Chapter 1
You Still Don’t Know What I Never I Said
“5 minutes everyone!” one of the stage directors called to them. Regulus was preparing to go in for an interview with the rest of the band.
“Holy shit, I hate talking to the public” barty announces to the group, rubbing his hands over his face, “they’re always looking for something to fulfill their boring ass lives.”
Evan let out a groan to show how excited he was as well for the interview, “why do we even still work with this specific team, last time everyone was pissed I wouldn’t tell him the details of my sex life.”
“2 minutes”
Regulus would love not to be here just as much as Evan and Barty, and normally they don’t have too many appearances but with award season coming , they have to really be out there.
“Let’s just get this over with” Reg chimes in, as he walks toward the curtains they’re about to walk through to go on stage, he can hear the interviewer from here, “but if one more person tells me I need to smile more I’m going to commit murder.”
I now present to you the guests of honor… SLYTHERIN”
The crowd screams and claps as they walk onto the stage, taking their respective seats next to the interviewer. Steve. Regulus resists the urge to just walk off stage, there’s only so many more of these he can take.
“Regulus! Evan! Barty!” Steve spoke as if they were childhood friends catching up, “How have you guys been?”
Reglus goes into autopilot mode for this part, all of the eyes on him is going to have him throw up and the interviewer is already poking the three of them for something “juicy.” However, Regulus snaps out of this trance at the mention of Bella’s latest album.
“I actually haven’t had a chance to listen to it, I’m sure it’s just as unique as all her other albums.” Regulus hasn’t been fond of Bella since she tried choking him after he sang better than her at the ripe age of 9.
“Hmmm, what are your thoughts on our beloved bella?”
Something isn’t right, he should’ve brought up his personal favorite song or anything else, Regulus has made it clear plenty of times his family is a no go zone. “Well she’s beloved for a reason” Even if he has no clue what that reason is, her singing is mediocre at best.
“Really, because we have an audio recording of a phone call between you and bella that suggests you don’t agree with that statement” Steven then faces the audience with a grin that makes regulus’ stomach turn, “let’s play that, shall we?
This must’ve been withheld from the media for this reason, his PR team would have handled this by now. But no, instead Regulus is here, forcing his face to remain steady while an audio between him and Bella (which he’s never heard before because it never happened) plays for everyone in the room the first time. He looks over to barty and evan for comfort but they look terrified. Which they have right to be, reg has said everything in the human language and beyond that is the opposite of kind when talking of bella.
“Reg, please, it would mean so much if I had you featured on my upcoming album. Just one song, give the people what they want and need.
Fuck the people, fuck their needs, fuck your album, and especially fuck you. Your music is absolute shit. In fact, it’s torture listening to your voice right now so there’s no way in any world I would ever willingly work for you or anyone else in this fucked up family.”
The audio cuts and Steve looks to Regulus waiting and just… smiling like he didn’t just put out one of the most degrading audios ever known. Around Regulus, everyone’s eyes are on him, absolutely horrified, including evan and barty. How is he supposed to handle this? That’s obviously his voice but that’s not him. He needs to take a deep breathe right now before he says something stupid but he can’t seem to grasp the air around him.
“Where the hell is that from” Regulus finally decided to say, which was a fatal mistake because his reaction should’ve been denying the audio. Now it looks like he’s been caught red handed.
Steve’s grin widens into something truly malicious, “Bella herself, she felt so humiliated by those words that she felt it was her duty to show the world Slytherin’s lead singer’s true colors. How could anyone say something so… so cruel.”
He’s cruel? If they met Bellatrix when the camera’s weren’t rolling, they’d see what being cruel really is.
“I never said that. I have no idea how this happened, but that phone call never happened.”
“Bella said you would reject these claims, as she’s had so much experience in the music industry. I just love how she always keeps everything authentic with her fans, you know? Well, I guess that’s not really your style is it, baby black?”
Something about the name baby black really did it for him. Regulus looked directly into the camera and began to speak before giving it a second thought, “Bella, I know you're watching this right now and I hope your misery and need to bring other people down blows up in your face. You really don’t deserve your spot in the music industry.” then he turns to look at Steve, “and you? You’re nothing but a disgusting pig looking to suck the life out of everyone around you because you can’t handle your own sorry ass life.” and with that he walked off stage feeling his throat get thick and having difficulty swallowing.
Meanwhile…
“Oh my fuck tarts, guys look at this”
James sits up from his comfy spot on the sofa to look over Sirius’ shoulder at the screen, there’s an article pulled up and James heart sinks as soon as he reads the headline.
‘LEAD SINGER REGULUS BLACK BLOWS UP DURING INTERVIEW AFTER PHONE CALL BETWEEN HIM AND MUSIC ICON BELLATRIX IS LEAKED’
*VIDEO PLAYS*
James gapes at the paused screen after the video finishes playing. What the hell was that?
“What the hell was that?” Sirius says out loud for him.
“Oh my god” Lily snatched the phone from Sirius to scroll through the article, “This is not going to go over well. The entire internet is coming for his throat. And to be fair, Regulus said some horrible things…”
James watches as sirius’ and lily’s eyes get wider with every scroll, “this doesn’t make sense, I thought him and Bella haven’t contacted each other since he ran away with Sirius” Lily adds on
“They hadn't,” Sirius mumbles, clearly still scrolling through the news on what happened with Lily, “but they were really close beforehand. And there was that time Reg went back home, maybe they didn’t actually lose contact?”
James doesn’t know how Regulus is supposed to fix this, why would he even answer a phone call from Bella? He understands the blowing up on camera because Regulus isn’t as calm as he likes to pretend, he’s quite unhinged actually in James opinion. But isn’t everyone?
“Why don’t you just call him, genius?” Everyone looks over to Remus, “stop acting like obsessed 13 year olds and ask him what happened. You’re literally his brother, sirius.”
“Okay smartass, but Regulus is so wishy washy sometimes and only answers when he wants to and even when he does it’s just,” *super monotone voice and bored expression* “‘fuck off’ or ‘shouldn’t you be doing anything else’ . The only people he answers regularly is… oh my god james call your parents. Ask them to ask regulus what the fuck is going on”
“You’re so right, let me call her right now” Regulus has such a soft spot for Effie and Monty. Regulus has never so much as raised his voice towards them, not unless he was yelling about Sirius or James but it was never directed towards his parents.
Ring
Ring
Ring
“Hi, sweetheart, how are you?” Effie’s voice comes through the phone.
“Put her on speaker james!” Sirius straight up yells before James cold get one word out to his mom.
“Sirius? Is everything all right” and then Sirius grabs the phone out of James hand all together to talk to his mom.
“Have you seen what happened? My baby brother is about to be eaten alive by everyone! There was a phone call and then he started cursing at the camera AND Steve. That’s the interview person. And then he storms off stage and now there’s thousands of really mean comments and articles trying to cancel him. And he doesn’t have good management because he never signed a label and his PR people kind of suck because he’s sooo stubborn and won’t let anyone help him and-”
“Oh Regulus, honey, how are you?” James is taken aback, is his mom getting amnesia? She was talking to Sirius, surely she could tell the difference, “Sirius, my love, there’s no need to worry, Regulus is right here.”
“Mom, don’t let him out of your sight, we're coming over. And, can you cook something to eat? For Regulus of course. Long, hard day and all that. Love you, bye!”
“Wait!” Sirius moves the phone back before James can hang up, “love you, bye mom!” and then he hangs up.
“You two are such suck ups when it comes it comes to your mother oh my god” Lily comments, but James doesn’t care. Everyone knows how much he loves his mom, everyone loves her.
“Great Regulus is at home with mother Effie, I think I’ll tag along. I’m sure she misses me.” James watches Remus get up- but like with a bounce. See. Everyone loves his mom.
“Get over yourself, Remus, I’m her favorite.” James can’t help but let out a giggle and Sirius looks at him like he can’t believe anyone could ever disagree. “Don’t laugh. It’s true. The moment I moved in, I became the favorite son.”
“We all know her favorite is at home with her right now. He’s the one that has a whole house to himself because he ‘needed space’ “ James retorts.
“Cheer up mate,” Remus says in an overly chipper voice, “your boyfriend’s house is still literally in your backyard.”
“My baby brother is not and never will date James Potter.”
*sing song voice* “My best friend's brother is the one for me, BFB” James jumps to see it’s just pete back with the coffee.
“Oh, Pete, wonderful you’re back. Please, you and Remus can whisper your snide remarks to each other instead of vocalizing them to the class. Was your little barista there?”
“ No, they weren’t there today.” Pete sprawls out on top of Remus who just rolls his eyes with a smile, “Now I must lie here heartbroken forever, moony you’ll heal me won’t you?”
“Of course, Pete, anything for you.” Remus cups Pete's head.
“Hello?! Moons, your actual boyfriend is right here. And Petey boy, stop flirting with my man.” Sirius rolls Pete off of Remus and takes his spot.
James dramatically flops down to Pete’s side, “Oh my pete, are you alright, I would never do this to you”
“As much as I would like to see how far you guys are willing to take this,” Lily side eyes them from the door, James wonders how long she’s been standing there just waiting for them to notice, “I have to get ready. For my date tonight”
James was springing up from the word date, “OH MY GOD LILS HAS A DATE. OUR LOVELY LILSIS GOING ON A DATE. WHO IS SHE” James is so happy for her he could tear up. Actually, he is tearing up. He was really worried after her last break up of her only relationship, it actually scared him a little bit.
“Stop you creep, it is none of your business. Shouldn’t you be checking on your boyfriend who’s being canceled right now?” James doesn’t even care about the boyfriend comment or even Sirius shouting ‘they are NOT boyfriends’ because he’s so happy he’s gonna explode.
“Oh lily,” he wraps her in a hug which she returns of course because Lily doesn’t speak about anything she’s not prepared to talk about. She knew exactly how James would react.
When Lily pulls away, she looks over James' shoulder to find Remus smiling at her brightly, “Remus I need you and Pete to help me get ready so let’s go.”
“I want to help too, Lils. My taste isn’t that bad”
“James, you find everything on me amazing. You’re blind when it comes to your friends. Also, you need to go to your mom’s and sort this mess with Regulus out, Sirius will need your help too with Reginald”
With that James snorts because Reg hates that nickname, “fine but I’m going to call him Reginald the entire time. And if I don’t see pictures of you before you leave. I don’t know what I’ll do but trust it’s gonna be something real mean. Like telling my mom about the time you got drunk in her house and threw up in her kitchen.” James is looking real smug right now, everyone wants to be an angel in the eyes of his mother.
“You wouldn’t dare because you weren’t supposed to have anyone over that night so you’d get in trouble too.” Lily slams the door in James' face leaving him muttering to the wall and Sirius cackling behind him.
Regulus stares at the ceiling of his room for a long, long time. His phone has been off for a few hours now because if he turns it on, he’ll keep getting endless calls and notifications about what happened earlier. The only place he felt safe was here at the Potter’s. Fleamont and Effie welcomed him with open arms of course, this is his home too. He told Effie everything that happened and Monty listened while cooking up something for him to eat.
“I think I should give them a call, how could they treat anyone like this” Effie stood up scanning for her phone.
“Yeah, I have connections so if you want to handle them. I will” Monty gives him a stern look while setting down the smiley face plate and cookie monster cup- the same ones he’s used since the first night he was here - for regulus. The only connection he has are the ones of the local farmers market that give him free samples.
“That’s okay, Monty, and Effie you don’t have to make any calls. I’m sure this will all blow over soon enough once I find out how to dismantle the rumors. Which is really hard because Bella is just such a sweet innocent little angel that does no wrong.”
“REGINALDDDDDDD”
Nope, he’s not even hungry anymore. Time to make a run for it. If he’s quick about it-
“You can’t just run away from us Reggie.” That was Sirius this time, Regulus dared to look back and Sirius was right there glaring at him while hugging Effie. Unbelievable. And James, who of course is already trying to get whatever Monty is cooking but Monty smacks his hand away because it’s for Regulus. He loves it when James gets scolded on his behalf.
“James, stop trying to steal my food. Monty made it for me.”
“You were about to run away to your dungeon, it didn't look like you wanted it to me” When did James get so sassy, Regulus cannot handle this.
“No, we are not getting sidetracked with you two arguing. What the hell was that? Blowing up like that on LIVE TELEVISION? Did you forget that you are a public figure? And the phone call? Since when did you and Bella start speaking again AND YOU DIDN’T THINK TO TELL ME? Regulus, you can’t just go around causing a mess-”
“Sirius, take a deep breath and maybe let Regulus get a word in before you jump to conclusion, yeah?”
And that right there was worth Sirius’ idiotic rambling. Now Reg is smiling for the 1st time today and it’s all thanks to Sirius being a dick. Everything comes full circle. That smile is wiped away by a James Potter staring him down, what is his problem?
“What are you looking at?” Okay that came out a lot more snappy than he meant but it’s not his fault, Reg knows Effie taught him to just stare at people.
“Is that a new tattoo?” Ah. Yes, leave it to James to ignore everything wrong because he just needs to know every little detail of his life. Regulus looks down to his waist line that’s visible from his slightly cropped shirt.
“My life is falling apart and you’re worried about my new tattoo?”
“Okay there’s no need to be an ass-”
“James Potter,” Effie grabs him by the ear, “Regulus can be an ass if he likes right now. Watch your tone. How would you feel if you were the reason your band’s reputation was in shambles,” she looks back at Regulus,”not that this is your fault, honey bear.”
“I am so dearly sorry, Reginald, for any distress I may have caused you.”
Regulus just rolls his eyes and continues his conversation with Sirius, “That wasn't my phone call. I don’t know how Bella did that but I haven’t spoken to her in years. And as far as my tantrums go, you have no place to judge because you’ve literally done worse. You and the paparazzi haven’t spoken a kind word to each other, ever.”
“The mosquitos? Yeah they’re horrible and everyone knows they should be illegal. They’re literally just stalkers with a platform. Even James has lost it with them and he’s basically pinkie pie from my little pony”
“Pinkie pie? I told you that I’m 100% rainbow dash.” James says like it’s the most obvious thing in the world.
“Okay, James, sure. Be whatever you want to be and don’t let anyone tell you differently.”
“I’ve had enough socializing. I’m going to my room. James and Sirius, leave me alone. Thank you, Effie and Monty for the meal and everything.”
Regulus lets them - effie and monty of course- give him hugs before he heads back to his room and begins writing.
Obviously he’s going to write a song about this.