Hero of the Story || James Potter x Hermione Granger Fanfiction

10 | i don't want your wicked love

Hermione's frown deepened as she swivelled her head around, noting that there were a lot of vacant tables, seeing that it was a Saturday and most of the students were probably still sleeping in or lounging around the Hogwarts grounds.

"I heard that Hermione Pettigrew was a brilliant study partner," he explained, recognising the confusion on her face. "I admittedly got curious, so here I am."

"Oh," she said, awkwardly scratching her chin with the tip of her quill.

Regulus quietly laughed and pointed at her chin. "You've got some ink smeared on your chin now, Pettigrew," he claimed.

"Right, of course," Hermione said with reddened cheeks and immediately rubbed the ink away.

His eyes lit up in amusement, before they flickered on the parchment in front of her. "What are you writing?" he casually asked.

He looked perfectly at ease when Hermione felt anything but. Sev's warning back on the Hogwarts Express still rang loudly inside her head, and she wondered if Regulus was already dabbling with the Dark Arts. Or worse, he was already acquainted with the Dark Lord. What if he had already seen that slimy snake? Shook hands with him? Dined with him?

All these thoughts made Hermione sick in the stomach. It would be a bad idea to associate with someone so intricately tangled with Voldemort and his web of sorrow and destruction.

"Transfiguration essay," she curtly replied, realising she hadn't answered his question.

"The Cross-Spell Switches essay?" the Slytherin asked in surprise. After Hermione slowly nodded her head in confirmation, he smirked, "The deadline is two weeks from now, you know."

"Err... yes," she said, unsure of his statement. "I had nothing else to do so I figured I should start doing it now."

Regulus leaned back on his chair and crossed his arms against his chest. His silver eyes intently bore holes into Hermione, and the Ravenclaw fought her hardest not to squirm under his intense gaze.

"You have nothing else to do?" he quipped, quirking a perfectly arched eyebrow.

"Yes," she shot back with a frown.

His shoulders shook as he quietly laughed, his lips tightly pursed together to stop himself from bursting out into boisterous laughter. When he was like this, he looked like Sirius and Hermione suddenly felt annoyed.

"What's funny?" she hissed, cheeks already warming with embarrassment.

But he shook his head and leant closer, placing his pointy, aristocratic chin on top of his upturned palm. "You don't mind if I start studying with you, Hermione Pettigrew?" he asked, amusement still in his eyes. "My other Housemates are terribly dull – in intelligence and humour, so to speak."

"And I'm not?" she quipped back, her eyebrows once again drawing together.

"Merlin, no," he shot back with a soft laugh. "You're the farthest girl I know from being dull. Maybe this year will be more tolerable if I started hanging around with you."

There was a certain bite in his tone when he spoke his last sentence. Hermione's eyes instantly snapped back to him, trying to gauge any hint of what he meant. But Regulus still looked mildly amused – at her, to her disgruntlement – and did not give any indication of any meaning to his words.

Hermione once again remembered his behaviour back on the Hogwarts Express. The boy looked deeply troubled and Hermione couldn't help but compare him with the sixth year Draco Malfoy, who had been secretly working on an impossible task just to please the Dark Lord.