The Story of Regulus Black - Years 1-4

CXI. Timelines

CW: mention of suicide & mention of alcoholism

The little gold mechanism that was the time-turner seemed to burn a hole in Regulus's pocket throughout the next day, begging to be used. But, Regulus could not use it - not yet. First, he needed to do his research on how, exactly, to accomplish his task.

If he was going to do this, he was going to do it right.

He spent his entire Saturday in the library, having sat in the corridor outside all night until Madam Pince unlocked the doors. His clothes had dried by that point, and he was too focused on the mission at hand to care about just how uncomfortable he was.

Finding a book on time-turners was a rather difficult task in and of itself. There was no select section for the properties of time, and he didn't know which section it would be in. He also didn't want to ask Madam Pince for fear that she would ask questions and go to Professor McGonagall or Slughorn when he refused to answer.

Eventually, he found the book that he was looking for, and he set to work.

He sat at a table in the back of the library for hours on end, reading the book cover to cover. He was able to figure out how time travel worked, how to use the time-turner and the importance of not being seen. The last one was quite obvious to Regulus - he had no intentions of being caught by someone in the past. He just needed to go back, find a way to stop the party from ever happening, and then come back to the present and hope that the past had rewritten itself in the proper way.

Deacon Ackland, Francesco Anderson, and Benjamin Stone found Regulus Black in the library at 10 AM.

They all sat down at the table with Regulus, not saying a word. Regulus didn't give any indication that he had even noticed them sitting down, which led them to wonder if he had.

Deacon and Francesco were sitting beside one another, their chairs a bit closer than what could be considered just a friendly distance to sit at. Francesco had his hand discreetly and absently rested on Deacon's knee, and Deacon was leaning quite heavily against him. Though, Deacon moved a bit and craned his neck to see what Regulus was reading so intently.

He furrowed his brow when he saw the subject of the book, but he didn't say anything. After all, Regulus Black intently reading a book on time so shortly after his brother had been given a lifetime in prison was rather... well, it certainly made a lot of sense. He shot a glance at Benji, who was also looking at the subject matter of Regulus's reading with confusion on his face.

"Hey, Regulus," Francesco was the first one to speak. "How's the reading going?" He gestured to the book, being the only one who didn't try to discover what it was about.

He held up a hand, his pointer finger extended indicating for them to be quiet. They watched as he switched to silently mouthing the words to himself, moving his hand and using his pointer finger to show where he was on the page.

Finally, when he reached the bottom of it, he planted his finger firmly where it was to keep his place and looked up. His face had a shadow over it that indicated distress, but his eyes were twinkling with the idea that was forming in his head. His sharp features were made even sharper by his loss of appetite since Sirius's expulsion. This mixed with the knotted hair, pale skin and dark eye circles that contrasted it, and the chapped lips which indicated his lack of hydration sent chills down all three of the boys' spines.

"Hm?" He inquired, the noise coming out a bit raspy and deep from disuse.

Francesco gestured to the book with the hand that wasn't on Deacon's leg. "The reading? How's it going."

"Oh. Well, thanks." Regulus was a bit surprised that Francesco had chosen to zero in on the activity that Regulus was performing rather than the fact that his brother was to be spending the rest of his life in Azkaban.