Diptych

Chapter 4

Even in the library, Regulus didn't immediately find peace. Willa Broadmoor was in there with a Hufflepuff girl Regulus didn't know very well, and when she spotted him discreetly on his way to the back of the stacks, she beckoned him over to study with them. It wasn't that he would usually mind that, and his astronomy essay definitely benefited from her presence, but he was getting more impatient with the minute, eager to tell Tom all of the things that had been on his mind, and so when they finally tucked away their quills and bade Regulus goodbye, he thought that he'd be eternally grateful. He moved once they'd gone, was sure that nobody would be able to see what he was doing before he pulled out the diary from where it had lain neglected in his satchel, opening to that ever-crisp first page.

I had a bit of a run-in with a tiresome creature just now, Snape's his name, and the thing I detest most about him is that he seems to think that he's better than everybody else, even though the fact of the matter is that barely anybody can stand to be near him, much less respect him, I don't agree with my brother on many counts these days, but his dislike for Snape happens to be one of them.

Through their frequent conversations, Regulus had learned a few things. Firstly, the ink began to disappear if he paused for too long, or used a full stop. Therefore, if he had a great deal to say to Tom, he'd write quickly and be sure that he only used commas. It made Regulus aware of two things when he noticed this trick, the fact that the magic governing the diary was much more complicated than he'd first anticipated and that he really ought to ask Tom about it when they had nothing better to speak about (an occasion which he had not yet found), and also that he was lucky his mother had impressed upon him the importance of legible handwriting at an early age, or else the diary might mistake his commas for the end of a thought, and make their communication far more rigid. Though he'd never mentioned the changes he made to his style of writing, he knew that Tom was very clever, and soon enough began to mimic this in his own messages.

It's unfortunate that you have to deal with that kind of thing, I've often wondered of ways to avoid it entirely myself, Snape's not a name I recognise, what do you know of his family?

I'm not sure that there are very many ways to avoid it, unless we're to cast people like him from the school entirely, and that might be going a bit far just for some personal dislike, I'm not entirely sure about his family either, but I know that he's not pureblood because Lucius has made several remarks about it, he seems to tolerate Snape far better than most, though what motivation he has for that, I'll never know.

Perhaps the boy has his uses, as intolerable as he is.

Regulus had only taken a second to read that brief response, fingers reaching for his quill once more when another message seeped through the parchment.

Wouldn't you like to find out what they are?

He pondered it for a moment. Snape didn't strike him as a boy who had many uses, besides those his brother and his friends had. Regulus knew he wasn't particularly wealthy, and he wasn't from a pureblood family. He was known to be good at potions, so there was that, but Regulus wasn't so hopeless at potions that the benefit of conferring with him would be worth the time in his presence. He wrote back,

Do you think I should ask Lucius?

That depends on how much you trust Lucius, some people can get very suspicious over perfectly innocent questions.

I know what you mean, Sirius always used to get cross with me for

As caught up in the conversation as he'd become, Regulus didn't get the chance to finish what he was writing, because he became aware that he was no longer alone at the back of the library. Fingertips crept into his peripheral and when he looked up, he found himself faced with James Potter, eyes not on Regulus but on the diary. It was as if he'd known Regulus was talking to Tom about tiresome creatures, and offered himself up as the next subject. Out of instinct more than anything else, he reached out a hand to cover what he'd just been writing, too caught up in looking for any trace of suspicion or understanding on Potter's face that he hadn't looked down to be sure his words had disappeared yet. What he'd make of them, Regulus didn't know.