The Story of Regulus Black - Years 1-4

LXXXVI. Missing the Match

Chapter Notes: I dropped out of French after one year, so I'm using google translate for most of the French dialogue. If any of it is wrong, I apologize.

Regulus woke up the next morning with excitement and regret coursing through his veins.

Excitement, because today was the official start of the Quidditch World Cup. Regret, because he was suddenly made aware of how completely wrong what he had done the night before was.

He shouldn't have kissed Christian, and he knew that. It had been a severe lapse of judgment - one that he desperately wanted to take back.

It was not that Christian was a boy -  that was not the reason that Regulus held so much regret. For, the fact that Christian was a boy didn't really matter to Regulus. He was very good at keeping secrets from others, and he supposed that this one must have fallen through the cracks of what he should conceal from others versus what he should conceal from himself. If he felt a romantic connection with one boy, it wasn't the end of the world. After all, the connection would probably fizzle out after a day or two.

No, it was more that Christian, as far as Regulus could tell, had no intention of working for the Dark Lord. Regulus could not like someone who didn't want to work for the Dark Lord - he just couldn't. But, then again, he didn't feel this strongly about denying his feelings for Gwen, and she didn't want to work for the Dark Lord...

Ok, so maybe Christian being a boy did play into it a bit.

But it was more that Regulus was afraid of what others would think. Deacon wouldn't care, Regulus was sure of that. He didn't think that Francesco or Benjamin would, either. They both knew that Deacon liked boys (and liked Francesco, no less) and they were fine with it. Barty... well, he didn't really know how Barty would react. Would Barty stop speaking with Regulus if he knew? The same question applied to Gillian and Carson. And Narcissa and Andromeda. And Sirius.

And his parents.

Merlin, his parents would be so angry. They would probably kill Regulus as soon as look at him. Or, at least, use the Cruciatus on him until they were certain that Regulus didn't like boys any longer.

But no, Regulus couldn't like boys. He liked Gwen! He couldn't like both boys and girls... right? That wasn't a thing!

No, he didn't like boys. What had happened with Christian had just been... experimentation. It didn't mean anything. Regulus did not like boys.

He nearly spit out his coffee when he saw Christian emerge from his tent - hair messy, oxford half-buttoned, eyes full of exhaustion and joy.

Ok, so maybe it was just a bit more than experimentation.

To counteract the near spitting-out of his coffee, Regulus took a sharp inhale. The coffee shot down Regulus's throat, and he began coughing violently. Everyone around him - Lucius, Narcissa, Lisette, Matthieu, Perrine, and even Christian - turned to look at him.

"Regulus? Are you alright?" Narcissa asked, the concern clear in her voice. She placed a hand on Regulus's back and reached for her wand, just in case.

Regulus coughed into his elbow, and he nodded his head. By the time he had recovered from his sudden fit of hysterical coughing, Christian had migrated to stand behind his mother across from Regulus, a smirk playing on his mouth.

"Are you alright?" Narcissa asked again, dropping her hand from his back and retracting her other hand from where it had been reaching for her wand.

He nodded his head, carefully avoiding Christian's eyes. "Fine. Excellent, yeah. Why wouldn't I be fine? I'm totally great." He said hastily.

Christian let out a breathy laugh, and he dropped into the seat beside his mother. Regulus tried his best to tune out the rapid-fire French that was being spoken between the two of them. Regulus took another sip of his coffee, and he glanced 'round at all of the campsites surrounding them. There were people filtering out of their tents, eating breakfast and chatting away happily.