don’t keep secrets
May 7th, 1980
quite some time had passed, with not much happening at school. the only thing happening was that a lot of students started getting more aware of the war, both older and younger students.
younger ones were afraid of what was to come of their future, that was yet so far away,, while the older ones wondered about what their — soon to be — life’s would be like.
the war was becoming more and more obvious, despite older generations, and the ministry, trying so hard to camouflage it.
it was useless.
tonight was another death eater meeting Regulus was ordered to be it. was he a bit afraid? no — ‘a bit’, was an understatement.
he was terrified.
of course he’d never admit to it, but everything could fall apart in front of his eyes in a couple of hours. especially if Peter were to be there.
“come on Regulus,” Evan plastered a smile on his face, handing him a box of fudge.“you gotta eat. i don’t think i’ve seen you eat anything at all today, and it’s well past one—”
“leave him be, Ev. he’s not gonna listen anyways.” Barty lit his cigarette, taking a long drag of it and blowing it out a bit later. luckily it was quiet in the highest tower of school, logically so — it was lunch time, or in Barty’s words;
“it’s the perfect time for a good quiet smoke with a nice view,” he leaned one leg out of the wall opening he was sitting in. “you guys are ruining it.”
Evan rolled his eyes, taking Regulus’s arm and leading him towards a little staircase a bit in the back. small opening in the wall that looked out over the mountains surrounding the grounds.
“Reggie,” Regulus rolled his eyes at that, he preferred not to be called Reggie. it was barely bearable when Sirius did it, but it was absolutely insufferable when others did. “i know something’s up.”
Evan also lit a cigarette. it was their little habit to smoke in the astronomy tower during lunch, since it was quiet by then.
“what do you mean?” Regulus muttered, taking the cigarette and taking a drag himself, inhaling the nicotine.
“oh you know what i mean, you’ve been hiding something for ages now.” Evan leaned back. “and don’t say it’s Emilia.”
Regulus let out a nervous chuckle, resting his head on the stone behind him. Evan snickered as well, Regulus could feel his eyes on him.
“i can’t tell. it’s dangerous, for you, Barty, me— all of us.”
“it can’t be that bad—”
“it is!” Regulus spat. “don’t you understand? it will kill us if i tell what i’m up to.”
for a second he debated on walking away, they wouldn’t understand it anyway. but that wasn’t like him, and it was actually understandable that they’d want to know what he was up to — he would tell them if it was anything non-dangerous, but that was sadly not the case right now.
“sorry.” Regulus murmured.
“‘s okay.” Evan said, taking another drag of the lit cigarette that was hanging between his fingers. “tell us when it’s possible, we’re your friends. whatever it is, it won’t matter to us.”
those words played on his mind throughout that entire day, and for all those days yet to come. it was nice.
it was almost ten, and while Barty was snoring into his pillow, and Evan was talking in his sleep — saying something about a popsicle man, who was following him around in an ice cream van. — Regulus made his way out of the room, and to the prefect’s room on the sixth floor.
once he got there, he preformed his little ritual again; he locked the door behind him and sat down in front of the fireplace, throwing floo powder into the fire. once he stuck his head into the bright green flames, he was met with the familiar dining room of Malfoy manor.
Narcissa was pregnant, it was highly obvious now, despise her long dressing gowns covering her all the way from her chest down.
the room was cold, and quiet, no one dared to even speak.
“Pettigrew’s dead.” Voldemort announced, as he walked into the room. “he wasn’t a true follower.”
Regulus’s heart dropped, at first he thought it was some joke, maybe it was just to see if he’d react to it.
“but our beloved Peter has told me everything i need to know, everything i need to know to be ready.”
the room was once again quiet, Regulus could see his cousin Bellatrix grin like a maniac somewhere in the middle of the table. she knew something the others didn’t.
Voldemort turned to Regulus, staring at him with a cold expression.
“the Pettigrew boy said something about you as well, Regulus?” Regulus swallowed, but tried not to let the look of fear burning inside of him project onto his face.
“what did he say, sir?”
“that you’re a traitor.” Bellatrix gasped in the background, but Voldemort kept staring at him with eyes wide open. Regulus was afraid to even blink, incase he’d miss something.
“i think Peter was rather insane, the little rat,” Regulus laughed internally at the irony. “he was out of his mind, clearly not in a state to think properly.”
Voldemort clacked his tongue and raised a brow, but he turned around and sat down at the big table again.
“tell me, tell me about Hogwarts.”
so Regulus did, he told them about the students that never came back after their last break — he didn’t tell them their names, it would be dangerous.
after a long while he was finally allowed to leave, so he did. he got up as fast as possible and made his way back to the dorms, only being noticed by a single cat, who appeared to have ‘glasses’ surrounding its eyes.
the entire way, all that was on his mind was that Peter was dead. everything was over, Peter was dead. Peter was dead.
Peter was dead.
once inside of the common room, Regulus practically ran towards his dorm—
“where the hell have you been?” Evan spoke, making him practically jump into the air. Evan stood up from the chair he was sitting in, folding his copy of yesterday’s prophet into his back pocket.
“nothing!” Evan raised a brow at him, but he kept his emotions turned off. “i was just hungry, so—”
“you were hungry and that’s why you were in the kitchens for two and a half hours?”
“yup.” Regulus nodded, bouncing back and forth on his feet. “you’re absolutely right.”
Evan shook his head and walked into their dorm room, but before he entered he turned around. Regulus was still bouncing around a bit, maybe the excitement about hearing the news of Peter’s death was showing through.
“i don’t care that you keep secrets, just find better ways to hide them.”