• Camille Malfoy •
„Autumn killed
summer with
the softest kiss."
The morning of the Hogsmeade weekend had dawned and the autumnal October sun flooded the lake, enveloping the Slytherin girls' dormitory in a green glow. Camille blinked sleepily through her thick lashes, watching the fine dust dance in the faint light of the rising sun.
As the blonde sat up, she noticed that Lorraine was already dressed and standing in front of the huge window, her eyes fixed on the lake. Her bright curls shone seductively and it was hard to miss that she had dressed up especially for her date with Garreth Greengrass.
Emma, on the other hand, slumbered peacefully in her bed. Quietly, Camille slipped out of the soft down that filled her duvet cover and began to make herself pretty like her friend. She had not mentioned in a word that she would be spending the day with Regulus, but as a tiny smile crept around the corners of her mouth, she could see Lorraine giving her a suspicious look in the mirror behind her. "Well, what are you looking forward to?"
"I'm looking forward to you realising that Greengrass isn't good for you," she replied pointedly, which Emma sleepily commented on with a groan. Perhaps Camille's voice had risen a little too high. Guiltily, she stared at her own face in the mirror again, while the Quidditch captain was now slowly peeling herself out of bed as well.
Gently, the blonde ran her fingers over the indentation between her eyebrows that always seemed to pop up when she was worried. Her movement watched her in her reflection before she tightened her features as if she had put a mask over them.
Emma tapped her bare feet across the marble floor. She eyed Lorraine with raised eyebrows, only to turn away from her again, shaking her head. "Love can't be healthy."
Lorraine, trying to force her curly blonde mane into a hairstyle, merely rolled her green eyes. "You'll get to enjoy it too."
"But until then, let's go raid to Honey Dukes, shall we Camille?" Grinning in anticipation, the captain stared at the young Malfoy. Camille's mouth opened like that of a fish gasping for air. It was probably on purpose that she had not told her friends about her plans. But what was the big deal? It wasn't a date, after all. "Sorry, I guess I forgot to mention that I'll be spending the day with Regulus."
"Aha!" Lorraine gave a triumphant pointed cry and pointed a finger accusingly at her. "Suddenly you don't seem to care about status either. Regulus is hardly better off than Garreth."
"Don't talk such nonsense," she groaned between her teeth and rose. "Regulus and I are merely friends, and besides, he's done nothing wrong. It was Sirius alone..."
"Neither was Garreth! He can't help his family," the blonde tried to defend her crush, her face contorted in anger. An expression which seemed almost alien on the usually gentle girl.
"I don't care what he was guilty of. What matters to me is that you don't," Camille whispered in a trembling voice, but her friend didn't seem to care in the slightest. The two had never clashed so violently before, and it might have gone on forever if Emma hadn't intervened. "Now please keep the gossip down, what's wrong with you two? If Lorraine wants to go out with Garreth, then please do, and if you go out with Regulus, so be it."
"But I'm not going out with...," Camille began in a huff, but another scowl from the brunette silenced her. Taking a deep breath, she tried to calm her mind. "Fine, go ahead," was her patty reply as she finally turned around with her head held high, barely hearing Lorraine's almost equally bitchy reply. "I will."
It felt good to spend time with Regulus. Especially after the argument with Lorraine, this kind of downtime came in handy for Camille, especially since she appreciated her classmate's presence, especially after their recent conversation. He had told her the terrible truth mercilessly to her face. Perhaps she needed something like that now and then in this make-believe world.
The young Black seemed to understand what was going on inside her. Possibly thanks to the fact that he had once had to go through something similar with Sirius. At the Three Broomsticks, the old friends had been seated at a table very close to Lorraine and Garreth Greengrass, thanks to the large crowd at the quaint inn.
"If she has those thoughts, there's not much you can do about it anyway," Regulus had merely remarked with a shrug of his shoulders and placed a hand on her forearm reassuringly. "I guess love sometimes reinforces the urge for freedom."
At this statement, Camille had to laugh brightly. "Love shouldn't put you in danger and if it does, it can hardly be true. I would never want the one I love to be at risk."
"I also said reinforces," he smirked apparently visibly amused at her poetic outburst. She herself bit her lower lip in embarrassment, indeed the statement sounded truly corny even to her ears now. "Perhaps that thought had always been hidden inside Lorraine," he speculated quietly, taking a sip of his black tea.
Camille cradled her head thoughtfully in her hands, surreptitiously watching the fifth grader. As so often, she was struck by the unusualness of his features. His grey eyes were suffused with an iron blue and were framed by dark lashes. The high cheekbones were similarly pronounced to hers and she had to subdue the need to trace them with her finger. His dark hair had grown longer in the last few months, making him look even more like Sirius.
She realised she had been doing him an injustice all these years. He wasn't who she thought she knew. Not any more, but possibly she had never really known him, but had believed her parents' view. "I'm sorry," she whispered before she could change her mind.
Regulus sat up abruptly and now faced her as rigidly as a candle. A storm of panic seemed to rage in his grey eyes, underlining the nervousness that had crept into his voice. "What are you sorry for?"
"For thinking so badly of you all these years," she replied in an almost casual tone, giving him an honest smile. For a long time the two looked into each other's eyes, trying to understand each other's emotional state, but they couldn't figure it out.
It almost became too intimate for Camille, as if Regulus could see to the bottom of her soul. Before she knew it, he had placed his hand on hers and intertwined their fingers. Drawing in her breath, she hurriedly averted her gaze as if it might betray her. She had probably always known that she was a little too fond of young Black. Perhaps this was one of the reasons why she had never dared to rebuild the relationship between them in the first place.
Because if she gave in to her feelings, she would have to try to convince her parents to agree to marry Regulus at some point. To the one who in her eyes had always been a pitiful image of a sensible heir. A descendant of a family that had fallen into disgrace. The risk was too great that she would end up with a broken heart. Possibly even with two. Regulus truly did not deserve such a thing.
Respectfully, Camille withdrew her hand and placed it in her lap with her other. With a clearing of her throat, she tried to lighten the tense and extremely uncomfortable situation a little - without success. Dumbly, Regulus stared into his half-empty jug, looking as closed as he had in all the years they had not exchanged a word.
She had already noticed that some circumstances could bring out this state in the young Black. It was almost like a defence mechanism. But as quickly as these appeared, the longer it took to bring out his true colours.
But Camille wanted to stick to her personal code. If you loved someone, you did not expose them to danger.
Not even if you were
to be that danger yourself.