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VERITASERUM
Chapter 3
"Everybody take your seats," Professor Slughorn ordered as the class filled up with fifth year students. "Now, you may be wondering why there are a couple of seventh years in the class today." He gestured to a group of very bored-looking seventh years, and then continued. "They will be here to speak to you today. To give you an understanding of what NEWT level Potions is like. I will partner each of you with a seventh year, and they will speak to you for the lesson."
"Hey," whispered Barty over Regulus' shoulder. "Ant!"
Antioch peered over at him, raising his eyebrows questioningly. "What?" he mouthed.
"That's the one Reg likes," Barty said, nodding towards Remus, who was standing at the front speaking to James Potter. "The one talking to Potter."
"Oh," Antioch said, examining him. "Not bad," he said, nudging Regulus.
Regulus sighed and grimaced. "I spoke to him this morning," he said quietly to his friends. "He has a girlfriend."
"Aw, that's too bad, mate," Barty said.
"No," Regulus said. "It's fine. I mean, I'll fight for him."
Antioch laughed. "Sorry," he said, biting his lip. "It's just going to take me a while to get used to you being gay... you know..."
"When you three are done with your little chat," Slughorn said loudly. "I will pair you all up."
The three of them quietened down, Regulus glaring at Antioch.
"Lily Evans with Gilderoy Lockhart. James Potter with Xenophilius Lovegood. Severus Snape with Barty Crouch."
Barty threw a look of utter disgust at his friends, as they tried not to laugh. Severus didn't look so pleased himself as he sat down at an empty table waiting for Barty to join him.
"Hey Reg," Antioch whispered. "You might get paired with your boyfriend..."
"He's not my boyfriend," Regulus said, feeling his heart rate pick up at the thought of being paired up with Remus.
"Nicole Waters with Rabastan Lestrange. Let's see," Slughorn said, looking around to see who was left. "Ah, Michael Applebee with Antioch Scabior."
Regulus sat quietly as more and more people got paired up, until finally he heard Professor Slughorn call out Remus' name. Please pick me, he thought. It felt like time had momentarily stopped as he just stared at his teacher, as if trying to telepathically send a message to him.
"Remus Lupin with Regulus Black."
Regulus tried very hard not to smile or show any sign that he was happy. He saw Remus smile at him as he hurried over to sit with him.
"Well hello again," Remus said as Regulus sat down.
"Hi," Regulus replied, feeling as though he should say something else, but there was something getting in the way... maybe nerves? There's nothing to be nervous about, he told himself. It's not like you're brave enough to ask him out anyway.
"So," Remus said, leaning back in his chair. "Anything you want to ask me about NEWT Potions?"
"Um... no, not really."
"Well this is pretty pointless," Remus said.
"Yeah," Regulus replied, trying not to stare at Remus. His eyes were so mesmerising, he was afraid that if he looked, he wouldn't be able to look away. "Uh so... which one is your girlfriend?"
Remus glanced around the room searching for her and then he nodded towards the Ravenclaw girl in his year – Nicole Waters. "That's her. Nikki."
Regulus looked her over, and he instantly disliked her. She wasn't even that pretty, he thought. Remus didn't deserve someone like that... he deserved Regulus. Nicole had long brown hair, that looked very messy – almost as if she hadn't been bothered to brush it. She wasn't even wearing any makeup so her face looked tired and naked. She had a couple of spots, and her eyebrows weren't exactly thin. Regulus also never failed to notice that she wasn't the skinniest person in the world. Her cheeks were quite round, and she certainly filled out those Ravenclaw robes...
He knew he was being very nasty and judgemental, but of course he preferred the idea of himself being with Remus, and not this ugly, plain nerdy girl.
"She's... nice," Regulus lied, smiling at Remus.
"Yeah, we've been together for two and a half years now," Remus said, smiling fondly at her. Then he turned his attention back to Regulus. "So what about you? Do you have a girlfriend?"
Regulus laughed. "No way."
"Why's that funny?" Remus asked.
"Oh, it's just... don't worry."
"Come on," Remus said. "You can tell me."
"No, you'll tell my brother and I can't let him know, so no."
"I wouldn't tell him if you didn't want me to," Remus said. "But that's fine. Of course you don't have to tell me, but just know that I'll listen if you want to speak to me."
"Why are you being so kind to me?" Regulus asked, feeling slightly confused. "I mean, I am a Slytherin after all."
"Yeah, and you're also my best friend's brother," Remus said. "You must be worth talking to if you're related to Sirius. I'm pretty sure you guys aren't as different as you like to make out."
"We're very different," Regulus said, trying not to laugh.
"Give me five differences then," Remus challenged. Regulus raised his eyebrows and nodded.
"Fine. Firstly, he's an idiot and I'm not. Secondly, he's stupid and I'm not. Thirdly, he's a Gryffindor and I'm a Slytherin. Fourthly, I'm going to actually get somewhere in life and he's not. And finally... uh..."
"Half of those aren't true. I mean, he would say the same about you. I doubt that either of you are idiots or stupid, and I bet both of you will get somewhere in life," Remus said. "And you couldn't even think of five."
"I did think of one," Regulus said. "But..."
"But what?"
Regulus sighed. He wasn't sure if it was right to tell Remus, but he figured that he needed to tell him, if he was going to have at least a small chance to be with him.
"Fine," Regulus said. "If I tell you, you mustn't tell anybody."
"I promise I won't."
"Right so, uh... yeah... you know, the thing is... I just kind of, uh so yeah."
Remus stared at him and smiled. "Wanna write it down?"
"Yes!" Regulus said, blushing. He hadn't felt so nervous before in his life – he almost felt sick. Remus handed him a piece of parchment and a quill, and Regulus started writing:
'I'm gay.'
When he wrote it down, it sounded stupid. He quickly scratched it out and started to write again:
'I like boys.'
No way he could write that! He quickly scratched it out again and he could feel the nerves building up.
'I think there could be a possibility that maybe I might kind of like boys.'
He screwed up the piece of parchment and stuffed it in his bag, and pulled a leaf out of one of his books.
'I think I might be gay.'
"I won't let you scratch it out this time," Remus said, before he could do anything. Remus extended his arm out and reached for the parchment.
Regulus grabbed it. "No," he said. "I can't let you read it."
"You'll feel better once it's out in the open," Remus said, not pulling his hand back.
Just as Regulus was about to hand it to Remus, it was yanked out of his hand by someone behind him. He turned around in horror, to see Severus Snape standing there with the note in his hand. He felt like his life was seconds away from being shattered into tiny pieces as he grabbed to try and take it back.
"Please," Regulus said, hoping desperately that Severus wouldn't read it.
"I don't think so," Severus said, opening the note. "After what you said to me this morning."
"Think about what you're doing," Remus said suddenly. "If you read that note-"
"-What?" Severus said, laughing. "There are no consequences for me."
"GIVE IT BACK," Regulus yelled, making the whole class stop and watch. Severus smirked and brought it up to his face as Regulus made a swipe at it.
Regulus could see Severus' eyes scanning the words and he felt like his heart had completely stopped as he waited for the reaction.
Severus just let out a loud nasty laugh, and everyone stared at him in confusion – they had no idea what was going on.
Regulus suddenly felt like his nerves and nausea were getting too much as the room started spinning round and round and his vision burred over with black blotches.
I'm going to faint, was his last thought before everything went black.
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