𝐌𝐢𝐧𝐞 || 𝐑𝐞𝐠𝐮𝐥𝐮𝐬 𝐁𝐥𝐚𝐜𝐤 𝐱 𝐑𝐞𝐚𝐝𝐞𝐫

Chapter 05

"What the fuck are you doing in here?" Regulus yelled, hastily doing up the buttons on his trousers.

I opened my mouth, but no sound came out. It was like I was frozen, except for my eyes, which roamed Regulus's body, until I realised what I was doing and planted my gaze firmly upon Regulus's face.

"I- um- I needed to... tell you something," I answered, thinking on my feet.

"So you hid in my closet as I undressed?" he asked incredulously.

"No! Well yes, but- I stopped you from undressing fully! Do you think I want to see any of that?" I managed to say, gesturing to Regulus's whole body.

He raised an eyebrow and stared at me, unamused. My gaze, no matter how hard I tried to control it, kept darting down to his naked chest, making it really hard to concentrate on what to say. Why couldn't he just put a damn shirt on?

"What did you want to tell me?" he asked.

I took a deep breath and opened my mouth, spouting the first words that came to mind.

"I don't like you."

Regulus stared at me incredulously. I stared back at him, silently cursing myself for being so stupid. I don't like you? I don't like you? Was that really the best thing I could have come up with?

"Wow, thanks for that shocking confession. I never would have thought-"

"I'm not finished," I interrupted, even though I definitely was. Regulus fell silent and I started speaking again. "I don't like you... but your brother does, and he misses you."

I wasn't sure what made me say it, but it was true. I could see it whenever Regulus's name was mentioned. The pain that would appear in Sirius's eyes. Regulus looked shocked, caught off guard, and he stared at me without really seeing me, his mind whirring. Finally, he spoke.

"He should have thought about that before leaving me," Regulus said calmly, though there was a rawness to his voice that he couldn't disguise.

"He ran away from an abusive home-"

"One he left me in. He didn't even ask if I wanted to go with him. He just left," Regulus said, his voice going bitter at the end of his sentence.

"Would you have left with him if he asked?" I questioned, my voice somewhat gentler than before.

Regulus opened his mouth and then closed it, trying to come up with a response.

"No," he finally said. "For all the talk of Gryffindors being brave, my brother was a coward. He didn't stay, he didn't have the guts to face my parents. I do, and I will be what they want me to be, and I'll make them proud."

He looked me in the eyes, as if daring me to contradict him. I wasn't going to. What he said was wrong; Sirius wasn't a coward for leaving, he was brave, but I knew Regulus wouldn't see it that way, so I didn't bother to correct him. I never tried to think about what Regulus went through in his home; it was always about Sirius. Sure, I knew he went through a lot, and maybe I even pitied him for it a bit, but I never tried to understand what it was like there. I want to now, though.

"What's it like in your home?" I asked quietly.

Regulus was silent, opening his mouth but no sound coming out. Finally, he managed to say something.

"I feel like I'm drowning there," he choked out. "With Sirius there, it wasn't the worst; he usually shielded me from them, but now that he's left it's like all their anger just intensified. I try to be the perfect child, but I always end up making a mistake, and they always hurt me for it."

The confession melted away some of the hatred I felt for him.

"Regulus..." I started.

"You should leave," Regulus said gruffly, as if remembering who he was talking to.

I nodded my head and walked out, but not before I gave Regulus one final glance. As I walked to the Gryffindor Common Room, a part of me wondered if maybe I didn't hate him as much as I thought I did.

. . .

Saturday 20th September, 1976

"Do you know how to spell?"

"As a matter of fact I do Moony."

"Doesn't look like it."

"It really doesn't."

"Oh shut up Potter!"

"Hey!" I said indignantly. "I didn't do anything!"

Sirius groaned, glaring at me.

"Not you! Your brother!"

"So why are you glaring at me?!"

"Because I'm annoyed!"

I sighed and looked back to my essay I was writing for Transfiguration. It was Saturday, and Sirius, Remus, James, Peter, and I were all studying in the library, which only meant one thing. Chaos was about to ensue.

I managed to write a few more sentences before the next disruption occurred, this time from Peter who accidently spilled his ink pot all over all our work. The table was in an uproar as we franticly tried to get rid of the ink. As a result, we were kicked out of the library from being loud, and I was reminded of the detention I needed to be at about 5 minutes ago.

"I'll see you guys later," I muttered, jogging to the classroom in an attempt to not be too late.

I arrived 8 minutes late and opened the door to find bright hot pink hair greeting me. I blinked, taking in my surroundings and realised the hair belonged to none other than Regulus Black. The prank, I remembered, feeling an intense rush of guilt as I thought of the talk we'd had last night. What must he feeling right now, having confided his feelings in me only to then have me turn his hair hot pink?

I walked into the classroom and Regulus turned to look at me, completely calm except for the livid fire that seemed to be raging in his eyes. I looked away ruefully, trying to ignore the guilt milling in my stomach.

Our teacher for today, Professor Slughorn, looked between the two of us, noting our Gryffindor and Slytherin ties, and sighed. It seemed he got quite a few Gryffindor and Slytherins in detention together.

"Well, lets get this over with, shall we?" Professor Slughorn said with a tired smile, gesturing to the two desks in the room. "I'll be having you write lines for today, and by the time I get back I'd like at least 3 pages written."

We sat down in our seats and started doing as he asked silently. After making sure we were actually working, Slughorn unsurprisingly left the classroom. It wouldn't be like him to waste his day on two troubling teenagers.

I looked up at Regulus, unable to get used to the bright pink hair that accompanied him, and felt the need to say something, make up for my mistake.

"Nice hair," I said sheepishly.

He ignored me.

"It really doesn't look that bad," I tried again. "If you wore a fedora, put on a suit, I'm sure you'd look striking."

Still no answer.

"Listen, I'm sorry, I forgot I did it-"

"Why would you be sorry?" Regulus spat, finally looking up at me.

I blinked, startled by his question. I quickly composed myself, clearing my throat, but he continued speaking before I could say anything.

"I don't want you pity," he said. "Blood traitors like you are nothing compared to me, and it would do you good to remember that."

I scoffed, all feelings of remorse forgotten, and just like that, we were back to being enemies.

A/N:

the meme at the start of the chapter is one of my favourites 

remus insulting sirius's spelling while studying >>> and they say romance is dead

regulus confessing he felt like he was drowning at home 😭😭😭 my heart literally broke