Crystal Clear | REGULUS BLACK //

2.14 The Few Dark Wizards from Our House

"It's alright, Crys, he will understand." He smiled at her. "Here let me help you, get an empty phial."

She turned, searched around and grabbed an empty phial. She walked ad stopped near Regulus and the spilled potions. The fumes had started to raise.

"Woah." She exclaimed. "What... Can you feel it?"

He looked at her with an eyebrow lifted and gently shook his head in denial.

"That's funny." She giggled. "It smells woody and fresh, like a forest after rain... Kinda reminds me of your hair."

She felt the fresh smell she described, as the strongest one, accompanied by the faint smell of pages from a new book and that of wet soil after rain. Her eyes were dreamy as the scent felt just as enchanting as the sparkle of phials from minutes ago.

Her dreamy state was cut short when she saw Regulus pointing at the floor with a soft, barely noticeable blush on his face. Crystal looked at where he pointed.

An iridescent, spiralling fume.

Amortentia.

Crystal blushed deeply. A tomato would be put to shame if it were near her at this moment. Embarrassment was written all over her face . She widened her eyes and pressed her lips together.

Silence fell.

Awkward.

"Forget it. Clean it already." She said, trying to sound confident, even though she was dying of embarrassment.

"I know you're embarrassed, you don't need to pretend." He stated as he started using his wand to clean their mess.

"As if." She let out a nervous laughter, walking towards her usual cauldron. "I still need aconite for this. Do you think that Slughorn has some lying around?"

"There's some inside that cabinet." He said, pointing somewhere without changing his gaze from all the cleaning.

Crystal grabbed some aconite from said cabinet, walked back towards her cauldron and placed the plant on the table. She stared intensely at the ingredients, hoping to avoid her friend's gaze.

Regulus was doing pretty much the same, as she noticed, and she cursed under her breath about the silly spilled potion. It felt awkward. She was still embarrassed.

He slowly paced towards her, stopping by her side and scanning the ingredients thoroughly with his eyes. He was silent as he took mental notes about the potion and grabbed the letter from Belby from the table.

Crystal felt shortness of breath. She was too damn embarrassed to breathe normally, to look him in the eyes. But this weird atmosphere had to come to an end.

"Look." She started, her voice slowly building up from a whisper. "I can find people attractive, okay? Even if it's you. It doesn't change anything."

Her shoulders fell with relief, but she could see Regulus tense up and stare at her with dibelief. He seemed like he would start saying something, but hesitated and rested his hand against his temple.

"We both know that was Amortentia. We both know you're embarrassed." He spoke, finally looking at her. "You don't need to explain yourself or be so blunt."

"I-" She felt even more embarrassed now. "So you also don't find anyone attractive?! Can't feel any scent?"

"You're the one who got entranced by the potion, I didn't smell it."

"Oh... For- FINE!" Crystal said, feeling a rush of blood coming to her cheeks. "Give me the ingredients, let's make this as soon as possible."

He opened his mouth to speak, but he was cut off.