Assumption // Regulus Black

7

Thalia

"Do you trust me?" Ace asked.

"No," I scoffed.

"The only way this will work is if you trust me," he sighed. "Can you at least pretend?"

"Sure. Of course I trust you, Ace," I smiled widely. 

"You're so bad at lying," he rolled his eyes. 

"You told me to lie, so I lied," I laughed. He rolled his eyes again but held out a hand. I took it and mounted the broom behind him. We were standing on a nearly empty quidditch pitch with Hazel, Anna, and Liam watching a few feet away. 

This was an annual experiment for me. I'm not afraid of many things, but flying tens-hundreds- of meters off the ground is one of them. Every year since Ace and Anna had played quidditch, they'd try to get me on a broom at least once. 

"Just hold on tight," he said, "Our friends will kill me if you die."

"I'm so glad that's your biggest worry," I smirked sarcastically, though I did hold on tighter around his waist. 

"Ready?"

"Ready." Ace kicked off the ground and I squeezed him so tightly I must've cut off his circulation. We ascended into the air from the near-empty quidditch pitch, the ground growing further and further away. "Ace," I warned.

"Try to relax," he laughed. 

"Yeah, you see that's a bit hard to do when we're flying in the fucking air!" I snapped. 

"I promise I won't let you fall," he assured. I clutched onto him for dear life as we soared through the air, circling the castle. I tried so hard to relax, but all I could think about was that one wrong move would mean life or death for me. And while life sucked sometimes, I figured dying would probably be a lot worse. 

I tried not to look down and squeezed my eyes closed to avoid doing so. The sound of the wind whistling in my ears made me want to vomit. After a few seconds of realizing that closing my eyes didn't help one bit, I re-opened them and stared at the castle we were circling. 

We successfully completed one lap around the school before Ace flew us back down to the quidditch pitch. I refused to loosen my hold on him until both feet touched the ground. We both stepped off the broom, and I glared at him.

"Did I drop you?" He grinned widely. 

"No," I huffed. "But I feel like throwing up, so thanks for that."

He laughed and grabbed his broom off the ground. We walked over to Liam, Hazel, and Anna who were both laughing at my disgust.

"How was it?" Anna smirked.

"I genuinely feel like vomiting," I rolled my eyes. "I don't understand why you do it for fun."

"I think Liam should go next," Anna smirked. 

"He'll only go with you," Hazel grinned.

"Good luck getting him on a broomstick," Ace laughed.

"True," Liam said before he began to grin "but, Anna I do have a broomst-"

"I know what you're going to say," she cut him off with a smirk, "And sometimes I feel like you're asking for a black eye." He continued to grin but closed his mouth. Ace, Hazel, and I laughed, and we walked towards the exit of the pitch.

The five of us walked off the pitch towards the castle for lunch. It was a Sunday afternoon, so besides some homework we didn't have much to do. We sat down in the Great Hall and ate lunch with some of our other classmates. 

After lunch, Anna, Hazel, and I hung out in our dormitory to do our homework. We each sat in our own beds with our books and papers scattered around us. I was reviewing my charms assignments for an exam the following week. Anna had managed to pry out of her Ravenclaw friend what had been on the test, so we were adding to our notes. 

"Tals," Anna said abruptly, looking up from her textbook.

"Hmm?" I asked while scanning my notes.

"How do you feel about Ace?" I looked up from my notes to frown at her.

"What do you mean?" I asked.

"Like how do you feel about him?" She shrugged. 

"I mean, I dunno he's one of my closest friends," I shrugged.

"So you don't think of him like romantically?" She asked with a smirk. 

"It's Ace," I laughed.  

"So that's a no?"

"Yeah," I laughed. "Why?"

"He likes you," she said knowingly, "I can tell."

"No he doesn't," I smirked.

"Yeah, actually he does," she laughed. "Haze, I'm not the only one who sees it, right?" We both looked at Hazel who shrugged. 

"I dunno," she said. 

"Well I think he does. And Liam thinks so too," she smiled smugly. 

"Liam will say anything to agree with you," I smirked.

"Maybe, but I'm right about this. The way he looked at you today- he looked genuinely happy."

"Yeah," I smirked, "Because we're friends. You guys make me happy too, but it doesn't mean I like you."

"Say what you will, I'm sticking to it," she said confidently. I rolled my eyes and went back to my notes.

I had, in fact, thought about Ace "romantically" as Anna put it up until fifth year. I'd always liked him- he was attractive, athletic, and surprisingly nice for a Slytherin. Countless other girls seemed to think so too. But he'd always been just a friend, and he'd never make an effort to be more with me. 

But it was much more than that. If I still had to act "normal" around my friends, a part of me knew I would be in no shape for anything romantic. With anyone. As long as I had to keep up my false persona, it wouldn't be smart.

We went back to doing our homework, and I pushed Anna's theory out of my head. 

Regulus

Thalia and I shared the common room once again at midnight. While technically we'd both been reading at night for a little under a month, this was the third night in a row that she noticed I was here. She didn't seem to mind, though, which made it easy for us to share.

It was so interesting to observe her behavior. I'd see her during the day, laughing and talking with her friends in the halls. She would flirt with the occasional guy and obviously partake in some fun activities (as I had caught her and Liam mid-prank weeks earlier.)

But it was as though she was a different person at night. She was mellow, quiet, and very very tired. It was as if acting "normal" throughout the day would drain all her energy. I sort of understood it. Fuck that. I did understand it. I just didn't understand why it was that way for her. To be completely honest with you, I didn't really have the energy to figure it out. 

Another interesting behavior was that she would always mark up her books. I was really fascinated by this and had a strange urge to read what she was writing in them.

We both sat in silence on our opposite ends of the common room. She would always go to upstairs before I did. I liked being the last one in the common room. 

We weren't exactly friends, but we weren't strangers either. We co-existed well.