From Eden - Regulus Black (Complete)

Chapter Sixty-Eight

ALPHARD BLACK

Regulus tried not to look too shocked or touched by the letter in his hands, but he couldn't even pretend that he didn't care.

Alphard Black was dead.

Alphard Black had committed suicide. He had been disowned and outed as gay, all in a single day. His uncle was dead because for something that Regulus himself had: attraction for men.

His eyes quickly went to the Gryffindor table, wondering if anyone was going to tell Sirius that his favourite uncle had killed himself, but the boy seemed carefree as ever, laughing and being as loud and obnoxious as he usually was in the mornings. It felt like it was falling upon himself to talk to him and to end all his happiness.

The memory on his mind was happy. He was thirteen when he found out why Uncle Alphard wasn't married, though his mother (the mother of Regulus' own mother) had tried several times; contrary to what Walburga had said, he didn't mess around with lots of women, he just had a... best friend. Mister Yaxley was a great guy, also single, who liked to liked to play music so he had a lot to talk about with Regulus – one summer, when he was all too excited to tell Mister Yaxley about the song he composed, he walked into the music room without announcement and saw the most shocking of scenes. Uncle Alphard and Mister Yaxley were stuck in an intimate embrace and they jumped apart once they noticed Regulus. A secret was born. And the small part that Regulus had tried to ignore, the part that thought Evan Rosier to be all too pretty, wasn't as disgusting in his own mind anymore because, if his loved Uncle Alphard could do that, then certainly could he.

Now, as he got up from the table in silence, he ignored Elizabeth telling him 'good morning' as he walked by and ignored when Severus frowned at him, trying to talk to him about the reason he was walking, shaking, as he went towards the Gryffindor table.

Severus understood where he was going and jumped up, running towards him and holding him by the arm a bit too tightly. Regulus didn't even wince.

"I don't what happened, I don't know what you're thinking, but you can't go to her right now," Severus whispered. "I can go there and try to talk to her and –"

"Not about her," he whispered back.

Severus didn't move and didn't let go.

"You look pale," he mumbled, glancing around. "They're watching."

"Let them. I need to talk to Sirius," Regulus said. He looked at the letter in his cold, shaky hand. "He deserves to know."

Still not understanding, Severus looked at the letter, recognizing quickly Narcissa's handwriting and the sentence 'Uncle Alphard is dead'. He looked away, giving him the privacy Regulus needed.

"Go, I'll say that you're just telling him. But be quick about it. Mark a meeting if you think it's necessary, but don't dwell," Severus warned.

Regulus nodded.

When his friend let go of him, Regulus went back to walking towards the Red Table, ignoring as other tables and other people started to stare at him in interest and very clear excitement of the fight that they thought it was about to break out.

Peter Pettigrew was the first to see him, stopping mid-sentence of the story he was retelling of his winter break, happy about how his mother seemed better from the illness she had contracted right before Christmas. When he seemed to freeze as he saw the pale boy walking towards them, Remus Lupin turned around with his hand already flying towards his hip where the wand was shoved in an improvised holster he made – Sirius had one identical to it tied around his hip, so Regulus thought that perhaps they made it together. James Potter turned soon after, hand flying to touch the small of Anne's back.