Who: Regulus Sr. and Ariadne
What: Random run-in involving candy canes
When: Friday early evening
Where: Castle corridors
Rating/Warnings: TBD
Status: In progress/Closed


Regulus was done with work for the day, and would be for some days yet. Christmas and New Years were a big deal in this place. Regulus wasn’t going to complain too much, it meant he had about a week and a half, paid, off work.

And he was uncharacteristically in good spirits at the moment. Christmas spirits to be more precise, he was down to wishing strangers merry Christmases and Happy New Years’es. A few staff members might have been startled by his good cheer. It was not unknown, even among the workers at the castle, that Regulus didn’t exactly bubble over with outward displays of happiness. But they got over their shock quickly, congenial folks that they were, and smiled back to him and then carried on with their tasks.

He was currently making his way from the dining hall, having decided on this rare occasion to eat a meal down with everyone else rather than holed up in his room. Tracey wouldn’t know whether to be proud of him because he was actually getting out of his room, or be appalled ‘getting out’ meant eating with everyone else. He’d have to ask her later.

He’d already half-unwrapped his umpteenth candy cane of the day and the crook end was sticking out of his mouth as he walked out of the dining hall. Kreacher had been keeping him well stocked in the holiday treat, and he always looked at Regulus with such a pleading expression bordering on tears when he did that Regulus couldn’t brush off the elf’s simple request. Candy canes weren’t terrible after all, and they didn’t really hinder anything Regulus was doing. So he gave in each time for the sake of Kreacher, no matter how the elf’s insistence on this one seasonal activity was a bit odd.

Regulus was just reaching the base of the grand staircase when he looked up and saw a familiar face approaching. He cracked a small smile – he was still Regulus Black after all, his smiles were always barely there – and took the candy out of his mouth. “Merry Christmas, Ariadne,” he offered.

Some part of him knew greeting her in such a friendly and familiar way was not in his normal routine, but it was Christmas after all, it didn’t hurt to extend a warm salutation to people he knew.