H I R A E T H
xlvii||jamie diggory
"I haven't been this tired since my Dad woke me up at three in the morning to go to France on a plane." Alyssa grumbles as she slumps into her seat next to Maria in the potions classroom and Maria smiles at her slightly. She'd recently learned a lot about Alyssa, like that despite being best friends with two boys from the most pure blood families, her father is actually a muggle who married a pure-blood witch — Azalea — that was disowned from the Greengrass family a few years before. They hadn't been married when they had Alyssa but William, her father, had said that Alyssa Greengrass sounded much better than Alyssa Knowles.
Alyssa had made it her mission to spend each and every free moment either of the girls had with Maria, which Maria had been constantly thankful for.
"Alyssa, it's the third day back." Maria sighs exasperatedly and Alyssa shrugs.
"I would be a morning person if I actually had something to look forward to." Alyssa states as she pulls her book out of her bag and drops it on the desk with a loud thud. Maria looks at her with agreement before the door opens again after a group of Ravenclaw girls strolled in and there they were.
Stan walks in first, his blonde hair messy as usual and his hands stuffed in his pockets, his brown eyes flickering around the classroom and his tie is half done half just a weird knot — Maria can guess that he usually gets Alyssa to do it properly and almost laughs at the thought.
Then came the one and only, Regulus Black. His green and silver tie not tied but just lazily slung along the back of his neck — something he does quite often — and his robe over his arm and his hair longer and even more tousled than it was when Maria had last spoken to him on that beautiful summer's day. Maria almost swears out loud at how effortlessly he can make almost everyone drool over him, especially her, but Alyssa is having other problems and it doing frantic hand gestures as Stan's face lights up and he begins walking towards them.
"What?" Stan says when he's a few feet away and Alyssa groans exasperatedly before Stan looks between Regulus who's a bit behind him and Maria, his mouth open. "Oh."
"Good morning everyone—oh, Mr Harper, Mr Black? Sit, sit come on." Slughorn says and they go to walk to the other side of the classroom. "Oh—no need for that, sit there with Greengrass and Potter.
"Shit." Stan accidentally blurts before his eyes widen and he shuffles to the seat next to Alyssa and Regulus drops his bag on the ground near the seat next to Maria and pulls it out slowly, his eyes on Maria as he sits down but Maria refuses to look into his eyes.
They've been writing note for a while when Regulus slid a folded piece of parchment over to Maria who sighs and opens it up.
Can we talk?
No.
Why not?
Maria huffs at his response and looks at him, swing he's already looking at her.
We're in lesson
After lesson
I'm busy after lesson
You're never busy after lesson
Fuck you Regulus
when and where?
Maria lets out an annoyed breath from her nose as she pushes her tongue against her lip, before smirking slightly.
Tonight
"Wait—really?" Regulus whispers almost excitedly and she looks at him.
"No, of course not." Maria rolls her eyes and goes back to writing her notes. Regulus huffs, going back to twirling his ring around his finger before his eyes widen and he looks at Maria's hand, his lips twitching when he spots the serpent ring still securely on her middle finger.
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Walking down the almost empty hallway towards the library, Maria suddenly collided with someone taller and her books and notes fall messily onto the ground making her groan exasperatedly and look up to give the person a piece of her mind but sees nothing.
Frowning, she looks down and sees a boy with light brunette hair scrambling to pick up all of her stuff before he stands up with a breath of success and hands them to her. She notices his Hufflepuff tie and robes as well as the fact he has dark brown eyes.
"Hi—uh wow—you don't know me, I mean you probably know my cousin—but he's gone now—not dead! But just left here a few years ago—"
"I know who you are, Diggory." Maria says with an amused look and the boy in front of her lets out a breath with a smile.
"Oh, right." He says, rubbing the back of his neck. "It's good, the book." He points at her copy of 'Pride and Prejudice' and she smiles slightly.
"Yeah, I know." She shrugs, the books feeling heavier now. "I should, probably—get to the library."
"Oh—yeah, of course." Jamie says quickly and she laughs quietly as she passes him and he gives her an awkward wave.
Finally reaching the place she dreads going every day, she sees Alyssa sat with Stan as she looks to be tired and talking slowly to the blonde boy who looks half asleep — probably just trying to get him to understand.
She smiles at the sight before walking over and sitting opposite them, letting her books drop onto the wooden table with a loud bang that got them looks from Madam Pince.
"Oh, you're here." Alyssa says in relief. "He won't listen—I'm trying to explain the benefits of wolfsbane potion for werewolves but he's not—are you sleeping?"
Maria rolls her eyes as Stan frantically claims that he was just 'resting his eyes' from all the reading as she opens her muggle studies book but frowns as something dawns on her.
"If you're here, where's Reggi—Regulus?" Maria asks inquisitively and Stan shrugs.
"Said he was going some place to think."
Maria knows exactly where he is so she excuses herself from the duo who look after her not needing to question her whereabouts as she hurries out of the double doors. Dropping her books off at the Gryffindor tower on the way, she arrives at the astronomy tower and folds her arms tightly, hugging her jumper closer to her skin that's already decorated with goosebumps. She feels her breathing hitch when she sees him how he always is, his elbows resting on the railing as he leans forwards with a cigarette between his lips and a black hoodie covering his top half.
She runs a hand through her hair as she slowly walks over and stands next to him, staring over the hills with pursed lips as she twirls his ring on her finger.
"I don't want to marry her." Regulus whispers and Maria's eyebrows furrow when she catches him itching his arm slightly. "You know that right?"
"Yeah. . .it's not like it matters now anyway." Maria mumbles, rubbing her nose that's beginning to turn pink from the cold evening air high up on the tower.
"It matters to me—"
"Why?" Maria snaps, turning to him, stepping closer and looking up, her forehead in line with his chin as she stares up at him. "You broke up with me, remember that—"
"Because I had to!"
"No! No—you didn't!" Maria says pushing his chest.
"Yes—I did." Regulus says, not reacting to her shove and clenching his jaw, finally looking down at her. "I—my family, Maria, you don't understand it's like hell, and if I don't do what they want—"
"No—I—I said that you could come with me!" Maria breathes, shoving him again. "I would've—could've saved you!"
"No you can't Maria—you can't save everyone!"
"But I could've saved you!" Maria shouts back at him with tears in her eyes. "But—you gave up on us Regulus."
"They've given me no choice!" Regulus yells, walking towards her so she begins to back to the cold wall of the astronomy tower. "There's no saving me—I'm not like Sirius—or you, or James—I'm not brave! I'm a snake, remember? A Black!"
"I don't care." Maria says sternly.
"That's the problem! You don't care what the consequences are if we're together—Merlin Ria, my Father threatened to kill you!"
"Would you die for me?" Maria asks him and Regulus stares at her. "Would you—"
"Yes, dammit Maria! I would kill for you, I would die for you—"
"I'd rather spend this last year with you and die when I'm eighteen rather than see you with her!" Maria says, not bothering to stop the tear rolling down her rosy cheek. "I can't—we're seventeen years old."
"Exactly, you can't save me. But I can save you." Regulus whispers, his eyes soft and sad as he watches another tear roll down her cheek and wipes it away with his thumb gently, his cold fingers resting on her jaw. He leans down and legs his lips touch hers, as they do, his left forearm burns — almost like some sort of warning as a warm tear also rolls down his cheek. His hand on the back of her neck and hers gripping his jumper tightly, neither wanting to pull back before Maria slowly stands back from her tiptoes and opens her eyes to look into his storm filled ones.
"I'm guessing this wasn't part of you're excellent plan." Minerva snaps at Dumbledore who sighs in annoyance.
"The boy said he would die for her, and she would also." Dumbledore says slowly as he extracts the memory from his temple with his wand and Minerva scoffs, sitting in one of the chairs in the small meeting.
"It does seem a bit wrong, using teenagers to win a war." Flitwick mutters and Hagrid's eyebrows raise.
"A bit! It's codswallop!" Hagrid exclaims and Dumbledore holds a hand up to engage in silence.
"Haven't you heard from Trelawney?" Slughorn asks the headmaster her shakes his head solemnly. "We cannot ask this of them—he's one of my best students Professor—"
"Forget about them being good students!" Minerva says in outrage. "Of course they would die for one and other, Albus—that boy loves her as much as she loves him, maybe more!"
"That's why it's perfect—"
"You're ruining their lives—"
"Like I said before. . ." Dumbledore utters. "One life over thousands."
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Hey! I'm so sorry for not updating sooner, exam week is coming up at school.
I hope you liked it, also Jamie isn't going to be that much trouble, don't worry!
And, has anyone watched the walking dead, I'm literally this 🤏🏼 close to writing a Carl fic because all the ones on here are shocking!
Anyways, hope you enjoyed! There'll be much more drama in the next few chapters too...
~Grace x