Pretty Boy {Jegulus}

12

Neither Regulus nor Remus said a word to each other about the fact Regulus had fallen asleep on James' shoulder the night before. Regulus was very much ashamed of himself, though, but he had felt so safe with James.

"I'm going to the shop, need anything?" Regulus asked as he got dressed.

"Can you bring me a bag of salt and vinegar crisps?" Remus asked and Regulus nodded. He tied his shoes and flung a tote bag over his shoulder and with that he was on his way. It was a fairly warm day for mid February, but Regulus still wrapped his coat tightly around himself. The store wasn't that far off campus, just a few minutes, but as he was walking, a weird feeling gloomed over Regulus, as if something bad was about to happen. He walked fast, wanting to be back in his room as soon as possible, but it didn't matter. He couldn't outrun faith.

"Revati" a cold voice sounded. Regulus froze on the spot. He would recognize her voice anywhere and cursed himself for even leaving his room. He slowly turned around, trying not to show his fear of her.

"Mother" he said in the same cold tone. The old woman responsible for most of his childhood trauma stood there, next to her car, which she obviously did not drive herself. Kreacher, the only person he had liked at his childhood home, sat behind the steering wheel. Regulus couldn't remember how Kreacher had gotten his nick name, but at this point he had also forgotten the servants real name. Walburga plastered a fake smile on her face.

"My dear Revati, why don't you come over here and give your mother a big old hug" she spoke. The tone of her voice went straight to Regulus' bones and left a shiver down his spine.

"It's Regulus" Regulus corrected her, being smart enough not to walk over to the car. You could never know what Walburga was up to and he wouldn't put it past her to try and shove him into the car as soon as he would come closer.

"Such a shame you are still holding on to that bullshit, dear daughter" Walburga said. Regulus shivered again. He was nauseous and wanted to run away, but it were as if his feet were glued to the ground. All of this felt like a bad nightmare, but the cold wind in his face revealed it was not. He didn't have it in him to correct her again, only bad things would come from it.

"I've tried calling you, but you didn't pick up" his mother said accusatory.

"I changed my phone number, my phone broke" Regulus lied. When he said he ran away, he didn't mean it in the way Sirius ran away. He didn't leave a note saying he wouldn't come back, he didn't take all his things, he didn't cut off everyone in his family. He went to the college his mother picked out for him for half a year, convinced his mother everything was going well, got a new phone, slowly transferred most of his money into a new bank account, made sure to still sometimes use the old one, started making deals with his old and new college and then, finally, after winter break, he managed to transfer, all of this without having contacted his mother for about half a year. Sure, he still legally lived under his parents' roof, but he was still working on that. But somehow Walburga had somehow managed to find out about his little plan. Regulus had been on edge about this ever since the headmistress had called him into her office, but this morning it had just kind of slipped his mind, too occupied with thinking about James and how comfortable they had been yesterday.

"I figured, so I thought, I'd come and visit you, see what you're up too" she said with fake kindness. To any out stander it might have seemed like they were just having a civil conversation, but Regulus was shaking.

"Alright" he said, suspiciously.

"You didn't tell me you switched schools" Walburga said. Regulus frowned, as if this was news to him.

"I thought I sent you a letter" he lied. Walburga raised her eyebrows, not believing a word he said, but didn't say anything about it. She let go of the car door and slowly walked over to him.