Chapter 32: The Conquering Pure-Bloods
There is no doubt that with the turning of thirteen, came the hormones and testosterone that accompanied teenage years and, unfortunately for Lily, side effects lasting many years to come. And that was why the two best friends looked so discontent when walking to Charms that early spring morning. It was a Friday. Severus could not stop looking at Lily and her budding bodily changes, and Lily, though always happy to steal a secret glance at Severus, was suffering from her 'monthly issue.'
She probably wouldn't have complained so loudly and freely about it, had she known that another of her friends suffered a monthly problem of his own, which was far more painful, dangerous and lethal.
Flitwick taught them the Goblet Refill Charm that day, and both friends knew it would come in handy to refill their goblets of pumpkin juice now and again. They could also use it in their dormitories, because as it turned out, befriending Regulus had the perk of his relationship with the Hogwarts house elves. After introducing the Union's original small group to them, the elves were delighted to offer their additional services to 'Master Regulus' good friends.' Regulus did not dispute this description, and despite Lily's feelings towards house elves being treated like slaves, she saw how content they were to work and did not object, if only to keep the elves and her friends happy.
It was as they made their way back to the Great Hall for lunch after Charms and Defence Against the Dark Arts, (where they had learned the Somersault Strike Hex from Millburn) that the two friends heard a commotion on the floor below.
"You will cease this foolishness, Regulus!" came the shrill voice of Narcissa Black. "This has gone on long enough!"
"I just want to have a relationship with Siri." came Regulus' timid reply.
"He's not like us."
"And he's not like you!" snapped Sirius' voice. "Why would he want to be a Voldemort lover? Oh, what's wrong, Cissy? Lucy? Scared to hear your idol's name?"
Lily and Severus were unsure whether or not to go and investigate, until they heard the first spell fire and Sirius yell in surprise and then groan in agony, after the dull thud against something solid.
They rushed down the staircase and saw Lucius brandishing his wand with Narcissa, Rosier, Mulciber and Avery behind him looking triumphant, albeit Narcissa's looked forced. Sirius was sprawled on the floor, clutching his left arm, which looked crooked, unmistakably broken from his being flung into the wall by Malfoy's spell. Regulus was looking down at his brother in horror, and Melody appeared from the other end of the corridor, looking scared.
"And what about you, Rowle?" asked Malfoy. "Are you going to continue siding with the Loser Lions? Or are you going to honour your family's good name and join with us, in your rightful place?"
Melody looked horrified by this sudden and unexpected confrontation.
"She isn't one of you!" snapped Sirius.
"SIRI!" shouted Regulus warningly.
Malfoy detected the fear and warning in Regulus' voice and looked between Melody and Sirius suspiciously.
"How is a Rowle not one of our group, Sirius Black?" he asked with severity.
Sirius, realizing his mistake, sat still and silent with defiance to rival the severe tone and expression of Malfoy.
"Must I break the other arm?" asked Malfoy.
"You will not!" shouted Severus, as he and Lily drew their wands, followed by Melody. Regulus did not.
"A trio of underage wizards, first or second-year alike, versus two second-years, one fourth year, a fifth year and I, a sixth-year prefect?" laughed Malfoy. "You Gryffindors never had brains. But you, a Ravenclaw? You've spent too much time in the company of the Loser Lions."
"We beat you before." resisted Lily.
"There were more of you." sneered Malfoy. "But this time, the triumph shall be ours!"
Malfoy used his wand to freeze Lily and she fell to the floor.
"No!" cried Severus and he used the Disarming Charm, but it was blocked by Malfoy, then Rosier countered Severus' assault with a Dark Hex.
It felt like ten punches to the gut at once, and Severus immediately doubled over, coughing up blood.
Lily could only watch helplessly, and Melody was quickly Disarmed and frozen by Narcissa.
"Last chance to join our side, Miss Rowle." she said coldly. "You side with these people and the Dark Lord will not hesitate to punish you severely."
Melody paled.
"Leave her alone, Cissy." said a timid voice.
It was Regulus.
"Reggie, you did well to befriend a good Pure-Blood Slytherin girl, but she is clearly not interested in joining the Dark Lord and bringing the real rulers of the world out of the shadows of the Statute of Secrecy! She has to find her place in the New World or die fighting our Lord."
"And so must you." added Mulciber. He and Avery had their wands aimed at both Regulus and Melody.
Regulus saw Avery's wand pointing at Melody. Narcissa doing so was one thing, but he restrained himself as she was family, but this incompetent and overconfident snob, Avery, trying to wish harm upon his best friend?
Regulus pointed his wand at Avery.
"Urchus!"
Avery dropped his wand and clutched his face, which began to sprout pointed scales, like that of a pufferfish.
"Regulus! What are you doing?!" fumed Malfoy. "You know too well that this is not what you want to do! Do not betray those who will bring you to the top! We're your friends and family! Your brother will break you into nothing, and then the Dark Lord will punish you both! Save yourself and then ask the Dark Lord to spare your brother for his foolishness! It's the only way, Regulus! Decide now!"
But Regulus saw Mulciber aim his wand at Melody to punish Regulus for assaulting his friend and the furious child Disarmed him and then used the Bat Bogey Hex on him.
"STOP, REGULUS!" shouted Malfoy, aiming his wand at him. "Don't make the same mistakes as your brother or you will pay!"
"You will not harm my best friend!"
"Then I will simply harm those trying to corrupt you!" snarled Malfoy. "Incarcerous!"
His wand was aimed at Lily, and ropes bound her tight. But there was worse to come. With a jab of the wand, the ropes seemed to tighten around Lily's body, and she found herself struggling to breath. Severus looked on hopelessly. He was in too much pain to do much of anything.
"Join us and abandon this…Union of yours, Reg, or this Mudblood you shouldn't give a toss about will be crushed!" shouted Malfoy.
"Will she really, Mr Malfoy?" came a voice of shrillness and contempt.
Malfoy and his comrades spun round to see Professor McGonagall on the upper staircase, marching down, using her wand to free Lily, relieve Severus of his pain slightly and to unfreeze Melody.
"You will do no more, Mr Malfoy." said McGonagall fiercely. "You and your friends will come with me to the Headmaster. Mr Black and Miss Royale, could you please escort Mr Prince, Miss Evans and your brother, the elder Mr Black to the Hospital Wing? I will come back for you once the Headmaster and I deal with these four."
She gestured dangerously to the four disgraced Slytherins.
"Royale?" piped up Mulciber. "I think you mean Miss Rowle, Professor."
Melody winced, and Regulus paled.
"No, Mr Mulciber, her name is Miss Melody Royale. Now, stop procrastinating your punishment and come with me at once."
McGonagall hurried along the students, but all four pairs of eyes were looking murderously at Melody.
Regulus hugged Melody.
"It's gonna be okay." he whispered.
She nodded in nervous response. She wasn't so sure, and internally, neither did Regulus.
Regulus took Sirius to the Hospital Wing, and although Sirius would have insisted he could walk on his own as there was nothing wrong with his legs, he decided to keep quiet because his brother was clearly distressed and just wanted to be as close to his brother as possible.
Severus helped Lily up and Melody helped him take her to the Hospital Wing, but she was shaking in fear of what her real surname's exposure will lead to.
Madam Pomfrey tended to the students. She gave Melody and Regulus some Soothing Solutions to calm their nerves, she examined Severus and found that the Hex that Rosier had used on him had caused minor internal bleeding, heavy bruising and a cracked rib. She resolved to fix them all. She stopped the bleeding with a potion, healed the rib and reduced the bruising.
"You're going to feel sore for a couple of days, Mr Prince." she said. "Feel lucky it wasn't anything worse."
She moved on to Lily. She rubbed some salve onto the sore and bruised areas where the ropes tightened against her most. She was also burned in a couple of places. Sirius' arm was mended in a heartbeat.
"Right, I think you are all free to return to your dormitories." she said primly. "Off you go!"
McGonagall joined them outside the Wing.
"Professor Dumbledore has gathered all that has occurred from those Slytherin students' point of view. Mr Malfoy says you can back up their side, Mr Black." she said ominously to Regulus.
"What does he say?" asked Sirius with a snarl.
"He believes that he and his friends tried to ask you nicely to let Regulus spend more time with them, but that you were refusing to allow it, and was forcing Regulus to stay by your side at all times. And then, Mr Prince and Miss Evans acted without cause and attacked, prompting the battle."
Sirius and Severus were furious.
"He's lying, Professor." said Regulus, without hesitation.
"What is the story?" she asked.
"They confronted us when Mels and I met Siri after class." said Regulus. "Siri was gonna ask us to the next meeting of our House Union club, but then they turned up and threatened to have me join with them and abandon Siri. I didn't want to lose my brother."
"Then I tried to defend him, and they as good as revealed in our arguing that they were Death Eater wannabes!" added Sirius.
"Then when Siri was attacked by Lucius, Severus and L-Lily came along and then the battle started, and Lucius vowed to cause more harm this time, but then they tried to hurt Melody, and I defended her, and you came along to stop it from getting worse, Professor." concluded Regulus, wanting to get it over with.
McGonagall's lips pursued fiercely.
"The accusation you are making about them wanting to join the Death Eaters is a serious one, Mr Black." she said to Sirius. "Unless you have concrete evidence-"
"We all heard Malfoy say as much." said Lily.
"We need more than that." said McGonagall. "Mr Malfoy could just as easily have been showing off to make himself look powerful."
"You know full well that he isn't." insisted Sirius.
"I am inclined to believe you, Mr Black, but I am not at liberty or within the power to do anything against Mr Malfoy and his friends until we have concrete evidence that he is in contact with You Know Who of his own volition."
The group stood silent, rageful and worried.
"However, thank you, Mr Black for confirming the lies told by Mr Malfoy and his cronies." concluded McGonagall. "Professor Dumbledore guessed as much but we have to be fair."
Severus tried not to scoff. Discipline was hardly ever fair to him in his first life at Hogwarts, but since Dumbledore found out about his past, he had begun cooperating with him and the Union's goals and acted with less prejudice and never jumped to conclusions, Legilimens or not Legilimens.
McGonagall strode off and the five friends left. Melody was beyond terrified.
"They now know I'm not from a wizarding family." she cried.
"We'll keep you safe, Melody." promised Lily.
She put her arm around her shoulder and Melody felt some of her stress die down.
Regulus was not so sure. What could they, a few first and second years do if the higher years of Slytherin wanted to punish Melody?
Regulus had every right to be worried, as was confirmed that same evening.
Melody was back in the Slytherin common room alongside Regulus and they kept close together in case of any retribution.
"I'm afraid, Reg." she said softly.
"So am I." said Regulus. "But we can be afraid together."
After another couple of hours, the two friends had to bid each other goodnight. As Regulus entered his dormitory, he felt a sense of unease. He cautiously entered the seemingly deserted bedroom and then-
"OUCH!"
He felt someone elbow him in the back and he hit the floor in agony, slightly winded.
Lucius Malfoy and Evan Rosier were standing over him. Rosier looked gleeful and malicious, but Malfoy looked mutinous and disappointed.
"You really upset Cissy today, Regulus and that upsets me, and when I get upset, I get…this thirst for revenge." he said coldly.
"I did what I had to for my best friend." snapped Regulus. "What would you be willing to do for your best friend?"
"If they were worthy of being my best friend, I would deal with their betrayals mercifully, but I would nevertheless desert them as they had no further reliable use to me. Slytherins don't need friendship, Regulus. They need power, and we are the only House who know that power is essential in life. It is the essence of life and we depend upon it to survive in this Muggle-infested world. Once we achieve the most absolute power from the Dark Lord, we will rid the world of that scum and rebuild it in the old ways, the true way! The ways of wizardry. Free of Muggles, free of Mudbloods…like your lying little friend. She is being punished now as we speak, and when I say punished, oh, I mean…tortured!"
Regulus leapt to his feet, but Rosier promptly punched him in the face, and the youngest of the Black brothers was knocked out cold.
Malfoy showed no qualms with that. As far as he was concerned, Regulus was a blood traitor, and if he came begging for forgiveness later after realizing that Melody had nothing to offer him, he would be begging for some time and under a considerable amount of pain before he was finally pardoned and allowed into the Dark Lord's ranks.
Meanwhile, Melody had changed and gotten into bed, but no sooner had she tried to close her eyes had she been seized by the hair and dragged out of bed by Narcissa Black.
"Hello, Mudblood." muttered Narcissa coldly.
She dragged Melody across the floor and kicked her in the gut.
Melody wheezed in pain and then she received another kick to the face before hearing the incantation.
"Gutterangus!"
Melody felt the same pain to the gut that Severus had felt and she felt something crack inside her. The hex had cracked, if not broken one of her lower ribs.
"This is how we handle scum like you!" sneered Narcissa. "This is for corrupting my cousin! Cruc-!"
"CISSY!"
Narcissa froze as her elder sister, Andromeda came in looking horrified.
"HOW DARE YOU?!" she cried. "You were going to use an Unforgivable Curse on a first year?!"
"A Mudblood whore!" replied Narcissa fiercely.
Andromeda slapped her so hard, that Narcissa fell to the floor. Taking advantage of this, Andromeda took the panting and coughing Melody by the hand and eased her up.
"Let's get you to the Hospital Wing." she said.
"If you tell them what I nearly did, you will be cut out of the tree." warned Narcissa coldly.
Andromeda hesitated, looking hurt.
"Unlike some members of this family, I have no intention on betraying my family by telling on them." she said just as coldly.
"You are betraying the Black family by helping that Mudblood cattle!"
"SHUT UP OR TELLING DUMBLEDORE WILL BE THE FIRST THING I DO NEXT!"
Narcissa, fearful that her sister truly would have her expelled, shut her mouth swiftly.
Andromeda took the sobbing Melody out of the dormitory, unaware that Regulus had been hurt too.
The following morning, Narcissa was punished for hurting Melody, but Andromeda kept quiet about her attempted Unforgivable Curse. Melody did so too, but only after seeing how upset and conflicted Andromeda, her saviour, was. She understood the feeling seeing as how her best friend had felt the same way.
Narcissa was given detention under McGonagall for a week, though Slughorn was under compulsion to allow her to take charge of the punishment.
Regulus was found with a black eye and a minor concussion after breakfast by Slughorn and he explained what had happened after being calmed down and assured that Melody was safe and well.
After taking potions for shock and the pain in her gut, as well as the healing of her ribs, Melody was let out of the Hospital Wing and joined Regulus in Potions class. Neither of them were punished for being late by Slughorn.
At lunch, Regulus and Melody told the Union what had happened as they sat at the Hufflepuff table. Everybody was furious, particularly Sirius.
"We're up against a lot, it seems." he said. "But at least you proved yourself to be a good boy, Reggie." He patted his brother on the back approvingly.
Regulus tried to smile, but still didn't have the heart. Narcissa was looking at him with raw hatred, something he had hoped would not happen, but at least he still had Andromeda. After the Union learned what Andromeda did to help Melody, they decided to invite her to join their club.
"Another Slytherin, particularly one in authority, will make the world of difference, hopefully." said Glenn Tozer.
"Here's hoping." added Ned.
Then it happened.
A single owl flew into the Hall and dropped a blood red letter at Sirius' place at the table.
"Oh, great." he muttered sarcastically.
"What's wrong?" asked Lily. "Just a letter."
"It's a Howler." said Regulus timidly.
"Yeah, I'd cover your ears if I were you." said Frank Longbottom.
Lily and Severus did so and saw that smoke seemed to be coming out of the envelope.
"Oh, well, best get this over with, mate." said James.
Sirius inhaled deeply and opened the envelope. One second later-
"YOU TRAITOROUS, CORRUPTING LITTLE SCUMBAG!" shrieked the voice of Walburga Black. "YOU NOT ONLY GET YOURSELF SORTED INTO THE HOUSE OF LIONS, BUT YOU HAVE THE AUDACITY TO TRY AND TURN YOUR OWN BROTHER AGAINST THE HOUSE OF BLACK AND THE PURE WAYS! WE'VE HEARD ALL ABOUT WHAT HAPPENED YESTERDAY! HOW DARE YOU ASSAULT YOUR COUSIN AND HER FRIENDS! IF YOU DO ANYTHING ELSE AT HOGWARTS TO UPSET US, YOU WILL BE DISOWNED WITH IMMEDIATE EFFECT!" Then her voice toned down. "And Regulus, your father and I know you are a good boy really, please do not let your brother drag you down to his level. He will ruin you if you let him. He is nothing but a blood traitor. Do not follow his example. That is a warning!"
The Howler burned to ashes.
The whole Hall was silent. Malfoy had a smirk of triumph on his face, as did most of the Slytherins. Narcissa was grinning and Andromeda looked appalled.
Sirius and Regulus looked at each other. It was plain for the whole Union to see that it wasn't just cold-hearted Slytherins that were opposing them, it was the pressure of blood supremacist parents too, and Regulus found himself under the pressure immensely.
And that's Chapter 32! I'm so sorry that it has taken so long. I've had no end of distractions, finishing university for the year, going back to summer work, family issues etc. But hopefully things will get back to schedule now! Enjoy the chapter, please review and I hope you will continue to read! Thank you!