𝐇𝐎𝐔𝐒𝐄 𝐎𝐅 𝐁𝐋𝐀𝐂𝐊 | 𝘳𝘦𝘨𝘶𝘭𝘶𝘴 𝘣𝘭𝘢𝘤𝘬

𝓬𝓱𝓪𝓹𝓽𝓮𝓻 𝓮𝓲𝓰𝓱𝓽

"Reggie! Reggie wake up," a voice whispered. Reggie let out a small groan and rolled over on his side, pulling his blanket up to his chin in an attempt to drown out the voice and fall back asleep.

"Go away," he mumbled into the pillow.

The person shaking him awake made a noise of annoyance and shoved him lightly in the shoulder.

"Reg, please wake up. It's me, Juno."

At that, Reggie slowly opened his eyes, blinking away his sleep. Even in the dead of night, the boys dorm was green. The water outside of the small window in the room seemed to glow with its own light and casted pale green shadows dancing along the floors and walls.

The floor was a bare, cold, gray, stone. One Reggie cursed every time he stepped on it bare from the cold. And there, sitting on the cold floor, sat a young girl with golden hair and no shoes. Juno.

Why would Juno be in his room in the middle of the night? For a moment he thought he was dreaming.

He reached out a slow hand and lightly poked her forehead.

She was real alright.

Juno gave him an unimpressed look and tugged his blanket down from under his chin so he was exposed to the harsh cold air of the scottish castle. Was it the castle, or was it just the dungeons?

"What'd you want," he complained, now too awake to go back to sleep. Juno was sitting on the floor next to his bed and still in her sleepwear. If Reggie's mother was here, he knew she'd be having a fit about the informality of it.

"A lady in the boy's dormitories? In sleepwear? Why, I'd never seen anything so improper in my life!"

Reggie laughed to himself slightly at the thought of his mother at Hogwarts.

"I couldn't sleep. I miss home," she admitted, looking slightly embarrassed. Reggie wasn't sure if he missed home or not. He liked being at Hogwarts enough that if he did miss the cold, hollow walls of Grimmauld Place, that it hardly bothered him.

"What's your home like?" Regulus asked quietly, sitting up and looking down at her in interest.

Juno looked mildly surprised by his question and looked around. She held a small finger up.

"Sh," she hushed. "C'mon. Let's go somewhere else."

Regulus froze. "Like where? We'll get in trouble."

Juno snorted (how unladylike, the inner Walburga in Reggie's head chastised). "Only if we get caught."

For a moment, Juno reminded him painfully of Sirius. But then she smiled at him with that smile and he knew she'd never be like Sirius. She didn't care that he was a Slytherin.

He nodded and let her take his hand and pull him out of bed. He slowly slipped on a pair of fuzzy slippers he had learned to transfigure and followed Juno out of his dorm.

"If we go to the hallway by the fifth year boys dorms," she whispered, her fingers dancing lightly against the corridor halls as they walked. "Then there'll be a portrait of an old king. If we ask nicely he'll let us in."

Reggie was going to ask what she was talking about, when she stopped. He almost tripped into her back but managed to catch himself just in time. In front of them stood a medium sized portrait, like Juno had said.

"Sir," Juno said quietly, lightly trailing her fingers along the edges of the frame. The king's eyes shot open. His gaze landed on Juno first, then drifted to Regulus. The familiarity in his eyes faded into scrutiny.