Ultimatums

Chapter 32

Hermione turned over the note in her hand, it now crumpled from the amount of times she'd closed and reopened it.

Bring Regulus to kitchens tonight. 8 o'clock. Sirius will be there. ~ Cissa

She hadn't been able to think of much else since the fateful potions lesson. Regulus had been avoiding her, and so she'd seen hardly anything of him, Avery or Rosier. Persephone and Remus were her only company.

Hermione eyed Regulus speaking in hushed tones to Rosier across the table at breakfast, as she fiddled with Dumbledore's necklace. Making up her mind, she stood and made her way over.

She caught the end of Rosier's sentence when he caught sight of her and silenced the conversation.

☏

"You need to tell her. You can't just keep your undying love for her a secret" Rosier hissed over his pancakes.

Regulus's expression was mortified. "Undying love? I'm not in a Shakespeare play!"

"Shake who?" Rosier raised a brow.

"This Muggle writer Nita told me to read." Regulus waved a dismissive hand. "But that's not the point. It could honestly just be platonic"

Rosier shook his head almost pityingly and took a rather large bite of the pancakes, syrup dripping down his lip slightly. For Salazars sake, a Black was reading Muggle literature and said Black still wouldn't admit it. But then he got an idea "Well then, you'd be happy to hear Arlo Vint asked her to Hogsmeade"

Regulus's head snapped up, eyes wide. "And what did she say?"

"No. Though I don't see why you care. You don't like her. It's not a Shakepore play"

Rosier's smug face still remained after Regulus corrected him, but it dropped when Black was tapped on the shoulder.

"Cissa asked for us to meet her. In the kitchens at 8. I just wanted to warn you, Sirius will be there. It seems important"

Her face was set to look impassive, but Regulus had trained himself to look inbetween the cracks. And while he felt overly guilty for keeping his distance in order to figure out what to do, to say, he kept his expression as impassive as hers.

"Thank you" was all he said, and the way she bit her lip and spun away made him want to take it back.

When he saw Rosier folding his arms, he felt even worse. "That was unnecessary"

"I know" he hung his head "but I have to protect her. Even being friends with me is putting her in danger. Imagine dating. She's already wanted by the Dark Lord and I need to keep her safe."

"So pushing her away and breaking her heart is safe?" Rosier clarified, thinking back to the bond Narcissa had placed. He wondered whether the meeting was about that.

"Yes."

"But have you ever thought, Black, that maybe she doesn't want to be safe. Platonically or romantically, maybe she just wants to be with you?"

☏

Sirius walked into the kitchens to find an interesting picture.

Regulus was sitting cross legged surrounded by house elves, talking to all of them like they were wizards and they were lapping it up.

He turned to see Hermione on the complete other side of the room, stabbing aggressively at some chocolate tart. The animagi decided to approach her instead of the nervous looking Narcissa.

"What's your problem?" he asked, sliding next to her on the cold tiled countertop.

"The stupid bastard won't talk to me. Apparently the house elves are better company." she grumbled "No offence to them, they're darlings" she added slightly sweeter.