maple syrup | remus lupin [1]

123. cigarettes & champagne

REGULUS WAS THE ONE who came with the news. Claudia was, as usual, sitting in her bed as she read a boring book that her father approved of when the boy walked inside her room so quietly that she couldn't even hear him.

However, once he said hi, Claudia pretty much flew out of her bed, causing the boy to chuckle amusedly.

And then, his face fell.

"It's going to happen here," he said, and Claudia understood immediately.

"Here?"

"Here," Regulus nodded. "They're disguising it as an Easter ball, so plenty of people will come."

"Including him?"

"Including the Dark Lord, yes."

"Shit," was all Claudia said.

"Shit indeed."

"That really does make it harder to get kicked out," the girl sighed.

"What do you mean?"

"Well, if we were going somewhere else we could easily get kicked out, but now we're quite stuck, aren't we?"

"You were going to get us kicked out? That wouldn't sit well at all with our parents."

"I'd rather deal with my father than join him," Claudia said, receiving an unsure look from Regulus. "Wouldn't you?"

"I...I don't know," Regulus confessed.

"Oh," Claudia breathed. "You know you can always talk to me right, Reg?"

"I know," he replied quietly. "But, Claudia, it's just...what if Nico is right?"

Claudia frowned, "Right about what?"

"About us being lucky."

"No," Claudia said sternly. "We're not lucky. They may say that we are, but 'being lucky' doesn't involve living a life you don't want to live."

"But what if this life isn't so bad?" Regulus asked, a glimt of hope in his eyes. "Think about it, Claudia. We get to be taken seriously. And we get to stay with our families and friends despite growing up. We don't have to panic about our futures. And our parents will be so proud of us-"

"Yours may," Claudia interrupted. "My father wouldn't be proud over me for anything. And my mum...she wanted nothing more than for me to stay out of things like these. And as for friends and families, that's not me. I don't have a family here, Regulus. My family's my friends, and joining him only means that I'll drift further away from them by the minute. So don't stand there and tell me that things won't be so bad, because they will!"

"Shit, sorry! I wasn't thinking when I said that."

"Yeah, you really weren't," Claudia said rather bitterly, standing up from her bed. "This is not the life that I want. I want to get out of here more than anything. And I get it if this is all you've ever known, but deep inside I know you want to leave too."