𝓟𝓱𝓲𝓵𝓸𝓹𝓱𝓸𝓫𝓲𝓪 || Regulus Black

6.6 - Pocket Picnic

It had taken just a little over a month since Ophelia and Regulus had apologised to each other and become friends again for the dynamic between them to return almost completely to normal. The two of them resumed their platonic flirtation, and seemed to be joined at the hip sometimes based on the amount of time they spent together. 

During a particularly boring lesson in their History of Magic class, Ophelia caught Regulus writing something on a piece of parchment with her name on it. Passing notes was common in that class as the room was always dead silent except for the professor's voice and no one wanted to make a sound and get in trouble. 

Ophelia peeked at what Regulus was writing, but her line of vision was partially blocked by the locks of Regulus' hair that fell so perfectly in between her and the parchment. She turned around to face the front of the classroom, figuring she should just wait until he was finished writing. 

And of course, after just a few seconds, Regulus placed an eight centimetre piece of parchment in front of her as he looked at her with a curiously impatient expression.  

Ophelia looked down at the paper in front of her. 

"Ophelia, what do you say about skipping lunch and having a picnic out by the Quidditch pitch? We can invite Barty and Pandora too." 

Ophelia liked the idea, but was rationally sceptical at the idea of a picnic in the middle of February. 

Without looking back up at Regulus, she positioned the note to the way she writes, and started writing something on the empty space below what Regulus had written. 

"A picnic? Isn't it 2° outside right now?" She wrote back. 

She passed the note to her left, back over to Regulus. He read it quickly, then let out a playful scoff at her addition. 

He took the note, flipped it over to the empty side of the parchment, and added something more. 

He scribbled something down quickly, then reached halfways between him and Ophelia, still holding the paper. He hesitated for half a second and brought the note back to himself so he could add one more word before handing it off to her. 

"You can borrow my scarf, my gloves, whatever you want. Please?" 

She read the note, then rolled her eyes in a playful way that let Regulus know she was on board. Though he knew exactly what she meant with her joking eye roll, she took the note and confirmed her stance just in case. 

"Fine. Send a note over to Barty and Pandora to see if they want to join us."

Regulus nodded slightly, and sent a smile to Ophelia. He wrote two identical notes addressed to Barty and Pandora, and passed them over in their directions. After a minute or so, they both passed the notes back agreeing to meet at the end of class. 

After what seemed like forever to all the students in the class, the lesson ended and everyone was dismissed. All the students headed towards the Great Hall for lunch, but Ophelia, Regulus, Barty, and Pandora all met outside in the hallway so they could go to the Quidditch pitch together. 

Once they arrived at the fence surrounding the Quidditch pitch, Regulus pulled a piece of black fabric from the pocket of his robe. It was a thin fabric, it was only about two metres long on each side, and he had rolled it up nice and tight, so it fit in his cloak without anyone knowing it was there until he brought it out. 

He unfolded it, and spread it out on the frozen ground. He sat down and gestured for the others to follow. After him, Ophelia was the first person to sit down next to Regulus on the makeshift blanket. As Barty and Pandora did the same, Regulus started pulling out snacks, no doubt stolen, from his pockets as well. There were two apples, one green, one red, and a few pieces of bread and other snacks wrapped in a cheesecloth. 

"Merlin, how big are your pockets?" Pandora asked, confused and sort of envious of how much he could seamlessly fit into his robe. 

Regulus let out a soft laugh, but didn't give any response to the question. 

"Where did you get all of this stuff?" Ophelia asked. 

Before Regulus could give his answer, Barty stepped in and gave one for him.

"He stole it all, obviously."

"It's not stealing, Bartemius. It was all breakfast food, so it was ours for the taking anyways. In fact, I saved all of this from just getting thrown into the bin." Regulus explained. 

"How sweet of you." Ophelia commented half-jokingly.

"I'm just the sweetest." Regulus teased. "But I'm mostly just tired of all the supervision and rules in that bloody building."

"Who isn't?" Barty asked. 

Ophelia didn't say anything, though she didn't much mind the supervision. All the protocols were made to protect the students, so she thought she should only be grateful for them. Thankfully, she didn't have to say anything, as Pandora was more vocal about her opinions, and she was thinking the exact same thing as Ophelia. 

"It's all for our own good. Everything there is to protect us." She said. 

"You're too naive, blondie." Barty told her. "They don't care about us. If they cared about us at all, we wouldn't be going to a school where lessons in half of our classes have us cheating death on a daily basis. Or a place where everything that's not inside the building is trying to kill us."

"He's right." Regulus added. "I mean, even our common room is a bloody dungeon. And if they really cared about us during this war, we wouldn't be going to school at all." 

Ophelia refrained from saying anything, though she could see both sides of the discussion. 

"This school may be," Pandora hesitated for a split second to think of a relevant descriptor. "eccentric, but it's not dangerous. They care about us." 

"That's a lie. It's terrible. We're going to die here." Barty argued rather calmly, especially considering the subject matter of which he was speaking. 

"Would that be so bad?" Ophelia spoke up, though she didn't exactly mean to. "To die here? Wouldn't it be a great act of everything?"

"A great act of everything?" Barty asked with a raised eyebrow while taking a bite of bread. 

Ophelia continued, though she had never thought this through before. She was simply saying what she was thinking in the moment. 

"Like an act of rebellion, of hate, of dedication? It could be for passion, or glory, or pain. It could be anything you wanted it to be." 

The three others stared at Ophelia with reflective expressions. Like they were all either still trying to process what she had said, or trying to figure out what it meant to them.

"Maybe," Barty said. "But I would still never want to die here and have my ghost wandering the halls of a school for eternity." 

"Me neither, dear." Pandora said, seconding Barty's neutrality.

"I don't know." Regulus spoke up finally. "Maybe it would be something, it could mean something, to die here."

Ophelia held back a flattered grin and shrugged. "I'm just saying, it would be a story to tell."