Chapter 2
“Regina, meet me in the formal room,” Walburga said, rising from the dinner table.
Regulus looked up from his plate, seeing that his mother was already making her way out of the room, not bothering to wait for him to follow.
He hurriedly wiped his mouth with the cloth on his lap before standing, pushing in his chair, and following in her direction.
Regulus had come to think of the formal room as his mother's office. He would rarely be found elsewhere in the house, outside of meals, or when she went to the shops she was bound to be in.
Because of this, Regulus never knew what would occur when he was summoned into the room. Since she did all her business in there, and Regulus was her only real business, anything and everything that she could say in there was free game.
When he entered the formal room, his mother was seated in her favorite chair.
The formal room, like the rest of the house, was dripping with expensive heirlooms. The windowless dark green walls covered in paintings made the room feel closed in and suffocating. A large fireplace sat on the far side of the room from the doorway. In front of it, two chairs sat. One was his mother's designated chair, and the other was reserved for whomever she had chosen to allow to be around that day. In between the two chairs was a round table.
“Sit,” she said, gesturing to the empty seat diagonal to her.
He lowered himself into the chair, making sure to tuck his midthigh-length skirt as he did so. He crossed his legs and sat with a straight spine, just as his mother had raised him to do so.
They sat in silence for several minutes. Regulus had grown up in this house and knew how his mother viewed her children. She did not see it fit for her child, especially her daughter, to speak without being spoken to.
Regulus sat, eyes cast on the fire, as his mother studied him. He would pay good money to know her thoughts were when she did this, but he knew he would be upset with whatever he heard.
“Regina,” Walburga started, “As you are aware, you have come of age,”
Regulus nodded.
“Since your brother has turned his back on this family and rejected his place as heir, you are left as our sole child.” she continued. “While we had hoped that Sirius would find his way back to our family one day, we can not wait forever for him to realize the mistake he has made.”
She paused, reaching for the teacup on the coffee table beside her chair.
“We would have loved to have a male heir, one who would have taken our wealth and family values and passed them on to the next generation of Blacks. But alas, I failed to provide this family with a second son.”
Regulus looked down to the floor.
He knew these were the thoughts his mother had for him; it still felt like a knife in his chest just to confirm how the family saw him. No matter how perfect Regulus tried to be, he would always be seen as the young daughter that his parents never wanted.
As much as he wished he could object and tell her everything was ok, he was her son and had been for a long time. But he knew that the conversation would likely just end in his death.
“You still have an obligation to this family, which you will fulfill tonight.” Walburga continued as if she wasn’t using this time to destroy whatever hope her child had that she loved him. “There's a dress laid out for you upstairs on your bed. Be ready by eight.”
Regulus looked away from the fire and to her face for the first time in this conversation.
“What?” He questioned, leaning towards her.
“Regina,” She snapped.
Regulus straightened back up and controlled his face.
“You best make sure that's the last of that. Your husband won't be as tolerant as I am towards unladylike behaviors,” she said, standing.
Regulus’s eyes widened as he watched his mother as she moved to stand at the fireplace.
“Mulciber is his name. You should know him; he was a Hogwarts student a year above you and a fellow Slytherin.”
Air suddenly stopped reaching Regulus's lungs; there was no way the conversation was happening.
Deep breaths, think of the dessert. Regulus thought, trying to keep his emotions in check.He could feel the velvet of the chair growing cold beneath his bare legs, where his skirt had cut off.
Of course, he knew Muiber. The guy had terrorized Regulus since they were first years. He was the primary reason Regulus stopped playing Quitich in his fourth year when Muiciber kept coming into the locker room to corner him.
He continued to stare at his mother, trying to regulate his breath, but then his mother returned to stand before him.
He dropped his gaze, trying to focus on not letting his feelings get the best of him.
She put one clawed finger under his chin, forcing him to look her in the eyes.
She tilted his face back and forth, inspecting it with a hum.
“What he sees in you, I haven't the slightest idea. He directly came to me with the proposal, and given how rich his family is, he's likely the best offer I could get for you.”
She dropped her finger as she stood straight and sat back in her chair.
Walburga turned to her table. She opened its drawer, pulling out a small black jewelry box.
The box itself was gorgeous. It was a rounded rectangle shape, completely black outside of the gold rimming. On the front, there was a tiny gold clasp that kept it shut.
Walburga turned it in her hands and popped it open. She pulled out a tiny silver diamond-embedded clip.
“When I was sixteen, I was blessed enough to marry your father, and my mother gave me this clip. It has been passed down through Black women for almost twenty generations.” She placed it carefully back into the box, clicking the lip closed. “Take your gloves off,”
“My gloves?” Regulus said with wide eyes.
“Yes, your Gloves, Regnia; I shouldn't have to repeat myself.”
He looked down at his shaking hands before pulling the glove by his middle finger off, then following the suit for the other.
“Never touch heirlooms with gloves; it's a sign of disrespect. No matter what your personal feelings are.”
She handed him the box. His only thoughts were not to turn it into an ice cube.
He shakingly opened it, looking closer at the clip within. Up close, he could see that it had a base with a silver comb and that the top was silver flowers with diamonds in the middle. It was quite a lovely piece, delicate and clear of its worth—not something he wanted to touch with his bare hands.
With each passing second he held the box, he could see ice itching up from the base further and further.
“It's beautiful mother,” He said.
“I want you to wear that tonight at your engagement party,” she said, “All purebloods will be here to celebrate. Unfortunately, that does include the Potters because, for some reason, the Muibers thought it was important everyone came.”
The last sentence was all it took for ice to coat the bottom half of the box that Regulus held in his hand. He quickly set it on the lap away from his hands.
He quietly tried composing himself, hoping and praying his mother didn’t notice.
“Be dressed and ready on time. You are excused.” she dismissed.
Regulus bowed his head and stood, clutching the box and his gloves as he left the room.
As soon as he reached the safety of his room, he threw the box on the bed and pulled on his gloves, finally able to take a deep breath.
He leaned against the wall and laughed at the situation's absurdity.
Of course, his mother was marrying him off for money, and she only told him hours before the engagement. And of course, the boy he'd been in love with since childhood was going to show up.
The best part was that this was all happening just because he was a girl, but he wasn’t even that.
And now he had three hours to prepare to lose every ounce of freedom he had ever enjoyed.
At some point, his laughs had dissolved into tears, and he slid down his door, wondering how he would get out of this.
-
“For fucks sake,” Sirius cursed, throwing his tie onto the countertop.
That was it, he wasn't going.
He looked at himself in the bathroom mirror, making a face. There was no way he would step foot in that house again, not tonight.
“Sirius,” sounded through the door, paired with a knock.
“I’m fine, James,” Sirius said, ignoring his disheveled look reflecting at him from going back and forth on getting ready or unready.
James opened the door, taking in Sirius's state before going and pulling him in a hug.
Sirius practically melts into him. James himself was already ready, his dress robes neatly pressed, and his hair about as tame as it could get—which wasn't very tame but still pretty good for him.
“I’m not going,” Sirius muttered into James shoulder.
James rubbed his back and hummed, clearly not believing Sirius.
“I mean, I'm not,” he insisted. I can't even get my stupid tie right.”
“But then you will never see Reggie again,” James said softly.
“I don't care,” he cared very deeply.
“Yes, you do,” James said, halfway pulling away from the hug to look into Sirius's eyes.
Of course, he cared, his seventeen-year-old sister was getting married. She was only a baby and would now probably have one of her own by the end of the year.
“I should have brought her with me, not left her in that house,” Sirius said.
“The best thing you can do now is to go be there for your sister,” James said.
“We haven't spoken in years; she doesn't care if I'm there or not,” Sirius replied,
He untangled himself from James, grabbed his tie, and returned to his bedroom.
“I mean, for all we know, Reggie is the one that asked for this. She’s known Muiciber for years. Who knows how long they could have been fooling around,” Sirius said as he riffed though his dresser drawer, not even sure what exactly he was looking for.
“Reggie didn’t choose Muiciber. You and I both know that,” James said from where he leaned against the bathroom door frame.
“Oh yes, because you know my sister so well. Of course, she would never willingly agree to a marriage pact because you are deeply in love with her, so she would never care for another man,” Sirius snapped.
When James didn’t reply, Sirius turned to look at him, staring at the floor.
He sighed and headed towards James, placing a hand on his shoulder.
“James, I’m sorry.”
“This isn't Reggie, Sirius,” James insisted, looking into Sirius’s eyes. “I know them better than that,”
Sirius was surprised to find tears forming in James's eyes. He knew he had had a thing for Reggie since fifth year, but how he talked made it seem like they had been long-time lovers.
“James, she's not going to run away with you; you know that, right?” Sirius asked.
James swallowed deeply.
“I have to try, Sirius.” He replied.
Sirius just sighed and walked back over to his bed.
“You have to get over this obsession one day, James. She's getting married whether you like it or not.” He said as he picked back up his tie, “Nothing you can say is going to change his mind.”
Secret Sirius hoped he was wrong that James would go in there and give the speech of a lifetime, and Reggie would run away with him.
As far as Sirius knew, James and Reggie had never even spoken to each other. But at this point, James might be his only hope.
The last time Sirius and Reggie had spoken civilly had to have been before Sirius left for Hogwarts. Back then, everything was still simple. When it was just the two siblings clinging to each other in an attempt to survive the house they were trapped in.
After he had left, his parents had brainwashed her, and he had never quite been able to bond with her after that.
That first holiday, he returned to what was a brand new sister. Reggie's white hair was gone, replaced with the black that the rest of the family had, and her sweet, caring energy was replaced with cold stoicism.
At least it appeared like her little problem had been solved then. Whether she had learned to suppress it or if their parents had found out and somehow rid her of the curse, he didn't know, but he was thankful either way. He had never seen her without her gloves, but he wouldn't be shocked if it had just become a stress-related thing for her.
Sirius jumped a bit when a hand touched his back, having been too lost in thought to hear James approaching.
“Mate, I know returning to that house is hard, but you will never forgive yourself if you don't.”
Sirius sighed, “Your right,”
James hummed.
“You need help with that tie?”
Sirius nodded before passing the fabric to James.
He was opting for a muggle formal rather than dress robes for the night—anything to show his parents further that he wasn't one of them and would never be.
James smoothed the tie after he successfully tied it on the first try.
“We best get going if we are going to make it on time,”
Sirius nodded.
He grabbed his leather jacket from where it was sitting on the back of his desk chair and shouldered it on.
He took a deep breath. It was just one night. He had survived that house for fifteen years, and there was nothing his parents could do without causing a scene. Sirius knew that would never scar their reputation like that.
He was just going to walk in, congratulate Reggie, and pretend that when James disappeared for a bit, he wasn't trying one last time to seduce his brother, and then they would leave.
Nothing terrible would happen. Everything would be fine.