My Breath || S. B.

12. Rumours

Regulus placed a pile of books on the table with a loud thump. "You've been hanging a lot with my brother lately."

"I have no choice," Junia sighed. "It's either that or an excruciating pain greeting me every Tuesday, Saturday and Sunday."

Regulus smirked, "Admit it, he's not as bad as you think."

"Doesn't matter what I think," Junia rolled her eyes. "Alright, what've we got here?"

"Books that might include the procedure on how to destroy horcruxes," Regulus sat down. "I managed to get it out of the restricted section."

"Well you definitely cleared the shelves off," Junia remarked as she observed the tall pile of books. "Let's start then."

Junia looked through the table of content of the first book, looking through the chapters that might include what she and Regulus were looking for quietly. Unfortunately for them, none of the books held any answers to their question.

"That was a waste of our time," Regulus sighed.

Junia smiled, "At least we learnt a new thing or two."

"Like?" Regulus cocked a brow.

"Voldy is insane, heartless and deserves to have terrible insomnia," Junia stated calmly.

"What's insomnia?"

"It's when someone has difficulty sleeping—"

"What are you guys doing here?"

"Sirius!" Regulus exclaimed, happy and surprised to see his brother. Due to their different houses, the Black brothers never really have the chance to interact in school.

"Black!" Junia exclaimed at the same time, however she had a different reason. She forgot about the regular one-hour meeting that she was supposed to have today.

Sirius looked between the two of us. "I understand if Reggie is surprised here, but why are you so surprised? We're supposed to meet here, or did I read the wrong date?" He asked the last question to himself.

"What day is today?" Junia turned to Regulus.

"Tuesday."

Junia turned to Sirius, slightly ashamed for not remembering. "Right then, we are supposed to meet here."

Sirius however, had already had an evident frown on his face. "What were you two doing?" he asked, examining the books scattered on the table.

Junia noticed the change and quickly gathered the books and piled them up together, "Studying. I was just helping Regulus with his Defense homework."

Regulus nodded and began collecting his things, "She's really good." Regulus saw the look in Sirius's eyes and quickly excused himself, "Right, I'll go now. Thanks, Jun."

Junia attempted to carry the pile of books all at once, but failed miserably a second later when half of it fell to the ground.

Sirius bent down to pick up one of them, frustration and negative thoughts flooding his mind. "Studying? With these books?"

"The syllabus changed," Junia quickly responded, as she picked up the rest of the books. "Mind helping me?"

"Sure," Sirius said with tenseness in his voice. What were they doing with such dark books?

Junia and Sirius went to the last row of bookshelves and Junia started to place the books back. She was trying to act as normal as possible, despite knowing very well what Sirius might be thinking at that moment.

"Are you sure the syllabus has changed?" Sirius asked again, knowing very well she was lying.

Junia sighed and arranged the last book on the shelves, before turning around only to find Sirius barely an inch away from her. She stepped back, her back hitting the shelves.