School and year: Durmstrang, year 7

Theme: Department of Magical Accidents and Catastrophes — take a look at an extravagant magical catastrophe.

Main Prompt: [Character] Auror

Additional Prompts: [Emotion] Excitement, [Action] Explosion

Word count: 3,300

AN: There are two catastrophes here, the accident that happened and the one Regulus perceives. Also as people rarely explode, I've had an explosion happen next to a person instead.

Regarding self-directed thoughts: not everyone thinks the same way. In Reggie's case, the voice in his head speaks in third person. Just because the voice in your head is different doesn't mean Reggie's (or mine) is wrong. Also, note that the narrator is five and thus often thinks (intentionally on my part) in run-on sentences.

Summary: It was an accident. A terrible accident and Siri got hurt, but the healers are going to make him all okay. Now there's an Auror snooping through their business, while the paper is writing things about the House of Black. Reggie's too excited about his new friend to worry —and besides, Daddy says he'll make it all go away. Reggie's Family has never let him down before.

… … Nurcher … …

They'd just been playing. Really.

(Well, kind of.)

It had been a dare, but it hadn't been Reggie's idea.

(Well, almost not his idea.)

Oh gods. Oh gods, oh gods this was all Reggie's fault.

But it was just so annoying when Siri called him a baby, because he wasn't a baby, he was five. Five was big enough to be learning how to spell his own 'nitials. R. A. B. of the House of Black.

When Daddy had asked if he wanted to come with him to the Ministry, Reggie had been excited. It had sounded interesting and much better than sitting with Mummy in Saint Mungle's* Hospital. The healers had told them it was going to be a while before they could visit Siri, and besides Reggie didn't like the way it smelled there—like lemons and old people and fire.

Actually, he liked the smell of fire. Fires were wicked.

He should have stayed at Saint Mungles. This hallway was boring.

Daddy had told him to wait here quietly, because he'd be right back once he finished talking with the Auror.

Daddy had said to sit like an heir would. Reggie didn't understand why, because Siri was the heir—but it was better to do what Daddy said, just in case.

Daddy had been talking to the Auror for forever.

(Don't trust the Aurors, Regulus Arcturus, Daddy would always say. They will pretend to be kind, but they don't like our family's magic. We can't ever let them know about our special magic, or they'll take it away.)

Reggie tried counting the paper birds as they flew overhead. One even stopped and looped around him twice.

The wallpaper was all browns and blues, but not in a pretty way like their second sitting room. (Mummy would have turned her nose at it. Daddy would have said, It's only natural that places be decorated according to their status.)

Reggie liked the word status. It made nice 't' sounds in between the 's' sounds and was fun to say.

"Status status status—"

"That's a pretty word."

Reggie almost jumped. Where had she come from? Of course he didn't actually jump or fall just because of a girl standing in front of him. After all, he was a son of the House of Black and—

And wow, she was really pretty. Like a faerie.

"Your hair looks like spun gold," he said, and then remembered he was s'pposed to be acting like an heir.

"Greetings, I'm Regulus Arcturus Black of the Noble-and-Most-Ancient-House-of-Black Howdoyoudo?"

"Hello Regulus Arcturus Black. That's a very long name. Can I call you Reggie?"

Her hair was really shiny—even lighter than Cousin Cissa's. "You're meant to say your name and house, too." It wasn't right otherwise. Things had to be done the-proper-way.

"Pandora Pyxis. Nice to meet you."

Well, that was all right then. "You can call me Reggie," he decided. She'd asked kindly, after all, and he was meant to be a gentle-men.

"So why are you here, Reggie?" Pandora asked, her voice almost as nice as her hair. She sat down beside him, legs swinging from the chair.

Reggie wished he swing his legs like that too—it looked fun. But Mummy would say, It isn't proper for a son of the House of Black, so he didn't. "Daddy said I shouldn't talk to Aurors. Are you an Auror?"

"I'm six," Pandora said.

Reggie supposed that was explanation enough. "It's not my fault," he decided to tell her. It was their 'fficial story, and he and Siri were going to stick to it.

Probably.

Well—

"It was maybe my fault," he said then, making his voice all careful and quiet. "Siri and I were playing and he called me a baby for not wanting to break into the drawing room cupboard with him so I said I'd do it and then when we tried to get the door open it was stuck.

"Siri said, We can go flying instead, but I got the door open by myself and something fell and it started hissing, really angry like a snake in a kettle, and I was really scared but Siri shoved me and then it went BOOM really really loud."

Reggie took a deep breath and wiped away his tears, like a proper gentle-men of the House of Black.

"It sounds to me," Pandora said kindly, "like it wasn't your fault."

At that, Reggie started sobbing. Not the way Siri did, all sneaky and fake. No, they were wet, snotty, real tears.

He wished very hard that they would stop, because Pandora was so nice and lovely. He'd wanted to be friends with her and now she'd think him a crybaby.

And to make it worse, Daddy came out of the Auror's room then, like a storm shaking the windows. "Regulus, what's wrong?" he said, serious and terrible.

But Reggie's nose was blocked up so all he could manage was a wail.

Daddy turned on Pandora then. "What did you do?" he boomed in his worstest voice—and Reggie wanted to cry even harder.

"No, she's my friend," he managed through his tears.

Being strong like Herakles, he stiffened his upper lip. "Pandora's my friend."

Daddy looked at her carefully through his eyeglasses, wearing his careful frown. "Pandora…?"

"Pandora Cyrille Pyxis. My daddy shrunk himself so mummy is doing paperwork."

"Cyrille Pyxis." Daddy hummed. "Was your mother born a Lestrange, perhaps?"

"Yes, I was," a different voice said.

Very much surprised, Reggie made sure not to fall off his chair as he looked up.

She was very tall and her hair wasn't as pretty, but Pandora's mummy looked a lot like her.

"Celestine Pyxis, of the Lestrange Clockmakers. You likely know my third cousins in the main line. How do you do, Mister Black?"

"Pleasure." They shook hands then, the proper adult way.

Reggie realised he'd forgotten to shake Pandora's hand and felt himself turning red. He'd been so happy to meet her. She had such nice hair.

"I believe we have a Pyxis trunk at home," Daddy was saying—Reggie should probably have been paying attention. "Fine expansion charms."

"Yes well, Peregrin does make excellent trunks—when he isn't undetectably subsuming himself."

Mrs. Pyxis sounded really angry. It wouldn't do for Pandora to get in trouble later. "Father," he said (Only little children call their parents 'Daddy' and 'Mummy', Kreacher had told him). "Now that Pandora is my friend, maybe we should have her over for tea."

When he turned back to Pandora she was glowing like the sun. It made him almost miss the way Daddy said, "Indeed."

(He said it the same way he would when promising they'd get ice cream later. And then not end up getting ice cream later.)

It didn't matter, Reggie would make sure they had tea together. Because Pandora looked so happy, and she was his friend. He had a friend now! One who was all his own.

"The House of Black shall send you an owl with our invitation," Daddy said in his serious voice. "Now come, Regulus. We must see if you have replaced your brother as our family's heir."

… x …

They said Siri wouldn't be able to come home for a whole week, so Reggie had the house all to himself.

It was exciting the first day, getting to do whatever he wanted and making up all his own games. It was still interesting on the second day.

By the third day, he was terribly, horribly bored. And Pandora still hadn't come over for tea yet. He was worried she'd forget what he looked like.

Or worse, she'd remember him as a crybaby and not as a son of the Noble and Most Ancient House of Black.

Pandora wasn't coming, but that stupid Auror from the Ministry was. Snooping through all our cabinets, more like, Mummy had said. Then she'd ordered Kreacher to hide some of their things in the attic.

Reggie thought the man looked like a lion wearing work robes. "My name is Auror Rufus Scrimgeour."

An angry lion, who was used to winning fights with other lions.

"Yes sir, pleased to meet you," Reggie said back. He didn't say, I'm not supposed to talk to Aurors. It didn't seem right now that the man was here, looking all wild.

Auror Scrimgeour walked through the drawing room very carefully, looking at all the things in their cabinet and going 'Hmmm' a lot.

He didn't seem very terrible, but Daddy must have a reason for not trusting Aurors.

"This is where it happened?"

Daddy nodded to Reggie, so he answered, "Yes, sir."

"The boys were playing. Our elf was watching them." Daddy lied. Reggie knew Kreacher had been cleaning and Nurcher had been in the kitchen, resting.

Nurcher came in then, bringing the tea like she always did. She smiled special for Reggie when she passed him his cup, and he was extra careful not to smile back.

Mummy didn't like it when he was nice to the elves. They are not your friends, boy. They're just house-elves, she'd say.

"Hmmm," Scrimgeour said, scrunching his eyes at Nurcher.

"She is usually very attentive, but she's getting on in years," Daddy said. "Her son Kreacher also works for our family."

"Hmm. And these are all the artefacts? Nothing has been removed?"

Very very carefully, Reggie didn't think of the attic. (We can't ever let them know about our special magic, or they'll take it away.)

Auror Scrimgeour pulled out a box from his pocket, with buttons and wobbly knobs and little flashing lights. "This is a dark-o-metre," he explained, but he didn't hold it so Reggie could see better. "It goes 'ding' when there's…stuff." He turned to Daddy then and said, "You wouldn't mind me taking a look around? Perhaps also in the library, and the attic?"

A heavy feeling sunk all the way to Reggie's toes. He wished he could disappear. Quietly, he excused himself and went to wash his face. Then he went to the airing cupboard and sat with Nurcher until it was suppertime.

"It's not your fault, young Master," she told him, running her twiggy fingers through his hair. "And there's nothing for that man to find. Don't you worry, Master Orion is a great wizard who always has a plan."

At dinner that night, Mummy explained that Auror Scrimgeour didn't find anything in the attic. "Nothing at all that even hints at what caused the explosion."

"Of course not," Daddy said. Then he smiled.

Nurcher had been right, Daddy always had a plan. Reggie was so proud in that moment. This was the Noble and Most Ancient House of Black, and he was their son.

And even better, Pandora was coming over tomorrow. He couldn't wait to tell her everything.

… x …

How safe are YOUR Children?

The Black heir was the victim of a serious explosion, with only a house-elf on hand. Who is at fault? Can elves really be trusted? Were dark magical objects involved?
What threats are there in every household? For a detailed guide on child-proofing, see page 8.

Mummy read the whole thing aloud after breakfast, with lots of tutting noises and sighing in between.

"If they don't find someone to blame, they're never going to stop investigating," she said.

Daddy scrunched his forehead and was very quiet for a minute. "This will be a major inconven—"

CRASH!

The breaking glass made Reggie jump.

They all turned to look, but it was just Nurcher, who had dropped a jar of jam. Bright red, it spread like a bloody puddle on the floor.

Then Nurcher snapped her fingers and it was all cleaned away.

Reggie didn't understand why Mummy and Daddy were still watching her like that. Daddy always said, As long as you can fix your mess, it's alright. And if you cannot, trust me. I shall help make it all go away.

Daddy got up, his chair squealing loudly. "I must speak with Auror Scrimgeour today about putting an end to this investigation. It's bad enough the papers have a hold of it, who knows what they'll write tomorrow. Nurcher, you will accompany me."

Reggie was going to go with Mummy to go visit Siri in the hospital, so he went to wash his hands and change into proper robes. He didn't even run on the stairs (no matter how much he wanted to).

He told Siri all about his new friend Pandora and how she was coming over for tea and how Daddy was making everything be okay.

It was good. Siri was happy too, even though his skin was the wrong colour in places. Siri said red was a good colour on him, and maybe he would go to Gryffindor.

Reggie'd laughed himself silly—it was a funny joke.

… x …

When Pandora finally came over Reggie couldn't wait to show her everything. They went through the whole house and then looked at the tapestry and the library and the drawing room (though they made an extra wide berth around the cupboards) and then his room which had paintings of clouds that moved on all the walls.

Reggie was very proud of those walls. Siri's rooms were a twinkling night sky, but his light blue was a lot more cheerful.

Pandora had brought her own set of knucklebones, so Reggie put aside the Gobstones game he'd set up. They settled down in the second sitting room to play.

"Did you get in trouble with the Aurors?" Pandora asked.

A happy grin spread itself across Reggie's face. Mummy had explained to him that Daddy fixed everything, and that nobody would be asking any more questions or writing in the newspaper about Siri's accident ever again. "I can't believe we got away with it! My Daddy is brilliant."

But then he remembered it wasn't nice to only talk about himself, or he'd be boring and horrible and like Lucius Malfoy. "What's your family like?"

Pandora started telling him a story about the time her mum got in a fight with her dad. It wasn't long after that Kreacher came in with a tray for tea.

"Isn't Daddy—erm, I mean, isn't Father back from the Ministry yet?"

"Master Orion is in the study," Kreacher said in a funny voice.

"Where's Nurcher, then?"

Kreacher shook his head and walked out.

"Wait!" Reggie ordered, getting up to follow. "Where's Nurcher? Is she resting?"

Kreacher led them to the hallway wall and just stared.

There they were, the heads of the elf's ancestors. Reggie knew the story, he'd been told lots of times. "But where's Nurcher?"

Pandora was right there next to him, pulling on his sleeve. She was very nice, but it wasn't helpful.

Where was Nurcher?

Then, he saw where Kreacher was looking.

"What?" Reggie wanted his teddy, or a cup of cocoa.

There she was hanging, the elf that had sung him lullabies when he couldn't sleep. And brought him tea and biscuits, or cakes.

Her head.

On the wall.

"How—?" He heard himself whisper. "She was a good elf."

Then the image from that morning flashed in his mind: the broken jar, sticky redness on the kitchen floor. "Is this because she dropped the jam? I've dropped loads of things. Nobody ever hung my head on the wall."

"You're not a house elf," Pandora pointed out, missing the point entirely.

"But it's not right." Reggie really didn't feel like playing knucklebones anymore—and besides, he didn't get Pandora's rules. "I don't understand," he whispered.

He suddenly realised Kreacher had gone, that it was just him and his new friend standing in the dark hallway. He led the way back to the sitting room, but no matter how close he got to the fire he still felt cold.

The smell of lemons and old people and fire burned in his nose again.

"It's not your fault, Reggie," Pandora was saying, just like she had in the Ministry.

Reggie knew she meant well, because she was gentle (and a girl) and not mean at all, just like cousin Cissa. "It wasn't Nurcher's fault either! She wasn't even s'pposed to be watching me and Siri play! We should never have opened that cupboard."

He hadn't even wanted to do it, it had all been Siri, calling him a baby—

And now there were tears running down his face. "I'm not a baby."

"I never said you were."

"This is all Siri's fault," he decided, sniffing. "If he hadn't gone and exploded himself then none of this would have happened and we'd still have Nurcher and everything would be fine."

Pandora was looking at him like he was a turnip. Even though everything was perfectly clear. It was all Siri's fault.

"But Sirius is only six. That doesn't seem fair."

Maybe Pandora was the turnip. "If it isn't his fault, who else could it be? You said people don't get killed because of jam."

"Well, when my Daddy messes up the time-space contin-um Mummy doesn't talk with him for days after. She says sometimes he needs to be shown that he did something wrong."

Pandora sounded very sure about things. Like her Mummy knew all the answers. Maybe Reggie should ask Mrs. Pyxis why Nurcher had to die.

"Daddy said he'd fix everything," he remembered. "And Mummy said to hide all the dark artefacts in the attic." He thought about the words for a minute, now that he'd said them. "They lied," he realised.

There was nothing in the attic, and everything that mattered was broken.

… x …

Reggie didn't remember much of supper, nor the next few days.

But when Siri returned, not sorry about or even noticing what he'd done, Reggie was too mad to speak with him.

Mummy and Daddy were pleased he was home and pretended everything was normal. They told Kreacher to make Siri's favourites for dinner.

But Reggie could tell just by looking that Siri's veggies were overcooked, and that he'd gotten more sprouts. It served him right.

… x …

Reggie woke up in the middle of the night, again. He knew he wasn't s'pposed to, because he was five now, but he sucked his thumb anyway.

"Master Regulus should be sleeping," Kreacher's voice croaked from next to his bed.

It was like magic, how his elf always knew when he had a bad dream. "I know, Kreacher. I'm sorry."

"Why? You have done nothing wrong, young Master."

It was nice, to hear someone say it like that. Of course, he knew it had been Mummy and Daddy and Siri who had messed everything up.

But it still felt like if he'd tried just a little bit harder, maybe Reggie could have made it all un-happen. And then he'd have Nurcher bringing him cocoa.

Or actually maybe he wouldn't be having bad dreams in the first place, full of the CRASH! of glass breaking.

"I'm sad," he whispered into the darkness. The clouds on the walls were moving like ghosts. "Mummy lied and Siri got really really hurt and Daddy didn't fix things and—"

Reggie took a few deep breaths, because he wasn't a crybaby. "And I miss Nurcher. It isn't fair."

The house creaked around them, but he knew Kreacher was still there. At least Kreacher would always be there.

"Nurcher died for family. And now, Nurcher is watching over the House of Black. It is an honourable death."

The picture flashed before his eyes, and it made Reggie giggle. Nurcher, the size of a giant, sitting in front of Grimmauld Place like a dollhouse and looking in through the window at him.

"Sleep young Master, sleep," Kreacher started to sing. His voice sounded like a rain spout.

… x …

* Regulus is five. He doesn't always remember that it's called St Mungo's Hospital.