Part 20
Regulus walks out of the Room of Requirement, rolling his eyes at Barty and Evan. They were practically hanging off of each other, arms wrapped around each other like they wouldn’t be able to see each other again. Sickening. They hadn’t even realised that he had left the room, oblivious idiots. He had to admit that they looked nice together. They weren’t in public in the slightest but even when they were they still acted like this. They were quite brave for that as some people, even some of their old friends, weren’t that accepting and made snide comments every time they walked past.
Regulus, as uncaring as he seemed, could never bring his relationship with James into public view. Remus knew, so did Lily, Barty and Evan but that was the furthest it went. Nobody else knew of it as far as he was aware. He felt a small sense of anger whenever he saw Barty and Evan walk around the castle, making it obvious that they were together. He also felt guilty for some reason. He shouldn’t be thinking this much about what others would say about him and James but it was inevitable. He should be happy that he had supporting friends. He shouldn’t be worrying this much, should he? He was meant to be uncaring, unbothered by what people thought of him but he couldn’t shake the nerves whenever he thought of bringing up making his relationship public.
He had people who cared. That’s what mattered the most. People who cared about him, loved him even. That was the bare minimum. He could rely on them. Should he be relying on them though? He knew that they were good people but he didn’t know if they thought the same about him. He had shared a lot with them, not as much as he wanted but enough that they knew that they could piece things together. Would they still think of him as a good person? Or even somebody in the right.
He had people cared. That was all.
Regulus made his way through the empty hallways, vaguely aware of the footsteps coming from behind him. At least they had noticed that he was gone. He passed classrooms and corridors leading to nothing. He greeted the paintings politely, who responded like they were old friends even though they barely knew his name. He turned sound more corners, walking down stairs without a sound.
He moved swiftly, not paying attention to any of his surroundings and only focusing on the path ahead of him. That being said, he didn’t see the tall figure waiting at the base of the stairs. He reached the end of the staircase, quickly turning left and heading towards the entrance of the dungeons. He couldn’t go far though as a hand placed itself on his shoulder, pressing down slightly, signalling for him to stop. Regulus stopped in his tracks and turned his head over to the direction of where the hand was coming from.
“What in the actual fuck James?” Regulus demands, staring at James in shock. He was the last person Regulus would’ve expected to wait for him this late, “How did you even know where I would be?”
“Lily and Dorcas.” James admits, running his spare hand through his messy hair, “Sorry for catching you off guard.”
“Well I didn’t see you for a start and I also wasn’t expecting somebody to be waiting at 8pm for somebody. You can’t just do that!”
“Yet I did.”
“Let’s get out of the way since Barty and Evan are on their way even though they are taking their sweet time doing so.” Regulus rolls his eyes, swatting James’s hand away from his shoulder and moving away from the stairs so that they were hidden from anybody coming down them.
“Are you always this mean to your friends?”
“No, just Barty and Evan.” Regulus says, “Oh and you.”
“Rude.”
“That’s the point, dumbass.” Regulus sighs.
“Sorry, what did I ever do to you?” James asks, laughing slightly.
“Exist.” Regulus states bluntly, crossing his arms.
“Damn ok.” James mutters.
“So why were you at the bottom of the stairs? I assume you were waiting for me but why?”
“I was waiting for you. I wanted to talk to you about Sirius.”
“He’s fine and no I’m not telling you where he is, he wants privacy.”
“But you told me that you didn't know where he was?” James asks, confused about the mix of information.
“People lie and I had good reason to.”
“Is he ok though?”
“I told you he is fine.”
“Is he really, though? Or is he just getting by?” James questioned him, unsatisfied by the lack of information given to him.
“Barely getting by actually.” Regulus corrects him, dropping his arms back down to his side and walking so that he was next to James but facing towards the exit of under the stairwell, “ Now do you want to carry on talking here about a topic that shouldn’t really be discussed in case any people happen to hear or do you want to go somewhere else?”
“Ok first off what do you mean ‘barely getting by’?” James asks expectantly.
“Exactly how it pounds. And it is private information as under Sirius’s instruction so don’t dig.” Regulus turns slightly to James so that he could look him in the eye.
“Second, where do you think we should talk? We can’t use the dorms or common rooms because it’s worse than the hallways. How about the Room of Requirement?”
“Maybe not.”
“Why?”
“We could do the Astronomy Tower instead.” Regulus suggests, completely ignoring James’s question and already walking towards the Tower’s direction.
“Regulus! Get back here.” James calls out, “Why don’t you want to go to the Room of Requirement?”
“Why is that any of your fucking business James? Why should I have to explain myself to you? You’re not somebody I need to explain my reasoning to you.”
“Sorry-”
“Don’t.” Regulus walks off, this time heading towards the dungeons.
“Regulus don’t you fucking dare. You can’t just run off from every situation. Just like your brother I swear.”
Regulus turned himself so that he was facing James with his whole self. He had been compared to his brother before but it was normally comparing looks, never in behaviour. It was a shock to him but he didn’t dare show it. Now was not the time to show anything.
“James. Did you not learn anything? Were you not taught a single fucking thing? How dumb does somebody have to be to compare me and my brother with that?” Regulus pulled out his wand from his pocket. He wasn’t pointing it at James but it was in his hand just in case, “Just because I don’t want to talk about things doesn’t mean that I act like Sirius. Do you know how fucking stupid I would have to be to flee like him?”
“Reg-”
“No. do you know how stupid I would have to be? Do you?”
“No.” James muttered.
“Then why the fuck did you decide that I acted like my brother. It wouldn’t hurt to just drop a conversation for once in your fucking life would it?” Regulus put his wand back in his pocket and walked away, calling out behind just loud enough for James to hear, “Grow up James.”
“Regulus. Please.” James pleaded but it was already too late. He had lost his chance to talk to him. Fuck. Regulus had already left and he was standing under the stairs alone. He was by himself and he would have to walk back to his dorm replaying Regulus shouting at him instead of replaying a happy and relaxed conversation between the two of them in the Room of Requirement.
James trudged back to his dorm, suppressing the tears that were threatening to spill out. He would have to wait until the others were asleep for that.
Regulus did the same. He marched towards his dorm and stepped inside. His relief to be away from people was short lived though as Barty and Evan burst through the door. Judging by their faces, they seemed to have heard at least part of the conversation between him and James but he didn’t know how much.
“Regulus, what the fuck was that?” Barty yelled out.
“Did you really have to yell at him?” Evan asked, his tone much calmer than Barty’s.
“Did you hear the whole conversation?” Regulus asked.
“No.” The two boys answered in unison.
“Then you don’t know the whole thing.” Regulus told them, “And quite frankly you don’t need to. It was not any of your business.”
“We’ll talk about this tomorrow.” Barty suggested.
“No the fuck we wont.”
“Wow, we have swearing Regulus.” Barty laughed, earning himself a glare from him, “What did James do to mess up that badly?”
“Shut up Crouch.” Regulus said, his voice disguising countless emotions that he couldn’t name, “Actually do you even know how to do that? I mean you barely seem to stop talking for more than 5 minutes. It's honestly quite impressive.”
Barty raised his arms in surrender and walked off to his bed and sat down signalling for Evan to join him.