The Story of Regulus Black - Years 1-4

XXVII. Black Family Letters

Regulus Black's mattress had three strange lumps in it.

Regulus was quite unbothered by this, for he knew why they were there. Barty, however, didn't.

The two boys were sitting cross legged on Regulus's bed, working on the Transfiguration essay that they had been assigned that very day. He was shifting uncomfortably every few seconds, which quickly became quite distracting to Regulus.

After the sixth time that Barty had shifted his seating position, Regulus glanced at him through his dark eyelashes, and then looked back at his essay.

"Everything alright?" he asked, resting his elbow on his bed and pressing his right cheek against his palm, rereading a paragraph from their textbook.

"Why does your mattress have all these weird lumps?" Barty inquired, running his palm over the lump in Regulus's mattress that was causing him to sit at an odd angle.

Regulus glanced at the lump that he was referring to, and knew immediately which of the three Occlumency books was hidden there. Regulus shrugged.

"Dunno, been like that since last year," he scribbled a transition sentence from his last paragraph to his next.

"Really? We did homework here last year, and it wasn't like this,"

Regulus shrugged again, trying to seem as nonchalant as possible. Instead of answering, he shifted his face so that the base of his palm was pressed against his chin, and began biting his nails.

Barty turned back to his essay without further investigation, though Regulus noticed that he had moved a few inches to the left so as to be clear of the strange lump.

It was the second Monday of term, the day after Regulus had made his late night trip to the library. He hadn't found the time to read the books that he had borrowed yet, so he had just shoved them beneath his mattress and tried to keep them from his mind whenever he was near Severus Snape.

Regulus knew that, eventually, he would have to sneak back to the restricted section of the library for the rest of the books. However, he wouldn't even be able to until the following Sunday, so he tried his best not to worry. He also simply didn't want to give the restricted section any thought. Not only could Severus Snape find out about it by prying into Regulus's thoughts, but Regulus was still quite dismayed by what had happened between him and his brother.

Regulus was afraid to dwell on the thought, because he knew that he would be overcome by a sense of guilt. Of course Sirius was still his older brother! Right?

Yes, of course! That's literally what Narcissa and I talked about over the summer!

Narcissa.

"If you ever want to speak about it, you can always owl me, just so you know," Narcissa had said after she and Regulus's chat in the garden of Malfoy Manor.

Regulus needed to write to Narcissa.

His Transfiguration essay suddenly didn't seem that important.

"Hey, I - uh - I think I'm gonna go to the library to get another book," Regulus said, and he got off of the bed in one swift motion.

"Another book? For what?" Barty asked, looking up from his essay and slowly putting down his quill.

"This. The essay. I'm gonna get another book for it. More information, you know," he gave Barty a smile that he hoped would be seen as reassuring, and promptly put on his shoes.

"Oh, ok. Do you want me to come with you?"

Regulus shook his head. "No, no that's fine. I'll just be a minute. Or a few minutes. Dunno how long it'll take me to find it,"