Smile When You Dive In

Chapter 34

In the months that passed between Regulus' last conversation with Voldemort and actually being called to take the mark, his life went on like clockwork. He returned to school after Christmas with his hair a little longer than it had been, much to Walburga's chagrin. Willa told him that it suited him, but he knew she was only saying it to be kind. He could see from the look on her face that she thought he was overdue a haircut, and she suggested that perhaps he could style it differently when it grew out. Carmen told him that he looked more like his brother with his hair like that, and Regulus didn't know if that made him want to keep it more, or to cut it all off right away. In truth, he hadn't thought people would care so much about his hair growing an inch or so longer than he usually kept it, especially with all of the gruesome reports in the papers recently.

But aside from his appearance, he couldn't find that much had changed at school. With the anticipation building up inside him, he felt that everything around him ought to reflect the shifting tides, but classes continued and the flowers bloomed as they did each spring. Apparation lessons began, and the rather rotund man that taught them told Regulus that he was a natural, obviously not knowing that he had been apparating alone since the previous summer, when Bellatrix had instructed him to. He had expected to do the same for Voldemort's meetings, but Regulus was invited to only two meetings in those months, and had very little time to speak with the Dark Lord at either of them. The man still responded in like to his letters, but Regulus sensed that they were somewhat less welcome than before. As Voldemort had said, plans needed to be drawn up soon, and that meant that he didn't have time to be making small talk with teenagers. But the lack of contact meant that Regulus had far more time to spend with the girls than he had since perhaps the beginning of his fifth year, when things started to get hectic.

Regulus thought that Carmen seemed agitated one morning as they lay out on the grass. With the last snowfall of winter weeks prior, the students were making the most of the dry weather before April showers rolled in, spreading out across the grounds in groups large and small. He watched her, lying there in the grass and thought that the chill in the air was probably responsible for her state.

"We can go back inside, if you want." He told her. Having apparently been pulled from some deep thought, she looked over at him and frowned.

"Sorry, Reggie." Carmen reached out a hand to stroke his cheek fondly. "I was miles away."

"What's up?" Regulus asked.

In lieu of an answer, Carmen pulled from her pocket a folded letter, crumpled from having been handled so many times. She handed it to Regulus, who read the short message and quickly understood the girl's melancholic sighs. The letter was from her mother, written only days ago. From the paper, Regulus would have assumed it was much longer, but Carmen had obviously been turning the paper over in her hands over and over as she considered the contents.

"She really wants you to have found somebody before summer?" He asked, making no attempt to hide his surprise. Carmen nodded solemnly.

"Mama says that all of the respectable boys will have a wife lined up by seventh year, and that I ought to make myself one of them, or she will."

Suddenly, Regulus thought himself quite lucky that his mother was happily distracted by his connection to the Dark Lord, and only brought up the prospect of his future marriage in passing. It seemed far too early in their lives to be making such permanent decisions as who they were going to marry. But if he were to point that out to his mother, she would have only reminded him how pureblood marriages had worked decades ago, when she found herself betrothed to Regulus' father during her third year at Hogwarts. While finding his own wife seemed a daunting task, allowing his parents the honour was unthinkable.