God is Dead | James Potter

5 | THE ISSUE WITH BLOODLINE

SOCIALISING HAD NEVER BEEN
Regulus's strong suit. His Aunt Druella had stated, quite a few years ago, that he was even worse at the task than her daughter, Narcissa. This had greatly alarmed his mother, Walburga Black, who at the time, did everything in her power to show Regulus proper manners and etiquette, as well as assigning him endless books to revise, Regulus assumed now, that it had been in hopes that he would pick up topics of conversation.

His lack of social skills had become water under the bridge when Sirius was sorted into Gryffindor, and were almost completely forgotten when Walburga and Orion took notice of his friendship with Lovina Selwyn, of all people.

He did not mind his loneliness. If anything, it gave him room to breathe. Being alone, however, that was what every day, he feared. The monster had gained on him when Sirius stopped telling him stories about enchanted oceans, and forests, and castles, because he was worn out from visiting the Potters, ever since then, it had not stopped. He could feel himself tipping over the edge sometimes, lost in nothing, absolutely nothing at all.

But he wasn't alone. He wasn't alone. As long as there was Lovina, he could never truly be alone.

"Oi, Black!" Regulus couldn't help but jump when the two fingers snapped in front of him. He wasn't aware he had zoned out until he'd been drawn back in.

Marion Avery was growing more and more convinced Regulus Black was not quite right in the head. His first red flag was following Lovina Selwyn around like a lost dog. In the past, she had been absolutely certain he was being clever. If they married, then he would be heir of Selwyn instead, freeing himself of the unfortunate situation of being the younger of two brothers.

But Sirius Black was out of the picture. Regulus was the rightful heir of the House of Black. Yet, he was still following Marion's very own disdainful cousin around. Marion thought maybe he had developed Stockholm Syndrome.

And he was always out of it. She observed him in class. He was there, but his soul appeared to have left his body to soar some place far away. If souls were a thing, she supposed.

"Yes, Marion?" Regulus replied, in a far more levelled and polite tone than Marion's voice ever was.

"What time is Quidditch practice? Do you remember?" She questioned, "Rosier talks out of his hole, the prick."

"Quiet down," Regulus said, moving his chair to the other side for good measure, "At 4:00. When classes end."

She nodded in response, but didn't take her eyes off of him. He felt it. Marion's eyes were rather small, but they were relentless, unapologetic. And icy. So terribly cold. "Are you fine?" She finally asked, not even waiting for a response before continuing, "Is it because Sirius ran away?"

"Who told you that?" Regulus had quickly lost any tone of politeness in his voice.

"Lovina." Sometimes, Marion did not even know why she lied, she just felt like it.

"Lovina did not tell you that." She had to roll her eyes at the amount of determination in that statement. So fast to jump to her defence, as if she was an angel gifted to the planet.

"We all heard, Regulus. Why do you act shocked? We all knew like, an hour after?" That much was true. Pure-blood families had always been fond of discussing what exactly were the disappointments of other families. "So it's because of him, yes?" Marion insisted.

"I do not talk about my brother. Much less to you." He spat.

"Yeah, well, he's not really your brother anymore, is he?" She had hit a nerve. She was good at hitting people's nerves. Marion almost felt a twinge, a ghost of guilt when she saw the way Regulus flinched, but she couldn't. She searched, but she couldn't. "It's just the truth, really."

"Stay out of my way, Marion." It was like he'd made troublesome effort to speak.

Marion wanted to tell him that she understood betrayal. That she knew his heart was probably twisting into a dry knot that feeling nothing at all seemed like a merciful option. That eventually, there would be mercy. Feeling nothing was a kind of superpower.

But she did not. She rolled her eyes once more and smiled, looking ahead, at nothing in particular. Salazar, Regulus Black really was disagreeable.

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LUCY'S WORDS ˊˎ-

Good time to say, introducing Jessica Barden as Marion Avery.

This is particularly short. I had it planned to be longer, but the other part of this had a very different mood to this, so I decided better to separate them.

Thank you for over 1K reads! And I hope you enjoyed this little update too, more of a Regulus focused one, because of course he too is a main character, and I personally love exploring his character. Again, thank you! xx.