Chapter 4
Back at his dorm Regulus paces. He’s unsure whether to consider this ‘hanahaki’ disease as he’s seen evidence of one single petal on his body one time. It’s rather dramatic of him to even be worrying about this.
Barty and Evan stare at him from their joined beds, whispering.
Regulus finally stops pacing, deciding he’ll just look for that children’s book tomorrow in the library. He’ll be able to stop his scattered mind once he gets the information and can confirm he doesn't have the same illness as Evangeline. He paces one more time for good measure and then heads to the bathroom to complete his nighttime routine.
Barty looks at Evan. “Thank Merlin, he’s finally done. He’s going to wear our floorboards down.”
Evan just snickers at him. “Be quiet, he’ll hear you and pace again just to irritate you. And I’m tired of hearing his scuffling.”
Barty flops himself down dramatically, laying with his hand backwards on his head, in a woah-is-me position. Evan rolls his eyes at Barty’s antics and lays beside him, cuddling up and easily falling asleep.
Regulus comes out, looks at them and says, “You guys disgust me.” His nose scrunches up as he speaks.
Barty flips him off.
Regulus wakes up with a jolt that next morning at 6:17 a.m. He starts coughing, feeling such an intense itch not even the water, he conjured up hastily works and it always does. He pulls the sheets off of himself quickly running to the bathroom as he feels something start to find its way up his throat.
Regulus is terrified of throwing up, he has sworn to never do it again as the last time he had was when he was eight and in order to prevent it had held his mouth closed. Needless to say, it came out of his nose instead.
Sirius had tried his best to help get the smell out of his nose, but it persisted the rest of that day. Thoughts of Sirius spur on the coughing, Regulus now over the toilet hacking into it, trying his best to get rid of this choking feeling.
Closing his eyes he feels the water he had drank come back up and out of his body. Finally, the itch was gone though and he sat back relieved, only to see when he opened his eyes two petals in the bowl, along with pink tinted water.
Regulus felt his stomach drop, dread creeping into his nervous system. He whipped around the window to see it closed. But that can’t be right he thought, there had to be an explanation for this. He’s not in love with anyone. He absolutely does not have ‘Hanahaki’, there is simply no way.
Sweat gleamed on his forehead as he stood up on weak legs to look at himself in the mirror. He was shaking too, god dammit. He took a few deep breaths and splashed himself with cold water from the sink.
He feels marginally better than he had when he woke up. Regulus walked out of the bathroom, grabbed his book and settled back into bed. He’d go down to the library later, right now he wanted to rest and let his nerves settle. He was feeling the crash of adrenaline and needed to be somewhere he felt safe.
Only two hours later did he finally get up out of his bed and put his book away. Hours he spent trying to read it only for him to not comprehend a single page. Sighing heavily, he looked over to his roommates.
Quickly he pulled their beds away again with the same spell he used almost every morning when he needed them awake. Barty and Evan both snapped awake as they fell, their reflexes kicking in, both trying and failing to grab onto something other than limbs.
“Ow.”
“Bitch.”
Regulus suddenly felt giddy.
“Get your lazy asses up, it’s Sunday.”
Evan pulled himself up off the floor while Barty stayed down groaning.
“Yes Regulus, we know it’s Sunday. But we also both know it isn't even nine o’clock yet, breakfast hasn't started.”
Every Sunday Barty, Evan, and Regulus join Pandora and Dorcas in the Great Hall for breakfast and Regulus always wakes them early considering they take forever to get ready.
“Yes well, I need you both ready and to the common room by eight fifty.” Regulus says as he shrugs.
Barty finally speaks.
“Why must you torture us like this.”
“You enjoy it.”
He picks his head up off the floor and smirks at Regulus.
“You bet your skinny ass I do.”
“Ew never talk about my ass again, get ready I’ll be waiting.”
Regulus skitters out the dorm room.
Down in the common room, Severus Snape approaches Regulus. Regulus can already feel himself becoming annoyed at the mere eye contact he is making with the boy. Speaking of his eye’s look very angry and now that he’s looking at Snape, he can see that his hair is Gryffindor red and very, very sparkly.
Regulus tries to hide his snort. He only feels a tad sympathetic but chalks it up to his loyalty to Slytherin.
Snape comes to a direct stop right in front of Regulus.
“You need to get that brother of yours under control.”
Regulus narrows his eyes at him, all sympathy gone.
“He’s not my brother.”
Severus pokes him in the shoulder.
“You can say that all you want but the ‘Noble House of Black’, will always have Sirius’s pungent stain on it.”
That pissed him off. Quickly withdrawing his wand, he shoots a Langlock hex at Snape, effectively gluing his tongue to the roof of his mouth preventing him from spewing anymore acid from his mouth.
“Next time you deign to speak, keep the House of Black from your mouth, or it won’t just be another silly hex.”
And in familiar Black family fashion he chose to make his dramatic exit with half of the common room watching. He strutted out and to the Great Hall, figuring Barty and Evan could figure out where he went.
Minutes later when the two get to the common room, they see no evidence of their third roommate, but they do see Snape and his lackeys trying to undo a classic Langlock hex. They snicker to each other and quickly walk out of the common room to try and catch up to Regulus.
Arriving at the Hall they see Regulus already sitting with Dorcas and Pandora. Pandora talking animatedly about her ghoul studies essay.
Barty and Evan sat down, Dorcas swiveling to look at them.
“Oh, look what the cat dragged in.”
Barty rolled his eyes and then proceeded to yawn and rub his eye.
“More like what Regulus dragged in.” Still rubbing his eye, Barty now scowls at Regulus.
“Do you really have to wake us up like that?”
“I take so much pleasure in doing it every morning.”
“Of course you do, you’re the devil’s spawn.”
“That would be correct.” Regulus smiles.
Dorcas snorts and Pandora lets out a small chuckle.
Pandora looks to Regulus, questioning.
“What’s on the schedule for today? Have you met your ghost yet?”
“Yes, I’ve met her, and I upset her, so she asked me to leave her alone for a bit.”
Evan chimes in. “Of course you upset her already. It’s been what, like two days?”
Regulus glares at him, deflates, and then shrugs. It wasn’t really his fault, but he doesn't feel like clarifying that. He looks back to Pandora.
“I’m going to the library today; I have to do some research.”
Pandora claps her hands excitedly and smiles.
“Can I come?”
“Are you just going to stare at people the whole time?”
“Regulus, you know I like to watch people, what’s wrong with that?”
“Nothing is wrong with it, but you can do it anywhere.”
“Well, I want to sit with you and watch people.”
Regulus sighs. “Fine.”
She laughs.
“Yay! Thank you, Reggie dearest.”
Regulus’s mouth turns down in disgust.
“You’re the only one I let call me that.”
Barty huffs and crosses his arms.
The group eats their breakfast with no other conundrums occurring, eventually Barty and Evan head outside to lay on the lawn, Dorcas leaving to do Merlin knows what, and Pandora grabs Regulus and heads to the library.
She whispers in his ear as they walk.
“Dorcas is going to meet up with Marlene McKinnon.”
Regulus gapes at her. She laughs.
“Close your mouth before you catch any flies.”
“Why is she meeting up with her?”
Pandora looks around.
“She’s tutoring Marlene.”
“But Marlene is supposed to be super smart?”
Pandora nods.
“Exactly.”
Regulus feels a choked laugh come out of him.
They arrive at the library and Pandora chooses a table for them to sit at while he browses the children’s books aisle.
If only Evangeline had given him the title this could go much faster. Using spells designed for the use of finding specific subjects in books, he found three books on Hanahaki. He brought all three back to the table Pandora sat at. She was already staring at the table opposite of her.
Regulus sat in front of her. He opened the first book, read through it, but it didn't provide him with much information other than the basics that Evangeline mentioned. The second book only mentioned a side character who had passed from it. But the third book mentioned petals.
Reading through that one gave Regulus all the clarity he needed. The cold-like symptoms, developing into petals coming from one’s throat, then full-fledged flowers. It supported the five-flower theory. Regulus could no longer deny what was definitely happening to him. It all added up. He sat with his head in his hands re-reading the book over and over again, a terrible sense of dread building up in his throat.
He looked up quickly, suddenly, just to make direct eye contact with Sirius and James.
A coughing fit started.