Chapter Text
Regulus took a deep breath, holding his satchel, his pencil case, and his sketchbook. Running his fingers through his hair, he tried to make himself as professional and presentable as possible. "Hello class, my name is.. Nope, not that.. My name is Regulus Black, eh.. Call me.." he spun around, striking a pose in the mirror "Mr. Black! Ew, ew, no, no! No, Regulus! these are teenage girls and boys, and others, and they are cruel and rude as fuck!" he sighed, slouching. "What am I going to do..?"
Regulus sat in the staff room, swirling his coffee with his spoon. "Hey, new guy!" Regulus sighed, looking up. His ears turned bright pink when he saw who was standing in front of him. James Fleamont Potter, his brother's best friend. "Wait a minute, you're baby Black!" "U-uh.. Yeah.. Regulus.. Uh, hi..?" Regulus felt his throat go dry, and for the first time in years, he was speechless, at a loss for words. "Sirius told me you became a teacher! Still drawing those pretty little portraits?" Regulus froze at the unexpected question. James had seen his drawings? "U-uh.. Y-you've seen them..?" "Of course I have. You always kept bumping into me and dropping your little sketchbooks." Regulus blushed at the revelation. It was true, Regulus always used to be clumsy around James, but who wouldn't be? With that tall frame, and that gorgeously tanned skin, and that slight Spanish accent, who wouldn't have weak knees around him?
The bell rang, interrupting their conversation. "O-oh.. Well, I guess I'll see you around, then.. B-bye, Potter.." Regulus turned, tucking a hair behind his ear as he heard James reply. "See ya later, baby Black!" God, Regulus couldn't stand that nickname, always 'Sirius Black's brother' and never 'Regulus Black'. Regulus sighed, his shoulders sagging as he weaved in between the crowd of students, most taller than him, and nearly spilling his coffee twice. "Putaine de merde.." swore Regulus, as he finally made it to his classroom. He looked through the door's window, his heart beating a little bit faster when he saw 27 pairs of eyes staring in his direction. He cleared his throat and opened the door.
"Ahem.. Hello class, my name is Regulus Black, and I'll be your art teacher. Please refer to me as Mr. Black, and if I pronounce your name incorrectly, please correct me." Regulus sat down, letting his satchel fall onto the floor, putting his sketchbook and his pencil on the desk in front of him. "Alright.. Olivia Aardi?" "Here.." spoke a brunette girl in a bored voice, raising her hand slightly. "Thank you.. Janie Azghard?" "It's pronounced 'Jah-knee', not 'Jay-knee'" corrected a black-haired girl at the back of the class. Regulus rolled his eyes internally at the girl's mocking tone. "Thank you." Regulus called out every single name, getting a few wrong here and there, but otherwise, he did well.
Regulus stood up, addressing the class. "Stand up if you've ever learnt about colour theory before." 7 students rose to their feet. "Not a lot of you. Okay, so.. What are our three primary colours? Anyone? You, at the back." "Red, blue, and yellow." "Thank you, Mr. Smith..." Regulus drew a circle on the blackboard, splitting it into thirds, writing 'red', 'yellow', and 'blue' in each third. "Okay, what do we get when we mix-" A boy interrupted him, speaking over him like he was nothing but a child. "Excuse me, mister, sir, why are we learning this? This is, like, primary school stuff." Regulus turned around from the board, taking a step forward to lean on his desk. "Well, Jackson, we're recapping this so immature little brats like you can hold it in your tiny little brain for longer than three seconds. Now, if you will let me, I have a lesson to resume."
Regulus cleared his throat, standing back up. "Now, where was I? Ah, yes! What do we get when we mix these primary colours? Secondary colours. Orange, green, and purple.." Regulus split the circle in sixths. "Now, can someone tell me what we get when we mix a secondary colour and a primary colour? Nobody? Not even one person? We get tertiary colours. Vermillion, amber, chartreuse, teal, violet, and magenta. More commonly known as red-orange, orange-yellow, yellow-green, green-blue, blue-purple, and purple-red. Draw this in your notebooks, which you should all, hopefully, have. And stop whispering, I don't care about who likes who, I care about whether you write these down or not." The girls at the back were whispering about how Regulus absolutely humbled Jackson, and Jackson was still red in the face, burning hot.
Regulus distributed coloured pencils. "Colour them in, and then we'll talk about whether the dress is gold and white or blue and black." Regulus sat in his chair, drinking his already cold coffee. He thought about the conversation he had with James in the staff room. What class does Potter teach? he wondered, biting his lip. He was only pulled back into reality when students came to his desk and put their colouring pencils back into the container. He cleared his throat, pushing the thoughts of Potter back into the small corners of his mind.
"Alright, sit down, sit down." Regulus pulled up a picture of a dress on his computer, connecting it to the projector. "Stand up if you think this dress is blue and black." The majority of the class stood up. "Now stand up if you think that the dress is gold and white." The rest of the class stood, while the others sat back down. "I, personally, think it's black and blue. But why do people think it's one and not the other? Well, it's because of the lighting. Look at it, one second it's black and blue, the next, it's white and gold. It's because this picture was taken in harsh lighting, so you can't tell if it's black and blue being lightened because of the light in the background, or white and gold."
Regulus droned on and on about the dress, until finally, after what felt like a decade, the bell rang. Students sighed in relief, packing their things and filing out of the door in a chaotic manner. "Finally, some peace and quiet.." Regulus packed his things, heading out of the class and heading to the staff room. He made his way through the hallways, dodging boys who were running all over the place. "Boys.." he sighed, as he opened the door to the staff room.