A/N: Right, so, part two is finally here. I know, I suck at life. I'm sorry. I'm sure no one even remembers part one. But that's okay. You can reread it. It's short.

Disclaimer: Not mine. Not even little Regulus.

Warning: Still quite SLASHY.

Rating: T – for some non-explicit boy!touching and lots of smoking.

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Part Two: Regulus's Betrayal

When Sirius had cornered him in the library earlier that evening, he had been surprised. Most of the time Sirius pretended that he didn't even have a brother, which suited Regulus just fine. But then suddenly there he was – his big brother, the proud Gryffindor – standing before him, his eyes desperate and begging for his help.

He knew immediately what it must be about, the only thing it could be about. There was only one thing – one person, to be specific – that would make Sirius come to his own brother for help. There was only one person who could make him look so desperate and pathetic.

Regulus knew how his brother felt about Lupin; he'd seen the furtive glances, the almost touches. Truthfully, he didn't think much about it one way or the other. He knew what their mother would say, of course, but as far as he was concerned, nothing Sirius did surprised him anymore. His brother had made a point of turning his back on everything the Blacks considered normal. He prided himself on being the ultimate rebel.

He thought about their conversation as he made his way through the halls towards the Slytherin dungeons. He remembered how Sirius had gone back and forth between threatening and pleading, how he kept running his hand through his hair absentmindedly and clenching his fists without noticing, how the sweat had gathered on his brow, how his lip had trembled slightly whenever he said Remus's name.

He didn't really mind what Sirius had asked him to do, to keep an eye on Snape. Truthfully, Severus had never been his favorite person in the world. But what he'd never understand, he decided, was why Sirius had told the one secret that he usually guarded with his life to the one person who would have the most reason to expose it. Frankly, no matter how he looked at it, it just didn't make any sense.

As he rounded the corner, still shaking his head slightly at his thoughts, he smelled the distinct smell of smoke coming from somewhere up ahead. He moved instinctively towards the smell, more curious than anything else. While they weren't in a high traffic section of the castle, smoking anywhere inside was a rather risky business.

His curiosity turned to bewilderment when he finally reached the source of the smoke and found none other than Remus Lupin himself.

"I can't say I would've expected behavior like this from a Gryffindor prefect," he murmured in greeting, causing Remus to start visibly.

He relaxed slightly when he realized he hadn't just been caught by a professor, and when he replied his voice took on a defiant edge.

"What do you care, Regulus?" he asked sharply.

"I don't," Regulus replied with a shrug, yet he let himself slide down to the stone floor, back to the wall beside Remus.

Remus remained stubbornly quiet, taking a drag of his cigarette and purposely blowing the smoke in Regulus's direction. The message was clear, but Regulus refused to budge.

"Must be pretty hacked off at Sirius, yeah?" he asked conversationally.

Remus sighed, resigning himself to the fact that he had somehow gotten himself involved in this conversation.

"Wouldn't you be?" he returned shortly.

Regulus shrugged again.

"I'm his brother," he said after a moment. "I'm always hacked off at him."

This answer actually managed to surprise a laugh out of Remus.

"Yeah," he conceded, "I know the feeling."

He fumbled with the inside pocket of his robes for a minute before retrieving his pack of cigarettes and holding it out to Regulus. Regulus took it gratefully and lit a cigarette of his own with practiced ease.

He should have know then that something had changed between them.

They never talked about it, but somehow, every night after that they ended up in that same deserted hallway, sharing a pack of cigarettes. Sometimes there was conversation, but mostly it was just smoking and sitting in companionable silence. Neither boy could explain why he kept coming back each night. If asked, Remus would always say something about needing to clear his head. Regulus was never questioned, but he probably would have said something about 'free smokes'.

This went on for three weeks before the real change happened. It was a Thursday night in late April, and on that particular night, as Remus held out the pack of cigarettes to Regulus, he realized that it was empty. For several minutes, he simply stared down into the empty box as if he could will another cigarette into being.

Finally, realizing it was futile, he dropped the box to the ground and fingered the lone cigarette that he held.

"I guess we could share this last one," he offered, his tone suggesting that maybe Regulus could just bugger off and leave him to enjoy the cigarette by himself.

"Sure," Regulus agreed instead, knowing full well that he wasn't wanted.

In fact, every night that he came to this spot, he expected to find it empty. For three weeks now, he had been continually surprised by Remus's presence.

After Remus took the first drag, he dutifully offered it to Regulus, and as he lifted the cigarette to his lips, Regulus found that he could still taste a bit of Remus on the paper. The entire act was strangely intimate somehow.

As he blew the smoke out of his lungs and handed the cigarette back to Remus, he wondered if this was how Sirius and Remus used to act around each other. He found himself wondering if Remus smoked after sex and the thought caused a tight knot to form in his stomach.

It shouldn't have come as a surprise really, when later that night, after the lone cigarette had been reduced to ash, Remus had pushed him up against the wall and kissed him. It wasn't particularly good as first kisses go, more teeth than tongue, but Regulus found it intoxicating nonetheless. There was a kind of ferocity in Remus's kisses that he had never experienced when kissing anyone else.

Something in the back of his mind told him that it wasn't right, that it wasn't really him that Remus wanted to be kissing. He heard his brother's desperate voice from the last time they'd spoken, his voice cracking on Remus's name. He imagined the look on Sirius's face if he could have seen them in such a position.

But then Remus's tongue was in his mouth and it tasted like smoke and chocolate and then there were hands on the zip of his fly and then a mantra of ohgodohgodohgod whispered in his ear and he realized he'd forgotten how to think.

After that night, Remus stopped bringing cigarettes to their nightly meetings, but Regulus didn't stop coming.

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And that's part two. Reviews will totally make my day, as I still have two papers I need to finish by the end of this week. (Ah, the wonders of college life…)

Coming soon… the conclusion – Part Three: Remus's Betrayal