THE SCARS ON MY BODY ● JEGULUS |MARAUDERS|

✹EIGHT✹

_____________________

✹Your arms felt 

more like home

 than any house

ever did✹

_____________________

Not much happened from then until the end of Summer. Sirius and James messed around, Regulus yelled at them, James and Regulus read together in the library, Sirius spent his time up in the bedroom with Remus, Remus gave Regulus book recommendations, it was all rather great....Well until the last night of the holidays....

Regulus jumped awake, sweat and tears pouring down his face, his breathing heavy. This wasn't the first time this had happened, it was an often occurrence, but it hadn't happened since he had been living with his parents. His nightmares kind of just....stopped, when he came to the Potter's.

"Reggie! Regulus! Hey, hey, hey! It's okay, I'm here! Just breathe, alright? In 1....2....3....and out 1....2....3...." Regulus couldn't see who was talking to him, not when the tears blurred his vision, but he had good enough reason to believe it was James. "Okay, well done, well done. Again, okay? In 1....2....3 and out 1....2....3..." Regulus did as he was told, breathing in the correct pattern.

It took a good 25 minutes to get his breathing back to normal. James helped him to sit up before running over to his side of the bed and grabbing a glass of water, of which sat on the bedside table.

"I've already had half of it, but I'll get you a fresh glass in a bit." He handed the glass to Reg who attempted to drink it but failed as his hands shook too much. James wrapped his hands over Regulus', keeping them still, and moved the glass up to his lips.

"Thank you." He whispered, leaning his head against the wall behind him.

"Of course. You ready to talk about what happened?" Reg thought carefully for a while. Did he want someone to know about the shit that he went through? No, no he didn't. But did he want James to know about it? Well......yes.

He sighed before nodding his head and shuffling over on the bed to make room for the older boy. James wrapped one arm around Regulus shoulders, rubbing circles into his arm with his thumb.

"Well....I don't know how much Sirius has told you about it so I guess I'll start from the beginning...." And he told him. He told him everything. From the scolding, to the yelling, to the punishments, to the jealously he felt towards his brother's perfect life, to the beatings. Well....almost everything. He might have told him about the way he felt around James, the feeling of protection and happiness he felt around James, the rush of butterflies he got when James touched him, the excitement he felt when James walked into the room. But he could never do that. That was wrong.

James didn't say anything in response at first, he simply led down, pulling Regulus down with him, and held him close to his chest as the two boys fell asleep.

"You're safe now. I'll keep you safe. I promise."

***

The next morning, Sunday the 1st of September 1976, the two boys awoke still wrapped up in each other's arms. Regulus was the first to wake up, blushing intensely when he noticed the position they were in. He tried to get out of the bed but James' arms tightened around his waist, pulling him back down.

"James, we need to get ready, get your bloody hands off of me." James groaned but let go, rolling over, his face stuffed into the pillow.