Authors note: just to clear something up - someone (very rudely) pointed out in their review that they felt Alice's last name should be Fortescue not Prewitt. I did some serious digging before writing this to try and find out Alice's maiden name, I couldn't find one so I took the name from my favourite fan fiction – it is not in any way connected to Fabian/Gideon/Molly Prewett, I just thought the name suited her, hope that has cleared that matter up. And once again I apologise profusely for the lack of updates - I've had a huge coursework piece and two massive exams and unfortunately they come first, but they are over with and no exams until the summer (YAY!) which means I will (hopefully) have a little more spare time to write, so on we go! Hope you like it xxx
Chapter 36:
Severus Snape had been unusually withdrawn over the past week since the Charms class – not that he was ever outgoing, but more withdrawn than usual. Calix Mulciber had failed to notice any change in his associate's behaviour, Stellan Avery had noticed that Severus wasn't hovering around as much as usual, but gave it no more thought, and Piers Wilkes was too busy drowning in school work to realise anything was wrong with his fellow Slytherin. Nobody had really noticed the sudden withdrawal of Severus Snape - which was the way he liked it.
The Slytherin common room was a dark and cold place at the best of times, even in the fledging months of spring, an eerie chill hung in the air. Hauled up in an armchair in the far most nether regions of the common room was none other than Severus Snape. If anyone, not that anyone often did (the Slytherin students are not renowned for their companionship), enquired about what he was doing in a solitary arm chair in the corner, his eyes transfixed on the wall, Severus would sarcastically retort 'I am watching for evidence of the paint cracking' or some other comment which he deemed rather witty, but in reality was an obvious lie to avoid the real reason he was sulking. Severus Snape was brooding. Brooding over James Potter. It was not something which Snape would ever admit, but James potter had been on his mind all week. His charming personality, witty sense of humour, quidditch skills, he even found himself in deep thought about his smile, all to try and work out what Lily saw in him. After almost a week of minimal movement and thought so deep his brain was beginning to ache, Severus could not come up with an answer. The only thing he was certain of, was that Lily loved James and there was nothing he could do to persuade her otherwise.
The only Slytherin student who had really noticed Severus' dark mood and sudden withdrawal was Regulus Black, the pair were not close by any means but had been thrown together by Lucius Malfoy and seemed to have formed a mutual agreement that vaguely resembles friendship. The sixth year sat in another lone armchair, a few feet away from Snape and if he knew Regulus was there ignored him or did a very good job of pretending he wasn't. However Regulus could not do the same, he began pondering why Severus could have pulled himself out of normal life, but his thought train eventually arrived at the part of his life he wanted to think about least.
Regulus, with limbs that resembled spiders, was incredibly gawky and awkward. His limbs seemed too long for his rather small body; this made him inevitably clumsy; the other sixth year students could scarcely believe he actually belonged to the Black family. The Black family was renound, not just for having 'The Purest Blood' Toujours Pur and elevated status to that of almost royalty, they were also renound for their beauty. However, there was no denying Regulus was a Black. He had inherited the characteristic grey eyes, the colour of storm clouds before a rain, this distinct colour seemed to be specific to the Black family, it created an air of mystery, you never quite knew what they were thinking – their eyes gave nothing away. They created intrigue, drawing you close to stare deep into those stormy eyes, it was something that set the Black family apart, however on Regulus the grey eyes of the Black family seemed out of place, on Regulus' long face the eyes seemed to get lost in the vast space between his forehead and his nose. Instead of his eyes being the main focus of his face, it was unfortunately his rather long nose – another feature of the Black family, however without the distinct stormy irises to distract the eye, it was more a prominent feature. Regulus also had inherited the natural deepest Black locks, on Sirius Black these fell is perfect waves around his face that lay with no effort at all, on cousin Andromeda (whose hair was however chocolate brown) and on Aunt Druella these fell in huge bouncy curls that gracefully cascaded over their shoulders in a waterfall of hair, on cousin Bellatrix and his mother Walburga, their Black hair formed tight ringlets that although seemed untameable, a torrent of organised chaos, but were still beautiful to look at. Regulus had the colour down to a tee; there was no denying that, however on Regulus his hair did not fall in elegant waves, it fell flat, something that was a constant irritation and sense of disappointment to his beautiful mother. The Black family were all aristocratically beautiful, and paraded with the elegance of a swan gliding across water, none of this came naturally to Regulus, he was gawky and fell over frequently. Regulus was now approaching 17 years of age and his mother was already securing possible marriage matches for him, however Regulus wondered why anyone would want to marry him, the only thing that he had to offer was his name, and in the current world that was counting less and less as muggle born witches and wizards came through the ranks of Hogwarts and took the tops of their year.
Despite not quite fitting with the stereotypical Black appearance, on the outside Regulus appeared to conform with their views of blood purity, at every Black family reunion Uncle Cygnus would remark on the 'filthiness' of muggle blood, Regulus would nod appreciatively and appear to be in deep thought as if considering this idea, however on the inside Regulus felt nothing, he had no qualm with blood status, if you were a good witch or wizard then that was it. Regulus Black was living, breathing proof that blood status meant truly nothing, as a member of the most prestigious and ancient houses he should have been at the top of every class, along with every single one of his ancestors, however Regulus remained average, scarping acceptable and every now and again an exceeds expectations.
However, Regulus on the whole was happy, he lived for quidditch - playing seeker for the Slytherin team and with a small group of friends he was happy, even if he had been bullied into joining the Death eaters by his close aide Barty Crouch and Severus who had coaxed him in, persuading it would please his other and bring honour to his family, something though which he would never admit, Regulus was very keen to do, to make up for all his disappointments. Although he hadn't yet been marked, his mother was immensely proud, and even his cousin Bellatrix, who had not paid him more than a minutes attention in the last few years, gave him a knowing smile.
That was what Regulus thought of when he was sat watching Severus. His disappointment as a member of the Black family, his impending marriage ball which his mother would be planning at that very moment and for some strange reason what his brother Sirius would think of him joining the Death eaters. He had only spoken to Sirius once since he had left home; Regulus had told Sirius how selfish he was being, he had shouted at him, called him a disgrace, now the memory made him wince. He didn't know what made him say that, he didn't believe it to be true, maybe it was just the influence of his family corrupting his brain… Once upon a time, Regulus and Sirius had been as close as could be; now they passed each other in the hallways without a single glance. Regulus knew Sirius would disapprove of his actions, he'd never understood, always questioning why things had to be done, there was no reason apart from family; something which in his mind Sirius didn't understand, sometimes you just had to do things, for the sake of family. He knew what Sirius would say if he knew about his extracurricular activities, and at the thought, Regulus let out a long sigh and sunk further into his chair.
"Padfoot! We are going to be late! Please stop making Goo Goo eyes at those Ravenclaw's before Professor Hubert skins us alive!" James hissed at Sirius as he grabbed his best friend by the scruff of the neck and dragged him towards the Divination room, located in Professor Hubert's office in the top of the North Tower. Sirius had been too busy flirting with two attractive Ravenclaw girls to notice James tapping his watch in exasperation at Sirius' apparent lack of time keeping.
"Prongs slow down!" Sirius panted, struggling to keep up with James' long stride. "Professor Hubert won't notice if we're late!"
"Are you joking me?! He WILL notice and we'll be in detention – something which I should avoid because, you know, I'm kind of HEAD BOY!" James shouted after him as he ran up the staircase, avoiding the trick step.
"Alright, alright, calm your farm! We're virtually there!" Sirius breathed as James flew off the top step and stormed down the corridor, and up the rickety ladder towards the Divination classroom, hoping Professor Hubert wouldn't notice their late arrival. "Man, he's uptight since he got that flippin' badge." Sirius said under his breath, James did not notice. As James' head appeared at the top of the ladder, Peter threw him a sympathetic glance from his seat near the window, James was Peter's usual divination partner (James didn't trust Sirius to be serious throughout the rather woolly discipline of divination, and Peter seemed to have a special profanity for Divination which helped bring out the best in James) however James' usual seat was occupied by Reginald Cattermole, a Hufflepuff student who evidently didn't know he was sitting in someone's seat as he swirled his tea cup around and muttered something to Peter, whose attention was taken from James back to Reginald and his tea cup. James shook his head slightly and settled at the closest available table, Sirius settled next to him, Sirius' usual partner, Benjy Fenwick, appeared to be absent. Professor Hubert seemed was nowhere to be seen, James sighed a sigh of relief, however this relief was short lived, as soon as James had let his shoulders sag, Professor Hubert appeared besides their table with a face like thunder.
"You are late!" he roared. James attempted to look apologetic; Sirius however was as far from apologetic as you could be.
"We were only five minutes late though, so it wasn't too bad." Sirius tried to reason, however the elderly Professor did not seem impressed.
"Detention Black! Now get on with the work set." The Professor snapped as he turned stormed away as the sound of smashing teacups caught his attention.
"What's up with him?" Sirius questioned as Professor Hubert waddled over to the other side of the room. James gave the Professor a quick once over, the Professor was an elderly man – 80's or 90's at least and was severely overweight, James wasn't sure if he had an extra eye to look into the world of Divination, but he certainly did have a couple of extra chins.
"I don't know Sirius, maybe the fact we were late because you wanted to flirt with a few Ravenclaw girls." James replied deadpan.
"Hey! You know that Samia Rain is hot!" Sirius defended, holding up his hands in mock surrender "her friend wasn't too bad either." He mused.
"That may be the case, but you have a girlfriend Sirius." James replied, taking his tea cup and draining it out the cold tea into a bucket under their table, he didn't feel like drinking it, and swirling the leaves around the bottom of his cup until they arranged them into a sort of pattern, Sirius did the same.
"For how much longer though?" Sirius added under his breath.
"Excuse me?" James asked, as he swapped cups with Sirius.
"Hestia and I have been arguing a lot, y'know… Prongs it looks like you're going to die young according to this cup, now of course you are! Now what does mine say?" Sirius asked as he consulted his textbook to make sure his prediction was correct and to avoid James' prying eyes.
"Let's hope I won't die young! Now tell me more about these arguments?" James asked, ignoring Sirius' question of what his tea cup read.
"Just stupid stuff, everything that happens we just bicker all the time. I think she's going to end it to be honest. Now what in Merlin's name does my teacup say?!" Sirius countered in an attempt to change the topic of discussion.
"Calm down, I'll read it! Jeez!" James replied. "Well, that weird shape there, I think that means that you'll be betrayed by a friend, well you'd better tell Lupin and Pettigrew to be nice to you because it's got to be him, I'd never do that! And that sort of strange line thing means jail – I think you're going to jail Pads!" James concluded.
"Well yours has a sort of dog shape; I think that's the grim…" Sirius added with a wicked grin. "Or maybe it's me!" Sirius added in a whisper. James chuckled.
"Maybe it's about us being you know whats!" James whispered back.
"What?" Sirius hissed back. "I have no clue what you are talking about?"
"Animagus you prat!" James hissed back.
"Yeah! Maybe Lupin gives us up, that's the betrayed by a friend – that why I'm going to jail, and you kill yourself to avoid going to Azkahban because you're not as strong or brave as me." Sirius declared proudly puffing out his chest and holding his head high.
"Of course you are Sirius." Alice interrupted, appearing at the edge of their desk.
"I am! Now what did your cup say?" Sirius inquired; resting his head on his hand as James pulled up a seat for Alice to sit on which she took thankfully.
"Same as usual 'an enemy will get the better of me' however 'a wedding will come' which is new, good too I guess." James nodded, consulting his textbook to see if he could identify the symbols that Alice had described.
"Not too bad – apparently I'm going to be betrayed by a friend and go to jail so yours sounds positively delightful!" Sirius laughed, Alice smiled, but there was something obviously playing on her mind.
"Are you and Hest alright?" Alice asked tentatively.
"Yeah sure, why would we not be?" Sirius replied, James raised an eyebrow his eyes lifted from his textbook and to Sirius, that was exactly the opposite of what he'd been saying a few minutes previous. Sirius seemed to notice James' staring and changed tact. "Well, we fight yeah, but everyone does that, right?" Sirius added, although it sounded like he was trying to reassure himself rather than anyone.
"Yes." Alice agreed, elongating the 'e' sound. "Me and Frank fight sometimes, and James and Lily do occasionally -" Alice stopped to gesture at James, who nodded, then as soon as Alice turned away, he shook his head, causing Sirius to chuckle to which Alice visually scolded the both of them. James returned to his textbook and Sirius returning to his counselling with Alice. "But all you and Hestia seem to do is fight. Have you even spoken to her today? She was in a foul mood this morning, nearly bit my head off when I asked to borrow her hairbrush!" the witch declared dramatically.
"No I haven't spoken to her today. We had a fight last night and now she's ignoring me. Don't look at me like that!" Sirius commanded as Alice looked on at him disapprovingly.
"What was it about this time?" Alice asked, this time slightly more softly.
"Um… we argued a few days ago, apparently I was flirting with someone - I wasn't – but she said I was and went off the handle at me. Then she went and going all cosy with that Hufflepuff bloke, y'know that blonde one, friends with Cattermole." Sirius replied, his speech becoming quicker the more spoke.
"Bailey Cooper?" James interrupted. Sirius nodded. James raised an eyebrow.
"That's him. Well I said I didn't like how it was one rule for me and another for her so we had another fight and I haven't spoken to her since. I think she's going to end it soon anyway…" Sirius concluded glumly, his palms flat on the table, his head resting on them. James thought it was a sorry sight, the mighty womaniser Sirius Black, sulking over a girl. At the beginning of the year, Sirius had the pick of the lot, but no, he had to go and fall head over heels for the stubborn Hestia Jones, who like her best friend Lily, had a hot temper.
"After class, go and talk to her, see if you can work something out, I don't think she'll finish with you…" Alice spoke softly, patting Sirius' shoulder, however she didn't seem sure.
"Thanks Alice." Sirius replied though he didn't seem optimistic. James shook his head and buried himself into his divination textbook.
"But he was flirting with her wasn't he?!" Hestia demanded, their arithmancy class had quickly become a therapy session for Hestia. Lily rubbed her temple, a headache was approaching fast. She shook her head.
"I don't know." Lily admitted. Hestia sighed dramatically.
"Well, he was. And that is the end of that." She declared, flicking her brown curls over her shoulder and throwing her best smile at Bailey Cooper across the classroom who she knew had been watching her. He smiled back then his friend gestured towards the textbook and Bailey's attention was diverted, Hestia took this opportunity to duck behind Lily. Bailey was lovely, however he wasn't Sirius, she didn't even know why she was talking to the boy – other than the make Sirius jealous. Bailey was blonde, his hair was perfectly straight and was cut fairly short, slighty longer on top than the sides, Sirius was Black haired with long curls that fell in perfect waves around his face, framing it perfectly. Bailey had blue eyes, pretty enough, but they did nothing to her compared to the grey pair Sirius possessed, full of mystery and intrigue. Bailey was loud and funny, he enjoyed a drink, he made her laugh, his sense of humour was cleaner than Sirius' however she seemed to have less fun with Bailey, maybe it was because, he simply wasn't Sirius Black. Unconsciously Hestia sighed, trying to concentrate on the work set but she couldn't, her brain was seriously scrambled.
"You should talk to him you know." Jessica interrupted Hestia's thought train, Hestia looked up, Jessica sat on the table in front was now turned round to face the curly haired witch. "It's obvious you miss him, now go and talk to him, obviously not right now because we're in arithmancy class and Professor Stone would probably kill you, but still after class, go and talk to him." Jessica advised. Without looking up from her work, Lily nodded and mumbled something that vaguely resembled "I agree." A second later, Hestia felt a tap on her shoulder, she turned round to see Remus and Frank staring at her, small smiles across their faces.
"We agree too." Frank said, gesturing between himself and Remus, who made a cheesy thumbs up gesture, a stupid smirk plastered across his face. Hestia laughed out loud. Bailey Cooper turned to stare again from the other side of the room, but this time Hestia didn't notice, her brain was full of Sirius Black.
Authors note: hope you like this chapter – as I said, I didn't mean to write so much about Regulus, it just sort of happened! But I'm glad it did because I've been meaning to get it in somewhere and just haven't had the right chapter… and we haven't had much Hestia/Sirius stuff for a while, and I mentioned after the Christmas chapter that they'd been bickering so I thought I'd follow that direction, I'm sorry to anyone for them fighting! And once again I apologise for the long wait for this chapter, I tried to make it quite long to make up for it, but alas it didn't end as long as I wanted. Anyway I hope you like it! Remember to review! xxx