holidays are coming to an end
Regulus’ pov
Regulus rolled his eyes for what seemed to be the thousandth time today. “If you stopped talking about my brother like that, I would be extremely grateful, you know”, he said while folding another pair of trousers before putting it neatly into his suitcase.
The window of his room was open, carrying summer’s last breath and flooding the room with soft light. Remus was lying on the foot of his bed, his hands covering his face. “Yes, yes, I’m aware. But since you are partly to blame for him looking thrice as hot as usual, I think you will have to endure me. Regulus, it isn’t fair. How the fuck does he look so good?” With a long and overdramatic sigh he rolled over to lie on his side and looked at Regulus with red cheeks.
“Remus you bastard. You absolute fool. Stop whining about my brother, please. Go and talk to him and end my misery already.” When Remus just made an annoyed sound and pushed his face into the bedsheets Regulus abandoned the shirt he was folding in favour of putting a hand on his friend’s shoulder. Remus opened one eye to look at him. “I’m sincere, Remus.” He pressed his lips together as if his next words pained him. “My brother is in love with you. No” – he said as Remus squeezed his eyes shut and scrunched his nose – “You will listen to me.” He grabbed the werewolf by both shoulders and made him sit up so that they were facing each other.
“If you don’t trust anyone else, trust me. I would never lie to you do anything to hurt you – or to hurt Sirius for that matter. And I will deny ever saying this so listen closely: You two are absolutely perfect for each other and I wouldn’t want anyone else to end up with my brother but you. And I wouldn’t tell you this if I didn’t know for a fact that Sirius is in love with you.”
With these word he broke the intense eye contact and pushed his best friend back down on the bed. “So for Merlin’s sake, please ask him out already”, he grumbled, not missing the small smile spreading on Remus’ face. “I need to finish packing for Hogwarts now. Have you even started yet or have you been busy objectifying Sirius and disturbing his poor brother?”
Remus rolled his eyes. “It’s not even three o’clock. I’ve got time more than enough time to pack. But alright, I’ll leave you to it.” He stood up and made his way to the door, letting Regulus focus on finding the corresponding sock to the one he was holding.
Before leaving the room, he stopped in the doorframe. “And Regulus”, he said without turning his head and in a small voice, “Thank you.”
Then he was gone and Regulus stood alone next to his suitcase, hoping these to idiots would get their shit together.
-----
Before he knew it he was standing on platform 9 3/4. There was a breeze ruffling his hair as he turned around to wait for the others to emerge from the secret passage. In one hand he was holding his much too heavy suitcase, in the other his train ticket.
The Hogwarts Express was already wating, puffing happily and gleaming in the morning sun. Regulus couldn’t supress a small smile which he made sure to hide as soon as the heard his brother’s voice. The others joined them one by one: first Remus, who proceeded to blush when Sirius tied his hair into a ponytail, then James and finally Mrs. and Mr. Potter. They gushed about them all, telling them to write as often as they can before they bid them all goodbye.
Euphemia kissed them all on their cheeks, stopping briefly in front of Regulus, who nodded his consent. She wrapped him in a fierce hug and kissed the top of his head softly. Regulus melted into the motherly embrace and was suddenly close to tears. “You are always welcome at our home, Regulus”, Euphemia said after she released him and Regulus could do nothing but nod silently.
Fleamont shook his hand with a tight grip and told him that he was looking forward to seeing Regulus over the Christmas holidays and brewing some more potions with him. And after these words and the implication that he could go home with James and Sirius over the next holidays, the stupid smile just wouldn’t leave Regulus’ face.
He buried his face a little deeper into the warm scarf he had wrapped around his face. Because of the cold breeze, of course, and not at all to hide the emotions displaying on his face.
A loud yell made him turn around just seconds before someone threw themselves at him with full force, causing him to let go of his suitcase in order to catch the person. “Reggie!”, squeaked the person before yelping as Regulus loosened his grip suddenly.
“Bartemius, you bastard. I have not missed that stupid face at all”, he said to Barty, who has fallen on his ass after being dropped by Regulus. But there was real affection in his voice and the smile was still plastered on his face as he watched Barty get pulled up by Evan, who greeted Regulus with a grin.
“Reginald, that was not nice of you.” Barty pouted and pretended to dust his pants off. Standing up, he got quite a few inches on Regulus. “Are you alright? Heard you got kicked out. About time though- ouch!”
Evan had elbowed him in the side and shot him a look that made Barty fall silent. “We are very glad that you made it out. But do tell, how has living with James Potter been? Judging by the heart eyes you have, it wasn’t so bad, hm?”, Evan said and chuckled.
“Shut the fuck up”, Regulus hissed, “they are literally standing next to us.” Looking nervously over his shoulder, he caught James looking at him weirdly. He shot the Gryffindor a tight-lipped smile before lifting his suitcase again and pulling his friends in direction of the train. His brother yelled a goodbye at him but Regulus ignored it in favour of the giggling idiots he dragged to the next entrance door.
They found a free compartment and after making themselves comfortable they began to exchange stories about their holiday. Pandora joined them shortly after, gifting each of them a pretty rock she found and kissing them on their foreheads.
Dorcas also showed up eventually but not before making out with Marlene McKinnon right outside their compartment. The Gryffindor was dragged in with Dorcas, who introduced her as her official girlfriend, which promptly caused Pandora to gift McKinnon a rock as well.
When McKinnon left in search of her Gryffindor friends and it was only the five on them left, Regulus began to tell them about his holidays. The part with James sleeping in his bed was the moment his friends seemed to loose their minds, all talking at once, Pandora shaking his shoulder and Bary yelling and throwing his hands up.
When he got to the part with the piercing, Dorcas chimed in. “Okay, pause. James lost his mind over this fact, am I right?” She giggled. “Oh, he must have. The poor boy, does he still not know where it is?”, Pandora said in her sing-song voice.
“Wait. We don’t know where it is either”, Evan interrupted. Pandora shifted to look at him, her flowy skirts ruffling as she said: “Of course we know. It’s a tongue piercing.”
Everyone turned to look at her in confusion. Regulus was a little dumbfounded, he had wanted to make his friends guess before revealing it. Pandora just shrugged. “Where else would you get a piercing, Regulus? Now don’t act surprised, I’ve known you for such a long time. And the stream that flows around our vacation house told me.”
Of course. That checks out.
After Regulus had to stick his tongue out to show them his new piercing. They were absolutely delighted, even if Barty seemed a little jealous. “It’s not fair, you look so hot with it”, he groaned. “I want one too”, he said and Evan next to him choked on air and proceeded to seem a little zoned out for the next few minutes.
“Oh James must have lost his mind over this. I’m sure he still can’t stop thinking about it”, Dorcas grinned. She must have seen Regulus’ confused expression because she said: “Come on, that boy is clearly head over heels for you.”
Regulus gaped at her. “What?”
She rolled her eyes. “Have you not seen the way he looked at you? As if you hung the moon and the stars.” She smacked him on the shoulder. “Don’t look at me like that. It’s true!”
“He couldn’t tear his eyes away when we were walking to the train. Haven’t you noticed?”, Barty said gleefully and Evan nodded. “It was quite pathetic, actually. You have that poor bloke wrapped around your finger.”
“Shut up, all of you. Just-“ , he turned his head to the side to hide his burning hot cheeks, “Just stop talking. This is not true. This can’t be true. He’s straight. He’s in love with Lily Evans.” He spit out her name like it was something rotten. “Don’t give me false hope.”
He sees his friends exchange meaningful eye contact out of the corner of his eye. “Alright”, Pandora said and patted his knee, “But please tell us more about the way the water dripped down his abs on that little trip you made to the lake.”
Regulus covered his face in his hands and groaned as his friends burst out laughing and Pandora whispered: “This conversation is not over, Regulus.” She had a knowing smile on her face that could not mean anything good.