selenophile || remus lupin

chapter fifty three

He dug through the stack until he found a record that he liked. Costello Music by The Fratellis.

He put the record on and turned the music all the way up. The first song on the tracklist was Chelsea Dagger, and the two started their transgression.

Within a couple of minutes, both Black siblings had eyeliner smeared across their eyes in a beautifully chaotic mess. They were yelling the lyrics at the top of their lungs and dancing with each other across the room. They had been trained as ballroom dancers, but instead, they were dancing up and down, and twirling each other around the room, knocking things over without a care in the world.

Regulus had started a bath, the tub filling up with warm water as he applied dark red lipstick on his lips, chapped and coarse due to his constant picking at them. Ophelia had put on some of her most chunky jewelry and a pair of tall, heeled, Gogo boots, just for the fun of it.

The two made their way into the bathroom, Regulus falling into the bathtub with a splash and a large laugh. He adjusted himself to where his butt was touching the bottom of the tub, but his legs were draped over the edge and his head was up, watching his sister. Of course, he was fully clothed, so everything he was wearing was completely soaked.

Ophelia made her way to the sink, where she gripped the edges and stared at herself in the mirror. She tried not to pay too much attention to the large, unhealed gash across her eye or any of the smaller cuts littering her body, instead, she looked at her hair, debating how short she wanted to cut it. She held her hair so that it looked shorter than it really was and turned to Regulus for his approval.

"Shorter," he said, as he lit himself another cigarette. She adjusted her hands and he nodded in approval. She grabbed a pair of grey scissors off the counter and without any hesitation or planning, cut a chunk of her hair. Regulus watched as more and more dark brown hair fell to the ground, landing in messy piles on the marble floor.

After a few minutes of evening it out, Ophelia's normally waist length hair was now shoulder length, straight down and mostly even. She joined Regulus in the bathtub, in the same posture as him, and after dipping her hands in the water, wiped them on her face, smudging her winged eyeliner even more than it already was.

Her white boots were dangling out of the tub while her outfit was rapidly getting drenched with the warm water. She took Regulus' cigarette out of his hand and took it for herself, earning a scoff from her brother who grabbed the pack from a table near the tub and lit himself another one.

"Do you think I'd look good with earrings?" he asked suddenly.

"I think you'd look good no matter what you do. But also yes, definitely pierce your ears."

"Right now."

"Right now?" Ophelia laughed. "What's gotten into you? You're never like this! Don't get me wrong, I'm loving this new side of you, but what happened?"

"Nothing happened. I just decided that I wasn't going to let mother and father control my life. You're here, I know you have my back, and now that Sirius is gone, they need to have a rebellious son. Not that they'll ever know, but in secret, we can defy their rules one by one."

"I love your thinking. Kreacher!" Once again, the house elf popped into the bathroom. Kreacher widened his eyes, having to take a moment to register the sight in front of him. Both teenagers had cigarettes burning in their hands, eyeliner running down their face, and were fully clothed in the full bathtub. Not to mention that half of Ophelia's hair was missing and the loud music blasting in the background.

"What can Kreacher get for you, Miss Ophelia?" Kreacher asked slowly, still trying to comprehend what he had apparated in on.

"I need one apple slice and a sewing needle please." Kreacher nodded, disapparated, and apparated into the bathroom in just a few moments.

He handed the items to Ophelia and disapparated once again, leaving the two to their chaos.

"Hand me that muggle fire thing, Reg," she requested, gesturing to the lighter next to him.

She lit a fire and placed the needle in the flames for several moments until it seemed hot enough.

"Are you sure about this?" she asked, making sure that he wasn't going to regret his decision.

"Absolutely," he grinned.

Ophelia placed the apple slice behind his ear and lined up the needle with where she thought the earring would look best. She counted down from three and pierced through the skin, making a hole in his ear. She slid an earring in as she removed the needle and put on the backing. Regulus, who didn't have a great pain tolerance, greatly winced but tried to keep his calm. She did his other ear and it was all over. He stood up from the tub to look at himself in the mirror, admiring his newly pierced, yet painful, ears. Ophelia got up as well and stood next to him, both of them creating a puddle at their feet.

Of course, they would get in trouble the next day, when Ophelia would be caught with half of her hair missing and Regulus with earrings poking out of his earlobes, but they were defying their parents, and Walburga and Orion would never have to find out that they were smoking, wearing makeup, and listening to muggle rock music.

Both siblings had eyeliner running down their cheeks, Regulus had bruises littering his face and Ophelia had a great, bloody scar running across her face, but the kids looked as if Christmas had come early.