StarChaser// Jegulus||✔️

Regulus

TW: Domestic Violence

I'm heading to my first potions session with Slughorn this evening.
For some reason I'm nervous to spend the evening with Lily. I'm not entirely sure if her and James have made up yet, or what has happened between them, all I can think about is last night with James.
He's like an addiction.
I can't stay away from him.
I should feel more guilty about my cheating on Arlo, but he's been pretty distant recently to be honest, I'm not too sure how long we'll last. In all honesty, I think that with everything going on, I shouldn't be tied to anyone, it puts them at risk, and I don't want to be the cause of anyone's danger.
I push my thoughts away as I reach Slughorn's classroom. I walk into the room and Slughorn isn't there yet, but Lily is.
"Hey" I say as I come and take a seat next to her
"Hi" Lily says, she doesn't seem too happy, so I can guess that her and James have not yet made up, but she doesn't seem overly sad so I can't imagine a break up has occurred.
"You okay?" I ask
"Do you actually care?" Lily snaps
"Sorry, I was just trying to be nice" I state
"No, I'm sorry, that wasn't kind of me, I'm fine, thank you, are you okay?" Asks Lily
"Yeah, fine, are you sure you're alright?" I ask
"Look, I'm sure you're nice but we aren't friends, at least not yet, okay so forgive me if I don't want to open up about my life story to you" Lily replies
"Right, noted" I say, my tone clipped.
"Ah, Lily, Regulus!" Slughorn exclaims as he walks into the classroom, causing both Lily and I to swivel around on our seats to face him.
"As I understand it, Dumbledore has asked you both to learn how to brew some specific potions for the impending war effort, am I correct?" Asks Slughorn
"Indeed you are" Lily replies, plastering a smile on her face
"Excellent, right well, I think we should start off with the imperatives. I think the first potion we should learn to brew is the blood replenishing potion, that will most definitely be essential, there will most likely be much blood shed" Slughorn explains "Do either of you know the ingredients required for such a potion?" Asks Slughorn
Lily goes to answer, but I get in there first "powdered root of asphodel, bat spleen, belladonna, bloodroot, dittany and fire seed" I reply
"Excellent, Regulus" Slughorn praises
He walks over to his ingredients storage and opens the doors, taking out of all of the ingredients I had just listed.
"So, I will be giving you each the ingredients and we will be going step by step as to how we brew this potion correctly, I then expect you to make notes in these notebooks" Slughorn explains handing us both black leather-bound notebooks "These will be your potions logs that you will keep on hand for when we need to batch-brew potions when battles happen, hopefully we will have gone over the bulk of it before that happens but war is unpredictable" Slughorn continues.
Lily and I take our places behind separate cauldrons as Slughorn divides up the ingredients, sliding them in our directions before also handing us the tools needed for brewing this potion.
"You want to boil 100 millilitres of water in your cauldron at a medium temperature, and then you want to chop up the asphodel first, add it to the water, crush the bat spleen but add it in in increments, bringing the temperature up slightly, mix in the belladonna slowly, crush the blood root, skin and chop the dittany, add that all in one go and stir and finally crush the fire seed, lower the heat and let it heat through for almost twenty minutes" Slughorn explains.
The both of us follow his instructions.
It takes just over half an hour before the potions were supposed to be finished. Slughorn peers over my shoulder and stirs my potion slightly.
"This is a good start, Regulus, the potion is supposed to be a deep red colour, this is somewhat of a maroon, I would say you didn't quite crush the fire seed enough and you may have mixed in the belladonna too quickly, potion making is a fine art" Slughorn states and I nod, quite happy with the result for my first time making it. After all, blood replenishing potion is supposed to be NEWT level work.
"Lily, this is...not quite right. Your potion is a purple colour, you most likely chopped the bat spleen and added it before the asphodel, which most likely means you crushed the asphodel instead of chopped it, you also haven't lowered the temperature enough, nor have you stirred it at the right pace, I'm afraid this is quite far behind what Regulus has produced" Slughorn says almost disappointedly.
This seems to be Lily's breaking point, she throws her ladle down on the table and storms out. Slughorn watches her leave in utter disbelief.
"Did I do something wrong?" Slughorn asks me when Lily leaves the room. I shake my head "It's not you, Professor, she's just going through it at the moment" I reply "mind if I go after her?" I ask
"Not at all" Slughorn replies
I nod and rush off
"Lily" I call out as she walks up the hall. She stops and turns to look at me "What, Regulus? Come to gloat? Come to rub it in my face?" Asks Lily
"Whoa, what's with the third degree?" I ask
"Fuck, I'm sorry, James won't talk to me, he's mad at me, I slept with Severus, I didn't think it was that big of a deal, I didn't know it would rile him up, I don't get it, I apologised" Lily replies, almost hysterical, she sounds like she's trying to hold back tears and I actually feel bad for her.
"I can tell you what the problem is if you like" I say cautiously
"Has James spoken to you?" Asks Lily
"No, I just know what the issue is" I reply
"I never thought I'd be asking my boyfriend's ex boyfriend to help me with my relationship problems but sure, tell me what it is" Lily states, sounding borderline exhausted
"Snape is probably the only person James actively hates. Snape is the one who outed James to the entire school before he was ready. James had been gearing up the courage to tell his friends for months before Snape had done that, he was so proud of himself, being able to put a label on what he was and say it out loud, he was going to start small, tell his friends then start being open about the relationship him and I had when I was ready too. Snape ripped that away from him, away from all of us. Not to mention he called you a slur in front of the entire student body, that riled him up so much, he was furious. He's despised Snape ever since. Snape is also just a dick, he's always taunting James' friend Remus, always, he picks on Sirius too, he's a bully" I explain
"James bullies him too" Lily points out
"That's another problem. You always defend him, no matter what he does, you always defend him, even if it's against your own boyfriend. James does bully him, you're right and that is wrong, but he does it to defend his friends, his girlfriend, the people he cares about and himself, it's not the right way to go about it, but that's what he does. The point is, all Snape does to James is take, he takes away James' right to tell people about who he is, he tears away at James' and James' friends confidence when he bullies them, he's taking parts of them bit by bit. You know James, you know he's a kind, caring person, he loves everyone, everyone apart from Severus Snape. Snape is the only person James hates, you could have slept with absolutely anyone and James would have been fine with it, but sleeping with Snape is like a knife to the gut" I continue
Lily just stares at me for a moment or two, processing everything I've explained to her
"Shit" She says finally, running a hand through her hair "I need to go and talk to James" she continues
"I think that's a good idea" I reply
"Can I hug you?" She asks and I nod. She walks over to me and engulfs me into a hug "Thank you" she whispers in my ear before she squeezes me, lets me go and walks away.
I head to the dungeons. I think I'll see Arlo, I haven't seen him much recently, I just want to check on him.
When I get to the dungeons, I check my dorm room, sometimes Arlo sits on my bed and waits for me, but he isn't there. I decide then to check his dorm room and if he's not there I'll assume he's gone out for a walk or something and I'll check on him tomorrow.
I knock first but there's no answer. I open the door slowly and no one stops me, but as the door opens I hear some heavy breathing. I open the door fully and when I do I see Arlo straddling some other guy, kissing him, roaming his hands all over the other guys body.
"What the fuck?" I ask, which makes Arlo jump off of the guy and turn to face me
"What are you doing in here?" Asks Arlo
"I knocked. I came to check on you, see if you were okay" I reply
"You didn't seem to care the past few days, I've hardly seen you"
"What? So that gives you a free pass to sit on whoever you like?"
"It made you pay me some attention didn't it?" Asks Arlo
"Hey, you, get out" I say to the guy still sat on Arlo's bed. The guy rushes out looking wildly uncomfortable leaving just me and Arlo
"Why did you make him leave?" Asks Arlo
"Are you mentally deficient?" I ask him
"Don't you dare take that tone with me"
"You aren't my fucking parent I'll speak to you however I see fit"
"You are unbelievable"
"Is that why you were going to fuck whoever that was?"
"Yes, you barely see me anymore, I just wanted you to notice me"
"Cheating is not the answer"
"It worked"
"I slept with James"
In an instant, he has the neck of my shirt clutched in his hands and he's pushed me into the wall "you fucking what?" Asks Arlo
"You want to cheat on me? Well, I may as well confess, I slept with James" I reply
Arlo slaps me.
He actually hits me.
His hand collides with my face and fuck it stings
"Did you just hit me?" I ask
"Wow aren't you observant?" Asks Arlo
"Don't fucking touch me. Get off of me" I shout, shoving him out of the way. He moves to push me against the wall again but I shove him so hard he hits the floor and I rush out of his room, finding it hard to breathe.
I need to see Sirius.
I all but run down to the Common Room and head out of the portrait hall. I continue walking, maybe I'm running, I can't tell.
My head feels like I'm wading through thick water and heavy currents. I can barely form a coherent thoughts, I can barely breathe. I've only ever been hit and threatened like that by my parents.
I continue all the way to Gryffindor Tower and thankfully Sirius is in the Common room.
"Reg, you okay?"
"Sirius, I need you to help" I say
He rushes over to me and lowers me down onto a seat "breathe with me" Sirius coaxes. I try so hard to match his breathing.
"What happened?" Asks Sirius tentatively as he rubs circles around my back
"Arlo hit me" I whisper
"He fucking what?" Sirius asks, his eyes murderous.

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Hello there lovelies!

Okay so...I know some of you love Arlo, but he was never intended to be a "good" character, he was painted that way at first to give you the illusion of him being good, but he is, in fact, bad news, which was supposed to be alluded to in his possessive nature. However, Reg and Lily getting along is kinda cute (maybe?). OMG ALSO!! This fic hit 15k reads which is insane!! Thank you so much for the love and support I love and adore you all!! Anyways, I hope you enjoyed this one! I'll catch you in the next one! Until then, have a great day!

Stay wonderful!

All my everlasting love,
Blue<3