Regulus Black the Potions Master

Chapter 17

"Facing a three-headed dog, the devil's mistletoe, and all that other stuff..."

"It's undeniable that they've learned something this year," said Dumbledore proudly.

Regulus stared at him, although he kept his expression clear of emotion, in his head he was shaking Dumbledore hard and asking what was wrong with him. Ron not only fainted but broke his arm, as well as other bruises, Harry faced Voldemort himself and almost died in the process, spending three days in a coma. Hermione wasn't physically hurt, but everyone left that place with trauma, they're just children after all. And Regulus still has to listen to this kind of nonsense.

"Well, it shouldn't have been tested like that."

"We can't change what happened," Dumbledore said with that wise old man tone that Regulus hates.

"You love to use that phrase, 'We can't change the past'," Regulus said, getting up from the chair in front of the Headmaster's desk, "but you never talk about preventing this sort of thing from happening in the future."

"I assure you, Mr. Black, that the safety of the students is my priority. "

That's not what it sounds like. Regulus thought, but he wouldn't get into another argument with the old man. He had learned to pick his battles, and Dumbledore wasn't worth it.

[...]

What was left of the school year was uneventful; unfortunately, there were no more DCAT classes, as there was no one to take them over. Regulus considered taking the dead teacher's place, but with his potions classes being equally compulsory and for all years, there was no time for that. Regulus felt very sorry for the students, even those who had already done their NOMs and NIEMs would have a big deficit, not that the previous teachers had been the best, but some were very questionable.

Unfortunately for Dumbledore, the list of possible new teachers is shrinking dramatically, because no one wants to end up dead, in hospital, or cursed just for saying yes to teaching children.

This is, however, a problem for the next school year, so Regulus just sat at the teachers' table at the farewell dinner, where there would be a celebration for winning the house cup.

Regulus is very proud of his Slytherins, who won the competition - for the seventh year in a row, it should be noted - despite some first years losing points for deplorable behavior. The hall was decorated in green and gold, with large banners falling from the ceiling bearing the house symbol. A good thing for this terrible end to the year.

The food was great, and despite the shit-faced look on half the Gryffindor table at their defeat, after all, they had come last, the rest of the school was calm and happy.

Regulus saw his happiness replaced by indignation and a desire to curse the Hogwarts principal the moment the old man stood up, drawing everyone's attention.

Dumbledore began with his end-of-year speech, nothing out of the ordinary, that man likes to talk a lot. And very little of the speech changes from one year to the next. Nothing about what happened to Quirrell was mentioned, even though most of the students knew that something very strange had happened to the man. Then he started talking about the house cup and the points tally.

"In fourth place Gryffindor with three hundred and twelve points. In third place is Hufflepuff, with three hundred and fifty-two points; Ravenclaw, with four hundred and twenty-six points; and Slytherin with four hundred and seventy-two points."

A storm of clapping hands and feet erupted from Slytherin, and Regulus would have liked to celebrate with them, but just by looking at the principal, he knew there would be no real celebration for his house.