Chapter Text
Regulus was possibly, maybe, going to kill James Potter.
He’d known . Of course he’d known that the devotion his brother showed the Potter heir had morphed from some mock fraternal affection into romantic love some time ago. Regulus could see it on Sirius, even if no one else could.
But he’d never been sure of Potter - with his constant odious professions of love for Evans. Was this a lark to him? Some pastime he assumed they’d both grow out of? It seemed delusional, but Potter was a Griffyndor, there was no telling…
So yes, Regulus had known about them, and about what James meant to Sirius, but it wasn’t until James Potter took his brother’s hand in the Great Hall that it had occurred to him that Sirius might mean the world to James too.
It would have been sweet, probably, if it wasn’t instantly and predictably ruinous for both of them.
And if Potter and his brother hadn’t fucked off and left it to him to do damage control.
The buzz of gossip that started the second they’d clasped hands reached a crescendo as the two boys fled the hall, followed closely behind by Lupin. Whispers of ‘disgusting, never would’ve thought the way Black carries on with girls’ and ‘Potter too, I had no idea…” flooded the Great Hall.
Regulus felt the eyes of more than a few of his classmates on him. Boys and girls from all houses but especially from Slytherin. The purebloods who knew in their bones how big a deal this was. Some of whom had just been ready to welcome Sirius back with open arms after the duels a few nights before, now wore looks of open disgust.
“Pathetic,” Regulus heard himself say. Instantly, the whole of Slytherin House’s attention was on him. “Pathetic how far my brother lets Potter drag him into his muggle-loving antics.”
“Is that what you think that was, Black?” Evan Rosier asked, skeptically.
“I think his family is such a confused bunch of blood traitors that he’d rather pretend to be bent than admit that he spent the last three years chasing some mudblood chit just to drop her as soon as she put out.”
There was an inhale of gasps that Regulus could almost feel. He was rarely ever crass - especially not compared to the likes of Barty and McNair, even Rabastan at times. Still… needs must.
Regulus could already tell from the gleam in some of his classmate’s eyes that his version would catch on. Open declarations of affection were too simple for Slytherins. They’d been looking for the why behind the display and Regulus was all too happy to serve it up to them on a platter. Beside Rosier, Regulus saw Rabastan smile.
“Sirius is probably all too happy to play along. Anything to keep your mother from marrying him off,” the younger LeStrange drawled, as if he too, could see through the Gryffindors’ stunt.
Regulus rolled his eyes in mock exasperation with his family. “With Sirius agreeing to come to the Malfoy’s Yule Celebration I’m afraid my mother’s gotten rather… optimistic on that front.”
Rabastan’s eyes flashed with pleasure at Sirius’ attendance being confirmed publicly. There’d be no backing out now.
“So you really think this was all Potter’s way of trying to let Evans down easily?” The Carrow sister asked, her shrill voice carrying down the length of the table. At the far end, Regulus saw Severus Snape, who’d just arrived, still.
“Mmm well everyone saw how clingy she was the night of the explosion.” He said it as if it were fact - as if everyone must have been watching his brother and his friends as closely as Regulus had been. But his word carried that kind of weight. There were some nods. Anyone who hadn’t seen it would swear they did now. “They both disappeared for a while that night if I’m not mistaken. Probably taking advantage of the chaos to… well .”
Regulus smirked nastily as he spoke, watching Snape flush darker with fury as the rest of his house began to murmur about their own now highly exaggerated memories of Evans and Potter that night.
“I think Potter’s bitten off a little more than he can chew. He probably thought it was so obvious that she’d never amount to anything more than a dalliance that it didn’t need to be said out loud… but… You know how ambitious she is for a Griffyndor - probably thinks if she’s made Head Girl next year his blood traitor family will overlook the inferiority of her birth. But they never do, do they? None of them, not the Potters, not the Longbottoms, not even the Weasley’s…”
He looked right at Snape as he said the last bit, hoping to get the rise out of the older student he knew was boiling just beneath the surface. “At the end of the day even their sons know mudblood women are only good for one thing.”
Snape jumped to his feet and stormed off as hearty guffaws erupted from the table, drawing nasty looks from the Gryffindors table. Good. His abrupt exit would only add fuel to the rumor Regulus had started.
Regulus forced himself to stay in his seat, eating and drinking his tea at his leisure so it wouldn’t seem like he was rushing out after the scandal his brother had caused. He watched as the poison he’d spit migrated from the Slytherin table over to Ravenclaw - watched as Rowena’s brood confirmed having seen Evans walking around upset, late into the night after Potter disappeared. By the time his Earl Grey was empty the Puffs were willing to swear up and down that they’d seen her crying to McKinnon and MacDonald in the early hours of the morning. Buyer’s remorse for having given it up so easily, perhaps?
Yes, this will work , Regulus thought to himself as he strode out, unrushed towards the giant staircase. By dinner this would be all over the school and James and Sirius’ display from this morning would be written off as just another Marauder’s prank. And if it made him sick to his stomach to think about what that meant for Lily Evans… then that was just something he’d have to deal with.
The only thing left to do was to find his brother and his idiot and Potter and stop them from undoing all his hard work. He knew, just knew , James Potter was going to be a cunt about it.
Well, he could just fuck off with that.
James Potter could have just told Evans to shut it. He could have simply ignored her. She was in no position to insist on answers from the heirs to the House of Potter and Black.
But instead James fucking Potter had outed himself. And worse he’d outed Sirius. In full view of everyone in the Great Hall. He’d left Regulus with very few ways to spin this that wouldn’t have all the pureblood students in the hall running up to the Owlery and penning their parents letters about the scandalous deviant union between the Potter and Black Heirs.
Did he just think people would let it go? That this wouldn’t change how wizarding society felt about Sirius having moved in with the Potters? Who would take Euphemia’s side over Walburga Black now that they knew the kind of unnatural things she was letting children in her care get up to?
Regulus could only hope that he stopped the worst of that. As it was this was likely to get back to his parents in some form, and once it did there was no telling what they’d do. Their indulgence of Sirius had always felt temporary to Regulus - something they were willing to wait out in order to avoid the scandal of having him run his mouth about how far the House of Black had been willing to go to keep its heir in line. But with this scandal… Regulus no longer knew whether the threat of Sirius talking would be enough to keep them at bay.
Which is why Regulus was striding his way up to Griffyndor tower while he should have been in History of Magic - skipping his first ever class for this bollocks - to get the entire group of noble idiots on board with his form of damage control before his mother’s howlers started coming in.
How had this become his life?
He rounded the corridor, eyes narrowing on the portrait that stood guard over the Gryffindor Common Room. What would happen if he used the password they’d told him last night and simply let himself in? Would the other Lions stop him in the Common Room or let him through? He had no interest in sparring with the entire house, least of all now when it was very likely that it had gotten back to at least some of them that he’d been talking about Evans in a less than flattering light.
No, he certainly didn’t fancy a meeting with Marlene McKinnon right now…
His quandary was cut short when the portrait hole swung open and Professor McGonagall walked out, Sirius following directly behind looking white as a sheet.
He wasn’t… Dumbledore wasn’t having his brother punished for this was he? Famed shirt lifter that he was? Where did he get off?
Remus Lupin scrambled out barely thirty seconds after they’d disappeared around the corner. His amber eyes were surprisingly watery as he hurried down the hall, and he was clearly distracted - enough that when Regulus stepped out from his hiding place he actually seemed to startle the taller boy.
“Lupin what the bloody hell is going on?”
Lupin’s eyes snapped to him, and his shoulders seemed to sag with relief.
“Oh thank the gods. I thought I’d have to pull you out of History of Magic.”
“Is she punishing Sirius?”
“No. Well, yes, not her–I mean Dumbledore is, kind of, as much as he can with the rooms, bloody nonsense–but no that’s not what that is. That’s, Slughorn must’ve. Unless you did? But you wouldn’t–”
“Lupin!” Regulus interrupted, because really he couldn’t make heads or tails of whatever that was. “What happened? Clear concise sentences.”
“They broke up our dorm. Separated me, Sirius and Draco from James and Harry.”
Regulus nodded. Stupid of Dumbledore to play such obvious favorites. He could work with that.
“And where was McGonagall taking Sirius and why?”
The Welsh boy’s shoulders sagged again. “To the Headmaster’s Office. Your parents are here. We–”
But Regulus didn’t hear the second part. He was already running.
Sirius stared into the cold, gun-metal eyes of his mother for the first time in almost six months and wondered how he’d let this happen.
He’d been free of them. Free. And then he’d let himself get caught up in dreams and James. So caught up that he forgot how low he could fall.
“We were worried, of course, what would happen when you allowed our son to be missorted,” Walburga began, her voice dripping with haughty disdain. “We contacted you that very night, voicing those concerns. Expressing how we felt the… values …” she spoke the word as if it was perverse, “of Gryffindor and the staff member you allowed to lead it,” beside him Professor McGonagall stiffened imperceptibly but said nothing, “would clash terrible with Sirius’ already stunted sense of morality.”
It was impressive, really, how many people his mother could insult inside of a minute. And she hadn’t even gotten started yet.
“When my son began to accrue detention after detention in the company of James Potter, I renewed my request to have him resorted. Clearly, the lack of discipline, the loose morality of Gryffindor House was ill-suited to my son’s instructional needs. But again, my requests fell on deaf ears.”
Sirius hadn’t known they’d kept up petitioning for his resort. Maybe if he’d played fewer pranks, or if he’d fought less with Snape. Maybe…
“Then over the summer, when my son…” she paused here, and Sirius found himself wondering, in a quick flash, how the hell she was going to spin him running away, “decided to extend his vacation at Potter Manor, you all but endorsed Euphemia’s interference with my parenting by sending his Hogwarts Letter to their residence.”
“Walburga, I assure you I have nothing to do with where the post–”
“And then this morning, I get word that my son, my heir has become an avowed sodomite while in their care. And yours . I understand that sexual deviance is something of a House Trait –” her cold gaze raked over Dumbledore and McGonagall again, and Sirius had to physically restrain himself from asking what the hell that was all about. Was Minnie gay? How the hell would his mother know that Minnie was gay?
“--but surely you can see how I have no choice but to remove both my sons–”
Sirius’ heart was in his throat. They were going to pull them out of Hogwarts. He had ruined everything for him and Regulus both.
“Now Walburga, really–”
Just as Sirius felt like he was about to start hyperventilating, the door to the office swung open. Regulus stepped in, bowing his head in respect towards his parents while utterly ignoring Dumbledore and McGonagall.
“Maman, Father.”
“We do not require you for this meeting, Regulus Arcturus.” Walburga’s voice was cutting and Sirius saw his younger brother flinch minutely before forging ahead. He wanted to signal to him - to tell him this was dangerous, that Walburga and Orion were already talking about pulling them both, that he should just save himself…
“ Bien sûr. Je voulais seulement m’assurer que vous obteniez la vraie histoire. In case they’re trying to shield the Potters’ reputation.”
Sirius felt the pit fall out of his stomach. Was Reggie here… in support of them? He’d thought… after everything…
“We know all about the Potter heir’s homosexual proclivities,” his mother hissed, clearly furious at Regulus for staying after she hinted that she wanted him gone. Regulus however, just scoffed.
“Not that absurd prank they pulled - tasteless as it was, I can see why they’re letting you think that’s the real story. Let’s Potter save face, doesn’t it? Let’s them all play the misunderstood martyrs? No, I’m talking about the bit with the mudblood.”
“Mr. Black you will not use–”
“--we do not permit that kind of language–”
Dumbledore and McGonagall began as one, and Walburga’s eyebrows arched.
“Were you not told what preceded this? Potter was attempting to dump his muggleborn girlfriend.”
Sirius opened his mouth to tell Regulus off - to tell him that it wasn’t like that; that James and Lily fighting didn’t have a thing to do with her being muggleborn…
“It’s our cousin Cherny’s influence more than anything, I presume. He’s the one who convinced Sirius to attend the Malfoy’s for Yule, and the one who mended fences between Sirius and Rabastan. I’m sure he had something to say about the unsuitability of the Evans girl… which is why he was removed from Potter’s dorm as well.”
So Regulus had jumped to the same conclusion Draco had. It was unnerving, really, how similar the two of them were. He drew in a breath, still feeling like he should be saying something - something to dispel the notion that he and Draco had been corrupting James, something that reasserted to his parents and the world that he sided with Dumbledore and the light.
Except it was becoming increasingly obvious that Dumbledore and the light didn’t side with him.
So for once. He ignored his instincts screaming at him to say something, and let Regulus have the last word.
“Is that so? James Potter defied your plans for contaminating the bloodlines and you separated him from the other purebloods in his year?”
“I assure you the reassignment was based on compatibility not blood status. And was made solely with concerns over ensuring that students refrained from engaging in developmentally inappropriate behaviors within the confines of their dormitories. Regardless of their sexual orientation.”
Even to Sirius, that response sounded bureaucratic and sanitized - more like something you’d expect from the Ministry than from the perennially eccentric Dumbledore.
Regulus was right. Nothing was forcing Dumbledore’s hand. He was separating them because he wanted to.
It was just kind of sick that this and not the prank was what led him to separate Sirius from James for good.
Walburga turned her attention back to Regulus, and began to speak again, snapping Sirius out of his musings .
“Va-t-il vraiment à Yule chez les Malfoy?”
“Oui, Maman. Il a répondu hier.”
Walburga’s sharp eyes fixed on Dumbledore, narrowing in distaste. “It will take more than depriving James Potter of suitable dorm mates to blind him to the truth of our Superiority now that he’s begun to see.”
Gods, she really was a twat, his mother.
“You boy,” her tone was sharp as a knife as she addressed him, and he hated the way he straightened in his seat as she began to address him directly. “Was this, as your brother said, an immature attempt to rid the Potter heir of an undesirable paramour?”
Fuck he hated this.
He hated this. He hated this. He hated this.
But he wasn’t going to get himself shipped off to Durmstrang for the sake of his pride. And it was his pride, more than his values that mattered in this - there was no one to hear and grand proclamations of muggleborn equality even if he was in the mood to make them - his family couldn’t give a fuck, and Dumbledore had already all but cut him loose.
His eyes flitted over his Head of House who was looking at him with an unreadable look on her face.
Gods. There was still Minnie.
But she couldn’t help him now, just like she hadn’t helped them in the dorms.
“You will respond when I ask you a question, Sirius Orion.” His mother’s tone was ice.
He caved.
“Yes. Yeah, Jamie - James didn’t want to date her anymore. She was being crap about me, and… and he took my side over hers. She… she brought blood status into it and James didn’t want people knowing he cared about that so… he took my hand on a lark and I… I played along because I didn’t want it getting around that he cared about that sort of thing.
“Merlin forbid people find out there’s finally a Potter with some sense,” Walburga said nastily, but even Sirius could tell she was pleased. He pointedly did not look at McGonagall or Dumbledore.
“Very well. We will discuss whether Hogwarts is still suitable for you when you are home for break.”
Fuck.
Not waiting for an answer, Walburga rose from her seat, the minor upturn of her lips the only sign that she felt she’d just scored a major victory. Regulus had his eyes locked on Sirius’ willing him silently to let her win this round. Hating himself more than ever, Sirius heard himself reply.
“Yes, Mother.”
Her nostrils flared with triumph at his words. But Walburga could never just take the win. She always needed to do a victory lap.
“And Sirius?”
“Yes?”
“Bring this Cherny relation with you at the end of term. You know how I enjoy reconnecting with family.”