The Hobgoblins (Harry Potter Fanfic)

Broken World

"I'm still broken. Still different."

Regulus looked down at the words on the paper, sighing

"And I definitely said the wrong thing to Adrian the other day."

"Regulus?"

"Yes, Aunt Lu?" Regulus said, not looking up from his notebook.

"Your mother. Something..."

Silence fell over the room. Regulus looked up and saw Ignatius nudge her, shaking his head.

"Anyways, your mother wishes for you to come home. You've been away long enough, stewing. She doesn't..."

Regulus buried his face into his notebook. "They'll make me go home when it's time, but until then..."

"Regulus." His aunt sighed.

Regulus stopped.

"Seems like Regulus is becoming a brooding teenager as well?"

Regulus went back to writing lyrics, frowning, writing down, then scratching out the words, brooding teenager because the words first sounded like music in his head, but then he found himself faced with not knowing what that meant. But then, he rewrote the words and circled them, emphasizing he should find out and think it over.

"Regulus, is this about Adrian not wanting to be friends?"

Regulus looked up, mouth opening slightly, his quill scribbling out the word friend and underlining it, not paying attention at the moment to what ended up put into the notebook, his second one since starting up. "Huh?"

Ignatius came over, sitting on the opposite end of the couch. "What can your aunt and I do to help you make friends? You do want to be friends with people?"

Regulus frowned, scribbling down, "I want to be friends, but I'm not allowed. How do I even be friends when I don't even know what that means? If I'll have any, how to be friends is left to be seen."

"Regulus, please?"

"Sorry. Lost in thought."

"Have you done any of your schoolwork?"

"I've only been," Regulus tilted his head. "It's a week into the summer."

"But normally, you'll have finished everything and are in the reviewing phase, dear."

Regulus frowned and sighed. He closed the notebook. "Did maman tell you what Sirius did? At school?"

"Regulus, you might not want to mention Sirius when you get home."

"What's new about that?" Regulus slid the notebook into his school bag, realizing they meant sending him home soon. He stayed on the couch, and his eyes blinked. "I put my feet up on the couch." He turned, clearing his throat, setting his feet on the ground."

"No. I mean, you shouldn't ever mention Sirius in front of your mother." Lucretia said. "I—you'll better understand when you get home."

"Lucretia, tell him."

"Walburga said not to. To not..."

"He'll figure it out sooner or later."

"I'll take sooner." Regulus stood up, letting out a sigh, and walked to the Floo, taking a handful of the powder and tossing it into the fireplace, saying Grimmauld Place, which in turn brought him right into the drawing room along with the smell of smoke from the Floo.

And—

—silence—

Regulus' eyes opened and closed. "Did Sirius go to visit James already? Actually, why hasn't she dragged him back?"