swan song ━━ regulus black

𝐬𝐞𝐯𝐞𝐧𝐭𝐞𝐞𝐧. king of everything

"Hey," she says, and he kisses her quickly.

"I'm really sorry," he tells her. "I need to cancel."

Her stomach starts to sink.

"Oh," she says weakly. "How come...?"

"Salome's pulled forward the meeting, I've been taking too long..."

"Fixing the Vanishing Cabinet?" says Fianna.

Regulus nods.

"But we don't even know where the Hor—"

"I know," he says, sounding worried. "But if they start asking questions..."

"OK," says Fianna. "We can try and look at it later, and—"

"No," he says. "I don't want you more involved."

"Reg," she says, softly.

"I know they know we're dating, but I still don't like you being around them," he says. "They're dangerous. I don't like that you're getting into trouble because of me — like the whole Splinching thing—"

Fianna rolls her eyes. "Give it a rest."

"No," he says, frowning.

"OK," she says. "So what, you're cancelling our date, and I can't even help you, when you told me what was wrong, and arguably, that's why we're even in this mess?"

"Mess?" says Regulus.

Fianna didn't mean it like that, but equally, feels like there's still some brevity to her words. Her stubbornness takes over, as she goes, "Well, yeah. I didn't exactly expect to get involved in finding and destroying Horcruxes with a Death Eater—"

"I see, I see," says Regulus. "I'm sorry I'm not perfect for you. Maybe Prewett's lurking—"

"Jesus fuck," she mutters.

She steps backwards, putting her hand on her head.

"I don't understand why we're fighting," she says.

Regulus sighs. "Because I don't want to take you down with me."

"Well," she says, hopelessly. "I think we're past that point now."

"No we're not," he says softly. "I'm sorry, I am — I'll make it up to you, I promise."

"Fine," she says, crossing her arms.

Regulus steps closer to her, as if trying to hug her. But Fianna gives him a dirty look, so he stops. Instead, he sighs, moving backwards again.

"Will you meet me later? After dinner?"

"Fine," she says, grumpily.

"If I could spend all day with you, I would," he says.

He ends up kissing the top of her head, before slipping off into Hogsmeade, making the walk down before any of the teachers notice he's gone unchaperoned. Bitterly Fianna wishes he'd get into trouble for it, but she knows she's being pissy because she feels rejected. She was rejected — it's just frustrating to her, because she knows it isn't his fault. But maybe if he hadn't been stupid all those months ago and became a Death Eater they wouldn't be in this mess. And she is going to refer to it as a mess, because it is.

Part of her wonders how this year would've panned out, if he wasn't a Death Eater. Maybe they would've fallen into each other's laps anyway, like a divine timing sort of thing. Fianna wishes that'd be the case, for that alternate reality version of herself.

She sulks in the Great Hall as she waits for Georgia to appear. Her head resting on her hand, Fianna looks up when Georgia sits down opposite her, clearly confused Fianna's on her own.