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"james, we can't do this here."
~*~*~
"we should do something," said sirius as he sat up in his bed, looking around at the other beds wanting his friends to offer something up, "any ideas?"
"we could eat," offered peter to which sirius glared at him.
"or we could study," offered remus making sirius groan and flop back onto his bed in frustrated defeat.
james remained silent as he looked down at his lap, his hazel eyes looked over the map, following the path of a name with curiosity. he wondered what he was doing out of bed so late, why was he wandering around so late? james didn't bother questioning his motive for looking over this name in particular since sixth year, he just did it out of nature and need, just to see if he was okay after everything that had happened.
"prongs, what do you want to do?" asked sirius, james' eyes shot up and he tapped the map with his wand, hiding the contents.
he felt almost embarrassed and ashamed to be watching regulus' name on the map when he was reminded of sirius' presence, reminded of their friendship. it's not like he was doing something bad or wrong, but when sirius nearly caught him fixating on regulus who had just entered the library made him feel completely out of place and guilty. he felt as though sirius could read his mind and see clear as day what james was thinking about and what he was doing. whatever happened to looking at lily's name on the map?
perhaps he'd stopped because she was his girlfriend now and if there were any problems or concerns, she'd just tell him. also, he didn't really need to check up on her on the map because he was with her a lot of the time. james couldn't contain his happiness with lily, she was everything he'd thought she'd be and better. potter and evans finally together, what could be better?
"erm, dunno," said james, getting up from his bed, ensuring to take the map with him, "but, i've got head boy stuff to do."
"boo!" yelled sirius from his bed with a shake of his head, "you've gotten boring since you got a girlfriend."
ignoring what sirius had said, james left the dorm in pursuit of going to the library. it worried james that regulus was out past curfew, he saw him hovering around the restriction section earlier and he couldn't help but feel concerned, it was in his nature. he kept the map open in front of him and saw regulus was still in the library.
regulus successfully got into the restricted section, it wasn't really that hard, well, for him. he pointed his lit wand at the leather back spines, looking at the different names, some were peeling off and some were so old that regulus couldn't even see what they were. he stopped at one in particular that interested him, just the name in itself interested him secrets of the darkest arts.
regulus reached his free hand forward and pulled it from it's place on the shelf, it's leather black cover was fading miserably, regulus thought it could have medieval origin. he spun around and placed it onto the table and opened it, wondering what was in it, it must be bad if it's in the restricted section. regulus' brows knitted as he read over a certain word that sounded very strange, horcrux. regulus sat down at the table quickly, wishing he'd brought a lantern so he could hold the book in his hands, rather than having to keep it open awkwardly with one hand.
regulus read on, wanting to know more about the fascinating word, it told him in detail how to create such a thing. regulus leaned closer to the book, basically nose to page with it, as he read about the process. a horcrux can only be created after committing murder, the most supreme act of evil. regulus continued to read about it, now he understood why it was in the restricted section. regulus decided upon taking it back to his dorm with him, who'd know? he got up from his seat and headed out of the restricted section, shutting the door behind him and reapplying the lock charm to the door and hurried out of the library.
regulus stayed quiet and alert as he walked through the corridors, not wanting to run into filch or merlin forbid peeves. regulus nearly rounded a corner but halted when he heard footsteps that shuffled over the stone floor. regulus stood where he was and listened closer, he heard snickering and giggling, this was a boy and a girl he heard, no doubt. he stayed hidden, he stood closer to the corner of the wall and craned his neck in concentration to try and decipher who this was.
"james, we can't do this here," said the undeniable voice of lily evans, giggling along with whatever james was doing.
regulus felt like he was drowning when he heard her speaking and when he heard the obvious sound of kissing. he leaned against the wall as his legs felt weaker and gripped his wand and huffed to himself, feeling a surge of anger and disgust. merlin, regulus hated when couples acted like...couples. at that, james and lily were together? since when? regulus racked his brain trying to think of possible times he could've noticed them with couple tendencies but he couldn't think of anything. maybe they were more modest that way, they didn't know he was here so it's not like they were showing any sort of PDA.
regulus screwed up his face in annoyance, knowing he had no other option but to walk past them. he hadn't heard much else aside from those kissing noises that made him feel nauseous and he didn't see them as let's shag in the middle of the corridor type of people. however, he knew james would question him about why he was up and where he was going, like it was any of his business.
regulus walked into the corridor and was thankful they were only standing and talking, rather close to each other's faces which made regulus look away with his nose scrunched up in disgust. james turned his head and saw regulus walking towards them but he was at the other side of the corridor and he was looking straight ahead as if he and lily weren't even there. james looked to lily and regulus, then back again. he felt confused in a way he hadn't ever before.
"alright, reggie? what're you doing up past your bedtime?" asked james, with a grin.
reggie? that's new. no one had called him that before, sirius called him reg, as did summer. perhaps james had picked up on this and wanted a name that only he calls him, which is correct. james had noticed.
"the usual," said regulus, stopping in his tracks, glaring at james and ignoring lily, "i was doing my usual sprints around the castle and then i went to my batcave to work on my plans for world domination and then i worked on my backflip."
"wh -"
"- don't call me that again," said regulus, dropping the sarcasm, "my name is regulus. i know you're an airhead but it can't be that hard to remember."
regulus turned around and walked down the corridor in his usual quick pace, he felt really angry suddenly. as soon as james started talking to him like he always did, it annoyed him that he felt so pissed off and down at the realisation james and lily were together.
regulus just wanted to go to sleep and forget about the whole thing.
