Disclaimer: This does not belong to me, except for the plot and a few characters, and if you don't know that you probably should read the Harry Potter books before you return to this story.
Regulus was sitting in a rather dark and clammy corner of the common room with Nott and Greengrass, doing his potions homework and listening to the sixth and fifth years hold court by the fire. The seventh years rarely spent time in the common room. Slytherin seventh years dedicated their time to getting high profile jobs and impressing important people, and by then they'd already made all the worthwhile alliances with other Slytherins they could. So the common room fire was monopolized by the fifth and sixth years, with the second, third, and fourth years squabbling (with dignity, of course) over the other tables. The least desirable tables went automatically to the first years.
It was just as well. Regulus was confident that there were very few Slytherins smarter then him, if any, but there were an awful lot who were scarier. And some of them had nasty streaks a mile wide. Regulus may have only been at Hogwarts only a little over a week, but he already knew better then to do anything but homework in the common room. Anything else was all too likely to get you into trouble. Unfortunately Greengrass and Nott didn't seem to have figured that out yet. They were talking about Charms- and their Gryffindor partners- without even bothering to keep their voices particularly quiet. Regulus eyed the next table over nervously, which contained Alcander Nott, Narcissa, and all three elder Rosiers. Not the best bunch to overhear you talking favorably about Gryffindors. Regulus elected to follow his favorite strategy- ignore the problem and hop it would go away.
"It's so funny, talking to the muggleborns." Nott was giggling. "They believe everything I tell them. Well, McClanahan does. Christie's a little less gullible. But they both listen to everything I say. I spent our entire first Potions lesson telling McClanahan about the Fair Folk and he never once told me to shut up. He was fascinated. No one else ever listens to me." She said rather wistfully.
"That's because you go on and on about the most boring things. Only a muggleborns would be ignorant enough to want to listen. But they are funny. Have you seen Christie imitate Demon Queen?" Greengrass asked eagerly, fiddling with his quill.
"Oh yes. I do like Christie." Nott was about to go on, but she was interrupted.
"You like who?" Greengrass, Nott and Regulus all turned. Regulus cursed silently. Now it looked like he'd been involved. And if Alcander Nott was angry, you did not want to be involved.
"Well, Calliope? Who are you talking about?" Alcander demanded.
"My Charms partner. We were talking about Hy Breasil in class. Did you know that it's the only place in the world where all the species of the Fair Folk live, and also the only place where they will interact with humans? Well, some species interact with humans in other places, but-"
"What did you say his name was?" Alcander interrupted impatiently. Regulus felt sorry for Calliope. Now that her valiant attempt at distraction had failed, there was no way she was going to get out of telling Alcander. She sighed.
"Christie." She said quietly. Alcander scowled ominously.
"That's not a pureblood name." He growled.
"He's muggleborn." Calliope whispered. Regulus winced. Mistake. Big mistake. The Slytherin common room was not the place to use a politically correct word like muggleborn.
"A Mudblood?" Alcander snarled. "Calliope, what are you doing talking about filthy mudbloods like that? Why are you talking to one?"
"Professor Flitwick assigned him as my partner. We have Gryffindor partners in all the classes we have with them. And a lot of them are muggleb- mudbloods." Calliope was twisting her hands nervously and looking down at the floor. Regulus didn't blame her- Alcander was fuming and Giles Rosier was starting to look angry as well. He stood up.
"Phronsie!" He shouted. Half the common room looked up. Slytherins didn't cause scenes very often. "Phronsie!" he shouted again. Phronsie didn't take long to come down from her dorm- no one wanted to keep Giles Rosier waiting. Demon Queen followed her, unable to resist the commotion.
"Is it true that you have mudblood partners in your classes?" he demanded. Phronsie nodded obediently.
"Some of them are purebloods, but they're all at least blood traitors."
"My potions partner is a mudblood, and he laughs at me behind my back!" Demon Queen declared excitedly.
"My partner shouted at me." Montague offered from the corner where he had been struggling through his homework.
"Mine wouldn't let me near the cauldron." Baddock added resentfully.
"Mine wrote an offensive message on the back of my robes!" Yaxley cried, and then burst into tears. By now the whole house was listening, and they were incensed. Yaxley's statement had sent a wave of fury around the room. Regulus knew they were imagining a muggleborn Gryffindor boy writing something about spoiling Yaxley's purity. He wanted to tell them it had only been "Gryffindor forever", but he didn't dare. Alcander's argument with Calliope had turned into something much bigger. Giles Rosier was getting up on a table. Slytherins didn't climb on the furniture.
"We cannot allow this! For too long we have done nothing while mudbloods have worked their way into Wizarding society. We contented ourselves by saying that the old families were keeping themselves pure, that Slytherin house would safeguard the youth of pureblood society. But now we are being forced to interact with those of lesser blood. How long will it be before the boundary begins to blur? It cannot continue! We must take a stand, as others are doing outside Hogwarts!" There was a murmur of agreement from the crowd. Regulus was getting even more anxious. What was Giles talking about? What were others doing outside Hogwarts?
"What can we do?" Someone asked from near the entrance. The common room erupted into whispers, but Giles gestured for silence.
'Is it only the first years that are being forced to associate with filth?" He asked. There was a murmur of confirmation.
"Presumably, Giles, the goal of this measure to inspire inter-house cooperation. And everyone knows that once students have spent a year in their respective houses, it is much too late to get them to cooperate." Narcissa interjected calmly, examining her nails as if in boredom. Regulus looked at her in admiration. Sirius might have been brave, but nobody could match Narcissa for calm, cool dignity in a crisis. And she certainly wasn't stupid.
"All right then," Giles continued, nodding respectfully to Narcissa. "Well, obviously something has to be done. But, of course, we cannot forget to maintain our dignity. We are not Gryffindors, to just go duel anyone we don't like." He grinned nastily. "So the first years will have to take care of it."
"What?" Regulus wasn't sure who was more shocked, the first years or the upperclassmen. Certainly no one was expecting Giles to say that.
"Giles! What can the first years do?" Ariadne laughed. Giles ignored her, turning to Phronsie, who, with Demon Queen, Yaxley, and Urquhart behind her on the stairs, Baddock, Montague, and Mulciber on her left and Regulus, Greengrass, and Calliope on her right, was the center of the first years.
"You will ignore them. You will insult them. You will trip them, you will spill things on them, and you will aim your spells at them and make it look like an accident. You will do everything you possibly can to make their lives miserable that does not get you in trouble- or, at least no more trouble then them. We have to make the Professor's regret doing this. We cannot be seen as the instigators of the trouble, but anytime you provoke the Gryffindors into doing something that will get them in detention, you may respond with something equally bad. In fact, you must. You are going to start a war with the Gryffindors, and you are going to make it look like it's their fault." Giles smiled triumphantly. Regulus was mildly impressed with the plan, except for the fact that he was highly skeptical that his year mates were capable of doing something so complex.
"Giles, why should only the first years do it? They have the best opportunity to provoke the Gryffindors, and the greatest need, but surely we can help protect the purity of the wizarding world as well?" Alcander protested. Clio nodded. Giles answered them dismissively.
"Do what you like. It's the first years I'm concerned with. Now, you lot, do you understand what you have to do?" He turned back towards them. They all nodded, some enthusiastically, some timidly.
"And you'll do it?" He asked menacingly. They all nodded again. He was about to get off the table when Alcander intervened.
"What about him?" He said, gesturing suspiciously towards Regulus. Regulus gulped. Everyone was looking at him. He hated being the center of attention.
"What about him?" Giles asked.
"His brother's a blood traitor, and how do we know he's any different?" Regulus looked nervously at Phronsie. She wouldn't tell his secrets offhand, but if Giles asked her about Regulus she wouldn't lie. And then he'd be done for. Giles looked like he was about to do just that when Narcissa intervened.
"If he were like Sirius, then he would not be in Slytherin, Alcander. I have known him all his life and I promise you he will not make trouble. Regulus hates trouble. Leave him be." She said sharply. Giles nodded and seemed satisfied. Narcissa might have been only a third year, but she was a Black, and also one of the brightest and most beautiful girls in the House, so she was respected. Alcander, however, had never been all that good at picking up social cues,
"But-"
"I said leave him be!" Narcissa snapped at Alcander, rising. "I'm going up to the owlry. Regulus, come with me." She swept out of the room. Regulus followed meekly, leaving his homework on the table. Hopefully Greengrass and Nott wouldn't let any of their idiot year mates steal it.
Narcissa said nothing as they walked from the chilly dungeons up through the warm and bright Great Hall. When they reached the owlry, she sat carefully on a ledge and gestured for him to do the same.
"What are you going to do?" She asked him quietly.
"About what?" Regulus countered, avoiding the question. Narcissa gave him a knowing look.
"You can't lie to me, Reggie. You and Sirius are my brothers in every way but one. I'm closer to you then Bella or Andy, although that's more to do with age than anything else. I know you better then anyone else does."
"Better then Sirius? Better then Phronsie?" Narcissa snorted softly, managing somehow to make it ladylike.
"Neither Sirius nor Phronsie is the type to really know someone. Neither one really looks beneath the surface- Sirius because he believes that actions are more important then character, and Phronsie because she is too self-absorbed. Too shallow, if you'll pardon the pun." Regulus considered this, deciding with mild surprise that it was really quite accurate. Perhaps Narcissa, like Regulus and Uncle Alphard, had a gift for studying people's characters. Regulus was also quite pleased to discover that Narcissa considered him and Sirius her brothers- he felt the same, and he suspected Sirius did as well. They had spent many evenings togetherwatching their parents' parties through the bars of the upstairs balcony, when they were too young to attend. And when Regulus had been younger, he had been sick frequently, and Narcissa and Sirius had used to sneak in to sit on his bed and act out stories from his favorite books for hours so he wouldn't be as miserable. Sometimes they would sing to him as well. Regulus realized with a pang that after Sirius and Narcissa had left for Hogwarts and Regulus stopped getting sick they had grown apart quite a bit. And now that he was in Slytherin, it was going to get even worse.
"Well?" Narcissa said, sharply but not unkindly. Regulus sighed.
"I guess I'll go along with it quietly but try to warn them first." He confessed unhappily, knowing that while Alasdair, Keegan and Milly probably wouldn't mind a certain amount of verbal abuse from him- they knew he had to put up a front- they weren't likely to want to deal with being tripped and "accidentally" cursed all the time.
"I though it was Nott who had befriended a mudblood. Which one do you know well enough to warn?" Narcissa asked, brows arching.
"Oh, you know" Regulus shrugged. "The boys from the boat, and my Potions partner." Narcissa nodded.
"Be careful, Reggie. Life will be much more pleasant for you if you at least appear to be one of the faithful. In fact, in times like these it is dangerous to be anything else. I do not understand how these mudbloods could possibly be worth the risk."
"Cissy, what do you mean, "times like these"? And what did Giles mean when he talked about people taking a stand outside Hogwarts?" Narcissa regarded him thoughtfully for a minute, and then looked off into the distance.
"There is trouble coming, Regulus. You have not heard, because only those who are causing it know as of yet, and you hardly saw Bella at all last summer. I do not know that I should tell you-"She sighed. "I suppose you might as well know. But do not tell Sirius. He is too hot-headed for this kind of information." Regulus nodded. He loved Sirius, but they were not the type of brothers who told each other secrets- Regulus never wanted to know what mischief Sirius was planning, and Sirius never wanted to know any secrets at all- Sirius liked to say things straight out. It wouldn't be hard for Regulus to keep information from him.
"There is man called Lord Voldemort who is gathering followers. Bella is one of them- but she calls him the Dark Lord- you should too. His name should not be spoken. He aims to purify our society, by any means necessary. He may use violence- he has recruited Bella, after all, but he also has more level-headed allies, powerful allies- he is dangerous, and will soon be more so. Reggie, even if I did not want to purify the wizarding world, which I do, I would want to be on his side. Because anyone who is not will very soon be in great danger. And mudbloods and blood traitors will be the first to go." Narcissa's voice was very controlled, but Regulus could hear the emotion behind it. Narcissa was scared.
"He is that bad?" He asked quietly. She just nodded. "What about Andy and Sirius? Will they be hurt?" Regulus felt shaky. He had thought Wizarding politics were bad now, but what Narcissa was warning him about was much, much worse.
"I don't know, Reggie. I believe in the cause, and according to my beliefs, they'd be left alone, because no matter what their choices are, they're purebloods. They're Blacks. But I think- from what I've heard- and Reggie, you've got to realize that I'm only thirteen and the only reason I now anything at all is because Bella has no discretion- I think that it's going to be very bad. I think there'll be a war, and even if Andy and Sirius are left alone, Sirius will fight, you know he will. And if he does-"Narcissa took a deep breath. Regulus had never seen her so close to tears. She turned and clasped his hands in her own.
"Reggie, I know you want to stay close to him, and I'm not saying you shouldn't, but if there's a war and he goes to fight then you have to let him go. You can't stay in the middle during a war or you'll get caught in the crossfire, and I won't lose both my brothers." She squeezed his hands and stood, wiping her eyes. Regulus hadn't even realized she'd been crying.
"I'm sorry, Reggie. Just- I wanted you to realize that if you're going to try to be on good terms with both sides there's a lot at stake. You might- you might have to make a choice. And if you don't choose, you'd better hope that you're very, very good at fooling people. And from now on, I don't want to know what you believe in. If you're not who you appear to be, I don't want to know. If you come to me for help, I'll give it to you, but I won't pretend, and I won't keep secrets. And that goes for Sirius as well. I love you, but I've chosen a side, and I won't be a traitor."
She left the owlry silently. Regulus wrapped his arms around himself, shivering. He wasn't ready for this. He couldn't handle this, he didn't want to lose his brother or his friends but he didn't want to lose his life either. Regulus knew what he was going to do- He would warn the Gryffindors about Giles's plan and he would warn the GLA- if it formed- about Voldemort. He would put off making a choice because the war hadn't started yet and Hogwarts was safe. He would go on pretending that everything was all right and he was exactly what he was supposed to be. But that was what he was going to do. Later. First, he was going to curl up in this chilly corner of the owlry and cry.