speak now | regulus black

8

i did something bad — taylor swift

"if a man talks shit, then i owe him nothing."

♡

It wasn't long after Sofia's conversation with her father that she and Regulus had to leave. If they were gone much longer, they'd surely get caught.

They took the Floo back to the apothecary and went out the back door.

Sofia knew that Regulus had noticed her swollen eyes after she'd gotten back to the table but he hadn't said anything about it. It stressed her out, the charged silence that might have been broken any second if he thought to ask why she had been crying.

So, Sofia broke the silence unprompted. She wasn't usually one to ramble but right now she felt like she was starting to as they walked towards the town centre.

"You know, after I got my Hogwarts letter, the only reason they let me defer was my uncle. I told McGonagall that he could teach me via correspondence, which he kind of did, but definitely not enough to be equivalent to First Year, which McGonagall realised when she checked on me at the end of the year. And that's how she forced me to start Hogwarts. The summer before I did though, I came over and stayed with my aunt and uncle so that they could teach me as much as possible before Hogwarts."

"Is that why when you started you were shit at every subject except for potions?" Regulus asked.

Sofia was slightly surprised he remembered that. "Yeah... it was kind of my fault, really. I only wanted to learn potions and my uncle was happy to oblige."

They settled into silence again. They were almost at the town centre.

"Why'd you tell your family I have a girlfriend?" Regulus asked in one breath.

Sofia definitely wasn't expecting him to ask her that. But she'd rather he ask this than about her bloodshot eyes. "Well, don't you?"

"No."

Sofia nodded. "Maybe you should let Travers know."

Regulus frowned. "Travers?"

"I mean girl Travers. Although, if you have a thing with male Travers, I'm the last person to judge."

Regulus scoffed and rolled his eyes. "Why would you think I'm going out with Eliana Travers?"

Oh boy, Sofia could tell this was going to be a fun conversation. "Remember that day we were arguing outside the apothecary in Hogsmeade?"

"That has happened more than once, Bessonova."

Sofia supposed he was right. "The last time, a couple of weeks ago. She dragged you away from our argument."

"Oh, right... we weren't on a date though, she just attached herself to me at the village."

"Well, either way... after that, Travers came to find me and, let's just say she made it pretty clear that you were her man and I should stay away from you," Sofia could barely keep a straight face as she said this. It had been more funny than anything when that girl had attempted to threaten Sofia.

Regulus seemed to choke on air. "Oh."

"Don't worry though, I told her I'd rather date an actual troll," Sofia said teasingly.

Regulus looked at her, annoyed. He seemed to relax. He rolled his eyes. "Of course."

Sofia took a second to look at Regulus's profile. She would rather die than ever admit this out loud to anyone but she did think he was good looking. There was something about those stormy grey eyes and the perpetually gloomy look in them that weirdly made her... heart skip a beat when he put his eyes on her. Which he decided to do right at this moment and her stomach dropped. He had caught her staring, but he didn't comment on it.