STILL GOT TIME

OUTFIT | @regulus

An unfortunate truth about Hogwarts was that they had to find their own ways to stay entertained. They weren't able to leave for months on end, with the exception of Hogsmeade weekends, and so they had to figure out how to pass the time and how to have a bit of fun. He was sure that the Gryffindors were having a hell of a time tonight--they had won their match against Slytherin earlier that day, and he was quite sure that victory party would be a fun one to attend. Slytherin was a hell of a team this year, with the help of Kim. It felt nearly unfair to have a seeker that was practically professional in South Korea, but what could he do about it? He wasn't about to pitch a fit about it. The only outcome of that would be making it look like he didn't think they could beat Kim, and it likely wouldn't result in him getting his way at all. Caerus very much doubted they would tell Kim that he couldn't play, just because he was on another level than some of the other players on the opposing house teams. And he wasn't that good.

Well, Caerus supposed he was that good, but he wasn't invincible. He was a better seeker than Caerus was, but that was because Caerus didn't play seeker. If he did, he didn't think that he would be all that intimidated by him. But he was less sure of other seekers, and didn't think if any of them were much when compared to Kim. He was kind of in a league of his own as far as seekers went at Hogwarts, and it really had to be the right kind of circumstances to catch the snitch before him. It had happened, though. Twice this year it had happened--and today was now officially one of those days. Gryffindor would likely be celebrating late into the night, he was sure. It almost made him wish that he could crash the party. It was a tempting thought. Gryffindor Tower was not all that far away from here, after all. He was sure just going in that general direction would be enough for him to find someone that would let him in.

Honestly, victory parties were more fun with other houses anyway. And it wasn't as if they had beaten Ravenclaw. There was no reason not to celebrate together. But he knew that he likely wouldn't end up heading that way anytime soon… more than likely at all. It was getting late, and quite frankly, he thought that he was just about ready to turn in for the night. Or at the very least, head up to his dormitory. He'd spent several hours in the east wing earlier that night, running into Aileas there as well--and she was always fun to be around. It had been made more enjoyable by the fact that he'd brought his flask around… which was now empty, so he was feeling a nice little buzz from the firewhiskey that he'd consumed. Caerus didn't feel all that bad about breaking that particular rule. He was legally of age to drink, so to him it made no sense to strictly enforce that rule when he would be allowed to drink anywhere else. Still, he knew he had to be cautious, so the flask was back in his pocket as he'd left the east wing.

There were still people in the common room, but he thought that he'd had enough of people for the night. He didn't see anyone down there that he honestly wanted to talk to. If LJ had been there, or Sera, then he might have stayed up for a while longer. But he didn't see them, so he'd decided that it might as well be time for him to head up to bed. He could read up there, at least. The firewhiskey's buzz just made him feel like his bed was certainly the answer. Caerus thought that there was a good chance the room would be empty. It was late, but not quite late enough to go to sleep on a Saturday night. When he entered, though, he saw that the dormitory wasn't as empty as he thought. "Regulus." He said, with a nod in greeting. "Have a good night?" Caerus added, as he dropped down onto his bed.

There were so many serious faces roaming the halls these days and Regulus had found that he was among that number now. Not distinctly through choice but more through sheer habit, of being too lost in his thoughts to remember to muster a smile for those he passed in the corridors after classes and after meals, as well as through... well a lack of inclination to join his peers in their mutters and whispers. Sometimes those whispers melded with the ones already inside his skull, and in those times it was usually best for him to steer clear of others anyway. Most of them were whispering about which side of the 'new world' they were on and who was marrying who and while that could hilarious to join in with at times, admiring others' rocks had never really been something he enjoyed doing. So while his housemates and such could be interesting his mind tended to dismiss them and move elsewhere, like the building that housed them; the inner workings of the castle's walls. If only he could get a clear run at attempting to scale the outside even just once before he graduated... it was one challenge he had on his cauldron-list that he didn't believe he'd get away with unscathed.

Failing that, he wanted to dive into the lake and go exploring. It would probably be an after curfew job in terms of not wanting to be interrupted though then he'd also need an exterior light source. Preferably not his wand as he'd need that for other things, so likely bluebell flames in a jar, strapped to his belt. Bubblehead charm would see that he didn't drown. Warming charm on his clothes would stop any chance of hypothermia. Regulus thought he had it pretty well planned out really... so it was just a matter of biding his time until an ideal opportunity revealed itself. Like, perchance, Ravenclaw winning another match so his dormmates wouldn't notice his absence and pull him up for it. LJ was the Head Boy, and while he thought the other bloke was pretty sound and unlikely to go squalling on him, it still wasn't a risk he felt comfortable with taking. Any blip on his record could see to it that he was pulled from the school and be labelled a danger, even something as benign as skipping curfew to do his own thing. Whereis Quidditch was a pretty big thing for most of the school and as such, parties were pretty common whenever a house won. Like tonight, for instance. He had heard the noise earlier when the Fat Lady had swung forward to admit someone and the music and the yelling had poured out at him, and he had steered clear.

Not because he didn't enjoy parties- far from it- but alcohol tended to mess with the 'meds' he was taking, and as the potion cocktail was already questionable by itself, it stood to turn really ugly with the imbibing of anything stronger than a butterbeer. But who even drank butterbeer these days when you were celebrating a win? Half of his year if not more had alcohol stashed all the way around the school and brought it out for things like this, or the suffocating school events like Valentines. It was too much temptation, so staying away from it was already in his best interests. A trip to the lake wasn't harming anyone, and if he drowned then... well, he drowned. Myrtle would have a rival in the plumbing system or a companion. First though, he'd prefer to do something huge like discovering a cure for any of the mental illnesses that plagued their population before he hung up his robes for good and stepped into the ethereal plane of existence. It had been a long time since Hogwarts scored a new ghost. Still... he didn't think he'd want to be stuck here for good if he was killed through matters out of his hands. Because he wasn't dying unless he was killed or stopped through powers greater than he.

Skirting round the common room, he had taken to the dorm quicker than usual to evade everyone else as his head had been screaming at him to find somewhere quiet. Just a simple headache, but he hadn't fancied a trip to the matron as he was already drinking too many concoctions for his tastes as it was. That left... his projects, a crossword puzzle from that morning's prophet, sleep... or leaving the castle to find something else to do. Like going head to head with the whomping willow to see whether or not he could climb it... or grabbing his broom and pushing the boundaries on his parkour skills. Just to be sure, he hadn't gotten changed into his pyjamas in case he changed his mind from staying in. Instead he was sat up in his bed in a tshirt, playing with a small amount of bluebell flames in his hands. The door open and he looked up, smiling in greeting to the familiar face. "Caerus..." he returned, flicking the blue flames over the back of his hand and into the palm of his other, "Mostly uneventful, especially compared to the Lions at the moment. How was yours? I wasn't expecting anyone to come back up here for a while yet." He'd pulled back the curtains of his bed so the fire couldn't accidentally manage to somehow set them alight, but just in case he had the jar nearby to drop them into if they grew unruly.

still got time
Tag: regulus	Words: 752

There were ways to make Hogwarts fun. He thought so anyway. It could get a little dull being cooped up in the castle, but he’d had seven years to learn how to amuse himself. Once he had gotten interested in girls, that had gotten a lot easier. He knew that he had just a little bit of a reputation, but he usually ended relationships with the girls that he was with on relatively good terms so he didn’t think that there were too many scorned witches talking shit about him in their dormitories at night. Not a lot of them, anyway. He liked to think that he was just a charming guy in general and that usually helped him in not making too many enemies. Really, he thought that he was on the worst terms with Alois, as far as past relationships went, and they weren’t even on bad terms. They just didn’t get along. And a lot of that had more to do with them being opposites on the pitch. He didn’t tend to date or shag too many other Quidditch players. Definitely not on his team. He didn’t have many rules but that was an important one. He wasn’t going to mess with the dynamic of the Ravenclaw team by shagging any girl on the team or dating any of them. It could get too messy if that ended up being a relationship that did end badly, and they all needed to be able to play well together. And they did. So he wasn’t going to risk that. But he didn’t date all that many girls from other teams either. There were some, but that list was pretty short--and for good reason, apparently. The fact that he was on worse terms with Alois than any other ex was proof of that. He just still didn’t think that they were on bad terms by any means. Tonight, had been about a different blonde. A far more… exciting one, in his opinion. Aileas had not been in his plans for the night until she had very literally dropped into his lap. But drinking with her was more fun than drinking alone and he’d had a good time with her. They hadn’t gotten up to anything too inappropriate, but that was fine. She was just fun company. He’d had enough firewhiskey to know that he was going to sleep well tonight. Honestly, he thought he could pass right out pretty easily the second that he laid down, but he’d also had it in him to stay up if he’d seen anyone interesting in the common room. Caerus thought that he could have convinced LJ to drink with him but he’d been nowhere to be seen. Out with Sera, maybe, but at least out somewhere. It wasn’t too uncommon for his best friend to ignore curfew entirely and go off… somewhere. He didn’t really ask. LJ liked to be on his own sometimes, and on occasion it seemed like Sera liked to be alone with him. Whatever that meant. He didn’t know if they had sorted out just what they were doing there but he had to admit that he was curious. It was hardly something that he had been expecting--but hell, if they got married, he and LJ would be cousins! That was an amusing enough joke to make, at least. He didn’t think that they were actually going to get married. He didn’t think that their relationship was necessarily even like that. They just seemed to be good for each other. LJ had lost his mother, and Sera had too, and that meant that she knew how to help him more than a lot of other people did. Certainly more than Caerus did. He wanted to help, but he was hardly an expert on loss. Sera had been able to help him more than he could, and so when he couldn’t find either of them he’d come to assume that they were together. That was likely what was happening now, but that was fine. The firewhiskey he’d drank made him pretty ready to fall asleep… and maybe even made him nice enough to talk to Regulus, who he had to admit he wasn’t all that close with despite having lived with him for years. “Oh, it was… entertaining enough. I was tempted to crash the Gryffindors’ party earlier but decided against it.” He said, with a chuckle. He didn’t think they’d mind the intrusion, and victory parties were always fun.

Still Got Time

1046 words

@ Caerus

There was a lot to keep them occupied. It was just finding it that seemed to be the issue for most of them, as most seemed to fall in the Quidditch or Sex categories like a rut and couldn't find their way back out again. Quidditch had its place. Regulus didn't mind going down to the stadium to watch the matches involving his house, but outside of that he didn't usually tend to turn up if he could help it. Witches could be fun but he did his best to evade them on a general basis too in case something happened that he couldn't really explain. Life had gotten hard suddenly in the last year of his life- give or take a few months- and while he wasn't struggling with it anymore, that much hadn't really changed. His studies weren't the issue. It was the fact that no matter where he went, he struggled to find silence, even with the entire muggleborn populous being absent from the halls. His personal projects had taken a back seat as he didn't have the concentration for them at the moment, not to mention that anytime he seemed to break out anything written down or found somewhere to set up an experiment, someone always turned up to intercept him so it had to be cleared away again. After a few times of that it hadn't taken much thought to just put it away for good. There would always be time for such things. Speaking with Sera had shown him that at least someone was still pursuing their ideas and hers interested him more than his own at the moment, so what really was the point in continuing with them? When inspiration next hit, he'd explore it fully before he moved onto another. Perhaps then he could hold a solid train of thought in his mind.

Besides, he was enjoying his time at the Ministry enough that he wouldn't have had all that much energy to sink into things like that. Macnair was a task master who made sure everyone stayed on track, but he was fair, so Regulus had a bit of grudging respect for the man. Not enough for him to think about applying to the Department of Magical Accidents and Catastrophes when he graduated to train up to an official spot, just enough that he didn't get bored when he left the school to go back to his internship and try to get through as much paperwork that hit his desk as possible. It was exactly what Eddie hadn't wanted him to do which was why he was doing it, really. It had been the main reason he'd signed up. Reg hadn't listened to anything that had come out of his father's mouth since he'd landed in St. Mungos, with cause and diagnosis laid in his hands for what was going on inside his head. As far as he was concerned, the older wizard had very little right to try and advise him to do anything as he had all but forfeited holding the title of his dad on that day, even if he hadn't known it. The only reason he was still at home was for his mum. After graduation, he'd be flying the roost, so he wasn't going to fight her wished for him to stay put until then. His contact with Eddie was minimal. It was bearable. And he didn't spend all that much time anywhere in the house where he would see either of them either which only made it easier. He saw them at meals. On occasion he helped his mum with getting the shopping in. Otherwise he was left to his own devices. And perhaps that was why now he struggled with the throngs inside Hogwarts.

Apparently, he had a problem with authority. Who knew? Merlin only knew when it had developed in the first place, but nowadays it was almost glaringly obvious. He didn't take well to any form of condescending tone thrown his way. If told not to do something he generally did it anyway, on the sly, just to find out why they had said not to in the first place. It was one lesson from Eddie that he'd retained; "Check your facts for yourself" and he stuck with it while maintaining a blank expression in classes when pushed. Yet even with all of this going on... he wasn't trying to be anti-social. He actually enjoyed company in the right context when things were sailing plainly, wouldn't have turned down a witch if she were serious about getting to know him. In that frame he supposed he differed from his dorm mates, who could date and shag or abstain at any juncture they chose. Things were better for them. He wasn't jealous simply because he didn't have it in him really to be envious of others, but it was something he aspired to eventually achieve. It had only been a year and a half since this had transpired for him. Just under a year since he'd been told what was wrong and got a treatment plan. It would take time yet until he could fully function with it on the sidelines instead of in his direct path and he also knew he had to accept that. It was a tough pill to swallow. Sometimes it threatened to choke him. But there was no option to 'give up' in this situation. All he could do was to continue pushing forwards until something else gave that helped him deal with it a little better. Whatever form it may come in.

Truth be told, he didn't know his dorm mates all that well, so it wasn't like he could speak to either of them about it. He wasn't inclined to, either. He lounged on his bed, the flames still dancing merrily in his palm as he turned his gaze back to Caerus. He could faintly detect alcohol on the other boy's breath and he smiled again, rolling his eyes as he went back to tossing about the blue fire like a ball. "That's a little surprising... you usually love parties, regardless of where they are," Regulus said quietly, "I take it you found fun elsewhere though. You're in a fairly good mood."

I Don't Care What You Think So Long As It's About Me

► kaigra ◄