The Marauders: Year Four

Snape's Birthday

Snape's Birthday

Regulus Black watched from the Slytherin table as Sirius laughed at his table across the hall, his arms flung over his friends' shoulders. He looked so carefree and Regulus felt a horrible ache in his chest as he watched how James Potter cracked up at something Sirius said and Peter Pettigrew smiled meekly and Remus Lupin proposed a toast they all raised their glasses to... Regulus wished that he and his friends were as excitable and fun as Sirius and the Marauders seemed to be.

Other than Barty, though, Regulus wasn't even certain he had any true friends. Well, oddly enough, perhaps Severus Snape, too, he thought, glancing Severus's direction, but even that he wasn't sure if it was out of obligation or not. Although ever since the night they'd talked about the House Elves by the fire in Slytherin common room, Severus had seemed to be a bit more kind toward Regulus...

As though Severus had heard him thinking - and Regulus realized with a knot in his stomach that he probably had - Severus looked over from his place a few places down and across at the table, where he was talking with Evan Rosier in hushed tones. Severus's eyes were dark and unreadable, but he stared at Regulus a moment, then turned his gaze away, back toward Evan. Regulus looked down at his plate.

"Are you alright?" Barty Crouch Jr. asked, leaning closer to Regulus. "You been actin' funny all day... and now you ain't eatin' your chops." He pointed at the lamb bits on Regulus's plate.

Regulus nodded, "Yeah. I'm alright. I just got some stuff on my mind is all."

"What stuff? Quidditch?" Barty asked.

Regulus nodded, "Yeah. Quidditch."

"Well, silly, don't be frettin' 'bout quidditch! You're a brilliant Seeker." It was true that Regulus had quite fulfilled Slytherin house's dreams of being an excellent Seeker. In fact, it was being whispered that, aside from James's performance at the Ilvermorny tourney two years ago, Regulus may just have been the best seeker that Hogwarts had seen in over a century. James's performance was still talked about in hushed tones of reverence by the other houses, and even though he was technically a chaser the Ravenclaws and Hufflepuffs were a bit reluctant to give the title of Best Seeker in a Century to Regulus. But, much to the charinge of the Gryffindors, there was really no denying that Regulus was really good and probably did deserve the title. Regulus was just glad that he'd had a natural talent for it after all the boasting he'd done about it...

When the feast had ended, they all walked down to the Slytherin common room and hung about. Regulus played gobstones with Barty, who wasn't very good at it, and he thought about Kreacher and how many times he'd beaten the poor house elf and toward the end he purposely lost the game, and watched as Barty got impossibly excited that he'd won. It was clear that Barty had few triumphs in his life so that winning at a game of gobstones was truly a rare and exciting treat for him. Regulus was glad to have given him the game and congratulated him heartily.

Slowly the common room emptied out as people went back off to bed. Severus was still up, sitting on the floor by the fire, staring into the flames and hugging his knees, his back against the coffee table, Regulus noticed, and he got the feeling that something was bothering the older boy so that he stalled and hung about the room until he, Severus, and Barty were the last three up. "Are we going to bed, then?" Barty asked, packing up the gobstones into their velvet bag.

"Alright," Regulus replied, "You go. I'll be up in a minute."

When Barty had disappeared up the stairs, Regulus went over to where Severus sat and slowly lowered himself down to the floor beside him, both staring off at the fireplace. Severus had a funny look on his face, somewhere between annoyed and pained, and was picking at the hem on his robes as he sat cross-legged, his hair a curtain of black that nearly obscured his face.