𝐌𝐢𝐧𝐞 || 𝐑𝐞𝐠𝐮𝐥𝐮𝐬 𝐁𝐥𝐚𝐜𝐤 𝐱 𝐑𝐞𝐚𝐝𝐞𝐫

Chapter 29

Friday 17th December, 1976

It was the last day of term, the Christmas holidays just a day away. Many kids from years 5 to 7 were staying for the dance, and some of the younger ones were too, hoping they'd be able to sneak into the Yule Ball.

For the rest of the week since Sunday, Regulus and I would go to our spot and dance for about two hours every day right after school finished. We even danced on our patrol, giggling and laughing as he spun me around the halls, the moonlight shining on us through the windows. Sometimes though, we'd only dance for about fifteen minutes when we went to practise and spend the remaining time just talking.

The thing that dampened all these happy memories though, was when Regulus pulled away. He'd been doing it more often, trying to put distance between us but failing every time. I didn't know why, and that thought worried me. Did I do something wrong? Why was he acting like a gentleman one minute and then a complete utter jerk the next? The answers were lost to me.

When I wasn't hanging out with Regulus, or needed a break from his cold demeanour, I hung out with the marauders or Lily, Mary, and Marlene. I had been right about my theory with Sirius, having watched alongside the rest of the marauders as one night Sirius just up and asked Remus to the Yule Ball.

Currently, the girls and I were entering the Great Hall for the next dancing lesson, finding the marauders and sitting next to them. Today, Slughorn was teaching us dancing and he had decided that pairing students together from different houses was a good idea, because of course he did.

"Ah, Miss Potter," Slughorn said when he arrived in front of me. "You will be paired with..." he trailed off, searching the sea of students before him. "Regulus Black. You work well together as Prefects."

Proud with his decision, he moved on, leaving me to find Regulus's face within the crowd of students, smiling slightly. He smiled back, only to turn stone-cold when his friends looked at him, sliding his gaze away from me as if he'd lost interest in staring at me. I frowned, turning away and looking at the ground until we had to go over to our partners.

I walked over to Regulus slowly, waiting on bated breath to see if he was in another one of his moods, but once his friends disappeared he seemed more open, sending me a smirk as I arrived in front of him.

When the music started, Regulus and I got into dancing positions, but as we started moving I felt a wave of insecurity hit me as I looked at all the other people surrounding us. I hated that they were all there, watching me.

"Just ignore them," Regulus murmured, noticing my discomfort.

I tore my gaze from everyone else, letting it land on Regulus. "How?"

"Just look at me."

I followed his command, my eyes staring intently at his face. I looked at his eyes that resembled the night sky, smiling slightly because it matched well with his name. It was only fitting that the boy named after a star would have stars in his eyes. You couldn't see the stars as well because there wasn't any light shining directly into them, but if I looked hard enough I could distinguish the dots. My eyes strayed to his mouth, red and plump, as if begging me to kiss them. I wanted to, desperately, but Regulus would never kiss me back. I'd have to be satisfied with the kiss we shared in detention, one I found myself thinking about late at night when I couldn't fall to sleep.

"See? You're doing fine," Regulus said.

I blinked, realising that my body had gone into autopilot as I stared at Regulus. I wondered when dancing with Regulus had become familiar enough to me that I could dance without constantly tripping over myself.