Once upon a Midnight Dreary - Regulus Black

Chapter 14

"𝔜ou're still in bed, you lazy rascal? It's already eleven o'clock." I woke up to Theodore's reproving voice. He had barged into my room and cast a spell to open the curtains and the windows. By doing so, he admitted a large volume of fresh – albeit suffocatingly humid – air to my already warm attic bedroom. "Go pick out your best clothes and get dressed."

I struggled to sit up. Once I managed to rub the remainder of sleep from my eyes, I blinked up at Theodore. He was seemingly ready to leave the house, wearing a dark blue lounging jacket with a single-breasted waistcoat and grey striped trousers.

He had at last recovered from his injuries and was now back to his former ways. Except something had changed in him since his feverish hallucination. Lately he has been leaving his study more and more, eating his meals in the dining area and reading the newspaper in the sitting room instead.

He has been acknowledging me more, too, mostly talking politics with me. In addition, he had even allowed Regulus and me to use his library. I had told him that we needed to start preparing for our N.E.W.T exams; I didn't think he had believed me, but he had agreed to my request with fretful reluctance. To no avail, it seemed. Regulus and I have not yet found another book containing information on Horcruxes, not matter how many hours we had spent researching over the past three weeks.

It was now the penultimate day before going back to Hogwarts, but before we could finally leave this hellish place, there was one more ordeal to come. Breaking the long traditions, Isabella's mother was going to be the one to host the annual end of summer party in place of Walburga Black. I wished to skip attending this yet another torturous event, but the moment I received my own invitation and Theodore shot me a warning glance, I knew I had no choice but to tag along. What kept me going was the reassuring thought that I didn't have to attend another party until Christmas.

"Hurry," Theodore barked, displeased that I was still in bed. "Louisa wishes to take Theodora out for a walk. We're going to the main Avenue on Diagon Alley, and you're coming with us."

At first, I thought he was just joking, but since he was physically incapable of nurturing any positive feelings and I have not once seen him in a good mood, I quickly disregarded this assumption.

"I see your brain got roasted in this heat," I observed, astounded. "Why would I go? Actually, never mind. Why would you go?"

"It's a family outing, and we're both part of this blasted family," he replied gruffly. "Are you satisfied now?"

I knew his feelings towards Louisa, Theodora or me couldn't have possibly changed over the course of the past month. And yet, just last night I had witnessed him put his hand above Louisa's during dinner, something he would never usually do; he normally avoided all kinds of physical contact with his own wife. He has also been giving fewer orders to Vokpy when it came to nursing Theodora. He would keep her by his side whenever he wasn't working, slowly rocking her crib with his foot.

I didn't know what to make of these small changes in him. Perhaps our mother's visit last time was such a transformative experience for him that he had decided to turn his life around. The other alternative was that I might have really just been a foolish brat – as he often liked to call me –, and I talked myself into something I wished to believe but never existed.

Silent, I kept my gaze fixed upon him. He looked back at me, scowling. There was a long gap in our laborious conversation; the longer the silence lasted the more my confusion grew. I couldn't fathom why he would suddenly try to include me in social activities I have been boxed out of all my life. He and Father would often go out with their mutual acquaintances to dine at fancy restaurants, but they would never invite me, not that I ever wished to join them and their tedious friends from the Ministry. Deep down, it was all just a lie; I wanted to be a part of Theo's life and his inner circle, no matter how insistently he kept pushing me away.