𝓟𝓱𝓲𝓵𝓸𝓹𝓱𝓸𝓫𝓲𝓪 || Regulus Black

7.8 - Sweet Sorrow

When the seventh year students returned to the Hogwarts castle, they headed to their rooms to pack the last of their things and head down to the Hogwarts Express for the last time. 

Ophelia had finished all of her packing before the graduating students left for Hogsmeade, but she had decided to return to the castle to revel in the nostalgia as well as to provide company to her friends while they finished packing. 

She had her trunk and bags sent to the train already, and was now knocking on the ajar door of the boys dormitory. Regulus was the only one in the room, but once he saw Ophelia standing outside, he promptly invited her in as well. 

"Last minute packing?" Ophelia asked with a smile as she leaned on the footboard post of Regulus' bed. 

"Of course." He replied, matching her smug, yet playful tone. "I know you've been done for days, so what are you doing back here?"

"Nostalgia. And I wanted to talk to you."

His smile faltered slightly, but his curiosity rose. "About what?" He asked in a boyish manner. 

"About how we're saying goodbye, of course." She told him, her grin still strung across her cheeks. "Everything is going to change. We won't see each other every day like we're used to, I won't be able to crawl into bed with you when I've had a rough night, it'll be harder to contact me when you and Barty inevitably get arrested together."

Ophelia chuckled at her own joke — or half-joke — as Regulus stared at her. 

"Things are going to change, and we haven't really talked about it yet." Ophelia said.

"Well, of course things are going to change, but they don't have to change much." Regulus responded, putting down his mostly-packed bag to give the girl his full attention. "We can send letters all the time, and we can both afford to buy enough Floo Powder so that we can visit each other any night, good or bad."

She smiled at her best friend, realising that he had thought this over too. 

He sat down on the edge of his bed as he continued speaking. "I cherish you far too much to let this graduation affect our friendship more than it needs to."

Ophelia looked down at the wood of the nearly bare bed she was leaning on. Her smile finally faltered, the same as the boy's did just moments before. 

"That's the other thing I wanted to talk about." She said shyly. "We cherish each other, we value each other, need each other, treasure each other, adore, admire. We're best friends, close as can be. It's all the same thing."

Regulus looked at Ophelia curiously again as she stood up from the bedpost and walked towards Regulus. 

She spoke softly, as one does with this sort of thing. But there was something special about Ophelia when she spoke. It brought comfort and peace to anyone who heard it, but especially Regulus. He leaned back, holding himself up with the palms of his hands so he wouldn't fall backwards at the serenity in Ophelia's accent. 

"You've been my best friend for seven years now, but I think it might be more." She continued. "Do you get what I'm trying to say?" She asked genuinely with a tilt of her head.

He nodded truthfully, and she moved forward once more to stand in front of him, their legs mere centimetres apart from each other. 

She kept saying what she had waited so long to say. "I don't want to pressure you, nor do I want you to pressure me, but there's that word. The one that neither of us will say. We're graduating, and it's scary. Everything is scary; graduation, all our feelings, that one word. But I want us to stay close. Close enough so that one day, maybe we will say it to one another. Is that something you want?"