speak now | regulus black

4

under the table – fiona apple

"don't push me, cookie, don't push me."

♡

Maybe a week later, the Hogwarts team match against Spain crept up on Sofia.

Thursday night during dinner, Dumbledore called the attention of the Great Hall to introduce the arrival of the Spanish Quidditch team, who would be staying until the end of the week, their match taking place on Saturday afternoon.

Coach had forced the Hogwarts team to gather at one table, supposedly chosen at random, but very suspiciously had ended up being the Hufflepuff table, which was probably the closest they'd be able to come to a neutral ground.

A tall golden-haired boy sat next to Sofia and grinned at her. He spoke in a very cute accented English. "Hello, my name is Javier, but you can call me Javi. This is my friend Luis, he doesn't speak much English."

She looked over at Luis, a younger boy with mousy brown hair and kind dark eyes. She smiled. "Pues por pura suerte les tocó sentarse junto a la inglesa que habla español."

Both boys did a double-take, then both broke out into grins upon hearing she spoke Spanish.

"How do you speak Spanish? Where are you from?" Luis asked in Spanish.

"Wait... that accent sounds... Puerto Rican maybe?" Javier added.

Sofia grimaced but let it go. She was a nice Cuban, she could let it go. "Cuban, actually. You're lucky you only said that to me, most Cubans... if you assume they're anything but Cuban, let's just say someone's getting stabbed."

Javier broke out in a rambunctious laugh.

Chloe slipped into the seat next to Sofia. "Wait. What is happening right now? Why are you speaking Spanish? Is that a spell?"

"I'm Cuban."

Chloe's head tilted. "I thought you were Russian."

Sofia shrugged. "I'm both." She turned back to the guys. "Me llamo Sofía, by the way. And this is Chloe."

"Sofía," Javier dragged the last syllable out. He turned to Chloe. "Chloe. Very nice to meet you," he said in English.

"What positions do you guys play?" Luis asked in Spanish.

"Um..." Sofia tried to recall the Quidditch position names in Spanish. "Yo... Beater? Golpeador... no, bateadora! Y Chloe... uh cazadora? Chaser?"

Luis nodded. "Bateadora y cazadora."

"I'm a Seeker and Luis is a Chaser too," Javier said.

Sofia translated for Chloe quickly. Then as she swept her gaze back towards the boys, she felt the stare of one Regulus Black, who sat across from her. He sat next to Travers, neither of them making any attempt at socialising with their guests. Sofia fought the squirm that his stare initiated. He wasn't glaring and it wasn't a dirty look at all like some Slytherins such as Travers tended to throw her way occasionally. No, this was just an innocent look. But it was somehow piercing. She felt like he was trying to read her like a book.

She tried to focus back on the conversation since she had to help include Chloe with translations. But it was hard, she wanted to snap at Black, just ask what the hell was he staring at but that would count as initiating a possible fight and she was the bigger person in this situation. She would not not be the bigger person.

She listened to whatever Javier was saying about the Spanish Quidditch league and persevered. Regulus would eventually tire of whatever weird psychological mind game he was trying to play with her and that would be it. No need for alarm. She smiled at herself.