S O R R Y
xxxi||remus' eighteenth birthday
"Come on Mar!" James says loudly, beginning to drag the girl out of the crimson sheets of her four poster bed in her and Danielle's dormitory.
"Go away." Maria grumbles, burying her face into her pillow." "How did you even get up here?"
"We have our ways." Sirius grins, falling onto the bed and almost crushing Maria's legs as she moves them quickly. It's been three weeks since Clarissa's death and the boys have been doing their best to make Maria laugh at least three times a day. But the only thing that Maria lets herself be happy about is the nights in the astronomy tower, sat on Regulus' lap, him reading the melodies of words from different muggle books, occasionally kissing her cheek or temple as she stares up at the endless river of stars above them.
"That's not at all concerning." Maria mumbles as Peter jumps onto the bed next to her, leaning back on the headboard with a boyish grin on his face.
"Remus is still asleep, we thought we'd let him sleep in." Peter gives a reason why Remus isn't with the trio. Maria nods sleepily, today is March 10, also known as — Remus Lupin's birthday. The three boys and Maria have always made a big deal out of Remus' birthday, Maria didn't really know why but now she guesses it's because of all the days he spends in pain every year. They always host a party in the common room with alcohol and music, normally Sirius and James would get completely wasted and start singing Queen songs loudly as they dance on tables.
Maria finally gets up and shrugs on James' quidditch jumper from his fifth year, the quartet walking down the stairs that turn into a slide and Maria ends up landing in a heap with Peter and Sirius whilst James had somehow landed on two feet.
They creep into the boys dormitory and James and the boys share a look before abruptly shouting out and singing 'Happy Birthday', completely off tune and out of sync. James' voice cracks as he tries to do a high note and Remus throws his pillow at Sirius who coughs after attempting the same thing as James had.
"Happy birthday Moony!" They all shout and Maria goes over and brings Remus into a hug that he tiredly returns, still recovering slightly from his last full moon a couple of days ago.
"Wow, eighteen, what old men you are." James whistles, looking at Sirius and Remus who look at him incredulously before rolling their eyes.
"Big day today, Moony, got lots planned." Peter says happily, patting Remus on the shoulder as he walks over to his trunk to get out Remus' present.
"Here." Maria says to Remus softly as she sits next to him on the scarlet sheets. Remus smiles sheepishly as he gingerly takes the present off Maria, opening the gift bag and taking out three bars of chocolate, giving Maria a look and she just smiles at him, he then takes out a book and smiles at the velvet, hardback copy of 'Fantastic Beasts and Where To Find Them', looking much more attractive than his one with pages missing and the spine breaking.
"Thank you, Mari." Remus smiles gratefully and she shrugs with a forced smile, side hugging him tightly.
Whilst the boys set up for the party, Maria strolls over to the library with Lily to pick up some extra books to study for their end of year exams. They're walking down the aisles full of books, letting the books they're returning float up to their places on the shelves when Lily stops and sighs.
"Maria, I know about you and Regulus."
Maria almost chokes on air as she turns to the red head who's smiling slightly, shaking her head in amusement.
"You're not very good at being discreet, but I'm sure James is too stupid to notice." Lily chuckles and Maria sighs with an eye roll.
"When did you figure it out?" Maria questions curiously and Lily purses her lips, letting go of another book that floats up the shelf and into place.
"About a week ago." Lily states as they round another corner of the library. "I saw you both sneaking up to the astronomy tower laughing, on my way back from the library." She gestures around at the shelves of books and Maria rubs the side of her head.
"So. . .you won't tell James?"
"Does it matter? I won't obviously, but. . ." Lily sighs, looking up from the books she's examining to Maria who's biting her lip anxiously. "If you love him, you can't help that."
Maria purses her lips, looking at the ground for a few seconds, going over what Lily had said in her head. Does she really love Regulus Black? Or is it just in their heads? She can't imagine James' face if and when he finds out, he'd be disappointed, no doubt, but he has to get over it someday. She's his sister after all, but then, Sirius was Regulus' brother and they don't talk.
Maria decided she's overthinking everything and just offers the red head before her a small, thankful smile.
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Arriving in the common room after dinner, Maria's mouth gapes for a few moments. Gryffindors already dancing around the room with red solo cups filled with fire whisky in their hands, couples snogging and a strong smell of cigarette smoke lingering on the air. Maria's already dressed under her robes in some flared jeans and a cream shirt with the top couple of buttons open, a denim jacket over it as she strolls through the room, a abandoning her robes on a coat rack before walking over to the drinks table.
"Drink for your thoughts?" Sirius grins, holding out a red cup that she instantly recognises as fire whisky from the strong alcoholic smell and she nods, quickly taking it and gulping down some. Sirius grabs the cup with a light chuckle, speaking over the blaring speakers playing 'good old-fashioned lover boy' by Queen. "Slow down, hey! Come dance!"
"Seriously?" Maria asks in a dull tone and Sirius holds out his hand to prove himself, making Maria sigh with a roll of her chocolate eyes as he pulls her into the dancing crowd.
Ooh, love, ooh, loverboy
What're you doin' tonight, hey, boy?
Maria lets out a laugh as Sirius spins her under his arm, almost dropping her cup as she stumbles into a Hufflepuff boy, Sirius pulling her back towards him, the two of them laughing hysterically together.
Sirius drags her through the people dancing and she smiles — a real smile — as he helps her onto one of the tables, hopping on after her.
"I learned my passion in the good old-fashioned School of loverboys!" Sirius yells, his voice cracking slightly and Maria cackles happily as he pretends to strum an invisible guitar before grabbing her hand and spinning her around on the table again.
Grinning, Maria and Sirius hop down and walk over to Remus, Danielle and Marlene who are chattering loudly over the next song. James and Lily join them and they all talk about things like the Quidditch World Cup and the seventh year's upcoming N.E.W.T's. With the amount of drinks they've had by now, they're just endlessly blabbering about things like how Marlene and Dorcas had kissed last weekend or whether Sirius thinks James and Lily have good 'sexual experiences'.
"Of course Lily's having the time of her life, shagging that." Sirius gestures to James who looks at him incredulously.
"That?"
"Yeah—you, James—whatever." Sirius stutters out, rolling his grey eyes. "Anyway, I was thinking of getting a motorcycle when we leave Hogwarts."
"Motorcycle?" Lily inquires.
"Yeah, you know—a motorcycle!"
"This can't be good." Remus says, looking over Sirius, Maria and James' shoulder with a stern expression rather than the lazy grin he was wearing a few moments ago. The trio swivel around and see a bunch of Slytherins stroll in, including Febecca Barnes, Hazel Addison, as well as Evan Rosier and his goons.
"Shit—how did they get the password?" James groans loudly, throwing his arms up.
"They must've made a little Hufflepuff or something spill the password we gave out." Sirius says darkly, and Maria would say extremely dramatically, though he has all the reason to be — as some of those Slytherins will have a serpent shaped mark on their left forearm, looking much like an innocent tattoo to the naked eye. Fleamont swore he saw one that him and Euphemia captured that the mark was moving on their arm, almost like it was slithering.
Rebecca's eyes catch Maria's chocolate ones and she smirks, winking as Maria glares at her, her jaw set and her lips in a straight line. The marauders split up somehow and Maria is stood by the drinks table when she feels a presence beside her.
"Hello Rebecca." She greets unenthusiastically, not even needing to look sideways to know who it is.
"Hi, how's the brother?" Rebecca smiles, but Maria can see straight through her sweet facade as she places her cup down.
"What do you want, Barnes?" Maria questions, raising her eyebrow at Rebecca who laughs slightly.
"Well, I was wondering if you'd talked to Regulus lately?" Rebecca smiles almost smugly and Maria's eyebrows furrow slightly but she manages to keep her expression stoic.
"Yeah, yesterday, why?"
"Oh. . .maybe I shouldn't—"
"Spit it out, Barnes."
"Well, I was in his dorm earlier, I thought you two were finished." Rebecca says in feigned innocence and Maria feels her heart stop for a few seconds. "I guess he just got bored of you, the other guy did, didn't he?"
"He wouldn't do that." Maria shakes her head and Rebecca smiles.
"Awh, well, how would I know he has a tattoo of the Leo constellation on his right collar bone." The blonde whispers and Maria's eyes flutter around before she steps back and proceeds to grab a bowl of crisps from on the table and dumps them over the blonde who shrieks in shock, constantly running fingers through her curly hair as Maria flips her off angrily and walks out of the portrait hole.
She mumbles the password to the Slytherin common room and runs up the stone steps then left to the boys dormitories, pushing open Stan and Regulus' door and she sees the duo playing chess on Stan's bed, Alyssa reading a care of magical creatures book.
"Take off your shirt." Maria demands and Stan whistles loudly as Regulus stands up to walk closer but Maria steps back by instinct and Regulus' eyebrows pull together.
"What's going on?" Regulus asks in confusion.
"Tell me it's not true—I want to see if she's telling the truth, I want to see if there's actually a tattoo on your collar bone." Maria stutters, tears welling in her eyes and Regulus' eyes flash with realisation. "Oh my god. . .she wasn't lying. You—with her?"
"Maria you have to listen—Rebecca was my first time okay? We were in fifth year and completely wasted! I would never—ever do something like that to you!" Regulus says desperately and Maria lets a tear run down her porcelain cheek. "And I need you to believe me because I cannot lose you!"
"Why would she lie?"
"Because she hates you—she's starting to hate me, Maria please, she's just trying to ruin this—she wants what we have okay? I can't let her force you to slip away from me." Regulus rambles and Maria looks to Stan who nods, his face full of worry.
"Oh my—she told you that?" Regulus breathes. "Bitch. . ."
And then he's angrily walking out of the room, Maria looking at Stan and Alyssa before they all hurry after him. They reach the Gryffindor common room and Regulus shoves past a couple of Ravenclaw students and through the portrait hole, the others right on his tail as he grabs a full cup of fire whisky and walks in the direction that Rebecca is sat laughing with Hazel, Gasper, Ruben and Evan.
Then, he's thrown the alcohol all over the blonde girl who gasps loudly, people making 'ooh' sounds.
"Stop being such a little bitch!" Regulus shouts at her. "Just stay the fuck away from her." Regulus points at Maria who is still gaping, gripping onto Alyssa's arm as the blonde grips onto hers, both anxious.
Maria steps forwards and grabs Regulus' arm, pulling him over to a secluded corner of the common room as everyone slowly goes back to their business.
"What the fuck are you doing?" Maria whisper yells at him and Regulus looks down at her as he's pushed against the stone wall. "My brother just watched that!"
"She is getting on my last nerve, that's what." Regulus says, looking behind Maria with a clenched jaw.
"Just. . .go." Maria breathes. "I'll come to the astronomy tower later—three am."
Regulus nods and Maria turns to walk away but Regulus grabs her arm and spins her into a kiss, her arms wrapping around his neck gently as his hands squeeze her hips softly.
"Ria. . .you know I care about you, right?"
"Yeah." Maria smiles. "I care about you too."
"Good." Regulus smiles, kissing her forehead before walking out of the common room with Stan and Alyssa. In that one moment, they were just two teenagers who're too scared to admit they love each other.
"Seriously!?"
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this was so chaotic but anyway. . .
What about when Marlene spilled her and Dorcas kissed? Do you think they should be together?
Oh gosh, Regulus made a scene in front of James. . .
thank you so much for reading this! I can't believe it's at 31 chapters already!
~ Grace x