But Not Forever | Regulus Black

Chapter 3 *

"Where is Emma? And Regulus?" Mickie walks into the room after taking her shower.

I look up from my tea in my hands, "They went into town for the day."

Mickie nods, "And the girls?"

"At a friend's house downtown."

Her eyes gaze down upon me, "Is there much to do in town? I haven't gotten much time to look around."

"Theres a few stores here and there. Theres a café there that we go to all the time. One of Aimee's friends, her family owns the place." I say with a small shrug, "Its a nice place to go when you need to think."

"Might do me well." Mickie mumbles.

"If you don't mind me asking, I was curious on where you're from."

Mickie looks up slowly with a wistful smile, "I'm from Canada. I grew up in the north before moving to Windsor."

I smile, "I was going to say, you don't seem English."

"Makes sense. I didn't grow up with all of this."

"But you grew up a witch?"

Mickie hesitates, "Not exactly. My mother was a witch, my father not so much. She limited what magic she used around him."

"I get it. I did the same around my family whenever I saw them. Not that I saw them that much after I was of age."

"Is there a reason you didn't?" Mickie slides into a chair across the living room from me.

"When the war reached it's peak, I sent my family away. I figured if I was going to be in the heat if things my family shouldn't have to pay for what I ended up doing. After the war, I found them. Told them they were safer now but they still needed to stay in hiding."

"If the war was over, why keep them hiden?" Mickie asks softly.

"Voldemort still had followers that had escaped custody. It just so happened that one of the followers hunting me and Regulus down was one that had gotten away. So they stayed. Eventually it was fine, and they came out of hiding. Not long after my parents and my brother... they just disappeared. They left no trace."

"I'm sorry to hear that."

"It's life. Things happen and sometimes you can't stop them."

The room goes quiet as we both look down. My tea had long gone cold from when I had made it early this moring, long before Regulus and Emma left. I don't even know why I bothered making it, half the time I can't get myself to drink it.

"If you would like me to, I can bring you to the café today." I offer quietly.

"If you're willing."

"I'd be happy to bring you."

"What can I get you two ladies today?"

Mickie pulls a small face at how sickenly sweet the waitress was.

I bite my tongue to hold back from laughing, "I'll just have a rose tea please."

"Honey tea." Mickie says quickly.

The waitress walks off and we laugh quietly. "Dear Merlin, I don't think I've ever heard anyone that sweet. The last person that even came close was my teacher from school. And we all called me her Honeysuckle." Mickie mumbles

"Honeysuckle?"

"Its this bright yellow plant. It smells super sweet. You've probably seen it around, just haven't put a name to it."

"At least you had nice professors, ours were all so stern or just plain stupid. We had this one... he taught potions. He was a strange man, he had this group of students that he would invite to parties and such. We called them the Slug club, just so happened one of them was a friend of Sirius."

"Slughorn, right? Emma told me about him. She told me a lot of your school."

The waitress sets the cups of tea down in front of us and leaves us alone. I take the cup in my hand, before taking a long drink of it.

"Personally from stories, McGraff was my favorite." Mickie sips her tea.

"McGraff? Do you mean McGonagall?"

Mickie nods, "I knew that wasn't right. But yes I mean McGonagall. All the things Emma told me about her were all amazing."

"She truly was something special." I say.

I twirl my fingers above my tea and watch as it starting swirling together. "What about you? Did you have any good ones?"

Mickie shrugs, "I had a few growing up. But I must say the magic teachers were much better than the no-maj ones."

"No-maj... your term for Muggle right?"

Mickie curses, "Shit. Yes, sorry. Emma's been trying to teach me some of your things. I just can't."

I laugh, "Don't worry about it. I would absolutely love to learn your way."

She sips her tea and her red locks fall into her face, "Feel free to take some off of me. Merlin knows I slip up all the time."

I glance up when I hear the bell ring, alerting the staff that someone has come. The familiar face of Regulus greets me.

Him and Emma walk in, her arms full of bags from the stores. Mickie raises her eyebrows, "Spoiled yourself, did you?"

Emma shrugs before pulling a chair next to her, "I couldn't stop myself."

"You didn't try to stop her?" I ask Regulus who sits on the other side if the table.

"No I didn't." He smirks.

I can see the happiness in his eyes, true happiness. He hasn't been like this in what seems like years. Something clicked in him when Emma came.

"Did you enjoy your day with Mickie?" Regulus leans into me as the two girls talk.

"I did actually. I'm still not sure if she likes me though."

"It's impossible to not like you. She's just guarded. She'll come around, especially since you took her here." He whispers in her ear.

My cheeks get warm, "Stop it. I'm going to turn red."

"You already are." He touches her cheek.

"Get a room you two!" Emma says loudly.

Mickie elbows her and now its Regulus' time to blush.