Chapter 10
Regulus
“Regulus? Are you in here?”
Please don’t come this way. Please don’t come this way.
Regulus held his breath, knees tucked into his chest, pressing himself as hard as possible up against the wall. It was an old trick he’d learned by mistake as a child that he’d been using ever since to hide from his parents.
He had settled down with a book in a small spot on the far wall of the third row in the library, just beneath a window hoping to get in a few hours of reading after lunch. The lighting was perfect, and he read and read and read until he was having trouble making out the words on the page. He’d thought his eyes had been getting tired by was surprised when he looked out to realise outside the window, it was dark.
Then he heard his mother calling out to him. He was late for dinner, and she wasn’t happy about it. He’d frozen in place, terrified of what was coming his way. This spot was in easy view of anyone who walked past the isle and he’d assumed he would be done for. She watched her shadow draw nearer and nearer until she was there. Standing right there at the end of the row looking in his direction.
But she didn’t say a word. She didn’t even look for more than a second before she turned away and kept walking. Kept calling out his name. He stayed there and held his position, thinking she would see him on her next round, but she didn’t. The same thing happened. It wasn’t until he coughed and revealed his position that she squinted for a moment and at last noticed him there. The punishment had been horrid, but worth it in Regulus’ opinion.
He suspected something valuable had been kept in the spot at some point in this house’s history and a confundus or disillusionment charm had been placed here to keep it hidden. He didn’t really care what it was, just that it worked as long as he didn’t give himself away.
“Regulus? Sirius is worried, are you around here?”
No he isn’t, Regulus wanted to call out, he just feels guilty for yelling.
Remus was just passing the second row. He could hear his footsteps growing louder and louder. He was about to pass. Regulus completely stilled himself, even holding his breath.
Remus stood at the end of the hallway, almost as tall has the bookcases themselves, hands in his pockets. He swept his eyes along the bookcases on the left, the right and then settled on the window. Confusion etched on his face.
“Regulus? Are you here?” he called out.
Shit.
He hadn’t considered the whole werewolf thing.
Remus shook his head, rubbing his eyes and looked up the isle again. His face relaxed.
Fuck.
“Oh hey Reg, don’t know how I missed you the first time.”
Regulus glared, picking up the book he’d tossed aside while attempting to hide and tried going back to reading. He really wasn’t in the mood to deal with people right now.
Apparently either Remus was completely devoid of social skills or he didn’t care what Regulus wanted, because he was now walking down the row toward Regulus and sitting on the floor in front of him. It didn’t look like a comfortable thing for Remus to do. His joints cracked in protest and he had to steady himself using the bookcase, but he was eventually down, using said bookcase as a backrest.
“What are you reading?”
Regulus ignored him, staring directly at the words on the page. He wasn’t even reading really, just using it as an excuse so Remus would leave him alone. Which was a shame because this was a great book. It was about a witch who woke up in a pool of blood surrounded by her dead family, trying to figure out who did it. It was a good story, and probably a great twist ending for someone who wasn’t so familiar with the unforgivable. That was the only criticism he had about the book. People don’t get their memory back in flashes after the curse is lifted. It all hits at once.
“Is it worth reading some time?” he tried again, arching his neck to try get a better view of the cover. “What does that say? No-ve-ah san-g?”
Regulus groaned, slamming the book shut and chucking it on the ground in font of Remus.
“Nouveau Sang” he corrected sharply, crossing his arms over his chest.
“Oh um… of course…” Remus muttered, a little chagrined, “French, is it?”
Regulus rolled his eyes, “No, mandarin.” He replied completely straight faced.
Remus grinned, letting out a soft chuckle. Regulus rolled his eyes again. It really wasn’t that funny.
“Have any English copies?”
“No.”
“Hmm I guess Sirius will have to translate for me.”
Regulus huffed at the mention of his brother. Could Lupin not last 5 minutes without bringing him up? It was nauseating how co-dependent they were. Always looking at each other. Always touching each other. Always talking about each other. Honestly, they needed to get hobbies. Or find new partners. Surly Remus could do better.
“That because I mentioned your brother or are you are bilingual snob?”
“Take your pick.”
Remus smirked but said nothing, picking up the book and flipping through the pages.
A beat of silence passed before Remus spoke up again.
“Do you feel like coming down for some breakfast yet?”
Oh for the love of Merlin…
“No. I don’t.”
“I could bring some up here?”
Regulus groaned. This was ridiculous.
“Can you just drop it?” he spat, “I’m not hungry. I don’t want anything to eat.”
Remus nodded.
“Alright.”
Regulus’ head shot up in disbelief, because surely, he misheard.
“Alright?” he asked.
“Alright.” Remus confirmed, nodding his head.
Regulus narrowed his eyes. Remus and Sirius didn’t strike him as the sort to just back down. There had to be some kind of trick to this, especially with how much Sirius had gone on about it this morning.
“What’s the catch?”
“No catch,” Remus said simply, holding up his hands in mock surrender.
That seemed unlikely. Adults always had a reason for why they did things. So Regulus stayed silent. Waiting for the follow up statement that said You will agree to a bigger lunch. You won’t keep hiding. You’ll do everything else we tell you.
But it never came.
Remus put down Nouveau Sang and began flicking through the pages of a he pulled out from the shelf beside him. One that wasn’t in French. And just… read. Completely ignoring Regulus. What was his game? First, he comes looking for him. Finds his hiding place. Annoys him with stupid questions. And now what? Just sits there not saying anything?
Regulus shifted uncomfortably in the silence. Usually, he preferred not talking with people all the time. But this just felt wrong.
“Can you just get to the point so you can leave me alone?” Regulus finally exclaimed.
Remus looked up and raised an eyebrow.
“Who said I had a point?” He held up his book, “Maybe I’m just really interested in learning about common Latin grammatical errors”
“So you won’t care if I leave?”
“Not at all”
Regulus stood up.
“Fine then, I will”
So he started walking away. He knew it would only be a moment before Remus stood up and followed him. He obviously wanted to talk to him about something. That’s why he was hanging around, waiting for the perfect moment to swoop in.
But by the time Regulus had reached the end of the row, Remus still hadn’t moved. Hell, he hadn’t even looked up. What was his game here?
“Can you just ask your question or just say your thing so we can stop dragging this out?”
Remus didn’t even look up from his spot on the page, “And what is it you are so convinced I want us to talk about, Regulus?”
He had given Remus far too much credit. He and Sirius were made for each other. They were both annoying, controlling, manipulative old men who wanted to just get under his skin. Was he really expecting Regulus to just come out and say whatever it was that was bothering him? Was he really that daft?
Regulus could feel the anger bubbling up inside him as he looked at Remus.
He wasn’t even that scary. He was just a tall skinny guy that liked books and looked like the wind would knock him over if it blew too hard.
“I know what you’re trying to do,” he spat out.
Remus turned to his next page. This time not even saying a word.
“This isn’t going to work, Remus.” He said again, louder.
Still, nothing.
Something snapped.
“What is your problem?” He fired, “What do you want me to say here exactly? Do you want me to cry? Do you want me to just break down into a pile of tears like a child and whine about how ‘mummy and daddy didn’t love me’? Is that it? Or do you want me to complain about how much ‘Sirius is just the worst brother in the world’? Or better yet you want to just watch me sob about how unfair life is because I’m stuck 20 years in the future. Is that it, Remus? Is that what you want me to say?”
He was yelling now. Ranting and raging because this it wasn’t Remus’ job and it wasn’t Sirius’ job to do anything. He could look after himself just like he’d been doing ever since Sirius had gone to Hogwarts. Ever since Sirius had run away to the Potters.
“You know what Remus? I don’t care. You hear me? I don’t care about any of it. All I care about is you and Sirius trying to control everything I do and not listening to me. I don’t want your help and I don’t want anything to do with Sirius. You are just doing this because you feel guilty, not because you actually give a shit about me.”
“Regulus-”
“You and Sirius are just the same as every other person I’ve known. You just want me to be exactly what you think I should be and you don’t care what I have to say about it.”
His voice cracked.
“I-I hate you a-and I hate my b-brother. And he isn’t… h-he isn’t even my brother because… because he said s-so himself. He… he doesn’t want me and I… I don’t want him!”
Regulus didn’t realise there were tears forming in his eyes until he stopped talking. He didn’t realise how heavily he was breathing until it was the only sound in the room.
No, no, no. Stop.
He didn’t want to cry now. He didn’t want to look like such a mess in front of Remus. This was exactly what he wanted, and Regulus had fallen straight into his trap. This wasn’t fair. Why couldn’t everyone just leave him alone? He wanted to be left alone…
His eyes stung and his view of Remus was getting blurrier by the second. His throat was all tight. His breaths were shallow and shaking. Why did Remus push him so far? Why did he have to remind him of all this?
Regulus screwed up his face as clawed at his eyes, trying to scape away the evidence of what was going on in his head. But he couldn’t compete, the tears were falling to fast.
He hated crying. He hated feeling like he had no control over his body. He didn’t want to be reacting this way. He wanted to scream and shout and fight but his body wouldn’t give him the chance.
Stop doing this, he tried to tell himself. But his body wouldn’t listen.
He caught of a glimpse of Remus, now trying to pick himself up off the floor.
He tried to blink back another set of tears.
Remus was walking toward him.
“Reg, he doesn’t hate-”
Regulus saw red.
“Y-YES HE D-DOES. Y-YOU HAVE N-NO IDEA” he screamed, because how dare Remus act like he knew anything about this. He was an outsider. He didn’t grow up in this house. He had a good mum and a good dad and loving family and people that cared about him. Regulus didn’t have any of that.
He only existed because his parents wanted to a backup. No one cared about him, they just cared about the Black image. And his… his brother only saw him as a weak version of himself that didn’t try hard enough to be better.
“I swear that-” Remus started again, stepping closer and closer.
“NO!” he shouted, starting to back pedal toward the exit.
He didn’t care what Remus had to say and he didn’t want to deal with this anymore. He had to get away. He had to escape. It wasn’t safe. He didn’t feel safe.
Get out. Get out. Get out.
“Regulus please just-”
But Regulus didn’t stick around to find out the end of that sentence. Mid-step he spun around, twisting himself to face the door, putting one foot in front of the other as quickly as he could.
Out. Out. I need to get out.
He could barley see where he was going, his eyes so clouded with tears. Regulus frantically moved through the halls, skidding around the first corner, and almost colliding with the next. He didn’t know where he was going, he just had to get there fast and-
THUD
Regulus stumbled back, clinging to the wall he was thrown into for support. He thought for a second he must misjudged the next turn, but when he looked up he immediately started staggering back. It was Sirius, again. That was the second time today! Was he cursed? Was fate trying to just piss him off?
“Reg? What’s wrong? Why are you-”
He didn’t bother with an answer, immediately spinning around and falling back into his sprint. He hated Sirius. Sirius hated him. They both hated each other. He didn’t want him and he certainly didn’t need him. All Regulus needed was to be left alone so he could get control over his stupid emotions.
But he didn’t know where to go. He couldn’t go back to the library. Sirius was blocking his path upstairs. He was trapped. He couldn’t get out. He couldn’t escape.
His breathing was catching up. His sprint had only made them more laboured.
No stop, not here, not now
Regulus heard steps coming up behind him, Sirius calling out his name. He started running back the way he came, but no, Remus was that way too. He had nowhere to go. He had nowhere to run. Frantically he was turning back and forth. Trying to think of a solution, but nothing was coming to mind. He couldn’t move. He couldn’t get out. He-
Regulus stopped.
The portrait. He was standing in front of the portrait of Apollina Black. Maybe he did have a place to go.
Regulus immediately started scanning the portrait. He had no idea if this would even work, but he didn’t have any other ideas.
Apollina Black made his mother look like a precious butterfly. She was nasty, vindictive and had gone mad towards her end just like so many others in the family. She was named after Apollo, who was the god of many things but she had gravitated toward his domain over disease. A renowned potioneer, she’d spent her life engineering cruel and horrific poisons, each more vile than the last. The Blacks hailed her as a visionary, urging her to profit from her talents, but as the deaths were traced back to her, her reputation soured.
She grew paranoid and reclusive, terrified someone would spike her with her own products. She grew so paranoid that it wasn’t long before she didn’t believe the Grimmauld Place wards were enough to protect her. So she warded her own room to require a blood member of the Black family to gain entrance.
It was an impressive piece of magic, but the paranoia continued to worsen and eventually drove her to live out the rest of her days in a tiny cave so isolated and warded she didn’t even allow her house elf inside. She didn’t escape death by poison, though, ironically, it was by her own hand. Driven mad and delirious she mistook belladonna for elderberries.
If the amount blood on her hands hadn’t been so great, she probably would have been disowned for her error. But the bodies she left behind had been enough that her reputation was saved. In their family, at least.
The portrait was of her diligently brewing a potion. She never spoke and only gave the occasional sneer at people she thought to be untrustworthy, stirring the contents of her cauldron.
There.
Regulus found it. The scalpel on her station.
He reached out and as his finger made contact with the blade he gasped and pulled back. A deep cut, spouting blood.
Please work, please work
He didn’t think Sirius would put it together that he’d used this trick, not for at least a couple of hours. Sirius hated being a Black almost as much as Blacks were supposed to hate muggles, and was accordingly, intentionally ignorant of anything to do with their blood. Regulus hoped this painting was included, even if it only slipped his brothers mind for a few hours.
“Regulus?”
Shit, now or never
Apollina held a thin wood stirring stick and Regulus pressed his bloodied finger against it. The painting absorbed the blood straight out of his wound and when Regulus pulled away, Apollina was inspecting the blood dripping from the end of her stick.
The footsteps were getting louder. They were getting closer. He had to get out. This had to work.
Apollina looked at Regulus, giving him a once over, sneering as she saw the state he was in.
Regulus gulped. It wasn’t going to work. He was supposed to be dead. His blood wasn’t right anymore. He wasn’t right anymore. He didn’t belong here.
He looked around, desperately trying to think of another escape. But there were none. He turned back to the painting, expecting to see her sneering down at him, wiping his blood from her stick. But didn’t.
Apollina smirked, and she stared Regulus in the eye, she dipped the bloodied end of the stick into her cauldron.
SWISH
The portrait vanished, revealing an empty doorway leading into a dark room.
“Regulus, what’s going on?” Sirius called out again.
He didn’t have time to wait. Regulus shot forward, straight through the passage into the dark space.
SWISH
The entrance closed behind him and immediately Regulus collapsed. Finally safe. Finally, alone. Finally, Regulus let himself feel what he’d been holding back.
---
Sirius
“Regulus, what’s going on?” he called out, hurriedly walking down the hall after his brother toward the library.
After this mornings events Sirius had needed something to do to take his mind of everything, and asked Remus to help him with the guest room boggart. Working together, they managed to banish it quickly. Remus afterwards explaining that he was going to try with Regulus again and Sirius got to work making the room safe for occupancy.
Everything had to be tested for jinxes and curses. The lights, the bedframe, the bedsheets, the pillows, the drawer handles. Magical houses always absorbed some of the magic of its inhabitants, and that didn’t mean great things for the ancestral home of the Blacks. At one point, even the floorboards began splintering and shooting at Sirius when he wasn’t looking.
He got most of the way through but couldn’t figure out how to counter the shrieking jinx on the desk’s drawer. Every time it opened, Sirius was met with what sounded like hundreds of his ancestors all screaming bloody murder and none of the counter curses he tried would break it. Just wanting to get the room down, painfully aware that the deadline for Kingsley and Tonks’ arrival was fast approaching, he’d decided to check the library for some alternative spells.
Crashing (again) into his panicked, tear-stricken brother was the last thing he expected to happen. He was even more surprised that Regulus didn’t even shout or get angry, at him for being clumsy and simply turned around and ran back in the direction he’d come from.
It had taken him a minute to get his wits about him enough to realise he should probably go after his brother. He followed the sound of Regulus footsteps and the echoes of his choked breaths, until he heard them stop and Sirius moved even faster to catch up.
What if he’s lost it? What if he’s back in that state? What if he tipped? What if he’s hurt?
Sirius moved as quickly as he could, down the hall, down toward the library.
“Regulus?”
Nothing.
“Reg, where did you go?”
Nothing again.
Sirius was getting a horrible case of déjà vu.
“Regulus?” He called out again, but still there was no answer,
Then he saw Remus, guilt written all over his face, walking slowly down the hall toward him. Regulus wasn’t beside him.
Oh no, no no no, shit
“Moony, did Reg pass you?”
Please say yes, please say yes
But he didn’t say yes.
Remus winced, “No, he ran off this way. Why? Did you see him?”
Shit
Sirius nodded, “He ran into me. Looked like he was about to have another freak out and he bolted back down the hall this way”
Sirius gestured to the empty hall around them.
“Are you certain? Because he definitely didn’t pass me again.”
“I followed him straight away, Moons” Sirius replied frantically “and there’s nowhere else he could have gone”
Sirius put his hands on his head, immediately start to pace back and forth.
“He can’t have just vanished, Pads” Remus tried to reassure him, but even his voice sounded strained.
“Then where is he? He should be right here. Where did he go?”
Reg, where are you? Please come back. Don’t do this again.
“We will just have to-” Remus tried but Sirius cut him off.
“What if he’s gone all… gone, again? I can’t do that, Remus. I can’t keep watching him go through that he… he… he…”
Sirius crouched on the floor, trying to catch his breath. He had lost his brother over and over and over again. First when he left for Hogwarts, again after Reg’s sorting. He lost him again after that Christmas and then he… He couldn’t lose him again. He couldn’t keep watching Regulus disappear.
He could hear Remus tell him to breath, but how could he just breath right now? What if Regulus wasn’t breathing? What if the house had cursed him? What if he’d somehow apparated out of the wards?
“Sirius. Sirius look at me.”
Besides it’s entirely possible he did just vanish. He randomly appeared here out of nowhere. He could easily have disappeared again. Merlin what if he was gone? Had he died again? Was he in another time?
“It’s alright. Look at me, Sirius”
What is he was gone and all they’d done was argue? Had he wasted his second chance? Was this all for nothing?
“Sirius!”
Sirius felt a hand grasp his chin and yank his head to face up. His eyes met Remus’ who was holding out his wand.
“Pads, he is still in the house. Try for yourself. He is still here”
He didn’t need telling twice. Sirius pulled out his wand, “homenum revelio”.
Immediately he felt his panic easing.
Breath. He’s here. He’s still here. Just breath. He’s still in the house.
Sirius lowered his wand, but the fast thump in his chest didn’t slow. He was here in this house at the very least. He didn’t have a clue where and there was every possibility he was hurt. But he was so far alive and still here.
Sirius stood up and looked to Remus. He was about to suggest they split up to look, but he realised that Remus’ face looked almost as panicked as he felt his own did.
“Remus, what is it?”
They made eye contact, and Sirius could see the red in his eyes, the faint gloss of hears. Remus looked away.
Sirius frowned, “Moony, what’s wrong? What happened?”
Remus stepped back, turning to face the other way.
“I… I pushed too far…”
Sirius scoffed.
“Remus you never push” he said, placing a hand on Remus’ shoulder. But Remus shook it off, taking another step away.
“There's a first time for everything.”
“I doubt it”
“You weren’t there”
“And you always tell me not to beat myself up over things like this”
Remus muttered something that sounded suspiciously like, hypocrite.
“Remember the trick James and I used to pull on you? I did that”
Sirius nodded. Of course, he remembered that. It was the only reason the marauders had managed to get him to admit what was going on with his parents. He could see why it might upset Regulus, especially if it led to him admitting things he didn’t want to admit. But that was hardly Remus’ fault.
Sirius waited for the story to continue, but it didn’t.
“Remus, you do realise that is the least invasive way you possibly could have gotten him to talk right?”
Remus shrugged, still facing away. “But I should have known he would react-”
“And how exactly would you have known that?”
No response.
“Did you yell?”
“No”
“Did you hit him?”
“Of course not”
“Then I don’t really see how this is your fault.”
Remus hummed. Putting his hands in his pockets and scuffing his foot against the floor.
Sirius tried again to reach out to him, but the moment he got within range Remus took another step away.
“Don’t Sirius… Just don’t…”
Sirius recoiled. He hated this. He didn’t understand how Remus could be so good at comforting him, but couldn’t give himself the same treatment. He wanted to do what Remus did for him. He wanted to so badly, but Remus never let him. He was like Regulus in that way.
“Please, Remus just let me-”
“No. Let’s just find Regulus.”
And he walked away.
---
Regulus
Feelings suck. They were annoying, messy and Regulus was beyond done with them.
He hadn’t gotten this emotional since he was a toddler and yet in the last few days all he’d done was get emotional. Logically he knew why, but it was the ultimate betrayal that logically knowing why he was being set off so easily didn’t mean he could stop it from happening.
The moment the room had sealed itself off, Regulus had been unable to hold back anymore. It wasn’t pleasant and he certainly didn’t ‘feel better’ afterwards. He just felt empty. Like he’d cried out all of his feelings and would just have to wait until they built up again to feel something.
At least it was easier to think now.
The candles had all lit themselves and Regulus could see the room clearly. He’d only been in here a few times, his mother and father expressly forbidding their children from entering without supervision. It was a shame, really, because Regulus rather enjoy potions and would have liked using this room during the holidays.
It was rather small room, split into two areas. The more typical bedroom area with a single bed and medium chest of drawers to the left and a potions station to the right. It was incredibly clean, though knowing what he did about Apollina, she probably had spent months perfecting the right charms to make sure it stayed like that. Probably wanted everything kept polished enough she could see the reflection of intruders as she brewed.
The space was rather dull beyond that. The walls were the same aging grey as the rest of the house, the floorboards were creaky and worn, and there weren’t even any windows for light or fresh air.
But Merlin, the potions station was the best Regulus had ever seen. All the highest quality equipment ever designed, some of it Apollina’s own creations. Even if it was all nearly two hundred years old, it would cost hundreds of thousands of galleons to replicate it. Impossible if you took into account the dozens of the books and diaries inscribed with her notes. All detailing the perfect ways to make extremely complicated and horribly dangerous potions.
Regulus stood up and walked over to inspect all the equipment, eager to inspect it all without the watchful eyes of his parents telling him not to touch.
His mother spent a lot of time in here, brewing away whenever the Dark Lord made a request. Regulus suspected he got his love for the art from her, but he wasn’t sure. They never talked about things like that.
Regulus very quickly found himself wanting to test it all out, but he knew it would be useless, even if there were some supplies still left here the magical properties would be far too degraded for use now. Even with stasis charms. He decided to compromise and pulled out the first book he found. Maledictus Maleficarum: Secrets of Lethal Elixirs.
Oh this should be good, he thought as he read the title.
As he suspected, it was incredibly interesting. Probably a little morbid. Definitely horribly dark. But interesting none the less. It was mostly research into Maledictuses, a blood curse that caused women of cursed families to eventually, permanently transform into beasts. It was quite a horrible fate, and this book seemed to be an instructional guide on how to curse someone.
It also detailed ways the body parts of victims of the curse could be used to make, unsurprisingly, deadly poisons. Maybe it was the Black in him, but he had to admit it was quite fascinating. Apparently, if you could adapt a poison correctly and use animal parts from a single permanently transformed Maledictus victim, the poison was impossible to cure without that antidote also using ingredients from the same Maledictus.
Regulus flipped through the pages, absorbing everything read. He read all of the notes, arrows and underlines. He loved learning about this stuff. Eventually he would stumble across a note that directed the reader to a different book in Apollina’s cupboards and Regulus would collect it, reading on from where it guided him.
He had to be careful when trying to reach up for the books, so as not stretch his side and risk reopening the wounds there. The last thing he wanted was for them to reopen and have Remus coming busting in. There were a few close calls and lots of wincing and ouches, particularly when he tried reaching for the higher shelves, but no blood was spilled. He just had to swallow his pride and drag over the chair to gain access to the higher shelves.
Many of the books were just catalogues of different plants, animals and magical creatures. He stumbled across werewolves many times, but unless he wanted to use Remus’ body parts to brew potions that caused incurable monthly ailments, they weren’t useful.
Regulus was surprised to find that Apollina actually had several books about healing potions. Alright, maybe not healing potions in the traditional sense but there were several on necromancy and the reanimation of the dead, which sounded like something right up Apollina’s alley. One book was even written by herself. The Dread Grimoire of Necrotic Toxins. It covered everything from ghosts and vampires to zombies and inferi.
A few times Regulus found himself wondering if his mother had ever brewed potions from these books. It seemed possible. She certainly wouldn’t have had any issue with handing these out to people she deemed deserving. She probably would have happily laced muggle food and drink with them for her own twisted entertainment.
Several times he found himself considering the possibility that he might have brewed potions from these books in his previous life. It was entirely possible that he’d taken his mother’s place when he was marked. How many peoples death would he have been inadvertently responsible for? Perhaps he had been killed by a poison he’d brewed.
He usually changed books when he started thinking about that.
Not for a single moment did Regulus tire from reading. Every book talked about potion theory in ways his school textbooks never even tried. Even the potions books from the Black library were nothing compared to the information in these. The little notes and modifications. All the personal touches that had been added. Regulus never wanted to stop.
Unfortunately, his body did.
Slowly but surly Regulus found his eyes spending more and more time closed. The words were blurring off the pages and he was having to re-read entire pages as he kept losing his spot. Several times Regulus was certain he blacked out for a few minutes, waking up from the short naps and immediately starting to read again. He would have gladly just kept doing that until he passed out for real, but he knew that he couldn’t.
Sirius and Remus were looking for him and if they managed to find their way in here while he was passed out with one of these books open. Well… he didn’t really think that would be a comfortable conversation.
So reluctantly Regulus gathered all the books he’d strewn about on the book, and carefully book them back where they belonged. He reminded himself that he could always come back and read them again. Perhaps if ever got the chance to brew potions again he could use this room.
He’d like that.
Regulus laid himself down over the sheets and for the first time since he had been in here. Perhaps even the first time since Christmas. Regulus fell into a peaceful sleep.