Smile When You Dive In

Chapter 40

25th July 1978

It hadn't been difficult to persuade his parents that his summer should be spent at Bellatrix's house. After his conversation with Voldemort had settled in his mind, and the smoke from the alcohol had cleared from his brain, Regulus contemplated it seriously. If he went home, he would lock himself away in Sirius' bedroom again and spend the entire summer miserable, save for the few nights he would be called away to meetings. For most wizards his age, the main concern in suggesting something like that would probably be offending their parents, who after a year away at school would be eager to spend time with their sons. But if Walburga had been put out by his suggestion, it was only because it meant Regulus could not take as active a role in his father's business as she had anticipated.

Bellatrix had been the easiest person to convince. The knowledge that it had been the Dark Lord's suggestion invigorated her, and she told Regulus that she did indeed have much to teach him. Something niggling at the back of his brain worried about what these lessons would be, but he repeated to himself the things that Voldemort had told him, Bellatrix was his family. Bellatrix was a strong witch. If Regulus wanted to be strong, he ought to be more like her. Still, the words that she had shared, the excitement in her face as she recalled the things she had done, the total lack of remorse frightened Regulus. If he was going to stay with Bellatrix, he knew that he would need a plan.

Put simply, the plan was to be somebody else. He thought about the way that Bellatrix acted in her everyday life, the way she had as a child, and the way she acted around the Dark Lord. Thought once more of James and Sirius and their concealed double lives, harsh on the eyes but tender to the touch. Regulus would be a different version of himself over the summer, a better, more refined version. Less timid and concerned with 'niceness', and more like the person that the Dark Lord already thought he was.

2nd August 1978

A week into the holidays, Bellatrix had scolded Regulus for spending so much time at her house. She told him that he was of course, a very welcome guest (thanks only to the Dark Lord), but he should spend more time among his peers, young pureblood witches and wizards. She made a vague reference to finding a wife, which gave him the first real opportunity to tell somebody in his family about his intention to marry Carmen since the letter he'd written and never sent. Bellatrix hadn't been very impressed, but since Carmen technically met all of the criteria a wife ought to, she couldn't complain about his choice too much. Still, finding a wife was not enough for a young pureblood gentleman, especially not the heir to such an ancient and respected house as theirs. So at the first opportunity, Regulus was packed off to a 'get-together' that Rodolphus caught wind of. What he was doing prying into the business of teenagers, Regulus didn't know or particularly care. The lack of an actual invitation from the host would have worried him under normal circumstances, but he reminded himself that he was being a different Regulus, one who would attend parties, it seemed.

The get-together, it transpired, was actually mostly wizards in the year below his at school. They were insufferable enough at school, without volunteering to spend time with them during his summer too, but they had all seen him before he could change his mind and duck out, which meant he had to stay for at least as long as was polite, though Regulus wasn't sure exactly how long that was. Shafiq was there; although he had found himself surrounded by a crowd of the younger boys, so Regulus did not approach him.

As the night was beginning to wind down, a more appropriate time to leave, Regulus excused himself to the bathroom to escape a tedious conversation about the Dark Lord. When Regulus had first met the man, hearing the others speculate about what he was like had thrilled him, knowing that he secretly knew the answers to most of their questions. Now though, it seemed only repetitive. It had been his intention to spend a little time in the bathroom to escape the summer heat, and then to floo back to Bellatrix's. It hadn't been his intention to run into the night's host, Barty Crouch Jr, in the bathroom.