Note: This was written for Hogwarts School of Witchcraft & Wizardry (Challenges & Assignments), where I am in Slytherin. Prompts are listed at the end.
Warning: Infidelity and age gap. Both are legal adults by canon standards (17+), and there is no sexual content, but there are still some questionable power dynamics that make it dubious. Not my usual cup of tea, but giving it a try!
Pressed Between Pages
It started the summer of his seventeenth birthday—breath on the back of his neck and the subtle creak of weight leaned onto the back of his chair.
"Did I have something on my face?"
Regulus had felt his cheeks flush, then, not quite able to look up from his book and the accompanying parchment full of his scribbled notes. No blemish had marred Rodolphus's face that day, though Regulus had not spared an opportunity to glance over at the smooth, square-cut jaw and look of apparent concentration on Rodolphus's face as he worked in the library where Regulus and Bellatrix had been training. She had told her husband to leave if he wasn't going to help (yet Bella did not want or need anyone to intervene, making her remark rather more pointed); but the man remained squarely in place. Truthfully, Regulus thought that text-related study was a more reasonable thing to do in the library than practicing curses, but it was one of the largest rooms in the Lestrange Manor, so he could not fully argue against the logic. Clearing a space in the dining hall would have been better, but his cousin and her husband seemed to be fighting today, so she might have chosen the library on purpose.
Bella had assigned a text on occlumency, following their lesson, but Regulus would have enjoyed reading it, even without the command. Upon her departure, he had settled in the back corner of the library, left to sweep his eyes diligently across each page—prior to the interruption. Concentration was difficult with Rodolphus hovering.
"No," Regulus had answered with a patter in his chest. "I was merely curious what you were working on." A half truth: Part curiosity, and part distraction with the handsome cut of his jaw, but the second part did not feel important.
Rodolphus had asked Regulus if he would like to see, but the materials were no longer in the large, open area of the library, moved instead to a nook more suited to study. The subject matter appeared to be curses that day, the kind that made Regulus's stomach drop, but his stomach had flipped in a different way when he felt the shivery sensation of a hand tracing the curve of his back.
Regulus had not meant to look up until the flush had cooled on his face, but their eyes had met with the flicking force of a magnet, seizing the breath in his chest. Rodolphus had kissed him, that day, pressed firm into a bookcase with fingers that sent jolts of lighting with each press and grasp. Regulus wondered if it was because Rodolphus and Bella were fighting, but even with guilt burning in his stomach, Regulus kissed him back.
Throughout the remainder of the summer, Regulus had kissed him back several times—in quiet spaces, hidden spaces, always when Bella was gone. Months had passed, and the winter holidays had brought with them the tingling ghost of a summer tryst. Tonight, they were at the Malfoys' winter gala at the manor, and Bella wasn't gone at all. Rodolphus had been watching him from beneath the rim of his hat, as if waiting for a diversion that would never come; yet when at last Rodolphus tugged him away from the throngs, the crushing guilt could not compete with his relief when the murmurous rumble of the party had faded completely.
There were several lightly used rooms off-shooting from the hallway. Regulus thought it would be smarter to find a place that had something (anything) they could pretend to be retrieving, were they to be caught, but when Rodolphus pressed him against the closed door, that thought jarred loose.
"I don't know that we should—the party—" Regulus started to say as Rodolphus nipped at his ear, catching the words in his throat.
"Would you rather be there?"
Regulus was having a difficult time with words while there was a mouth on his throat and a hand slipping beneath his robes, but that was probably the point.
"Mm...but Bell—" This time, he was cut off by Rodolphus's mouth colliding with his, taking his lip between teeth in another little nip before speaking:
"Don't worry about Bellatrix. Just trust me."
Just trust me. Regulus hated how comforting the sentiment sounded to his ears, and he wished he could believe the recent attention was entirely sincere, rather than the function of today's frustration between Rodolphus and Bella. He wished he had the nerve to say as much, or at least the callousness to stop feeling so suffocatingly guilty at how wonderful Rodolphus's hands always felt. So often, Regulus felt angry—empty—lonely—crowded—inadequate—vaunted—but for a moment, he just felt.
When Rodolphus pulled away, Regulus's body was buzzing—his head was buzzing—and he summoned every scrap of focus he possessed at the moment to try to look nonchalant as they slipped back out into the hallway. Rodolphus looked more dignified than any grown adult probably should after snogging in what was little more than an overly large, empty closet, for all intents and purposes. Regulus had always thought the idea of broom closets was embarrassing, though he knew it was supposed to be exhilarating, fun, like some stupid mark of reckless youth.
This—whatever it was—felt a little bit darker. Rodolphus was probably using him, but perhaps, to some degree, the gaping hole in his own chest was using Rodolphus a little bit, too.
Additional Author's Notes
Applicable Hogwarts Prompts:
Slash September - Rodolphus (Rodolphus/Regulus)
Insane House Challenge - 426. (word) Murmurous
365 Day Challenge - 190. (location) Malfoy Manor
Chocolate Frog Cards, Beasts, Porlock - Write about someone not trusting someone else
Fortnightly Challenges, Feline Fair, Russian Blue - 16. Write about a sensitive person
Writing Club, Character Appreciation, Hermione - 3. item) Book
Writing Club, Disney Challenge, Jungle Book, Songs, "Trust in Me" - S3. (dialogue) "Just trust me."
Writing Club, Dark Lady's Diabolical Lair - 4. Parchment
Writing Club, Book Club, "Release," The Faun - (plot point) following someone, (emotion) worried, (word) intervene
Writing Club, Showtime, Phantom of the Opera, The Music of the Night - 5. (word) Sensation
Writing Club, Amber's Attic - 9. "I held you the way a boat holds water. I always felt us sinking."
Writing Club, Count Your Buttons, Words - 3. (word) Diversion
Writing Club, Lyric Alley, "First" - 3. You play the game, though it's unfair
Writing Club, Ami's Audio Admirations, No Sleep Podcast, Home Alone - 13. (setting) At night
Writing Club, Sophie's Shelf, MWPP Slash - 34. Regulus/Rodolphus
Writing Club, Angel's Arcade, Sonic, Vector the Crocodile - 11. (color) green, (house) Slytherin, (trait) confident, (object) hat
Summer Seasonal Challenges, Days of the Year, Book Lover's Day - Write about a bookworm
Summer Seasonal Challenges, Fire Element - (quote) "If it doesn't burn a little, then what's the point in playing with fire?" - Bridgett Devoue
Summer Seasonal Challenges, Shay's Musical Challenge, The Lion King - Write about someone feeling guilty
Word Count: 902
