Ch.1 - speculations (oh and some cows)
August 29, 1977
In three days Regulus Black would be entering his fifth year at Hogwarts, and until then he’d be staying in Diagon Ally, accompanied by his two best friends; Evan Rosier and Barry Crouch Jr.
His parents had left on an unexpected trip to the family Villa in France, ‘something work related’ he’d been told. Or as Regulus knew, ‘something to do with the war.’ Typically he’d be dumped on his cousin - Bellatrix’s - doorstep if his parents were to be traveling, however her and her husband were accompanying his parents this time, along with the newly wedded Narcissa and Lucius. So with a very strict set of rules, and an enormous amount of faith in their youngest son, Walburga and Orion had allowed Regulus to stay the last few days of his summer holiday with his friends in London.
As of right now the three boys were all crammed onto the small double mattress in Evan’s room. Barry and Evan were bickering like an old married couple, as Regulus just laughed, staring up at the cracked and moldy ceiling of the inn. He’d met the two other boys on his first night at Hogwarts, he’d seen Evan before at some pure blood event or another but they’d never properly spoken. And Barty was the son of some higher up ministry officer, it came as a shock when he was sorted into Slytherin, and sometimes Regulus questioned whether or not the hat had made a bad decision.
Barty Crouch was probably the most relaxed person Regulus had ever met, academics came with ease and he hadn’t once missed an assignment in their four years at school. Regulus wasn’t sure he’d ever actually seen Barty study for an exam in his life, though he always seemed to get near the top mark on everything he did. Regulus knew that his father was quite harsh on the boy, always expected him to make minister one day, though from what he gathered Barty had absolutely no interest in that ever happening. If anything Barty wanted to work at Gringotts, if there was one thing Barty loved it was money, maybe the only thing he loved more was Evan Rosier. It was quite obvious to Regulus that he was infatuated with their best friend, however Evan remained blissfully unaware of this fact, however blatantly obvious it was.
Evan Rosier was far from stupid, he’d probably make top of their class every year if he applied himself. But he was horribly awful with identifying and dealing with emotions, Regulus recalled a time in their second year when Evan had found him sobbing in their dorm because of a letter his mother had sent about his marks in Herbology - which Regulus hated with every bone in his body. He just couldn’t understand anything about those bloody plants! Evan had tried everything he could think of to get Regulus to calm down which included the following two tactics;
- pat Regulus on the back
- Tell regulus to take a deep breath and get a grip
The second had only made Regulus more emotional, as it reminded him of something his mother would say if she had been there. After the moment had come and gone it had been Barty, who’d come in a few minutes later, that had calmed Regulus down with a bit of joking around and a chocolate frog. Evan had good intentions, he just had bad execution. He was clever though, came up with comebacks for every snide mark that was thrown in their direction, he made sure that Regulus and Barty weren’t always revising and made their lives more interesting.
The two boys made Regulus feel as close to happy as he could feel that summer, ever since Sirius ran away in July they’d made sure to check in and send him letters at least every other day - sometimes alternating which one of them would try and bring up what had happened to the older Black. Regulus shut that down every time and they’d respected that as best they could. Now, in person it was a lot harder for Regulus to change the topic, especially when rumors and speculations had been circulating the wizarding world all summer about what happened to Regulus’ brother.
“Reggie,” Barty poked at his rib cage, pulling Regulus from his content state of staring at the ceiling pondering about his friends. He didn’t respond, just turned his head to raise an eyebrow at the other boy. “You can’t avoid it forever. Just tell us what happened with mummy dearest and your brother and we’ll go get ice cream or some shit.”
“Haven’t you heard the rumors?” Regulus rolled over onto his elbows, his head basically resting in Evan’s lap, doing every little thing to piss Barty off for bringing his brother up.
“Sure we have but I’m pretty sure your brother isn’t stupid enough, or capable, of turning your entire family into monkeys for a week,” Evan snorted at the thought.
“Hadn’t heard that one yet I’ll give it to you,” regulus smirked. In a slightly better mood than he was a few seconds ago. Still not willing to give into their pleas he decided to mess with them for a while. “It’s honestly the closest to the truth that these rumors have gotten.” That caught their attention he thought, quickly fabricating a story to tell them which would only get more and more absurd until they realized they were being played. “It wasn’t monkeys though, and it most certainly wasn’t an entire week. It was cows, and it was maybe four hours at most.” Evan’s eyes were wide, and Barty looked as though he was about to have a seizure.
“You’re fucking with us. He’s got to be fucking with us Ev! No way Sirius Black transfigured his parents and brother into cows and is still walking free.”
“Oh no Barty,” regulus put on a face of pure seriousness. “I’m most certainly not fucking with you.” Evan opened his mouth to protest, but Regulus continued with his tale. “Now hush it gets better. Mother was the funniest by far. The spell he used must’ve backfired a bit on her, because she could still speak. Picture a great big, fat, brown, milk cow, with my mother’s voice screaming bloody murder at my brother who could barely move from his place on top of the dining room table. After the shock wore off he was laughing for a solid twenty minutes whilst my mother was telling him that if he wasn’t out of the house by the time they transformed back he’d find himself unable to speak or move for the next year. But every two or so words she’d moo, like a proper moo, I swear Sirius nearly pissed himself laughing before realizing exactly what he’d gotten himself into. By the time we were all back to ourselves he was long gone, I swear mother nearly had a cow after that fiasco, sent howlers for days until Sirius wrote back. Just a great big middle finger drawn onto the page. She lost it after that, burnt him off the family tree and everything. Though I’ve got to say I quite liked being a cow, so I’ve got him to thank for that bit of wisdom I suppose.”
Regulus took the next moments of silence to take in the view of his best friends’ faces. They were so conflicted, not sure if their friend was messing with them or telling the full honest truth. Regulus saw more doubt in Evan’s face than Barty, who looked more like he was about to go find Sirius and shake his hand on the ‘magical feat’ than as if he’d been told a load of dung.
“You wanted to know what happened,” Regulus shrugged, cracking a small smile.
“Sirius Black. Your brother. Sirius Orion Black, turned three people into cows. For hours? You can’t be Serious Reg,” Evan knit his brows together, looking down at Regulus who was full on laying in his lap at this point.
“Oh I’m dead Serious Rosier,” Regulus was struggling to hold a straight face as Barty was doing some complicated calculations in his head as to how the hell it was possible for that to happen.
Evan was the first to crack a laugh, and only a second later he and Regulus were laughing so hard their eyes were watering.
“What’s so funny guys?” Barty asked frantically, realizing he must’ve missed something important.
“I was fucking with you Crouch,” Regulus giggled.
And with that all three boys were rolling on their backs laughing, Regulus was truly happy for the first time all summer.
…
Forty minutes later the three boys were happily strolling down the streets of Diagon Ally, ice cream in hand. Regulus had a scoop of chocolate hazelnut with cream, Evan had mint chocolate chip, and Barty strawberry with cream. After the absurd conversation earlier Barty and Evan accepted that Regulus was not ready to talk about his brother. Something that Regulus was grateful for, everything about that night made his skin crawl.
“What do you all fancy doing for the rest of the evening?” Evan asked, the sun was beginning to dip and the shadows of the buildings were bringing a chill to the summer air.
“Suppose we should go back to our rooms,” Regulus said sadly, wishing there was somewhere else they could go.
“Or,” Barty was grinning like mad, which made Regulus a bit worried yet excited to see what was about to leave his mouth. “We could skip the Ally and go out into real London for a bit.”
Evan and Regulus laughed, looking between the three boys; who were all dressed in traditional wizard robes and collared shirts.
“Us? In London? I think Walburga would skin us all alive if we took Reggie out there.”
“I’m not a child you’re babysitting Ev,” Regulus scowled.
“Of course, of course, your mother only has a bloody list of rules that we had to follow if you were to come with us for the last few days.”
“Maybe Barry’s right, it would be fun to explore muggle London for a bit, I’ve never really gone.”
“Yes!” Barty grinned and slung his arm around Regulus.
“You’re both mad,” Evan shook his head in defeat. “Let’s at least ditch the robes before we head out then.”
They all went into their rooms at the inn to change into whatever they had that could pass as muggle clothing. Regulus had nipped a pair of jeans from Sirius’ room before he’d left home, and packed away a tee that Sirius had given him for Christmas last year. Some muggle singer Sirius thought he’d like - David Bowie.
He’d just unbuttoned his shirt when a sudden sharp pain made him double over, gripping into his bedpost for support.
I thought I was clear on what you could and could not do whilst we were absent, Regulus.
His mother. Of course she was spying on him. She was a Legilimens, and it’d become a bit of a trend of her slipping into Regulus and Sirius’ (before he’d run away of course) heads to make sure they were acting in ‘the family's best interest.’
If you decide to disobey me Regulus Arcturus then you’ll sorely regret it.
And just like that she was gone. Well She wasn’t gone, just hiding in his mind again, somewhere that he couldn’t see. The pain subsided quickly and he groaned, feeling as though he had a bad hangover. He made the decision to curl up into bed with no shirt and his trousers from the day, feeling unable to move for a solid ten minutes before his friends came knocking at his door.
“It’s unlocked you idiots,” Regulus called from his bed.
“Oi-” Barty poked him in the head, to which Regulus flipped a finger in the other boy's face. “No need to be rude, lovely. You alright?”
“I feel like shit,” Regulus mumbled. “Go without me if you want, I need to sleep.”
“You were fine fifteen minutes ago Reg,” Evan touched his arm skeptically. Regulus flipped over and gave him a knowing look, everyone in their bit of society knew that Walburga Black was a Legilimens, and Evan seemed to get the hint. “Come on Barty, let’s leave Regulus to get some sleep, we’ll figure out something to do.”
Barty didn’t protest and the two left quietly, clicking the lights and locking Regulus in the dark room.
He couldn’t even enjoy a holiday with his friends without his mother having something to say. Maybe Sirius wasn’t as crazy as he’d thought. Without his barrier Regulus was the center of his parents’ world. And he hated it.
With that he slipped into a very deep and plagued sleep, remembering every reason that he had to hate his older brother. All orchestrated of course by his lovely mother.