What's In a Name? | Regulus Black | Marauders Era

13

It had been over a fortnight since Malia had cut off all ties with the blue-eyed scum that was more commonly known as Regulus Black. Her overall routine didn't change much: lessons, hanging out with Dia, Bailey and Juno, sassing some Slytherins, spending time with the Marauders. The only difference was that every night a different Ravenclaw student would approach her in the common room and tell her that someone was at the door for her. Malia knew who it was and, despite being refused every single evening, Regulus was still trying every possible tactic to earn back Malia's respect. So far she had been bought flowers and chocolate; had a howler sing her a tune in which 'Malia' was rhymed very poorly with 'she's not snarly, her' and 'there was never more gnarly a girl'; and had her bed made every morning by an eager, little house elf who only had glowing appraisals for "Master Black". Malia didn't care to know what Regulus was attempting that evening and merely sent a small smile to the girl that had informed her of her caller, telling her to shoo him away.

"He's not going to stop, you know." Dia chirped from her reclined position on the sofa, her white-painted toenails resting daintily in Bailey's lap, "That boy is in luuuuurve."

"Oh, behave, Dia," Malia rolled her eyes and a sour look fell across her face, "He's just feeling guilty."

"And rightfully so." Juno murmured from behind his book and Bailey made a noise of contempt,

"You are all so quick to judge." she tutted and Malia's eyes slowly rolled towards her,

"If you had seen what they were doing to that poor First Year, Bails, you'd have the same distaste for Black that I do."

"You said he wasn't involved."

"Well, he certainly made no efforts to stop it." Malia explained for what seemed like the hundredth time, "It has been my decision to stop being friends with him, Bailey. It doesn't matter how many times you flash those big brown eyes at me." Malia's tone was decisive and Bailey sensed that she wasn't going to appeal to her sensitive side. She was about to slump down on the sofa, dejected, when she was overcome with a wave of genius.

"I'm just sad for Sirius." she said with a long sigh and had to bite back a smirk as Malia took the bait and her brow furrowed,

"Sirius?" she asked and Bailey looked up, pretending to be slightly surprised that her comment was of note,

"It's just," she made a show of playing with her sleeves, "I know how much he liked being able to spend some more time with his brother. He may be too proud to approach him himself but I think he was using Regulus' friendship with you to keep an eye on him."

Bailey's plan had worked exactly as she had intended and Malia sat in a contemplative silence, softly playing with her bottom lip in deep thought. She hadn't considered Sirius' feelings about the rapid decline in her relationship with Regulus. In fact, she had presumed that he would be glad to see the end of it. But if what Bailey said was true, and she was his girlfriend, was Sirius' one remaining familial relationship worth less than her pride? This was a major hurdle in Malia's plan which was, presently, to simply pretend that Regulus didn't and had never existed and she had refrained from ever torturing herself with his company. But, thinking about it, Malia was never truly miserable in Regulus' presence. Sure he was a pompous wanker with an ego that was much larger than his knob, but he was arguably witty and intelligent plus, he was not exactly hard to look at. Malia gritted her teeth. She knew what was going to happen. Sirius was one of her favourite people in the world and if her friendship with Regulus meant there was a reconciliation in the works for the two brothers, she was going to have to go and bloody accept his apology. She winced at the thought of the knock her ego was going to take as she swallowed her pride and faced the annoyingly handsome mug of Regulus wanking Black.