CHAPTER NINETEEN;
❝ CROSS MY HEART AND HOPE
TO DIE ! ❞
⠀⠀⠀REGULUS SIGHED WISTFULLY, as he stared at a soundly sleeping Manon. She looked like perfection, even in her sleep - calm and serene, like she had never experienced any pain in her life. He wished she hadn't. He wished her life had been as flawless as her shiny threads of silky raven hair or her lustrous, pale blue irises, contained in almond shaped rims, that reminded him of both a stormy sea and twinkling stars of different galaxies. Regulus wondered why everything about her was so inexplicably bewitching - her mellifluous laugh that could lull dragons to sleep, the cutting remarks she shot at him in particular, the thickly veiled mischief she held in her eyes, that captivating mind of hers, full to the brim with intelligence. Even in physicality, from her slim and delicate hands that could still punch him to nirvana, her satiny, rosy skin that was soft under his fingertips to her lithe body that arched under his touch, and became sensitive just because of him, she was beautiful - breathtaking, in all essence. Regulus was so utterly under her charm, he felt like the ineffable love and endearment he held for her could shatter all the stars and the skies, wash away the entirety of the seven oceans, crack all of the mountains into dust and still be powerful enough to breach through all time and space, living as both an eternal complexity and limitless simplicity.
⠀⠀⠀But to himself, Regulus had crossed his heart and had hoped to die to never tell her this while he lived and way past his existence. She didn't deserve him of all men this world would ever know for Regulus believed that he'd be her demise, her ruin, the one who'd unroot her tree of life and axe it into splinters, so you wouldn't know which part went where. He was simply the worst match for her.
⠀⠀⠀Now, he had had his share of Manon Potter, and he couldn't and wouldn't dare ask for more; Regulus was too nefarious to hope for her love and limerence, too undeserving, too infernal.
⠀⠀⠀With his heart in pieces he couldn't even count, eyes glassed over with unshed tears and the most saddest of smiles decorated on his face, Regulus rose to his feet, dressed himself, gave her sleeping form a final look and left like he never was there except for his lingering scent of sea water, vanilla and cold winter winds that Manon would later wake up to, crestfallen when she would discover that he'd vanished into thin air.
⠀⠀⠀HURT BUT NOT surprised, Manon had left the Room of Requirement in complete exhaustion of both body and mind. Honestly, she'd expected this to happen and it was what was supposed to happen but a mistaken part of her heart had regretfully hoped for something that was not meant to be hers. Alas, she'd only ended up getting hurt, even though she knew the outcome from the start.
⠀⠀⠀She supposed that was the way with Regulus Black: you'd never come out whole and gold, no matter how much you prepared yourself. All of a sudden, Manon snorted lightly in a rueful manner, reminiscing back to when Charlotte had officially welcomed her as a new member of 'The Unfortunates', the name she'd given to the club of people who'd fallen, were falling or were going to fall for Regulus Black. She'd laughed and called her a nut case then but Manon knew who'd start laughing when she'd tell them about her hopeless situation.
⠀⠀⠀Both unwantingly and unknowingly, she'd fallen atrap to Regulus and his devilish smirks; an infatuation had blossomed in her heart when she was busy worrying about the same thing. In her mind, she gave a good kick to her 24-to-7 working and blood-pumping organ.
⠀⠀⠀Severely disabled mentally and feeling dejected, Manon changed her destination from the Ravenclaw Tower to the Gryffindor one. Out of everything is the world, she just needed her brother James right now.