Disclaimer: Anything you recognize property of JK Rowling. Lyrics featured in this fic from ADELE's 'Set Fire to the Rain'.
Challenge: Song of the Week Mini-Competition no. 4 by
Summary: When your broken, what happens when the person you trust your heart to, isn't what you think he is? Dark fic. Regulus/OC.
Pyromaniac
I let if fall, my heart
And as it fell, you rose to claim it
It was dark and I was over
Until you kissed my lips and you saved me
She'd always been a loser, not like him. She knew that. He was Slytherin's golden seeker. A pureblood, a Black. Handsome as he was brooding, and she was nothing but a half-blood, the lowest of the low in Slytherin. Worse yet, everyone thought that she was crazy and maybe she was a little bit unbalanced, a little too intense, a little too manic.
But then she couldn't help falling for him. He was like the flame in the dark. He saw through her darkness, and he lit it on fire, lighting every corner inside her. He saved her from being friendless, from the ridicule of their housemates. He was unexpectedly kind to her, and he became her knight in emerald and silver armor. He was her prince, became her everything with the progress of time.
His kisses.. those did something to her. Something that was so beautiful it was excruciating. Nothing could make her feel so alive and yet...
My hands, they're strong
But my knees were far too weak
To stand in your arms
Without falling to your feet
They always left her feeling weak. It was like his kisses ignited her and she caught fire. Her body became like a house enflamed, his kiss was the fuel that poured into her and caused the flames to lick at every surface under her skin. She'd grow weak, the flames crumbled and destroyed her framework. She could fall to pieces at his feet, and had to cling to him in order not to.
The knowledge that she wasn't good enough never could let her enjoy her one happiness in peace. In the dark corners of her mind, those thoughts spread like kerosene. She never expressed them outwardly, that would be dangerous, like striking a match in her mind and watching it explode.
It would have been wise of her, to be suspicious, like any normal Slytherin would be. After all, why would Slytherin's prejudiced prince love the half-blood pariah? The dangerous, pyromaniac loser? But she was stupid... pathetic. She wanted to believe and indulge in what she saw, taking it all to be real and sincere.
When laying with you
I could stay there, close my eyes
Feel you here, forever
You and me together, nothing is better
There were moments that it hurt to remember. Physically. Moments she wanted to forget. Bury away. Sometimes she let herself burn, because at least then she could get her mind off him, if only until it healed. However, it was never long enough and she would recall what it was like, simply to lay in his arms, her face cradled in his chest. Their favorite spot under a tree on the school grounds.
The feel of his hands running through her long locks, they cradled her into a false sense of security, and she thought that it meant they would be together forever. There under a tree, forever in love, like Merlin and Vivian. But Vivian didn't love Merlin, she used him and trapped him inside a tree after learning his secrets... that was smart on her part.
'Cause there's a side to you that I never knew, never knew
All the things you'd say, they were never true, never true
She wouldn't have had her heart-broken if she were smart. But she hadn't been, and he hadn't simply broken her heart, he had crushed it.
She could still remember, walking to their tree, and there was her Regulus with Slytherin's current princess, Ophelia Wilkes. His hands were on her tiny waist, while one of hers rested on one of his broad shoulders, and the other was entrenched in his unruly, dark locks. Their lips were pressed almost passionately together, and she the pathetic loser she was could only stand and watch while her heart split and her breath escaped.
She hadn't just caught him, he had meant for her to catch him. Regulus pulled away from Ophelia and he turned to her with cold eyes before walking over. "That's the kind of girl I will marry," he explained, cruelly brushing tears that streaked down her cheeks away. "You're just someone to pass the time. Understand?"
She understood, but what she couldn't understand how her savior could become suddenly so cold and cruel to her. She couldn't understand how the lovely, quiet boy who only ever smiled for her, could suddenly hurt her like this. She didn't understand how he could tell her he loved her, tell her she was the most beautiful girl he'd ever set his eyes on, and yet rip her heart out and tell her she was worthless.
I set fire, to the rain
And I threw us into the flames
Where I felt somethin' die, 'cause I knew that was the last time
She knew the spell, she was sure that she could control it, but not in her current emotional state. But at that moment, she didn't care, as she watched him walk away, leading princess away by the hand.
Sometimes she'd feared that when he'd walk away, he wouldn't come back. This time she knew that when he walked away, he really wouldn't. She felt something inside her snap, as her hand unconsciously reached into her robe pocket and pulled out her wand. She unleashed the spell, the loud roar and rush of blinding light that split from her wand made her heart sore. With wide, manic eyes, she watched as the flames licked their path up the grass and to their beloved tree, consuming it.
She then turned, and watched as the flamed beasts went after them, transforming, chasing with the intent to devour and kill. She watched as Regulus and Ophelia turned, watched the horror on their faces as they both started to sprint away towards the castle as if that would save them.
Burning branches, they rained down around her, but she didn't take note, not even when they came close enough that she could feel the infernal heat. She was too intent watching the flames, they were beautiful, they danced for her and transformed and listened.
Ophelia got ahead, she reached the school and disappeared inside. Regulus, he stopped on the stairs and turned to look at her with a pained look. He let the flames approach too close as he merely looked at her with pleading dark eyes; she felt her heart leap into her throat and just as fast as the Fiendyre had appeared it died away. It never touched him. She couldn't let the flames have him, no matter how much he had hurt her.
Sometimes I wake up by the door,
That heart you caught must be waiting for you
Even now when we're already over
I can't keep myself from looking for you
Because she was a pyromaniac loser, and he was still her prince, and she was so pathetic and in love that she couldn't keep from acknowledging that she had never been good enough. That she was lucky to have his love when she did. And sometimes, she woke up by the entrance of Slytherin, waiting his return from his latest escapade with whatever pureblood witch he had caught and enflamed.
She was always waiting for him.
Sometimes she lay curled in herself with the knowledge that even after he shattered her heart, he had saved her from expulsion, saved her from prison. She couldn't understand why he would do that, if he hadn't really loved her.
But in the end, the pain of his being gone was too much. Standing outside Number 12 Grimmauld Place the summer after finishing school, she called her farewell and hoped that she would wait for him, before setting her last fire.
~Fin~