Wedding bells
Saturday July 15, 1972
The entire Black family was gathered in a huge ball room traditionally used for weddings of the noble house. The walls were decorated in that characteristic Slytherin green colour that made Sirius's hair stand on end. At the end of each pew, a bouquet of roses dyed by an incantation of this same green, black fabrics fell from the windows, the carpet that marked the way to the altar was a brilliant silver colour and classical music resounded throughout the room. All family members were taking seats. A huge lineage tapestry was displayed behind where the union was about to be celebrated. Rodolphus Lestrange's name had already been added to the cloth, along with his future wife, Bellatrix.
Regulus and Sirius wore matching, black suits, their parents, Walburga and Orion, wore silver. Narcissa Black and the other bridesmaids were wearing white dresses with green flowers and the groom's escorts matching white and green suits.
Regulus and Sirius took their seats and waited patiently for the wedding to begin. They didn't exchange glances or words as their mother's eyes were fixed on their necks. She watched every move they made, especially keeping an eye on Sirius.
Once the whole family was seated, the music changed, a huge organ appeared at the top of the room and began to play too loud a tune that made Regulus want to cry.
The back doors were flung open and unmistakable laughter was heard. They all turned around knowing exactly whose it was. Regulus looked at his brother for the first time since they had arrived, Sirius returned him the look with a mischievous smile on his mouth, he gestured to his cousin and began to laugh. Regulus looked up to see her indeed dressed in green. He tried to hold it, but a laugh resounded throughout the room, he immediately regretted it, but he couldn't help it, it was hilarious. Bellatrix was getting married in bloody green! Both brothers tried to hide their laughter without success. Regulus thought for a moment that he saw Narcissa laughing too. Walburga didn't find it all that funny, she gave both of them a withering look.
— You better stop laughing if you don't want to loose the ability to speak for a whole week. — Walburga could communicate telepathically, the brothers sometimes forgot —
No one laughed anymore.
Once the wedding was over, the party began. Regulus discovered over the years that being the little one at celebrations like these was a real curse, he was thankful to have his brother there for once.
Regulus barely tried to interact with the family; they all terrified him. He had come over to congratulate her cousin on her father's orders.
— Congratulations Bellatrix,— little Reggie barely whispered.
—Regulus! Dear, this is my cousin Regulus Arcturus Black, who I told you about, I think he wants to tell us something! — She turned to speak to her husband. —
— Oh, hello Arcturus, your cousin talks a lot about you and how you will be the next heir to the Black house.
—Erm… — Regulus felt sick hearing that, — that, that's my brother, Sirius…
— DON'T BE A FOOL COUSIN, SIRIUS IS NOT WORTHY OF THE LINEAGE. THE SNAKE RUNS IN YOUR BLOOD AND THE LION IN HIS, GREEN IN YOUR EYES, BLUE IN HIS — another laugh — DON'T YOU REALLY BELIEVE THAT HE WILL BE THE PRODIGAL, HUH? — Regulus was petrified, he didn't even realize when Bellatrix grabbed his arm from the same place where she had left a wound on Christmas — WHAT'S GOING ON, COUSIN? ARE YOU SCARED? NO NO NO, BAD! BAD BOY! BAD BAD BAD, NO SIR, NO NO — Regulus had stopped understanding what Bellatrix was saying a while ago, sometimes it happened, she lost the little sanity she had left — BAD, SCARED CHILD, BABY SNAKE-
— Bella! I've been looking for you for ages, haven't had time to congratulate you for abandoning the name of Black before. I'm so happy for you, hey! Maybe now that you're married your husband pays you for that psychiatric hospital that your parents/uncles refused to pay for — Sirius appeared at the best moment, saving his little brother from his incoming anxiety attack —
— SIRIUS BLACK, LAUGH, LAUGH WHAT YOU WANT, SIRIUS SIRIUS SIRIUS, YOUR NAME SOUNDS EMPTY TO ME, LITTLE RED BLOOD.
— Bella... have you drunk so much that your blood has stopped being red? — Sirius feigned sarcastic concern. —
— AHHH, SNOT BOY. — Bellatrix took her husband's arm letting Regulus’s go and pushed Rodolphus away from the place where Sirius now had his brother held by the shoulders.
— GOODBYE BELLA, IT'S ALWAYS A PLEASURE TO TALK TO YOU… — Sirius yelled as she walked away. —
Regulus felt as if a bag of sand had just been lifted from his back. He looked at his brother and they both laughed.
— Reggie, Reggie... you're going to have to be more careful, there are a lot of bullies out there, it's a good thing you have a wonderful and charismatic older brother who's going to protect you at Hogwarts. — Sirius teased. —
Both brothers walked laughing towards the food table.
Regulus would never admit out loud that his brother's prank made him enter Hogwarts feeling much safer. It gave him an air of familiarity that he would rarely experience in his life. He had a brother who would protect him. He swore to himself that one day he would be as brave as Sirius so he could protect him as well.
The night was very long, despite Regulus' efforts not to interact, he had to talk to at least two dozen members of the Black house out of "courtesy and etiquette" as Walburga called it.
When he wasn't using his vocabulary classes to introduce himself to familiars, he was with Sirius. Regulus had the best time he could with him. They had a competition to see how many snake-shaped decorations they could find, Regulus won of course, he had always been much more observant than Sirius. They did a few ballroom dances, drank a lot of punch, and ate a lot of chocolate frogs.
Despite Regulus's fear for almost his entire family, Narcissa Black had always been his favourite cousin, she terrified him of course, but she was the only one who occasionally sat down to just talk and watch with him and at least she was the only one who didn't address him solely to warn him of his harsh future as heir to the Noble House of Black.
Narcissa and Regulus were seated in chairs, set back from the dance floor. It was 5:17 in the morning, both were tired and only looked at the relatives who were still dancing. Bellatrix and Rodolphus of course, Druella and Cygnus, Cissy's parents and Reggie's uncles, Sirius, who was trying to anger his mother once more, Orion, who was drunk, and the occasional uncle of both young men who were too tired to focus. Neither of them had said anything in the long time they had been sitting there together, it was Narcissa who finally broke the silence.
— nervous? — She did not turn to look at him, she only said it knowing that the little boy was intelligent and would know that she was talking to him —
— nervous? — Regulus asked confused. —
— For your entrance to Hogwarts.
— Oh, that. Ehm… yes, I guess so.
— He has made the entrance difficult for you, huh? — once again she assumed that he would follow the thread and once again she was right —
— You think? — Regulus looked at Sirius, who was still dancing, grimacing. — He's left quite a mark, hasn't he?
— Aha — she agreed — the marauders, has he told you?
— Part. A group of friends. He has told me who they are and some of the pranks they have pulled.
— Potter, Lupin, Pettigrew, and him. I think they've had more detention than the rest of the school together. Has he told you the first one they did?
— Hm... — Regulus thought for a moment but couldn't think of what it could have been — I don't think so.
— They put some damn flowers on all our sheets. We had hives for four days. A poor first year, what was he called… erm… oh yeah! Snape, he was allergic, he spent three days in the infirmary. I'm not telling you he didn't deserve it, the guy is a jerk, but it was chaos. They attacked the whole house. Lucius and I thought about revenge but couldn't come up with anything that wouldn't land us in weeks of detention. Namely, how they did it.
— How do you know it was them? Did they get caught?
— Nah, not that time. At first it was unknown, then they began to attack more times and we all assumed it was them.
There was silence for a few minutes. Regulus seriously considered whether he should ask or not. In the end he decided to take advantage of the fact that his cousin was in a good mood.
— Narcissa?
— Hmm, — she asked, still looking straight ahead —
— I'm going into Slytherin, right? — Regulus was now looking at her and hearing the question, Narcissa turned to look at him as well. —
— Don't worry about that Reg, of course you're going to enter Slytherin, your brother... well he's... you know, different, he reminds me a lot of Ands sometimes.
No one ever talked about Andromeda, no one apart from Sirius of course, hearing Narcissa talk about her older sister made Regulus shudder slightly.
— Even she got into Slytherin, didn't she?
— Well… she… yes, she was in Slytherin, but Sirius…
— Don't worry about him Reg, really, it's in your blood and you want it, you'll enter without problem. — Narcissa smiled at Regulus and patted him solemnly on the head, then got up and went to talk to Bellatrix and Rodolphus. —
“It's in your blood and you want it…” That was the problem, Regulus wasn't sure he wanted it. On the one hand, he didn't want to disappoint his family, he wanted to be a Black, from Slytherin, he liked the colour green and snakes, and he was terribly afraid of disappointing his mother. On the other was Sirius, Regulus knew how much he hated his family’s home, what if he hated him too when he entered Slytherin? He was overwhelmed by so many thoughts…
Could he fit into Slytherin? yes, after all, it was tradition. He would definitely not be a Gryffindor, Regulus never considered himself brave, or at least not until years later. Ravenclaw? yes, it could be, he had always been told that he was a very intelligent and thoughtful boy, and Hufflepuff actually sounded good in Regulus's head as well. It terrified him to think about it.