＊*•̩̩͙✩•̩̩͙*˚
As soon as Rune's eyes opened, she knew she was late. The rays of sunlight shining through the window, and past the curtains she forgot to close, were far too bright for it to be any time before midday.
She lifted a bare arm over her head and winced at the hanging sheds of the skin she'd been wearing for the last month. She groaned and pulled the blanket over her head deciding no classes were worth getting out of bed for.
She would have probably slept the day and night away had it not been for the incessant clawing at her dorm room window. She sat up in her bed and nearly shouted in fear at the sight of yellow eyes peering in from the window and following her movements.
"Damn you, Regulus Black" she cursed as she threw her blankets aside and strode towards the black feathered owl waiting for her on the other side of the window.
She scoffed as she pulled the yellow detention slip from its beak.
Unexcused Absence, Disrespect, Mischief, Poor Attitude, Misuse of Magic.
Her grimace grew as she recognized Regulus's writing which stated for her to meet him in the Trophy Room for detention at 8pm that night or to have the matter escalated to Professor Slughorn.
A glance at the clock on her bedside showed her that 8pm was 5 minutes ago. Through an award-winning string of curses, she pulled on her biggest cloak and trudged out of the dorm, purposefully stomping past Regulus' sniggering friends who were lounged across the common room and towards the Trophy Room.
"8:15," snarked Regulus as she entered. "That's 15 minutes late. I've known you for 5 miserable years, so 15 multiplied by 5 is 75. I guess after your two hours of detention are done, we'll spend an extra 75 minutes together in here." He looked around the room with a pleased smirk, "By the time you're done, dear old Filch won't have to worry about cleaning this room for the next 15 years."
Rune exhaled loudly and then stuck up her middle finger at him.
"Oh," said Regulus, tilting his head at her. "80 minutes."
"You're a hateful toad and I hope you never know a day's happiness in your life," murmured Rune.
"85." He grinned as he tossed a wet rag at her.
Rune turned around and grabbed a cup of the shelf and began to scrub the bronze exterior with brute force.
"Gentle, Westwood. One might mistake this for poor attitude and work ethic."
"I hope you know that I hate you immensely!" she spat at him as she picked up the next cup in the cabinet.
"90 minutes. You must love spending time with me."
Though he couldn't see her face, Rune mustered up the greatest eye roll known to humanity and zipped her mouth as she got on with scrubbing the rest of the cups in the cabinet. She glanced around the room and pitied herself at the vast number of trophy cabinets around the room. She knew Regulus would use any excuse to keep her in the room until all the trophies were squeaky clean.
Nearly three hours later, Rune had arrived at the last trophy cabinet. The one right next to where Regulus sat primly in a cushioned chair. From a distance, she assumed he was seated there staring into nothing, but with the little space between them, she saw the way his eyes travelled across something that was rested on his lap.
"What are you doing?" she asked, before she remembered he added minutes every time she opened her mouth.
"What number were we on?" he questioned, not lifting his eyes from his lap. "Yes, 225 minutes."
She mentally flipped him off again before asking, "Are you reading?"
She caught the slight pause of his eyes- probably on a page- before he looked up at her, "No."
She scoffed and reached to his lap. Her hand instantly made contact with the cool touch of book paper. She turned to the cabinet and stood up to reach the trophies since they were too heavy for her to carry.
A few minutes passed before she asked, "What are you reading?"
"230 minutes."
"Has anyone ever told you that you're annoying."
"235."
"You must love spending all this time with me, Reg."
He muttered something under his breath that sounded like an "as if".
More minutes passed before he relented, "The Picture of Dorian Gray."
She had to hold in a squeal. Had it been anyone else reading that book, she would have fallen into a tangent about how Oscar Wilde was one of the greatest writers to ever step foot on the earth and about how his words would be remembered in centuries to come. Instead, she settled with, "Oh, do you like it?"
"It's okay." He paused before adding, "If you ever tell anyone that I'm reading a book, I'll have you in detention for 3 months straight cleaning up the trophies in this room."
Rune clicked her tongue. "It will only take me 3 hours, doofus. I'm on the last cabinet now."
From the corner of her eyes, she saw him lift his sleeve to get a look at his watch and she must have imagined the look of guilt that entered his eyes.
"Shit. Why didn't you say anything?"
She turned to face him and frowned, "About what?"
He ran his eyes over her dusty robes and blackened hands and opened his mouth to say something, but he must have decided against it because he waved his hand towards the door. "Leave, I'm tired of you."
"All of a sudden?" she asked, already halfway across the room. "Did you finish the book?"
"None of your..." he paused midsentence and then gasped as he pointed at her with his index finger.
"You touched my lap!"
"What?" she asked in confusion.
"Before when you asked what I was doing- you- you touched my lap!" he uttered incredulously.
"Don't be ridiculous. I touched your book."
"Which was on my lap."
"Exactly," she said matter of factly.
"You didn't know it was there," he said accusingly.
"What?"
Regulus took a few steps closer to her. "You didn't know it was there. You took a chance."
Rune scoffed at him. "Well then lucky it was there."
"What if it wasn't?"
She lifted a hand to her head and sighed. "I'm sick."
"In your head, yes. You knew there was a 50/50 chance of there being a book vs there being no book and you still took it," he whisper shouted.
"Pfft. It wasn't 50/50. It was like... 95/5."
Regulus gasped even louder this time. "You knew there was a 5 percent chance that your hand might have made contact with no book, and you still took it?!"
"You're being ridiculous."
"Do you like me, Rune?"
Rune looked up at the ceiling and shook her head before placing her hands over her chest and sarcastically cooing, "Oh, Reggie! I'm absolutely floored by you. You're so handsome and smart and sweet and lovable! I'm so in love with you!"
Regulus chuckled before clearing his throat, "You heard that Peeves?"
"Every word," answered Peeves' taunting voice. "I borrowed the Voice-Vividly-Vial from Professor Sluggy so I have it on record too. Ickle fickle, Regulus cures Rune's heart's tickles."
A sharp screech escaped Peeves' mouth as Rune went hollering after him to retrieve the vial.
Regulus grabbed his book and bag from the chair and held in his laughter all the way down to the Slytherin dorms.
He waited patiently on the couch until 20 minutes later, Rune hobbled in, robes in tatters but vial securely in her hands.
Regulus stood up and yawned, "Two, Black. One, Westwood. You're up, Rune."
"I hate you!" she seethed as she stomped off to the girl's dorms.