The next day - it was Tuesday - exhausted as he was, Regulus spent all his remaining energy trying to avoid Rabastan. It was a difficult proposition, seeing as how they had all of their classes together. He was forced to spend the entire day in bed, emerging at times when he calculated it would be likely for Rabastan to return to the dorms.
He was well aware that the avoidance game he was playing was only a temporary solution to one of his numerous problems. The number of malefactors either out for his blood or his sense of self-respect continued to increase the more people knew about his attempts to woo Lily Evans. And he hadn't even had one stupid date with her.
Rosier was right. Normally, Regulus would have given up this fruitless venture long ago. He wasn't the type to waste his time or his energy on something that wasn't paying out. It was one of the main reasons he held James Potter in such high contempt. The only thing he had accomplished in years of following Evans around like a sad, obnoxious puppy was the complete degradation of whatever dignity he could've had in the first place.
He, Regulus Black, would never degrade himself so completely for a girl. (Narcissa was an exception. She was no mere girl; she was a goddess, and to degrade oneself for her sake was an honor indeed.) And he didn't intend to, not for Lily.
But, he was also disinclined to give up his pursuit at the behest of his brother, or of Snape, or of Evan, none of whom he wanted to give the impression that he was someone they could bully. Sirius, especially. He was sick of being bullied by Sirius.
Plus, he thought he really had a chance with her.
And, eternal devotee at the shrine of Narcissa though he may have been, Evan wasn't all so off-base with his insinuation that Regulus liked Lily. Physically, anyway, it wasn't hard to see what Potter liked so much.
Maybe beautiful wasn't the right word. Her nose was a little upturned and her jaw a little strong. In the sun, she did get awfully freckly, and she was domineering, loud, and had frankly bizarre ideas about what constituted legitimate scientific pursuits.
He was quite surprised to catch himself touching his face and grinning stupidly at the idea. Psychology. Well, it was amusing, the idea of it.
At 4:00, Rabastan would return to the dorms to get his Quidditch equipment, so Regulus made himself scarce and headed to the library, the last place he expected Rabastan to set foot, and certainly somewhere Rabastan would not think to look for Regulus. It was only coincidentally somewhere he thought Lily might visit with more frequency.
He sat there for over an hour, pretending to read some horrendously boring and no doubt totally useless tomes, but finally, when he heard his stomach rumbling, he realized it was dinnertime and she wasn't coming.
So, despairing both at his chances of ever speaking to Lily again and of ever eating dinner (Rabastan would be there), he picked up his bag and trudged heavily out the door.
He was walking down the halls paying no attention to his surroundings and staring firmly at the toes of his shoes, so that he didn't notice a figure blocking his path until he saw a pair of penny loafers in front of his own feet.
"Where have you been the past week?" The left loafer's toes were tapping.
"Er..." His eyes traveled upwards to be greeted by the tops of baggy socks, two thin calves, and the hem of a skirt swishing in time to fingers drumming on a hitched hip.
"Stop staring at my crutch, what's wrong with you?" Lily's voice was arch, but when he looked up she was smiling wickedly.
"Hey." He tried to smile back, but his lips mostly just spasmed irregularly.
"Well, what happened to rescheduling?"
He shook his head and hit his forehead with the heel of his hand. "I'm sorry, Lily, I've just been - well, basically I've spent the week being pelted with flying objects and dragged through mud." He managed to muster up a smile this time.
"I know. Big match coming up." Her smile seemed to melt a bit. She took her hands off her hip and her gaze lowered.
"Yeah." He nodded and rocked back on his heels, biting his lip. "So, were you thinking of going?"
"What?"
"To the match, I mean." He rubbed his hand against the back of his neck.
"Oh. Well, of course."
"Yeah, I reckon everyone goes." He laughed nervously. "But you'll be pulling for Gryffindor, yeah?"
The corners of her mouth turned up again. "Well, I would probably raise some eyebrows if I didn't."
"Do you care? About raising eyebrows?"
She laughed. "No. But I'm definitely pulling for Gryffindor." She punched him on the shoulder. "But, I'll cheer for you, too, if you want."
"Well, only if it won't embarrass you too much."
"How about this: you can catch the Snitch in a very heroic and impressive way, but only after Gryffindor is more than 150 points ahead. Then I won't feel bad about cheering."
"Maybe, but then I'd be the one who'd have to worry about being embarrassed."
"Oh, no! See, you see the game was getting very ugly and out-of-hand, and maybe a few fights were starting-"
"Then I'd have to fight."
"Hush! So you see that, and then you spot the Snitch, way down by the ground, but Stephen Morrow, that tosser, is much closer only he hasn't seen it. So, in the interest of saving your team's dignity, you have to make a straight dive for it, and Morrow doesn't even see it coming until you're right there. But then it's too late! You've got the Snitch! But you can only narrowly miss hitting the ground, and just as you've made a phenomenal recovery, Morrow, in a fit of rage, grabs your broom tail and you go flying into the ground-"
"I don't like the turn this story has taken."
"No, it's good, I promise! So, after that dastardly foul, Morrow is kicked out of the game forever, and you, unconscious but triumphant, are rushed to the hospital wing, where you soon awaken to a bevy of fans and well-wishers, all of whom are beautiful girls who've sat by your bedside day and night keeping vigil."
"Wait, how long am I supposed to be out for?"
"What do I look like to you, a doctor? Anyway, everyone's so overjoyed you're okay - which you are - that the school organizes a banquet in honor of your heroism, and the Minister of Magic himself attends in order to award you the Order of Merlin – and cash prizes!" Lily, out of breath and slightly pink in the face, finished with a grin.
"And that's the only way you'll cheer for me?"
She nodded.
"Well, I won't hold my breath, then."
"What, you didn't like my story?"
"No, it was great." He hesitated.
"It's just that-"
"What?" He could hear her toes tapping impatiently again, and he didn't have to look to feel her eyes boring into him.
He shook his head. "It's nothing, how about rescheduling for our next tutoring session?"
"Oh." Her lips turned down momentarily, almost into a pout. "Well, how about tomorrow, or will you be busy practicing?"
"I might be, to be honest I've spent all of today avoiding my team captain." He tried to smile again, but the mood had suddenly become so onerous. He had a bad feeling that he had really messed up something.
She sighed. "Well, I suppose it'll have to wait until next week, then."
"Yeah. I'm sorry."
"About what? You're the one who needs the help, anyway. It doesn't bother me." If she were not bothered, she really was doing a good impression. Her mouth was compressed into a tight little knot and her eyes were staring at a spot just to the left of his face.
"Yeah, I know." This was obviously getting out of hand, but he had no idea how to pull it back.
"Well, if that's it, I really ought to get going-" She made to step around him, but though his vocal cords seemed incapable of being proactive, the rest of his body wasn't ready to give up. He grabbed her arm to stop her passing.
She immediately yanked it away and he pulled his hand back as though it had been burned. "I'm sorry, I just. Well, I really wanted to say something else to you."
"Okay." She drew her arm back and folded both of them across her middle.
"Well." He had never had so much trouble asking a girl out. He had never really wanted to ask a girl out. "I was thinking, it seemed like, well, that we got on pretty well and everything - not now, I mean, obviously, but last time, and-"
"Do you want to go out with me?" she asked suddenly. Her expression was terrifyingly neutral.
"I, er, well... are you asking me, or are you asking if I was asking you?"
"Do you?"
"Well, yeah, I reckon I do." He could feel beads of sweat coalescing on his forehead.
"You ought to have said so." She smiled. Regulus nearly fainted with relief. "Shall we meet this weekend to celebrate after your Quidditch match?"
"That sounds brilliant," he said, laughing a little disjointedly. He could feel his Adam's apple jerking around in his throat.
"But I still expect to see you for tutoring." She grabbed his hand, leaned in, and kissed him on the cheek.
By the time it occurred to him that he might be able to seal the deal right then - kiss her on the lips, and beat Sirius once and for all - she was already around the corner and halfway to the library.
It was only then that he regained control of his motor functions and dragged himself down to the Great Hall to see if he could still get any dinner. Stricken as he was, he still couldn't ignore the palpitations of his desperate stomach, and suddenly, he couldn't imagine being afraid of anything so trivial as Rabastan's wrath.
In the middle of the night, Rabastan tore open Regulus's bed hangings and swore to him, square face ominously lit in the moonlight from the windows, that the next time he felt like taking a sick day, he ought to consider which would hurt worse, a tummy ache or a broken neck. After that, it took Regulus another hour to go back to sleep, covers clutched up around his chin and eyes peeled wide open.
A/N: To readers of The Life You Lose, if you happen to read this also... I promise I am working on the new section I am just intolerably slow and a putz and other annoying things. Also, did you know that "putz" is actually Yiddish for penis, I had no idea. Anyway, here's part 6, and don't worry: I'm a James/Lily shipper just like all sensible people.