Boys

“Speaking of!” Pandora chimed in, swinging onto the empty chair next to Reg. She had an odd pair of glasses resting atop her head.

“Pandora. Are the others coming?”

“Barty and Ev are talking with Peeves, I think. And Dorky is going for a fly,” Pandora pulled a book out of her bag. “So, probably not.”

It wasn’t any book that could be remotely helpful to the study session, though; it was a book that had X. Lovegoodon the front cover, and seemed to be a muggle sci-fi novel.

“His last name’s Lovegood?”

“Mhm! It’s so cute, don’t you think? Oh, muggle surnames are adorable!” she gushed brightly, pulling her glasses on properly. She then clicked a button on the side of one of the glasses’ temples and the glasses transformed into goggles with many gadgets sticking out the sides. She looked like she was a  muggle mad-scientist character. It was horribly endearing.

“What purpose are those being of?” Regulus asked curiously. His odd and weirdly posh sentence structuring was always more intense when Pandora was around. Probably because she would mimic him and answer his questions or demands in the same way and tone.

Mind you, the mimicking wasn’t mockery: Pandora would never do that to Reg. But, she always mimicked whatever sounds she could hear and think of as abnormal. From an American accent to a dragon roaring to Regulus asking something, she’d mimic it all. She even did it unknowingly and subconsciously, sometimes.

“The motive being that of whimsy, of course. Did you know, whimsy comes from the words ‘whim wham’ which is suspected to not have any particular etymological root, but rather just entirely new way and means of words to label the eccentric?”

Pandora was always giving out facts. Regulus didn’t always find the contents of what she said the most interesting, but her passion for it made it worth hearing.

It was like when Barty used to get excited in 5th year about taking all 12 O.W.L.S., or when Dorcas got excited about fashion and makeup. Regulus loved hearing them gush, but he’d make sure to keep out of invites to Barty’s extremely intense studying or Docas’ glamour. He was always a better listener than speaker, even when he could talk comfortably. Even though the black haired boy avoided eye contact and didn’t ask follow up questions, his friends all knew without a doubt who the best listener in their group was.

They’d long gotten over apologizing to him for talking too much. They knew Regulus’d simply change the topic, interrupting with zero tact, or he would just walk away while you were mid sentence if he truly didn’t like listening.

“I did not. Thank you, Pandora,” he responded. “Pandora, say hi to Potter, Lupin, Pettigrew, and Evans,” Regulus pointed at everyone in turn, “Say hi, you four.”

A choir of four different “hello”s rung out.

“Rosier, you said your brother and Crouch were talking to Peeves? Are they planning a prank, or something?” James inquired politely, keep his eyes on the goggles he and Peter were modifying. They had Smith’s book open in front of them while Lily was muttering different objects that could be found around the room in hopes they would turn red within her test-goggle’s vision.

Pandora hummed, “They always seem to be. But no, that’s not why they’re talking to Peeves; they’re friends with him outside of prank planning,” she explained.

“Really? Merlin’s beard, I don’t know how they can stand him! He’s like a lemur from the depths of hell.”

“A lemur?” Lily muttered judgmentally.

“No, he’s right,” Peter agreed.

“They can stand him because they’re also depth-of-hell lemurs,” Pandora answered contently.

Lily furrowed her brows in confusion. “How do you know what hell is? I know the Blacks don’t read the Bible, and I didn’t think the Rosiers did?”

“Oh, no, any muggle religious items are forbidden in our families. Or muggle items at all, for that matter. I got the Bible from a muggle library a few summers ago and read it for fun. There are really some quite interesting characters and plotlines!” Lily looked absolutely bewildered. She turned her eyes towards Regulus, awaiting an answer.

“Me and Sirius studied it in secret after our cousin Andromeda sent it to Siri. She was curious about Andy’s husband Ted, a muggleborn wizard’s, religion. Andy sent it to us in ‘68, I think,” Regulus said.

“Sirius knew about the Bible?” James asked.

“God, you read the Bible for fun?” Lily seemed to be appalled by this.

“Do you read it religiously? Have we offended you?” Pandora inquired curiously.

“No, I’m not offended, just- surprised. How long is the Bible?”

“Very.”

“You read it entirely? Most devoted Christians and Catholics don’t even do that!”

“Really? You would think they would know what they’re worshipping, or they should, anyway,” Lily laughed in delight.

“I was not expecting this,” she said.

“How do Potter and Pettigrew know of it, then? If they didn’t read it for fun,” Regulus questioned, dipping the tip of his quill into the ink pot.

“Remus kept swearing Jesus, Christ, or my lord, so we nagged him into letting us in on his half muggle ways. Sirius seemed as oblivious as the rest of us; I’m surprised you read it together, Reg,” Potter informed the boy. Regulus hummed.

“Regulus, do you think we should have little stars lining the goggle straps entirely or just at these spots?” Peter asked, pointing at his frankly quite impressive sketch which was already filled with a light dusting of watercolors.

“I prefer to have them in bursts.”

“Got it.”

-

A rhythmic humming sound came ringing from James’ wand. Black letters showed in the air in front of it, as if the empty space was plain parchment. They read “BACK TO COMMON ROOM!” in a large font.

“Times up!” James exclaimed, gathering the notes upon notes and placing them within a folder.

“Already?” Remus asked, sorting the multitude of books between everyone. A lot of them were either from Regulus’ own collection or the library’s massive shelves.

“Mhm! Is everyone coming to the common room, or is someone retiring to their dorm?”

Peter straightened, “I think I’ll get an early night,” he said.

“I’ll come with, but only to speak with Sirius. We have important matters to discuss,” Regulus answered.

“Got it, mate,” James pushed out of his chair, “Just the girls, me, and Remmy, then!”

“Don’t call me Remmy,” Remus snipped, giving James a clip around the ear.

“Sorry!” Potter replied, laughing and ducking away from Remus, “Me, Moony and the girls!” He corrected himself.

“There you are,” Remus patted James on the shoulder. Pandora shifted towards Regulus.

“Can I get to know them, or do you need backup with Sirius?” She whispered.

“You can get to know them. Though, if I need you, are you alright with leaving? Barty and Evan tried comforting me the other day and they made it worse, actually. I don’t want to sneak into the girls’ dorms just to get to Dorcas,” Regulus whispered back with his device.

“Okay! I’m fine with that,” she replied breezily.

Once the group had made it back to the Gryffindor common room Pandora got into introduced to everyone properly, and Regulus pulled Sirius aside.