Patrick didn't regret many things; his mother always said not to, for if you regret, you may never move on. He was advised to both acknowledge his faults, and rise above them, wallowing in shame did nothing, so he never did it.
His father taught him to do many things; hold a crossbow, scout out good hiding spaces, and finding lackeys were a few of them. Despite all that, it was his mother who had the biggest effect on him. Father praised his abilities, while Mother made sure that it never went to his head - she always gave him new ways to better himself. It was like she was never proud of him.
Until, little Nicholas came along.
Patrick remembers it like it was yesterday - the cool, summer air, the jeering bullies, and most importantly, a bawling little boy - who looked to be his age - up in a tall tree, hugging a branch, fearfully looking down upon the ground. He felt like it was his responsibility to help him, and he did, as Nicholas continued to cry, even when he was reunited with his mum.
He explained the situation the best he could, stating that Nicholas was too scared to come down from a tree, and that he was also lost.
Nicholas' mother kept on apologizing - to both him, and his mother - for her son's behavior. Mother watched as she and her snieviling son left with hushed words to each other, and she turned to him, pride shining in her eyes, "you did well, Patrick. You helped that little boy. You did good, my son."
And that's why Patrick sought out Nicholas after. It was worth putting up with the clumsy, helplessly incompotent boy - if only to make his mother proud.
They remained what you could call 'friends' and as they had both gotten their Hogwarts letters (Patrick as a half-blood, Nicholas as a muggleborn), they went to Hogwarts together.
There, Nicholas still hadn't learned to be socially competent- he still was hopelessly clueless, unable to even grasp the concept of popularity, of unwritten rules that every other Hogwarts student knew.
To him, the gryffindor talked too loud, grinned too much, and could never realize that nobody cared about his silly little inventions. And when he said that Nicholas talked too much, he meant it - he would start rambling to anybody when they stayed long enough in his direction. (It made him feel oddly satisfied when Nicholas was forced to be quiet - like that one time where Richard Evans hit Nicholas with a jelly-brain jinx that made him unable to talk without losing his train of thought right after. It was a little amusing watching him suddenly jam his mouth shut, and look around feebly for help like a confused first year, before trying again to talk.)
Patrick knew that Nicholas was dragging him down, but because he was nice, he let him continue to be his frankly childish self. But that didn't mean he'd protect him anymore from bullies, but, seeing as Nicholas couldn't even tell that he was a target, it didn't really matter that much.
Nicholas couldn't tell people were tittering at him if it hit him in the face. The cretinous boy was still under the impression that they were best friends - but if he had to be honest, Patrick liked it that way.
Back then, if he had to classify Nicholas with only two words, he'd pick, 'mindlessly arrogant.' Patrick picked up on the fact that his childhood friend was too dense to notice anything, so he had it both ways - for a while.
In his 6th year, on a sunny day, he made a bad decision - one that was of the few things he regrets in life.
After that .. incident, Nicholas never really acted the same. He was now annoyingly sheepish, and he avoided Patrick like the plague then, and just acted like a kicked puppy all the time. Sometimes, he cornered Nicholas, demanding to know what had gotten into him - why was he acting like such a bloody stampcrab?! - but he always just felt bad, and let him go.
It was weird.
Nichloas left the wizarding world - up until he had to go back as a ghost.
And then, for a good few years, he was back to normal.
Patrick leaned back in his chair, closing his eyes.
That was enough about the past.
He remembered his long-dead mother's advice, and he planned for the future - one that would always be secure - for that was all a ghost could do.