the lucky one, sirius black

11

chapter eleven

The morning of the third was unbearably cold, even for November. Murphy Potter was sitting on a broken wall on the outskirts of the forbidden forest, in between Barty Crouch and Regulus Black as they all passed around a cigarette between them.

The two boys have always questioned why Murphy smokes, especially when she spends almost all of her free time rushing around the hospital wing making sure everybody's in perfect health. She was around fourteen when she tried her first cigarette, she had found some hidden in her dads bedside drawer so she took one and hid at the back of the garden where nobody could see her and she lit it. Of course, she choked on the smoke and thought her lungs were going to collapse on the spot but once she got the hang of it she decided she liked it, and it became her secret vice. She doesn't break rules often, so it's nice to do something risqué once in a while.

"I take it you're not going to that Gryffindor party this evening." Barty stated, handing the rolled cigarette to Murphy.

She turned her head to look at him.

"What makes you say that?" She asked, a cloud of grey escaping her mouth before she passed the cigarette along to Regulus, who's pretty face had suddenly turned to stone with the mention of his estranged brother.

"Well I can't imagine your brother would be too chuffed to have you lingering whilst he's getting wasted on half a bottle of firewhiskey and feeling his muggle girlfriend up in a dark corner of the common room."

Murphy's dark eyes narrowed as she looked at Barty.

"You're disgusting." She told him, forcefully nudging her shoulder into his, almost knocking the skinny boy off the edge of the wall. "I was invited, actually." She stated, as a matter of factly.

"Really?" Regulus scoffed, throwing the cigarette butt into a puddle of mushed grass. "By who?" He asked mockingly.

"Sirius, actually. I wasn't going to go," she frowned, "But then Fabian Prewett asked me to go with him."

Barty guffawed obnoxiously whilst Regulus remained silent.

"Prewett, really?" Barty asked in disbelief. "No offence Murph, but he's as thick as a tree. Surely you could find someone better to go with."

Regulus' head snapped around as he looked at Barty with his grey eyes narrowed and his dark eyebrows furrowed in utter confusion.

"Right." Murphy said bluntly. "Right," she repeated as she gave Regulus a concerned sideways glance.

"I don't have to go," she said to him.

"Why not, it doesn't bother me."

"Why don't you come?" Murphy asked, overstepping ever so slightly, she then turned to Barty. "Both of you."

"I imagine Sirius' sacred eighteenth birthday party is strictly invite only." Regulus said, his voice cold.

"Oh shit." Barty laughed. "I didn't realise it was Sirius' birthday party. There's no way we're getting in there."

Murphy's pink lips formed a tight line for a second before she pulled the bottom lip into her mouth and gently chewed on it.

She didn't want to go to the party, but at the same time she knew deep down that she would love to. Even more since Fabian asked her to go with him in the hospital wing.

"If you came and didn't cause a scene it might be okay."

Regulus rolled his eyes and scoffed.

Himself and his brother haven't spoken directly to each other in three years, just after Sirius ran away from his macabre house hidden in the busy borough of Islington and ended up on the Potters doorstep in the middle of the quiet countryside. Regulus knew Sirius wasn't happy when he was at home, but Regulus would've always rathered a miserable older brother than no brother at all. That's why Regulus despises him.