It was getting late, the darkness suffocating the Hogwarts castle. Yet Regulus stood in the astronomy tower, like he did every night, turning cogs on a telescope with great elegance. He'd never admit why- but he looked at the stars every night because both his and Sirius' stars were together up there. They were still brothers in the sky, not torn apart by the black sheet and instead held delicately in it. It brought him peace in some twisted way.

He didn't want to speak to anyone, didn't want to interact, he just wanted to be alone. It had been a long day, he'd gotten a rather aggressive letter from his parents via their quite aggressive owl, and he couldn't seem to find any time alone. Now he had it, he hoped it would stay that way, for now at least. Regulus' french accent was thick since he was tired, his english usually got sloppy when he got tired.

He heard footsteps and felt a presence at the entrance to the tower. He knew someone was there without even having to look. He could almost vision them, feel their movements, despite them being a few metres behind him. There's one positive to always being on high alert.

His peace was disrupted, yet again. "merde" he muttered under his breath.

So he did a charm to compact the telescope down into pocket size and slipped it in his jacket's inside pocket where he knew it would be safe. He didn't turn to look or acknowledge the person behind him, and instead just leaned against the banister, staring out at the sky and ruffling his hand through his hair.