Between Fine Lines

Four

After the first time that Hermione glamoured Regulus' mark for him, Regulus made himself more noticed around the Granger house. He still didn't speak much around Mr. and Mrs. Granger, even though it was clear to him that he could openly talk about the wizarding world around Hermione's parents. There were many years missing from Regulus' life and he spent a lot of time asking Hermione questions specifically about the years that he was frozen under the lake. They talked about novels that had been released, spells that had been created, what happened during the first wizarding war, about Sirius and Remus.

The second month of staying with the Grangers, Regulus had run out of books to read.

He was combing through Hermione's copy of Fantastic Beasts for what had to have been the sixth or seventh time when a small knock came at his door. Regulus' eyes flickered up from the pages to see Hermione standing in the doorway...in... shorts?

He had still not gotten used to the concept of Muggle clothing, although he had started making himself more comfortable in cotton tees and the occasional pair of denim pants. Sure, he had been used to seeing the girls at Hogwarts in their school skirts, some of them trying to get away with shortening the hem. He moved his eyes from her calves to her face, watching her.

"Do you want to go to the library?" she questioned with a small smile. "I figured you might want to get out of the house a bit, you've not seen much but the backyard for the last thirty days."

"We're taking a trip to Hogwarts?" Regulus questioned, raising a brow and closing the book. Hermione gave him a look, which Regulus suspected was a look that Harry and Ron got often, her lips quirking up into a smile.

"The muggle, library, Black," Hermione informed him.

The muggle library? Regulus couldn't help but let out a scoff at this, watching the way Hermione's lip twisted down into a frown, his eyes moving away from the fixation he seemed to have on her mouth, refocusing on her whole face.

"So do you want to leave the house or not?"

—

The moment Regulus stepped foot into the library with Hermione, he couldn't help the impressed look that came upon his face. During his years at Hogwarts, the library was easily his most favorite location to hide away from his life. Sirius never took anything in school...well... seriously, so he was less likely to run into his brother there too.

"Do you need help?" Hermione's voice whispered, her breath a ghost along his neck, even on her tiptoes she was still a good six inches shorter than him-not that he had measured or anything, he just happened to notice one day when she was reaching for something in the cabinet on said tiptoes and then her tank top had started to rise up and expose the small of her back.

"Regulus, did you hear me?" Hermione raised a brow at him, watching as if he was almost startled from his thoughts. "No, I know where I'm going," he lied confidently, taking off toward the first room in his line of vision. He had gotten about five steps into the room when he heard giggling from the main lobby behind him, looking over his shoulder to see Hermione watching him with amusement.

"What's so funny?" he questioned, looking at her, trying to keep his voice down. Hermione pointed past him, a mischievous glint twinkling in her eye, and Regulus looked back in the direction he had been heading in to see what she was pointing at.

King Arthur Department of Children's Stories. Oh Bugger.

With a grumble under his breath, Regulus stalked back toward Hermione, who only looked more smug by the second, before coming to stop in front of her. "Alright, perhaps I may need a suggestion of where to look for novels," he admitted.