The Wolf and the Raven

Ch 28 - Green-Eyed Monster

Branwen's predication was correct.

On Saturday morning they all gathered in the Entrance Hall, but were bound for separate destinations. The boys had their their cloaks on, ready for the frosty trek to Hogsmeade. Branwen watched them check their passes with Filch, then they turned and hugged her, one by one. James pretended to wipe a tear from his eye and Sirius even saluted, making her feel like a soldier off to her first campaign.

Branwen had been assigned to kitchen duties for her detention. She made her way down the stairs that led to the Hufflepuff dorms, but stopped when she reached a painting of a bowl of fruit. Someone else was there too. "Don't tell me we have the same detention," she crossed her arms and stared pointedly at Regulus.

"Looks like it." He reached out and tickled the pear in the painting. The pear giggled, then transformed into a bright green doorknob. Regulus turned it and the pair passed through the hidden door.

It was the first time either of them had seen the enormous cathedral of a room. It sat directly beneath the Great Hall and had five tables that corresponded to those above (one for each House and another for staff). Along the edges of the room were rows and rows of counters, sinks, and cupboards, all in use for the preparation of the evening meal. A fireplace took up nearly the entire rear wall and the mingled scents of meat cooking and bread baking filled their noses.

As the door swung shut with a bang, scores of house-elves jolted, staring up at them. One peeled off and ran toward them, and the others slowly went back to their jobs: turning spits over the fires, frosting cakes, chopping vegetables, and brewing enormous vats of tea. The tiny female elf, who was wearing a toga that had once been a bath towel, scurried toward them. "Master Regulus? Mistress Branwen?" she squeaked.

They nodded.

"My name is Beezy. Master and Mistress will be working with Beezy; this way," she motioned them to a long sink stacked high with dirty dishes from the morning breakfast. "Beezy does not like to see students do the work of house-elves. But teachers say this is Master and Mistress' punishment and Beezy is not to help." She looked very sad indeed.

"But," she smiled, "they does not say that Beezy cannot feed Master and Mistress." With a snap of her fingers two plates of warm cookies and two glasses of milk appeared on a shelf in front of the students. "Master and Mistress will be telling Beezy if they needs anything else," she smiled widely, then scampered off to her original job, which seemed to be polishing an endless line of silver spoons.

Branwen slipped off her school robes and rolled up her sleeves before biting into one of the waiting cookies. Like most illicit things, the cookies seemed even more delicious than they would have if they had been served in the dining hall. She finished the first one with a smile, then dunked her arms into the soapy water.

Regulus hadn't moved. His dark green eyes were watching Branwen, a curious sneer on his face. "This is disgusting. House-elf work is....well, it's for house-elves."

Branwen rolled her eyes. "That's the point." She shoved a wet dish into his chest.

He took it in his finger tips and grabbed a towel laying nearby. "Kreacher would have an absolute fit if he knew I was doing this."

"Who's Kreacher?"

"Our house-elf back home."

"Oh. We don't have a house-elf."

Regulus froze in place and stared at her as if she had said they didn't have doors or windows in her house. "Who does the work?" he asked.

"Cassie. Mum and Dad pay her to keep house. My dad's house-elf died after my he was grown up and moved out and, well, I guess he just never got another one. Cassie's nice though. She's basically a member of the family."

Regulus considered this, then shook his head and sighed. "I will never understand you blood-traitors."

Branwen sighed. "Why are you like that, Regulus?"

He quirked a brow. "Like what?"

"I mean, why are you so mean? Here we are, stuck together for the next few hours with nothing to do but eat cookies and wash dishes, and you still have to insult me. Why can't you be more like Sirius? He's your brother and he manages to be nice."

"So nice that he throws Dungbombs in trains and sabotages other people's brooms?"

"He doesn't do it to hurt anyone. It's only meant to be fun. You could be having fun too, you know," she bumped him with her hip. "We would all really like it if you wanted to be friends with us."

"Even after everything I said?"

She shrugged. "Well, the boys might take some convincing, but I'd make them come around."

Regulus seemed to consider this for a moment, scrubbing at a fork that was already dry. When he set it down, he said, "I don't think so. I already have friends. Severus lets me hang out with him and Lily. And there's Flint, and Parkinson, and Travers, Avery, Mulciber. And Cissy, of course. She's going to be marrying Lucius when she graduates and they told me I can be in the wedding."

"That's.....nice...." Branwen didn't know what else to say. All of the people he listed were known bullies. Just last week she'd watched fourth-years Avery and Mulciber hold down first year Quirinus Quirrell so their pal Evan Rosier could use the Vermiculus jinx on him. Professor Flitwick had to be called in to restore the boy from his worm form. Even when Branwen was with her friends, the Gryffindors all took care to give the Slytherins a wide berth.

There wasn't much else for Branwen and Regulus to say to each other, so the rest of their detention passed in relative silence. When they finished, Branwen thanked Beezy for the cookies (the house-elf nearly somersaulted in her attempt to bow and walk backward at the same time). Outside the painting-door, she smiled at Regulus. "Well, I guess we've paid our debt to society."

"Guess so," he smiled back. His mouth opened once more and he seemed on the verge of saying something else, but shook his head, thinking better of it. Instead, he just rubbed the back of his neck and mumbled, "Guess I'll see you later."

"Definitely. Potions on Monday. Bye now!" She gave a short sort of wave, then turned up the hall, racing for Gryffindor Tower. Her boys were due back soon and she wanted to ask Alice for that special lotion she used; her hands resembled mouldy raisins.

As she passed the window in the common room though, she saw that groups of students were already returning from Hogsmeade. She hurried over and pressed her nose to the icy pane, eager to spot and wave to the boys.

Several groups passed before she could make out the knot of third-year Gryffindors. She raised a hand to wave, then paused. Sirius was walking and laughing with his arm around Marlene McKinnon's shoulders. Mary MacDonald and Peter were step-in-step and he was gesturing wildly, lost in her rapt attention. A few steps behind, Lily was snugly wedged between Remus and Severus. James was bouncing back and forth, trying to get a word in to the red-head any chance he got.

Branwen frowned. Her whole life, she had been the only girl in the family, the treasured daughter of a couple who longed for children and were euphoric to receive one of each. Her spotlight of attention only intensified when she arrived at Hogwarts and found herself the darling pet of four doting older boys. Her eyes narrowed at the three girls laughing and tramping their way through the snow to the Entrance Hall on the arms of her friends. She was in detention for one day and they had already replaced her.

Forgetting the lotion, Branwen found an out-of-the-way armchair, grabbed her school bag, and dug out her Potions homework. Her nose was buried in the textbook when the group from outside (minus Severus) came tumbling through the portrait hole, talking and laughing at the tops of their voices.

"Hey Bran!" James called. "Bran? Bon-Bon?" She pointedly ignored him, yanking out a piece of parchment on which to begin her essay. Finally he skipped over and perched on the arm of her chair. "Has my favourite sister gone deaf?" He ruffled her hair.

She rolled her eyes and pulled away. "I'm your only sister, Jamie."

"Bran!" Sirius slipped away from Marlene and ran to take the chair arm opposite James. "Check out the loot!" He reached into the pockets of his cloak and began emptying them into Branwen's lap. There were toffees and sugar quills and liquorice wands from Honeyduke's and acid pops and whizzing worms and Dungbombs from Zonko's. At least four bottles of butterbeer had been smuggled from the Three Broomsticks.

Peter took a seat near Mary, but Remus excused himself from Lily and sauntered over to the group. He smiled and settled himself at Branwen's feet. "How was detention?"

It was all the invitation she needed. She sighed dramatically, tossing the parchment aside. "It was just torture! They had us washing dishes! Just look at my hands!"

"Just awful," Sirius clucked in disdain.

"My poor baby sister," James feigned crying.

"Here, let me see those," Remus gathered her hands into one of his. With the other, he pulled his wand from his coat pocket and gave it a flick. Her hands instantly smoothed out and were left soft and gentle.

"Oh, how marvellous! Thank you, Rem," she leaned down and placed a kiss to the top of his head. Then she leaned back and closed her eyes. The boys were all laughing again, passing around the bottles of butterbeer, and telling her how much they had missed her. Yes, she smiled, this is where her boys belonged.

A/N: I wasn't planning on having Regulus as such a reoccurring character, but he keeps wanting to come back around. I think he has a little crush on Miss Potter. We'll see where it goes ;)