Chapter 7
Regulus’ glaring alarm started him into wakefulness, “Shut the fuck you stupid piece of shit” he snapped, jabbing the ‘stop’ button on his clock multiple times until silence fell across the room. He reached past his clock to grab his phone and see if anyone had texted him.
*Buzz Buzz*
“Fucking hell” Regulus grumbled and opened his messages.
{James (crackhead) Potter} Morning twinkle toes
{Regulus the muppet} ok what the actual fuck
{James (crackhead) Potter} You don’t like my nickname for you? How about Cheesy Ears, Baby Teeth, or maybe you’d like Chicken Drumstick more?
{Regulus the muppet} are those not your pet names for sirius
{Regulus the muppet} maybe you need a lobotomy
{James (crackhead) Potter} Only if it was you doing it ;)
{Regulus the muppet} maybe an exorcism would be better
{James (crackhead) Potter} Only if we can do it together. Couples therapy anyone?
{Regulus the muppet} you need both ill sign you up today
{Regulus the muppet} dont worry sirius can join you too
{James (crackhead) Potter} Not you? :(
Regulus rolled his eyes but couldn’t hide the smile that turned his lips upwards. Shoving his phone into his pocket Regulus got up and wandered out to the kitchen to see if Sirius was awake. The kitchen was empty and so was the lounge room, so Regulus walked outside in need of some fresh air. The birds chirped in surprise as the back slid door open and Regulus stepped out. The cold grass froze his bare feet but the sound of crunching leaves comforted him in an odd way. The sun was just peaking over the fence and began to light the yard with golden rays and warmth. Regulus pulled his phone out and took a photo, one more added to his very large collection of pretty sunrises and sunsets, though this time he sent the image to someone.
{Reggie Pumpkin} [sent an image]
{Dorcas the Queen} Oooooo pretty
{Dorcas the Queen} Just like me and youuuuu
{Reggie Pumpkin} of course xx
{Dorcas the Queen} xx
Regulus smiled gently at his phone and opened up his camera roll, scrolling back a little ways he found the last photos they all took together, Regulus in the middle, Barty and Evan hugging him from behind, and Dorcas smiling happily on the right of them, she was holding the phone. Regulus swiped through more of the photos they took that day, Barty and Evan lifting Regulus up, the tree they used to build forts in, Dorcas’ car with the three boys on top of it, and lastly a photo of the sunset with Regulus’ best friend’s silhouettes lined up across the bottom of the image.
~
“Regulus” Sirius’ voice moved through the house and found Regulus,
“I’m outside” Regulus called back and got up to head back inside. Sirius was sitting on the couch now with a bowl of cereal in each hand, one was filled with Corn Flakes and the other had porridge in it.
“Which one sleeping beauty?” Sirius smirked and moved both bowls towards Regulus so he could see,
“You piss me off” Regulus grumbled and took the Corn Flakes from Sirius, he plonked himself down on the couch and picked up the spoon Sirius had brought for him and began eating. Silence fell across the brothers as they ate breakfast and washed their bowls clean, Sirius was the first to break it once they had gotten ready for school.
“Hey Reg, I know you won’t want to talk about last night but you need to at least talk to James and Remus and give them some form of explanation, or even just let them know you are okay and that what they did was the right thing” he paused to look at his brother, his brow then scrunched together, “though maybe tell James to lay off on the hugs”,
Regulus blushed at the memory of being cradled by James and hugging him while crying, “yeah I know I need to speak to them, I just don’t know what to say”,
“Well you could start with, my brother says only he is aloud to hug me and that James banned from it” Sirius laughed lightly and glanced at Regulus, who was smiling at him, “I’m being serious Reggie”,
“Well I mean your name is Sirius I suppose” Regulus replied sincerely,
“See you get it” Sirius exclaimed putting his arms up above his head as though he was praising a god, “wait no this was all a distraction, back too the topic of you being a good little lad and telling Remus and James you’re fucked in the head”,
“Hey now thats just rude” Regulus complained, “I know though, I’ll talk to them today, maybe at lunch. However we better get going before we miss the bus” Regulus got up and grabbed his bag and Sirius’ too.
They rushed to the bus stop in hopes of not missing it, they didn’t and made it just in time. Regulus pushed to the back to get a decent seat, James was already there and patted the seat next too him, inviting Regulus to sit with him. Sirius was stuck behind a few other people so by the time he was on the only seat near James and Regulus was next to a rather large person, Sirius would not have fitted next to him. So he sat closer to the front and ended up spamming James with texts just to annoy him.
“Your brother I swear he’s nuts” James breathed as he flipped his phone over and turned it off,
“You’re only just realising?” Regulus joked, “try living with him for sixteen years”,
“Oh dear not poor little crunchy toes, how ever will he recover?” James teased Regulus, his eyes glinted with mischief as he looked at Regulus,
“Tête de bite” Regulus smiled to himself and pulled out his phone pretending to be busy,
“Hey you cant just say shit and not tell me what you said” James protested and shook Regulus’ arm trying to get his attention.
“Oh right yeah, I said you’re hilarious” Regulus replied with a slight smirk that James failed to see, “Tête de bite, Tet-doo-beat” he sounded it out for James, who quietly repeated it under this breathe, Regulus couldn’t help but smile.
~
Regulus wandered off to his first class; maths, ironically one of his favourites, mostly because the only kids in his class were nerds and didn’t give a fuck that he was an exchange student following his brother around, unlike some others. Ms Evelyn Grimsbane arrived late, as per usual, and swung the door shut behind her in a rush of air.
“Alright everyone take out your text books and turn to page three hundred and twenty” Ms Grimsbane spoke in a dreamy tone and her voice seemed to flow up and down like the gentle waves on a beach.
Regulus pulled his text book out of his bag and flipped through it until he was on the right page, they were learning about trigonometry and how to use sine, cosine, and tangent. Though most thought it was boring Regulus quite enjoyed it, there was easy patterns to follow and everything had a formula to look at and copy.
“Regulus, what does x equal in this triangle?” Ms Grimsbane spoke to Regulus and gestured to the board, on it was a right angle triangle with numbers written around it and the letter x on one of the sides.
“X equals thirty two, it is shorten than the hypotenuse and longer than the opposite length” Regulus answered smoothly only glancing at his book once,
“Well done Regulus” her voice seemed to trill up and down with Regulus’ name.
They all worked in silence for the following half an hour until the PA system interrupt their lesson,
“Lily Evans and Remus Lupin please come to the office, Lily Evans and Remus Lupin”, the speaker cracked as the microphone turned off and the sound cut out. Murmurs rippled through the class room with ideas of why the two were called to the office, only one stood out to Regulus though,
“I heard from Kyle that those two are dating, maybe they got caught doing something” this was followed by a wave of giggles, Regulus couldn’t help but snort at it.
“Quiet please, everyone get back to your work you can discuss your theories at lunch” Ms Grimsbane spoke sweetly and walked slowly around the room looking at everyone work and helping some.
~
The bell rang and Regulus collected his things and moved off to his next class, History. Prof. McGonagall was the best teacher, she would let you talk to your friends but would still urge you to do work and would help if you needed it, not that Regulus did very often.
“Reg!” Lily called out to Regulus and waved at him,
“Hey Lils, what was the office thing about?” Regulus queried her immediately, knowing she would deflect if he left it any longer,
“Oh yeah, there’s a new student coming in a few days, we were asked to be the ‘tour guides’, if you will, for him” she used air quotes and shrugged simply, “oh and he’s in my year, sorry no new buddies for you”,
“Oh nah thats fine, I don’t really care anyways” Regulus shrugged too and walked into the classroom with Lily in tow.
“So? Who’s the new kid?” Regulus pestered Lily as they worked,
“Bit obsessed hey Reg?” Lily taunted him with a smile,
“Shush child just tell me who they are” Regulus waved his hand as though waving away the insult.
“Ok ok, whatever for your majesty” Lily dodged Regulus’ hand and began telling him about her meeting in the office, “Dumbledore said that he comes from Germany, and that he’s coming here for a better education, apparently his current school isn’t very good”.
“What’s his name?” Regulus asked quickly,
“I have no clue Dumbledore wouldn’t say, he was very adamant that I couldn’t know” Lily shrugged and picked her pen back up, only to start talking again, “oh and he’s in Hephera”.
“Huh? Which house is that?” Regulus said looking up at Lily in confusion,
“Yellow, you know the one with the badger” Lily explained quickly and began writing again,
“Ohhh right”
~
Regulus was sitting in their usual lunch spot when he saw his brother on James’ shoulders running full tilt at him.
“I’ll get you Reggie!” Sirius was yelling as him and James hurtled across the quad and towards Regulus,
“What the fuck is wrong with those two” Remus’ voice could be heard clearing across the quad, he was walking with Lily and only looked up when he realised everyone had heard him,
“If you take me to the doctors we can get me diagnosed!” Sirius yelled back twice as loud with a grin on his face, James had stopped running and was puffing heavily.
“Oi get off me you lug” James shrugged his shoulders trying to get Sirius off, Sirius fell on the floor.
“Arsehole” Sirius grumbled as he got up and shoved James, who nearly fell on Regulus,
“Shit sorry” James caught himself before he hit Regulus. James looked down at Regulus, who was sitting there completely zoned out staring at the ground, and plonked himself next to him.
Lily and Remus walked over and stopped their conversation to try and tune into Sirius and James’.
“And then the cow jumped across the potato and ate the chicken’s children, but then the children ate the cow from the inside out” Sirius was lecturing James, who seemed very focused.
“Ok what the fuck are they on about?’ Remus asked Regulus,
“No fucking clue” Regulus droned still looking at the ground.
“Hey you good?” Remus asked and sat on the other side of Regulus,
“Yeah I’m-“ Regulus stopped him self and looked up at Remus, “can I talk to you, like not here”,
“Yeah sure, we’ll be back Lils” Remus said and got up, putting his arm out for Regulus to grab. They walked around the corner and down one of the corridors, stopping outside of room 24B.
“Whats going on?” Remus broached,
“Well you were there last night, the panic attack I had” Regulus paused to compose himself, “they happen all the time, whenever anything that reminds me of home and how Mother treated me there sets me off, like the glass breaking and doors slamming or people yelling”,
“Is that why you shut down just before?” Remus asked quietly,
“Yeah pretty much” Regulus sighed, “I need to talk to James about this as well”,
“Do you want me to be there?” Remus spoke gently and held Regulus’ arm in comfort,
“No I’ll be ok” Regulus said as he turned to walk back to the group, “oh and you and Sirius really need to sort your shit out”,
“Wait what do you mean?” Remus demanded rushing after Regulus,
“You know what I mean” Regulus replied slyly with a smirk and started walking faster back towards the others.
~
“Hey James?” Sirius prodded,
“Yeah mate?”,
“Are you and Lily a thing? Cause you guys are pretty close”,
“Oh hah, nah mate we dated a few months ago but it just wasn’t right” James laughed to himself for a moment then looked up at Sirius, “do you have a thing for her?”,
“What? Nah she’s not my type” Sirius shrugged,
“Red heads not your vibe huh?” James teased with a grin, “who is your vibe then?”,
“Wouldn’t you like to know” Sirius taunted,
“Come on mate you can tell me” James persisted, his face was lit with eagerness,
“I suppose I bat for the other team, if you get my gist” Sirius hummed and twirled his pen around.
James looked at Sirius in confusion for a moment before he spoke,
“Oh your gay-”,
Sirius hit him, hard, “Shut up you idiot” he hushed looking around quickly,
“Dude its fine literally no one cares, to be fair your friends with me and that says enough” James shrugged and picked his pencil up to continue writing,
“Wait what do you mean?” Sirius demanded,
“You know I'm like openly Pansexual right? Like as in everyone at school knows?” James looked at Sirius incredulously,
“Oh well yeah I did I just” Sirius stammered for a moment and then sighed, “sorry at my school in France being anything but straight was very much not okay, I guess I brought some of those values with me”,
“Nah your fine mate, I really don’t care” James reassured him, “you’ve got a good arm though, I’ll be bruised for weeks”
“Princess” Sirius sneered and started doing his homework again.
~
The bell rang, gently echoing through the library. The sound of books being closed, chairs pushed back and students packing up followed, disturbing Sirius and Remus’ quiet study. They were sat on a high up window sill that was wide enough to sit on, at the back of the library where no one went.
“Hey Siri?” Remus reached out and touched the boy across from him, who hummed in reply, “I- I um- I was wondering-”,
“What is it Moony?” Sirius looked up at his stammering and tilted his head slightly, like a dog would,
“I- god I hate it when you do that” Remus tried to cover his smile,
“Do what?” Sirius replied innocently with a smile,
“That”
“I thought you liked it?” Sirius leant forward just enough that he got a strong whiff of coffee and chocolate, his favourite smell.
“You’re impossible” Remus breathed and impulsively closed the gap between them. It was like the flood gates had been opened, Sirius surged forwards and pressed Remus back into the window frame.
“Never thought you’d be the possessive type” Remus breathed between kisses,
“You don’t know a lot about me” Sirius groaned,
“Bet you could teach me~” Remus spoke into Sirius’ mouth,
Sirius sat back sharply his eyes wide.
Oh
Oh
“Will you be my boyfriend?” He blurted out face flushed and lips swollen,
“Hey I was gonna ask you that before” Remus complained, “yes Siri I’ll be your boyfriend”.
“You know we should really pack up and leave before we miss the buses” Sirius mumbled,
“You know I can drive you” Remus offered, reaching forward and grabbing his books and pens,
“No its alright I need to find Reg too” Sirius said quickly as though he only just remembered he had a little brother. They both jumped down form the window sill and wandered out of the Library to practically run into Regulus and James.
“Oh hey we were just looking for you two” James was the first to speak,
“Really so were we, come on lets go home” Sirius added and the group of boys began to walk towards the bus lane.