RISE OF THE FALL | R.B.

LXXXI.

Disclaimer: The Harry Potter World belongs to J.K. Rowling.

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CHAPTER LXXXI.

"Do you think the pink dress is nicer, or just the white one?" Reia asked, tapping her fingers absently against the back of Regulus' hand as they glided down the aisle, making their way through the muggle wedding boutique.

"I think you'd like beautiful in any coloured dress," Regulus said with a small smile, "It doesn't matter which colour you wear."

"But I can't wear both! I still have to decide," Reia said, with a mixture of amusement, joy and exasperation in her voice.

"I like the white one," He finally said, after a long moment of consideration, "Although, I like the flowers on the pink one."

"Mmm," She murmured, her eyes sliding across the racks of different white dresses, hoping to find one that would catch her eye.

"We should send the invites out soon," Regulus said, initiating conversation, "The children...they'd want to come, right?"

"If they want to, I'll arrange to bring them home from school for the weekend," She said absently, her gaze still fixated on the countless dresses that hung before her. She'd never seen so many dresses in one place before; as a child, she'd barely ever gotten any chance to wear dress robes or dresses, so the sight of so many of them was mesmerizing.

Regulus had probably seen twice as many dresses as Reia had in their lifetimes.

He wrapped his arm around her shoulders and kissed the side of her head.

***

Caelum should not have kissed his classmate. He'd known it'd only make it awkward if it didn't work out like he'd wanted it to.

But it had just happened—in the library, they'd been sitting directly opposite each other, and there was no one else around, and they'd just inched closer and closer until finally they'd touched.

Afterwards, after the adrenaline had died down and the energy of the moment had passed, Caelum had realised what he'd done and immediately apologised, even though they'd asked each other if they wanted to kiss before it happened anyway.

Regardless, Caelum apologised, and was met with equally as frantic, "No, no, you didn't do anything wrong, we both agreed to it"s.

But as they left the library together after packing up their books, Caelum suddenly felt inclined to hold their hand, and he did; reaching out tentatively and taking their fingers first, before they did the same in return.

Caelum couldn't help the half-smile that reached his lips as giddiness shot through him and made his smile extend into a full-on grin.

The kiss was nice—sonice. Caelum liked it, and still couldn't get over the feelings.

Based on the equally as ecstatic smile that Ernie Macmillan returned to him, Caelum assumed that he was thinking the same things.

They shouldn't have let that adrenaline take them to the Forbidden Forest.

Caelum would regret this moment of foolishness forever.

***

Reia made sure to lock the house door behind her as she made her way down Grimmauld Place, towards the muggle flower shop down the road to check how the preparation of the flowers for their wedding was going.

Their wedding was tomorrow evening, and they'd collect the flowers in the morning. She hoped the flower shop was still open—it wasa little bit late in the evening.