Lost Cause

I  slowly wake up squinting, to the sun shining in my eyes, when I hear Ashleys’s footsteps behind me. Turning around I see her staring and scrunching her eyebrows.

 “Why are you so skinny?” she asked. I barely resisted rolling my eyes.

“I'm not that skinny”

“Yes you are, Ethan has muscles”

I am more than aware of Ethan's tight shirts and mussels that are on display, “trust me I know he does" I say smirking.

“Oh, do you” Ethan practically comes out of nowhere.

Me and Ashley both jump and whip our heads over to him. “Salazers sake” I exclaimed blushing.

Ashley starts giggling when Ethan smiles at me. And for fucks sake is it a blinding smile. “I didn’t know you paid so much attention”

This time I do roll my eyes.

“What's a Salazar?” Ashley asked. “Is it a wizard god?”

I look back over to her secretly grateful I don’t need to come up with what to say to Ethan “He was a founder of Hogwarts, Salazar Slytherin. There are four houses for the founders, I’m in Slytherin.”

“Ethan said Slythrins are bitches” 

“Most are” I whisper to her as if it's a secret. And Ethan just looks lost and stumbles over his words.

“I told you not to say that word”

Kate come outside after “What profanities are you teaching her now”

“I swear to God I didn’t say it this time”

“You all are bitches” Ashley giggles and walks back inside leaving all three of us with our jaws dropped.

“Get back here you little shit,” Ethan chases after her. I smiled for the first time since the break started.

Kate looks at me and sits down on the other chair, “So Regulus what's your favorite color,” she asks.

“What” I reply, confused as to why she cares.

“It wasn’t a complex question”

“I know,” I pause, waiting for her to clarify, “how is this relevant.”

“We don’t know anything about each other” She replies, “actually we should do this with Ashley and Ethan, come on” she stands up and walks inside. 

I follow her in and see Ethan sitting down watching something on the box, Ashley’s with him, and Kristy’s reading in her chair. “We should play a game to get to know Regulus,” she announces to everyone.

“No thanks,” I simply replied. 

Ethan chuckles a little bit under his breath, and Kristy swats his leg with her book gently, “Be nice to your sister.”

“Yea Ethan, be nice” Kate teases.

Sighing quietly Kristy asks “Ethan, Regulus do you guys want to go to the store and pick a few things you might need sweetie?” she asks me.

Ethan responds before me “Yea, we can just go to the corner store down the corner,”

“Take my wallet with you” Ethan stands up and starts walking to the kitchen where his mom's purse is.

As I follow him I can’t help but think of what Maman would do. Probably just say figure it out yourself or have Kreatcher do it. “Hey, you ok?” He asks, holding a pink wallet that looks ridiculous next to his dark clothes.

“Yea I’m fine” He looks like he doesn’t believe me but leaves it “What's a corner store?” I ask. He laughs a little and smiles. 

“Damn pure blood,” he jokes “It’s a small store with some groceries and house stuff.”

After putting the wallet in his pocket we walk towards the door, “Bye Mum, we’ll be back soon.” He yells and hands a jacket off the coat rack. It's big and kinda puffy, black and warm. Ethans is poofy too but instead, the top half of it is dark red and the bottom is dark blue. “Stay safe,” Kristy yells before we close the door.

It's cold out and windy, the sun is setting so the sky is lit up with pretty oranges, pinks, and purples. Ethan starts walking down the street and makes a list of what I’ll need. “You didn’t bring anything with you?” He questions. 

“Didn’t really get the chance,” I shrug trying to make it seem normal and not totally traumatizing. My hands still twitch from the crucio throughout the day and won’t stop for a couple of days. There are bruises on my knees from when I collapsed but he can’t see them. 

“Hm, you’re gonna need a toothbrush but you can use my toothpaste and hair stuff until you go back, we should get something for dessert, also you’re gonna need underwear and stuff.” He lists off. 

“What kinda dessert do you usually eat?” Ethan has his hands stuck in his pockets to keep them warm.

“Kristy and Ashley both like ice cream, Mum always says she doesn’t care but she prefers something chocolate, and Dad will eat anything. I think ice cream is the best, obviously, but what do you want?”

Eating that much food makes me wanna throw up, is the answer but seems rude, “I like ice cream”

“Good choice,” Ethan smiles.

He smiles a lot I think but maybe I just don’t smile enough. The first probably, no one should smile that much. 

We get to the store after 15ish minutes, Ethan goes to the back first and grabs a toothbrush then to the small rack of shirts and sweaters. “Go on, take your pick,” he tells me. Grabbing the green sweater and some underwear I move on to the sweets section. Ethan picks out chocolate-covered pretzels and goes to get ice cream. “Which flavor?” He asks. 

“Your mom likes chocolate?”

“Yes, but we can get whatever.”

I walk over to the fridge and pick out the chocolate vanilla swirl and start walking away. “Oh, come on that’s so basic” Ethan complains.

“Maybe but your mom’s letting me stay so we are getting one with her favorite” Ethan smiles at me again, grabs everything, and brings it over to the cashier. If I like girls I’d probably like her. She's pretty with platinum blonde hair, like Pandora's, and she has a nose piercing. If I was nicer I’d tell her it's cool.

“Find everything okay?” she asks.

“Perfectly” Ethan replies and pays her, “Have a good night,” as we walk out I hear her giggling.

“Is the ice cream gonna melt?” I ask. It’s at least a fifteen-minute walk and even though it's cold it's not cold enough to keep it frozen.

“Meh, it should be fine, we’ll just eat it right when we get back home.”

Home, mum, da all things I never had and when I did have it left. That house is not a home and mother wasn’t good neither was father. Sirius was the only good thing and he left. 

I catch Ethan looking at me and raise my eyebrow. “Earlier you said some Slythriens were bitches?” It's a question and an observation 

“Yea, I did,” I answered.

“Why”

“Cause they are, my friends are good but there are still people like Snape” I clarify.

He sighs, “Yea, I get that not all Slythrin are bad. I just didn’t realize you guys don’t like each other.

“A Lot of people hate Slytherins, it's better if we are there for each other, cause no one else will” I pause “It’s sort of a rule, never have conflict outside the common room, and always teach the first years how to survive it.”

“Sorry for hating you at first”

I laugh a little under my breath and look down “ I don’t blame you it's a common misconception besides I know you just cared about protecting your family, very Gryffindor of you standing up to a death eater” I joked. Ethan laughed, loudly.

“Ugh I would never be a gryffindor” 

By the time we get back, it’s dark out and some of the stars can be seen, I look at them while going to the door.

“You know a lot about starts,” Ethan asks.

“Yeah, I guess, all of my family is named after them. Sirius is the brightest star.”

“What about you?” he wondered

“Oh, I'm the brightest star in the Leo constellation, the heart of the lion”. Most people don’t ask.

“Hm, let's go eat the ice cream before it melts”