Daggers | r.a.b

confrontation

[daggers - part one]
[3rd]

She sat in the Room of Requirement alone, thinking.

She could not be more grateful that summer was over. As the two had drawn farther and farther by each passing day, James no longer offered to let her stay at chez eux, leaving her to face her family problems alone. She had arrived at the school with bruises and scars all over her where no one could see, more distant than ever, but nevertheless happy to return.

Once upon a time she might have had someone to rely on, someone who fully understood her, someone who actually could imagine what she went through, unlike Lily who had had a happy childhood despite her annoying sister, or James who had always been pampered, or even Andromeda, her new friend, a Slytherin but nonetheless kind, but did not share her dilemma despite her being looked over due to her approval of half-bloods and muggleborns.

    He could have been there for her, could have comforted her, but he didn't. What confused her was how much he had changed after the Christmas holidays in second year. He started avoiding her, standing back when she needed his defense, ignoring her when she most needed her. She thought she knew him well, though recent events proved that there was more to Regulus Black than it seemed.

    It made her upset that her friend wouldn't confide in her, that he would barely look at her, but what broke her heart the most was how he looked when she did see him.

    He looked terrible, and that was an understatement. He still looked attractive, but then she noticed his eyes were pained with bags under them, and he looked thin and bony, like skin on bones. He looked almost frightened.

    But then, it seemed like she was the only one to notice.

    Many a time she wanted to approach him, to ask him what was wrong or just to talk, but she never saw him around, and when he was around he was always with his friends, and he was always avoiding her eye.

    Not that she had been fair to him. She knew he was uncomfortable meeting her eye as she knew that she must've had a sad or disbelieving look in her eyes that she couldn't help and didn't mean to show, that he was scared of a confrontation, scared of something she didn't know of. And she hated seeing him hurting like this.

    By now it was safe to say that her life was chaotic. Which was why she was sitting in the Room of Requirement trying to sort out the whole mess.

    She had been so absorbed in her thinking that she nearly missed the sound of someone coming in from the doorway. Startled, she peeked around the bookshelf she was hiding behind, and caught a glimpse of the newcomer.

    Almost immediately, she went back behind the shelf. Regulus. She sighed.

    She stood up silently, and walked behind him.

    "Regulus."

    He turned around, surprised, then regained his poker face. "Oh...."

    An awkward silence hung between the two once best friends, their first encounter in nearly a year. Neither knew what to say.

     "How are you?" She broke the silence tentatively, fearing she would set him off.

    "Fine." He muttered, then went to open the door, but she pulled him back pleadingly.

    "Regulus, please... at least explain! Don't leave me in the dark, I'll try, I'll help you, but please, tell me?" She pleaded, sliding on the floor. Her eyes told a story of pain and sorrow, they talked directly to his heart, trying to tell him that she was there for him always.

    He gazed at her kneeling figure sorrowfully, then sighed and sat down on the ground, next to her.

    "That's better," she said softly. "Now, will you tell me what's wrong?"

    His eyes instantly filled with tears. It was the first time she had seen him entirely let down his barrier and actually cry. She immediately leaned closer and hugged him, comforting him, with her company.

    "Regulus, it's fine," she soothed him down.

    He looked up, round eyes glistening with tears, and murmured in her ear.

    "No, it's not."
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