The Marauders - Order of the Phoenix - Part Two

More Ridiculous T-Shirts Than a Ridiculous T-Shirt Factory

Regulus woke on the 17th of February with a funny feeling in his chest of excitement that he couldn't explain. He lay on the bed, staring up at the canopy of dark green fabric and the curtains that were drawn around him, and let the feeling sort of flip-flop about inside him. It made him feel happy, whatever it was, and he hadn't had a lot of that, so he sort of wanted to hang onto it as long as it would linger.

He lifted his arm to look at the watch on his wrist to see what time it was. There was a neat little button that, when pressed, made the watch glow a funny greenish-yellow color so he coud see the digital numbers ticking off the seconds and minutes.

"Nice watch," he murmured, then, to himself, "Thank you... my brother gave it to me." He paused.

HIs brother. Sirius's voice floated through his head. Regulus suddenly realized what it was that was in his chest, exciting him, and he smiled.

"Zero sleeps until Freddie," he murmured. Sirius must be over the moon with excitement and it made Regulus feel good to think of his brother being happy. If Sirius had been sad and mourning him all this time since Christmas, then surely he wasn't sad today, at least, this the most hallowed of all the days on Sirius's calendar.

Regulus just wished he were a part of it.

Suddenly, a terrible - but awesome - but oh-so-terrible - but super-duper awesome idea went through Regulus's mind and he sat there in his bed, holding the duvet to his chin, as though the blanket might save him from the terrible idea he'd just had.

Regulus Black couldn't go to be apart of Sirius's special day, but there was nothing in the world saying that Freddy Jenkins wasn't a Queen fan, was there? And if Freddy Jenkins was a fan of Queen, then who's to say that Freddy Jenkins didn't happen to have tickets to the very same show as Sirius Black? And who was to stop them from running into one another by accident? So far off, in another whole country, at such a muggle-ridden event.... surely there wouldn't be any purist death eaters there. He would be safe. He could have a peek-in at his brother, see Sirius happy again.

Regulus hadn't stopped thinking endlessly about Sirius's horribly stiff posture at the graveyard by the Black Family Mausoleum, which was where he'd last seen his brother. He didn't want to think of Sirius grieving and mourning, even though that was a necessary part of staying hidden from You-Know-Who himself. He could see Sirius's happiness for himself and maybe that vision would override the nagging one he had now of Sirius's sadness. Didn't he deserve at least that much peace in this time of unrest that he was suspended in? Didn't he deserve at least that much, given how much he was giving up to save the world or whatever it was he was doing sitting about looking at dusty books and talking to long-dead guys in their portraits?

Yes, he decided. He did deserve that.

Excited, Regulus leaped to his feet and opened his trunk, pulling out his rucksack and rushing to his closet, tossing in things he would need.

"What are you doing, boy?" Cadmus Peverell asked from the portrait.

Regulus had taken to magicking the portrait around with him, as though Cadmus were following him from room to room. The portrait made him feel less alone, or at least less like he was going mad. He had taken to talking to himself when he wasn't talking to Cadmus or Kreacher and it made him feel funny and hollow when he did it, and he didn't like that. It was like he could feel sanity slipping away sometimes.

"I've got something I have to do," Regulus said to the portrait. "Very important."

"More important than working on solving the mystery with the horcruxes?" Cadmus asked pointedly.

Regulus didn't answer, he just kept on stuffing his rucksack, and though Cadmus kept on at him ("You need to be more dedicated to the cause... in my day if we had a mission, a man took no detour from getting it accomplished! We need to figure out more about the Dark Lord to solve where he's hidden these horcruxes!"), Regulus didn't really listen. He'd made up his mind and nothing would deter him.