The year after her brother James graduates, Teddy Potter returns to Hogwarts for her final year. With the Marauders gone, it should be a quiet, peaceful year despite the mounting tensions in the world outside of school.
The problem, naturally, lies...
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The day after Slytherin wins their first Quidditch match, Regulus doesn't show up for their curfew patrol.
Teddy waits for a while in the Entrance Hall, until the last stragglers in the corridors have disappeared. When he still fails to show up, she walks to their usual route just in case he's shown up there. The halls are eerily quiet, and every footstep she makes echoes against the old stone walls. She's rarely had occasion to walk alone through the corridors of Hogwarts at night, and doing so now has her feeling distinctly unsettled.
At first, she walks their usual patrol route under the assumption that he'll probably swagger in late and unapologetic. No such thing happens, however, and she finds herself growing impatient. Where the hell is he?
At about eleven thirty, Teddy pauses by the statue of Cupid and pulls out the Marauder's Map. She taps it with her wand, and as she waits and watches the ink crawl across the page she taps her foot rapidly against the stone floor. Tap tap tap. The map has barely finished revealing itself before Teddy is spreading it wide and eyeing it closely, searching for Regulus' name. Despite his lateness, Teddy is still expecting to see him making his way towards her and the corridors they're expected to patrol.
Instead, she spots his name just outside the Slytherin common room, still and unmoving. Teddy stares at it for a moment, but he remains stationary.
"What the fuck?" She breathes, brow furrowing. Then, louder, "What the fuck, Black?"
Abandoning her patrol entirely, Teddy sets off towards the Slytherin common room. She's never actually been there herself, but she's heard James and the boys whisper about sneaking into it when they were working out the schematics of the castle. With the map to guide her, it's simple work sneaking to the lower levels undetected — Filch and Mrs Norris are wandering the upper levels (where Peeves seems to be lying in wait for them in an empty classroom) and she's able to avoid several other prefect pairs who are patrolling other corridors.
When she's only a corridor away, Teddy clears the map off and tucks it back in her pocket before rounding the corridor. She's not altogether sure what she's expecting to find, but it's not Regulus Black leaning against a bare stretch of stone wall with his head in his hands.
"Black?" She asks. Her annoyance fizzles out as she pauses, suddenly unsure of herself.
When Regulus looks up at her, it takes a moment for his eyes to focus. "Potter." He says slowly, surprised to see her. "The hell're you doing here?"
"Are you drunk?" Teddy demands, her anger flaring up again as suddenly as it had disappeared. "What the hell is wrong with you? You left me to patrol the corridors alone without even telling me that you weren't coming!"
"M'sorry." Regulus slurs, staggering to his feet.
That simple phrase stops Teddy dead before she can really get going, purely because she's never heard Regulus Black apologise to anyone ever. It surprises her so much that she barely knows what to do with herself, and she stands staring rather blankly at him as he sways on his feet.
