[ON HIATUS] Carpe Noctem | Jegulus

|32| The emperor II

Wednesday 25th January 1978

"Are you okay?"

Regulus watched James as he rested his chin on his arm and traced circles on the skin of his stomach. "Dizzy," he replied, closing his eyes and sighing, "I'm still a bit dizzy."

James nodded. Regulus's stomach muscles rose and fell with his soft breaths, and under his fingertips, James could feel Regulus' muscles contract when he touched a sensitive part of him. "Don't scare me like that again," James warned.

"You've never seen anyone throwing up?"

"Yes," he admitted, in a soft tone, "But never hours after nearly bleeding out. I thought you were going to pass out."

"I'm fine James," Regulus sighed, "I think I'm allergic to liquid gold."

James felt a feeling of guilt wash over him, "I'm sure if you had been attended Pomfrey, you wouldn't feel so sick now," he stated, "I'm so sorry. It's my fault you're like this."

Regulus shook his head; He didn't have enough strength to lift his neck, but he stroked James's hair gently with his hand so that at least he knew he wasn't mad at him. "No, it's better this way," he assured, feeling James lean his head toward him to sink deeper into the brush of his fingers. "My brother was right; it would have been a problem if Pomfrey sent a letter to my parents."

James pursed his lips, "Yeah, good thing Sirius was there to save the day," he said with a resentful tone. Regulus chuckled with a sigh.

"I can't get that thing out of my head," he admitted, a bit out of the blue, and James turned his head to stare at him.

"What thing?"

"That monster," he clarified grimly, "I think I've seen it somewhere. Maybe in a book, or in a dream. What's a creature like that doing prowling around Hogwarts?"

James shrugged uncomfortably, "Maybe it was a wild animal that escaped from the forest," he tried to lie.

Regulus shook his head, finally opening his eyes and staring at the ceiling of James's bed. "Do you think it's possible that some student put it in there?" James felt an uneasy feeling building up in his stomach.; when he was about to answer a little credible lie, Regulus spoke, "No, that's not possible, what student could control such a thing?"

James stared at Regulus with his mouth open; he wasn't looking at James and was speaking in a tone of voice too low for it to be a conversation. James realized that Regulus had begun to rant with himself, hardly paying attention to him.

"Maybe an Imperius? Those don't work on beasts though ..." He took a deep breath and frowned in the way he always did when he was thinking of something important. "What if it was a hybrid? But which one? A werewolf? An Animagus? A Chimera?" Regulus rolled his eyes at his own idea as if he had just said something extremely stupid. "Oh yes, of course, a fucking Chimera in Scotland. And the minister of magic is Bellerophon now." He shook his head as if to clear his thoughts of stupid ideas. "And how is it possible that no other student has seen it until now? And why did Sn- Did he even know that thing was there?" Regulus chewed on his lip. "I wouldn't bet my life on the kindness of his heart, but ... Why would he want to hurt me?"

"Who would want to hurt you?"

Regulus shot James a sideways glance as if he had just remembered he was there. "Nobody," he replied dryly, "No... Nobody, forget it, I'm just thinking."

James nodded, not really convinced, "If something worries you, you can tell me about it, you know that, right?" Regulus nodded, "Good," James sighed, "Don't forget that."