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Sirius sat nursing a beer on his thigh as he watched Remus and James argue about something. James purposely saying more and more things to piss Remus off, which worked, making Remus absolutely lose it at his friend's idiocy.
“I don’t know how you can be so stubborn, Remus,” James said, his voice dripping with mischief. “Honestly, you’d argue with a bloody rock if it told you the sun rises in the east.”
Remus narrowed his eyes, fuming. “And you’d argue that the rock was wrong, wouldn’t you?”
"We need to go back to mine in a bit, Regulus is there alone." Sirius remarked absently. James and Remus turned to look at him.
"Let's go see him now." James said, smiling brightly.
Regulus had been staying with Sirius ever since he left his family. Regulus was still in his final year at Hogwarts, only one term until he would finally leave. Over the summer he stayed with Sirius at his apartment, of course, no one was happier than Sirius at this fact.
They made their way over to Sirius' apartment and rang the bell. They were met with no response. Sirius tried again. Nothing.
"Ah, fuck it." Sirius forced the door open and staggered inside on account of the door already being unlocked.
Sirius froze as his eyes made contact with the scene in front of him. Regulus—his baby brother, was lying on the couch with none other than Barty Crouch Jr. hovering above him, teeth grazing his neck. Sirius saw white hot anger wash over him and surged forward, grabbing Barty by the collar. 'Get the fuck off him, you slime!' He thought.
James and Remus stood at the door, mouths hanging open. The second James' mind caught up with him, he practically flew to Sirius, who was readying himself to punch Barty. James shoved Barty back form where Sirius had grabbed his collar, his anger getting the better of him as he pushed Barty into the wall, making the painting hanging on the wall shake.
Remus ran forward to both men and pulled them away from Barty, who was looking more and more petrified by the second. He held Sirius by his jacket and James by his arm and forced them to the other side of the room. Regulus scrambled to his feet, tugging his shirt down and smoothing his hair in a desperate attempt at decency, positioning himself between Barty and his brother, Barty looking even more petrified than him. The two glanced at each other in pure fear.
"KEEP YOUR HANDS UP CROUCH! HEY! HANDS WHERE I CAN SEE 'EM!" Sirius roared.
"You're not bloody arresting him Padfoot." Remus huffed, still holding Sirius back.
"WHAT THE HELL WERE YOU DOING?" James walked forward, pushing Remus' off from trying to stop him. "HUH? NOT SO QUIPPY NOW, CROUCH?"
"James, stop!" Regulus protested in horror.
Barty grabbed his shoulders and stood behind him, eyes sharp on Sirius and James who looked ready to rip his head off. Remus ran forward to pull James back again, which he realised was extremely stupid, considering Sirius had no one watching him now. Sirius surged forward again and shook his fist at Barty.
"Get the fuck away from my brother Crouch." He growled, "What the hell were you doing to him?"
Regulus rolled his eyes, "I think it's really obvious what he was doing Sirius."
"Silence from you!" James turned to Regulus, regarding him with a softer look than he was giving Barty.
Sirius sputtered, "You...He- you both are—what?"
"I wasn't doing anything he didn't tell me to—" Barty began but immediately clamped his mouth shut when he met Sirius’ icy glare.
"What is the meaning of this?" Remus spoke, his wide eyes of confusion betraying his calm voice.
Regulus shrugged, "We're just having fun."
Evidently, that was the wrong thing to say, as James' nostrils flared and Sirius turned his head to Barty with fire in his eyes. He spoke in a scarily calm voice.
"You're just having fun with my brother?"
Barty shook his head violently, "NO! I—I really like him—I would never hurt him!"
All three heads turned to Barty incredulously, confused at his uncharacteristic statement. Regulus blushed slightly and Sirius resisted the urge to throw up at the sight.
Remus ran a calming hand over Sirius back before he finally spoke again. "Whatever this is—keep it out of my flat."
Barty nodded, staring at the floor in petrified silence. Regulus huffed out a laugh, "Fine. Guess we'll have to keep it in the bathroom of the bar we went to last week...like last time."
Barty only had a ten second head start of bolting out the door, with Sirius and James hot on his tail.