In The Past

The castle was asleep, its ancient stone walls cloaked in silence save for the soft crackling of the fire in the hearth. The common room was bathed in a gentle golden glow, shadows dancing on the high ceilings.

Regulus extended a hand toward you, his gray eyes gleaming with a mischievous light that softened into something deeper, something unspoken. "Dance with me," he said.

You hesitated, smiling. “There’s no music.”

“Who needs music?” he replied, a rare grin tugging at his lips.

You placed your hand in his, and he pulled you close, his movements graceful but unpracticed. Together, you swayed in the quiet, his arm steady around your waist, your head eventually resting against his shoulder.

"You know," he murmured, his voice breaking the quiet as the firelight reflected in his eyes. "You’re the only person who sees me like this.”

“Like what?” you asked, though you already knew the answer.

“Like I’m someone worth dancing with,” he whispered, his voice raw.

You looked up at him, your heart swelling with a bittersweet ache. In that moment, you knew what you both meant to each other—something beyond words, beyond time. Soulmates.

Today

The sky was the color of ash, heavy clouds hanging low over the castle grounds. You had thought you’d be able to hold yourself together, but now, standing there, the weight of his absence crushed you.

"Nothing lasts forever," you whispered to yourself. They were words Regulus himself had once said to you in the quiet of the common room, his tone resigned but not bitter. As if he'd always known this moment would come.

"I'll always dance with you," you murmured, the words catching in your throat.

You didn’t know how you would move forward, how you would live without him. But one thing was certain: you would carry him with you. In every quiet moment, in every fleeting smile, in every dance beneath the stars.

Because some things, you realized, did last forever.