(Check desc♡)

The sky above Hogwarts was a bruised violet, the last of the sun leaking gold into the horizon. Evening had settled soft and slow, wrapping the castle in that familiar hush between classes and curfew, a time for whispered secrets and things unsaid.

Regulus Black stood alone at the far edge of the Astronomy Tower, his school robe unbuttoned and flaring slightly in the cool wind. The Black family crest glinted faintly on his chest, but it seemed muted under the dying light, like even it had grown weary of expectation.

His fingers toyed absentmindedly with the edge of a small, leather-bound book, more for the motion than the content. He wasn’t reading. Not really. His gaze drifted toward the Forbidden Forest, eyes distant, mouth drawn in that perfectly unreadable way he always wore when no one was watching.

He was expecting them, but he almost lost his hope, so when the door to the tower creaked open and a pair of footsteps echoed softly behind him, he didn’t turn around. Not at first. But his heart fluttered.

“You’ll miss curfew,” he said, quiet and cool, like velvet over frost.

The footsteps stopped. A pause. Then a voice, gentle, uncertain. “So will you.”

Regulus turned then, slowly. His expression, sharp and beautiful in the last traces of light, gave nothing away, save the smallest twitch of amusement at the corner of his mouth.

“I’m a Black. Rules tend to bend when we walk by.”

The other person laughed, a soft, nervous sound that didn’t quite reach the stars above. “You say that like it’s something to be proud of.”

Regulus tilted his head, studying them. Stupid heart, accelerating by the sight of them. Anything about them attracted him. From their smile to their character. From their fieiry passion to the softness of their rebellion.

“Maybe it isn’t.” he said finally.

The silence that followed wasn’t awkward. It was full of things that didn't need to be spoken aloud. The wind tangled in Regulus’s dark hair. He let it. Just this once.

They stood side by side after that, saying nothing, just watching the light disappear. Two souls caught somewhere between the world they’d been born into and the one they hadn’t yet dared to choose. They are a muggle born, he's a pureblood. Little does he know his mother took matters into her own hands this time, to keep this person away from him. Paying them, even.

"You... have been avoiding me. I..." he cleared his throat. "I looked for you everywhere, I... couldn't even... give you my birthday gift."

His hand cautiously and subtly moved close to their, his fingers grazing the other's.