Chapter 4
Regulus stared across the great hall, the porridge in front of him ignored. He hadn’t even served it up, Dorcas had placed it in front of him when she noticed his lack of movement towards grabbing something. It now sat cold, even more un-appetizing than before. Regulus was more focused on the general ruckus over at the Gryffindor table. Potter was ruffling Pettigrew’s hair while talking to McKinnon, one of the Gryffindor chasers. Lupin was reading the prophet while his brother lazily draped himself over him, chattering away about something.
He also made quick notes of the other two girls who occasionally interrupted Potter’s conversation to talk to McKinnon. Evans, and Macdonald. He had met Macdonald in passing at an event as a child. She was a pureblood, and her family participated in some of the old ways, but he hadn’t seen her again. They ran in different circles after all. He had met Evans at one of Slughorn's many dinner parties, as much as he denied it, she was a legend when it came to potions.
When he had gotten back to his dorm after his collision with Potter, he had gotten a glimpse at how bad he truly looked. His hair standing up on all ends like an uncivilized barbarian. The shadows under his eyes were as if his hands had been dipped in ash, then carelessly rubbed across his face.
As much as he loathed to admit it, Potter wasn’t as dim-witted as he pretended to be. Rumors among the staff placed James among the top-performing students in his year. He was certain Potter owed that to Lupin; out of his brother’s ragtag pack of misfits, Lupin was the only one he’d ever seen hunkered down in the library, actually studying.
Regardless, Potter's ability to string together a thought meant he would be quick to realise that Regulus had clearly spent the night somewhere other than the dungeons. He probably thought he was out in the forest, given the broom he was carrying. But Regulus couldn’t know for sure what he had deducted, and he didn’t like the idea of one of his brother's cohorts nosing in his business or assuming anything. He either needed to assess the damages, or stay the hell out of Potter's way. Avoiding Potter was definitely the safer option, but Regulus desperately wanted to know what he was thinking.
While he stared down the Marauders, he watched as Potter kept glancing over at the Slytherin table, like he was searching for someone. Who was he looking for? Maybe just looking out for trouble, he was the head boy after all. That is until Potter met his mark, looking straight at Regulus. Regulus could immediately see Potter’s mind turning, looking at him with, pity? Oh this wouldn’t do. Shooting Potter a glare, he grabbed Evan’s arm pulling him from the bench, ignoring his protests, and walked out of the Great Hall.
“Come on James! I could totally pull off that maneuver, just let me try it!” Marlene rarely asked permission to do anything, but she didn't mess around when it came to Quidditch. “Sylthrin would never expect it.” She pointed out, crossing her arms and raising an eyebrow. The problem was that, as much as James could preach about how dangerous it was, Marlene would likely just try it alone if James said no. Meaning that there would be no one to cast the inevitable cushion charm.
Giving her a look, smirk on his face, “Fine, but-” he was interrupted by Marlene pumping her fits in the air. He held up a finger, cueing her to be quiet. She was bouncing in her seat like a toddler, causing Lily and Mary to direct their attention to their conversation.
“But, we will go down and try it together, and I am not promising that you can use it during the match, Hooch would take a bite out of me if she saw that on the field and it was anything less than perfect”.
“What do you mean?” Mary asked, “Why does it need to be perfect? You guys make mistakes flying all the time.”
“Because,” Lily said, answering before James could respond, “if it’s not perfect it means they haven’t practiced it enough. They need to at least be good at the reckless shit they get up to before they incorporate it into a game.”
“Well said Evans!” James said, stabbing an egg on his plate. “And Pete here can come down to the pitch with us, back up safety charms just in case.” Giving Peter’s hair a ruffle, and digging back into his breakfast.
Back when they were in third year, conversations like this would usually be accompanied by protest from Mary and Lily, trying to convince James and Marlene against the experimental Quidditch tricks. They had since learned it was a lost cause. Although, as Captain, James found himself a lot more concerned with the safety of his players than he would have ever expected. That meant lots of cushioning charms, and he reserved the crazy stunts for him and Marlene. In the past he had had their beaters come up to him on multiple occasions asking to try some of the harder skills, so he had reserved a few practices in between games to give them an opportunity to experiment while he was there to catch them. He intended to do that same thing this year.
Their first match back was against Slytherin, it would dictate how their whole season went. Obviously they had the tryouts first,which he was thinking of holding next weekend, giving everyone the rest of the week to settle in and a full week to practice before tryouts. He would give Minnie a head’s up later that afternoon.
“Can’t believe the first match is against Slytherin. It's going to set the tone for the whole season,” Peter chimed in, his voice carrying a mix of nerves and excitement.
“That’s why we’re going to win,” Marlene quipped confidently over her shoulder, though her attention had already shifted to whatever Lily and Mary were discussing.
The mention of Slytherin made James glance toward their table, he had given up on spotting Regulus a while ago, he wanted to make sure Regulus was doing better than he had the previous day. But in this moment, fate had him look straight into the famously cold eyes of the Syltherin prince.
He looked better, put together, but that wasn't always a good thing. James had seen Sirius when he was all done up, just so happened that it was when he was his most miserable. There was still a hint of shadow under his eyes, they had barely started school, so he doubted he had been up late studying. What was he up to? Was he ok? James held his glance, cocking his head ever so slightly. Why was he staring at him? Did he need something? Regulus cut off his thoughts with a glare, he stood and grabbed one of his friends, Rosier if he remembered correctly, and stormed out of the Great hall.
“Merlin Reg, what was that all about?” Evan said, pulling Regulus into a little alcove off the hallway.
“Don’t worry about it.”
“Was it-”
“Leave it Evan”
“-Sirius?”
Regulus sighs “Not everything in my life revolves around that degenerate coward. I said leave it.”
Evan raises his hands in defeat. “My apologies for drawing a conclusion after you spent the morning staring daggers at your brother and his friends.”
Regulus responded by pivoting and walking away, down the corridor. Reluctantly, Evan followed. They headed towards their first class of the day, potions.
Ravenclaw was by far Regulus' favorite house outside of his own. He might be slightly biased because of Pandora, but whenever they shared a class it always ended up being one of his more productive subjects. They didn’t leave room for frivolous activity, completely focused on the task at hand. He was on his way to Herbology with the Puffs, slightly less ideal but at least it wasn't the Gryffindors. Regulus was exceptionally pleased with his schedule this year, another benefit of sucking up to Slughorn. Potions and Herbology went hand in hand, it made sense to take the classes consecutively. The only downside was the trek from the dungeons to the greenhouses.
As he, Barty, Evan and Dorcas walked, their mindless chatter went quiet as they all noticed the group of Gryffindors ahead walking towards them. Getting picked on and hexed as a Slytherin was a rite of passage. Being labeled the ‘evil’ house, many of the Hogwarts students took it upon themselves to treat them as such. It was the reason they made an effort to not walk around alone. Out the corner of his eye, Regulus watched Barty discreetly slip out his wand, just in case. It sounded more morbid than it really was, most of the time people wouldn’t mess around with the Prince of Slytherin and his friend, but there had been a few instances where things had gone south. At that moment a classroom door opened and another flush of students flowed out chattering loudly. Swept up in the crowd, Regulus bumped into someone, dropping his books.
The perpetrator quickly picked them up and placed them in his hands. Looking up, Regulus inwardly groaned as he looked at James Potter's golden brown eyes and lopsided smile. “Sorry Black!” Potter called, getting dragged away by Lupin. Sirius jumped out of nowhere onto Potters’ back, roughing up his hair as he was carried away..
Regulus stood there watching the older Gryffindors wrestle their way down the hallway. What in Merlin's name?
“Uncivilized, the lot of them.” Dorcas said, filling the rest of their walk with a generalized rant about the self-proclaimed Marauders. “God forbid they contain themselves long enough to walk down a corridor without tackling each other. Honestly, half of their house needs etiquette lessons. Have you seen that McKinnon girl during Quidditch? I swear half the shit she pulls can’t be legal.”
Regulus couldn’t agree more.
On his mission to avoid the Golden Gryffindor, Regulus would have liked to have been able to say that was the last he saw of him. Unfortunately, that was not the case.
One Saturday morning, after a night involving little to no sleep, Regulus decided to go flying. He got down to the pitch only to find Potter was already there. He was running drills, shooting the Quaffle through the hoop and flying around to catch it on the other side. Regulus stood and watched for a while. Potter didn’t let up for even a second and showed no sign of leaving, so Regulus made his way back up to the castle, not noticing Potter looking at him as he walked away.
A few days later Regulus headed to the library for a study session. His first big one for the year, up until this point he had been ahead on all the material, but he really needed to study for this upcoming Ancient runes assignment. He weaved through the passages of books and around the stacks that overflowed from the shelves, only to find his desk occupied. He had picked that desk in second year, in a secluded corner of the library near a window overlooking the castle, lounge chairs perfect for sitting crossed legged in made the long hours he spent here more comfortable. It was quiet, perfect, and his. He had never seen anyone else sitting here before. Lo and behold, he found Lupin and Potter sitting there, Defence against the Dark Arts books littered over the table, each with overall large cups of what he assumed to be tea and coffee. Black coffee? Regulus would have assumed Potter took his coffee overly sweet… The two men stared at Regulus as he stared at the desk.
Lupin was the first to break the silence, raising an eyebrow “Can we help you Black?”
Regulus only scoffed and turned to walk away, pausing to look back at his brother's boyfriend, “That's my spot”.
On an unrelated note, Regulus never found them sitting there again.
Over the next two weeks Regulus saw more of Potter than he probably had his whole life, whether it was bumping into him in corridors, while he was on prefect duty, or moments over breakfast in the great hall, he was everywhere.
Later that night after bumping into Potter in the library while looking for a book, Regulus stormed into the Slytherin common room. It was late, only a few stragglers were left, including Dorcas and Pandora, talking about something, it didn't matter. He threw up a silencing ward, dropping his satchel bag on the sofa.
“I have a problem” He gritted out.
Dorcas cocked her head, surprised, while Pandora tapped her fingers along her lips waiting for Regulus to elaborate.
At that moment it sort of dawned on Regulus that he had prompted a conversation he did not want to have. Immediately regretting saying anything at all. A beat passed and he exhaled sharply.
“Don’t worry about it.”
“Not planning on killing anyone, are we?” Pandora mused.
Regulus rolled his eyes. His friends knew better. If he ever plotted a murder, he certainly wouldn’t be foolish enough to admit it—amateur mistake.
Dorcas smirked. “You look like you're about three seconds off hexing someone”.
Regulus crossed his arms, refusing to dignify that with a response. This was stupid. Not worth discussing. But Pandora shot him a look—the one that meant she wasn’t putting up with what Evan liked to call the Black theatrics. He knew she wouldn’t drop it.
And so, he snapped. "I think Potter is following me."
“Why? What makes you think that?”
Regulus was on his feet.
“He is fucking everywhere Dorcas! I turn and he's there. I go to the library, Potter, I can’t even go a day walking to class without him popping up! It’s obscene! He knows something,” he said accusatory “I don’t know what, but he does. Or maybe he is spying on me for him? I don’t know it's not like he cared before but–”
Pandora cut off his rant, which had been accompanied by Regulus's hands dramatically gesturing as he paced in front of the two girls.
“This all seems quite circumstantial Regulus. He has Newts this year, of course he is going to be studying, and maybe his schedule would dictate where he walks.”
Regulus opened his mouth to speak but Dorcas had something to say.
“And what could he possibly know, Regulus? Your brother has probably already told him everything about your family and he has never shown interest in you before, what could have changed?”
Regulus was getting more frustrated by the second, “You don’t understand Dorcas, the man is fucking following me!”.
Their silence proved they were un-conceived.
“Ok fine! At the start of the year there was an incident,”
Dorcas and Pandora were suddenly listening more intently, their curiosity piqued.
“I spent the night out flying and spent the night in the astronomy tower,” As Pandora started to speak, likely to lecture Regulus about taking better care of himself, he silenced her by raising a hand. She slumped back into the couch. “Looking rather… unsavoury, I collided with Potter on my way back to the common room. He asked far too many questions and seemed to care far too much about where I had been. Since then I can’t seem to escape him. You see?!”
Docras and Pandora glanced at each other, Dorcas was the one to speak up “Look… It’s not a secret that Potter is a…how would you phrase it?”
“ Overly compassionate member of the community” Pandora added in.
“Yes. He is overly compassionate, and he clearly keeps an eye out for younger students who are struggling. He’s been putting far too much effort compensating for how shitty he used to treat Slytherins… Do you think it's possible that you popped up on his radar and he’s just… looking out for you?”
“Radar?”
“Oh muggle term. Ummm… he’s taken notice.”
Pandora hummed in agreement.
Regulus threw his hands up in defeat. “I swear to Merlin I'm going to just buy an invisibility cloak, this is out of hand.”
“Good luck with that!” Dorcas called back as Regulus picked up his satchel and headed down the stairs towards the boy’s dormitories.
Regulus didn’t need anyone to ‘look out for him’, Potter had a superiority complex if he ever saw one. He even had a reputation for picking on Slytherins in the past, and even if some of them deserved it (Severus), Regulus stood by his house. Not to mention, Potter most certainly aligned with Sirius, who despised him. So if Regulus knew one thing for certain, it was that he hated James Potter.