Chapter 5
The full moon was coming up. Which means James would have to find an excuse to why he can’t meet Regulus that night. Of course he loved Moony and wanted to be there to help him through the transformation like they all did last year. Remus was one of his best friends and he never wanted to disappoint him or make him go through all that pain alone, but on the other hand, the thought of not seeing Regulus for one single night made his skin burn. Even the thought of not seeing the younger Slytherin made him want to scream until his voice gave out. The night before the full moon James was sitting up in the astronomy tower right next to Regulus, just like every other night. “So um…t-tomorrow-” James started, anxiously picking at his nails with his head down. “I can’t come tomorrow night. I have a..a thing with the boys that I can’t miss.” He mumbled. Regulus looked up at the other boy with a small frown. He stayed quiet for a second before just nodding his head.
“Okay..” Regulus said quietly before quickly turning back to his book. A few minutes of silence went past before Regulus closed his book abruptly and looked at James. “You know, you lot aren’t great at secret keeping. You can say it’s for Lupin. It’s okay.” Regulus said. James just stared back at the other boy with wide eyes.
“Y-you know!? How do you know?!” James practically yelled, watching Regulus only shrug in response.
“You guys aren’t exactly great at hiding it. I think you forget, I come up here every night, even before you. I could quite literally see you, my brother and Pettigrew sneaking in and out of the castle every full moon after Lupin would leave with Pomfrey and you lot would be sneaking out under that cloak. Maybe it worked when you were younger, put you’re not exactly short, Potter. I could see your feet and Pettigrew’s arse sticking out of it half the time.” Regulus chuckled. “I knew about Lupin a few months into my first year, but it was none of my business so I never said anything. Plus, you all call him Moony. It wasn’t exactly that hard for me to crack your code.” James just kept staring at him in shock. Maybe they really weren’t as secretive as they had all thought.
“Merlin, what else do you know?” James joked. Regulus just shrugged and opened his book again.
“The animagus thing.”
“WHAT?!” James yelled before he had a hand over his mouth. Regulus groaned and let out a huff.
“Seriously, Potter! Do you want the whole castle to know we’re up here?” Regulus huffed, taking his hand off of James’ mouth. “Je veux dire, sérieusement ! Vous pouvez être si dense parfois.” He mumbled. “Like I said, you lot aren’t great at hiding things. And again, the nicknames are kind of a giveaway, Prongs.” Regulus joked, letting a small laugh escape his lips.
“And you never told anyone?” James asked slowly. Regulus shook his head and shrugged.
“No. Like I said, It’s none of my business. Plus, I like Lupin.” Regulus said simply. “I have potion homework for Slughorn I need to do tomorrow anyway. And Barty is starting to get a little suspicious where I go every night. I think it will throw him off if I’m in our room.” He said before going back to reading his book out loud for James, and the Gryffindor had a mental sigh of relief. Regulus knew the only two big secrets James Potter had. He didn’t betray Moony and he didn’t exactly out himself either. He counted it as a win-win.
That night, when James snuck back upstairs he bumped into Sirius in the common room. He was sitting over on the couch with a glare on his face and James knew what was coming.
“You know Prongs, I’m your best friend. You would think you would tell me where you’ve been sneaking off to every night the past, what? Three weeks?” Sirius snapped and got up. James frowned and shook his head.
“Sirius, I’m not going anywhere. I just can’t sleep, so I go for walks. That’s it! I promise!” Lie. It was such a lie and it felt wrong leaving his mouth. James doesn’t do that. He doesn’t lie to Sirius. Ever. The only way he could make himself feel better about it is by saying it wasn’t his secret to share. Which, in his defence, was half true. Regulus didn’t want anyone to know, so James was only making sure that didn’t happen.
“That’s such a fucking lie! I know you Prongs! You sleep like a fucking sack of bricks the second your head hits the pillow! You’re hiding something!” Sirius snapped. James flinched slightly at the tone and refused to meet Sirius’ gaze. He left bad. He felt more than bad. He felt fucking awful. He was lying to his best friend’s face, but the second he remembered exactly why he was lying he felt less awful. For Regulus. He was lying to his best friend for Regulus, and suddenly Sirius was in the wrong.
“You know you’re not entitled to know where I am every second of every fucking day Pads? I’m allowed to do things by myself without you up my arse the whole time. Where I go is none of your fucking buisness so leave it alone!” James yelled back, turning to go up the stairs to their dorm before Sirius grabbed his arm and pulled him back.
“What the fuck has gotten into you!? Since we’ve gotten back to school you’ve been acting so fucking strange! There is something up with you Prongs! I’m your best friend for fucks sake! We don’t do this, we don’t keep secrets from each other!” Sirius frowned, not letting go of James’ arm before it was promptly yanked away.
“Oh we don’t keep secrets? What about you and Moony? You kept that secret for a whole year, so leave me the fuck alone about it. It doesn’t concern you.” James snapped and headed upstairs, leaving Sirius down in the common room before shutting the curtains around his bed and casting a spell so nobody could open them from the outside. James was shaking. He looked at his hands and tried his best to stop the tremors and failed. He just groaned and rolled onto his side, pulling the blanket over his head and tried to get some sleep. It didn’t work.
The next day, James skipped the full moon. He had slipped Regulus a note in the hallway, telling him to meet him in the tower anyways. He felt bad about it. He really did. James was mad at Sirius, not Moony. He knew really deep down he would be letting Remus down, but after last night, he couldn’t even be in the same room as Sirius, let alone with him all night. The two of them haven’t talked since.
James sat up in the tower, twiddling his thumbs as he waited for the other boy to show, and once he did, the sight in front of him made his blood boil. Regulus walked through the door with a black eye and a busted open lip. James shot up from his seat and rushed over. “What the fuck happened?! Who did this? Are you okay?” He rushed out all at once, carefully taking the other boy’s face in his hands without thinking about it, but Regulus didn’t say anything about it. “I’m fucking serious Reg. Who the fuck did this to you?” James asked again. It didn’t make a lot of sense. Regulus was good at healing spells. Sirius even told him so. Regulus just shook his head, trying to shrug James’ hands off to no avail.
“It’s nothing. Just some seventh years. I would have fixed them before I came up, but they just caught me in the hall.” Regulus mumbled, trying to pull away. James frowned and shook his head, keeping Regulus’ face in his hands to examine his face.
“Names.” James said simply.
“I don’t need you to fight my battles for me, Potter.” Regulus mumbled, looking up at the taller Gryffindor.
“I know you don’t. But, I still want names.” James mumbled before realising how close they were. Regulus never let him this close. James felt a small blush creep up to his cheeks before pulling away, letting go of the other boy’s face. “Names.” He repeated. Regulus just stared at James for a moment before shrugging.
“Just Lucius Malfoy and some of his friends. It doesn’t matter. He’s just giving me a hard time.” Regulus sighed, going over to his usual spot and sitting against the wall. “He’s engaged to my cousin and they all think…they all think I’m not exactly good enough to be the heir now that Sirius is out of the picture. They’re all just trying to toughen me up.” James could quite literally feel the rage coursing through his veins. He couldn’t sit down. All he could do was pace back and forth, running a shaky hand through his hair. All that was going through his head was how to get back at Malfoy and his little gang. James reached into his pocket and pulled out the map, eyes darting back and forth to find where they had wandered off to. His eyes landed on the group of names before shoving the map back into his robes and turning on his heel. “What the hell is that thing?” Regulus asked and got up. “Potter! Where are you going?” He asked and tried to follow after James. “I told you I do not need you to fight my battles for me!” Regulus snapped. James just ignored him, already heading down the stairs.
“Stay there!” James just yelled back. He headed off in the direction he knew the three boys were. James just kept marching down the hallway as his hands shook, eyes wanting to twitch from pure anger. To be fair, he should have known it wouldn’t be a fair fight. Three seventh years against one fifth year would never be fair. But in James’ defence, he was too angry to think straight when all he could see was red. Once he had found the group, he marched right up to Lucius and without a single word, cocked his arm back and punched him square in the face with everything he had in him. Lucius fell back and hit the floor with a thud. Before any of them had time to react, James was on top of him and laying punches into him over and over again. He fired Stupefy at the other two before going back to punch after punch. It was all a blur. He could hear people yelling and screaming, but it all sounded distant and muffled. It was like his head was under water. None of it mattered though. None of it did, until he heard Regulus screaming his name as clear as day. The sound ripped James from his rampage and he stopped dead in his tracks, and that is when he fully realised and saw what he had done. He looked down and saw Lucius’ face cut open in a few different places, bruises already starting to form, and blood soaking his white blond hair and face. Blood pooling around his head on the floor. James frowned a bit and looked up. The other two, unconscious on the floor and Regulus was rushing over, pulling James off of the other boy.
“James! Let’s go! Now!” Regulus snapped, grabbing his hand and running off with him before any teachers could find what he had done. James just followed Regulus, still trying to wrap his head around what had happened. Before he knew it, Regulus was dragging him into a bathroom halfway across the school. James truthfully didn’t know how long they had been running. It felt like a split second, but looking at how hard Regulus was panting he knew it was longer. “What the fuck were you thinking!? What the fuck was that!?” Regulus yelled, pulling him over to the sink and turning the water on.
“I-I don’t know..” James mumbled softly, watching as Regulus slowly took his hands and carefully ran them under the water to rinse the blood off. That’s when it all hit James like a ton of fucking bricks. His hand ached, his legs and arms felt like jello. His head was pounding and he really could not stop his hands from shaking.
“You could have gotten fucking expelled you know that!? If a teacher had seen or if I didn’t deal with the other two, because god knows Malfoy isn’t going to remember what happened. I had to fucking obliviate the other two to save your arse.” Regulus grumbled and pulled James’ hands out of the water and pulled his wand out. “You have a few broken fingers so..it’s not exactly going to tickle.” He sighed and shot a spell at the older boy’s hand. James groaned in pain as his bones snapped back into place. Everything ached. His arms and his hands felt like they would fall off if he moved them too much. James looked up at Regulus with a frown. Regulus’ face still wasn’t healed. His lip was still busted open and his eye was slowly starting to swell, turning a darker and darker shade of purple and blue. James silently took his own wand out, standing up and carefully took the younger Slytherin’s face in his hands again. Regulus frowned and looked up at James. He wanted to pull away. He wanted to fucking hit James for what just happened, but he didn’t. Deep down he didn’t want to at all. Regulus knew he was a hard person to crack open. He was cold and distant to people on his best days, but James Potter made him feel so warm he thought it might kill him. Besides Sirius, Regulus was never shown any kind of affection growing up. Even then, he didn’t think Sirius holding onto him in a closet to hide from their mother counted as real affection. There was never any real love in their home as children and Regulus tried not to think about how they affected him growing up. He didn’t want to like it. He wanted so badly to hate when James touched him or got too close. But he didn’t. He didn’t hate it one bit. James’ touch was almost intoxicating. Regulus never wanted it to stop. So, he didn’t tell him to stop. He didn’t pull away.
“Let me fix it. Okay?” James mumbled softly, carefully running his thumb over the cut on Regulus’ bottom lip. Regulus just nodded, not able to make any words flow out of his mouth. James tried his best to be as careful as he could be before casting a charm and mending Regulus’ lip. In all honesty, James wasn’t the best at healing charms, but he always tried his best to help Moony out after bad full moons. Regulus winced slightly, trying his best to stay still and not yank away from James’ hand as his lip mended itself back together. James frowned and put his wand down for a second and cupped the other side of the younger boy’s face once again. “I’m sorry.” He sighed. Regulus looked back up at the taller boy and just nodded again. James frowned and pulled Regulus a little closer, giving him a small kiss on the top of his head before he casted another healing charm on his eye. It all happened too fast for Regulus to truly process what happened. James Potter just kissed him on the head, but before he could think about it anymore he felt pain shoot through his eye. He groaned and shut his eyes tight as the swelling went down and the purple and blue faded away. Deep breaths. Regulus let out another groan and kept his eyes shut tight as the pain radiated through his skull. “Fuck, I’m sorry Reg. I’m sorry I'm sorry I'm sorry.” James rushed out, dropping his wand on the floor to pull the other boy into a tight hug. Regulus just stood there for a moment, not moving a single muscle. Nobody had ever really hugged him before. He assumed his mother or father must have when he was little. Even Sirius had only hugged him a handful of times when they were younger, but nobody had ever truly hugged him. He also never let people close enough to even attempt it. But here he was, standing in the bathroom and James Potter was hugging him and it felt good. It felt amazing. Regulus let out a shaky breath against his shoulder before slowly wrapping his arms around James. “I-Is this okay..?” James asked slowly and once again, Regulus only nodded in return. The two stood there in a silent embrace as Regulus tried to wrap his head around the past few minutes. James Potter beat the living shit out of Lucius Malfoy for him. James Potter broke bones in his hand for him. James Potter held his face and healed his wounds. James Potter kissed him on the head and gave him the warmest and most comforting hug in the world and just like that, Regulus Black was hooked. He let his hands hold onto the back of James’ shirt and balled his fists up in the fabric, burying his face deeper into the other boy’s shoulder. Regulus didn’t want anything besides this. Nothing in the world besides James Potter.