He returned as steady as the Mountain Wind

Chapter 7: "Polyjuice Potion"

Christmas morning dawned bright and Hogwarts found itself once more wrapped into a thick layer of snow. Unlike last year, Blaise wasn't overly excited for presents, mostly due to Regulus keeping him in line. The first year had reigned his older brother in by saying "Breakfast first, presents later, or do you want me to tell Angiola that you got yourself sick by eating to many sweets?"

So they all ascended into the Great Hall. After everyone had left that castle it painted a rather bizarre picture of a full head table and all but empty house tables. Once they noticed their Slytherin friends, Cedric and the twins waved the Silver trio over to the Ravenclaw table, where they had joined the blonde first year.

Cedric beamed at them. They didn't get too much time with the Hufflepuff, mainly because of his OWLs, but now was a good opportunity to catch up. "Everyone, this is-"

"Luna Lovegood" Regulus interrupted, "we have charms together." Harry noted that Regulus' voice was a colourful mix of slight envy, respect, and strong underlying curiosity. A rather peculiar tone, especially since Regulus was seldom envious, and even rarer intrigued. But the Ravenclaw took it with grace. "Yes, Regulus Black, the boy with the personality wand whom the wrackspurts leave alone."

Blaise raised his eyebrows, mouthing "wrackspurts?" as Harry who shrugged. Hermione had mentioned her fellow Raven in passing, saying she had the aura of an oracle or a seer, so it was likely that she chose to name the signs she saw. Considering Regulus' personality, "wrackspurts" were most likely a sign of gossip mongering. Harry however found another detail of Luna's comment much more interesting: "How come you never mentioned having a personality wand, Regulus?"

The younger boy winced, hiding his head between his shoulders, eyes wandering around nervously. "I...There was...more important stuff I guess..." he trailed off, light pink dusting his cheeks.

"More important stuff?" Blaise yelled, "My little brother managed to win over a personality wand and in such a short time that he could still hold the top of his class position within the first term that's nothing short of amazing!"

Regulus gave a wobbly grin: "Ain't it?"

The twins suddenly had the youngest in a double headlock, their free hands ruffling his hair: "As expected of Regulus Black"

"youngest of the Ancient and Noble House of Black,"

"Pride of the family,"

"Pride of Slytherin House"

Cedric was grinning ear to ear, before gently pulling a – now blushing – Regulus out of his misery. Once the commotion settled down, they found that the food had finally been served. This of course made Cedric mother hen them into eating even a least bit healthy.

"Cakes for Crabbe and Goyle"

by John Williams

(from "The Chamber of Secrets")

"Tell them to be careful on their way back! Two lions are going to give in to their nargles." Luna said to Harry before skipping off to Ravenclaw Tower. Harry frowned. Blaise and Regulus had stayed in the Great Hall to chat with Fred and George some more, Cedric had excused himself halfway through the meal, wanting to use the nearly empty common room for studying.

Harry wanted to get some headway in his presents. Christmas was a busy time and people's attention usually was everywhere. So if you played it right, you could slip something past their barriers. Barriers, like say, a prohibition of contact. Of course, it wouldn't be much, because magic was still involved in that sort of thing to keep the prohibition from being broken. But a few hidden messages were sure to be hidden inside presents from certain godparents. And since the press got wind of the whole Chamber of Secrets fiasco, there might even be a hint or two about where to find the Chamber and more importantly, what was hidden inside it. But first, he should relay the warning to his friends...