Regulus & Frank ;; Threads - Blog Posts

Regulus glanced back at Frank's basket again before plucking some ginger from the shelf and dropping it into the other man's basket. "I hear ginger's quite helpful for warding off sickness. Make her some teas or something," he offered, recalling from an advanced potions book he'd read a few years back. "Nothing like a screaming mandrake to ward off potential burglars," he said with a small smile, before the smile quickly vanished. "I think it might be too late to stop the passage of time...maybe I can study it though, at the ministry. See what I can do."

"It's gotta be a fake moustache...gotta commit, y'know. It can't be Regulus Black's shitty moustache. Maybe I should use a hair growth potion."

"Thanks," Frank said, sorting the ingredients to make sure he'd have enough for the few other things he had to pick up. "Now I'm definitely picking you up some other ingredients when I come back. I might plant a few for our apartment, they're good for security as well. Then I won't have to buy as many. Tell time to give you a break, you're too young for it to do so much damage."

He laughed before he could help himself, smothering his smile when the shopkeeper gave them both a confused look. "Well future Albert, it will be a pleasure to meet your mustachioed future self."

"Oh shit," Reg said, glancing down into Frank's basket as if the basket itself held his impending child. "Well congratulations," he offered meagrely, before glancing back down at the basket. "You'll need a lot more ingredients than that to see you through three months worth of sickness. Here," he said, shifting some of the mandrake root from his basket to Frank's. "It's not the easiest thing to get hold of given that the mandrakes need to stew, and I can't buy it for the sake of hoarding ingredients when you're soon to be a father," he said, rubbing the back of his neck with his free hand. "Oh, time is already doing a number on me Longbottom, don't you worry."

"Well, the next time I come in here will be with a wig and a moustache, and I'll be a friendly guy called Albert."

"I have a feeling I'll be making lots of morning sickness and Pepper Up potions in the upcoming months. At the very least, I can mail some to you when I find it." Frank said, gesturing towards the small basket already carrying a few essentials. Potions weren't quite a passion of his but he could make them and it was cheaper than constantly buying store-bought ones. He shrugged Regulus's comment aside. "Life will have plenty of opportunities to make you a miserable bastard. Let time work its course instead, enjoy yourself."

Frank studied Regulus's face in consideration. "Albert, yeah. Definitely more of an Albert."

Regulus nodded approvingly as Frank finally saw his logic. "It's just...basic courtesy to other shoppers, I feel. Do you think we'll regularly see each other at the apothecary? I'd appreciate that though, given the owner has a vendetta against me," Reg said, offering Frank a small smile. "Maybe I need to try harder at being a miserable bastard then...it's what my family would want."

"I'm not sure I look much like a Bill either. Something regal...Henry definitely. Albert, or George maybe. Something to match my strong jawline."

"Okay, I can see the logic behind that." Frank said. "Next time I'm first to the shelf, I'll make sure to grab you a few." That seemed only fair, and if it was his right as first to the shelf then Regulus could hardly argue. "Trust me, I've met miserable bastards. You're definitely not one of them.:

Frank pursed his lips in thought, ruminating on possible code names. "The best ones are often the most simple. Go with something more common, like... Bill or Philip. Though honestly you don't look much like a Philip. Henry, maybe?"

Regulus's gaze fixed upon Frank with a curious eye, before he shook his head. "Whether I was in the shop first is irrelevant...if you were at the shelf first, that's what's most important. You'd be entitled to take whatever you need," he said, it making absolute sense in his mind. "A bit of a grump...not a huge grump, but a bit. I'll take it. Better than being known for being a miserable bastard," he said, lips curling into a brief grin.

"Oh, well now when I go home I'm going to have to sit and think about future code names. Leo is too obvious, he'd know it was me immediately."

"Maybe, but if you were here first you deserve some as well, don't you think?" Maybe he ought to try and talk with Regulus more often, this really was a fascinating conversation. "Only a bit of a grump though. Everyone has to work at politeness anyways. It's a learned skill. You could definitely do it.

"Why not both? Go fully under cover. Give yourself a code name. Could be a bit amusing, honestly."

"If you needed the whole stock, and you were here before me, then that's your right," Regulus said with a shrug. The whole thing seemed quite simple to him - he wasn't sure why it was so complicated for everyone else to understand. "I'm fairly well known for being a bit of a grump, Longbottom. Politeness to others is something I have to think quite hard about."

"Oh, I know the owner is avoiding me. Perhaps I should enter next time under a disillusionment charm, or indeed under some other disguise."

"But what if I had needed the stock that was there?" Frank asked, enjoying this debate. Regulus structured his arguments well and speaking with him wasn't nearly as frustrating as talking to Bellatrix. "Perhaps you ought to start asserting your boundaries as the customer there first. Just, you know, politely."

He hummed and glanced over at the counter where the owner seemed to have disappeared, just as Regulus said. "I think the owner's avoiding you. You'll have to take them by surprise."

Narrowing his eyes at the other man's amusement, Regulus frowned. "I would qualify it as stealing. It's only polite, see, if someone's stood here first. If you had been here before myself, I would let you take as much of the stock as you needed and made do with whatever was left...like polite, reasonable people do," Regulus said, determined to die on this hill. "Oh, I've tried. Every time I come anywhere near him the owner seems to disappear, and I'm left with the poor people who run the tills."

Frank's lips quirked before he could help it. "I'm not really sure I can qualify that as stealing, though it's definitely unfair." He knew that Regulus was young, almost impossibly young to be so well-spoken and austere, but sometimes the young age showed more than others. "Perhaps you ought to take it up with the owner. Maybe they'd be able to set some aside for you if you gave them forewarning."

"No rule, but maybe there should be....too often I've been here first, and someone else has just waltzed along and stolen the last vial and then I have to wait for a restock," Reg said with a roll of his eyes. He'd started a small stock of potions ingredients at home, but it never seemed to be enough. "A store that doesn't seem to be able to keep the correct amount of stock in, Longbottom."

"Last I checked, there isn't a rule against browsing the same shelf." Frank said lightly. The Blacks were something else these days, their words cut as sharp as knives. Every single one of them had it and Frank didn't particularly enjoy it. "It's a store, Regulus."