The door slams harder than he meant it to.

It echoes through the chamber, making the candlelight tremble on the walls, but Regulus doesn’t flinch. His boots hit the floor in measured, furious steps, his robes still perfectly buttoned—every detail in place, except for the storm in his eyes.

You’re already standing by the fireplace, arms crossed, heart pounding. You can see it written across his face before he says a single word.

Something happened.

He doesn’t look at you at first. He pulls off his gloves with deliberate precision, folding them, setting them down on the table like they’re the only things he can control. But when he speaks—his voice is cold. Controlled. And shaking beneath the surface.

“You were seen.”

Three words. That’s all. But they land like a curse.

“Laughing. Drinking. Wandering around the corridors like some reckless schoolgirl who doesn’t know her place.”

You open your mouth, but he cuts through the silence before you can answer.

“Do you understand what they said to me?” His voice rises—not to a shout, but to something far worse. Low. Furious. Unraveling. “My uncle said I’ve shamed the bloodline. That I married a girl with no dignity. My mother…” He swallows hard. His jaw flexes. “She slapped me.”

He finally looks at you, and it’s not just anger there—it’s disbelief. Betrayal. Grief, disguised as discipline.“I told them you were different,” he whispers. “I told them you understood what this meant.”

His hands tremble, and he clasps them behind his back to hide it. “You are a Black now.”

The words hang there. Final. Heavy. “You don’t get to act like some carefree thing in the corridors. Not anymore. Not with my name tied to yours. Not when they expect you to carry the next heir and raise it in the same walls that raised me.”

His voice falters then. Just a moment. Long enough for the pain to show through the pride. “I’ve spent my entire life being what they asked. I’ve protected you from it as best I could. But you… you brought the wolves right back to my door.”

He looks away, eyes fixed on some far, unreachable place on the wall. The silence between you thickens. And in that stillness, you realize this isn’t just about a night out. It’s about a boy raised to carry a family name like a sword. And the one person he thought would never make him bleed with it.