Chapter 3
“You’re not serious?” Regulus stares at Barty, incredulous. He’s sitting in the library, studying when Barty dropped into the seat next to him and invited him to come to his next fight.
“Why not?”
Regulus drops his pen, anatomy homework completely forgotten. “What do you mean why not? It’s been a week, there’s no way you’re okay to start training for another several weeks, at the very least.”
“Most concussions only take two weeks to heal.” Barty says primly.
“You were unconscious for five minutes.” Regulus replies flatly. It still scares him, he knows Barty is fine now, but he can’t stand the thought of losing another brother.
“Eh, it’s fine. Besides the next fight is in three months, plenty of time to recover and train.”
Regulus huffs, “Your last training camp was two months and you were training like crazy before it even started. Don’t tell me you’re not back in the gym already.”
Barty gives him a ‘you caught me’ look. “Nothing major, just some live rounds, a bit of conditioning.”
“Barty that’s fucked. You shouldn’t be anywhere near the gym.” Maybe it’s misdirected, but all Regulus can think is how much he hates Remus Lupin for putting Barty in this position. It’s equally Barty’s coach and his dad’s fault, maybe even Barty’s own fault for not standing up for himself, but it’s Lupin that Regulus hates at the moment.
“It’s fine, Reggie.” Barty wraps an arm around him, Regulus lets him for a moment before shoving him off. “But thanks for worrying.”
“Someone has to,” Regulus mutters. “Why do you even continue with it? Competitive wrestling in high school, fine, whatever, but making a career out of fighting people,” Regulus wrinkles his nose, “I just don’t get it.”
Barty shrugs. “I dunno, it’s what I’ve always wanted, I guess.”
“Yeah, but why.”
“Why did you nearly kill yourself studying for A levels to get into med when you could’ve easily worked for your parents?”
Regulus looks back to his homework, an anatomical model of the eye stares back at him, he thinks about his parent’s anger, the student debt he’s going to have because of how close his parents are to cutting him off, the fact he’s going to have to rely on Bellatrix, his least favourite cousin, upholding her end of their deal. “Honestly, I don’t know.”
Barty barks a laugh. “Yeah, me neither.”
Regulus turns back to his studying, Barty sits next to him quietly playing on his phone, probably texting Evan. Eventually Regulus gets too warm in the library and he takes off his scarf, forgetting the reason he had it on in the first place. He puts the scarf down near Barty who looks up to see what he’s doing.
Barty freezes, his eyes going dark with cold fury when he sees Regulus, more specifically his neck. It takes Regulus a moment to realise why and when he does, his hands fly up to his throat. He’d managed to hide the bruises and the busted knuckle (which has thankfully recovered now) when he visited Barty in hospital by wearing gloves, scarves, and hoodies, but distracted by studying, he’d completely forgotten.
He hadn’t actually expected the incident with Lupin to leave bruises, so it scared him when he went into the bathroom and saw dark finger marks along his throat. They’ve faded now, instead of a pure dark purple the bruises are spotted with yellow and green, a sign they’re healing well, still, it’s not a pretty sight.
“What the fuck is that, Regulus?” Barty demands, his voice rising.
Regulus winces. “Shut up, we’re in a library.” He thinks about putting the scarf back on to hide the bruise, but there’s no point anymore.
“Regulus.” Barty says warningly.
“It’s not a big deal.” Regulus insists.
“Then tell me what happened.” Barty runs a hand through his hair. “Or at least tell me who it was so I can kill them.”
Regulus rolls his eyes. “You’re so dramatic. It’s fine, I can take care of myself.”
“Tell. Me.”
“Ugh. It’s really not a big deal, I punched Lupin after he knocked you out and the fucking brute tried to choke me out.”
Barty relaxes slightly. “It was Lupin?”
“Hey!” Regulus can’t help but feel offended at how that seems to get Barty to calm down slightly, it’s not that he wants Barty going after Lupin, but shouldn’t he want to go after him, Barty has even more reason to hate him than Regulus does. “What does that mean?”
“It means you punched someone who’s instincts are to kill people who hit them you fucking idiot. I thought you got yourself jumped or something.” Barty settles back a bit, looking at Regulus with exasperation instead of worry. “You’re lucky he didn’t put you in the hospital.”
Regulus bristles. “No, that’s just for you.”
“Part of the risks unfortunately.”
“He hit you while you were already down!”
Barty seems to catch onto how angry Regulus actually is. “That’s not exactly his fault,” he says, “The ref should’ve called it and when he didn’t Lupin had to make sure I wouldn’t get back up.”
“You were on the floor!”
Barty shrugs. “Any fighter would’ve done the same thing. Hell, I would’ve done the same thing, probably would’ve hit harder to be honest.”
Regulus grumbles under his breath. “I still fucking hate him.”
“Oh well, he’s going to be at the next fight. He’s headlining the event.”
“Great.”
Oblivious to or probably just ignoring Regulus’ hatred, Barty says, “He’s kinda hot isn’t he? I mean not really my type, you know I like my repressed rich boys,” he winks at Regulus, “But he’s your type, isn’t he? Dangerous, powerful, looks like he could hold you down and fuck you till you forgot your own name.”
Regulus’ jaw drops and he looks around to make sure no-one's heard. Even after years of friendship, Barty’s vulgarness still startles him sometimes. “Shut up,” he hisses, face flaming red. “He’s definitely not my type. I would not touch that man with a ten foot pole.”
Despite Barty’s insistence otherwise, it’s the truth, or at least it was, but now that Barty’s planted the idea in his head he can’t stop thinking about how much of his type, at least physically, Remus Lupin is. He still hates the man, despises him really, but he can’t help finding him attractive. Sometimes, late at night, he remembers Lupin’s hand around his throat, Lupin pressing into his back, whispering into his ear, and he gets a very confusing erection.
+++
To Regulus’ endless frustration, Barty starts preparing for his next fight. Barty tells him his opponent is a lesser fighter than Lupin and he has a better chance of winning, apparently Lupin is one of the best fighters in Hogwarts, Regulus has no idea why Barty was fighting him. Barty takes the first three weeks after his concussion ‘easy’—meaning he only trains two hours on weekdays and takes weekends off, but then training camp starts and he’s in the gym everyday for over five hours.
Regulus tries not to worry, it won’t change anything and Evan doesn’t seem overly bothered, but he can’t help it. Sometimes he watches Barty sparring in the cage and when he blinks he sees Barty laying on the floor in front of him. He hates it, hates Lupin for being the one to put the image into his head.
He’s pretty sure Barty and Evan, who doesn’t fight himself, but knows a lot more about it than Regulus, have slight crushes on Remus Lupin. Everytime he gets brought up, Regulus tells them how much he despises him, but both Barty and Evan tell him it’s just how the sport works and he can’t hold it against him. Regulus is sure Evan would hate Lupin if he had watched Barty get knocked out though, but he couldn’t attend because he had a family commitment so Regulus is stuck being the only one.
As the fight comes closer, Regulus’ anxiety grows and so does his hatred for Remus Lupin. He’s been to Barty's wrestling matches before and no one was ever that ruthless, he understands it’s different, but at the same time he doesn’t care. Part of him is hoping that Lupin gets a closer match-up this time and Regulus will get to see him get his arse beat.
If it were just Regulus going by himself he’d probably just watch Barty’s fight and then hang around the bar or even just leave, but he’s going with Evan who will want to watch everything. Obviously when they buy their cageside tickets it’s with the intention of supporting Barty, but Regulus would be lying if he said a part of him wasn’t hoping to see Lupin lose up close.
Caught up with studying, avoiding his family, and worrying for Barty, the fight night comes a lot quicker than Regulus anticipated and before he knows it he’s sitting next to Evan while Barty bounces up and down in the octagon.
Barty’s dad approaches and says a few words to him that Regulus can’t hear, he gives Crouch Sr a dirty look anyway, uncaring of whether he sees or not.
Barty’s opponent is around the same size, slightly taller, maybe. Regulus recalls that his name is Taylor or something equally generic, apparently he’s only been fighting professionally for less than a year. Barty should be able to beat him.
Barty and Taylor touch gloves, the referee says “Fight!” and then they start. At first they just throw a few punches, a few kicks, but before Regulus knows it Barty has tackled the other guy to the ground. He’s always been better at wrestling, Regulus can hear Barty’s coach’s voice yelling instructions.
“Get him to the floor!”
“Yes! No! Hold it!”
Regulus can’t make sense of any of it, but he rises in his seat as Barty locks up Taylor’s arm. Even without his extensive knowledge of anatomy, Regulus would know that Taylor’s arm will snap if he doesn’t tap soon. Sure enough he does, and Regulus feels a small part of him relax as a larger part of him jumps up and down with Evan, celebrating Barty’s win.
“LET’S FUCKING GO!” Evan yells out, and Regulus laughs, allowing himself to cheer along loudly. Inside the cage, Barty is smiling madly at the camera as everyone applauds him for a round one submission. Regulus turns to Evan when he screams particularly loud, but he can’t find it in himself to say anything when he catches the fond look directed at Barty.
Like Regulus expected, they don't leave after Barty's done, but just because he expected it doesn't mean he's not annoyed. “I don’t get why we stayed for this but fine,” Regulus groans at Evan, it’s been an hour since Barty fought but Evan wanted to watch Lupin’s fight. And that so happened to be the very last fight of the night. Trust him to make Regulus’ life more difficult without even realising it.
“It’ll be worth it,” Evan tells him excitedly, “This guys a beast.”
“Werewolf,” Regulus snorts. Honestly, what kind of a stage name was that?
Evan just shakes his head, “You’ll understand once you’ve seen him fight.”
“I saw him send my best friend to hospital and then nearly got choked out by him.”
Evan grimaces, but ultimately ignores Regulus’ statement. “Just watch, you’ll see what I mean. Oh I hope he gets angry, he’s so interesting to watch when he gets angry. Man, you know everyone talks about his striking, particularly his kicks because he has a kickboxing background, but his wrestling…”
Evan is still talking, but Regulus tunes him out because Lupin has walked out. Is that a Taylor Swift song as his walkout song? Regulus scoffs even though he loves Taylor Swift himself.
Regulus watches with narrowed eyes as Lupin makes his way into the ring, his opponent—Regulus doesn’t know his name—is shorter than him, but he looks more muscular. Regulus starts when Lupin's eyes lock on him, they slide away quickly and he can’t tell if he’s imagined it, can’t tell if he’s imagining the ghost of a smirk on Lupin’s face either.
“This is going to be fun.” Evan says.
Regulus rolls his eyes and knocks his shoulder into Evan’s. “Sure it will be.”
Unlike Barty’s fight, the two men don’t touch gloves when the referee says they can, but like Barty’s they seem to dance around each other a bit before engaging properly. Lupin takes a few hits but he lands a solid head kick that seems to leave the other guy reeling, but he manages to get up and then the first round ends and neither have a clear advantage. Regulus hopes Lupin gets knocked out in the next round.
The second round sees the other guy come out on top, he lands some solid punches and almost submits Lupin, getting him into a choke, but he slips out. “Told you his wrestling was underrated,” Evan tells Regulus. Regulus ignores him, watching as Lupin gets back up and bounces on his toes before swinging wildly at his opponent. “Oh he’s mad,” Evan says gleefully.
Evan’s right, the third and final round has Lupin come out more aggressively than before. He seemed to reset during the quick break, Regulus could swear that they made eye contact again, but he convinced himself he imagined it again.
In the ring, the two men trade punches and then suddenly Lupin is tackling the other guy’s legs and picking him up, they struggle for a bit, but Lupin gets in behind and drags the other guy across the ring, right towards where Regulus is sitting .
“Hey sweetheart,” he yells, eyes locking onto Regulus, there’s blood dripping down his face, but the other guy looks so much worse. Regulus’ heart is beating out of his chest, he’s definitely not imagining this. Lupin struggles to get the other guy under control, dropping him onto the ground so he can climb on top of him and lock him into place. Regulus can see the way Lupin’s muscles flex as he wrestles the other guy, but he makes it look so easy. He looks briefly in Regulus’ direction again, calling out, “This is what fucking happens.”
Regulus barely registers Evan’s awe-filled voice telling him, “He’s putting on a performance.” Evan hasn’t realised that Lupin was talking directly at him, so maybe he wasn’t? But Regulus knows he was.
They struggle on the ground for another few moments, but then Lupin gets the guy into a choke, his arm coming around the guy's neck, effectively cutting off both his air and the blood to his head. The other guy taps and Lupin lets him go, scrambling up to pump his hands in the air and running back to his corner to celebrate with his team.
Regulus sits back in his seat, disappointment, arousal, and a healthy amount of fear, all raging inside of him. What the fuck just happened?
Evan takes his shell shocked demeanour for something else though. “Fine, we can go now. Honestly, if you didn’t enjoy that, I don’t know what to tell you.”
“Yeah, let’s go.” Regulus jumps at the opportunity. “Where’s Barty?”
They find Barty at the bar talking to a woman who looks a few years older than them, maybe twenty-five, but very possibly older.
“Hey guys!” Barty says cheerily, Regulus looks him over, he’s changed and he’s wearing a polo and chinos, other than a split lip, he looks completely fine. Thank God. “Did you see Lupin fight?”
“Yeah, it was fucking amazing,” Evan says enthusiatically.
Regulus makes a face. “So… violent.”
“Don’t pretend it doesn’t turn you, Reg.”
“I assure you it doesn’t.” Regulus flushes crimson and turns to look at the woman with Barty. “I’m sorry about him, he was raised in a barn. I’m Regulus,” he doesn’t mention his last name, “nice to meet you…”
“Alice Longbottom,” she provides.
“And I’m Evan.” Evan’s brows furry, “Where have I heard the name Longbottom before?”
“My husband, Frank, runs Gryff,” she tells him. “He’s been training Remus for years.”
“She invited us out.” Barty says eagerly.
Alice smiles, “Yeah, we’re all heading to a bar soon, you guys are welcome to come, I already gave Barty the address. I gotta go congratulate Rem, but I’ll see you there?”
The three boys call out, “Nice to meet you,” and “See you there,” as she leaves.
Regulus whirls on Barty. “They are so trying to recruit you, you know?”
Barty shrugs, “I honestly might let them. You know I hate Riddle.”
“Your father?”
“Fuck him.”
Well, Regulus can’t exactly argue that, he also hates Crouch Sr.
“So where’s the bar?” Evan asks.
“Do I have to go?” Regulus whines, he has a case write up due and a test he needs to study for.
“Yes.” Barty and Evan say together.
“Remus Lupin might be there,” Evan adds, “I want to meet him, I’m telling you, in five years, he’s going to be the next big thing.”
“Ugh. I hate him.”