The Marauders: Year Five #Wattys2017

Regulus's Vengence

Regulus's Vengence

Regulus's triumph at the dinner table in keeping Severus Snape out of his head was an important one to him. In battling to keep Snape out that night, Regulus had realized exactly how to go about the operation of occlumency. He'd pictured his mind as a room filled with hundreds of thousands of photographs, each photograph a thought or a memory that could be rifled through, and if he didn't keep the door on the room locked then people like Severus Snape could go right in and mill about and access all the stuff in there. But if he shut the door and locked it up tight, there was no seeing the photographs. He alone had the key to everything that was in the room. And so he left a few scattered thoughts and memories out, just to annoy Snape, but the majority of his things were packed away in the room and sealed, where Severus could never access them. They were his and his alone.

This made Regulus feel very clever indeed. He would smile at Severus Snape benignly, and Snape would stare at him with a cold expression that Regulus now recognized as the way his face looked when he was trying to have a look into somebody's mind and all Regulus would leave out for him was a taunting phrase or two - just enough to let Severus know there was more to be seen, but that Regulus had conquered him and there was no way he'd ever get what it was he wanted. Severus's lip would curl into a sneer and he'd turn away or leave the room or make some remark about arrogant people. These were the best - Regulus relished knowing he'd bugged Severus Snape enough to actually merit audible complaint.

But his brightest moment of vengeful glory came on an afternoon just two days after Regulus had figured out how to block Severus - on 9 January...

James was sitting at the Gryffindor house table in the Great Hall, waiting for Remus and Sirius to come from their Muggle Studies class and Peter to come from... wherever the hell it was Peter was at... and reading his Transfiguration textbook. He was mostly alone - there were a few errant Ravenclaws picking at the snacks that the house elves had left on the tables for the students to eat, and a couple people were doing homework, writing papers and revising for the O.W.L.s, which were now only a few months away and starting to seem more real - rather than just an imaginary threat that the professors were making up.

James glanced up and spotted Maryrose Jenkins at the Hufflepuff table, turned 'round to face the Slytherin table, where Regulus was sitting. They were talking and James noticed Maryrose's hair was that pretty teal colour that he'd liked so much.

Part of him wondered if he'd been an idiot to break it off with Maryrose the way he had. All for a chance at Lily Evans, a chance that now, thanks to Snape, he would probably never have. It made him sad to look at Maryrose - though it was nice to see that she'd got on okay in the end. She seemed happy enough talking to Regulus Black - laughing so hard her eyes crinkled as he smiled shyly at her from the Slytherin bench where he sat. James did wish that she'd gotten on with someone that wasn't Regulus Black. He didn't know much about Sirius's brother, but Sirius sure as hell didn't trust the kid and that was reason enough not to trust him for James, too.

He looked back down at his book for a moment before his eyes fluttered back up to the doorway of the Great Hall, where Severus Snape was just coming through, his nose crammed into a book. James put down the Transfiguration textbook he was reading and he grinned, sliding out of his seat, drawing his wand. He was planning to take the book he was reading - make it fly up and hit him in the face or something - but before he could wave his wand, Severus Snape turned and drew his own, sending a hex at James that wrenched his wrist and arm up behind his back, pulling tight so that his shoulder felt nearly out of socket. He let out a cry of flustered pain as Snape said, "Expelliarmus," sending James's wand into his own fist.