free bird
You really don`t like people, do you?“
Mary had sat there for a while, letting ABBA sing about their last summer in Paris or something when she had seen Regulus, who had also left the match, walking around the garden.
It had made her laugh when Regulus had said it to her. For one, he was one to talk, and secondly, it had reminded her of the time she had said the same thing to Lily.
This time, she was being the one who was being asked. Lily never would have believed it. She had always called Mary the brave one. The one who talked to people and knew how to hold a conversation. This hadn’t changed, Mary was still good at it, but it was true that Mary had become more reserved in the last few months.
Before Hogwarts, her parents had tried another school for a few months. after it had gotten worse with Tom. All her parents would do was fight with her older brother when they had decided to change schools. It had been the first time Mary had been absolutely furious with her parents. Furious because it was Lily she would have to leave.
They had been in the same school for almost a year when Mary’s parents decided to change schools again to show their kids some kind of power they had over them. Clearly, it hadn`t worked because Tom… well, Tom hadn’t listened.
For the first time, Mary had wanted to not listen as well, to stay with Lily and the same school, but in the end he hadn’t been brave at all, they had changed schools and then they had left that school again to go to Hogwarts instead.
And here she was, sitting on this bench and avoiding people. Lily had been the brave one of the two of them, never Mary. Maybe Regulus would understand. She looked at him. He looked like he was escaping too.
“You have a notebook, too, right?“ Mary asked and Regulus raised an eyebrow.
“Want to show me some of your work?“ Mary asked and she knew it was a long stretch because, well, it was Regulus was Regulus, but she wanted to try. Try to be brave like Lily.
And there he Regulus went and surprised her again.
“Ok,“ he said and sat down next to her. Maybe was helping her because he wanted to, like Mary had on the first day. Or maybe she just looked that pitiful. Probably.
There were some pages even she wasn`t allowed to see, but Regulus did show her some of his sketches. They were brilliant. The sketches were precise and accurate, but in Regulus`s own style. It matched his personality.
A lot of the sketches were people, some birds, especially crows. Mary loved them.
“Regulus, these are amazing,“ Mary said, full of wonder. “This explains why you were so offended by my scribbling in the train, this is art.“
Regulus shook his head. “I wasn`t offended. It was just… loud.“
“Whatever you say,”
“No, seriously, I-“
“No, I understand, not everyone can be as-“
“I change my mind, you`re not allowed to-“
“-Alright, alright, I am sorry, I won`t say anything,“ Mary relented and Regulus opened his notebook again.
“You better not,“ he said and there was a small lopsided smile. There was one sketch Mary liked especially. It was of a crow, shiny black, sitting on a wire, looking unfazed, straight at Mary. They both sat there in silence for a while. Emmeline was right. This was nice.
“Have you ever been in love?“ Mary asked though she didn`t really know why. This, for whatever reason, made Regulus cough. A lot. He couldn`t seem to hold it in and Mary tried to help him by slapping him on the back, but it didn`t seem to help.
“Sorry, that came a bit out of the blue, I just- I don`t know it`s-“
“-Not nice,”
“It isn`t”
“No, horrible,”
“Oh,” Mary said because- because what? She wouldn`t know, right?
“Yeah,“ Regulus said and suddenly grew an interest in the green grass on the ground, scared to look at the sun. Mary kindly ignored it. She didn`t think he wanted anyone to know.
“Anyway, what`s your thing about crows? Why do you like them so much?“