"You're cheating." I gasped at Dorcas when she intentionally skipped her turn.
She rolled her eyes, taking a card. "A Slytherin lechuring me on following the rules..."
"Slytherin's bend the rules. Gryffindor's break and don't even respect them." I retorted, crossing my legs under the table.
Jocelyn yawned, checking her watch. "We should probably finish up soon."
"Why? What are we rushing to? Charms?" Dorcas scoffed. "I think we can skip one class of Flitwick giving us assignments we already know how to do."
"You are in a delightful mood." I muttered, taking my turn after she finished hers.
"I just don't see a point in it. We know all the material. Besides... it feels like we're wasting our time when we could be doing other things." Dorcas replied.
"Like what?" I asked.
"I dunno. But anything is better than seeing Collin Clearwater's hand in the air for a class period."
Jocelyn frowned in thought. "Okay. Why don't we go but after class we leave and go do something fun?"
"School's on lockdown." Dorcas said with a growing smirk. "Are you, Miss. Goody Goody Ravenclaw suggesting we break a Headmaster decree?"
Jocelyn snorted. "Yes... Quit looking at me like I'm Virgin Mary. We all break rules. You're the only one that takes pride and doing it."
"It's just so fun." Dorcas grinned. "I can't help it."
"Yes you can." Jocelyn giggled, poking her side before she shook her head.
"Have you sent in all of your applications for post-grad?" I asked Jocelyn knowingly.
She smirked, rubbing her hands together in excitement. "Yes. Yes I did. I should be working for the Department of Mysteries this time next year."
"With your hubby working in the Deparment of Law Enforcement." I nudged her.
"Oh he's already in. He's the fifth McKinnon." Jocelyn waved me off.
"Well... I've actually made a decision." Dorcas declared, "I'm going to be joining him."
"Noooo." I groaned. "I thought you were going pro with me!"
Dorcas smiled. "As great as an idea as that is. I think I came to the same conclusion Joce did. I'm good but I'm not great. Plus... with this war coming I'd like to do my part."
"Well that's all noble and wonderful of you." I sighed dramatically before smiling. "I'm ... happy for you. I just will be lonely on the Quidditch field. This is the last year I get to kick both of your asses... End of an era really."
"Well then." Jocelyn put her hand over mine. "When you lose we will make sure to make it memorable."
I scoffed, smacking her hand away. "Yeah. Gryffindor might stand a chance but Ravenclaw hasn't beat Slytherin in 10 years."
"All those more reason for us to beat you." Jocelyn said, starting to put away the cards.
"Such optimism Ms. Sewlyn!" I scoffed, standing up with the pair of them. "Although if I'm partnered with Drake again. I'm with Doe. I'm not sitting through an entire .T class explaining the material to someone that's supposed to be good enough to get into the class."
Dorcas nodded. "I second that... I think Flitwick is too nice. I could roll over his bar of expectations."
"We all could." Jocelyn muttered dryly, slipping into class and sitting in the assigned seat next to me. "Well that worked out-"
"Loooook." I laughed, pointing at Dorcas's face when she walked along and saw her partner was Drake Buckley.
"She's going to murder us for not ditching class."
"Eh, we'll get her drunk and by her chocolates." I shrugged, getting out some parchment.
It had been two days since Mary and fifteen hours since the incident. The incident that I almost entirely chalked up to a weird dream until I caught a look of him across the room. My entire face flushed but luckily Jocelyn had stopped paying attention to me.
No part of me considered telling my best friends that I knew what it felt like to have Regulus Black's lips against mine. There were a million reasons why I felt it was necessary to keep that secret to myself. For starters it was probably the stupidest thing I'd ever done. And more so, I had no idea why I did it. Sure it was a stressful time, I was not really myself and I've always found him attractive. But none of that was a good reason for me to do it.
I was so close to getting out of Hogwarts without any scars or damage. Yes I had some bumps and bruises but mostly I had managed to sneak by without making a mess of things. And I was determined to not let a second of thoughtlessness get in the way of that. It was an accident basically. Nothing either one of us would want to bring up or ever repeat ever again. It was that simple.
When I walked up to him after class, I was going to make that clear by not bringing it up at all. Practice had been rescheduled so I had a perfectly justifiable reason to pull him aside and have a quick word with him. It would set the stage and completely break down any chance of it ever becoming a problem.
"Hey. Can I steal you for a sec?"
He eyed me for a moment before nodding. "Sure."
"So I just talked to Slughorn." I said, stopping in the alcove outside Charms. "We have practice tomorrow morning to make up for the one we missed. I think we'll just do conditioning and rehearse some drills. It's at 7am sharp, okay?"
"Okay."
I looked up at him and nodded. "Well I'll see you-"
"I don't know why I kissed you... I don't know what I was thinking." Regulus admitted, barely above a whisper.
I blinked in shock, blindsighted. There wasn't a single part of me that thought he'd bring it up and now I was struggling to find something to say.
"Um... It's okay..." I said uncertainly. "Not a big deal."
"I just... I don't know why I did it."
I pressed my lips together and nodded with wide eyes. "Me neither."
"I won't do it again."
"Okay um... That's probably for the best."
He nodded decisively, his grey eyes searching my brown ones.
"Yeah it was a bad... bad decision." Regulus tilted his head at me and I quickly added. "Not... not that it was bad... That it was stupid... Not... I'll see you tomorrow." I blurted out before I practically ran away from him.
After I fled the scene, I left with the girls for a few hours. We drank, danced and shopped a little. We perhaps should have waited a few days longer to go out on our own but Mary's death just cemented how little time any of us gets at all.
When I returned to my room, I found Flora, my Owl, waiting for me. It was a letter from my dad. Checking on me. Making sure I was alright. Clearly Mary's death hadn't hit the Daily Prophet or he would have come in person but he still noticed I hadn't written in a few days. I wrote him a quick reply. I didn't have much to say really. Saying anything about Mary would just worry him, so I just told him a lot of little things and asked him how his job and the cats were doing. I loved my dad but the last thing I needed was my muggleborn father rolling up demanding answers and justice. He was better left at his desk in the Ministry cataloguing court cases, ignoring the glances the woman from the fourth floor sent him.
Sending the letter, I was about to crawl into bed when Alecto slipped into our room. I rolled my eyes and told her. "We have practice tomorrow morning. 7 o'clock."
"Yes. My brother told me." She snapped. "You expect me to attend?"
"Yes... Practice is mandatory."
Alecto glowered at me. "You're so damn smug. Like you deserve to be in charge of anything. You're nothing but a-"
"Bottom dweller, half-ling, half-breed, scum of the earth." I finished for her, slipping under my covers. "I got it Alecto. You do not like me. And you do not think I'm fit to shine your shoes. Now can you hit the lights? Everyone else is in bed."
She was about to shout at me, to scream like a child that didn't get her way. But I just shut my curtains and ignored her like I always did.
The next morning, I woke up a little groggy but mostly everything was back to the way it had been before. I should have eaten more bread the night before but I fixed that by eating a big breakfast with two cups of coffee. Twenty minutes later, I arrived on the field ready to go mentally. The others wouldn't get there for a while so I went for a bit of a jog to get wake up my body. It had only been a few days since I last worked out but my body acted like it had been weeks.
When I made it back to the locker room my tank top was laced with sweat and my joints were aching in the best way. Bending in half, I stretched my long legs and sighed. I saw a shadow in the doorway and turned to see Regulus a half hour early. I finished stretching and sighed.
"Hey. You're early." I took off my shirt and grabbed my practice jersey.
I was only half paying attention to what I was doing. I'd changed in front of him for years for Quidditch and I talked him and the rest of the team while I was changing a dozen times. And I thought we'd affectively put the day before well behind us so I didn't even think about that anymore.
It wasn't until he grabbed my arm to stop me from putting my shirt on that I looked up. He was standing closer than he had the last time I talked to him, far closer than he had any reason to stand to me.
"What… what are you doing?" I whispered.
"It wasn't stupid."
"…what?"
"It wasn't stupid." Regulus told me, his grey eyes boring into mine.
I could hardly catch my breath. "Okay?"
"And I lied."
Biting my lip, I said. "Okay, Black. I have no idea what-"
His large hands came down, cupped my face and he swooped down and kissed me.
It didn't feel like the first time. The first time he'd pressed his lips to mine, I leaned into it. There was no thinking, just reacting. This time I did think about it. I thought about what it would feel like for him to really kiss me. Not a curious peck but a real solid, real kiss. Something that I'd feel from my lips to the back of my knees. Not something so easily filed under a mistake but with the intensity he normally used pursing the snitch.
He was actually looking at me the way I'd seen him look at the snitch; focused and fixed. Like there was only one thing in the world he was thinking about and that was the only thing that mattered. When he leaned in I didn't even tell myself I shouldn't. I didn't even hesitate. My hands slid up his neck, gripping it and dragging him down to me. His hands came around my waist, anchoring me to him. The feeling of his fingers dragging down my bare skin brought made me gasp before I could control myself. I felt his lips turn into a smirk at that and it only made me want him more.
My hips pressed and twisted into his, challenging him to give me more. Regulus's tongue parted my lips and nothing was stopping after that point. My hands were buried in his hair, gripping his thick black hair. His lips were persistent, tugging and working against mine with an abandon I could barely handle. It consumed me, he consumed me.
At some point he lifted me up and started walking with me over to the showers. I didn't care about anything. I didn't care about who could see us. I didn't care about what this could mean or what this could do to me. Every inch of me was leaning into him until I could hardly breathe.
Suddenly I was the one that was grabbing his shirt and tugging it off. My hands swept up his torso, needing to feel what I'd always knew was under all of the layers he always wore. His hands were no longer staying in appropriate places. He'd unhooked my bra and gotten it off by the time the locker room door swung open.
The look squeak and thud of the door hitting the wall was enough for us to break a part.
His eyes were filled with just as much panic as mine but there was also something else lingering in there that I couldn't place. My legs dropped from his waist, I snatched my bra and ducked into one of the stalls a mere split second before Alecto walked up.
My heart was slamming in my chest and I had to clamp my hand over my mouth to keep the sound of my erratic breaths silent. It was nearly impossible considering the raw lethal amount of adrenaline and fear pumping through my system.
I heard her ask. "What the bloody hell are you doing in here?"
"About to take a shower… You mind?" Regulus snapped back.
"You know-" She began in a tone that made my stomach turn.
I curled into the stall wall, praying with everything inside of me, that the situation wouldn't escalate further. Slowly I slipped my bra back on and pressed my ear to the wall so I could hear every single word they were saying.
"No." Regulus said and I thought I heard the shower turn on.
Alecto's shoes squeaked as she stormed away and I dropped to the floor, horrified at what I had just done.
"Hey, you okay?" Lucinda asked me, flying over to me.
I gulped and said. "I'm fine. I'm fine. Why? Why wouldn't I be fine?"
"Because you seem really jumpy all practice. When we did drills you didn't say anything other than, 'yeah that was a start.'"
Wiping my hand over my face I said. "I'm just a little distracted."
"Were you friends with Mary?" Lucinda asked sympathetically.
"No... no no." I shook my head. "I'm just distracted today sorry."
Lucinda frowned. "Oh okay..."
I passed the Quaffle to her. "Come on. Let's do the Goldstriper play."
Soaring the field, I dodged Rabastan and scored while she feigned left. I did a few more plays with them before ending practice. We already did all of the conditioning, drills and new trick plays. Anything else could have been added next time. I needed to not be on that field. I could feel him looking at me. I already gave him instructions as the teams seeker but that wasn't at all why he wanted to talk to me. And there wasn't a chance in hell I was letting him have that conversation with me.
It was supposed to be over. It was a mistake and we were supposed to walk it off. We should have been able to go to practice and then literally not talk unless it had something to do with Quidditch. But now it wasn't just one confusing moment between us. He'd seen me topless. He'd felt me topless and I had felt him up too. We almost... we certainly would have if we hadn't been interrupted.
I couldn't even explain to myself what had come over me. He was attractive, I'd never denied that, but it was more than just finding him attractive. It was the fact that it went from zero to nearly going at it in the showers for no reason.
I didn't like him. I didn't know him well enough to fancy him. There was nothing I could use to reason why this had happened which meant there was nothing I could use as a reason as to why it couldn't happen again. Leaving practice, I didn't even bother to change. I just grabbed my sweatshirt and rushed out of the locker room needing to be as far away from Regulus Black as I could get.
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