Chapter 2
Chapter 2: For fucks sake.
It’s been 2 days since students arrived at Hogwarts, and somehow Regulus is already sick of his dorm mates. Sure, Barty and Evan could be considered Regulus’ best friends, which is a notion he refuses to entertain verbally, but right now Regulus considered joining the giant squid at the bottom of the lake. Thankfully right as Evan and Barty started roughhousing his saviors arrived.
“What on earth are you lot up to?” Dorcas exasperated as soon as she caught sight of the absolute ridiculousness occurring.
Evan and Barty broke apart and shrugged, wide grins reaching their eyes with a faint blush taking over.
All Dorcas could do is stare back with a dumbfounded expression.
Pandora walked over to Reg’s bed to join him like its just as much her bed as it is his. Not that Regulus isn’t okay with it, but more so admiring how unashamed Pandora can be sometimes.
“I’m sorry you have to endure my brother all year again, it’s almost like their codependency gets worse every time they spend an extended period of time apart.” Pandora observed, her voice a bit sing-song-y.
It shouldn’t feel ironic how alike Evan and Pandora are given the fact they’re twins, but for some reason it does. The same shade of alabaster white hair contrasting to their amber skin paired with pure hazel doe-eyes. Regulus met the Rosier twins in his second year, but it felt like they already knew each other. They seemed a bit odd, but that’s what was so excellent. That’s how the 5 of them connected, being different. At least now they had people to be different with.
Evan excused himself to get a late lunch, as well as one for Barty.
“Thanks lover boy!” Barty exclaimed with a gratified expression on his face when he heard the other boy groan in annoyance. Barty and Dorcas chose to plop down on the other two unoccupied beds.
Pandora smiles and casually says “I think you and Evan’s codependent and borderline homosexual tendencies with each other is beautiful.” Which is so unexpected it causes a laugh to escape Regulus, apparently the same thing happens with Dorcas. When they finally get themselves under control Pandora has a visible pleased expression on her face. Barty rolls his eyes at their reaction, but Regulus doesn’t miss the red at the top of the brown haired boy's ears.
Interesting. He’ll have to keep an eye on this new development.
Once Evan returns with food they launch into conversations about the upcoming year, their teachers, exams. Evan and Pandora argue whether or not Divination is a useful subject or not. Eventually they move on to any “new developments” over the summer. Some would label it as gossip, maybe they’re right. Regulus only listens because he likes to store any useful information to weaponize, certainly not because it’s entertaining in the slightest. Nope.
Suddenly the topics turn to the house cup and quidditch, he unfortunately knows where this will lead to.
“Have the Gryffindors pulled anything yet? It’s quiet, and anytime they aren’t talking something happens. I don’t trust it.” Dorcas muttered with clear disapproval in her voice.
“Not yet, but I’m sure they’ll do something to inconvenience the entire school soon enough.” Regulus sighs.
“Maybe they’ve matured?” Pandora chimes in, clearly not even believing her own words in the slightest.
“Are we talking about the same cretin friend group that includes my brother?” He winces at his own mention of his brother. Luckily no one seems to notice, or if they did they don’t point it out.
“Hey Lupin isn’t a cretin, he’s the brains behind the operations I’m sure of it. Plus he’s fit.” Barty contended with his eyebrows raised and a lop-sided grin. No one really argued because well, it’s Remus. Though you will never hear him admit that out loud.
“Speaking of the Gryffindors, has Sirius spoken to you?” Evan tries asking gently, but ends up cringing at his question anyways.
“I can’t see why he should, there’s really no need.” He tries to sound indifferent but his friends see right through him. Fuck, how much time do I spend with them? Too much, clearly is what he decides on.
He doesn’t miss the unsubtle glances passed between each of them and huffs. “I’m fine. Also never give me those looks of pity again or I’ll hex you.” He admonished them, and luckily they changed the topic and got lost in conversation. Even then, Regulus can’t seem to ignore the pit in his stomach that appears quite often these days.
That night Regulus falls asleep with a lump in his throat.
A week later his first official potions class starts. The class was waiting for Slughorn to arrive, and Regulus looks around the room curious if there were any other 5th years in this class or if it’s just 6th years. It’s not like he was going to interact if there were, that sounds like a nightmare. It’s cold in the classroom, which isn’t any issue as he’s usually chilly. He suddenly remembered his mothers cruel smirk when he announced his placement in advanced potions as she put her frigid hand on his shoulder, a glass full of wine in the other. She saw an opportunity at family dinner to cause tension, which leads to passive aggression, then just pure aggression. Honestly though, it’s not hard to cause conflict anytime the Black family interacts. They all are just itching for opportunities to make themselves look superior.
5 minutes later Professor Slughorn arrives and gives the basic introduction to the course, then walks around the room to interact with students. Regulus can already tell Slughorn is just looking to recruit members for the Slug-Club. After he’s done with the Gryffindors, he makes no attempt at conversing with any other Slytherins and advances to Regulus’ spot in the back. He then has to act like he’s even slightly interested in anything Slughorn has to say. It’s exactly what he expected; Slughorn says he’s impressed a 5th year not only was in a 6th year course but also that it was an advanced 6th year course. Truly remarkable. Finally, after Slughorn went back to his desk Regulus realized they only had 10 minutes left of class. He was pleasantly surprised by how well it went, all things considering. That is until Slughorn started to explain that along with their in class assignments they are expected to research and create a new potion if they want extra credit. His mother insisted on him taking any and every opportunity to get a leg up, and is sure she would hear about it if he passed it up. This shouldn’t be too much of a challenge. Regulus has made a number of spells on his own, how hard can a potion be? Then, the Professor added that it would require a partner. While he didn’t particularly enjoy interacting with his peers, it didn’t really bother him. Slughorn calls out a few partner pairs before he hears his name.
“Regulus Black, you will be working with…” and has to scan the sheet before announcing his partner
“You will be working with James Potter!”
What the hell did he do to deserve this?