Three days later, Lucius sat in a private corner of the library where he had agreed to meet Reg. He was still very much on his I-just-got-a-boyfriend-I'm-so-in-love high. He heard the sound of footsteps approaching the secluded corner and stood up. When he saw Reg, a huge smile spread across his face but as Reg got closer and he was able to see the expression on his boyfriend's face, it quickly vanished.

"What's wrong?" Lucius asked.

"They know," Regulus replied, handing Luc the letter that he was holding.

"Who knows?"

"Just read the letter."

Lucius quickly read the letter, his heart sinking. "Who told them?"

"We can worry about that later. But for now…we can't do this."

"Oh."

"Come on Luc, I don't like it either, but you read the letter. They'll disown us. We'll have nothing. Sure, maybe if this had come further down the track, we could have tried to get through it, we could have fought them. But it's been three days. We don't know how well this work anyway."

"Right."

"Oh Luc. Don't be sad. Maybe later on, things will change. We just need to let them calm down. You know what they're like."

"They're our parents! We can't let them control our lives! Where will that leave us?"

"Lucius, you know perfectly well that the last names that we're born with mean that they feel they have every right to control and influence our lives however they wish. We'll grow up. Your parents will marry you off to…oh, I don't know, Narcissa or someone. You'll have a child, maybe two or three. Your parents will be so proud of their son. I don't fit into that picture."

Tears began to well in Lucius' eyes. "I can make you fit. I'll fight for you."

"No. I can't. Luc, this is for you. You're going to be happy. You'll thank me one day. You know what our families are like. If we try to fight them, they'll make us pay and I don't want you to go through that for anyone. Especially not me. This is for you too. We can't do this."

"Why are you doing this?" Lucius asked the hurt clear in this voice.

Regulus turned away. "Don't do this, Luc. Be happy. It hurts me too, but we can't."

"Be happy? How do you expect me to do that? I've been in love with you for a long time now, Reg. Then finally, finally I thought I had a chance. And then I was happy. But I can't be happy letting you go," Lucius said through his tears.

Regulus couldn't meet Luc's eyes; he knew it would crush the last of the self-control he was desperately holding onto. "It's for now Luc. Maybe, if we get through this…but for now, while there are these threats, I can't do this. I can't ruin your future too. Mine, I can deal with, but I couldn't do that to someone else. Especially not someone I care about."

"Don't you get it? I don't want that! I want you!"

"Luc…"

"I do! And I'm not afraid to say it."

"I'm not sure…Luc, I do care about you, but I'm not sure our relationship has progressed enough yet for me to…fight the hardest fight for it."

"We had sex and you don't think our relationship is progressed enough?"

"We were drunk! And it's more than that. I can't explain it, but we haven't been going out for very long. Like I said, maybe when they calm down, we can try it again. Keep it more secret and just see how it goes without all of this panic and people watching every move. Then if that works and we still feel this way about each other, we can discuss how we deal with our parents. Whether we fight them."

"And for now?"

"For now, we just go back to what we had before, I guess."

Lucius stared at Reg for a moment and then nodded. "I guess. I wish this hadn't happened."

Regulus sighed. "Me too, Luc."

"Well, are we going to do our work then?"

Regulus nodded. The pair sat down at a table, Lucius pulled out his Charms essay and Regulus pulled out the book that he had been reading and pushed his own essay towards Luc. The pair sat in silence, trying to keep themselves distracted from their deep internal pain.