The Marauders Year Five Part 2 #Wattys2017

I'm A Stud Muffin!

I'm A Stud Muffin!

Regulus Black lay beneath the covers of his bed, the duvet pulled tight over his head, keeping in the wandlight so it would not disturb the other third year Slytherin boys as he read a book he had gotten in the library. "Siphoning charm," he whispered, reading the page. He aimed his wand, "Tergeo." A frown covered his face and he turned back to the book, "No good..." He turned the page and looked over the information there and sighed. Nothing was helping.

Over the past two months - ever since the Dark Mark had mysteriously appeared on his wrist in ways he could not explain (he could not recall even leaving the grounds of Hogwarts at any time to have received it) - he had been trying to find a way to explain it, or else, to remove it. He'd studied memory charms and read articles with titles like So You Think Your Memory's Been Modified, and Pensive about Pensieves? and Finding Out What You Can't Remember: A Forgetful Wizard's Guide to Memory Modification And Retrieval and tried everything from siphoning charms to erasing charms to even a spell that he'd found in an advanced healing text on graphing skin particles that he'd tried that had left a terrible welt that had scarred into a funny pale oblong bubble in his skin just below the mark - but not actually affected the mark itself.

It had burned like hell, too.

Regulus closed the book and shoved it out from under the covers and heard it fall with a thump to the floor. "Nox," he whispered, extinguishing the light, not wanting to even look at the mark anymore. He wanted to sleep, but he couldn't. Every time he closed his eyes one of two things would appear in the dreams he had - either the mark, going from it's normal black to the brilliant bright red that it would turn when Voldemort called his death eaters to him, with an intense burning heat that seared his veins like boiling water - or else Maryrose, kissing James Potter.

Both were torture.

He stared into the dark, eyes wide open, clutching to the medallion that Maryrose had given him at Christmas, his fingers tight around it. She'd returned it to him when she had come back from Number 12 Grimmauld Place with James Potter. He hated himself for letting James be the one to go with her, for not going along and saving her himself. He wished so very much that he had been the one. If it had, it would be him, Regulus, kissing Maryrose in the Great Hall instead of James Potter.

Of course, she would have broken up with him anyway when she found the mark.

He pulled his arm closer to his chest.

"Father no..." Barty Crouch Jr. was whimpering in his sleep again. He'd taken to doing this ever since coming back from holiday. Regulus didn't know what happened while they were gone, but whatever it was haunted Barty in the night in his dreams. The boy writhed in his bed, his breathing painted and raspy as he whimpered pitifully, "Please," he murmured.

Regulus pulled his sleeve tighter over his arm.

Remus was sitting on the floor by the fireplace, studying for the O.W.L.s when Sirius came down the stairs from the dormitory. "Hey you," Sirius said, sliding into the space behind Remus and pulling him backwards into his chest. Sirius's mouth pressed to the nape of Remus's neck, right on the spot where neck met spine... and Remus felt his tongue slide over his skin...

"No, not right now, Padfoot, I'm busy, I have to study thing," Remus said, pleading.

"I'll help you study. Like a reward system. Every right answer you get, I'll kiss you again and if you get them all right, you'll get a special prize."