III
The next major event of the holiday was the Slug Club Christmas party. You had received your invitation a week and a half before the event. While you had found it somewhat short notice in your opinion you had almost immediately found some used dress robes that were a dark green with black accents which you had found very appropriate for your house and had a flattering Victorian gothic style to them. Regulus on the other hand was in a state of confliction, he had known the unspoken rule of you were supposed to take a date he only had learned that from one of his mothers letters but he could not imagine taking anyone on a date except you he however convinced himself that he only meant it in a platonic way. There were some complications with that, it would expose your friendship. You would most likely take the brunt of it being you were muggle-born which is an outcome he could not afford. Instead he found a person in slytherin while not pure-blooded like his mother would have liked; they came from a family of status which at least would have spared him some from his mother. The best part about the person he was taking was that they held no interest in Regulus, in fact they had been absolutely enamoured by Theodore Nott. You on the other hand hadn’t even the faintest idea on the notion and decided to go alone. You and Regulus had only briefly discussed the party in that time in which you were displeased to hear about his date prompting you to make some excuse that resulted in you fleeing. You were not sure why you had so strongly disliked the idea of Regulus taking a date but you summarised it up to simply being worried for your friend.
The night of the party came when Regulus showed up in black dress robes with deep green accents. His date on the other hand wore a light honey coloured outfit that in no way matched his own which was preferable in his eyes. You however had been running a few minutes late, Regulus had not seen you but his eyes continued to search the room for you. Regulus instead spotted Lucius Malfory with Narcissa Black his cousin, to which he rolled his eyes upon seeing. He also spotted Lily Evans with his brother's best friend James Potter to which he scoffed but tried to remain out of the way so as to not get harassed by his brother's friend and most likely later his brother. But amidst his thoughts he spotted you walking in, in your deep green attire with black accents the exact reverse of his he swore his heart palpated in response. And for the split second you had made eye contact his world stopped in ways he could only describe as euphoric. But then his date was grabbing him by the shoulder pulling him over to Theodore Notts group causing him to get further away from you.
To Regulus it felt like hours passed as he had to listen to what he deemed an abominable conversation but every once and a while he saw you mingling with others having your photo taken and other various activities. Eventually he saw you duck into the curtains that surrounded the room effectively hiding yourself from the party and at that moment he decided to slip away(not like anyone there had noticed or would notice). He carefully crossed the room to avoid suspicion as he ducked into the curtains. You had been faced away from him. He took a step closer to you softly calling out your name.
“ Fu- Regulus what are you doing?” You started cursing but caught yourself staring at him in defensive confusion.
“ I came to find you.” He stated like it had been obvious as he took a couple of steps towards you making you only within a few inches of one another. In that moment he had known deep down in the depths of his soul how he felt about you but he had ignored it for whoever knows how long and in that moment he decided he would be ignorant to it. He gently grabbed your hand like he did on the quidditch pitch only this time he brought it up to his mouth pressing his lips against your hand in a gentle kiss all while remaining eye contact with you letting it be so you could pull away any minute. But to his surprise you didn’t. And he let out a whisper.
“ You look…stunning.”
“ And you look beautiful.” You breathed back smiling softly at him. Before you remembered who he had come with to the event.
“ Regulus, where is your date?” You questioned taking a step back, your hand still in his but your arm being straightened.
“ They are off trying to snog Nott,” He says smiling a little as he steps closer “ Which is why I choose them anyway.”
You responded laughing and shaking your head. You should’ve known Regulus would never ask someone out romantically. Both of you slowly inched together, him not letting go of your hand the entire time, you got so close your faces were only inches apart when two figures ducked underneath the curtain joining you in the small space.
This prompted you and Regulus to quickly pull back from the other with him situating himself slightly in front of you. The figures stood parallel to the two of you. You quickly recognized them, the one’s long tangerine coloured hair that framed her pale freckled complexion while the others dark curls, deep tan skin, and golden circular glasses were recognizable anywhere as Lily Evans and James Potter. Unfortunately for the both of you they had seemed to also recognize you too. James seemed more focused on Regulus’ presence to actually seem to notice yours.
“ Regulus” James Potter spoke out curtly.
“ James” Regulus responded in like. His hand gripped tightly around yours which you had just realised he was in fact still holding but he gripped it not tight enough to be painful.
James' attention seemingly flicked over to you, upon noticing this Regulus stepped in front of you even more.
“ (Y/n),” Regulus started turning his head towards you “ Why don’t you go get something to drink? I'll join you in a minute.”
You just nodded slowly backing out of the curtains escaping the tension that was so thick that you felt like you couldn’t even have breathed. You were quite pleased to be out but you still worried about Regulus, James Potter was notoriously antagonistic of people he didn’t quite get along with. He had the pleasure of still being treated as a pureblood while not following the strict traditions unlike the Weasley family who was all but respected amongst the pureblooded society. This kind of treatment seemed to nurture his ego a tad too much for your taste, Especially with his treatment of Severus who he bullied and antagonised on a cruel level as well as his treatment of Regulus which was largely mild compared to Severus made you very weary of the other male. The ginger haired girl followed you out as she wandered around playing plausible deniability to her boyfriend's behaviour.
“ Why were you with him and not your little pureblood group?” James mocks while puffing out his shoulders.
“ It shouldn’t matter to you potter.” Regulus spat annoyed at the others' interruption and quite frankly his entire presence there.
“ Ah I see, so what are you using the muggle born for,” James started biting out his words in a amused venom “ your punching bag, homework actually no you have far too much of a stick up your ass for that, how about a quick fuck-”
“ Don’t assume what your bloody little moronic mind has no semblance of an idea about.” Regulus bit out furious at the suggestion of your being so expendable especially to a fool such as James Potter.
“ So he is just your fuck mate,” James said knowing he struck a chord Regulus’ jaw clamped down sharply highlighting the indents of his cheeks “ What you couldn’t be seen with him, your too good for him?”
Regulus felt his entire being shake in anger, his jaw tensing and untensing, and this egotistical imbecile in front of him ridiculed you all because he was his brother's best friend and Regulus’ brother hated him. Regulus didn’t hate his brother but after this he may, you meant more to him than anything else and with how small his world was he treasured you at every waking second actually scratched that, every second he thought of you even if you weren't his primary thought you still lingered. Yet Regulus never feared being around you due to his reputation, no he was terrified for what they would do to you if you were around him, if his parents found out it would your head quite literally, he couldn’t afford for your safety to ever be at risk due to him, still James Potter seemed to threaten that and that was enough for Regulus to sink into the darkness that always pooled underneath him. With that Regulus shoved the male against the wall pointing his wand directly under James Potter's chin.
“ You do not have an utter clue of anything as to be seen by the conclusion you've come to, but if you so much as mention their presence in front of me or not I will cruciatus curse your arse till you wouldn’t even be able to say his name. I don’t care what you are to my brother, he is far more relevant to me than that coward ever was.” Regulus seethed with the levels of venom only his parents carried for his brother and other “blood traitors”.
“ Whatever you're still some death eaters dog, so why don’t you go play fetch with…” James Potter's voice trailed off referencing over towards you as he himself nodded his way out of the space leaving Regulus alone.
Thank You For Reading <3