Second Chances| A Jegulus fanfic.

Chapter eight

Regulus always found peace in the little things, in the quiet, in the darkness, in the crisp pages of old books.He found it oddly therapeutic to sit in the dark corners of the library and keep to himself. The silence,it's good.Lately that had been hard to do though, it was in a positive way obviously,he loved having Sirius around, so much so that at the moment he was having a terrible time focusing on the page he was reading, wishing that Sirius would leave from his Gryffindor Friday night party and seek regulus out for some more brother one on one time. He enjoyed the talks and the reminiscing on when they were younger, before Sirius up and left him. That part always made Sirius wince, regulus noticed it every time it was brought up. Sirius would apologize for it back to back in a way that simply wasn't Sirius.

And yet it still brought some satisfaction to regulus, he wasn't sure if he should feel guilty about it or not but there was something about the regret in his brothers eyes that made regulus feel 𝘓𝘰𝘷𝘦𝘥. It was sick, he knows that but he feels he's allowed to get a little happy that Sirius got hurt from the mentioning of leaving him alone.

In a way he supposed he had James Potter to thank for him barreling into their brother issues, with all the subtlety of a stampeding hippogriff, mending a relationship that regulus had thought was long gone the moment he was sorted into slytherin; " not reading the same page again and again are you, black? " bartys voice rung out from behind him and he whipped his head around, relaxing his shoulders but not missing the chance to roll his eyes and shut the book. " what does it concern you, barty? Were you looking to reading this book? If so I didn't even know you knew how to read." Regulus shrugged, pulling up his front and resting his chin in his hand, looking up at barty as the he moved to sit on the empty seat across from him. " why do you keep digging yourself a bigger hole, regulus? You know what you're doing could get you in trouble," barty started, a sliver of concern laced in his voice and regulus wished he could say he was surprised but before they were out for each other's necks they were telling each other secrets and sharing friendship bracelets.

Now they just share needles and cocaine off the slytherin table.

" And why do you care? Since when DID you care, barty? You never talk to me unless it's to snort a line or inject poison into our bodies. So please, tell me where you give a shit." Regulus snapped, the stress eating him from the inside out, leg bouncing from the sudden anxiety and he wanted to punch the concerned look off bartys face...but he also wanted to hug him and just ask him what they had become; " I came here to warn you, after black- Sirius, sat in the table, a few of the slytherins had something to say about it and you and I both know who they'd take their concerns to." This made the leg bouncing stop and regulus hiss, knowing exactly who'd they take it to,

That's if they hadn't already owled his mess of parents this already. All regulus could do is play stupid and pretend not to know what Orion was speaking of. " I can handle myself, thank you. If that's all I don't see why you'd stay any longer." Regulus spoke quietly but barty knew better, he knew there was fear spiraling inside regulus but all he could offer was a head nod before pushing himself up and taking one last look at regulus," just...be careful with what you do. Some of us don't want to watch you burn, regulus." With that barty turned around and made his way out of the library, leaving regulus to stare at the front cover of the book he was reading, no longer interested in it, his eyes stung as his breathing got heavy and he shut his eyes tight, his bottom lip trembling from the sudden rush of anxiety he got.

'𝘗𝘭𝘦𝘢𝘴𝘦 𝘰𝘩 𝘱𝘭𝘦𝘢𝘴𝘦 𝘔𝘦𝘳𝘭𝘪𝘯 𝘩𝘢𝘷𝘦 𝘮𝘦𝘳𝘤𝘺, 𝘥𝘰𝘯'𝘵 𝘵𝘢𝘬𝘦 𝘮𝘺 𝘣𝘳𝘰𝘵𝘩𝘦𝘳 𝘢𝘸𝘢𝘺 𝘧𝘳𝘰𝘮 𝘮𝘦.'; Regulus thought as he shakily stood up, swallowing thickly and picking his book up, taking it with him as he walked quickly out the library into the quiet halls of hogwarts, most students were spending their time out in hogsmeade, others having get togethers in their common rooms. That's where Sirius was at the moment, he asked if regulus wanted to come along and regulus had politely declined, not wanting to face the scowls gryffindors had to offer him, a slytherin. That and...Potter would be there, probably calling his brother brother, with his perfect self and his stupid handsome face and his perfect smile and-