Star-crossed | 𝑹𝒆𝒈𝒖𝒍𝒖𝒔 𝑩𝒍𝒂𝒄𝒌

The thief of a shared future

• Camille Malfoy •

„You wear a mask for so long,
you forget who you were
beneath it."

Camille and Lorraine had avoided each other as much as possible over the next few days. But since Emma could not divide them, they merely said the most necessary words directly to each other and tolerated each other's presence. As the blonde had already guessed, Lorraine's promise had not been worth much. On the contrary; she and Garreth Greengrass had even seemed inseparable recently.

Camille carried her school books under her arm as she wandered the corridors a little after class to clear her head. The meeting with Regulus dominated almost every train of thought, although she had long since made a decision. But it seemed as if a higher power did not want to allow it. She knew well enough that she and Regulus could never have a future. Neither could Lorraine and Garreth. At least not without falling into the disfavour of their families.

Family was too important to Camille to allow that to happen and so she put them above her own happiness. She was not even convinced of the idea that a man alone could give her happiness. In fact, there were many components that supported it and not just the love of a childhood crush.

The corridor that intersected directly with the dungeons lay before her as someone held her by the upper arm a little too roughly for her liking. "Where are you going, Camille?"

The voice alone, which reminded her strangely of a shoe brush, possibly because it too was rough and scratchy, evoked an involuntary urge to vomit. With a fake smile, she finally turned to its owner. "To our common room, or do you think I'm here to sit in one of the barred rooms, Dawson?"

A smug grin crept around the stubbly corners of his mouth, but still he made no move to loosen his grip on her arm. Camille drew her eyebrows together indignantly and jerked away from him. "I'd like to continue on my way now, if it's convenient," she said pointedly with a cool undertone in her voice, which hopefully made him a little more aware of her mood and opinion towards him.

But either Dawson Mulciber was rather slow on the uptake or he simply did not care, for broad as he was, he stood in her way. The numerous chains with strange symbols as pendants jingled with his every move, including the one he ran through his dark blond shoulder-length mane. "What's going on with you and Black?" he finally asked in a charming tone that Camille didn't buy.

She crossed her arms in front of her chest and jutted her chin. Haughtily, she looked at him. "Don't tell me you have a heart and are jealous," she remarked with a feigned amusement in her voice, but the condescending undertone was hard to miss.

"More like wounded in my pride that you prefer this blood traitor over me," he replied almost casually, but his blue eyes bored into hers, watching her every move like those of a predator.

Camille averted her gaze for a split second and ran her tongue over her lips. "He's no more a blood traitor than you are," she replied unimpressed and turned to leave, after all, she didn't have to put up with that sort of thing, her father was Abraxas Malfoy after all! But already Dawson had grabbed her arm once more. The blonde glared at him menacingly. "What do you think you're doing? Let go of me this instant."

At that moment, the Slytherin spotted a small group at the end of the corridor who seemed to be watching the spectacle. Her expression darkened immensely, especially when one of them broke away from his friends and came straight towards her. "Didn't you hear what she said?" asked Lupin gruffly. "You're supposed to let her go."

Indeed, Dawson did as he was told, but only to turn and eye the Gryffindor disdainfully. "Stay out of this, you miserable half-breed. What are you going to do?"

Lupin didn't pull a face, didn't even bat an eyelid as he smugly tapped the badge on his chest. "Well, first of all, I'm deducting twenty points from Slytherin, and if I catch you molesting a student again, I'll go to Professor Slughorn, who will surely notify your parents and hers." To demonstrate, he nodded in Camille's direction at his last words.

The thought of falling out of favour with the Malfoys were probably ultimately the reason the Slytherin pulled away with a look of killing. Camille looked disparagingly after her housemate before turning to Lupin with her arms crossed. "Thanks, but you didn't have to do that," she said pointedly and turned on her heel, walking right past the rest of his little gang, who had surprisingly stayed pretty much in the background.

At least until Potter gave her a spiteful look. "True, you don't deserve Remus helping you."

A gust of wind passed through the corridor at the abrupt moment, leaving goosebumps on Camille's bare legs. She whirled around and fixed the Gryffindor with her turquoise eyes. "It was only to be expected that such a thing would come from you of all people. After all, you yourself are notorious for not exactly throwing compliments and nice gestures around when it comes to certain students, aren't you Potter?"

"Now, give it a break, Malfoy. Honestly, I told Remus not to do it either," Sirius remarked smugly, rolling his silver-grey eyes so similar to Regulus'. Camille had to look away, because she never wanted to be looked at by her old friend with the look she had just received from him.

Voices rang out in the corridor, which, as it turned out, belonged to a group of Hufflepuffs. The blonde tried not to notice them at all, but the girls seemed to find the little altercation all the more interesting, which was probably why they stopped, curious.

Sirius raised one of his dark eyebrows disparagingly and snorted once before continuing. "Still, you should be glad that for once you didn't have to play the submissive mistress like all your ancestors did." A lewd grin formed from his disparaging expression. "Or do you enjoy spreading your legs for Death Eaters?"

This was the moment when Camille gasped indignantly and slapped her palm against the cheek of the insolent boy. It left such a red mark there, as if it wanted to imitate the colour of her own face.

"Oh you are so smug, Sirius Black," she hissed contemptuously. "No wonder your family doesn't care about you."

His three friends seemed to hold their breath for a moment and one of the Hufflepuff girls gasped in fright, even the eyes of the actual heir to the Blacks widened, but Camille didn't care. She didn't regret her words and even less would she take them back. Sirius had insulted her too and even worse than all the words he could ever throw at her was the fact that he had already taken her away a possible future with Regulus years ago.