Runaway love | Jegulus

Chapter 15

Golden sunlight filtered through the curtains of Regulus's bed, bathing him in warmth and waking him up gently. His eyes flickered open slowly and he couldn't help but smile. For the first time in a long time, he felt hopeful. Hopeful that things were getting better, that he was safe and happy. He stretched his whole body and felt himself come alive, ready to face the day. He pulled back his curtains and headed for the bathroom, shouting an unnecessarily loud "good morning" and waking up the rest of the boys. Even with the bathroom door firmly shut he could still hear their grumbling and moaning at being woken up.

As they entered the Great Hall for breakfast, they could practically feel the energy and excitement in the room. It was the day of the Ball, and the last day of term. Every student at Hogwarts was ready and waiting for it. The boys walked over to the seats that the girls had saved them and sat down.

"Morning ladies!" Sirius crooned.

"Shhhh, last minute check list stuff." Lily said, shaking her finger at Sirius, not looking up from her parchment.

"Don't mind her, she loves stress really!" Mary whispered to the boys with a smile.

"Boys, here's your ballots for Ball King and Queen. Pop them in the box by the door at the end of breakfast." Dorcas handed each of them a piece of parchment, she had been left in charge of sorting the ballots and was taking it very seriously.

"And I can vote ANY person?" Sirius said with a mischievous smirk, writing on his ballot.

"You can vote any STUDENT!" Dorcas emphasised. Sirius sighed dramatically and crossed out McGonagall's name, that he'd just written. "I've got to hand out the rest of these ballots." Dorcas smiled as got up from her seat at the table. Before she left, she subconsciously kissed Marlene on the top of the head. It seemed to surprise both her and Marlene, Dorcas' cheeks flushed bright red and Marlene's did the same. Dorcas turned and practically ran away, frantically handing out the parchments to a gaggle of excited first years.

"What was that?" Remus whispered, slightly afraid of Lily's increasing frustration as she scribbled more and more furiously.

"We've been getting really close, but I can't tell if she wants to be more than friends or not." Marlene spoke quietly. Regulus had never seen Marlene look unsure of anything before, but she had an expression of uncertainty on her face and it pained Regulus to see. It was so easy to see that Marlene and Dorcas liked each other as more than friends but both of them were too nervous to push the other too far and so they settled for an odd in between.

"But you kissed at the party and she didn't even look like she thought about kissing your head just then, it was natural for her." Peter wondered aloud.

"It was a dare at the party and friends kiss anyway it doesn't prove anything." Marlene started to chew the edges of her nails contemplatively.

"What do you mean? Friends don't just kiss!" Peter sounded astonished.

"Sure they do, Mary and I used to kiss at parties to get guys to leave her alone. It didn't mean anything" Lily chimed in, still not looking up from her list. All of the boys shared expressions of amazement.

"I'll give you a snog later if you want Pete" Remus laughed, throwing his arm around Peter's shoulders as he tried to wriggle away from him.

"You guys are so unhelpful!" Marlene groaned, hitting her head against the table repeatedly. As she brought her head down one final time, Sirius managed to slip a bowl of soup under it. It flipped and covered Marlene as her head landed in it and before she could even wipe it out of her eyes Sirius and the Marauders were gone. Marlene's eyes sharpened on the only remaining boy, Regulus, making him fear for his safety.