The Story of Regulus Black - Years 1-4

LIV. Halloween 1974

Deacon Ackland, Francesco Anderson, and Benjamin Stone were all sitting in the Gryffindor common room. They had left the Halloween feast and headed straight there, for none of them had any other plans. They were doing homework together, helping one another with the subjects that one of them knew and the others didn't.

This, however, left Deacon quite alone in the subject of Ancient Runes. The only person that he knew in that class was Regulus Black, but the two boys hadn't spoken once inside of the class itself. Regulus was always with Barty, who was also in their class, and so Deacon was alone. He had been hoping that Emerson Reid would take it, but he had changed his mind last minute - he had heard how hard everyone else said it was.

He was only halfway through his translation questions when the four marauders came into the common room. They could be heard laughing uproariously all the way down the stone spiral staircase, so by the time they reached the bottom, all three of the third year boy's eyes were on them.

"Oh, hey you lot!" James Potter said, straightening his glasses on the bridge of his nose and giving the group a smile. "What're you doing?"

"Homework," Benji and Francesco chorused, but Deacon quickly turned back to his work. He really just wanted to get it over with, seeing as how it was due the following Monday, and he really wanted a free weekend.

Remus Lupin stepped closer to the group and craned his neck to see what Deacon was working on. "Ancient Runes?" He asked.

Deacon looked up and nodded. "Yeah. Are you taking it?"

"Merlin, no." Remus shook his head. "I would've failed. I don't think I'm smart enough for that."

"You're smart enough for anything, Moony!" Sirius shouted, draping an arm around Remus's shoulders and grinning at him.

Remus laughed and had to bend over slightly so that Sirius could put his arm around his shoulders - he was quite a few inches taller than him. "Thanks, Padfoot."

The three Gryffindor boys looked at one another - they had always wondered why the marauders had come up with those nicknames for themselves. "You know," Remus continued, seeing how quickly Deacon had turned back to his work, "I think Marlene is taking Ancient Runes. You could ask her for help, if you wanted to."

Deacon gave Remus a grateful smile. "Thanks, I think I will."

Remus smiled back, and then turned back to his friends. "Ready?" They all nodded and started for the portrait hole.

Though, when Sirius noticed that the three boys weren't following, he gave them an odd look. "Are you lot coming?"

"Coming where?" Benji asked.

"The party! On the pitch?" James said, looking between the three of them.

They all looked at him in confusion. "Well, c'mon! Don't wanna stay cooped up in here all night, do you?" Sirius gestured for the boys to follow him.

They all looked at one another, shrugged, and abandoned their homework on the common room table to join the others at the Halloween party on the pitch.

Regulus Black was standing in a sparsely populated part of the field, sipping away at a bottle of butterbeer. Barty had left a few minutes before to go speak with one of the Slytherin's about their Arithmancy class, leaving Regulus alone. He looked around at everyone that filled the pitch, only recognizing a handful of students.

He took another swig of butterbeer and swallowed, glancing to his left with his arms crossed over his chest, when someone came up to him. "Hullo, Regulus," they said, and Regulus looked over at the familiarity of the voice.