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The first week of school could’ve been worse but it still wasn’t that great. On Tuesday after lunch Regulus got shoved into a tapestry by one of the Carrow twins, Wednesday he spilled pumpkin juice on his trousers, Thursday McGonagall let him have tea in her office after class so Regulus wouldn’t have to go straight to the dorms. 

The first Friday of the school year was always asynchronous, meaning classes that day were optional. Regulus decided to skip breakfast and sleep in a little longer, then he and Barty planned on attending Charms. Well more like Regulus wanted to go and Barty had no choice but to tag along, Evan was busy with morning detention. How does one even get detention in the first week? 

“Well it’s only fair I get to drag you to the quad after sitting through Flitwick talking about the different colored sparks for an hour straight. I think Dora might be there, she wanted to see if she could crack something out of the supposed talking gargoyle,” Barty continued to rant on as Regulus did nothing but walk beside him, occasionally looking over at him. 

As soon as they stepped out into the hallway that surrounded the courtyard they could hear some sort of popping noise near the benches. Grabbing their attention, both boys turned to look at the commotion. There sat a group of students of various houses, crowding four Gryffindors. Pettigrew had made something explode seemingly by accident and two of them were laughing their arses off while the tall one, Lupin, had begun lecturing the boys before him. 

This was the first time Regulus saw his brother since he left. He always directed his gaze away from their table during meals and took different routes to class to avoid Sirius. He was stunned, he couldn’t move, stuck in his place. Barty’s words blurring and sounding distant, Regulus stared at his brother and friends with a neutral expression. 

Soon enough Barty grabbed his shoulders, forcing Regulus to look at himself instead of the group of teens. Regulus shut his eyes and leaned his head on Barty’s chest, he stayed no longer than thirty seconds. Regulus groaned and took a deep breath before looking at Barty and took a step in the opposite direction.

Speechless, Barty followed him without hesitation. He wishes there was some sort of handbook for dealing with this, What to do when you see your brother for the first time in months after he ran away and left you to rot in an abusive household. But unfortunately, Regulus was left with no guide and some really great friends. To be honest he had no clue what he would do when he saw Sirius, deep inside Regulus, wanted to storm up to his brother and slap him, yell at him, angry about his betrayal. 

But he couldn’t, he wouldn’t ever hit anyone like she did, especially his brother after what they’d been through. The pain she caused. He didn’t want to say something he didn’t mean, something he knows he’d regret after. Regulus’ body ached, as soon as he was far enough he sat on the floor back against the wall, face shoved into his hands. Barty slouched next to him and gave nothing but a comforting hug, not letting go until he was okay. Regulus doesn’t think he’ll ever be okay again, he might get close but still far from it. 

Thankfully the hallway was empty, no one really took this route, typically opting for the outer one. Regulus took his time there on the ground, steadying his breathing before looking up at his friend. He doesn’t know when Pandora showed up but it probably wasn’t that long ago seeing as she was still a small distance from the two. Regulus carefully wiggled his way out of Barty’s grip and stood up, he searched his book bag for some spare parchment to write on. 

can we not talk about this, i just want to lay down for a while before dinner

Passing the parchment to them, letting a few seconds pass for them to read it. Pandora just smiled at him whereas Barty held a worrying gaze. Regulus crumpled the page in their hand and stuffed it in his bag before linking arms with Pandora. The three of them had begun walking towards the dungeons, usually, other houses weren’t allowed in each other’s common room but those rules aren't frowned upon. 

As they made their way down the staircase, Barty sped past to open the entrance. Ignoring the looks from other students in the common room they had marched their way to their room. Pandora sat on Regulus’ bed, arms still linked. Barty checked the hallway before shutting the door behind them, it was around midday so Evan should show up sooner or later if he didn’t have anything planned. 

They sat with a comfortable ambiance, charming the small piano in the corner to play a soft melody. Barty had tried to make small talk but Pandora hushed him, this made Regulus let out a small laugh. Both now looking at the boy, Regulus shrugged with a smirk and laid his head on Pandora's lap allowing her to comb through his hair with delicate fingers. Regulus was nearly asleep when Evan came barging in, sparkly and shouting nonsense. Tie undone and robe falling off his shoulder. 

“Oh, I swear to Merlin, if he sets off one more bloody bomb I’m going to hex him into next winter. Who does he think he is? Prancing around like some golden boy, he's annoying and made a glittery mess all over me and- oh we’re we having quiet time? sorry, I’m a bit upset.” Evan threw his robe onto the floor and fell dramatically to his bed. 

“Go shower before you get your glitter everywhere, and dump your robes into the laundry! I don’t have time for this, I need to get my potions homework started and Reg needs to sleep so he’ll talk about his problems,” Barty shouted. 

Regulus tossed a pillow at him and Pandora lightly smacked his forehead,

“Don’t encourage him,” she scowled above the boy. 

“His problems? There’s more?” This time it was Barty’s turn to throw the pillow, landing straight into Evan‘s groin. 

The blonde boy groaned and waddled his way into the bathroom before sending Barty a deathful glare. An hour or two passed by, Barty finished whatever he was working on and Evan was on the bed with Regulus and Pandora, you think it’d be hard to fit three teenagers on a twin-sized bed but you’d be surprised. Regulus was able to get at least twenty minutes of sleep before they had to start walking to the great hall. Meals weren’t mandatory but they always seemed to drag Regulus to them to make sure it ate something, and if he didn’t it gave them an excuse to sneak into the kitchen later. Regulus enjoyed their trips to the kitchen, the elves were kind to him and they didn’t care that he never spoke. He made sure to leave kind gestures in return.

As they entered the dining hall, Pandora let go of Regulus’ arm and made her way to the Ravenclaw table. Evan quickly took her place, he and Pandora were very touchy when it came to protecting Regulus, whereas Barty was always there with him and was more verbal when it came to stuff like that. Barty could always talk enough for the both of them, even if it wasn’t always what Regulus wanted to say he was still thankful for it.

They were a few minutes late so they, unfortunately, had to sit on the side of the table facing the rest of the room, facing the Gryffindor table. When Regulus sat up he realised he had a straight view of his brother yet again. He turned and leaned his head on his arm, not bothering to fill his plate. His roommates took quick notice of this and switched seats around so some tall sixth-year was blocking Regulus from seeing the group across the room. 

Regulus excused himself from the table, writing on a napkin saying he had to use the bathroom. Barty insisted he go with him, but Regulus just shook his head. He made his way out of the hall and wandered the hallway for a bit. Taking his time as he walked toward the nearest boy's lavatory. He heard footsteps behind him but he didn’t think too much about them, figured it was one of the boys trailing after him.

“Reg? Where you wandering off to?”

That voice did not belong to one of his friends. It belonged to his brother. Regulus turned around so quickly that he got a bit of whiplash. Quickly steadying himself, he looked at his brother with a blank expression. Sirius knew Regulus stopped talking, so he didn’t know why his brother asked such a silly question he wouldn’t get an answer to.