I
Regulus Black had sworn to never love, not after he so desperately watched his parents hate each other to the point where their hate spread to him and his brother. And it didn’t help Regulus’ mind that his brother had abandoned him for some boy who didn’t even reciprocate his affections. With that Regulus had despised the shows of affection he received, being in his 4th year of Hogwarts he had received countless love letters, confessions, and the endless abundance of stares with giggles. To say he hated it was an understatement, each letter he burned with “Confringo” and each confession he scoffed and mocked the speaker till they in most cases ran away crying or furiously stomped away.
As for the stares he couldn’t do much about it but it helped to be friends with fellow slytherins and those of pure-blood supremacy which he did not stand for but at least spared him from his parents disappointment. He had even made it to advanced potions and professor slughorn's infamous slug club. While none of his friends, which had been a small number, had made it into the slug club with him, he had at least two acquaintances of which there was Severus Snape who was a year above him and Theodore Nott who was in his year. As well as the unfortunate presence of Lucius Malfoy who he had a strong intolerance for but kept it to himself out of fear for the male. Then there was you, he had hardly noticed you at first not until there had been a debate on Gamp’s Laws of Elemental Transfiguration and the argument that was being presented and debated forgot a crucial piece of information in which it was so niche that none of them had noticed until you had spoken up. You neutrally yet somehow confidently pointed out the crucial fact causing Malfoy to scoff and further deliberation take place. That is the first time Regulus had noticed you. From there you seemed to pop up everywhere from in the Slytherin common room to his charms class, to Defence against the Dark Arts, to potions.
Regulus didn’t mind your presence but just felt it was odd and so he started to observe you. He noticed how you rarely talked to anyone, only a couple words with Severus Snape who seemed at least like a friend to you but on a very low level. Furthermore he had noticed your lack of magical ability, your tremendous lack of magical ability to his surprise, you could barely cast a spell, yet you were a genius in magical theory and excelled in magical creatures and potions. You were an enigma to Regulus Black. So much to a point that he slowly decided to move closer to you. It first started by him moving across from you in potions, scaring away some Gryfindor who had been flirting with you, it then led to him making brief small strictly occasional conversation at the slug club meetings. Months had passed and he slowly crept closer to you. He had found out a couple things, one you were born to muggles and were from a strictly muggle line the first wizard in your family, two you had wanted to work at the ministry of magic and revolutionise their way of interacting with muggles and work to undermine pure-blood supremacy and then retire to be a professor he then saw what made you a slytherin, three you had a pet kneezale that you had disguised as a cat and affectionately called Link who was very protective over you and seemed to be in love with Regulus, and four you had loved to read into the depths of the night below the glowing windows of the slytherin common room. And Regulus had learned one thing about himself and that was that he loved to be in your presence.
You and Regulus had formed a habit of sorts every sunday night at midnight when most of the Slytherin house was sleeping off their drunkenness from their weekend partying, you and Regulus would meet up in the common room and sit in the pair of chairs in the farthest corner that's only light came from the large church light windows that glowed. Then you would read you each had your respective book and you would sit in silence enjoying the others company and your novels. What either of you failed to realise is that sometimes one of you would stop reading, your eyes wandering to the other and a stare that could only be described as one filled with fondness watching the others slight reactions but moreover you would snap back to your own book. What neither of you would acknowledge is the fact that either of you only got through a couple of chapters when both of you knew you could easily get through full novels during that time.
From there you slowly talked more, of course only in places in which you both would go unnoticed so as to not ruin his reputation(your words not his). Places such as the furthest corner of the library, and small notes during classes became your sanctuary. Soon enough you considered him a friend and a close one at that. Many times while his friends would choose to go to Hogsmeade he would lie claiming he had unfinished homework or other various tasks of course his friends were unconvinced that the Regulus Black was behind but they let it slide anyway. Those times you could freely walk around Hogwarts as it was a ghost town that's when the two of you got to rejoice. You got to spend the majority of the day together and neither of you had any objection to it.
Regulus was always astounded by you, you who were so mortal that he feared everyday you would shatter and you would be snuffed out. He was raised in the noble house of Black, he lived in the Noble house of Black, and there they believed in immortality, that they were better than mortals, by the will of their pure blood and being a wizard they were not bound to the same laws of time and death which was true in many many ways. Afterall many great wizards lived past the average muggle lifespan but you, you who were from muggle parents, were terrible with magic, and had no interest in living longer than nature intended you to( a conversation that made Regulus infuriated). For those reasons you seemed to Regulus the definition of mortal and for that he feared for you as what he deemed from a friends perspective. You however were astounded by Regulus, the boy who had such warmth and love but who acted quite frankly like a cold hearted prick who couldn’t give a damn about anyone. You feared that the light that shone from him may be snuffed out at the hands of the society he was a part of. Of course this is what you believed from a friend's perspective.
Thank you for reading <3