Jondrette Girl | Regulus A. Black [2] ( ON HOLD)

Chapter Ten

Éponine had never been more grateful for a weekend, hoping to have a moment to breathe. Between the work from her classes adding up and trying to figure how to deal with Regulus while also avoiding him, she felt close to losing her mind. Thankfully, she hadn't let her school work go neglected with the surrounding drama, using it as a distraction from the world around her. However, she couldn't ignore things around her forever.

Ever since Regulus had dared to tell her that he loved her, the two hadn't spoken. In fact, Éponine was sure he was doing his best to avoid her. Whether it was showing last to any class or leaving first, or going out of his way to avoid any eye contact in the corridors, it had been a full two weeks without the two of them saying a word to one another. And part of Éponine was happy because she was so tired of fighting with Regulus. It brought her back to the time where she had to spend the summer at 12 Grimmauld Place and in the beginning, all they could do in the presence of each other was argue.

After making so much progress over the course of that summer, along with the first half of that term, their current situation was twenty step backs from where they had started. And she wasn't sure if Regulus was fully to blame either.

If it had been up to her, Éponine would have grabbed Regulus by the shoulders and shaken him until he realised he was in the wrong. But, of course, nothing was ever that simple, that would make life too easy.

Truth be told, Éponine did believe Regulus when he told her he loved her, but she wasn't willing to let him hold that over her head. She wished he hadn't told her such a thing because it only left her feeling more conflicted than before if that was even possible.

First, it had been poor timing for him to confess such a thing. Her anger had certainly carried over from their duel in the Defence Against the Dark Arts classroom as he had managed to hit her with the pimple jinx. For a few moments in time, Éponine had relieved through one of her biggest insecurities and although it was likely unintentional, it seemed like a low blow from Regulus. He, above all, knew how much Éponine had struggled with her image over the years.

Then he accused her of not caring when that was the furthest thing from the truth. Of course, she still cared about all of them, if she didn't, she would have given up a long time ago. However, it left her to question if she was going about things the right way when it came to handling the situation. She had hoped over the years that she would be able to make Regulus realise where he was wrong, where his parents were wrong with the whole foundation of Toujours Pur.

But it seemed the only thing she was good at was pushing him away even further.

Regulus had gone from trying to find any opportunity to talk to her, to coming up with any excuse to avoid her. It felt like their sixth year all over again and that had been painful to live through once, let alone twice.

And Sirius' advice remained the same in all his letters. He told her over and over that she couldn't change Regulus' views unless he was willing to change. If it were to happen, it would be a miracle, if not, Éponine was supposed to take the time to focus on herself because she deserved happiness too.