Monday 18th January, 1977

My Sunday was spent with Regulus and his friend's, hanging out in Regulus's dorm, abandoned classrooms; really just anywhere we could find that hid us from people. It was Charms class, students talking to one another in hushed tones, practising charms, or in a few people's cases, asleep on their desk. I sat next to Regulus like usual, our knees touching under the desk as idle chatter passed between the two of us.

"Do your friends like me?" I asked suddenly, feeling a wave of self-consciousness wash over me. Regulus's friends were important to him, so I wanted to make a good impression, but I wasn't sure if I'd managed that. I was a Gryffindor, their rival house, as well as a 'blood traitor' in Barty's words. That made it a bit difficult to make a good impression, since they were already set to hate me before they even met me.

If Regulus was surprised by my question he didn't show it, answering it as best as he could. "Well, Avery loves you. If he wasn't gay I'd be a bit concerned he'd try to steal you away from me. He probably will anyway. Pandora's happy with you, says you have a good aura or whatever. Evan doesn't dislike you, but you are still a Gryffindor, and Evan hates Gryffindors. Barty..."

"Doesn't like me," I finished.

Regulus placed his hand on my knee. "Hey, don't worry about it, yeah? Barty will come around. He's just a stubborn twat."

I smiled and nodded, but in reality my doubts were only growing. I knew the concept of pureblood superiority would have eventually gotton in our way, but I didn't expect it to arrive so early, and by Regulus's friend as well. That was the real reason Barty didn't like me; because I was a blood traitor, because I didn't believe that I was better than others just because of my ancestry.

"We've got patrol tonight," I said, changing the subject.

Regulus gave a little groan, letting his head rest against the desk in defeat. "We do, don't we? Do we have to go?" Regulus upright, a mischievous look in his eyes. "Could we skive off? It would be so much better if we could."

I rolled my eyes playfully. "We've got to do it."

Regulus let out a dramatic sigh, and I was reminded of his brother. For how much they claimed to hate each other, they were both much more alike than they realised. I smiled and felt the want to kiss Regulus surge up inside me. I couldn't though, obviously, so I settled for holding his hand under the desk.

Regulus looked at me, a small smile gracing his face. I returned it, and we continue class hand in hand. Unfortunately the class had to end eventually, and when it did we went to our next class separately, sitting across the room from one another. The next class was the same, and then it was lunch, a relief from the constant pressure of O.W.L.s all our classes carried.

"You don't hang out with us anymore," James complained as he sat down next to me.

"Yeah, we miss you," Sirius added.

I rolled my eyes. "I have other friends, you know."

Sirius gasped, placing his hand to his chest. "How dare you!"

I snorted at Sirius's antics, but realised he was right. I hadn't been hanging out with the marauders as often as I used to, now that I had a boyfriend. I decided to try to spend more time with them, because they were also my friends and were important to me.

After lunch was Potions with the Slytherins. Professor Slughorn told us to break up into groups of 6 to make the newest potion we were learning about, as it was said to be very complicated. I waited until most people had chosen their groups before joining Regulus's table with Evan, Barty, Avery, and Pandora, hoping I didn't create any suspicion with joining his group.

The class was actually kind of fun, with Evan, Avery and I preparing most of the ingredients while Pandora, Barty, and Regulus focused on the brewing aspect. Conversation flowed easily, and they were all relatively comfortable with me, so I didn't feel like I was intruding on anything which was nice.

I tried not to flaunt my relationship with Regulus in front of them, especially since some of them didn't agree with it, but I couldn't help the smile that made its way onto my face when I caught Regulus staring at me, to which Pandora playfully scolded him about paying attention to the task at hand and Barty glared at me.

After class, the rest of the day went along smoothly. I spent some time with the marauders and the girls and got ready for Prefect duty that night. I found Regulus waiting for me at the Great Hall and flashed him a smile, grabbing his hand as we started our patrol.

When our patrol was nearly finished and we walked through the last corridor, arms swinging slightly, I looked outside and admired the night sky, only to let out a gasp and move towards the window, dragging a worried Regulus with me.

"Y/n? Are you okay?" he asked.

"Look," I said, pointing my hand at the sky. "It's a full moon. We should go outside the castle to get a better look."

"Absolutely not," Regulus said immediately.

I ignored him, letting go of his hand and making my way to the closest exit. Regulus let out a frustrated sigh and trailed after me, knowing he wouldn't be able to convince me not to do this. When we managed to leave the castle I stared up at the full moon, noting how big and beautiful it seemed, yet it caused such pain for all these werewolves around the world, including the one currently attending Hogwarts.

We walked along the grounds at a slow pace, eyes peeled for any sign of movement from within the Forbidden Forest. When our search came back fruitless I started walking closer, only to be stopped when Regulus put his arm in front of me.

"That's far enough," he warned.

Again, I ignored him, ducking under his arm and continuing forward. I was curious, and while I felt the fear creeping up, threatening to take over, I pushed it away, using the bravery my house was known for to continue on.

We arrived at the edge of the forest and I peered in but saw nothing except menacing shadows in the darkness. I took a step closer, intending to get a better look, when Regulus grabbed my arm firmly and pulled me back.

"You are not going in there," he said. "I let you ignore me the past two times, but this is too far."

I made a pouty face, but Regulus stayed strong. "Oh, come on! Please?"

"You want to go into the Forbidden Forest at night on a full moon when you know there's a werewolf in there?"

"...yes?"

Regulus sighed. "You're an idiot."

A sudden crashing sound interrupted us and our heads both whipped towards the Forbidden Forest, a gasp escaping me when we noticed two glowing human like yellow eyes in the midst of the darkness. Slowly, the werewolf emerged from the shadows, stretching to its full height to loom over us.

It looked about 7 feet tall with short grey fur covering its body. It had long, sharp, frightening claws that were specked with dirt and crimson blood. It's body had faint scars crisscrossing all along its chest and arms and an ugly gash on the front of its leg.

Regulus grabbed my arm and jerked me back, both of us stumbling away from the monstrous creature in front of us. The werewolf went down on all fours, hackles raising in preparation of a lunge and Regulus threw himself in front of me, keeping me shielded.

"Regulus no!" I cried.

"Y/n run," he ordered.

"Not without you!"

There was a pained howl, though it didn't belong to the werewolf. Instead, we spotted a large, shaggy black dog running out of the forest, its eyes set firmly upon Regulus's tense figure and the werewolf about to rip him apart.

Before the dog could reach us, the werewolf lunged and I screamed, desperately trying to move Regulus out of the way. There was no need though, because just before the werewolf could touch us a deer charged into the werewolf's side, throwing it off course.

The beast growled, trying to get up, but before it could properly manage it the black dog was upon it, keeping the werewolf down. I stared, shell shocked, as the deer that upon closer inspection may have been a stag, once again ran at the werewolf and pressed a hoof firmly on the werewolf's chest, helping keep it at bay. I also noticed a rat on top of the deer/stag thing's head before Regulus franticly tugged on my arm and we both turned around, running to the castle and the safety that accompanied it as fast as we could.

"Are you okay?" Regulus asked once we were safely inside the castle. "Did you get hurt? Did it get you? Are you-"

"How could you?" I hissed, feeling myself choke up. "How could you go in front of me? Just carelessly throw your life away?"

Regulus seemed shocked I even asked the question, let alone was angry about it. "Because you were in danger. I had to help you."

"And what? Die in the process? I'm supposed to be the brave one, not you!"

Regulus had a pained expression on his face. "Y/n..."

"I thought you were going to die," I whispered, tears painting my face. "I thought you were going to die, and all I could think was 'it would be my fault'. You would have died protecting me, and I was the one who brought you out there in the first place and I could never live with myself if I was the reason you died and-"

"Hey, hey, hey, I'm not dead," Regulus assured, wrapping his arms around me as I started sobbing. "I'm fine, we're both fine. I'm sorry I scared you. I'm sorry I tried to get you to leave without me. We're both fine and safe."

I sobbed into his shoulder, clinging onto him like he was my lifeline. I was a mess of feelings. Distraught that Regulus almost died, terrified about what just happened, enraged that Regulus would just tell me to leave, would so carelessly throw away his life like it didn't even matter. It did. It mattered so much, to me, to his friends, to his brother. I hated that he didn't see that, and that he was that ready to die if it meant I would live.

Mostly though, I was relieved, and melted into his embrace, occasionally sniffling here and there as I calmed down. Eventually Regulus pulled back, but only enough to gently brush aside a strand of my hair and slowly stroke my cheek.

"Better?" he asked.

"Yeah," I answered, burying my head into his neck. In a moment of sudden bravery, I added, "I don't want to leave you tonight."

Regulus was quiet for a moment before speaking. "You could sleep in my dorm with me, if you want. Our patrol ended ages ago and Evan, Avery, and Barty should be asleep by now."

"That would be nice," I said.

That's how we found ourselves lying in Regulus's bed, Regulus's arms wrapped tightly around me as my back pressed against his chest. I felt safe here, close to him with his arms firmly around me, and eventually I dozed off, knowing that Regulus would be there when I woke, and the werewolf wouldn't.  

A/N:

THANK YOU FOR 100K READS!!! it means so much to me that you're all enjoying the story, and to see it get so popular so fast is more than i could have asked for. thank you everyone for your support throughout this book. it means the world to me <3

so ya'll... how we feeling? y/n and reggie nearly got slaughtered by moony 🥰🥰 how nice.

and then y/n got angry at reggie for going in front of her which is valid tbh, like, damn i would be in hysterics if someone did that to me. and the guilt you'd feel if they died FOR you 😭✋ my girl was perfectly okay in being angry.

and then they cuddled. :)

(more slytherin skittles content next chapter)