Chapter Text
The Great Hall is always too loud at dinner time. Everyone seems to want to scream their thoughts at each other instead of just speaking them like they do at the other two meals of the day. Maybe Remus is biased in that he tends to hate too much noise at one time anyway, but especially after a double NEWT level potions class.
“No, I’m sure Prongs is fine,” Sirius explains to Peter “he probably just got caught up with something.”
“I guess, but I asked him for help on my Charms homework and he said he’d come to dinner early to work on it with me.” The boy frowns at his parchment and scribbles something down.
“Well,” Sirius looks at the assignment in front of Peter with confusion, “how exactly is writing charms stuff down going to help you, don’t you need to use your wand to practice?”
Peter scoffs, “the last time I tried that I set Moony’s hair on fire, remember?”
Remus groans from where he has his head down on the table in an effort to block out the noise.
“Oh yeah!” Sirius laughs heartily, “thanks to you he was forced to cut off that awful mullet situation in fourth year.”
“Mhm, and I’m not looking to repeat the situation with the possibility of setting my own hair on fire.”
“Wormy c’mon, I’m sure you wouldn’t-”
“Hi there!”
Remus lifts his head abruptly when Sirius is interrupted by a high pitched voice. A girl stands there, face flushed pink and hands wringing anxiously. She has bright blonde hair and dark brown eyes that are trained completely on Sirius. Remus thinks he remembers her from a divination class they had shared in third year (a class Remus had dropped for ancient runes as soon as he could.)
“Oh, uh, hello.” Sirius replies with confusion, but his face stays friendly nonetheless.
“I just wanted to ask you if you, um, wanted to go to hogsmeade with me this weekend? I thought it might be fun!”
Remus goes cold.
Sirius seems rather taken aback, staring at the girl with wide eyes. “Oh… you’re Emily, right? We have divination together?”
Why isn’t he saying no? Remus tries to shake his head to clear it.
“Yes! You sit two rows in front of me!” The girl smiles with shiny teeth.
He doesn’t know her, clearly. So why isn’t he saying no?
“Oh, well…” Sirius trails off and scratches his head. “I’m not sure if-”
Say no!
“It will be good! I can buy you a butterbeer, yeah? Maybe we can…talk in one of the booths, hm?” The girl slides closer to the eldest Black brother slyly.
She’s getting too close. Get her away. Now.
Remus ignores his inner monologue that sounds a little too wolf-ish for his liking.
“See the thing is I usually go with my mates and such so I’m not-”
Yes! Stay with m-us. Stay with us.
“But just think about how romantic it would be. You and me, all alone in the cold night air with nothing but each other to keep us warm, hm?” the girl drags her words and then places a hand on Sirius's upper arm.
Remus is out of his seat in seconds grabbing the girl's arm and throwing it off harshly. “He said he’s not interested. Piss off.”
“Hey!”
“Moony!” Peter gasps.
“The hell is going on?” Remus hears James’ voice, meaning he had joined them for dinner finally, but he stays locked in a staring contest with the girl.
“Someone was just leaving.” Remus narrows his eyes.
“Hey, you have to wait your turn-”
“Leave. Now.” Remus practically growls.
The girl stares at Sirius briefly before she shoves past Remus harshly and turns to walk back to the hufflepuff table. “Fine, I don’t want to be a part of whatever that was anyway.”
Remus watches until she sits back down, then he seems to snap back into reality and he looks down at Sirius who is-
Completely frozen.
Sirius stares up at him with pretty gray eyes, his face-for once-not showing any emotion whatsoever. It’s a rather unnerving sight. And then he is suddenly standing up, still looking right into Remus' eyes as he walks closer to the other. He keeps going until he is directly in front of him and then clears his throat.
“ Je me sens drôle quand tu me protèges comme ça. ” (I feel funny when you protect me like that.) Remus watches as Sirius suddenly goes pink from his neck to the tips of his ears.
“What was that? you know I can’t speak French, Pads.” Remus chuckles awkwardly, unsure of what to do with the conversation and slightly uncomfortable with the intense stare Sirius is giving him.
“ Et je prie toutes les puissances supérieures pour que tu n'apprends jamais .” (And I pray to every high power that you never learn.)
“So…anyone want to tell me what the bloody hell I just walked into?” James throws a look towards the two standing as he easily slides onto the bench of the table.
Sirius inhales sharply and turns his attention to his best friend. “Oh nothing, just some girl from Divination that tried to ask me to Hogsmeade this weekend.”
“...and Moony grabbed her because?” James raises an eyebrow as he grabs a roll from the pile in front of him.
“She grabbed him first.” Remus can feel the annoyance radiating off of himself as he answers him. “Was being really bitchy about it too.”
James stares at him for a long moment, looking almost as if he’s calculating something in his head. Remus has a feeling he doesn’t want him to find whatever he’s looking for.
“You know I always go with you lot, Prongs. Going with a girl would just…ruin it.” Sirius almost seems confused with his own words, like they weren’t processed before coming out. He shakes his head. “Where were you, anyway?”
“Oh I was just-erm…” Remus feels himself be filled with surprise as James hesitates. It is very rare that the bespectacled boy doesn’t automatically spill his guts to his best friend. “Got carried away making…quidditch tactics is all.”
Sirius looks like he doesn’t fully believe him, but he takes the bait anyway, “You and your tactics will kill you one day, Prongs.”
“Yeah,” James huffs out a small laugh, “maybe.”
“Prongs,” Peter whines “helping me, remember?”
James' eyes widen as he turns his attention to the other boy quickly, “Right! Sorry Wormy, I completely forgot. My bad, mate.”
“Mm, ‘s okay.” Peter mumbles.
As James begins to walk through spells with Peter, Remus turns his gaze back towards Sirius again. “Pads, you alright after all that? Sorry if I stopped you from getting a date. I just-”
“Moony,” Sirius soothes him with a warm smile, “It’s alright, she was not my type anyway, too soft.”
Remus' malfunctions. “Too…too soft?”
Sirius goes still, brain seemingly catching up with his words, “Well I mean, she just was, uh, not mentally soft obviously, but she was too physically soft? Or…wait…no wait! She was, erm, I like them…firmer? No, not firmer in that way! I just-you know what? I think I’m just going to turn in early. Yep, g’night Moony!”
Remus watches with utter confusion as Sirius high tails it out of the great hall.
He does know it’s only seven p.m., right?
—------------
Regulus paces the slytherin common room in a tizzy after having sprinted back when he had awoken from his fainting with James staring at him, eyes trained on the floor. “And he just did it! Without asking!”
“Wait,” Dorcas looks at him in confusion “so, let me get this straight-”
“Would be about the only thing straight about you.” Barty smirks mischievously from the floor.
“Ha ha. Very funny, Crouch.” Dorcas kicks the other lightly, earning a whine. “as I was saying, I don’t understand Reg. You’re…upset that James helped you when you passed out?”
“Obviously!” Regulus clears his throat when his voice cracks. “Obviously. I don’t want my mortal enemy to know any of my weaknesses.”
“Regulus Arcturus Black!” Pandora cuts him a harsh look, “we have been over many times that your fainting issues are an illness! Not a weakness.”
Regulus looks at the blonde girl for a moment before sighing and nodding his head. “Right. Sorry. I just don’t want James of all people to know that about me. It’s…”
“Mortifying for your longtime crush to know that you aren’t always the ‘bad boy brooding’ type you pretend to be?” Barty finishes easily, much to Regulus’ horror.
“I will cook you, Crouch.”
“Oh please,” Barty sits up with a grunt. “You love me too much to do that.”
Regulus just grumbles as he sits down on the dark green couch, folding in on himself in an attempt to retain some form of dignity.
“And besides that,” Dorcas says, “Calling him your ‘mortal enemy’ when all you want to do is shag the poor bloke isn’t really fair, hm?”
“In Regulus’ defense,” Barty cocks his head to the side. “It’s not like he’ll be the one doing the shagging, per say-”
“Shut up. Now.” Regulus' glares at Barty threateningly, feeling his face heat in an instant.
“Oh, no.” Dorcas' face scrunches up in disgust, “I really didn’t need to know that. Actually, I think I need to obliviate myself, and maybe call a priest, just to get that image out of my brain.”
Pandora hums, “I mean, I can’t say I’m surprised. It’s not as if Reg is the type to-”
“Okay, alright. You all made your point, we get it. Now shut up.” Regulus stands back up and walks away in a huff.
“Oh c’mon Reg,” Barty bellows, “I’d bet you’d look absolutely adorable-”
“Who’s looking adorable?” The conversation is interrupted when Evan walks into the, admittedly very public, Slytherin common room.
“Oh Ev, perfect timing,” Barty looks at Evan with glimmering eyes, “we ‘re talking about Regulus’ sexual preferences!”
“No, we are not!” Regulus squeaks.
“Oh,” Evan looks back at Barty and then to Regulus, “you mean how he’s a raging bottom?”
“That’s it, I’m going to jump in the lake. It’s been nice knowing most of you.” Regulus says the last part directly to Barty who blows him a kiss in return.
“Relax, Reg.” Evan sits on the floor next to Barty, who seems entirely too happy at the idea, “Potter is definitely a power top anyway.”
“Oh you think?” Pandora questions, “I was thinking he’d be more sub.”
“Mm, those bulging biceps would say otherwise.” Barty’s comment earns him an odd look from Evan, and Regulus feels confused when Barty goes quiet.
“You lot are the worst friends.” Regulus snarls (whines).
“Oh leopold,” Pandora grabs his wrist gently and despite himself, Regulus relaxes at the odd but familiar nickname. “We’re sorry for teasing you. I promise James doesn’t think any less of you because of your issue.”
“And if he did,” Dorcas continues. “He would be a hypocrite because Sirius has the exact same problem.”
“ peut-être que si je le tue, je n'aurai pas à m'en soucier.” (But if I kill him I won’t have to worry about it.) Regulus murmurs.
“ si tu le tues tu seras expulsé,” (if you kill him you will be expelled.) Evan responds in perfect French. “ et je ne veux pas être ici seul avec Barty .” (And I do not want to be here alone with Barty.)
“Dorrraaa, they’re talking about me again.” Barry drawls on a whine.
“ arrête ça.” (Stop that.) Pandora lightly commands her best friend and twin brother.
“I feel very stupid around you guys when you start talking in French.” Dorcas mumbles as she runs a hand down one of her braids.
“Thank you.” Barty gestures at her. “Not all of us speak that, you twats.”
Evan sticks his tongue out at the other.
“Regardless.” Pandora’s airy voice echoes in the tall common room. “You should actually be grateful James kept you from splitting your head open, Leopold. You could’ve been seriously injured.”
“I…” Regulus trails off without finishing his sentence.
He notices how Barty stares at him for a moment. “Okay okay, let’s let Reg breathe a bit. It’s getting late anyway and I don’t know about you guys but I’m beat. Night.” He gets up with a salute and heads towards their shared room.
“Mm, I should be headed back to the Ravenclaw dormitory now.” Pandora stretches before Evan offers a hand for her to take.
“Don’t worry, sis, I’ll take you back. Be back in ten, Reg.” Evan leads Pandora out of the room, who waves a sleepy goodbye.
Dorcas surprises Regulus with a hug. “I know you’re worried, but it’s alright, James isn’t like those Slytherins, yeah?”
Regulus stays stiff but nods minutely, causing Dorcas to ruffle his hair and make her way to the 6th year girl dormitory. As she disappears from sight he sighs to himself. Not that he would ever admit it, but Regulus adores his friends. Sometimes though, when they are all rapid-fire speaking and all of their attention is on him he gets very overwhelmed. So having the common room empty with nothing but the occasional creepy sound from the lake to disturb him is an absolute must.
Regulus has always been a bit of an insomniac. It started when he used to wait for Sirius to sneak into his room late at night for sleepovers when they were kids. It had been comforting to feel like the only two awake in the entire world for just a bit, and it’s a habit he has kept to this day.
Dorcas is not a fan of it. More often than not she’s the one who finds him passed out with a book on his chest on the sofa, ushering him up to his dorm with quiet scoldings and promises to ‘force his ass to bed earlier even if it takes knocking him out cold to do it.’
He can only hope she won’t actually stick to it tomorrow morning because he doesn’t feel like dealing with a bruised nose for the rest of the week.
He shoves himself into the small corner of the sofa, pulling out his book on astronomy that has seen better days. It had been a gift from Narcissa on his fourteenth birthday, a truly rare occurrence in which someone in his family had paid attention to his interests. He keeps it in his school bag at all times.
“You know your fainting spells get worse when you stay up like this.”
Regulus looks up from his book to see Evan returning after dropping off his sister. “Is sneaking up on people a pastime, or a hobby of yours?”
“Remains to be seen, I suppose.” Evan falls on the seat next to him and Regulus can physically feel his eyes on him.
“If you’re going to stare at me could you at least do it from the other side? You’re blocking the light.” Regulus doesn’t look up from his page as he squints at the small black letters.
“…are you really that upset about James?”
And that was most certainly not what Regulus was expecting. He looks up suddenly and closes the book with a dull thud, setting it down on the table in front of him slowly.
“I can’t say I’m happy with it. Potter is always looking for ways to be better than me. Now he has a good reason.”
“I highly doubt that he wants to be better than you.” Evan looks at Regulus meaningfully.
“Why else would Sirius choose him over me?” Regulus’ voice cracks slightly.
Evan looks at him with furrowed brows, pity etched all over his features. Regulus looks away as soon as he recognizes it. A beat of silence passes.
“Well, I’m not letting you get told off by Dorcas by yourself. Shove over.” Evan nudges at the other gently.
“Won’t Barty be mad if you’re not there to tuck him in again?” Regulus asks as he shifts his feet to the side.
Evan chuckles and sighs as he sinks into the forest green cushions. “Probably. But you know me, I can handle Barty.”
“That you can.” Regulus' tone is softer as he stares at his friend meaningfully, hoping to convey some sort of message through his gaze. Evan stares back, but then shakes his head almost imperceptibly, silent asking for Regulus to drop it.
Regulus sighs. Sometimes people just don’t know love until it hits them in the face.