Chapter Text
(Regulus pov)
As he watches James fall down the stairs, before he can even have a second thought, he steps forward to catch him. Stumbling back a bit when James landed in his arms, lowering to the ground quickly to cradle him in his lap. Around him, he can hear whispers of curses coming from Peter and Remus. Regulus doesn't know what to do, he is covered in blood. Fucking Blood. There are so many thoughts running through his head, how did this happen? Is James ok? Why did he do this-
“Reggie”
“ Regulus, bring him over to the couch” a voice barks in his ear.
Doing what he is told, he picks James up and brings him over to the couch where Remus is waving him over. Laying James out on the sofa, they are all standing around him, that's when the questions start rolling in, “What happened to him?” “ Why is he covered in blood?” “Is he breathing?” Regulus stays silent.
“ Wait, is he?” Someone says, (probably Sirius) that this makes Regulus fully realize the importance of his actions right now, James could be seriously hurt. “ Move,” he says, admittedly rather aggressive, shoving Sirius out of the way. He starts to feel around James' chest to see if his lungs are expanding and bringing in enough air for him to breathe properly, and that's when he feels it, James’ binder.
“Shit”
“ What, Reg” Sirius responds quickly, their suddenly very focused, tone worried.
“ He's still wearing his binder.”
“ So what, he always does.”
“ Are you fucking stupid, he probably had a panic attack. With it on. He can't breathe.”
“ Someone gets me scissors, fast,” Regulus says with more urgency, hoping someone will get the point. It seems they do because Remus runs off to god knows where and comes back a moment later with scissors. “Here,” he says, handing them over. “Thanks, ok I'm going to unbutton his shirt and cut the binder off, can you all turn away” Regulus says hoping Sirius does not question why he is the one to do it and not one of James ‘actual friends”, which he doesn't for once in his life, blowing over it because of the circumstance.
Remus, Peter, and Sirius turn away from James and Regulus as Reggie starts to unbutton his shirt. Once the shirt is out of the way, he takes the scissors and cuts both of the shoulder straps and a line straight down the middle, careful not to knick James’ skin. As soon as the last cut is made James takes a deep breath, chest rising quickly trying to regain a steady breathing rate. He takes all of the cut-up fabric off James’ chest and puts them on the floor buttoning his shirt back up.
“Ok,” he says, signaling to the others that they can turn back around.
After a few seconds of breathing, Peter says “ We should really do something about that giant cut on his head"
“Yeah, and the ones on his hands too” Remus adds.
“Alright,” said Sirius, finally speaking up. “ Peter, can you go grab the med kit under the sink upstairs, and Remus can you get that towel over there? '' He is referring to a towel draped over one of the common room chairs. Agreeing, Peter starts to head up, and Remus goes to quickly grab the towel.
Moving over with the towel Remus looks at Sirius who nods his head towards Regulus still kneeling next to James, but now he's running his hand through his hair, trying to soothe him. Remus taps Reg on the shoulder and hands it to him, causing him to start cleaning up James’ face and glasses. He then moves to his arms and wipes them clean, well as clean as they will get. The towel ends up being held in James' head to stop the bleeding.
Peter comes back down the stairs, he looks stunned. He has the med kit lightly gripped in his hand and is slowly walking over to the rest of the Marauders. “Pete, what happened? You look like you saw a ghost?” Remus says after one brief look at Peter he can tell something is wrong. “ uhh, well I don't exactly know how to say this, but, well the dorm is destroyed…'' With minimal stuttering Peter gets his sentence out, he glances up from where he's looking at the ground, only to see Remus and Sirius’ faces contort into confusion.
“Are you sure you're not just being dramatic?”
“He doesn't have to be Siri, you have that front covered” Regulus retorts to a rather stupid comment.
“ Hey, what's your deal?”
“ You're being dumb. Peter of all people, dramatic? Really?"
“Whatever.”
“Hey Pete, can you pass the med kit over here? I want to make sure we stop the bleeding on James and prevent any infections.” Remus says trying to prevent any further bickering from the two brothers. “Yeah, here,” Peter says, still looking a bit shaken. “ Well I wanna see what this whole room thing is about, so Moony do you mind bandaging Prongs up while we go check out the dorms?”
“We?” Regulus says in a condescending tone, at the same time Remus says “Sure,” and begins bandaging James' head.
“Yes we, you're coming to Reggie.”
“No, the fuck I'm not.” Regulus moves from James’ side into a more defensive stance, standing up.
“ Why not? Why are you so interested in James right now anyways you guys don't even like each other.”
“ Fine whatever, and it's none of your business,” Regulus says just to get Sirius off his back.
With that, Peter, Regulus, and Sirius make their way out of the common room and up the stairs to the dorms.