Crystal waved and basically jumped outside the commom room. Regulus was waiting for her by the corridor. They just wanted to get away from Balthazar as soon as possible.
-------
The Astronony tower, as its name already indicated, was not to be reached before indulging in some hardcore stair marathon. As Regulus reached the end of the stairs a little out of breath, but with a cheerful disposition, he waited for Crystal. A teasing grin gres on his face as Crystal finally reached the end of the staircase, huffing and puffing and leaning against the cold wall to breathe in.
"What?!" She exclaimed, looking at Regulus with a slight frown.
"I thought you said you were more skilled with this kind of stairs. What a liar!"
"I am!" She looked to the side, ignoring his amusement. "I'm just tired from the dungeons, that's all!"
He liftef an eyebrow towards her.
"Well, maybe I'm emotionally tired too. Who knows. This is also the tallest tower, so..." She sighed as she caught her breath and stood up, ready to keep walking. "Let's just hope this place is open."
Regulus nodded slightly, but only for a short time. As Crystal examined the door, she clearly started struggling trying to pry it open.
"We're not supposed to be here, of course it's going to be closed." He said, as he leaned against the wall close to the door.
"Well, yeah?" She seemed to think to herself for a while, then started trying to open the door again. "Well, you're right. Damn, they only open this for classes."
"So?"
"No, wait. We're going in." Crystal let out a mischievous smile as she cast a non verbal charm to unlock the door. "Gotcha! Let's go!"
"Did you learn that with your cousin?"
"Of course not! I know some charms, you know?" She seemed to catch on the subtle meanings. "Oh. Oh. Because we're breaking in a restricted area?"
"I don't know if I feel comfortable here."
"It will have to do. This is the best place for stargazing."
"And to be caught and have a detention." he shrugged as he let his shoulders relax. "Alright."
"Just let me get my things ready." Crystal smiled gently as she threw her things on the floor and sorted it out quickly.
"The stars will come out soon."
He sighed as he sat on the floor, looking upwards to the open night sky. They spent a lot of time climbing from the dungeons to the tower, and they were mostly silent through their stair climbing journey. Crystal calmly sat on the floor, feeling the coldness from the stones and the chilly winds that dared to pass by, every now and then. She kept a comfortable distance from Regulus, as she made herself comfortable on the stiff ground and opened her notebook and kept it close, with her quill ready to work when needed.
Regulus was relaxed and she could see that he closed his eyes and kept it like that for a while. The wind passed through his hair and caressed his face. He opened his eyes slowly, as if waking up lazily after having a good dream. He scanned her expression and then turned to the now starry sky.
"The dusk is finally over."
"So our avoidance should be, too." Her tone was serious, contrasting with her expression of tranquility. "What did you want to talk about?"
"Do you have any suspicions?"
"Sort of... Maybe?"
A small silence ocurred between them. Crystal thought that maybe she should guess what it was abour, but her thoughts were interrupted by his voice.
"I met Sirius on the train." He glanced away from her. "I wish I hadn't."
"Yeah... I heard something." She nodded.
"Sorry, again, Crystal." He sighed, still not looking directly at her. "I was reminded of how awful it is to be insulted."
Her eyes widened for a while. His expression was sincere, but it was also tinted with an undertone of hurt. She wondered what truly happened there, because he wasn't usually affected by insults. But, yes, it probably came from his brother, they had spent their childhood together and it probably just didn't disappear. Maybe it would now. His expression wasn't very promising.
"What did he say?" Her voice was softer and her posture was rather slouchy and inclined towards him, as if her first instinct was to reach out to comfort her friend.
"It doesn't matter." He shook his head slowly, then looked at the sky and back to Crystal.
"It wasn't all that great for me too." She mumbled, as he slightly raised an eyebrow. "Those two, they were kissing."
"Loretta and Balthazar?" He asked, seeming confused.
"Uh-huh." She nodded frantically, then stopped and facepalmed, making a noise of despair. "God! I can't believe it! She knows what happened and she still... Do you think he may have cast some love spell or gave her some weird potion or-"
"He is a manipulative bastard." He spoke without pause.
"But that's too much naivete... Or she's just being dumb. I have no idea, I haven't interacted that much with her sadly. It was since Remus got all protective and they grew close." She didn't breath while talking and seemed anxious. "No. It's her choice, I already warned her."
"Your friend must be blinded by infatuation."
She gave him a serious look, frowning.
"Let that be true. At least." She adjusted herself on her spot. "I met a centaur."
Regulus' expression was one of confusion by the sudden of subject and the unexpected news.
"What."
"Oh. So I was in the Forbidden Forest and this centaur ambushed me, but he was actually really nice and I think we became friends. He's going to teach me Divination!"
"And you talk about Loretta being naïve." He rolled his eyes. "Why were you in the forest in the first place?!"
"Oh." She seemed to think about what happened. "Ah yes. There's something I want to talk about."
He nodded for her to continue.
"Alice came to me. She told me everything." She reached for him as if whispering a secret in his ear.
"Ah..." He gave her a bittersweet smile before continuing. "So you know. Yes, her lover was affected by it, sadly. But she told him about it before."
Crystal furrowed her eyebrows.
"Why didn't you tell me anything about it." Her voice came out exasperated. "I would understand if we couldn't talk or be seen together for a while, but you cut me out."
"I know, Crystal. I asked for your forgiveness and don't think I don't regret it." He looked serious at her, his tone matching his expression. "I regret it deeply."
His last sentence had a strong intonation and emotion that struck her. She couldn't pinpoint what exactly it what it conveyed, because it sure sounded like he regretted other things that weren't being told.
"I hope to find him and talk about it." She said, glancing into the distance. "To hear his side of the story "
She almost jumped up as she spotted the chains of stars, shining bright as if calling her to map it, watch it and understand it. Gadly, for Regulus, she didn't realize he gulped after hearing about her intentions of learning all sides of what happened.
She started scribbling things about the stars she was gazing at. Her enthusiasm was evident as she wrote fast and remained silent for a while. Regulus watched her from his spot, he thought to himself that maybe Sirius was just lying to annoy him, that thing they had during the previous year was clearly an act for people to see. He saw right through it. But he needed to know the truth, and, at this moment, Crystal was the reliable source.
"Crystal."
"Yes?" Her voice showed her enthusiasm, she didn't turn to look at him, instead she kept writing things.
"There's something I've been told that I'm sure about."
"Shoot."
"Are you involved with Sirius?"
"What kind of question is that?" She chuckled nervously and turned to look at him, he was as neutral as someone could be.
"It's fine if you don't want to answer." She turned to the stars again as he spoke.
"It's fine." She shrugged. " Well, I guess so?"
"I guess so?"
"We were playing pretend in the beginning, but then he said some stuff and we agreed in trying something, which I'm-"
Gadly, for Regulus, she was happily staring at the sky and taking notes, so she didn't see his posture get stiff, his shoulders and his face tense, with a slight and controlled frown. He gulped and he just stopped listening, even though he could hear her voice going on about something. He felt the world around in slow motion as he gathered his thoughts.
He should've known. He had told him the truth. But he brought this upon him, he knew. Nothing could be done, nothing should be done. He had to respect her and him.
"So it kinda feels weird, you know? Sometimes it feels like before anf maybe it shouldn't, but I really don't know." She ended her rant and turned around to face Regulus, he seemed troubled, she furrowed her eyebrows. "What is it?"
"You should have told me." He said as he stood up, alarming her. "I'm going to go back to the dungeons."
"Wait, why?" Her voice let out a confused tone and her face expressed some disappointment.
"Because you're in a relationship, Crystal."
"So? We're not doing anything, it's not like I'm cheating or something."
"So you don't think he's going to be jealous?"
She paralysed for some seconds.
"I'm not saying I'm not going to talk to you or spend time with you during class or during the day." He calmly said. "But sneaking to a deserted tower may not sound so good to him."
"There's nothing wrong with it." She said, her voice almost like a whisper. "You're my friend, I'm not going to ditch you for this. You can stay."
"I won't." He opened the door and gently bowed towards her. "It's out of respect."
"Reg..."
"See you tomorrow." He gently smiled. "Your magic is showing, Crystal."
He smiled as he closed the door and went on his way. Crystal sighed, looking at the ground, then she panicked as she realized there was a trail of Lumos trying to escape her little finger. She waved it around before being hit on the face by her notebook. She mumbled some curse words as she realized she had cast Accio on the notebook, someway. She opened her notebook and wrote ask Hyperion, with some reminders around it.
Just like her vision.
"Crap."