trapped
“So, let me get this straight. You went to go talk to Regulus about why he got the dark mark, then he threatened you and told you to leave him alone, and by the end of the conversation you two were snogging?” Peter asked with a confused look on his face. James had tried not to tell anyone what had happened so that Sirius wouldn’t find out but he couldn’t hold it in. As soon as Remus and Sirius left the door that morning James told Peter everything. “Ya, pretty much. Peter, you have to help me!” James pleaded. “Help you how?!” Peter asked, with a confused look on his face. “I don’t know! Tell me what to do! I need help, I don’t know how this all got so messed up!” James yelled. “Ok! Ok! Look first of all you need to figure out what this means.” Peter said, trying to calm James down. “How am I supposed to know what this means?!” James asked. “Ok, what did he do after you two kissed?” Peter asked, calmly. “I don’t know, he just sort of ran off.” James answered, it finally seemed like he was calming down. “Well, if you want my advice… I think you should talk to him about it.” Peter suggested, as he picked up his knitting needles again.
-later that day, in the courtyard-
James walked around trying to find Regulus or one of his friends. After a few moments of searching James saw Barty and Evan sitting beside a tree. Evan was reading a book with his head in Barty’s lap while Barty leaned against the tree. James walked over to the two boys with the note he had written to Regulus. “Barty, could you give this to Regulus for me?” James asked, handing the folded piece of paper to Barty. Barty shot James a dirty look. “No.” Barty replied simply. “What? Why not? I need to talk to him” James asked. “Ya, well it seems every time you two ‘talk’ you end up snogging him so, no.” Barty said with a smug look on his face. “Well, that’s actually what I need to talk to him about, but it’s none of your business. Look if you won’t give it to him I’ll just do it myself.” James said, turning away from Barty. “NO.” Barty said angrily, grabbing James’s arm to stop him from walking away. “Just leave him alone! If you really love him, stop hurting him.” Barty said sternly. James turned back to Barty quickly. “I’m not trying to hurt him, I just need to talk to him.” James said calmly as he tried handing the note to Barty again.
“Fine,” Barty said, snatching the note out of James’s hand, “but if you hurt him again I will fucking kill you.” “You’re a good friend, Barty.” James said with a small smile on his face before turning around and walking away again.
-later that day, in the slytherin dorms-
“So, Reggie, you have anything you want to tell us?” Barty asked with a knowing look on his face. “Nope.” Regulus said without looking up from his book. “Really? Not even anything about James?” Evan asked teasingly. Regulus closed his book angrily. “No.” He said, giving Barty and Evan a death glare. “Come on, Reg. We know you kissed him.” Barty said, leaning closer to Regulus. “What?! Who told you that!” Regulus shouted angrily. “He did.” Evan said, wrapping his arm around Regulus and sitting down next to him. Regulus shrugged Evan’s hand off of his shoulder. “I’m gonna kill him!” Regulus yelled as he stood up from his bed aggressively and walked towards the door. Barty ran to the door and locked it to stop Regulus from leaving. “Reggie, it’s clear that you two still like each other. Just talk to him.” Evan said. “No.” Regulus responded firmly. “Fine. Evan, let’s just let this go,” Barty said to Evan with a small smirk on his face, “Reg, let’s just go for a walk and you can think about what you want to do.” Barty said with almost a genuine look of concern on his face. “Fine. But, only if it’ll make you two shut up” Regulus said suspiciously.
The group walked around the corridors for a while before they reached a familiar looking classroom. “What are we doing here?!” Regulus yelled angrily. Regulus peered through the widow to see James sitting on a stool looking at his watch in the abandoned classroom and then turned back to Barty and Evan with an angry look on his face. “What The fuck is he doing here?” Regulus whispered so as not to alert James as to what was going on. “Just talk to him ok.” Evan said pleadingly, placing his hand on Regulus’ shoulder. “NO.” Regulus said firmly. Evan took a few steps towards Regulus causing Regulus to take a few steps backwards towards the door. “Just give it a chance, Reg. We promise we won’t bother you about it again.” Barty said, stepping closer to the door and beginning to reach for the handle behind Regulus’ back as Evan inched Regulus even closer to the door. “We both know that’s not true.” Regulus said definitely, suddenly Evan had backed Regulus up so far that his back was now touching the door. Quickly, Barty opened the door and Regulus fell into the classroom. Barty and Evan slammed the door shut and locked it from the outside. “We aren’t letting you two out until you tell each other the truth and make up!” Barty yelled triumphantly. “That shouldn’t be hard for you, Reg, since we slipped some Veritaserum into your tea when you weren’t looking.” Evan yelled. “You little shits!” Regulus yelled, “Marde!” Regulus yelled, slamming his fist against the door.
“What was that?” James asked, looking up at Regulus as he fixed his glasses. Regulus turned around to look at James with a pissed off look on his face. “Barty and Evan just locked us in here and, not only that, but they also apparently slipped me some Veritaserum so that I can’t lie to you.” Regulus said. “Oh, well, since they aren’t gonna let us out until we talk about this, why don’t we get to it, because I personally don’t wanna sit in this classroom all day.” James said. “Fuck you.” Regulus said crudely. “Well, so much for that.” James said in defeat.
A few hours passed silently before either of the two boys spoke again. “I didn’t move on.” James said, suddenly breaking the silence, “I never loved lily.” “Oh, how comforting.” Regulus said sarcastically. “Why do I even bother?” James whispered to himself, looking away from Regulus again. A few moments of silence passed by. “It doesn’t matter anyways. I don’t care if you loved her or not or if you’re sorry about what happened or not because we still can’t be together.” Regulus said suddenly. “Why not?!” James yelled. “Because, they’ll hurt you! Don’t you understand, James? I have the dark mark, that means that if people were to find out about us people from both sides would use you to control me and put your life in jeopardy!” Regulus shouted angrily. Regulus could feel tears begin to well up in his eyes, he had never said these fears out loud to anyone before. “I am fine with risking my life for the people I love!” James yelled. “Well, I’m not! I don’t want to live knowing that I could’ve stopped you from giving up your life! I don’t want to know forever that you died because I was too selfish to save you!” Regulus yelled back at James. “Regulus,” James said as he walked closer to Regulus, “I don’t need you to protect me. I know that this is dangerous, but it’s clear that no matter how hard we try to separate ourselves from each other we can’t. I’d rather die tomorrow than live with you just out of my reach.”
“You’re a dumb ass,” Regulus said simply, “But I guess it’s no use protecting you when I know you’ll just keep trying over and over again.” “So…” James said anxiously waiting for Regulus to make a decision. “Fine, I guess we can get back together, but you have to promise that you’ll be careful and that no one can know about this.” Regulus said calmly. “Deal.” James said with a huge smile on his face.