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04. letters
______________
Dear Reg,
Is it okay if I call you that? 'Regulus' is just a mouthful sometimes, don't you think? You probably don't. But, I do.
Have you gotten my other letters?
Thea can be quite clumsy.
Sometimes she accidentally drops letters and doesn't realize it until she's gotten to the recipient's home. She's rather...witty, to put it nicely.
As I was saying, did Thea not get the letters to you? I'm assuming that's why you haven't responded.
You always respond.
I'll keep this letter short just in case you have gotten my letters, but just don't have the will to read them.
My summer has been nice as I hope yours has been.
Lion has been awfully obnoxious about the upcoming year. He's nervous to let me go back as he always is. It just feels slightly different this time. He hugged me one night until he fell asleep.
He hasn't done that since you-know-what.
I also tried a new flavor of ice cream— oranges sherbet. It's my favorite. Gone is the strawberry and in is the orange.
I have to take you to the shop one day to try it out. It's quaint, but comforting. Lion took Papa there as a child. Now, he takes me.
And later, I shall take you.
I now realize that I'm rambling, aren't I?
Regardless, I hope this letter reaches you before we board the train for Hogwarts.
Don't be a stranger, Reggie.
Your friend, Ivy.
As Ivy stood in front of Regulus with a crestfallen face, she can feel anger rise within her. She'd written him a total of five letters over the summer and not once had he written her back. Not once had she seen his onyx owl harshly tapping against her window with his talon before flying away.
Not once.
She was furious.
"You're alive," she sneered at him.
The boy had the nerve to look taken aback as he shut the bathroom door behind him. He noticed the roots of her hair becoming a currant color against the harshness of her natural brown. That was new.
He raised his eyebrow at her and quipped, "Why wouldn't I be alive?"
"You never responded."
"I was busy."
Ivy felt her shoulders drop as she examined his face further.
His eyes seemed to be sunken in and dull in color. You'd be surprised how bright the color grey could be. His eyes looked down at her in boredom. His shoulders were tense and he stood up straight, stiff as a board. Fists were clenched into balls at his sides and you could almost see them shaking if you looked close enough.
Regulus Black had changed.
Ivy just didn't know how deep the change went.
"Did you even get my letters?" She inquired in a quiet tone.
Regulus nodded, "I got them."
The girl looked down at her shoes and focused on the scuffs. She counted them as a way to calm her unsteady emotions— anger, sadness, annoyance. There was eight scuffs in total and she could see the thin strap that ran across the top of her feet was beginning to fray.
She would have to buy new ones.
"Did you read them?"
The boy looked away from her.
Perhaps he could lie and tell her that he didn't open all five of her letters. Even though, he did.
He spent his summer waiting for Thea, the pigeon, to come crashing into his window, signaling her arrival with Ivy's letters.
Regulus read her letters. He read them multiple times when the screaming and arguing in his house became too much to cope with alone in the darkness of his room— even when there was sunlight.
He read her letters when his brother and parents screamed at one another.
He read her letters when his brother screamed in pain from their parents.
He read her letters when his brother left.
Regulus Black read her letters.
But still, he replied, "Didn't have the chance."
Ivy nodded and began to tug at her tie, loosening its hold around her neck. It felt too tight at the moment. Way too tight.
The girl took a step back and failed to notice the boy's eyes look away from her as he willed himself to commit to the bit. By this time next year, he would be one of them. The them being the people who killed her father because even though Ivy Bardot wasn't one hundred percent sure about that theory, Regulus Black knew the theory was actual.
He was being selfish when it came to being friends with her. But now, he decided was the time to be even more selfish— keep her at a distance to protect himself and her.
She was his friend.
The boy watched as her chest rose up and down with slow and steady breaths though he could tell her mind was racing with thoughts of why. Why is he acting this way? Why is pushing her away. Why is he being so mean?
Regulus Black was usually nice to her.
What changed?
Her eyes began to change from brown to amber to hazel before landing on his own and morphing into her original color, though he could tell from the sunlight peeking through the compartments beside them, that her pupils were small.
Pupils tend to change in size, whether that's from large to small when looking at a nearby object or one at a distance. More specifically, they will become smaller when looking at a distant object.
Ivy's pupils turned small even though he was right in front of her.
The teenage girl took a step away, feeling her back touch the door of a compartment and smiled at the teenage boy.
Her smile held no malice. It held no grudge. It held nothing.
Ivy walked away from and muttered, "I'll talk to you later."
She didn't slow her steps or linger long enough to hear his response because it would've been futile. The boy simply walked the opposite way and only looked back at her once before continuing his journey to his other "friends."
Ivy wasn't sure how she felt. Regulus Black had been classified as her friend since that night in second year when he completed an assignment for her. She can remember being so excited and full of happiness that she had finally made a friend.
In first year, she didn't talk. She was too scared to open her mouth because she was afraid of what would come out. Would she wail? Would it just be her voice?
She didn't know.
Though Regulus had his moments when he snapped at her when she unknowingly pried too far into his life, he would apologize in his own way. The way that included him helping her with Astronomy homework. He had his moments when he would ignore her when he was around Rosier and Barty Crouch. She would discreetly wave and he would glance away from her.
Perhaps they weren't friends.
She doesn't know.
An 'umph' came out of her mouth as she felt her body knock into another.
She'd been aimlessly walking back to the compartment where Dorcas was. Her head was angled down, looking at her shoes as she mulled over what she thought was a friendship with Regulus Black.
Ivy groaned as she felt her bottom harshly hit the carpeted floor of the train. She felt a stinging and tingling sensation spread throughout her legs as she sat there with her hands behind her, catching herself from hitting her head on the floor.
She opened her eyes to find a hazel eyed boy looking down at her with frantic eyes and his glasses tipping to the left side, leaving them crooked and slowly sliding off the bridge of his nose.
The boy shot out his hand in a hurry as he used his other to beckon her to grab it. He waved his right hand repeatedly and wiggled the fingers on his left.
Ivy ignored his hand and stood up on her own.
She began to apologize, "I wasn't watching where I was going. I'm so sorry."
The boy waved off her apology and stuck his hands into his pockets, "No, no, it's okay. I'm the one who completely fucking bull dozed you!"
The air suddenly turned awkward as the two stood, looking at each other, waiting for the other to make a move. Whether that move was to walk away or speak, he didn't know.
However, it seemed the girl made the decision for them both as she took a step closer and grabbed her wand from where it was tucked into her plaid skirt.
Cautiously, she used the tip of it to push the boy's glasses further up the bridge of his nose and tilting it to remain even.
The whole time, the boy held his breath, his cheeks slightly puffed out as he was, admittingly, the tiniest bit frightened when he saw her pull out her wand.
He'd suffered too many hexes.
But, when she only used it to fix his glasses— albeit, it didn't actually work as the spectacles continued to slightly favor the left side— he felt relieved.
She wasn't going to hex him.
He kept his eyes on her as she slipped her wand back into the waistband of her skirt and moved her hair out of her face.
She took a step back and her nose crinkled in frustration for his glasses still being somewhat crooked.
The boy cracked a smile, "They've always been like this..."
Ivy stared at him. Her mouth was slightly open as her tongue prodded the small gal between her two front teeth. It was one of her nervous tactics.
James smiled at her with two deep dimples on display. "This is the part where you tell me your name..."
