𝓟𝓱𝓲𝓵𝓸𝓹𝓱𝓸𝓫𝓲𝓪 || Regulus Black

5.8 - Pillow Talk

Ophelia Potter would never consider herself a social person, but she was quite popular around Hogwarts. She never believed that people liked her very much, mainly because of the reputations of her brother and her Slytherin friends. 

Everyone knew her name, but she just assumed it was for negative reasons. Because she didn't think many people liked her, she only had a few close friends that she would hang out with. 

On this particular day, she spent the morning with her Gryffindor friend, Thomas, and the rest of the day with Regulus. 

After spending the better part of their Saturday afternoon in the library, and then the evening in the Slytherin common room, Regulus and Ophelia had found that they had stayed out past their curfew. 

It was too late for Ophelia to go back to her dorm because of her uptight stickler roommate, Dolores. Luckily, Regulus and Ophelia have been running through this routine for years. 

They had it all committed to memory, and knew every step like it was etched in their temporal lobes. They've done it so often that it was just normal to them. It wasn't awkward to Regulus or embarrassing to Ophelia anymore. But since the boys in Regulus' dorm were rarely in their room anyway, nights were quiet and peaceful with only him and Ophelia. There was rarely anything to be embarrassed about. 

Once they realised how late it was, they immediately decided to fall back into their familiar routine. 

None of Regulus' dorm mates were in their room that night, so it was just him and Ophelia alone. Neither of them were complaining, though. In each other's presence was where they both felt the most comfortable.

They both got changed and then crawled into Regulus' bed. Neither of them wanted to go to sleep right away, so they decided to pass the time with platonic pillow talk.

"You know, I really like when we get to stay up late like this." Ophelia commented while staring up at the ceiling. "Whenever we get into a fight or whatever, it's always the first thing I miss about us."

"Me too." Regulus told her.

"Really?"

"Of course." He said. "When we spend the night together, it means we stayed up late together. So, waking up next to you in the morning means I spent several hours with my best friend, and it puts me in a good mood."

Ophelia couldn't help but smile, with her cheeks now displaying a rosy tint that often followed flattery from Regulus. She felt the exact same way, but had never believed Regulus had such similar thoughts as her. 

"You're adorable." Ophelia told Regulus. 

She moved up on the bed so she could be closer to him. She pulled the blanket up to where her chest was now and rested her head on Regulus' shoulder. 

"I'm adorable because I appreciate you?" He said, bushing through a lock of Ophelia's jet-black hair with his index and middle fingers.

"Yes, because you care about me. You're one of the few." She admitted. 

"No, I don't buy that for a second."

"What about it?"

"The fact that people don't care about you." Regulus said. "I doubt that people appreciate you the same way I do, but people definitely care about you."

"I just- I don't know."

"There's very little that you don't know, Lia." He told her. "So let's talk about it."

Ophelia sighed, and moved her head off of her friend's shoulder and onto the pillow next to him. 

"It just feels like everyone around me has so much." Ophelia confessed. "Like everyone has so many friends, or a significant other, or a family that cares about them to the moon and back."

Regulus turned his body so he could lay on his side and face Ophelia. He looked at her with an expression of intrigue. He noticed that Ophelia was saying thoughts that had certainly run through his head before, he just didn't know how to articulate them when they passed through his mind. 

Ophelia paused for a second to think, but quickly returned to speaking and continued her thoughts. 

"I mean, it's everywhere. Pandora has Xenophilius and all of their Ravenclaw friends."

Regulus looked into the girl's deep brown eyes, and thought about every word she said. He didn't say a word, and he just showed he was listening by nodding slightly at everything Ophelia said. She noticed it, but only in the corner of her vision field, as her eyes were fixed on the dark green ceiling of the dormitory. 

"I mean, it's even in my own family. James and Sirius have all of their amazing friends. Sirius sounds like he's doing just fine romantically. James has Lily and I have nothing."

"You have me." Regulus said. "You'll always have me."

Ophelia shifted her gaze from the ceiling, and looked at Regulus with a hopeful gleam in her eye. 

"Really?" She asked him. 

"Of course. You have never, and will never, need to feel inadequate or uncared for or unappreciated around me. I'm here for you."

"Thank you." Ophelia managed to say through the urge to start crying. "I'm here for you too."

She turned back to Regulus, and moved closer to him than she had been before. She had her hand across his torso and she laid with her head on his chest. 

Dragging her face across the soft fabric of his shirt to look up at his face again, she held back her tears and any emotional reflex her brain was sending throughout her body. 

Looking up at the boy she had treasured for years, she whispered "Regulus, you're my best friend and I am so incredibly grateful for you."

Though it meant a lot to him, the boy chose not to acknowledge it with words. He simply pulled her body higher up and closer to him, and laid his chin on the top of her head. 

It was all he could do, he couldn't say anything, but what did was almost better than words. Ophelia knew exactly what he meant by it, and held back a smile as she fell asleep on his chest.