𝓟𝓱𝓲𝓵𝓸𝓹𝓱𝓸𝓫𝓲𝓪 || Regulus Black

4.2 - Class Fight

As Ophelia was walking down to the school building after spending lunch with Pandora and her boyfriend, Xenophilius, out by the lake, she couldn't help but notice the large group of students crowding around the Transfiguration Courtyard. 

She was curious as to what everyone was looking at, so she went to see for herself, but wished she didn't once she got there. In the middle of the grass, surrounded by dozens of other students, were Regulus Black and Barty Crouch Jr. in the midst of an old-fashioned schoolyard fight.

Her jaw dropped at the sight of her best friends fighting each other like that, but she was too stunned to say anything to try and stop it. 

Regulus had Barty pinned on the ground, and was repeatedly swinging at his face and at his chest. 

With the breath and strength he could muster, Barty surrendered and told Regulus to stop, attempting to push the boy off of him. Regulus listened, then gave Barty one last kick as he stood up. 

When Regulus got off of Barty and started walking away, his eyes drifted over to Ophelia, standing in the crowd and watching in horror. The two of them maintained eye contact for a moment, both of them trying to make sense of everything that just happened. 

Barty slowly stood up, then spit down a potent mix of saliva and blood onto the grass before walking away from the courtyard. As he walked through the crowd and passed in between Regulus and Ophelia, he looked at the girl and muttered something quietly. 

It took her a second to understand, but he whispered the words "Control your boyfriend, prude.".

"He's not— I'm not—" Ophelia started, but then turned to Regulus when she realised there was no way Barty would give her any answers. "Reggie, what happened here?"

The crowd of students was starting to disperse, and Regulus walked through the bored audience and made his way over to Ophelia. 

"We have to go somewhere else." He said, not explaining anything. "At least one of those kids is going to report this to a professor, and I don't want to be here when they do."

"Reggie, if I come with you, you have to tell me what happened, okay? No more lies this year, please."

"No more lies. I promise. Now, let's go."

Ophelia took his bloodied hand, and started to make their way down the halls of the school. 

"So, you can tell me what happened now, or once we get you to the hospital wing. Which one would you prefer?" She asked him.

"No, I can't go to the hospital wing."

"What are you talking about?" She protested. "You have a black eye, you've got bruises everywhere the light touches your skin, and you're literally bleeding on me right now. I'm bringing you to the hospital wing."

"They'll tell my parents."

Ophelia immediately knew exactly what Regulus meant, and knew that she couldn't take him to the infirmary. 

"Alright." She sighed. "Can you walk up the stairs?"

"Yes, my legs are fine." Regulus replied. 

"Good. Then we'll go to the dorms and get you all cleaned up."

They walked down one of the hallways, and to Regulus' confusion, Ophelia stopped at the doors of the Great Hall.

"Wait here." She instructed.

He obeyed, not wanting to ask any questions, and waited on a bench outside the door with his head down.

Ophelia walked inside, and headed towards the Gryffindor table. She stopped once she reached James and his friends, and got his attention by tapping on his shoulder.

"Do you have any bandages?" She asked softly. "Even just plasters would be fine."

"Why? What happened?" James asked, then he and his friends noticed the blood on Ophelia's hand. 

"Did you get in a fight?" Sirius asked. 

"No." Ophelia responded. "No, Pandora and I were out in the forest and she scratched her leg."

"That looks like a lot more than a leg scratch." Sirius commented. 

James fetched a couple of plasters out of his pocket, and Sirius handed her half a roll of bandages. 

"What really happened, Ophelia?" James asked before giving his sister the handful of loose plasters. 

She grabbed them out of James' hand and started speeding towards the door. 

"Thank you!" She said loudly as she walked away. 

Ophelia walked out of the Great Hall, and Regulus lifted his head when he saw her feet next to him. 

"Got it." She said. "Now, let's go upstairs."

The two of them walked up to the Slytherin common room, Regulus sat down on one of the couches. 

Ophelia told Regulus to wait, and she went into her dorm room to find any piece of fabric she could use to clean the blood and dirt off of Regulus and his clothes. She found a clean towel, dipped it in some water, and brought it over to the couch. 

Ophelia tucked Regulus' hair behind his ears, and started to wipe his face. 

Regulus flinched when she touched the bruise forming around his left eye and his cheekbone.

Ophelia apologised instinctively, then went back to cleaning Regulus' face, careful now to avoid any bruised or bruising patches of skin. 

"So, you promised you would answer." Ophelia said. "What happened in the courtyard?"

"A fight. Weren't you there?" Regulus joked, but Ophelia wasn't amused, and he knew that. "Sorry."

Ophelia finished cleaning up Regulus' face, and was now moving to his neck. 

"Barty just said something stupid and wouldn't take it back." Regulus said

"What was it?" She asked as she tilted Regulus' chin upwards.

"I don't even remember."

They both knew he was lying, and that Regulus would be resistant to the truth as always, but Ophelia knew how to get the truth from him eventually. 

"Well, what do you remember?" She asked. 

"It was something that would just upset you." He told her. 

He wasn't lying about that part. What happened would only hurt her feelings and it was something he knew she would regret hearing if he told her.

"I don't care." Ophelia said. "You made a promise. You said you would tell me."

Regulus sighed. Ophelia was right, he made a promise. And after all the broken hearts and lies over the years, he couldn't keep breaking his promises. 

"He told me to cheat in Quidditch again. He said as long as I don't get caught, it's no harm, no foul."

"You're not going to listen to him, are you?" Ophelia asked. 

"No. No, of course not."

"Then, what's wrong?"

"When I told him that I promised you I would stop, he insulted you. And I'm not going to repeat everything, but he said you just bring me down."

Ophelia's shoulders sank to her chest level. She could tell that he was being honest, and that he wasn't lying either when he said it would only upset her. She realised that she had dropped her arms from Regulus' chin and swiftly resumed helping him.

"So, that's when you..." She said, not even wanting to say anything out loud.

"Punched him? Yeah." He said. "But, I didn't want to tell you the whole story and hurt your feelings."

"It's fine." Ophelia said, standing up to put the towel back in her bedroom. "We have class in ten minutes, so I'll clean up your hands in the halls and put the plasters on when we get to class."

"I can do all of that myself." He told her. 

"Can you?"

"Yes." He said, standing up and walking over to the door. "But, I'd rather that you help."