Chapter 5
Oliver’s been trying to find James all day but he’s had his classes and James has had his. It hasn’t been helping his search. James isn’t at lunch which makes Oliver worry. He catches Peter while he’s walking out of the Great Hall. “Peter!”
Peter turns and smiles. “Hey Oliver.”
Oliver smiles back. “Hi! Merlin, I feel like it’s been so long since we talked. How are you?”
Peter nods. “It has. I’m good.”
“Did you ever get to read that muggle book I suggested?” Oliver asks.
Peter nods more enthusiastically. “I did, yeah. It was really good.”
“Right! Five and Six are so cute.” Oliver gets distracted by the topic and they talk for the next twenty minutes about Fireborn. “Damn it, I forgot that I had something to ask you.”
“What is it?”
“Do you know where James is? I’ve been trying to spot him all day but I can’t find him,” Oliver admits. “Do you know where he could be?”
“Quidditch pitch,” Peter tells him. “He’s been working really hard every chance he can on his flying and getting Frank to help coach him considering his first quidditch match is coming up.”
“I can imagine how excited he’ll be,” Oliver admits. He pats Peter’s arm. “Thank you, Peter. You’re a lifesaver.” He presses a kiss to Peter’s cheek. “I gotta catch him before I’m late for Potions, bye!” He rushes off, hoping he isn’t late with his little detour because him and Peter walked and talked. Oliver makes his way to the quidditch pitch where sees James and Frank training. Frank’s Keeper, as usual, and James is trying to get the quaffle past him. Oliver watches them play for a bit until Frank notices him and informs James of his brother’s presence. Oliver walks more onto the pitch as James flies down to meet him.
“Everything alright Ollie?”
Oliver nods. “Perfectly fine. Except for the fact that I owe you an apology.”
James sighs, “Ollie-”
He holds up a hand. “No, I have to.” Oliver frowns. “Jamie, I’m really sorry for snapping at you before. I shouldn’t’ve done that, it was uncalled for. I know you would never purposely annoy me into voting in your favour.” James smiles and hovers close enough to the ground that he can hug his brother. “That wasn’t the only reason I came out here, y’know.”
“Oh?” James pulls back and grins. “And here I thought you just missed me.”
Oliver rolls his eyes but smiles. “I did, don’t worry. But I owled Dad to get his opinion on what to do for Halloween.”
James tilts his head. “Yeah?”
“Yeah,” Oliver nods. “He gave very good advice, as usual. He mentioned that my Slytherin thing won’t last forever and your parties usually do.” James rolls his eyes. “You gonna tell me I’m wrong?”
James laughs. “Okay, you have a point.”
“I always do,” Oliver smiles. “So what I’m gonna do is stay for the sh— Slytherin thing.” He clears his throat and James raises his eyebrows at his slip up. “And then I’ll come to your party for a bit.”
“Brilliant,” James smiles big. “I can’t wait.”
Over the weekend decorations are hung around and Filch is not happy about it. He’s even grumpier than usual as he walks around the halls, Mrs Noris at his heels. Oliver is asking Dorcas all of his questions about the Selkie performance. Dorcas laughs at how excited he is but tells him all he wants to know. People are talking about the party that’s happening in the Gryffindor Common Room a lot. It comes up in almost every conversation Oliver eavesdrops on. Okay, he knows that sounds bad but it isn’t as horrible as it sounds. When he and his friends aren’t speaking with each other, Oliver’s ears click to any conversation happening around him so it isn’t really his fault.
Come Monday morning, no one can focus on classes. Peeves is at his worst around Halloween which James and his friends find very funny. Oliver has heard about James “romantically” asking Lily out in the middle of Defence Against the Dark Arts from Dorcas. She looked traumatised, apparently. When Oliver expressed his worry for his brother, Dorcas shrugged and said that he didn’t look disheartened. Apparently he said he’d try and try again until she said yes. Oliver seeks Lily out to see how she’s feeling about it. He hasn’t actually been able to talk to her about what happened in the library because both Evan and Dorcas said to give her time to calm down.
“Hey Lily,” Oliver says with a smile as he stands in front of the table her, Marlene and Mary are sitting at. Lily looks up and smiles back but it’s strained.
“Hi Potter.”
Oliver’s shoulders slump. “I’m really sorry about the things I said. I’ve been snappy since I came here and it wasn’t fair of me to take it out on you when you’ve been nothing but nice to me since I got here. I really am sorry and I hope you can forgive me.”
Lily sighs and a more genuine smile forms on her lips. “I understand. Being in Slytherin can’t be easy on a ray of sunshine like yourself.”
Oliver starts to nod but freezes when he takes in what she said. “Wait, what do you mean?”
“I saw Mulciber being mean to you in the Great Hall,” Lily tells him. “And I talked to Frank. He told me what happened.”
Oliver starts to fiddle with his bag strap. “Oh. It’s nothing, really. Mulciber’s mean to everyone. It doesn’t bother me so it shouldn’t bother other people.”
Lily frowns. “Well it’s going to bother me because you're my friend and I care when people are mean to my friends.”
“Lily, really, it’s fine,” Oliver tries to tell her. “I swear, it’s nothing.” Then he smiles. “So we’re friends again?”
Lily laughs. “Yeah. Wanna sit with us?”
Oliver glances at Marlene and Mary who are both looking him up and down. “Thank you for the offer, Lily, but I don’t want to intrude.” He winces. “Oh and I’m sorry about James.”
Lily cringes. “Merlin, that was awful. He asked me out in front of everyone.”
“It was brilliant,” Marlene says. The other three give her incredulous looks. She leans back, balancing her chair on its back two legs. “What? You gotta admire his balls.”
“Bravery,” Lily puts in. “The word is bravery, Marlene, not- that.”
Marlene laughs. “Don’t be such a-”
“Be nice, Marls,” Mary says. She grins. “You know she’s sensitive.”
Lily groans. “I cry at one movie and now I’m branded for life.”
Oliver smiles. He likes these girls. Marlene and Mary eventually let Oliver sit down and the girls get to know them better. They’re alright. They tell him about James and what happened in DADA and Oliver tells them about Halloween. They think his solution is good and he’s happy they agree. He’s missed Lily. She’s very fun to be around.
Tuesday. Halloween. Oliver wakes to someone screaming. He bolts up into a sitting position and draws back his curtains, fumbling for his glasses which are on his bedside cabinet. He blinks as his eyes adjust and he sees Evan holding Barty with one hand on his back and the other under his knees. Barty’s arms are secured around Evan’s neck in a death grip. Evan does not look amused. Dorcas is on the floor, coughing her lungs out because she’s laughing so hard.
“What is happening?” Oliver asks groggily. He rubs his eyes.
Dorcas tries to talk but she can’t get the words out. Regulus is sitting on his bed already in his robes. Dorcas and Evan are dressed as well but Barty is still in his pyjamas. “Dorcas scared Barty,” Regulus explains.
“Aww,” Oliver coos. He looks at Barty and Evan with a big smile on his face. “And Evan caught you! What a Prince Charming.”
Barty and Evan look at each other. Barty smirks and Evan scoffs. He lets go of Barty but Oliver doesn’t think he realises Barty is holding onto him pretty tightly because when Barty goes down, Evan goes down with him. Evan’s on top of Barty on the floor which causes Oliver and Dorcas to laugh all that much harder. Regulus rolls his eyes but there’s the faintest smile on his face.
Oliver’s too busy wheezing as his stomach contracts with how hard he’s laughing to see what happens with the lovebirds on the floor. Dorcas is continuing to cough and her face is red. The laughter eventually dies down and Evan’s on his feet with Barty holding his hand up to get some help. Evan just scoffs and walks around Barty to get to the door. He grabs his book bag and leaves. Oliver looks at Regulus and his look quickly turns to a glare. Regulus just looks back at him. Regulus breaks first and gets up with a sigh. He grabs his own bag and goes after Evan. Oliver smiles. He’s trying to teach Regulus how to be a functional human being and to care for his friends.
Oliver gets up to help Barty to his feet and he sighs wistfully while looking at the still open door. Dorcas is still on the floor trying to catch her breath. “My prince,” Barty says. He puts one of his hands over his head and the back of his other against his forehead. Oliver giggles as he watches Barty lean against one of his bedposts.
“Oh that was the best thing I think I’ve ever seen,” Dorcas says. She takes a big breath before getting to her feet. “You two should get changed. Breakfast will finish in-” Dorcas looks at the watch on her wrists and snorts. “Five minutes ago. See ya!” She scoops up her bag from the floor before leaving. She closes the door behind her. It takes Barty and Oliver about three seconds before they’re rushing to get changed. They’re already late.
Oliver grabs his stuff and rushes into the bathroom. He gets changed as quickly as he can. He doesn’t have time to tie his tie as he slings the untied thing around his neck. He walks out of the bathroom, chucks his pyjamas onto his bed, grabs his book bag (then waits for Barty while he fucks around) and then rushes out of the room. There’s no one in the common room and the hallways are deserted, save for the few people around who have free periods or those that are ditching class. Oliver has to drag Barty to their Transfiguration class because he is one of those people that would much rather bunk class. Oliver manages to get them to the classroom. When they stumble through the doors, the entire class turns to look at them. Professor McGonagall looks at them and Oliver feels his face flush.
“Mr. Potter, Mr. Crouch, you’re late,” McGonagall says.
Oliver clears his throat. “We’re very sorry, Professor, we slept in.”
Mcgonagall hums. “Well your dormmates found their way here perfectly fine.”
“It’s Evan’s fault-” Barty gets cut off when Oliver shoves his elbow into his side. “Ow.”
Oliver looks at McGonagall. “It won’t happen again, Professor McGonagall.”
“It won’t,” McGonagall agrees. “Detention for the four of you.”
Oliver holds back a groan. He’s successful, Barty is not. “But Professor,” he whines. “It’s not my fault!”
“Wait, did you say the four of us?” Oliver asks. He looks at Barty. “No offence, Professor, but I don’t think you know how to count.”
McGonagall shakes her head. “No, Mr. Potter, I do. Mr. Black and Mr. Rosier got here on time. It’s their responsibility to look after their dormmates, as is everyone else’s. They shall be getting a detention as well.”
“What?” Regulus pales slightly.
“But Professor-” Evan starts but McGonagall holds up her hand to silence him.
“My classroom after supper, I will not change my mind.” McGonagall puts down her hands and folds them in front of her. “Now, Mr. Potter and Mr. Crouch, please take your seats so I can continue with my lesson.”
Oliver and Barty sit down at the table behind Evan and Regulus. Oliver ties his tie as McGonagall starts speaking. Evan turns around to glare at the two of them before turning back around. Regulus doesn’t outwardly express his dislike for his dormmates but Oliver can see his hands shaking. He extends his foot to tap the back of his chair. Regulus doesn’t react so he does it again and this time he turns and Oliver tilts his head while mouthing “you okay?”. Regulus doesn’t answer and just turns around. Oliver’s worried the rest of the class and doesn’t get to pay attention to what the professor is saying.
Regulus is like that the rest of the day. He’s quiet and closed off- more than usual. Oliver’s worried. However, Regulus does sit with them at lunch and during their classes so Oliver doesn’t bring it up. Regulus isn’t the most social person anyway. Speaking of lunch, James runs over to the Slytherin table as soon as he gets into the Great Hall. Oliver watches him stumble a bit as he runs. He stops behind Oliver because Oliver has his back facing the wall. He turns around to look at his brother. “Everything alright, James?”
James huffs out breath and puts his hands on Oliver’s shoulders. “Did you get detention?”
Oliver blinks. “How did you-”
James shakes his head. “I just know things. Who gave it to you?”
“I thought you knew things,” Dorcas teases.
James shakes Oliver’s shoulders, ignoring Dorcas. “Who gave you detention?”
“Merlin- McGonagall, you weirdo. What does it matter?”
James stops shaking his brother and starts laughing. Sirius walks over and James leans against him. Sirius side-eyes his friend before looking at his brother. He smiles. “Heard you got detention, Reggie. Good for you.”
“Yeah,” Regulus mumbles. “Yay.”
Oliver looks at him and frowns. He wants to ask what’s wrong but James is yelling. “Minnie! Why’re you giving my brother detention?!”
Oliver rolls his eyes and turns back around. He ignores his brother and Sirius as they attempt to talk to Professor McGonagall. They’re either doing it to mess with McGonagall or they’re trying to get their brothers out of detention. Either way, they’re probably going to make it worse.
Detention is… boring, but not painfully so. For Oliver, anyway. Barty looks like he’s about to die, Evan has his head resting on his arms, asleep, and Regulus is just doing the work. It’s like doing homework. McGonagall’s sitting at her desk doing work of her own. She’s got reading glasses on her nose which she doesn’t usually have. Every time Barty groans, McGonagall looks up. She doesn’t glare at him, she just kind of looks at him and he reluctantly goes back to doing work. The detention lasts for about two hours and Oliver’s worried they’re going to miss the Selkies’ show. When McGonagall finally lets them go, the four of them pack up quickly. Barty kicks the back of Evan’s chair hard enough to wake him. They walk together to the common room where Dorcas is waiting for them.
The four boys have time to go up to their dorm and change into muggle clothes to be more comfortable for the show. Oliver’s wearing a brown sweater and some black jeans with white flowers and leaves drawn on them with orange converses. Barty’s wearing a black hoodie with a skull on it and black jeans with blue converses. Evan’s wearing a grey sweater and bluey-green cargo pants with purple converses. Regulus is wearing a brown sweater and black jeans with black and white converses. They go back down to the common room and sit with Dorcas.
“Wow, Meadowes,” Barty whistles. “You clean up nice.”
Dorcas laughs. She’s wearing a light green and white crocheted top with a black undershirt and a darker green skirt with fishnet tights. “Thanks, Crouch. It’s a shame I can’t say the same for you.”
“Oi!” Barty punches her arm and she continues to laugh.
“Alright you two, settle down,” Oliver says. Dorcas and Barty poke their tongues out at each other. Oliver’s sitting behind Barty, Evan and Dorcas (Barty in the middle) next to Regulus. He’s sitting down, fiddling with the rings on his fingers. “Regulus?” He doesn’t respond. He’s looking blankly forwards. “Regulus,” Oliver tries again, this time poking his arm. He flinches back violently which causes Oliver to rear back. “Sorry, you didn’t hear me the first time I said your name.”
“Oh. What?” Regulus asks.
“I wanted to know if you were okay,” Oliver says. “You’ve been weird all day. Well, not all day because you seemed normal this morning but when we got to Transfiguration-” Oliver’s brain catches up with him. “Oh! It was when we got detention! You’re upset because of it, aren’t you.”
Regulus scoffs. “No I’m not. It’s just detention. It wasn’t even my fault, it was you and Crouch.”
“Regulus-”
“Leave me alone, Potter,” Regulus snaps. He faces the window again and Oliver frowns. He doesn’t know why it bothers Regulus so much and why he’s denying it. It’s obvious that’s the reason, nothing else happened in that time frame that could’ve made Regulus in such a shitty mood. If something happened on their way to Transfiguration then Evan would’ve said something.
“It’s starting!” Dorcas says. She leans back against her hands and a hush falls over the Slytherin students. The water isn’t completely clear but you can see the Selkies perfectly when they swim in front of the window. They glide through the water, doing different tricks and- well, Oliver would describe it as dancing. It’s mesmerising. The Selkies glide, they swim, they dance, they perform. It’s wonderful.
It’s not just Oliver that is mesmerised. All of his friends are quiet, even Barty. Oliver wishes that Pandora was here. She would’ve loved this. He’s trying to remember as much of it as he can so he can tell Pandora about it. She said she was going to wait for them outside their common room so they could walk to the Gryffindor Halloween party. Oliver had told Pandora that he wanted her and everyone else there with him so they could all have a good time but he hadn’t told Regulus, Evan and Barty yet. Dorcas was always planning on crashing it ever since Oliver told her they could go after the Selkies performance. Oliver had gotten his brother’s invisibility cloak yesterday but he was only planning on using it if they really needed it. He thinks he can fit all of his friends under it but it’ll be a very tight fit. Also, he’s not sure the others would react well to Oliver having an invisibility on hand. Barty would love it.
The Selkies’ performance lasts about two hours. It’s around eleven at night when it finishes and the common room breaks out into applause. Some whistle and others cheer. Barty’s one of the people that cheer. The students stay seated as the Selkies all bow and only get up when they’ve left. Barty, Evan, Oliver and Regulus stay in the common room for a bit to talk to Dorcas.
“That was amazing,” Oliver says.
“Fuck yeah it was,” Barty agrees. “Is it always that cool?”
Dorcas nods. “It is. It doesn’t get boring, either. Gorgeous every time I see it.”
“You’ve literally seen it only one other time,” Evan says.
Oliver looks around and notices everyone else has left the common room. Literally, everyone is gone. They’re the only ones left in the room. “We better get going,” Oliver says. “Pandora’s waiting for us outside the common room.”
“Why?” Evan asks.
“She’s going with us to the Halloween party, duh,” Dorcas says. She rolls her eyes. “You didn’t think we’d go without her, did you?”
“I didn’t think we were going at all,” Barty corrects. “But I’m so down.”
“I’m not,” Regulus says. He takes a step back. “I’m going back to the dorm and sleeping. Bye.”
Oliver catches his arm. “Hold on. Regulus, please.”
Regulus shakes his head and takes his arm back. “I’m not going. I’m staying here. If you thought I would go to that party then you’re insane.”
“I thought you’d go with us to the party,” Oliver insists.
“Come on, Regulus,” Dorcas pleads. “Don’t be a party pooper.”
“I’m not going,” Regulus says firmly.
“Regulus-” Oliver tries to say but gets cut off.
“Stop it,” Regulus orders. He turns and walks away to the dorms. “Hope you have a fun night.”
“You’re welcome to come anyway!” Oliver quickly shouts as Regulus disappears. The four are left standing in the common room. Evan grabs Oliver’s arm and gently pulls him towards the entrance to the common room. “Come on.”
Oliver frowns as he walks with Evan, Barty and Dorcas. Pandora is indeed waiting outside the common room when they leave. She’s sitting on the ledge of a window with her legs pulled up and a book resting in her lap. She’s wearing a blue dress with a long sleeved blue-grey shirt underneath with light purple converses. Her hair is pulled up into two buns. She looks over and smiles when they leave. She hops down and smiles. When she sees the look on Oliver’s face, her smile drops. “He doesn’t want to come, does he.”
Oliver shakes his head. “No,” he says. “No he does not.”
Pandora offers a hug which Oliver declines. He doesn’t want a hug right now. For the first time in his life, he doesn’t want a hug. Pandora instead offers her hand which he does take. They make their way to the Gryffindor Common Room. When they get there, Oliver tells the lady in the portrait the password that James had given him. The portrait swings open but not before the lady turns up her nose and huffs, muttering things about Slytherins under her breath. Oliver ignores her, his mood too sour already. He hopes seeing James will pick up his mood.
As soon as they step inside, they’re bombarded with the smell of alcohol and smoke along with the smell of so many people in the same room. There’s music playing very loudly and people are dancing in the middle of the common room. There’s a table with snacks and drinks on one end, Halloween decorations everywhere you look, and so so many people. Oliver can’t see his brother but he can see Remus standing off by himself. Oliver starts walking over with his friends trailing behind. Remus sees him approaching and smiles. “Hey Ollie. Glad you could make it.”
“Me too,” Oliver says. “Remus, these are my friends Barty, Evan, Dorcas and Pandora. Guys, this is Remus.” Remus nods in greeting and the others mumble their hellos. “You know where I could find my brother?”
“Couch,” Remus says. Oliver follows where Remus points. The couches in the common room have been pushed to the edges and James is sitting on one with Peter under one arm, Sirius under the other. Lily, Mary and Marlene are sitting on the floor in front of them playing a card game.
“Why’re you over here by yourself?” Oliver asks.
Remus shrugs. “I don’t like parties. Gets pretty loud in here very quickly. This way I can slip out whenever I need to without them noticing.”
Oliver blinks. “That makes no sense.”
Remus shrugs again. “I get away with it.”
Oliver hums and then grabs Barty’s hand to drag him over to where James is. As Oliver expected, Barty grabs Evan’s hand who links arms with Pandora, who grabs hold of Dorcas. The five of them walk in a single file line through the crowd of people. When they make it to James, Barty leaves to get some drinks and Evan goes with him to make sure he doesn’t do anything stupid. James notices Oliver and smiles broadly. “Ollie! You made it!”
Oliver nods. “Of course.” He sits down next to Marlene. “What’re you guys playing?”
“Go Fish,” Lily says.
“Poker,” Mary says at the same time.
“Strip poker,” Marlene corrects Mary, winking at her. She blows a kiss to Marlene who laughs. Lily’s rolling her eyes.
“Isn’t that nice?” Oliver smiles. He notices Dorcas and Pandora still standing. He pats the spot next to him. “Guys these are my friends Dorcas and Pandora, Dorcas and Pandora, you know my brother and that’s Peter and Sirius. Oh and these three lovely ladies are Marlene, Lily and Mary.”
Pandora smiles as she sits down. “It’s lovely to meet you guys.”
The party, for the most part, is fun. Since they arrived well into it, people start going back to their dorms to sleep, especially considering they have classes in the morning. Barty was very disappointed to find out that the alcohol had been spelled to turn into water if any under-aged wizards decided to try and drink it. Evan was laughing while Barty whined and whined about it.
Frank came over at some point and James flushed when he talked about what Oliver had said about James being in love with him. It makes Oliver laugh. He also brings his girlfriend, Alice, over. She is hands down the most gorgeous person Oliver has ever met (don’t tell Dorcas and Pandora — or Barty). She’s extremely nice and she makes the girls laugh.
Oliver can’t help but laugh too. He kind of wishes that Regulus were here too. He would love Alice — not that he’d ever speak it out loud or make her think he did. Oliver is starting to get a hang of Regulus.
“Salazar, this place is weird.”
Oliver whips around and he gasps. A smile as big as his mouth can make appears on his face. He’d conjured him. Regulus stands just a few feet away with his hands in his pockets. “Regulus!” Oliver scooches over so Regulus can sit between him and Pandora. Frank is sitting on the couch with the boys and Remus, who had come back over, while Alice is sitting on the arm of the couch, facing the boys. Frank has his head resting on her leg.
“Reggie,” Sirius smiles. “I didn’t think you were going to come.”
Regulus shrugs. “I wasn’t.”
“What changed your mind?” Dorcas asks, taking a bite of a licorice whip.
“I was interested in the layout of the Gryffindor Common Room,” Regulus deadpans. Dorcas winks at him before turning back to the game of actual Go Fish the girls had started playing. Turns out Marlene was totally playing it like Poker and needed to be taken down a peg or two.
“Admit it,” Oliver says while slinging his arm around Regulus’ shoulders. He tenses but doesn’t make a move to shrug him off. “You love us.”
Regulus’ face contorts. “Ew.”
“You do!” Oliver insists. “You always have, you big softy.”
“He is a softy,” Sirius says.
“You shut up,” Regulus warns. He pulls out his wand and points it at Sirius. “Don’t fucking test me.”
Sirius laughs and leans into James. “Oh you wouldn’t.” Regulus glares harder and Sirius squirms. “Okay! Merlin, you weirdo.”
It’s going well. The common room is getting emptier by the minute and people are getting sleepy. Peter is already asleep on James’ shoulder and Sirius looks dangerously close to passing out himself. Frank and Alice had excused themselves around half an hour ago and Lily had gone up to sleep, dragging Mary and Marlene with her because she knew that if she didn’t then they’d never go. Oliver can tell that Regulus is starting to get antsy and very much wishes he was not there.
One of the Gryffindor prefects tells them all that it’s time for bed. They get kicked out and the people who aren’t in Gryffindor need to get back to their dorms. Oliver takes his friends and they sneak back to the Slytherin Common Room, Pandora going to the Ravenclaw Common Room. Dorcas goes to her dorm and the boys go to theirs. They’re all tired and fall asleep in their clothes.
The next morning, Regulus wakes Oliver. It’s usually Evan but it’s a nice change to be woken without someone screaming in his ear. He smiles at Regulus who just goes back to his bed. Evan’s holding back laughter as he looks at the utter mess Barty is in. This time none of them are ready for the day yet though for some reason Regulus still looks impeccable. They take turns in the bathroom (except Barty) and Oliver takes out his mirror. He looks at it for a moment, thumbing the edge of it. He puts it back into his bag and slings the strap over his head to his other shoulder. The four of them actually make it to breakfast this morning. They sit and eat. The owls come and Oliver gets a letter from his parents which Ashe doesn’t drop into his food this time.
Barty gets a letter as well but as soon as he sees who it’s from, he sets it on fire. Oliver briefly regrets teaching Barty that spell but if he’s not setting it on fire, he’s ripping it or eating it. Yeah, eating it. He ate one once in pure frustration. It was horrifying but sort of entertaining. Evan doesn’t usually get mail so when he doesn’t get anything, Oliver isn’t surprised. What he is surprised about is when a very fancy looking owl drops a letter into Regulus’ hands. He pales slightly and Oliver grows concerned. “Regulus?”
Regulus ignores him. He glances up and Oliver realises he’s looking at the Gryffindor table. Oliver looks over as well and sees Sirius looking at his brother with a worried expression. Oliver looks back down at the letter in Regulus’ hands. It isn’t a howler which is good. Right?
With shaky hands, Regulus opens the letter. Oliver doesn’t read the letter because he isn’t about to invade Regulus’ privacy but he does accidentally see who the letter is addressed to. The handwriting is very curly and fine. The letter is addressed to ‘Regulus A. Black’. Oliver wonders who the letter is from, given the formality of the letter. The thought of it being from his parents hurts Oliver’s heart. Who addresses their son like that? Effie and Monty would never dare. Regulus’ face grows more pale as he reads the letter. Oliver glances at Barty and Evan who have noticed Regulus’ attitude.
“Regulus…?” Evan tries. “What happened?”
“I-” Regulus’s breath hitches and Oliver can see tears start to build in his eyes. Oliver looks over at Sirius who is nowhere to be seen.
“Reggie?” Found him. Oliver turns to see Sirius behind them. He puts a hand on his brother’s shoulder which he shrugs off. “Reggie, don’t-”
“Leave me alone,” Regulus snaps. He gets up and walks off. His dormmates are quick to follow but Regulus doesn’t seem to be in any mood to wait for them. Their first class is potions. Regulus doesn’t sit down with his friends and when they try to sit with him, he gets up to move somewhere else. It’s two people per bench so to get away from his friends, Regulus sits next to a Slytherin student Oliver doesn’t know the name of. Oliver’s heart broken. What was in that letter? Pandora, who doesn’t know what’s going on, sits next to her brother who fills her in on what happened while Oliver sits next to Barty. Barty tries his best to cheer Oliver up but it’s clear this is hard for him too.
When lunch finally comes around and Regulus still refuses to sit with them (I mean, he didn’t even go to lunch at all!), Oliver marches up to Sirius. “What happened?” Oliver demands. Sirius, Peter, Remus and James are all sitting in the courtyard.
“What?” Sirius decides to play dumb.
“Don’t ‘what’ me, Black.” Oliver crosses his arms. “What the fuck happened to Regulus and why does he suddenly want nothing to do with us?”
Sirius sighs. “Okay, first off, I’ve never heard you swear before, this is wonderful.” Oliver rolls his eyes. “And second, he does this. Mummy and Daddy tell him he needs to surround himself with pureblood wizards that believe in that Blood Purity bullshit and he listens.” Sirius runs a hand through his hair. “You have no idea how much our parents hated hearing about you two being put in a dorm together. She was going to ask you or Reggie to be moved but Reggie said it would be fine and that it didn’t mean you two had to be friends. When Reg got detention because of you, Mother and Father would’ve been told. Because Regulus did nothing wrong, Mother would be furious.” He pauses and looks at Oliver with a sympathetic look. “I’m sorry, Oliver, I am, but there’s nothing you can do. If our parents tell Regulus not to be friends with you, he won’t be. That’s just how he works.”
“But I thought-” Oliver cuts himself off with a groan. “Oh this is so stupid!” He turns around and marches off to find Regulus because refuses to let this continue to happen. He doesn’t find him, which is absolute bullshit, and Regulus refuses to acknowledge Oliver when he does try to speak to him. Regulus doesn’t go to dinner and he locks himself behind his curtains when they’re in the dorm, or he isn’t in the dorm at all and only comes back when it’s curfew. Sometimes he doesn’t come back at all. If he does then he’s gone by the time Oliver wakes up. Oliver, Barty and Evan are worried. Pandora looks like she hasn’t been getting much sleep and Dorcas is concerned for her friends’ wellbeing.
This goes on for weeks. Oliver can’t get a word in with Regulus. Sirius doesn’t know what to do— Oliver asked. He asked and he asked and he asked. He asked Sirius and he asked his parents but no one had the solution. They had solutions, they were just really bad solutions and none of them worked. Oliver’s worried. Really really fucking worried. What is he going to do?