Sweet innocence ~ Jegulus

05.

Notes:

I'm not sure if a tw is necessary for this chapter but there's a brief mention of child abuse and trauma
~

Friday afternoons were always Regulus's favourite because he had chess club. The club leader was a seventh year Ravenclaw named Enzo Hale, he and Regulus had grown to be close friends.

"Check mate." Regulus smirked at the girl across from him. She looked down at the board confused and let out a loud huff. "How do you win every time?" Pandora exclaimed, throwing her hands up in an exasperated manner. Regulus shrugged and set up the chess pieces back on the board for another game. "I'm just good, I guess." Regulus mused.

"Can you at least tell me how you got me?" Pandora asked, trying to recall all of her moves during the game. She stood up and placed her hands on her hips. "I thought that Ravenclaws were meant to be smart?" Regulus laughed and dodged the slap that Pandora sent his way.

"We are smart, but you must be fucking Einstein or something!" Enzo spoke as he came up behind Pandora and took her previous seat across from Regulus. "Einstein?" Pandora repeated, obviously confused. "It's a muggle thing." Enzo waved her off.

"Well Annabelle is probably waiting for me so I should get going. I'll see you at dinner!" She waved to the boys as she left.

"Play me?" Enzo asked, setting up his side of the board that Pandora hadn't bothered to reset. "Sure, but everyone else is leaving." Regulus looked around at the other chess club members packing up their boards. "It's fine. Now we'll be alone." Enzo smiled and Regulus felt his heart skip a beat. "Maybe today I'll beat you." Enzo raised a brow which caused Regulus to laugh. "Yeah, not a chance." He shook his head.

As expected, Regulus had defeated Enzo five minutes after they had started playing.

"Wanna sit with me at dinner?" Enzo asked as they made their way to the great hall. Regulus hesitated and looked at the older boy wearily. "Don't worry, my friends don't bite." Enzo joked seeing the hesitation on Regulus's face. "Yeah, but mine do." Regulus muttered, spotting some of his house mates in the hall as they walked together.

They stopped at the door of the great hall and faced each other. "Maybe another time okay?" Regulus said, hoping that Enzo wasn't too upset. "Sure, there's always a seat for you whenever you want it." He smiled and wrapped his arms around Regulus which slightly startled the younger boy. They shared one last smile before parting ways to their respective tables.

***

"Prongs, who's that?" Sirius tapped James's shoulder and pointed to the boy that Regulus was talking to. James examined the boy's face carefully and then shrugged. "No clue." He said before turning back to his conversation with Peter.

"That's Enzo. He's a seventh year." Remus said from across Sirius. "Why's a seventh year hugging my brother?" Sirius muttered. "They're in chess club together, I think." Remus shrugged and went back to eating.

Sirius watched as Regulus joined his table, sitting between Evan Rosier and Barty Crouch Jr.

Barty leaned down and curled his hand around his mouth as he whispered something to Regulus. Sirius watched as Regulus turned a bright shade of pink and punched Barty's shoulder. He wondered what Barty had said to make Reg blush.