Chapter 10

Thorn awoke the next morning with a giant grin plastered across her face. She felt her cheeks flush as she recalled what she had been dreaming about and so decided to quickly have a shower and get dressed before hurrying down to breakfast. She headed through the doors into the hall to see Sirius and James sitting at Gryffindor table with their heads in their hands. "Bit hung over, are we?" she asked lightly. Sirius just groaned in response while James looked up and grinned.

"He is." He replied, "I'm just sympathising."

"What a friend you are." She said, sitting down and grabbing some toast from the centre of the table. "Heard you got Levicorpus'd last night." She said, looking back at him.

"Yeah." James said fondly with another grin. "Lily's got some real fire in her…"

"She seemed to be warming to you this year." Thorn told him. James nodded.

"I thought so." He replied, as Larne sat beside Thorn with a bright,

"G'morning."

"Indeed it is." Thorn replied, turning to smile at her.

"Ngrrragh." Sirius groaned, resting his head on his arms. Thorn smiled and poured a mug of Pumpkin Juice, then reached into her bag and pulled out several herbs from her potions kit, putting them into the juice and then pushed it at Sirius.

"Drink that." She told him. Sirius raised his head slowly, his eyes closed. He opened them slightly, picked up the mug and carefully downed its contents. A few moments later he smiled and looked at Thorn.

"Marry me." He said with a grin.

"Ease up." She replied with a laugh. "It's just a potion."

"It's brilliant. You could sell that stuff."

"I plan to." She replied. "When I open my Apothecary, after school." Sirius nodded.

"Sounds good." He said, then looked past her for a moment before adding "Aeshire Yaslana is heading this way." Thorn looked around as Aeshire reached them.

"Can I talk to you?" her friend asked softly, her eyes glancing around them cautiously.

"Sure." Thorn replied, getting to her feet. She noticed the fact that most of the hall was watching them, apparently waiting to see what would happen with a Slytherin and Gryffindor talking to each other.

Aeshire lead her out of the Hall and away from prying eyes and then over into an empty classroom nearby. It was then that her friend's entire attitude changed and she turned on Thorn with a manic grin. "Now, tell me everything that happened last night!" she said excitedly. Thorn smiled softly and looked away, the colour rising in her cheeks for the second time that day already.

"Couldn't you figure it out by yourself?" she asked.

"You stopped when I opened the door to the tower." Aeshire said.

"I'm pretty sure you got the gist of what was going on." Thorn replied lightly, looking back to Aeshire with a smile.

"I got the gist that Reggie isn't very smooth…" Aeshire said, smirking.

"Why?" Thorn asked with a light frown.

"I heard that puppies and kittens line he gave you…" her friend said, looking amused.

"…I thought it was sweet." Thorn said, blushing darker.

"That alone says you like him…"

"I do." Thorn told her simply.

"Tell me." Aeshire begged, grabbing Thorn's hands excitedly.

"Tell you what?" Thorn asked innocently.

"What happened. What you thought. What you felt. Anything!"

"…he's very gentle…" Thorn said softly. Aeshire blinked.

"Really?" she asked, "I never would have thought…" Thorn nodded.

"Nobody's ever been that gentle with me before…" she breathed. Aeshire tilted her head.

"I take it you liked it…"

"Yes." Thorn told her quietly. "I did." Aeshire smiled at her,

"But?" she asked.

"…can I trust him?" Thorn asked softly, her eyes focusing intently upon her friend's face.

"What?" Aeshire asked, "What do you mean?"

"I… well, he seems genuine... but well, we both know I'm not the best judge of things like that."

"Oh." Aeshire replied. "Well… Reggie doesn't fake emotions." She said, "I mean, he hides them. You have to have seen that neutral look he gets sometimes…" Thorn nodded and Aeshire continued, "He uses that to hide emotions, but he doesn't fake them. –Anything you saw was real." Thorn ran a hand through her hair when Aeshire looked closely at her.

"What are you going to do now?" her friend asked.

"What do you mean?" Thorn asked, unsure.

"You and Reggie…" Aeshire said bluntly. "What's going to happen now?"

Thorn shook her head, "I… I don't know." She said, "We haven't…" she broke off, and remained silent.

"Tell you what…" Aeshire said softly. "You stay here… and I'll go and get him."

"What?" Thorn asked.
"He'll be in the Hall now… and well, if you stay here, I'll send him in. You won't get another chance to be alone otherwise."

"Um…" Thorn began, but Aeshire just grinned then turned and hurried out of the room.

Thorn turned towards the window, running her fingers through her hair, wondering what was going to happen now. She bit her lip, she knew that she would like to try and see what happened, but she didn't know how he felt about the situation. She tugged lightly on her hair as she stared out the window at the lightly falling rain. She jumped lightly when the door opened, and turned around to see Regulus step into the room and then shut the door behind himself. He pulled out his wand and muttered, "Colloportus" before turning to look at her. "Rose…" he said softly. Thorn blinked, drawing a shuddering breath as he suddenly strode towards her and hugged her tightly. She looked up at him,

"Are you alright?" she asked gently.

"Yeah," he replied, resting his chin atop her head. "I'm fine." Thorn nodded lightly, and then stepped back when he released her. "So…" he said softly.

"What are we going to do?" she asked simply.

"I meant what I said last night." He told her gently, his eyes running quickly over her face, "I wasn't just taking advantage of the situation."

"Okay…" she said slowly.

"So… if you're willing…"

"Do you want this?" she asked, looking intently at him.

"More than life itself." He replied. Thorn smiled at him. "Do you?" he asked.

"More than life itself." She grinned. Regulus smiled, and raised a hand, stroking it gently down her hair.

"It's going to be really hard." He said softly. Thorn nodded.

"I know." She replied, meeting his gaze seriously.

"We'll have to sneak around all the time." He looked at her, "Lie."

"I know." She replied, looking away.

"And you're willing to do that?" he asked. She nodded, now looking at the ground nearby. She didn't like lying, especially to those close to her, but she knew her friends wouldn't understand or be willing to listen to her reasoning about this, and she really wanted the chance to be closer to Regulus, spend more time with him, and this was the only way that they would be able to do that. She looked back up at him to see him smile understandingly at her. "I'm sorry." He said softly, his hand stroking down her hair again.

"Don't be." She told him, "It can't be helped."

"It could…" he replied hesitantly. "…if you wanted to just forget about the whole thing…" Thorn shook her head.

"I don't want to do that." She told him. Regulus kissed her lightly on the forehead muttering,

"Me either."

Thorn raised her hand and set it lightly on his shoulder while she looked at her feet. She felt him bend slightly and heard him whisper softly in her ear, "We can do this." Thorn nodded slowly until she felt his fingers beneath her chin, lifting her face up to look at him. "We can do this." He repeated more firmly. Thorn nodded again and he lightly kissed her on the cheek, then meeting his grey eyes when he stood straight.

"We are so dead if anybody finds out…" she breathed. Regulus shook his head firmly.

"That won't happen." He replied reassuringly, as he pulled her into his arms, holding her gently, "I won't let that happen." Thorn wrapped her arms tightly around his waist as she rested her head comfortably against his shoulder. She felt him rest his chin lightly on top of her head, and smiled, wondering at how odd it was that she should feel so comfortable with him so quickly.

*

Regulus smiled as he held Thorn to himself gently, resting his chin atop her head. He could hardly believe it. He had been almost certain that she would tell him to forget about it, not wanting to go against her friends and the rest of Gryffindor. He ran his hand down the length of her hair, revelling in the wonderful texture of it against his palm. He took a deep breath and then raised an eyebrow- she smelled of frankincense; nobody smelled of frankincense, it was just such a random smell. "You smell nice." He said quietly. He felt her laugh softly, and it made him smile wider.

"You're very brave." He told her lightly.

"No braver than you." She replied. "This is going to be just as difficult for you as it is me." Regulus didn't think so. The people of Slytherin's biggest issue with people was the purity of their blood, and Thorn's was as pure as it got – He suspected that her friends would have a bigger problem with him, than his would with her.

"Either way." He said softly, kissing the top of her head.

"Everybody keeps talking about this apparent upcoming fight." Thorn said gently.
"Yeah…" he replied, wondering where she was going with this.

"-when is it?" she asked softly. Regulus pulled back and looked down at her.

"You're not thinking of going?" he asked seriously. He frowned when Thorn bit her lip. "Rose." He said tightly, making her look at him. "You aren't thinking of going?"

"N-no." She replied, shaking her head.

"Good." He said firmly, his hand still tilting her face up to look at him. "I don't want you anywhere near that."

"You go." She replied simply.

"Rose, they're very violent. It's full on… I don't want you involved. You'll get hurt." He felt his breathing begin to quicken, but an instant later she had raised a comforting hand to his cheek and replied,

"It's okay. I'm not going to go." She told him quietly.

"Thank you." He breathed, his eyes closing in relief. He opened them in surprise when he felt her brush her lips lightly against his. Regulus tilted his head, smiling at her, when he saw her still standing on her toes so that she could still reach him. He reached out and drew her closer, taking advantage of her temporary added height by kissing her in return while he wrapped his arms around her waist, holding her securely against himself.

When he raised his head and met her dark eyes as she looked up at him, Regulus realised that they should probably get back to the Hall to avoid seeming suspicious. He saw by the light frown that appeared on her face that the same thought had crossed her mind. "It's not fair." She whispered softly.

"I know." He replied gently, raising her hand lightly to his lips and kissing it, before leading her over to the door. "But it's the way it is." He watched her nod slightly before he spoke again. "You go first. Back to Gryffindor table or whatever. I'll wait a bit before I leave." He saw her frown again and knew that she didn't want to. He understood that, he didn't want to either, but they had to. Regulus let out a light sigh before unlocking the door with his wand and then pulling it open. He had barely opened it a crack when Thorn was pushing it closed again, then leaning back against it, looking up at him. Regulus looked down at her questioningly.

"When…" she sighed and began again, "When do you think…" she closed her eyes. "When do you think we'll be able to find a chance to be together again?" Regulus braced himself against the door with his palms just above her head, closing his eyes as he let out a sigh.

"I don't know." He admitted. He opened his eyes and looked carefully at her. "It won't be too long…" he promised, seeing the dejected look on her face. "It's Sunday… we don't have class… if you could get away later? I have Quidditch stuff this morning…"

"Tonight?" she asked softly. Regulus nodded.

"Even sooner if you like… have dinner early, then we can disappear for a bit?" he smiled at the sheer thought of being able to spend some time alone with her without the constant fear of being caught. He watched Thorn think about it, going over what would happen for the rest of the day in her mind. After a second she nodded.

"I think I can manage that." She told him gently. Regulus smiled again, bending and kissing her lightly on the cheek. A moment later he reached for the door handle again and she stepped away to let him pull it open. He gave her a quick smile when she looked up at him for one last second before she swiftly slipped out the door, hurrying towards the Hall.

Regulus pushed the door closed once again and turned, leaning against it as he waited. He ran a hand over his face with a soft sigh, thinking that this evening was far too far away, and knowing that he'd be unable to think about anything else all day. He hoped he wouldn't be too distracted during Quidditch tryouts after breakfast; he wouldn't want to lose his position on the team. He doubted that that would happen anyway, he was far better than anybody else who had tried out for the last three years, and it was extremely unlikely that he'd be beaten by some first year. Regulus gave a smug smile, he'd almost pay to see the day anybody beat him out for the position of Seeker on the Slytherin Quidditch team. He'd bet he'd hold the place until he graduated at the end of the next school year. He was a Black after all! He'd wager that if Sirius had have tried, he could have made Gryffindor's team, then maybe Regulus might have some real competition when the two houses played. Black against Black. That would be interesting. As it was, the only time Slytherin ever lost to Gryffindor was when that mudblood Seeker of theirs got extremely lucky. Regulus chuckled lightly to himself and pushed his hair from his face, deciding that he'd probably waited long enough for Thorn to have gotten to her table, and he could now enter the Hall.

-

Disclaimer; I'm not J.K. Rowling.