Chapter 17
Chp 17
Regulus, Rory and Pandora are sitting at breakfast with Barty and Evan when the letter comes. Regulus breaks the black wax seal immediately, eyes roving the page hungrily. Barty snatches the letter out of his hand, pushing Regulus away when he tries to retrieve it. Leaning far away from the cursing, squirming Regulus, Barty reads the letter, eyes and mouth growing wide with wicked delight “Ohohoho little Reggie’s getting married indeed!”
Pandora plucks the letter from his hands easily and reads it.
“Yes Aurora tells us how it feels to be betrothed to the wizarding worlds most illegible bachelor?” Evan asks with a grin.
“I am not-“ Regulus is cut off by Evan holding up a hand imperiously, he tuts “you’re the heir to the Noble and Ancient house of Black, don’t be modest. And anyway I wasn’t talking to you, I was talking to your beloved. Not very feminist of you, taking away women’s voices.”
“Who says I’m a feminist?” Regulus scoffs. All eyes dart to Aurora, whose attention is now honed in on Regulus as a hawk to a snake. As her hand raises to take off her headphones, brows raised in challenge, Regulus backpedals “I mean I’m definitely a feminist I just…” he trails off. Rory hums, dissatisfied.
Regulus stares daggers at Evan, who pretends not to notice, still grinning widely.
“Does this mean we get to have that muggle party?” Pandora asks, finally handing the letter to Aurora.
“Muggle party?” Barty echoes, nose wrinkling in distaste.
“I have to go tell Lily!” Pandora announces, shooting up from the table and prancing over to the Gryffindor table.
“I don’t know why you hang out with them.” Evan murmurs.
Aurora tries to ignore them, focusing on the letter. Spidery black script scars the page in Walburga Blacks hand. Rory imagines her cruelty translates into her sharp, precise strokes of the quill.
“Hang out with who?” Regulus asks.
The letter was an invitation. To dinner. At the Black manor.
“With Lily Evans and that lot.”
The letter was a summons. To a test at Grimmauld Place. What would happen if she failed?
“Bunch of mudbloods.” Barty spits. Aurora drops the letter, anger quickly building.
“Shut up. Both of you.” Regulus says tightly.
“Rory!” Someone calls her name across the room. She turns to see Pandora waving her over.
Glad for the exit, she leaves her anger behind her and slips away from the table over to her sister.
“BACHELORETTE PARTY!” Lily and Mary scream in unison upon her arrival at the table.
“Tonight then?” Sirius asks.
“Well, usually a bachelorette party would be all girls but maybe we can make an exception this time.” Lily says with a smirk.
Aurora ignores this, turning to Sirius instead.
“You were right about the invitation. What do I need to know?”
Thankfully Sirius doesn’t gloat, which is uncharacteristic of him.
“Regulus should give you the rundown of our extended family at least. Topics to steer away from.” He waves his hand vaguely. Rory nods, turning when the attention of the group shifts behind her. She turns, finding Regulus next to Pandora, staring straight at her. Her lungs empty of breath, even now. He will never not take her breath away. She could drown in those eyes, taken under the waves willingly. Regulus glides to her side, placing a purposeful hand on the small of her back.
“You need to tell her the family histories. Arm her with the basics at least.” Sirius directly addresses his brother, obviously trying to keep his tone neutral.
Regulus scoffs “Arm her? It’s dinner, not a war.”
“You know as well as I do that everything in that house is a war.” Sirius has gone cold and distant, as he does only when he talks about the Blacks and his life before James.
“Yes well as lovely as this has been, my fiancé and I must bid you adieu.” She is sure Regulus uses French to distract her. It works. As he drags her off, she makes her rushed goodbyes and promises to see them tonight, and all but skips along after him.
“I just needed to get you alone.” Regulus admits.
Giggling, unable to help herself, Rory interrupts “you can get me alone whenever you want just keep speaking French.”
That cracks his serious mask for a moment, he lets out a puff of laughter.
“Mon rêve.” He slowly brushes his knuckles against her cheek. “Mon ange.” He tucks her hair behind her ear. “Mon coeur.” Cupping her jaw in his hands, he holds her face so she’s looking in his eyes. “You don’t have to do this.” He is staring deeply into her eyes, solemn. Searching.
“Hm?” She creases her brow in confusion.
“The dinner. You don’t have to do it. Any of it.”
She takes a step back, pulling away from his touch. She needs the distance to focus, to make sure she understands.
“Why wouldn’t I want to go?” Why don’t you want me to go?
“Because Sirius is right. That house is a hellscape and it won’t be pleasant. I just don’t want you to feel like you have to.” She can tell that Regulus is really trying here. So why does it feel like he’s pushing away?
“Do you not want me to go?” She asks. Regulus sighs, running a hand through his dark curls “Je suis désolé je ne suis pas bon avec les mots.”
“That’s not fair. English s'il vous plaît. I want to go, I want to meet everyone and I want them to like me. I know it won’t be pleasant, but what’s the alternative?”
“Elope” He says it dryly, half joking.
“I know you don’t mean that. You care too much about your family.” Rory chides.
Regulus reaches a hand out to hold hers, thumbs softly stroking. “Not more than you. I care; but not more than I care about you.”
Aurora feels her heart swell and burst inside her, coming out as a whisper from her mouth “We will do the dinner. And you’ll teach me what I need to know for it to not be a disaster. Yeah?”
He nods, not meeting her eyes. She tilts his chin so his eyes meet hers. “Is it… do you not think they’ll approve? Of me?”
His grey eyes widen in shock and alarm “Of course they’ll approve, Rory it’s not you. It’s them. It’s me. I…” he falters, struggling to find the right words.
“I guess I just feel like after you meet them; after you see for yourself… you won’t want me anymore.” His face is crumpled in despair, as if he’s already accepted this fate.
“Regulus no!” Aurora pulls him into her “that’s not going to happen, that’s never going to happen.” He nods silently into her shoulder.
That would have to do for now. The clock tower tolls. They pull away and head to their classes with hushed goodbyes.
——————————————————————
Regulus hated this task, nonetheless he excused himself from the girls company in the common room to work on it. He hated to admit Sirius was right, but making a family tree with annotations was exactly what was needed for Rory to get out of that dinner alive.
Thankfully Barty and Evan were gone, leaving him the peace and quiet of his room to delve into the shadowed branches of his ancestry. By the time he’s done, the page is covered in his sloping script. His hand cramps slightly from all the details he found himself pouring onto the pages. He doesn’t know exactly who will be at the dinner, but it didn’t matter. Even without this knowledge, his family would approve of her. Knowing not to mention anything Muggle related, or anything about Sirius and James couldn’t hurt.
Armed with knowledge.
For the war that was enduring his family. Enduring him.
His thoughts are interrupted loudly by the return of his roommates. Barty and Evan burst into the room, leaning into one another as they laugh.
“Quit your schoolgirl giggling.” Regulus scowls.
Barty comes to his side, tutting as he pats Regulus’s shoulder.
“Come Regulus, you needn’t be so chipper all the time! You’ll blind us with your sunshine!”
Evan roars with laughter and Regulus loosens despite himself.
“Besides, tonight is a good night. A cause for celebration.” Evan holds his hand out as if he holds an imaginary glass, he toasts with it, Barty returning the gesture.
“And why’s that?” Regulus asks, only half listening as he folds the parchment away.
“We’ve done a fantastic prank on the Gryffindors.” Evan replies, collapsing on the bed with his hands behind his head.
“I wonder what havoc it will wreak.” Barty is giddy. Alarms ring as silver bells in Regulus head.
“What did you do?” He asks quietly.
Sounding almost bored of it already, Barty waves his hand as he replies “We spiked some shite alcohol with veritaserum.”
Inexplicably, Regulus’s blood goes cold.
“Whose bloody booze was it?” Regulus bites, limited patience now lost.
Barty just shrugs “Who knows mate, we left it in the common room. Not knowing is part of the fun.”
Surely it would be fine. He was just being paranoid, because truly what were the odds?
There was only one Gryffindor he needed to worry about. And one Slytherin.
Regulus shoots to his feet, pulling on his cloak as he walks, out of the door in moments. A quick scan of the common room confirms his suspicions. Neither of the girls were there. His stomach drops as something from the back of his mind moves forward as a chess piece.
Feet moving swiftly, he is purposefully gliding down the halls to the Gryffindor common room, cursing his nasty luck.
——————————————————————Pandora pulls Aurora along eagerly into the room. In a short amount of time, the group had done a lot of planning. They had devised a human conveyor belt of covertly passing the invisibility cloak around to sneak the girls up one by one into the boys dorm. It was genius, Aurora suspected Lily was behind the strategy.
Aurora can’t help but feel like this party is more for the other girls than her. In actuality her life probably wouldn’t change all that much once she was married, other than access to her fortune. Regulus and her wouldn’t even be able to live together until after graduation, in the meantime during breaks she would have to divide her time between Pandora’s family house and the Potters, as James insisted she stay at his, but Pandora refused to spend the summer wholly without her. Somewhere in there she would hope to see Regulus too.
The vision of twin houses James had spun seems very far away indeed, a distant star.
Distracted by thoughts, her mind is half elsewhere as her body holds a glass, sipping as she listens to her friends chatter.
She must be really distracted by her thoughts, it’s the only reason she would have agreed to play spin the bottle. The liquor was already playing its part, helping lower her inhibitions as the bottle spins.
It lands on Lily, who kisses Mary. Mary kisses Peter, who blushes a violent red. Peter kisses James chastely.
It’s adorable.
Aurora watches as James makes the bottle spin and spin and spin, entranced by the shining glass. She feels a little funny, like TV static is on her tongue. She takes another deep drink to wet her dry mouth. The bottle lands on her.
“Oh but she can’t! She’s spoken for.” Marlene points to the silver ring on Rory’s finger.
“It’s just James, they already share everything.” Sirius rolls his eyes. If only he knew just how accurate that statement was. Nervous laughter bubbles up and spills out of her mouth. Her face must be a neon sign flashing for help, because Remus sighs loudly.
“Shall we play something a bit less tired? Call me crazy but I’m tired of watching all of you snog.”
The group agrees, spinning the bottle again to pick a person for truth or dare this time.
Rory shoots Remus a grateful look, which he returns with a nod. Gods bless Remus Lupin. The bottle lands on Lily, “truth” she decides. Pandora cuts in immediately with a question “have you ever cheated on an assignment or exam?”
Aurora gasps “Panda!”, cringing in apology for using the nickname in mixed company.
Lily answers immediately “no”. The group nods unsurprised, but she continues “unless you count copying someone’s notes and then using those notes on an examination.”
Pandora laughs fondly “no one would count that as cheating Lily.”
Lily spins the bottle, its lands on Rory. She panics, “Dare” leaving her mouth before she can blink. Her stomach drops just before Marlene jumps to the occasion like she had it planned all along. Marlene clears her throat and announces her dare to the room.
“I dare you to kiss James.”
Rory shakes her head “I choose Truth”.
“Ahahahah!” Mary wags her finger. “You can’t switch it up on us now! Just kiss him. I’m sure Regulus won’t mind, it’s just a dare.”
She shakes her head again “I can’t”.
“She doesn’t have to.” James says, finally speaking up.
Sirius scoffs “I don’t get what the big deal is. You guys sleep in the same bed, what’s a wee peck on the lips?” Remus tries to hush him, but he shoves him off.
“Fine. Truth then.” Marlene interrupts “Why won’t you kiss James?”
Because of Regulus she opens her mouth to say, but what comes out is “Because he’s Regulus’s.”
James eyes snap to hers as they both realize what she’s just said. Terror overcomes them both, in the second the group has to digest what just happened, James surges forward, planting a hasty kiss on the side of her mouth “there. done. Who’s next?” James tries his best to infuse charisma into the line, but his voice shakes.
“What?” Sirius’s voice is only slightly above a whisper. James gulps loudly.
“I just can’t kiss James. Because of Regulus.” Rory chooses her words so carefully this time, sweating bullets. She feels panicked tears threatening behind her eyes.
Sirius narrows his eyes “That isn’t what you said. You said that James was Regulus’s. What did you mean by that?”
How does Sirius manage to pick up on absolutely everything she doesn’t want him to. She agonizes.
Breathing quickly, Rory covers her traitorous mouth and groans.
Marlene gasps “Merlin’s balls! James is shagging Sirius’s baby brother!”
The room erupts in murmurs ranging from horrified to shocked to laughter from Marlene.
“But that’s not right. Regulus is a bloke.” Peter adds, clearly confused.
“Why would that bit be a problem Peter? Because if you’ve got a thing against fags then Moony and I will-“ he cuts himself off too late. Horrified, his eyes meet Remus, who has gone very pale.
Marlene howls with laughter, Mary tries to quiet her to no avail. Lily steps away from them, to Sirius.
“Are you? Together with Remus? Because I think that would be lovely, actually.”
“Yes. It is lovely.” Remus answers for him with a soft smile.
Sirius steps to stand right in front of James, who is trying his best to ignore what is happening and not look him in the eye. James is such a bad liar, everything he does broadcasts his guilt.
“Prongs.” Sirius croons coldly, making James finally meet his eyes.
“It isn’t true right? Tell me it isn’t true. You wouldn’t really fuck my little brother behind my back would you?”
James whimpers like a kicked puppy, all but confessing. Sirius takes him by the shoulders, shaking him “Are you shagging Reggie, James?”
“It’s not like that Padfoot, I love him.”
Aurora screams as Sirius strikes, landing a firm punch to James’s cheek. The room erupts into chaos as James is thrown back. Rory runs to him. Remus is dragging a feral Sirius away as he spits curses at James.
Amid the ruckus, the door is thrown open. Aurora is all but convinced she has lost her grip on sanity as she beholds Regulus in the doorway.
At the sight of his entrance, everyone freezes, silence falling suddenly like a vacuum being sealed.
Hands held out away from him, Regulus softly warns “No one say anything. There might be veritaserum in your drinks.”
“There might be?!” Lily guffaws.
“I think it’s a bit late now.” Mary says weakly.
Sirius lunges again, only barely held back by Remus, this time he turns on Aurora “and you. You knew and you didn’t tell me!” Sirius is a force of gnashing teeth and hair.
Regulus moves to shield Aurora, who is now crying. In the absence of Regulus’s body blocking the doorway, Lily wisely shuffles the rest of the girls out, Peter following close behind, leaving Remus, Sirius, James, Rory and Regulus in silence.
“I’m sorry” Rory sobs to the room. Regulus whispers to her, as James approaches the duo.
“What. The. Fuck.” Sirius is seething, his stare bores into the three of them from the other side of the room. For a moment Aurora fears he will try to pounce on her, but then James speaks.
“Padfoot?”
“Don’t.” Sirius snarls. He tears his gaze away from James, to focus on Regulus.
“Reggie how could you?”
Regulus laugh coldly “What? Why is it always my fault?”
“How could you do this to Rory!” Sirius yells, igniting a dangerous flame.
“Don’t bring me into it! I’ve been poisoned!” Rory balls her hands into fists at her sides, praying for this to be over swiftly.
“You are in it you git! It’s your fiancé and your best friend what the fuck is this are you a throuple now?” Sirius all but spits at their feet.
“Yes” answers Aurora.
“No” answers James.
“Don’t call my fiancé a git! Go fuck your man and stay out of it yeah?” Regulus challenges, chin jutting, eyes cocky.
“Woah” Remus breathes.
Aurora groans loudly, doubling over “I don’t feel well.” Is all she can say before she is scrambling for a receptacle to vomit into.
Sirius is the first to reach her, there in an instant to hold back her hair. Hands smoothing circles on her back as she heaves out the contents of her stomach.
“You’re still a traitor.” He reminds her, helping her to right herself when she is done.
“Do you need to go to the infirmary?” Regulus asks softly. Rory shakes her head.
“I’m fine. I don’t know if there was veritaserum in there or what but I feel like I’m dying. Can we all just… talk?”
“Oh I’m pretty certain there was veritaserum in that. Where did you lot get the liquor?” Regulus asks. The group goes silent with ignorant shrugs. Regulus runs a hand over his face, exasperated.
“Ok…” James begins hesitantly, “let’s talk.”
That’s the last thing she remembers before it goes black.
She wakes up to a pair of bright eyes inches away from her own. She startles as the eyes draw back.
“You’re awake! Are you alright?” Pandora asks, Regulus coming to stand beside her.
“Wh?” Is all Rory managed to grumble.
“You passed out” Regulus supplies softly.
“Where is everyone else? What time is it?” She grumbles, rubbing the sleep from her face. She feels fuzzy and warm but not in an entirely pleasant way. Like she’s underwater.
“They’ve gone to bed. It’s late, you’ve been asleep a while.” Pandora says, as Regulus takes her hand, stroking softly.
“You stayed.” She says it to both of them, but Regulus is the one that replies “Of course.”
“What happened? Am I allergic to something? I don’t understand why I’ve passed out but everyone else is fine.” Aurora pouts, hating feeling frail.
“Pomfrey said you must be sensitive to veritaserum, plus it was mixed with some crap alcohol…” Pandora shrugs.
“I’m gonna kill them.” Regulus swears darkly.
“Who?” Aurora asks fuzzily.
“Evan and Barty. They spiked a drink in the common room and of course you lot end up drinking it.”
“You say that like it’s our fault.” Pandora rolls her eyes.
“Barty and Evan did this?” Aurora is surprised, but she really shouldn’t be.
“They didn’t know who they were dosing, but yes.” Regulus presses his temples in agitation.
Rory hums in disapproval. “You two should get to bed.”
Regulus shakes his head “I’m staying.”
“But Madame Pomfrey!” Aurora protests. Regulus snorts.
“I would like to see her try and kick me out. You fainted! I’m staying.” He declares resolutely.
Pandora and Rory share a meaningful look, before Rory nods.
“See you later, Ror” Pandora waves goodbye.
A moment of silence passes before Regulus asks “is it alright that I’m here?”
Rory’s heart flutters like a dove.
“Of course it is. Come here.” She scoots over on the bed, patting the space beside her. Regulus settles himself allowing her to burrow into his side.
“I’m sorry.” Aurora wobbles, lip trembling. Regulus tenses beside her.
“Whatever for my darling?”
“Everybody knows now because of me. About you and James.”
“That wasn’t your fault.” He strokes down her arm in soothing lines.
“I’m gonna kill Barty.” Aurora declares.
“Not Evan?” Regulus sounds almost amused. Certainly fond.
“Well I can’t take both of them.” She admits reasonably. Regulus hums.
“I’ll take one you take the other?” He asks.
“Deal.” She nods, closing her eyes. He chuckles against her, rumbling like thunder. She falls asleep to the tide of his breathing, up and down upon her shore.