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𝕽omie's sigh is one of contentment.
She and the rest of the participating sixth years had just finished their weekly Saturday Morning Apparition class, freeing up the rest of the day. Hestia had been kidnapped for a spontaneous date, details to be divulged later, and Evan and Barty had been held behind by a murderous looking McGonagall, severely unamused at their hoop moving shenanigans. Leaving just three.
Whilst Romie's original plans entailed cooping up in the library, finishing the potions work missed and possibly delving into her life's dedication, she compromised once making out the pixie dust like sparkle in Pandora's eyes. Joy, excitement, longing. Longing to join the rest of Hogwarts' pupils outside amid the castle's grounds, basking in the sneaky preview of the orchestral songs of Spring.
The dreamy Ravenclaw lounges in the vicinity of the couple, rather inseparable of late. And touchy. On his back, Regulus rests, hefty feet close to Pandora's pastel blue painted fingers, a danger a stark contrast to the safe and sound positioning of his head. In Romie's lap. It's a win, win because whilst he gets a wonderful headrest, she gets a platform stand for her book. And an added bonus felt on both parts, Romie gets to play with his hair, and Regulus gets his hair played with.
Contentment indeed.
The Slytherin doesn't open his eyes when there's a familiar swishing sound of footsteps approaching, quite confident in the Gryffindor's abilities to deal with efficiently any interloper.
"Hey! There they are"
Romie snorts at the blatant displeasure etching across Regulus' face lickety-split, tipping back her head to smile at sunshine in human form.
"Here we are"
James gladly takes that as an invitation to proceed further, eyebrows plunging to his hairline at the impressively spread starfish silhouette of Pandora,
"That looks fun!"
He flops down on Romie's left, in a sitting pose, blasting out all four limbs to mimic the girl. Regulus grunts when he receives a strong blow to the knee, snapping open his eyes to see to it James receives and understands the message that the sole reason he's not being thrown back several feet is because he doesn't fancy moving any time soon.
James grins sheepishly and holds up his hands, apologising, "Sorry, Reggie"
"Do not call me Reggie" He orders darkly, touching, grasping the end of his rope when James nods, saying mischievously,
"Noted, Reggie"
He rolls his head inward to Romie, through his eyes, showing what will happen in the next two minutes or so if she doesn't intervene this very second. His inflated exasperation dwindles slightly, deciphering what the equally dark glint in her eye means. Seeing that, him in action wouldn't particularly be something she's against. But this is James, the boy with an ego the size of the lake but a heart of pure gold to match it.
"How's the team coming along?" Romie asks, feeling her cheeks betray her and pink at the slow wink she earns for the sly mention of the top secret topic.
He may as well have mouthed good girl.
He does.
Evidently not thinking straight, made mellow by the newborn rays of sun, James starts to disclose "Brilliant I think. I've been teaching them this new tactic called Thimbler — hang on a minute!"
Acting ever so innocent, Romie gently hums and turns to him, head inclined a touch. His eyebrows are drawn together in a frown so hard he's bound to suffer a headache if he doesn't quit it soon. He can't. He's thinking. Thinking about his fellow mischief maker's little sister and her strong association with the cunning Captain of the dirty opposition. Who's currently tugging the back board of the book propped on his chest to cover his smile.
"Are you going to feed my secrets back to him?" James accuses, Romie worming herself into the loophole he's created, denying and adding the famous cheer on the end,
"No, no, I wouldn't do that. Go, Go Gryffindor"
Technically, no lies have been told. The said him is right there, present and ears perked, listening. If anyone's feeding secrets, it's James himself, not Romie. He seems to come to a similar conclusion, blowing out a breath and shaking his head, not in indignation, in amusement.
"I'll hand it to you, you're good. Crafty gits, but bloody good"
Romie chuckles, tugging back the book to steal a glimpse at the rare smile hidden beneath. She reaches down, tracing the dinting lines a great deal more prominent around the mouth of his older brother. Sirius laughs, he smiles, Regulus hardly does. Or atleast he didn't before. These happy folds are starting to make his face a home, not a place to briefly visit. It's a nice development. He deserves this development. More than anyone.
James has to stifle his sappy smile when Regulus guides the hand back to his sacred hair, looking like he might melt underneath her touch. He reckons he might've felt a few other things in the recent past too, zeroing in on the handful of marks the particular hue claimed by Romie, on his otherwise pale throat. And the all too familiar ribbon laced through the two front belt loops of his trousers, the bow sitting just above his crotch.
He makes a mental note to ask Lily to check Romie knows the contraceptive charm off the back of her hand. James would ask himself but fathering children is a hope for the future he'd like to keep a strong possibility. His eyes drift to where the longstanding main character of his dreams is standing by the shore of the Black Lake, reciting the possible dangers and risks of wild swimming to a bunch of third years, who clearly don't give a rat's arse.
Fun. They just want to have fun, enjoy themselves in the water. Lucky for them, fun is James' middle name. Romie's lips twitch when the spot next to her becomes vacant, crimson high top converse approaching the water. Approaching Lily's small lecture group. Regulus props himself up on an elbow, watching in anticipation.
Hearing the speech exchange is impossible from the distance, and perhaps unnecessary. Because suddenly, there's awed grins growing on the faces of the third years, growing impossibly wider when the Head Boy lunges forward, flings the Head Girl over his shoulder and charges full speed ahead at the Lake. Shrieks and screams and phrases that don't set good examples for the third years fly from Lily's lips, muting the second her head plunges beneath the surface.
"She's going to hex him backwards" Romie mutters aloud, frowning at the contradicting head shake from Regulus, having other distinct opinions on the matter.
"No she's not"
His cranes his head around to catch a good look of her in the positively endearing act of stubbornness, not at all surprised that's how he finds her. Adamant she's right, he's wrong. She's ahead, he's behind. Romie must've forgotten he has successfully bested her before, multiple times. It's what makes them constantly stimulated, far from boredom.
"She'll kiss him" Regulus declares simply.
She doesn't like it. Romie doesn't like the tone of his voice, what's blended in there, strong and steady. It sounds like the future. Feels like the future. The future he's missing entirely to instead intently stare at her. Stare as the ring of obdurate fire burns out and the button of her nose crinkles slightly upon learning how just perfectly spot on he was. Bursting out from the water surface, Lily surged forward and kissed the boisterous laughter out of James.
Lily Evans kissed James Potter.
Romie doesn't have to ask, just as he'd predicted the reaction, Regulus predicts what she's about to say. Leaning forward and lightly prodding the star dangling from her earlobe, he mumbles,
"Let's just say I have some experience with capricious witches"
"You absolute fucking cunt" Romie whisper hisses into the small gap remaining between them.
Regulus sighs like the obscene language is music to his ears, better than any song the refreshing season of Spring has to offer. Tweeting birds, soft breezes. Nope, Romie's swearing does it for him. Two long, slick fingers slip underneath her chin, tipping up and up and up until lip gloss is being impressed onto his lips. He sighs again, whispering,
"You needn't to worry, no one can steal your top spot, Mon volcan féroce"
"You have such a way with words. My pulse is racing" Romie replies flatly, violet eyes boring into that of sterling silver.
A hum, purposefully long and droned, vibrates against her lips, vibrates right through her core and does, frustratingly, indeed kick up the rate of her pulse. Regulus retreats before the chance to properly luxuriate materialises, announcing,
"Mhm, mine too"
Romie has to physically restrain herself from chasing after the foretaste over far too soon for her liking, glaring at his smirk. Instead of pulling him in, she pushes at his chest, peering over his shoulder to the animated pair splashing around in the lake, apparently careless about the possible dangers and risks of wild swimming. Regulus peers around too, observing in pensive silence for a long moment.
"You still want that?"
It's hushed, so much so that if Romie hadn't flickered back to him, she would definitely have missed it. That. A soft romance with sunny boys, sweet boys, the boys that stutter and blush and make themselves look like blithering idiots incessantly. The boys that Regulus believes will entertain her for a total of twenty minutes, give or take and then leave her bored out of her skull. No challenge, no constant stimulation, no rushes of adrenaline.
"I want—"
She breaks off. Whether it's because of the plain nothing she persists to feel when the face of Romeo Fawley comes to mind or because of how swiftly he turns back around, waiting on — God — bated breaths, she breaks off. The sun's getting too hot. Romie's getting too hot, cooking alive inside the sweater that seemed like an appropriate choice this morning. She wants to cool down, she wants buckets and buckets of frozen solid, hurts to touch, cold ice. She wants—
She wants.
More splashing. There's more splashing, more limbs than the combination number of James and Lily. Inky tattoos and ivory scars, silver rings and golden chains, raven locks and sandy curls. Sirius and Remus. They've joined Hogwarts' new couple in the lake, flirting their way through head dunks, teasing remarks and play fights. The Lupin-Black couple.
Something that feels an awful lot like doom spreads like an infectious disease across every fibre of Romie's being, killing the bright, shiny word on her tongue. She gulps thickly, accepting the replacement.
"Yeah. That's — that's still what I want"
Romie thinks they may have swapped roles because where Regulus' chest has come to a complete standstill, hers is working on overdrive. Obnoxiously, her heart pounds, sitting tight for any signs of reaction. Yes, her pulse is racing now, no doubt about it. His faces shifts into something indecipherable, that fucking veil of impassiveness that's won the title of the bane of Romie's existence appearing. After another minute, he nods, and Romie finds her breath.
Silently, he lowers himself back down to the previous reclining position he was enjoying immensely, but it's not the same. Romie blames herself, perhaps the main reason why she suddenly blurts,
"We should sit at your table for dinner"
Regulus blinks once, replying in that tone that both sounds and feels like the future again, "We can go to the kitchens for your steaks"
"Let's eat there" Romie decides, relief surging through her chest when a small tug at the corner of his mouth is clocked. The smile lines.
"House Elves and all?"
Ignoring the teasing dig at her slight unease around the magical little helpers Hogwarts would be lost without, she nods, clarifying,
"Houses Elves and all"
"Only because I now know which tactic Gryffindor's working on" He states, sliding his gaze to her and back again when he hears a quiet huff of laughter. That's it, nothing else. Just the mention of the new Thimberlig Shuffle.
Soft fingers resume running through the ends of his curls, eliciting a sigh from the centre of his essence.
A sigh of contentment.
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The love on this book is insane. What do you mean 75k already?! I only just started!! I think this has been my fasted growing book so far, but I think that's down to followers coming from my other books. Either way, thank you, thank you, thank you!!