Regulus POV
“You kissed him?” Evan shouts after a minute.
“I don’t think yelling at him is going to help,” Pandora rests a hand on Evans shoulder.
“Okay but, like, that was stupid, Dora,” Barty sighs.
“You think i don’t know that?” I cry and hug the pillow tighter.
“Well did he kiss you back?” Dora asks.
“I-” I sigh, “yes.”
“See there you go, he likes you,” Barty throws his hands up, “can we go to bed now?”
“No he doesn’t,” I pout, “he likes Lily, he’s been in love with Lily for like his whole life with her stupid red hair and her stupid green eyes-”
“Reg, oh my god fucking stop it,” Barty sighs and comes to sit on the edge of my bed.
“Hey, maybe we should be nice,” Dora frowns and cuddles closer to my side.
“No, fuck nice. I’m sick of hearing James Potter this and James Potter that. If you want the dude so bad then go and get him. No ones stopping you.”
“Yeah cause that’s what you did with Evan,” I roll my eyes.
“Yeah that’s the point, I didn’t do that and we skirted around eachother for a fucking year. I wasted a year when I could have been fu-”
“Okay, okay he gets it Barty,” Evan places a hand on Barty’s mouth, eyes wide, “while I don’t agree with how he said it Barty has a point. Oh gross.”
“Don’t put your hand on my mouth and I wouldn’t have to lick you,” Barty smirks, “but, you enjoy that so maybe do keep doing it.”
“Jesus, they’re not shy are they?” Dora whispers.
“No unfortunately not,” I sigh and lay back staring at the stars on the canvas above me, eyes immediately going to Sirius’ star.
“You know Barty is right,” she whispers and I turn to look at her, “James does like you, dear, he just doesn’t know it yet.”
“I don’t know Dora,” I frown and bite my lip, hearing the faint sounds of Barty and Evan arguing in the background.
“When have I ever been wrong?”
I sigh, she’s right. She isn’t the heir to a throne or even royalty like the rest of us but Pandora Lestrange is a descendant of some of the best seers in the land. Her parents currently work for mine and the only family to rival them would be the Trewlany family, ironically, currently working under the Potters.
“What if-” I gnaw on my lip afraid to let the words out but Pandora just looks at me patiently, she’s good like that, she’s soft and patient and I’m sure most of the school thought we were dating before the James stunt, but she’s been more of a family than my blood family ever has been, “what if I’m too dark for the sun like James.”
“Have you ever heard of the story of the sun and the moon?” She asks and I’m confused, what does this have to do with anything? I just shake my head, she smiles softly and pulls her head towards her running her hands through my hair, “The sun loved the moon so much he died every night to let her breathe.”
I exhale and settle down listening to her voice, “once during a time when the earth was simple, the Sun shone brighter than anything. The people were grateful and rejoiced every time the Sun shone. He brought them joy and warmth, he was even the source of their warmth. But he was lonely, all by himself in the vast skies. He would look down at the people dancing in his radiance and wonder if he was simply destined to a life of solitarily. That was the price he paid for being the brightest, he reasoned.”
My mind involuntary flicks to James, his smile so bright, eyes sparkling, laugh able to warm even the coldest of hearts. Then it drifts to the sad look on his face earlier that night outside the common room, I frown and Pandora continues.
“Then there was the Moon. As the Sun grew weary and began to disappear she would rise into the sky, flanked by millions of stars. Her radiance was a sad kind of beauty, one that went unnoticed as the people slept. The Stars watched her with woefulness, hoping that one day they could get close enough so she wouldn’t feel so empty. But they couldn’t.
The Moon was untouchable, surrounding herself with a blanket of darkness through the cold nights. Until one day when the Sun was sliding out of the heavens, he caught a glimpse of her. She was peeking up, a rare side of her being exposed to the light. And while the Sun could shine, he knew the Moon could glow, and a faithful whisper trumped an arrogant shout any day.
So just as the Stars were wandering into the night, the Sun fell in love like a snowball hurdling down a mountain. How he wished to see her more than the fleeting moments he shared with her at both dawn and dusk. But the Moon was untouchable. Uncurable. Unfreeable.
“Go,” she whispered to him one of those nights, her voice as sweet and sorrowful as the last light of morning, “Go and let me breathe, for you and I have decided fates. You illuminate the day, and I cast a glow on the night. We will never be. Our connection would go against what all people believe, all they know.”
During the summer he would stay a little longer just in case she would change her mind. It was no use.
“Don’t you dare abandon your blessing of light for my darkness.” Those were the last words the Moon was strong enough to speak to the Sun, The Sun could feel her peaceful soul and it soon became clear.
He would die each and every night to let his true love breathe, for it would put an end to all her misery,” Pandora finishes and I look at her.
“That’s beautiful, Pans, and I get it James is the sun and he has so much love to give that he would die for it but who’s supposed to be the moon?”
“Who do you think darling?”
“Lily?” I ask thinking back to how the moon rejected the sun. It would make sense.
“No, love,” Pandora smiled sadly.
“Then who?”
“You,” shes says it without a hint of question.
“Me?”
“Who else, my prince of darkness?”
My eyes feel suddenly heavy, as if they’ve been open for ages, thoughts full of the sun and James as I drift off to sleep, Pandoras fingers still running through my hair.