As the midnight hour approached, Regulus left James in the Come and Go Room and headed towards Gryffindor Tower undercover of the invisibility cloak. He’d snuck into the tower before, many times, while the others were out and the pair could have the dorm all to themselves- just as Regulus had snuck James into the dungeons to get him alone. He used to wonder how James always knew when and where his friends were and that they could be alone together, that was until he was introduced to the map. At first he didn’t want to admit that it was a clever little contraption, mostly because his brother was associated with its creation and no matter how smart Sirius was Regulus would be damned if he gave him that much credit for his intellect.
Three tries and the portrait finally opened letting him in, though not after questioning why a slytherin needed to get into the tower at such a late hour. Ignoring the question, Regulus recovered himself and made his way up to the seventh year boys room. The door to the dorm room was closed for the night. Regulus gently turned the handle, hoping it wasn’t locked as he’d left his wand with James and wandless unlocking charms never quite worked properly for him. To his luck the door opened fine.
Peter was laying in his bed, the one closest to the door, while the curtains of James’ were drawn closed as if he were there hiding from everyone else. Sirius’ bed was empty but he could be heard with Remus in the other boy’s. It was, luckily, nothing lewd going on between the pair, just gentle conversation in hushed tones.
“Prongs?” Sirius could be heard asking through the drawn curtains.
Regulus crossed the room to where the pair were. He removed the invisibility cloak and pulled the curtains open. “Come with me,” he told his older brother.
“What are you doing here?” Sirius demanded, sitting up ramrod straight in bed while Remus remained laying down beside him.
“If you care about James, you’ll come with me,” Regulus remained calm. As much as he’d love to be enough for James in his time of need, he knew that he also needed his best friend. He’d need Remus eventually, even if just to help him navigate how to handle the world in the face of his new reality, but he needed Sirius right now.
“What did you do to him?” As much as it hurt, he knew that Sirius would assume he’d done something to him. A part of him wished that Sirius already knew about their relationship, about the very fact that Regulus loved James more than life itself and would willingly kill to keep him safe.
“I didn’t do anything but he needs you, so you need to come with me.”
“Was it one of your little friends?”
Regulus resigned himself to the fact that Sirius would know, in one way or another, that he and James were together before dawn. He didn’t know how he’d tell him, just that he would for James’ sake. “No, though he might have been better off if they had.”
Sirius recoiled slightly at that but still not moving from the bed. He was silent, watching Regulus with an inquisitive stare that burrowed deep into his very being.
Kneeling down, Regulus swallowed his pride and dropped down to Sirius’ level and then some. He sat on the floor, looking up at his brother, “You hate me, I know, but you have to trust me here.” He took a deep breath and met Sirius’ eye, “If anything happened to him I wouldn’t know what to do with myself and something has happened and he needs you right now. I love him more than the stars love the heavens above but I am only one person, he needs you right now and he’s terrified you’ll hate him. So, Sirius, you need to come with me.”
Regulus watched as Sirius’ face melted from tense to confused. He knew that this was not the sort of answer he was expecting to get.
“Alright,” Sirius was quiet now, getting up to gather his shoes from his trunk.
Remus smiled at Regulus, “Does he know that you love him?”
“Yes.”
There was a brightness to Remus’ eyes, as if a laugh had been caught there. "I thought so."
Regulus didn't question what that was supposed to mean. He was on a mission and his assignment was to get Sirius to James.
Flustered and still in his night clothes, Sirius dragged Regulus out of the dorm and through the common room. If any of the students still lingering in front of the fireplace said anything about the younger Black’s presence so late at night, neither of them heard. Sirius threw the invisibility cloak over them just before exiting. It was only after they’d exited the portrait and the door was firmly closed behind them that he, who was in front of Regulus, asked where they were going.
“The Come and Go Room.”
Heading in that direction, Sirius asked, “You know about the Come and Go Room?”
They walked in silence for a long time, Regulus knew that Sirius had questions but was unwilling to ask them at the moment. Standing outfront the room, the two brothers came to a halt. Neither had said a word. Sirius finally turned to face Regulus, both still under the invisibility cloak’s cover.
For James’ sake, Regulus resigned himself to answer any questions his brother may have regarding them.
“You love him?”
“Yes.”
“And does he know this?”
“I’d certainly hope so,” Regulus couldn’t help but smile ever so slightly.
“And does he love you?” Sirius sounded unsure.
Regulus knew that James and Sirius told each other everything, that it would hurt his brother to know that something as big as the knowledge that he’d fallen in love and was loved back had been kept from him. Alas, that was all in the past now and he needed to get Sirius to James. “Given that he made a habit of telling me every morning before hols, yes.” In the hours after James had finally confessed to Regulus what had happened and him leaving to find Sirius, James had told him everything. In those hours Regulus learned a new kind of fear, the fear that even the brightest of people could be consumed by darkness. There was nothing he could do but hold his love and whisper sweet nothings to him as he told Regulus all that had been going on inside him. He’d even admitted that, while Remus had been attacked by Greyback years before attending Hogwarts and was therefore a werewolf for the entire time they’d all known each other, James was terrified that the others might reject him for the sudden change. This was an unfounded fear, both of them knew that much, but it was still a fear that had been eating away at him for weeks.
“How long have you two been together?”
“A year and a half, start of last school year.”
Watching Sirius for a second, the younger Black knew that he was trying to think back to how James had acted during that time. Towards the end of the year previous James had started to back off on his advances on Lily and by the time he returned for his sixth year he had stopped attempting to ask her out all together. It was common knowledge that that summer Sirius had ran away from home to go live with the Potters, in the time before school though he had recounted stories of him and his brother to James so as to finally grasp that he was away from his own parents. Little did Sirius know, but the more he spoke of Regulus the more interested he grew. The Regulus in Sirius’ stories did not match up to the Regulus that James knew. They’d been acquaintances for a while, forced proximity due to Sirius, but that was all. Before he knew it and before the summer was up, James found himself falling head over heels in love with Regulus, and Sirius was none the wiser.
“A year and a half?” Sirius was in disbelief, understandably. “Were you two ever going to tell me if you snuck around my back for a year and a half?”
“Yes,” Regulus was sure that James would have told him at some point.
"If he loved you, he would have told me. He would have asked me before dating you."
"We're not having this discussion, Sirius."
The disbelief quickly turned to anger. "No, I think we are. What do you want from him? What are you getting out of this?"
"Are you doubting that I love him?"
"Yes, you'd always find something to try and get back at me with. What better way to get back at me than to steal my best friend."
Any and all calm that Regulus had was lost in that moment. "Try to get back at you? Not everything is about you, Sirius. No one is obligated to tell you anything. And I'm not getting anything out of this, not in the way you're insinuating, other than being with someone I love and who loves me back and some fantastic sex. So no, Sirius, this has nothing to do with you and if you are too self centered and self absorbed to realize that then maybe you need to reevaluate yourself before involving anyone else in your life," Regulus spat back in pure vitriol. Even if Sirius hadn't known, how dare he insinuate that it was all to get back at him. "Lest you forget, you left me there. I had to learn how to fend for myself and while you were busy either ignoring my entire existence or claiming that I was just like our parents to anyone who gave you the ear and time of day, your best friend was there asking if I was alright. Your best friend was there pleading for me to come live with him. When I wanted nothing more than for the world to swallow me whole and end my miserable existence, your best friend was there with a reassuring smile, cauldron, cakes, and a smile asking me out on a date to Hogsmead. You weren't there for anyone, so why would I care what you think or give a damn about getting back at you?"
Regulus knew that the last part was dripping heavy with lies. He cared what Sirius thought but didn't need his approval. No matter how he played it in public, he'd always love his big brother no matter what.
"Be as petty as you like out here, but that stays out here," Regulus demanded. "Any fights between us stay out here because James is behind that door right now and he needs you, I might be his boyfriend but he needs his best friend more than anything right now. If you can't accept us for even the slightest amount of time so you can help him, then you can turn around right now for all I care and confirm every one of his fears right this instant. Am. I. Clear?"
Sirius looked his younger brother in the eye, the boy he'd always seen as smaller and in need of protection, and fully realized the depth to which Regulus loved James. Regulus was both protecting James and desperately reaching out across the aisle to Sirius in need of help. They might not have talked much these last few years, and Sirius might have said some horrid things about him at school after running away, but this Regulus was staunchly different from the one that existed in his head. This one was capable of a deep, all encompassing love that crossed boundaries and needed to keep those he love safe. Sirius might have wanted to protect him, protect James, but he didn't need that. Truly.
"Crystal." Sirius extended an arm out to Regulus and the door as if to ask 'after you.'
The room hadn't changed since Regulus had left, the bed was still in the same place and the atmosphere still warm and homely. Sirius followed Regulus, two steps behind him, to James. In the time since his leaving, James had curled himself up under the thick, plush blankets as if to warm himself up. That little curious voice in the back of Regulus' head wondered if it were possible for a vampire to warm up, or if fledglings still clung to their humanity in such small ways as seeking out warmth. Regulus ignored the voice. He left Sirius at the foot of the bed instead moving to James' side to comfort the scared 17 year old.
"Jamie, mon amor, I brought Sirius," he leaned down and whispered to the mass of blankets covering James. As he had done for him many times, Regulus ran his hand over James' back to comfort him.
Sirius stood bewildered, the last time he could consciously remember when Regulus was this gentle with anyone, much less any thing, they were much younger and it was years before either boy had started Hogwarts. He watched as Regulus carefully pulled back the blankets to reveal James' face and gently brush his hair back from his face. He leaned in close and kissed his forehead before whispering something that Sirius couldn't catch. In that moment he hated that he'd ever doubted they loved each other, the sheer amount of love and devotion on display in such a small gesture was more than either of the Black brother had ever experienced from any family member, maybe baring Andromeda or Narcissa, in their youth.
James looked up as best he could through the blankets before sitting up. He turned back to face Regulus first before facing Sirius. The younger boy wrapped his arms around James to comfort him, something Sirius had done many times over the years. While it was no secret among the Gryffindors that James craved physical touch on a daily basis, it was unusual for Sirius to see Regulus giving it so easily. He knew that it must have taken quite a bit of time for his younger brother to grow comfortable with the very idea of doing so. Regulus beckoned him over to James bedside, that was when he saw to two puncture marks at the base of his neck. He felt himself take in a sharp breath long before his brain registered it.
An attack.
James had been attacked.
James had been bitten by a vampire and from the looks of it he'd been turned.
Suddenly everything of the last month or so made sense. James, who always ran warm no matter the time of year, always wore his Gryffindor scarf round his neck and had since he'd met him on the train. He had tried to come back to the Potters some days after new years before returning to school but had to stay at Remus' after Effie had owled him saying James wasn't feeling well and didn't want visitors. James who never wore his cloak before now wore it regularly. He wore his robes properly, the buttons of his shirt done up all the way and his tie tight under his scarf with the hood of said robes up atop his head. Sirius had known something was wrong but he never imagined it was this. "Prongs?"
Sirius reached out for his best friend, his friend that he was slightly mad at for dating his younger brother for so long without telling him but that he still lived no matter what, and James flinched from him. He wasn't about to say how much it hurt to see that but he knew now that James was hurting inside and awfully scared.
In as calm a tone as he could muster, Sirius met James' eye to say, "You are as much my brother as Regulus is. I chose you and I'm not leaving, vampire or not, you can't get rid of me that easily, James Fleamont Potter. If you want to try and get rid of me you'll have to do better and put in the effort."
James smiled and let out a watery laugh. His hair was a mess and his eyes bleary but he still reached out for a hug from Sirius. With James' head tucked into his shoulder, and his own arms wrapped around his friend's shaking body, Sirius continued, "Not even dating my brother for a year and a half without telling me will drive me away."
He brought James’ head up from his shoulder so they sat face to face with one another. No words were exchanged, only knowing looks, before James finally broke and began to explain to Sirius what had happened that fateful night. By the end of it he was shaking like a leaf, Regulus wanting nothing more than to wrap him in a blanket to keep him safe and warm but Sirius beat him to it.
No matter how much he might have wanted to reach out to James, Regulus remained. He listened in on his cries to Sirius, the muffled declarations that pulled at his own heart strings. Unlike James, both Sirius and himself had grown up in a house devoid of love with his own mother telling him that he was incapable of being loved. But here, in this space, with James wrapped up in Sirius’ arms and terrified for what the future may hold, Regulus heard James’ muffled words being fed directly into Sirius’ shoulder.
“I thought I’d lose you, that I’d lose Reg too. Remus is only considered dangerous on the full moons but vampires are always dangerous, I can’t lose any of you; not my friends, not my love. I love him, Sirius, I’m sorry for not telling you but I love him. I cannot breathe when he is not near. He is everything to me, everything. I was foolish when I was younger, thinking that Lily was it for me when Regulus was right there the whole time.”
Regulus knew that James loved him, once he had said it once he never stopped, but he had never told him like that. For the second time that night, it took several moments for his brain to register that he’d stopped breathing long after his body had ceased to do so.