speak now | regulus black

11

don't wanna – haim

"i don't wanna give up on you

i don't wanna have to."

♡

Sofia didn't know what to do with herself once she got back to England. There were a few days left until she had to go back to Hogwarts and she had to face Regulus Black again. She resolved to try to take her mind off him by spending every waking moment with her siblings.

She took them to the park, to the ice rink, even to Diagon Alley after their insistence. And now she was taking Roman to the movies. She would've taken Natasha and Vanya too but Natasha had no interest in seeing that nerd film (as she'd called it), and their mum had said Vanya was too young to see it.

Sofia sat on a bench outside the game shop Roman had already spent over half an hour inside of. It was then that she spotted him.

A frown overtook Sofia's face. What the hell was happening right now?

"Are you following me?" She asked as he neared her gingerly.

Regulus scoffed. "It's not like we don't live in the same city."

"Oh and is the mall –possibly the most painfully Muggle place on Earth– somewhere you frequent? This cannot be a coincidence. You're definitely stalking me."

He sighed. "Truthfully?"

"That'd be nice."

He sat down next to her, leaving well over a foot of space between them. "I know that... you and Sirius hang out here sometimes, or at least used to and... I guess I was hoping to talk to you. I didn't actually think I'd find you here."

"You ever hear of these things called letters?"

Regulus scowled in annoyance. Sofia had weirdly missed that very unique expression of his. "For starters, I don't know your address. And I'm not fond of letters. Not to mention I hadn't actually fully thought of what I'd say to you once I saw you."

Sofia nodded, her heart starting to pick up the pace just thinking about the thing that he probably wanted to talk about. "Right. So you've got nothing to say?"

He shifted in his seat. "It's not that, it's just that my thoughts are... scrambled."

Sofia chuckled drily. "Yeah, I know the feeling."

Regulus looked at her. "Well, you're the one sending me mixed signals so..."

Sofia scoffed. "So this is all my fault?"

He shrugged. "It's not not your fault, at least. You were the one with the big speech about not being able to associate with me only to turn around and snog me in a hidden corridor later."

Sofia's jaw dropped in disbelief. "You initiated that! I take zero responsibility!"

"So I'm responsible for you not being able to keep your hands to yourself?"

The nerve of the boy! Sofia didn't know he had it in him. Or maybe she did. "That was a heat of the moment thing! And even if I did initiate it — which I'm not saying I did — it's your fault for insisting on associating with me."

"Which you have made pretty clear you have no interest in! And that's where the mixed signals come in."

Sofia groaned in frustration. Never in a million years did she think he'd make it so hard not talking to him. "Okay, so a lot of things piled up with the anti-Muggle attacks and Travers trying to kill me, and I..." she trailed off, not even sure where she was going with this. It wasn't like she thought she had been wrong in what she said to him, but the odd possibility that he might not turn out to be a blood purist after all made a very dangerous hope flutter in her chest. She didn't want to give up on him. Not just yet. "Did you mean what you said back in Durmstrang... in the infirmary? That you wouldn't let Travers hurt me."