Chapter 1
The DAILY PROFIT
HORRIBLE ACCIDENT AT WEST ENDS ‘ROMEO AND JULIO’ REGULUS BLACK IN HOSPITAL
During today's performance of ‘Romeo and Julio’ a modern version of ‘Romeo and Juliet’, the two dancers had a horrible accident. Regulus Black fell to the ground during the dance and he shortly after passed out on stage. He was brought to the hospital and his condition is stable but it isn’t public information yet how Mr Black is doing at the moment. His Fiance, Mr Barty Crouch Jr. dances as Romeo in the performance. There are photos of someone who looks like Mr Crouch leaving St. Mungo's hospital but they aren’t confirmed.
Pain. The first thing Regulus felt when he fell to the ground was a horrible pain in his head. His dance partner missed him when they were doing a lift and because of that, he fell headfirst on the floor. To make it even worse, after Barty had missed him, he also lost his balance and stepped on Regulus´ leg with full force.
The second thing Regulus felt was the pain in his entire body. But because Barty is also on the ground he tries but fails to stand up. Falling to the ground for the second time now, he decides that it is probably best to stay on the ground for a while.
He puts his hand on the place where he expects a massive bump to be growing but instead, he feels something cold. He is confused, he wasn´t sweating that much, was he? But when he takes his hand back he sees that it’s covered in blood.
“Reg, Reggie are you okay baby?” He hears Barty say behind him. “Oh my god you’re bleeding! We need to get you to a hospital”.
A hospital, that sounds like a good idea, Regulus thinks. So he tries to stand up another time but when he does everything becomes blurry, he can’t see Barty clearly and the audience has become almost invisible. He has also started to hear some sort of ringing sound. Then he hears someone behind him so he turns around. This was a very big mistake because the next thing he does is drop to the ground.
When he wakes up the sun has already set. He looks around and he realizes that he probably is in a hospital. He is in a room that he thinks is the recovery room. All the other beds are empty except for one, but the curtains are closed around that one. Regulus doesn’t have time to give any thoughts to the stranger on the other side of those curtains tho, because at that moment the door opens.
“Thank you for showing me the way miss, I won’t be long,” Barty says to the nurse who opened the door. “I’m serious Mr Crouch, I know that Mr Black is your Partner and all that, but he must get as much rest as possible for tomorrow”. The nurse says. “Yeah, yeah, I understand I’ll be very quick.” The nurse nodes and closes the door.
Barty quickly walks towards Regulus and sits down in one of the chairs next to his bed. “How are you baby?” Barty asks Regulus. Well, I don’t know if you noticed, but I just ruined our ballet in the first fucking week off it being on West End. ‘Romeo and Julio’ will now be used as an argument to stop creating same-sex dances for big productions and my parents will kill me because I just put a bad light on the family name.
But because Regulus knows that Barty wouldn’t understand his worries he says “I’m fine, my head hurt like a bitch but besides that, I’m doing pretty okay”.
“Well that’s great baby”, Barty says, “I know you understand that when you’re done with your scan tomorrow that you will have to start training to be better okay? You can’t fail us like this again, this was supposed to be our big breakthrough but I guess that we can wait for a little for that. At least there will be a lot of attention to our ballet now right?!”
What. The. Actual. Fuck.
Maybe Barty forgot what had happened today but Regulus fell from about two meters straight into the ground and he passed out shortly after that. How was this supposed to be his fault? Barty was the one that didn’t catch him! To make it worse he also stepped on his leg with his entire weight.
“Yeah, I guess you’re right” Regulus heard himself say.
“I know I am baby. I can sit and talk about what we are going to do better all night but according to the nurse you need to rest, so I will leave you be now. Love you, good night.” Barty says while standing up and walking out of the room.
“Night”, Regulus says but Barty has already shut the door.
After a few minutes the nurse who let Barty in 15 minutes ago comes back into the room. She introduces herself as madame Pomfrey and she tells him that she is the head nurse of the department that he is in.
“I will give you your painkillers for the night and some other medicine that will help you fall asleep, if there is anything at all that I or one of the other nurses can do for you, you just have to push that button okay?” She asks as she points to a red button that is placed on the outside of the bed.
Regulus lies down and finds out that the bed is actually quite comfortable. It also helps that he knows that he can sleep alone tonight, not next to Barty.
“Not to intrude or anything”, the woman says, “but your partner sounded a little pushy when it comes to your recovery, I just want you to know that the hospital can also help you with other things if you would like,” she says with a sad smile.
“Oh no it’s nothing like how it sounds, my fiance is just really driven and career-focused. He has wanted to dance on West End his entire life and now I am postponing his possible breakthrough. He just wants the best for me careerwise, that’s all.” He says with a forced smile to convince the kind woman, maybe he also is trying to convince himself but he would rather not think about that right now.
“Okay dear, try to get some rest. I will bring you your breakfast tomorrow morning and after that, I will come to get you for your scan.” After she said that she turns around and walks to the door, turning off the main light before closing the door behind her.
Before falling asleep Regulus looked at the closed curtains again.
Still closed.
Maybe this person was already asleep when Barty came into the room. Regulus hoped that he didn’t wake them up or anything, but because there wasn’t any light coming from behind the curtains he assumed that he didn’t. He also turned off his light and tried to get some sleep.
Even tho the bed was very comfortable, Regulus couldn’t fall asleep no matter what he tried. He looks next to him at the clock that he got from the hospital.
02:42
Way too late to call madame Pomfrey, Regulus thinks. He slowly sits up again and notices that everything in his body hurts. So much for the painkillers.
Regulus always knew that doing ballet could be risky because of the possibility of injuries, he just never thought that something like this would happen. He and Barty had practised that lift so much that he could practically do it in his sleep, which ironically is probably the only way he will be doing it in the coming few weeks.
Mother must be fucking pissed about the whole situation, Regulus thinks. She already was against Regulus doing professional ballet, as he was the sole heir to the Black empire. For her ballet was something way too feminine for Regulus, but because he was the only remaining heir and he promised to be very successful and place the Black name in a positive light, she allowed it.
Maybe it would have been easier if Regulus had died when he fell on the floor. That he just fell on his neck and broke it or something. Then his mother wouldn´t be able to kill him for it. Because Regulus is certain that his mother will do something far worse than kill him now. Especially because he promised her that ´Romeo and Julio´ would be a razing success. Now the world will see Walburga Black as a failure for raising two heirs who only disappoint and this will cost Regulkus greatly.
Maybe it will still be a success if Regulus heals fast enough, maybe tho, that won´t be fast enough for the ballet company and Barty. Maybe Barty will just pick someone else to dance with him. If that happens Regulus will lose his job, partner and self-respect.
“Okay Reg”, he thinks, “this is way too much overthinking for one night mate”.
After a few minutes of trying to stand, he finally succeeds and walks, well depends on what you can call walking, to the window that is next to his bed. He sits down in one of the chairs and draws open the curtains.
Faint moonlight falls into the room as Regulus looks up at the stars. They are shining very bright tonight, it always seems to be like this after a storm. Regulus likes to pretend that his family is whole up there. Even Andromeda and Sirius are there and nothing that happens down on earth can change that.
Sometimes Regulus envy’s the stars. For always staying where they are and because they don’t change. It’s not like he still actively misses Sirius or anything, but he just misses what once was and what might have been if he stayed.
His parents had disowned his older brother when he told them that he would never participate in his family's business. And with business he means a criminal organisation, it isn't that crazy that Sirius didn't want to be a part of that, but still, leaving Regulus behind was a low blow. What tipped his parents over the edge was that Sirius would rather stay with his best friend, James Potter, than in his own home.
Well, Grimmauld Place wasn´t really a place that Regulus would call home. It was just the place where he lived until he went to Hogwarts: a school for gifted kids. It was never warm or welcoming and for some reason, it was always very dark there. The staff wasn’t allowed to talk to them and mother and father pretended like that rule also had to be followed by them.
According to Sirius, the Potter manor was completely the opposite. It was a warm place that welcomed everybody that stepped through the front door. There wasn’t a lot of staff, but those who were there were encouraged to just be themselves. Another thing that was really different at the Potters was that Euphemia and Fleamont raised James themselves, instead of hiring an army of nannies to do the job.
Maybe that was why James was so annoying at school. Always talking super loud and looking like he never had a single thing to worry about. His parents were very rich and very well known, not in the way the Black family was known, but in a positive way. Nobody was scared for the Potters but they were still very powerful people. That was of course until they died in a car accident. Regulus always assumed that that was his mothers doing but he never confirmed his assumptions.
But at the end of the day, it didn´t matter who died or not because Sirius left him, at fucking 15 years old to start protecting himself. Sirius left Regulus for that annoying, spoiled brat James.
“Oh dear if you couldn’t sleep you should have just told me so” Regulus was pulled out of his thoughts and behind him was madame Pomfrey. “I didn’t mean to scare you but I was just checking up on the other patient in the room when I saw you sitting next to the window. You’re not supposed to get out of bed already dear” She whispers. “Sorry, madame it’s just when I can’t sleep I like to look at the stars. I will go back to bed now.” He says while trying to stand up again.
“The stars are quite beautiful tonight aren’t they?” Madame Pomfrey is now standing next to him looking out of the window as well. “Yeah they are, my cousins and I are named after some of them”, he says to her.
“Oh that’s lovely”, she says, “that all five of you have names within the same theme”.
“three”
“Excuse me?”
“There are three of us: my cousins Bellatrix, Narcissa and me.”
“Oh, I’m sorry dear I forgot.” Madame Pomfrey looks at Regulus with a sad smile. “Well anyways, I could grab you some more sleeping medicine after I helped you into your bed if you want.”
“That would be great, thank you,” Regulus says while madame Pomfrey is helping him to his bad.
When Regulus is back in his bed madame Pomfrey goes and gets him some more sleeping medicine. She comes back with a couple of pills and a new glass of water.
“Next time, really don’t hesitate to push the button and call me okay?” She whispers to him. “I am here to help you, also when it’s 3:05 in the morning.”
“Yes madame Pomfrey, thank you.”
Regulus takes his extra sleeping pills and lays down again. This time he feels the effect of the pills almost immediately, his eyes are hard to keep open and his body is getting heavy. After a few minutes, he falls into a dreamless dream.