Fate || Regulus Black

Chapter 18: New Year

31st December 1976
It was New Year's Eve and Rosalind was at the Rosier manor to celebrate the new year. It was a ball of sorts and in just a few minutes the dancing would begun.

She stood in a corner with Sophia, mostly to hide from her parents so they wouldn't make her dance with Regulus. It was four hours until the new year and Rosalind was not excited, it just got closer to her graduating school, closer to her marrying Regulus, closer to her very boring future. She sipped pumpkin juice out of a glass while chatting with Sophia.

Oliver walked up to them, he talked to them for a while before he asked Rosalind to dance. Even though she wasn't a very good dancer, she said yes. She had an excuse as to why she wasn't dancing with Regulus. It was improper to say no when asked to dance. The music started playing and everyone danced except for the really small kids or the really old adults, Sophia was dancing with a guy her age, he looked like he was French.

Rosalind saw her parents dancing together and her brother dancing with a woman that she knew was a half blood.

"New year in a few hours." Oliver said, bringing Rosalind back from her thoughts. "Yeah, do you have any wishes for the new year?" she asked, looking at him.

"I might." he answered with a smile.

Rosalind rolled her eyes. "Do you have any wishes?" he asked. His brown eyes seemed to be studying her.

"No, I don't believe it actually will come true. But as soon as this is over I am going to-" She started but got interrupted by somebody shouting at everyone to change partners. This was new and she didn't like it.

Oliver spun her into some other guy's arms, she had a very hard time placing this one even though he seemed familiar. His hair was slicked back and he had a mask over his eyes which was weird. But she could see the eyes as clear as day.

"What's your name?" she asked looking at him.

"Uhm, Mark." he answered.

"Mark?" Rosalind questioned.

"Yup, anything exciting going on in your life?" he asked, but he didn't look at her, he looked at another dude dancing with Lydia.

"Not really, you?" Rosalind asked, she didn't really like small talk but something was suspicious about this situation.

When he looked back at her, she saw those eyes, they were Regulus'. Was it Regulus behind this mask? "Black?" she asked and frowned, she looked at his clothes and this was not what Regulus showed up in. Had he changed and put on a mask so she wouldn't recognise him when they dance? But when would he have changed?

She heard him groan. "How did you know?" he asked.

"Your eyes gave you away plus-" she started but then stopped mid sentence. She grabbed the mask that only covered his eyes and took it.

When she saw Sirius' face she got surprised. Even though she had kind of expected it, the voice had been different, the clothes weren't the same plus the eyes were not the same, just extremely similar.

"What the hell are you doing here?" she asked and threw his mask back at him. Before he could answer she continued, "Let me guess, Potter is dancing with Lydia over there?" she asked and nodded at them.

"And this is all some sort of brilliant scheme?"

Sirius nodded but she couldn't continue because they were supposed to change partners again. She left Sirius and in a few seconds she was dancing with somebody else.

Barty Crouch Jr. He was the person that was now dancing with her.

"Hello there, Bulstrode." he smirked.

"Hello, Crouch." she responded with less enthusiasm.

"You probably don't care, but Regulus is staring at us." Barty continued.

"Let him." Rosalind muttered before turning around to see for herself.

It was true, he did look at them. Regulus didn't even look away, he continued to look even though they both stared back at him.

Rosalind turned back to Barty and suddenly remembered what Evan said on the Hogwarts express. "You know that bet Regulus and I had?" she asked.

"Aha, what about it?" he asked as he looked down at her. She contemplated not saying anything, maybe it would sound stupid.

"The rules we had..." she started but didn't know how to continue. Luckily, Barty seemed to know what to say.

"Yeah it's good you had all those rules, Evan's ideas were not to play with. I think he was on some drugs or shit because that was not like his normal behaviour, Regulus agree with me by the way."

Rosalind nodded slowly and frowned, "What did he want Regulus to make me do?" she asked, not sure if she wanted the answer.

"Mostly sexual stuff, but sometimes I thought he maybe wanted to kill you." Barty shrugged with a smirk.

She almost jumped when she felt somebody touch her shoulder. She snapped her head to see Regulus standing there.

"We need to talk." he stated in all seriousness.

"No, we don't." she disagreed and turned back to Barty. He was looking between Rosalind and Regulus.

"Wait here." Barty stated and he and Regulus left. So Rosalind stood alone in the middle of the dance floor while people still were dancing. It must've looked pathetic.

She stood there for a while and when she realised that they weren't coming back she went to find Sophia. Unfortunately she didn't find her but a bunch of house elfs came out with champagne. She grabbed a glass from a tray and tried to found Sophia again through the crowd.

But naturally, she got stopped and she turned to the person whom had stopped her and saw that it was Walburga. "We thought we could all just raise a glass together before we dance in the new year." she stated.

It was kind of a tradition that instead of the New Years kiss, you dance in the new year with your partner, some decide to kiss during that but the most did not during these balls.

"Orion is looking for Regulus, he might be somewhere in this crowd." she said as she looked out over the many people. Rosalind's parents stood there as well, ready to make a toast.

Orion and Regulus came a few minutes later and the two families raised a toast, nobody was especially cheery about the new year.

Rosalind was very far away from happy when Regulus asked her to dance in the new year with him. She took his hand and started to dance with him. She knew his father had forced him to ask and her parents didn't allow her to say no.

She looked at the wall behind him the whole time, persistent on not looking at him. It was a beautiful grey wall with paintings. "You are a terrible dancer." he stated.

"You are worse." she stated and looked back at Regulus.

He was already looking at her.

Sorry for not updating last Tuesday, I actually just forgot:/