Chapter Text
Regulus sits up at the head table for the meals, quiet and self-contained, and occasionally points out students of interest to him (Severus makes mental notes on all of these students, determined to seek them out later and resolve whatever makes the similarities so relevant to Regulus). He is never a disruption, never seems too loudly interested in himself, never attempts to provoke others into conversation when they’re clearly not interested in anything but their meal, unlike some, but Severus has fielded many questions from the more specialized staff as to why he is allowed to sit at the “professor table.” Severus’s main retort is a solemn and direct glance in the direction of such prime exhibits of those three examples as Professor Gilderoy Lockhart. They usually blush and retreat at that point.
It has been two years since Severus (and by extension, Regulus) joined Hogwarts staff and by this point Trelawney’s presence is merely a formality; Regulus conducts informal divination lessons by the lake, promoting meditation and psychology as methods of understanding one’s self and one’s environment to better predict the world around you, and has taken to cornering students in empty hallways to invite them to discuss their problems with him, usually leading to a dazed student wandering away feeling a little bit broken but also a bit stronger for having their world view cracked like an eggshell. The complaints have mostly trickled away by now and it’s gotten to the point where Severus can pretty much glare them into submission if Regulus hasn’t already swooped in and charmed them by being himself up close.
Severus has been keeping a list of Regulus’s Fan Club members and is pleased that they seem to have a more solid devotional footing than Lockhart’s ridiculous pastel lavender farce does. So far it consists heavily of older Slytherins following his husband like protective armed ducklings, Longbottom (self-esteem heavily damaged by his grandmother’s degrading remarks/the careless disregard by his great-aunts and -uncles), Granger (a case of the Lonely Bookworm Syndrome), the Weasley twins (chronic troublemakers who seem delighted to have some attention that doesn’t stem from being Weasleys or being punished), and the Lovegood girl (well-meaning neglect, unfortunately).
Regulus pops in to observe the Potions classes sometimes, like a fluffy therapy animal. He likes to hide from Severus, under desks or behind wall hangings, as though Severus can’t see the tufts of escaping black hair or smudged black shoes, and he whispers loud enough to carry.
“You’re doing fine, Neville,” he’ll say, or “watch that valerian root, young man” to Crabbe, who scrambles to drop only the exact measurement into the cauldron. Once he whispers a brisk “do your own work” to a Ravenclaw, who flushes and turns away from the girl he’d been blabbing at instead of working. Severus has never once heard him say an unkind word to a student, excepting the time he told a Lockhart fanatic her crazy was showing, and even then the Slytherin girl got more ridicule from her own House for making Regulus sad. (For a week after that Regulus wore knitted sweaters featuring the words ‘i’m sorry,’ ‘you can do it,’ and a bizarre collage of cats hanging off of wires. Molly Weasley looked very proud of herself and thought the kittens were very cute.)
The year passed quickly. Severus didn’t mind as much as he thought he would; Regulus was there to slow things down again.
In the spring Regulus offered to sit in on Trelawney’s lessons after being beset by upset students. He managed an hour of staring into a dirty teacup before he snapped, offered Trelawney some of his best stolen whiskey, and mounted a lesson on visions and why some people have the gift and some (he glanced at the inebriated woman against the wall) attempted to induce such visions with incense, alcohol, and hallucinogens. The lesson lasted until someone (Severus) noticed none of them had made it to dinner and went looking. Regulus unofficially became the new Divinations professor with all the students one hundred percent convinced he saw the future, and Trelawney was none the wiser.
Near the end of the year Regulus flops onto the bed in their room like a child and informs Severus that he’s had a Gryffindor first-year tell him that Lockhart tried to touch her and that’s she’s afraid to tell her brothers. Severus, appropriately, sees red at the idea. It doesn’t matter that Regulus doesn’t seem particularly bothered by discussing this subject. Severus remembers the time that he was . Lockhart manages to vanish, tripped down the stairs into a secret house elf tunnel that somehow manages to never get cleaned. Ginny Weasley attaches herself to Severus’s shadow after watching him deliver a blistering condemnation of Gilderoy Lockhart’s books, hair, even his disgusting smile to a bewildered and teary fan. Her brothers look on, badly hiding their glee.