#regulus throwing hints and james blanking

[lulublack90]

Prompt 14 - Forest

@jegulus-microfic October 14, Word count 346

Part 1 Part 2 Part 3

“Well?” Regulus said again, his foot tapping on the ground. James tried to struggle against the sticking charm, but it was just as powerful as Sirius’s, and he knew he had zero chance of escape. He screwed his eyes shut and tried to come up with an answer that wouldn’t scare the other boy off. 

“I think you’re fit as fuck, and I want to go out with you!” The words burst loudly through his lips. Where his brain had supplied nothing the other day, today it had gone the opposite direction and spouted out more than he would ever have said if he was in full control of his faculties. Regulus just stared at him in shock. 

“Right,” He finally said, his voice hoarse and high. He cleared his throat and released James from the sticking charm. “Maybe next time, just tell me instead of the creepy stalking shit you’ve been doing,” 

“Sorry,” James said, blushing profusely. “I, er— I had this plan to get you sort of used to me, and then I was going to try and be your friend and…” He cut himself off, not trusting his mouth to say the right things. Regulus rolled his eyes at him and stepped forward, closing the gap between them. 

“Again, you should have asked,” Regulus was trying to tell James something, but James couldn’t figure out what. “Merlin’s sake, Potter, will you ask me out already!” Regulus snapped, exasperated.

“Regulus, would you maybe like to go out sometime?” James asked in disbelief. Regulus narrowed his eyes. 

“Depends on what you have in mind?” 

“Romantic stroll in the forbidden forest?” James offered. He knew about a patch of fairy circles where the fairies were more than happy to dance about for visitors to watch. 

“Fine, but don’t tell my brother,” Regulus glared, and to James’s surprise, he stood up on his tiptoes and pressed a quick kiss to James’s cheek before exiting the classroom. James’s hand came up to cover the cheek Regulus had just kissed. Godric’s sword, he had a date with Regulus Black! 

Part 5

[halothenthehorns]

All in the Family

Chapter 4: Letter's From No One

Frank had been having a bad day before seven people landed on top of him, this just wasn't improving things.

There were several groans and mutters of yet more discomfort, but even more sounds of relief as one by one they all got to their feet and stretched, glancing around wearily at their surroundings, all wands now drawn in the open space of a house they may never have been in, but from description had a fair idea of where they were.

The plush carpet was thick and white, and smelled strongly as if it had just been shampooed, leading the boys to instantly wish their trainers were dirtier. Directly in the next room was a proper looking telly adjacent to a fireplace, the mantel of which did indeed hold numerous pictures of who must be Dudley. Behind them led into the kitchen, almost hard to look at it was gleaming so brightly in a high noon sun, Alice quite positive she may be able to see her reflection in the tiled floor which was beautifully done in various shades of pink perfectly distributed in a diamond pattern, with a mahogany table polished enough to eat off of sat center stage.

The whole place was almost eerily clean, too sterile, like breathing on the wrong thing would spark dust and send someone into a frenzy.

So the first thing James did was go over to the sideboard carefully constructed on the wall in the living room full of glass figurines, picked the nicest china plate he could with petunia's delicately painted on in ornate blue designs, and chucked it through the window that led onto the open lawn in a mockery of a disc throw.

Lily frowned reproachfully at this behaviour, but turned dismissively away as his three friends followed him curiously into the living room and instead addressed Alice and Frank more directly. "Well, I clearly didn't reverse anything, and I do apologize for that."

"I'm hazarding a guess you somehow made it worse," Alice agreed, not exactly trying to be malicious, but considering they weren't even on the school grounds, or in fact had any clue how they'd actually wound up here, she couldn't bring herself to be in much of a gracious mood either.

"Anybody else at all concerned if those Dursleys are around?" Frank asked with a hint of worry, still glancing around as if expecting a bull to charge him any moment. "I'd not particularly like to meet this Vernon." Especially while watching the elder Black transfigure pictures of Dudley into actual baby piglets upon the mantel where they were now squealing in fright.

"Speak for yourself," Lupin said in disgust, prodding his wand against the television with a calculating look in place. There was a fizzle, sparks for a moment, then it was steaming while also flashing upon the screen images ranging from witches on brooms to, well, more adult channels.

Pettigrew was doing something equally noteworthy they were all sure underneath the sofa that he'd wriggled himself under. It was now levitating a few inches off the ground, only his feet sticking out, and they could hear a faint humming noise as he worked.

Lily was continuing to address the other three without acknowledging any of them, without being able to entirely hide a slightly vindictive glint in her eyes with her back to them all. "Listen, this is getting ridiculous. We need to find some way to get help, maybe figure out a way to get to the Ministry and find a way to reverse all of this."

"I've a question," Regulus spoke up. There wasn't a trace of unease in his voice while speaking, but still he seemed to be having trouble really looking at any one person. "Exactly what year is it?" He was looking strategically around the house. "Petunia should still be your age, yes? Which means she shouldn't even be married to this man yet, let alone this house, and, well..." he gestured to everything around them, and Lily's face paled an extra degree, even the Marauders stopped in their tracks as they fully realized this. "I'm honestly rather concerned if anything we know exists right now."

Lily turned on the spot and tried to go to the door without further ado, but like the cupboard before, no amount of magic or brute force was even putting a dent in it. James tried to climb out the window, breaking the rest of it remorselessly so it was much safer to climb through of course, but could not get so much as a finger out the window no matter how many more objects he threw that managed it just fine.

In a last ditch attempt, Peter ran to the back door in an honest panic and wrenched at the sliding glass that he nearly ran into it was so free of streaks, but it too refused them access to the outside world.

Alice kept at the broken window and began shouting out of it for help, but soon realized she could be doing the same until her voice was no more and no one would come.

"What did we do!" Lily shrieked, clutching fistfulls of hair, her green eyes flashing a sickly color and swimming. "Did we actually manage to break the world!"

"Alright, alright, no panicking!" Frank quickly waved for silence, trying to find some control and still going over to Alice, putting a comforting hand on her slightly shaking shoulder and refusing to let his hand join as he spoke. "Something is clearly happening. Now that, that book," he gestured to where it had been left just inside the cupboard in their haste, "clearly has something to do with it all, getting through it is clearly getting us around. So, maybe, if we finish it-"

"We'll get things back to normal," Alice finished for him, her voice far calmer than her small shivers let on.

There was still hesitation and unease for this, as if no one wanted back near the little book now that the full might of its powers was realized.

Yet Remus had one reason in particular he'd like to not be trapped in this cycle for the foreseeable future and would like to have things done, so he found it in himself to be the one to continue this. It wasn't even hard to find his place, the first chunk of pages were completely blank again. The next chapter, Letter's From No One, and the first sentence were the only thing visible in the book.

"Right then," James nodded at him when he got started, all of them with a good idea what the chapter title referred to considering this was from the point of view from a kid raised with Muggles. Wincing at the idea of being trapped in that cupboard for any length of time considering his recent foray in there, and quickly trying to find something else to do, "you do that then. I'm going to keep myself busy."

By this, he clearly meant continue destroying the house around him, possibly even burn it down if he got the chance before he left. He started by joining Peter in the kitchen and having an interesting conversation with him about what a refrigerator was and why it was stocked full of such odd foods.

Regulus could think of nothing to do but follow Sirius as he went tromping up the stairs, and though he loathed every step he had to take in this Muggle dwelling, it was still better than awkwardly standing there by Lupin. The two brothers could still surprisingly hear every word from up here, though unsure if it was magic making this happen or simply how large and open the house felt without seemingly another soul on earth to hear as well.

Sirius continued making plenty of threats against these Muggles as further mistreatment of Harry continued, though just a small pinch of hope did arrive when Harry's Hogwarts letter was finally in his grasp. It didn't matter the fact this kid was still nothing more than a figment in their head, that was Prongs' kid, his nephew he would still consider him no matter his best mates current feelings towards Sirius, and he couldn't imagine taking this lying down if he'd still had breath, so there was as much a purpose to his steps as there was continuing his revenge. If he kept moving, he'd continue to convince himself he wasn't going to drop dead like this future implied.

Regulus wasn't at all invested in this story past the fact it was having the surprising act of putting him and his brother on the same side of something for the first time in over five years. Ever since Sirius had come back from his first year at Hogwarts Regulus had felt like he'd lost his big brother, but finally their feelings on Muggles were once again made clear. If anything this was only reinforcing Regulus' idea of the whole species, and so it was with childish delight he followed Sirius into the master bedroom and at once helped him start dismantling the area.

Alice, Frank, and Lily were vaguely terrified to step foot in the living room, where the piglets had now gotten down and were actually setting off a few traps that for now weren't deadly, but the three people didn't want to know how far it had gone in there. Nor did Lily have any desire to be back within close range of Potter after such forced conditions, so they remained uneasily in the hallway at the bottom of the stairs and watched Lupin restlessly flip through pages, concern growing the more the Dursleys efforts to hide this from Harry became.

Lily couldn't help thinking how could any child be treated like this, let alone her sister's nephew? The two little girls hadn't been close in years now, but even still Lily couldn't imagine for a second being under the condition of taking in Dudley and doing anything like this. Why then did Petunia feel this was okay to be done?

When things escalated in that the Dursleys even left the house and began trying to find places to hide, her confusion only grew.

"Cokeworth?" Lily muttered in surprise, wondering that of all places, why would the Dursleys think they could return to the town she and Petunia had grown up in to escape magic? Had they possibly some naïve idea of evading the owls by being near an old place they'd have once gone? She couldn't help her mind drifting to just one street over from her house, where Spinner's End began, and how she longed for Severus to be here with her now amongst all of these people, most of whom she loathed. The two best friends may have been on uneasy terms lately with all the people he'd been hanging around with, but he was still her friend, and that would have been nice right about now in such a situation, Potter was lucky in that regards at least.

Speaking of, the man seemed done with the kitchen for now, and none of them had the desire to step in there either when a lingering burning smell was left at the twos heels.

Peter continued right up the stairs, but hesitated in surprise and turned back to see James now hovering in front of Evans. He was struggling with words in front of her for the first time in, ever. His flamboyant nature seemed to be failing him, and his friend hadn't a single guess what he was trying to say to the red head.

Finally, he said stiffly, "your sister sucks."

She kept her hands placed defensively on her hips, but gave a single nod.

It was the first time in their history they'd openly agreed on something, and clearly it was all the two could handle in one moment, as James then bolted up the stairs after his mates.

Peter caught sight of flickering lights and immediately went to see what they were up to, but James began curiously trying to get the rest of the doors open. One flat out wouldn't, like those before, it seemed sealed by a magic he had no hope to understand, and he couldn't figure out why until he found what must be Dudley's room that opened just fine. The other then, was likely his second bedroom, or Harry's, depending. Why was it sealed off, he tried to understand while at the same time pacing with fascination in front of numerous posters he had not a clue of understanding and rows of slim cases. He picked one up and found it of a stiff plastic, with odd little titles across that could have been Greek he understood those no better even if the words were English.

He came to a stop in front of a desk that had a shiny box with reflective glass on the front of it. It sort of looked like the device downstairs Remus had set his sights on, but on a smaller scale, with a truly odd rectangle in front of it that had letters randomly spaced and some little device resting on what may be a cushion with two little buttons that did nothing with something even smaller set in between the two buttons that spun and also felt useless. All of this was set next to a giant black box.

Deciding it looked expensive and important, he shoved the whole thing off and watched with satisfaction as it crashed, not needing to know what it was to be sure he'd broken the majority of it. The glass screen had cracked, several of the little letters seemed to have popped out of the rectangle, and the little spinny thing on the small cushion was rolling away, but it was the box that had gotten the worst, having landed first and having the other things smash on top of it. James cocked his head to the side as the inside was exposed and leaned in closer, noticing it was doing the same thing the contraption downstairs had when Remus had used a spell on it. Sparks were coming out, and as he followed a thick cord sticking out the back of it he saw it was connected to something inside the wall. He couldn't pull that out, he decided, it would be more effort than it was worth, so wanting to pull it apart further he stuck his hand inside right next to a bright red wire.

"I can not believe that place is hospitable," Alice shook her head at the description Lupin was providing of such a shack.

Suddenly Remus stiffened and muttered, "the words vanished."

"What?" Frank asked in surprise just as there was a thump from upstairs, like something even heavier landing than whichever person had just broken something.

At first they just went up curiously to see what could have disrupted this, then they heard shouts of panic.

Remus shoved Regulus aside hard, the book smacking him with enough force to leave a bruise as it left his hands, not even registering Regulus made no move to catch it when he only recognized two voices and saw why.

Sirius had at once jumped forward and dragged him to the opposite end of the room, away from the sparking computer, and was now tapping him on the face and shouting his name repeatedly while Peter crouched on his other side and was all but crying, "oh Merlin, is he dead? Did we kill him? Why did no one realize doing this could get us all killed that much earlier! We shouldn't know any of this, and now we're all going to die-"

He was holding James' hand so hard he looked like he was trying to pull it off and hardly released it when Remus tried to get both of them to move. "Shut up, both of you," he hissed, before carefully placing his fingers in his jugular, and waiting one agonizingly long moment before he felt a soft thump that kept his own going.

His breath of relief calmed the two before he had a chance to even say, "he's alive, though that probably won't feel good," he nodded to James' slightly charred index finger. Peter quickly released his hand with an uttered apology and even took a hasty step back like he thought he was only going to make it worse. Remus fixed him and Sirius with a hateful look while hovering next to James' head before anyone else got any bright ideas. "What were you two idiots thinking? Why weren't you keeping an eye on him?"

"What is he, five?" Sirius demanded, fear quickly giving way to defense though his hand lingered on James' sternum. It was the exact same defensive expression Remus had seen of him for the past three weeks. It was, in fact, the exact same reaction he'd had so many nights ago, the day after the full moon when Remus had last confronted him. The tension between the two ramped up so high for a moment another spark nearly set off between them before James moved restlessly and squinted blearily at the pair.

"You two talkin' again?" He muttered disjointedly, moving as if to fix his glasses on his nose before hissing and curling on his side protectively around his hand.

"Sure Prongs, you got it," Sirius said at once, trying to lean over him with concern, but James was already trying to prop himself upright, using his other hand to get himself back into a sitting position.

His friends tried to help at once even as he tried to shrug them off, hampered slightly by the fact his hand was still spasming slightly. Finally he was resting slightly more dignified with his back against the wall and just gazing blearily around, his hand curled protectively against his chest still, and was distantly pleased to see Evans' eyes glued to him, though her pupils were so wide from shock they nearly covered the green, he noted sadly.

Looking for something to make his friends stop watching him like a mewling kitten for a second, he instead directed his hand towards the still sparking box and tried to pleasantly inform, "don't touch that."

Peter gave a wild burst of laughter that still sounded a bit wet while Remus and Sirius exchanged commiserating looks of exasperation that James had missed so much he instantly smiled.

The moment was broken by Regulus calling, "err, Lupin, the words are back." He was nudging the book with his foot, and Remus' face at once settled into that indifferent mask as he pulled away from Sirius and went over to it, snatching it off the floor and trying to continue in the awkward silence.

He nearly got to the end before Sirius took it upon himself to act on the first moment they'd had in nearly a month. He grabbed Remus' sleeve and tried to drag him away, the ones huddled in the doorway moving aside with looks on their faces like they were seeing a ghost for the first time, for whom Sirius didn't care. Remus ignored him, letting himself be dragged along only so he could keep reading, hoping the magic from finishing this would stop Sirius before this could get started, but was distracted by the bathroom door closing and Sirius whispering in genuine horror, "What if we never make up from this fight Moony?" The idea hadn't even occurred to him until this moment, and he was seized with what it would mean for him. "You weren't mentioned by McGonagall there at the beginning! What if we died! We never went and got Harry out of there!"

"I mean, maybe we just-" Remus failed to really get his head around this idea. He kept trying to let his eyes linger on the words instead of Sirius, tried to convince his mind to be more curious what a boom could be doing around Harry, but it was no use. "Like we're equipped to handle a kid!" He grasped on the part he could still make sense of.

"You think Prongs is?" Sirius demanded, an actual smile on his lips even as he pictured it, there was no force to the joke.

Remus opened, and closed his mouth for that one.

"We have to find a way to fix this Remus," Sirius said, grabbing his arm, looking right into his face, determined to stay on track and make him see this. "We can't let Harry grow up, like I did!"

"You're talking nonsense," Remus tried to scoff, tried to push his hand away without looking at him. "The bloody kid's not even born yet, I'm still not really believing Evans actually does fall for James, the idiot." It was hard though, to keep pretending like this was all just some story, when he did take a peek and see how deeply that had hurt Sirius, like he was playing off what had happened to him as well. He struggled to swallow for a moment, speaking of the real matter when whispering, "I don't know how to forgive what you did."

Sirius released him and took a hurried step back, seeming to have forgotten himself for a moment, that he was supposed to be angry with Remus, why he suddenly couldn't even remember. His face closed off, he now had the same cruel twist to his lips Regulus had while speaking of the Muggles while still in the cupboard. "Right, well, that's that then."

He walked back off without another word, leaving Remus more confused and miserable than ever. He didn't have long to dwell on it, as he looked down and read the final lines aloud, even to himself, Harry's final feelings felt all too appropriate. The second he finished, the feeling began again.