Chapter 3: Smiles and Secrets
Chapter Text
Regulus was wearing his Ravenclaw sweater and a school robe with smart black trousers and winter furry boots. It was Christmas at Hogwarts, and he was in awe of how pretty the castle was, especially the Great Hall. The decorations, the atmosphere... and if it weren't for the fact that he would have to go home instead of staying at Hogwarts, he would have loved spending his holidays by himself. At school.
Well, maybe he wouldn't be completely by himself.
He and James had become inseparable since the prank they had pulled off at the start of term and since then, he was seen spending more time with his brother and his friends, than his classmates in his own year. His brother often made jokes about how Regulus was stealing James away from him, but that wasn't it at all and Sirius knew that. Oh, apart from Dirk, whom he spent time with in the library, they often studied together. Regulus was growing to like Dirk's company. Dirk sometimes brought a few of his friends with him who were tolerable enough.
And surprisingly, he also got on with a handful of the Slytherins. Evan Rosier from his year, and a couple of the older ones Cissy, Rab… but not Malfoy or Bellatrix. Those two didn't like his friends, whether it was the Hufflepuff or his brother's friends, he wasn't sure. If it weren't for those two, he thought maybe things wouldn't have been so bad if he had been in Slytherin.
Lessons had been going fairly well. He was best at Potions, followed by Charms and Defense Against the Dark Arts. The first flying class he had, went better than he thought. Mainly because he was less of a Quidditch fanatic than Sirius (only by a small amount, not that he'd tell Sirius that) and he'd much rather spend time reading than moving about, unlike Sirius. He actually liked running, and swimming sometimes, the solo sports. Regulus just managed to get it into his head that he wouldn't be good at Quidditch, when in reality, he could control his broom well and actually enjoyed the breeze as he flew.
In fact, sometimes he joined James and Sirius on the pitch, and they often raced to see who would win.
As he wandered into the Great Hall for breakfast, he was stopped by Evan Rosier.
"I wouldn't enter, someone's done a prank on the entire Hall. Pass it on," he informed Regulus, who blinked a few times in confusion, something was nagging at him.
Regulus cursed inwardly, he had been there when James, Sirius, Remus and Peter were planning the prank, how could he have forgotten? He blamed it on Christmas, he decided.
"But I'm starving," Regulus complained lightly, peering into the Great Hall. "What exactly did they do?"
"By all means, go in if you want to literally be yellow for the whole day, and have sticky feet," Evan replied back and Regulus was seriously tempted, as his stomach gurgled hungrily. He could suit yellow, right?
"Thanks for warning me, Evan," he said with his lips turning upwards into a smile, the closest he ever got to smiling. He had an idea, he knew his friends would also be in the hall, with charms that repelled them from the prank. "Oh and cover your ears," he added, and Evan stared at him. Well, Regulus did warn him.
"JAMES FLEAMONT POTTER!" Regulus shouted through the Great Hall, successfully grabbing James's attention and the rest of the Hall's, as well as the Professors'. But he didn't care.
Regulus watched, amused, as James stood up from his usual spot at the Gryffindor Table, a wide grin plastered on his face as he spotted Regulus.
"REGULUS ARCTURUS BLACK!" James shouted back.
Regulus rolled his eyes fondly. "Pass me some bacon, would you?" Regulus asked loudly.
"Why don't you come on in and help yourself?" James challenged back, and Regulus seriously debated it, but he had a plan. He gave James the most puppy-eyed look he could muster, breaking his well-crafted mask that he wore in front of everyone, even his brother. It would be the first time they'd be seeing him comfortable, accepting, and most importantly, himself. He knew James couldn't possibly say no as he saw James's eyes widen.
Regulus grinned as not a moment later, James grabbed a plate of bacon from the table and literally jogged over to him.
"Keep the plate, Reggie." James spoke softly, hanging around a little longer than necessary, "Oh, and meet us later, will you?"
"Of course, Jamie. Usual spot?" Regulus replied, taking a bite of bacon that was still hot.
"That's the one," James replied, walking away again.
Regulus stood there, smiling to himself. Until he remembered where he was, and he straightened up, put his mask back on and walked out of the Hall. Although, what he was going to do about the plate, he didn't know.
When he had his study period later, instead of studying, he found himself with his brother and his friends in the Gryffindor dorm room. He was snuck in by James's invisibility cloak.
"We called this meeting today," James started, being all formal. Or trying to be, and Regulus couldn't help but snigger at him. "To discuss a very important topic."
Regulus looked at the others, and for once Sirius was also serious, and so was Peter. Remus seemed nervous. Too nervous, was he okay? Perhaps a little paler than usual.
"What's said in this room stays in this room. We trust everyone in this room completely to keep this secret. We just need to talk about said secret and what to do about it, are we understood?"
Regulus nodded straight away, though he didn't understand what James could be going on about.
"Sirius, take over," James spoke and Sirius nodded, placing a supportive hand on Remus's shoulder.
"Remus is a Werewolf."
Regulus stared blankly. Internally, his mind was screaming. What?
"We're not telling the authorities, he doesn't deserve that, but we are going to help him. He does deserve our help," Sirius said sternly, and Regulus glanced at Remus, who was staring at a spot on the floor.
He didn't know what to think, but he knew that whatever he thought about this, he had to think about Remus. Imagine struggling with that, by himself, since first year? No, since he was probably very young? Regulus couldn't imagine the hell, and he thought his hell was bad.
"And we're going to help by becoming Animagus," Sirius finished his speech, and that seemed to have surprised Remus.
"No, you're not doing that. That's way too dangerous! Not to mention complicated," Remus could have gone on, Regulus thought, but James interrupted.
"It's more dangerous for you without us, Remus. We read that Werewolves were more friendly with other animals, not all. But we're your family, your pack. Surely that means something to your wolf, does it not?" James replied, showing rare use of his brains.
"Sorry, but why am I here too? I'm far too young to become an Animagus and I feel like I'm intruding," Regulus said, and Sirius was about to speak before James interrupted him too.
"You're here because you're pretty to look at," he teased, and Regulus raised his eyebrows, trying to ignore a funny feeling in his stomach.
"You're here so you're kept in the loop, Reg. We didn't want you to be left out, and even though you're too young to become an Animagus, you could still try next year," Sirius suggested.
Regulus nodded in understanding, before turning to Remus. "This doesn't change anything, Remus. You're still you, and you're still my friend. I'd never tell anyone, I promise."
It's true, he now saw most of his brother's friends as his own friends. All apart from Peter, who he still considered to be an acquaintance, if that. There was silence after a few moments until someone finally broke it.
"Wait," Remus spoke, and Regulus frowned. Sirius looked concerned, "What?" Sirius asked.
"Regulus is right."
"Huh?" Regulus said. He couldn't hide the confusion in his voice as Sirius, James and Peter glanced at him.
"You're twelve," Remus said to the other three, "The chances of getting the process wrong are too high. Please, for me, wait. Until, at least, fourth year."
Regulus looked at James, who looked like he wanted to argue, but Sirius had an expression on his face that Regulus couldn't figure out as both Remus and Sirius stared at each other.
"Fine," Sirius said after a while, breaking eye contact. "Fine. Fourth year."
A few minutes went by and James clapped to get everyone's attention, with a smirk on his face.
"Next on the agenda, what did everyone think of the prank yesterday?"
Regulus groaned at the reminder, and Sirius grinned.
"Brilliant, absolutely brilliant. And Reg, we could make a prankster out of you yet!"
"No," Regulus said, "No, no, no. You are not making me a prankster, I'm just a partner in crime, nothing else!" he argued firmly. Sirius grinned even more, if that were possible.
"Challenge accepted," Sirius replied and Regulus groaned again, placing his head in his hands dramatically.
"And the next thing we need to discuss is Christmas," James said, changing the subject and Regulus moved his head from his hands hearing that. Why did that need to be discussed?
"What about Christmas?" Regulus questioned curiously.
"Are we meeting at mine again, this year?" James asked the group and Regulus blinked, unsure if he should really be there for this conversation.
"Reg and I will have to go home," Sirius started, and Peter spoke for the first time in a while.
"I'm going to Paris again, so I won't be able to come, sorry, James."
"I don't think I'll be allowed to go, James, I'll be staying here as usual," Remus replied solemnly.
"Alright, about you and Reggie going home, what if you thought of some excuse to stay at Hogwarts? And then, after a few days, you can meet us and spend the rest of Christmas with me!" James sounded a little cheerful and Regulus glanced at Sirius, who looked thoughtful.
"I suppose we could think of something, couldn't we, Reg?" Sirius questioned, and Regulus hummed in thought.
"What if we said we wanted to improve the ties for the Black family, and in order to do that, we needed to stay at Hogwarts?" Regulus replied in thought, frowning as he tried to figure out if that made sense. "It's not technically a lie, they would think we meant the Slytherins, when we really just mean the Potters…" Regulus trailed off.
"See, a prankster at work!" Sirius commented, and Regulus looked to see an impressed expression on Sirius's and James's faces.
Regulus flushed from the praise and shrugged sheepishly.
"And as for you, Remus. We'll write, and one day, we'll figure out a way for you to visit," James promised and Remus sent a sad smile in his direction.
"You've got us for a few days," Sirius tried to cheer Remus up.
"Oh, damn," Regulus said as he checked the time. He was late for Charms, which he forgot he even had a class before lunch. Most of his timetable was study periods leading up to the holidays. "Guess I'm going to have a detention tonight."
"Here, I'll come with you and sneak you out," James said and Regulus nodded gratefully.
"Prankster in the making," Sirius replied, waving goodbye, and Regulus glared.
"Whatever," Regulus muttered as he was covered with the invisibility cloak by James. Once they were both under the cloak, their hands were practically touching as they walked together. Regulus was breathing heavily, feeling nervous. He didn't know why he was so nervous or why he had a funny feeling in his stomach because of how close they were. But he knew one thing; he hoped it was just because it was hot under the cloak that he was blushing lightly.
The moment they were far enough away from the common room, James uncovered them.
"Thanks, Jamie. For… well... For including me," Regulus said and James smiled.
"Anytime, little star."
Regulus frowned but didn't have time to question James as he realised just how late to class he was. "See you," he said, waving goodbye.
Many minutes later, he arrived out of breath to the classroom in question, successfully gaining the attention of the entire class. He was slightly surprised that Professor Flitwick walked over to him, telling the rest of the class to get on with their work and quietly gave him a detention. Something about not accepting tardiness, and he needed to be strict, so that it didn't happen in future.
Regulus sat down on the nearest seat on the Ravenclaw side of the room as he finally caught his breath. As he looked opposite him, he spotted Evan Rosier looking at him with a smirk.
"What?" Regulus mouthed.
Evan simply shook his head, and Regulus rolled his eyes in annoyance.
Slytherins, he thought, running a hand through his hair frustratedly.