An Error
Sirius was weary when he found out he wouldn’t share a room with James. Most teams let the drivers share a hotel room, considering the room had a living area and separate bedrooms so they could still sleep away from each other. He had even made plans with James to play some games in their hotel room, but now obviously that wouldn’t be. Minnie had told him it was just a minor administration error that would be fixed soon, but going by her tone, Sirius knew she was lying. Something was wrong and he was sure the cat was going to come out of the bag soon.
The sound of a car revving and coming onto the track brought his mind back to the present. He stood in front of multiple monitors, each displaying something different, like cameras on the track, the footage of F1 TV, and the car's data. Although they were still setting up the data to be able to tell what happened when something goes wrong while driving. The familiar red walls, the smell of tires and petrol, the sound of mechanics working, he was finally home again after a couple of months of relaxing and partying. He watched the monitor as the Slytherin car of Regulus drove to the pit exit, waiting to be released for testing. He hated to admit it, but Slytherin’s car looked good, proudly sporting its prestige dark green colour. There was a big chance that they would challenge for the championship— or at least the constructor’s championship at that. It was practically impossible for rookies to get a driver’s championship and he doubted his little brother or his scheming friend were good enough to get it.
“We don’t know how well the cars are performing, Sirius, don’t think about it too much and just wait.” He turned to the voice, a smile gracing his lips. His engineer, Remus, had come up to him, somehow always knowing when Sirius needed to be brought back to reality. Remus had been his friend since their days on the karting track. He, James, and Peter. They all dreamed of making it to F1. But Remus had to retire back in Formula 3 when he fell ill all of a sudden and it was revealed he had a chronic disease. Not wanting to quit the racing world entirely, he focused on his studies to become an engineer, and here he was: the engineer talking in Sirius’ ear.
He hummed in reply when Remus continued: “The grid this year is quite green, giving us a bit of an advantage and our car is going to be great, I have faith in it. The Quidditch Falcons were our main competitors last year so we’ll keep an extra eye out for them.”
“A green grid is just as dangerous as it can give an advantage,” Sirius countered. “We don’t know their abilities in a Formula One car yet, they could easily be the next world champion.”
“Yes, they could be. But right now, in this moment, you are the world champion, not them.” Remus’ words made him blush slightly as he smiled widely at him. The young engineer put a hand on his shoulder, a sign of compassion and comfort, and Sirius couldn’t help but feel goosebumps rise on his skin.
“Right, well,” he started, clearing his throat, trying to hide his flustered state, “Whose going for a drive this session?” he asked, changing the subject. Remus raised an eyebrow, his gaze piercing as Sirius squirmed.
“For now, we have Reggie in the Slytherin, Logan in the Phoenix Rising, Alice in the Gryffindor, Marlene in the Valkyrie, and Alexi in the Death Eater car. Other teams are driving next session later today, as are you.”
“James still coming in two days?” he asked, drinking from his bottle as he looked at the screens. Remus hummed, glancing at the papers in his hands as he did.
“Let’s hope this administration error is fixed by then or it’s going to be one hell of a season,” Remus replied, looking at Sirius with pity. It made his head snap back, looking at him with suspicion. Yes, not rooming with James isn’t how he envisioned the start of the season but there was more to this error, and Remus knew it. Just as he was about to open his mouth, the sound of cars getting on the track cut him off. “I have to get back to the team,” Remus said, and with that, Sirius was left alone.
Halfway through the session, he excused himself to call James, not caring that he was in a completely different timezone right now.
“James, je besoin de te parler. Maintenant!” He rushed out the second he picked up, needing his perspective on this. He heard a groan on the other side and the rustling of bed sheets.
“Hm, just like that, Padfoot. Talk dirty to me,” he replied sarcastically, his voice still heavy with sleep. It made Sirius roll his eyes. Seriously, they travel around the world yet the prick didn’t deem it necessary to learn another language than English? Not even French, his best friend in the world’s native language?
“Oh, piss off, mate,” he said, although he couldn’t help but chuckle, “Trust me, you’d know when I’m dirty talking you. Besides, that’s not why I called unless you want it to be.” He wiggled his eyebrows even though James couldn’t see it. All he heard on the other side of the line was roaring laughter. There was some rustling again and he had no doubt James had put on his glasses. He claimed it ‘made him listen better’ in a conversation.
“Is this about the mail Minnie sent? I thought I’d at least get enough time to get a decent night’s sleep before I needed to reply.”
Mail? What mail? Minnie hadn’t sent him an email? Shit, did it get into spam again? He shrugged off his thoughts before replying to his friend. “Yeah, kind of? I think? I don’t know, man. There’s been some administration error and no one will give me any details on it so I’d hope you knew more or at least could give me some more perspective on this shit.”
“Yeah, no, give me a second,” James replied before numerous sounds came out of the phone. He heard a small thud before a “FUCKKK” came through the line. The scream was so sudden and loud that he had to pull his phone away from his ear. “Fucking shit bitch ass bedposts, I swear to god you things are the bane of my existence you little shits.” At this, Sirius burst into laughter, tears pooling in his eyes as he doubled over, trying not to laugh.
“Did… did you hit… your toe again on the… bedpost?” Sirius asked between gasps as he tried to control his laughter.
“I swear to god, they’re out to get me.” Was the only reply James gave as he muttered small curses. After a minute, where Sirius wiped away his tears and had his breath under semi-control again, James spoke up. “Uh, Padfoot…” He started, his voice uncertain. “I’m just reading the e-mail and, uh, you’re really not going to like this. It appears the teams made an error when booking the hotels for the season. It’s an honest mistake, you know, something very easily made and, uh—“
“Prongs, just spit it out, what is it?” Sirius asked, the suspension killing him.
“So you know how we are usually referred to by our last name and it has never been an issue because direct family members haven’t raced in the same period?” No. Nope, James don’t you fucking dare.
“It seems they switch Regulus and you. I’m sharing a room with Regulus and… you’re rooming with Barty Crouch.”
***
Regulus laid flat out on his bed, face first. He still had to unpack his suitcase, which was standing in the living area of the hotel room, but he couldn’t convince himself to get up. The first session of testing had been fine. The car was okay, a few minor changes needed to be done but it felt like a good car to drive and he hadn’t lost control over it, so you know, small victories. He actually felt great getting out of the car, adrenaline pumping as the reality of being an F1 driver settled in.
That wasn’t what had brought his mood down. Not at all.
No, when he had just entered the garage, taking off his fireproof suit to his waist and watching the data of his drive as he drank from his water bottle, his eyes had unfortunately glanced towards the screen displaying F1 TV. The stupid livestream that F1 provided for paying customers. Heck, everyone that paid could even rewatch this forever and it made his fucking blood boil.
“Yes, I completely agree with you, John. It is sad how this sport has been mostly about money. Sure it is very subtle most of the time, you wouldn’t notice it. But look at my little brother for example. He wouldn’t have ever gotten that seat if father dearest, our Orion Black, hadn’t thrown his money around and used his authority as Slytherin team principal. Hell, I can even bet Reggie wouldn’t have made it into any of the Formulas without Orion’s money.”
So, after everything, that was his brother’s opinion of him. After everything they went through together, the fights, the covering up for each other, he was thrown aside and called a spoiled brat who wasn’t worth anything. Well, honestly, fuck him. Fuck him and his entire fucking team and entourage. God, he couldn’t believe he thought they could reconcile now that both of them had made it. He desperately needed a drink, but he doubted his team would like it very much if he went out now.
So afterwards, instead of talking to any of the reporters, or analysing his data, or talking with his engineers, he just left for his hotel room. He knew he wasn’t going to share the room with Barty, as was planned. What actually happened, he doesn’t know, just that an error had occurred and the team was doing what they could to fix it.
The ringing of his phone made him look up, his face scrunched up in annoyance as his face had to leave the pillow. “What the fuck do you want,” he said, picking up without looking at the caller ID.
“Well, hello to you too, Reggie. I saw what Sirius said about you on television. Honestly, the nerve that guy has.”
“Dorcas, it’s fine, it’s whatever. Besides, you don’t need to pretend to hate him. I know your… girlfriend? Friend? Something. Is friends with him.”
“Well… yeah, but…” Dorcas sighed. “I don’t know, solidarity between friends, ya know? Besides, Marlene isn’t… were not… anyway, Evan just got screamed at by Barty, talking about some e-mail. Considering you haven’t whined to anyone about it, you either haven’t got one or you haven’t checked your mail.”
“I don’t whine.” Was Reggie’s immediate reply. Dorcas only kissed her teeth in reply and he could already see the face she was making while doing it. “I haven’t checked my mail, but Barty’s always screaming about something, surely it isn’t that important.”
“He was threatening to leave the team.”
With that, he immediately sat up. “What?” He breathed out, quickly switching the call to speaker as he opened his phone in search of his mailbox.
“Yeah, he was already on his plane to the track but he was talking about how he was going to force the pilot to turn back and all that shit. I don’t know anything, Evan claims Barty didn’t tell him but I know that even if he did, he wouldn’t tell me, so I don’t know if I should believe it.”
As she was saying this, he opened the e-mail his father had sent him. He froze, a heavy feeling settling in his stomach as he read the words.
“And?” Dorcas insisted after her rant was met with silence.
“They made a mistake. A mistake the size of the sun, Dorcas. They switched the rooms, Barty’s with Sirius and… I’m with James.”
***
Regulus rushed down the flight of stairs, too jittery to take the elevator and stand still for too long. After he told the news to Dorcas, he hung up and started his descent towards the main desk to fix it. Now.
As he was going down his final flight of stairs, he heard shouting.
“I don’t care if you’re fully booked, you don’t need extra rooms to fix this. Just switch us, it’s seriously not that hard.”
Sirius. The voice made him pause. It seemed his brother had found out about the error and was just as happy as he was. Not his brother, he made that very clear. He started walking again, albeit at a slower pace now, until he stood next to Sirius. He crossed his arms as he looked at the receptionist, who looked terrified. As in, needing new underwear terrified. It made his mouth quirk up.
“Exactly, just give Barty the key to my room, and James the key to this one’s,” he said, nodding his head sideways towards Sirius. “It’s really easy, I can even do it for you if you’re too incapable of it.” If Sirius was surprised Regulus was here, on the same side as him, he didn’t show it.
“As I’ve said before, sir, I am not allowed to do any of the sorts. I’m afraid you’ll have to bring it up with the people who booked the room.” The man behind the desk typed something on the screen while speaking, his hands slightly shaking. In the corner of his eye, Reggie could make out a Marauders Racing phone case. He doubted the receptionist would still be a fan after being cussed out by his idol. The thought almost made him snort.
“Well, if anyone can make it happen, it’s our dear Orion. Isn’t that right, Reggie?” The comment was snarky and Regulus clenched his jaw. He did his best to hide his emotions behind a cold, uncaring wall before replying.
“I’ll see what I can do.”
He wanted to scream at him that he wouldn’t have made it either without their parents. Wanted to scream that without talent, no amount of money would’ve gotten you in F1. He wanted to tell him to go fuck himself, that he wasn’t going to help with the room fiasco, not caring that he was harming himself with it in the progress.
In the end, he just turned on his heel and walked away, head held high.