Compete
@jeggyverses-jegulus-microfic word count: 697
“Jane Fonda?”
“No idea.” “Seriously?”
“Seriously.”
Even though he wasn’t facing him Regulus could practically feel James’s eyes roll as they walked down the dungeon corridor.
“She’s another actress. American, but she’s pretty fit, and an activist. Thought you might know her from that.” Regulus smiled privately at the consideration James put into his choices. It was a new game they had made up after being paired together for prefect rounds last month, and it had stuck around when they’d been paired together again at the start of this month. James names someone famous that he knows, (sometimes muggle sometimes magical, but almost always pop culture reference) and Regulus names one he’s heard of (never muggle, but often obscure academics). They compete to see who can recognize more celebrities, and the loser at the end of the night has to write the summary report.
“Bertha Waggbarn.” Regulus said confidently as they turned a stone corner.
“That’s not a real person.”
“She is, and she just got me to ten points.”
“What did she do, then?”
“She invented the cure of moltrox disease.” There was the eyeroll again.
“Wow, it’s a wonder I didn’t know her, considering she’s had such a great impact on my life.”
“You never know,” Regulus shrugged, “If it wasn’t for Bertha you might not exist. Butterfly effect.” Regulus stopped then, suspiciously eyeing an ajar broom cupboard door.
“Butterfly effect?” James asked behind him.
“Yeah,” Regulus said distractedly, pulling on the door handle and finding he couldn’t pull it open. It was stuck, not locked, maybe three quarters open. “Let’s try and get this open, we might need to report it.” As he spoke, pink smoke started drifting out of the top crack of the ajar door. Definitely something they were supposed to report.
“What’s that?” James asked, coming closer to pull on the door as well, it still not budging.
“What’s the butterfly effect?”
“Yeah,” James pulled out his wand and cast an unsticking charm, but the door still was stuck.
“It’s when one thing happens that seems little, but it ends up having big impacts or consequences.” Regulus huffed, pulling on the door again, harder.
“What does that have to do with a butterfly?” James asked, wedging his fingers into the gap and pushing.
“It’s an example. A butterfly flaps its wings on one side of the world, and on the other an earthquake happens.”
“That’s so stupid, a butterfly wouldn’t have anything to do with- uh!” James pushed too hard with his shoulder, slipping and barreling straight into Regulus who he knocked flat on his back.
Regulus groaned, mostly in frustration and not pain although he did smack his head on the floor when they went down, and James shot him a panicked look from on top of him.
“I’m so sorry! Are you alright?” He scrambled to sit up, leaning his weight onto his knees instead of Regulus’ hips, and his hands came up to touch where he had hit his head. His face was suddenly very close to Regulus’, eyes wide with concern, and Regulus tried to pretend he wasn’t turning pink.
“I’m fine- get up, Potter.” He grumbled and James, a bit embarrassed, got to his feet and held out a hand to help Regulus up. After righting himself and his robes, Regulus glared at the still stuck cupboard door.
“Come on,” James said, “Let’s just report it as it is. We tried to investigate, there’s obviously no students in there so let’s just let the professors deal with it.”
“Fine,” Regulus grumbled, and they continued on their route.
“So… John Lenon?” James asked, and Regulus stopped to give him a disbelieving look.
“I know who The Beatles are, James!” He said indignantly.
“Oh really?” James smirked, “Name one of the other ones.” After a moment Regulus huffed loudly, stalking off down the hall. As James laughed, running to catch up with him, the butterfly effect was still on his mind. Obviously a butterfly flapping its wings could never cause an earthquake, but he understood the concept. Small coincidence leading to big effects. Like maybe, for instance, two names being put together on a prefect rounds list. Hmm.
