SET FIRE TO THE RAIN ━━ regulus black

it was dark

CHAPTER V

SIRIUS WAS SITTING in the far corner of the Three Broomsticks with two cups of butterbeer as he waited for Arabella. 

She eventually showed up with a navy blue scarf wrapped over her head and in the most peasant-looking clothes she could find.

“I would have written to you,” she said as she embraced Sirius, “but I had no clue where to address it to.”

She made sure to sit back facing the rest of the pub.

“Do not worry about it,” Sirius replied, sitting across from her. “You do not fathom how delighted I am to finally see you again. I have missed you so dearly.”

“I have missed you more,” she said, and their hands clasped together on the table between them. Their fingers fit into each other perfectly and naturally like routine, and the soft, warm feeling was so familiar, nostalgic almost.

“What is it like being queen?” Sirius said with a grin. “How was the coronation and the—and the wedding?”

There was silence for a period, and Arabella’s smile had vanished. 

“The wedding—it was—did you read the Prophet? It was most likely all over it . . . The wedding was . . . Well how would you feel being forced to marry someone you spent the entirety of your life hating?”

Sirius was silent. Pity and sorry filled his heart and spirit.

“I guess you would not know,” she said.

They both stared at each other’s hands, held in the other’s, and Arabella wondered how hers had gotten there without her noticing.

She could not understand whether she was still mad at him for leaving, or if she was still in love with him. Or both. Or none.

“We were supposed to get married,” she whispered.

“I know,” he said, “I am sorry.”

She shook her head. “No,” she said. “No, you are not.”

Sirius was shocked by her response.

“You are not sorry. You are selfish.” She said these words but was not able to look at him. “You left because you hate your family and they hate you, and because you did not want to rule, but did you ever think about me?”

“Arabella,” he said, “I think about you every day.”

“Clearly that is not enough.” She removed her hands from the table. “It is too late now anyway. Thinking about me will not make a difference, so do not waste your time.”

“Arabella, please—”

“I loved you, and you left me with your bastard of a brother and bitch of a mother!”

They were both quiet and out of words to say, tears welled in both their eyes.

“I am leaving now.” Arabella stood to leave. “I might write to you in the future. Goodbye, Sirius.”