POV Regulus
Kids were really mean in Chicago. Regulus had made one friend, Pandora, who was nice, but the rest of them were really mean. Regulus just didn't like them. He really wished he could just go to school with Sirius and James. However, James was in the fifth grade and fifth graders didn't play with second graders during recess.
Regulus understood this. He wouldn’t want to be playing the preschoolers. Although he hoped that James didn’t think of him as a preschooler, that would be mega embarrassing. Anyway, James still played with him after school and he always said hi when they saw each other in the halls or on the playground, but during recess, he usually just drew with Pandora. That's what they were doing right now, sitting on the pavement drawing with chalk. Regulus was really good at drawing and he much preferred it to running around playing football poorly like all the other second-grade boys. All the other second-grade girls, besides Pandora, were always jump roping, which Regulus found boring.
None of them liked Regulus because he just didn’t like doing what they liked to do. They also didn't like Regulus because he wasn't allowed to have playdates after school except with the Potters, so they didn’t know him very well. They also thought he was weird because he didn't like to talk a lot. But Regulus thought that maybe he would talk to them more if they had anything interesting to say. That’s what he liked about Pandora, while she might be odd, she always had something interesting to say.
Regulus looked over to the spot where the girls usually jump rope, but now they were gone. That was strange. Every day they would stand in that spot and jump rope. Which seemed a bit odd, but they never asked Regulus what his opinion on the matter was. He and Pandora didn't sit in the same place and draw the same thing every day. Some days they drew dragons and on others, they drew flowers or dogs, whatever they felt like, really. But the girls seemed to like jump roping every day. Except for today, today they apparently were doing something else.
Regulus felt a strong push behind him. He tried to look back but ended up falling on the ground before he got the chance. He heard lots of laughing behind him, but by the time he was able to look behind him, the girls were all running away. "Regulus, are you okay?" Pandora asked quickly.
Regulus looked down at his scratched-up arm and bleeding knee and the pain rushed through him. "OW!" He yelled as a tear slipped down his face.
"Regulus! Regulus!" He heard a voice come up behind him. "Are you okay?"
He looked up to see James with a worried look on his face. He sniffled a bit, "I'm okay. I hurt my arm and my leg." James was there, Regulus thought, things weren't as bad when James was there. He made it better when his dad went away and when his mom forced them to move to England. Things were better when James was around.
James began to lift him up so they could walk to the teacher. "What happened?" James asked as Regulus began to limp towards where the teacher was sitting.
"The- some kids pushed me." Regulus did his best to hold back a soft sob. He didn’t know what he did to make so many people dislike him so much. He followed the rules and was usually, sometimes, nice. He just didn’t fit in like everyone else. He didn’t understand how it was so much easier for everyone else to be normal.
"They pushed you? Why?" James asked with a frown on his face.
"I don't think they like me very much," Regulus said quietly.
"That's crazy!" James exclaimed with a genuine look of shock on his face. "You're the coolest. You're like Batman" He said with a small smile on his face. Regulus laughed. Everything really was better when James was around.
"Oh, Dear." Ms. Sprout walked up to them. "Are you okay Regulus?" She said with a warm voice.
"He cut his arm and leg. I think it just needs to be cleaned and have a band-aid put on." James said.
"Thank you, James.” She said with an approving smile, “I think you're right." She nodded.
James helped Regulus sit down on the steps and then walked away. Regulus watched him walk up to Sirius and whisper something in his ear. He then pointed to Regulus and Sirius’ expression turned to a scowl. Then James pointed to the kids who had pushed Regulus. Sirius nodded with a fiery expression. The two of them walked up to the group of kids who were now all in a cluster laughing, assumingly at Regulus.
The two boys did their best to stand up straight and crossed their arms in order to look as intimidating as they could. Then they said something to them. It was really far away so Regulus couldn't quite make out what they were saying. But after a couple of minutes, the boys walked away and Regulus could see that two of the mean girls were crying and the rest of them looked really worried. Regulus smiled at the distressed children. James made everything better.
After the two boys were done antagonizing the bullied, Pandora made her way toward Regulus at the steps of the school. “Your bodyguards took care of it,” she said with a giggle.
“They aren’t my bodyguards,” Regulus said with his chin up.
“Yes, they are,” Pandora said in a sing-song voice.
“No they aren’t,” Regulus responded.
“Yes, they are,” Pandora sang again.
“You’re just jealous because you don’t have any bodyguards,” Regulus joked.
“Are you saying you aren’t my bodyguard?” She giggled.
“Absolutely not,” Regulus laughed as he saw the two older boys walking toward him.
“How are you feeling?” Sirius asked with concern when he reached them.
“I’m fine,” Regulus rolled his eyes, even though he still had tear stains on his face.
“Of course he’s fine,” James smiled, “Reg is always fine, it takes more than some random kids to keep him down.” Regulus nodded along and Sirius smiled. He didn’t need all the kids at his school to like him, all he needed was these kids to like him.