Marmoris | Rabastan Lestrange [1] ✔︎

39 | CUTE

Even three days after Dawn had talked to Phoenix, the latter believed she could still repeat every single one of her words. Seeing her best friend on the verge of crying about a pain she had held a secret inside of her for months, made her feel guilty. Why had she not been able to see it? She was a terrible friend.

Perhaps it was exactly that feeling of remorse, which made her spend so much time with the brunette girl afterwards. If she hadn't been there for her before, she at least had to be now.

At the same time, she tried to avoid being alone with Rabastan as strictly as possible. He had never shown a hint of him remembering what had happened that night in the Hospital Wing and Dawn's words had made her realise once more that he couldn't have been in his right mind when he did it, anyway. Rabastan Lestange was not one to care - well, at least not in that way. He made girls believe they were different than the girls before, something special, before he made their hearts shatter into a thousand pieces. And even if he was serious, he had been right when he asked her to be his date for the Yule Ball and was answered with a rejection. He was no first born, which meant there was no possible future for them. She couldn't like him.

But she already did.

She had realised that when he had entered the classroom, aided by Regulus and Will. Later she couldn't help the urge to intertwine their fingers or prevent herself from blushing whenever she caught him looking at her at the Slytherin table or in class.

It was a Saturday and Phoenix sat in the common room on a sofa, her legs folded under her, as she tried to finish her Divination assignment which was due until Monday. Maureen groaned beside her and threw her own work onto the coffee table in front of them. "I can't do this right now. Will told me I could watch their training session whenever I wanted to and I think now might be the perfect opportunity to take him up on that offer."

The corners of Phoenix' lips tugged up in a smile. So Dawn and her had been right all along, there was indeed something going on between the pink-haired girl and the good-looking Quidditch player. But then her eyes caught Rabastan, who was sitting on an armchair to her left, looking at them with a slightly saddened expression on his face, and she realised that if Maureen left it would only be him and her, considering Dawn and the other boys had already left for practice.

Although it made her feel just as uncomfortable as the thought of being alone with him she looked back up at Maureen. "I'll go with you. I'm done anyway."

She immediately felt guilty as she caught Rabastan staring at her again, but she tried to push the feeling away.

The pink-haired girl peeked down into her lap, where her obviously unfinished homework was placed. She raised an eyebrow and stated, "You're in the middle of a sentence. I'll just go alone and you finish it." She glanced at Rabastan with a wicked smile and lowered her voice to a whisper. "Besides, who would be looking after our handsome patient?"

Phoenix' eyes widened in disbelief at what her friend had just said. She didn't dare look at him as she felt her cheeks heating up. Hopefully he hadn't heard Maureen's words.

"I'll finish it later. We've still got plenty of time to do it and a break doesn't seem to be a stupid thing. Do you think they would mind if I tag along?", Phoenix babbled and stopped immediately as she caught the amused look in her best friend's eyes. She fell back into her seat, defeated. "But finishing it doesn't sound so bad either."

Maureen grinned victoriously at her. "I'll be back in a bit. Don't miss me too much."

"I hate you", Phoenix grumbled under her breath as she watched the other girl disappear through the secret passage into the dungeons.

Tightly gripping onto her quill she continued to scribble words onto the parchment placed in her lap, avoiding to look at Rabastan once more. Most likely it was just her imagination, but she felt his gaze linger on her more than once. Even if it was real, she couldn't bring herself to return his gaze. The situation was more than just weird.

It wasn't until she finished the last sentence and began to gather her supplies about half an hour later that one of them spoke. In fact, is was Rabastan asking, "Why are you avoiding me?"

She nearly dropped the quill she was holding as she looked over at him and lied a little too fast, "I'm not avoiding you."

He sent her an incredulous look, which made her start to nervously fidget with the quill in her hand. Merlin, her brothers had always told her she was totally incapable of lying. She had never seen much of a disadvantage in it, but now she wished to have Sirius' talent. "I've simply been a little busy lately with homework and something I've been helping Dawn with."

He still didn't believe her.

However, he didn't inquire further. Instead he asked. "Would you mind helping me to a seat closer to the fire? I think my body is using all my energy for healing instead of keeping me warm."

Phoenix nodded, placing her supplies on the sofa and moving over to him. "Shouldn't you be healed by now?", she asked.

"That's actually the strange thing. Pomfrey said the healing spells and potions wouldn't work the way they are supposed to." He paused for a split second, pushing himself into a more upright sitting position. "It does work. If it didn't, my spiral cord would still be damaged quite a lot worse and I wouldn't be walking in any way, but it takes longer. I should've been fully healed by Tuesday and now it's Saturday."

Phoenix sat down next to him on the armrest of the chair and he draped his arm over her shoulder. "Are you in pain?"

She realised they had hardly ever been so close except for when he had comforted her after the Yule Ball and during their kiss barely a week earlier – during her first kiss. She could not only feel the warmth radiating of off his body – he was certainly not cold at all – but also take in his scent. She couldn't quite place it but it reminded her of honey and fresh parchment.

"I can handle it", he said with a confident smirk on his lips.

Phoenix simply rolled her eyes at his response. Why couldn't he give a serious answer to a real question? Still, she helped him onto his feet, which was harder than it had looked when Will had done the same thing.

"Sorry, I really do try my best", Rabastan apologised through gritted teeth.

"It's okay. You're doing-"

Then everything happened way too fast. His legs collapsed beneath him and with his weight pulling her down they both stumbled to the floor. Phoenix landed half on top of him and both of them groaned before she immediately started to apologise, kneeling next to him. "I'm so sorry. Please tell me you're okay. I'm so sorry."

It took her a moment to actually notice that amused smile was making its way onto his lips. And then he said something she hadn't expected him to say by no means. "You're cute when you're babbling."

Suddenly it dawned on her; his legs hadn't simply given in. He had made the two of them fall on purpose and found himself actually rather entertaining. Phoenix' eyes narrowed.

"Oh no, you didn't. Have you lost your mind? You could have hurt yourself", she hissed at him, anger swinging in her voice, her hands gesturing widely.

In a quick motion Rabastan grabbed one of her hands, pulling her back down and making her face hover only inches above his, their noses almost touching.

"And getting cuter by the second", Rabastan teased.

They stared at each other. Phoenix didn't even dare to breathe due to their faces being so close. In that very moment she thought he was going to kiss her again as he firmly held her hands placed on his chest to her sides. As soon as the shook flattened a little she fully processed what they were doing and what people might think if they walked in on them. Although it took her quite a lot of willpower she pushed herself up with her hand, which were still placed on his chest, causing him to wimper.

She let out a shaky laugh. "You did hurt yourself, didn't you?"

And then Rabastan started giggle, but stopped himself sucking in a deep breath because of the pain. Phoenix could only shake her head in amusement. Once again his own pranks on her had backfired.