Chapter 5
Dorcas and Pandora had arrived at the boys’ dorm an hour before the ball had started bringing with them a very large bottle of fairies ale and a couple of spliffs for good measure.
Evan and Barty both whistled when they walked in, the girls grinning as they spun around showing off their costumes.
“Dorcas…”
“Pandora…”
Both Evan and Barty said in unison, dropping to their knees and clutching at their chests.
“Will you do me the honour of giving me a proper snog tonight?”
Even Regulus let out a small chuckle at the ridiculousness of Barty and Evan who were still kneeling and putting on their most lovestruck faces.
Dorcas snorted, grabbing Barty and hauling him up, “yeah right Crouch as if we’re not all just a bunch of bloody queers,” Barty pouted looking slightly put out at the rejection of his fake proposal.
The girls really did look good though, Dorcas had gone for a very classic muggle costume of a witch, with fishnets, a witches hat and a black slip dress with a belted corset round the middle. Even her braids were a part of the costume, with delicate fake spiders intertwined within them.
Pandora had gone down a slightly more traditional route and had dressed up as Artemis, her entire being adorned with silver except for a gold circlet gleaming against her pale hair.
“Besides… I think we all know whose attention Dorcas is actually trying to get tonight” Pandora smirked slightly, walking past the boys to sit next to Regulus on his bed.
“McKinnon, really? Still barking up that tree then?” Barty said in a dry, unimpressed tone.
Dorcas rolled her eyes, reaching over to ruffle Barty’s hair who yelped and jumped back, trying to smooth it back into position. “Can’t really help myself when she looks like that! There’s nothing wrong with her and you know it, you just don’t like her because she’s a Gryffindor.”
“Uh yeah” Barty said like it was obvious, to be fair, it probably was to him.
“She is hot though” Pandora pointed out, rubbing small circles on Regulus’s back who was surprisingly letting her.
Dorcas gestured towards Pandora satisfactorily as if saying see! to Barty.
“Whatever” Barty grumbled, stalking over to the mirror and continuing to preen at himself.
“So what are you two then?” Dorcas asked, watching the two boys both try and use the mirror.
“Well they both have the creativity of kneazles so Barty here is going as Salazar and Evan as his favourite quidditch player,” Regulus said, barely looking up from his book.
Barty’s lip curled upwards playfully, “oh yes I’m sorry Reggie that’s so much worse than not dressing up at all.”
Regulus smiled back, “exactly what I thought.”
Dorcas who had been watching the boys hadn’t seen Regulus until that moment and she was obviously surprised, “Regulus you look great!”
Regulus smiled more genuinely now, “thanks Dorcas, so do you, McKinnon won’t know what’s hit her.”
Regulus did look great, he was wearing slightly fitted black jeans with a black silk button up with the top two buttons undone tucked into it. He was even wearing jewellery with a silver chain hanging around his neck loosely, draped along the tops of his defined collarbones and a couple of heavy and expensive looking rings. To put it loosely, he looked expensive and very attractive.
“Is that muggle clothing?” Dorcas asked, walking over to him and Pandora. Regulus nodded, “yep I went shopping with my Uncle over the summer and we picked out a few things for me.”
“Okay!” Barty clapped his hands together loudly, drawing the attention of everyone in the room, “that’s enough talking, let’s get drunk before we have to go and interact with people.”
The rest of them nodded in agreement, all taking shots from the ale that Dorcas had brought and passing around the joint that Pandora had supplied. They were all pleasantly buzzed as they made their way through the Slytherin common room to the Great Hall an hour later for the Halloween ball.
Regulus was immediately overwhelmed by the music that overpowered the Great Hall as they walked in, Hogwarts had obviously gotten some crappy Wizarding band that were now attempting to cover a Bowie song, and severely failing. Wincing at the musical carnage, he did a quick sweep of the room, his eyes unwillingly stopping on Sirius and his friends.
They had all dressed up quite ridiculously as a band of some sorts though Regulus didn’t know which one. With their tank tops, messy hair and makeup, it was clear that the rest of the population at Hogwarts did not share Regulus’s opinion of their ridiculous apparel.
Before he could look away and continue watching the rest of the people, warm brown eyes met his and James bloody Potter smiled at him. Frowning back, Regulus ignored the way that Potter was now looking Regulus up and down, almost…appreciatively? No, that couldn’t be it.
Shaking his head, Regulus pulled his eyes away and groaned as Barty grabbed onto his arm pulling him into the throng of the dance floor.
“Barty I’m going to need a lot more to drink if you want me to be able to stand this party” Regulus shouted over the noise.
Barty just winked, pulling out a small flask, “it’s magically refillable and links directly to the bottle of fairies ale we had in the room, just don’t let a teacher see alright?”
Regulus took a long swig and grinned as the familiar haze overtook his senses again, “Oh trust me I can be discreet.”
An hour later, Regulus was well and truly sloshed. He could already feel the headache he was going to have the next day, thank Merlin it was a Saturday but he decided that if he didn’t want to worsen it, he should move away from the insanely loud music and flashing lights.
Walking over to Pandora, he bent down to whisper in her ear, “Hey, Panda, I’m just going out to have a cig.” She just nodded, laughing as a fellow boy in Ravenclaw, Xeno..something? pulled her away.
Regulus quickly exited the hall, leaning against the cool stone wall as he made his way to the front of Hogwarts’s grounds.
Breathing in the rush of air that welcomed him, he started to walk towards one of the benches beside a great willow tree when he became aware of a presence seemingly following him. Ignoring the slight pounding in his head, he turned around to look at the culprit only to see James Potter leaning against a tree staring at him.
Narrowing his eyes, he huffily sat down on the bench and glared at him. “Potter, what do you want?”
Jumping at being acknowledged, James sheepishly walked towards him and sat down next to him, “sorry I didn’t realise I was staring, I was just getting some fresh air.”
Regulus dismissed the excuse, too drunk to really care. Pulling out a cigarette, he lit it expertly, even holding out the pack for James offering him one.
James blinked in surprise before taking one. “Fuck how do you light these?” he fumbled with his wand, trying to get it to produce a flame before Regulus rolled his eyes and pressed the end of his lit cigarette to James who watched him with wide eyes at their close proximity.
Inhaling deeply, Regulus smirked, “seriously Potter, don’t tell me that the Golden Boy of Hogwarts has never had a cigarette?”
James scoffed, “I actually prefer the title Head Boy thank you very much, and I have had one before, Sirius and Remus smoke them all the time.”
Regulus nodded mockingly, bringing the cigarette to his lips. James’s eyes followed the movement, his eyes stopping at Regulus’s lips and swallowed harshly. Regulus narrowed his eyes, interesting.
Regulus was not an idiot, he knew when someone thought he was attractive and it seemed that James Potter who had chased after Lily Evans most of his school life was now entranced by the sight of Regulus’s lips. Very interesting.
“How come you’re not telling me to piss off?” James asked slightly hesitantly as if by acknowledging the oddity of their current situation would remind Regulus who would then promptly tell him to do exactly that.
Regulus leaned back in a relaxed position, widening his legs as he slumped down on the bench. “Well, Potter, to be totally honest with you, I am pissed out of my mind right now.”
James frowned as if this answer had been displeasing to him. “Call me James,” he offered somewhat hopefully.
Regulus decided to humour him, “Okay James” he drawled, sitting up as James’s pupils dilated slightly.
Merlin, Regulus was a vision when he was drunk, James thought. Flushed cheeks, slightly wet lips and an unfocused gaze, which were all exceedingly distracting as he tried to calm himself down.
And when he said his name, James hadn’t been aware it could sound so good, so sinful coming from the younger Black’s lips. He had caressed the vowels, drawing each syllable out torturously slow as if he knew what he was doing to James.
“So what are you dressed as?” Regulus asked bringing James back to the present and away from his increasingly more lewd thoughts.
“Oh,” he perked up grinning to Regulus’s amusement, “I’m a part of the muggle band Queen, it’s one of Sirius’s favourite bands.” Surveying Regulus quickly, he frowned confused, “what are you dressed up?”
“I’m dressed up as someone who didn’t want to go to this thing but was forced to by his friends so therefore decided that I would refuse to partake in the silly notion of putting on a costume when it’s more likely that half of Hogwarts won’t actually care about making their costume scary but just want to look good.” At the last word, he looked pointedly at James, clearly judging him.
James laughed at his response, not expecting it to be in such a deadpan tone but then realised what Regulus had said, “you think I look good?”
Looking surprised, Regulus straightened up and coughed, sounding for the first time, slightly less controlled. “That is not what I said, Potter.”
James smiled widely, “yeah but that’s what you meant isn’t it?” shifting closer to him.
Regulus arched an eyebrow, “don’t fool yourself Potter.”
James pouted, “Hey what happened to calling me James!”
Standing up, Regulus smirked before leaning down putting his body very close to James’s and whispered in his ear, “Only when you have earnt it will I call you by your name.”
He then stalked off in the darkness back to the castle, leaving James shocked and flustered alone on the bench.
Dorcas was currently failing at getting Marlene’s attention and she was all too aware of this, to her chagrin.
Marlene had dressed up as a pirate and looked so bloody good that it was very difficult for Dorcas not to walk over there and just kiss her in the middle of the Great Hall.
“How’s it going?” Barty asked, joining Dorcas at the table she was currently sitting at for the sole purpose of watching Marlene dance with her Gryffindor friends, Macdonald and Evans.
“Oh great, I’m actually over there snogging her right now” she replied sarcastically, not in the mood for Barty’s mocking.
He snorted, “well you might be if you talked to her rather than sitting here sulking,” Dorcas scowled at this truth, “what’s the problem Meadows? Do you not know if she likes girls?”
Sighing loudly, she turned to face Barty, “no see the thing is I know she does and somehow that’s scarier than not knowing y’know? If she was straight, at least I could just blame myself for falling for a straight girl but if she doesn’t like me then that’s just because of…me”
Barty looked at her sympathetically, “c’mon Dorcas that’s a load of bollocks, you’re brilliant and if she can’t see that then she’s not worth it anyway, I mean she’s still just a bloody Gryffindor.”
Dorcas snorted a laugh at that, “thanks Barty that actually does make me feel better,” she stood up determinedly, “okay I’m going to go talk to her”
Barty smirked, watching her walk off into the crowd as he looked for his other friends. His gaze stopped on Evan who was currently chatting to a seventh year blonde and very pretty Hufflepuff. Frowning slightly, Barty tried to understand why that annoyed him so much, he didn’t usually care about who Evan talked to, which was pretty much everyone. So why was the sight of him leaning over this girl, even brushing a hair out of her face making him so angry? Barty scoffed, it was probably just because it was a fucking Hufflepuff, as if Evan couldn’t do better.
Dorcas took a deep breath as she walked over to Marlene in the middle of the dance floor. “Hey, you’re Marlene right?”
The blonde girl stopped stumbling around recklessly and frowned prettily in confusion, “yeah,” her eyes lit up in recognition, “you’re Dorcas Meadowes right? In Slytherin?”
Dorcas nodded, feeling a bit shy under the girl’s gaze but swallowing it down. “I just wanted to say that I like your costume, I mean you look incredible.”
Marlene smirked and leant in, the waft of vanilla filling Dorcas’s senses and making her feel slightly dizzy, “you think so?” Dorcas nodded breathlessly, “well I would definitely say the same about you, I like the muggle costume, obviously I took a similar route!”
Dorcas felt some of the tension leave her body as her and Marlene continued chatting and flirting, Marlene was great, she was funny and sweet and ridiculously hot, of course. By the time the night had ended, Dorcas was pretty sure that she might feel confident enough to ask Marlene out to Hogsmeade the next weekend and she stumbled back to her room, feeling flushed and happy.
The next morning, Regulus, Barty and Evan all let out a simultaneous groan as the sunlight streamed in through their curtains.
“Okay I think this is officially the worst hangover I have ever had,” Evan weakly announced, flopping his head down onto his pillow.
“Reg do you even remember last night? You were pretty hammered from what I recall,” Barty asked as he slowly dragged himself out of bed starting to get ready for breakfast.
Regulus let out a dry laugh, “bits and pieces, definitely not everything.”
As the three boys collected themselves, they quickly got ready and walked to the Great Hall hoping to have breakfast as hurriedly as possible so they could go straight back to bed.
Regulus settled himself down at the Slytherin table and grabbed a piece of toast, starting to lather it with butter when he felt a pair of eyes on him. Snapping his head up, he scanned the room for the culprit when for the second time in less than a day, his eyes met Potter’s across a crowded room.
Regulus frowned, that was weird, why was Potter looking at him? And why was he looking at him like that? Oh. oh shit. Regulus suddenly remembered last night and his flirting with James and scowled harshly, furiously putting jam on his toast.
“Uh mate, you alright?” Evan asked bemusedly watching as Regulus took his rage out on the poor piece of bread.
“Fine,” Regulus ground out, “but I am never drinking again.”
“I hear that.” Barty lifted his head from where it had been resting on the table before letting it thud back down.