#barty in the carriages: oh hi regulus how was your summer :)

[birlwrites]

lmao

crouch sr, having a day that just keeps getting worse: i understand, Lady Black, but there is a war on—

walburga, about to lose her actual mind on this stupid little man she cannot manipulate through no lack of her own skill: i don't CARE that some family was just murdered. they're DEAD! THAT'S NOT GOING TO CHANGE! my SON is MISSING, he could be in DANGER—

- - - meanwhile

barty, pacing his bedroom floor: —and they didn't die! so all along Maron's world being saturated with blue wasn't foreshadowing for the tragedy that would haunt her for the rest of her life, it actually signified—

regulus, lying on barty's bed, indulging in a bit of improper conduct, perhaps even eating cinnamon/ginger candies in bed (!!), internally: Cyprian Silkwood will rue the day he was born, istg

regulus, externally: oh wow.

BWHOGJWDJFKOSJFOSGHSOKDFJSD

regulus is in severe danger of being bored to sleep and choking on a ginger candy, which is really NOT what walburga has in mind

i also like the idea of the blacks intending to bust into potter manor metaphorical guns blazing and RETRIEVE REGULUS from his KIDNAPPERS and what actually happens is a screaming fight between sirius and walburga about which of them was worse for regulus, while orion (the only sensible one in this situation if you ask HIM) is casting relentless Point Me charms that are just spinning wildly, which means a) regulus is out of range or b) he is being MAGICALLY CONCEALED.

the potters are all hideously uncomfortable and trying to get orion and walburga to leave. they are also newly concerned about sirius's brother's welfare but even sirius hasn't heard from him since before sirius arrived at potter manor, none of them had any idea regulus would leave--

walburga: HE DIDN'T LEAVE, HE WAS TAKEN

sirius: YEAH, TAKEN ABACK BY HOW MUCH BETTER HIS LIFE WOULD BE IF HE BOOKED IT

meanwhile, regulus is doodling dragons on the backs of barty's old essays and unwillingly absorbing information about cyprian silkwood's work. he's considering staging a daring coup to change the subject

BUT ALSO. CROUCH SR FINDING OUT REGULUS IS MISSING. i could totally see him mentioning that walburga black came to see him when barty's mom asks how his day was, of course it's understandable that she's distressed by her son's disappearance but he does have terrorists to deal with and he did not appreciate the melodrama

barty eavesdropping from the stairs: 👀👂

winky almost certainly knows of regulus's presence because regulus does need to eat - i don't think barty would take the risk of informing his mom and she is not naturally a suspicious person so the biggest risk there is that she notices barty spending a lot of time shut up in his room (which is like, normal for him, but Still), concluding that maybe he needs something to do to take his mind off regulus's disappearance, and coming up with reasons for them to spend time together, which of course barty doesn't want to rEFUSE, but he has a GUEST

ooooo ok i'm starting to come up with a timeline now. regulus delays leaving until he's gotten his hogwarts letter for the upcoming school year and has obtained all his textbooks and such. then, he bounces. high society is in an absolute uproar over regulus's disappearance, they have ZERO clues, and then regulus calmly leaves the crouches' house, takes the knight bus to the leaky cauldron, very quickly floos from the leaky cauldron to hogsmeade before anyone can get a good look at him, and just pops up on september 1 waiting by the thestrals (he walked) to ride to school with his friends and begin the new school year!

and his parents get a bemused letter from dumbledore the next morning and go BALLISTIC.