INFERI (REGULUS BLACK)

75

"What are you doing here, looking like a miserable old sod, all alone?" Aoife asked cheerily, noticing the morose figure of her old best friend sprawled on the emerald green meadow grass, right underneath the large, willow tree. The amazing cup of tea had done wonders to her mood, and now she was as chipper as ever.

"Bugger off, Aoife. Not in the mood," he grumbled, half-heartedly waving her away.

"What, did you get into a fight again? Get off your arse and join me. I'm just trying to enter the forest over there. Want to help?" She'd neared him, and plopped down beside him.

"I did, actually. I punched Regulus right in the face." Aoife turned to stare at him, vaguely impressed. It was always her who got into fights, and Shafiq who stopped her. Looked like she was finally rubbing off on him ... wait, he punched who?

"Why in the world would you punch Regulus Black in the face?" Aoife said incredulously, sitting a bit straighter.

"He said some out-of-order things. Not very nice," he grumbled. "Therefore, my punching him is justified."

"Never said it wasn't," she muttered. "Last time you punched someone was when Pastor Dean was saying some not-so-nice things to Maolie."

"That was also very justified," he added. "Maolie worked her arse off for her family, and that git ..."

"Anyways," Aoife interrupted Shafiq's angry rant, which probably would've lasted throughout the night. "You owe me an explanation. And owe Regulus an ice pack. Whatever your personal enmity is, I don't care. And I don't think anyone else except Sirius cares. So you have to be the big boy, and get him that ice pack."

Shafiq looked like he was about to argue, but relented. "I'll give the ice pack," he mumbled, "but I'm not apologising. Even if he apologises, which is highly unlikely."

"I never told you to apologise," Aoife said, watching the picturesque sunset. "I know you won't fight just for fighting, that's me, I'll admit it. The ice pack is to keep mutual harmony."

"You fought a lot," Shafiq grinned lazily, watching Aoife's face redden to match her hair.

"I did not," she protested. "Just one or two."

"A week. Remember when you punched Finnigan in the face?" he jested.

"He blew up my community service board. On purpose! He deserved it."

"And when you kicked Jason in the nuts? That must've hurt, for real." Shafiq was grinning widely now, watching his best friend's face flush more with embarrassment.

"That's because he said I was good-for-nothing, and a girl can't try and run a village."

"Oh, your petition for a school in the village, right? Was it accepted?" Shafiq asked.

"No, effing Dean ripped it in front of the entire village," she huffed. "A real git, he is. And the entire village idolises him! We've got so many better men. Take McGonagall, for instance."

"He never wanted all that, Stinky. Perks would've been better."

" 'ol whistling Perks? That mad loony from up yonder? Are you serious?" Aoife stared at him, laughing.

"He isn't a mad loony. Perks' a brilliant bloke, you know. Just because you never talked to him ..." Shafiq trailed off pointedly.

"It was all over the village, didn't you hear? About how he killed Turpin, the shoemaker?"

Shafiq shook his head, disappointed. "You hated those villagers who gossiped about you, but believe their worthless lies about other people?"

"Well, fine," Aoife said offhandedly." But Ackerley would've been better. Ohh, how about Madame Quirke? She was nice."

"The first one to sign your petition for the school, right?" Aoife nodded. "Yeah, she's nice. Would've been a lot better than Dean."

"Hey," Aoife asked suddenly, noticing the plain, inconspicuous ring adorning his ring finger. "When did you get married? And why was I not there?"

"Oh, this?" he held up his hand, looking quite cheerful. "A few months after I ran away, actually. It was amazing. I proposed right in the middle of nowhere, you know? Just me, her, the darkness ... undistinguished animal sounds, and the moon just increased the romantic atmosphere. Amazing ..." he had a far-off look on his face. "I met her at school, you know that? It was my 7th year — last year there — she was in her 6th. I was in the library, minding my own business ("yeah, right.") when she suddenly fell on me."

"More like fell for me, idiot. Are you really so far gone in love that you've forgotten English?"

"No, she fell on me," Shafiq laughed at Aoife's flabbergasted face. "Her friends were levitating her so that she could take out the unreachable books. One of them lost focus, probably ogling at one of the Marauders or something —,"

"Wait," Aoife interrupted. "What the hell are Marauders? A magical breed of puppies?"

"No," Shafiq snorted. "Sirius and his band of friends called themselves the Marauders. They were the self-proclaimed 'hottest boys in the castle.'"

"Anyways," he ploughed on, ignoring Aoife's open mouth. "She was quite sorry about that and invited me to Hogsmeade with her friends as a sort of token of apology. I accept."

"What's Hogsmeade? A mead pool full of hogs?"

"Rubbish, Aoife, absolute rubbish. It's a village. Who even keeps a pool full of mead?"

"Dunno," she shrugged. "Rich people. I know for a fact that this one rich couple gave their 4-year-old daughter a pool of chocolate syrup for her birthday."

"Barmy," he shook his head. "Absolutely mental. What happened to the daughter?"

"Died of suffocation. What's her name? Your wife's," Aoife clarified on seeing Shafiq's confusion.

"Carolina Whitby. She was the cheeriest girl you could ever meet. When we reached Hogsmeade, turned out her friends had other plans, and they left us for our first 'date.' It was perfect. We snogged on our second one — it was in the kitchens. She wanted to be a teacher, you know, at Hogwarts. She loved Charms."

"You know what, I can't understand half of you magical lingo, but your Carolina seems lovely. After this mess, I'm meeting her, first thing. Promise?"

Shafiq gave her a small smile, turning his head to look into her eyes. "Promise."

"Now, let's go and make some 'apology muffins,' shall we?" Aoife grinned, standing up.

"The same ones you gave that git, Jason?"

"Exactly."