Taken
Sirius whipped his head up and turned toward the shrill scream coming from the entrance of the room; he and Bella had been dancing around the room, and were now closer to Peter’s bed, instead of Remus’s.
Of course, as soon as he turned towards their shared bed, he realized what was wrong. Remus had fallen.
Well, that’s what he assumed, as he couldn’t see his lover since the bed was blocking him, and Regulus’ wand was trained on the middle of the floor between the bed and the bathroom.
That scream had definitely been Remus though.
“MOONY!” He and James shouted simultaneously, abandoning their fights without a second thought.
They rushed over to Regulus, staring down at the floor where Remus had collapsed. Thankfully, he was still alive, but he was convulsing, obviously in pain. Regulus was staring down at him, face pale, but his wand wasn’t wavering.
James was confused as to what had happened, but Sirius knew immediately, “YOU BASTARD. YOU FUCKING CUNT.” He screamed, tears streaming down his face, “MAKE IT STOP. IT’S NOT HIM YOU WANT. HE’S DONE NOTHING TO YOU.”
“He took you away from me.” Regulus said coldly.
“No… no he didn’t. He didn’t take me away. It was never like that.” Sirius whimpered, taken aback.
Remus’s scream pierced the air again, a heart-wrenching sound that made Sirius’s chest tighten with helplessness. Tears flowed freely from Remus’s eyes, the pain on his face unmistakable as his body shook uncontrollably. Remus’s body arched involuntarily as the curse wracked him. His chest heaved, but he didn’t let out any sounds aside from the occasional whimper, and the screams when Regulus flicked his wand.
“MAKE IT STOP REGGIE!” Sirius screamed.
“No.” Regulus said simply. “Bella, Snape, go away, this doesn’t concern you.”
Snape and Bellatrix would have likely argued had it been any other situation, but they knew that the Dark Lord would not want them to stay.
“Please… Reg… stop. This isn’t you…” Sirius whispered, pain lacing his voice.
“How would you know? You’ve barely talked to me since… since he took you.”
Before James spoke, his gaze flickered from Remus, writhing in pain, to Regulus, whose cold eyes were locked on his brother. The silence stretched unbearably, heavy with tension. For a heartbeat, James considered the futility of intervening, but the sight of Sirius’s anguish—the helplessness in his eyes—was enough to push him forward. This wasn’t Sirius’s fault, he thought, but how could Regulus understand that? How could anyone understand? He opened his mouth, the words spilling out in an attempt to do something, anything, to shift the weight of the moment.
“Regulus…” James began, his voice shaking slightly but determined. “He didn’t take Sirius away. If anyone did, it… it was me.”
Regulus didn’t even blink. His eyes narrowed for a fraction of a second, as if he were considering James’s words, but his expression quickly shifted back to that cold indifference. His lips curled into something that might have been a sneer. “Okay,” he said, as though James’s admission didn’t matter at all, as though it wasn’t worth the effort to argue. His voice was flat, dismissive–he was calculating something.
Sirius cringed, James should not have said that.
In an instant, Regulus paused, snapped his wand at James, causing him to collapse in pain too, screaming much more than Remus.
James’s first scream was the first thing Sirius heard. It tore through the air, jagged and raw, louder than Remus’s had been, as though his body were being torn apart from the inside out. His limbs flailed, fingers digging into the floorboards, as though trying to escape the pain, but it clung to him like a suffocating shroud. Where Remus’s pain seemed like a slow burn, James’s was an explosion of agony. His body convulsed violently, every muscle locked in a desperate struggle to fight the pain. His scream grew higher, more frantic, as if he couldn’t catch his breath, his hands clawing at the floor as if he could tear through the pain.
Sirius’s heart clenched in his chest. No—no, not James too. He could hear James’s frantic cries drowning out everything else, the sheer volume of his torment making the room feel like it was closing in on him. Every breath from James was a ragged gasp, every scream worse than the last.
His knees nearly buckled from the shock, and for a moment, he couldn’t breathe. What the hell? He was still processing the horror of seeing Remus convulsing, but now—James too?
The sight of them both, writhing in agony at Regulus’s whim, was enough to make him feel like he was drowning. No… this can’t be real. Regulus was holding both of them in the same cruel grip, as though their lives were nothing more than playthings for his wrath.
Remus’s body continued to twitch uncontrollably, his cries muffled by the pain, while James, too, was consumed by the curse, his body writhing in perfect synchronization with Remus’s. Regulus is doing this. Regulus is doing this to them both. Sirius’s mind screamed for him to move, to do something—anything—but his legs felt like lead, his chest heavy with the weight of helplessness. His heart was breaking in two.
And then, something inside him snapped. The paralysis melted away, replaced by a burning determination. He couldn’t let this continue.
“J–James? Remus?” Sirius had nearly forgotten that Lily was there, but Jesus was he glad that she was.
Regulus flicked his wand again, making both boys scream as the pain overwhelmed them once more.
“Reg-” No. Sirius couldn’t call him Reg. That was for his brother. This isn’t his brother. “Regulus. I- I’ll go with you. I’ll leave immediately – I’ll do whatever you tell me to. You just have to let them go. And please give me the full moons.” He gestured towards Remus. “I need them. He needs them.”
For a moment, Regulus seems to consider it, but then shakes his head and flicks his wand causing both boys even more pain.
"I'll go with you," Sirius repeated, his voice raw. "I'll leave everything behind, I swear it. But I need the full moons, Reg. You can't take that from me. Let me keep that one thing—please."
Regulus’s expression remained unchanged, his eyes cold and distant as he studied Sirius. For a long moment, there was silence in the room, broken only by the screams of James and Remus.
And then Regulus spoke, his voice low, almost mocking.
"No," he said simply. "But… I’ll take one of them." He gestured toward James and Remus. "You can experience what it’s like to live without the people closest to you. The way I did."
Sirius’s breath caught in his throat. "No, Reg. Please." His voice cracked. He could feel the weight of the choice pressing on him. He would rather die than see either James or Remus suffer because of him.
“Funny that. You didn’t give me any choices. I’m giving you the luxury of two. Leave them like this, or let me have one of them.” Regulus sneered.
Holy bloody fuck was he actually enjoying this?
“You have to the count of three, and then I decide.” Regulus said icily, “One… Two…”
Fuckfuckfuckfuckfuck. Sirius couldn’t think. His mind went blank. He glanced over at Lily, who seemed to be having a similar issue.
“Three.”
Sirius decided he would hate that number for the rest of his life.
Regulus gestured upwards with his wand, sharper, this time, enjoying Sirius’s pain.
He paused, “Right, I’ve decided.”
Both Moony and Prongs stopped shaking.
What?
Prongs was lying on the floor, unmoving, but Remus… Remus had groaned, then turned to Sirius and muttered, “Y’know that thing you said in fifth year, about how that was the same as the moons?”
Sirius nodded tearily.
“You were wrong-”
Sirius wouldn’t get to hear the end of that sentence for a very long time.
At that exact moment, Regulus pointed his wand again, not at James, but directly at Remus, who stiffened, before quickly scrambling away from Sirius, James, and Lily.
“No… No!” He shouted.
“Moony?” Sirius asked, panicked again.
“Get away from me!” Remus screamed back.
Regulus smirked. “There. I’ve taken one from you.”
Then he stalked off, smiling to himself.
Sirius’s heart stopped.
“Remus?” Lily asked, concerned for both of her friends.
Remus foggily looked over at Lily, “Grant? Grant!”
“He’s not here Moony… That’s Lily.” Sirius told him.
“MATRON! DON’T LOCK ME AWAY IN THE CAGE AGAIN! IT HURTS IT HURTS IT HURTS IT HURTSithurtsithurtsithurtsithurtsithurtsithurts.” Remus scrambled back again, then curled into a ball and muttered into his knees.