The year after her brother James graduates, Teddy Potter returns to Hogwarts for her final year. With the Marauders gone, it should be a quiet, peaceful year despite the mounting tensions in the world outside of school.
The problem, naturally, lies...
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When she pushes her way into her room, she's half expecting Regulus to either be dead or completely gone. Instead, however, she finds that he hasn't moved at all. His wand is held loosely in his hand, but he's still slumped against the wall as blood from his wounds soak his clothes. When she closes the door behind herself, he weakly raises his head. It takes a moment for his eyes to focus on her, but then he seems to come back to himself and he blinks.
"Sorry," She says a little breathlessly, turning and setting the healing kit on her bed. "My, erm, my mum found me in the kitchen-"
"Yes," He mumbles. "I heard."
That makes her pause for a moment, and her eyes dart towards his wand as she realises that he had been using magic to listen in. She pokes at her cheek with her tongue, trying to figure out whether to be annoyed or not.
"Bit weird, huh?" She says after a moment, deciding to leave the argument for another day. She takes a step towards him and eyes his body up closely. "Come on, you're filthy. Let's get you in the bath."
As she hauls him up to his feet he wobbles and groans throatily in pain, clutching at her arms to keep his balance. Despite his clear discomfort, he leans towards her and rests his forehead on her shoulder as he chuckles through gritted teeth. "Trying to get me naked, Potter?"
"Don't." Teddy's brow furrows into a frown, and she takes a careful step away from him. She's still supporting him upright, but they're no longer so close. Her voice is low but firm, and she hates that she can't quite hide the undercurrent of hurt in her tone. "Don't do that."
"Hm?"
"Don't flirt with me like that. You don't get to do that anymore."
"... Sorry." Regulus mumbles, his expression twisted in a mixture of pain and something else. "Force of habit, pri-" He cuts himself off again, grimacing.
They're both quiet as they slip into the bathroom, and Teddy closes the toilet seat lid before pushing Regulus gently to sit on it. She turns the taps on and begins to fill the tub with hot water, turning her back to allow Regulus the privacy to remove his dirty, bloodied clothes.
Once the tub is full and she's carefully checked the temperature, she turns back to Regulus and promptly freezes. He's stripped down to nothing but his underwear, but that's not what's caught her attention — rather, her eyes are drawn to the deep, jagged wounds that are still oozing blood. There's a deep, ugly gash that travels over his left shoulder down to his pectoral, and a nasty laceration over his stomach. His thigh has also been slashed, but it's difficult to see how bad the wound is through the dirt. Under the blood and filth, she can see the evidence of bruises in varying stages of healing.
"Not very pretty, is it." Regulus says dryly. His eyes are closed and his head is tilted back, as though he can't bear to see her reaction.
Teddy just bites her lip, then reaches out to help him into the tub. He goes easily, doing as she directs without complaint or agrument. Once she has him settled in the water, he leans back and lets out a quiet, groaning sigh. Teddy thanks whatever deity may be listening right now that Regulus has kept his underwear on, because it's difficult enough to keep her attention off his body as it is.
