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"Reg, are you joking? Is my embarrassment funny to you?" The girl giggled at her best friend as he held the books high above her head where she had no hope of reaching them.
"I mean, yeah, kinda," He chuckled back before giving in, and resting them in her outstretched arms. She smiled brightly at him and shook her head in defeat as the pair wandered back down the corridor that they had ended up in.
"You're far too easy to annoy y/n/n. You need to toughen up a little bit," Regulus nudged her in the arm, careful not to make her drop the pile of books again. He didn't have the patience to pick them all back up for her.
"Or what, Reg, you're going to continue to make my life a living nightmare? Don't worry, I'm used to it." His best friend chuckled, her eyes and ever-playful grin covered by her long blonde hair. Regulus felt himself fighting the smile that was going to burst out soon. The smile that he reserved for y/n y/l/n, his best friend, and the girl who always had his attention, even when she didn't realise it.
"You might not have slept in a while, because I think you're getting 'nightmare' confused with 'complete dream'. I'm so underappreciated here, maybe I should go and be best friends with Lucius Malfoy instead," He teased, knowing very well that having Lucius as a best friend was the last thing he wanted in the world. Replacing y/n would be like finding gold and giving it up for rusted iron, Regulus thought.
Y/n just gasped, placing a hand over her mouth with a sarcastic expression. Her blue fingernails gleamed in the corridor's candlelight.
"No! Please no! Anything but that Regulus, please! How would I live?! I thought we were meant to be forever!" Her hand moved from her face to a place on her chest, over her heart. Regulus joined her in a short laugh, shaking his head at her awful acting.
That night, their shenanigans had carried them from the library to a random passageway near the Slytherin dungeons. Much of their journey had consisted of Regulus poking y/n in the back as she tried to carry her heavy stack of Potions books, nearly resulting in them crashing to the ground numerous times. Although they didn't have many classes together during the day, they usually spent their evenings together, eating dinner and then trying to study. Most of the time, it ended in them being kicked out of the library for laughing too loudly.
"Look at that, home sweet home. Bedtime for you then, Reg?" Y/n dramatically sighed as the pair reached the unmistakable door to the Slytherin common room. He rolled his eyes and opened the door for both of them.
"Only if you'll tuck me in and read me my favourite story?" Regulus pouted and fluttered his eyelashes, acting out his part of the routine that they seemed to play most evenings. Y/n muttered something under her breath that sounded to Regulus a lot like "rickbed" and pushed past him into the main seating area of the common room.
"Y/n! You two are finally back!" One of her friends, Martha, yelled from an armchair near the fireplace.
"Why are you still awake, don't you have a Herbology test tomorrow?" Y/n asked her, not knowing if to go and chat with her friend for a while, or to walk with Regulus to the dormitories. Either way, she wouldn't end up going to sleep for a while.
"I was waiting for you to come back because I needed help, but then I figured it out.....Wait, what were you two doing out so late anyway," Martha was right. It was well past the curfew for students. She and Regulus were lucky that they hadn't met a Prefect on their way back, any of the Gryffindor or Ravenclaw Prefects would have had a field day giving them detention.
"We were in the, uh, library," Y/n tried to ignore the wink that Martha sent in their direction and kept her gaze well away from Regulus. He followed the looks that they were giving each other, trying not to become involved in whatever y/n's friend Martha was trying to suggest, even though she was absolutely correct. Glaring daggers at her friend, who just seemed to chuckle, she turned on her heels and continued on her way to the girl's dormitory, quickly hearing Reg's footsteps follow her.
Y/n stopped outside the door. She turned to face Regulus again, trying to clear the sudden awkwardness in the air.
"So...what was all of that about?" He jerked his thumb behind him, to where Martha was no doubt trying to eavesdrop on their conversation. She wouldn't give him the satisfaction of him knowing that she was slightly embarrassed, so she confidently met his gaze and absentmindedly shrugged her shoulders.
"She thinks that we're dating." Y/n casually looked around the room as she waited for his response, not wanting to seem too interested in what he had to say about the topic. It probably wasn't what she wanted to hear anyway. Even though they had been best friends for years, y/n knew that Regulus wasn't a big fan of commitment, and usually became bored of something after a while.
"And that would be a bad thing because...." He also shrugged his shoulders, trailing his sentence away, almost daring her to finish it for him.
"Because..uhh...well, because.." She tried to think of a good enough reason, but really, there wasn't one. When she looked back up at him, he was grinning at her and shot her a heavily exaggerated wink. She punched him in the arm for what was probably the tenth time that evening.
"Shut up...I'm going to bed now, thanks," She muttered, turning fast on her heel and finally opening the door.
"Sleep well, my love," Regulus mockingly sung as she crossed the doorway and disappeared.
All he could see from inside the darkness of the other room was y/n flashing him a rude gesture with a gigantic smile on her face.
