Boys

Regulus walked through Hogwarts’ halls to the library. He had sent a letter to Sirius, asking for chocolates, after he cursed Mulciber in the library earlier. In his bag was a multitude of books (notably of celestial objects, transfiguration, and spell-crafting), James’ invisibility cloak, and various other knick knacks for the study session about to happen.

Regulus stepped over the threshold of the library and looked at the table he was going to sit at. Remus was smiling and waving at him, hand poised with a quill over paper, Lily was drinking from her water bottle, James was practicing spells on a test pair of goggles, and Peter was manically writing down notes. The black haired boy stepped within the silencing charm.

“Hi Regulus! Mary couldn’t make it tonight, sorry, but James could,” Lily informed him. James put down his wand and pulled out the chair next to him, offering it to Regulus.

“Hey, Reg! Remus filled me in on all of your guys’ work so far, it’s a brilliant idea!” He said. Regulus faced James.

“Thank you. I’m making it for my friends,” Regulus turned back towards the rest of the table, “Speaking of, I invited them, so they might be coming,”

“Great! The more, the merrier,” Lily responded before looking over Peter’s shoulder at his notes. “Right now, we’re working on whether we want the goggles to have their own vision or if we need to create a new version of leglimens to access the wearer’s vision.”

“When we made the MAAC device, it was a similar situation, and the latter worked better,” James said, grabbing Remus’ paper across from him and scribbling on it.

“What do we need to do to test it out, then?” Regulus questioned.

“Just modify the leglimens spell. Regulus, I’m pretty sure you and me are both fluent in Latin, and the rest of us have experience with modifying this spell, so the spell casting shouldn’t be the hard part, but the wand motions will probably be tricky,” James muttered.

Regulus hummed and looked into his bag. He pulled out 5 books: Lucian Anastaysle’s Guide to Spell Crafting; the Trick to Wand Motions, a Latin dictionary (Regulus was pretty sure he had it covered, but you could never be too careful), an unnamed Black Family Heirloom about many different celestial objects, Horner Smith’s Guide to Mixing Wizard Transfiguration and Muggle Welding, and Spell Crafting: A Tutorial by Adonis Zephyr.

“You think we should try Muggle welding?” Lily asked excitedly, reading the titles as Regulus spread them on the table.

“I think mixing it with Transfiguration could be helpful. We don’t have the proper tools for full muggle welding, but most of it could be done by a few simple spells. The goggles we transfigure out of paper are good as tests, but once we get the spells down, I’d like to have a pair of real goggles as a base. Based on what Peter designs, i’d also like to be able to add minor details without my transfig skills getting in the way,” Regulus explained.

“Are you saying that sometimes muggles have a more efficient way to do things?”

“Of course I am. Who wouldn’t? Wizards and muggles have so many alternative options, obviously some are going to be better for some people to use, even if they have access to both ways,” Regulus flipped through Anastaysle’s guide. He lifted his head and opened his mouth to offer Smith’s book for Lily to skim. He then saw Peter and Lily looking at him funny and shut his mouth. James and Remus were both doodling on Remus’ paper in red ink, not paying attention.

Regulus flicked his eyes from Peter to Lily, “Why are you looking at me oddly?” he asked. Lily shut her mouth before opening it to say,

“Nothing! I just- uh- they’re progressive views,” she uttered, grabbing one of her own books from her bag.

“What? Do you not think the same?” Regulus, never the one to understand social cues, asked confusedly. Last he checked, he was pretty certain Lily was a muggleborn, but maybe she had some internalized prejudice.

“Uh-“ Peter started, but then Regulus got it.

“Oh, right. I don’t believe pureblood shit, you know that, right? I haven’t done anything to muggleborns at hogwarts, and last I checked, neither have my friends. In Grimmauld, it was a matter of pretending or imperio. Don’t think of me as my last name,” he stated. Regulus and made an effort early-on to not become close with anyone, thinking it was solely a weakness.

Although, it was quite hard to ignore his roommates. Especially when Evan was one of the few people who made family gatherings more tolerable, and Barty was extremely persistent. Barty had definitely earned his Slytherin status. His ambition and cleverness were through the roof, and Evan was resourceful and cunning. He was almost put in Ravenclaw, like his sister, but the hat decided against it.

Regulus actually had to beg the hat to put him in Slytherin, and was a hat-stall because of it. The hat said he would best fit a Ravenclaw or Slytherin, and Regulus begged for the latter. He certainly wasn’t courageous or chivalrous enough to be put into Gryffindor, but when the hat realized his reasons of wanting to be a Slytherin (sacrificing his freedom for his brothers), it threatened to put him in there. It took around 12 in-detail murder threats for him to finally be sorted.

“Sorry,” Peter murmured, looking appropriately guilty. Everyone went back to making notes on their own and eachothers’ papers.

Until he was in 3rd year, Regulus believed in blood purity but didn’t believe that anyone who wasn’t a pureblood deserved death. He really only had a vague sense of what it meant to be prejudiced against those people. During 3rd year, he stated branching out in the subjects he read about to distract himself from his nightmares. Magical theory was one of those subjects, and he learned a lot from it.

He learned that if he was going to be in a life where he was forced to hurt people, more than just himself and his future family, he wanted to live it without inflicting pain while he still could. So, Regulus made an effort to be less closed off to Barty and Evan, and Evan started inviting his sister (Pandora) to hang out with them. Dorcas came into the friend group a bit later due to being a year ahead, but her and Regulus met through quidditch.

He made sure to discretely pull away from any major bloodpurists or bullies while still being cordial with them as to not raise suspect or lose respect.

“What’s your favorite constellation?” James asked. Regulus looked over at him quizzically, not expecting that question. “Just based off the stories or shapes they make and ignoring who’s named after them, I mean,” he clarified, as if that was what Regulus was confused about.

“Hm. Probably Gemini,” Regulus decided.

“What’s their story?” he asked. He leaned closer to Regulus, reading Anastaysle’s guide that Regulus had stopped at a seemingly helpful page.

Regulus pushed the book so it was in between the two of them and James didn’t have to hover in front of him. “Has Sirius not told you?” he would’ve thought Sirius would constantly be gloating about his prowess of Astronomy. She definitely did with other subjects, or at least she did to Regulus when they were younger.

James scoffed, smiling, “Sirius is horrid at Astronomy. No matter how much help Remus tries to gives her, she can’t do anything well in there except memorize the moon stages,” he made a note on his paper, copying down a line in the book and a sketch of the wand motion.

“What?”

“Yeah, she’s great at everything else though,” James replied offhandedly. Regulus looked down, confused. They had practically been getting tutoring classes since Regulus was 4 and Sirius was 5.

Their cousins were also really good at teaching, especially when they were younger and closer. Eventually, Bella stopped coming around to the muggle field, but Cissa and Andy still hung out with their younger cousins until Andy got banished. Narcissa didn’t really talk to the Rosier twins much after that, but she’d always favored Regulus.

When all 3 of the Black sisters were there, they’d use sticks as a swords and the tall grasses to represent water. Bells would usually be the villain, ‘Dromeda the hero, and Cissa the damsel in distress. Their little interactive plays helped, as well as having an easy way to memorize. They’d say Uncle Orion was strong and burly like his constellation, Grandpa Pollux might as well be as immortal as his constellation with how old he was, and other family members and their traits.

They weren’t only taught the myths behind them: their cousins taught the 4 of them practical astronomy, too. Regulus couldn’t imagine Sirius just forgetting all of that.

“So, Gemini’s story?” James insisted. Regulus shook his head lightly, getting himself out of his thoughts.

“Yes. The myth starts with a woman named Leda. It varies, but many say she had twins and Zeus was the father. One of the twins, Pollux, was immortal while Castor, the other twin, was not. Pollux and Castor were different in almost all ways imaginable, but they each adored their brother and were together nearly always. Pollux was strong and eager, while Castor was calm, curious, and careful. Castor and Pollux married two women, and those woman’s ex-fiancés battled them to the death. In some variations, this battle happens because of the Trojan war, though.

“Castor died while Pollux lived. Pollux avenged his brother, killing his killer, but he was still alive. He begged Zeus to make them together again, and Zeus finally let them. He put Castor and Pollux in the sky, together for eternity,” Regulus finished.

“That’s lovely,” James smiled.

“What’s yours?”

“Ignoring who’s named after them, I don’t really have any,” James grinned, “maybe you could take me stargazing once we get the goggles to work right?”

“If my friends like you enough, sure,” Regulus said.