After two weeks away on a mission with Barty and Evan, Regulus Black couldn’t think of anything that he wanted more than to go back to his flat and see his gorgeous boyfriend whom he has been deprived of for the past two weeks. But the moment he steps into the headquarters for the Order of the Phoenix he knows something is very wrong.
To start the usually loud rebel headquarters is eerily quiet, leaving an unsettling dread in the air that all three men feel the moment they enter. But that didn’t matter, that is not Regulus job right now, fuck what ever drama is going on in the order, his only concern is giving Dumbledore this goddamn cup that he, Evan and Barty spent the past 2 weeks trying to get, so he can then go home and ravish his very lovely, very hot boyfriend, and he was going to just that until he walked into Dumbledore Office and saw brother looking worse for wear.
“How is it possible that we still know nothing!” Sirius spoke with a level of distraught that Regulus had never heard from his brother before.
“Sirius, my boy as I told you, we are already stretched extremely thin. And with the recent loss of the Prewett twins as well as the news about Mrs. Longbottom we aren’t in a place to risk any more casualties.” Albus responded with his same usual decorum that he always held.
“Casualties! Casu-casualties. My best friend is missing, and has been for almost a week, and you're talking about casualties. For all we know he’s being beaten by death eaters for the past 6 days and you’ve done nothing, literally nothing to stop that or try and help find him. And you want to talk about fucking casualties, is James getting kinnapped not a casualtie?” Sirius is fuming, he has been begging Dumbledore since James didn’t return from his mission 6 days ago to do something, he's been trying himself but organizing a rescue mission with only two people is more difficult that one might imagine.
“James got WHAT?” Regulus’ voice radiates off the walls of Dumbledore's office as he feels part of his soul ripped out of his body. James, his James, the love of his life has been taken, most likely kidnapped by death eaters and has been for 6 days and not only did he not know about it, but nothing was being done about it either.
“Reg!”
“Ah Mr. Black, good to see you’ve returned. I trust you’ve completed your mission.” Dumbledore said with his same old twinkle in his eye.
“YOU! What does Sirius mean James has been missing? And for SIX days and you’ve done NOTHING!!!” Regulus can feel himself breaking, he can feel his walls starting to crumble. He looks down at his clenched fists and sees that his hands are shaking. Evan and Barty are standing on either side of him in support. He doesn't even need to speak to either of his two friends to know that they are with him. They always are, that's how they work and regulus knows nothing and no one can change that. The trio has been that way through it all. Through the seven years of Hogwarts and Two years of war. And now they are going to go through this.
“Well Mr.Black it's a bit complicated and we are trying everything we can to try and insure Mr. Potter's rescue.” Regulus listens to Dumbledore smoothly string together a phoney excuse, that he surely isn’t foolish enough to think Regulus believes. And all Regulus has to do to get the confirmation for what he already knew is to glance over at his brother's face and see the baffled and frankly pissed off look that covers his features.
“I don't care how complicated it is! James is missing and you’ve done nothing to find him!”
“I promise Mr. Black I have been looking into the disappearance and I’ve even reached out to the order member Mr. Potter was with that day. And as soon as I hear from Mr. Pettigrew…..”
Regulus heart sinks the moment he hears Peters names leave Dumbledore's mouth, James had been worried about Peter over the past few months and had voiced that concern to Dumbledore, himself and also Remus and Sirius, so the fact that Peters the one he was with when he went missing does not bode well to him.
“He was with Peter, when he went missing and you didn’t think that was any reason to be concerned!” Sirius was out of his and once again steaming.
“Mr. Pettigrew is a trusted member of the-”
“NO! No, you knew that James and myself had been concerned about Petes alliances in the past few months and you still sent them on a dangerous mission! And then act surprised when he goes missing! Fuck you Albus, if anything happens to James and I mean anything I hope you know that it is all your fault.” Sirius spoke with cruel conviction, putting Dumbledore in a place that very few seem to ever put him. But all Regulus could do was give a small smile of appreciation for his brother.
“Well Albus”. Regulus spoke with an edge that was saved for thoughts who he truly disliked. “ we’ll being going, all of us, to go find my boyfriend, since you seem to not see that as a prorite”
“Ah Mr. Black, the cup.”
“You can have your bloody cup when I get my bloody boyfriend.” and with that final comment regulus apparated away without another glance.
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He apparated to Remus and Sirius’ south London flat, the flat that was less than a block away from Regulus’ own but still he didn’t have the heart to walk through the door knowing that James wasn’t there.
Sirius, Evan and Barty all arrive beside him a few moments later, and seconds after that Sirius arms are around him and with that Regulus breaks down. He allows himself a moment to crumble, to feel the hurt that is coursing through his body. He gives himself a moment and then once the moment is over he is brushing off his brother and is back to standing on his own feet.
“Ok,” he said while regaining his cool, “so what do we know about James going missing.”
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It's been just over a week since Regulus got back. Just more than a week since his whole world shattered. Since he found out that his boyfriend, the love of his life, was taken from him and nobody knows where the hell he is.
The number of people searching for James has doubled in the past week. Not only is Remus back to himself from the past full, but the rest of their friends and even anyone in the order who were fond of James, which given the fact that James was just purely sunshine personified, it was quite a large number of people.
Their small group of Four had turned into nearly two dozen people, including himself, Remus, Sirius, Barty, Evan, Pandora, Lily, Mary, Dorcus, Marlene, Frank, Alice, Effie and Monty, Emmilen, Ted and Andromeda Tonks, and close to a handful of others from the order who once had found out where more than happy to offer up to any kind of help they could to find the young man.
But still even with their extended forces they seemed no closer to finding or rescuing James than they were a week ago or so they thought.
Monty must have been able to sense the eagerness radiating off his body as he once again stood pacing the living room of Potter Manor, hell, he wouldn’t be surprised if everyone in the manor could feel it too. “Well get him back, Regulus, I know we will.”
“Yeah, Yeah I know. Its just I miss him so fucking much Monty, and I’m worried what could they have been doing to him. What if- ”
Monty didn’t even let him finish his spiral before he cut him off. “We can’t think like that son, we just need to keep searching and hope to whatever out there that he's ok.”
“Yeah, I mean-”
“WAIT!! Holy shit I think I found it, James and Peter had been sent on a mission to go get something hidden at Malfoy manor, what they were going to get I couldn't tell you but if they were at Malfoy manor then that's probably where he's being held!” As those words left Lily's mouth Regulus felt his world start to turn again he knew where James was and coming, and Merlin forbade any fool tires stand in his way.
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It was just passed midnight when they arrived just outside the wards of Malfoy manor. It had taken almost a day after finally locating James' location for them to come up with a plan that could realistically work.
The rescue plan had created three distinct groups, one that would go into the manor and search for and then rescue James; which included Sirius, Remus, Lily, Barty, Frank, Dorcus, Marlene, Evan, Kingsly and even Professor Mcgongal. Another that was supposed to be waiting right outside Malfoy manors wards, Including Pandora, Monty, Mary and himself, because no one seemed to believe that he could keep his head on long enough to rescue his boyfriend. The final one was to be stationed back at Potter manor with medical supplies, in order to treat any injuries that James or anyone else had sustained on the rescue mission, which had Effie, Madam Pomfey, Alice, Ted, Andromeda, and Emmilen.
Sirius with his left group from the apparition point just a few minutes after they arrived, which at this point had been almost an hour ago. Given that this was a rescue mission into a death eater headquarters Regulus knows he should be patient, he knows he should be trying to calm the nerves that he feels racing through his body, but he can’t. The idea that his boyfriend is so close from his grasp, that the love of his life is so close to being back with him makes all rational dive out the window.
That was until there was a loud commotion coming from the direction that Regulus knows the manor is in, the direction that James is in. The sparks and screaming and curses flying everywhere, and all Regulus wants to do is right through it, right to James to scoop him up in his arms and take him far away from all this, far away from the order and the death eaters and the war, far away from anything that could possibly hurt him. But as much as he wants to he knows he can’t. Right now his job is to stand here and wait for Sirius and his group to come back, and trust that they were successful.
Monty is holding onto his arm, Merlin Regulus doesn’t even know when he started doing that. Maybe when the fighting and explosions started, that would make sense wouldn’t it. He's holding so tight that Regulus can feel the pressure of his fingernails through the thick jumper that he's currently wearing.
“They're gonna find him ok, they're gonna find him.” he doesn’t know who Monty is trying to convince, but in the end it really doesn’t matter, because both of them needed to hear it.
There's what sounds like a large explosion not far away from where the group is standing and then the sound of running. As the sound of trees rustling and feet crunching against the ground gets closer to them all Regulus can do is hope, hope that whoever is heading towards him is James. Hope that he's ok and safe, hope that in a matter of moments Regulus will be able to hold him in his arms again.
“Comon.” a familiar voice whispers just loud enough for them to hear, “Evan you need to be more careful with him.”
“We are being as careful as we can, my apologies if our skills of caring an unconscious body through an active battle is not up to par for you.”
“Barty, that is not what I meant, it's just that he can’t afford anything else to get worse. Now right through here and then we’re there.” there's some more rustling and then Lily walks through the trees with her wand held high.
“Lils!” Pandora let out a sigh of relief at the view of her girlfriend, “you- you’re ok right?” she asks and she rushes into her arms.
“Yes dora, I’m ok.” Lily responds back and she wraps her arms around her concerned girlfriend. Regulus watches with a jealous feeling clawing up his stomach, he shouldn’t be upset at his best friend being worried about her partner.
“Good to know we were going the right way, Thank you Lily” Barty quipped at the red head as he and Evan walk into view holding something between them, no not something, someone. Oh. James. His James, his poor poor Jamie.
“James, Oh James.” Regulus swears he takes a full breath of air for the first time in nearly 2 weeks.
As his two friends walk closer he can truly start to see the damages that have been done to his boyfriend's body over the past two weeks. His normally tan sun kissed skin has lost its usual glow which is instead replaced by the green hue, his glasses are missing and if Regulus is being honest is the least of their worries, his fingers look as if they have been broken had the bone mended back together and then broken again, and there's so much more.
But that's not what Regulus is focusing on right now. Right now it's about that fact that they have him and he's safe and nobody is going to hurt him ever again, not if he can help it.
“Yeah, we got him but um…. He's not in good shape, as you can tell, and there were some difficulties getting him out. We were ambushed, everyones ok for the most part but a bunch had to slay back a bit more so we could get him out.” Barty commented and looked at Regulus with a flash of concern in his eyes. “We need to get him back to the Potters as soon as possible but someone still needs to wait here to apparate back with everyone else.”
“Oh yeah of course. I’ll stay and wait.” Mary volunteers herself to stay behind till everyone comes back, which Regulus appreciates dearly, as much as he cares about his brother and his friends right now his focus is on James making sure he's alright, or well as alright as he can be right now.
“I can stay too.”
“Lily, you literally got hit with a massive cutting hex up your leg, What the fuck do you mean you’ll stay behind.” Barty Scoffed, his and Lily's relationship was something hard to describe. It was something like siblings, with the way they constantly bantered with one another, but if something happened to either of them, both of them jumped with concern for the other.
“Barty, it's fine.” she attempted to shove him off.
“You what?”
“Dora, I’m fine I promise.” Lily responded, attempting to sooth her stressed girlfriend but falling to do so.
“No your…”
“Merlin's beard shut up, I’ll stay!” Evan sighed dramatically, it looked like all he wanted was for his sister to stop. But Regulus knew better, he knew that beneath that he was concerned, concerned about James, concerned about Regulus, concerned about Lily, concerned about the lasting effect that this whole experience will have on all of their friends.
“Ok, So Evan and Mary will stay back and wait for everyone else to return before they all apparate back to Potter Manor, and We will go back now and get James the medical treatment he needs.” Lily was taking control of the playing and thank Merilin for that.
Regulus was looking at his boyfriend, Merlin, what did they do to him, what did they do to his poor, sweet boyfriend. His Boyfriend who refused to cast any type of offensive spells because he “would rather get hurt than be responsible for hurting someone else”, his boyfriend, who hated going on missions, who cried when his friends fought with one another, his boyfriend who just wanted the people he cared about to be ok.
“I’ll apparate James back”
“No- I’ll do it, I need to do it.” Regulus heard the tremble and fear in his voice, the idea that James could be out of his sight for even a moment filled his body with fear and stress to a level that he couldn’t name.
“No, you're not Reg.”
“Barty, I-”
“No” Barty cut him off before he could even explain, “You're not, you aren’t even capable to appartate yourself right now, I know you’re worried about James, we are, but we cannot afford for you to get either of you splinched ok. So I’m going to apparate back me and James and Pandora is going to apparate you back with her. And I’m not leaving any room for arguing because it's a waste of time, so get over yourself and go stand with Dora so we can get get your boyfriend the treatment he needs.”
Fuck, Regulus hates how much senes he makes, he hates when Barty actually uses his brain to be logical and not to be well, Barty. But was right he needed to be worried about James, and about his health. “Ok, yeah.”
“Good, let's go.” Lily said, grabbing her wand and walking over to Monty, the older man hadn’t said a word since they had seen James, he had a pale look of horror on his face and couldn’t stop looking at his son, at the damage that had been done to him. Regulus hated seeing two people he cared so much about in so much pain, and he hated the pain and hurt that he himself was feeling.
But that didn’t matter right now it couldn’t matter right now. Right now was about James, it was about him and him being ok, because he needed to be ok.
The apparition to Potter manor was fast, Regulus swears he didn’t even feel it, all he felt was worry, was fear, fear for his boyfriend, for the love of his life. Effie, Pomfey, and Andy were waiting outside the doors waiting for them. The look on Effie's face when she saw her son caused Regulus’ heart to break for the hundredth time today.
Poppy and Andromeda ran forward to where Barty was standing to check on James, Effie however stayed frozen by the door, just staring, staring at her son, her baby looking like hell. Seeing him like that well it broke something inside of her, the tears started flowing down her face. “Oh, Oh my poor baby”. Effie let out a small sob.
“He's gonna be alright, Eff, ok he's strong.” Monty, tried to reassure her, even though he himself didn’t fully believe what he was saying.
The two women ushered Barty into the house, Andy going to the otherside of James to help Barty carry the man into the house, as they walked Regulus felt his own legs move as well, following the direction that his boyfriend was being carried. The noise was flying around the room, words, statements, none of which were being processed by Regulus .Andy, and Poppy were muttering between themselves, waving their wands and casting spells.
James was laid on the couch, Merlin he looked almost dead, and it teffired Regulus, Fuck he need to be ok, He needed him to be ok. Regulus doesn’t know what he's going to do if he wasn’t ok. The worst part was that there was literally nothing he could do to help, all he could do was sit there anxiously and watch.
The sudden slam of the door interrupted Regulus' current spiral of thoughts.
“He’s here, you guys got him?” Sirius’ voice rang out through the entryway of Potter manor as a parade of footsteps came towards the living room they were all gathered in.
“Yeah, we got him, what about you guys? I know none of us expected that attack.” Barty for once was reassuring someone instead of just stirring the pot.
“Yeah, yeah we're all good. A few curses here and there but we’re all ok for the most part.” Remus stepped in to reassure everyone. Sirius was no longer involved in the conversation, instead he was standing with Effie and holding on to her for dear life.
Remus stepped towards Regulus, offering a small smile. “How are you doing Reg?”
“I-i” he couldn’t even get the words out, how was he doing. He didn’t even know. He just was. He wasn’t as bad as he was a few hours ago, not knowing if the love of his love was even truly alive, but he also wasn’t good. Being forced to see his boyfriend like that, in much pain, without knowing what he could do to help him. “I don’t know Rem, I really don’t know.”
“Yeah, ok, that's fair. But we’re here for you when you need us ok? We all care about you, and we'll take care of you if you need us too.”
Remus' words were the thing that finally made Regulus lose it. After a little more than a week of keeping it together, he finally falls apart, and this was not like his little mini breakdown he had when he first found out James was missing. No this was a full blown breakdown. All the hurt, pain, and anxiety that he had been harboring came pouring out. Tears spilled down his face as he felt the sobs wracked his body.
Suddenly two arms wrapped themselves around him, and pulled him close to their chest. “We’ve got you Reg, we’re here.” and with that Regulus let himself fall apart, he let himself cry for what felt like hours because he needed to and he let himself get out everything he needed to.
After finally calming himself down, with partial help from his friends and family, Madam Pomfey spoke up. “He’s stable, he's obviously not in the best shape right now, but he's going to be ok. He’ll need potions every day, and we’ll need to rewrap his wounds every couple hours, but he’ll be ok.”
“Oh thank Merlin.” Monty let out a sigh of relief, the same sigh that everyone in the room was holding.
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It had been two days since they had rescued James, two days of Regulus sitting in the chair next the couch watching, two days of sitting there and waiting. It was the mid morning and the group, made up of Remus, Sirius, Barty, Evan, Pandora, Lily, Effie, Monty and Regulus was once again sitting in the living room in Potter manor, waiting for James to wake up.
“Com’on Mon’ Soli, please, please wake up, I need you.” Regulus was once again begging his boyfriend to wake up, to be ok.
“Mmnn, no. No please.” James fluttered open, and his voice cracked as he spoke, “Please, please go away, I don’t wanna do this anymore.” James spoke. His voice sounded so broken, so tired, so hurt.
“Jamie, it's me, your- you're ok love. You’re safe.” Regulus tried to reassure his distressed boyfriend.
“No, please, no more, I’m sorry, just please. I- I can’t.” James let out a soft sob. “Pl-please” he was begging, and fuck did that hurt Regulus. The fact that someone would do this to James, to hurt him like this, to make someone so strong so broken.
“Prongs, Prongsie, Hey its Sirius, its padfoot. You’re ok.” Sirius was up off of the loveseat he was previously sitting on with Remus, and now crouching next to Regulus by James' side.
“No-, no more, Please, I swear I don’t know, I- I don’t know what He’s looking for, I- I Promise, please don’t do this anymore. Please.” he was fully sobbing now, begging, pleading for someone to help him.
“James, Honey, you’re ok, you’re safe, I promise. I promise.” Regulus was attempting to reassure the older boy while keeping his calm and failing miserably.
“No, no it's not real. It's not real.” At this point James was squeezing his eyes as tight as he possibly could mumbling the mantra to himself like his life depends on it, maybe because just a few days ago it had.
“James, Jamie please look at me, please. Please.” he was begging at this point, for James to look at him to know that he was ok, that he was safe, that they had rescued him and that they were going to make sure no one was ever going to hurt him again.
“No, mmh no please.” James was closing his eyes as tight as he possibly could to a point that it looked like it was painful to do so.
“Jamie, I promise you're safe, your home we got you out, we- we got you safe.”
James opened his eyes with a very clear look of hesitation on his face, he was looking at regulus with both hurt and hope in his eyes. “Its- this- its real.” he asked hesitantly.
Regulus let out a small breath he was holding once he was finally able to look at the older boy. “Yes, yes amour, it's real. This is all real I promise.” As he said that regulus felt tears start to fall down his face.
“I’m safe, you’re all safe.” James asked, directing the question at no one in particular.
“Yeah prongs, everyone is safe.” Sirius replied back to his best friend gently placing his hand on the healing man shoulder just so that he knew he was there.
“And I promise you, no one, and I mean no one is ever gonna hurt you again. Ok amour. I’m gonna keep you safe I promise.” Regulus, said through the tears of relief he was crying.
“Yea, Yeah ok.”
“Don’t worry Prongs you’re ok now we’ve got you. We always will.”