Two little snakes
Neat. Sparkly clean. Suspiciously squeaky clean. That was what James and Sirius thought when they got into the Slytherin dorm. They were naturally used to the rowdiness from Gryffindor’s dorms, its bustling sitting rooms, and loud laughter. But Slytherin was nowhere like that. It was cold, for instance. The fireplaces crept with a blue fire, the lit torches were the only real source of warm light, and this late at night, the bottom of the Dark Lake looked perfectly ominous.
That was definitely the overall feeling of the inner heart of the Slytherin House. Everything looked perfectly put together, but there was this dreading feeling that even if you couldn’t see anything wrong, there was definitely something that was not right.
When James had stormed into their dorm room and woke up Sirius to retell everything that he had seen, rage had consumed him. He couldn’t believe that Regulus, Reggie, his baby brother, was in such a pickle. He wanted to think that his mother would never allow something of the kind to happen to her perfect son. But if Reggie was a male bearer, he would not be allowed to be the Black Heir. Their mother would likely marry Reg to the highest bidder and ask for one of the children to be named the new Black Heir. One of the children. Reg would be forced to have at least three children, maybe four if his mother was feeling demanding. An Heir and a Spare. That’s how it works; they needed to be boys too. If Reg gave birth to a girl, the number of children would only go up. And sadly, if his hand was really given to Rabastan Lestrange, that was the only outcome. Bellatrix was never one to be swayed. If she had decided to not have children, she wouldn’t. Rodolphus would demand Reg birth an Heir for the Lestrange Family. They were so twisted, maybe Rabastan wouldn’t really mind sharing Reg with his older brother.
Sirius was not delusional; that was a common occurrence between the pureblood families: the Lestranges, the Carrows, the Prewetts. All of them did that, but it was okay only as long as the triad was conformed by consenting people. And Reggie didn’t want either one Lestrange or two.
Sirius was going ballistic over the whole situation. And he believed Reg, for the love of Merlin, he believed his baby brother. But for the same love of Merlin, he couldn’t believe Snivellous if he didn’t see it. That’s why he convinced James to go and spy in the Slytherin dorms.
James was happy to comply, and they decided to go the next night. They already knew that Severus was camping in the unused room, but they needed to see what was going on inside Slytherin to assess the situation. Spying on a sniveling Snivellous wouldn’t help in their crusade. At least not yet.
Regulus was curled on one of the couches closer to the fireplace. It was subtle, but it was common knowledge that women and male bearers were the same; they run cooler than men. He had a fluffy blanket on; it was a sober oxford blue contrasting with the black, silver, and green surrounding him. He was invested in his reading, not even taking his eyes off the novel. He looked so peaceful.
But it was a peace meant to be broken. Regulus’ eyes darted to the stairs, from where they could all hear slow and measured steps. He quickly put on a blank face, erasing the flash of fear that had shone for a second, and went back to reading.
Wilfred Mulciber was descending the stairs alone. He had a very carefree step, and he had a mean smile plastered on his face. He approached Regulus and stood in front of his couch, blocking the light from the fireplace.
“Regulus,” he uttered, and Sirius wanted to huff right there. Who was Mulciber to address Reg like that? He was unworthy.
“Mulciber,” he answered with cold indifference.
“Regulus,” he repeated with a mocking tone. “Have you seen perhaps one of my wayward friends?”
“Am I a watcher at your service, Mulciber?” he said with his eyes back on his novel.
“Watch it, Rabastan wouldn’t be pleased his intended has such appalling manners,” he said vindictively.
“Rabastan is not my anything,” Reg said curtly.
“But he will be soon enough. Don’t act all high and mighty; you’ll be Consort Lestrange in no time, and you’ll have to show better respect to your husband’s friends.”
“Mulciber, even when I become someone’s consort,” he drawled slowly and calmly, “I’ll still be a Black. Né Black, toujours un Black.”
Regulus decided to stand at that moment, not willing to engage Mulciber anymore. But he had other plans. He tried to reach Reg by his vest, but he dodged it and stared at him with what could only be the Black Madness showing in his eyes.
“Do you dare to touch me?” he sneered. “I am Regulus Arcturus Black, scion of the House of Black. You will never touch me, and if you dare...” He got dangerously close to Wilfred and hissed, “I promise you, my family will demand your hand on a silver plate.”
“Your family cares nothing about you,” Mulciber retorted, unsure. “You are just a male bearer whose only purpose is to give birth to other family line’s more children.”
“I would like to see you try. I’ve never heard of even one person alive that has ever raised a hand to Bellatrix or Narcissa, not even Andromeda. Even yourself,” he let out a mocking laugh, “cannot even bear to raise your voice to talk to me.”
He turned his back on Mulciber, clearly insulting him by not considering him a threat, and left him standing there. He didn’t go upstairs but went out, and although he was checking occasionally for people following him, he couldn’t detect them under James’ invisibility cloak.
James recognized the place where he arrived. It was the room where Severus was hiding. They were quick to enter behind him, taking advantage of the slow way the door closed itself. Now, the room looked different. There was a real bed near the windows, and everything else had vanished. Just a chair and a simple desk where Severus was now sitting.
“Hi, Sev,” he said in a friendly tone. Nothing like the way he had talked to Mulciber.
“Reg,” Severus turned quickly at his voice, an easy smile on his face. The sole smile shocked Sirius.
“How long do you plan to stay hidden here?” he asked, sitting on the bed.
“I don’t know,” Severus stood up and went to lay beside Regulus.
“Was it tough today? What are you doing here?” he asked, worried.
“Not really. I don’t know why, but most boys were busy today,” he said, sighing. “He was looking for you, though.”
“Again?” Severus took his hands to his face, exasperated. “Why can’t he just leave me alone? He doesn’t even know about it.”
“He doesn’t need to know. He is the Heir of the Mulciber House. Although it is not as powerful as other houses, he does have the privileges of taking two side consorts. He says you are the most adorable boy he has ever seen and,” he grimaced, “I quote, ‘it would be a shame you were crying anywhere that wasn’t his bed,’ unquote.”
Severus’ face burned red, and he couldn’t help but slap Reggie’s arm to show his displeasure.
“Hey, don’t hit me! I heard him today saying that to Rosier during lunch,” he said, trying to redirect Severus’ anger.
“Oh my god!” the Muggle expression rolled swiftly from his tongue. “Are you telling me he was saying that at the Slytherin table? And you heard? Who else was there?” He was obviously dying from embarrassment.
“Well, he was talking to Rosier, but Avery was in front of them. He was laughing really hard and said that it would be a sight to behold.”
James and Sirius were out of it. They did talk about girls and some cute boys in other houses in their dorm, but nothing so… vulgar, even less in places where other people could hear. Slytherin was airtight if no one was talking about the lack of decorum that was going on at that table.
Sirius was mesmerized by this new Severus if he was to be honest with himself. It was obvious that his baby brother and Severus were good friends. Reggie took his mask off, and Severus was openly vulnerable and cute about his embarrassing situation.
He hadn’t really pictured what it would be like to witness Severus being anything other than the dark and raging teenager he was in front of the Marauders. It was to be expected, though. They had never extended him a shred of an olive branch since the day they had met him. Obviously, he wasn’t carefree in Slytherin either.
If Mulciber was even talking like that to Regulus, a proud son of House Black, he didn’t want to imagine what it would be like for Severus, a poor half-blood with a Muggle surname.
They had to move fast and plan something to save the two little bearers, but they couldn’t be hasty and approach too soon. They didn't want to beat the grass and scare the two little snakes afterall.