Interview
The conversation had fallen flat after Sirius had left, Lupin soon to follow. Potter had tried to keep up the conversation, much to Regulus’s disdain. Still, he kept up the cold smile that had gotten him through his childhood. It didn’t defer the man across from him, shining eyes behind gold-framed glasses. He noted the anxious way that Potter fidgeted with his hands, tapping softly on the white tablecloth. Regulus wasn’t sure if it was the situation making him anxious, or Sirius’s prolonged absence.
“So,” Potter said, pushing his glasses up on his nose. “Are you…?”
Regulus cocked his head to the side. “Am I what?”
Potter grinned sheepishly, a warm pink tinting the brown skin of his cheeks. “Are you, um, dating anyone? Perhaps one of your bandmates?”
Regulus scoffed. “No, I’m not. And I have no interest in dating right now. Especially not someone I work with.” There was a pressed coldness in his voice, silently hoping that the conversation would change.
Potter smiled. He looked as though he were about to say something when Sirius walked up, holding Remus’s hand. They were so lacking in subtlety, it was nauseating.
Sirius’s eyes were red-rimmed as he mumbled, “Let’s go.”
Regulus scowled. “What?”
Sirius glared, having dropped that disgustingly artificial smile he had worn all evening. Regulus couldn’t help the smirk that graced his face. “Let’s go. We have an interview to get to.”
“We haven’t ordered anything, Sirius,” Regulus said coldly.
Sirius glared at Regulus. “If you’re hungry, I’ll buy you something after the interview. Besides, you aren’t paying for the reservation. You aren’t losing any money.”
The silence was piercing. Regulus eventually sighed, not wanting to argue. “Fine. Let’s go.”
Though Barty and Evan gave him weird looks, nobody argued, following Regulus as he stood up and started walking away. Regulus stuck his hands in his pockets and walked swiftly out of the restaurant, leaving the others in his wake. It was a mid-March evening, the breeze just cold enough to make Regulus shiver. He wasn’t waiting for anything, not really. He watched as the limo pulled up outside the restaurant and scoffed. Sirius had run away from the wealthy life they had been born into, only to return to wealth and tedious limousine rides. How ironic. Regulus hadn’t found that type of wealth again, though he craved his former luxury sometimes. Those were the times in which Regulus had to remind himself that no matter how little money he had, any life outside of that house was better than the life he had inside. Those were also the times in which he wanted so desperately to make enough to move out of Evan’s apartment, to stop being such a burden to one of his closest friends.
Regulus heard heavy footsteps behind him. He turned to see Sirius glaring coldly at him, still holding Remus’s hand. Potter was standing next to Sirius, running a hand through his hair, making it even messier than it already was. Regulus gestured silently to the limo. Remus and Sirius got in. James didn’t.
“Regulus,” James said kindly. “Are you… riding with us? I know Serpentine isn’t as, um, well-off, and I’m not sure how you guys got here, but, um, if you want, you guys could ride with us?”
Regulus simply scowled. “We have a van, Potter. Thanks for the offer, but no thanks.” Regulus only took a moment to relish in James’s seeming disappointment before turning, walking off into the parking lot.
Regulus waited a few minutes by the white van before his bandmates arrived, Barty holding the keys. Barty always drove, saying he didn’t trust any of the others, except maybe Dorcas, to do it. Regulus supposed that was fair, seeing as both Evan and himself tended to be frantic drivers, and Pandora simply didn’t like it.
There wasn’t much talking on the way to the interview, at some TV station Regulus couldn’t care less about. He thought he’d probably have to now, seeing as the whole world would be looking at his face. Regulus could hear Barty humming along to a Queen song from the radio in the front. Regulus knew the pattern so well, he could hear Evan singing along before he even opened his mouth.
“I can serenade, and gently play on your heartstrings,” Evan sang, quietly at first, but his voice grew louder as he kept singing. “Be a Valentino just for you…” Pandora grinned at him, and Regulus rolled his eyes, inhaling quickly before he joined in, singing quietly.
“Ooooh, love,” Regulus sang tentatively, smiling slightly as he continued. “Ooooooh, lover boy…” The world always seemed to quiet when Regulus sang, both literally and figuratively, pausing to listen to Regulus sing.
“What’re you doing tonight?” Pandora joined in, along with Regulus. “Hey, boy,” Barty and Evan sang, taking the background vocals.
“Set my alarm, turn on my charm, that’s because I’m a good old-fashioned lover boy,” They all sang together. They were loud now. They always got louder as they started singing together. Pandora burst into a fit of giggles as the chorus ended, Regulus, Evan and Dorcas chuckling along with her. Barty smiled into the rear view mirror.
Regulus was still smiling softly as they pulled into the studio parking lot, looking out of place among all the fancy, expensive black cars. Regulus took a deep breath as the car stopped, and Barty opened his door, stepping out. Regulus waited until Evan had stepped out of the passenger seat and Pandora had stepped out from the backseat. Dorcas followed him out, putting a calm, jewelry covered hand on his shoulder.
“Reg,” she said, her voice always calm. “What’s going on?”
Regulus cocked his head to the side. “What do you mean?”
Dorcas glared at him. “Regulus, do not play dumb with me. Why are you going on the tour? I saw how you are with Sirius, it’s not- it’s not ‘calm’, or ‘fine’, or-”
“Cas,” Regulus interrupted, putting a hand on hers and gently pushing it off his shoulder. “I’m fine. I promise.”
“No, you’re not, Reg. What’s going on-”
“Hey!” Evan called out, gesturing wildly from halfway across the parking lot. “Come on! We have an interview to go on!”
Dorcas hesitantly started walking towards the rest of the band, glancing back at him. “We’ll talk about this later,” she said somewhat coldly. Regulus nodded in response.
Regulus quickly found out how much he hated the preparation for television. He was swarmed by people trying to straighten his clothes, and fix his curls into place, and smother him in makeup. When they decided he was camera ready, he was escorted out onto a stage where the Marauders were already seated, each of them in a crimson armchair. Regulus was seated in an emerald one. A few of the Marauders’ outfits seemed to have been swapped out by the camera crew. The girl, Marlene McKinnon was her name, and Sirius got to keep their outfits, but Remus and Potter had their much more comfortable looking outfits switched with suits. Remus’s was a light brown. Potter’s was a beautiful maroon that looked far too nice on him. Frankly, it looked disgustingly nice. Regulus scowled at the sight of it.
His bandmates soon came out, also having some of their outfits changed. Pandora’s hair had been redone into pigtails and she was now wearing a sky-blue dress covered in red and yellow butterflies. Dorcas’s hair had been let down, her braids swaying by her shoulders. Barty and Evan seemed to have only gotten the makeup treatment that Regulus had. Pandora sat down next to Regulus.
“Hm, they didn’t change you,” Pandora said airily, her strikingly blue eyes wide. “That’s a shame. Some of the clothes they had would have looked nice on you.” Pandora tapped at the hem of her dress. “I rather like this dress. Maybe they’ll let me keep it.”
Regulus smiled fondly before turning his attention to a tall woman walking up to the desk in the center of the room, her red heels clicking on the tiled floor. She was holding a stack of papers which she set down on the desk, smiling at them with an artificial, bright red lipstick covered smile, before sitting down at the desk. She looked around their age, maybe a bit older, with brown hair tied in a tight bun. As she clicked her long red nails against the desk, Regulus thought back to his mother, always holding herself in such a similar way, with perfect posture, and long nails, and clicking heels, and a tight, regal bun. One look at Sirius told him that his brother saw the same thing.
“Well then,” the woman said, pressing bright-red lips together. “My name is Audrey Tilas. The show will be starting in a few minutes.”
After a few minutes, Regulus heard a voice behind the cameras saying, ‘Lights, camera speeds, and we’re rolling!’
He watched the woman, Audrey, adjust her expression into a camera-ready smile. “Good evening, and welcome to the show! Tonight we have some special guests: Both the Marauders, and Serpentine, here to talk about their upcoming tour!”
“We’re glad to be here, Audrey,” Potter said charismatically, giving her a warm grin.
“And we’re glad to have you. Now, Regulus, may I call you Regulus?” She didn’t let him answer before she kept speaking. “You’re the ‘leader’, so to speak, of Serpentine. What led you and your band to joining the tour?”
“Oh, you know, Audrey, this is a very exciting opportunity for us,” Regulus said with a practiced smile, filled with charm. “I mean, of course some of it was to share our music with a larger group of people, but it was mostly our respect for the Marauders.”
“Have you had any previous experience with them?” Audrey asked. Regulus almost laughed.
“Oh, I’ve been a fan of their music for quite some time now,” he lied, making sure to glance over at Sirius. “I feel so… close to their music.
“We’re glad you feel that way,” Sirius interrupted, locking eyes with Regulus. They were wearing the same plastic smile. “Have you been able to see us play live before?”
“No,” Regulus replied. “I haven’t had the pleasure of seeing you.”
“So Regulus,” Audrey said, clearly trying to cut through the coldness of the conversation with her overly bubbly tone. “Do you have a favorite song by the Marauders?”
“Of course!” Regulus said. “Their song ‘Brother’ happens to be my favorite. Funnily enough, we also have a song called ‘Brother’, though ours is about Barty here. I don’t know who theirs is about, seeing as none of them happen to have brothers.”
“Hm,” Audrey said curiously. “Who would that song happen to be about?”
Sirius paused, looking down sadly. “Just someone I used to trust.”
“Y’know,” Audrey started. “Sirius, Regulus, you two look rather similar. Do you two happen to have any connection? Other than the tour, I mean.”
It was Regulus’s turn to pause, Sirius speaking instead. “No. None at all.”
There was a bit of an awkwardness for a moment, before it was cut through by Audrey’s bubbly voice. “So, and this is for both the bands, who would you consider to be your musical inspiration?”
After that, Regulus started to tune her out, only chiming in when a question was asked directly to him. It didn’t take very long for him to grow weary of Audrey’s voice, and her artificial smile. He remembered how much he hated the press as a child, following around the children of an unwanted fortune. Now, without that fortune looming over him, he realized that he still hated the press.
After the interview, which seemed to drag on far longer than it should’ve, all Regulus wanted to do was go back to Evan’s apartment and sleep. He didn’t say goodbye to the Marauders as he stood up, walking stiffly away from the stage. He ended up walking around until he found his way out to the parking lot. He breathed deeply, reveling in the fresh air. The air in the studio was hot and stagnant. It felt stifling. Regulus lit a cigarette as he stood by the van, waiting for his friends to catch up.
To anyone who asked, Regulus would say that he smoked. He didn’t believe in being an occasional smoker, or a social smoker. You either smoked, or you didn’t, and while Regulus only ever smoked when he was stressed, he still smoked. It didn’t help that he was very easily stressed.
Once his friends had arrived at the van, Regulus put out the cigarette, tossing it onto the ground. Pandora was still wearing the sky-blue dress, but she was now carrying a bag that presumably had her other outfit in it. Evan was muttering under his breath about how Pandora had begged him to buy the dress for her. She looked happy though, so Evan looked happy too.
“Hey, you okay?” Dorcas asked as they piled into the van. Regulus sighed, not meeting her eyes.
“Just tired.”