ʏᴏᴜ ᴡᴇʀᴇ ᴏɴʟʏ ꜱᴇᴠᴇɴᴛᴇᴇɴ | 𝑅𝑒𝑔𝓊𝓁𝓊𝓈 𝐵𝓁𝒶𝒸𝓀 𝓍 𝑅𝑒𝒶𝒹𝑒𝓇

20 ✧ An Invitation and Another Slug Club

1978 March __________________ ׂׂૢ་༘࿐

"So, Y/N, your Uncle..." Horace Slughorn began. "Martin, is he still working in the Palace?"

"Oh yes, he is." Y/N nodded, comfortably situated in between Regulus and Lily, unlike the last of these dreaded events, she was much more welcomed by the Gryffindors than she was with her fellow Slytherins. Regulus was as sweet as he always was, but it felt like he was holding back - as if he became withdrawn. "He and my family don't really talk, my mother would feel her skin crawl if you called him her brother."

"Oh, I see." Slughorn nodded, taking a bite out of his own food. He chuckled a little to himself, no doubt laughing at a joke he made.

He continued on with conversation around the table, Regulus made small glances towards Y/N, hoping to gain her attention with nothing but his grey eyes. It worked as Y/N dragged her eyes from her dinner plate towards Regulus' grey ones.

"Y/N/." He said in a low voice, he rummaged through his pocket and pulled out a dark green envelope with a red wax seal. "It's from the old hag and absent-minded father."

"How are Walburga and Orion?" Y/N smiled for a moment, softening her gaze as he appeared congested at the mention of their names. Y/N had not a clue about how harsh the abuse was - the Black brothers were so different but neither seemed, at least on the surface, to be at the end of such mistreatment. "Anyway, what's the letter about?" Y/N asked, raising an eyebrow in his direction.

"I received it while getting ready, I had forgotten to give it to you during our walk to Horace." He then paused, glanced over at Slughorn, and then fixed his eyes back to Y/N's E/C ones. "You look beautiful, I was a bit... flustered so to speak." He returned her smile. "Open it, Walburga likes you more than she likes me, her own son." He then frowned. "She hasn't written to me since last year, yet she sends you something fortnightly."

"Sounds like I already have a doting possible mother-in-law, how lucky for me." She joked, taking the letter from Regulus' hands. The wax seal was red, referring to business situations, and bore the Black family crest; the letter was fairly thick and quite bumpy.

"Yes, I suppose that would work in my favour." He chuckled, looking back towards Horace as Y/N read the letter addressed to her. The letter had about two pieces of paper within if, they were kept together with a dainty bracelet which had a pattern on it; one that seemed to be familiar. The letter read as the following:

'Dearest Y/N,

I am writing to you, hoping that you are in good health and with an invitation for you. As you are well aware, Narcissa and Lucius have been betrothed to be wed, they have planned their wedding, including the date.
Narcissa has asked for you to be a bridesmaid, and I believe it would be best if you stayed with Orion, Regulus and I during the upcoming holidays so that you may have access to Narcissa and the wedding party.

Kind Regards,
Walburga'

Y/N didn't read the second bit of paper, rather she stuffed both into the envelope and was much more fixated on the bracelet. Rather than just gold links, it seemed to of been intricately bent and looped into such a design; but what truthfully boggled Y/N was that it looked very familiar. She nudged the boy next to her, he didn't look down, simply straight ahead at Slughorn.

"Reg." She whispered, earning a glance from the boy. "Psst!"

"Will you wait a moment?" Regulus asked, "Slughorn is discussing the N.E.W.Ts for potions - you should be listening."

"You should be listening." Y/N mimicked in his tone and accent. "You gave me the letters from your mum, obviously I'm not listening." She mumbled, Regulus gave her a light flick in response.

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"So, what was the letter about?" Regulus asked whilst the two had been basking in the moonlight; the moon looked like a tear drop, a strange waxing gibbous shape. "Unless of course you don't wish to tell me." He awkwardly stiffened.

"You can read it, I don't really care." She handed him the letter, on her wrist the bracelet. His gun metal grey eyes looked down towards her out stretched hand, without skipping a beat he grasped just below her wrist and pulled it closer to his eyes for inspection. "You okay?" She asked as his expression morphed into an alarmed one.

"Take it off." He demanded.

"Oh-ho-ho?" She smirked. "Which article of clothing are you referring to?"

"The bracelet; obviously." He looked away for a moment. "I refuse to have you wearing it."

"Why?" She paused, slipping her wrist from his grasp.

"You don't understand."

"Then help me to." She pushed. "Why?"

He cursed under his breath in, presumably, French. "Do you not trust me?"

"I do, but I still need to know why you're forcing it off my wrist."

"Bellatrix had these made." He stated. "It's like a way of uniting Voldemort's female inner circle, as there are so little women."

"So... it's like women in STEM but for pure-blooded supremacy?"

"Exactly, a symbol of such." He sighed. "Surely you can feel the... darkness radiating off it?"

"Yeah, but your entire family have that feeling, it felt like no coincidence that it was from Walburga." She shrugged. "Well, I suppose I'll just wear it when with other pure-bloods, which means all of the holidays."

"What?" He quirked an eyebrow at her.

"Walburga has invited me to stay with your family for the summer holidays." She then paused, looking at his mixed emotions swell in his eyes. "Narcissa has declared me one of her bridesmaids, I presume Bellatrix is to be her maid of honour."

"I'm glad you'll be staying with us for the holidays, but, I don't like the idea of you having such a symbol on your wrist for the wizarding world to see; if anyone knows what that bracelet is, you'll be thrown in Azkaban." He stated, taking her wrist once more and unclipping it from her wrist. He then slipped the bracelet into his pocket and laid a kiss on where the bracelet once was. "See?" He laughed. "I kissed it better."

Y/N laughed and laced their fingers together. "When will you man up and ask me out properly?" She asked, looking up at him.

His face lightly flushed, due to the moonlight it was as painfully obvious. "When will you man up and ask me out, huh?"

"Well, I just figured you would want to be the one to do so, as you're quite prideful." She shrugged.

"...you're not wrong, I think I would have to turn you down if you asked." He stated cooly. "I think the more dominant one in the relationship should be the one to ask the other out properly, to seal the deal." 

"Still so backwards, Reg." She smiled. "This is unsurprising."

"Me, backwards?"

"You just told me you would turn me down if I asked because you're the more dominant one." She laughed.

The two walked in silence, taking the long way to the Slytherin dungeons. The Slug Club party ended about thirty minutes ago and most people had already cleared away into their dormitories but Y/N insisted they take their time.

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