Regulus Black was not the one to make statements.
Mostly he disliked the definitive nature of them, which implied that the stated fact was immutable. Statements such as "this is the best butterbeer I have ever tasted," "he is the best Keeper in England," and "he's just a second son of Black" were all statements that he didn't care for. He may just as well encounter a different brand of butterbeer that may taste even better, and the skills of Quidditch players seemed to change with each season. And the last bit—well, his feelings about being the second son had always been a mixed bag of trick and treats anyway. Best not to say anything about that.
So it was with some resolution that he decided he may have just encountered the biggest threat to his life in the Forbidden Forest.
"Stick close together," he found himself saying. "Hold on to each other and don't let go. We can't afford to lose people."
"What is it?" Gregory Yaxley whispered, cowering behind Regulus. To be honest, Regulus wished that he had someone to cower behind as well.
"Acromantula," Regulus said grimly. "We've just arrived at the heart of their nest."
"What does that mean?" Jean Fourier asked, his voice quivering. "What can we do?"
"Wands out," Regulus said. Around them the sound of hissing grew, but Regulus still couldn't see anything visible moving above them.
"Keep sharp," he continued. "Acromantula can't see. They sense things and rely mostly on hearing and smell."
"That's reassuring," Kasia Parkinson said in a small voice. Despite the situation Regulus grinned.
"Slowly step backwards," Regulus whispered. "I don't think—"
"Who dares to invade our nest?" Something growled from above. It sounded nothing like the hisses they'd heard, but the grating voice was no more comforting.
"Students of Hogwarts," Regulus said, trying to sound more confident than he was feeling. Next to him Fourier shivered. "We got lost in the forest—we come in peace. Who are you?"
More hissing came from above, but Regulus couldn't see any movement. He had a feeling, however, that the arachnids weren't simply waiting for them to waltz out of their nest. He nudged the students to keep moving.
"Aragog," the acromantula finally responded, but didn't say anything else. Regulus gave the first-years a slight push to indicate that they should still be walking.
"Aragog," Regulus repeated. "I apologize for disturbing your home. We didn't mean to come here. If you could just point us the way out—"
Aragog began to cackle—that is, if spiders could cackle. It sounded like a thousand steel beads rolling against a rough, rocky surface. Unsettling, to say the least.
"The way out?" he repeated. "The arrogance of the wizards. You don't think we would just let fresh meat walk away from us, do you?" Regulus took it as a rhetorical question.
"With all due respect," Regulus said, "harming Hogwarts students doesn't sound like the best line of diplomacy for those residing in the Forbidden Forest." As soon as he spoke Regulus realized that he made a mistake. The sound of hissing grew louder.
"Diplomacy?" Aragog seethed. "Let me tell you a story, boy, about diplomacy. I was raised inside a castle by a kind student until the headmaster expelled him and me from the castle for dangerous activity."
"Well, human-eating does fall under the category of dangerous activity," Kasia Parkinson muttered before several students elbowed her. "Oh," she said in realization.
"I didn't hunt humans," Aragog hissed, "because I was trying to live amongst them. Now I'm making no such foolish mistake… and as you so smartly implied, the life in the forest is rough indeed..." he trailed off, as if his own words made him contemplative of their fate. Regulus on the other hand felt no philosophical inclination at this point.
"Remember what I said about not letting each other go?" he whispered to the first-years. They nodded.
"Good. Run." Several students frowned.
"Wait, what?" Augustus Gibbon said.
"I said RUN!" Shouting seemed to make things clearer, as first-years began to speed toward the direction of the place that Regulus had emerged from. Regulus followed the immediately, but he also heard how his shouting had shaken Aragog out of his reverie.
"After them!" he screeched. "I don't want any of them getting out of here! After them!"
"Arania Exumai!" Regulus exclaimed, pointing blindly into the darkness. He heard something hit the ground with force and decided that it must have been enough.
As he ran for his life, he somehow began to feel glad that he had sent Alex after several sadistic torturers.
"Miss Wilson, are you telling me that you and Mr. Black had split up during your prefect duties?" MacGonagall's gaze was once again stern and disapproving, but it didn't matter to Alex what on Merlin's underpants MacGonagall thought of her right now. "You know that that is against the rules."
"The Ravenclaw prefects who were supposed to canvas the grounds backed out at the last minute because of dodgy potion, and the Heads didn't want to stand in for them," Alex said. "We had to split up. Elena was screaming and the first-years were entering the Forbidden Forest—Professor, if Regulus still hasn't turned up, we don't have time for this." MacGonagall looked wordlessly at her face for a few seconds.
"Very well," she said finally, "I shall alert our groundkeeper Hagrid about the situation. He is best equipped to deal with whatever they may encounter in the forest. Meanwhile," MacGonagall looked emphatically at both of them, "both of you are to remain inside the castle. As you have noted, Miss Wilson, the forest is a dangerous place, and neither of you are allowed to go in—under any circumstances. Mr. Lee, we'll discuss the detentions you'll receive when the business is over." Stiffly, MacGonagall walked out of the classroom, swishing her emerald cloak behind her. Alex gaped after her before jumping to her feet. Henyrk caught her by her sleeves.
"What do you think you're doing?" he asked.
"Going to the forest, obviously." Alex shook her arm angrily, but somehow Henryk managed to grasp her wrist—a bit too firmly. Alex stared irritably at him.
"What are you doing?" she shot back.
"Stopping you, obviously," Henryk said. "It's like MacGonagall said, isn't it? You can't go in there by yourself. It's too dangerous."
"Look, MacGonagall's many things, but she's not going to hurry just because a Slytherin prefect ran after several first-years. She's going to go through every single procedure necessary before going in, and like you said, it's too dangerous in there. Anything could happen to him. Now let me go," she said fiercely, trying to shake his grasp off again. She failed.
"Black can take care of himself," Henryk said, his face strangely empty.
"Then why isn't he back?" Alex shot back. She felt her eyes prickling with nascent tears, and she bit the inside of her cheeks to keep them from falling. "If he were in my place, I know that he would do the same for me," Alex said, and it wasn't until that moment that she realized how true they were. Regulus did have many faults. But not caring for her wasn't one of them. How stupid she'd been to think that she could simply be angry at him all her life. She couldn't. "I have to go. Don't try to stop me." She managed to shake him off and began to run down the corridor to the nearest staircase. Footsteps followed her.
"Wait!" Henryk shouted. "Wait a minute."
"What?" Alex stopped, frustrated.
"If you just run down the staircases to the Entrance Hall, MacGonagall's going to see you," he said, sounding impossibly reasonable. "There's an unused passage on the fifth floor which should lead you to the dungeons. It might be easier to sneak out that way." Alex looked at him, befuddled.
"Why are you helping me?" she asked.
Henryk made a face, and it was a very long time before Alex could understand the meaning of his expression.
"Does it matter?" he snapped. "Fifth floor. Turn right at the first corner." Alex nodded and took off before realizing that he was still following her.
"What?" she asked.
"Do you really think that I'll just let another student walk into the Forbidden Forest by herself? Give me some credit," he muttered the last part before pushing her aside to go in the front. Alex stared after him dumbfounded before she shook herself upright again. For Regulus.
Acromantulas moved surprisingly quickly for something that had eight legs, Regulus mused, trying to distract himself from the severity of the current predicament. The first-years were slow—certainly slower than him, and much slower than the acromantulas, who were gaining on them with alarming speed. You'd think with that many legs they would get tangled up. But no.
"Arania Exumai!" he shouted again, pointing at the hoard of spiders behind them. The ones closest to him were thrown back a couple of feet, but Regulus knew that the rest of the family was big enough to eat all of them and some more.
"Run faster!" he shouted at the first-years, who were panting painfully.
"We can't!" Gregory Yaxley complained. "It's too hard!"
"Or else you'll die," Regulus snapped. "Does that change things for you?" Based on Gregory's lack of response, Regulus assumed that it had.
Regulus thought about his options. Sending a distress signal—done, at least three times during their run from the acromantulas. Outrunning the first-years and bringing himself to safety—possible, maybe, but irresponsible. Letting the first-years get a head start by distracting the acromantulas—ah. At that moment he couldn't think of an alternative.
"Keep running!" Regulus shouted, but he began to slow down his pace.
"Arania Exumai!" he aimed at the nearest set of acromantulas, repelling them a few feet away from him. He had completely stopped, and the scared breathing of the first-years wasn't audible to him anymore. But that was good, and he hoped that Alex had warned someone about students entering the forest.
"Well, well, well," Aragog cackled again. "So you've decided to play the hero, didn't you?" He was surrounded on all sides by the acromantulas. Regulus could hear them baring their fangs for consumption. Thankfully, it seemed that they had stopped the pursuit of first-years, and that was all that mattered right now…
"You're misinformed," Regulus said cooly. "I'm a Slytherin. We don't play heroes—Gryffindors do enough of that already."
"Slytherin, eh?" If Regulus didn't know any better, he would say that he was licking his lips—but spiders didn't have lips. "Never liked them."
Of course not, thought Regulus sardonically. No one ever does.
"Where did you last see them?" Henryk whispered. Alex peeped from one of the ground floor columns that decorated the Entrance Hall, her attention having been engaged in checking their backs to check that no one had been following.
"Over there, where the trees form a kind of a pointy hat shape..." Alex trailed off when she saw the look that Henryk was giving her. "Oi, a pointy hat shape is a perfectly understandable geographical terminology," she said defensively.
"Do you mean the area under Aquila?" He asked, pointing at the constellation. Alex blinked.
"I guess," Alex said. She did better in Astronomy than most students, but that meant little when most of them couldn't care a knut about the lunar cycle. "Maybe just a tad bit to the left."
"Which left?" Henryk muttered, but he sprinted off toward the direction that Alex had just pointed out without waiting for an answer. Startled at his sudden departure, Alex sprang after him in a hurry.
"Wait!" Alex tried to be as discreet as she could while shouting. "Wait!"
Henryk didn't slow down his pace and Alex found out that the boy could run. "I thought we didn't have any time to lose," he said, not even huffing. Alex, on the other hand, was rendered entirely useless under thirty seconds.
"We don't," she managed to let out. They'd already reached the edge of the forest, and as far as Alex could see, everything looked the same—trees and more trees. Before she could point out this obvious difficulty, however, Henryk bent over to the ground and began to sniff. Alex paused in confusion.
"What are you doing?" she eventually asked. He didn't even answer.
"This way," he said instead, grasping her wrist without permission and pulling her into the darkness with him.
"I can follow without you pulling me, you know," Alex said spottily, and her voice sounded snobbish even to her own ears. Henryk didn't take the hint and only tightened his grip. He walked a few feet, paused, stood still, and closed his eyes. Alex supposed that in the darkness it barely mattered if one's eyes were closed or not.
If she were being frank, she didn't have the first clue as to how she could have begun. She knew that just going into the forest was a mission that was bound to turn out unsuccessful. But enlisting help from the groundkeeper or any of the professors would have taken too much time. The best option that she could think of was to shout into the woods until someone answered, but that was bound to get her discovered as well as turn out unsuccessful. So in the back corner of her mind she was thankful that Henryk was here and seemed to know what he was doing—even though she herself didn't understand a thing. But this was a very subliminal part of her cognitive reasoning and she was mostly very irritated at having to listen to a boy who wasn't even very nice.
The said boy breathed in the night air.
"They headed east," he muttered, and began to pull them in a direction that Alex guessed was eastward.
"Henryk?" she said quietly after a few minutes of trekking. Henryk seemed to be able to sense whenever there was a sudden dip in the ground, or any other kind of obstacle that might sprained their ankles. He was still pulling her by her wrist, but his grip had become gentler.
Henryk stood still for a few seconds again and traced the ground with his fingers before standing up slowly. He didn't say anything to her for a whole minute, cautiously finding his steps on the forest ground, and Alex was wondering if he hadn't heard her when he finally responded by saying, "yes?"
"How did you know?" she asked. "Where they went?"
"Answering you would just slow us down."
"Right," Alex said, feeling oddly chastened. She had been the one who insisted that they come to the forest to search instead of remaining in the castle. She fiddled with the wand in her pocket nervously.
"We should be near," Henryk said after a while, leaning his head against a tree. "The trail's been getting stronger for a while now, but something's muddled." He frowned. "They might have crossed paths—wait." His back suddenly tensed like a cat that had its sight on a prey. "Do you hear that?"
Alex was about to retort that the only thing that they could hear in the damn forest was their own footsteps when she realized that there really was someone making sounds in the distance—it sounded like murmurs from where they were standing, but distance could have simply made the sound faint.
"Come on," Henryk said forcefully, pulling at her wrist again. This time she didn't complain.
The voices grew louder and louder until they reached a clearing, where the moonlight shined brightly on the grassy surface despite the dense forest around it. Huddling in the middle were the first-years, looking wary and exhausted. When she and Henryk stepped into the moonlight their heads turned instantly, as though spending too much time in the forest had given them a sixth sense that warned them against external threats. Alex held up her hands to show that she meant no harm.
"Alex!" Someone in the group suddenly cried out and a short bob of brown hair ran towards her. Her horror increased when she recognized the owner. Leila's sister.
"Hey, Kasia," she said. "Are you okay?"
Kasia nodded, but something in her eyes stopped Alex from collapsing onto the ground with relief. There was fear there, and she didn't know why… "You have to find him," Kasia said. "Regulus. There were—giant spiders? He made us run in front of him and disappeared into the forest." The stability in the girl's voice should have made anyone proud of her despite the situation, but Alex only heard the words at the moment.
"Regulus?" she repeated emptily.
"That idiot," Henryk said, sounding more irritated than anything else. "Kasia," he said, crouching down to look at the girl at the eye level. "Where did you last see him?"
"In the forest, in that direction." she pointed uncertainly at one direction by a large stone. "It's been a while, though…."
"That should be enough," Henryk said reassuringly before standing up to face Alex. "You have to lead them out of here," he muttered in a low voice. "I'm guessing she was talking about acromantulas, and they tend to travel in families—sooner or later one member will find them and then you'll all be in danger."
"But Regul—"
"I'll go look for him," he said firmly, looking straight at her face. "I know how to navigate the forest, and the students recognize you more than they recognize me."
"But it's dangerous there," Alex repeated, feeling powerless. "And I don't know the way back."
He shook his head and reached into his robes. "Here," he said, handing her his wand. Alex looked at it uncomprehendingly. "Take my wand. I've been using a tracking charm—it'll guide you on your way back. The incantation is revelio ariadno. See?" Sure enough, when he waved his wand a golden thread appeared dimly in front of them that went back to the way they had emerged from. Alex looked at it for a while, considering.
"Alright," she said finally. "Then take my wand." She took it from her robes. "You'll probably need it more than I do." For the first time that night Henryk looked uncertain. He regarded her wand silently.
"Is that ebony?" was his unexpected question.
"Yes," Alex said impatiently. "Does it matter?"
"I guess not right now," he muttered, taking her wand gingerly as if it was made out of crystal. "I hope that it won't reject me," she heard him mutter to himself. But before she could ask anything else he sprinted toward the direction that Kasia had pointed out moments ago. Alex watched him go before turning toward the first-years.
"Alright," she said, trying to sound more confident than she felt. "Let's go."
The way back was much bumpier and longer than Alex remembered it being, but the first-years followed silently without a single word of complaint. The golden thread seemed to emanate from the tip of the wand and pull her physically forward as if it had a conscious desire to save all of them. Soon enough she began to see the distant light of the castle and the clear ground between the forest and their warm beds. Alex regarded the plain sight.
"Look," someone from the group said. "It's MacGonagall." Sure enough, the upright figure moved stiffly toward where they were standing. Behind her a much bulkier fellow followed accompanied by a large dog.
"Miss Wilson." MacGonagall's eyes were narrower than a cat's slits. "Do explain what you are doing here."
"We went to look for them, Professor," she said. "And we found them."
"I see," MacGonagall still sounded very icy. "And where is Mr. Lee?"
As if on cue, Henryk emerged from the forest at this precise moment, looking slightly more bedraggled than when he'd left. He was panting faintly as if he was experiencing shortness of breath (somehow Alex didn't think it was possible) and his expression looked wild. On his back Regulus' body was slung. His arms hung about limply from Henryk's shoulders, and his head lolled back when Henryk came to a sudden stop—he was unconscious.
"Reg!" Alex exclaimed, and she never knew that she was capable of producing such a voice. "What—what's wrong with him?"
"Acromantula venom," Henryk said without bothering to acknowledge MacGonagall's presence. He laid Regulus' body slowly onto the ground and began to check for his vital signs. "The creatures were trying to wrap him in their web and carry him back to their nest when I found him. He'll be alright if he gets medical attention—preferably soon."
"Mr. Lee," MacGonagall sounded as if someone was forcing her to choke down cubes of ice. "Did you just say acromantulas?"
"Yes, Professor," Henryk said without taking his eyes of the unconscious prefect. "I was under the impression that the younger students were led directly to their nest." At his words MacGonagall turned toward the first-years, who cowered under her blazing gaze.
"Are any one of you capable of explaining this incredible stupidity?" she said.
"Professor," Alex began quietly, "could we postpone getting the records straight until everybody receives medical attention? I think Reg's lips are blue, and Yaxley sprained his ankle."
"Oh, that's alrigh'," the giant figure said for the first time, and Alex remembered seeing him around the castle grounds in the past. "You don' have ter worry at tha' stage. 'S when his fingers turn black tha' you have ter star' worryin'."
"That happened, too," Henryk said inconsequentially. The giant scratched his head.
"Alrigh'," he said. "Then we should prob'ly ge' goin'." This assessment seemed to convince MacGonagall, and she wordlessly levitated Regulus' body before beginning to march toward the castle. Alex followed mutedly, urging the first-years to follow as well by nudging them on their shoulders. Henryk followed some paces behind, talking to the groundkeeper. The large dog wagged his tail and followed him happily.
The castle lights were like blares to their eyes that had accustomed themselves to the dimness of the forest.
"Poppy," MacGonagall said crisply. "Mr. Black needs immediate attention—he was poisoned by acromantula venom. Mr. Yaxley has a sprained ankle."
"My, my," Madam Pomfrey said with widened eyes. "What happened?" Her eyes sought the crowd of students accusingly, as if every single one of them had conspired to inject the Slytherin prefect with acromantula venom. Alex rubbed her eyes tiredly. The incidents of the entire night began to catch up with her as she looked around; Lestrange was sleeping on the farthest bed on the West wing, accompanied separately by Macnair, Yaxley and Flint. There was a rather childlike body lying next to Flint that Alex assumed was Rookwood, but the body had none of Rookwood's usual mean looks. Nott, whom Alex had assumed would be alright, was there as well. Elena was also sleeping, but at the corner farthest away from where the boys were; even in her sleep she turned several times, murmuring something uneasily. Henryk looked nonplussed around the room; no one would guess, if they weren't told, that he had just went into the depths of the Forbidden Forest and came back after dueling three people singlehandedly. Alex envied his stability.
"The rest of you," MacGonagall was saying, "will follow me. Yes, that means you two as well, Miss Wilson and Mr. Lee." She looked sharply at both of them before leaving the room with the characteristic swish of her cloak. The first-years followed mutedly, but Alex looked at Madam Pomfrey anxiously.
"Will he be alright?" Alex asked worriedly, but she merely gave her an annoyed look.
"Out, haven't you heard?" she said. "I'll need to call in Professor Slughorn from his office. Merlin knows how grumpy he gets when someone disturbs him from sleep." She didn't look very excited about the prospect of playing the role of the said disturber. Alex decided to back away and followed MacGonagall's conspicuous, even footsteps.
Alex had visited MacGonagall's office on occasions—it was usually to inquire about the class materials or to discuss essay assignments—but she had never entered it as a part of a guilty party. It was a novel experience, to say the least; the brightly lit office looked darker, the shadows in the corners longer, MacGonagall's hat even pointier. Next to her Henryk stood silently with a small smile that accepted every harsh word from MacGonagall with graceful good humor. Alex, on the other hand, couldn't help but feel a bit sour. She had done what she thought was the best thing to do at the time, and never did she have any ill intent. To MacGonagall's credit, however, Alex noticed that she seemed less upset about them dueling the Slytherins than about them going into the Forbidden Forest by themselves without protection. After listening to the first-years give their reports, she regarded all of them silently.
"And you are certain that it was Mr. Black and Miss Wilson who led you into the forest," she asked Fourier. He nodded fervently.
"While you and Mr. Black had just started your rounds," MacGonagall continued, before thoughtfully gazing into the distance.
"Perhaps it's just a nasty prank, Professor," Henryk said. "These things are known to happen."
"Yes, but the intent behind the action seems far too strong to be simply dismissed as a joke, Mr. Lee," said MacGonagall, and Alex could tell the conundrum she was facing; if the action had not been a joke, than it would mean that someone seriously meant to do the Slytherin first-years harm. On the other hand, those who did these sorts of serious actions were the Slytherins—as evinced by the gang they'd found on sixth floor—and they would have few reasons to hurt their own.
"As for you," MacGonagall said sternly, "You were following your prefects' orders, but that does not excuse failing to exercise simple sense. There will come times when you cannot simply take every word said to you for granted, and I hope tonight's events served as a meaningful lesson. As for you, Miss Wilson—" her eyes became sterner— "I commend your sense of duty, but you also broke several school protocols during the process, protocols which were imposed precisely in order for your protection. I'm afraid that for that you'll have to serve detention every day for two months."
Alex started. She hadn't received detention since the incident during her first year. She nodded quietly. MacGonagall turned to Henryk.
"Mr. Lee," MacGonagall said, "You are not a prefect."
It took a few seconds to realize that MacGonagall had been expecting a response. "No ma'am," he said.
"Nor are you the Head boy," she continued. "You realize that your dueling with six students—six, Mr. Lee—and venturing into the Forbidden Forest cannot be excused."
"Yes ma'am," Henryk repeated.
"At the same time," MacGonagall continued, "there was no reason for you to do either of those things, either. For breaking the rules, you'll serve detention every day until the semester ends with Miss Wilson. For your display of bravery and selflessness for other students in need, however, forty points will be awarded to Hufflepuff." The last part had not been expected by any of those in the room and they all stared at MacGonagall in surprise. She had a faint smile on her lips. A rarity.
"Professor Sprout will no doubt be very happy to be informed that one of her new students has proved himself to be such a qualified Hufflepuff, I've no doubt," MacGonagall continued. "And as for Mr. Black, we've heard about his sacrifice in order to save the younger students, and for that he'll be awarded thirty points… and twenty for Miss Wilson, who made the difficult choice to stop her housemates at her own peril. Don't be so joyous, Mr. Gibbons," MacGonagall added drily to Gibbon's brightened face. "Mr. Flint, Mr. Rookwood, Mr. Macnair,. Mr. Yaxley, Mr. Lestrange and Mr. Nott have lost their house forty points each for their behavior tonight. I would say that the Slytherin house is—what is it?—a hundred and ninety points below where it was last evening." The news had an even stronger sobering effect on the first-years and they all left MacGonagall's office dejected and tired. Alex walked a few feet behind them, watching them warily. Who knew what would happen to them after tonight. To her surprise, Henryk went with her.
"The Hufflepuff common room is—"
"Not this way. I know." Of all of them he seemed the least tired, and there was still spring to his steps. "Let me look at your hand."
Alex had been watching the first-years enter the common room and didn't catch what he had been saying. "Sorry, what?" Henryk shook his head.
"Just give me," he said, reaching out for her right hand. Alex winced automatically as soon as his fingers pressed against her wrist.
"You've been avoiding using your right hand," Henryk said matter-of-factly. "And I heard a crack when you punched Flint. His nose wasn't broken." He looked over her hand Alex cried out in pain when he pressed gingerly against her knuckles. His fingers felt rough against her skin.
"Tender?" he asked, still looking at her hand. Alex tried to sound nonchalant.
"A bit," she said. Henryk sighed.
"Episkey," he said, pointing her wand at her hand. She could feel the disturbing sensation of her bones rearranging themselves underneath her skin and her knees buckled. Alex leaned against the wall.
"Ow," she said, trying to move her fingers. She could, but it still felt odd.
"Here," Henryk said, conjuring something. It was a pack of ice.
"Wrap it in something and hold it against your hand," Henryk muttered. "It's not ideal, but your hand should be fine."
"Thank you," Alex muttered, surprised and a bit abashed. She thought her hand had just been a bit sore.
"And I'd like my wand back, if you don't mind."
"Ah—right." Alex took her wand and gave his back. Now she was beginning to feel more and more like an idiot. Did he have to be able to do everything?
"One more thing," he said. Alex tried not to let her embarrassment show.
"What is it?"
"You're not very idealistic, are you?"
This was not a question that she had been expecting and Alex looked curiously at Henryk's expression. It was dark in the dungeons, however, and all she could make out were the strong outlines of his face.
"Sorry to disappoint you," Alex said eventually.
"You're not offended that I asked you the question?"
Alex considered. "Honestly?"
"If you can."
Alex quirked her eyebrow ironically. She suddenly wanted to simply find a chair and just sit there for a really long time. "Honestly," she began, "I think being too idealistic allows people to make extreme choices and ignore inconvenient details that go against their beliefs. And that goes both ways."
"But you're not too idealistic. You're just not idealistic at all."
"Apparently I have to choose," Alex said quietly, thinking about Regulus lying pale and blue in the Hospital Wing, unconscious. She wondered when he would wake up, if he ever would… "I don't know which side I should choose."
"In that classroom," Henryk began slowly, as if this was a question that had weighted on his mind the most that night, "you were upset about Elena, and I thought I understood where you were coming from. But then your mind went immediately to Black." His tone made it clear what he thought of Regulus.
"He's a friend," Alex said, trying to sound neutral. Henryk scoffed.
"Then the English must have a very strange idea of friendship," he said. Alex sighed.
"Look, I don't know what I can tell you," she said tiredly.
"Right," Henryk said, and for some reason she hated how he answered, the way he sounded very distant like the day in front of the library when he accused her of taking too much interest in him. "Well, then. I guess I'll see you at detention." He turned to leave.
"Henryk," Alex said, hesitating. He didn't even turn around.
"What?"
"Thank you," Alex said quietly. "For everything tonight. Helping me deal with the Slytherins. Tracking down everyone. Even—even lying about dueling to cover for me. You didn't have to do any of that." She cleared her throat embarrassedly. "Thank you. I really do."
She couldn't tell what he was feeling. "Good night, Alex," he said finally, his tone softer, and he left without saying anything else.
Regulus woke up the next day late afternoon just as Alex returned from her last class. The events of the night before had made them forget everything that had made them fight in the first place and as he opened his eyes he answered his love's warm smile with a smile of his own. He was promptly forbidden by Madam Pomfrey from moving anywhere that night (or talking too much or even just thinking too much) and he promised to follow every single one of her instructions as long as she allowed Alex to stay with him until dinner. Madan Pomfrey left tutting about recent acromantula venoms and its effects on headstrong students. Alex, for one, didn't seem the least bit disturbed.
"I've been reading up on acromantulas," Alex said. "You should be okay."
Regulus grinned feebly. Despite his insistence to Madam Pomfrey that he was fine, he was feeling a bit dizzy. "You didn't have to do that," he said. "But what happened last night? Madam Pomfrey won't tell me anything—something about listening too much."
Alex gave him a brief summary of the events of last night. He tried to look more surprised than he felt when she told him about Lestrange and company (he half-suspected that they'd done similar things before, and it was due to their misfortunes that they were caught) to appease Alex, but when Lee entered the picture his surprise became real.
"Lee?" He frowned. "What was he doing there?"
"I'm not sure," Alex said. "Taking a late-night stroll, maybe? But that's not all..."
As he listened more and more to how Lee got involve, Regulus became more and more annoyed. The annoyance only grew when he heard how Lee had "rescued" him from the acromantulas that were about to devour him. Regulus couldn't refute anything that she said—the last thing he could remember from last night was being bitten in the neck by one of the spiders—but he wished that he could. He became positively appalled when Alex proceeded to tell him how Lee carried him on his back from the forest.
"Well," Regulus said when Alex told him everything, "I guess I owe him my thanks." He couldn't take sarcasm out of his voice. Alex smiled weakly and took his hand in both her hands. Regulus was hit by another wave of dizziness, and he told himself that it was due to the acromantula venom.
"You're alive," she said, "and for that I'll always owe him." Regulus didn't know how he could respond to this, so he looked out the nearest window. The sun was almost setting, and an orange glow permeated the entire hospital wing. Her grip on his hand tightened.
"Last night got me thinking," she started slowly. "I used to think that you were overreacting and pushing things forward too fast. And you probably are if things were normal. But things aren't normal, and what I'm trying to say is—" she frowned, struggling for words. Regulus sighed.
"No, you were right," he said quietly. "I was trying to decide everything by myself. I should have taken your feelings into account."
"But now I do think that you were right. At least in part. I don't know what will happen in two or twenty years, but right now I know that I want us to be together. And I don't want to push you away for something that hasn't happened yet." She grinned embarrassedly, but Regulus thought that he had never seen a lovelier expression. The orange glow from the windows, the cool crumpled sheets of the Hospital Wing, even the faint smell of disinfectant all felt heaven-sent at the moment.
"Reg," Alex said nervously, "say something."
Regulus slowly brought her hands to his lips. He kissed the smooth skin on the backs of her hands before pecking each knuckle softly. Alex blushed.
"I would like that, too." His voice was shaking. "I would like that very much."