Rotten To The Core

we're nothing like the kids next, like the kids next door

i'm rotten to the, i'm rotten to the, i'm rotten to the core

As he was walking, he tried to think of an excuse for why he had blood on his arm. Having people questioning him about what happened that morning was not what he wanted, he didn’t need any more people knowing about how bad his mother really was. Remus was the only one who knew, and Regulus wanted to keep it that way. The stench of fish and sea salt was getting stronger so he wiped his face once more for good measure and pulled his sleeve, which now had a dark stain appearing from the blood,  down to cover his mostly-dry wrist. 

As he turned the corner into the docks, he saw his friends sat on the side of the ship, talking among themselves. Finally he could just do what he wanted again. He was free from his mother. He walked over to them and when they saw him, their faces lit up. 

“Regulus! Where have you been? We haven't seen you fo-” Marlene began, but Remus cut her off, saving Regulus the explanation.

“Good to have you back mate.” Remus smiled at him, a reassuring smile. Regulus gave him a look as to say thank you. Remus always knew how to help because he knew how hard it was. He understood. 

“Where’s Mary?” regulus asked, only now realising that their fourth member wasn’t there. 

“Dunno, probably just got caught up with something.” Marlene guessed. “Speaking of which, you won’t believe what happened to me this morning” 

“Same, it’s been a ..rough morning to say the least” Remus said. Just then, Mary came round the corner of the docks and waved as she jogged over to them. 

“Omg ok, you guys wont- oh hey Regulus, good to see you’re back out again- anyways, you guys won't believe what happened to me this morning!” Mary said, out of breath. 

“So we’ve all had busy mornings then, who wants to tell their story first?” Remus asked.

Marlene shot in “Omg ok so i was walking over to get you a new pair of gloves, sorry again, and when i got to the shop there was a group of boys beating up this little kid so i started flirting with the leader guy, who was actually kinda hot like if that had been a different situation i definitely would’ve, you know,” she did a hand gesture then, to which Mary butt in “God Marls you’re disgusting, just carry on with the story” she looked at Marlene disapprovingly but still laughed as she spoke. “Hey, you know you love me, anyways, yeah so i started flirting with him and we were getting really close and then i just fuckin winded him with my knee, then I knocked this other guy out with a kick, and there was a sword fight, which I won, and it was so cool and then the little kid nearly made me cry, who would’ve thought, and then here we are!” She was out of breath now after speaking too quickly, but everyone else just stared in shock. 

“I- jesus” Remus sighed, “of all the things you could’ve said, i was not expecting that”

“A child nearly made you cry?” Regulus asked, trying to keep in a laugh

“Yeah! His questions at the end were so direct, it shocked me so much I let my guard down and yeah” Marlene said, her eyes darted down to her shoes which she started scuffing on the floor, clearly getting uncomfortable.

“What did he ask about?” Mary asked, not getting the hint that Marlene probably didn’t want to talk about it.

“Just my dad and why I always wear the hook, but I brushed it off, so..” she trailed off, still looking at the floor. To anyone who wasn’t as observant, she just looked shy, but Regulus could see that she was trying to hide the fact that her eyes were welling up so he decided to change the subject. 

“Mary, do you want to explain next?” He suggested, putting a hand on Marlene's shoulder as a way of showing support. He wasn’t very expressive with his emotions around anyone other than Remus, so this was his way of expressing that he understood that she didn’t want to talk about it anymore and that he wanted to be ok. She wiped under her eyes quickly then looked up again, flashing Regulus that quick look he used so frequently with Remus, silently saying thank you.

“Yeah ok,” Mary began. “Mine's not as big as Marlene’s but I had a run in with Snape and he wanted to start a fight so I threw my cards at him and his gang, which hit them all in the face, and ran off. Oh and I got distracted in an alley for a bit but that was nothing bad, that was just me.” 

“You ok? Snape’s a dick so if he said anything bad, don’t let it get to you” Remus said, not wanting to pry on any more open wounds today. 

“Yeah I’m fine, he was just really annoying me. Anywayys, what about you Remus? What happened to you this morning?” she asked

“I scraped my knee a bit,” he said. 

“Is that all? That's the big thing that happened this morning?” Marlene asked, unimpressed “how did you scrape your knee, did you trip over or something?”

“Oh no, I just fell off a building, that’s not important though, my knee is still stinging really bad”

“I’m sorry, you FELL OFF A BUILDING??” Mary said in disbelief. “How are you even alive? And with only a scraped knee?” 

“That doesn’t matter, if it’s any better i have a headache and a bruise on my jaw from the fight as well” Remus said nonchalantly, like this happened every day.

“There was a fight too? What happened, are you ok?” Regulus asked, genuinely concerned for Remus’ health.

“Yeah I’m fine, I don’t know why you guys are making this sound like a big deal but yeah I’ll explain. So I was walking along the roofs of buildings to get to the docks because it’s so much quicker and I love the views, and i saw a group of guys that don’t like me, as if there’s anything not to like, I don’t even know their names but anyway, I couldn’t go round them and i didn’t want to get down so i just walked up to them, expecting a fight. There were only three of them so I thought I would be able  to take them but evidently I was wrong. At first I was winning, I took down the first guy easily and the second guy was bigger so he was harder to fight, he punched me in the jaw like really hard which hurt but it wasn’t too bad so I carried on and took him down. I was pretty confident at that point but then the last guy grabbed my collar and slammed me against the wall surrounding the roof, it hurt like hell and I’m like 99% sure he nearly knocked me out but at that point i was just like waiting to see what would happen because what else was i meant to do, and then he picked me up by my top and threw me off the side. It was kinda cool though like the view was amazing but then my reflexes kicked in and i turned into a lion which was like the worst part of that whole thing I hate when i turn into a lion, but yeah then I turned back into me, wiped all the dust off my jeans, flipped off the building and walked over here.”

Once he was finished he looked up to see everyone staring at him in utter disbelief, even Regulus was staring, who never showed emotion that openly. 

“I don’t even know what to say to that, why would you start that with saying about your knee?” Marlene asked, still staring at Remus.

“It’s the part that I’m still thinking about, because it hurts. Now that I think about it my hip is kinda hurting as well, probably because of the whole lion thing. I guess I’ve got daddy dearest to thank for that though” he said, waiting for someone else to talk. They all just stood there, staring at Remus with confusion and  for a good couple minutes before Marlene broke the silence.

“Anything happen to you this morning Regulus?” she asked, shifting the attention to him.

“Um, no not really” he said, putting his bad arm behind his back. Remus looked from his arm, back to Regulus’ face, and a look of realisation crossed his face before he spoke up to change the subject again. 

“So what’s the plan for today then?” he said, still looking at Regulus. Thank god for Remus. They were throwing around ideas of places to rob when everything went quiet and everyone around them cowered away from something. Or someone.