Black Rose [Regulus Black]

18 - chocolate frogs & lion guys

"I did it," Reg announced as he swung the door to her house open. "I erased my mother's memory."

"Was it difficult?"

"No," he admitted nonchalantly, appearing completely desensitized to what he had done.

"What's that?" she asked, pointing to one of the bags he was carrying that appeared to be laden with thousands of small boxes.

He plopped down beside her on the couch, completely at ease, and took out one of the boxes. "Chocolate Frog."

She stared at it, dumbfounded. "What?"

He began opening the box, and revealed something that was pretty obvious given by the name — a chocolate frog. She wrinkled her nose when it lifted its head, wondering if that thing was actually edible and if so how could one possibly bear to eat it. He rolled his eyes upon noticing her expression.

"Don't think too much about it."

She shuddered. "How can't I."

He shrugged, and picked up a card from the box to show to her. "Each box has a card of someone renowned in the Wizarding World. Some people even collect them."

She didn't miss the way his cheeks pinked at that, and she grinned. "Do you also have a collection?"

"No," he defended, sounding adamant, but she was sure he did now.

"How many of them have you collected so far?" she asked after a brief silence. She didn't think he'd reply, but a few minutes later, he muttered.

"A hundred and nineteen unique wizards."

She decided to relieve him, and picked up the card while he started to nibble on the chocolate. Albus Dumbledore.

Eh.

She looked up to see him licking the chocolate off his fingers, and he frowned at her. "What? They're good."

Deciding to keep her mouth shut just to prevent herself from saying anything stupid, she reached over and opened one of the books he'd gotten. "Hogwarts?"

"Magic school," he spoke, his voice muffled. "Are you absolutely sure you don't want one?"

She made a dismissive sound, too engrossed in the book. She'd only just begun, when she felt something wave in front of her eyes. Reg held out a strange item towards her, and she warily took it, spinning it in between her fingers.

"Licorice wand."

"What else do you lot have? Sugar butterflies? Sugar spiders? Sugar cockroaches?"

"All of the above. There are sugared butterfly wings, and something called cluster cockroaches, but I don't think you'd like them very much."

She stared at him, waiting for him to let on that he wasn't actually serious, but he did no such thing. "You're joking."

"I'm not. See, there's this shop called Honeydukes, it's absolutely fantastic. You have all sorts of sweets in there, it's the best thing on the planet." He took out another licorice wand for himself and waved it about, looking and feeling absolutely carefree. "You even have these Blood Lollipops, I'm sure you'd bloody love it. That wasn't intended. And they also have these jellybeans, that have the most random tastes."

"Like...a banana jellybean?"

"No. I mean, yes, they do have banana jellybeans, but that's the least wild thing there."

She nodded. "I suppose your hair takes first place."

He glared at her. "It's fashionable."

"Never said it wasn't or that I didn't like it." She took another bite out of the licorice wand, savoring the taste. "What's it like in Hogwarts?"