REGULUS

"What did Uncle Alphard give you?" I asked, clawing at Sirius the moment we got up to the box seating.

Sirius shook his head and shoved his hand into his pocket, glancing at Father, and then to me. "Shut up, will you?"

"But I wanna see, what'd he give you?"

"I'm gonna give you a good punch in the nose if you don't shut up," Sirius hissed.

I grappled for his pocket and he put his palm square on my chest and shoved me back. I lunged for him again - it wasn't fair, he was keeping it from me and I hated it when he kept secrets from me. Especially since it wasn't fair that I didn't get something from Uncle Alphard, too. Whatever it was, I wanted Sirius to share it with me. I was betting it was another bag of animal crackers or else a chocolate frog or something.

"Knock it off!" Sirius growled and he pushed me off extra hard and I slipped, my feet going out from under me. I yelped in surprise as I felt the world go crooked. Sirius gasped and leaped forward, grabbing for me, but he wasn't fast enough. I fell, going down three steps into the box and knocking my head on the front railing.

Father turned around at the sound of my cries as I started shouting out in pain. He grabbed Sirius and yanked him back by his elbow, pushing him roughly into a seat. "Sit." I was shocked, however, when he grabbed me by my elbow as well, pulled me up to my feet, and also roughly deposited me into the chair next to Sirius. "Stop crying," he said sternly. "Right now."

I stared up at him. I could feel the welt on my head from where the railing knocked me. "But - But Sirius pushed me," I said despondently.

"Crying won't help you," Father snapped, "Doesn't make it feel better, does it?"

I shook my head, startled by his reaction.

He sighed and drew his wand. A moment later, he'd produced a damp cloth that I was told to hold against the spot that hurt. I clutched it to my forehead, more hurt by his rough response than by the actual injury by then. I kept glancing up at him.

Sirius bent over and whispered in my ear, "I'm sorry. I didn't mean to hurt you." He reached for the damp cloth and tried to take it from me but I shook my head and leaned away, angry with him still for not sharing whatever Uncle Alphard had given him and also for pushing me and getting me in trouble and, indeed, not even getting in trouble himself for what he'd done. I grit my teeth and turned forward to look at the pitch. Sirius sighed beside me, but he turned and looked forward, too.

Despite my sour mood, I couldn't help but get distracted by the exciting stuff happening. All over the pitch there were people jostling into their seats and big flags flying everywhere - both the French flag and the flag of Northern Ireland. Far below, the players were stretching down on the grass, preparing for the match. There were advertisements being flown about by little fairies, who held onto the edges of banners as they flapped about. Quality Quidditch Supplies in Diagon Alley Welcomes You! said one banner, and then a flash and it had changed, Quality Quidditch Supplies sur la route de la magie a Paris vous accueille!

I nudged Sirius, "Look. It's in French and English," I said, pointing to the banner.

"Oh yeah, that's neat," Sirius said.

Another group of fairies went by carrying a banner that read SEE EVERYTHING UP CLOSE WITH OTTO OCCULUS OMIOCULARS! Sirius's voice was excited, "Father! Omnioculars!" He looked up at Father with pleading eyes.

Again to my surprise, Father actually flagged down the fairies and dug out a coin purse from his pocket, dropping a galleon into the pouch 'round the lead fairy's neck and in turn one of the others reached into a bag she carried and pulled out omnioculars. They shouldn't have fit, her bag was so tiny, but out they came just the same - and not just one pair but three! One for each of us. Sirius eagerly grabbed his and mine from the fairy, handing me my pair, and we hurried to turn the focus wheel to adjust them to our eyes.

"Whoa!" Sirius shouted, "Look! The North Irish brought a giant!"

It was true! I excitedly gaped at the giant, who was laying lazily in the sun on the Irish end of the pitch. He was so big, I could hardly believe how big he was, and his feet were all hairy and dirty with callouses from walking about barefoot. "Oh," I said, frowning, "But they have him chained. Look." I pointed.

"Maybe because he's dangerous," Sirius said. "They can be very vicious, giants, can't they?"

"You're lucky that we're all the way up here in the box seats," our cousin, Lucius, said, suddenly leaning forward. He was sitting on the row behind us. "Giants like to eat little kids like you. Make a good snack, you would."

Sirius turned around, "Shut up, they don't eat kids."

"They do, too. With ketchup." Lucius smirked and looked at me, "They'd pick their teeth with your bones when they were finished and burp out your shoes."

Sirius rolled his eyes. For once, I didn't correct him for it.

Lucius's friend, Andrei Dolohov, leaned forward, too, now, grinning wildly. "Proklyatiye, Luc... Don't tell the kiddies things like that. Obviously you're full of it, Lucius..." a wicked grin crossed his face. "The giant would take the shoes off before they ate him."

Lucius laughed and nodded, "Of course, how foolish of me."

"It's alright, Reggie," Sirius said. "At least they'd eat you - they wouldn't touch Lucius. Giants don't eat piles of dung."

Andrei cracked up, and Lucius glared at Sirius down his long nose, and muttered that he was going to tell his father, but Sirius didn't look worried about it. Rather, he grinned smugly and turned back 'round toward the pitch.

I went to look up at Father, to see if he'd heard our conversation (and to ask him if giants really did eat kids), but I realized he'd left. A quick look around the box and I realized so had Uncle Cygnus and Uncle Abraxas, so it was just us boys in the box now. I wondered where they went.

Suddenly there was a great commotion of music and horns from all over the place and I jumped in surprise, having not expected the noise, and Sirius patted my back, "It's alright, Little Brother! I reckon they're about to get on with the match! Look!" He pointed and sure enough the players had formed two lines facing one another on the pitch, broomsticks laying beside them on the grass, the referee in the center with the captains. "I wonder where Father got off to?" Sirius said, glancing about, wriggling in his seat excitedly. "He'll miss the quaffle drop if he doesn't hurry it up..."

"They've still got the mascot performances to go," Lucius said.

"Performances?" I asked.

"Yeah, watch this," Lucius gestured at the pitch.

I leaned to look over the railing.

"Where did they go, though?" Sirius asked, nervousness in his voice.

"They had some business to do," Lucius answered darkly, "Which is none of yours, so go on and watch the performances, will you?"

Sirius turned round and leaned against the rail with me, both of us holding our omnoculars to our faces.

There was a good deal of cheering from the stands as the North Irish's giant was roused from his lazy position and prodded to the center of the pitch. As we watched, wizards magicked humungous boulders onto the pitch and the giant picked one up as though it were a ball of paper and chucked it clear across the pitch effortlessly.

"WOW!" I shouted, impressed. "Would you look at that!"

Sirius was equally impressed, and we watched the giant pick up and throw even bigger boulders and snap a huge tree right in half! I gasped when he plucked another big tree and chucked it like a javelin right over the high walls of the pitch. The people in the box closest by to the direction it went in shouted and dodged out of the way.

"Incredible," breathed Sirius. Even Lucius and Andrei looked shocked.

"How could the French ever beat that?" Sirius asked, "There's no way their mascot can do anything that cool. What is their mascot anyway?"

There was silence as everyone waited, watching the pitch with anticipation. The door of the French team's locker rooms opened and out came their mascot.

SIRIUS

Regulus let out a cry. "WHAT ARE THEY?"

I looked at him to see which way he was looking, but it seemed he was looking the same direction as me and I surely couldn't see anything. I looked back, following his gaze, and then back at him. I even glanced up at Lucius and Andrei to see if they were reacting at all, but neither seemed to know what Regulus was on about, either.

Even Lucius and Andrei looked confused. "What are what?" Lucius asked. 

Andrei shrugged.

"Those!" Regulus pointed, his hand shaking and face pale. "Them! Those horse things!"

I looked back and didn't see anything... I'd have thought he was mad except it seemed a few other people in the audience were having similar reactions - though none as young as Regulus.

"They're demons! Demons!" The fear in his voice was enough to convince me, too, that even if there wasn't really anything there, my Little Brother really thought there was and that was enough for me.

I glanced up, half expecting Lucius and Andrei to be mocking Regulus, but a look of understanding had come over Andrei's face, "Thestrals," he whispered to Lucius, who nodded, and then Andrei had looked away, craning his neck to peer down at the pitch. Lucius's eyes were on Regulus, but not judging, just squinting, staring at him as though he were trying to solve a puzzle.

I looked away from Lucius and quickly pulled Regulus toward me and blocked his view of the pitch and whatever it was he was pointing at, hugging him close and tucking my jumper 'round him, creating a bit of a privacy screen about him. He pressed his head against my chest and I leaned down to whisper to him, "It's alright! It's alright, Little Brother." 

He closed his eyes really tightly.

I didn't know what to do to calm him down. For some reason, though, I knew I didn't want Father coming back and finding Regulus upset like this. It felt... dangerous... somehow. So I rubbed his back and hugged him tight and tried to think up a way to make him feel better and suddenly, I knew precisely what it was.

"Regulus."

"What?" he whimpered against my chest.

"Once upon a time, there was a dog named Snuffles," I said quietly.

Reguuls snuffed and I felt him press even closer.

"He was a funny dog, Snuffles, he liked sausages and he liked to take names by the fireplace, but his favorite thing in the whole world was to go outside and play and -- and one day --" My eyes darted about for inspiration and I saw down on the pitch the French were doing some kind of crazy levitation tricks with quaffles that were flying about - I couldn't see exactly what was happening, but everyone in the stands sounded amazed - oohing and ahhing and clapping loudly. I turned back to Regulus, and the Snuffles story. "One day, his family took him outside to play and they were playing quidditch!"

"Yeah?" Regulus asked.

"Yeah," I said, "And Snuffles really, really liked the quaffle. He wanted to catch the quaffle so bad but his family was really good at keeping it out of Snuffles reach. Snuffles would leap up really high and snap his mouth trying to catch it but the quaffle always just barely flew past Snuffles so he couldn't catch it - every time!"

"Poor Snuffles," Regulus murmured.

"So he ran really really far as fast as he could to get up as much energy as he could so when he jumped it would be super duper high and he ran and he leaped and he was so high it was like that story about the cow which jumps over the moon, even, and he CAUGHT IT. Snuffles caught the quaffle right in his big teeth and he grabbed on tight! When he landed, he still had it in his mouth and his family was so amazed! But then they had tot ry and get the quaffle back from Snuffles and he thought it would be good fun to let them chase him! So he ran and they ran after him and he carried the quaffle all around the square they lived in and 'round and 'round the house and up the stairs and through all the rooms and everything!"

Reguuls was smiling timidly up at me.

"And the Father was so mad his ears were steaming just like if you eat a Pepper Imp too fast and the Mother was so upset because there was mud everywhere and all the mud was shaped like footprints! Snuffles footprints! And the littlest human, Snuffles's favorite person in the wide whole world, he was the best fun of all because he figured out how to catch Snuffles - he waited on the landing at the library door and waited 'til he heard Snuffles coming then he leaped out and wrapped his arms 'round Snuffles's neck and CAUGHT HIM!" 

"Smart!" Regulus laughed. "What did Snuffles do?"

"Well he lapped his favorite human, of course, with a big wet lap of his big wet tongue because that's how dogs say I love you."

"With a lap?" Regulus laughed.

"Yes, just like this --" and I lapped the side of Regulus's face and he let out a shriek of laughter and pushed me back.

"No! No!" he was laughing, the tear tracks on his face drying off and the terror gone from his eyes.

I smiled, too, seeing the smile on his face, and I gave him one last squeeze before letting him go. The pitch had been cleared of the mascots and I was sorry that I didn't get to see the French Mascots perform, but glad that I'd gotten to comfort my Little Brother. And only just in time, too, for our Uncles and Father came back then and settled themselves into their seats. Father rested his arm 'round the back of our chairs as the players and referee organized and the two Captains of the teams shook hands before the quaffle drop.

About halfway through the match, a man came to the box and whispered something to Uncle Cygnus, who frowned and got up and excused himself. Uncle Abraxas leaned forward and said something to Father and then he left, too. But Father didn't go, even when Lucius and Andrei left with Uncle Abraxas so that it was just me, Father, and Regulus in the box and by then Regulus had fallen asleep laying across three of the seats so it was really just me and Father. 

I was strangely nervous, being me and Father basically alone in the box, but we watched the match without saying anything for several minutes until one of the North Irish Chasers sank an especially spectacular shot and everyone rooting for the North Irish, including me and Father, stood up shouting approval. "YEAH GO ON, YOU DESERVE A GOOD CELEBRATION FOR THAT, SIR!" Father yelled to the player as he flew by at top speed on his broomstick and I grinned because that was so not something Father would normally do - cheer on a gent like that, I mean, but it felt so nice to have a Father that would, even if it was just for a moment, and I high-fived my Father without even thinking about it and he seemed surprised by the intimacy of the touch, but he didn't shout at me or anything, he just pulled me in and squeezed my shoulder in a side-hug and for a moment it was like we were normal.

I rather liked it quite a lot.

If only we'd always been like that.

That night, when we were back at home in London and Regulus and I took it in turns telling Mother about how the Northern Irish had won the match - doing our best to reenact some of the more amazing plays without broomsticks or quaffles but simply by waving our arms and jumping up and down and telling her very animatedly all about it. Mother said she was very impressed and she patted both our heads and sent us off to bed. Regulus and I ran up the stairs and he turned into his bedroom and slammed the door before I could say a word to him.

In my room, I changed into my pyjamas and was just about to crawl into bed when I remembered and slid back down and ran over to my pile of clothes on the floor, reaching into the pocket and pulling out the thing which Uncle Alphard had given me. 

It was a funny, flat little coin sort of a thing - some sort of metal, with blunt, jaggedy teeth 'round the outside edge and pieces cut out of it in the middle that looked like a flower. It was very, very plain other than that, and barely bigger than a sickle. I stared at it with confusion, my brows furrowed. The only writing on it was engraved 'round the center hole of the flower in teeny tiny little letters that I simply couldn't read, they were illegible, worn down over time.

I stared at the funny coin and turned it over and over, but there was nothing to it... and eventually, I slipped it into my pocket, where I kept it, mixed in with all my other pocket change (whenever I had any), for a very, very, very.... very... long time.