Once upon a Midnight Dreary - Regulus Black

Chapter 15

"𝔖hite. You look really bad," Rosier greeted me with a gloating grin as I slumped down beside him. "Didn't sleep much, did you?"

"How'd you figure that out?" I blindly groped for the coffeepot, eager to drink some lifesaving caffeine. I was not much of a morning person as Regulus had previously pointed it out; I felt like a zombie risen from its grave, my sight so dim that I barely noticed Slughorn as he waddled up to the table, handing out the schedules.

"You're a bloody horrible dormmate," Rosier continued, spooning his porridge. "You were tossing and turning all night. You woke me up at least twenty times, if not more."

"You better get used to it. I'm not a great sleeper," I said indifferently and took a big pull on my cup.

"We noticed," Parkinson chimed in, he himself looking like he had just come back from the dead, his broad white face bent over a steaming plate of eggs and bacon. "I also couldn't sleep, all because of you."

"It takes us a while to get back into the school routines, doesn't it?" Bulstrode mused, his eyes scanning his timetable. He let out a satisfied little sigh, then turned to me and asked, "How's your weekly schedule?"

I tossed the piece of parchment towards him, and together we checked my class schedule. We both had double Transfiguration on Wednesday afternoons and double DADA on Thursday mornings. I also had double Ancient Runes on Monday mornings – even the thought of it made me bored out of my mind already –, and double Potions on Thursdays after lunch. My Tuesdays and Fridays were luckily free, but I already knew that free periods were meant to be used for studying.

Sipping my morning coffee and gradually sobering up, I looked around in the Great Hall. It was strange not seeing the Marauders or my previous roommates anywhere. A few seats away from me, however, there was Jiao sitting with her friends, Betty Willis, Cole Burton, Clarke, Mason and Holmes.

I spent a few moments observing Burton and Jiao. They were already planning when to arrange the Prefects' meetings. Unlike yesterday during our small run-in, Burton was tirelessly smiling and joking around, his gaze never leaving Jiao's figure for more than ten seconds. His crush on her was as obvious as a meteorite crashing into Earth; I wondered if she really couldn't see it, or if she simply chose to remain oblivious to his feelings, ignoring it in hopes it might fade away with time.

"What about you, Black?" I heard Rosier inquire from beside me.

He reached across the table to pick up Regulus' timetable. His own looked rather empty with DADA as his only class for the year. No wonder; he was probably never going to work or do anything relatively useful with his life. His family had enough money without having to worry about ever going broke.

"Ugh, you also have Charms on Mondays and Double Herbology on Tuesdays... yikes. At least your Fridays are free."

Regulus was sitting directly opposite me, reading the paper and not paying any attention to his surroundings. Frowning, he was absorbed in thought, and his food and drink remained untouched.

I didn't bother leafing through my own copy of Daily Prophet because I already knew what I would find in there. Death, attacks against Muggles and Muggle-borns, people going missing, more death, the Dementors not doing a satisfactory enough job, more death, politicians collectively being idiots, the Dark Lord gaining power by the minute, Aurors working their arses off and still not putting enough criminals behind the bars, and some even more death.

To distract myself from these gloomy thoughts, I decided to pen Theodore a response. I had read his letter at least a million times, and it never ceased to make my heart pound in my chest. It was a whole new feeling, something like hope and elation, feelings my brother never usually awoke in me.