Smile When You Dive In

Chapter 37

The morning after he received the mark, Regulus woke with an ache in his arm that was debilitating for several seconds. It was red and warm to the touch, and he worried that something had gone wrong with Voldemort's magic. He was torn between hunting down Snape to see if the same thing had happened to him, and writing a hasty letter to the Dark Lord to ensure everything was as it should have been. As it was, Carmen was waiting for him when he left the dorm and so he didn't get the chance to do either, and resolved to ignore the pain. Regulus always wore long sleeves, and yet he found himself self-consciously pulling them down over his hands every few minutes, looking about furtively to be sure nobody had seen anything. The Dark Lord had been clear that Regulus had to keep the mark a secret, at least until he left Hogwarts and the change they were so carefully crafting had come to fruition.

As the morning wore on, his arm became more and more painful. He thought about attempting a simple healing spell on it, but had never been much good at them. They were tricky, because in order to practice, he needed somebody with an injury to practice on, and he wasn't the kind of student that would lurk around the infirmary with Madam Pomfrey. Some of the girls were like that, the ones that wanted to be healers and the like when they left school. Willa had considered it during their fifth year, but didn't much like the sight of blood. He could have asked her to take a look, he supposed, but that would be letting her in on the secret, and then Carmen would know, and he didn't know how he felt about that yet.

If his newest secret wasn't a concern and it was any other injury, Regulus knew who he'd have gone to, second after Madam Pomfrey herself. After hanging about with a werewolf for so long, it was only natural that Lupin's friends would master a few rudimentary healing spells and potions for when the moons were particularly bad. James had even tried out one or two on him the previous year, when they'd been spending every free moment together and Regulus had been his most willing subject.

"What'd you do to your arm, Reg?" James had asked him, reaching out to inspect the cut more closely.

"Nothing, just caught it in practice." It had been the truth. Back then, Regulus hadn't found himself lying quite as often as he did now. James ran his fingers along Regulus' elbow where the skin was red and raw.

"Does it hurt?" James asked, careful not to press on too hard. They were in the cellar of Honeydukes but it was still sort of early, and if Regulus began yelping in pain, Mr. Flume would be down like a shot and they'd have to find somewhere else to spend all of their time together.

"A bit." He answered, and then James grinned. "You know, most people would look less pleased that somebody they liked was hurt." To this, James just laughed, low so that he was still quiet enough to evade the shopkeeper above, and shook his head.

"Sorry. I'm not pleased that you're hurt. But I've been waiting weeks to try this out on somebody, and now I've got the chance." He guided Regulus to sit, then crouched in front of him. His fingers were gentle as he turned Regulus' arm in his hand, getting a better look at the gash he'd gotten from a loose nail on the stands. Regulus hadn't bothered to go to Madam Pomfrey for it, because it was so early in the game and had mostly stopped hurting by the time he landed. It was only when James pulled out his wand that Regulus thought to question it, dragging his eyes away from his not-quite-boyfriend's knitted brows and thick lashes.

"Is it going to hurt?"

"Doubt it." James shook his head. When he saw the look on Regulus' face, he amended. "I've never tried it on a person before, but Pete never mentioned it hurting when he was a rat."

"I'm not sure I want to be your experiment." Regulus complained, but never retracted his arm. James looked him in the eye and waited for him to roll his eyes and then nod in defeat before he started. It was only a small healing spell, he told him. Just something to tide them over in a pinch. At that point, Regulus still worried a lot about the full moons. He thought it was too reckless to be running about with Lupin in wolf form, and thought that they ought to leave all of the healing spells to the professionals. But just as he had let Sirius try out spells on him when he was younger, he sat still and watched as James carefully healed the cut, redness fading along with the pain until all that remained was the expanse of pale skin and James' warm fingers.