The Chain|Regulus Black

What makes a friend

"Delilah, do you believe him?" The girl had been pacing her friend's dorm the entire night. She'd never doubted Regulus so why was she starting now?

"Yes. Of course, I do." I don't doubt him, I worry for him.

"So what's the problem?" Dorcas exasperated, rubbing her forehead, they'd been having the conversation for at least a few hours and the more circles they went round in the more tired she got.

They'd gone through a packet of cigarettes between them and ash littered across Dorcas's desk, the ash tray idly forgotten as Delilah perched on the window ledge.

Delilah shrugged, flicking the ash before she flopped down onto the floor, crossing her legs she thought perhaps Dorcas's ceiling would give her some answers as she found herself only capable of could dealing with one catastrophe at a time. "I'll tell you what your problem is. You love the boy and you're too wound up trying to find something wrong with him, despite his issues being obvious," Dorcas melodramatically crossed through her parchment, lengthening the word 'obvious' as to make obvious that everyone saw what a 'nut job' the Slytherin Prince was, expect Delilah of course.

"That you won't let your mind accept what your heart has been shouting at you for the past three years. Or longer I assume." Her eyes focussed on the parchment before flinging a few more sprigs of frog stone into the potion bubbling in her room.

"That's preposterous." Dorcas leant over her bed, glaring at her dramatic friend. Her nose scrunching at the smell emitting from the cauldron, watching precariously as it bubbled and spat violent blue liquid.

"Oh Merlin, for fucks sake." Rubbing her temples Dorcas sat up, crossing her legs as she looked down at her somewhat naive friend "describe Regulus to me."

"What?" Delilah stretched out on the rugged floor, her fingers lacing through the threads.

"How would you describe Regulus?" Dorcas slipped out her robes into Marlene's quidditch jumper, stopping briefly just to inhale a little deeper.

Delilah mulled over the question, everything Regulus related racing through her mind and language seemed inadequate. But being a Ravenclaw, she thought of a way around it, she wouldn't describe Regulus, no, she'd simplify. She'd describe how he made her feel.

"Have you ever been overly aware that this is you're life?"

"Well I'd be a bit surprised if someone told me it wasn't?" Dorcas quirked a brow, sorting out her bag.

"No, I mean- just, have you ever been aware that you're never going to see every corner of the earth? I won't see every star, or meet every person in the world. I won't feel their impact. I'll never know the meaning of life" she scoffs, standing and wandering around Dorcas's room, frustrating bubbling under her skin.

"I'll never know if soulmates are real. I probably won't see half my childhood friends again, I'll never see myself in another's eyes. Or dance in every city, I'll never see every sunset or sunrise. I won't pet every dog or see every owl, I can't listen to every song." She stops in front of the cauldron, her finger dancing round the rim.

"I'm stuck Dorcas. I will always live my life from one perspective, my perspective. I'll never know if I look pretty when I smile, I'll never know how my eyes crinkle or how my face gives me away. From the moment I was born to the moment I'll die, I've been so aware of how frustratingly stuck I am in my body. I'm trapped in this small insignificant body."

Dorcas swallows thickly, because she'd never seen things like Delilah, she'd never understood the darker side of life. Not that she ever wanted to. And Delilah wished she could ignore it, ignore how minuscule she felt. Turning back to face her friend, she smiles, in amidst of all the gloom of her words, she smiles.