Until the very End - [Harry Potter xF!Oc]

2008

Reg can't wait to go home. He's tapping his foot so much that his friend has to hit his knee with her quidditch magazine.

"Stop it! You're driving me mental!" She scowls.

"Sorry," Reggie replies, briefly glancing her way before sinking further into his seat.

"Tsk," Penny shakes her head, resuming her lecture. "You're squirming like there's a niffler in your pants."

Penny and Reg have been friends for a year and a half. They met during their first potions class and have been inseparable since. Penny is a Slytherin, and she reminds him of Mel a lot. She was the only kid who stood up for him when McLaggen started to harass him. 

Penny's a muggle-born, so she didn't understand why everyone was so intimidated by David's last name and had no problem telling him off. She's obsessed with becoming a head girl one day, so she has no patience for arrogant people. Sometimes, when something upsets her—like right now—it's very hard to look her in the eye. She's got the darkest eyes Reg has ever seen. It's scary.

He loves her though, they're similar in many ways. Penny likes to tease him saying that it's the Black blood in him, but she doesn't joke about that often, Reg doesn't find it very funny.

"You know, you have no reason to worry," he says, knowing that's part of her current grumpy mood. "My family will love you more than they love me."

"Tsk," Penny clicks her tongue again and wrinkles her nose. She's not a talkative girl, but she's very straightforward when she talks. "Don't be daft. Your family worships you."

Reg grins. His face is much lovelier when he smiles, or that's what the classmates who have a crush on him always say. "Well, your family worships you too, so you have no right to mock me."

Penny says nothing, but she smiles a little. She was adopted two years prior to finding out she was a witch, and her muggle parents received the news pretty well. Reg's met her parents, and they treat her like she's made of angel dust.

"Don't try to cheer me up by being condescending, that's what I'm saying. I'd appreciate it better if you were honest."

"I'm being honest," he raises a brow. "You underestimate how my mum and sister feel about strangers. But you'll know what I mean once we—"

The door to their compartment opens and Reg's guts tangle as soon as he locks eyes with David McLaggen. The boy is looking at him with a lopsided smirk.

"What?" Reg scowls.

"Just came to drop a dung in its rightful place."

One of his friends drags forward two smaller forms, Reg's blood boils as soon as he spots the kids behind the older Gryffindors.

"Layla!" Penny gasps. "Finn!"

"What did you do to them?" Reg stands up and elbows the older kids out of the way to examine his friends.

"We didn't do anything," David snorts, already walking away. "Ask them—while you're at it tell them to never try something like that again, or next time we won't be so generous."

Penny and Reg carry the second-years inside their compartment. Layla, a second-year Gryffindor, is wet from head to toe and smells like she took a dive inside a dumpster. Finn, second-year Ravenclaw, is also wet, but he's more awake than Layla and he's fuming.

"I'm going to drown you in Granpa's pond as soon as we get there, Layla," he growls, pulling the cloak off his body grumpily.

"What happened?" Reg questions.

"This idiot happened!" Finn points at his cousin in outrage. "Layla tried to get your book back!"

Penny and Reg look at the blonde girl with matching scowls. "I told you to drop it," the boy says.