Hello! This Oneshot is for the Practice Round of Season Five of the Quidditch League Competition (QLFC)
Position: Chaser 3
Theme: Walk Like An Egyptian — The Bangles
Prompts: 8. [Location] St Mungo's. 13. [Pairing] Molly/Arthur. 17. [Character] Regulus Black.
Title: Onlooking Happiness
Word Count: 1095
Beta(s): RawMateriel, Magical Butts
I hope you enjoy it!
The smiling faces of the Healers almost annoyed him: what reason did they have to be so chipper all the time? They were constantly around injured or ill patients, surely that wasn't a good thing? Maybe they were all crazy and enjoyed seeing others in pain, it wouldn't be the first time Regulus Black had witnessed such an attitude.
Regulus didn't visit St. Mungo's frequently, even as a child his parents didn't think it was worth getting him checked out when he was injured. Any wizard worth their salt had a good enough grasp of basic healing to render the old hospital redundant. Honestly, he didn't need to be there, typically St. Mungo's services were reserved for only the most unfortunate. Yet there he was, with just a broken hand, unable to identify what motivated him to seek the help of one of the overly cheerful Healers.
His hand had been wrapped up, which had been a new experience for him, and he was given a potion which would heal it 'naturally'. He was told it would be fully functional again in an hour. It seemed horrendously slow, but the absurd mediwizard had nearly bored him to death with his blithering about 'holistic, homeomagic healing'. He didn't bother to ask twice why the man hadn't simply cast a full force 'Episkey'. Regulus took matters into his own hands, in their varying states, and stood to leave.
He walked down the corridors, ready to Floo out of there. St. Mungo's was as useless as his parents had told him. He heard the sound of yet more inappropriate laughter and hesitated. It was easy to find the source, he approached the comforting sound in the clinical hall, if only to roll his eyes at it.
Through the open door, he watched the Weasley's matriarch. In her arms, the red-faced mother held the newest addition to her infamous family. Even though they were blood traitors, poor and filth, there was a happiness in their eyes that he hadn't experienced from his parents. Their two older children, who both were still really young, were dancing around the little room. It wasn't good dancing, in fact, the younger one of the two was barely able to walk fully.
As he was about to turn off, Arthur moved away from Molly and their newest creation and over to the two boys, dancing with them, directing them in controlled spinning.
"Daddy, daddy, look! I can walk like an Egyptian!" The oldest child called with pure excitement, and the only thought that Regulus had was that he was sure that was not how one walked like an Egyptian.
Regardless, the new family of five danced around without a care in the world. That was until the oldest boy saw him and waved, causing Arthur to turn around at look at him.
Regulus didn't miss how the bright smile dulled slightly and became forced. He almost just walked off, but instead nodded briefly. "Congratulations," he spoke to the older couple, almost admiring them.
"Thanks," Arthur replied.
Without another word, Regulus turned on his heel and walked away from them, forcing himself to not look back, hoping that he hadn't interrupted their happy moment - as far as he was aware, they were very rare.
As he continued to walk through the halls of St Mungo's, he observed others, how a lot of them were smiling and happy. He thought back to his life, his childhood, the proud looks he received from his parents. They had always made him feel good about himself, that he was doing something right and going in the correct path. However, it was his older brother, Sirius, who looked genuinely happy when he was at school with his friends. Even though he and Sirius didn't always see eye to eye, there were moments in the past that he had enjoyed their time together.
Was that how other people spent most of their lives? Happy? Smiling? Was his family the irregularity?
Regulus couldn't stop himself from comparing the small glimpses he saw through the open doors, but none of them compared to what he witnessed with the loved shared between Arthur and Molly Weasley. Even though his focus had been on the two dancing boys, it was clear to see the love between the two parents. He couldn't pinpoint one moment that he ever saw his father look at his mother the way Arthur did Molly.
When Regulus returned home, he carefully watched the interactions between his family members. He could count the amount of times they made eye contact on one hand, including the weird look he received from Sirius for looking at him. "I saw the Weasley's today," Regulus spoke at the dinner table, his quiet voice reaching every corner of the eerily silent room.
"What were you doing near those blood traitors?" His mother sneered.
Instead of being deterred, Regulus only continued. "They just had their third child," he informed them, realising he didn't know what gender the baby was - not that it actually mattered.
"Another ginger they can't feed, they're dragging those kids up," She scorned, turning her nose up at the mere mention of the Weasley family.
It wasn't long until dinner was over and they all went their separate ways. Not once was he asked where he had been that day, not once was he asked how he was - but that was the norm for them; he didn't live in a nurturing family. He was aware of that now.
Later that evening, Regulus found himself standing in the middle of his room and slowly recreating the moves he'd seen the Weasley boys doing. He didn't move as freely as they had, but it was still refreshing to do something ridiculous. Regulus suddenly stopped to glare at his older brother standing in the doorway.
"What do you want?" Regulus snapped.
"What are you doing?" Sirius asked him, unaffected by his brother's tone.
"Practicing…" Regulus took a second before lamely finishing his sentence. "Walking like an Egyptian." It was a ridiculous response. One he knew he would be mocked for by his older brother.
However, after a few seconds of silence, Sirius did the two dance moves. "I think you need to angle your hands more," he said with amusement. He walked off, not bothering to tell Regulus why he had disturbed him in the first place.
Regulus stared at the empty doorway for a few seconds in shock and knew that he would remember this moment. The moment he felt like he belonged to a semi-normal family.
Thank you for reading!