A/N: Thank you for all the great reviews and feedback! I appreciate all you of you taking the time to leave your thoughts and I am so pleased that everyone is enjoying Regulus' character. A shout out goes to taylag who suggest that Rowan and Regulus disappear for a bit, believe me, without that suggestion the entire dance scene would have been a LOT more boring and less dynamic. Enjoy and review!

He missed grabbing her hand by an inch. Instead he face planted on the floor.

"Ooof!"

"What the…Regulus?" Rowan looked at the dishevelled boy in disbelief.

"Evening," he groaned rolling over on his back.

"What are you doing?"

"Trying to talk to you? Albeit I envisioned doing it in a slightly more dignified manner…"

"Are you off your rocker?" Rowan asked still slightly stunned.

"Apparently,"

This was surreal, Rowan thought. She shifted her stance. "Are you gonna get up?" she asked after a beat.

"No I'm good down here…marble floors hurt…"

"Well then I'm gonna be going—"

Regulus scrambled to his feet. "I'm up! I'm up!" Wincing slightly he threw out his hands in effort show he was fine.

"Well it's not like I can just stand here all night talking to you! I'll get murdered in my bed. And you'll be pitched into the Great Lake!"

"How come I'm the one who has to drown and you get to die in bed?"

"Um because drowning is less painful than being say I don't know…stabbed to death in bed or having your throat slit, head chopped off—"

Regulus blanched. "Ok ok ok I'll take the drowning…jeez when you put it that way…but c'mon you can give me five minutes! You girls take forever in the loo!"

Rowan opened her mouth ready to refute this but Regulus had decided to take matter into his own hands, quite literally speaking because she found herself being shunted into a nearby empty classroom with his hand firmly wrapped around wrist.

"Regu—" she started piqued, he slammed the door and let go her wrist.

"Five minutes," he reiterated holding a hand. "Just five,"

A quick internal argument was held in her head but she pushed that out of her way. "Fine,"

"Thank you!" Then Regulus felt a bit foolish. Now that he had her attention, he wasn't quite sure what to do with it.

She stared at him bluntly. "So…" she swung her arms about.

"Well this is sufficiently awkward," he replied.

A laugh escaped from her. "Yeah it is. I wonder why. We don't have a problem talking outside of duelling club,"

"Perhaps it's because we're all dressed up," he offered. "Whenever you're in fancy clothing things tend to feel different, at least, for me,"

"No I agree. I feel like a royal prat being all dolled up like this. You however look quite nice all suited up," Rowan said easily.

"Thank you. Why do you feel like a prat?" Regulus asked curiously.

She shrugged and took a seat on a desk. "Because, I don't dress up..that's…just not me. I feel as if I'm an entirely different person. That it's not really me…it's like Cinderella going to the ball."

"Oh," he didn't really understand why she felt this way because privately in his head he was thinking that dressing up really suited her and that she ought to do it more often. Of course he wouldn't tell her this in person. Instead he settled for studying her in silence.

It was a mark of their fledgling friendship that Regulus felt bold enough to rake his eyes down her face, memorizing face in his head, her scars forever being etched in his mind.

There was just something about her that made people look at her, something about her drew people in. he couldn't find the words to describe it. Maybe it was the dusky skin with the blue eyes and the dark curly hair. Or maybe it was the startling contrast between the soft skin (to him it looked soft) and the sharp scars.

It was the eyes and the scars, he decided. Her eyes were both unreadable yet full of expression at the same time. He didn't even know how that was possible.

"Does it ever bother you?" he asked after several long moments.

"What?"

"Your scars."

"No," she shrugged a bare shoulder. "I like them. In fact, they're the thing I like the best about me. They make me feel proud of the things I've done."

"Inventing magic," he said.

"Yeah. Each scar has a story behind them and they remind me that I'm human. My roommates ask me why don't I use an ointment or a cream or whatever to cover them up, to make them less visible, but I don't find the point in that. I'm not ashamed of them. They're a part of me. People look at me me anyway."

He agreed with this. "Your scars...don't get offended...but...they give you a certain...toughness to you."

"Is that a bad thing?" she asked bluntly.

"No. it suits you. you have this whole...'don't-fuck-with-me' kind of air about you. it goes well with your looks," he said in a rush.

A small smile came on her face. "Thanks,"

"But are enjoying yourself?" He changed subjects.

"As best as I can I suppose…balls…formal occasions…they really aren't my thing. This is the first time I've gone with someone who isn't trying to snog me at the end of the night or place his hands on my arse or something so I guess that's a perk…but…I don't know. Sometimes I just need to take a break from everything."

His eyebrows drew together. "Is everything all right?"

Rowan's eyes darkened slightly. "I'm sure it is. I'm just…temperamental that way I guess. Sometimes it just gets too much and I don't know. It's nice to get away from it."

She did not explain the suddenly odd vibes she was receiving from his brother. That was the last thing on earth she wanted to talk to him about.

But to her great surprise, Regulus then asked, "Is my brother treating you right?" in a very serious voice.

This caught her off guard. "Pardon?"

"Is," it was an effort to just say his name for Regulus, "Sirius treating you right? He hasn't been trying any funny stuff?"

"Oh no! everything is fine as it can get with him. Of course the fan club kind of hates me but he's been a nearly perfect gentlemen the entire night."

"Nearly perfect?" Regulus narrowed his eyes.

Rowan understood what conclusions Regulus might have jumped too. She quickly clarified, "Oh nothing like that, you know, sometimes he taps into his inner idiot in himself and says things that make me want to slap him on the back of the head. Like saying I need a boyfriend or something equally ridiculous like that,"

"Oh,"

"Why do you ask?" Rowan was curious.

Regulus shook a dark lock of hair out of his eye. "Because. I don't now what my brother has told you about the family and you may have heard…a very different view on it and he may have said our mum is a bit mad…and in some respects she is…but she and my father also raised us to respect women. And to treat them right."

Sirius had not told them this. "Oh," she replied taken aback. "That's…"

"We come from an old family, reputation is everything and no one will marry off their daughter to boys who don't know how to treat them correctly. At least, that's what my parents say. For me in general I think chivalry is dead and that you girls often get the short end of the stick with things…especially with all this "free love" crap being espoused everywhere…what a bunch of dung…" Regulus began to rant.

A faint smile appeared on her face. Who knew? Regulus could be funny. It was kind of amusing seeing him go off on a random tangent. Now he was talking about how he despised hippies because apparently they did not shower every day. Or so he thought.

"…I mean can you honestly go a day without showering? Showering is brilliant! How can those lumpheads go without cleaning themselves? Honestly…seriously. At least England doesn't have as many hippies as America does…if I was forced to live there I would not fare very well…"

"You do realise that not everyone in America is a hippie? And all hippies don't shower everyday. I'm sure you'd come across on who showers every day. Maybe even twice." Rowan pointed out reasonably.

Regulus stopped mid-rant. He looked at her with a foolish expression. Then his eyes narrowed. "Must you be reasonable…all the time?"

"I have my moments," she said with a little smile.

He eased himself against the desk and studied her for a moment. "Are you going to miss this place?" he asked after a beat.

He was in an odd mood tonight, Rowan thought. But then again she did not know him really all that well. But for some reason, she felt that she could be totally candid with him. Maybe it had to do with the fact that she felt that he held this old man look to his eyes. Well maybe not old man, but philosopher like, like Nietzsche kind of old man look in his eyes.

"No. Not really." She finally answered.

Surprise illustrated his features. "Really?"

"Yeah. I mean, don't get me wrong I learned a lot here, and I've made friends who I love very much…but…for me this place is just a reminder…I don't know. This place has always had a goal in site, to finish school and be properly certified. And now that goal is here. You move on afterwards."

"This school reminds you of what?" He pressed.

She paused for a long minute. "Of my home. My real home."

"You miss Romania?" he did not expect this. "With all of the chaos and trouble and insane communists?"

She chuckled a little bit. "Yeah I do. Romania has always been my home, it's been my families home for hundreds of years. Don't get me wrong, England is nice and all and London is lovely…but it's hard for us, Roma to live here. We're not really…accepted by most of society. Do you know how hard it is for us to get a job?"

"But isn't that the same case in Romania?"

"It is, but there's more of us there. There's strength and a safety in numbers. Here we're very small. We have refugee status, those of us who come with that visa and I don't know. I've always felt like a bloody charity case. I don't like feeling like that."

"No one would." He agreed.

She shrugged indifferently shaking her head. "Plus seven years is an awful lot of time to spend in school…I've just always had my eye on the prize. Get out and get gone."

"And do what?"

"Travel. See the world. Study with foreign witches and wizards, learn more magic. There's different ways of learning, not just books. Besides, upon finishing school here isn't it normal for people to tour the world to learn from others?"

"It is…but most of us now try and shoot to get a job,"

"Yeah…I don't think that's gonna work out very well. When I sat for career consultation with McGonagall back in the fifth year she sent me out of her office,"

"Why?"

"Because she asked me what I wanted to do for a career and I told her I had no idea what I wanted to be, nor did I have any career aspirations. Well no, I did have one." She corrected.

"What was it?"

"To conquer the world with an army of hippograffs, apparently that is not a an appropriate career choice. She didn't take too kindly to it."

"I'll bet," Regulus snorted.

"So yeah. I really don't know what exactly I'm gonna do with myself but that's ok."

"You're a seventh year, have no clue about your future and it doesn't scare you?" Regulus asked amazed.

"Nope,"

"Why?"

She waved a hand. "You don't have to all the answers to life right away. The answers are out there, it's just not the right time for me to see them,"

Something about the way she said this, and with that fierce yet languid look that always graced her, made him smile at this. "You're right. How come you always seem to have an answer to everything then?"

"I don't. I just try the best I can. Take it day by day you know," she replied.

"Yeah. I know. I ought to take a leaf out of your book,"

"You ought to take a couple of entire chapters out my book mate. You look like you need more fun in your life,"

"Pardon?"

"Well you're very handsome Regulus but you kind have this air of an old man whose been sitting on top of a hill for the last century, in the wind. When was the last time you went out and did something stupid just for laughs?"

"About five minutes ago when I face planted on the floor before you," he promptly replied trying to process the fact that she had called him "handsome."

"Besides that,"

He racked through his brains. "I don't know. What do you do for fun?"

"Hurl water balloons off the Astronomy Tower with a home made catapult,"

"That was you?"

"Oh yeah. And the rest of the boys." She answered referring to the marauders.

Regulus shook his head. "Sorry but I rather like not spending my evenings in detention."

"You only get detention if you don't get caught," she corrected.

"Well then you must get caught an awful lot! I heard you have set the record in this school for being in the most detentions."

"Most of those were due to property damage I've inflicted on the school unwittingly when I'm tinkering on magic," she said indignantly.

"Sorry. Either way I don't like spending time in detention."

"Well some times, having fun is worth spending time in detention," she countered.

"Like when?" Regulus asked sarcastically.

"Ever start a food fight?"

"No,"

"That's one. Another one is telling the new first years that it's tradition to dye their hair in their house colours for the first day of lessons,"

"YOU were the instigator of that?"

She just gave him a look that said, "Please. I do a lot of thing,"

"What other chaos have you wrecked on this place?" Regulus threw his hands up in his hair.

"Well I wouldn't call it chaos…but I call it a good natured snub really…word of advice even though I don't think it'll do you any good…do not go into Divination class with a paper fortune teller."

Regulus ducked his head down as his shoulders shook from laughing. "I bet Wisterlane loved that one."

"Well she seemed to find it slightly less offensive than when I advised her to have her Inner Eye tested…she chucked me out of class for that one and gave me detention for a month and a half…"

"But in all fairness she's a pretty poor teacher. In fact Divination as whole seems to be a very woolly subject, I mean, why the hell would you want to predict the future using such half arsed methods that are utterly…well. Unreliable?"

"Don't you take Arithmancy? Aren't you trying to divinate stuff there too?" He raised an eyebrow.

"Yes…BUT…in Arithmancy, we're applying much more rigorous and mathematical approaches to predicting the future, whereas in divination it's just a bunch of fumbling around in the dark and doing a lot of guessing. Arithmancy is much more technical." She said stressing the wonders of Arithmancy.

"Why did you sign up for predicting the future in the first place? Did you not just tell me that we didn't have to have all the answers right now?" Regulus retorted.

"I didn't sign up by choice! My parents made me! They thought divination would be an asset to the rest of our gypsy magic. You know the stereotype that we're a bunch of fortune tellers? Yeah well turns out it's half true. A good number of us can go into trances and infer things. Unfortunately, it's not me. Arithmancy was just something I signed up for because I had no interest in magical creatures, ancient runes or whatever else electives there is."

"So you told Professor Wisterlane to have her Inner Eye checked?"

"Yeah. Among other things."

"Like what?"

"Starting a chain of howlers," Rowan grinned remembering that. That had been a good one.

Regulus muttered something under his breath, shaking his head. "You're mad, you know that. You're brilliant. But mad."

"Those two usually go together," she airily relied. She glanced at the clock. "Five minutes was over ten minutes ago. We have to get back. People will wonder what the hell happened.

And by people, they both knew it was their respective dates. Romantic or non romantic, both would make a scene.

Disappointed, he stood up. She was right. Still. He wanted to spend more time talking with her. He was having a very nice time.

"Hopefully we can slip back in unnoticed. You should go in first. If karma is being favourable to us they'll be a sappy slow song playing and it'll be dark and shit and we can return without a fuss." She spoke as they left the classroom.

Turns out karma wasn't quite in the mood to be favourable to them. They hadn't even walked ten steps down the corridor before an incredulous voice asked,

"What are you lot doing?"

A/N: *evil grin* As you can tell I enjoy tapping into my inner slytherin quite a bit...be good and please review! xoxoxo