never until forever [s. black]

sixteen

katherine smiles softly as regulus and emma argue over which food is better, making her shake her head at them. they always found trivial things to argue about, then dragged katherine into it by asking her to pick a side. next to them is severus, who has his head buried in a book, ignoring them as he always did nowadays. sometimes she even wondered why he bothered to sit with them anymore. her thoughts are cut off as someone walks up them, making regulus and emma stop their arguing as they look at the person behind her.

"good evening, princess." she lets out a groan, as she recognises his voice, before turning to look at him. he had only said three words and she already  felt her annoyance increase.

"what?" she snaps, making him raise his hands up defensively with an amused look.

"no need to be hostile. just wanted to see how you are." he says innocently and regulus looks at him in disbelief.

"since when do you care about anyone but yourself, sirius?" regulus asks his older brother, who chuckles softly and shakes his head. as katherine glances at both brothers, she can't help but see the similarities, such as their long black locks and nose. yet they were still so different, regulus had greenish brown eyes, whereas sirius has much darker eyes. while she could perfectly read regulus through his eyes, sirius was another story, his dark eyes held many secrets. and if she had to be completely honest, she found sirius to be more attractive, although regulus has his own charm.

"now, brother. play nice." sirius muses, making regulus roll his eyes in amusement. it was clear to everyone that even though sirius had left his home and that he had different views to regulus, he still cares about and loves his brother. "and princess, i haven't forgotten about you."

"is there any reason there is to ask me why i'm fine? are you planning something devious to ruin my day?" katherine asks, making him shake his head as his amused smile widens.

"i think after the other day, we can safely say we probably should stop this little battle of mischief." sirius says making katherine hum softly. he wasn't wrong, they were better off not getting in any more trouble, but she certainly didn't expect him to be the first to backdown. "is it so wrong to ask a friend how they are?"

"friend? sirius, we are far from friends." she scoffs, making him put a hand on his chest dramatically and feign hurt.

"ouch, katherine. you didn't have to be so merciless about it." he says, before a smirk replaces his grin. "maybe we should try it, being a friends. wouldn't hurt anyone."

"drop it, sirius." she grumbles, not in the mood for his teasing and his smirk drops.

"i'm being serious katherine. in detention, when i said i was going to get to know, i was being serious." he says, making her look at him in disbelief, but deep down she felt slight awe. the way he sounded so determined made her heart skip a beat, for some unexplainable reason.

"why? it's been six years, sirius. don't you think it's too late for that?" she asks making him shake his head as he leans closer and her breath gets stuck at the back of her throat.

"no. meet me in the astronomy tower tonight." he says firmly, before walking away and rejoining his friends at the gryffindor table.

"what just happened?" emma asks in wonder, and katherine turns to look at her with the same bewilderment look.

"i have no idea. you're not actually going to go, are you?" regulus asks katherine and severus looks up from his book in distaste.

"no, she's not." severus says, making katherine look at him both disbelief and anger.

"excuse me? you don't get to decide for me." she snarls, annoyed by the fact that he hadn't said a word to her in days and now he did only to tell her what to do.

"he's a blood traitor, katherine. you have no business in spending your time with him." severus says, making her scoff in annoyance.

"and you have no business in telling me with who to spend my time with, regardless of their blood status." she snaps in anger and he scoffs as he closes his book, before standing up.

"the day your father hears of this, katherine." he says, in a threatening manner, making her glare at him.

"will be your last, severus." she snarls, and he scoffs before leaving the three. regulus and emma look at her in shock, unaware that the marauders had heard the whole ordeal.

"what was that about?" emma asks, making katherine shrug as she leans back.

"whatever. i'm going tonight. i don't care."