Smile When You Dive In

Chapter 7

After the match, Lucius Malfoy had given Regulus a book. This wasn't a totally unusual occurrence, though he did usually save it for Regulus' birthday or Christmas. The latest in his collection was different, though. It had clearly not been bought new, tattered around the edges and glue peeling away from the binding. On the cover, the title was engraved in silver. Pure-Blood Directory. Lucius had told Regulus that he ought to familiarise himself with the contents of the book before the summer came, which Regulus thought was rather pointless. One quick glance at the list of families printed at the front of the book confirmed that Regulus was already familiar with the pureblood families of Britain. That being said, there was bound to be some new information in there, or something vaguely interesting about his own family history that he didn't already know. That was what he told himself, though he knew the real reason he took the book with him to the library the following day was that he didn't want to disappoint Narcissa by offending her husband.

At first, Regulus had concerned himself only with the pages on the Black family. The book was so old that it didn't mention him or Sirius, or any of their cousins. Both of his parents were listed as descendants of Phineas Nigellus Black, though the word 'infant' was used in reference to his father which gave him a vague idea of when the book must have been published. He didn't find anything there that he didn't already know, with the only difference between the words on the page and the tapestry at home being that Cedrella Black was listed alongside her siblings, whereas her face had been burned from the tapestry before Regulus was born. The little burn marks had been a curiosity growing up, though one he was far less curious about after Andromeda and then Sirius joined the scorched ranks.

Both Selwyn and Shafiq's families had pages laying out their ancestry, but Regulus noticed that there were many pureblood families not included. None of Sirius' friends' families were there, though he was sure at least Potter and Pettigrew were pureblood. He was quite disappointed to find that there was nothing in there about the Broadmoor or Ollerton families either, with the anonymous author obviously deciding Willa and Carmen's families weren't as 'sacred' as the twenty-eight listed. He wasn't disappointed by that discovery in itself, just that he'd have nothing interesting to report back to the girls. Given how strict the criteria seemed to be, Regulus wondered if the Black family would still be included in an updated edition, or if Andromeda's baby with that muggleborn man would get them the chop. Regulus was skimming over the Slughorn family tree with little interest when another book dropped with some force onto the table, making him jump.

"Sorry." Potter looked sheepish when he saw Regulus' reaction, but invited himself to sit beside him anyway. "Didn't mean to make you jump."

"What are you doing?" Regulus looked hastily for his wand in the mess of papers on the table, but Potter answered quickly.

"Apologising." That was enough for Regulus to give up his search, folding his hands awkwardly back on top of the book. Potter noticed it, eyebrows knitting together when he took in the family tree drawn across the pages. He reached over to look at the spine, title embossed in silver, his eyes darting back up to Regulus. "What are you reading this rubbish for?"

"I thought you were apologising." Potter didn't respond, clearly still waiting for an answer. Regulus would've let him wait forever, if it wasn't for how closely they were sitting and the fact that anybody could have seen them. The last thing he needed from Snape was another lecture about he company he chose to keep. "Fine," he muttered, "Malfoy gave it to me."

"Well if you ask me, you ought to chuck that into the lake with the rest of the scum."

"Good thing I wasn't asking you, then." Regulus rolled his eyes. "It is outdated though, I think. Your family aren't in there." That was clearly enough to pique even the smallest amount of interest in Potter because he took the book, flicking through the first few pages until he reached the list of the so-called 'sacred twenty-eight'. After a quick glance, Potter shrugged and closed the book.