"How did you know it was time to leave?"
"Do you feel sick to your stomach every waking moment in that house?"
Romina stepped back for a moment and let out the breath she did not even realize she had been holding. "Y-Yes." she admitted sheepishly...
Severus was discharged out of Madam Pince's care within a day or two from his accident. He refused to speak up about what occurred and the rest of the group of Slytherins chalked it up to his embarrassment for being the victim of a high-stakes prank, again.
Even with having little to no trust in the boy, Romina still did feel sorry for him. He ruined any chance of friendship with the one person he knew, and loved, the longest. And Lily, well, she was a force to be reckoned with and certainly the type of friend anyone would want in their corner.
"I can't believe this year is already almost over." Romina sighed softly as her spoon swirled around in the bowl before her, half empty now that she had eaten some of the porridge. It was still fairly early in the morning, and the Great Hall was slowly starting to fill up with students and incessant discussions about the latest gossip.
Regulus was reading a potions text, grabbing a piece of toast, and taking a bite without looking up. "Before we know it, we'll be out of here for good."
"Don't sound so excited about that. Hogwarts has been our home for almost half of our lives'." Romina shot back, still looking down at her bowl of porridge before looking up. Almost immediately, she made eye contact with the last person she wanted to see.
Sirius was a few feet away from the rest of the Marauders and Romina still didn't know the truth behind the prank gone wrong but realized it had to be awfully significant for the band of brothers to be broken apart.
Neither of them looked away. There was a strange pull between the two and without any legitimate communication, Romina knew she would be seeing him later. The hurt behind his eyes was apparent all the way across the great hall and that sickening, twisting feeling started back up in the pit of her belly before she finally tore her eyes apart and looked over to where Lily, James, Peter, and Remus were seated.
Remus looked rough, but she noticed more and more that he looked like this often. James was busy leaning over the table trying to get Lily's attention and although she was too far away to hear the words that he was saying but judging by the look on Lily's face she could just about guess what they were.
"What are you looking at?" Regulus' question brought her out of her daze, and she immediately turned to look over at him. She knew she was caught and to try and throw him off her trail she said the first thing that came to her mind, "Just curious about why your brother is sitting so far away from his ragtag group of friends." She forced a laugh and finished her goblet of pumpkin juice.
Regulus followed her gaze and found himself curious about the sudden shift between the group now, too. "Serves him right, I'm sure."
Romina tried her best to hide her disapproval and placed her spoon down. "Right, I'm sure." She cleared her throat and grabbed her bag before tugging at Regulus' robes. "Let's go, before we're late!"
