The way Regulus Black was sitting in the common room could only suggest that in his opinion, he actually owned the place. He had his feet up on the table in front of him, crossed on the ankles and his hands behind his head to let people know that he was relaxing and needed no interruptions.

He tilted his head backwards and closed his eyes, satisfied with the quiet the common room seemed to provide in the middle of the day, but not for long, apparently. His eyes snapped opened when he heard the entrance open, and he peered curiously to see who walked in.

Orpheus was in a mildly positive sort of mood. Things were going alright it seemed. No calls from his father, no threatening owls - except for the fact that Laura was still acting funny things were nearly perfect.

He looked up when he entered the common room to see Regulus Black sprawled across the couch like he owned the place. He raised an eyebrow. "Comfortable?"

"Oh yes, very." Regulus replied with a rather smug grin. It wasn't clear why he didn't like Orpheus, or why Orpheus didn't like him, or when it even started, but now with the whole Laura and Sirius ordeal, that dislike seemed to only increase.

So, instead of inviting Orpheus to sit with him, he turned his head around again and closed his eyes.

Orpheus crossed his arms, stopping where he was. The boy sure was rude. He'd even invited him to his party and he couldn't be civil enough to hold a conversation? It wasn't Orpheus' fault they held a mutual friend in Amycus but at least the other boy could act like he cared.

Orpheus sat down on one of the arm chairs and put his feet up as well. "Yes, rather a nice place to relax," he agreed.

Regulus did not like the fact that Orpheus sat down despite his cold attitude, and he opened his eyes again to look at the older boy, a thoughtful look on his face.

"I'm surprised you even have time to relax nowadays, heard you've been incredibly busy."

"Busy?" Orpheus looked over at the other boy curiously. What had he heard. "Doing what?"

In truth, Regulus hadn't heard anything. The only thing he knew for sure was that Laura broke up with his brother. The reason to that was completely unclear to him, and when he realized that asking Sirius about it might hurt his brother, decided to find out on his own.

"With the ladies, actually. I'd say you've been quite lucky."

Orpheus smirked. So the younger boys had heard about the girl earlier that week. Well that was to be expected he assumed. It was just, Laura made him so crazy and well, he was only human after all. And she sort of looked like her if you squinted. Oh hell, who was he kidding? But at least he didn't know what he was missing.

Orpheus shrugged. "We've all got needs. Luck has nothing to do with it."

Oblivious to the possibility that Orpheus might be talking about someone other than Laura, Regulus tensed slightly in his seat, though he tried not to let it show too much.

"So now you're attached to a girlfriend, huh?"

Orpheus shook his head quickly. "Oh no, nothing like that. She's very nice and everything, but well, coming from an upstanding family you understand that a relationship has to be more than just physical for it to work out in the end." Still though, he mused, she was quite the vixen if he did say so himself.

Regulus tilted his head in a slight angel, narrowing his eyes at Orpheus. "Do I know her?"

"If you mean by that," Orpheus laughed, "is it someone you yourself have desires on, then I'm afraid not. Otherwise, you would probably know her if you saw her. She's in our house - she comes through here a lot." Regulus obviously hadn't seen the girl leaving his room at an ungodly hour and for that he was somewhat greatful.

Relaxing back in his seat, Regulus allowed himself a hearty laugh. "No mate, I'm settled when it comes to that aspect of my life. I was curious, is all." Sirius would be happy to know that Orpheus was doing some girl that wasn't Laura, and he'd be happy to make his own brother happy, so it all works quite well.

"So," Orpheus began, relaxing again, "how was your holiday? I heard you stayed behind."

"Indeed." Regulus nodded firmly, glad that subject was shoves aside. "One must make an effort to get decent OWLs, don't you think? Even if you don't plan to use them afterwards."

Orpheus sat up and looked at Regulus. "I beg your pardon?" What exactly was the boy implying?

"What?" Regulus asked out innocently, diverting his eyes to examine his fingers.

Orpheus turned to glare at the boy. "If you are implying that I don't plan to use the OWLs I have earned then I suggest you carefully consider your next words." His tone was icy.

Regulus raised his eyebrows; clearly, he had hit a delicate spot. "Actually, I was implying that I'm not going to use them afterwards. But your reaction does make me wonder…" He trialed off with a cheeky grin, eager eyes focused on his face.

Orpheus shot Regulus another icy glare. "On the contrary, you'll make much use of those OWLs I should think." Orpheus couldn't help that he lacked self confidence at times.

"And what use, pray tell, ought I make of them? A common position at the ministry just isn't for my liking." Regulus replied smugly, consciously stressing the word 'common'.

"From what I've heard," Orpheus began carefully, "you shouldn't worry over boredom. We are rarely bored in the Ministry."

"I think I have quite a good idea of the life of Ministry workers. A modest desk job, a nice house, go back to the wife and kids at the end of the day…" Of course, Regulus knew it was more than that, he just liked to annoy Orpheus. "That's not the life for me, I'm afraid."

Orpheus frowned. "You're a git, you know that?"

Regulus' grin widened. He appeared to have affect the older Slytherin more than he thought. "Am I now?"

Orpheus took a deep breath. He needed to calm down. He was letting this brat get to him. He leaned back in his chair. "Actually, spoiled brat fits the mold better, but git does come to mind first."

"I do appreciate your honesty." Regulus nodded cheekily, removing one hand from behind his head to idly scratch his temple.

Orpheus just continued to glare at him. Now he remembered why he hated this boy so much. But he refused to be the one who left and admitted defeat. "Hows things with Amycus? I haven't seen him around. You aren't corrupting him I hope."

If only Orpheus knew how many uses there were for that sentence, Regulus thought to himself, not helping off a smirk. "I wouldn't use the word corrupting," He began slowly, pushing his hair off his face, "But he's fine. Just spending a lot of his time around me."

Orpheus wondered exactly how the boy meant the comment. "Yes, of that I'm aware. I haven't seen Amycus in what feels like weeks. I was unable to find him at my house, but I was pretty sure he went with Alecto."

"Oh, your house- I do apologize for missing your party. I was rather occupied, and I didn't think that showing up in the wrong mood would help at all." His voice was somewhat serious now, and he sat straighter in his chair, trying to fight off the memory of his situation back then.

Orpheus nodded stiffly. "Don't worry about it." Truly it was better the boy hadn't been there. He had gotten to talk to Laura and greet his guests. It was just Amycus he hadn't seen in a long time. "So everything seems okay with him then?"

"Yes, perfectly fine." Regulus replied almost automatically, even though he didn't really know the answer to that.

Orpheus ran his hand through his hair. "Good to hear." He wasn't sure if he believed the other boy but that was okay for now.

"Yeah." Regulus nodded, his hand returning to support his head and his eyes falling shut, again.