Smile When You Dive In

Chapter 24

"Look, just don't say anything weird."

Regulus was doing his best to sound stern with Carmen and Willa as he led them down the secret tunnel to Honeydukes. Having always been the baby of the family, he wasn't sure that he was doing a very good job of it, and Carmen's laughter confirmed that for him. Behind him, she had dressed up for the occasion, no matter how many times he had told her to just keep her uniform on. Instead, she wore the sparkly lavender dress that her mother had sent for her last birthday, with her dark hair twisted up into braided buns. When she walked down into the common room, Regulus had put his face in his hands, reminding her that they weren't going to a party, and that she was going to raise suspicion walking through school dressed like that. But when he turned to Willa to settle the issue for him, she had only told Carmen that she looked very pretty and shrugged helplessly at Regulus so he had, as usual, found himself outvoted.

"What could we possibly say that's weirder than the stuff you say yourself?" Carmen asked him. She was still laughing, and he pretended to laugh along before frowning at her.

"Just don't say anything to embarrass me on purpose."

"But that's what friends are for!" She skipped ahead of Regulus, twirling around to give him a mischievous grin. Next to him, Willa linked her arm with his.

"She's only teasing."

"Yeah, well it's not very funny." Regulus grumbled, very much regretting bringing the girls along at all.

It had been James' idea. Since they were planning on spending time with Sirius and their friends during the summer, he thought it only fair that he should get to meet Regulus' friends before they went home for the holidays. To say that Regulus had not immediately been on board would be an understatement. As soon as James had suggested it, images of Carmen reeling off every embarrassing thing Regulus had ever done filled his head. He thought about Willa teasing him after the fact about the way that he acted when he was with James. Really, he couldn't think of one good thing about his friends meeting James. Unfortunately, Sirius had been right when he called Regulus a people pleaser, and he found it very difficult to say no to James, especially when he used his charm to his advantage. That was how Regulus found himself leading the girls down to 'their place'.

When they finally got down to the cellar, Regulus insisted on going in first, making up something about the shopkeepers' footsteps, and needing to make sure the coast was clear. In reality, he just wanted to see if James was already there and prepare himself accordingly for the onslaught he was about to face. He knew that he must have looked a flustered mess, but when he spotted James sitting atop a barrel and helping himself to some chocolate, he momentarily forgot why he had been nervous at all. James' smile, and the way that his eyes lit up when he saw Regulus, had such an effect on him that he only smiled back in return.

"You haven't been waiting long, have you?" He asked. "Willa and I had a prefect meeting and Slughorn kept everybody back to take pictures." He hoped that would be enough to explain the sight that James was greeted with, Regulus and Willa in their school uniforms still, and Willa dressed up to the nines like Slytherin had just won the House Cup.

"Not long enough to make a serious dent in these." He held up one of the empty wrappers as he stood, stuffing it into his pocket before sauntering over to greet the trio.

Regulus was once again faced with the horrifying reality of introducing James to his friends. James looked at him expectantly, and the girls stood with concealed smirks as they waited on him to make the first move. How was he to act, with them there? He couldn't kiss James, or do any of the other things they would usually do when they were alone together. But this was the first time that they had really been together with other people. The fact that it was with Regulus' friends, who would no doubt tease him for whatever he did later didn't help matters. After an excruciating silence, he huffed.