"Ardeo innoxium," she whispered, and a ball of bright blue fire appeared in her hand. Regulus, embarrassingly, flinched.
"Don't worry, they're completely safe to touch! Remus Lupin showed me the charm last week when we were patrolling together. I do hope he's not terribly ill," she said with a sigh that verged too closely to wistful for his liking. "I'm glad that you're his replacement though, Reggie."
She offered the flames to him but he shook his head and shoved his hands deeper into his pockets. It was cold in the draughty old castle, but not cold enough to accept something that came from Remus bloody Lupin. He might have fancy charms up his threadbare sleeves but he still ended up in the hospital wing more frequently than the Hufflepuff Beaters. And he called himself a wizard. No self-respecting wizard should get ill that often.
There was this odd, burning sensation inside his ribcage that seemed to intensify at the thought of Lupin being close enough to Clementine to teach her anything. At the thought of Clementine being concerned about Lupin's wellbeing. He glanced at her; she was holding the bluebell flames up to her face, basking in their warmth. The flames' reflection in her bright sparkling eyes made them look even more extraordinarily blue. She really was quite pretty. She caught him looking at her and smiled that easy grin of hers, pearly white teeth gleaming in the firelight. Regulus looked away and strode ahead so she wouldn't catch the flush that was threatening to stain his cheeks a rather unbecoming shade of pink. Blacks don't blush.
Maybe this fire in his chest wasn't anything to do with Clementine. She was pretty, so what? Lots of girls were pretty. Lots of girls had pretty eyes and pretty smiles and lovely shiny hair.
It was probably because of Lupin. That idiot boy who was so close to his brother. Any mention of those prats who somehow, for some reason, seemed to find his brother hilarious managed to rile him up these days.
Yes, that would be it.
It definitely wasn't anything to do with Clementine.