worried about the possibility that they were in the wrong.
Then Snivelous seemed to single out Remus.
Remus had always been the most mellow of them. James knew that he and Sirius were the frontrunners, and that Peter was a loyal friend that would follow in their footprints as best he could. Despite being the mellowest of them, Remus was the mastermind behind the logistics of their pranks, but he never liked to be involved with their schemes outside of that, choosing instead to spend his time with Lily when they went out to war.
James wondered if it was Remus’s way of keeping them from going to far and playing damage control.
When they targeted Snivelous, Remus had always remained uninvolved, even going so far as to tell them off when they specifically targeted him. Remus had become less vocal over time, whether it was because of James and Sirius wearing him down or because of Snape’s treatment of him, James wasn’t sure.
And with Snape’s hatred of Remus came Sirius going on guard dog mode. Sirius became more vicious than normal, an added hatred driving him.
James loved Sirius. He was his brother in everything but blood, and he knew that Sirius felt the same for him. Sirius had told him before that James was the brother he’d always wished he’d had.
James knew that he was sometimes too … enabling of some of Sirius’s more volatile personality traits. But even he could admit that Sirius had been a bit off the rails after he’d run away from home.
James wasn’t sure if it was due to all of the trauma he’d gone through or pressure from his family. Sirius was the only male of his generation, so he was the only heir. His parents were still trying to force him back. They didn’t have any other option. The Blacks didn’t have a backup. Not that they should have one. James hated the Black family for what they’d put his brother through. He wouldn’t wish being a member of that family on anyone.
James had asked Sirius once, why his parents hadn’t followed the practice most pureblood families engaged in – having kids until they had an heir and a spare. Sirius had explained that it was because of his sister.
The healers had told Walburga that Rigel would be a boy. Because of this, Walburga hadn’t been careful during the pregnancy, not planning on ever going through with another pregnancy. She’d drunk and smoked during the entire pregnancy, not going to appointments beyond the one that told her the gender.
Because of this, Rigel had been born nearly a month early. The delivery hadn’t been easy, making it so Walburga couldn’t have another child. They were stuck with only Sirius and Rigel.
So, despite being horrible people and hating everything that made Sirius Sirius, his family refused to let up, trying to force him back. Unfortunately for the Blacks, they’d underestimated the Potters. His parents weren’t going to let the Blacks anywhere near Sirius. He was family.
So, whether it was a result of the environment that he had grown up in or the pressure of his parents looming over him, everything Sirius had done before, all of his rebellions and the stereotypes he engrained into his very being, he had dialed them up to the nines. With every prank and instance of lashing out, James began to be cautious of what he had believed was a far away line.
Then there was the prank.
James had had detention that evening and had planned on meeting Peter and Sirius at the shack, but he’d gone back to the dorm because he’d forgotten to bring his cloak to detention with him.
To his shock, Sirius and Peter had been in the dorm when he got there. Peter had looked confused, but Sirius?
Sirius had looked like the cat that caught the canary.
James didn’t think that he’d ever run as fast as he did, once he realized what Sirius had done.
Even with him going at an all out sprint, he’d almost not made it in time.
He’d barely managed to save Snape from being killed by Moony.
And the thing that shook James to his core, the thing that still shook him to his core, was that Sirius hadn’t cared.
Sure, he had cared about the consequences. He’d cared that he’d been kicked off the quidditch team indefinitely. He’d cared that it had nearly lost him Moony. But he certainly hadn’t cared that he’d almost been responsible for someone’s death.
Remus was just barely allowing Sirius to even be around him again. James was pretty sure that they were starting to work it out, though James knew that the trust Remus had previously held in Sirius would never truly be restored.
He wasn’t sure if Sirius had realized that yet, much less come to terms with the extent of the damage he’d done.
But James finally realized that yes, there was a line, and yes, they had crossed it.
And that realization had pulled the rug out from under his feet.
Now, he second guessed every interaction, every conflict with the Slytherins.
He still hated Snivelous and his gang. He knew they were prejudiced arseholes who would probably join the wrong side of the war that James heard his parents whispering about.
But the other Slytherins? The younger years that they would include in their pranks that bordered on cruel, the kids that they shoved out of their way in the halls and taunted and mocked? Those were the things he was second guessing.
The early years of his rivalry with Snape, for example. Snape hadn’t always been awful. Lily wouldn’t have been his friend if he was born bad. It made James wonder how much of Snape leaning towards the nastier Slytherins was a result of the way James had treated him.
It also made him wonder if he should leave Lily alone, if she truthfully didn’t enjoy James chasing after her.
Honestly, he hadn’t explored that train of thought, he wasn’t ready to work through it yet.
So James was trying to be more observant. Trying to dial back on the pranks, to transform that line that he had thought was so far away that they’d never reach it to being a firm and ever present boundary that he’d never approach again.
Hopefully Sirius would follow his lead.
But despite how he’d tried to change behind the seens, the way he’d try to see things he’d been willfully ignorant of before, he hadn’t noticed Rigel.
He knew that she was friends with Marlene’s girlfriend, Dorcas. He also knew she was friends with the Ravenclaw who’s name he couldn’t remember, but that everyone knew by her reputation for the sheer number of explosions and experiments she was constantly called to the headmasters office for.
The abondoned classroom on the west wing of the fifth floor would forever smell of pomegranite and brimstone.
He also knew that she was close with Rosier and Crouch, who were in Slytherin with her. He’d never seen the two speak up one way or the other regarding blood purity, but they were widely known as being attached at the hip, the chaos duo of Hogwarts.
James had been offended the first time he’d heard them described as such. Him and Sirius were Hogwart’s double act.
Then he’d overheard a conversation between the two, Rigel sitting next to them like the spectre he’d always subconsciously associated her with. After attempting to follow that conversation, James had decided that Rosier and Crouch could keep their title.
They’d definitely earned it.
James knew that she was in their potions class, the only fifth year there. That she was Lily’s potion partner, and that she was one of the only one’s that could keep up with and compete with Lily’s scores..
He’d heard Snape ranting about it one time. He’d almost sent Rigel chocolates for giving him that experience.
He knew that she was an absolute demon on the quidditch pitch. That she had surprised everyone in her first year by making the team as the youngest seeker Slytherin had had in centuries. He knew that she had never played a game where she hadn’t caught the snitch.
It was infuriating. When playing Slytherin, the goal was always to rack up as many points as possible. Everyone knew the only hope of beating her at a game was to score so many points that her contribution was rendered null.
They were hardly ever successful. Crouch and Meadowes were also demons as beaters.
He knew who she spent her time around, he knew that she was in Slytherin, though she had been a hat stall, he vaguely remembered. He knew that Sirius had gushed about her during their first year and had been stubbornly silent regarding anything Rigel related post-sorting. He knew that Sirius hadn’t brought her with him when he left and, without fail, left the room if his parents brought her up, when they proposed reaching out to her to see if she needed help.
James had an inkling that his father was working on finding a way to reach out to her regardless of how Sirius felt. He’d heard his parents arguing about it, his mother staunchly defending going at Sirius’s pace, his father arguing that they couldn’t leave a child in that house just because they’d gotten the one they’d connected with free.
James had forgotten that late night conversation until the interaction today. He’d been pleasantly surprised by her snark. It was at that moment that he’d realized that he’d never heard Rigel speak before – outside of answering Slughorn’s questions in class, of course.
He wasn’t sure if he just hadn’t paid attention to her before or if she’d always been this way, but he was fairly sure that something had changed in her. Instead of fading into the background whenever their paths crossed, she had an air of confidence to her, standing between him and Lily, inserting herself without apology or hesitation. She had subtly and promptly put him in his place, and then very aptly made it known that his place was not there.
She’d even been funny about it, though it was more like Remus humor than normal people humor.
Where the interaction had made James curious and left him wanting to interact with her more, it had caused Sirius to be on edge. He’d rushed their way out of the library and been jumpy ever since.
So, that led them to what they were doing now, what they did whenever they wanted anything within the range of revenge to a pickme-up.
They were setting up a prank.
They had to wait for Remus to get back, as per usual, but after that, the tower was asleep and they had no trouble sneaking out, the incantation that they’d found to enchant the armor by the great hall in hand.
Their ideal prank involved messing with the food in the kitchen, but even after finally finding the kitchen and making their way inside, the elves had refused to help them with their pranks.
James hadn’t even been aware that the elves could say no.
While Remus and Peter had guessed that it was probably a blanket order from Dumbledore that prohibited students from causing mischief in the kitchens, for some reason James’s gut was telling him that their reaction to the marauders was personal.
He had no idea why. They’d never interacted with them before that time and he was sure that they’d never done anything to offend them. He’d tried to go back on several occasions to interact with them and maybe create a relationship; he hadn’t even cared about getting them to agree to a prank at that point, he just didn’t like knowing that the elves had a grudge against him.
The elves had been unfailingly polite, but that was it; they hadn’t entertained anything further.
Remus thought that James was just being paranoid and that there was nothing more to it.
Sirius was grumpy about it and absolutely no help. But Sirius also had an odd grudge against house elves as a whole, so James had known that would be the case going in.
James hadn’t given up on the elves just yet, but even he had to admit that it might be a lost cause.
So here they were, just leaving the tower, Remus, Sirius, and himself under the cloak. Peter had snuck out of the portrait hole first to make sure no one would see the portrait opening, even if they couldn’t see them, and had only returned once the coast was clear. His little nose was just barely poking out of Remus’s pocket.
He’d been dropped a time or two too many by him and Sirius to trust them with carrying him around if he had any other option.
They’d barely made it a few steps when James heard a series of uncomfortably high-pitched squeaks and chirps. He paused, looking at Sirius and Remus, but both of them looked just as confused. The sounds cut off abruptly and the moment seemed to suspend, waiting for the shoe to drop.
Something whooshed past the backs of their heads. They scrambled to turn around as gracefully as they could while being under the cloak, but nothing was there.
They only got a moment of peace before something rolled behind them, the sound echoing almost hollowly across the corridor. James nearly jumped out of his skin, quickly turning back around, not caring if Remus and Sirius followed. He wasn’t sure if he should watch the air or the floor, but it didn’t end up mattering – nothing was there.
“What the bloody hell is going on?” Sirius whispered breathily.
James opened his mouth to respond, only to be cut off by a horrible, eerie series of clicks and clucks that carried on the wind and reverberated all around them.
“What the fuck?” James breathed out as he looked around frantically. He couldn’t figure out what was making the noise or where it was coming from. “Peeves?” he called out.
He felt more than saw Remus shake his head. “This isn’t Peeves,” he said, one hand cupping his pocket where Peter had burrowed into, no longer playing lookout.
The rolling thing made it’s way past them again and they scrambled out of the way before it seemed to go in reverse, rolling back towards them faster than it had passed. They all shoved and scrambled over one another to try and get out of the way, though the only thing they accomplished was tripping each other up with the cloak and sending each other sprawling to the ground, limbs awkwardly entangled and sticking out of the cloak at random angles.
Then Sirius shrieked, all thoughts of being quiet forgotten. “It touched me! It went over my hand!”
Sirius scrambled away from them, shaking his hand off like it was wet while also trying to tuck it close to him, looking around frantically for the cause of his distress.
Remus popped out of the cloak, his hair sticking up at odd angles from the static electricity. He held his hands out placatingly, trying to diffuse whatever was going on. “Let’s all just take a deep breath, there’s always a reasonable explanation.”
James tried to follow his advice and took a deep breath, trying to gather himself. The echoing clacks had cut off at some point during the chaos, the corridor descending back into tense silence. “Moony is right. I’m sure–”
Something small collided with the back of his head, grabbing the cloak from where he’d pushed it off his face and pulling it back down, entangling him with it. Whatever it was began crawling all over him, worming its way down his neck and into the back of his shirt.
James jumped up with a shriek, jumping and dancing around frantically as he felt it writhing its way around under his shirt and crawling around on his bare skin. It was leathery and furry and smooth and pointy and James couldn’t get it off!
Oh, no no no! The thing went under the waistband of his sweatpants and James fell on his ass, unsure what to do. Remus and Sirius were panicking around him, trying to help but unsure of how, also not wanting to touch him and make themselves be next for whatever was going on.
The thing clawed its way out of the bottom of one of the legs of his pants just as Sirius got over his reservations and hauled James up, where Remus caught him, pulling James with him as they darted away. James briefly saw Sirius gather up the cloak from where they’d abandoned it in their panic.
Peter, now back to human, was already inside the portrait hole, holding it open as they all darted inside, one last ominous series of clacks following them as they slammed the portrait shut right when Sirius cleared the threshold.
They all collapsed in a pile just inside the doorway, chests heaving for breath, eyes wide and incredulous.
Remus seemed to catch his breath first, sitting up and staring at the portrait with a furrow between his brows.
“Well, excuse the fuck out of me, but what the bloody hell just happened?” Remus slowly turned to Sirius and James. “If that was one of you two shitting with Wormy and I–”
James immediately cut him off, though he didn’t sit up like Remus did, just remained staring at the ceiling with his hands covering his face, the heels of his palms pressed into his eyes.
“I had nothing to do with–” he waved one of his hands around aimlessly, “--whatever that was. I got attacked by that thing. It went down my bloody trousers. Why would I set whatever that was up just to turn it around to attack me?” James asked incredulously.
Remus turned to Sirius. “Pads?”
But Sirius already had his hands raised in surrender. “That wasn’t me, Moons.”
“If it wasn’t you or Prongs, and it definitely wasn’t me or Moony, then who the hell just attacked us?” Peter finally cut in.
“Attacked might be laying it on a bit thick, Worms,” Remus said, tilting his head back and forth, considering.
“Speak for yourself,” James practically shrieked, voice embarrassingly shrill. “It was inside my bloody trousers!”
“Prongs is right!” Sirius said, pointing at him. “Someone’s declared war on us! We need to return the favor.”
“To who?” Remus asked. “We have no idea who even pranked us.”
“Or why,” Peter added in.
“Eh,” Remus said, rubbing the back of his neck. “The why’s not exactly difficult to piece together.”
James turned to Remus, confused. “What do you mean? What could we have possibly done to deserve whatever that was?”
Remus looked at James almost pityingly. “Prongs, we’ve pulled off a lot of pranks here. And most of them can’t exactly be classified as being for the general enjoyment.”
“We’ve never done anything to hurt anyone,” Sirius waved off.
Remus tensed up, something darker entering his gaze. “Haven’t we?”
Sirius flinched and shrank into himself a bit, effectively backing off and avoided looking at Remus at all.
“So you think it was Snivelous?” James quickly inserted, trying to change the topic before they could really go at it. He caught Peter shooting him a grateful look from the corner of his eye.
Remus shook his head, looking off into the distance, considering. “Whatever that was, it wasn’t Snape’s style. For all that Snape’s a Slytherin, he’s never shied away from direct conflict, at least when it comes to us. He’s messed with our potions a couple of times over the years, but that’s about as subtle as he gets. And Mulciber, Avery, and the others aren’t smart enough to pull that off, whatever it was. We’re dealing with someone new.”
Peter shifted nervously, wringing his hands. “I mean, but how can you be sure? It might not have even been a person. It could have been one of the ghosts or Peeves.”
This time Sirius shook his head. “That wasn’t Peeves style. Peeves is more of a sowing mass chaos kind of poltergeist. He hardly ever goes after individual students, and when he does, he’s not secretive about it.”
“And I’ve never heard of any of the other ghosts retaliating against students. The most they do is passive aggressively going through a student or two to make them cold, nothing tangible,” Remus added.
Sirius’s gaze darkened, storminess entered his face. James knew that face. It was the face Sirius used exclusively for anything family related. “The house elves,” Sirius practically spat out.
“The house elves?” Peter squeaked out, obviously not buying it.
Sirius just turned to James vehemently. “You must of been right, Prongs. Whatever grudge they have against us, it is personal. This had to be them!”
“Nope, that’s not - just no,” Remus cut in, making a timeout gesture with his arms. “Do not take your weird vengeance against all things elvish out on the house elves. If there’s anything we’ve learned from trying to enlist them in helping with a prank, it’s that they don’t get involved. And even if they can get involved, and James is right, and there is a grudge aimed just at us, they’ve never done anything to us before, besides the odd misplaced sock. There’s no reason for them to suddenly lash out, not unless one of you two did something to escalate the situation,” Remus said, pointing to Sirius and James.
Sirius scoffed. “I hate the little buggers. The less I have to see their nasty faces, the better.”
Remus stared at Sirius for a moment, gauging him to see if he was lying. He seemed to be satisfied with what he found, because everyone turned their attention to James.
James immediately backpeddled. “I haven’t done anything to make them mad!”
Sirius groaned, placing his face in his hands. “But you have been doing stuff to them?”
“Prongs,” Remus moaned.
“No, wait, this wasn’t on me! I’ve only visited them a few times, and they definitely haven’t liked me, but they’ve always been polite! I don’t think this was them. Besides, the thing in my clothes was an animal, it wasn’t an elf.”
“What, there’s a difference?” Sirius mumbled.
Remus hit him upside the head before Sirius could duck away. “Stop that. Prongs, what do you mean? Do you know what attacked you?”
James shook his head, trying to remember what the thing had felt like beyond the haze of panic it had induced. “I don’t know what it was, but it was definitely an animal. It’s body wasn’t much bigger than Wormy, but it was skinnier and longer.”
“Like a weasel?” Remus asked.
“No, it didn’t have arms.”
“The fuck you mean it didn’t have arms, Prongs? What, were you attacked by a snake in a fur coat?” Sirius asked.
“It had wings, but it wasn’t a bird. The wings had a claw on the end, I think,” James contemplated.
“Birds are feathery, not furry, Prongs. Are we sure you didn’t hit your head?” Sirius asked, snapping his fingers in James face before he shoved them away.
“Not necessarily,” Remus countered, chewing his bottom lip. “It could have been a bat.”
Peter scrambled away from James. “A bat? Like rabies? We need to get Prongs tested for rabies? Quick, check if it bit him!” Peter said hysterically.
“Shite, rabies? I didn’t even think Scotland had bats!” Sirius said as he frantically began pulling up James’s shirt and checking him for bites. James quickly followed suit, patting down his body, checking for drawn blood as well.
“Stop that, you dramatic gits,” Remus said as he hauled Sirius off James. “We don’t even know if it was a bat, not until I check the library tomorrow or we actually get a clear sight of the thing. You’re probably fine.”
“Probably?” James and Sirius shrieked out together, Sirius came back to check James over with renewed vigor, muttering something about the symptoms of rabies and fear of water.
“Yes, probably,” Remus hauled them up and began dragging them to the stairs, Peter following a step behind. “It’s late, my bones hurt, we left my cane in the dorm, and I’m tired. Get your arses in bed, we’ll work on figuring this out tomorrow.”
“Moony-”
“Ah!”
“But-”
“Nope!”
“Seriously, Moons-”
“No, nada, nac oes, non! Tomorrow's problem is tomorrow’s problem,” he said, flopping down onto his bed and pulling the covers over his head with a muffled scream.
Sirius raised a finger, obviously gearing up for another round, but James pushed it down with a solemn shake of his head. With a groan and a stomp of the foot, Sirius acquiesced, plopping face first on his bed. He mumbled something that James couldn’t make out, and since James had never been good at letting things be, he went and shoved Sirius over before falling onto the bed next to him.
“What was that, Pads?”
Sirius groaned. “This was not how tonight was supposed to go.”
James shrugged. “Yes, but my dear Padfoot, think of the opportunities! We have a mystery on our hands, and who better to solve it than the marauders themselves?” James asked as he wriggled his eyebrows at Sirius dramatically.
A well aimed pillow hurtled into his face, knocking his glasses askew before rebounding off him to nail Sirius as well.
“In the morning,” Remus said, his hand still raised from his throw.
Not wanting to push Remus any further, James slurked over to his bed and flopped down.
He guessed Remus was right, it could wait until tomorrow. But James couldn’t wait to figure out who had pulled one over on the marauders. They’d never been able to do a full out prank war before.
Minnie was going to have a stroke.
The lights had only been off for a moment, Remus’s bed rustling contently, when Peter’s voice piped up.
“But … the bat wasn’t alone. So, other than the bat, what were the other animals?”
James and Sirius just looked at each other in dark as Remus buried his face in his pillow, incoherent chastisement chasing them to sleep.
…
The night before, Regulus had fallen asleep to Barty’s cackles of genuine mirth as Evan tried to quiet him down with little success. To his credit, Evan wasn’t exactly at his best, grumbling about naughty boyfriends and Potter’s trousers.
Regulus was still just shocked that Barty had gone that far with pranking Potter, that he’d committed to crawling around under Potter’s clothes.
It would be fine. Evan and Barty would work it out, preferably on a night Regulus wasn’t in the dorm with them.
Barty, who was still randomly bursting out into the occasional giggle, clearly held no regrets.
For all of Evan’s grumblings, the occasional twist of his lips and light in his eyes told Regulus that he had found Barty’s eccentrism as hilarious as Barty did.
That morning, they’d practiced their shifts when they’d woken up, before they’d gone to breakfast, trying to make the shift from human to animal and back uniform and seamless.
Regulus and, surprisingly, Barty were the best at it, with Evan not always landing on his feet post transformation.
Evan was getting better, though, and his bird form was certainly top heavy, so Regulus couldn’t exactly blame him. Regulus was glad he hadn’t been given stilts for legs.
They were back in the library, actually working on schoolwork this time. They had to make up the time they’d spent the day before researching their animagus forms.
This was made doubly unfortunate by the fact that they were all exhausted from being up and about so late. Regulus could understand why Sirius and his friends put less effort into
school than they should, if they were out so late every night for their extracurriculars.
Regulus had his head barely propped up by his right arm, his left hand lazily tracing away at writing his charms essay. Evan was also working on the same paper, while Barty had already finished and Regulus was fairly certain he was working on two different papers for two separate classes.
Oh, the joys of being an ambidextrous overachiever.
Regulus was glad to have finally found his pace, getting into a groove where he was still somewhat aware of his surroundings but primarily focused on waxing poetic on the importance that the correct wand motion held for spells classified as simple, while those classified as complex or mastery level were often categorized by simple, emotive movements.
Regulus wondered how many things were complicated only because wix made it complicated.
He was just about to start his concluding section when a book was placed next to him on the table, followed by a chair being pulled out. Regulus looked up without moving to see Evans and McDonald take two of the remaining three seats at their table.
After a moment of looking at the two of them, mischievous smiles on their face, Regulus elected to ignore them.
He was too tired to deal with this shite.
Unfortunately, Barty and Evan were not.
“Well, looky here, Rosie.”
“Do my eyes deceive me, Bee?”
“Two lions joining the snakes.”
“Whatever will the rest of the pride have to say?”
“Whatever will the eagles and badgers think?”
“Not to mention the rest of the snakes.”
“To whatever do we owe the pleasure?”
“Is it a pleasure?”
“What a lovely point, Rosie. Our star in the sky doesn’t seem to see it as a pleasure.”
“Hmm, no, they most certainly do not.”
“Though, this is Archie we’re talking about.”
“Another lovely observation, Bee. It does raise the question, though-”
“Does our Archie know how to experience pleasure?”
“Indeed, Bee, indeed. Perhaps we could show them?”
“An interactive experience, if you would?”
“Precisely. What say you, starry starry night? Shall we take this back to the bedroom?”
“Leave me out of your shagging,” Regulus grumbled, scratching away with his quill on parchment.
“Ah, if not one to join in, perhaps the role of a voyeur is the one our star desires to play?”
Regulus went down, hitting his forehead on the table and keeping it there with a groan. “Bloody hell. Scare away the company without pulling me into a threesome, would you?”
“Hmmm. I don’t think our company has been scared away.”
“Shame, that. Shall we try another approach?”
“Or shall we see what they want?”
“Or we could not?” Regulus tried to cut in.
“Choice, choices,” Evan tutted, the two of them pivoting their heads like cats to look at the girls, identical cheshire grins on their faces.
Regulus had to give the girls credit where credit was due. They both looked unsettled, sure. That was basic instinct when interacting with Barty and Evan. But they looked more amused than anything.
What a shame.
He’d already rescued them once. He might as well do it again before Barty and Evan really got going.
For his sanity as much as theirs.
“McDonald, Evans, did you need something?”
Evans began pulling her work out of her bag. “A peaceful and uninterrupted revising session.”
Regulus blinked at her slowly, looking between the girls and the nuisances and back again. He jerked his thumb over to his friends. “And you thought you’d find that here?”
He’d thought she was smarter than that.
He hated when people proved him wrong.
McDonald followed Evans’s example, though she also pulled out some intricate embroidery work. Regulus had heard that she wanted to go into clothing design following graduation. From what he’d seen, she really had a talent for it. He’d have to look into internships in Paris for her. Maybe drop an application or two in her bag at some point. It’d be a shame for her skill to be wasted in London.
“Well, it worked so well last time,” McDonald said, pulling a strand of floss through the eye of a needle.
“And surely you Slytherins can recognize making the most of the resources available to you?” Evans asked, something saccharinely sweet coloring her tone.
“Who said I’m available for use?”
“You’re still here, aren’t you?”
Regulus merely grunted in response. “Touché.”
“Not necessarily,” Barty cut in.
“We know what you’re getting out of this,” Evan added.
“A study session free of idiocy.”
“Idiocy in the unique forms of four Gryffindors.”
“Not just any four Gryffindors, Rosie dear.”
“Ah yes. The Muskrats?”
“I could have sworn it was the Musketeers?”
“Can’t be, there’s only three of those.”
“You’re sure?”
“Fairly certain. Dumas only included three.”
“Then we’re definitely off. They wouldn’t name themselves after a book.”
“If they can even read.”
“Perhaps Wolfy McWolf read it and shared with the class?”
“That could be a plausible theory, Bee in a tree, well done.”
Barty preened.
It was eerily similar to when he preened in his animagus form.
Maybe magic knew what it was doing afterall.
Regulus would still make an argument that a hyena would have worked for Barty just as well.
“What did Wolfy McWolf read for the class,” Lupin cut in, sitting next to Evans at the last remaining seat at the table.
At least no one else could impose themselves on Regulus’s work time.
Unless they pulled up a chair.
If that happened, Regulus would not be held responsible for his actions.
As it is, he buried his face in his arms with a groan, not even caring if he smeared ink on his face.
Evan would let him know if that happened. Probably.
“Three lions!” Barty exclaimed.
“The pride must certainly be feeling the loss of them now.”
“But of course! They’ve lost the three with brains. However will they cope without them?”
“Do you think McGonagall has already sent out search parties?”
“How much time do you think we have before they reach us?”
“Enough time for some fun?”
“Oh, my dear Rosie, there is always enough time for some fun. Wouldn’t you agree, Archie?”
In situations like this, it was simply best to ignore them. Unfortunately, the charms essay was the last thing he strictly needed to get done.
The others didn’t need to know that though. And he always kept his creature research on him for such occasions.
Regulus pulled out his latest tome and research journal on thestrals as Barty and Evan got geared up again.
“Methinks he agrees.”
“Silence is telling.”
“But telling of what?”
“Agreement?”
“Opposition?”
“Acquiescence?”
“Dissent?”
“Choices, choices,” the two chimed together.
Regulus began labeling his latest sketch. He wasn’t quite happy with it, he needed more angles for it to be accurate. He should make time to visit the thestrals, perhaps an hour before the sun set. Then he would have time to both add to his sketches and maybe even play around with how the change in light played with the shadows and contours of the thestral’s skeletal skin and leathery, arched wings.
He’d also heard that there was a kelpie on the far side of the lake, near the inlet. He’d need to do some research on how to get close to one and how to lur it out of the water before anything else.. No point in making the trek only to not get a sight of it.
He’d have to bring Barty and Evan with him for that one, though. He had no plans of drowning.
He paused, feeling the weight of someone’s gaze on him. He cautiously looked up, trying to keep his movements casual. Evans and McDonald were both engaged in their work, and it seemed that Barty had become bored from lack of stimulation from the others and was back to simultaneously writing two essays at once.
Proper swot, Barty was.
Evan was also finishing up his charms essay, though it looked like he still had a paragraph or two to go.
Which left Lupin.
Lupin, who was staring at Regulus with a knowing grin on his face.
The fuck was that about?
As far as Regulus was aware, outside of the occasional prefect patrol, he and Lupin had never interacted.
And as for last night, Lupin had been caught off guard just as much as the rest of his troupe. And they certainly hadn’t figured anything out in their chaotic retreat.
If they had, he had a feeling not even his brother’s propensity for avoidance when it came to Regulus would stop that conversation.
Something nudged Regulus’s side and he jerked away, though it was only Evans.
She used her quill to gesture to Regulus’s open book. “I didn’t realized you were in Care of Magical Creatures. I don’t remember Marlene doing an assignment on Thestrals last year. Is it new?”
Regulus closed his journal, careful to not let her get a glimpse of the drawings inside. “Personal fancy, not an assignment. And I don’t advertise it.”
“Why not? What’s so bad about liking magical creatures? Plenty of people take that class for an easy O.”
Regulus scowled before he could stop himself. He was very aware of how people saw magical creatures and how condescending they became when discussing creature rights. While that shouldn’t have been the case and Regulus knew that Kettleburn tried, Care for Magical Creatures was largely regarded as a joke. It was the fun class that people took to buffer their schedule before their OWLs or NEWTs without actually thinking of the implications inherent within the field.
Regulus had worked to sit the OWL for the class back in his third year. Kettleburn had been sceptical, but had ultimately allowed it. Regulus was fairly certain Kettleburn had only been entertaining him so he would stop pestering him about it.
Needless to say, Kettleburn had been shocked when Regulus had received a near perfect score, even going so far as to correct a mistake in the verbiage on the exam.
Kettleburn had left Regulus alone following the exam. As long as Regulus didn’t get hurt or get into something he wasn’t supposed to, Kettleburn signed off on his independent study and did minor checkins every now and again to make sure that Regulus was staying on task and not abusing the resources available to him.
He was supposed to take the NEWT during the time that the others in his year were taking the OWL. So few students took the class beyond the OWL years, and almost none of them were in the sacred 28 – as being a magizoologist or working in conservation wasn’t seen as a respectable career to the elites – that Regulus wasn’t worried about anyone snitching to his parents.
And after this summer, it wouldn’t even matter. He, Barty, and Evan would be free. Or as free as any underage emancipated wizards could be. He wouldn’t have to worry about his niche interests being reported back to his parents at a whim.
Regulus simply shrugged at Evans, trying to wipe the scowl from his face before she took offense. “I’m not allowed to take the class.”
This time McDonald paused. “Then how are you taking it?”
“We all have our secrets,” Regulus said as he began packing up his things. Evan had finished his essay and was also packing up his and Barty’s supplies. Well, more like prying Barty’s things from him. Barty didn’t like being interrupted when he was getting things done, even by Evan. Or, more specifically, he only liked being interrupted by Evan in specific scenarios.
Regulus had no doubt that one of those scenarios would take place after Evan forced some food into Barty. He was glad he already had plans to go to the thestrals. Otherwise he would need to find something else to occupy his time while they had alone time.
Evans groaned as McDonald and Lupin watched Evan and Barty play tug of war with one of Barty’s textbooks, Evan being extremely careful to not rip it while also not giving ground. “C’mon, Rigel, we just got here. Can’t you stay a bit longer and act as Potter deterrent?”
Regulus flinched at her use of his deadname, but he tried to cover it up with organizing his messenger bag. He didn’t think anyone noticed, well, anyone except for Lupin. He was always to observant for his own good. Lupin was looking at him curiously, like he was a puzzle that he couldn’t solve.
“Afraid not, Evans. I’ll see you in potions tomorrow?” He asked, trying to aim for polite in spite of feeling anything but.
He knew he shouldn’t lash out at Evans. She was kind but fierce. It wasn’t the kind of thing she would let go, and while he admired that, he also didn’t want her exploding his potion tomorrow in retribution.
He didn’t wait for her response, instead walking in between Barty and Evan, where they were now fighting over Barty’s bag that Evan had somehow successfully managed to pack, as Barty hadn’t quite managed to accept that he’d already lost this battle of wills. He grabbled the bag as he passed, effectively pulling the two of them with him.
After they’d exited the library, Regulus allowed himself to breathe a bit easier, handing off the bag he’d, for all intents and purposes stolen, to Evan. He didn’t quite trust Barty to not go back to his work. He was still pouting too much for them to have reached that phase.
Evan glanced over his shoulder as he slung the bag over it. “What do you think that was about?”
Regulus groaned, rubbing his hands down his face. “It’s what I get for trying to be helpful. Hopefully it was a one off.”
Barty shrugged, his pout slowly but surely shrinking. “Or not. It’s nice to have fresh blood for entertainment.”
“You sure that’s what you’re hoping for? You didn’t get as much done as you usually do,” Regulus said, trying to stir the pot so Barty wouldn’t instigate that scenario into repeating itself.
Judging by Evan’s hiss as Barty lunged for his bag, Regulus was successful.
“No, Bee – down. You literally have a time turner, you wanker. You can do the papers later. Right now, we’re taking a break,” Evan said, standing on his tip toes and just barely holding the bag out of Barty’s reach as he jumped for it.
They’d been debating for a couple of weeks now on who of the two of them were taller. He guessed they had their answer now.
Barty seemed to come to the same conclusion, changing his angle and tackling Evan.
Regulus swooped in and grabbed the bag while they weren’t looking and kept making his way to their dorm. They’d catch up before he got there and he could hand the bag back off to Evan so he could make his way to the thestrals.
Sure enough, after a minute or two, Evan came careening around a corner behind him with his hands outstretched, Barty only a couple of steps behind. Regulus tossed the bag to Evan as he passed and Evan increased the speed of his sprint, making his way to the dorm with Barty cursing and chasing after him all the while.
“See you tonight, Archie!” Evan called over his shoulder before he disapeared from view.
Regulus snorted. He wondered if Evan would actually make it to the dorm before Barty caught him. They were pretty evenly matched in terms of physicality.
Regulus jammed his hands in his trouser pockets and made his way outside and over the stone bridge that led to the clearing before the forbidden forest. If there was one prank that Regulus was actually grateful to the marauders for, it was their prank regarding the dress code. They’d enlisted more than just the four of them and had begun wearing the opposite gender’s uniform until Dumbledore had changed the rules, stating that anyone could choose between wearing a skirt or pants.
Barty had quickly transfigured an old pair of his trousers to fit Regulus. He wasn’t too embarrassed to admit that he had cried that night, overcome by gratitude that he wouldn’t have to force himself into a skirt at school as well as during the breaks.
He still made sure to wear a skirt on the train back and forth; it wasn’t worth the risk of rubbing it in his mother’s face.
Regulus rolled his eyes as he heard someone’s shoes scuff the stone step exiting the bridge. He’d caught sight of Lupin trailing them when they’d left the library, but he hadn’t expected him to actually follow him out of the castle.
For the moment, he’d give Lupin the benefit of the doubt. He could possibly just be going to the greenhouses or somewhere on the grounds. The rain had finally cleared up a bit, not even drizzling anymore. Lupin could just be enjoying one of the first warm spring days.
Regulus glanced over his shoulder as he entered the forbidden forest, the path to the clearing familiar to him. Lupin was still there.
Or Lupin could genuinely be following him, and not doing a very good job of it at that.
Regulus slowed his pace the smallest amount to account for Lupin’s cane. Just because Regulus didn’t want to talk to him didn’t mean he’d leave him to get lost in the forbidden forest. Lupin wasn’t Mulciber or Lestrange.
Or Potter for that matter.
Regulus finally pushed through the last trees before the glen. The thestrals' stables were built into a hollowed out hill that cozily wound its way between the trees, a gentle stream gurgling in the deficit. The threstrals preferred to sleep and live in caves and hollows, so Regulus was glad that the domesticated one’s here had that option. He knew that Newt Scamandar had gone to Hogwarts and wondered if he’d overseen the construction of the habitat.
A few of the thestrals were laying in the tall grasses, two playing in the stream. Their heads shot up when they saw him, his favorite two that he’d named Maia and Merope bounding over to him and nuzzling him fondly. He walked with them for a bit before laying in the grasses with them, the two thestrals bracketing him with their bodies, Maia propping up his body, Merope’s head in his lap. He gently pet her as he pulled out his journal and began sketching the next nearest thestral, Atlas. Unlike the two sisters that he spent most of his time with, Atlas was the patriarch of the herd. He was laying with Pleione, the matriarch. Regulus knew that the two hadn’t been able to mate beyond a single, misformed thestral that Regulus had named Asterope, but they protected the rest of the thestrals like they were their own.
Regulus felt Maia and Merope tense up and he cooed at them, knowing it was only Lupin stepping into the clearing. Regulus didn’t gesture him over. If he’d come this far, Lupin was more than capable than coming the rest of the way, especially since he clearly had something that he wanted to talk to Regulus about.
A moment later, Lupin’s trousers appeared in his periphery as Lupin crunched the grasses as he made his way over. He regarded Maia and Merope with caution. Interesting. Regulus wondered who Lupin had seen die.
After a moment, Lupin seemed to overcome the majority of his reservations, sitting as close to Regulus as he could without invading the thestrals’ space. He laid his cane in his lap and leaned back on his hands, taking in the glen and the sleepy thestrals. They were just waking up for the evening.
Regulus switched out his charcoal for a blending stick, trying to get the angle of Atlas’s eye cavity correct as Asterope suckled at Pleione.
“You don’t have your entourage.” Lupin offered, craning his neck to try and get a look at the journal.
“Funnily enough, they find the thestrals disconcerting.”
“So they’ve finally met their match?”
That earned Lupin a dry chuckle. “One could call it karma.”
Lupin let the silence hang for a moment. “But you don’t. Find them disconcerting, that is.”
It wasn’t a question, but Regulus answered it like one regardless. “They’re just living their lives. It’s not their fault what people have decided to associate them with.”
Lupin hummed. “Normally I would agree with you, but they’re associated with death. Maybe theres a reason for that.”
Regulus smeared a line of charcoal with his pinky. He’d have to remember to wipe it off later. He’d stained entirely too many shirts that way and he always felt bad bringing them to Nippy. “And why is that a bad thing?”
Lupin turned back to him. “Death is generally considered as bad for a reason, baby Black.”
Regulus’s face scrunched up at the nickname. His brother refused to associate with him, yet everyone always still saw him by a name that relied on their association. “Why, because it’s the end all?”
Lupin looked at him like he was stupid. “Yes.”
Regulus snorted. “Death is just a part of life, Lupin. Just as much as birth is. Everything is a cycle, whether it be in magic, life, muggle sciences, even. Sometimes you find things that will block up the cycle – dam it – but it eventually follows through, regardless of interference.”
“That’s a bit macabre of you, Rigel.”
Regulus knew that this time, Lupin definitely noticed his flinch. He hated him a bit for it.
Lupin sighed. “So baby Black and Rigel are both a no from you. Any requests?”
Regulus finished the last contours on Atlas’s wings. He could label the drawing tomorrow. For the first time since Lupin had arrived into the clearing, Regulus looked up at him. He seemed exhausted, though that wasn’t a surprise – lycanthropy wasn’t exactly known for being gentle on the body. He had deep circles under his eyes and he was lankier than he should of been, though Regulus didn’t really have any room to talk on the front of being skinny. Maybe Lupin’s tall frame exaggerated it more than it actually was. He had a new scar across the bridge of his nose, still pink and healing. His amber eyes examined Regulus, looking for something, yet also looking like he hadn’t yet decided what he was looking for.
Regulus sighed. He wouldn’t be examining color theory with the thestrals today after all. Maybe tomorrow. Though it was unlikely. Barty wanted to stake out the entrance to Gryffindor again tomorrow. They were giving it a break tonight, Evan arguing in favor of lulling them into a false sense of security.
With that logic, maybe Regulus could argue for another night off. He really wanted to draw the thestrals before he moved on to focusing primarily on the kelpie. He also didn’t want to be dragging around his oil pastels longer than necessary. That was a recipe for disaster.
He snapped his journal closed and tucked it back into his bag. He cradled Merope’s face in his hands and began brushing his thumbs over the ridges of her eyes. She let out an odd coo, the tone of it keyed slightly too minor to help battle any of the bad omen allegations.
“Do they look like the boogeyman to you, Lupin? One false move away from carrying you into the dark and endless night?” Regulus asked, not looking up from Merope. Actually, he was craning away from her – she was trying to lick his face. As much as he appreciated her gratitude, he knew from experience that that tongue was slimy. He did not enjoy it on his face. They compromised occasionally with Regulus allowing her to lick his palm.
Once she stopped licking out with her purple tongue, Regulus pressed their foreheads together. “Very macabre indeed, aren’t you?”
With that, Regulus lightly shoved her head off of his lap and moved to stand, his bag already slung over his shoulder. Maia and Merope moved with him, their spindly legs shooting out oddly before gaining ground.
He made his way towards the stable, the thestrals that had been laying in the grasses getting up to follow him in a procession, Asterope bounded in from the stream to join her parents. Inside the stable, several thestrals were still sleeping, Morpheus, likely the oldest of the bunch, not stirring at all.
Sometimes, Regulus wondered if it was cruel to name them all after muggle Greek myths and pagan beliefs. Kettleburn had never bothered to name them, leaving their care to the house elves. He, too, found them disconcerting and elected to keep his distance. Almost all of the names from Greek mythology didn’t have the most positive connotations.
There’s a reason that they’re called Greek tragedies.
Regulus thinks that that’s why he likes them. Like him, they were bred and steeped in tragedy.
He wonders if he should be concerned that they were his favorite stories to read himself to sleep with. That, even all these years later, he still finds comfort in them.
He goes to a little cavity near the entrance and unlocks it with the spells that Minky taught him. Minky was one of the elves who was specialized in care of the grounds and kept creatures instead of the castle and students themselves. She knew that Regulus loved to tend to the thestrals, that they were some of his favorite magical creatures. Because of this, she left the feeding to him, with an alarm charm set for herself for the days that Regulus didn’t make the time to visit the herd. If he hadn’t fed them by a certain time, she would know, and would take over feeding them herself.
So, the buckets of feed appeared as soon as he reached for them. One containing little, bony fishes that were commonly found in caves with water systems running through them, another containing calorie dense roots, another with dried beetles and crickets.
You couldn’t pay Regulus to eat their feed. But as long as they liked it …
Minky had also included the bag of treats that they had made for the thestrals.
The troughs for each thestral were charmed so only the thestral it belonged to could eat from it. A nice way to make sure that competition didn’t lead to malnutrition. The troughs themselves were located in berths carved into the stone floor, like divots carved from water dropping from a cave ceiling or water carving paths long since dry.
Regulus began layering the food in each of the troughs, though he noticed that Lupin stayed at the entrance, not coming in. Smart. Just because the thestrals would be patient with him for his food doesn’t mean that they’d be amendable to Lupin getting between them and it.
Once he finished filling each of the troughs, he snapped his fingers and stood still as the thestrals rushed past him, all eager to gobble up their food. All except Morpheus, who Regulus settled down next to and gently pet, coaxing him forward with a treat path laid out towards his food.
Regulus chuckled as he watched the thestrals inhale their food. “You’d think I was starving them, huh?” He sat next to Morpheus’s head, patting his neck. He’d finished his treats and nipped lightly at Regulus’s fingers. Feeling generous, Regulus gave him another. “Greedy, greedy,” he tutted.
Lupin slowly made his way over to him, back to looking at the thestrals like they would snap at him at any moment. He sat with Regulus between him and Morpheus, though he didn’t look as worried about Morpheus, him being the most sedate of the bunch.
Regulus began to handfeed Morpheus from the trough, barely grimacing when his tongue licked between his fingers.
Lupin watched him before looking at the rapidly setting sun, the sky turning from a vibrant orange to the dull, luscious purple of twilight. “I would have thought you wouldn’t want another late night.”
Ah.
Werewolf nose.
Regulus had been wondering if that would have cropped up as an issue.
“I would think that you would be needing less late nights than me, tomorrow being a full and all,” Regulus replied, though not unkindly.
Regardless, Lupin tensed up drastically.
Regulus finally looked up, giving Morpheus a break. To his surprise, Lupin wasn’t looking at him in a threatening or angry way.
No.
He just looked scared.
Terrified, even.
“I don’t know why you would think that–” Lupin began stumbling over himself.
“Spare me.” Regulus let the tense silence sit, the sounds of Lupin’s heaving breaths permeating.
“I don’t care that you have lycanthropy, Lupin.”
Lupin snorted, a very bitter sound. “Everyone cares. Even if they can lie to me, even if they can lie to themselves, they always end up caring.”
Regulus looked at him for a moment, assessing. He knew that bitterness, knew the way it permeated your soul. Which is how he knew that this wasn’t just fear; it was betrayal. Someone Lupin had trusted had betrayed that trust.
Regulus took a deep breath. This wasn’t how he had been expecting this to go. He’d expected banter, some cleverly disguised threats, even. Not hurt. He’d have to be understanding now, or at least something approaching it.
He fed Morpheus another fish. “And tell me, Lupin, why should I care?”
Lupin looked at him, incredulity peaking out from behind the bitter hurt. “Why shouldn’t you? I could kill you!”
Regulus shrugged. “So could Mulciber, or Avery, or Nott, or Lestrange. Even Evans could do it, under the right conditions. My parents have certainly come closing to trying more than their fair share.” He fed Morpheus another root, holding it in place as he slowly ate it, the thick fibers taking longer to chew. “It doesn’t matter who you are. Muggle or wix, healthy or ill. Everyone is capable of causing people pain, of hurting others. I thought you would have realized it by what, 16, 17? You’re not that special.”
Lupin stared at him for a moment, before bending over, laughing, hysteria coloring the edges.
Regulus just shrugged again. “Come now, Lupin, don’t tell me others have let your ego fester for this long. Tell me I wasn’t the one to, what is the phrase – burst your bubble?”
Lupin just continued to laugh, something more genuine about it now.
“Shame, that. At least now you know.”
Regulus continued to give Morpheus food, aware of the pace the others were eating at as he waited for Lupin to regain a modicum of composure.
Lupin wiped his eyes. Regulus didn’t think he’d ever laughed so hard he cried. He wondered what it felt like. “You’re really not scared of me. I can’t decide if that says more about me or you.”
“Probably a bit of both.”
Regulus sighed before continuing, more serious. “I meant it, Lupin. Your condition hurts you more than it hurts anyone else. Are you dangerous once a month? Sure. But just because you’re a little extra dangerous once a month doesn’t mean that others aren’t also dangerous throughout the month. If anything, I’d trust you not to hurt me on a daily basis more than I’d trust anyone else that I mentioned earlier.”
“I turn into the most dangerous dark creature known to our world,” Lupin said drily.
“Funny, I could have sworn that that was an obscurus.”
“Those have been eradicated.”
“That we know of,” Regulus contradicted, giving Morpheus a couple of rubs before standing with a stretch.
It wasn’t proper etiquette, but what was Lupin going to do about it?
“You’re stubborn.”
“Just figuring that out now, are you?”
Lupin laughed, using his cane to help him stand. Regulus cast a modified lumos, little lights like enlarged fireflies flickering around them, lighting the way. The thestrals’ skin had a luminescence to it, likely evolved from their inhabitation of caves for generations. While it was enough for the sight of the thestrals, it certainly wasn’t enough to keep Regulus from tripping and making a fool of himself.
Regulus gathered a couple of thestral feathers from a some of the thestrals after gaining their permission, before giving each of the thestrals a treat and a parting pat as he made his way out of the stables and back to the undefined path. This time, instead of walking behind him and failing at stealth, Lupin kept pace with him, navigating his way over tree roots and low-hanging branches.
“I didn’t even know thestrals had feathers.”
Regulus hummed. “Most people don’t. They don’t have feathers all of the time, just along the ridge of the wing, and they molt on a regular monthly lunar schedule.”
“Any particular reason for taking them?”
“Of course.”
“And that reason would be?”
“An objective.”
“Evidently,” Lupin snorted. “The animagus process is quite tedious.”
Ah, so they were switching gears.
“So I’ve heard.”
“And seen.”
Regulus hummed.
“Any particular reason for putting yourself through that?”
“A couple.”
“Stubborn indeed.”
Regulus chuckled.
“It’s a defining trait.”
“Funny, I had thought that it was your brothers.”
Any and all mirth flooded from his body as he glared at Lupin.
Lupin just laughed. “You two are more similar than you think.”
Regulus picked up his pace.
“Wait, Rig–Black, hold up.”
In spite of himself, Regulus slowed down for a moment for Lupin to catch up.
“I would have thought you’d be better at taking jokes, seeing with all the time you spend with Rosier and Crouch.”
“I like them better than you.”
“Little shite.”
“Just figuring that out now?”
Lupin groaned. “Did you know, you come off as boring and posh?”
“That analysis sounds like evidence of a personal failing.”
“Is it now? If the whole school makes the same assumption?”
“Of course.”
“Twat. You know what, I’ll allow it.”
“Will you now?”
“Yup. You want to know why?”
“I’m sure you’re going to tell me anyways.”
“Right you are. Because you, mate, are bloody hilarious and petty to an alarming degree.”
“Am I?”
“If you tell me that one of the reasons you became an animagus wasn’t because you wanted to show your brother up, I will eat my cane.”
Regulus eyed Lupin curiously, taking in the length of the cane. It was a bit comical, but Lupin’s leg’s were also absurdly long.
“I didn’t become an animagus to show up my brother.”
“Without lying,” Lupin said drily.
Regulus just hummed.
Lupin wasn’t wrong, though it certainly wasn’t the only reason.
“I’m curious about what you all are.”
“Good for you.”
“You could tell me.”
“I could.”
“So?”
“I said that I could, not that I would.”
Lupin tilted his head up to the sky and groaned. Regulus fought a smile.
“Well, one of you is definitely a bat. I know I’m not wrong about that. The question is, who?” Lupin mused. “At first I thought it was you, Black. I mean, a black bat? It definetly fits your family aesthetic. But I don’t think it quite fits. But then that raises the question, does it fit Rosier or Crouch? I mean, at first I wondered if Lovegood or Meadowes had gone through the process, but you lot haven’t been spending as much time together as you used to, with Meadowes and Lovegood spending more time with their partners.”
Regulus tried not to let that hurt. He was happy for Pandora and Dorcas, he really was. But it did hurt that they weren’t making as much of an effort to stay in their lives.
He hoped they wouldn’t be hurt when they found out that they underwent the animagus process without them.
Lupin had continued while he zoned out. “--so Lovegood and Meadowes are out. McKinnon isn’t letting Meadowes out of her sight for too long. Right obsessed with her, she is. A bit fun to watch, I won’t lie. So that leaves Rosier and Crouch. At first I thought it was Rosier, he’s a bit more inconspicuous. But then I looked into it a bit more, and I don’t think Rosier is rambunctious enough to be a bat. He doesn’t instigate that flavor of chaos. He loves to match Crouch’s freak–”
“They match each other’s freak,” Regulus corrected.
“--loves partnering up with him to unsettle people, but if you watch when he’s not performing, he’s quiet, a bit like you. He prefers solitude, not social interactions. That doesn’t fit with what I found about bats. I don’t quite see it matching with Crouch, but I don’t know him that well, I can admit that. Am I on track?” Lupin broke his musings to ask.
He wasn’t exactly far off. It was a bit unnerving. He wasn’t used to people paying attention to him. It just didn’t happen.
He didn’t like it.
Lupin didn’t wait for an answer. “Which leaves you and Rosier. I don’t know if you’re necessarily smarter than Crouch–”
“No one is.” Regulus paused. “Except for Pandora.”
Which was true. Barty was more smart on a general, unsettling level while Pandora was a genius at her chosen niches. Her esoteric knowledge and ability to think outside the box was unparalleled.
Lupin paused. “Ya, I can see that. So you’re less impulsive.”
That was fair.
Him and Evan were working on it with Barty, though with little success.
“Which, good for you, but we didn’t get a peek at either of you. So all I’ve got to go off of is rolling and dinosaur noises.”
“The fuck is a dinosaur?”
That caused Lupin to pause and look at him pityingly. “That’s sad.”
“What’s sad?”
“Not knowing what a dinosaur is.”
“Well fuck you too.”
“I’m getting you a book on them. You definitely would have been a dinosaur kid.”
“Thank you?”
“You’re very welcome,” Lupin said, obviously satisfied with himself. “As far as I know, animagi can’t become extinct animals. So, that knocks out the possibility of any and all dinosaurs. A shame, really. That would have put any and all other animagi to shame. I would have liked to see that.” Lupin actually had the nerve to look disappointed.
He seemed to shake it off fairly quickly. “If I had to guess, I’d go with Rosier being the dinosaur wannabe.”
Rude. Regulus may not know what a dinosaur was, but Evan wasn’t a wannabe to anyone.
Regulus extinguished the modified lumos as they left the treeline, carefully making their way through the clearing and back to the bridge.
“Which leaves you as spending your nights rolling around in the dust.”
Regulus scrunched up his nose. How undignified. He hated that it wasn’t inaccurate.
Though, it was perhaps fitting. Once, when his mother had caught him playing with a kneazle he’d found in the garden, she’d beat him silly for getting mud on his dress. She had said that if he continued associating with creatures below himself he would end up rolling in the dust with them.
Huh.
He wished he could see her face if she realized.
A real shame that one of his goals was to never see her again.
“Any chance I can persuade you to leave me out of your revenge?” Lupin asked, bumping their shoulders together. Regulus went stiff at the contact, not used to anyone other than Barty, Evan, Pandora, Dorcas, or Cissy touching him. Sirius used to, but that was a long time ago. He tried to force himself to relax, reminding himself that casual touches were normal.
“I’ll take it under consideration,” Regulus replied, peeling off from Lupin to go to the kitchen; Barty and Evan would be pissy if he skipped dinner. Besides, he already had some of the blankets he’d meant to gift them.
Lupin’s responding laugh chased him through the corridors.
…
Remus had never come back after saying he was going to study with Lily. Sirius was pacing like a dog in a cage, though James had tuned out what he was rambling about, for the most part, about an hour ago. Peter was watching from his bed, trying to offer solutions and platitudes, though he was largely being ignored.
James had a feeling he was going to have to tune back in the near future. If he knew Sirius (and he did), he would be going on the prowl soon.
Just as James was about to push himself up, debating the merits of tackling Sirius and sitting on him until he calmed down, Remus ambled into the room, calm as anything.
Sirius paused mid stride and threw his hands into the air. “Moony! You can’t just go disappearing like that, especially so close to the full moon. What were we supposed to think! We were all worried sick!”
“So worried,” Peter drily added.
“What do you have to say for yourself? Lily and Mary got back hours ago. No one knew where you were! And you took the map! We had no way to find you!” Sirius continued, his arms gesturing wildly, causing Peter and James to have to duck occasionally as he passed them.
Remus just shrugged off his jacket, carefully hanging it up as he watched Sirius, amused.
“Well? Where were you?” Sirius asked, his tirade, seemingly, coming to an end.
“Having bonding time with your sister,” Remus replied, his face completely straight.
Sirius threw up his hands and flopped backwards on his bed like a starfish. “Fine, don’t tell me.”
Remus seemed to find that extremely amusing, kissing his teeth in an attempt to hold in a smile, though he did let a snort run free. After he changed into just his boxers and one of his more oversized jumpers, he crawled into bed with Sirius and began peppering his face with kisses until Sirius’s grumpy face crumpled into giggles, mumbling that he was still mad at him.
James turned off the light, plunging them into darkness, laughing at Sirius’s responding shriek. He didn’t need to see Sirius and Remus bonding time. He’d walked in on them far too many times for this lifetime.
He’d work on figuring out what Remus was up to tomorrow.
…
James did not figure out what Remus had been up to the next day.
Between a test in DADA and yesterday having been a full moon, as well as humoring Sirius’s theories about who had come for them in the hallway a few days prior, James’s schedule had been full.
But now, the day after the full moon, James had taken several naps and was ready to see what Moony was up to.
His current theory was that Remus was the one pranking them. How he was pulling it off? On that, James was stumped. He actually had no idea how Remus was in two places at once. But he didn’t have a better working theory, so he was running with it.
He’d been following Remus under his cloak with bundles of sage and pine in his pockets. They’d learned in potions class back in third year that sage messed with Remus’s heightened sense of smell, dampening it back down to normal levels.
So, as long as he was quiet, he was fully invisible to one wolf boy.
He was really hoping that Remus was responsible for the prank, otherwise he was going to feel guilty about stalking one of his best friends.
He was also hoping that it was Remus, because as many pranks as they played, they usually avoided the forbidden forest unless they were in their animagus forms.
They were reckless, not suicidal.
He didn’t fancy a trip inside just to come out of it empty handed.
But, low and behold, here was Remus, not wolfified in the least, traipsing through the forest just before the sun set like he knew where he was going.
Remus had taken the map with him before he left the dorm, but James knew that it didn’t extend this far out.
Maybe Remus was working on extending it? But what would be the point? No matter how hard they worked on it, James was sure that they wouldn’t successfully map the foliage and undergrowth and the secrets it hid.
James worked to keep in his curses as they began making their way through the undergrowth. Moss and roots and rocks kept trying to trip him up, almost like they forest was sentient and wasn’t happy that he was there.
There was a reason flying was superior to hiking.
Somehow, Remus, even with his cane, seemed to be navigating the forest fairly easily. Maybe he really did know where he was going.
James tried to quiet his slip-ups and trips, not wanting Remus to realize he had been followed and lead him into a cave or pit for a laugh.
At least it was Remus. If that was what he was doing, he wouldn’t make James stew in the trap for too long. Sirius would, though not maliciously.
Sirius would probably laugh so hard that he’d end up in whatever trap it was with him, and then they’d need to wait for Remus to come and rescue them anyways.
James almost stopped as he reevaluated the risks and rewards of pissing off his most sensible friend.
Just when he was about to call it quits and try and make his way back without getting lost, Remus pushed through the thinning treeline, bringing them into a clearing.
James stared at it in awe. Instead of mossy trees and tumbling roots, long green grasses rippled like a sea over the rumbling hills that made up the highest and lowest portions of the clearing. A stream gurgled down between the two tallest hills, running down a crevice through the entirety of the glen. Iridescent grey boulders peppered the grass, most of them being clustered around the tallest hills, where when James looked closer, he realized the hills were hollow and caved out.
James barely kept in a yelp when one of the boulders stood up and stretched it’s bat-like wings.
James quickly reevaluated the glen, realizing that the boulders weren’t boulders at all, but slumbering and sleepy thestrals.
James didn’t know a lot about thestrals, just that most wixen avoided them whenever possible, seeing them as bad omens, as harbingers of death. He didn’t know much else, as he hadn’t taken Care of Magical Creatures, he just knew that they were invisible unless you had personally witnessed a death.
James had been there when his grandfather had died, though he barely remembered it. He’d only been a couple of years old and had snuck into the room when his father went in to say goodbye to his father. His mother had come in and grabbed him, but not before he saw his grandfather’s chest stop moving. He hadn’t understood what he had been seeing at the time, but he’d cried because his parents had cried.
He’d known that he could see them, as he’d caught glimpses of them pulling the carriages from the train to Hogwarts since his second year, but he’d never paid them a second glance.
James reached forward to try and stop Remus from getting any closer to them, not caring if he got caught anymore, just focused on Remus not getting hurt, especially if he couldn’t see what he was walking into, but Remus strode forward undeterred before James could get a hand on him.
James cursed, looking back and forth between the path back to the castle and where Remus was walking to two particular thestrals, before making up his mind with a whispered curse.
Remus better have a good explanation for this.
Trying to stay quiet and keep the thestrals from noticing him, James rushed to Remus, trying to stop him before he tripped over the two equines. Just before reaching them, Remus stopped on his own.
Maybe Remus could see them afterall?
Remus plopped down in the opening the two thestrals had left and began talking to someone.
Who the bloody hell was crazy enough to choose to not only spend their time in the middle of the forbidden forest, but to then go and spend their time specifically surrounded by thestrals of all creatures?
James finally got close enough to see over the grasses and the body of the thestrals, only to see Rigel of all people, casual as anything, cuddling with them.
Maybe the rumors about the Black family madness weren’t rumors afterall.
She wasn’t looking at Remus as he talked to her, instead all of her focus was drilled on a notebook, oil pastels clutched in her left hand as she colored in sketches of nearby thestrals, her notes peppering the margins. There was a small furrow between her brows, her long, curly black and white hair pulled back in a single braid instead of left wild and flowing. The sunset reflected off the white strands, coloring them orange and pink and yellow as she tilted her head back and forth, looking between the book and what looked like a mother and her foal.
The thing that surprised James the most, beyond how comfortable Rigel was with the thestrals (cuddling them), was how relaxed her face was. Her face normally held a careful, deliberate blankness to it, whether it be in the halls, in class, the quidditch pitch, or even around her friends, from what James had seen. This was different. Her grey eyes were sparkling with mirth and, well, life. Her face was focused, but for the first time since James had met her, the tension that was inherent to her very being was absent. Her shoulders were loose, and there was even a small smile playing at her soft pink lips.
She didn’t look like a Black, or a student, or a prodigy in potions and on the quidditch pitch. She just looked like a person.
And a beautiful person at that.
James shook the thought off, trying to tune into the conversation between Rigel and Remus.
And wasn’t that new? Since when did they know each other beyond Sirius, much less meet in the forbidden forest at sunset in a herd of bloody thestrals.
James looked up, only for his body to freeze. Rigel was leaning up against a thestral, with another, smaller one resting it’s head in her lap. The one in her lap was staring straight at him, it’s head now slightly lifted from where it was resting.
A moment later, one of Rigel’s hands came down and petted the ridges of it’s skull, softly humming to it until it laid back down fully. Even laying down, it was still staring at him, like it was evaluating him and picking him apart.
Cautiously, James turned his attention to where Remus was now lying in the grass, tossing torn up strands of grass up before the light breeze caught them, blowing it every which way.
James looked back and forth between Remus and Rigel. They weren’t even talking, just existing next to one another, Rigel drawing in a journal, Remus with his book bag, lying in the grasses.
James tried to stand still without making any noise while he waited for them to get to the point, but it was hard. He couldn’t tap his feet, whistle, fiddle with anything – nothing. The sun was setting, the air was growing cooler, brisk even with the jumper he was wearing, though his cloak added an additional layer of protection – and they were just laying there.
Just when James was reaching his breaking point, internally debating the merits of just throwing off his cloak and asking what the hell was going on, Rigel closed her book with a snap.
She carefully wrapped her pastels up in a beeswax lined cloth before tucking them gently into her bag with the journal. She stood and made her way over to the cave with the rest of the thestrals, not waiting or looking to see if Remus was following.
Once she was out of range, James went to throw secrecy to the wind and demand answers from Remus, but he followed her to the cave as well.
James pressed his palms to his eyes and groaned and stomped a foot, no thestrals or friends or friend’s sisters to worry about.
James didn’t care about what was going on enough to go into that cave. He didn’t.
So, very sensibly, James hovered at the mouth of the cave – just in case something went wrong and they needed help – watching as Rigel distributed the thestral’s feed before sitting next to an elderly and frankly decrepit thestral, hand feeding it.
“Did you need something, Lupin?” James heard come from the cave.
“Besides spending time with my new friend?” Remus replied.
“We’re not friends.”
“A shame, I could have sworn I’d worn you down.”
“Don’t hold your breath. I’d hate for you to choke.”
“Aww, I knew you cared."
“I take it back. Choke away.”
“I’ll take a raincheck on that. If not spending time with a friend, perhaps enjoying intelligible company?” Remus pivoted.
“There can’t be that much of a dearth of that in Gryffindor.”
“I wouldn’t be so sure.”
“I’ll make sure to tell Evans that you think so.”
“Don’t be like that, Black, Evans knows she’s the exception, for me and for you.”
“Evans isn’t my exception for anything.”
“Isn’t she? You broke your avoidance with your brother to get James off her back.”
James could feel Rigel’s scowl from where he was tucked behind a pillar. “I’m not the one who has made it a habit to avoid my brother.”
Remus just hummed. “That’s fair.”
James bristled. Why wasn’t Remus defending Sirius? Sirius had his reasons for cutting off his family. He had a plethora of them.
But, James reasoned, trying to calm himself, he didn’t know Sirius’s justification for cutting off Rigel, all the way back in her first year. The only justification Sirius had given then was that she was in Slytherin.
Sirius still hadn’t provided a reason for why he hadn’t brought Rigel with him when he’d finally escaped 12 Grimmauld Place.
James hoped that Rigel being in Slytherin wasn’t still Sirius’s rationale for hanging his sister out to dry.
And as James watched Rigel’s reaction to Remus’s response, he knew that Remus had played his cards right. Rigel just hummed instead of biting back. It was like the wind had been taken out of her sails, like Remus had placated her instead of condescending down to her.
Rigel finished feeding the elderly thestral, standing up and brushing off her clothes. She wasn’t even wearing her robes, instead wearing wide legged trousers that cinched at her slim waist. When she straightened, her baggy, oversized green jumper fell down, swallowing her up. It went down to her mid-thigh, largely hiding her body. The sleeves of the jumper went well past her hands, the cuffs rolled, and after she’d brushed herself off she held the sleeves in her palms, like fingerless gloves.
She strode from the cave, forcing James to backpeddle to stay out of her path. She was so alive out here. It was jarring to see, especially since he’d only ever seen her fufill the role of a spectre, with rare exceptions coming in bursts of emotion in particularly difficult quidditch matches.
Remus just huffed a laugh and followed her, spinning his cane around in a circle like a muggle drumstick as he went.
James waited a moment as they disappeared into the treeline before he followed.
What the bloody hell had he just walked in on?
…
Regulus, surprisingly, had had a good day.
His classes had been stimulating but not overly so. His workload was enough to keep him productive without drowning him. And he’d even managed to get to the thestrals and use his oil pastels.
For some reason, Lupin was making it a habit to join him in his creature escapades, as Barty preferred to jokingly call it. As annoyed as Regulus wanted to be in the change, Lupin hadn’t been unbearable or even unpleasant.
Regulus had to keep reminding himself to not laugh at his dry wit.
The main reason Regulus was planning on holding him at arms length, theoretically indefinitely, was because he still didn’t know what Lupin’s motives were.
Sure, he likely didn’t want to be targeted in the retaliation that Barty was leading the charge of, but Lupin had seemed resigned to the fact that the baker’s trio was getting their comeuppance.
He could be aiming to try and bridge the gap between the brothers, but Regulus didn’t think that that was the case either. Sirius had shown no interest in mending their bond, and Regulus didn’t think that Lupin was eager to put himself in hot water with his boyfriend over Regulus.
If he were discussing the situation with Pandora, she might say that maybe Lupin just wanted to be his friend. Regulus would then respond that that notion was a load of hippogriff shite.
So, until Regulus knew what Lupin was getting at, he would hold him at a distance, but not go so far as to sick Barty and/or Evan on him.
As for now, Regulus was waiting for Barty to give the signal.
Barty had, apparently, trailed after the Gryffindors the past few nights, tracking them to get a feel of their movements. So tonight, Barty had been waiting at the exit of the tower and tracked them to where they set up the prank before backtracking to lead Regulus and Evan to them.
They’d discussed getting them right at the mouth of the tower again, but Barty was all for lulling them into a false sense of security and making them think that the other night was a one time thing.
Besides, apparently Pettigrew wasn’t in rat form this time.
Regulus ambled up as quietly as he could (his feet were like bloody high heels) to the corner near where the boys were hiding, whispering and giggling to themselves like all was good and jolly. Lupin seemed more jovial than last time, so maybe he was looking forward to seeing this as well.
Regulus would have to tell Barty and Evan to go easier on him than the others after this.
He could smell wafts of Barty and Evan blowing down on a draft from where they were perched in the rafters. Barty smelled more excited than Evan, but that was to be expected.
Suddenly, Evan gave his clucking call, the sound reverberating throughout the drafty corridor, echoing down meandering hallways.
The boys froze from where they were standing near one of the armors that stood near the entrance to the great hall. Potter was standing on Sirius’s shoulders and almost fell when Sirius whipped around at the clucks.
Regulus took that as his cue and rolled quickly past, making sure to stay in the shadows, letting the hollow sound of his shell hitting the cobblestones permeate and echo through the air.
Pettigrew took a few nervous steps back. “Mates–”
“Stand up, Wormy, we’ve talked abou–” Sirius held a hand out to Peter, only to cut off when Barty divebombed down from the rafters, starfishing himself to Sirius’s face.
Regulus had never heard Sirius shriek that way before.
Well.
If that wasn’t personal, Regulus didn’t know what was.
Sirius pinwheeled back, arms flailing, Potter tumbling, and crashed to the floor with a bang. Sirius didn’t stop to see if Potter was okay, he simply scrambled back blindly, trying to pull Barty from his face.
Barty seemed to be laughing in his bat form, and Regulus was glad he wasn’t capable of laughing as an armadillo, because he would have been caught in an instant.
From what Regulus could see of Lupin, he seemed to be making a valiant attempt at holding in his laughter, looking torn between bending over and wheezing or helping his boyfriend.
Potter finally managed to scramble up from where he had landed when Sirius went down, using the armor to push himself up.
Whatever spell they’d used to animate the armor seemed to go off at his touch and the armor began swinging its arms in geometric motions and marching in place, monotoningly singing a song about being a teapot?
Regulus decided not to question it. If anything, it added to the chaos. The Gryffindors were tripping over themselves, fumbling as they tried to help Sirius, who was becoming increasingly distressed as Barty had moved to the crown of his head, where he clung to and pulled Sirius’s hair, and ducking their heads as Evan flapped his wings and stirred up dust, causing a light wind in the corridor, as well as trying to stop the armor before Filch came.
Regulus decided that it was the perfect moment to add in another element of chaos, so he rolled his way in, undetected – as the other things happening drowned him out – and rolled directly over Pettigrew’s feet, causing him to jump back with a screech from where he had finally geared himself up to go and help Sirius.
Lupin had joined Potter in trying to un-animate the statue, which Potter took as his cue to go and save Sirius from where he was still battling it out with a cackling Barty.
Well.
That just wouldn’t do.
Regulus rolled directly into Potter’s feet as he took a step, tripping him up and causing him to go tumbling to the ground once again. Potter had just propped himself up on his elbows when Regulus rolled back towards him as fast as he could and popped up directly in front of his face, unrolled and limbs extended. Potter caught him on instinct and they both screamed.
Potter threw him directly up into the air and scrambled away. Regulus rolled up into a ball, hoping that would help it hurt less when he landed, when Lupin lunged forward from where he was still trying to stop the statue and caught him. They stared at each other in shock for a moment before Lupin rolled him away like a muggle futbol.
Rude.
Regulus went to roll towards Pettigrew again, who had been almost entirely left alone at this point, when he smelled Mrs. Norris and let out a squeak, trying to warn Barty, before rolling under the stand for the armor.
Barty finally relented, launching off Sirius and back towards the rafters just as Potter and Lupin reached him.
The armor was still clunking away and talking about being a teaspout when Filch came bustling around the corner, to the sight of:
Sirius, hysterical and on the ground.
James, his wand out and pointed directly at the armor.
Lupin, biting his teeth and laughter undertoning his voice as he tried to placate Sirius.
And Pettigrew, a few steps behind the lot with his arms raised in surrender.
Filch smiled like Christmas had come early. “Well, looky here, Mrs. Norris. Look who was reigning chaos and causing trouble, waking up all the other nasty students, all after curfew.”
There was a moment of tense silence, before Potter, Pettigrew, Sirius, and the armor all started yelling over one another and gesturing wildly, as Lupin finally bent over at the waist, wheezing so hard he couldn’t breathe.
Regulus smirked, at least as well as he could, before rolling away.
…
Sirius stomped his way into the dorm and collapsed face first onto his bed with a muffled scream. Remus followed a step behind him and began rubbing Sirius’s hair, trying to tame the tangled and frizzy patches from where that little demonic beast had grabbed ahold and yanked.
Whoever had decided that werewolves were the most feral creature within the wizarding world needed to be locked in a room with that thing for an hour. James guaranteed they would be scrambling over themselves to change the ratings afterwards.
And that wasn’t even getting started on the thing that was making the horrible, ominous noises or the little alien ball.
Even with the thing lunging directly at his face, the lighting hadn’t been good enough for him to get a good look on what the little bugger was.
He’d have to ask Remus if he had any guesses of what it could be, he’d actually lunged to catch the bloody thing.
James didn’t still think that Remus was the mastermind behind whatever was targeting them, not anymore, but he did think Remus knew more than he was letting on.
James collapsed backwards into his bed and threw his arm over his eyes, the frames of his glasses digging into his skin.
“We didn’t even deserve detention this time!” Sirius wailed.
Remus continued detaingling the knots in Sirius’s hair. “We were out after curfew, love.”
“We’re always out after curfew! And that’s never happened before! So obviously we weren’t at fault!”
“We did enchant the armor,” Peter mumbled.
“It wasn’t supposed to go off!” Sirius shot back with a glare that had Peter withering.
“But it did,” Remus placated.
“But it wouldn’t have if whoever is targeting us hadn’t attacked us!” James chimed in.
They had detention for weeks. And not just normal, boring detention. Scrubbing all the armor in the castle with muggle toothbrushes type of detention. James wasn’t even sure if they’d finish before the term ended.
He also wasn’t sure if the punishment would carry over to their seventh year if they didn’t finish on time. James didn’t want to be spending the first weeks of their last year at Hogwarts scrubbing bloody armor!
Sirius sat up so abruptly that Remus had to topple backwards to avoid being headbutted. Sirius pointed at James. “See, Moony, Prongs gets it! Our pranks never went sideways when we weren’t getting attacked left and right by demonic hellbeasts!”
Remus raised his eyebrows. “Define sideways and demonic hellbeasts,” he said drily, counting off with his fingers.
Sirius opened and closed his mouth a few times before waving Remus off. “You know what I mean.”
Remus hummed. “You’re right. It’s not every day that you get bested by a feral kitten the size of your hand.”
Sirius whipped back around to Remus. “That was no itty bitty kitty!”
“Itty bitty kitty?” James quietly mouthed.
“I, uh, actually have to side with Sirius on this one. Cats are no laughing matter,” Peter chimed in.
“I thought we’d agreed that it was a bat?” James shot in before Sirius could go after Peter for being afraid of cats.
Peter was sensitive about it and James had had enough drama for one evening.
“Did we?” Remus asked, seemingly innocently.
James narrowed his eyes at him. “We did.”
Yup. Remus was definitely up to something.
Even if that something was just stirring shite up because he found all of this funny.
“Did you ever check?” Remus asked James.
“Why would he check, Moony? You always check,” Sirius asked.
“I was busy.”
“Doing what?”
“Playing with the horses of the dead with your sister.”
Sirius groaned and flopped back on his bed. “C’mon, Moony, you can come up with a better story than that.”
Remus huffed a quiet laugh. “Sure I can. But you lot all know how to read. It wouldn’t kill you to venture into the library for once – outside of tormenting Lily, that is. Besides, you and Prongs are the ones who are the most pressed about our ‘attackers’, Pads. If you’re so upset about it, get off your arses and figure it out.”
See, normally James would take that response without question; however, he knew that Remus’s story wasn’t a story. He’d been telling the truth about bonding with Rigel, over death horses of all things.
But Remus, to this point, had been a dead end. He wasn’t responsible for what was going on, even if he was finding great entertainment from it.
Which left one last lead that James could think of.
Rigel.
…
Today was kelpie hunting day.
He hadn’t told that to his friends, of course. Barty already had a stroke whenever Regulus brought a creature back to the dorm or talked about his latest stories with one of the thestrals. Evan didn’t mind him bringing creatures back, though he always urged Regulus to be careful.
Regulus just thought that Evan enjoyed watching Barty freak out and be the mother hen for once.
Now, Regulus wasn’t planning on actually touching or approaching the kelpie today. That was for tomorrow, when he actually confirmed it was there and was prepared to give it treats, to help warm it up to him.
He would bring Barty and Evan as backup for when he actually approached it. But he wasn’t going to drag them on a wild demiguise hunt if the kelpie wasn’t even there.
But as it was, his only afternoon class on fridays was independent study for Care of Magical Creatures, and today that meant that his afternoon would be spent traipsing in the swampy banks of the Black Lake.
He still hadn’t gotten a diffinitive answer on whether the lake was named after one of his family members or not. He was leaning towards that it was. His family was definitely egotistical enough to insist on it.
However, his favorite rumor to spread was that the giant squid was a cursed relative he could call on to deal with peers who were being nuisances.
He wished that rumor was a fact.
Evan and Barty were stuck in divination, a class Barty took because he found it entertaining and Evan took because it was essentially a free period he could spend with Barty. As far as Regulus knew, Pandora was actually in the class with them, along with Xenophilius. And as for Dorcas, if Regulus knew anything, he’d bet his entire stolen inheritance that she was with McKinnon.
Which essentially all ended up to meaning that Regulus was free from distractions or anyone courting for his attention.
He also bet that he only had until dinner to be back before Barty realized he was unaccounted for and went on the hunt. Which could be hilarious, if he actually found the kelpie, though he wasn’t sure if it was worth the lecture he would get once Barty was sure he was back in the castle, safe and sound.
Evan would be absolutely no help in getting out of that lecture.
Maybe Regulus could go to his makeshift dorm and lock the door. It would be a good time to see if he knew any spells capable of keeping Barty out.
Unfortunately, he doubted it.
Even if he was successful in avoiding Barty, Pandora would definitely be able to get in.
Better to avoid giving them a reason to give a lecture altogether.
Regulus had debated using his broom to get past most of the legwork, but he hadn’t wanted to answer questions if anyone saw him flying out this way. It was always best to avoid drawing attention to himself.
So instead, he was walking through mud, reeds, and deceptively mushy grasses, having finally made his way to the inlet.
Regulus had never been up this way before. Sure, he’d sat at the shore of the lake on warm days as Barty, Evan, and Dorcas shoved each other in. But that was always right next to the castle, nothing necessitating a hike.
He hated that he was a bit out of breath.
He’d also had the strangest feeling of being watched, but there was no one else out this far. He’d checked. Repeatedly. The only thing that had kept him from casting the homenum revelio charm was that he refused to reach that level of paranoia.
Who was he kidding. He was a Black. He was born at the threshold of manic paranoia.
Regulus was fairly certain he was getting close to where the kelpie had set up its home, if it was even here at all. Even though this was the inlet for the lake, it wasn’t a meandering stream. The inlet rushed down like a fire hose, going from a rocky ravine and flowing into the grassy lake. The inlet immediately had a steep dropoff, where Regulus couldn’t see much but the grassy vines and kelp growing up from the bottom of the lake, so deep that light didn’t begin to reach it.
If Regulus wasn’t certain that the lake held merpeople, the squid, and countless other creatures, he would bring Barty, Evan, Dorcas, and Pandora here to use the inlet as a makeshift waterslide.
Regulus took another look at the depths and concluded that, no, he would never do that. He refused to be the one that dragged his friends into a watery grave. Not now, not ever.
He’d have to be careful when he came back here with Barty and Evan. Maybe bring gillyweed as a precaution, just in case they were dragged in.
Regulus stopped at a rocky outcrop that went over the lake, covered in less mud than the rest of the banks, though still enough to be slippery. Regulus cast a drying spell on the soles of his shoes, renewing the grip of the rubber bottoms. Just to be safe, Regulus sat down, tucking his legs under him, making a note to himself to cast a scourgify on himself before making his way back up to the castle proper.
Leaning as far over the water as he felt safe, Regulus cast a circular image charm once over the water, then again over the rock. The image of the water materialized over the rock, so Regulus could see what was happening in the water without hovering over it. No need to tempt something into pulling him in.
Regulus didn’t think that the merpeople were allowed to drown students, but he’d rather not serve himself up on a silver platter.
Once the image stabilized, Regulus cast a charm to zoom it, forcing the image to go deeper into the lake. He also cast a shade above himself, blocking the sunlight from upsetting the image he was trying to make out. He squinted, trying to see through the winding chains of kelp, sunlight rippling through the surface in planes.
From what he’d read, Kelpies enjoyed making their homes on rocky outcrops, not quite at the bottom of lakes, but closer to the bottom than to the top. The outcrops always were surrounded by kelp forests, acting as camouflage against predators.
Regulus had found that bit interesting, as he hadn’t been able to find anything that hunted freshwater kelpies. For those that resided in oceans, that made sense, but kelpies were typically near the top of their respective food chains.
So, Regulus stopped his downward search at what he gauged to be a bit more than halfway down and began spinning the probe around, exploring around the depth level.
He ran into more than one grindylow, which reaffirmed his desire to stay out of the water, even if he could swim. There were several water snakes, almost all venomous. He should make sure to mention that to Slughorn and Kettleburn. He was fairly certain that the venom was used in a fair amount of potions. Slughorn would be elated that he didn’t have to buy the supplies from the market, though Kettleburn would likely be upset that Regulus had added another task to his plate.
Kettleburn would survive.
Regulus hadn’t run into any merpeople, which he had mixed feelings about. They had a reputation for being difficult and resentful of wixen, but from what Regulus had found, that was largely because wixen infrastructure had dammed up their migration, trade, and festive routes, forcing them to live most of their lives in a single body of water and not interact with their extended kinsmen. He would love to hear their side of the story.
He’d run into a few leafy freshwater dragons and kelp horses that had nestled themselves into the kelp, but no kelpie.
Regulus looked up, gauging the sun’s path in the sky. He was running out of time, if he wanted to get back to the castle and, ideally, get changed before making his way to the great hall for dinner.
Regulus grimaced. He’d been wearing his bandages for too long and he was definitely starting to feel it. Maybe that was why he’d been so easily winded on his way here. He’d hold off on changing until after dinner. That way he could just change out of his bandages for the night and be done with it.
Regulus gave himself another ten minutes of exploring the lake before calling it a night. He delved back into his looking glass, navigating his way through the kelp forest.
Just as he went to end the spell, something rushed past the periphery of the probe with far too much power, stirring up the water around his viewpoint. Whatever it was was large, and it was headed up.
Regulus pushed the probe up as quick as he could, trying to get a glimpse of the creature with little success. The light filtering through the water grew brighter and brighter, until suddenly his spell and the creature were breaking the surface of the water simultaneously.
Regulus looked up right as the kelpie took a soaring leap over the water, long strands of kelp-like mane trailing behind it, before it disappeared beneath the surface with a massive splash.
Water soared up from the impact point as Regulus scrambled to stand, absolutely drenching him from head to toe as he laughed. Regulus scrambled to the edge of the outcrop, craning his neck to see if the kelpie would surface again.
After a moment, it’s head sedately broke the surface of the water, gently swimming its way over to him. Regulus quickly squared his shoulders and strengthened his stance, making sure to look at the kelpie head on.
For many magical creatures, taking such a stance in a first interactions would be akin to suicide. With creatures such as hippogriffs, wild crups, and dragons, it was essential to bow and make a show of respect before going further. Staring at such creatures head on would be seen as a challenge, and invitation for attack.
Kelpies weren’t that way. They were wily creatures, famous for luring people to their deaths. If your first move was to be submissive, the kelpie would attack. Kelpies respected cunning, but for first interactions, standing your ground was always the safest bet. It would create a foundation upon which you could be wily with them, without the kelpie taking advantage and dragging you to a watery death.
The kelpie didn’t rise from the water, simply moved so more of it was peaking out and stared back at Regulus. Regulus heard a shuffle behind him, but didn’t break eye contact. The kelpie’s eyes were a riptide of green so dark it appeared black, but with a playful light dancing within it.
After a moment, the kelpie bowed its head, but Regulus didn’t move. The kelpie looked up and snorted a delighted whinny, before bowing its head again, though this time without breaking eye contact with Regulus. Regulus copied the gesture, bowing his head as low as he could without breaking his contact with the kelpie.
Regulus held out his hand, tilting his head with a grin, and after a moment, the kelpie pressed its head forward and into his palm. Regulus let them sit like that for a moment, before the kelpie’s eyes drifted behind him, and with a offended snort, the kelpie broke away, diving back under the waves.
At the same moment that the kelpie abruptly changed its tune, something rushed in from behind Regulus, something invisible trying to shove him back. Regulus turned around and jerked away from whatever was attacking him in a panic. He should have been fine – and he would have been, had the kelpie not drenched the rock and his shoes in water. His shoes slipped for purchase on the rock, and Regulus both felt and saw detached hands desperately grasping for the front of his jumper before Regulus was falling off the rock and toppling into the water.
Regulus opened his eyes and looked up at the white, circular flume that had formed from where he hit the water. Regulus began to flail, trying to get back to the surface before he could sink too far. If even baby animals could swim, surely he could figure it out? He twisted every which way, trying to battle his way up as the water seemed to grip his clothes, weighing him down, eager to have his bones join the architecture of the lake bed.
He was just beginning to figure it out, righting himself and making a bit of progress. His lungs were already burning. If he thought his lungs hurt from his bandages above the surface, it had nothing on the great pressure that was now threatening to explode out of him, leaving a cavity for water to rush into.
But grindylows rushed out from the kelp like a shot from a gun, grabbing his legs, his arms, one ambitious one winding itself around his throat and tugging downward with it’s whole body weight. The air Regulus had held in his chest burst out of him with an oof as he began to be dragged into the depths. Regulus thought he could see someone peering over the outcrop, but that was probably delirium talking.
Regulus realized with a start that he was going to drown. He was never going to trade quips with Barty and Evan again, or lay in bed with them in their own little bubble when the world became too much, so they made their own. He’d never get to sit in with Pandora during one of her experimentation sessions and help her revolutionize the way that they thought about magic. He would never get to simply exist next to Dorcas again, both of them placated with the other’s placid aura, as Pandora would describe it. He would never get to smooth over the rough patch they were having and go back to being their for each other, no matter what.
And even though Regulus had largely given up hope for any chance of reconciliation, he would never get to talk things out with Sirius, for better or for worse. Would Sirius even know what had happened to him? Would he care? Or would he be happy to be free, truly free, of the burden of having a younger sibling.
Regulus realized he would never get to come out to Sirius. He thinks that’s what he hated the most. That, even if Sirius did think of his memory, fondly or otherwise, he would think of a little sister. So Sirius wouldn’t remember or know him – not really, not as he truly was.
Black encroached on his vision as the light from the surface dimmed with increased depth, when something rushed up from beneath him, stirring up a current that sent the grindylows tumbling head over heels. The feeling of clawed and bony hands pulling him down abruptly left him as something rushed him towards the surface as the blackness finally overtook his vision, leaving him dead in the water.
…
James was well and truly fucked.
This was supposed to be an information gathering mission, not a I killed your little sister Sirius please don’t be mad but she definitely fell into the Black Lake and drowned because I spooked her even though she was having a stare-off with a bloody kelpie which wasn’t surprising when he thought about it because he saw her playing and cuddling with bloody thestrals the other day so kelpies shouldn’t be a surprise but of course it was James who was the one to spook the unflappable Rigel Black. So sorry about that, Sirius. Biscuit? James thought hysterically.
After Rigel had fallen in, James had frozen, waiting for ten, then 20, then 30 seconds for her to surface, before quickly realizing that no, of course she didn’t know how to swim. Why ever would she bother to learn such an essential and lifesaving skill? James had then tossed the invisibility cloak farther away from the edge and cast an impervious on his glasses, looking over the outcrop, trying to catch a glimpse of Rigel. He didn’t have any luck, but was ready to jump in when he realized that something was rising up from the lake, much quicker than a person could swim.
James scrambled back a step when the kelpie rose from the lake once again, Rigel’s limp body propped up on its snout. James rushed forward as the kelpie brought her over and James helped haul Rigel back onto the rock, pulling her away from the water as quickly as he could.
James looked up, trying to figure out what to do, when he realized the kelpie was hovering over them, looking James straight in the eyes. Instead of flinching, James froze like a deer in the headlights, looking at its massive head. James waited for it to attack, but after a moment the kelpie just seemed to laugh. It didn’t bow to him or nuzzle him like it had to Rigel, but instead gave Rigel’s body one last nudge before slipping back beneath the deceptively calm surface of the lake.
When the kelpie nudged Rigel, she began coughing up water and James scrambled to turn her over, awkwardly patting her back as she heaved and shivered.
After what felt like a lifetime of that, Rigel rolled onto her back, chest heaving, looking up at the sky. James leaned over her, his hands hovering just over her body, wanting to help but not wanting to make things worse.
Well, make things even worse.
After a moment of gathering herself, Rigel seemed to comprehend just who was hovering over her and brought her hands over her face with a groan that sputtered into another cough.
James lurched forward. “Oh, Merlin, are you okay? Sorry, stupid question, of course you’re not okay. You just drowned, how could you be okay after that? Merlin and Morgana, Rigel, you just drowned. We’ve got to get you to Madam Pomfrey. Do you think you dry drowning is possible? I read about that once. I don’t know how to stop you from dry drowning. We’ve got to get you to the hospital wing. You can’t die! Rigel, do you feel like you’re going to die? Bloody fucking hell, Ri–”
James cut off as a balled up, wet piece of kelp hit him in the chest and fell to the ground with a wet splat. James stared at it for a second, baffled, before he slowly looked up to look at Rigel.
Rigel, who was looking at him with a single eyebrow raised, looking supremely unimpressed.
James poked the wet green thing. Yup. It was definitely kelp. “Did you just throw this at me?”
Rigel sighed, pushing herself up. “Ah, so you can do it.”
James scrambled to stand as well, placing himself between Rigel and the water. Not that it mattered much, as Rigel turned to walk away from him as soon as she was standing, soppily making her way off the outcrop and back to the marshy banks and grasslands that lined the lake.
James tripped as he followed her, having to lurch backwards to grab the cloak, bunching it up and holding it in his arms before rushing to catch up. “Do what?” He asked, breathless.
“Talk in concise sentences,” Rigel called back.
James stopped and stared at her retreating back, stunned. He quickly got moving again, though, when he realized that Rigel had no intention of waiting for him.
“That’s rude of you,” James responded, feeling more than a bit offended.
“Is it now?” Rigel hummed.
James threw his hands up and to his sides. “Yes!”
Rigel seemed to consider that for a moment. “Do you want to know what else could, perhaps, be considered rude?”
James felt like he was walking into a trap. “Not off the top of my head?” He asked, a bit high pitched.
Rigel chewed on her cheek. “Well, some – I don’t want to name names – could find a Gryffindor with a proclivity for making Slytherin’s lives miserable, not only stalking them, but then causing them to fall into the most dangerous areas of the lake, as rude. Wouldn’t you say?” Rigel asked, finally stopping and whirling towards James, blinking innocently up at him.
James managed to stop himself from running into her at the last moment, feeling alarmingly small as she somehow managed to look down at him even though the top of her head barely reached his collarbone.
James felt like taking a step back would be surrendering something, so he simply rubbed the back of his neck sheepishly. “Stalking?”
Rigel tilted her head at him and hummed. “Stalking.”
“Now, I’m many things, but a stalker isn’t one of them.” James tried to put on his most welcoming smile, hoping to thaw the ice princess.
Something in him preened at the unimpressed look she shot back. “Evans, and unfortunately now I, would strongly disagree with that claim.”
James jolted at the mention of Lily. “I didn’t realize the two of you were friends.”
He’d been meaning to clear the air regarding what happened in the library anyways.
“We’re not,” Rigel called as she walked away.
James scrambled again to walk by her side. Her legs were shorter than his. How did she keep getting ahead of him? “It didn’t seem that way in the library.”
Rigel laughed at him. “I wouldn’t put much merit in your observational skills, Potter.”
“Now, that’s just untrue. I’m very observative.”
Rigel turned to face him, but didn’t stop walking this time. “Observative?” She asked with a barely restrained laugh.
“That’s what I said,” James replied, confused – but proud that he’d made her laugh.
She just shook her head, her drenched curls throwing water droplets every which way. “Sure you are,” she replied, patronizingly patting his arm.
It felt like electricity shot through his body with the touch. James shivered, confused. “Why is that funny?”
She seemed to take pity on him. “Observative isn’t a word, Potter.”
James stopped. “Sure it is.”
“I promise you, it’s not. But thank you, for proving my point about where you rank as far as your skills of observation.”
“Okay, you can have the walking dictionary award. But you knew what I meant.”
“Did I?
“If you knew what I meant enough to correct me, then you understood me just fine,” James shot back, feeling a bit sour.
Rigel seemed to consider that for a moment and James had to refrain from pumping his fist in the air in victory when she hummed in assent.
His victory didn’t last very long. “Why were you following me, Potter?”
“You must think very highly of yourself, if you think I was out here for you.”
“I think accurately of myself. I’m not the one who prances around the school with an overinflated sense of my own ego.”
James frowned. “I don’t prance.”
“I promise, you do.”
James rushed in front of her, walking backwards facing her with a teasing smile on his face. She reminded him a bit of a drenched, feral kitten. She certainly had the hissing bit down. “So what you mean to tell me is you’ve been paying attention to me?”
Rigel looked down her nose at him. “You’ve got me all figured out, don’t you?” she retorted drily.
“What, like it’s hard?”
“Since you seem to know me so well, why don’t you tell me about myself?”
Well. Shite.
James paused for a moment too long.
Rigel seemed to take his silence as an invitation. “No, really Potter. Go on. What’s my favorite color? Favorite class? Favorite family member? What do I want to do after I graduate? Tell me, Potter, tell me all about my hopes and dreams.
“In fact, since you’ve got me all figured out, I’m sure you can explain what I was doing here. Why I decided to come, all alone, to the lake. Why I came to the inlet, instead of simply meandering to a closer shoreline. Tell me what I was looking for in the depths. Treasure? Knowledge? An obscure extra credit assignment?” Rigel started pointing at him, poking her finger into his chest like punctuation after each word. “But then, if you did know me so well, you wouldn’t have to stalk me to know what I was doing out here. It’d be self-evident.”
She stopped walking and James stopped with her, her finger still digging into his chest. She dropped her voice down low. “So, all-knowing Mr. Potter. Tell me, why were you following me?”
James gulped, looking down at her, his mind blank. He hadn’t ruled out confronting Rigel today. Bloody hell, he had even been looking forward to it. He could feel the retorts and banter forming, resting just beyond the tip of his tongue. But, looking down at her, he didn’t want to piss her off, or interogate her, or rip her to shreds about not being the kind of sister Sirius needed. After watching the look of awe on her face as she scoped beneath the surface of the lake, after watching how she interacted with a kelpie, after nearly watching her drown, he just wanted to know if she was okay. And then, maybe, if she didn’t eat him alive, he wanted to get to know her, beyond the shallow questions that she’d posed to him.
He shook himself. That wasn’t what he was here for. Besides, Sirius would kill him if he knew what he was thinking about his sister. He painted his most charming smile on his face. “Well, princess–”
He never got to finish his thought. In a second, Rigel’s eyes went from being hard – but with a playful light barely peeking through – to being hard like flint, icy rage whirling. One finger became two solid hands, shoving him like a bludger, so suddenly and completely that he didn’t realize what was happening until his breath burst out of his lungs as he hit the ground.
James lay there, gasping at the grey, cloudy sky, his hands on his chest. His back quickly became cold as his jumper and trousers soaked through with icy mud. A shadow overtook him a moment later as Rigel leaned over him, something complicated flitting across her face, her eyes almost the same color as the sky above him.
As quickly as she was there, she was gone again. James turned his head without looking up to see her retreating off in a huff. He watched her for a moment before staring back at the sky as he tried to catch his breath. Soon enough, he couldn’t hear her footsteps anymore and the wind blowing over the hills began to cut right through his wet clothes.
He sat up and looked around, but Rigel was nowhere to be found. He stood and brushed himself off, glancing at the quickly setting sun.
Well. That certainly could have gone better.
James could have sworn that he’d heard people refer to Rigel as the Slytherin princess before. He’d even heard Sirius, on the rare occasions when the two collided, sneer at her for being mummy’s perfect princess.
James winced when he thought about the nickname in that context. He didn’t think it fully explained her over the top reaction, especially when she was usually didn’t show any emotion at all, but he could understand, at least a bit.
Besides, while the conversation had left him off center, and with more questions than answers, it had been fun.
Even invigorating.
And if first you don’t succeed, try, try again.
He began to walk back, a genuine smile stretching across his face.
Game on, Rigel.
Game on.
…
Regulus stomped past gargoyles and armor, the torchlight elongating his shadow as muddy, wet footprints trailed behind him. He flicked his wand over his shoulder to clean up the tracks so the house elves wouldn’t be enlisted to do it.
He was pissed off, not a heathen.
He could still hear squelching between his toes with every step he took, feel his hair dripping icy water down his neck and shirt. He was fairly certain he even had a piece of kelp tangled up in his jumper.
Fortunately or unfortunately, he was running late for dinner, so while he would be in for an interrogation, he didn’t have to undergo the humiliation of walking through everyone soaked and muddy.
He was upset that he had to stop at his dorm for a shower and a change. He’d been looking forward to not having to rush tonight.
Alas, fuck ass Potter ruined those plans.
He wasn’t as smart as Lupin and he didn’t have his nose, so Regulus was sure that Potter hadn’t figured out that he was an animagus. He was sure that Potter hadn’t even pieced together that it was animagi attacking them.
Potter had been more than content to ignore his existence for almost five years. Why break the pattern now? What had caught his interest?
If this was all because Regulus had decided to help Evans get him off her back, he was going to revolt. No more being helpful to anyone – ever.
He stomped past the entrance to the Slytherin common room, slipping deeper into the bowels of the castle. No one really went down this way, most of the corridors being closed off with flooded classrooms or deadends. There wasn’t any natural light this deep either, another lovely deterrent.
Regulus stepped up into an alcove and looked around, before he tapped a few cobblestones, drawing out an eye with his wand. The stones shifted and Regulus was sucked into a tight spiral stairwell.
He quickly made his way up the old and dusty stairs, pulling his jumper off as he went, snarling and cursing to himself when it got caught on his heavy, stupidly long hair. He couldn’t wait to cut his hair once he was finally free. He finally whipped the swampy thing off, tossing it in a basket near the doorway with a splat. The arch opened up to a small dorm made entirely of stone, the only light coming from a singular floor to ceiling, diamond shaped stain glass window with green lily pads on it. Half of the window was submerged beneath the surface of the lake, the other half open to the dreary sky. He had an old, round bed that he’d specifically altered sheets for after finding it in a storage room even deeper in the castle and had covered it in patchwork quilts that the house elves kept piling on him. Wicker baskets full of wool and cotton yarn of every color overflowed on either side of the bed, in a similitude to nightstands, knitting needles and crochet hooks poking out like a mutated porcupine. There was also a clunky desk that had likely once been a vanity, piled high with painting and sketching supplies, a crocheted green rug spiraling outwards like ouroboros on the floor, and an opalescent wardrobe tucked in the only corner in the circular room. A small door led to a private bathroom with similar abalone fixtures and surprisingly warm lighting.
Regulus flicked on the sconces peppering the walls with his wand before tearing through his wardrobe for something that would warm him up without being overbearing once he was no longer a muggle popsicle. Once he’d done that and located a clean bandage, he fled to the bathroom to take the quickest shower of his life.
He’d been extremely lucky to find this dorm. Before he’d figured out that there was a bed for him in Barty and Evan’s dorm, he’d been forced to sleep in the Slytherin common room. The problem with that was that as the year went on, older students spent more and more time sequestered there, whether it be for studying or gossiping. And then there were also parties.
Regulus hated parties.
So, he took to sneaking around the basement of the castle, exploring while he waited for others to return to their dorms. Occasionally he would give up patience and sleep in the odd storage closet, but after being discovered by Filch a time or two, he did his best to avoid resorting to that.
He’d found the dorm by accident. One night he had been sitting in the alcove, absent-mindedly tracing shapes in the stones next to him, when he felt a rumble. He’d looked up to see a trail of green light following his wand.
After that, he made it his mission to find the pattern. He traced countless shapes into the stone, trying to guess what the key was. And one night, he’d found it. The stones had opened, practically pulling him in, and he’d found a dusty, abandoned dorm from a time long past.
He’d claimed it and moved his things in immediately.
It hadn’t taken long for his house elf friends to realize he’d found a more permanent place to sleep, though they’d been horrified when they saw the stated of disrepair the room had fallen into. They’d helped him move his things in and get settled – and would still visit him from time to time.
He’d eventually shown the room to his friends, though he’d cautioned them against entering when anyone was around. He didn’t want to worry about being found out and forced back into the regular dorms that he couldn’t even enter. The stones on the inside of the alcove glowed if no one was within range of the entrance, which was a lovely way to ensure he didn’t pop out of a wall and scare some first years to death.
So, he’d made this dorm his home, with occasional trips and sleepover in the boys dorm when the circumstances arose.
For now, he finished up his shower, wrapped himself into a bandage that Evan would argue was too tight, forced his hair into a braid at the base of his skull, curly bangs hanging into his eyes, and raced towards the great hall, hoping dinner wasn’t more than halfway underways.
Once he got to the entrance, he slowed his pace, lifted his chin, and softly strode in, going straight to where Barty and Evan were sitting, a seat saved for him between them.
To his surprise, Dorcas and Pandora were also there, sitting across from the boys, talking animatingly. Pandora almost always joined them for meals, though she was almost always buried in a book or scribbling away in a notebook. Dorcas had taken to sitting with the Gryffindor girls in her year, glued at the hip with McKinnon.
Pandora’s sandy golden hair was pulled up with various clips into a bun on the top of her head that just screamed chaos. Her greenish amber eyes lit up when she saw Regulus walking towards them, nudging Dorcas, who alerted the boys to his presence.
Barty and Evan immediately scooched a bit to the sides, opening up a bigger space for him. As soon as Regulus sat down, Barty threw an arm around his shoulders lazily and Evan began dishing him up food. Regulus scrunched his nose down at the heavy meal, but cleared the look off his face after a chastising side eye from Evan.
“And what exactly do you have to say for yourself?” Barty practically shrieked. Regulus leaned away from him, pressing his back into Evan’s chest. Evan caught him without hesitation, not even looking up from where he seemed to be critiquing Regulus’s now full plate.
“Depends on what I’m answering for,” Regulus replied, before considering for a moment. “And who’s asking.”
Regulus picked up his fork and began playing with bits of roasted potato, holding up the fork and watching how the salt crystals caught the light.
Barty scoffed. “Obviously it’s me asking, you twat, but–”
“But you completely disappeared for hours, which isn’t okay,” Dorcas finished.
Dorcas leaned forward, propping her chin on her wrist. Her locks were also tied together in a bun atop her head, gold and silver ornaments decorating the individual sections. Her hair being up drew attention to the hoops in her ears, one gold and one silver. She wasn’t wearing any rings, she didn’t see them as practical, not when she had to attend potions class and quidditch practice. She did have on some makeup, which was unusual for her, a bit of artfully applied white eyeliner contrasting greatly with her rich skin, making her dark eyes pop. A glance at Pandora confirmed that she was wearing matching liner, but with orange glitter decorating her eyelids.
Regulus popped a potato wedge in his mouth and shrugged. “You’ve never cared when I’ve visited the thestrals in the past, I didn’t realize that I needed to update you for everytime I went.”
“But you weren’t with the thestrals, Archie, we checked,” Pandora cut in, her sharp eyes looking him up and down.
Regulus paused and looked at each of them individually. “You all went to vist the thestrals?” Regulus asked. At their nods, Regulus turned to look at Barty and Evan. He turned back to Dorcas and Pandora, pointing a thumb at both of the boys. “You got these two wankers to go out to the thestral pasture?”
Barty and Evan sputtered as Pandora let out a delighted laugh.
“I cannot believe I missed that. Please tell me you got pictures of their faces,” Regulus pleaded.
Pandora had a sly smirk on her face that she’d definitely learned from Barty, before she held up a janky polaroid camera that was held together by glowing runes and a grey thing muggles called duck tape.
Pandora had been very clear that you weren’t supposed to use it on ducks, nor was the tape made from the remains of ducks.
Regulus wasn’t sure exactly what Pandora was experimenting on with the camera, all he knew was the lense and several other parts of it had blown up on several occasions, though somehow she always made it functional again.
With some things, it was just best not to ask questions.
Barty lunged over the table, but Pandora was too quick, holding the camera over her head, and that combined with the length of table between the two negated Barty’s lanky limbs.
Evan was just looking between Pandora and the camera, horrified. “No,” he breathed out.
“Oh yes,” Pandora laughed back.
“You didn’t,” Evan seemed to be trying to convince himself, eyes wide.
“But we did,” Dorcas sing songed, tilting her head at Evan.
Regulus gave it a few more moments before he grabbed the back of Barty’s tie, yanking him back down by his neck. Evan’s arm shot out instinctively to catch his back before Barty could go toppling over the bench and onto the stone floor.
Regulus turned his attention back to Pandora. “You’ll show me later?”
“But of course, Archie darling.”
Dorcas held up a finger. “After you tell as where you were.”
Regulus groaned as Barty narrowed his eyes at Pandora’s bag, likely trying to figure out how to steal the pictures from her.
There was no way in hell that he would be successful, but good on him for fighting the inevitable.
Regulus picked at his food again, excited when he realized that Evan had given him cod instead of lamb or beef. He speared a flake of the fish with a strawberry, ignoring Barty as he cringed at the combo. “I heard a rumor about another magical creature on the grounds. Decided to check it out.”
Barty still hadn’t taken his narrowed gaze off the Pandora’s messenger bag. “And that translates to you looking like a drowned rat because?”
Regulus swatted his shoulder. “Enough with the rat jokes. It’s not applicable, move on.”
Dorcas looked at him funny. “Do I even want to know?”
“Nope. I didn’t even want to know.”
“Barty’s just being Barty. Can we get back on track?” Evan cut in. “Regu–Archie. Why the hell do you look like someone drowned you and then brought you back to haunt the lake?”
Regulus ate a piece of spinach with a candied walnut and strawberry. “I would make an amazing ghost. Properly haunt this castle,” Regulus mused.
“You already do,” Dorcas retored dryly. “You’re haunting us with your whiteness, you frail victorian child. Go into the sun, for Circe’s sake.”
Regulus threw his hands into the air, though Barty and Evan were expecting it, moving to the side deftly to avoid getting hit. “I was outside! And you want to know what I get for it? A bloody interrogation, that’s what,” Regulus said, pointing the prongs of his fork at Dorcas.
She swatted him aside. “Because you vanished, Archie. None of us could find you.”
“Did you find the creature you were looking for?” Pandora cut in.
Regulus lit up a bit, the excitement of actually finding the kelpie finally catching up with him. “I did. A kelpie.”
Barty spat out his drink, choking. “A what?”
Regulus speared another morsel of food. A few more mouthfuls and he could probably sneak away. He wanted a real shower. “A kelpie.”
Barty just stared at him like his mind had blanked out. Pandora and Dorcas had similar expressions on their faces.
Evan hit him upside the head and Regulus ducked, whirling around, his braid smacking Barty right in the face. “What was that for?”
Evan just looked at him like he was stupid. “Regulus.”
“Yvon,” Regulus responded, pulling out Evan’s real, french name.
He managed to catch the sight of Evan rolling his eyes as Barty spun him around by the shoulders, frantically looking him up and down. Regulus swatted him, pushing his hands away.
“I’m fine Barty, get off.”
“Fine, he says,” Evan mumbled.
Barty wasn’t deterred. “You fucking idiot. You can’t bloody swim, Archie. You can’t bloody swim, and you went after a norns damned kelpie – alone – without telling anyone where you were or what you were doing? Are you bloody mad?”
Regulus crossed his fingers together and wiggled them. “Blacks and madness – goes hand in hand.”
He kept eating his food, a bite or two to go before freedom.
A massive pastry landed on his plate and Regulus wrinkled his nose at it. He wasn’t going to eat that.
He looked up at Dorcas, the one who’d put it on his plate. She looked a bit angry. “I hate you a bit for this, but I’m going to have to agree with Barty.”
Barty barked out a laugh. “I knew I’d win you over.”
She pointed at him without looking, her eyes not leaving Regulus. “I will have my girlfriend castrate you.”
Barty put a hand to his chest before gesturing behind Regulus to Evan. “You wouldn’t do that to Rosie!”
Evan wrinkled his nose at Barty. “I think we need to get your priorities straight, Bee.”
“There is nothing straight about my priorities, Rosie, they all curl around to you.”
Evan blushed at that as Pandora laughed openly at the sight.
Regulus just tilted his head at Dorcas. “Girlfriend? When did that happen?”
Guilt momentarily flashed in Dorcas’s eyes before she swept it away with a deep breath, gathering herself. “A couple of weeks.”
Regulus felt his jaw tense a bit as he nodded, looking away. Barty and Evan quieted, taking in the tense scene. Once upon a time, Dorcas would have told them the news as soon as it happened. She used to rant to them about McKinnon – and Merlin knows they all knew when they finally got over their hate phase and into their obsessed lesbian stage.
Regulus knew things were changing. He knew there was a war brewing, a war he doubted all of them would escape from unscathed. But he didn’t understand why they weren’t holding on to one another tighter as it approached, instead of seeming to prepare oneself to let go. Choosing to move on, like it was essential for survival.
Pandora was his sister, his platonic soulmate. Dorcas was like a hardass aunt that he would do anything for and that he’d hide with at family reunions. Evan was his older brother, and Barty was more like his more chaotic twin. The five of them were family, and if it was up to him, he wasn’t going to lose any of his family.
Not again.
It scared him, that Dorcas was drifting.
It scared him, and he didn’t know how to fix it.
But he didn’t want to start a fight, so instead he looked back up to Dorcas’s unbendable gaze. “Are you happy?” He simply asked.
That seemed to catch her off guard. Dorcas was always ready for a fight, verbal or physical, invisible or in the spotlight. And yes, Regulus was the calm to Dorcas’s raging tempest, just like she was to his, but that didn’t mean that storms didn’t occasionally form just to collide.
She eyed him cautiously. “Yes, I am. I don’t think I’ve ever been this happy.”
“After a week?” Barty scoffed, before quieting down as Pandora kicked him under the table.
Dorcas shot him a glare, but didn’t rise to the bait.
Regulus just nodded, his heart sinking. “Good, I’m glad,” Regulus responded, his tone even as he pushed away from the table and stood.
“Archie,” Dorcas called out as he walked away, something raw to her tone.
Regulus just paused for a moment, shooting her a weak smile. “I mean it, Dorc. I’m happy for you, really. You deserve the best, and if you’ve found it, I’m glad.”
Regulus didn’t wait to see how she’d respond, turning away to rush to his dorm as quickly as he could without it looking like he was rushing.
He meant what he said. He was happy for Dorcas. She did deserve to be happy.
He just wished that for once, the people he cared about could be happy with him, instead of needing to get away and leave him behind in order to find their own happiness.
…
Later that night, after he’d had a real shower and dressed in his comfiest clothes, still wrapped in his bandages (he knew he needed to take them off. He’d been wearing it for far to long already), he went to flop onto his bed, ready to leave today in the past, when he saw a lump curled up like a crescent moon on the other side of the bed. Slowly, he walked over to the bed, laying down in the mirroring position, facing Pandora.
Pandora’s arms were braced under her head, acting as a pillow. They sat in silence for a bit. That was something that Regulus loved about his time with Pandora. She wasn’t afraid to let silence speak. She never made it feel oppressive.
Moonlight began to filter in through the lily pads, casting the rippling of the water across the room in a greenish silver light. “She loves you, you know,” Pandora said softly, finally breaking the silence.
Regulus fiddled with the fibers of the blanket. “I know. I love her too.”
Pandora hummed. “Just because she needs some space, doesn’t mean she’s going away. Think of it as just her taking a stroll,” Pandora said gently.
Regulus shrugged, not looking at Pandora. “And sometimes people go for a walk, and they just don’t come back.” Regulus hated how choked his voice was.
Pandora considered that for a moment, let it sit. That was another thing that Regulus loved about Pandora. She never gave empty reassurances or platitudes. She always meant what she said and said what she meant. “That’s true. But the people who are meant to be in your life always make their way back around, even if it takes them a few detours. Sometimes they’ll even pick up other people along the way.”
“I don’t want anyone else. I have you, Temmy, Evie. Cissy, occasionally. Uncle Alphard periodically. It’s looking like I’ll have Dromeda back too.” He paused for a moment. “Dorcas, at least for now. I don’t need anyone else.”
“You didn’t think you needed Barty, either, when Evan introduced him to you. You didn’t think you wanted me, when I started pestering you in all the classes we share. And you didn’t open up to Dorcas quickly when I started bringing her around.
“But, as odd and oblong as we all are, we fit. And other people will fit too, when it’s their time.”
Regulus didn’t answer her. He couldn’t imagine letting anyone else in. But then again, when he’d arrived at Hogwarts, he hadn’t planned on letting anyone other than Evan and Sirius in.
That plan hadn’t even lasted a full day.
So, Regulus let the conversation taper off and Pandora indulged him.
“So, fill me in,” Pandora shot off as Regulus’s eyelids began to droop.
“On what?” Regulus replied sleepily.
“Anything. Everything. I know I’ve been more preoccupied than normal, between experiments, OWLS, and spending time with Xeno.”
“How is Xylophone?”
“Xenophilius is doing lovely. I’ll let him know you inquired about his wellbeing.”
Regulus scowled at her. “Stop making me seem like a nice person.”
“Sorry, Regulus, but the news is out. Regulus Arcturus Black – Niceness Extraordinair. I even made a poster about it. I’m meeting up with Edgar Bones and Xeno to distribute them to the rest of the Hufflepuffs tomorrow. Do you think Evans would be willing to give them out to the Gryffind–ack!”
Pandora cut off with a muffled cackle as Regulus tackled her with a pillow to the face. She writhed under the pillow, arms flailing, before she managed to grasp the pillow lying next to her, bringing it up and nailing Regulus right in the head with it. Regulus crashed backwards off the bed, landing on the rug with an oof. He was quickly scrambling up with a shriek as Pandora shot off the bed like a niffler after gold, pillow raised menacingly. The pillow hit where his head had been a moment earlier and they stood, hunched over their pillows, staring at each other, chests heaving. Regulus made the mistake of taking a step back, and then they were off, chasing each other around the small, cylindrical room, constantly switching between the roles of predator and prey.
That went on until they both collapsed on the rug, pillows abandoned a stones toss away. Regulus laid staring up at the ceiling, a broad smile dominating his face. He managed to glance over at Pandora, a similar look on her face, her hair having fallen out of her bun at some point in the struggle, fanning around her face and pillowing her head like a sand dune.
Regulus released a breath he hadn’t realized was lodged in his chest, feeling lighter than he had in months, maybe even years. After she caught her breath, Pandora rolled onto her side to face him, tugging at his arm until he did the same so they were in the same position they had been on the bed, only this time sweaty and sprawled out on the floor.
“Alright, enough holding out on me. Catch me up on what I’ve missed.”
And Regulus did. He told her about his, Barty, and Evan’s progress on their plan to move out, how Andromeda had bought a flat in his name. He did his best to describe it to her, the brick facade that continued on into the inside, how it had an original iron fireplace, a kitchen big enough for Regulus to cook in without Barty and Evan being in the way.
He talked about the money they’d been squirreling away, how Barty was hoping to stay in contact with his mother, but only if she respected the boundaries he set, not forcing him to interact with Bartemius Sr.
He talked about how Barty and Evan were going to share a room and how well their relationship was going.
He talked about his independent research for Care of Magical Creatures and his theory that thestral feathers could be a potent wand core, though they would likely be stigmatized and pickier than the canonical three wand cores.
Pandora had a lot to say on his research and he even gave her one of the feathers so she could run some tests on it. It was always good to get another perspective, especially from someone whose approaches were so far outside the box.
He even worked up the courage to tell her that they’d researched and completed the animagus transformation. That received the largest reaction, with her sitting up pin straight and rushing over to shake him for details.
So he got their research from the false bottom in one of his drawers, laughing as she quickly shut him out, manically reading through the notes. She only looked up when Regulus shifted into his animagus form, at which point she gushed over him, rolling him around and giggling.
Eventually they tired themselves out, or at least Regulus did. He thought Pandora would stay the night, but she instead walked out with a kiss on his cheek, dangerously reading the research as she walked down the stairs, not watching her step. Regulus was shocked that she didn’t trip. Barty tripped up and down these stairs even when he was meticulously watching where he was going.
After he was sure she made it down without breaking her neck, Regulus went back into his room and hunted down his pillows, dragging his feet as he finally made his way to his bed, ignoring the way his chest stung with every twist and movement.
He pulled his favorite of the quilts over his head, flicking off the sconces, and went out like a light.
…
See, James’s original plan was to pester Rigel, annoying her into giving him answers.
But then he thought about it.
While he’d gotten her to give him a reaction today, he didn’t think he could rely on that method.
Remus seemed to be having a fair amount of luck with getting her to talk to him, but James knew his strengths, and they definitely weren’t the same as Remus’s.
In addition to that, he didn’t like the idea of sneaking around behind Sirius’s back. Especially if it had to do with his sister.
Which led him to where he was now, stomping into their common room, smearing mud in a clumpy trail behind him, just as dinner ended. Sirius, Remus, and Peter were sprawled out on couch, though Peter was a bit removed, whereas Sirius was sprawled over Remus like a blanket. The girls were also in the room, Mary and Lily talking animatedly to one another, with Marlene sharing an armchair with her new girlfriend, Dorcas. They seemed to be discussing something forlornly, which was surprising. Marlene bulldozed into everything she did. James had never seen her do quiet. When Sirius looked up and saw him, he jumped up like a spring, yelling “Prongsy!” before tackling him into a hug.
James hit the floor of the common room with a considerably harder impact than he had hit the mud earlier, groaning on the ground a Sirius babbled about how worried he was. James pushed at him and Sirius seemed to get the hint, sitting up, though he ended up straddling James, so James couldn’t get up as well.
James looked up at Sirius and raised his eyebrows. “Did you need something?”
Sirius huffed. “First Moony disappears on us, and now you!” Sirius paused, looking between James and Remus critically. “Wait, have you two been scheming together? Because if I find out that we have detention until the end of the term because you two decided to try and be clever–”
“Quit barking, Pads. If Moony and I were behind the pranks, we sure as hell wouldn’t have been caught alongside you and Wormtail,” James groaned.
“And there’s no try about it, darling. I am clever,” Remus interjected, not bothering to look up from his book.
Sirius blushed and James had enough, heaving upward and upending Sirius until he was sprawled on the floor next to him as James rubbed the back of his head.
Sirius spread out all of his limbs dramatically, blowing a puff of air out to knock his long hair off his face. “All my friends are abandoning me,” Sirius wailed.
Peter raised his hand. “I’m right here?”
Sirius ignored him. “First, Moony disappears after he said he was going to be studying with Lily. Then he did it again! And then Prongs decided to do the same, but instead he came back looking like he lost a fight with a bunyip!”
“What’s a bunyip?” James asked. If Sirius thought something could beat him in a fight, James wanted to know what it was.
Sirius waved him off. “Magical creature that lives in Australia, don’t worry about it.”
James stared at him for a second. “Why the bloody hell do you know about a random Australian magical creature? You’re not even in Care of Magical Creatures.”
Peter laughed. “Barely anyone is, these days. Bloody useless class. I’m surprised anyone stays in it long enough to take their OWLs, much less their NEWTs.”
Sirius puffed up indignantly. “Shut it, Pettigrew. Care of Magical Creatures is a perfectly respectable class. You can do loads with it! Magizoologist, working in conservation, magical menageries, sanctuary work, specifications in research with niche creatures, just research in general, campaigning for creature rights,” Sirius counted off.
Peter puffed up a bit as well. “Why do you even care? Don’t bite my head off when you’re not even in the class, Black.”
James wrapped his arms around Sirius. “That’s enough, Pete. Pads, I didn’t know you liked magical creatures, why didn’t you say something earlier.”
Peter huffed and turned away from James and Remus looked at him worryingly. He only looked for a second, though, as what James said seemed to register for Remus. He turned back to James and Sirius, a mischievous glint in his eyes. “Really, James? You didn’t know Sirius had a thing for creatures?”
James choked on air before he burst out laughing, Sirius gaping at Remus beside him. Sirius pouted, folding his arms to his chest. “Don’t say it like that. It sounds bad when you phrase it that way,” Sirius whined.
Peter glared at Sirius. “Is there a good way to phrase it?”
Sirius’s pout turned into a scowl, but Remus cut him off before he could get going. “Alright, enough of that. James, are you alright mate? Pads was right, you really do look like you lost a fight with a mud monster.”
James groaned as he tried to run a hand through his hair, only to get stuck on the mud that had encrusted the back of his head. “Pads, your sister is barmy, mate.”
Sirius pivoted to face him at almost a comical speed, something sharp on his face. “The fuck were you doing with my sister?”
James went to respond, but was cut off when something hit him in the back of the head. James ducked with a yelp, rubbing his head as he bent down to pick up the book that had hit him. It wasn’t a big or thick book, but it was still a book that someone had thrown at his head.
Sirius was up in an instant, standing over James. “Oi! What the bloody hell do you think you’re doing?”
James peaked around Sirius’s legs to see Dorcas, no longer entangled with her girlfriend, standing defiantly across from Sirius. Marlene was still sitting, though she looked more like she was trying to keep from laughing than concerned about the faceoff. She did mouth a sorry to James though when she saw him looking, but it was with a shrug – the what can you do type of shrug.
Dorcas turned her attention to James, which just made Sirius fume more. He’d never done well with being ignored. “Archie is off limits, Potter. Keep their name out of your mouth, or next time I use my wand instead of a book.”
With that, she turned and made her way up the stairs, absolutely no hesitation about turning her back on an angry Sirius and with no pause to see if Marlene would follow.
Marlene just cackled. “Better luck next time, wankers,” she said as she gave them a two finger salute, stooping down to gather both hers and Dorcas’s things from the base of the armchair.
“Archie?” James asked as he handed off the book to Marlene when she reached for it.
“It’s what her friends call her,” Lily called out. At some point, Mary and Lily had stopped their discussion, instead choosing to watch the drama that was unfolding before them.
“They call Rigel ‘Archie’?” Sirius asked, something tentative and sad in his voice that James wasn’t used to, at least not from him.
Marlene stopped at the base of the stairs. “Dorcas said that the nickname came from her middle name.”
“How the hell did those idiots get Archie from Algieba?”
Marlene shrugged. “Fuck if I know. And watch who you’re calling an idiot, idiot. That’s my girlfriend you’re talking about.”
James watched as Sirius stared off into the distance, a bit of guilt eating at his stomach. He shouldn’t have brought up Rigel in public, he knew better than that.
So, he threw an arm around Sirius’s slumped shoulders, steering them towards the stairs. “Mauraders meeting, let’s go,” James called over his shoulder, Peter scrambling to follow him as Remus carefully gathered his things before following.
Once they got into the room, Sirius went straight to Remus’s bed, curling up on half of it while he waited for Remus to make his way up the stairs. James perched on the edge of his bed, regretting a bit that he decided to tell Sirius that he’d been following his sister around. Especially when he thought about that he’d be exposing Remus for spending time with her as well.
Remus finally made his way into the room, sitting down next to Sirius and playfully bumping him with his knee. James saw Peter leaning against his bed frame, lurking, out of the corner of his eyes.
“You alright, Pads?” Remus asked.
Sirius didn’t answer him, just turned his full attention to James. “Why have you been around my sister, James?”
James winced at that. They were already to real names. Well. Best to be honest, then. Sirius would be more mad if he found out James had kept something from him later on.
“Well, I was trying to figure out who was pranking us–”
“And your mind immediately went to my sister? Really, Prongs? She prefers the quiet, she doesn’t break rules. Even if she did want to get back at us for something, she wouldn’t do it after curfew. If she got caught it would get back to Orion and Walburga. She wouldn’t risk that.”
James winced at the mention of the Black matriarch and patriach. “No, she wasn’t my first thought. My first thought was actually Moony.”
“I was your primary suspect? Alright, tell me how you really feel, Prongs,” Remus teased.
“Oi, your first guess was that Pads and I was behind it, don’t act all innocent now. I knew it wasn’t you, personally, since you were with us during the first attack. But just because it didn’t come from you directly didn’t mean that you weren’t involved,” James pointed out.
“Okay, fair enough, how did that get you to Rigel?” Sirius waved him on.
“Well, after the first day, where Remus disappeared without explanation–”
“I told you exactly where I was, you wankers. You not believing me isn’t on me,” Remus interjected.
James sighed in defeat. “You did.”
Sirius sat up. “Wait,” he said, thinking back onto that conversation, “you mean when you said you were bonding with Rigel? You weren’t joking?”
“Nope.”
“Moony!”
“Yes, darling?”
“Why were you spending time with my sister?”
Remus shrugged. “Just scratching an itch.”
One of Sirius’s eyes twitched.
“Anyways,” James cut in, “the next day, I decided to follow Moony after he took the map. See if he was behind the prank. I followed him out to the forbidden forest, which was not my cup of tea, let me tell you that. At least, not when I’m not a stag.”
“You’re single and not the best at mingling, Prongs, that makes you a stag, animagus aside,” Remus retorted drily.
James scowled at him. “Oi.”
“Prongs, focus,” Sirius said.
James sighed. “So I followed him, he seemed to know where he was going. Until we got to this clearing full of thestrals.”
“You willingly went near the death horses?” Peter asked.
“Yup.”
“What were they like?” Peter edged.
“Bloody creepy.”
Remus laughed. “They’re not that bad, Prongs. They’re just creatures.”
James side-eyed him. “She’s corrupted you.”
“She?” Sirius asked.
“She.” James nodded. “Rigel was there, and get this, Pads. She was cuddling with the thestrals.”
Peter fell off the bed. “She was cuddling with the death horses?” He squeaked from the floor.
Sirius just sighed begrudgingly, rubbing at his face with his hands. “No, that tracks.”
Peter’s head popped up. “In what world would that be a logical conclusion?”
Sirius didn’t answer, he just began picking at his hands. Remus took his hands in his own, entertwining their fingers.
James watched him for a moment before continuing. “Rigel was there, drawing and writing about them, I think? She was cuddling with two of them, and then she went into their cave and fed them. Moony talked to her a bit, but she was more closed off then anything. Well, less so than she normally is. I don’t think I’d ever seen her smile before I saw her with the thestrals.”
Sirius turned to Remus. “Why were you there?”
Remus sighed. “I figured something out. I just needed to talk to her to confirm.”
Sirius sat up a little straighter. “What did you figure out?”
Remus stared at Sirius for a moment, seemingly considering something. “That’s not my secret to share,” he said finally.
Sirius wrenched himself away for Remus, barely clearing Peter as he stepped over him and began pacing.
“That explains where you lot were a day or so ago. Where did you go today? Moony didn’t go out today.”
Remus shook his head. “She told me she wasn’t visiting the thestrals today.”
Sirius absent mindedly gestured to James. “So, where were you today?”
James chewed on the inside of his cheek. “Well, I decided to follow her straight out of the castle. The map doesn’t go into the forbidden forest and I didn’t want to get lost trying to follow her. That’s why I took the map with me this morning, so I could see when she left. But she left hours earlier than she usually does, at least if she normally goes at the time she went with Remus.” James thought about it for a moment. “Honestly, it was so early she might have slagged off class to go. I had to so I could follow her.”
James shook himself. “As soon as I realized she was leaving the castle I followed. But she didn’t go to the forest this time. She just hiked along the shore of the Black Lake. I thought she was maybe going for a swim–”
“She can’t swim,” Sirius cut in.
“I learned that, yes.”
Sirius tripped in alarm. “The fuck do you mean, you learned that?”
“I’m getting there. Don’t worry, you still have a sister. But, back to the point, she walked all the way to the inlet. I don’t know if any of you have been out there, it’s pretty far away from the castle proper. If I’d known we were going that far I would have brought my broom. You have to go through marshy, swampy grasslands for most of the way and the grass is so high you can’t tell if you’re going to step on solid-ish ground or running water.”
“Hence the muddy clothes,” Remus said, gesturing up and down to James.
James nodded. “Hence the muddy - damnit,” James cursed, looking down at himself and realizing that he’d sat on his bed in his ruined clothes. “Sirius, I’m sleeping in whatever bed you and Remus aren’t sleeping in tonight.”
“Prongs.”
“Yeah, Padfoot?” James asked as he flecked off pieces of dried mud from his jumper.
“The lake, Prongs.”
“Oh yeah, right.” James pulled his attention from the jumper after giving it one last look over. Hopefully the house elves could get the mud out. He quite liked this jumper. “So, we finally got to where she was going, and let me tell you, it was underwhelming. We’d walked for at least 30 minutes, probably closer to an hour, and their wasn’t even anything there. She just went out on a rock, got rid of the mud, and sat down. She cast a spell I didn’t recognize, I think it was to explore the lake? And she just sat there, playing with the spell, for over two hours. And I just had to stand still and quiet, because she didn’t know I was there and I didn’t want her to catch me!” James exclaimed.
Remus laughed and gave him a mocking pout. “Babi twald.”
“It was honestly getting to the point that I almost let her know I was there just so she would fucking do something.”
“I’m honestly surprised you got to that point in two hours and not ten minutes. We should make you a prize. Pads, where do you think would be a good place to hang it?” Remus asked Sirius.
Sirius pretended to think about it for a moment, holding up his thumb and pointer finger with each hand, forming them into a mock frame, before closing one eye and squinting around the room, considering. “I don’t know, Moony, that’s a good question. We don’t want to rush it, after all, we want to make sure we properly honor Prongs’s momentous achievement.”
James grabbed a folded sock that had nearly rolled under his bed and lobbed it at Sirius’s head. “Alright, hardy har har. Laugh it up, would you? Or do you not want me to tell you the rest of what happened?”
Sirius flopped onto Remus’s lap. “Well if you would just get to the bloody point…”
“I’m getting there. Merlin, absolutely no patience from you lot. Right when I was about to call it quits, she got excited about something. Next thing I know, a bloody kelpie is jumping out of the water. And instead of running away or using her wand like a normal person, she did something to greet it. It didn’t even attack her, they just stood there, like they could understand each other. I’ve never seen anything like it,” James mused.
“But then I accidentally spooked her,” James rubbed his neck sheepishly. “I tried to catch her before she fell in, but I was still invisible and I think she thought something was attacking her, so she pushed away from me and slipped into the lake.”
Sirius sat up from where he was laying in Remus’s lap. “Prongs, I know I’ve told you that if you ever need to hide a body, you come to me. I didn’t think I needed to clarify that my sister wasn’t included in that!”
“I didn’t kill her!”
“She can’t swim!”
“I figured that out after she didn’t come back up!”
“James Fleamont Potter, I swear to Merlin, Morgana, Circe, Hecate, and every fucking deity that we know of, if my sister’s body is at the bottom of the Black Lake, you’re helping me learn and perfect necromancy to bring her back.”
“You’re not going to kill me?” James asked, genuinely surprised.
“Wrong answer, Prongs,” Remus said, his eyes darting between Sirius and James. At some point he had confiscated Sirius’s wand.
Smart man.
Sirius dropped his head into his hands. “James, I fucking swear–”
“She’s not dead!” James yelled out. “I didn’t know she couldn’t swim, so I didn’t dive in after her, and by the time I realized she couldn’t, the grindylows had already grabbed her and dragged her down!”
Remus stared at James, horrified. “In what world are these details helpful?”
“You let the grindylows grab her?” Sirius yelled at the same time.
James gave up. “The kelpie saved her!”
That got everyone to shut up.
Sirius finally raised his head from his hands, raising one finger as well. “You’re telling me that a kelpie, a creature that is infamous for being a trickster and luring people to watery deaths – that kind of kelpie – saved my sister from drowning?”
Peter turned to Sirius. “Again, why do you even know that?”
James threw himself down on his bed and pressed the heels of his palms under his glasses and into his eyes. “I don’t bloody know! I didn’t take Care for Magical Creatures either! I don’t know how kelpies normally behave!”
Remus spread his arms, palms outward. “Alright, lets ignore the magical creature jargon, that’s not what’s important here. To clarify, Sirius’s sibling didn’t drown? Or leave the land of the living through any other means?”
James shook his head. “Nah, she’s fine. A bit waterlogged and very upset at me, but fine other than that.”
Sirius grabbed a pillow from the bed and screamed into it. After a moment, he resurfaced. “Good, good good good. Just peachy.”
“I think you broke him, Prongs,” Peter called out, not taking his eyes off of Sirius.
“Next time, Prongs, lead with that,” Remus chastised.
“No, really?” Sirius asked, dramatically and sarcastically.
“Just to sum things up, you stalked Black–”
“It wasn’t stalking!”
“It was stalking, a bit. But you stalk Black, Black almost drowns, is then saved by something that should have killed them, and you both come back to the castle grumpier than you left it. Did I miss anything?” Remus deadpanned, counting off his fingers as he went down the list.
“Wasn’t Rigel at the great hall during dinner?” Peter asked.
“How did she beat you back by so much?” Sirius asked, eyeing James suspiciously.
“Well, she wasn’t exactly happy to see me. She was civil enough until I called her princess.”
“And what happened when you called them princess?” Remus asked cautiously.
James looked up at the ceiling and sighed. “She shoved me into the mud.”
Sirius barked out a slightly hysterical laugh. “Itsy bitsy Rigel Black shoved quidditch jock James Potter on his ass?”
James reared back, offended. “Rigel is a quidditch jock too!”
Sirius looked at him like he was stupid. “Prongs, you’ve got a foot on her.”
“She beats everyone at quidditch every time!”
“Yeah, as seeker. The one position that favors the tiny. Hence: Rigel.” Sirius deadpanned.
James gave up with a groan. He just couldn’t win.
The dorm was quiet for a few minutes, quite unusual for them.
“Did she look like she was alright at dinner?” James finally asked.
Sirius looked away. Remus watched him for a moment before answering. “She came in late and didn’t stay long, but she didn’t look like she was hurt.”
James nodded. “That’s good.”
Suddenly Sirius stood up, walking determinably towards James’s cloak and pulling the map out of the pocket.
Remus eyed him. “Whatcha doing, Pads?”
“Going to talk to my sister,” Sirius said, entirely too nonchalantly.
James, Remus, and Peter all froze, shooting each other a look. Remus pushed himself up. “Pads, you sure that’s a good idea?”
“Why wouldn’t it be?” Sirius shot back, also too evenly.
“Maybe because you haven’t talked to her in years?” Peter retorted.
James whirled to Peter. “Wormtail–”
Peter ignored him. “We’ve literally based the way people here see us on the way we’ve treated Slytherins. Do you really think that Rigel has never been hit by one of our pranks? You really think that she hasn’t seen the way we’ve treated Snivel–”
“His name is Snape,” Remus cut in quietly.
Peter barely shot Remus a glance. “Fine. Sorry, Moony. You really think that she hasn’t paid attention to how you’ve targeted Snape, the way you’ve targeted all the Slytherins? Moony said it a few days ago. We’ve been cruel. Why would she give you the time of day? Why should she even bother?”
At some point during Peter’s rant, Sirius had dropped the map and begun stalking towards Peter, hands fisted at his side. “Don’t put it only on me. You were there every step of the way for every prank, Wormtail, you were just as involved and just as cruel as the rest of us,” Sirius hissed.
J
ames stood up, putting himself in between them. “That’s enough,” he barked out, glaring at Peter, who immediately wilted under his gaze.
James turned to Sirius, gently grabbing his shoulders so he would look at him. “Pads, why now? What’s changed?” He asked gently.
Sirius sighed, deflating. “It was a mistake.”
“What was?” Remus asked him, coming to stand next to Sirius.
“I just, I needed her to be like our parents,” Sirius finally said.
“Why in the world would you want–” Peter began, indignant, before Remus cut him off.
“Why was that important to you?” Remus asked, not gently or necessarily kindly, but his tone made it clear he would listen – even if he didn’t agree.
Sirius chewed on his lip until Remus thumbed it, smoothing it over. Sirius’s eyes were distant and considering. When he finally answered, he sounded defeated. “I never thought about what we were really doing with our pranks and who we aimed them at until Rigel was sorted into Slytherin.”
“Where did you think she was going to end up?” Peter asked incredulously.
“Pete,” Remus bit out and Peter’s mouth closed with a clack.
“I didn’t even think about it, okay? I was so happy to be here and to be in Gryffindor that I forgot about Rigel.” Sirius paused. “No, I didn’t forget about her. I chose not to think about her. Because while I was here, I didn’t have to think about my parents, or what I was going to be forced to go back to once the year ended. And then your parents let me spend Yule and that first summer break at your house, so I really didn’t have to think about it. But then I saw Rigel, after the summer, and the guilt that I’d left her hit, and I hated it. And she didn’t want to sit with us on the train, so I didn’t get a chance to talk to her, or even consider that she wouldn’t be in Gryffindor, even though her being in Gryffindor wouldn’t even make sense.”
Sirius paused for a breath. “And I know it was selfish–”
“You aren’t selfish,” James inserted firmly, ignoring the way Remus winced and Peter rolled his eyes from the periphery of his vision. “It wasn’t your job to be her parent. It wasn’t your job to take care of her.”
“But it was,” Sirius said, shooting him a sad smile. “Maybe not to be her parent, I’ll agree with you there, but it was my job to take care of her, just like it was her job to take care of me. It was always just the two of us. We were all the other had, and we had each other’s backs, always. Maybe she did it in a different way than I did, but she was always there. And I promised that I wouldn't go to school and forget about her, but then that’s exactly what I did. And I did it willfully and purposefully. And even if I was in denial about it – even if I was too prideful to admit it – she knew. As soon as I chose not to come back during Yule break, she knew. And instead of apologizing, instead of reassuring her that I hated our parents, not her, I let her go, because it was easier. Because it wasn’t complicated, and I was so tired of things being complicated.
“And I never fixed it. I just let it fester and deteriorate. And then I left, and I didn’t even say goodbye. And maybe that’s forgivable, maybe we could move on from that, but then I kept your parents from getting her. Prongs, you know that had I said the word, or even if I hadn’t protested, your parents would have charged into Grimmauld, consequences be damned, and gotten her out. But they didn’t, and there’s no one to blame for that except for me.”
“Then why didn’t you want them to go get her?” James couldn’t stop himself from asking.
Remus watched Sirius sharply for the answer. James knew Remus had been curious about that answer, but hadn’t had any luck on getting Sirius to open up about why. Sirius just sighed, despondent. “Because I didn’t want to give my parents a reason to come after me. I know they’ve been trying to get me back, I’m their only heir. As much as they hate it, I’m their only option. But I haven’t gone after them, not really, not about anything that would really count. So they’ve pulled their punches too. They don’t want to risk starting a fight that they’re not certain they’d win. But if Effie and Monty went after Rigel, they’d see it as an attack, and they’d respond accordingly. And I don’t think I’d come out of that fight without scars. I just want them to be in my past and never have to see them again. And if Effie and Monty went after Rigel, then that bubble would burst. I’d have to see them again, and I’m too much of a coward to let that happen.”
James pulled Sirius into a hug. “You’re not a coward for not putting yourself into a situation that you know would harm you. You’re not a coward for protecting yourself,” James said fiercely.
Sirius let out a wet, self-deprecating laugh. “Funny, that’s exactly what Rigel always did. And that’s exactly what I always called her a coward for.”
James sighed. “We’ve all made mistakes. Some pretty big ones. Most, we didn’t even realize were mistakes until we’d already gone too far. And we can’t undo that. No matter how much we wish we could,” James paused, looking at Remus. “But we recognize that we made mistakes, we recognize that we aren’t entitled to people’s forgiveness,” he said, this time looking at an ashamed Sirius. “And we try to do better. We draw our lines in the sand, and we make the lines more strict as we learn more and make more mistakes, but we decide not to cross those lines and then we follow through,” James finished, resolutely.
All of the marauders seemed to find their shoes incredibly interesting.
“Thank you for coming to our regularly scheduled pep talk, courtesy of the one and only Prongs, AKA James Potter, expert at transfiguration, aspiring quidditch player, and optimist extraordinair,” Sirius said in a voice similar to those that broadcasted on the wireless, though his voice was still wet and a bit choked up. Regardless, his joke cut through the tension like a knife, desolving it as everyone relaxed and let out relieved chuckles.
Remus pulled Sirius into a hug and Sirius buried his face in Remus’s neck. “So, what do you want to do about your sibling?” Remus murmured into Sirius’s hair.
Sirius pulled back slightly so that he could look up at Remus. Remus wasn’t much taller than Remus, but he was tall enough. “What do you think? You’ve spent more time with her in the last week than I have in years. I don’t know her anymore.”
“Do you want to?” Remus asked evenly.
Sirius hesitated before he seemed to steel his resolve. “Yes.”
Remus took a deep breath. “She might not want to,” Remus said carefully.
Sirius flinched at that, and to his credit, he didn’t charge in with an answer, instead genuinely considering it.
James allowed himself a small smile. His friend really was growing up.
Feeling like he was intruding, James bent down to grab the map from where it had fallen on the floor. He dusted it off and wordlessly said I solemnly swear I am up to no good, deciding to find Rigel on the map in case Sirius really did try and talk to her tonight.
James saw Sirius squaring his shoulders out of the corner of his eyes. “I know she might not forgive me. I’m not even sure she’ll give me the time of day to get more than a word out. But I have to try, or we’ll grow up and I’ll hate myself for it. I already do, a bit. So I’ll try, and I’ll keep trying until I fix this.”
“And if it’s not something that you can fix?” Remus asked.
“I don’t accept that,” Sirius said, determination and fire shining in his eyes again.
Remus just nodded. “Then let’s see where this goes.”
Sirius turned back to James, arm outstretched for the map. James didn’t hand it over, just looking at it, confused.
“Prongs? What is it?” Remus asked.
James tilted his head at the map. “She … She’s not here?”
“What are you talking about, Prongs? Of course she’s on there. Everybody’s on there. Give it here,” Sirius said, snatching the map out of James’s hands before he even finished talking.
He cockily looked at where James knew the Slytherin portion of the map was, Remus peeking over his shoulder, but after a moment he faltered. He brought the map closer to his face and squinted, like his eyesight was the problem. “Huh.”
Remus snatched the map out of Sirius’s hands. “Give me that. Honestly, you’d think the two of you weren’t even involved with making it, the way you fumble about. It’s not that hard–”
Remus paused mid sentence, pulling out his wand and trying a few spells. After several minutes passed of Sirius and James looking at Remus expectantly as Remus grew more and more befuddled, Remus just lowered his wand and tilted his head. “The fuck?”
Sirius held both hands up to the map. “That’s what I was saying!”
“She has to be on there somewhere. We mapped the entire castle,” James said, still staring at the map incredulously.
“Apparently not,” Remus shot back, looking at the map like it betrayed him.
Sirius rolled his eyes before staring up at the ceiling. “I feel like I should be upset that my sister knows the castle better than me.”
James pointed at him. “Let’s not jump to conclusions. So what we can’t find her tonight. We’re the marauders! With all four of us on it, we’ll have her tracked down before classes start tomorrow!”
…
Regulus had had a shite week.
Now, why had he had such a shite week, one might ask?
Well, because the idiots four had taken to stalking him at all hours of the day.
And they weren’t even doing a good job at it.
The first day, he’d been surprised by the rapid increase in sightings of the four bumbling fools. But, he had seen the day as a flop, a one off curse from the universe. So, he’d simply taken to avoiding them whenever they got close, no big deal.
Except it was not a one off, because some higher power truly hated him. It was exam week, he was trying to focus on his OWLS and the single NEWT he was taking early, but instead of being stressed about his tests, he had to divert mental energy to dealing with Gryffindor’s with a hyperfixation.
Joy.
Under normal circumstances, after two, maybe three days of this tom-foolery if he was being patient, he would have just sent Barty after them. Barty would have handled it beautifully and borderline illegally, but hey, mess with fire and get burned and all of that. But Barty, the spiteful overachiever that he is, was currently taking 12 OWLS, of which he was planning to get 12 O’s. So, suffice it to say, Regulus hasn’t really even seen Barty this week, with the exception of the one time he had caught a glimpse of Evan carrying Barty over his shoulder to force him to sleep as Barty muttered about arithmancy equations.
If Regulus didn’t know that Barty had cracked years ago, he’d fear that the OWLS were finally doing him in.
Regulus had tried to visit them one night in the dorm to rant about his newfound stalkers, but when he walked in, the dorm had been a mess of papers connected by strings on every surface, including what was technically his bed.
Regulus decided to leave them be after that.
He couldn’t go to Pandora, either, because everyone knew interrupting a Ravenclaw during exam season was just screaming to get hung upside down from a tower by the sphynx jinx.
And he and Dorcas hadn’t quite made up yet, so there was that.
So, his current schedule consisted of taking his OWLS, taking his singular NEWT, dodging nosy Gryffindor’s at odd hours, picking at the food the house elves kept leaving near him to encourage him to eat, fielding questions from Andromeda to make sure that everything was on schedule with their escape plan, and … he was sure he was forgetting something important.
Ah, yes. Sleep. At least ideally.
One positive that he’d found was that, on the rare scenario that Sirius and his friends did manage to corner him, he could just turn into his animagus form and roll away. It’d been surprisingly effective, though he was sure Lupin had caught on to what he was doing by the laughs that echoed after him.
Lupin still hadn’t revealed his secret to the others. Regulus couldn’t decide if it was because he was just a genuinely trustworthy individual or if it was because Lupin found the farce to hilarious to end.
Luckily for Regulus, his last exam had just finished and it was the last night before he and his brothers were off to create their new home. Regulus was more nervous about how things would go tomorrow than he had been about his exams. It could range anywhere from nothing going wrong to everything collapsing around them.
And they wouldn’t know which way the wind would blow until after the fact.
Fortunately for his avoid any and all Gryffindors plan, Barty, Evan, and him had a tradition of a cuddle pile on the last night of the term. So Regulus was sneaking his way into the dorm, hopeful that Evan had forced Barty to clean up the monstrosity that was his study zone.
He’d already packed everything that morning and the house elves had promised to have it delivered to him by tomorrow morning, all set with a shrinkage charm so the three of them wouldn’t need to worry about lugging chests with them in case they had to run.
He threw the door open and immediately stopped, flabbergasted. He took in the scene before him and, well, he had to admit. It was a change from the study explosion fiasco.
Barty was fluffing up blankets that he’d arranged in a circle in the middle of the floor, beds and all other furniture pushed away to line the walls. The monstrosity seemed to have sections, with Barty adding pillows here and there as Evan lazily directed from his perch on his desk.
Regulus let the door behind him close with a clunk. Barty’s head shot toward him and he attempted to leap out of his creation, only for his foot to get tangled up in a blanket, sending him sprawling to the floor. He lay there, stunned for a moment as Evan wheezed, before he scrambled up like nothing had happened, raising his arms like he was about to go in for a hug.
“Reginald!” He exclaimed with a massive smile on his face.
“Bartholomew,” Regulus replied, one eyebrow raised.
Barty pouted. “How are you this grumpy? You can’t be this grumpy.” He turned to Evan, “He can’t be this grumpy, right? We just finished exams, we’re getting our freedom tomorrow, everythings finally coming together!” He turned back to Regulus. “Why are you not happy. Y’know what? That’s enough of that. You’re happy now.”
“Just like that?”
“Just like that,” Barty said firmly.
“I like this decree,” Evan said with a smile.
“Do I get a say in this?” Regulus asked.
“No,” Evan and Barty said together with no hesitation.
Regulus sighed, giving up. “What’s all … this,” he finally settled on, not able to come up with a less offensive inquiry.
“It’s our beds!” Barty said happily.
Regulus pointed at the three beds, shoved aside. “Beds. Those are beds, that,” he said, pointing at the thing on the floor, “is a crime.”
Barty squawked, offended. He flopped down. “If it looks like a bed, and feels like a bed, then it’s a bed.”
Regulus stared at him. “What about that looks like a bed to you?”
“It’s quaint.”
“It’s impoverished. Are you trying to manifest that we’ll be poor? Why would you do that? Don’t do that.”
Evan lay down next to Barty, bracketing him with his body. “Don’t fight it, Archie, it’s pointless. Come join us in our squalor.”
Regulus nudged the edge with his toe. “This doesn’t feel sanitary.”
“You live in a dorm that had so much dust in it when you found it that someone probably died in there,” Evan retorted drily.
Regulus froze, scrunching his nose. “Oh, Merlin. What if someone died in there?”
“Eh, I wouldn’t worry to much about it. You haven’t been haunted yet,” Barty said from where he was snuggled into Evan’s neck.
“I’m haunted by you,” Regulus replied, not missing a beat.
Barty’s hand shot out, grabbing Regulus’s ankle and pulling, causing him to topple into the pile with a yelp. Barty and Evan immediately wrapped their arms around him, pinning him to them. Regulus gave a conciliatory struggle before burrowing into them, Barty giving a satisfied hum.
“So, tell us about your week, Archie,” Evan asked once they’d settled.
Regulus just glared at Barty, who reared back. “What did I do?”
Regulus pointed a finger at him. “The one time I need you to go batshit on someone and you’re busy,” Regulus grumbled.
Barty just stared at him for a moment before turning to Evan and back again. He paused, then said seriously, “You’re telling me this whole week I could have been taking my exam frustration out on someone, and you didn’t bloody tell me?”
Regulus just nodded as Barty stared off into the distance. “Son of a bitch.”
Then Barty was dumping Regulus in Evan’s lap, scrambling up and pulling on his shoes. Regulus blew his hair out of his face as Evan dumped Regulus onto the ground, slowly pulling himself up to follow Barty.
“What are we doing?” Evan asked as he pulled on his shoes.
Barty shrugged. “The night’s still young.”
Regulus took a moment to disentangle himself from the plethora of blankets making up the bed-like mass. “Barty, you don’t even know who you’re going after.”
Barty scowled. “I can take a guess. Besides, they almost always pull one last prank every year. Just because we’ve kept them from being successful so far, doesn’t mean they won’t try again tonight.”
Regulus groaned, burying his face in the pillow. “Bee, it’s late. Let’s just go to bed.”
But when Regulus looked up and saw Barty’s face, he already knew it was no use. Barty had that glint in his eyes, the same one he had when he came up with messing with his brother and his friends in the first place.
Regulus looked to Evan for help, but Evan just shrugged. “I’m in.”
Barty hauled Regulus up, putting him on his back like a piggy back ride. Regulus groaned into his hair. “How are you not too tired for this?” He asked as they made their way down the stairs, Evan ambling next to them.
Barty cackled as Evan and Regulus shushed him. “Oh, Reginald, I’ve been cooped up all week. It’s finally time to have some fun.”
…
James flopped face first onto his bed, hearing Sirius do the same across the room. Turned out pinning Rigel down was actually pretty hard. There had been so many times that he’d been sure they’d had her. But every time, they’d turn a the corner and she’d be gone. They literally had a map that told them where everyone in the castle was, and they couldn’t lock down Rigel.
Remus petted Sirius’s hair commiseratingly.
James stretched himself up and grabbed the map, almost resigned. While Rigel almost always showed up on the map during the day, she hadn’t appeared on the map at all after curfew. They still checked every night, as it would be the best time for Sirius to actually talk to her, but they hadn’t had any success.
James quietly murmured the code and did an obligatory scan of the map. And then dropped it in surprise. Because there, somehow passing the castle’s defenses, was Rigel, making her way up the Slytherin stairs to the boys dorm.
“Prongs?” Remus asked.
James just excitedly gestured to the map. It took a moment, but then Sirius seemed to catch on, all but diving for where the map had fallen to the floor. The map was spelled to reset at loss of contact, so Sirius had to open it again, and then James could see Sirius’s eyes darting around the map, trying to find her name, an eager and relieved smile on her face.
The smile wasn’t long lasting. A scowl quickly overtook Sirius’s face. Remus tilted his head at Sirius. “False alarm?” He asked.
James shook his head. “No, she’s there.”
“Yeah, and her name is practically on top of bloody Crouch and Rosier,” Sirius spat out.
“She’s having a threesome?” Peter asked from across the room.
Sirius dropped the map with a gag. “What the hell, Pete? She’s fifteen! She’s not having sex with anyone. She’s a baby. Sex isn’t even in her vocabulary!”
James felt like gagging as well. He didn’t agree with the baby sentiment, but the idea of Rigel having sex with Crouch and Rosier, or anyone really, set a fire beneath him. He didn’t like that mental image, not at all.
“How would you know?” Peter shot back.
Sirius just opened and closed his mouth a few times. He finally settled on hugging his arms around his middle. “I’m going to be sick.”
“Don’t be sick,” Remus muttered from where he was grabbing the map from the ground, groaning as his joints and bad hip popped and crackled. “Let’s not jump to conclusions.”
“How did she even manage to get there? It’s the boys dormitories. She shouldn’t even be able to get past the stairs,” James mumbled bitterly.
Remus froze from where he was looking at the map. “Huh.”
James turned to him. “Huh? Huh, what? What’d you find?”
Remus’s mouth closed with a clack. His eyes darted to Sirius, something sad in them, before he shook himself. “Nothing. Just figured something out, but it has nothing to do with you, mates.” He gestured back towards the map, making sure he had Sirius’s attention. “As far as mentally and emotionally scarring endeavors, I don’t think that’s what your sibling’s doing. They’re all friends, Black, Rosier, and Crouch. Them being physically close is just part of the package.”
“Not in each other’s dorm rooms, it’s not.”
Remus shrugged. “From what I know about them, I’d say it’s fairly normal. Besides, Crouch and Rosier are feral about each other. You don’t need to worry about one of them coming onto Black.”
“Now both of them coming onto her together, though,” Peter said with a laugh.
Sirius ignored him. “What, like they’re gay? Moony, I hate to break it to you, but they’re both from pureblood families to end all other pureblood families. They’re not gay.”
Remus just shot Sirius a pitying look. “Wow. Thank you for this groundbreaking information. You should publish, Pads. ‘Purebloods: Incapable of Sodomy, A Comprehensive Review of Why Pureblood Only Gets Up For Cunt, Not Arse - Taking or Recieving.’. Author recorded as notable exception. The scandal.”
James burst out laughing as Sirius sputtered. “You know that’s not what I meant,” Sirius refuted.
Remus just rolled his eyes. “Blood doesn’t determine sexuality. Neither does Hogwarts house. Slytherin defining traits are ambition and cunning, not homophobia and bigotry.”
Sirius grumbled, but nothing intelligible. He knew when he’d lost a fight. At least when it came to Remus. So instead he started marching out the door.
James managed to pull himself together from where he was wheezing on the floor. “Where’re you going, Pads?”
“To hand some Slytherin’s their arses and talk to my sister,” He called over his shoulder as he left the dorm.
Peter, James, and Remus all froze, looking at each other for a moment before they were all scrambling over one another to chase after him.
“Not in that order, right?” James called down to Sirius as he made his way down the stairs. Sirius just shrugged noncommitantly. James tripped on the last step, sprawling out on the stone at the base of the stairs as Peter and Remus stepped over and past him in a hurry. “Not in that order, Pads, right?” James repeated louder, calling after Sirius, who was already jumping out of the portrait hole.
James went to follow before freezing. “Shite.” Remus paused where he was leaving the common room, looking back at James, eyebrow raised in question. “We left the map in the dorm.”
Remus shrugged back towards the dorm. “Go grab it, then. I’ll try and do damage control here.”
James bounded up the stairs in response, running for the map. He’s embarrassed that it took him as long as it did to find it, throwing pillows and blankets every which way, knowing he was on a clock.
He finally found it when he caught a glimpse of the corner of the map peeking out from under a quilt on the floor. He grabbed it and absent mindedly cast the passcode to open it, running back down the stairs, a bit out of breath. He cast a glance down at the map as he was crossing the threshold into the corridors before he froze, one foot in the commonroom, one foot outside.
There, on the map, quickly heading towards the marauders, was the names of Crouch, Rosier, and Black, though something must have been glitching with the map, because Rigel’s name kept warping and changing as James watched. They were only a corridor away from the marauders, set to collide.
“Shite,” James cursed under his breath as he sprinted towards his friends, knowing he wouldn’t make it on time, barely paying attention to where he was going, which almost caused him to collide with Mrs. Norris before he managed to pivot and change his route at the last second.
It added a couple of minutes to his journey and when James looked at the map, his friends and Rigel’s friends names were all collided and intermingling chaotically.
James heaved a breath. Just a couple turns away.
James finally crashed his way through the last corner, skidding to a stop against the opposite wall, not at all prepared for what he saw.
Sirius was ducking his head as he ran around his circles, the bat back and tormenting him. It had somehow managed to steal Sirius’s wand and was divebombing him with it, poking him and grabbing his hair as Sirius both tried to dodge as well as win in a comical game of tug of war to win his wand back.
Peter was scrambling around as the living alien ball circled him, tripping him up as he panicked.
Remus stood to the side, watching it all unfold with a slight smile on his face. When the ball thing rolled towards him, he gently nudged it away using his cane, causing it to roll back to where Peter had fallen on his arse, now scrambling to get up and away from it as it picked up speed.
Something was still making that eerie clicks and clucks, but for the first time, James realized that it was coming from above him, not all around them.
James watched what was unfolding before him, before he looked down at the map and gaped. He looked back and forth between the map and the scene in front of him a couple times, trying to see if his eyes were playing tricks on him.
They weren’t.
Sirius’s name on the map was erratically moving every which way, and Barty Crouch Jr.’s name was hovering around his, giving chase, perfectly aligned with the bat’s.
Going in circles around Peter, orbiting like a shark, was Rigel’s fluctuating name, and Evan Rosier’s name hopped back and forth above all of them, still showing up as being here, but James realized that he was far removed, elevated, even on the map.
James hand holding the map fell limply to his side as he raised his other hand and pointed at the ba–Crouch. “You!” he shrieked, causing his friends to freeze in place, the fucking animagi freezing with them. “And you, and you!” he exclaimed, swiveling to point at both Rigel and Rosier.
“Er, you alright there, Prongs?” Sirius cautiously asked, not taking his narrowed eyes off of where Crouch was hovering just out of reach, still holding Sirius’s wand smugly.
James just opened and closed his mouth a couple of times before lunging forward, grabbing the bal–Rigel, who squealed in protest and began wiggling in his grip.
Did James fully understand what was going on? Absolutely not. Was he going to pass up what may be their only opportunity to finally get Rigel and Sirius to talk? Over his dead body.
So, he tightened his grip on her hard shell and began sprinting back towards their dorm, trying to ignore that Crouch had abandoned Sirius and was now divebombing him – with far more fury, clubbing him with Sirius’s stolen wand as sparks shot out of it with every hit.
He didn’t make it all that far.
He hadn’t even made it back to the first turn before something fell from the fucking ceiling, landing with a resonating thud in front of him. James skidded to a stop as the bird stood to it’s full height, not that much shorter than James, and heard Remus let out a flurry of expletives behind him.
The bird’s throat rumbled, almost similar to a growl, before it suddenly spread it’s wings, feathers all puffed up, and screamed.
James jumped, dropping Rigel in his shock and panic, and the bird’s beak darted out as quick as a snitch, snatching Rigel, who’d curled back into a ball the moment she’d entered freefall, in his massive beak and flapping back up towards the rafters. Crouch gave James one last firm yank on his hair before flying up as well, leaving the marauders in shocked silence.
Sirius ran over to James, quickly looking him over. James looked over his shoulder to where Peter was still on the floor in shock and Remus was bent over at the waist, laughing so hard he was crying, muttering something about dinosaurs.
Sirius patted James’s face, turning his attention back to him. Sirius looked him in his eyes and opened his mouth to speak just as James caught a glimpse of something falling, colliding directly with the top of Sirius’s head with a thunk.
Sirius ducked his head and brought his hands up, rubbing the spot where his wand had nailed him, cursing the bloody bat as it cackled, at least as well as a bat could cackle.
Remus finally stopped laughing, going over to help Peter up as Sirius finished looking James over. James broke away as fast as he could, lunging to pick up the map before pointing up at the rafters, barely able to make out a few shapes in the darkness. Once he’d double checked that they were still in the rafters, James pointed at them regardless, shouting “You lot better not move. We’re having a bloody conversation about his, whether you like it or not!”
Sirius yanked down James’s hand, looking at him like he’d lost his mind. “I didn’t see him hit his head,” Sirius called to Remus, “Prongs, how many fingers am I holding up?” Sirius asked after he turned his attention back to James.
James smacked his hand away, squinting up at the ceiling, trying not to lose sight of the animagi. “Stop that, you twat. They’re going to get away!”
“Who?” Sirius asked incredulously.
“They’re animagi!” James gestured up to the rafters wildly.
Sirius was quiet for a moment as he looked back and forth between the ceiling and James. James saw the exact moment that understanding clicked and Sirius gaped up at the ceiling before stomping a foot. “You little shite!” Sirius yelled upwards, triggering another round of mocking chittering from the rafters.
Sirius stomped around the hall, ranting about scheming, hypocritical little sisters, generally looking like he was going to find a way to climb up into the rafters and pull Rigel down himself. Before Sirius could begin to attempt to scale the walls of the corridor, Remus grabbed him from behind, dragging him towards a tapestry on the wall opposite of them. James soon felt himself being dragged as well, Peter hauling him towards the tapestry and behind it to a cavity in the wall.
The tapestry fell back in place and stopped moving just as James heard footsteps rapidly approaching them. A moment later Filch’s, McGonagall’s, and Flitwick’s voices echoed down the hall.
The marauders pressed themselves into the back of the alcove as James mentally cursed himself for not bringing the invisibility cloak. James’s heart almost stopped as he saw Mrs. Norris’s little nose peak up under the side of the tapestry, but Mahadevi must have finally decided to cut them a break, because she left when Filch called her without alerting the professors of their presence.
James held his breath as he heard the professors stop just outside the tapestry.
“Those filthy students, couldn’t even wait one day to cause trouble. The last night. The nasties are just biting to start next year with detention. Causing enough racket to wake the whole castle. Absolutely horrible, those marauders,” Filch ranted.
“Let’s not jump to conclusions,” McGonagall’s raspy, lilting voice cut in. “Until we find which students are out of bed, we won’t shove around accusations.”
“Come now, Minerva. Even you have to admit, that group is almost always found responsible. And even when they’re not caught, it’s usually eventually traced back to them in one way or another,” Flitwick’s voice squeaked out, a bit nasaly.
McGonagall just huffed. “I have never punished students without proof and I have no intention of starting now. Horace is making his way up from the west side of the dungeons, Pomona is coming from the east, and Aurora is on her way from the astronomy tower. Shall we see if they found anything?”
A moment later they made their way deeper into the castle, Filch never pausing in mumbling under his breath.
James waited for a moment to make sure McGonagall wasn’t going to double back. It wouldn’t be the first time. Apparently Sirius wasn’t on board with that idea, though, because he barrelled out of the alcove as soon as Remus loosened his grip on him, stomping back towards the center of the hall. Remus’s responding eye roll was so dramatic that James could clearly make it out in the poor lighting.
James cautiously left the alcove, keeping his eyes on the map to make sure no professors were coming their way while Remus tried to calm Sirius down.
Key word there was tried. Sirius was on a roll, ranting and raving at the ceiling. The most Remus could do was getting him to rant a bit quieter.
“I’m sorry, what’s the problem? Wasn’t finding your sister the goal? Didn’t you want to talk to her? Because if this is how you’re going to go about it, I can already tell you it’s not going to go anywhere,” Peter interjected.
That actually got Sirius to pause for a moment before he threw up his arms in frustration. “The point is that she did something incredibly dangerous without any supervision! Anything can go wrong at any point in the animagus process! She could have been seriously hurt!”
While James was mulling over the slight hypocrisy of that sentiment, flapping came from the ceiling and the massive bird landed a couple feet away from James. He took a cautionary step back as the bird dropped the shell ball on the ground from where it was still carrying it in it’s beak.
The shell ball thing immediately transformed into Rigel who wasted no time in stalking over to Sirius. “Oh, that’s rich. ‘An incredibly dangerous process without supervision?’ You’re one to talk, Padfoot,” she practically snarled, her long curly hair not tied up, fluffed up and wild around her head and back.
Remus just snorted at that.
Sirius pivoted on a knut, gaping at Remus. “You knew!”
Remus just shrugged. “Yup. I could smell the change. It wasn’t hard.”
James glanced back at the freaky bird, which had at some point shifted back to Rosier. His eerie, almost white eyes were watching the exchange, amused, but James didn’t trust that for one second. He’d seen that boy duel. He knew Rosier was ready to end whatever fight might crop up at the drop of a hat.
Movement from the rafters caught James’s attention as he saw the bat swoop down lazily from the ceiling and plant itself on Rosier’s head like the world’s most disfunction hat. The bat watched the exchange, and it was definitely amused by the Black siblings finally having it out.
Well, not really, because Sirius was still just staring at Remus and trying to come up with a response. He didn’t even notice Rigel roll her eyes and begin to turn away to leave. Well, that just wouldn’t do.
James darted forward, catching her wrist his hand and Rigel stopped and stared at him like she was trying to find where he got his audacity from.
Well, at least she stopped.
James didn’t get a chance to try and defuse the situation, though, because a moment later he had a face full of bat.
James shrieked as Crouch landed on his face, completely blinding him. James tried to shake him off – but to no avail. Suddenly Crouch was no longer in his face, but only because he’d moved into his hair, yanking and pulling like James had seen him do to Sirius the past few times they’d interacted.
“Bloody hell,” James cursed as his head was pulled every which way. He was having no luck getting Crouch off, and from the corner of his eye he saw that Rosier had Sirius pinned in place so he couldn’t come help James.
“Temmy,” Rigel called out, sounding bored. “That’s enough.”
Barty immediately jumped off James’s head, though in one last malicious move, he did steal James’s glasses right off his face before jumping into Rigel’s arms.
At least, James was pretty sure that’s where he ended up. Everything was a bit blurry and distorted now.
James heard a long suffering sigh, and then his glasses were being placed back on his face with surprising gentleness. James adjusted his glasses and looked up to see Rigel quickly retreating, cradling Crouch in her arms like a baby. James’s nose wrinkled at the sight.
Rigel pet Crouch’s nose like a baby and hummed. “Bloody niffler, you are.”
Rigel handed Crouch back off to Rosier, who happily took the little menace, and did a dramatic flick of his wand to unseal Sirius, Peter, and Remus’s shoes from where he’d melded them to the stone floors.
Rigel didn’t wait up, already shoving past the marauders and making her way down to the dungeons, Rosier and Crouch on her tail.
James saw Sirius panic but he didn’t move, his shoulders slumping like he’d already given up. Remus evidently saw it and tilted his eyes up to the ceiling and closing them in a woe is me fashion, muttering something about I don’t accept this my arse – before stepping directly in front of Rigel.
Rigel barely managed to stop before running right into Remus’s chest. Rigel scowled up at Remus and James barely managed to stop himself from laughing. Remus was the tallest of the marauders and, well, Rigel wasn’t exactly tall. The top of her head barely met his chest; Remus must be over a full foot taller than her.
“Move, Lupin.”
Remus just smiled down at her. “We’re back to Lupin?”
Rigel went to step around him but Remus just stepped to the side with her. “We never moved beyond it.”
Remus shrugged. “Oh well. We’ll get there.”
Rigel tried to step around him again, only to be blocked again. “Didn’t I tell you not to hold your breath?”
“Aww, Black, you really do care.”
“Choke and die,” Rigel deadpanned.
James didn’t hold in a laugh this time.
Rigel, fed up with Remus blocking her way, shifted into her animagus form and rolled between Remus’s legs and down the corridor.
Sirius, also fed up, lunged and grabbed Rigel from the ground and held her like a muggle rugby ball as he tried to sprint back to Gryffindor tower.
Rosier and Crouch blocked him immediately, trying to snatch a squealing Rigel from his hands as Sirius pivoted and dodged.
James backed up and held his arms up like he was about to catch a pass of the quaffle and called out to Sirius, “Pads, over here!”
Sirius’s eyes lit up as Remus yelled, “Absolutely not!” Rosier and Crouch echoing the sentiment.
Sirius didn’t seem to care and raised an arm to throw his sister, but Rigel was having none of it. As soon as Sirius raised her above his head she shifted back, causing the two of them to crash to the floor and begin wrestling in a flurry of limbs and elbows and pulled hair.
Luckily, from what James could see, no wands were drawn.
James stepped forward to help but was immediately met with a fuming Crouch, back in human form. Crouch quickly disarmed James and Rosier was stopping both Remus and Peter from moving forward.
Sirius didn’t end up needing their help, eventually settling for throwing a spitting mad Rigel over his shoulder and standing, chest heaving as Rigel beat his back with her fists.
Unfortunately for Sirius, Crouch saw him doing this and threw a hex at James that hog-tied his wrists to his ankles, sending him crashing to the stone with a groan. Crouch raised his
wand to Sirius at the same time Sirius raised his.
Before they could start battering one another with curses, hexes, and jinxes Remus threw his arms up and shouted, “For fuck’s sake! All of you, stop! We just want to talk, stop fighting each other!”
Everyone froze. It wasn’t often that Remus got to the point of raising his voice, and the marauders knew to not push him once he’d crossed that line.
Rosier and Crouch, evidently, did not.
“Speak for yourself.”
“You call this opening a conversation? Never become politicians, you’ll cause another bloody war,” Crouch and Rosier snarked at the same time.
Remus pressed the heels of his palm into his eyes and groaned. After a couple long moments, he dragged his hands down his face and took a fortifying breath.
“Alright. This is how things are going to go. Crouch, untie James. James, stop stirring the pot. Sirius, put your sibling down –” Sirius squawked in outrage. “That wasn’t a question, Padfoot, put them down. Black, can we just have five, maybe ten minutes? If you still want to tell us to go fuck ourselves after that, we’ll listen. At least for tonight. Rosier, get your bloody wand out of my face before I snap it.”
Everyone stayed frozen for a moment, but eventually Rosier dropped his wand to hang by his side. Crouch and Sirius seemed to be in a stare-off, but Sirius finally stooped down to place Rigel down on her feet, who immediately took a step away from Sirius, glaring at him.
Rosier shot Crouch a look until he turned and freed James with a grumble.
Everyone just stood still for a moment, the tension in the air thick as they sized each other up. Remus just rolled his eyes and started shoving at people. “Alright, you’ve all proved your points. You’re all very scary, kings of the mountain, you lot are. Can we please get moving before the professors come back and we get stuck with detention until we’re 90?”
“Grumpy, grumpy,” Sirius teasingly chided with a laugh.
“There’s entirely too much testosterone present for a productive conversation,” Remus grumbled as he marched past everyone, hitting Sirius behind the knees with his cane as he went by.
Everyone moved to follow Remus, Crouch and Rosier moving to bracket Rigel with their bodies like bloody bodyguards. Sirius and James shared a look before they moved to follow, bringing up the rear.
This was going to be interesting.
…
Regulus was going to curse his brother. Preferably with the sphynx jinx he’d convinced Pandora to teach him. Maybe that way he’d finally spew some wisdom out of that big mouth of his.
By the time Regulus got to the entrance of the Gryffindor common room, Lupin had already stepped inside, holding the portrait open for everyone.
Smart of him, that, using the password before any of the Slytherins caught up and overheard.
Hecate forbid that Regulus unleash Barty and Evan on the Gryffindor common room at some point. Maybe that would finally get Sirius and his gang to stop targeting Slytherins.
Or it would escalate things.
Probably the latter.
Regulus, still feeling upset about being flung around like a bag of bloody potatoes, stomped through the common room to the boys staircase so they could get this whole mess over with.
Why was Sirius even trying to talk? It’d been almost five years. Why now? If this was all just a bid to try and get Regulus to the Potter’s as a final fuck you to Walburga and Orion, Regulus would be stabbing someone tonight.
Regulus was about to go up the stairs when Potter – speak of the devil and he’ll appear – called out, “As entertaining as it would be to see you slide down the stairs on your arse, shouldn’t we stay down here and just put up a privacy charm or two? I think your dignity has taken enough hits tonight, wouldn’t you agree, baby Black?”
Regulus scowled at him. Stupid Potter with his stupid, arrogant smirk. Regulus rolled his eyes and walked up the steps, easy as anything, his lips twinging upwards when he heard Potter choking behind him.
He threw a glance over his shoulder to get a glimpse of Potter and his brother’s bewildered faces. Potter glanced between him and the staircase leading to the girl’s dormitories, before turning back to Regulus. “Tell me your ways.”
Regulus just flipped him off over his shoulder and kept moving towards the sixth year dorms, Potter tripping his way up the stairs behind him. “Wait, actually. How the fuck are you doing this? We’ve tried for years.”
“Sucks to be you,” Regulus hummed.
“You’re just not that cool,” Evan sighed.
“Tragic, that. Do you reckon that we burst that bubble for them?” Barty posed.
Evan pretended to consider that for a moment. “I reckon so. Do you think they’ll recover from such a shock?”
Barty threw a glance over his shoulder. “Doesn’t seem like it, Rosie. The symptoms are already setting in.”
Evan threw a glance back as well, drawing his lips in a tight line with mock seriousness. “I do believe you’re right, healer Bee. They’re already wilting.”
“Barty as a healer is a premise for a horror film,” Regulus muttered under his breath.
Barty ignored him, nodding at Evan mourningly. “Next thing you know, they’ll be turning green and melting.”
Evan shook his head. “What a shame. Though the show must go on.”
“And no one mourns the wicked.”
“Rude, that.”
“I know, Rosie! A consolatory mourning isn’t that hard to pull off, is it?”
“You’d think, Bee, you’d think. Shall we sign them up for acting classes?”
“Or just general empathy classes?”
“Or common courtesy?”
“Emotional literacy?”
“Basic human decency?”
“But however would they go about their days without their emotional constipation working as a stick up their arses?”
“They’d no longer have a reason to make the baby Slytherin’s lives miserable.”
“However would we recover from such a change?”
“Created emotional backbone, that trauma did.”
“Could even allow for intermingling of houses.”
“But however would we function without our social decisions being based on the mad rumblings of a sodding hat?”
“How indeed.”
“It’s almost like you’d have to get to know a person before judging them?”
“The horror,” Barty deadpanned.
“For Godric’s sake, shut up!” Sirius stomped, starring at the two, horrified. “You two are right barmy. Does anything you say actually make sense?”
Evan went to respond but Sirius held a hand up. “No! You two are now mute. I can’t take any more of listening to your ravings.”
Evan sniffed, offended. “Rude.”
Barty tilted his head at Sirius. “The rudest. You’d think that he of all people would have experience with interpreting ravings.”
“What with Bellatrix and all,” Evan finished.
“And he finds us mad.”
“We could lock him in a room with her,” Evan mused.
“See how mad he finds us after that,” Barty agreed.
“Let’s put that in the docket as a backup,” Regulus cut in, eyeing how Sirius practically had steam coming out of his ears.
Lupin, the instigator that he is, was just sitting on his bed, watching everything unfold with laughter in his eyes. Pettigrew seemed equally amused, and Potter looked like he couldn’t decide if he wanted to laugh or lead an exorcism.
Regulus wondered if he could goad him into the exorcism. It’d be fun to see if anything happened.
Regulus left Evan and Barty to where they were still planning under their breaths and turned towards the desk. He walked over, looking at the pictures hanging everywhere, both wixen pictures and muggle polaroids. Regulus had the polaroid of Barty and Evan losing their shite at the thestrals hanging in a similar position back in his dorm.
Regulus gently touched a few, taking it all in. Sirius seemed like he was genuinely happy, an exuberance to him that had never been apparent at Grimmauld.
Regulus took a deep breath. “So, we’re here. You’ve got seven minutes. Talk,” Regulus said without turning around.
The room had gone quiet at his statement and it seemed like everyone was barely breathing. There was a click coming from where Barty was, him starting the antique muggle stopwatch that Evan had bought to track Barty’s study habits. Barty had consequently stolen it immediately.
Regulus heard Sirius shuffling his feet. “Er, can your friends wait downstairs?”
Regulus turned around, hopping up to sit on the desk, legs swinging freely. “Nope. You’ve got your family here, I’ve got mine.”
Sirius’s expression darkened. “They’re not your family.”
Regulus let out a bitter chuckle. “Of course they are. They’re my brothers.”
Sirius looked like he was about to explode again. “Just like that? They’re your brothers, but not me?”
Regulus rolled his eyes. “Oh, that’s rich. You can spend years singing from the rooftops that James Potter is the brother you’d never had, the brother you’ve always wanted–” Lupin winced at that, curious. “But the second that I say that Temmy and Evie are my brothers, which they are, I’m the bad guy. Which is even funnier, when you think about how you’ve made it incredibly clear that you don’t see me as anything more than nothing. Unlike you, I’ve never said that my family growing meant dropping the family I had before I met them.”
“At least I’m not so stupid and so desperate for love that I think Walburga and Orion actually care about me.”
Barty snarled at that, but Regulus held up a hand and he held himself back. Regulus turned his attention back to Sirius and let out a breathy scoff, eyebrows raising. “We’re already there, then? Alright. Typical Sirius, using mummy and daddy as an excuse for acting like a shite person.”
“At least I’m not digging my own grave and sitting in it like it’s a throne,” Sirius snarled back. “How’s the view from down there, sis? Have you choked on the dirt your parents are burying you in while you keep digging deeper, thinking your way out is through?”
Regulus clenched his fists at his side before moving them to clasp peacefully in his lap. “At some point, you’re going to actually have to take responsibility for your actions, Sirius. You can’t just pawn off every cruel action and words off on them. If I’m drowning, you’re burning. But you lit the fire under yourself. How long until you run out of oxygen, brother dear? It’s not everyone elses responsibility to put you out. As some point, you’ve got to learn how to do it yourself.”
“Well, sister of mine, at least I’ll go out in a blaze of glory. You’ll disapear without a trace, no one to know what you wasted your life and death for.”
“I am not your sister,” Regulus snarled out with unprecedented ferocity.
Sirius was knocked back a step by that, his face shattering before he wiped it blank. “Well then, that’s that, I guess. No need to beat a dead horse. I don’t know why I bothered,” Sirius said, his voice hollow.
“Stop it, both of you,” Remus interjected firmly before they could lash out with their claws again. “You’re both being cruel. Maybe if you could both stop taking your trauma from your parents out on each other, you’d be able to actually having a conversation with each other without trying to make the other bleed.”
Regulus looked away. “He started it.”
“Really?” Sirius shot back.
Regulus shrugged. “I’m the youngest. I’m allowed to be immature. It’s time for you, on the other hand, to grow the fuck up.”
Lupin physically covered Sirius’s mouth with his hand to keep him from responding. “And Sirius, that’s not what they meant when they said they’re not your sister. They still love you as their older brother, they wouldn’t send you birthday presents every year and check on you when you’re in the hospital wing otherwise.”
“You check on me in the hospital wing? And send me presents? Those were all from you?” Sirius asked tentatively, but Regulus was busy staring at Lupin in panic. When had he figured it out? Regulus had been so careful. He could see Evan and Barty angling themselves to jump between Regulus and the Gryffindors.
Lupin ignored them, raising his hands in surrender towards Regulus. “Relax, no one told me. And I don’t care. It’s none of my business.”
Barty scoffed. “Unless you end up having the same time of the month. Then it’s going to be everyone’s problem.”
Regulus shot him a glare that Barty just smiled at as Evan tilted his head in consideration before nodding in a fair enough motion.
Traitor.
“What are you even talking about?” Sirius yelled, his hands raised in a time out sign.
“I would also like to know that,” Potter added in, one finger raised in question.
Regulus sent him a glare that sent Pettigrew cowering but only made Potter smile bigger.
Bloody insufferable git.
“We’re not talking about that.”
“No, I think we should,” Sirius shot back.
Regulus looked at the stopwatch Barty was holding up for him to see. Seven minutes had come and gone. “Really? You went through all the trouble of dragging me here to talk about a topic you didn’t even know existed until a minute ago? Plausible.”
“No, that’s not what I wanted to talk about, but it’s obviously something we should talk about, so spill.”
“As enjoyable as that sounds, your time is up. It was truly a joy, let’s not do it again,” Regulus scoffed, making his way towards the door.
Sirius looked at the clock and deflated. “Wait, Rigel–”
Regulus physically winced at that, shrugging Sirius’s hand off his shoulder and stalking towards the door, tears pricking his eyes. He didn’t know why he thought that maybe this could go well. Him and Sirius didn’t know each other anymore - they hadn’t for a long time.
“Bunny rabbit, wait,” Sirius called, desperation coloring his tone. The old nickname, the nickname he hadn’t heard in years shocked him into pausing, allowing Sirius to reach him and spin him around a bit roughly by the shoulders. Regulus tilted his head at Sirius expectantly.
Sirius took a fortifying breath at an encouraging nod from his boyfriend. “Look, Bunny, I know I messed up. I know I’ve been messing up for a while now, and I know I didn’t go about talking to you in the right way. I haven’t been a good older brother, and I’m sorry. But I want to do better. It’s not going to be perfect. It’s going to be awkward and uncomfortable and we’re probably going to fight and tear each other’s hair out.”
Regulus narrowed his eyes at his brother. “Is there a but in there, or…”
Sirius snorted. “I was getting to that, you little shite.” Sirius ran a hand through his hair, pushing it back. “But, I still want to try. Because no matter what happens or where we are, you’ll always be my little sis–” Sirius felt Regulus tense at that and shot him an odd look before pivoting. “–bunny rabbit. And I’ll always be your big brother. I’m going to do better. It’ll probably take me some time, but I’m going to try. Can you please try with me and give me another chance?”
Regulus stared in Sirius’s eyes. As much distance as had been between the two of them recently, Regulus still knew his brother. He knew when Sirius was lying, and this wasn’t that. He was being genuine. But the problem was, Sirius almost always was genuine. Sirius being genuine in the moment wasn’t the problem. The problem was when other impulsive decisions would make him forget his promises.
But Regulus really, really wanted his big brother back. Even if Sirius only had a year left at Hogwarts, maybe it was something.
“Alright,” Regulus said softly.
Sirius beamed in response.
“Alright?” Barty squawked. “I think the fuck not? This peace of shite –” Barty was cut off by Evan wrapping an arm around his mouth and stomach, tugging Barty back into him and shooting Regulus a double thumbs up.
Sirius took another deep breath, seemingly gearing up again, and Regulus eyed him cautiously. He’d reached his threshold for emotional interactions for the day. It was time to cut this short.
Alas, Sirius didn’t agree. “I know it’s late notice, but summer starts tomorrow–”
“No, really?” Regulus asked.
Sirius lightly slapped him upside the head but largely ignored him. “You should come back to Potter Manor with us. Effie and Monty would love it, I know they would!”
Regulus was already shaking his head, reevaluating if this interaction would end with someone being stabbed after all. There was no way he was sailing on that ship. He tried to pull away but Sirius lunged forward, grabbing at anything he could grasp to keep Regulus from leaving. In the commotion, a scrap of paper fell out of the oversized pocket of Regulus’s baggy pants.
Regulus’s eyes widened as he lunged for Andromeda’s latest update, but Sirius was faster, snatching it from the ground and dancing away, light glittering in his eyes.
Regulus chased after him. “Sirius, that’s not funny, give it back!”
Sirius raised his arm with the letter over his head with a laugh, effectively keeping it out of Regulus’s grasp. “Oh ho ho. What’s this, Bunny? Does my little rabbit have a boyfriend?” Sirius gasped, wiggling his eyebrows, “A girlfriend? Don’t worry, Bunny, I’m an equal opportunity type of bloke.”
Regulus made another grab at the letter but Sirius jumped away, rolling over a bed and standing up on the other side, unfolding the letter. Regulus gave up, bracing himself for the fallout as Sirius’s face went from mirth to confusion to hope.
Sirius read the letter a few times before he lowered the letter and just stared at Regulus.
From Regulus’s periphery he saw Potter cautiously stepping forward. “Pads, everything alright?”
To Regulus’s shock, Sirius ignored Potter. “Bunny rabbit,” Sirius said slowly, “What is this?”
Regulus shifted uneasily, his eyes darting to Evan and Barty. Barty looked one word away from sending Sirius through a wall, consequences be damned. Evan looked more open, instead watching for Regulus’s reaction. Evan gave him a small nod. Evan would stand by him, whatever he decided.
Regulus decided to try and play it off. “Just my plans for the summer, Sirius, don’t get tied up in a knot about it.”
Sirius let out a disbelieving laugh. “Just your plans for the summer?” He turned to Lupin. “Just her plans for the summer?”
Lupin stood up and made his way over to Sirius, reading the letter over his shoulder. After he finished he looked up at Regulus, pride shining in his eyes.
Regulus looked away, hating the part of him that lit up at the recognition from Lupin.
A moment later he felt Sirius’s hand on his chin, tilting his chin up to look him in the eyes. “Bunny,” Sirius said gently, “Talk to me.”
Regulus shrugged. “You didn’t really think I actually liked living with them, did you?”
Sirius gaped at him. “I didn’t think you’d ever leave.”
Regulus pushed down the bitterness swelling up in him, remembering the morning he had woken up to find Sirius gone without a word. “You never asked.”
Sirius made a wounded noise at that, but at least he didn’t try to justify it.
“Wait, you’re leaving Grimmauld?” Potter asked, his question cutting through the moment like a hot knife through butter. “This is great! I’ll run to the owlery in a second to let my parents know you’re coming so the elves can get a room ready for you. Do you have any favorite colors? Actually, that was a stupid question, duh. Green and silver. Pads, what shade of wood do you reckon goes well with that? No, wait, you shouldn’t ever be allowed to make design choices. Moony, you’re much better at –”
Potter shut up as Pettigrew hit him with a sock to the head. Potter turned to see him with pursed lips, shaking his head and making a cut it out gesture to his throat. Potter looked between Pettigrew and Regulus and Sirius before turning a bit red and stepping back, bowing his head. He scratched the back of his head sheepishly. “I’ll just wait here. Pretend I’m not even here.”
“I generally try to,” Regulus mumbled under his breath.
Regulus turned his attention back to Sirius, who was still waiting for a real answer. Regulus shivered. He hadn’t had Sirius’s undivided attention in years. “Between the three of us, we
may have, hypothetically, acquired a total of twenty million galleons from our respective parents.”
Regulus heard choking coming from behind him from Potter and Lupin’s eyes were bulging out of his head behind Sirius.
Sirius, on the other hand, was frozen. Regulus poked him in the cheek. “Siri?”
That seemed to do it. Sirius started heaving deep, belly laughs. Lupin seemed to get over a bit of his shock, rolling his eyes at his boyfriend. Regulus mirrored the gesture, waiting for Sirius to get it out of his system.
“How did you manage that?” Sirius finally managed to get out before shooting him a sideye. “Please tell me you did it legally.”
Regulus shrugged. “Ish.”
Sirius laughed again. “We can work with ish.”
“I feel like we should actually be concerned with ish?” Potter interjected, his voice a bit high.
Regulus waved him off. “Technically the money was ours. Evie and I each took the minimum allotted to our inheritance vaults and then had them sign to move it to personal vaults we’d opened up secretly. It could be contested if they didn’t sign for it, but with their physical and magical signature on the paper? It’s pretty iron tight.”
“How did you manage to convince them to sign it?” Lupin asked.
“By not telling them about it.”
Lupin and Sirius just stared at him expectantly. “How many people do you know actually read the fine print before signing?” Regulus elaborated.
Lupin looked impressed. “Well played, Black.”
“I’m sorry, you’re what, 15, 16? What could you possibly do with that much money?” Potter asked, still incredulous.
“Buy a flat.”
“You’re running away,” Sirius said, his voice quiet.
Regulus just smiled, mischief in his eyes. “Tomorrow’s the day.”
Sirius looked at him for a long moment. “I’m not going to be able to convince you to come to the Potter’s instead, am I?”
Regulus’s grin sharpened. “I wouldn’t keep bringing it up unless you want to be stabbed.”
Sirius barked out a laugh. “Fair enough.”
Lupin just mumbled about confiscating knives in the future.
Sirius chewed on the inside of his cheek, suddenly looking very nervous. Regulus gave him an encouraging nod. “About the name…” Sirius trailed off.
Regulus tensed. He’d forgotten that he’d come out to Andromeda. Well, maybe not forgotten, per se, but it wasn’t something he thought about anymore. All of her letters to him since he had were either addressed to little prince, lion heart, or Regulus. This must have been one of the ones addressed to his real name.
Regulus thought about just up and leaving. He really did. But then he remembered that moment under the surface of the Black Lake, when he thought he really wasn’t going to make it, and the desolation that he felt when he realized Sirius would never know him for him.
“It’s my real name,” Regulus finally said, hating how timid it came out, a bit wobbly on the sides.
Sirius quickly gave him a once over and Regulus flinched when he saw grief in Sirius’s eyes. He began to pull away but Sirius pulled him in for a hug instead, Barty hissing at the move.
Regulus, shocked and not able to remember the last time Sirius had hugged him, remained as tense as a board before his muscle memory kicked in and he melted into the hug.
He’d missed Sirius’s specific brand of hugs.
“I’m sorry I didn’t notice,” Sirius murmured into his hair and Regulus buried his face deeper into his brother’s chest at that.
Regulus suddenly felt very tired. While this was a conversation he wanted to have with Sirius, one he needed to have with his brother, he didn’t want to have it tonight. “Can I tell you about it later?” Sirius tensed up at that, tightening his grip like Regulus was going to disappear. “Maybe you can visit us at our new flat over the break?” Regulus asked cautiously.
“No he can not,” Barty shot in.
“Evie, you’ll take Temmy on a date?”
“You don’t even have to ask,” Evan confirmed.
“Okay, he can, but limited admittance,” Barty reaffirmed, a bit deflated.
Sirius let him go and darted for the drawer of his nightstand. Regulus watched, confused as Sirius rustled around, digging in the chaos for something. He finally seemed to find what he was looking for, letting out a celebratory whoop before coming back over, a shard of glass with rounded edges in hand.
Sirius opened Regulus’s hand, pressing the mirror shard into it. “We can set up a time to meet using this. Is that alright, Reg?”
Regulus scrunched his nose. “No.”
Sirius looked panicked for a moment before understanding dawned, a mischievous smile spreading across his face. “No?” Sirius tapped his chin, pretending to think. “Lux? Louie?
Reggie?”
Regulus stared at him drily. “That’s horrible.”
“Reggie it is.”