Love, Aurélie | REGULUS BLACK

Chapter Twenty-One

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[CHAPTER TWENTY-ONE]
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The days were turning colder, Odette could feel it the moment she stepped outside.

The wind nipped at her bare skin, leaving her skin reddish and cold. She started to wish she hadn't removed her robe and had a pair of gloves or a scarf with her, neither of which she owned. Yet, it was too late to run back to the Ravenclaw tower and borrow a pair.

All the stairs would be the death of her, she had no idea how Mei and Xia put up with that for six years, although she supposed they must have gotten used to it.

The grass no longer held the warmth it once did. It was cool and the sun did little to warm it up. Usually, Odette would lay underneath the safety of a tree's shadow. However, she was certain she would become a human popsicle had she decided to follow her usual routine.

So, instead she sat out in the open and allowed the sun to give her whatever ounce of warmth it could. It wasn't enough to keep her skin from developing gooseflesh, but it was enough to keep her from shivering the entire time.

It was a calm afternoon. Every once in a while would students pass by, chatting excitedly. Sometimes birds would swoop by. She would hear the faint splashing of the Great Lake, which left her mind to wonder what was the reason for the splashing.

In her lap was a book. She wasn't sure what it was about because every word she read left her memory immediately. She found that she had been reading the same sentence for a couple minutes now.

A groan left her mouth as her hands reached up to pull at the roots of her hair. Before she could though, her hands were stopped by another pair of hands. Odette looked up to see Mei towering over her.

"You're going to pull our your hair," said Mei, "Which will be a shame because you have such pretty hair. It's so tamable, the opposite of my hair."

"Have you seen it in the morning?" said Odette, "I forget to put it up once and the next morning it looks like a rat's nest."

"But it stays after you fix it, doesn't it?" said Mei as she settled down beside Odette.

"I suppose."

"Aren't you cold?" asked Mei.

"Pfft, cold," said Odette as she waved her hand, "I was practically dying from the freezing water when Robbie found me, this is nothing."

She certainly was not on the verge of death, but the cold wasn't nothing. If Mei had touched her, she would know right the truth right away.

"Are you sure?"

"Certainly."

"If you say so," said Mei, her tone was laced with doubt, "Anyway, I've been wanting to talk to you."

"Which you've made very clear," said Odette, "So, go on, what's so important that you have to tell me that you have to talk to me every time we're around each other?"

"Well, Xia and I were thinking."

Odette waited for her to go on, but when she didn't she said, "And so was I."