Eight o'clock that evening. The Room of Requirement.
He laid out what had happened, keeping his tone factual. Starting from Rabastan approaching Snape, to Snape coming to him, to what he'd said in response.
"What are we waiting for?" Cuthbert's hand was already in his pocket, fingers closing around his wand. "Go find him. He started it. We hit back. That's how it works."
Regulus looked at him.
Cuthbert's logic was clean and uncomplicated. Rabastan had sent Snape to snoop on Regulus's people. That was a provocation. Provocations got answered.
What would happen after they answered it, whether Rabastan's family would turn their attention to Avery's family, none of that had crossed his mind.
The Avery family was Sacred Twenty-Eight too. At his age, a conflict between young wizards was a conflict between young wizards. The idea that a schoolyard scrap could escalate to a feud between houses didn't compute.
It was a fight. His father's playbook didn't need to come out for a fight.
Alex sat beside him, brow furrowed.
"Should we have Lina and Samuel lay low for a while?" His voice carried a note of hesitation. "Lestrange is watching them. If they're not around, he's got no target."
Alex understood the role Regulus had carved out for him.
It had never been stated outright, but the errands told the story clearly enough. Running messages, relaying information, keeping tabs on someone's movements. Do that long enough and the picture fills in on its own.
His place in this group was the one who kept people together and kept things running smoothly.
He liked the position. Safe, steady, no need to be at the front, but still at the core.
Now that Lestrange had inserted himself into the picture, things had shifted. His first instinct was to minimize risk.
Hermes leaned against the oak door, silent, eyes fixed on the floor. He looked like he was daydreaming.
But his magic was churning. Dark wisps rose from his shoulders, curling into the air, twisting in thin strands.
His lids hung half-closed, lifting now and then, something bright shifting behind his eyes.
Regulus watched him and the corner of his mouth twitched.
Hermes rarely bothered thinking. He left everything to Regulus. But now he'd started.
His thinking, though, ran along different tracks than everyone else's.
Where others considered strategy and aftermath, Hermes was considering how to put someone on the ground.
Nothing wrong with that. Everyone had their use. However Hermes wanted to think was fine, as long as he delivered when it counted.
"What I mean is, let Lestrange make the first move."
Cuthbert stopped. Alex looked up. Hermes's eyelids rose.
"Costa and Vance don't have to hide," Regulus said. "They go about their routine. Lestrange will approach them. If he acts..."
A brief pause, then: "Let them take a hit."
Alex blinked. Something rose to his lips. They moved, but no sound came.
Regulus never did anything without a reason.
He nodded, brow creasing, eyes dropping as he began to think.
Using Lina and Samuel as bait. Would they be scared? Would they actually get hurt?
Regulus had said they could take a hit. How much of a hit was enough?
Too little, and it might not serve Regulus's purpose.
Too much, and he couldn't stomach it.
He needed to find the line. Make Lestrange believe he'd succeeded, while Lina and Samuel came through largely unscathed.
Cuthbert caught on almost instantly. Let Lestrange strike first, and the conflict wasn't something Regulus had started.
A straight-up fight was a matter between students. Worst case, detention and points. At the extreme, a professor got involved.
But if Rabastan moved on Costa and Vance first, the nature of it changed.
That was a Lestrange targeting someone under the protection of a Black. Once that line was crossed, it stopped being a schoolyard scuffle. It became a matter between two families.
The Avery family didn't match House Black, but they were Sacred Twenty-Eight too. Going toe to toe with the Lestranges, his father's side of things...
Cuthbert turned that over, and a phrase his father had once said surfaced in his memory.
His father had spent years at the Ministry of Magic, seen every kind of alliance.
The people you can truly rely on aren't made at banquets or bought with gift ledgers. They're forged by facing something together.
Shoulder the same trouble, stand against the same enemy. That's what makes someone your own.
The Astronomy Tower last year had been exactly that. There would need to be more.
Cuthbert thought it over and decided the principle held for the situation at hand.
He swallowed his impatience, leaned back against the wall, and turned to Alex. "Then we need Lestrange to think he's got an opening. Otherwise he won't move."
Alex raised his head, slipping into focus.
"Lina and Samuel have a few regular windows when they're alone. After Potions, the stretch from the dungeons back to the dormitory. The corridors are empty then. Third-floor corner. Someone got ambushed there today."
Cuthbert nodded. "We work with that window. Let Rabastan learn they're alone during that time. If he's going to move, that's when he'll do it."
"How do we get the information to him?" Alex asked.
"Let him overhear it," Cuthbert said. "Pick a spot, have the conversation, make sure one of his people happens to be there."
Alex went quiet for a moment. When he spoke, his voice was low. "But they're really going to get hurt..."
Cuthbert's mouth twisted to one side. He glanced away and said nothing.
Alex knew it was settled. Regulus had said to let them take a hit, so they'd take a hit. His hesitation wouldn't change anything. But something sat wrong in his chest.
Lina and Samuel. He dealt with them more than anyone. One was clever, one was earnest. Slytherin was already hard enough for them, and now they were being sent into harm's way on purpose.
He pressed that feeling down, lifted his head, and when he spoke again his voice was steady, carrying a thread of resolve. "I'll set it up."
The two of them picked up momentum, one plan branching into two, two into four, the scope widening with each pass, the ideas growing increasingly elaborate.
Regulus listened without interrupting. What Lestrange truly wanted, he hadn't shared.
Rabastan might be stupid, but he wasn't stupid enough to personally corner someone in a hallway. Regulus kept that to himself.
Let them think. Let them scheme. Let them cobble together a plan, even if it drifted off course. An opportunity like this was rare.
Last year at the Astronomy Tower, they'd been pulled in by circumstance. This was different.
This time they were standing together by choice, working out how to handle the same problem side by side. That kind of experience didn't come along often.
His gaze drifted to Hermes.
The boy had been listening throughout. The light in his eyes burned brighter by the minute, but he still hadn't joined the discussion. Just sat there, working through his own calculations.
Regulus cut into a sentence Cuthbert was halfway through. "Alex."
Alex turned immediately.
"Snape is part of this. He's in the plan. Coordinate with him. As for Costa and Vance, tell them what's happening and let them decide for themselves."
Cuthbert's mouth pulled down at one corner. He said nothing, his gaze shifting elsewhere.
Alex paused, then nodded. "Understood."
Regulus added one more thing. "Keep a close watch on them. Nothing gets out of hand."
He stood, walked toward his private room, and pushed the door open.
The voices outside continued. Cuthbert's came through sharper, animated, debating some detail with Alex, energy running high.
Alex was quieter, but he kept pace, the two of them trading lines back and forth, still building.
Then Hermes, a single sentence: "Tell me when you're done. I'll handle the hitting."
Regulus sat down inside the room.