Chapter Text
Bored to death.
That was Harry’s mood right now, when he had decided to explore alternative timelines, certainly having to attend potion class wasn’t part of his plan, but well, here he was.
Hermione wasn’t here to give him advice, and Ron wasn’t making his cauldron blow up, that was one of the things he missed the most when it comes to his friends. He loved them, and not being at school with them sucked. Not that things would be different if he was in his own timeline, they had both decided to attend Hogward again and he had stopped in order to travel in alternative timelines, the fact that he had missed the last year due to the search of horcrux was driving him crazy to the point where he always forgot that he was 18, not 17. Bloody hell that was terrifying.
From far away, a singsong voice tore him away from his pessimistic thoughts, Horace Slughorn. It was nice to have him as potion teacher, he was bubbly and nice, his writing however was impossible to read, so most of the time students needed their book to have the potion’s recipes, and he was one of those, however without the Half-blood Prince book, things had gone back to normal.
Which meant his potions were normal. Not good, but not that bad. Not that he really cared about it, his priority was to save as many people as possible in the upcoming war, that’s it.
“For today’s lesson you will be split into groups of two, you can choose your partner, I’ll give you all a potion to brew depending on your competences, understood ? Perfect, then let's go!”
In the next second many students were moving, going with their friends or debating one who was going to team up with who, some muggle borns playing rock-paper-scissors to end the arguing, ravenclaws were agreeing on who had to go with who in order to have good grades AND avoid terrible accidents (that’s why some hufflepuff were teamed up with ravenclaws, some of them apparently couldn’t be trusted around explosive things) while the Gryffindor and slytherin were separated as per usual. Harry on the other side was simply looking around, waiting for the last person to go with him, when his eyes landed on someone.
Someone who was surrounded by students because he was known for being good at potion. Regulus Black.
Regulus black with his black hair and beautiful Sanpaku blue eyes and mesmerizing freckles and strong visible cheekbones he wanted to kiss so badly.
His eyes might have landed on him for a long time because next thing he knew, Regulus was looking at him. And his heart skipped a beat. He wasn’t supposed to feel like that, how could this boy make him turn into a soft puddle of love in one glance ? That was bloody embarrassing, but he couldn’t care less, because then Regulus was walking to him, ignoring the other students around him, his eyes in his, like a predator aiming for its prey.
Then this boy was standing in front of him, his eyes on him, his tie perfectly knotted around his neck, his black shirt wrapped beautifully around his figure, probably tailor-made, with silver buttons, perfectly ironed. He wanted to ruin this shirt, to tear it and kiss the skin underneath the clothes, to love the person underneath the flesh. He opened his mouth, moistened his lips nervously, and murmured.
“May I help you, Black ?” Oh he hated calling him that, but Regulus wanted to keep… whatever their relationship was as discreet as possible, which meant as the true gryffindor he is, he needed to be a bit distant.
“You seemed distracted Potter, I figured out I might as well go help you.” The slytherin answered, and oh that boy… He had probably realized that he was ogling him the whole time.
“How… Thoughtful of you.” He let himself smile, and Regulus smiled in return, he liked that little game. “I would be glad to be helped by you, you sure have gifted hands.” Was it obvious that he wasn’t talking about potion ? Perhaps, but nobody was listening to them anyway.
“If you say so, only you can judge my hands' ability, so I’ll trust you on this.” The little snake was going to make him blush.
A voice rang from far away, and he and Regulus stopped smiling immediately.
"Hey Black, what are you doing? You let us down for your Gryffindor boyfriend or what?" That was Evan, Evan Rosier.
"You cannot be serious. And for a Potter on top of that ?" He heard another voice, Wilkes.
He didn't know a lot about them, apart from what he had heard from Sirius and Mad-eye (a little pain in his chest rose but he did his best to ignore it). They were both slytherins, future death eaters and already blood supremacists. Snape was hanging out with them a lot since the beginning of this year, maybe because James and Sirius now couldn't just jump him when Lily was looking away since he was always accompanied by a bunch of other slytherins. Not the best company he and Regulus had, but there were, in fact, some terrifying and powerful kids in this house. And it was their way of thinking, as the house with the least students and the worst reputation. Kill or be killed. Eat or be eaten. Make sure you have trustworthy people around you.
It was indeed an effective strategy, nonetheless nothing he was a fan of. Especially when Regulus looked so uncomfortable and distraught and sad, and he took a step back. He might have felt his heart break a bit, watching Regulus leave him, too scared to show who he really was, who he truly wanted to be with.
“Oh, Harry and Regulus ? Alright boys, it's perfect.” They both startled and turned around to look at their professor, his warm smile on his face and his belly sticking out of his pants. “Here, it's the potion you have to make, if the result is good we’ll be able to help miss Pomfresh.” And as he said these words he put a sheet on Harry’s table.
Draught of peace. Was written on it.
Quickly, Harry glanced at Regulus who looked even more panicked than before, but for some reason he could tell that this feeling wasn’t provoked by the difficulty of the potion.
Slowly, he stood up and bent over the table, his two hands on it and his mouth close to Regulus’ ear.
“Regulus, it's alright." He whispered, feeling the boy in front of him shivering before sitting back in his chair, not taking his eyes off of the slytherin in front of him, the two others who were mocking them had disappeared, probably to avoid losing points.
Slowly, the blue-eyed boy snapped out of his current state and moved, walking around the table and sitting next to Harry. Putting his bag on the floor and taking off his cloak to put it on his chair.
"Alright… Do you-" Regulus turned around and stopped when he saw Harry already had his potion book open to the right page with the recipe. "Perfect."
"How do we organize ourselves?" Harry was a bit lost and not a huge fan of this subject, but he was ready to do his best for Regulus, his level was good, and he didn't want to be a disturbance.
"You can take the book and go get the ingredients, I'll prepare the table."
Then Harry nodded before turning around, ready to go get the ingredients needed for the potion like a bunch of his classmates were already doing. Looking at the book, he realized that most of the things he needed were out-of reach. And figured out that as a wizard, he might as well just use magic. So he raised his hands and made a quick and simple gesture to make them slowly float to him, appreciating the soft glow of yellowish lights floating around the little glass containers.
Hey. He had lost a lot of people and had to travel in another time-line in order to stop them from all dying again. He was allowed to at least do a bit of show-off.
Once the containers were in front of him, he brought them to his desk still moving his hands, watching them float until they landed on the wooden surface of the table.
"Show off…" He heard Regulus chuckle, and looked at him with a false face of shock and hurt.
"How dare you accuse me of such disturbing behavior. I would never." And in response the slytherin snored and rolled his eyes.
"Yeah right."
Afterward things went pretty smoothly, Harry was crushing and cutting the ingredient, Regulus keeping an eye on him while checking and stirring the mixture everytime a new ingredient was added. Harry was trying to keep his head in his task : crushing moonstone into powder, but it was a tough game when the boy next to him looked like that, serious, focused. For some reason it made him look older, wiser. And beautiful. Not the beauty in a handsome way. The beauty in a pretty way. Two pretty eyes and a pretty smile. The feminine kind of beauty. He perfectly knew Regulus was a man of course, but there was something so pretty about him. The white space at the bottom of his eyes, the thin waist, the pale skin he wanted to cover with bruises. Like a pristine canvas, already a piece of art.
Perhaps it was just how Regulus was, a delightful beautiful boy with sweet delicate almost feminine features. Or perhaps it was Harry's bisexual heart controlling him as always.
He clearly had a thing for masculine women and feminine men, not in the way they dress, but rather the way their personality works, and their features.
"Harry, stewed mandrake." Harry jumped and remembered what he was supposed to do, so he started putting the mandrakes in the bowling cauldron until the potion changed color, turning red. Then Regulus was stirring and they were working one after the other. Regulus stirring, then Harry putting more stewed mandrake as the liquide turned orange, then yellow, then turquoise, afterward they let it simmer, waiting for it to turn purple.
As they were waiting Regulus was re-reading the instructions to follow, while Harry was grinding the piece of unicorn horn to powder. Concentrated on trying to make the ingredient as powdery as possible, he was lucky Regulus was the one guiding him to be honest, because he had already lost track of work.
Once that was done he laid back in his chair, throwing his head back and allowing himself to sigh, but his quick rest was soon interrupted by the feeling of something slightly brushing his left thigh, and he opened his eyes to look at the person doing that to him.
Regulus, still concentrated on his work took the powder and sprinkled it in the purple potion until it turned pink with his left hand, while the right one was stocking his leg, hidden by their desk, and Harry's breath stopped for a second, the feeling of the thin gracious fingers sliding over the black denim of his pants, then the whole palm, pressing the flesh through the cloth and sending a thrill making goosebumps appear on his arms and his hairs raising. He bit his lips, trying to regain control of his own body. It was wrong, it was completely stupid and shocking and people could see them. Regulus was the one constantly scared of being caught, he ought to be the wise one out of them, no?
But. Well… it's not like it was unpleasant. However, he had the feeling that it would be even better if they were in one of their rooms, with less clothes, and more kisses.
Harry closed his eyes, trying to regain his composure, and moved closer to Regulus who was standing, while he was still sitting.
Already missing the contact, he had not lost yet he put his hand over the slytherin's, his fingers sliding between the little spaces between his boy's pale and perfectly manicured fingers. Like that his scar was visible. His scar. Not Umbridge's. The words deeply engraved on his skin.
But then the hand disappeared as fast as it had come here in the first place, and he had to stop himself from growling of frustration. Because their professor came closer, checking their potion and humming an old British song he had never heard before.
"Good. Really good boys!" Slughorn chipped, putting his big swollen hand on their desk. "Now tell me what you are going to do, mister Potter?"
The Potter looked up, and for a moment he thought about the memories of this professor and Voldemort when he was still a student, telling him about the horcrux, as his gray orbs were focused on him and his smile making his round face look really friendly.
He made Felix Felicis and drank some of it the day of the war, without telling anyone. Without giving some to any of the people on their side. He is nice, he is friendly. And he collects people like trophies he can brag about.
"I stir the concoction until it turns red." Regulus answered instead of him, still focused on the potion, although his right hand was trembling a bit.
"Then we let it simmer until it turns purple, and we add some more moonstone powder until it turns into a grayish pink once again. Is that so?" Harry continued, looking at the slytherin, the one with black hair, instead of his professor.
And the so-called slytherin looked back at him while he was still mixing the potion, and gave him a little nod with a discreet smile, something so small it was almost invisible, but it didn't stop him from shivering anyway.
His smiles were so rare and precious, for an unknown reason he felt protective over these, he wanted to make them appear and kiss them, these curled up heart-shaped rosy lips.
The professor in front of them sighed in disappointment, and for a minute he and Regulus were lost, even though Regulus was better at hiding his confusion, were they wrong ?
"So it's true… I Guess I owe Minerva a bottle of French wine." His eyes then widened.
Ha, still not good when it comes to keeping secrets.
And without any further explanation the potion professor left, walking to another group of students.
Wait… Dont fucking tell them the professors were making bet over who was dating who among their students ? That would be absolutely inappropriate, and hilarious. But perhaps he was wrong.
Without uttering a word to Regulus, he gave him the bowl with the moonstone powder and watched as he put some in the cauldron, looking at the silver dust flying and flickering down to the liquide gracefully, shiny and beautiful, like stardust.
“You are not as bad as I thought.” Regulus said, looking at him while the potion was simmering, and Harry took the porcupine quills and proceeded to crush them to powder like the rest of the ingredients with a wooden tool in the bowl, it reminded him of the movies Petunia watched, of old men and women in the countrysides making their own flour to bake homemade bread.
“Should I thank you or feel insulted? ” He snored, repositioning a strand of hair behind his ear. Frowning as his hand wrapped around the tool was making repetitive up and down movement, crushing the ingredient to powder.
“Both.”
“Then thank you, and fuck off.” He catches a glimpse of Regulus’s smile, rolling his eyes before continuing his work.
For a moment they worked in silence. A peaceful rather than an inconfortable one, working around each other without invading each other’s space. Just the right amont or light stocks on the back or the shoulders, but no words exchanged.
Harry let Regulus put exactly 7 drops of hellebore syrup in the cauldron, letting it simmer at a lower heat. And when the potion took its final color, Regulus casted a Statis charms and then they started gathering the ingredients around them, organizing things so they could buy all of it back on the stove after class.
For some reason, Harry felt the need to prepare everything in advance, to be ready. Something he wasn't used to when he was younger. That fear of losing control, and the nightmares were most definitely a consequence of the war.
A hand brushed his lightly, and even though he felt butterflies in his stomach he tried to ignore it. Not wanting to annoy the slytherin by being too needy and touch starved.
But then a finger wrapped around his pinky and that's when he turned around to look at him, confused and over the moon out of this light physical contact. His eyes found the blue one at some point, and Regulus looked back at him. His pupils dilated.
Sunshine…? He felt more than heard the voice in his head, opening wide open the gates of his mind for Regulus' legilimency. Care and anxiety and a deep feeling of affection making his heart skip a beat. All the feelings and emotions Regulus was showing him, this careful and secret boy opening his heart to him.
Oh. If only he had been 19 years late.
Salazar I want to kiss you so bad right now. That wasn't his own through, that was Regulus'
"I don't deserve you." Harry murmured in a breath, lips slightly parted and his eyes maintaining eye-contact.
"You deserve so much more than me…" Regulus answered in a whisper, a little sad smile decorating his face. And it broke something in Harry. "You deserve someone who doesn't hide you. Someone that buys you flowers and sings you loud ballads in public without shame. It's like I'm hiding the sun out of pure selfishness."
Why couldn't he realize that he was enough? That the mere fact that he was willing to let him drown in the orb of his blue eyes was making him crazy? That he didn’t have to be like his brother to be loved?
How could he fix this gray heart? Not changing its beautiful shade, but collecting the shattered pieces and bring them back together
My heart is black, if I even have one in the first place. Yours is white and pure. Regulus' voice in his head whispered, and before he could answer, someone interrupted their silent conversation, and Regulus let go of his hand, again.
"I see you boys are ready, first time in my career that I see two students working so well, let alone a slytherin and a gryffindor. Even Miss Evan and Mister Snape couldn't agree on everything like you two did. Alright. The color seems right, can I have a taste?"
The two boys looked at each other dumbfounded, and it was quite rare coming from Regulus to have such a look on his face, but soon enough his neutral mask was back, and he nodded.
"Is it even allowed? Bloody fucking hell." Harry hissed
"It's Slughorn, what were you expecting?" Regulus whispered back.
They watched their professor make appear a silver ladle with a snake carved in it out of nowhere and put it in the still boiling mixture and bring it to his lips.
Harry for a minute thought about the fact that even though Slughorn was a wizard, it was still bloody crazy that he was able to drink a potion still boiling hot. Let alone even tasting a potion made by students in the first place.
"Seems perfect to me! I'll bring the vials to you and we'll take them to Popp- miss Pomfrey."
They nodded and within a second the professor had disappeared far away from them in front of his desk. Opening the cupboards probably looking for a set of empty vials they could put the potion in. That's when it hit Harry, the strange smell of burned glue and rotten meat. Something that almost made him puke on the spot, and he had smells far worse things, dry blood and dead bodies. The smell was still horrendously disgusting.
"By fucking Salazar what the fuck have you done Evan??"
"Shit shit shit-"
Now annoyed, Harry turned around, almost ready to see two slytherins fucking up a potion, but instead all he saw was a cauldron boiling dangerously, making a hissing sound similar to the one a overheated pressure cooker would do.
The sound grew louder and louder as students around them were starting to step back, and Evan was trying to stop the sound the potion in the cauldron was doing.
"It's going to fucking explode!!" Someone screamed, and the slytherin with dark chocolate eyes looked at the poor hufflepuff with anger and fury.
"It's not that bad I just have to cast a protego and-"
"And if your protego isn't strong enough the explosion will be way more powerful and destructive because the dangerous gas will have been locked in a small container, it could even intoxicate and kill us all." Regulus cut him off.
"What's happening boys? Explain to me what's-" Their professor joined the conversation, arms full of empty phials of glass, and his eyes widened when he saw the cauldron. Its noise was even louder by now, and the fact that both of their professor's hands were occupied didn't help the students feel safer.
"Evan… Back off please." Wilkes whispered as if Evan Rosier was a small wild cat who needed to be bribed into obeying. And the other students started moving far away to each corner of the room. Harry on the other hand got closer, if Evan Rosier wasn’t willing to move, he would move him imself. No need for a slytherin to die today, not even one who will turn bad once adult.
“Get down…” Alright, now it was seriously alarming. As pushed by a strange force, which he now knew was his instinct, Harry grabbed the slytherin’s wrist, trying to nudge him far away from the cauldron. And from the corner of his eyes, he saw the figure or Regulus running toward them. Oh no. No no no no no. It’s at this instant that Rosier seemed to realize the gravity of the situation. “I SAID GET DOWN.” Slughorn barked.
Before they knew it, the terrible and loud boom of an explosion echoed in the room. Followed by the sound of something like metal falling on the floor.
Bloody hell, his head hurts…
Harry kept his eyes closed, praying that the wandless protective charm he had casted had worked, and that everybody was safe.
Fuck. Rosier.
He opened his eyes, dread filling his veins like a disturbing poison when all he could see were blurry figures all around him. Was it the collision ? Had he hit his head ? Was everybody alright? Fucking hell and Regulus, what had happened to Regulus ??
“Harry, Harry bloody hell look at- Merlin where are your glasses?” From far away he heard Regulus’ voice, realizing that it wasn’t the first time the slytherin was telling him these words while he was on the verge of passing out. And he felt his body relax after realizing he was okay, before going stiff again.
“Rosier… Fuck, Rosier I cant fucking see ! Is he alright ?? Is he okay ??”
“Why do you care? It’s a slythe-.“ Someone said, and he cut them off.
“Because he's a bloody human being and I don’t want him to be hurt because I care about students and don’t give a fuck about their houses!" He hissed before redirecting his gaze toward where he had heard Regulus' voice. "Reg please. How is he ?”
“Brilliant Potter, don’t worry.” Someone growled as if they were under some kind of pain. But when he realized it was the slytherin who had taunted his, and he relaxed a bit. Great. At least he wasn't dead. You could say that he had done better than his father on this one.
"Not that I'm not swimming this way, but I need you to back off Potter."
What-
Oh right, now he understands his position, he used the Accio charm to attract his glasses and put them back on his nose, before looking down again. Realizing that he was propped up on his hands, Regulus and Rosier trapped between his arms.
Ah. Kinda awkward.
Not that Regulus didn't look absolutely exquisite like that. But the other slytherin next to the Black wasn't his cup of tea, so he quickly moved away from them, getting up before giving a helping hand to the heir of the Rosier Family. As he had half-expected he hit his hand, and Harry tried not to snore in amusement. So instead he got both his hands on Regulus' and helped him up. Stopping the protective charm with a quick move of his hand, trying to regain control of himself after seeing his slytherin so pretty with his long messy curls all over the place and his pale skin colored with a delicious redness. The stress and relief both making him tremble a bit, adrenaline pumping in his veins. In the corner of his eyes he saw that the container of the cauldron had splashed to different side of the classroom, but thankfully all the students were behind his protego, all that was left of the potion was on the floor after he had stopped his protego, forming strange puddles of a greenish thick and fuming liquid.
“Is everybody alright ?” Slughorn asked, his glass containers floating next to him as he was casting charms to clean the air and empty what was left of the potion in Rosier and Wilkes’ cauldron. Some students in the back answered positively and the professor sighed with relief. “Great, Mister Rosier and Wilkes, all I can give you for now is a D, I’ll give you a second chance along with all the other students who failed in my class so you can try again on Wednesday afternoon. Also.” This time the professor looked directly at Harry and smiled. “45 points to Gryffindor, for protecting students along with casting a wandless and silent protego.” Harry felt himself blush a bit, not that he wasn’t used to being praised, but it was rare that it wasn't in order to obtain some kind of privileges from The-boy-who-lived-twice. “And 15 for Slytherin, mister Black, you are right, when a potion is about to explode the best thing to do is to stop the fire underneath and absolutely not create a dome to enclose the solution, because its gas only leads to a more powerful and destructive explosion. Now, any questions?”
“Yes sir, our potions are ruined by now, a lot of us had timelines and order to respect and we lost some times here, what can we do?” The voice of a student echoed in the room.
“Oh, I casted a Statis on all of them, do not worry. If you lost track, call me and I’ll tell you where you’re at. Now all of you behind your cauldrons ! Let’s not let this incident distract us.”
And as if nothing happened, everybody went back to their desk, whispering and mumbling to each other about what had just occurred.
How many slytherins could have been saved from Voldemort’s hands, if he had this kind of mindset years ago ?
“Harry, are you alright ?” A lovely voice next to him dragged him out of his transe, and he turned his head toward Regulus, his eyes wobbly and biting his nails to blood.
He nodded.
Regulus’ expression darkened, you cannot lie to a legilimens, everybody knows that. Especially when your face constantly shows what’s happening in your head. Let alone when this legilimens happen to be your-
…His what ?
Wait… now that he thought about it they had never put a name on their relationship.
The slytherin in front of him let his expressionless mask fall for a minute as his cheeks coloured with a pink powder and his eyes widened, lightly blue iris on him. And then he frowned, he looked cute like that, like an annoyed cat.
He stayed silent, grabbed his collar and urged him toward their own desk where Slughorn had put a couple dozen of glass vials shaped like normal vials with more cubic angles and bird-shaped little glassy ornaments on the cork. That’s how the draught of peace potions were distinguishable, by these little birds-shaped plugs, since the names were rarely written on the containers.
When his back hit the corner of desk Harry realized that they still had to put all of the potion in the vials before being able to get out, but these thoughts were soon brushed off by the sudden realization that, oh. Regulus was almost pinning him on the table. All he had to do was hop on the surface he was pressed against and open his legs to him, his cold fingers around his tie tickling his neckline. Oh Regulus could put these fingers around his neck and press him down, opening him up with his other hand, fucking him with his fingers, then his cock. His beautiful sexy adorable well-shaped cock. He could almost feel it, the weight of this part of Regulus deep in his throat, god they needed to be tested as soon as possible, he wanted to taste it, to feel him dripping down his gullet, to tease and feel everything, his rolled up frenulum and the veins he had noticed before using a protective charms, placing the tip of his tongue right over the slit.
It was so good.
He wanted to do it again.
“Then hurry up and finish what you started.” A voice murmured and he looked back at Regulus’ eyes, his own lost for a moment on his lips. And he felt himself blush like a bloody teenager. Now ? Right here ? It was absurd of course, but he had stopped thinking with his head. And Regulus’ little smirk didn’t help.
“Not that the suggestion doesn't sound… Delightful, but I doubt the students around us would think the same.” He smiled coyly, one brow raised, and watched with delight his slytherin blush and step back, hitting his shoulder for good measure as he bypassed him
“You- bloody- I’m talking about the potion you wanker!” He hissed, and Harry chuckled, closing his robe in order to hide his embarrassing boner, he was one of the students who had chosen a pant over an entire wizard dress. The boy with raven hair eyed down toward Harry’s crotch and parted his lips, surely he knew what was going on. “Need a hand Potter ?” He smirked, getting his wand out (not THAT one, much to Harry’s disappointment) and the savior of the wizarding society had to pretend he didn’t understand the double meaning in order to keep the rest of pride he had safe and sound.
Regulus was behind the desk, using magic to make the potion float directly into the vials, one after the other, and Harry looked at him, bent over the desk between them, his elbows on the wood and his head in his hand, simply watching as all feelings of lust disappeared, admiring this boy, his movements so gracious, the way he was clearly forcing himself to use his wand with his right hand, the little frown line right between his eyebrows that only appeared when he was concentrated, his perfectly manicured and a bit long nails tapping on the thick solid glass as he was making sure the potion was secure.
And he looked up, under his long eyelashes, almost shyly, maybe coyly. The freckles splashed on his cheeks like light brown stardust on a pure white galaxy, oh, he adored him. And the little smile that escaped his control was so beautiful, he wanted to protect him at all cost.
A strand of air fell in front of his eyes, and it only made him look even more… There weren’t words strong enough to describe him, it was more than a simple physical beauty, it was surreal, otherworldly, mystical. He could feel it in his bones, he could almost smell it, touch it, he was utterly underneath his spell, he had bewitched him.
But magic cannot create true feelings of love.
Perhaps it was stronger than than, perhaps the way Regulus made him feel was stronger than every limit of magic, stronger than life, stronger than death and everything in between.
Stronger than him.
I am in love with you. He wanted to scream.
“Your pupils dilated.” The boy in front of him whispered, his eyes looking so true, so open, so honest.
“Yours too.” He answered softly, and felt more than intended to let appear on his face, a smile which he hoped could tell him all the things he couldn’t say out loud.
Mirroring Regulus’ movements, he took a vial in his left hand, and used his right hand to take out his wand.
“Mobili liquidus.” Regulus answered before Harry could ask what spell he was using, and yeah, an alternative version of a moving charm made sense. He closed his eyes, focusing on the words and the act he was trying to accomplish, but then a body was pressed behind him, and a hand was over his. The slytherin was shorter than him, but he was positioned a bit more on the right in order to be able to see. “You point the cauldron and pronounce the incantation…” As he was saying that he moved his hand with Harry’s to point the tip of the wand over the cauldron. “…Then you point at the vials, and you redirect your wand toward the cauldron once it's full.”
Harry nodded, trying no to smile because of their proximity. They were at the back of the classroom, but there were still students around.
“Understood Professor Black.” He turned around to smile at Regulus, and he smiled back at him, though there was something painfully sad in his eyes, a flash of the scar on his wrist came into his head. And he let escape the words before thinking. “Or Professor Potter.”
Once again, Regulus’ eyes widened, and his cheeks already pink took a beautiful crimson color, and Harry couldn't bring himself to feel embarrassed by what he had just implied with only three words.
“Let’s finish this quickly, so I can bring you somewhere and kiss you senselessly, alright sunshine ?” The slytherin stated as he let go of Harry’s hand to go back behind the desk.
“Yes.”
Yes please.
“Good boy.”
He shivered and oh. Alright. That was something…
For an unknown reason Harry got familiar with the spells pretty fast as Regulus filled the glass containers quicker, as if they were in a hurry to finish it, when they still had plenty of time to do so.
Or, well… Perhaps they were in a hurry.
When the final vial was half-full and the cauldron completely empty Regulus brought them to Slughorn with a Leviosa coupled with a moving charms, while on the other hand Harry was casting cleaning charms around him along with a Reducio on Regulus’ cauldron at the end so he could put it back in his bag easily. After some more praises from Slughorn and an invitation to join him for a meeting in his office tomorrow (which he assumed, was to ask him to join his private club) they were finally set free earlier than students usually were.
Harry opened the door for Regulus and held it open until he had passed it, trying not to smile at the sight of the way his pale skin took a pink color at that. He then closed the door behind them, and watched as Regulus was looking around, left, right, left and right again. The corridors of the dungeons were empty and the slytherins were probably in their common room or in a class right now.
“You meant it ?”
Regulus was showing him his back, and Harry was quite frustrated that he couldn't see his face, but he bit his lips, knowing that the boy in front of him wasn’t done talking.
“About caring about students no matter their house, you meant it ?” He turned around, looking at him.
And for an instant, everything came to his mind. First year when he rejected Draco Malfoy’s proposal of friendship, the way he despised the idea of being in the same house as him, how only 2 slytherins were part of Dumbledore's army. Then the hatred, the rivalry between their houses, becoming the justification of many acts of bullying among the lions and the snakes. Slytherins calling gryffindors mudblood, gryffindor attacking younger slytherins to “make them know their places”, young slytherins who will then attack gryffindors when they are older. First year students attacking each other, and the war. The death, all the deaths on both sides. As he watched slytherins fight death eaters, sometimes their own family, their own parents.
Siblings' relationships ruined.
All these little snakes who perished as heroes, fighting at his side, and were never seen as such simply because of the color of their dress.
“I wished that in another world, saying that would be normal.” He answered, was it really an answer ? He couldn't care less, that’s true. He cared. He cared so much. All of them. Slytherins and Ravenclaws, Hufflepuff and Gryffindors. “I wished I could have taken all of them away, somewhere safe, somewhere… Far. Far away from Voldemort.”
A hand was on his face, and a thumb was slowly brushing away a tear he hadn’t felt escape his control. Quickly followed by another, and another.
“You have done enough.”
“No… If I- If I had been stronger, I could have saved them all.”
Lily, James, Remus, Sirius, Collin, Lavender, Snape and Dumbeldor, and so, so much more, Tonks and Moody… Even him, in his own reality. He could… He could have done so much more.
Lips were on his, and he closed his eyes. Then they were millimeters away again.
“Harry James Potter. We were doomed from the start, you did enough, because you were enough. And you were so strong and tormented, if I had gone through half of what you went through I would have thrown myself from the astronomy tower a long time ago.”
“You shouldn’t know all that.” He whispered, his eyes still closed.
“I cannot control my legilimency when I’m asleep. And you were next to me…” He looked apologetic, shameful. And his eyes averted his. “I’m- I’m sorry. You can, like- if you want- Obliviate me.” As a reflex, Harry shook his head.
“How much do you still ignore now?”
“Your parents’ identities, though I have some ideas, and a lot of details of your years at Hogwarts, I kind of needed to put two and two together for the most part, you’ll have to tell me everything yourself if you want me to know what really happened.”
“Do you know who died ?”
“Some of them…”
“I am so sorry-“
“Do not apologize. Please…”
Harry nodded and opened his eyes to look at his blue-eyed slytherin. Whom hand was still on his face, stroking his cheek softly.
“Can you kiss me again?”
“Obviously.”