Oops! This image does not follow our content guidelines. To continue publishing, please remove it or upload a different image.
ask and you shall receive.
————————- I didn't go to a lot of classes for the next month. I couldn't handle the sneers and whispering.
The Friday I did go, I left halfway through.
The following Monday I walk into Potions, nearly late again. Two seats were left, one next to Jessie, the other next to—My eyes lock with Regulus'. I can hear and see the gossip going back and forth between my peers.
'She's such a fucking freak.'
"She should be in Azkaban for what she did.'
'You know she nearly killed him, right?'
I take an internal deep breath and make my way to where Regulus sat.
I sit and get my supplies out for the lesson. As I pull my quill out, I realize I forgot my ink, knowing the bottle was sitting pretty on my desk in the dorms.
I glance to my left, catching both pairs of two Ravenclaw eyes that soon turned, turned to hold in laughter while they whispered to one another. I felt my eyes prick with hot tears. I set down my quill and put my hands in my lap, picking at the skin on my knuckles. Pinching with my grown out nails, digging into the skin.
Regulus clearing his throat pulls me from my thoughts, I jump slightly, and release the grip I have on my finger, "We can um, we can share my ink," He moves the bottle to the middle of the table, "If you want to." He breathes.
I keep the gaze for a moment before blinking and replying, "Thanks. I usually check my bag before I leave, I-" I look back down at my hands, "Thank you." I let out softly.
Regulus nods with a half smile in return as he takes the cap off the bottle of watered obsidian. Slughorn begins his lesson, but the only thing I can focus on was Regulus. How concentrated he was on the lesson with his brow furrowed, the way he continued to tell me throughout that I could 'copy his notes' when he caught me staring, the way his veins flexed beneath his skin when he wrote feverishly.
I thought about how those same hands would feel roaming my body, how they would feel wrapped around my throat.
'You nearly killed someone last week.' My brain reminds me.
Suddenly, nothing else mattered but the guilt and embarrassment I felt. I tune everything out completely.
'You almost killed Lucius and now everyone is afraid of you. Nobody likes you.'
'What is wrong with you? Why did you do that?'
'No wonder Mother and Father think so poorly of you.'
'You're a fucking disgrace, you always have been.'
"Make sure you have your scrolls finished by Friday, no exceptions." Slughorn dismisses the class.
My eyes dart to the front of the room and my face burns of embarrassment. I hadn't paid attention to anything let alone the coursework he gave just now.
I bite the inside of my cheek before following suit with the class and packing up.
I turn to Regulus, "Hey if you don't mind, I- I actually could use those notes." I finally meet his gaze.
His cheeks flush a very pale pink, "Yeah, yeah of course I have a free period next," He stammers, "We could go to the library?" His eyes are hopeful. "That would be great, I totally spaced." I smile, picking my things up to follow him.
He waits at our desk to make sure I have everything before leading me out into the corridor. He stays by my side the entire way in a comfortable silence. We sit our bags down at a table before he finally speaks.
"I think it would be helpful to get the book Slughorn referenced, it's not in the textbook." He nods towards the stack of books. "It's an advanced potions book, but I don't have a copy with me."
"Let's split up we'll find it faster." I suggest. He nods again as we split opposite ways through the rows of old paper and bindings.
I stop at the fourth stack, scanning the shelves before the book came into view. I stand on my tippy-toes to try to reach it. My fingertips didn't come close to reaching it, I tried harder. I was so focused on getting it, I hadn't realized Regulus was on the side of me.
He reaches into my blind spot easily reaching the book, close enough to me that I feel his body heat through his uniform.
I lower myself and turn to him, we're so close he has to glance down at me. I hold my breath. "This is the one." He nearly whispers. I hold my gaze with his own. "Thanks." I say, barely audible.
He doesn't break the eye contact, "You know I don't think you're a freak right- "
My face falls and every anxiety I've felt rushes back. He stops himself mid-sentence, "That's not-I mean-That I-I don't think what happened was wrong in any way, Lucius deserved it." He stumbles over his words.
My face feels hot as my eyes fill with fresh tears that threaten to fall.
"I'm sorry, I didn't mean to-", His sentence stops as I wrap my arms around him, unable to control the silent sobs leaving me.
He sets the book on a shelf, reciprocating the embrace, lowering his head so his chin rests atop my head.
"Don't cry, hey, it's okay," He holds me tighter, "Stop listening to them. You made even me feel like a coward. Lucius was disgusting to George. You saved him."
I couldn't form a sentence. I could only bury my face deeper into his chest. I broke down in front of someone who was nearly a stranger, with no remorse. A stranger who I was infatuated with and he didn't even know it.
We stayed there in the aisles for what seemed like hours as I cried silently into him.
