Part Three
Regulus stood in the hallway and stared at the four boys - no young men rather - sneaking into the castle. It was late at night and therefore they wouldn't recognise him in the dark, but he knew exactly who they were.
Not only because his older brother's voice flew through the air: "Wormtail, move out of the way. Moony isnt heavy but after carrying him for a while he turns into a half mountain and you're not doing me any favour by playing statue."
Peter muttered something that Regulus couldn't understand but moved out of the way. Now the Slytherin saw that Sirius was carrying the Lupin on his back and he caught them more often like this. He knew what was going on as he wasn't stupid. But he didn't tell anyone, because it simply wasn't his business.
"The air is clear. No other people around", James voices explained as he came down the stairs he just had walked up. Oh how wrong he was.
Reg narrowed his eyes in an attempt to see better. But he couldn't see if they were hurt. Carefully he took a few steps towards them, but he was so focused at the boys, that he ran against an armour. The noise was like a bomb in the silent corridor and the older boys froze. The Slytherin held his breath and didn't move either. After a few seconds, James found his voice again: "Go ahead. Remus needs to get to the hospital wing. I'll go back and check the corridor." Sirius just nodded and immediately continued walking.
Regulus tried to slowly walk back as quiet as possible. Suddenly something picked him up from the ground on his neck.
"Oh, who do we have here? Little Black out of the corridor in the middle of the night. Should take away some points, huh?", James grinned at him, amusement in his eyes. The Black couldn't help but to analyse his face for a moment, but he seemed to be fine.
"Would you mind getting your hands off me, Potter?", he asked in his distant voice, "you are out of bed also, so what kind of excuse do you have?"
Prongs didn't lose his smirk, but let the younger one down on his feet. The challenging look of his face amused him and he wondered if he noticed that.
"My excuse? I'm headboy. Im doing my job", he answered and pushed his glasses up, "why are you sneaking around here like a lost cat?"
Regulus frowned. Did he just compare him to a cat? His face became warmer, but he ignored it.
"None of your business. Just go your way and don't lose track of your idiotic friends."
"You're just jealous", James said with a smugly grin, his hazel eyes laying on the beautiful face of the young one.
Yes. Jealous was a good word to describe how Regulus felt. But not for the reason James guessed.
"No, I'm not jealous. I'm glad to not have the problems such people brings with them."
The Potter's smile faded and his face became serious, a hint of anger flickering in his eyes.
"Watch out for your words, Regulus. I'm nice to you because you're my best friend's brother. But if you start talking shit about them, you have a problem with me."
Reggie dropped his look down at the floor as he was searching for words. He really didn't want James to be mad at him, but he couldn't admit it without getting real trouble.
"Bug off", he only brought out and turned away, walking down the hall with waving cloak.
James eyes followed him down the stairs. Something was off with the little Black. He shook it off and finally followed his friends to the hospital wing.
