under the mistletoe || jegulus

ten

It was a relatively warm morning for December, the sun was out, and Regulus was simply laying in his four poster bed while staring at the ceiling, deciding that getting up a little late wasn't going to be horrible. His mind trailed back to James and he immediately tried to shut him out; he really didn't want to think of the bespectacled boy at the moment.

Instead, he thought about Elena. When he ran off from James, he ran into the girl, who looked relieved to find him. They had a swift conversation before Regulus hastily said he had to get going and hurried off without another word, Elena staring after him with a frown. He definitely needed to apologize.

There was a loud yawn in the silence; Barty had woken up, meaning in about the next twenty seconds he was going to snatch the curtains over and then yell at Regulus to wake up, automatically making everyone else in the room wake up.

Regulus started to pretend he had just awoken as well and pulled the curtains over sleepily, raising an eyebrow at Barty, who smiled sheepishly. "Why do you always do this again?"

"Sorry, I dunno. Hurry and get ready," Barty pulled Regulus' curtains over again as Regulus opened his mouth to speak. He just rolled his eyes and started to get ready for the day; Elena had asked him to go to Hogsmeade, and he agreed.

Without waiting for Barty to walk with him, he grabbed a book and left the dungeons, entering the Great Hall and sitting down at the Slytherin table, putting food on his plate.

He was starting to get annoyed; he could feel a pair of eyes on him, and it was making him feel uncomfortable. Deciding to look up from his book, he was met with familiar hazel eyes staring at him. Regulus immediately looked away, a pink tint appearing on his cheeks.

"Oi," Evan plopped down next to Regulus and turned to him with a smile, which faded slightly, "who were you staring at? I thought you were with Elena, isn't that, like, cheating?"

"Oh my Merlin, just shut up," Regulus snapped slightly, staring at his book while trying to continue to read but failing horribly. Once he got distracted, it wasn't easy for him to get back to what he was doing.

"Guess what?" Evan changed the topic, ignoring Regulus' eye roll, "Mckinnon apparently grabbed Meadowe's hand and dragged her under every doorway, since all of them have mistletoe on them,"

"Oh, wow! That's so cool, brilliant," Regulus replied sarcastically, smiling innocently at Evan's scowl. "What?"

"Whatever. I'll go tell Barty, I think he'll like this," Evan stood up and walked away, leaving a smirking Regulus alone with his book. And then he was disrupted again, this time by Elena.

"Hey, El. I'm sorry about yesterday, I was just in a hurry to—um, the dorms. I was really tired," Regulus lied. Elena seemed to believe it, and she softly smiled at him while sitting down.

"It's okay, I guess. Are you still up for Hogsmeade?" Elena asked him. He nodded in return and she went back to her food with a relieved look, as though she was expecting him to decline.

"Every time I go near a group of people in the corridors, they always start to whisper about that stupid rumor of me dragging you under the mistletoe," Marlene complained, laying her head back onto Dorcas' chest and letting the girl run her hands through her hair.

"It's not a rumor, it's true," Dorcas replied, laughing when Marlene gave her an offended look. "I'm not lying, Marls!"

"Anyways," Marlene said in a louder voice, "remember Potter and Black? I saw those two under the mistletoe bickering about kissing and waiting for someone to come save them,"

Dorcas gave her an amused look as her fingers continued to comb through the girls' hair, "And you didn't save them? Seems like a thing you'd do, to be honest,"