𝑴𝒊𝒏𝒖𝒕𝒆, regulus black

𝐂𝐡𝐚𝐩𝐭𝐞𝐫 𝟐𝟖: 𝐀𝐬𝐭𝐫𝐨𝐧𝐨𝐦𝐲 𝐀𝐬𝐬𝐢𝐠𝐧𝐦𝐞𝐧𝐭

When Rune took an obvious step away from Mason, he laughed and shook his head. "Looks like we were making your boyfriend jealous." 

"He's not my—" she began, but then shut her mouth immediately because he kind of was. 

"It's okay," said Tina, trying to be helpful. "He didn't like you already, Mason." 

Rune looked over her shoulder one more time to see Regulus scrawling angrily on his chart, and when she turned back to her telescope, she couldn't help the small smirk that fought its way onto her mouth. 

~

"Dude," said Rabastan, grimacing at Regulus as if he was some untamed animal. "You're going to tear the chart if you keep writing aggressively like that." 

"Is it your chart?" asked Regulus, continuing to dig the nib of his quill into the chart.

"No." 

"Then shut up," murmured Regulus. 

Rabastan sighed and looked back into his telescope. "You're jealous." 

When he didn't answer, Rabastan shook his head. "Don't be jealous."

"I'm not jealous," gritted Regulus, looking into his telescope and zooming in slightly.

Rabastan didn't say anything for a while and when Regulus glanced at him from the side, he saw him smiling goofily into his telescope. 

"Move," said Regulus. He leaned down and looked into his friend's telescope which was not focused anywhere near the sky and scoffed. "That's pathetic." 

"Says the one who's jealous because Rune's helping her friend with work." 

"They're not friends," muttered Regulus. "She didn't even know him until a few months ago. She's known me since first year." 

"Yeah," murmured Rabastan, disinterestedly. 

"But I'm not jealous." 

"Sure." 

Regulus looked up to the side where Rune stood laughing with Tina and Mason. 

How could she do that? he wondered, beating himself up mentally for it. They were trying to make everyone believe they were in a committed relationship. How could she just be there laughing so happily at another boy's jokes? 

When he turned away from her with a sullen look on his face, he found Rabastan looking at him with an even goofier grin. "You're jealous." 

Regulus ignored him and looked into his telescope again. He called Rabastan pathetic for doing exactly what he was about to do. He shifted the angle of his telescope and zoomed out enough until he refocused it on the blonde-haired girl. 

Rune finally was at her own telescope and focusing it on her own constellation. She had her hair tied up to keep it from falling into her face, but even still, she pushed her bangs behind her ears. 

He watched her pull away from her telescope and look over her shoulder to where he was. A small involuntary smile twitched at the corner of Regulus' lips. 

"Wow," commented Rabastan, with a tone of immense amusement. 

Regulus stood up straight and cleared his throat to disprove his friend when Rabastan murmured, "You are digging her bad, my guy." 

~

Once the first half of the Astronomy lesson ended, and the telescopes were packed away and replaced with desks, Rune rejoined the Slytherin's on their respective side of the classroom.

"Guess which constellation I had?" she asked quietly, turning in her seat to face Regulus.

"Which one?" he asked. 

She clicked her tongue. "Guess." 

"How am I supposed to guess?" 

"I had your constellation. Leo. I even found the Regulus star." 

He had been planning on giving her the cold shoulder, but she was smiling at him, and he couldn't help it. "Did you like it?" 

"It's the brightest and the prettiest." She crinkled her nose, cringing slightly as she said, "You're my favorite star."

He shook his head. "You're only about the 17th girl who's said that to me." 

"I've graded your assignments and I'm quite pleased by the results," said Professor Bagshaw, and both Regulus and Rune sat up straighter and faced the front. "I can see you lot are taking your O.W.L year seriously." In a quieter voice, she added, "I can't say the same about the Gryffindor's and Hufflepuff's." 

Laughter trickled amongst the Slytherin's and Ravenclaw's at their Professors words, but she hushed them and with a wave of her wand, the assignments left her hands and went swooshing across the classroom to its respective owner. 

Rune got her assignment first and grinned down at the grade. She turned around with a pleased smile and held it up to Regulus to display a red 99. "No one ever gets full marks for Astronomy. You better borrow a dictionary because you're going to be complimenting me every day." 

Just then, Regulus' assignment landed in his hands. He frowned down at it before placing it face down on the desk. "Fine." 

"What did you get?" she asked, wanting to throw her victory in his face more. 

"None of your business, blondie. Find where you went wrong and improve." 

"What did you get?" she repeated. "I just want to know how much I beat you by." 

He shook his head with a sigh. "98."

"Hah!" she grinned and did a silent victory dance. "I'm going to run out of this classroom and when I come back, you greet and compliment me." 

"Westwood—" he tried, but before he could get another word in, she was up and out of the door. 

"Where has she gone?" asked Professor Bagshaw, but just she ended the question, Rune sauntered into the classroom once again. 

She ignored- or possibly didn't even notice- the eyes all staring at her as she marched and sat down in front of Regulus. 

Rune cleared her throat and looked at him expectantly. 

He placed both hands over his face in distress before dropping them and offering her a fake smile. "Hello, Rune." 

"Hi," she replied. "Go on." 

"You... are brilliant at Astronomy." 

When her smile faded and turned into a grimace, he shrugged, "That's a compliment." 

She narrowed her eyes at him before pointing and saying, "I expect better after this." 

As he scoffed, she turned around and did another victory dance as she paged through her assignment.