InsaneJournal

Tweak says, "head, shoulders, knees & toes"

Tracey Davis (t_davis) wrote in makebelievelog,
@ 2012-07-08 23:40:00

Entry tags:

regulus black, tracey davis

Who: Regulus, Tracey, Kreacher
What: Regulus visits ~~Tracey~~ Kreacher
When: July 8, 2012
Where: Tracey's apartment
Rating/Warnings: PG-13 / Potential language, etc. Will update as necessary.
Status: Closed / Incomplete

Tracey was glad Regulus was stopping by to see Kreacher, not only for the house elf's sake but for her own. She wanted to see her friend, to see that he was in one piece. She missed talking with him and was, admittedly, a tad worried. She had agreed to take Severus' lead on the matter of Regulus, if he felt an intervention became necessary, but thus far she hadn't heard anything from him in that regards. Tracey didn't assume things were going positively or negatively because she hadn't heard something of note. She knew Severus cared deeply for Regulus and that he wouldn't let anything bad happen in relation to Regulus, so long as it was preventable. She just figured that, hopefully, things were likely just going along.

Things were more or less just going along in her life, too. She went to her job, came home, fed her cat. She shopped. It was starting to get habitual again. She enjoyed it, for the most part. It was safe. Almost like being back at home, but here she had a few good friends that she knew she would've missed at home. She could've used a few associates, at least, to make the place more tolerable but - she was content as it was.

Of course, she wouldn't have missed the headache of the Gryffindor interactions - nor of the house elf that was now in her closet as a result of a certain Gryffindor. Hearing the house elf muttering from his closet, Tracey closed her eyes and contemplated putting silencing spells up around the thing. She generally didn't use the spare room for much, but had gotten a flat with a spare for the simple reason of it seeming wise.

When she heard a knock at the front door, Tracey decided to wait and let Regulus get the house elf out of the closet (if the house elf didn't do that himself upon his master's arrival). She went and opened the door before stepping back to let Regulus in. "Hello."

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royalvenant
2012-07-09 06:41 am UTC (link)

Regulus wasn’t in a talkative mood, unfortunately for his friend. He couldn’t help it; he had been stuck like this since his brother’s return. Regulus was always the type to go silent when facing difficulty. He could be a right, loud obnoxious git when he put his mind to it. Ask Severus, or Eames, or Tracey. They had all felt the full extent of his cunning pranks. But those were hardly ‘vocal’ intrusions; mostly he let the noise result from the objects used during the prank or the prank-ees to supply the sounds. In those cases it was the principle of being a Slytherin. Why work harder than you needed to?

But his silence now was something quite different. And if he were honest, he would have to admit this was worse than it had ever been in the Land of Make Believe. He had been this quiet when Al left, preferring to hide in his room, and rely on the grace of Tracey to make sure food showed up in him on a regular basis. But, somehow that was something else altogether. There was a light at the end of that tunnel. It hurt to lose Al, but he knew it would pass.

This… his brother was still there, and could still call him Reggie on a whim. Something about that exchange Sirius’ first day back left Regulus gutted. The fear that it could, and most likely would happen again. And that was arresting in all the ways that affected Regulus on a fundamental level.

He tipped his head as a greeting as he walked into Tracey’s flat. Smiling would have just been false at this point.

“How are you?” He asked, partially to observe niceties, and partially to direct the conversation away from himself.

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t_davis
2012-07-11 02:50 am UTC (link)

Part of Tracey didn't expect any sort of a smile and, in a way, she was glad to avoid utterly false pretenses. Niceties she could handle, even, but acting like everything was ideal when it blatantly wasn't didn't appeal to her. Tracey didn't know the extent of everything, but she could tell when Regulus was off - and considering the lack of smile, it wouldn't have taken a genius to figure it out, anyhow.

"Well enough. It's peaceful around here, cat and house elf aside, which is nice." It was a bit too quiet at times, but considering the alternative could've been having Sirius Black about... she was lucky. "And you? How's Severus? And Kreacher is in the closet in that room, muttering to himself and hoarding my kitchen utensils, most likely."

After the briefest of pause, she indicated toward the kitchen area. "Want anything? Tea? Water?"

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royalvenant
2012-07-11 09:32 am UTC (link)

"Must be nice," Regulus nodded once. He was a bit envious. How could he not be? Sirius didn't know where this building was, there wasn't much of a chance of running into each other. And right then, quiet was all Regulus really wanted. To be left alone.

"Severus is still brewing potions... tea is fine," Regulus answered and then headed over to the room Tracey had indicated. From outside the closet he could hear Kreacher muttering under his breath, though, through the wood it was hard to make out just what he was saying. He opened the door and prepared himself for the excitement that was to follow.

Kreacher threw up an arm to block the light. His muttering stopped, but was replaced by a hiss that only lasted until his blinking eyes could focus on Regulus.

"Master!" the small house elf squealed and rushed forward to wrap his spindly arms around Regulus' leg. Regulus sighed but did not resist, he did have a sizable place in his heart for Kreacher. And how could he deny the wretched creature this one thing?

"Oh, Master Regulus has come to visit Kreacher. Kreacher is not-"

"Kreacher, yes," Regulus cut him off. He couldn't stand when Kreacher started in on his self-abasing habit. It just wasn't right. "We're going to go back into-" Regulus tried taking a step back towards the front room, but it was awkward and slow going. "Into the sitting room Kreacher."

"Of course, Master Regulus!" And Kreacher, eager for a chance to please his master, let go and scurried on ahead of Regulus, pausing occasionally to look back and beckon him forward.

They made it to the sitting room without further incident.

"Thank you," he called out to Tracey as he sat down, "For watching him for me."

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t_davis
2012-07-12 05:10 am UTC (link)

It didn't take Tracey long to make and bring tea to the sitting room. It was something she was well practiced in and magic made it rather easy to bring the water to a boil quickly. She sat the tray down in front of Regulus, taking a mug for herself before sitting in a chair opposite the sofa.

"Of course. Sirius is an egomaniacal prat - I'm happy to help avoid further issue there." She remarked with a small scoff, still a bit sad that Sirius had come from such an obviously troubled time. She had almost thought he had the potential for more, at one point, early on. She knew Regulus had missed his brother. "It can be a bit too quiet around here. This wasn't exactly how I planned to break the silence, but -" She shrugged. Normal joking about favours and such were left to the wayside, since demanding a pig was more Regulus' thing and was better saved for a more appropriate time. "Though it is unfortunate, for Kreacher and you."

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royalvenant
2012-07-13 03:51 am UTC (link)

At the mention of Sirius’ name Kreacher started grumbling about ‘blood traitors,’ and ‘disgracing the family name’. Regulus sighed; it seemed there were still habits Kreacher struggled with. At least the House Elf, for the most part, didn’t refer to anyone not of pureblood status with derogatory insults. He had completely accepted Harry, Hermione and Tracey as individuals worth respecting. Sirius was just a special case for the elf.

“Kreacher,” Regulus said in as stern a voice as he could muster just then. The elf looked up at him, and seeing Regulus’ look, stopped his grumbling. After a forced apology the elf started doing some needless cleaning. Tracey kept a neat flat, but this was what Kreacher did. Regulus supposed as long as the elf didn’t disrupt anything there wasn’t any harm in letting him go about the room wiping things with a rag.

He shrugged at Tracey’s statement. “Sort of evens out the cosmic balance, I suppose. They’re the heroes, the good guys. People like me and Kreacher…" He paused to pick up his cup. "...It’s our position to find our place away from them and stay out of their way.” Regulus ended with another shrug.

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t_davis
2012-07-14 04:02 am UTC (link)

The grumbling from the house elf only made Tracey roll her eyes a little. His mutterings of Sirius' pureblood "betrayal" was mild as far as insults toward blood purity went. It implied bad things about those of impure blood, but the house elf's opinion was regurgitated, learned garbage. Regulus' intervention, however small, was enough to show her (yet again) that she was seeing much more of a good guy in front of her than the man who had been rude and told her to butt out of Black family business, then had publicly said utterly rude things about Severus. No, the man in front of her seemed far more unbiased than the "good guy."

"If that's what the cosmos considers balanced, the cosmos was a Gryffindor. Only someone with that sort of bias would consider that a balanced matter." Tracey remarked, sipping at her cup before adding, "Still, likely couldn't hurt to avoid him. What have you been doing on a peaceful note?" She knew there were likely things that shouldn't be talked about and she wasn't trying to pry on that note, but she wanted to know what good things Regulus had been doing. She hoped there was something.

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royalvenant
2012-07-15 02:11 pm UTC (link)

"Never said it wasn't weighted against us... just that it was the cosmic balance."

The line of Regulus' mouth twitched twice, changing infinitesimally in a way that would have been missed by the unobservant. Some thought was tugging at his corners, defying his melancholy.

"Oh, just bothering Severus." Which was half true. Severus was subtle in his insistence Regulus stay out of 'trouble', and Regulus only found that constraining once in a while. He often didn't want to go anywhere these days, work was a chore to see to, and some days he couldn't be arsed to care about anything but sitting in the window, or at the table, in Severus' potion room while his boyfriend worked on whatever potion. But, ever the Slytherin at heart, Regulus couldn't pass up the opportunity to mess with Severus, on occasion.

"Today I switched the East Asian Fever Nettles with the Middle Eastern Milk Thistles." Regulus had learned far more about potion ingredients in his search for more subtle and cunning ways to disrupt the carefully ordered system of Severus' store room than he had in all his years at Hogwarts. Sometimes all it took was something to motivate Regulus. "I'm waiting for the results."

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t_davis
2012-07-16 05:45 am UTC (link)

"But it's hardly a balance if it's weighted against a side so heavily." Tracey argued, mostly for them to have something to argue. It was hardly banter material, but it was something.

But the explanation of the prank of sorts, a few beats after, Tracey let out a small laugh. "I wonder how long until he gets a cupboard and starts trying to lock you out of his ingredients, or has he already?" That was one magical weigh-against that she imagined could be quite amusing, if not unpredictable.

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