The Story of Regulus Black - Years 1-4

LXIX. Corvus Black

Chapter Notes: double update in honor of 5k reads :)

Regulus Black and Barty Crouch Jr. woke up at quarter past four in the morning the following day.

They both groaned and stretched out their limbs, Barty accidentally hitting Regulus in the face in the process. "Ow!" Regulus exclaimed, though it didn't hurt that much.

"Sorry," Barty muttered, and he sat up from where his head was still rested in the middle of the bed.

Regulus sat up, too, his legs sore from being propped up on the headboard all night. The two of them sat still for a minute, keeping themselves propped up with their hands. Regulus's head kept lolling to the side from tiredness, but he would quickly correct himself and bring his head back upright.

"Do you really need that yearbook?" Barty asked, giving a deep yawn afterwards. "Couldn't we get it after we get back?"

Regulus shook his head. "I have Quidditch practice later. You can stay here, if you want."

Barty shook his head in response. "No, I'll come, it's fine."

The two boys got changed into their day robes as quietly as they could, trying desperately not to wake the other two boys. When they were dressed, they both grabbed the things that they would be needing for the day, and they left.

The library was completely empty when they arrived at five o'clock sharp. Madam Pince gave the two boys an odd look when they came rushing in, but she didn't comment.

They headed straight for the section that Regulus had learned the yearbooks were in, and the two of them began their search.

"Which year are we looking for?" Barty asked, pushing aside books from as early as the 1920's.

"1946," said Regulus, shuffling through a stack of yearbooks which he had withdrawn from the shelf.

It didn't take very long for them to find the book that they were looking for. Barty pulled it from the middle of a stack of books from the 50's (why it was in that stack, neither of them knew). However, when Barty found it, both boys slid all of the yearbooks back onto the shelves, sat on the floor in the middle of the aisle, and they started their search.

They flipped immediately to the pages of yearbook photos, Regulus withdrew the photo from his pocket, and they scanned the faces of every single person in the photos. Much to their dismay, the names didn't seem to be in order.

So, it took them near to forty minutes until they were finally able to find anything that might help.

"Who's that?" Asked Barty, pointing to a blank photo frame.

Regulus furrowed his brow, and was just about to ask why Barty was pointing to an empty picture, when he read the name underneath it.

Corvus Black

Regulus shrugged. "I've never heard of him."

"D'you think that could be the person in the photo? I mean, if his name is scratched off of the back, perhaps they took his picture out of the yearbook?" Barty suggested.

Regulus grabbed the book without a word and stood from the ground. Barty followed behind Regulus in confusion as he took the book to the desk which Madam Pince was sat behind. She looked up at him with a stone-cold expression on her face as he dropped the book on her desk.

"Did they ever take pictures out of these?" He asked, pointing to the empty picture which was labelled Corvus Black.

Madam Pince glanced at the photo, and then she looked back to Regulus. "No. These books have not been touched since the 50's. If that picture is empty, it was never there in the first place."