Paint It... Potter?

matchmaker.

It was a week before the holiday break. It was gnawing at Regulus. He couldn't bear to see his family he was in danger.

His mother would be sure to dig through his thoughts, and Regulus couldn't seem to get James Potter out of them. It was bad.

And that was combining with the holidays to make regulus a ball of pure anxiety. Salazar help whoever got in his way.

He had been sparking with magic all week. Barty unfortunately knew all about this, as he was now sporting the tiniest of burn scars down his left arm.

That wasn't his fault. Really, it may sound hard to believe, but it was entirely Barty to blame.
Regulus had been trying to distract himself from his family by studying. He spent long hours in the library, often being kicked out at curfew by madam pince.

Sirius seemed to be struck with his own for of mania comping to the holidays. Although, his manifested in a completely different way.

Sirius was the self-proclaimed "matchmaker" of hogwarts. It was bloody awful.

Sirius had set up mistletoe throughout the school, Dumbledore hadn't caught on for three days, in which students and a very confused Professor Sprout were stuck under the mistletoe.

They would release after you and kissed the other person. Regulus had found that out the hard way when he fou d himself stuck under one with barty in the library.

Barty said fuck this and grabbed regulus by the face. Kissing Barty was surprisingly not bad. other than it being his best mate. They broke apart quickly. Regulus red faced, and breathing heavily. He wiped at his mouth.

"Oh, come off it." Barty rolled his eyes. " I just made your week."

"Hardly Regulus mumbled, looking down. He was already pissed off. And Barty kept pushing it.

"Come on, rate me one to ten."Barty said, catching up to his friend.

"So bad that I'd give you a zero, but I can't. So I give you a one." Regulus said dead faced.

"Oh, come on, I can't be any worse than potter." And dust then, at the mention of the name sparks flew of the ends of Regulus's hair. The just happened to be close enough to Bartys sleve to catch.
It was quite funny to watch barty dancing around flapping his arm around. He seemed to forget he was a wizard and could quite litterally put tit out with the snap of his fingers.

Luckily for him, a rather unimpressed McGonagall had rounded the corner to save him from Regulus's sudden burst of accidental magic. She seemed to want. Him to learn the hard way. Or maybe she just wanted a laugh. Because she blasted him with an aguamenti be stood looking like a wet dog in the middle of the hall.

He had insisted that he didn't want to use ditany for tetheurn. He wanted the scar. Bloody mad he was. But then again, Regulus was, too. They made a great pair.

Since the night regulus had walked him to the tower, James had thrown himself into his marauder identity.

Fireworks and dungbombs had been set off in every room of the castle. The Slytherins woke to find their beds covered in red and gold glitter. At breakfast, the same morning, all of the cups were charmed to empty as soon as anybody tried to drink.

On one particularly cruel night, all of the beds in Slytherin liquefied and exploded with a sticky green liquid. They slept in the great hall that night.

Regulus was dreading his return home. He found himself coining the hours, only twelve more. Regulus sat in bed u, able to sleep. His nails had been bitten down, and he knew he would be maimed for it by his mother.

11 hours.

Surely, he  would fall asleep. If he sat there and focused on nothing else, it would happen.

10 hours.

It would not happen. Regulus got up for a walk. He walked down the corridor. It was oddly cold even for a Scottish winter. He decided he had gone far enough for the night and turned heel to hopefully sleep.

9 hours.

Regulus was finally asleep.

He woke that morning to find the dorm extraordinarily cold. Frost covered his window to the lake.

He cast a quick warming charm,

"Thank merlin, why didn't I think of that ?" Barty said, casting his own charm."Guess winter really came in, yeah, " he slipped on his shoes.

"Yeah, I guess it did." They exited the common room together to head to breakfast, thefloors were covered in a thin layer of slick ice

you could see it even before you go there, a mountain of whit falling out of the great hall. The school was covered in snow.

"Merlin Reg, who did all of this?" Barty stood looking down the adjoining hall, which was also covered in snow.

Regulus knew exactly who did it. Sirius was sliding around the ice holding hands with Lupin while James threw snowballs at them. Peter was attempting to ice skate but ended himself in a snow bank.

He watched as the three friends laughed before James and Sirius each grabbed one of his arms and pulled him out of the snow dusting off his shoulders,  lupin placing his hat Bach on his head.

Professor Dumbledore sat back, smiling at the sight. It continued for a while before Dumbledore vanished so the breakfast could start. Regulus couldn't eat.

He spent the train ride pulling himself together. Before finding Sirius so they could check each other.

Sirius was sitting with his usual friends. Regulus stepped into their compartment, making Pettigrew jump lupin and was asleep  his head resting on Sirius's shoulder.  James looked up from the parchment he was scribbling on. Glasses sliding down his face.

Regulus snapped himself out of it, shaking his head.

"Presentable?" He asked, standing tall for Sirius's inspection. His face cold and expressionless. Sirius stood looking at him, Regulus stood unyielding under his gaze. Sirius reached and pushed a piece of hair behind his ear.

"Yeah, you're good. Me?" Regulus watched as the same stoney expression appeared on Sirius's face as well.

"Fine,might want to lose the Gryffindor, though." Regulus said point to his sweater with the Gryffindor emblem over the heart.

"Not a chance," Sirius laughed as the train screeched into station.

Two weeks.  That's all two weeks, and then he'd be safe again. But as he stepped off of the train, he knew he was screwed.

His mother stood on the platform. She looked absolutely livid.