who → Regulus Black & James Potter. what → James isn't happy that Sirius is hurt and he takes it out on his favorite cupcakey target. when → Friday, 31 October 1979; afternoon. where → Quality Quidditch Supplies. warnings → Language. status → Placeholder.
It hadn't taken much convincing at all to get Mr. Jackson to agree to leave James alone at the store for the afternoon. Since the lay-offs, Mr. Jackson had been working every 9-4 shift all by himself, and staying to help close up as well. He was more than ready for a break and some alone time with his wife, so when James offered to watch the place for free, the magic word was all it took to send Mr. Jackson on his way. Once he was out of the building, James knicked some official looking paper from his desk and composed a letter for Regulus. He couldn't know if Reggie would be suspicious or not, but with James fired it seemed that it would be less suspicious than it would have been previously. It helped, at least, that last Friday James had journaled that he was done at QQS but hadn't publicly given the reason for his departure.
At two o'clock exactly Gloria showed up, even though she wasn't scheduled, and James handed her the fifty galleons he promised her in exchange for her working for two hours, not telling Mr. Jackson James had called her in, and promising not to leave the front of the store under any circumstance. That ought to set Regulus up nicely. Just in case, James had instructed her to tell anyone who asked about him that he had been fired, and anyone who might ask about a gift to be sent around to the side door. That was as good as James could do, and as he headed back to Mr. Jackson's office he had nothing to do but wait.
When the owl from 'Mr R Jackson' had arrived, it was perhaps the last thing Regulus had been expecting. Sandwiched between his visit to Bella and the masquerade to carry them into the night, word of compensation for his Potter-related sufferings was strange but hesitantly accepted. He did not know the handwriting of Jackson (nor did he believe it was relevant to him, either way), but he knew that he did not recognise the penmanship to be among the more threatening work of his mortal and moral enemies. It seemed sensible that the man should try to make it up to important customers, quite honestly -- who cared of poor and insignificant customers had been offended? Going anywhere alone made him nervous, with the war as it was, but asking someone to come and accompany him for something so simple would paint him as paranoid and weak -- which he was not.
Two o'clock rolled around soon enough, and with a characteristic promptness, he left to investigate this offer. It was so typical of Potter to be a harrasser, as making people miserable seemed his favourite hobby in school (and his intelligence had not seemingly improved); hearing that he had finally suffered some sort of consequence for his unending idiocy was a nice change. It was about time that some authority figure took a stand.
The Quidditch shop looked quiet and empty when he glanced through the window, but recalling that he was meant to use the side entrance, Regulus slipped to the side, peering down to see if there was anything waiting to attack him. No Snitches (that was still so incredibly not amusing at all) -- clear. Pressing his lips together as he came up to the side door, he knocked three rapid knocks, hesitating a moment before creaking the door open. Being alone felt particularly unnerving when he was out of broad daylight and the open sight of passers-by, but he was being paranoid because what would some shopowner have against him? Furthermore, Potter was long gone -- compensation for troubles was a positive thing. No need to be paranoid.
James was more than ready for Regulus, and accio'd his wand away before the boy had made it half way through the entrance. He'd been planning this all morning so the spells flowed easily as he cast a kneelocking jinx to trip Regulus, and then slammed the door behind him with a flick of his wand.
"Faerie Feet, don't you know you aren't supposed to wander in the Alley alone?" James asked, from his seat across the small office.
It took only a fraction of a second for Regulus to realise what a gravely Bad Idea it had been to show up, and by the time such a realisation had the time to properly sink in, he was kneelocked on the ground without his wand, a brief string of unsavoury exclamations floating silently through his mind. How -- extremely, extremely unfortunate.
He needed to -- relax. He needed to remain calm. Get his wand back. Leave. There was absolutely no way this could turn out remotely positive if he was not only away from home for an extended amount of time, but away from home with a blood traitor -- and not good, so very not good, but he could handle this. It was just potter. If he could get his wand back, he had reduced Potter to shreds before, and he could do it again if he had to. After all, this was not playing fair.
"Do you honestly have nothing better to do? Give me my wand back and let me go. I have things to attend to today," he snipped sharply with a great deal more assurance than he felt.
"No, I don't think so," James said. "Incarcerous."
Ropes sprang from his wand and wrapped around Regulus and James had to smirk. He really wasn't supposed to be doing anything stupid today, but somehow he didn't think Reggie was going to go spreading this story around. He'd made it pretty clear to Sirius that it was speaking to a bloodtraitor that had gotten him in heaps of trouble before, and if Sirius was the biggest blood traitor around than James was a very close second. Besides, if he told anyone he'd have to own up to being stupid enough to fall into a trap like this. The thought of the expression of Rodolphus Lestrange upon that confession caused him to smirk.
"Doesn't feel so good, does it cupcake? Trying to fight without a wand?"
Simmering anger quickly overrode a great deal of self-deprecating frustration, and Regulus ponder for a moment all the terrible ways that Potter would somehow, someday pay for it -- namely when he got his wand back...
Glaring up evenly, permitting no sign of his fury, Regulus shifted into a crouching position, leaning back against the door as his eyes remained trained. He could feel one of his hands loose from the ropes, and he gently flexed his fingers. The rest of his body was irritatingly restricted, and he hated feeling so helpless -- and no matter what, he needed to regain some semblance of control under the situation before it got any worse. Time had already been wasted, and he could afford no more.
Without delaying any longer and knowing he would need some element of surprise to manage anything whilst tied up, he did the only thing he was physically capable of doing in his state: springing from his spot against the door (and grateful for the relatively small size of the office), Regulus rammed James back against the paper covered desk, the rustling of papers and jostling of the desk unpleasant but at least helpful in adding to the distraction. He knew it would not buy him much time, and surprise attacks got no second chance, so instantly he turned his attention to finding his wand. Had it been dropped? Or was James still holding onto it?
James hadn't guessed Regulus was the sort to go launching himself at people, but surprise attack or not, he'd been suprise attacked by Sirius one too many times to lose his head over it. His back slammed into the jagged corner of the desk and it hurt like a motherfucker, but he held on tightly to both wands and attempted to turn to the side to keep Regulus as far from them as possible. Taking advantage of the fact that Reggie was still tightly wound in the ropes, even if he'd managed to free an arm, James leaned back against the desk and kicked him hard, squarely between the ribs, shoving him backward in the process.
"Nice try, Reggie," James said, a bit breathless, but still able to laugh tauntingly. "I knew you had to have a bit of Sirius in you, and that was just like him," he said, taking in a deep breath and letting it out as he gingerly pressed his hand to his back where the desk had ground into him. "But I can't let you have your wandback or this kidnapping thing won't go so well. Besides, I think in time you'll thank me. If I have to go into hiding, someone should have to suffer with me, yeah?" he asked. He aimed his wand at Regulus again and cast another rope spell, which when doubled with the first one had him wound up like a mummy.
Falling solidly on his back, Regulus lost his breath for a moment as a sharp pain in his ribs came to the forefront of his mind. That -- had not worked as it was meant to, and it took several (seemingly endless) moments to regain his breath and his mind and his voice, just in time to quite vehemently respond, "I am not like him. It was a strategical attempt -- and you would not dare," he finished darkly, though tinges of a nervous panic began to wriggle its way into his foothold of anger. Kidnapping...was not...good...
James stepped away from the desk and sat on the floor not far from Regulus.
"Would it really be that bad?" he asked with a slight smirk. "You're hurting my feelings here, Reg. I'm offering you a way out. You and me both know you aren't cut out for being a Death Eater," he added. "You don't want to kill babies, and smother children and all that creepy shit. And you love your brother-- and I doubt you really mind the comparison," James said, attempting to be conversational, and distract himself from the very pressing urge to kick Regulus in the face. Hard. Repeatedly.
"So you're coming with me. I'm not really giving you a choice but it'd be easier if you'd cooperate," James said, leaning back against the wall (this office really was cramped) and placing both of his feet on Regulus's ankles to prop them up. Sirius had said Regulus didn't like touching, and this was the worst sort of touching, since there was damn near nothing he could do about it.
"You are trying to get me killed and make it look like help is what you are trying to do," Regulus said bitingly to cover up the stronger swoop of panic. "You do not know anything about me, and remove your feet from mine, and I wish to go home now, thank you." Shifting to yank his tightly bound legs away from James's feet, he glared whilst debated the likelihood of success if he were to attempt another shot. Unfortunately, it was a rather slim likelihood.
"You have to make everything difficult," James replied. "Sirius keeps trying to save you, and I keep telling him it's pointless and he's just going to get himself killed, and finally he very nearly does, and I'm sick as fuck of it! How can you not care he's willing to die to protect you, you stu--" James cut himself off.
"I suppose that's neither here nor there. You're not going to have a choice anymore. But don't worry, you won't die, Regulus, we wouldn't let anything happen to you," James added, the smirk back on his face. "No one would ever guess you were with us-- Then when everyone thinks you've followed your blood-traitor brother over to the other side we'll stop kidnapping you and you can choose if you want to stay with us and live, or face your mum and chance death."
He put his feet back over Regulus's feet insistantly.
"What's the matter? Think I'm contagious? I'm a pureblood, I'm not going to give you any germs," he added sarcastically. He really didn't have much more time to chance on this, but it was making him feel better by leaps and bounds. The one Death Eater he could capture at this very second and hand over to the authorities was the one Death Eater he'd sworn to protect (stretching the meaning of the word protect obviously) so the least he could do was take out some more frustation on him. Just for a minute.
Scowling, Regulus took a moment before bothering to respond to any of the reaction-inducing comments. He needing to curb the explosions -- control. Do not satisfy Potter any more than absolutely necessary. "First, you are in no place to judge me; second, I suspect they would very easily guess where I was; and third, I am allergic to Gryffindor, so do not touch me," he said dryly, once again jerking his legs back.
"Poor, pooooor Reggie," James cooed, clearly being sarcastic. "It must be so hard being a Death Eater and being forced to deal with blood traitors." James reached toward Regulus to pat his hand. "It'll be ok, Regulus. It might take an Imperius, but we'll set you straight."
That was it. It was the last thing he planned on tormenting Regulus with, but just for good measure he leaned away from the wall, and put his elbow over Regulus's knees so he was neatly pinned. It wouldn't hurt in any way except psychologically, and since James was only doing any of this to be a complete shit, it worked.
He looked up at Reggie and batted his eyelashes.
"I know your intellectual capabilities are lacking, but you appear to be having a particularly difficult time comprehending the concept of do. not. touch me," he snapped, the frustration at feeling constricted and helpless coming to a head to compound with the desire for space. Potter could not kidnap him. It would destroy everything; he was not ready for his life to be destroyed again.
When James began batting his eyelashes, Regulus flinched away, body rigid and expression scowling. "There appears to be something wrong with your face."
James laughed and pushed away from Regulus.
"You're too easy, cupcake. I'm just putting you on anyway. I'd rather slit my wrists and die in a bath of my own blood than kidnap you and be forced to watch you sulk for more than 15 minutes. Nah, I'm gonna let you go, and no one is ever going to know we talked, and things will be back to normal. I just needed to see something for myself, and I saw it," James said cryptically.
"Now, I'm going to undo your ropes, and if you're a good boy and stay sitting there for about thirty seconds then you can leave the office and I'll leave your wand down by the door. If I hear you so much as twitch though, so help me I'll Apparate away witnh your wand and send an owl to your mother telling her we're having a torrid affair, and that you left your wand behind at my house. Got it?" James threatened.
Regulus hesitated. "What did you see?" Even with the assurance that he was going to be released, he did not particularly trust James's word, nor the vagueness of his comment. He could not even bring himself to scoff or be frantic about the idea of his mother being told about their 'torrid affair.'
"Just that Sirius was wrong," James said, standing up and opening the door. "He thinks he can save you, and it's so easy to believe him when he's sure about something, but I don't think there's any saving you, Reg. I guess that'll probably make you happy, and it should probably make me happy, but I can't help but think how much it's going to hurt when he realizes I'm right."
James stepped out into the hall and looked back at the boy on the floor.
"Have fun tonight, and seriously, don't move until you're sure I'm gone."
A wretched lurch twisted in his stomach at the mention of Sirius, but his expression turned to stone -- no longer angry, no longer skeptical, but closed. Even when he was free from the ropes, even when Potter was gone with Regulus's wand left behind, Regulus remained still.
It did not matter what Potter said. It did not matter what Sirius thought. Potter was only lying, anyway -- and the disappointment of the brother who had abandoned him was not something to waste thought on. What concern could he possibly have about Potter's 'rightness'? The entire point was to make Sirius give up on him so that Sirius could stop trying to get the both of them killed, but the thought made him wince in a fashion that perhaps was not completely due to his hatred of having Potter be right about anything, much less about him.
Their opinions were worthless. He did not need their approval nor their confirmation of his character. Slowly retrieving his wand, he moved to return home -- after all, just moments before, he was desperate to be home...and he had a masquerade to prepare for.