𝑴𝒊𝒏𝒖𝒕𝒆, regulus black

𝐂𝐡𝐚𝐩𝐭𝐞𝐫 𝟓𝟐: 𝐏𝐨𝐢𝐬𝐨𝐧𝐨𝐮𝐬

＊*•̩̩͙✩•̩̩͙*˚

Rune and Tina had managed to levitate Regulus and get him onto her bed. 

"What the hell happened?!" asked Tina, holding her wand tight in her hands. 

"I- I don't know," panicked Rune. "He just asked me to help him. I—" She pushed her hair out of her face. "He's bleeding. We need to get his shirt off."

A quick severing charm had them cutting through his robes and shirt and just as they were about to peel it away, urgent knocks banged against the door. 

Rune glanced warily at Tina before rushing to the door and opening it just enough to reveal the person on the other side. 

Rabastan stood there, looking disheveled and worried, trembling slightly as he asked, "Is Regulus here?" 

Rune opened her mouth but when no words came out, she settled with nodding. 

"Let me in." 

She turned to gauge Tina's reaction and when she received a nod, she let him in and locked the door behind him. 

Rabastan stilled when he caught sight of Tina standing in the room, but he quickly recovered when his attention landed on Regulus. 

"What in Merlin's name happened?" 

"I was hoping you could tell me that. He just showed up here and asked me to help him," explained Rune. 

She hurried back to Regulus and caught sight of a greyish jet of light hit his left arm from Rabastan's direction and when she turned to him for an explanation, he was too busy examining Regulus to pay her heed. 

Rune quickly peeled away the layers of his clothing and all three of them gasped in shock when they found that the entire stretch of skin running from his neck to his arm was black and his veins were pulsating violently against it. 

The root of his problem was the base where his neck met his shoulder. 

Something black was oozing out of it, mixing with his blood to create a foamy, thick substance. 

"What is that?" demanded Rabastan.

Tina moved to touch it, but Rune quickly hit her hand away. 

So, instead, Tina cast a spell and as a phantom finger touched his bloody foam, it began to shake violently as it disintegrated and rotted. 

"Venom," commented Tina. "From a very deadly serpent." 

Rune's hand flew to her mouth as it finally clicked in her mind. 

She had bitten him. 

Before the end of fifth year, after the quidditch final, they'd been making out, and she bit him. 

He was poisoned. 

With her venom. 

Rune immediately backed away from him. "Oh, he needs to get to St. Mungo's! He needs a healer right now!"  

"No!" affirmed Rabastan. "No. He can't go to St. Mungo's. He'll be fine. I'm sure he's just been triggered by the..." Both Rune and Tina waited for him to finish his sentence, but he didn't. "Look, he can't go to St. Mungo's. Is there a spell or something to get it out?"

"I- I—" Rune stammered, unable to form any intelligible sentences. 

Tina said, "Rune, calm down. If anyone knows spells to save him, it's you. That's probably why he came here." 

"I have a book somewhere about poison." Rune hurried to her bookshelf and crouched down to the floor. She threw several books aside until she found the right one and then she began to hurriedly page through it.