The Art of Dying - R. Black

nineteen

I shield my eyes from the brightness, trying to blink the sleep out of my eyes. My entire body feels sore, as if I had slept on the floor.

Shit.

Shit.

Shit.

I'm still half asleep when I sit up and look around. Regulus is still asleep beside me, his arm wrapped around my waist.

Fuck.

Fuck.

Fuck.

"Reg, wake up," I hit him in the arm, my voice becoming panicked. "Wake up, wake up!"

Regulus opens his eyes slowly, not grabbing the seriousness of the situation until he looks around. When he sees that it's the morning, and that we are still in the astronomy tower, I can see the panic kick in.

"Oh shit, oh fuck," Regulus says, quickly getting up.

He extends his hand and helps me up from the floor.

"I know, I know," I panicked.

Regulus grabs my arms and looks at my watch, exhaling loudly. "It's okay," He says, "It's only seven, class doesn't start until nine."

I calm down slightly, but it doesn't last long.

"We fell asleep, fuck, we are so fucked," I mutter, rubbing my eyes with backs of my hands. "Oh my god, my roommates are probably freaking out."

Regulus takes my hands in his. "Hey, hey, hey," He assures me, "It's okay. We're not going to get in trouble, we didn't get caught, and if anyone sees us going back to our common rooms it'll be fine because it's the morning."

"What kind of impression would I give off if someone saw me right now?" I asked, gesturing to my clear state of disarray. "Merlin, we are the worst Head Boy and Girl ever!"

Regulus laughs softly at this, bringing his hands up to cup my face.

"Take a deep breath, it'll be fine," He says. "You'll leave first, go back to your dorm, put on a turtleneck, and if anyone asks, tell them that there was some sort of situation this morning that you had to deal with."

I sigh in relief. "Okay, you're right, I'll leave and go to my dorm and it'll all be fine," I tell myself, staring into Regulus's eyes.

"See, it'll be fine," Regulus assures me.

I grab my wand from the floor, shoving it into the waistband of my sweatpants. I quickly pull my shoes on, checking to make sure that I didn't leave anything up here that would get me caught.

"Okay, I'm good," I said, starting towards the door.

"Hey, Meredith?" Regulus asks. "I had fun last night."

I smile at him, taking one last look at his pajama pants and his messy hair. "Me too, Reg, me too," I reply.

"Back to the lions you go, I'll see you around."

I give him a quick smile before leaving the astronomy tower.

I'm going down the stairs fast, and walking even faster through the corridors, trying to get back to Gryffindor Tower as quickly as possible.

When I reach the portrait hole, the Fat Lady gives me a disapproving look before letting me in.

"Judgemental much?" I mutter.

The common room is pretty much empty as I walk through it, trying to get to the stairs as fast as possible.

"Meredith?"

Shit. Shit. Shit.

I slowly turn around, looking at Jack, who's sitting on the windowsill with a cigarette between his fingers.

"Uh, hi," I say.

"Where'd you come from?"

I shrug, "The corridor."

"Okay," Jack says, looking at me up and down.

I turn to go up the dormitory stairs when he speaks again.

"Nice hickey, McKinnon."

I give him the finger before heading up the stairs to my dormitory. By the time that I reach the door, my legs are burning, and not just from the stairs.

Slowly closing the door behind me, I walk over to my dresser, quietly grabbing new clothes.

Thankfully, all of my roommates are still asleep, except for Amelia. She's sitting on the floor doing her eyeliner.

"Morning," Amelia whispers, raising an eyebrow at me.

"Yeah, yeah, long story," I said, going over to my dresser. I grab my clothes and head into the bathroom to shower and get ready.

I turn the shower on and look at my reflection in the mirror.

My hair is a complete mess, I'm in the clothes that I was wearing last night, not to mention the love bites trailing down my neck.

"Jesus," I mutter.

- - - - -

When I open the bathroom door, the rest of my roommates are awake and bustling around the room getting ready.

Amelia is already gone, probably in the library with her boyfriend.

Emmeline is doing her hair in the mirror, and Maggie is complaining about the uniform behind her. Lucy, our fifth roommate, brushes past me to get into the bathroom next, giving me a quick smile.

"Good morning," Maggie said, turning around to look at me.

I fiddled with my turtleneck that I was wearing underneath the uniform sweater, making sure that everything was covered.

"Morning," I reply, not bothering to grab my tie from my nightstand.

"How was the patrol last night?" Emmeline asked. "Was Black insufferable?"

I tense slightly at the mention of him.

They know. They have to know.

There's no way that they could know.

"No, he was actually pretty sufferable," I answered. "Not too bad."

"Well, that's good," Maggie says.

I shrug, putting my dirty clothes in the laundry.

By eight o'clock, the three of us head down to the common room. The boys are waiting there for us, and Jack raises an eyebrow at me, but keeps quiet.

"Merlin, I am starving," Sam complains, clutching his stomach as we walk to the Great Hall.

Now that he mentioned it, I feel my stomach grumble. "Yeah, me too," I add, ignoring my stomach's pleas for food.

"Yeah, I bet," Jack whispers.

I elbowed him in the side, making sure that no one else heard him. We're trailing slightly behind the rest of them as we reach the Great Hall.

"So who is he?" Jack asks, nudging me in the side.

I shake my head, "I honestly have no idea what you're on about."

"Hmm, I'm sure that's the case."

When I sit down at the Gryffindor table, my eyes immediately go to him.

Sitting at the Slytherin table with his friends, Regulus Black is eating pancakes, wearing the marks on his neck proudly. He pulls his gaze away from his friend's conversation and meets my eyes. Regulus smirks at me, mouthing 'nice turtleneck'.

I roll my eyes at him, pulling my gaze away from him to the food in front of me.

I really am quite hungry.