snap out of it
Regulus Black does not hide from anyone, not anymore. Not even his mother, so he will certainly not run from someone he counts as a stranger. Yet he greatly wants to shy away from Sirius who is currently stomping towards him. Perhaps Madam Pince will kick him out before his traitor brother even has a chance to speak. This does not happen.
"What are you doing?", Sirius almost shouts and Reg has to try to shush him before Pince comes and kicks them both out.
"Why is it any of your concern?", he replies before starting to pack up, Sirius isn't going to leave him alone anytime soon, and it's evident as soon as Sirius sees the title of one of the books he was reading.
"Because you're planning to use dark magic !",
"Don't worry, it's not for your friends or anyone else", that was a lie, but it didn't really matter. Sirius wasn't that dumb, he could put the pieces together
"You're going to use it to help him, aren't you? What are they planning?",
"Sirius, I have no idea who and what you're referring to but just leave me alone!" Regulus shouts as soon as he's out of the library. Thankfully everyone else was in the Great Hall eating dinner so no one was around to hear anything. He was rushing away from Sirius, he doesn't know where he is going but anywhere is better than this.
"You know exactly what I'm talking about, you've gotten the mark haven't you?", Reg stops where he is, not turning back to look at his former brother. He abruptly feels the weight of the magic on his arm so much more and it's dragging him in the lake of his thoughts until Regulus is drowning.
"You used to be my sister", and his thoughts drain away until he can breathe again.
"I never was", Regulus starts walking again, never looking back.
Evan is always worried that Reg doesn't get enough sleep, but sleep is useless compared to what he sees at night. He may be up at 3am in the astronomy tower doing Merlin knows what, but it's better than his dreams.
As he leans against the stone balcony, Regulus tries to find all the constellations he can, and recall all their stories. Just as he skips Canis Major and moves on to Lepus, he hears a muttering outside the door and quiet footsteps.
Reg points his wands at the door, he never lets go of it, not anymore. slowly the door creeps open and Regulus is met with the sight of James fucking Potter. The James whose best friends with Reg's brother. The James who stole Sirius away years ago. The James who Regulus has hated before he had even met the guy. The James who is now looking at him like he's seen a ghost.
"Get out", Regulus scowls and raises his wand to level with James's head.
"What, I'm sorry, I just came here to do some astronomy homework, I'll leave you alone",
"I didn't ask why you're here, I asked you to go away", for some reason James seems pretty calm with a wand being pointed at his head. Surely he would have heard everything from Sirius by now and run.
"Yeah, well I've got an astronomy essay due tomorrow, I'm more scared of Professors Wicks than you", with that, James slipped past Regulus and began to write on the slant of the balcony.
Reg stood there for a moment, about to grab his stuff and leave when abruptly his vision turned pitch black, then saw someone hitting their head on the stone roof of the astronomy tower, it kept flashing black as he saw a stone fall on the person, then just blood on the stone. As it went back to his normal vision, he saw James who was now looking at him.
"Hey are you-", James was cut off by Regulus pulling him away from where he was standing and towards the door. Just as they reached the door, the rock fell right where James was previously standing.
"How did you know that would happen?", James was now chasing Reg down the staircase.
"How about a thanks for saving your life and to shut up otherwise we're both going to be caught by Filch", James opened his mouth then closed it, then stupidly opened it again.
"Is it some dark magic that you did, you know when bad things happen?", Regulus stops and whips his head around to face James and sighs
"I don't what you've heard from your friend but I can assure you dark magic does not allow you to see the future". As Regulus continued and his company followed, James came up with many theories as to why and how Regulus saved him.
"You could've just left me standing there and no one would have known. They would've thought it was an accident",
"I'm starting to wish I did",
"So why'd you save me in the first place?", at this Regulus just kept walking, he didn't answer, he didn't stop, he didn't do anything but wonder the exact same question.