Chapter 6
„Do I look better with or without the blood?“, Evan asks loudly the others. Him, Barty, Regulus and Dorcas all meet up in the boy’s‘ dormitory to dress up for Slughorn‘s infamous party.
As all of them were Slytherins, children of some of the most powerful pureblood families and rather good in school, they obviously were invited.
„You always look shit“, Barty shouts from the bathroom, where he is trying miserably to get his pirate make-up, as he calls it, right. „You have no right to have an opinion as long as you don’t get your eyeliner right“, Dorcas calls out and Evan and her high five each other. „And now give me the fake blood, Rosier! I paid for it at Zonko‘s.“
He hands her the bottle and she starts to paint drops of blood around her mouth. She and Evan decided to go as vampires together.
Meanwhile, Regulus stands in front of the mirror and adjusts his fine coat a last time. He hasn't dressed up of course - he wouldn't stoop to that level - and is simply wearing one of his best outfits.
„I still think you should just join our vampire idea, Reg. A bit of fake blood and you would rock the fit. You‘re pale enough for it“, Evan exclaims and Regulus groans in response. „I already told you, I will not dress up.“
„Because you are boring“, Barty says as he finally leaves the bathroom. His make-up actually turned out really well. He painted some fake scars on his cheeks and his eyes are outlined with eyeliner, making him, and Regulus hates to admit it because he swore himself that he left this crush in fourth grade, really hot.
„There is a fine line between being boring and having class, Crouch. But I doubt you would know that.“ He gets hit by a pillow in his back. „Ey, not fair! Attacking from behind!“ Regulus grabs the pillow from the ground and throws it right back to his friend but Barty simply dodges it and just laughs at him. „You should never assume anyone is playing fair.“
„Idiots“, Dorcas mutters while hexing her teeth to look like vampire fangs. „As if you were any better“, Barty complains and throws the pillow to her this time. She catches it with ease. „Nice try“, she says.
On their way to the rooms where the party would be held, they meet up with Pandora in one of the corridors. She is wearing a flowy dress that reaches down to the floor combined with beautiful flowers that she braided into her white hair. Regulus also notices her ears, which she seemingly hexed to look like pointy elf ears. Overall she looks even more mystical than she normally does.
„Hello my friends“, she greets them with a smile and Evan gives her a short hug. „You look amazing, Sis“, they don’t show it too often but the twins really loved each other. Growing up with very strict parents, the other was often all they had. When Regulus first got to know them better, they sometimes remembered him an awful lot of Sirius and him. Not that it mattered anymore.
„Pirate?“, she points to Barty who nods in agreement. Combined with his make-up, he is wearing simple brown fabric trousers with a white wife-beater. He also has transfigured a quill into some kind of sword to finish his look. „And you two are vamires“, Dorcas and Evan are both wearing black coats and underneath white shirts that they splattered with their fake blood.
Pandora now turns to Regulus. „And you are?“
„I’m not doing this shit“, he crosses his arms in front of his chest. „You all should know me better than to even expect it from me.“ Pandora just shrugs with her shoulders. „I never know what to expect from you“, and before he can question any further what she means by that, she turns around and begins to walk. „Well, let‘s go. Rumor has it that Old Slug even arranged some Crumple-Horned Snorkacks.“
°°°
The party is in full swing and the friends are having fun. Barty and Evan have been playing a drinking game with firewhiskey, the girls are sipping their cocktails that change the flavor with every sip and even Regulus is starting to feel the alcohol in his body.
Right now he is leaning against the wall, observing the room. Dorcas is right next to him. Together they watch the other students who are at the party.
„Have you seen Selwyn?“, she whispers to him. „He is going as a fucking quidditch player.“ Regulus can’t help himself but to start laughing. Selwyn was one of the Slytherin chasers last year and made a new record by not scoring a single goal in the entire season. This year, much to Regulus' delight, Dorcas agreed to take up her position again and he, as the team captain, had the great honour of kicking Selwyn out. „Well, seeing him in a quidditch uniform is certainly scary.“ Dorcas joins his laughter. „Definitely on theme.“
They keep on watching and commenting on the other guests costumes while dying of laughter and drinking cocktails. Some of the costumes are definitely bold, as Regulus would describe it at least, with skirts, dresses and shorts that barely cover all important parts, some are just plain boring and he is saying that as someone who didn’t dress up at all, but no costume is still better than just a white sheet with holes as eyes, and some are actually quite creative. „I did not just see someone dressed as McGonagall“, Dorcas says in complete disbelief, watching a fifth grader walking through the crowd.
When Regulus sees another group of familiar faces, he almost shakes his head in disappointment. It's the Marauders and while his brother and Potter are seemingly dressed like muggle musicians, or at least Regulus assumes that is what they are trying to portray, they actually dressed Lupin as a werewolf. „Are they even trying?“, he mumbles to himself and Dorcas gives him a look. He just shakes his head, not wanting to go in any further detail in why Lupin‘s costume is as ridiculous as it is.
„Merlin, look at…“, Dorcas starts to speak again but suddenly stops. Regulus follows her gaze and his eyes land on Marlene McKinnon, who has just joined the Marauders. She is wearing a pink cowboy hat, matching the pink streaks her hair has and her vest.
She tells the boys something and they all start to laugh then she hits Sirius arm, quite hard it seems because he cries out indignantly, and with a look on her face as if she wants to make it clear that she means it seriously. The other boys stop laughing now and for a split second it looks like their gazes wander to Regulus and Dorcas.
„Are they looking at us? I feel watched“, she whispers to Regulus who hums in agreement. It does feel like they are the topic of the conversation that the group has going on.
When McKinnon turns round, apparently finished talking to the Marauders, she heads straight in their direction. "I think they were looking at us," Regulus adds in confusion. What did she want from them?
She stops directly in front of Dorcas, not really paying any attention to anyone but her. „Hey“, you can hear the nervousness in her usually bold voice. „Hey“, Dorcas simply replies. „I wanted to ask you for a dance, this is a party after all“, Marlene says, now blushing heavily.
„Me?“, Dorcas asks fully surprised. „I mean yes, obviously“, she adds fast. „I just didn’t expect you to ask me.“
Regulus can feel McKinnon‘s look on him. This is not supposed to be heard by anyone but Dorcas so he steps to the side and gives his attention to Barty, Evan and Pandora who all started to play a game where you have to guess the next flavor a cocktail and if you‘re wrong, you have to down it. Needless to say the game involves heavily drinking and nothing else.
He can still hear the girls whispering behind his back, he just doesn’t pay enough attention to get the words. After a while they both laugh and Marlene pulls Dorcas onto the dance floor as a new song starts. Out of the corner of his eye he sees the two of them dancing, their movements slowed by the alcohol, but they look very happy.
"Good for them," he murmurs to no one but himself. He'd never spoken directly to Dorcas about his or her sexuality, but with a few comments on her part, he could guess his share, and he was sure that if anyone knew about his secret, it was most likely her.
For a while, he simply observes his friends play their game, not wanting to participate himself. It’s quite fun to watch because while Barty and Evan have to down drink after drink, Pandora just aces every round. Whatever she says, it’s the next flavor. Regulus slowly understood why she always got an O in Divination.
At some point later, Barty and Evan disappear to the toilet, judging by Evan's face, which leaves only Pandora and Regulus as Dorcas is still on the dance floor. She is telling him about one of her last dreams, Lunar, Dorca's cat, could speak, but only in French, which is why Pandora is contemplating to learn it now.
But suddenly she stops mid sentence. „I think this is my cue to leave now. Have fun, Reggie!“, she simply states, eyeing something behind his back. „What…“, he starts but she already turned around and starts to hop happily to some Ravenclaws at the other end of the hall.
„…in Merlin‘s name“, he mumbles as someone touches his shoulder from behind and he flinches.
It‘s no other than Dean McKinnon.
Who couldn‘t be on here for long because Regulus is sure that he and Dorcas would have mentioned his outfit in their gossiping. He is wearing no shirt and just golden shorts with matching shoes. His skin looks glittery tho and Regulus thinks that he can even spot some glitter in the messy blonde hair of the other boy.
„What are you wearing, McKinnon“, Dean looks completely unbothered by Regulus‘ judgmental tone and just replies: „My costume“, as if that would clear things up. „Told you I would be Rocky from The Rocky Horror Picture Show. We could have matched.“
„I still don‘t know what that is and I still don‘t give a fuck“, he states but Dean just grins at him. „For the fact that you‘re not giving a fuck, you looked awfully long at my chest. Regulus flushes. He tries to ignore that McKinnon might have a point with that.
„You're deluding yourself. What do you want anyway? Don't you have to show your shirtless body to some Gryffindor girls?“, Regulus says as confident as possible. Talking to the other boy half-naked makes him more nervous than he would like to admit.
McKinnon has the audacity to just laugh at him. „Maybe I prefer you instead of some girl.“ He leans a bit closer to Regulus who is leaning to the wall. „Anyway Reggie, I just wanted to talk to you.“ Regulus grumbles in annoyance. „I told you to not call me that.“
Dean pulls a face, you can tell he drunk as much as Regulus. „But why is she allowed and I am not?“, he actually sounded wondering. It took a moment for him to realize about who he is talking about until he remembers Pandora‘s last few words again. „You mean Panda?“, he asks confused. „We are friends. Last time I checked we both don‘t even talk outside of classes and even that only unwillingly.“
„We should change that“, Dean declares, sounding way too happy about his plan. And because Regulus doesn‘t know what else to answer, he just asks: „Want to play a drinking game? I know a good one.“
°°°
„Wait“, Regulus calls after Dean. They left the party a bit ago and are now roaming around through the corridors of Hogwarts without an actual goal.
To Regulus surprise they also had a lot of fun, they first played the same game Barty, Evan and Pandora have played earlier and they absolutely sucked at it. They drank together an entire tray with drinks. After it got too boring, Dean asked him to race and that‘s exactly what they did next.
Running through the corridors and up the stairs of Hogwarts, it felt like they just couldn’t stop laughing. Regulus had the most fun when Dean stepped on one of the trick stairs and he had to help him out. By now you normally knew them by heart, but the alcohol and adrenaline made it easy to forget them.
Dean stops and Regulus finally gets the chance to catch up with him again. Heavily breathing he leans against the wall next to him. „Fuck, that's exhausting in the long run“, he swears, trying to get his breath. „You‘re quidditch captain, Black. You should be fit“, Dean jokes but judging by his sweaty body, he is still shirtless after all, he is as drained as Regulus.
„I am fit, thank you very much. Just not fit enough to run around endlessly.“
For a while they just stand there in silence, both more focused on their breathing than on anything else.
„You know what, Reggie?“, Dean suddenly breaks their mutual silence. „Mhm?“, Regulus hums in reply, not even bothering to correct the nickname. „You‘re actually quite fun to be around when you‘re not pretending for once.“
„I‘m not pretending“, but even Regulus doesn‘t believe his own statement. He is pretending, all the time. Just someone like Dean shouldn‘t be aware of it.
„Don‘t lie to yourself“, Dean pushes himself away from the wall and takes a step to the side, standing now directly in front of Regulus. He leans onto the wall with his left arm, placing it right next to the other boy‘s head.
„How would you know?“, he asks back and tries to sound contemptuous, but fails miserably.
Deans moves a bit more forward, their faces are now only inches apart. Looking into his eyes, Regulus can now see that the outer edges of his blue eyes are sprinkled with brown spots.
„I don‘t. I just assume things and I assume I‘m right about you.“
Regulus shakes his head, trying to comprehend the spoken words. „That made no sense“, he finally declares.
Dean, who is now also looking confused thinking about his last words says: „Well, anyway. What I‘m trying to say is that I want to understand you. If you let me.“
Before Regulus can answer him they hear laughing and loud voices from around the corner. Voices that are impossible not to recognize. His brother and his entourage.
„Fuck“, he says as Dean already drags him into the next broom cabinet that is thankfully located just a few steps away. Due to the small size of the cupboard, they have to completely lean onto each other to not fall over. Dean‘s skin is warm and soft and Regulus curses the shirtless costume of him once more this evening.
„Did you hear something?“, he makes out Lupin‘s voice from the outside. „No, not really“, Potter replies. „Maybe someone is in the broom cabinet“, Sirius suggest and Regulus holds his breath. „But that‘s none of our business.“ He exhales relieved.
They can hear the Marauders‘ banter for a bit more before their voices become more quiet again, seemingly walking away.
Regulus is about to disengage himself and leave the cupboard, but Dean is already talking again.
„Can I kiss you?“
The question comes out of the blue and is the last thing Regulus expects from Dean. He knows he should just leave Dean here, go to his bed and forget about anything that happened today but nonetheless he does quite the opposite and nods slowly.
Dean lifts his chin slightly with his fingers. They feel gentle on Regulus' face. He moves his face closer and then kisses him. It‘s a soft kiss and Regulus can‘t help himself but to smile into it.