O Beija-Flor - Regulus Black (Complete)

XXV -

There was no denying that there was a part of Cecilia that was excited when October 9th got there, bringing along the first meeting of the Dumbledore Army created by students.

She had never been a very rebel student, but going against Umbridge behind her back was somewhat more exciting than confronting openly and publicly. It sounded so much more fun. Besides, staring at her as she gave out her boring classes knowing that in no time she would meet with other people that hated her as much as she did made her feel powerful, as if she knew something that nobody else did.

By the time they followed Luna's advice to pace in front of a wall three times, Constance was already in a bad mood because she was wearing new shoes and they were hurting her feet and Emma was tired from not sleeping the night before in excitement. Luna seemed to be the only one besides Cecilia to actually be in the right frame of mind to have actual classes and not just be excited to be nearby Harry Potter – whom, Cecilia found out, Emma really wanted to meet and talk to for some reason.

"Hey!" Cecilia said as she walked in.

A few people were already inside and greeted her back.

"Hi!" Harry said. He walked towards her, eyes shining as if he wanted to say something, so she let him lead her away from her friends. "Snuffles – I mean, Sirius; we call him Snuffles when we're in school in case someone hears us – he talked to us to tell us that you mentioned the group. Hermione is angry."

"I imagine she is," Cecilia said, nodding with a small smile.

"How did you do it?" he asked.

She raised an eyebrow in teasing.

"Make Hermione angry? I'd think that question would be better answered by Ronald Weasley, but you certainly know the answer as well," she teased him.

Harry's cheeks blushed deeply and he looked away. He had made Hermione angry in occasion (occasions, really, but occasions that he had no interest in revisiting or reliving).

"That wasn't what I was asking you. I was asking how you avoided her hex in the parchment," he explained.

She smirked.

"I'll keep that part to myself for my own safety, thank you," she dismissed. "But don't worry, Harry, I have no intention on snitching on anyone here. I have a lot to do and a lot less time than I liked to learn them, and, apparently, you're the best teacher I can have on the matter of destroying the British dark wizard."

Harry blushed even more.

He blushed a lot when talking to girls that were not Hermione Granger, Cecilia noticed. Actually, sometimes even Hermione managed to make him blush, but usually she was calling out some of the stupid things he had said or done, or he was blushing in anger. It was in moments like these she was quite happy that she had dark skin, so her blush was less noticeable – she wouldn't dare imagine having a life where blushing was a common thing to her day-to-day life and other people could notice it.

He took a step back before going back to the front of the improvised classroom, waiting for more people to get there.

By the time that the clock hit eight, Harry was locking the door and looking at all the occupants of the classroom, watching him in clear interest. Cecilia smiled at him gently when their eyes met, but he soon looked away to look at Ginny, who's smile was a lot less noticeable and a lot less gentle, but a lot more genuine than Cecilia's.

"Well," Harry started, clearly nervous already. "This is a the class that we found for the practical classes and you... hm.. obviously found it good."

"It's fantastic!" Cho said loudly, getting support from the others around her.