Paint It... Potter?

No Way Out.

"Oh my god pans, he fucking jumped on me." Regulus said hand running iver his face. He sat on Barty's bed across from her. She snickered at him quietly smiling. He sighed flooping back on his bed dramaticly. "Merlin, what am I going to do?" Regulus asked her

"Well," she told him. "I see two options." She held up two fingers on her hand. " option one, you could set by and watch the show of him pining over Evans." He turned over into his pillow. Which muffled a groan. "Or," she began as his froning continued. "You could give yourself a fighting chance." He sat up glaring at her.

"It's not that simple." He said rolling his eyes.

"Isn't it?" She asked tilting her head to the side.

"Well, for starters my family would never-"

"You arent with them Regulus." She reminded him.

"Metlin, I funking know that." He said rather loudly.

"Oi!" Pandora said snapping at him " Don't take that tone with me."

"I'm Sorry it's just he, and I"

"I know Reg," she said leaning forward patting his knee.

"But you don't. You get xen and your happy little life run away together. And I I don't get that. Happy little endings don't exist for people like me." She pinched the bridge of her nose, her eyes clamped shut.

"Jesus fuck Regulus. Can you get over your melodramatic fucking mood." She rolled her eyes at him as he sat bewildered.

"I'm not in a-"

"You are too!" She said as she stood pacing in the space between the two beds. "Oh poor me, I fancy blokes. I ran away from home. You are not making the best of your situation." She sat back down, this time next to him. "Reg, I love you." He snorted a bit and she pinched his knee. "Oh shut up. I love you and you damn well know it. But you've been going around like the sulky Slytherin prince of darkness. Fucking hell. Reg, you got out." She said as he finally turned to face her

"I don't mean to be I just-" he stopped unable to find the words. He dropped his head slightly.

"I know, and I know it's hard. But you are now in a position some only dream of." He shook his head still having it hung. Regulus stared at his hands. "You got out, and I'm so proud of you. But now you get to live. You can live freely and you aren't." She tapped on his chin lightly causing him to look up at her. "You've been letting yourself wither away when you can finally live, and I'm not going to set back and let you waste this."

"I'm sorry." He sad sorrow was swimming in the gray depths of his eyes. 

"Oh, you don't need to be sorry, you've been so fucking brave reg. So brave and I'm so proud of you."

"Salazar, you're making me sound like a Gryffindor."He sniffed rubbing the corners of his eyes with his jumper.

"You bloody well, could be" She said. He pulled a sour face. And she laughed at him.

"Now you're just flat out insulting me."

"Oh shove off." She told him as she pulled him in for a hug.

The door opened to reveal a Barty and an Evan, both looking tired from presumed hours of NEWT studying in the library.

"Oi!" Barty said near shouting. "No shagging in my bed!" Then he let the door as he stepped into the room. Pandora laughed her beautiful somehow floral like laugh and Regulus fell back into Barry's pillows with a huff.

"Great, now all of Slytherin heard."

"Please," Barty smirked a bit. "It's honestly not the worst they've heard." And he was right. He and Evan had gotten drunk near the start of term and Barty had howled with laughter as Evan told him about a vampire romance novel he had been reading. Barty found this hilarious, and well, it was. But he had also found it humorous to tell everyone about Evans vampire fettish. Evan loomed suddenly pale a the memory.

"Yes, and well I be they think Evan somehow got a vampire to shag," Evan groaned as he threw himself in his own bed.

"I don't want to shag a bloody Vampire." He said with an arm thrown over his face.

"Sure you don't mate." Barty said with suspicion. "Sure you don't." Eavn threw a pillow at him.

He heard whisper around him. Blowing like a leaf in the wind. They wrre everywhere  as Lucius placed his hand on his shoulder it crumbled like, dust. Or like ash, with a sudden burning sensation coursing through him. He was thrown to the floor where a high heel was dug into his back. Pressing into his skin and deeper. He looked up, and glaring down at him was the dark lord, with the eyes of a snake. "Traitor" the whispers now screamed "Traitor! Traitor! Traitor!

He sprung up in his bed. He looked around the room. Evan and Barty were both sleeping. Good. He slid on a pair of shoes. He all but ran the way there, out of breath as he reached the portrait hole.

"Ashwinder." He told the fat lady who sneered at him before reluctantly opening. He dint know where their dorm was, he had only been once so it was pure luck that he had found it on the first try.

He opened the door as quietly as be could Intitally his visit had been to check on his brother. to simply look at him and make sure he was safe, but as the curtains were pulled back that all went to shit. Sirius sat up in bed the moment she curtains and Regulus was frozen in place.

"Can I?" He asked. "Like when we were kids?" Sirius moved the covers back rubbing his face.

"Yeah, no yeah of course." He yawned a bit as Regulus slipped into his bed next to him. He heard a soft sob come from his brother. His baby brother who always sought comfort in him when things were hard. Even in the past years when they were at odds more often than not Regulus would find his way into his older brothers bed.

And Sirius let him. Sirius reached out to hug him as he cried. And Regulus was so small ad so precious and so fragile. Sirius loved him, Sirius loved him so god damn much, and Sirius was there he was there to hold him together.

"I'm trying Sirius." He sobbed out "I'm trying I wanted out. But it's like there still got me." Tears spilled onto his cheeks, hot and angry and terrified." I thought I could, but they still- they still. They won't let go- I can't leave."

"I know Reggie, I know." He pressed his face to Regulus's head just holding him. There was no room for them to have a hold on him because Sirius was there. Sirius was there and Sirius would keep him safe, even if just from his own thought. "I know Reg" he told him again :you did so bloody good"   he let out his own shakey breath "so good" 

"But I'm not, I tried and- and I can't." Regulus sobbed into him again and again and again. And Sirius remained strong. Sirius would always protect him. Forever.

"Shh." Sirius hushed him, pulling him into his lap. He held him there, and Regulus cried. He cried, and he cried until everything was crashing down on him.

He couldn't go back.