After dinner Amaryllis had gone straight up to her dorm wanting to avoid both Corbin and Regulus. She knew it probably wasn't right to be avoiding Corbin right then but she was too scared to talk about what had happened. Avoiding Regulus was a given. She'd been doing that since their meeting with the Dark Lord. Since he'd told her they should find other people.

She had climbed straight onto her bed, pulling out a book and drawing the drapes around her, when she had arrived in her dorm, not wanting to have to interact with the other girls. There was no way they would let this go when they found out.

"You know, I heard the funniest thing during the feast." Marianne said as she and two other sets of footsteps entered the dorm. "Apparently Merrin was betrothed to Regulus Black."

Amaryllis just rolled her eyes. Obviously they'd be unimpressed with it. They were positively irritating when it came to anything to do with Regulus.

"Why would he agree to that?" Anna Parkinson, a girl from Lucinda's dorm, asked.

"I don't think he had a choice." Marianne said. "From what I heard that letter Merrin got last year detailed the entire thing and she hid it from Regulus because she didn't want him to feel ashamed of being stuck with her."

Amaryllis tried her hardest not to groan. At least they were making her sound considerate. Even if they were getting all the facts wrong.

"He's just lucky Bellatrix told him before before he had to actually marry her." Marianne continued. "He must have been so distraught. That explains why she broke it off."

"She broke it off?" Scarlett asked with a squeal.

"She's trying to anyway." Marianne said. "I think he feels bad for her and is trying to make her stay so at least she can end up somewhere in life."

Amaryllis had heard enough. They were getting everything so wrong. They were making her seem like a terrible person, which was normal for them anyway, but they were also twisting facts to make her sound like she wasn't worthy of anyone's attention.

She got out of her bed and glared at the girls.

"You know nothing." She snapped at them. "Sure some of what you're saying might have some basis in truth but a lot of it is all just codswallop."

Marianne, Scarlett and Anna just stared at her.

"Okay, so let me get my facts straight." Marianne said to Amaryllis after a moments silence. "You're betrothed you Regulus Black?"

Amaryllis just nodded not trusting herself to say anything.

"Yet for some reason you're trying to break that off?" Anna asked.

Amaryllis didn't react. There wasn't anything she could think to say. It wasn't her choice to try to break it off yet she couldn't see these girls believing her. She also found Marianne rather irritating and didn't want to be talking to her.

"Are you daft?" Scarlett asked.

"I wouldn't think I am." Amaryllis told them.

"You have the perfect opportunity to be a part of the most important pureblood family yet for some reason you seem to think you're too good for that." Marianne expressed.

"It's not a matter of what I think." Amaryllis explained. "He's the one who suggested it. Clearly hearing it from Bellatrix wasn't the way he wanted to find out."

"Or maybe he's just using that as an excuse to get out of the ridiculous arrangement." Anna suggested.

Amaryllis let out a sigh before coming up the perfect idea.

"Anna, what would you say to swapping dorms?" Amaryllis suggested. "You seem to get along with Marianne and Scarlett a lot better than I do."

Anna just stared at Amaryllis for a moment before a smirk appeared on her face.

"Sure." Anna said.

"We should go speak to Professor Slughorn about it." Amaryllis said. "I'm sure he will be able to help us."

Anna just rolled her eyes clearly unimpressed with the thought of having to speak to a teacher. Amaryllis wasn't thrilled about having to speak to a teacher either but she knew it would make her life a whole lot easier if she just did it.

"How'd you manage to get them to agree to this?" Lucinda asked Amaryllis as the older girl began setting up her stuff in the younger girl's dorm.

It hadn't taken long to convince Slughorn to let them swap dorms. Amaryllis was decent enough at potions as it reminded her of one of the lessons she use to take before her life had changed meaning Slughorn liked her considerably more than some of the other students. She thought that fact that she was taking N.E.W.T. potions might have also helped with his view of her.

"They want to gossip, I don't." Amaryllis admitted. "Also I overheard them talking about the thing with Regulus, getting all the facts wrong, mind you."

"We get to share a dorm for two years." Lucinda squealed. "I'm so excited."

"Well, unless Walburga marries me off and I have to move rooms." Amaryllis pointed out.

Lucinda flopped on her bed while Amaryllis sat down softly on hers. Amaryllis wondered if sharing with Lucinda would be any better than sharing with the other girls. She seemed almost as excitable, if not more. Se supposed that since she actually liked Lucinda it would probably be better.

"Which do you prefer?" Lucinda asked causing Amaryllis to send her a confused looked.

"What exactly do you mean?" Amaryllis asked her.

"Amaryllis Black or Amaryllis Wilkes." Lucinda said as stared at the ceiling.

Amaryllis dropped the put together front that she was holding up and hit Lucinda in the face with her pillow. She really didn't want to think about marriage. Not right at that moment anyway. It still seemed so surreal that people just expected that she'd be married before she was twenty. That wasn't how she was used to things being done.

"I'm not getting married." Amaryllis defended.

"Not yet anyway." Lucinda laughed.

Amaryllis just groaned. She didn't want to talk about it. She just wanted to be a teenager.

"Well I'm going to get changed." Amaryllis said picking some clothes out of her trunk and heading towards the bathroom. "I can't stand being in this uniform any longer."

Although she trusted Lucinda she wasn't sure how the younger girl would react to the mark on her arm. She had taken care to only bring clothes with long sleeves with her this year and she had sworn to herself that throughout the entirety of the year she wasn't going to change anywhere but the bathroom so she was alone.

There was no way she could risk someone seeing her mark. Well, someone he didn't already know about it and support her decision in getting it anyway.

"You know it's just us." Lucinda said as Amaryllis walked towards the bathroom. "You don't have to."

"I'd feel more comfortable." Amaryllis said knowing that it was the truth.

Lucinda just nodded as Amaryllis headed over to the bathroom.

Regulus wasn't daft. He'd noticed Corbin watching Amaryllis throughout the feast he just couldn't work out why. The other thing he couldn't work out was why it gave him a funny feeling knowing that Amaryllis would sometimes meet Corbin's gaze, smile at him, and turn away a slight red tinge to her cheeks.

If Corbin had done anything to her he might just have to do something to him. Corbin wasn't worthy of her. Corbin didn't deserve to be the one to make her smile.

Regulus shook himself out of his thoughts. Her doing anything shouldn't be bothering him. He'd blown her off. He'd told her to find someone else. And here she was doing exactly that and he was plotting ways to destory his friend for even looking in her direction. What was wrong with him?

"Either you stop it with those strange glances at Amaryllis that you did for the entirety of the feast or you explain what is going on." Timothy told Corbin after the three of them had gotten to the dorm.

"I don't know what you're talking about." Corbin said as he lay down on his bed.

"We both noticed them." Regulus said. "What's going on with you and Amy?"

"I kissed her." Corbin said with a shrug.

Regulus was shocked. He didn't know what to say. Corbin having kissed Amaryllis was bugging him more than he wished to admit.

He wondered if she'd held back from anything with Corbin the previous year because of him and their betrothal or if she was only doing this now because of how he'd treated her. It had never been intention to hurt her. Never. Yet it seemed that's what he'd done.

"But isn't she betrothed to you?" Timothy asked Regulus.

Regulus didn't respond. They all knew the answer. He just wasn't able to admit to his friends what he'd told her.

"He told her to find someone else." Corbin said sitting up in his bed and looking over at Timothy before turning to look at Regulus. "So she did."

"I didn't mean for her to go crawling to you." Regulus snapped.

"She was crying." Corbin shouted at Regulus standing up. "She doesn't tell me much but what I do know is that you've really hurt her feelings. She felt awful hiding everything from you. That's why she kept avoiding you. She didn't want to have to lie."

"She still did." Regulus shouted back at him.

"Amy is all alone." Corbin responded shocking both Timothy and Regulus by his use of her nickname. The name solely reserved for Regulus' use. "Her whole life was thrown upside and she thought she could trust you. When she was told to keep something from you it tore her apart. She was so worried about how you would react when you found out, if you would still care enough about her. I always told her you'd realise that she had to. I guess I was wrong about you."

Regulus stared at his friend. He hadn't expected Corbin to be like this. Regulus knew that Corbin and Amaryllis had grown close but he never expected him to act this way in her defence.

"How would you feel if everyone around you knew the direction your life was being planned while you were kept completely in the dark?" Regulus asked Corbin.

"How would you feel if your whole life you'd dreamed of finding a love like in fairy tales only to have that dream taken away from you and being forced to marry someone?" Corbin retorted. "What if that person was your friend until the moment they found out about the arrangement leaving you all alone? What would you do then?"

Corbin didn't wait for Regulus' answer. He stormed out of the dorm not wanting to hear Regulus talk about Amaryllis anymore.

"Do you think…" Timothy started to ask before Regulus cut him off.

"Not now Timothy." Regulus said as he got into his bed and drew the drapes around himself.

Regulus didn't want to think about what Corbin had said. It was all too much. He worried about what both he and Amaryllis had gotten themselves into. He knew there was going to be death. He didn't know how many of them would die but it was going to happen.

His biggest fear was not returning from a mission and leaving her alone. He was terrified of that happening. Especially if there was a child involved as well. Regulus knew his mother. He knew she would expect them to start having children almost immediately. Walburga wanted the Black family to continue. That's why he didn't want to get married.

By pushing Amaryllis away Regulus hoped that maybe she would find someone who wouldn't leave her behind. By pushing her away he hoped that she would be able to find the love he knew she craved. He could only hope that she wouldn't hate him for doing that.

Corbin had no idea what he was doing or where he was going when he stormed out of the dorm. Everything Regulus was saying made sense. Corbin could see how Regulus was thinking about things. He just didn't understand why Regulus couldn't take a step back and see how Amaryllis was feeling about everything.

Surely Regulus had to know that this was hurting her. Surely he had to. They were supposed to be best friends. Why wouldn't he see what he was doing by pushing her away?

Corbin let out a sigh as he sat down on one of the couches in the common room. He wasn't sure what he was doing he just didn't want to be in the dorm right then.

"Corbin?" He heard someone ask him.

He turned his head to see Amaryllis. She had changed out of her uniform and had a much broader smile on her face than he had seen at all throughout the day.

"Amy, hi." He said shuffling over so she could sit beside him.

"What are you doing down here?" She asked him.

"I could ask you the same question." He said with a small laugh.

"I asked first." She responded.

He let out a little chuckle before responding.

"I didn't want to be in the dorm right now." He explained. "There was too much arguing."

"Why didn't you try to stop it?" She asked.

"I couldn't calm down." He said. He hadn't wanted to admit he was arguing with someone but he couldn't see anyway out of it. "Everything he said was so logical. But it was also so one sided. It was like he didn't care."

"Are you going to tell me what it was about?" She asked in hopes of finding out what had actually been going on with the boys.

She had noticed that they didn't argue very often so when they did it ended up being rather a big deal.

"Just guy stuff." He responded vaguely before turning the question on her. "So tell me. Why are you down here?"

"Lucinda was starting to drive me crazy." Amaryllis admitted. "She's a good friend but sometimes she just doesn't know when to stop."

Corbin looked confused. He didn't think she shared a dorm with Lucinda with the girls being in separate years.

"I swapped dorms with Anna Parkinson." Amaryllis explained. "We thought it would be best. She doesn't get along with Lucinda and I don't get along with Marianne."

He just nodded in response not having any to say.

"I'm glad you were down here." She said shuffling around so her whole body faced him. "I wanted to talk to you, without the others around I mean."

"What about?" Corbin asked although he was pretty sure he already knew what it was she wanted to talk about.

"What are we?" She asked him.

"What do you want us to be?" He responded.

Amaryllis just rolled her eyes and gave him a shove. He knew she didn't like that question so what good would come of him asking it again?

"Corbin, please be serious." She whined.

"I am." He said. "Whatever you want I'm fine with. If you want something to actually happen, then it can. If it was just something that happened because you were sad and in need of comfort, then that's fine too."

"I liked it." She responded softly after a short pause while looking down at her legs which she'd curled up underneath her in a way that would have Walburga yelling at her. "And I'd be open to actually trying something more than just the one off kiss."

Corbin smiled at her and took her hand in his. With his other hand he lifted her head up so she would actually look at him. A soft smile spread across her face as their eyes met.

"Can I…?" He started to ask before trailing off.

She just nodded in response knowing what he had been trying to ask.

Corbin lent his head down and placed a soft kiss on her lips. As he sat up again he noticed a smile spread across her face.

"We should get some sleep." He said.

"Yeah." She responded.

"I'll see you tomorrow then?" He asked hopefully.

Amaryllis just smiled. He wasn't going to escape her that easily.

She placed another kiss on his lips before getting up and returning to her new dorm, turning around to smile at him as she reached the bottom of the stairs.

He smiled back before heading up into his dorm. He knew he had a silly grin on his face. But who could blame him?