#well well well looks like that one microfic became a real boy

[garagepaperback]

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“Well, even if we went through with it, it wouldn’t work. But thanks for the grand heroic rushing in. A certain element of purity is needed to break it." Malfoy licks his lips, "You’d have to be a virgin.”

Harry keeps every muscle on his face particularly still, hoping it looks to Malfoy as absolutely blank as it feels to him. Half a minute passes.

“No,” Malfoy, already doing a poor job of sitting normally on his chair, bends in half, nearly falling out of it. He’s laughing. “No, Potter, no. No- don’t- you’re twenty-five years old!”

“And?” Harry asks, heat staining his face.

-

Malfoy has a problem, Harry wants to help.

read it on ao3

[wisedelusionalmarshmallow]

@jegulus-microfic, June 23rd - Brain, Word Count - 672

CW: Mentions of Child Abuse

Regulus considered himself someone who was safe from love. Love was what made people weak, what made people stupid. He was okay to stay far away from it.

Was he slightly jealous that Andromeda got away from the Black family by falling in love with Ted? Maybe.

But it wasn't like anyone could love Regulus anyways. He knew he was unloveable. He never got any love from his parents. Hell, he's so unloveable even his brother ran away from him.

The stories Regulus had read always told him that if someone truly loves you, they'd come back. That there supposedly is this 'one true love' and that no one is truly unloveable.

Another fable, he supposes.

He's always had a little hope though. Hope that one day someone will love him. Will show him what this 'great force' is. Show him how to escape.

Maybe that's why he's been watching his brother more closely this year.

That little hope that at least one person will care for him.

One person will love him.

That also might be why he's been looking a little closer to his brother's best friend. Afterall, James Potter was the one who took Sirius in after he ran away.

Regulus wonders how his brother did that. How he found people who loved him so dearly that they took him in as their own, adopted him into the family. His guess is that Potter's parents were simply good people. They took in a boy who never received any love from his parents and showed him what he had missed out on. Taught him what it felt like to be loved.

Regulus doesn't want to think to hard on that. Why does he care that much anyway? Sirius was the loveable one. Maybe if Regulus was loveable they'd take him in as well.

But he's content to just watch them.

Though, it may not just be contempt he feels.

Over the past few weeks Regulus finds himself watching Potter more than he watches his brother. The two boys are always together but lately Regulus' eyes have been drifting to the right.

He's studying the other boy. At first, to understand more of his relationship with his brother, hopefully to learn what to look for in others so that he may too experience what they have. He tries to figure out what works so well between them.

Then it started to progress into something different. Regulus became obsessed with just Potter. What made him laugh, what made him love. His favourite foods, his favourite words. Things he disliked, things he loved.

He's not sure when the switch happened, but he finds himself barely sparing a glance to Sirius now. More obsessed and engrossed with Potter. He keeps everything he learns in his head, at the forefront of his mind.

He's not sure why his brain is filled with the other boy.

It might be jealousy. Why would it be anything different? James was the one that stole Regulus' brother. Was the one that showed Sirius real love and connection. Is it bad that he wants that for himself?

Except, he doesn’t just want love and connection, he wants James’ love and connection.

Wants to be the one to butter his toast in the morning. Wants to be on the receiving end of his bear-like hugs. He wants to know even more about the boy, how he looks when he wakes up, what he does when he can’t sleep. How it feels to sleep next to him. Inhale his scent in the morning.

He wants to love James in the way that the stories told him. Treat him like he’s the only person out there for him.

He doesn’t know when he fell in love with James Potter. But it’s a cruel fate.

It showed Regulus that he was capable of love. But he knew himself to be unlovable. Cursed to an eternity of pining and begging the sky to let him have this one thing. He just wants to be loved.