Chapter 2: Mulcibers, Mudbloods & Polyjuice Potion

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The three weeks following Sirius' departure were quiet, to say the least. The usual sounds that filled the house were not there. There was no blasting of Muggle music from Sirius' room. There was no shrieking from their mother in response to the music. There was no fighting, no hateful screams and the words blood traitor filth were not heard even once. In fact, barely any words were heard. Regulus hadn't really noticed before how little his parents spoke to each other when it wasn't about Sirius' behavior. It just didn't seem like summer without his brother there.

There was nothing particularly special about the morning Regulus headed off to King's Cross Station. Walburga gave her son a quick hug; the woman's arms barely made physical contact with the boy, but he didn't mind. Regulus was much the same as his mother in that aspect, the idea of touching other people made him uneasy.

Just as Regulus was heading out, Kreacher rushed up to the boy and held his hands up with a small, wrapped offering. "Kreacher made some cookies for the ride to school," the elf said, looking up at Regulus with wide and adoring eyes.

Regulus grinned down at the elf and took the package. He never quite understood why the creature preferred him to any of the other family members. He always supposed that it was because as a young child, he was often with the house-elf. Sirius' behavior problems dated back to the day the boy could talk and this often left Regulus untended by anyone but Kreacher as his parents dealt with the older boy.

"Thanks," he told the elf, smirking at the way Kreacher seemed to preen at his simple gratitude. "I'll see you at Christmas," he added as he heaved his trunk out of the door and joined his father on the front walk.

A few hours later, Regulus moved along the center of the train, looking into each compartment as he did so. He stopped as he reached a compartment holding two familiar boys. One was very tall and burly with messy blonde hair and large brown eyes; the other, almost an exact copy except for being slightly shorter and having closely cropped brown hair. Regulus entered the compartment, stowing his bag on the overhead rack, then fell onto the empty seat.

"Regulus, you're late. I thought you were off making new friends," the taller boy joked.

Regulus rolled his eyes at the remark. "You thought nothing of the sort, Will. You were probably just hoping I wouldn't show up so you could have a go at Elizabeth." He turned to the side, facing the door, and put his feet up on the seat beside him.

Will smiled and shook his head, then clapped his hand on the back of the boy next to him. "Nah, I can't be too mean to her. After all, Topher here is practically dro-" His words were cut off at the sound of the compartment door opening.

A very lovely girl stood in the open doorway, her small brown eyes darting over each boy, a smile on her glossy lips. A small squeaking sound escaped the girl as she spotted Regulus. In an instant, her arms were wrapped tightly around the boy's neck, her dark brown curls scattering into his face. She pressed her lips to Regulus' cheek and frowned as she felt the boy pushing her away.

Regulus sat up and put his feet into the floor, then looked up at the now frowning young girl. "I'm glad to see you too," he said with a smirk. "But...please, Elizabeth, you know I don't like people in my pe-"

"- personal space," interrupted Topher and Will, finishing the boy's sentence in unison and bringing a scowl their direction from Regulus.

Elizabeth closed the door back and waited for Regulus to dust off the seat where his feet had been before sitting down next to the boy. "You and your personal space," she muttered, a slight pout on her lips. "You had plenty of personal space over the summer."

"You two didn't see each other over the summer?" Topher asked quickly. He leaned forward, twisting his hands in front of him and looking a bit too eager for the answer.

"Nope," the girl offered in a simple tone. She shook her head, purposely making her curls bounce around her shoulders and send the faintest trace of lavender into the air. "Evan and I spent the summer in France. It was so much fun," she continued with a small giggle.

"Was it?" Will cried out in a mocking female tone as he sat straight up in his seat and began batting his eyelashes at the girl.

Elizabeth jutted out her tongue towards Will in a childish display and the boy reacted with a feigned scene of dramatics in which he placed his hand over his heart and gasped loudly. A face appeared in the window of the compartment and Will threw a glare in their direction. He stood up, pulled the blind down, then fell back into his seat, allowing his arm to drape around Topher's shoulders. The shorter boy shrugged off the other and turned his attention back to Elizabeth. He opened his mouth to speak, but was interrupted before he had the chance.

"Look, Elizabeth, no one wants to hear about you and your lame ass brother's vacation," Will snapped as he sat back in his seat and slouched down.

"My brother isn't lame," Elizabeth quickly defended.

Will let out a laugh and shook his head. "Evan is a total loser. So is that greasy freak he's always hanging out with. What's his name?" The boy snapped his fingers and closed his eyes to think.

"Snape," Regulus answered. "They're a couple of jerks." He looked over at Elizabeth and gave the girl a grin. "Sorry, but they are." He didn't look the slightest bit sorry. "Just two wannabe Death Eaters that will never make the cut."

Will snorted a laugh into his hand. "Damn straight. Especially when that greased up loser is always chasing around that Mudblood." He shook his head slowly, sighing as he watched the station fade into the distance from the moving train.

"He isn't," Topher said rather lamely. "Not anymore."

"Who cares? He was drooling over that filth for way too long to recover from it," Regulus spat. A scoffing sound from Elizabeth brought the boy's attention onto her.

"Oh no," Will sighed loudly. "You've offended her." He waved his hands mockingly, his eyes locking cold onto the girl. "You gotta stop being so touchy. If you're gonna stay with Regulus, then you have got to get over your mummy issues. Big deal if your mum was a Mudblood, she's dead now. Deal with it. At least your dad had enough sense to get rid of her."

"He didn't get rid of her," Elizabeth spat in anger. "She was sick, you ass."

"Or so he says," Will argued. "Like you would know, right? You were just a baby." The older boy leaned forward and gave Elizabeth an eerie smile. He was taking pleasure in upsetting the girl. "Isn't it at all strange to you that your mum dies of...being sick and just two weeks later, daddy walks a nice Pure-blood down the aisle?" A quiet laugh escaped the boy's chest as he stared her down. "Suspicious."

Topher reached out and punched his brother hard on the shoulder, earning a glare from the boy. Will laughed again and shook his head as he sat back upright in his seat; his eyes never leaving his brother's stern face. He rubbed his hand roughly over his brother's cropped hair and rolled his eyes as the boy slapped his hand away.

"What are you gonna do without me next year?" Will asked with a cheeky grin.

"Be happy," Elizabeth snapped, folding her arms over her chest.

"Oh, come on," Will cried out, his face showing clear annoyance. "It isn't like I was insulting your dad. I know if some Mudblood tricked me into marrying her, I'd kill the bitch the moment I found out. Wouldn't hide behind some stupid excuse like ibeing sick/i either." He rubbed his fingers over his lips and narrowed his eyes at the girl. "What about you, Regulus?" he asked, wanting to make a point.

Regulus looked over at the older boy and answered without a drop of hesitation in his voice. "If some filth tricked me like that? I'd kill her, full stop."

Elizabeth gave a soft huff and stared out of the window, knowing that she was outnumbered. "You guys are jerks," she muttered. After a stretching silence, she turned to her boyfriend and pushed her fingers into the boy's short, black locks. "You cut your hair again," she said casually, trying to act as though the argument had never happened.

Regulus swatted Elizabeth's hand away and glared at her. "Personal space." He combed his fingers through his hair to straighten out what the girl had mussed. "I cut it again because I wanted to. I like it short; I've told you that before."

The girl frowned and twisted a strand of her own hair around her fingers. "I keep telling his that he should let it get long like Sirius' is. He's so cute." She sat up straight, her words not directed at anyone in particular.

Regulus turned away at the mention of his brother's name, his thumb mindlessly brushing over the scar on the tip of his finger. Out of the corner of his eyes, he caught Topher rubbing his hand over his hair in an almost involuntary way. "So," Topher started wearily. "Word gets around pretty fast...is it true?"

"Is what true?" Regulus asked dryly.

"About your brother," Will interrupted. He grabbed his wand and held it with both hands, pointing it away from himself. "Did he get the 'ole -" he made an explosion sound and shook his wand dramatically "- off the Black tapestry? Mum says he got blasted really good; said the scorch is bigger than Andromeda's."

Regulus nodded and bit down on the side of his tongue. "Yeah," he answered quietly. "He's gone. Ran away and mum singed him straight off. But...it isn't bigger than Andromeda's." He pulled his bottom lip into his mouth and bit down hard enough to draw a small trickle of blood. He sucked on the blood and stared out of the window.

The compartment fee into a tense kind of quiet. Elizabeth shifted closer to Regulus and laid her hand on the boy's knee, but quickly retracted it when his steely grey eyes cut towards her. She pouted at the boy and he leaned over to give her a quick kiss before leaning away again. Will, who was staring out of the window in a trance like manner, suddenly burst into a hysterical sort of laughter. The confused expressions from the rest of the travelers made his sit up straight and try to contain himself.

"Okay," Will started, trying to catch his breath. "So, I was just thinking how hilarious it would be if that Mudblood Gryffindork that the grease ball is always after just...came up to him, right in the middle of the Great Hall, I mean where everyone can see it, and she just shouted that she's in love with him." He dragged his hands back through his hair and continued. "And then, of course he's gonna get all excited about it, thinking that it's true, then...and here's the good part, then she says that she's kidding and he just dies. He would break down so hard. That would be funny, right?"

"Well...yeah, I guess it would be funny," Regulus conceded with a shrug. "Wouldn't happen though."

"That's just it though, it wouldn't be her, it would be one of us." Will pointed between himself and Regulus and leaned closer. "Over the summer, I heard dad talking about the pranks he used to pull back in school. And he mentioned Polyjuice Potion. I say -" he slapped the back of his hand against Topher's chest "- that we brew us up some and really fuck with people."

Regulus nodded and ran his tongue over his bottom lip, feeling the deep cracks that lined it from constant biting. "I guess we could. I'll talk to Slughorn after the first class. He'll tell me how to do it, that dumb ass will do anything for a member of his Slug Club."

Wild laughter filled the compartment at the mention of the Slug Club. Will gave a sinister smile and glanced around at everyone's face. "We make this potion and there is no end to the number of things we could pull." He laughed again and turned his attention out of the window; a deep look of thought forming on his features.

Elizabeth shifted in her seat and took Regulus' hand, which was gone in an instant. The smile the boy gave her as penance looked overly forced and Elizabeth scowled in return. "When are you gonna get past all of this?" she whispered, despite that fact she knew the others could still hear her.

"I don't know," Regulus muttered, slinking down in his seat a bit. "Not like I want to be this way. You knew that I didn't like a lot of physical contact when you asked me out. If you can't deal with it, then you can always -"

"No!" Elizabeth shouted, louder than she intended. "I'm fine with it. I am, really. I was thinking though... You know what? We can talk at school when there's more privacy."

Regulus nodded and bit at his bottom lip again.

A Note From the Author: For those of you who are real fanatics, I want to point out that Will and Topher's last name is Mulciber. Remember, there is only one Death Eater named Mulciber. Which one will it be? As for Evan, Elizabeth's brother, the boy who pals around with Snape, you may recognize that he is, in fact, Evan Rosier. Let me know what you think of the story so far. Thanks! :D –Jenna

Now Beta'd by magic139 from the HPFF forums.