Professor Black: A Reader Insert

12. Playing House

Regulus sat with his arms crossed giving a stern look to the portrait of his great aunt, that was looking away from the boy rather stubbornly.

"Auntie." He started only to be interrupted.

"I'm not sorry." The painting huffed with her nose in the air.

"Then once Mommy's all better I'll have her and Dad take you down." That got a look from the painting.

"You can't do that." 

"Mommy's not above using muggle means. It's a shame if she's not careful with the acid you'll go missing." The boy looked at his nails nonplussed by this conversation.

"You're lying." The portrait looked indignant as she glanced at Regulus.

"I'll get them to have Joan help." He singsonged with a misleading smile.

"You wouldn't." She gave a scandalized gasp.

"Wanna bet?" the misleading smile only grew.

"Fine." She sighed.

"Joan is a part of this family now, so you need to stop screeching insults at them at every chance." The boy held a finger out as he scolded his aunt's portrait.

Rifton was watching as Regulus corrected his aunt's behavior with a stifled chuckle at the fleeting thought that he must've picked this skill up from (y/n) at some point. Speaking of (y/n), Rifton turned his head from where he was leaning against the doorway of the parlor to find the woman in question wrapped in a blanket helping Joan with their summer assignments. Severus was off to the side keeping an eye on (y/n) so he could whisk her away if she felt even the slightest bit woozy. He was holding a book from the house's library that (y/n) tried to purge but was held off by Kreacher. 

(y/n) stiffened beside Joan as they asked why a certain formula needed a certain ingredient. Her face contorted slightly like she ate something rotten. Then the woman grabbed the kid's shoulders and turned them to look at her.

"Once term starts, carry a mirror and stay vigilant." Her face looked sickly as she shook slightly. "Promise me. Spread the word to the muggle-borns in your year and above if you can. Please."

"I-I promise?" Joan looked at her weirdly sending a look to Severus who was watching the scene with a thoughtful gaze.

"Come on, Puff, that took quite a bit out of you." Severus stood and picked her up directly and had her lie down in her bed.

"Mommy found out about Gregor." Reggie stood next to Rifton causing the man to jump in surprise. 

"Gregor?" Joan sent a freaked-out look to the boy who only plopped down next to Joan with a hum.

"The crazy big snake with a deadly stare that lives in the pipes at Hogwarts. She's only learning about it now because some people she knows are going to have to deal with him waking up. I only know about it for the same reason." Then the six-year-old boy reached for their hand and held it so he could see the palm of it. "Don't meet its eyes and you will live a long life." 

"Sorry about him." Rifton picked the boy up and pulled him away. "He's been spending more time with Granny Kim than he honestly should." 

"So there's a crazy big snake in the school's pipes, that tracks. Since Harry Potter started school there things keep getting weirder." They sighed and pulled out more parchment to start writing to all the muggle-borns they knew of.

"Past warning the muggle-borns, please don't get involved." Severus's monotone voice said as he drifted past the parlor on his way to the kitchen for some medicinal soup muttering as he went. "An inference that strong got her sick."