Chapter 4: Just Friends?
Notes:
uh quick warning, Gryffindor guys are gross to Dorcas and Dumbledore is mean to Regulus.
3
Also this is a bit early bc my dad is in the hospital :')
(See the end of the chapter for more notes.)
Chapter Text
Regulus gets back to the common room just as curfew hits. A few of the N.E.W.T students look up when he runs in, but go back to whatever they were doing once they see it's him. Regulus walks up to his dorm as calmly as possible. He needs to freak out with Evan and Barty, but Wilkes will be there, so he'll have to tell them tomorrow. He walks through the door and Barty and Evan immediately get up from the corner of the floor they've filled with notes.
"Reg! Where the hell have you been! Are you okay?" Barty starts prodding at Regulus, looking for any sign of injury, while Evan looks him over with a concerned gaze, they'd both been around when kids started hurling curses at him for not talking, and they knew that he'd rather deal with it himself than go up and deal with Pomfrey. Regulus shakes his head fondly, pushing Barty's hands away, grabbing a small piece of parchment.
'I'm fine, I was stargazing, I'll tell you about it tomorrow.' He handed the note to Barty and moved to his bed. He closed his curtains and fell back onto his bed. He tried to sleep but was too wired from his run with James. God, he was in trouble.
~
Lily wouldn't stop laughing at him. She'd been laughing at him for a full five minutes, slowing down and then looking back to see James' bruised nose and busted glasses and started laughing all over again. He hadn't even said anything yet, he'd just walked in and she'd burst out laughing.
"Thank you for the boost of confidence Evans." James sighed as he fell into the chair next to her. Her head was bowed over the arm of her chair and her hair covered her face, he could only see her shoulders shaking at this point.
"Sorry, sorry," She paused to take a breath, James took his glasses off to look at the damage, which didn't help at all since he could barely see them. "God, James, how'd you manage this." Lily took the glasses from James' hands and cast a quick repareo, fixing the frames. She lent over and put them back onto his face.
"I ran into a wall." James heard Lily break out into another fit of laughter.
"Really? Christ, how'd that happen?" Lily pushed her hair back out of her face, her cheeks were red and it looked like she'd teared up from laughing so hard.
"I got– distracted." He looked away from her face, he could feel his cheeks heating up in embarrassment. Lily started laughing again, so he threw a pillow at her, she caught it and threw it right back at him. Pretty soon they'd created an all-out pillow war, Mary and Sirius had shown up at some point and joined in. It took one of the seventh years blowing up one of the pillows for them to stop, but they still laughed as they headed up to their dorms.
~
Regulus didn't get to freak out with his friends until second period. All his friends met up in the library, Evan and Barty had already spread the word of him coming back to his dorm late and the note he'd given them. Dorcas had been worrying all night until she saw his note, and Pandora had picked up on everyone's odd moods from breakfast. They all stared at him as he scribbled his explanation onto a piece of parchment.
'James Potter asked me to meet him in the library yesterday, and after the whole soulmate thing I tried my best to avoid him and went up to the Astronomy Tower to stargaze and write to Ted, but he found me up there and started talking with me. He even offered me some parchment to write on so we could have an actual conversation the way I do with you guys. Then we started running to make it to curfew. He actually laughed when I wrote jokes, and he told me to call him James. He knew where my star was. I am in so much trouble.' Regulus set his quill down whilst his friends read over what he'd written. Barty finished first, always the fastest reader due to his father's career.
"Bloody hell Reg, you gave us all the scare of our lives over a boy?" Barty shook his head, but he was smiling, he'd been caught trying to get back after curfew more times than anyone could count, except maybe Evan.
"Oh you be quiet, I think it's quite cute. Potter going out of his way to find Regulus and then helping him communicate, it's more than you've ever done." Pandora chastised Barty, poking him in the arm.
"Well your soulmate is definitely doing more than mine, that's for sure," Dorcas grumbled, she'd found her soulmate two years ago, but panicked and never said anything back, she never told them who it was and Barty and Pandora had been slowly going through every soul mark they knew of in Dorcas year, they still hadn't found them.
"Mate, why don't you just tell him? He's obviously not a bad bloke if he's helping you communicate." Evan was always the one to read between the lines, 'James still doesn't know but he's making me like him anyways'.
'No way, if Sirius found out he'd probably go yelling to Mother about it, trying to prove that I'm not perfect either.' Regulus knew that Sirus would never hurt him on purpose, but his brother couldn't keep a secret to save a life.
"I really wish our Headmaster was someone competent." Dorcas had been the first to find out that Dumbledore didn't care for Slytherins, she'd told him some Gryffindor boys were flipping up her skirt, and that one of them had tried to vanish her clothes, Dumbledore had just laughed and told her to wear her outer robes in the summer. She'd been twelve and had been found crying by one of the fifth years at the time, who taught her some spells to stop the vanishing and some nasty hexes to send their way if they tried it again. She'd held a burning hatred for Dumbledore ever since.
'Don't we all.' Regulus had tried to get help with his spellcasting back in first year, but Dumbledore had ignored him and told him "Young boy, we all have adversities to face, I'm certain many of your peers have trouble spellcasting as well." Regulus had gone back to his dorm that night and practised until he could float a stack of books without having to cast.
"Well, you can do what you want, but I think it'd be a good idea to tell him." Barty flicked a wad of paper at Dorcas as he said this, obviously talking to the both of them. She scowled at him and threw the paper back at him. Regulus and Dorcas were the only ones in their little group that had words, so the others always gave them shit for it, it had mostly been towards Dorcas since she knew who her soulmate was, but now Regulus had found his, he could tell they were going to treat him the same.
~
Regulus didn't go back up to the Astronomy Tower for the rest of the week. James wasn't sure if he was just busy studying or if he was avoiding him. But when he saw Regulus' name back at the Astronomy tower on Saturday, James rushed to pack his cloak, a quill and ink pot, some parchment and a jumper into his bag. He ran out of his dorm and received odd looks from his housemates as he ran through the common room, getting a loud "Watch out for walls!" From Lily.
He made it up the tower in five minutes, a new record he's sure, and by the time he was in the doorway, he was panting and sweating. Regulus looked up when he heard James, and raised both his eyebrows in surprise, pulling a piece of parchment out of his bag and scribbling on it. James sat down in the same spot he'd been in on Monday.
'Did you run here?' James was still panting so he only nodded in response, trying to catch his breath.
'May I ask why?' Regulus handed him a metal bottle with water in it, it had a bunch of muggle stickers on them. James was so surprised by the stickers he didn't even read the note from Regulus until he'd gulped down half the bottle.
"You may." Regulus rolled his eyes and started writing again.
'Why did you, James Potter, run to the Astronomy Tower?' James laughed at the note and looked up to see that Regulus had an eyebrow raised and a small smile playing on his lips.
"I, uh, heard that you were up here, I was kinda hoping for a repeat of Monday, but I didn't want you to get in trouble with your parents." Regulus let out a small laugh at this, shaking his head and writing again.
'You could have written a letter?' It's how Sirius and I talk. Regulus watched as James' mouth formed a small 'o' shape with amusement.
"That makes sense, yeah." James rubbed the back of his neck. Regulus laughed and pulled out the back-and-forth letter he'd been using to write to Sirius, showing James.
"Wow, this has been going on for a while huh?" Regulus nodded.
'Since my second year. Ted gave us the idea.' Regulus took a sip from his water bottle.
"Ted? Your cousin Andromeda's husband right?" Regulus nodded.
'Sirius sneaks him and Andi into the house every summer.'
"Sounds like something Padfoot would do." James shook his head fondly.
'Pad foot?' James stopped smiling when he saw what Regulus had written.
Notes:
Silly James :(
Edit: ahh sorry i forgot to add the '' marks around Regulus writing and the title didn't work for some reason :(