Mixed Tape: Regulus' Story

Chapter 5: You're So Vain

It turned out it wasn't the last time I spoke with James Fucking Potter.

You see, one important thing to know about James, perhaps the most important thing to know, is that he's terrible at letting things go. People. Places. Items. You name it. He's the sort of person that keeps a box of things in his room filled with old train tickets, amusement park bracelets, birthday cards... everything, as if having things will make the memories stick longer.

And he couldn't let me go either.

"Hey," he said as he stepped up beside me after my quidditch practice. It was the first time he'd talked to me since my... drunkenness. "How are you?"

"What do you want?" I gritted out to cover the fluttering of my heart. He was talking to me? He thought I mattered enough to talk to?

"Do I need an excuse to talk to you?"

"Yes. And I'm assuming you have something to tell me but we can't be seen with each other."

"Right. That would be very bad for your image." He thought about that for a moment before adding, "Well, then I'll see you after the match on Saturday."

And he left down a side corridor to do whatever it is that the most popular boy in school does in his free time. Maybe he just sits in Gryffindor Tower and smiles at everyone.

And I just stood there dumbfounded, watching him go with his saunter and his curls and his- his everything. He hadn't given me a time or a place, just a day that would refuse to leave my mind until it arrived.

Unfortunately, the world decided that I needed something else to think about and threw a new challenge at me: what happens when family duties become real?

Up until this point, my duties as a rising Death Eater had just been to demonstrate my faith and belief through my appearances and words, but then I received a letter from Lucius.

Edge of the Forbidden Forest behind the hut tonight.

Sincerely,

Lucius

To be quite honest, I wasn't completely sure if I wanted to show. I was just a student and while I wanted to be a Death Eater and have everything that came with it, I worried that he'd come with something I wouldn't be able to rid myself of. He'd been the one to lock Sirius in the basement. It was his fault that Sirius had scars now. Was I meant to forgive him? And what if he tried to do the same to me?

The thought of permanency irked me. What if I changed my mind? What if-

No. There would be no changing anything. I was committed to the Dark Lord. I had to be.

And with the thought of Lucius locking my brother in the basement of Malfoy Manor on my mind, I stomped out across the field after supper and towards the edge of the Forbidden Forest.

Truth be told, I'd never been in the Forbidden Forest—it was forbidden after all—but my mind was so filled with frustration and the ever-bubbling anxiety growing in my stomach, that I hardly even cared. And Lucius wasn't difficult to spot either, his white-blonde hair made sure of it.

I stopped in front of him with my arms crossed.

He only looked down his long nose at me like he always did. "Regulus."

"Lucius," I responded.

"You've grown."

"People tend to do that."

And then I was following him through the trees into the darkness with nothing but our wands to light the way. Shadows shifted between the bushes, eyes watched us from behind branches.