Chapter 7
“Just so you know, Remus is going to be resting in our spare bed in the dorm.” Regulus whispered to the boys before leading Remus up the staircase.
Remus ran his fingers along the wall as Regulus led him up the staircase.
“Erm. Here's our dorm. It's a bit cluttered since Barty and Evan don’t pick up their clothes.” Regulus said, clearing his throat he kicked a pair of trousers towards someone's bed. “That one is the spare. So just, make yourself comfortable. And I’ll, uh, leave you here.”
“Thanks.” Remus said, smiling. A smile in which Regulus did not return, a small nod came from the boy and that was it as he exited the room.
Regulus let out a breath that he didn’t know he was holding, feeling a weight lifted off his chest as he heard Remus get settled into the bed. He genuinely worried for the boy. He knew he shouldn’t.
Caring makes you weak.
He shouldn’t care.
He doesn’t know why he cares.
As Regulus walked down the last steps he looked at the two boys who were playing wizards chess.
“Evan tell that one to move to B4.” Regulus whispered. Evan obliged.
“That's cheating. You’ve got multiple of my pawns pinned.” Barty complained as he told a knight to move somewhere.
“Well too bad.” Evan sneered and with that Evan made his last move. “Checkmate!”
“You knob, this was a moment of weakness.” Barty grumbled.
“I don’t even care. You suck at wizards chess and you’ll have to live your life forever knowing that Evan Rosier beat, you, Barty Crouch Jr. in wizards chess you prick.” Evan declared, a big grin on his face.
“Shut your mouth.” Barty said, as he threw a crumpled piece of parchment at the boy. Said parchment hit Evan square in the face.
“Ow.” Evan said, frowning as he rubbed his face with a hand. “Reg, he just hit me!”
“I’m not interfering.” Regulus said. “I guess this is what I get for befriending two very energetic blond boys.”
“What are you trying to say?” Barty asked, raising another ball of crumpled parchment in a threatening stance. “Are you trying to tell me that I’m stupid? Me, Barty Crouch Jr.”
“You better tone down that ego, Barty Crouch Jr.” Regulus said, letting out a laugh. Barty threw the ball of parchment and it hit him in the neck.
“What ego?” Barty asked, grinning. “I’d say I’m fairly humble.”
“Yeah, you’d say.” Evan humoured.
“You wound me Evan Rosier, you wound me.” Barty said, clutching at his chest. “You are breaking my heart, ugh.”
“I will never get over your accent sounding funny.” Evan piped, a grin on his face.
“Now you’re bullying me! I really ought to get new friends.” Barty said. “But for now what's the deal with Remus staying in our dorm?”
“Well he wanted to sleep and the people he shares his dorm with are loud so I offered the spare bed in ours.” Regulus said.
“Ah yes he shares a room with Yaxely and the others right?” Evan humoured.
“That lot?! No wonder he won’t be able to sleep, they're awful.” Barty exclaimed.
“Almost as awful as your clothes being scattered all over the floor of our room.” Regulus scolded. “It's not that hard to throw your trousers into a hamper.”
“It properly difficult, I’ll tell you that.” Barty assured.
“You both are slobs. It's disgusting.” Regulus promptly said.
The three boys walked up the stairs into their room. Intent on waking up Remus as it was time for dinner.
“It's mental how much time he's spent sleeping.” Evan said.
“You know you’d spend that much time sleeping if you could.” Barty poked.
“Both of you just be quiet. You’re being so loud.” Regulus said.
“Well we’re trying to wake him up aren’t we?” Evan asked.
“We are but preferably in a better way than being loud.” Regulus said.
“You’re no fun.” Barty said, jutting out his lower lip.
“Just be quiet.” Regulus said.
There was a difference between the three boys when it came to jokes and a lot of other things. Barty made them all the time and never really had a filter when he did. Evan was the mediator, he made them when the time was right and had a certain filter when it was needed but when it wasn’t he had a thin filter. Regulus didn’t make many jokes and when he did his words were heavily filtered unless he saw otherwise, not to mention his timing was always right as he saw it improper to make jokes when it was clearly the wrong time.
The three boys walked into their room and saw Remus bundled up under the sheets of the bed. Sound asleep as slight snores came from him.
“Look at that, he snores less than you two.” Regulus whispered, letting out a slight puff of air that could be considered a laugh.
“Oh piss off.” Evan muttered as they all walked towards Remus’ bed.
“Hey, Lupin, wake up.” Barty said as he shook Remus’ shoulder.
“Merlin, wake up!” Evan exclaimed as he threw the duvet off of Remus.
“Lupin!” Barty said as he shook Remus’ shoulder more.
“What? ‘M up.” Remus said. His eyes were still drowsy from sleep.
“It's time for dinner.” Regulus said.
“I’ll just eat tomorrow. I’m tired.” Remus said as he pulled the duvet over his face.
“You already skipped lunch so you’re not skipping now.” Regulus said as he pulled the duvet off of Remus.
“Fine. Fine. I’m going.” Remus muttered as he sat up, rubbing at his eyes. “You lot are very persistent and I don’t know if that means I should feel cared about.”
“You should definitely feel cared about.” Barty assured as Remus began tying up his trainers.
“Then I appreciate it.” Remus said as he got up and tried to smooth out the bumps in his clothes.
“You look tired.” Evan said.
“You look like a mess, to put it lightly.” Barty said as they all watched Remus try to smooth out his hair.
“Gee thanks.” Remus grumbled. “Let's go.”
And with that the four boys began walking down the staircase and through the common room out into the hallway full of portraits. Three out of four boys chatted amongst each other but one kept to himself. Not because they didn’t include him in conversation but because he chose to not talk. Realising that it was probably for the best incase any of his family friends saw him,
And as they walked and walked they finally made it into the Great hall and they went their separate ways yet they went to the same table. Remus sat towards the middle of the table with Lily while Regulus, Barty, and Evan sat towards the end, by themselves.
Throughout the whole dinner Regulus found his eyes gravitating towards the Gryffindor table and towards his brother, but his brother was never looking at him. Sirius’ gaze was only ever fixated on his friends. Albeit a few quick glances towards the middle of the Slytherin table but never once did his brother ever look at him. He felt pathetic as he looked over at the Gryffindor table, expecting to meet the eyes of his brother but always being disappointed. He needed to stop having so much hope as that always warranted disappointment.
Regulus let out a sigh as he looked out the window. The blur that was a landscape providing little entertainment.
“Are you okay?” Evan asked as he looked up from his book that he and Barty were reading.
“Yes, why?” Regulus said.
“Because you keep on sighing.” Barty piped, as he folded the corner of the page that the two were on.
“I dunno. I guess I’m feeling a little under the weather.” Regulus said as he brought his legs up to his chest.
“I get it if you don’t feel the best about going home.” Barty said. “I think even Evan gets it.”
“We all do, you don’t have to pretend that you actually want to go home.” Evan said.
“It's just- it's different this time. Sirius isn’t going to be there. Even last year he was there but he won’t be this year.” Regulus said, pressing his lips into a firm line.
The two boys didn’t say anything as they found that Regulus’ brother was a touchy subject when talking about certain topics. And this was a topic in which they didn’t talk about his brother, they left all the talking for Regulus.
“Well at least you can use your mum's library for research.” Evan piped.
“I guess.” Regulus said, cracking a small smile.
Regulus stood next to his mother who was talking with some pureblood relative. He kept an impassive expression on his face as he watched the kids on the platform hug their friends and wish them goodbye. He watched as Barty glumly took the hand of his house elf and they disapparated away. He watched as Evan stood next to his father and talked with some pureblood family. He watched as Remus followed his father and connected their arms before they disapparated. He watched as Lily left the platform with a fond smile on her face, ready to see her family.
He watched and observed and that's when he realised that James Potter wasn’t on the platform, that's when he realised that James had most likely stayed back at Hogwarts with his brother.
“It's time to go, Regulus.” Walburga said. And with that they clamped their hands together and Regulus squeezed his eyes shut ready to feel the out of body feeling that was disapparation.
It was such a suffocating feeling and Regulus absolutely despised it. He hated it. It felt awful, not to mention it made most people nauseous after. He was still fairly new to side apparation and he knew that he had to get used to it.
Regulus stared at the intimidating building. The overgrown grass peaked through the small cracks in the path leading up to it. There was something so familiar about the home yet Regulus couldn’t help but think that he wouldn’t mind being free of the plagueful home that was Grimmauld place. He didn’t really know if you could call it a home. But it was the only home he had ever known.
The mother and son walked up to the door and entered. Regulus could practically feel the magic running through the walls of the house, and not in a good way. He knew it was the suffocating feeling of the Fidelius charm. He had learned, after reading a particularly interesting book, that not all Fidelius charms feel suffocating; only certain ones did.
“Go up to your room Regulus, you will be called down for dinner.” Walburga said. And then she turned on her heel and walked down a short corridor that held a door for her study,
“Yes, mother.” Regulus said as he walked up the staircase and let out a sigh. He walked past the door to his brother's room and couldn't help but let his eyes linger on the door. His eyes travelled past Sirius’ door and then to his. A slight ache in his chest as he realised that he wouldn’t be hearing any of his brother's shenanigans.