Regulus Black and The Elemental Trials

"As required, you all must acquire proper instruction on formal dancing." Slughorn announced to the group of students. 

Slytherins years four and up, were scattered against the walls and chairs around the room- that was quite like a hall of sorts. 

Regulus was enveloped in his sketchbook, doodling his go-to picture of flowers. 

He'd rather not focus on Slughorn's yammering or the other Slytherins he'd rather not be around.

"Regulus, my boy, why don't you come up here and give a demonstration." Slughorn suggested as Regulus' head shot upwards. 

"Yeah, Regulus, go give us a demo." Barty teased from beside him. 

Regulus groaned internally placing his sketchbook where he'd been sitting, before heading towards the center of the room. 

"And how about..." Slughorn paused scanning the crowd, "Annalise. Come up and join Mr. Black." 

A small, mousy girl appeared joining beside Regulus. 

She had pretty green eyes and long, wavy blonde hair and a small scar that cut through her left eyebrow. 

"Place your hand here", Slughorn directed as he moved Annalise's hand to rest on Regulus' shoulder, "And you place yours here."

There was a collection of whistles as Slughorn moved Regulus' hand to Annalise's waist. 

The two of them grabbed hands, intertwining their fingers of their free hand as the music began. 

Annalise's fingers were smaller than his and her grip was tight- from nerves, Regulus supposed. 

It wasn't half as nice as when James would hold his hand. Her finger were constantly moving to find the perfect grip. 

They swayed, moving in circles and trying to stay in tune with each other. 

Regulus found it rather hard- her hands were sweaty, her steps rigid, and worst of all, all she did was look everywhere else but Regulus- making him unsure where he was supposed to look. 

Regulus was over it by the time other students had been paired off by the head of house and began dancing around the pair. 

Regulus wondered what the Gryffindor lessons were like.

He imagined smiles on everyone's face as they swayed to beautiful upbeat music. James' adorable laugh filling the room as he and Sirius fooled around. 

McGonagall would scold them for not taking it serious while Lupin and Pettigrew would laugh at them from the sidelines. 

There was no smiling at the Slytherin rehearsals. Unamused looks, apparent on the faces of everyone. 

"Hey, Regulus do...", Her sentence fell from Regulus' ears as he spotted Ivan and Claudette teasing him by dancing terrible and laughing from the doorway, "...Yule Ball with me?" 

Regulus stepped away as Slughorn dismissed them. He rolled his eyes playfully at the duo.

"Uh yeah, sure." Regulus muttered before rushing off, not entirely sure what'd agreed to. 

He swooped up his sketchbook and bag before making his way into the hall. 

He turned to his left wondering where the pair had gone, only for them to appear from behind. 

"Reggie! Phenomenal dancing in there, you really know your way with the ladies." Ivan said unable to hold in his snicker. 

"Yeah, I think James outta look out." Claudette joined in as Regulus failed suppressing the smile on his face. 

"You told your siblings about the egg in water, right?" Regulus asked changing the subject as they turned the corner. 

"Yeah, figured out the breathing underwater too." Claudette explained. 

"Do you know what they took?" Ivan quizzed. 

"No clue", Regulus explained, "I've thought about it, but James has never been all too sentimental about objects."

"Tell me about it, my sister is the worst when it comes to putting things where she'll remember it. So I highly doubt she'd piece together that anything at all had actually been stolen from her." Ivan explained. 

"Are you guys going to the Yule dinner thing?" Claudette quizzed. 

"Yeah." Regulus answered. 

"Yep, but it'll be mostly us", Ivan explained with a laugh, "Reg will be too occupied by his boyfriend to even remember we exist." 

"You're so funny, Ivan. You've got the outfit and nose- you might as well just drop out of school and become a clown full-time." Regulus jeered. 

Ivan clutched his chest dramatically, "Ouch! I'm hurt. Man down, man down." 

Regulus rolled his eyes turning to Claudette. 

"Are you two going to Yule Ball?" Regulus quizzed. 

Claudette smiled softly, "Yeah." 

"Finally", Regulus scoffed turning to Ivan, "Took you long enough. How'd you do it?"

"I took James advice", Ivan explained, "I went up and asked her." 

Regulus face fell, "Are you fucking serious?" 

"Oh yeah. James and I agreed that your ideas were shit." Ivan exclaimed- even know Regulus had quite literally suggested first that Ivan just go up and ask her. 

"Since you and James are such good buddies, why don't you pass it along that he's not getting any." Regulus scoffed causing Claudette to giggle. 

***

It was later in the evening as Regulus strolled aimlessly around the castle. 

Arms grabbed him, pulling him into an empty classroom. 

He was pushed against the wall as lips smashed against his own. 

"That's what I thought", Regulus huffed as they pulled apart, "Talked to Ivan, have you?" 

"You're cute." James cooed pecking the boys lips. 

"Flattery isn't going to get you anywhere." Regulus explained. 

"You sure?" James asked innocently as his fingers dipped in his waistband, brushing against his bare skin. 

Regulus scoffed, "You can't break me, James."

"But I can try", James muttered,  smirking as he kissed down the boys jaw and towards his collarbone. 

The door opened fast, Sirius stepping into the empty classroom. 

"James? What're you doing by yourself? In an empty classroom? With the lights off?" Sirius quizzed. 

James' eyes traveled to the spot where Regulus' had once been- now completely empty.

"Nothing", He said speedily turning towards the boy, "What are you doing?"

"Moony's studying and told me I should go annoy you instead." Sirius shrugged. 

Sirius' eyes fell to the black cat that tried sneaking past him, the same time James spotted the cat. 

It was a small black cat, with big grey eyes and a long fluffy tail. 

Sirius swiftly swooped the cat up, petting it gently- causing it to give up its squirming. 

"Look how cute. Personally not a cat person", Sirius joked pressing a kiss to the cats head, "But he's so fluffy." 

James squinted at the cat, confused. 

Sirius observed the cat, "There's no collar." 

James had a striking suspicion about the cat, but he'd have to wait to prove this idea. 

"A stray maybe?" James suggested. 

"Maybe" Sirius said as he continued to pet the cat, "We should take him back to the dorm." 

"Moony'll kill us." James quipped. 

"When has that ever stopped us before?" Sirius quizzed raising his eyebrows. 

James sighed in defeat holding his hands up in surrender as Sirius smiled victoriously. 

The pair walked out of the classroom, in the direction of the Gryffindor portrait not too far from where they were- which was a rookie mistake in James' part. 

"We should name him", Sirius suggested, "How about Fluffy?" 

The cats tail pulled back before smacking Sirius in the face. 

James tried- and failed miserably- to hid his snicker. 

"Fine. Not Fluffy." Sirius huffed in defeat. 

James caught sight of the cat and smiled placing a hand on Sirius' shoulder. 

"How about Dot? Cuz of the spot of white." James suggested pointing to the singular tiny spot- only proving James' theory. 

"Dot?" Sirius quizzed before smiling, "I like it." 

As they reached the portrait, James muttered the password and both boys entered the Gryffindor common room. 

"Don't get too attached, Remus'll make you get rid of it as soon as he sees." James warned the boy as they headed up the stairs towards their dorm. 

Sirius didn't listen to James as he practically danced the entire way to the dorm. 

James sighed opening the door and Sirius lightly placed Dot to the ground. 

"Hey Pete", James greeted the blonde before turning to Remus, "Moony." 

James and Sirius watched as Dot pranced towards Remus, who sat at the edge of his bed reading, and rubbed against his legs. 

Remus moved his book to reveal the fuzzy black cat at his legs. 

To James' surprise, Remus closed the book before swooping the cat up into his arms. 

"Do I wanna know why there's a cat in our dorm?" Remus asked as Dot's soft purrs filled the room. 

"We found him in a empty classroom, doesn't have a collar- we think he might be a stray." Sirius explained as he moved to join beside Moony. 

Remus made a face- the one he did when he was thinking. 

"I told Pads we should've left him- that you'd just tell him the same thing." James explained, as if saying 'I told you so' to Sirius. 

"I mean- if he's a stray, it wouldn't hurt anyone if he stayed." Remus muttered looking down towards the warm ball of fur in his arms. 

James blinked in disbelief- he had no idea what had just happened.

"What?" James spat. 

"Look at him, James", Remus started, "He just wants affection. Poor cats probably been all alone." 

James couldn't believe what'd happened, the moment playing over in his head as he laid in bed hours later. 

The cat jumped up onto his bed, pushing the curtains to wedge inside, before placing itself on James' chest. 

James picked the cat up slightly in the air before flipping them- hovering over Regulus as he was a cat no longer. 

"I thought we didn't keep secrets from each other?" James quizzed, hurt that Regulus' hadn't told him. 

"I'm sorry, don't be mad", Regulus muttered with a frown, "I forgot about it- I did it last year so we could hang out in the Summer, but then the whole Dark Lord thing came up and- I never even planned to use it again, but I panicked because I didn't want you to get in trouble-"

James pressed his lips to Regulus' to stop the boy from incessantly rambling. 

"You're lucky you're cute", James mumbled as he pulled away, pausing ever-so-slightly, "Dot." 

"What? I think your birthmark is cute." James exclaimed as Regulus groaned. 

Regulus should've known his birthmark would transfer into his animagnus form, by way of a small white dot. 

Regulus rolled his eyes at the boy as James snickered. 

Regulus' smile fell a bit, "Are you sure you're not mad?" 

"I'm not mad", James assured pecking the boys lips, "On one condition." 

Regulus nodded in anticipation, looking in James' eyes for any indication that he'd been mad at Regulus. 

"No more secrets", James asked, "Promise?"

"Promise." Regulus agreed with a smile as he sat up, pushing his lips to James'.