Don't Tell Anyone About This | Regulus Black

Chapter Thirteen

"You can't be telling me this is seriously the first common room party you've been to?" Edgar shook his head in despair as he sat beside Nera in the Gryffindor common room.

"I could lie and say it isn't." She offered with a half-smile as he handed her a drink.
Edgar chuckled beside her, and then took a sip from his own cup. "Well, it's probably not as amazing as everyone always makes it out to be."

She knew he was only saying that to make her feel better - to make her feel as if she hadn't missed out on anything over the years.

Nera and Edgar were firmly friends again, and had even watched the quidditch match together even though they were supporting opposing teams. As expected, Gryffindor had prevailed, and Edgar, being as popular as he was, had found himself invited to the party celebrating his house's defeat nevertheless.
Once Edgar was invited, he then extended the invitation to both Nera and Ada - who'd also begrudgingly watched the match with them. As it turned out, Ada was not at all a fan of sports, and spent the whole time muttering about how ridiculous the whole thing was.

As it turned out, Ada was also not one for parties. At that moment in time, she was sat in an armchair (pushed up against the wall and out of the way), arms folded, and frowning out at the crowd.

"It's a bit loud, don't you think?" Edgar chuckled as he gestured out to the crowd in the centre of the room that was swaying to the music shaking through the floor and walls.
His point was proven by the fact that Nera only heard about half of what he said.

She opened her mouth to ask him to repeat himself, when she was sharply elbowed in the back by someone stumbling into her.
"Ow!" Nera fell forwards slightly, and was quickly caught by Edgar before she knocked him off his feet as well.
He smiled, "Steady on."

Nera's glasses had slipped off the top of her face and almost off the end of her nose. She blushed as she lifted up her glasses and hooked them into the neckline of her top.

"Oh, sorry, didn't see you there!" A familiar voice spoke loudly, confidently, over the music.
Nera turned around, Edgar's hand momentarily rested on her back as she shuffled her to stand beside him, and she saw Sirius Black had been the one to knock into her.

"Hey, Black." Edgar chuckled as the two boys embraced and patted each other on the back, "Long time no see."
Sirius combed a hand through his hair and grinned, "Well, what can I say? Been busy."

Edgar didn't laugh. He forced out a smile and tentatively, knowing he may be crossing a line but also desperate to know more, he said, "I've heard. You can barely move in the castle without hearing the rumours."

"Is that so?" Sirius smirked and smugly raised an eyebrow. He liked to hear that his personal life could have such an effect on everyone at Hogwarts. If he was, as his mother would say, worthless, then why did so many people care about what happened to him?

"Yeah..." Edgar nodded slowly, and subtlety pressed further, "Is everything alright now?"

"Sorry, didn't see you there." Sirius turned to Nera, smiled, and held out his hand as if he were brushing past Edgar's question. Everybody knew there was little point in Sirius introducing himself, so as Nera shook his hand, she greeted, "It's-it's alright. I'm Nera."
"Pleasure." He bowed his head.

Then, surprisingly, Sirius turned back to Edgar and said, "Everything is alright on my end. I'm living with James. It's particularly nice to get out of the London air."

So Sirius had definitely left home, Nera thought, and he was staying at James Potter's house. She didn't quite know how, but that might have some link to why Regulus Black had been acting so odd since their return to Hogwarts.

"Well, Merlin knows you don't get enough clean air at Hogwarts." Edgar joked.

Sirius scoffed merrily, pretended to hit Edgar, nodded his head towards Nera, and quickly disappeared into the crowd again. The Gryffindor boy was quite like a hurricane that barrelled into your life and, before you knew what was going on, then vanished just as suddenly.

"He still seems a bit off." Edgar quietly remarked, "Really wouldn't like to know what his summer was like."
Nera was conflicted - she wasn't sure whether she wanted to know more or know less. She was curious, but also well aware that it was none of her business.

After a quick mental deliberation, Nera settled on butting out of stuff that didn't concern her. She swiftly moved the conversation on. "So is this what we do then? At a party? Just stand and... Wait?"
"Yeah, exactly." Edgar chuckled, "Did you not know? Parties aren't meant to be fun."

Nera finished her drink and couldn't resist smiling as she retorted, "Alright, smart arse. What do we do now then?"
"Walk around and talk to people, really." He replied, and without looking at her, without seeing her expression of nervousness, he added, "But I don't imagine that's your idea of fun, so we shan't to that."

"Maybe Ada has come back down from the dormitory?" Nera suggested.
He nodded slowly, then said, "Oh, yeah, I did see her just a moment ago, actually."
Brilliant! Where?"

Ada had, in fact, begrudgingly returned to the party. After returning from the quidditch match and changing into some new, clean clothes, she'd thought about taking a nap until the party was over. She had tried to do that, but after about ten minutes it was still too noisy to fall asleep, so Ada decided to go and find Nera.
Unsurprisingly, Ada thought, Nera was with Edgar.

"Hey, guys." Ada greeted as she tightened the ponytail her hair was messily pulled into.

"I'm surprised you actually came back to the party." Nera said with a warm smile.
Ada shrugged and cheekily quipped, "Well, I knew you wouldn't be having any fun without me. I couldn't let you suffer for too long."

The conversation then moved on to the events of the quidditch match they'd watched together earlier. Ada wasn't particularly interested like the others, so her mind easily wandered off topic.

Nera had explained the details of her falling out with Edgar to Ada a couple of days ago. Ada didn't really form much of an opinion on the matter, given it had been resolved by the time she heard of it. One thing she did confidently believe, though, was that Edgar liked Nera. Not just liked, obviously, but fancied.
Ada was almost certain in that belief, and was even a little surprise that Nera hadn't picked up on the hints already. The Hufflepuff boy practically followed her around like a lost dog.

Ada didn't dislike Edgar at all. Quite the opposite, really. She thought he was perfectly charming and very unlikely to hurt Nera - which was Ada's main concern. She just wasn't quite sure that Edgar was going to get the outcome he was hoping for.

"Do you not think the Hufflepuffs will have a problem with you attending a party to celebrate their defeat?" Ada heard Nera playfully ask Edgar as she tuned back into the conversation.

He laughed, his cheeks red as he replied, "Our quidditch hopes are dismal at best. As long as I'm not celebrating a Slytherin win then it's all good."
"The tournaments would be a lot easier if we did support Slytherin - at least there'd be no worries about losing!" Nera quipped. Ada smiled, happy that her friend was comfortable enough to be unusually cheeky.

It finally felt like Nera was starting to experience what the normal student experience was like. She had some friends that were kind and funny. She was struggling to keep on top of her school work - like every other student. She felt camaraderie at the quidditch match, and now she'd been invited to an actual party.
It was like something out of a movie. Even though Nera wasn't quite comfortable, and still wasn't particularly adept at conversation, she was glad she at least had the chance of experiencing these occasions. It was almost like, after four years of waiting, her life had finally begun. But... Maybe that was the drink talking.