iv. secrets
- silks of heaven, chapter four -
WALKS AROUND HOGWARTS SEEMED to calm him down the most when he was stressed. Whether it was for ten minutes or three hours, it always worked. For any situation.
He walked by the Gryffindor common rooms over and over, contemplating whether or not he should enter again. He still didn't know why Jasmine was mad at her, but he had a guess.
He's hiding a secret from her. He tries not to, but every time he wants to talk to her, one of her Gryffindor friends come over and snatch her away for some stupid prank or something.
He heard laughter from inside their common rooms. The Fat Lady was asleep though. There really was no way in.
Or maybe there was?
A first-year Gryffindor had just ran past him, and so he stopped him quickly.
"Hey, what's the password for your common rooms?" Regulus asked politely. The boy shook his head.
"I'm not telling you," he snarled, "you're Slytherin!"
"My brother is Sirius Black, he technically rules that common room. If he knows about this incident, living in there won't be —"
"Fine!" the kid gave in, "It's Moonstone, if you need to know."
Regulus gave him a pat on the shoulder before hiding his Slytherin tie and waking up the Fat Lady.
"Moonstone?"
"Sirius Black, if I see you roaming the halls at night again —"
"I won't, don't worry," he said.
His luck was pretty good so far, what with her thinking he was Sirius.
Nobody was in the common rooms, except Peter Pettigrew and Jasmine, sitting by the fireplace. They were flicking through a book and she had her head on his shoulder.
"Jasmine," he croaked.
Her head whipped round so quickly, she had to rub her hand on it from the pain.
"Reg, how did you get — never mind that. What is it?"
Pettigrew rolled his eyes and went up to his dorm. Clearly, he didn't really fancy Regulus being around.
"I know why you're upset," he said, "you have every right to be. I broke a rule. No keeping secrets. So I think we need to sit down for this."
"What, why?" she asked.
"C'mon, let's just sit," he reasoned.
She looked at him suspiciously and sat back down. He sat next to her and started fumbling with his fingers.
"I don't know how you're going to take this, but I've become a De —"
"Reg, I know already," she said. He sighed with relief.
"That's great. You don't care?"
"No. Of course not, you can do what you like. Kiss who you like, be with who you like ... fuck who you like," she shrugged.
"You didn't — hold on. What are you talking about?"
"Girl in library," she said. He could tell she was mad, but she was hiding it very well.
"Oh."
"What are you talking about?" she asked.
"Er — same thing," he lied. "I'm sorry I kept a secret. I should've — yeah — I should've told you earlier."
She just nodded as he spoke.
"Well," she finally said, clapping her hands together. "Night, Regulus."
She stood up and placed a kiss on his cheek before silently walking to the stairs of her dormitory.
He gave himself a mental slap as he walked out of the common rooms.
"Black, you get back here right now!" the Fat Lady called after him, still thinking he was Sirius. He ignored her, still walking through the corridor.
Why did he treat his only friend like shit? The only person that he likes more than a friend, and he keep secrets from her. Just his luck. He ends up falling for the one person that doesn't like him in that way.
She seemed pretty upset over the incident with the girl.. but if that's bad, then how will she react when she finds out that he's joined the Death Eaters?
That night, sleep was not an option for him. The other boys moved a lot in their sleep, making it difficult for him to fall asleep.
Something about the way she spoke made his brain itch. For some reason, he could tell she was not happy about the girl. That girl didn't mean anything to him. Sure, he does hook up with many, but he's never caught feelings for anyone.
And one girl he liked was the only one that was off-limits.
Rule no.6 ...
***
She was sitting with the Marauders the next day at breakfast. She must've not realised he was here.
Leaving his food at the table, he stood up and went over to the Gryffindor table. Surprisingly, she ignored him when he was walking over.
"Jas?" Regulus spoke. "Jasmine, why are you ignoring me?"
She rolled her eyes and looked up at him. "Yes?"
His face dropped.
"We always have breakfast together ..." he said, "what's up with you?"
"Nothing," she said calmly. "Just wanted to have breakfast with my brother for once."
"Oh."
Sirius glared at him while eating his breakfast, a sign for him to just walk away. Regulus forced a smile at Jasmine and went back to the Slytherin table.
Every now and then he'd glance over at her table to look at her, but she would just be laughing with James and Sirius or making fun of Pettigrew.
Unfortunately, they sat next to each other in the next class: Transfiguration. If she was mad at him, this next lesson would be hell.
He got to the Transfiguration classroom before she did. He was sitting at the back on their table, his head in his hands.
She walked in soon after, James' arm around her shoulder. She was laughing and in a happy mood, but when she saw Regulus looking at her she looked different. Her face dropped and she was no longer laughing.
"Morning," she grumbled, gloomily falling onto her chair.
"How're you?" he asked.
She glared at him while taking her books out.
"Fine. How's that girl you hooked up with? She feeling alright?"
"Jasmine, that was nothing. Like always, those girls mean nothing to me," he said, pretty offended. "What's the matter with you, anyway?"
"There's more girls?" she spluttered. "What, you just hook up with them daily? And I thought we kept no secrets."
"It's not a secret! Why would you want to know about who I hook up with?"
"Because, Regulus, I'm your best mate!" she said, her voice raising.
"Shh!" he hushed.
"And I'm the only person who likes you in this whole school. Because of this shit. Because you push people away, you hide from them, you keep secrets from your only and your closest friend," she said as quietly as she could. "Even your own brother can't stand you, Reg. That says something. Why are you pushing me away? Why do you need to keep secrets from me?"
"You have no right to talk about me and Sirius," he spat. "And besides, there was no point in you knowing. Why would you care? You wouldn't sit there and listen to me talk about girls, would you?"
"I would. Because I care about your secrets. All of them. And I can tell you're hiding more," she said. "Am I right?"
"Yeah, you're right," he said coolly. "But fuck these rules. Because you're no longer a friend of mine. Let alone, my best mate."