THE SCARS ON MY BODY ● JEGULUS |MARAUDERS|

✹SEVENTY-ONE✹

LONG CHAPTER TODAY...3159 WORDS...DAMN...AND I'M SORRY...NO I'M NOT...LOVE YOU ;)

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✹ Everyone was

empty.

Everyone ✹

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A hospital wing was never a nice place to be. It was plain, empty, busy, bright, dark, loud, quiet and usually rather cold. Cold in multiple ways. Cold temperature, cold emotions, cold tones, cold faces, cold tears. Cold. Very cold.

Regulus' arm wrapped tighter around his body in an attempt to warm himself, failing miserably due to the widely open window. She needed the fresh air and so he ignored his own needs and concentrated on explaining the things they had learnt that day to the girl led before him.

"Aurors are visiting at the end of April to teach 6th and 7th years how to cast a Patronus charm. They usually only teach the 7th years but after the recent attack in London they said they want to teach as many of us as possible." Bailey smiled a weak smile, her eyes barely open.

"That sounds wonderful, Reg. What do you think your Patronus will be?"Her voice was weak, extremely weak, each word causing her noiseless pain that everyone knew she was experiencing but that she would never admit. He smiled a half-smile at her curiosity and rubbed a thumb over the hand which he held in his own.

"Hopefully, not something embarrassing." Though it was barely visible, Bailey rolled her eyes.

"I reckon it'll be a cat, actually." Regulus' eyebrows furrowed and she chuckled.

"Why's that?"

"Don't know," She sneezed and Regulus panicked, grabbing a cloth off of the bedside table. Madam Pomfrey had covered the cloth with some type of remedy which helped her breathe after a painful release of air. He pressed it to her face but she pushed it away, "I'm fine Reg. I promise I'm fine." He did not believe her easy words, yet there was no chance that he was going to argue with her and so he placed the cloth back down and relaxed into his chair.

It was silent for a moment before she spoke again.

"Your Patronus will be a cat because you're judgmental and feisty, yet you have your soft side. The side where you only want cuddles and hugs for days on end. I'm willing to bet that you have nine lives too." He laughed, watching as her face creased up, wanting to laugh as well but not having the energy to do so. "When you leave tonight, would you be able to bring me some paper? Parchment? And a pen. It gets rather boring in here."

He nodded, wordlessly, continuing to rub her hand. He refused to look at her face as she stared at his, seeming to memorise his every feature. "How are you and Potter?"

"Good. Amazing. He's perfect. An idiot, but-"

"He's your idiot." Bailey finished with a small giggle. Regulus shook his head up and down with a smirk on his face. But then his expression fell and he thought about the evening in the Ravenclaw common room. The words they had said. And Bailey noticed, of course, she did, she was Bailey. "What's wrong, Reg?"

"Nothing. Nothing's wrong. What makes you think that?" Then she frowned, her shoulders falling.

"Tell me what's wrong, Sweetheart."

And just by one look in her eyes, her cold, cold eyes, he found the words he had tried so hard to conceal dripping from his lips before he'd even considered not doing so. She seemed to cling to his every remark, her expression matching perfectly with every sentence. She nodded at the perfect times and made an odd comment or two after a particularly tough explanation to make him smile. This was exactly what he had needed and he asked himself why it had taken him so long to tell her.