“Do you think Professor Moody is married?” Barty asked loudly with a smirk as they walked into the classroom. Regulus knew what was about to happen. He had hoped Barty had forgotten about his tradition this time- they had lasted a week without it.
“Please don’t,” Regulus sighed, fully rethinking his friendship.
Ignoring his friend, Barty went on, “I just can’t imagine him fucking someone. He would be all old and saggy- I bet his dick can’t even get up anymore.” Barty grinned at Regulus. He did this for every single professor he had. Barty claimed it was a dominance thing. In the beginning of any class with a new professor, he would loudly and proudly say something crass and awful about them, just to see what they would do. He didn’t like the fact that the professors thought they were the ones in charge. He wanted them to feel disgusting and helpless. Regulus could admit that it always changed the dynamic of the class, but almost never for the better. He did his best to look in any direction besides at Professor Moody.
“Damn,” Barty said, “He’s not here.”
“Thank god-” Regulus said as he finally was able to breathe again. “This is a sign that you shouldn’t do this again. Professor Moony doesn’t seem like the type of man who would take lightly to-” He cut himself off when he saw who actually was standing at the podium in the front of the classroom.
The man from the previous night was standing there as if he hadn’t been covered in blood just nine hours earlier. He had a grin on his face and he was talking jovially to one of his fellow students, Benji. The man was wearing a bright red sweater with the collar of a button-down poking out of the top. He was wearing loose jeans and matching red Converse. Regulus knew he couldn’t be a student. The computer science program was small and niche enough that he knew everyone who was in each of his classes, and he definitely did not know this man. Benji, however, the man he was talking to, was the most disgustingly pleasant man in the computer science program. He was nice, friendly, and everyone liked him. He also happened to be completely incompetent. Regulus hated him.
“Regulus?” Barty asked when he realized that he wasn’t walking next to him anymore.
“Right- sorry,” Regulus said, and the two men walked to the back corner of the classroom and took out their notebooks.
“Do you know him?” Barty asked, not lowering his voice at all to hide the fact that they were talking about someone in the same room.
Regulus considered telling the truth to his friend, but he knew how fully insufferable and clever Barty was, so he decided against it. “No.”
“Really?” Barty asked, not believing Regulus.
“Really,” Regulus answered.
“You think he’s attractive?” Barty asked and Regulus kicked him in the shin. He didn’t need the whole class to know he was gay. Even if they might all suspect it of him. He didn’t even really want Barty to know he was gay, but that ship had sadly sailed. “Either you know him or you think he’s-”
Before Barty could finish what he was saying, Regulus picked up his belongings and moved a few seats over with a huff. He was not going to suffer through this conversation. However, just a few seconds later, Barty slid over with a dopey grin on his face.
“Sorry darling, did I upset you?” He asked while Regulus stared forcibly at the clock waiting for class to begin. “You’re no fun.” Then, because Barty didn’t have the ability to sit still, he reached over and began to doodle on Regulus’ notebook. He glanced down and found that there was a drawing of a bloody detached hand on his notebook. It was surprisingly lifelike. He frowned, not because he minded what Barty drew, but because he preferred his notes to be clean without unnecessary markings in them.
Regulus pressed his pen into the top of Barty’s hand until Barty had to pull away and shake out his injury. Right as Barty was about to get his revenge, the man in front of the class began to speak.
“This is Introduction to Programming Languages, right?” He asked the class and several students nodded. “Great!” He smiled. “I’m James Potter. I’m one of Professor Moody’s PhD students. Professor Moody has become -err- incapacitated for the rest of the semester so I will be taking over teaching you guys. Please don’t worry, I know the material, this is my specialty and I helped Professor Moody make the course layout. I know Professor Moody is renowned for programming languages and systems, but I promise to do my best so you will be able to learn just as much as you would if Professor Moody was teaching.” Beside him, he saw Barty’s hand shoot up. “Yes?” Potter said pointing to Barty.
“What happened to Professor Moody- did he die or something?” Barty asked and Regulus’ eyes went wide. Not because of what Barty said, which was rather tame compared to what Barty usually said to people, but the fact that a man became ‘incapacitated’ the same weekend that Regulus saw his PhD student covered in blood and repeating exclaiming that he ‘didn’t regret it’ was awfully suspicious.
Potter sighed and said, “I’m sorry but I don’t know. I just got a memo this morning that I’m now teaching this class. If I get more information that I can share, I promise I will let you all know.” Regulus frowned, there was no way that he could go missing at midnight last night and they’d already get a replacement just a few hours later. It had to be unrelated. “Okay- time to start the class. In Moody’s notes, it said that you guys are starting to learn about grammars…”
Regulus was pleasantly surprised by Potter’s lecture. It was actually fairly interesting and easy to understand. Potter had this way of speaking that made everything simple, it was like he picked the most direct way to say anything. He also peppered in some self-deprecating jokes and awful puns. If Regulus had to describe his personality in one word, he would say he was cheerful. Although, cheerful people didn’t show up in places covered in other people’s blood. Maybe he had a twin. Regulus threw that idea to the side because he remembered last night that this man also didn’t seem like the type of person who would show up in places covered in blood.
After class was dismissed and when Regulus was packing his things up, Potter asked, “Is there a Regulus Black in this class?” Potter clearly was well aware that he was, in fact, in the class because he was staring directly at Regulus as he asked. He wondered if this was when he got an explanation for last night or, maybe, he was about to get murdered.
“Yes.” He answered dryly in a loud clear voice.
“You’re in trouble,” Barty sang in a singsongy voice quietly enough so just Regulus and a few of the surrounding students heard.
“Would you mind staying after for just a few minutes?” Potter asked with a self-effacing smile.
Regulus pressed his lips together and said, “Fine.” He finished packing up all of his things as the rest of the class left. Regulus didn’t know what this conversation would entail but he knew he didn’t want an audience for it. Barty was the last to leave and was doing so in what appeared to be slow motion until Regulus gave him a withering glare that Barty took as a warning and finally, he left.
Once they were alone in the classroom, Regulus finally walked up to the waiting James Potter. “I knew you’d be Regulus- you look so much like him,” Potter said with a kind-spirited laugh. Did he recognize him from the night before?
“I’m James Potter-” Potter said with a smile in response to Regulus’ confused face. He clearly expected Regulus to recognize the name. Regulus most certainly did not recognize the name. However, from the statement ‘you look so much like him’ Regulus figured that he was probably comparing him to one of Regulus’ relatives. There wasn’t nearly as much biological diversity in the Black family as there should be, so Regulus looked like almost every single one of his relatives. However, the fact that Potter was smiling while he referenced one of Regulus’ male relatives said that he had to be talking about Sirius. No one smiled while they talked about Orion or Cygnus Black.
“I’m sorry- I have no idea who you are,” Regulus lied. He knew that Sirius had a friend named James, although he didn’t remember what his last name was. While in a fight, Sirius had once told Regulus that James should have been his brother. It had hurt Regulus an insurmountable amount, but that was what they did. Sirius and Regulus knew how to love each other by sacrificing themselves for each other or by hurling the cruelest things they could think of at each other. They both earnestly believed that they were the only ones who were allowed to hurt each other, and they never failed to do so. Knowing that Sirius thought James would have been a better brother for Sirius, he had always carried a certain amount of loathing for the elusive ‘Prongs’ or now James Potter.
“Oh- sure- sorry for assuming. I’m your brother’s, Sirius’, friend. I was also his college roommate.” He said with a smile. Potter flew over the fact that Regulus implied that Sirius had never mentioned him to his brother like water on a duck's back. If Regulus thought that Sirius hadn’t mentioned him to James, Regulus would have ruminated over that fact for weeks until he finally spat something terrible at Sirius and he would never forget about it. The idea that James was so confident in his relationship with his brother made Regulus seeth just a bit.
“Right, of course, James,” Regulus said, trying to make it as obvious that he was just being polite by pretending to know who he is. Looking at the man in front of him, he understood why Sirius wanted him to be his brother. He was clearly an obnoxiously good person just like his brother. Sirius was always too good for his own health. Sure, at times Sirius could be cruel and unthinking, but at his core, Sirius was nothing but good. Regulus almost hated him for it. Sirius couldn’t stand by and let their fascist family be. He always had to be brave and right the wrong. Once, when Regulus was nine and Sirius was twelve, he had caught Sirius sneaking out the window of their house with an old, very expensive vase that normally sat in their foyer.
‘What are you doing?’ Regulus had hissed.
‘Shhh- none of your business. Just go back inside,’ Sirius had replied.
‘If you don’t tell me, then I’ll go get mother.’ Regulus lied. They both knew that neither of them would ever tell on each other. Their parents were too psychopathic for that.
Sirius huffed, “I’ve been sneaking heirlooms out and donating them. Did you know that these things are worth thousands of dollars and we just hoard them? They’re not even pretty.”
“What if you get caught,” Regulus asked quietly.
“Then I get caught,” Sirius shrugged. “There are people starving because they can’t afford meals.” Sirius gave a look to Regulus because they both knew what it was like to be starving, but not because they couldn’t afford food.
“You’ll get punished,” Regulus said and Sirius just shrugged. Then he turned and jumped out the window.
Regulus never could understand Sirius’ blasé attitude towards getting punished. Not when their punishments would be considered torture in most societies. He did end up getting caught after he had stolen one of their mother’s necklaces that she had actually liked. Their mother had blamed one of the maids who worked in the house. When Sirius heard about this he fell on his sword and told her it was him and she shouldn’t fire the innocent maid. As a punishment, their mother locked him in a closet for just over a day. She had also fired the maid anyway, at that point she had figured out that it would affect Sirius more if someone else got punished for his crimes. Usually, it was Regulus who would be punished.
Sirius was always self-sacroficing and filled with this innate sense of wrong and right. Regulus didn’t know where he got it from, their parents surely didn’t teach him. The only reason why Regulus had any sense of morals was because Sirius had taught him. Regulus was sure that the man in front of him was the same way. He had innate goodness oozing out of every pore of his body. Which made Regulus even more curious about how he came to be covered in blood the night before.
“Sirius has told me so much about you,” James said with a gentle smile, “I wanted to introduce myself saying that we are going to be spending the semester together.” It was all very polite. Never in a million years would Regulus have done the same thing if he was in James’ position. He wondered what Sirius had told him about Regulus.
“Okay,” Regulus responded dryly seeing how James would respond to blatant rudeness. Nice people annoyed him. However, he was even more irritated as he watched James’ small smile turn into a grin.
“Right- well, that’s all I wanted to say. I’ll make sure to tell Sirius I met his extremely charming brother.” Regulus paused and glared at the man. He knew James thought he was clever for that.
“You do that,” Regulus responded coldly as he left the classroom. He could hear James give a huff of a laugh behind him. James Potter was an odd man. Regulus hated the fact that he seemingly couldn’t offend the man.
When he left the classroom, he found that Barty was waiting outside in the hallway for him. He was reading the book Regulus had lent him a few days prior, Perfume by Patrick Süskind. It was exactly Barty’s brand of horror. Regulus watched as Barty unceremoniously shoved the book into his back pocket and said, “You have the hots for teacher.”
“I can’t imagine how you came up with that idea,” Regulus rolled his eyes. Barty knew him too well. He had a bad habit of sorting through Regulus’ feelings on subjects before Regulus got the chance to. Being best friends with Barty was like being best friends with a mean therapist. “I’m going to the library, want to join?”
“Absolutely not, the game is about to start,” Barty said with a grin. He was feigning being a normal man obsessed with sports. It was his costume he put on ever since he had fallen in love with one of the relieving pitchers for the Cubs. “You should come home, and watch the game with me. We can throw things at the television when they lose points or get points or… You know I really haven’t picked up on the rules yet.”
“I have work to do,” Regulus responded. He didn’t really, it was only the first week of classes and he had spent a large percentage of his weekend in the library getting every drop of work for his classes done. He really wanted to go back to the scene of the crime to see if he could figure out what happened. Regulus just could not reconcile the man he just had a conversation with who was best friends with his brother, and the man he had seen last night.
“Fine- do what you must,” Barty shrugged. “I’d maybe recommend staying there pretty late, Rosier said he’d come over after the game is finished.” He wiggled his eyebrows.
“Right- fine,” Regulus responded and they began to leave the building and go their separate ways. Before reaching the library, Regulus stopped suddenly to stare at the newspaper stand that had the local paper. He rushed to grab his wallet with shaky hands and put a quarter into the slot to grab the paper. He flipped to the right advertised page and read:
Last night, on the University of Chicago campus, a body was discovered brutally beaten and murdered. Upon further investigation, it was found that the body was that of University of Chicago professor, Dr. Alastor Moody. Police investigators say that at some time between 11:00 PM and 12:30 AM on Sunday, September 3rd, the man had an altercation when someone that led to Dr. Moody being beaten to death with a brick that was sourced from a local construction sight. As of right now, there are no suspects. The perpetrator would have been covered in blood, but there are no witnesses claiming to have seen anything. If you have any information please contact the police immediately.
Alastor Moody was survived by….
The article went on to describe Professor Moody’s sad home life and his work in the computer science field. Regulus felt like he couldn’t breathe. Did James Potter actually murder this man?