Simply Incorrigible [S.B]

Chapter 7

Regulus placed the letter back in the envelope after reading it thoroughly. His parents had been delighted with him being sorted into Slytherin, so the letter contained all praises and warm wishes.

However, he couldn't help but think how contrary a reply he could have received if he had been sorted in Gryffindor or any other house, for that matter.

Pureblood Supremacy was all about being the best, and in their views, Slytherin was the best. The house of the cunning and ambitious people. People who would do anything to achieve their goals.

"Reg, would you help me out here for a second?" Arielle entered the common room weighed down by the pile of books she had been carrying. 

He went over to her and quickly took half the load before placing it carefully on the table in front of the couch he was sitting on. 

"Checked out the library already?" He asked. 

"Yeah, sort of. I found these in the Runes section and my, aren't they amazing! I kinda have a feeling the library will be a place I'd visit more than just often."

"Well, you never know. What if it turns out to be the place you would visit the least?"

"Oh come off it, you've been a lot pessimistic these days. Loosen up a bit, will you?"

He stared at the fire burning in the hearth as if purposefully trying to look at something else, "of course not. I'm not a pessimist, Elle, wonder what makes you think that."

"Oh y'know, the way you are just disconnected from everything. Ever since we started Hogwarts, you've just been like that. And this is so not you."

"Well... I can't help thinking..." he left the sentence incomplete and it made Arielle more curious to find out what was going on. 

"Thinking what? Is something wrong?"

"No, not yet."

"Then?"

"I can't help thinking what would have happened if I was sorted in any other house than Slytherin."

She nodded knowingly, "Yeah, me too. But not much could have changed, right? I mean, your parents wrote to you today, they are proud of you. They always have been. It couldn't get any different, could it?"

He sighed softly, "It makes all the difference."

"Doesn't Sirius ever get letters from your parents?"

"Well, to be honest, no he doesn't... He gets howlers."

Her eyes widened, "howlers?"

"He wouldn't want you to think of him as a charity case though, he hates sympathy."

"I met him today," she spoke and Regulus turned around to face her, "more so, crashed into him. And he accompanied me to the entrance of our common room. He was being weird."

"And what's new in that, may I ask?"

"No, not the funny weird, he was actually being serious."

Reg's eyes sparked with an unfathomable expression, "did he say anything about me?"

"No," she replied, "I asked him whether he minded me being a Slytherin and he laughed it off saying it doesn't make any difference to him."

He nodded, "right. It probably wouldn't to him because it's you we're talking about. In my case, things wouldn't be so great."

"Why?"

"I bet he was counting on me to turn up in any other house and keep up his record. He must have been disappointed at the Sorting. Anyhow, what else was he saying that seemed so serious to you?"

Arielle shook her head, "it's just that whenever he says anything, it makes me ponder on that. His words are always light but there seems to be something hidden behind them. I mean... I don't know, Reg, but are your parents very cruel to him?"

He shrugged, "I'd say it's from both sides. Sirius never listens so Mother gets a bit harsh with him. If he started paying a little attention to what she tells him and obeys her, things might get better."

"But maybe it is because you don't understand him," she spoke up looking straight in his blue eyes, "you have always been the perfect son, y'know. My mother talks much about how Mrs. Black keeps praising you in front of her. Maybe if you were like Sirius, you would not have thought like this at all."

Regulus nodded and added with a soft sigh, "But I am not Sirius and I never will be or vice versa. I might seem like a whiny complaining kid to you at the moment, but being me is not very easy either."

She was at a loss for what to say, "Reg, I don't get it. At all."

He shrugged, "Oh you will. Soon. But it's not that good of me to spoil your day with my pessimistic views like you just labeled them earlier... Why don't we carry these books to the dorm and you show me what interesting rune you were talking about?"

She knew he was changing the topic because he didn't want to talk anymore about it. Reg had always kept things to himself and this was surely not a new thing to her. "Okay, you take half and I'll take the rest. I have to return these in a week or two."

On the way to the dorms, Regulus loosened up a little. He knew it wouldn't do well if he burdened her with his depressing mood. So, he decided to shut his mother's threats in the back of his mind and try to forget them temporarily.

'I am still a Slytherin,' he thought, 'I belong to the house where she wanted me to. Everything is going to be fine.'

***