Disclaimer: Sadly, I don't own any of the Harry Potter characters. Everything belongs to JK Rowling, and I'm merely allowed to play around with them. No copyright infringement is intended.

Just so you guys know, I closed my poll, and the winner is… *drum rolls* Regulus! So… This is officially a HG/RAB story… Also, if you guys wanted Remus to win, you can always read my one-shot 'Carnival of Rust'… You don't have to read the sequel. I only wrote it because people wanted me to, but the original idea was to stop it at the end of CoR. If you guys wanted Sirius to win, I've got a one-shot in writing, although it's been on hold for months, now… Anyway, on with the story.

Chapter 21

-o-O-o-

"Hermione."

"Fancy seeing you here." Hermione said, brushing a strand of hair behind her ear. As Regulus tried to gather his thoughts enough to form a sentence, Severus cleared his throat. Hermione turned to him and continued. "And I see you brought company! Good evening, Snape."

He nodded. "Good evening to you, Granger. May I enquire the reason of your presence here?"

"Oh, I just came with the Marauders and a couple of friends to… Hang out." she told him, while Regulus was still gaping like a goldfish. "How about you?"

"Regulus here," he said, slapping the younger man on the shoulder. "Wanted to escape Rosier's clutches…"

"But…" Hermione stuttered. "Isn't Rosier a guy?"

Severus laughed. "Yes, he's a bloke, but he has a sister… Who is rather fond of Mister Black."

"Bad breath…" Regulus mumbled.

Neither seemed to have heard him as Severus asked: "Come dance with me, Granger?"

She laughed. "If I'm going to dance with you, you're going to have to call me Hermione."

He stood up, and she did too. "Very well, Hermione. Let's leave Regulus behind, he doesn't seem too unhappy about the situation." And with that, they were off to the dance floor, while the youngest man sat, apparently stunned or petrified.

It wasn't until a pretty blond with bright pink lips came up and asked him to dance that he moved. He looked up at her, then at his friends dancing, grinding against each other in the hot mass that was the club's clientele, then back at her, before nodding. With a twenty four carat smile, she took his hand and led him near the DJ, before turning around and placing her hands on his waist. He placed his on her hips, still slightly dazed, until, regaining his senses, he pulled her roughly, crushing her small frame against him.

She gave a slight giggle and asked: "What's your name?"

He bent down to shout in her ear, above the music: "I'm Regulus. What's yours?"

Splaying her hands on the small of his back, she shouted: "Name's Tia." He nodded, and they went back to dancing. Each time a song ended, he would glance at Hermione and Severus, still dancing a couple of meters away, and pull Tia closer.

Suddenly, without knowing how he ended up there, Tia and he were making out on the dance floor as if their lives depended on it. Some corner of his mind still wanted to turn around and check out if Hermione and Severus were still dancing, but most of his brain was like 'Shut up and concentrate on what you're doing!'

After what could have been minutes, hours or days, Tia broke away, her eyes shining with lust. "Let's take this somewhere else, shall we?" she asked, her voice husky with desire. He nodded, his thoughts too jumbled up to produce any form of coherent answer. He took her hands and pulled her away, almost forcefully, to a broom closet, near the lavatories.

He pulled away for a few seconds to take his shirt off, dropping it carelessly on the floor, and walked back to her, eyes transfixed by the beautiful creature in front of him. She threw herself at him wantonly, capturing his lips in another bruising kiss. His hands wandered until they landed on her breast; when he felt her soft mounds under his calloused palms, a feral growl escaped him.

The door to the broom closet snapped open then, forcing Regulus and Tia away from each other. Regulus turned around at their intruder, who turned out to be none other than a very pissed looking Miss Granger.

"You!" she yelled, pointing at Regulus. "You're such a… a…" Then, unable to find a suitable insult, she turned and stormed off.

Tia shrugged and turned back to Regulus, a wicked smile in place. "Now," she whispered seductively. "Where were we?"

She tried to go back to kissing him, but he turned his head away and mumbled: "I'm not in the mood anymore." before grabbing his shirt and heading out to follow the angry Gryffindor. He slipped back inside his piece of clothing, not bothering to fasten more than half the buttons, before heading back inside the partying part of the club.

No catching sight of her straight away, he sat down at the bar, where Severus joined him after a couple of minutes. They stayed silent until, after a couple of minutes, Severus broke the ice and asked: "So… Hermione, eh?"

Regulus nodded.

Severus smiled at him. "Well, at least you're not gay." he joked.

Regulus shook his head, a small smile on his face. "You're hopeless, Severus, you know that?"

He snorted. "Look who's talking! You're in love with a Mudblood after all."

"No!" Regulus defended himself. "First, don't call her a Mudblood. You know where that winded you up. And second, I am not, I repeat, not in love with Hermione."

Severus rolled his eyes. "Keep telling yourself that, Black. But if you weren't in love with her, you'd call her a Mudblood, no matter what. You also wouldn't hang out with her, and you definitely wouldn't be-"

"Regulus Arcturus Black!" a shriek came from behind him. He turned around just in time to see a hand arriving at him at the speed of light before Hermione slapped his cheek so hard his head snapped to the side.

He turned around to face her, a murderous look in his eye. "What the hell was that for?" he demanded.

"For being an incorrigible bastard!" she answered, fuming just as much as he was.

"Me?" he asked, pointing at his chest in shock. "Did you see how much of a slut you were acting like? Dry humping every single guy in this retched nightclub?"

"I'll have you know that I did not dry hump you!" she yelled at him. "Besides, you weren't much better; when I found you, you were about to shag an innocent girl!"

"Why did you find me anyway?" he asked. "Or were you looking for me? A little jealous, were you?"

"Excuse me?" she asked, her eyes as wide as saucers.

"Yeah, you heard me!" he continued. "You were being a jealous bitch and interrupted me when I was about to have some much needed sex! You should try it too… Oh wait! I forgot! You're little Miss Perfect, so you must be a prudish, square ice queen!"

*Crack!* She slapped him across his other cheek. "The prudish, square ice queen would like to let you know that you a hypocritical arse, since you were jealous because Severus was the one would mastered up enough gut to ask me to dance and not you. Now, since we've closed this up, I'm leaving."

And with that, she stormed off, leaving behind two very surprised teenagers. "She's got a point, you know." Severus said after a while.

"Oh, shut up!" Regulus answered icily, no pun intended. He caught sight of Hermione again, she was grabbing her handbag and telling Sirius something. He nodded and they both headed out the door. "What does she think she's doing?" he asked no one in particular. "She's going to leave with him? Doesn't she know who he is?"

"No offence, Regulus, but you're not exactly much better." Severus butt in, but Regulus wasn't listening anymore. He stood up abruptly and followed the pair outside. When he stepped out in the cold evening air, he noticed it was raining, or rather, drizzling. The droplets of water were washing away the bits and pieces of the snow that had earlier covered the whole city. In the distance, he saw his brother conjure an umbrella for Hermione, and the latter smile radiantly in thanks.

An inexplicable fire lit up in his chest, roaring and he was filled with two thoughts: 'She's mine.' and 'I'm gonna kill him.' He strode up to them, yelling: "Hey!"

They turned to face him, and Hermione's gaze darkened. "What, Regulus?" she asked, venom in her voice.

Her tone stung, but what hurt him more was the protective arm Sirius put around her as they stood there, sheltered from the rain as he was alone and drenched. "What do you think you're doing?" he asked, trying to sound angry when all he felt was pure desperation.

"What's it to you?" she bit back. Her words, for some strange reason, were like daggers to his heart, and he wanted to curl up in a corner and stay there… Forever.

"You can't go with him!" he said pointing to the man who used to be his brother. The arm around Hermione's shoulders and his throat tightened at the same time.

"Why not?" she demanded, pointing her nose higher in the air as the rain poured into his eyes, mingling with the tears that were just itching to fall.

"Because…" he stuttered. "Because he's a traitor."

She shook her head, making her hair float around her head in a halo. "He's a traitor to his own interests. In common language, we call that selflessness. You should take a page from his book."

He was angry at her again. "Fine!" he yelled, throwing his arms up in the air. "Fine! Go! See if I care!" and he turned around, wiping his nose on his sleeve. Minutes passed, but no sound came from any of them. Not the distinctive crack of Disapparition, not footsteps walking away, nothing.

Finally, he heard a sigh. "Let's just leave, Sirius." Hermione said, in a much softer voice than the one she had used with him.

"Wait, Hermione." he called out without turning around. "Before you go, just admit it… You were jealous."

Another long silence followed, while neither moved, until Regulus stuffed his hands down his pockets and started to leave. Then a tiny voice came from behind him. "Yes." she said. "I was jealous."

"Then why are you leaving?" he asked softly, turning around. "Why are you leaving when I don't want you to?"

"Because I don't care about you." she tried, all her anger evaporated in the small droplets that framed both their faces.

He shook his head. "Don't you lie to me Hermione." he whispered, walking back towards her. "Lie to yourself all you want, lie to Dumbledore, lie to your friends, but don't lie to me."

"Stop tormenting her, you unnerving bastard!" Sirius yelled, taking a step forward.

Regulus wiped some rain out of his face and said: "Last time I checked, yours was the name blasted out of the family tree."

Sirius was about to come up with another witty response, but Hermione cut him. "Both of you stop it!" she turned to Regulus. "What makes you think I'm lying?" she asked.

He smiled slightly. "The simple fact that you care about me gives you away." he explained, taking another step towards her.

"I don't care about you!" she defended herself, stepping towards him too, now on the edge of the area protected by the umbrella Sirius was holding.

He raised an eyebrow and took another step. "Really? Then why aren't you leaving? Why are you still arguing with me when you're so damn sure you're right? It's because you want to make me believe it, right?"

"You want me to leave, don't you?" she asked, taking another step, now in pray to the heavier droplets falling from the darkening clouds above.

He smirked and took another taunting step. "You care about my personal opinion?"

"Not at all!" she told him, sounding slightly appalled.

He shook his head and took another step, making then now barely two meters apart. "You respond with such ardour…"

"Not ardour; anger."

Another step. "… Trying to convince yourself…"

"I hate you."

Another step. "Quite the contrary, Hermione."

"How would you know?"

Another step. They were now mere centimetres apart, and could feel each other's breaths, while Sirius stood there, wondering whether he should leave or not. "Because…" Regulus explained, raising his right hand slightly out of his pocket. "I know."

She gulped down. "No." she denied.

"Yes." he whispered. "You were jealous, were you not? Why didn't you just tell me? That's what friends are for."

He placed his hovering hand on the nape of her neck and she asked: "Why didn't you?"

He half smiled. "I'm a Slytherin. A slimy, stinking snake, right?"

She smiled too and shook her head. "Sad, sadistic, slimy swine." she corrected him. "Although… You are both."

"And you are the most cowardly Gryffindor I've ever met." he laughed, placing his second hand on the small of her back.

"Really?" she asked, both of her hands now on his shoulders as she looked defiantly at him. "I believe no cowardly Gryffindor would do this." she declared and, pushing herself on her tip toes, she kissed him.

Smiling against her parting lips, he kissed her back, pulling her as close as their rain stained bodies could take. Their lips slid against each other's as the rain fell harder against their moulding bodies. And on and on they kissed, until a peal of thunder made them jump apart. They each gave a short laugh, before letting go of each other. Sirius stared.

Regulus pulled out his wand as Hermione walked back to Sirius. He was about to Disapparate when he called out to her. "Hey, Hermione?"

She turned around, rolling her eyes. "What now, Regulus?"

He smirked. "I won the argument!" before spinning around and disappearing with a loud crack.

As he felt himself being squashed in a thin rubber tube, he thought he felt Hermione yell: "Git!" He chuckled.

-o-O-o-

As Regulus lay in bed after landing at 12, Grimmauld Place, he realised he was in three things.

Firstly, he was in love. He was in love with Hermione Granger and there was nothing he could do about it.

Secondly, he was in pain. He was in pain because he was torn between his duty and the words his heart uttered to him.

Thirdly, he was in deep, deep shit. He chuckled at the very thought. After all, he was standing on the edge of a cliff; and anyone who found out about his situation could push him over the rocky edges. That meant certain death.

'But then again,' he thought as sleep began to claim him. 'Things can't go downhill, when I'm on a cliff.'

-o-O-o-

That last part was a little wink towards my upcoming HG/SB: 'The Cliff'. ;) Anyway, I hope you enjoyed that!

Please review, tell me what your favourite line was and stuff like that! Have a nice day!