Regulus
James Potter.
Head Boy.
James Potter as Head Boy.
You have got to be fucking kidding.
“He’s dumber than a bag of rocks. Why the fuck would they do that?” Barty mutters in his ear from the seat next to him in the Great Hall.
So far, their return to school was going great. The train ride was easy, all of their trunks were sent to their rooms, and they were gathered in the Great Hall for dinner before being sent to bed since classes start the next day.
That was until Dumbledore made his beginning-of-the-year announcement and he told Hogwarts that James fucking Potter is now Head Boy. He also announced Head Girl as Lily Evans, in Gryffindor, who the entire school has been forced to watch Potter pine over for the past however many years. But that’s irrelevant.
How the absolute hell did Potter manage to grab that title? All Regulus ever sees of him is when he runs around school like a chicken with his head cut off and acting as if he founded Hogwarts himself. Truth be told, he seems like a dumbass who landed with some good genes so he manages to woo everyone around him (including Sirius) into following his every word. It’s terribly annoying, but at least Regulus never has to speak to Potter if he doesn’t want to. He can successfully say he has only shared five words with Potter in all six years that Regulus has been attending this school.
It was on Regulus’ first train ride to Hogwarts, before he met Pandora, he sat with Sirius who could not stop gushing about his new friends; how amazing they were; how much Regulus was going to love them; how much better they were than being home. Being home with Regulus that is.
Some boy walked in, his black hair going every which way with glasses much too large for his face resting on his cheeks that looked like they should have ached from how hard he was smiling.
Their conversation went like this;
“Hi!” James smiled, his two front teeth were crooked.
“Hello.”
“I’m James Potter.”
And that was that. Regulus deemed him too loud and too smiley for him to be able to handle. So he never talked to him again.
Regulus leans back over to Barty, “Dumbledore must’ve finally lost his mind.”
Barty quietly laughs and Regulus suppresses a smile as they both look back up to where Dumbledore is standing on the platform.
“I also have a very big announcement regarding an activity that is going to take place at Hogwarts this year.” He says. The room falls quiet, anticipation runs up Regulus’ spine. “This year for the first time in many, many years, we will be holding the Triwizard Tournament.”
Oh shit.
The room disrupts into loud chatter as students talk about what this could mean. Someone could die. Someone could win. He hears Professor McGonagall loudly shush everyone.
“The Triwizard Tournament was first established some seven hundred years ago as a friendly competition between the three largest European schools of wizardry: Hogwarts, Beauxbatons, and Durmstrang.” Dumbledore continued, “A champion was selected to represent each school, and the three champions competed in three magical tasks. The schools took it in turns to host the tournament once every five years, and it was generally agreed to be a most excellent way of establishing ties between young witches and wizards of different nationalities — until, that is, the death toll mounted so high that the tournament was discontinued. However, this year it will be played differently as there will be two selected champions from each school who will work together to win the Triwizard Cup, hopefully ensuring the safety of the students.”
What the fuck does he mean “hopefully?” That's definitely really reassuring.
Barty nudges his elbow, “So?”
“So, what?”
“Are you gonna do it?”
Regulus’ eyes trail over to the Ravenclaw table where Pandora sits, closest to the Slytherins, already looking at him. She nods her head excitedly.
Regulus frowns and turns back to Barty, “Obviously not, I don’t have a death wish.”
That makes Barty roll his eyes, “Sorry, I forgot you were boring.” He says as he turns to excitedly mumble with Evan who is on the other side of him.
Regulus can’t be the only one who sees how fucked up this is, right? It is literally sending a bunch of dumb teenagers into death traps and making their peers watch for entertainment as they fight for their lives.
All for what? Some giant cup?
No, Regulus will certainly not be taking part in any of that. He happens to like having all of his appendages attached to his body, thank you. Only someone completely stupid and overly cocky would do it, like some dumb Gryffindor or something.
Shit.
Regulus knows a dumb Gryffindor. Oh no, Sirius is definitely going to sign up isn’t he? He’s most certainly going to die out there, he was scared of butterflies until he was 13, no way will he win.
Regulus searches the Gryffindor table, eyes landing on a group of boys leaning over the table and talking in quick, hushed whispers. Of course it’s the Neanderthals that call themselves the “Marauders'' Of course they would want to do it. Maybe not Pettigrew though, he seems too soft.
He can’t let Sirius do it, he can’t. They might not have talked in a year and two weeks, but Sirius is his brother. Regulus can’t let him accidentally kill himself while trying to prove to the world that he is tough or whatever he tries to do everyday.
Regulus has to talk him out of it.