Chapter 2; Are you bored yet?
“Horcruxes are objects 'i which a person hides a part of thy soul. Split thy soul and carve a piece of it into something, without a corporal agent.
If one is attacked or stunned, one canst not die, for the soul remains steadfast and immovable”
-Excerpt from chapter 3, Secrets of the Darkest Art, Note added underneath;
“More than one, maybe many?”
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“James just help me please!”
The sound of Peter's panicked voice broke through the hubbub of an early morning great hall. Sleepy students milling at tables and the edges of the hall, preparing for the day to come. Classes had not yet started and the hall was packed to the brim with chatter and sleepy sighs. The sun had already risen above the edges of the arched ceiling, making the skies light day blue mix with the lighter coloured clouds. Far past being dark enough for the lanterns that surrounded the hall and the candles floating above. The last few candles gently flickering out in the bright sun.
Sitting at their usual spot, the Marauders, Lily, Mary and Marlene ate lazily. Their free period first up was much more a blessing then any of them had thought at the start of the year. Giving them the ability to finish any work they might need to complete and to have a bit of a lay-in, which Remus was taking full advantage of.
Peter snapped his fingers in James' direction to drag his attention back to the issue at hand.
“James come on, I’m s-! Stressed. I’m stressed!”
At least Peter hadn’t made the horrifying mistake that so many did, Padfoot huffed and leaned back on Marlene's arm from where he had made a sudden move towards Peter. Rolling his eyes as Sirius’s urge to annoy everyone, Pete turned back to James.
“Well? Come on Prongs, it's not cheating, just advice!”
“Pete, you know I don't care about cheating, but you’ve gotta do some stuff yourself mate!”, James retorted before sighing and dropped his half eaten toast onto his plate. Brushing the crumbs off his fingers quickly, he leaned across the table and grabbed Peter's, frankly awful, transfiguration essay out of his hand. Pulling it closer to him, he skimmed the first few lines halfheartedly.
“Okay, you have the general idea here, Wormtail but,” Gazing back up the page, James reread the hurriedly scrawled paragraph, “You can multiply food and you can summon it, but not transfigure already existing food. You can only do that to sauces and water into wine and stuff.”
“Thank you,” Peter sighed, grabbing his essay back from James' hands and scratching out the entire paragraph to rewrite. “See? That wasn’t so hard, was it?”
Grumbling as he went back to his food, now slightly colder, James let himself zone back into the chatter around him. Somewhere to his right a couple of fourth years were chatting about the latest witch-weekly edition, behind him some fifth year Hufflepuff were stressing over OWL’s and in front of him, the Slytherin table - Regulus.
He was sitting there, eating like absolutely nothing was going on. Black curls tied back neatly, and uniform once again immaculate, he was the picture of a Pureblood heir. Head rested on the palm of his hand, elbow on the table, as he looked at a blonde boy who was gesturing rather wildly while talking about something too quietly from James to hear. No emotion showing on his pale face.
“James? You good Mate?”
James' head jerked to his right, in a movement that made his neck crack sharply, towards the figure of Frank Longbottom. Frank was in the same year as the Marauders but he had always been more interested in studying and staying out of trouble. That's not to say that the blonde boy didn’t help them on occasion, but he would rather be sitting with Alice than be sitting in detention.
Blinking quickly at the somewhat amused Frank, he let his gaze fall back onto his barely touched plate and murmured an ‘alright’ between new bites of his coldish, dampish toast. Unwashed black hair hanging loosely over his glasses, knee bouncing in time with his chewing, eyes never leaving his plate.
The truth was, he hadn’t slept, not well anyway. How could he? The forbidden book weighed heavy in his bag as he walked to breakfast. Trying to not think about it was impossible as its words played on a loop at the front of his brain, words meshing with the notes in the margins and his own thoughts. Merlin, he was a mess right now, clearly he wasn’t thinking straight.
He needed to tell someone about this, someone who could do something. His initial thought had been Mcgonagal, being both his head of house and deputy headmistress she would be able to do something about it. But then he realised it was likely she would think he was playing a prank on her. Cursing his reputation, his next thought had been Dumbledore. Being the Headmaster, Supreme Mugwump and a well known and powerful wizard he would have considerable sway over the use of the information and the initial fallout. He was also a kind of Grandfather figure for those at Hogwarts and James knew he would take him somewhat seriously and not only due to the evidence.
Yes, that was clearly the best course of action. Go to Dumbledore, show him the book and explain to him where and how he got it, let him deal with it and never speak of it again. That was the way. How to talk to him in private though?
Looking across the hall, up to the head table, for Dumbledore sitting at his ridiculous purple chair, eyes met his and remained. Grey eyes.
Fuck.
He forgot about Regulus. How could he be so stupid? Doing this was as good as condemning him to Azkaban, especially if Dumbledore chose to act on the information. How would Sirius forgive him, how would he forgive himself?
Grey eyes never leaving his brown, Regulus let his arm drop from where he had been resting his head, sitting a little straighter, bringing his arm down to rest horizontally below his plate. He was perfectly still, simply staring at James as he stared back.
Suddenly he moved, looking away from James and towards his blonde companion who was now talking animatedly with a brown haired boy. Saying something to him, Regulus stood and walked to the entrance of the Great Hall, never sparing James another glance. He disappeared out of the hall.
Standing up from the table abruptly, startling a passing first year and a few of his friends, James grabbed his bag and made to move towards the exit. “Gotta go to the loo,” he said quickly to the startled seventh years.
“James?” Mary called after him as he walked away, “You good?” walking hurriedly away, he didn’t respond other than to lift his hand in a ‘you guys go on’ wave behind him.
Now was his chance to get Regulus’ side of things.
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Running up the sparsely littered stairway outside the hall around the corner towards the charms and arithmancy classrooms, James looked for the Baby Black.
He, along with Pete and Sirius, had left the map in the Marauders dorm for Remus to track them down before classes started and there definitely wasn’t time to go grab it. He would have to find him, and fast before he disappeared. If he was anything like Sirius he would be able to quickly blend into the background, seemingly disappearing if he wanted to, luckily for the students of Hogwarts Sirius didn’t often want to. But Regulus seemed the type to use it for his gain.
Reaching an end to another corridor and reaching a split in the halls, James turned right towards the charms classrooms, running past a few wandering students in his haste, they were either looking for their classes or simply out for a morning walk. He paid no mind to their stares and slight whispers as he passed them, getting odd looks was not unusual for him, his search undisturbed by these questioning glazes and words.
Grabbing the slightly curved wall to swing himself around the incoming corner, he saw Regulus waiting for one of the moving stairs to swing back around. He had his back to the corridor behind him and was staring out into the gap between. He was derisively not looking behind him if anything.
Making his way towards him, and thanking quidditch for training him to be able to run like that without being completely out of breath, he approached Regulus, slowing down as he reached him but being no less determined. Grabbing onto the younger boy's sleeve, James jerked him towards the classroom back down the corridor that he knew would be currently empty. The action causes Regulus to twist around and stumble slightly with a mix of shock and something akin to fear.
“Potter. What-?”
“Not here.”
While Regulus attempted to free himself James continued to drag him towards the empty room. Finally twisting out of James grip as he arrived outside the ajar door, Regulus practically flung himself away from James and to the opposite side of the hallway.
“Potter, what the fuck.”
Regulus was standing as far away from James as possible in the, thankfully empty, hallway. Nervously glazing up the hallway, waiting to bolt as far away from this, from his perspective, terrifying encounter.
James had to get Regulus out of the hallway, he needed to talk to him where there was no chance of disruption. Ok his original plan of grab him and shove him in a classroom was obviously a bust, and not very productive. But he had to try to get Baby Black out of the hallway. Anyone could walk down here and see this, or hear this. A teacher, a particularly gossipy student, Sirius.
The last one scared him the most if he was honest.
“Not here Baby Black.”
“Oh yes here Potter, like Salazar you’re taking me anywhere else”
“Trust me you don’t want to do this here Black”
“Oh, I think I do. Whatever Sirius wants you can tell him to-”
“Regulus, when did you take the mark?”