The Losing One || Sirius Black

48. Apologies

Regulus Black

Saturday, 6th January 1973.

Hogwarts

"You alright?", Evan asked him once he noticed that Regulus hasn't touched his food.

"Yeah.", Regulus said while forcefully taking a bite out of the roasted potato as his eyes roamed the other side of the Great Hall. He had other things occupying his mind at the moment.

If he was being honest, the holidays could not have gone any better. The Black family banquet was restored to its original state, no pranks and just elegance. Regulus felt like huge weight has been lifted off his shoulders since he didn't have to constantly try to figure out if Sirius was planning something and how to stop it.

Most of the members of the sacred twenty-eight joined them at the 12th Grimmauld Place which meant that Regulus saw most of his housemates. This was a huge thing since the banquet was the perfect opportunity for him to show who he really was and gain good status and respect among his peers.

Of course, his roommates already looked at him with admiration. Travers and Greengrass always wanted to provide him with homework, but each time Regulus politely declined. The Blacks are never in anyone's debt. Evan and he had mutual respect and even, if he daresay, friendship, but there was five first year Slytherins sharing the dorm.

The last one of his roommates was Barty Crouch Jr. and, frankly, Regulus didn't really know where the two stood. The boy always showed respect to him, but not like Travers and Greengrass did. Crouch seemed to think of him and Regulus as equals. Unfortunately, Regulus didn't get the chance to really meet Crouch since the boy was always studying.

Because of this, Regulus didn't really know whether to consider them being equals as a positive or a negative thing. He was a Black after all. Was Crouch good enough to be at the same level as him? The Crouch family was member of the sacred twenty-eight, but so were Travers and Greengrass and those two for sure weren't good enough to compare themselves to Regulus according to Orion's opinion.

He just wanted to make sure that he was surrounded by respectable peers since the company you keep is a reflection of who you are. Evan qualified as a perfect peer in every aspect. He came from respected pureblood family, he was smart and well-mannered, so Regulus didn't have any pressure of someone getting the wrong idea whenever he was hanging out with Evan. Plus, he liked hanging out with Evan.

That was the reason why Regulus wanted to figure Crouch out. So that he knows if he can be an important ally. Allowing Crouch to act like his equal can turn out to be great if Crouch carried himself to a high standard and supported right causes. On the other hand, it can be a huge dug to Regulus' reputation if it turns out that Crouch is some idiot who likes mudbloods. The Crouch problem will be solved one way or the other, but, for now, the important thing was that everybody else from Regulus' year respected him.

Since he gained good status within the first years, Regulus wanted the upper years to also see who he really was and which family he represented. Reputation is everything, his mom's voice whispered.

Orion had similar thing in mind since, days before the banquet, he had a serious talk with Regulus about family reputation. His father advised him to look and act his best during the banquet. We have to show that the Black family has a respectable descendant who is willing to act like it. In other words, Regulus' job was to ensure that the other pureblood families didn't think he was the same as Sirius.

And he did just that.

He showed up in his finest robes that the Black family's tailor finished days before. His hair was perfectly styled and, most importantly, his manners were impeccable.