#drumstrang

She sat next to Regulus as you watched the older pureblood couples dance and talk. She didn’t know why she had to be at this function, there were no other kids her age but Regulus, and he didn’t seem to be having a good time either. She could feel the tight material of her dress poking her skin and she reached a hand to her arm where the dress was clinging, hoping to pull it a bit, so it would release its tight hold. The words of her mother echoed in her ears, “Leave that dress alone, and stop fussing.” 

Her hands fell back to her lap, but she couldn’t help but shuffle in her seat. The older kids were talking about their schools. She could see Bellatrix, Narcissa, Lucius, Crabbe, Corban, Antonin, Amycus and Alecto, and of course, her older brother, Avery. They were all from either Hogwarts or Drumstrang, being ten meant that she listened intently to the fascinating stories about the teachers, the houses and the curriculum. Her whole family’s been sorted to Slytherin her whole life and so, she listens to them as they talk about the amazing house of emerald green and silver. 

“Where’s that cousin of yours?” Her brother asks Bellatrix, and she turns around to scan the room, notices Narcissa then answers, “You mean that filthy red blood traitor? He’s no family of mine.” 

Narcissa places a hand on her sister’s shoulder and says in a soft voice, “Now, Bella, he could still do great things, we all know that the sorting hat makes mistakes.” 

Bellatrix only scoffs, and then Lucius supports his almost finance, “It does make mistakes we all know it was created by that awful Godric Gryffindor, and all gryffindor’s are idiots, we must assume that he was the origin of that idiocy.” 

There were a few laughs from the rest of the group, and Y/N furrowed her eyebrows in confusion as she leaned to her side, closer to Regulus and asked, “Why are they calling Sirius a blood traitor?” 

Regulus re-focuses away from the group, and looks at her to whisper, “Sirius was sorted into Gryffindor and not Slytherin.” He explained, simply, but she still didn’t understand. She asked another question, “What’s so wrong about Gryffindor?” 

“It’s not Slytherin.” Regulus replied, and she pursed her lips as she leaned back into her chair. She scans the room again and looks around at all the people there, laughing, drinking and talking. She didn’t want to do any of those things, and so her eyes found the clock, 7:30, it read. She slumped back down further as she let out an annoyed huff, still a long way to go till the end of the night. 

A loud shout was heard and for a split second the whole room went quiet till it erupted once again into loud chatter. She looked at the stairs where Walburga Black walked down, she paused near the end of the staircase, brushed a strand of her hair out of her face, puffed her chest out and plastered a wide smile. She walked towards the groups of people huddled together, no doubt either talking about the Dark Lord or the ministry. 

A few seconds after that, sirius wobled down the stairs with his arms folded in front of his chest. His expression screamed, ‘not amused’, and he had his eyebrows knitted together. He walked down a few more steps then saw her and Regulus sitting together. He looked at the group of older kids, then decided he wanted to be with them, or at least she assumed so, since he started walking towards her. 

He pulled out a chair loudly, and it screeched against the marble floors, causing a few near-by adults to grimace at the sight of him. He huffed down on the chair and sagged against it, his hair - that was longer than the last time she saw it- cascaded over his face and he blew it away with a huff. She was about to say hello, when she was forced to straighten up by two strong hands on her shoulders. Her face fell into a frown as she noticed the way her mother fixed her posture and leaned down to whisper, “A lady never sits with an arched back, and especially not in front of guests.” 

“Now…smile.” Her mother ordered and she tried to force a grin to her face. Her mother gave her a satisfied look and then walked back to her dad where she placed her hand on his forearm and smiled at the others. The smile fell off her face as soon as she was out of her mother’s sight, and she felt Regulus pat her shoulder sympathetically. 

“Getting used to your future life, now, are we?” Sirius said with a teasing smile on his face. He pushed his arms back, behind his neck where he could unclip his bow tie then slam it on the table. He rubbed his neck and sighed gratefully as if the bowtie was choking him. She both warned and advised, “You should wear that or your mother will have your head.” 

“My mother will try to have my head either way, so it doesn’t matter, and besides worry about Regulus over here, he isn’t wearing one, and you wouldn’t like to have a husband with no head now, would you?” Sirius said in an arrogant tone, as he then smirked when she blushed at the word husband. She looked to her side to make sure that Regulus wasn’t wearing a bowtie, and he was not. She turned to Sirius, “Regulus wasn’t instructed to wear one, unlike you.” 

“And we’re not married yet.” Regulus says in a shy voice, his cheeks also coated in pink. The reminder caused her cheeks to also turn pink, and she leaned back into her chair, then she fixed her posture quickly as if she was burned. Sirius darts an eye over both of them, noticing her expression then he says, “But that’s the thing, dear brother…yet.” 

Their attention gets stolen by the sound of someone tapping their less than half full glass with a spoon. The sharp noise causes the chatter to die down, and people turn their gaze to the source of the sound. From one corner of the room, her mother and father stood up, with their arms hooked and their faces smiley. Her father started, “We have an announcement to make.” 

“Our son, Avery will transfer to Drumstrang due to their interest in the dark arts which will help our son in the near future when becoming a death eater.” Her father continued, and she furrowed her eyebrows in confusion, she didn’t know anything about that. Regulus leaned closer to her with a similar expression and asked, “Did you know anything about this?” 

She shook her head then hushed him, softly, so she could hear the rest of the announcement. Her mother explained, “We will be moving to the far north of Europe where Avery could easily attend Drumstrang.” 

A few happy noises were heard from the crowd happy with the news while y/n’s eyes widened as she tried to take in the news. Regulus seemed to be struggling as well, so he took her hand in his and squeezed it tightly. He was thinking that maybe that would ground her. Her mother opened her mouth to continue her speech when she was bombarded by several questions about the news. She sat back down along with y/n’s father and they answered all questions with a delighted smile. 

Y/n was shocked to hear the news, and she wondered if she would be attending Drumstrang as well. She was only ten, and so she might be going there next year, but that would mean moving, moving away from Regulus, and that was a thing she didn’t want to do. Regulus’ grip on her hand didn’t falter which showed her that he didn’t want the same thing. Sirius’ expression was plank, it showed nothing about how he was feeling. She ignored him, but a part of her felt sad that he didn’t care at all about the fact that she was leaving. 

“You’ll write to me?” Regulus asked in a small voice and she turned to him quickly, she couldn’t believe that he ever doubted that she wouldn’t keep contact. She took his other hand in hers and she reassured him, “Of course, I will! Every day if I can.” 

They embraced tightly and she moved her head to the side, to see that Sirius had left the table. He really didn’t care at all. She ignored how she felt and hugged Regulus tighter. She could feel her eyes brimming with tears and they started to sting. She blinked them back, hoping that it wouldn’t ruin her makeup that her mother put on for her to hide her imperfections. 

Someone cleared their throat from beside them and they broke away to look at who it was. Her mother was standing with her hands on her hips, her mother always exudes confidence, and she was envious that she didn’t have that. Her mother had a slight grin on her face, and she said, “You’ll have time for that later, come.” 

Her mother didn’t give her a chance to say anything before she twirled around, the elegant dress following behind her and walked away. Y/N shuffled quickly to stand up, and she moved around her chair to try to follow her mother, from the corner of her eye she saw Regulus bring a hand to his eye. He cared and that’s what mattered, she thought as she noticed Sirius sitting back down at the table, already starting to tease his brother. 

Her mother stepped into a small corner far enough from anyone who could overhear, and she waited for her daughter. She looked at Y/n sternly when she hadn’t caught up and she frowned. Y/n moved quickly to a jog as she reached her mother. Her mother’s frown didn’t move as she whispered heatedly, “Ladies don’t run.” 

Y/n’s face fell to the floor and her face sank more, if possible. Her mother leaned down, so she could speak and no one would hear them. She started, “Listen to me, and focus. The Blacks have been kind enough to let you stay with them, and so you will be a near angel when it comes to repaying them. You will help with the chores and you will do as they say. You will show your interest in the young boy and ignore the heir, we wouldn’t want any of his ideas getting into your head. Don’t embarrass us.” 

“I’m staying here?” she asked, hopefully, eyes wide. Her mother rolls her eyes and pulls her in by her shoulders, tightly. Her mother continues, “Yes you will, and you will attend Hogwarts, Slythein of course, and you will be successful, I’ve already asked that the Narcissa keep an eye on you.” 

She nodded her head quickly, and her mother then released her, going back to her full height. Her mother takes in a deep breath and then straightens out her wrinkle free dress, walking back to the centre of the party. Y/n waits till her mother is far away and then she starts running to her table. She notices a few older ladies looking at her, and she immediately slows down her pace, reminding herself that ladies don’t run. 

She walked quickly, trying to keep the excitement at bay while she sat down at her chair quickly, not even making sure that her dress was straight. Regulus watched her bright smile with confusion until she said, “I’m not moving, I’ll be staying with you!” 

“And you’ll be going to Hogwarts?” he asks and when she nods, he beams beside her. He barely gets the chance to open his arms before she nearly throws herself on him, wrapping her arms around his torso. She giggles lightly, and then sits back down. She hears, “That’s good news.” 

She realised that Sirius said that and she pursed her lips and ignored him. He didn’t care in the slightest that she was leaving, why would it be good news to him? She turned back to look at Regulus and he said, “There’s an empty room in front of mine, maybe that’ll be yours.” 

“Maybe!” she said, excitedly. She couldn’t wait to spend all of her time with her best friend, and they could play games and have fun together. She wouldn’t have to wait till her parents prepare a sleepover once every few months, everyday will be a sleepover. Regulus asked, “Do you know when you’re moving in?” 

“I don’t know.” 

***

“Oi! Y/n” Someone from behind her whispered, a voice she knew all too well. She pulled the potions book closer to her chest, and started to move a bit faster. She could hear his footsteps pick up and she started to jog, but damn him and his long legs, reaching her in a second. He placed a hand on her shoulder and spun her around. She sighs, “What do you want Sirius? I have to get to class.” 

“Slughorn wouldn’t mind if you were a few minutes late.” He said and the rest of his group trailed after him. She rolled her eyes, and shoved his hand away. She said, pointedly, “He wouldn’t, but I would.” 

“Come on, darling. I just need-” He starts, but she said, quickly, “Let me guess, you just want my help, but I am not going to give it to you, and I’m not your darling, see whatever girl you’ve got stuck to your side this week, and call her darling, not me.” 

“What if I want you to be my babe for the week?” he said with a flirty grin on her face as he leaned closer to her face. She ignored the fluttery feeling in her stomach as she put on a grimace. She lifted her pointer finger at him and stuck it to his chest. She seethed, “Then I would tell you that Potter’s been made headboy because that’s as likely as me being your babe.” 

She could see Potter lift an offended hand to his chest, in feigned hurt, but Lupin smacked him on the head which then got them both to start bickering. She rolled her eyes at their childish behaviour. He grabbed her wrist that had the finger that was glued to his chest. He leaned in closer, too close for her to feel calm, hoping that he wouldn’t see the pink tint on her cheeks. He whispered, “I think you’d love it, but the only way you’re going to get it is by telling me the password for the snakes’ common room.” 

“Watch it. And you must’ve hit your head hard, if you think I’m going to give you anything.” She hisses at him, and he becomes less amused. His expression became humourless, but there were still bits of mirth in his eyes. He whispers, “You have to start being nice again because…” 

He moves a hand towards her hair, and twirls bits of it around his finger. “Your hair’s been looking intact lately, it’s been a while since I’ve pulled it, huh?” 

She scrunches her face in anger, and she takes a step away from him. She grips her book tighter and says, “You should know that your silly little threats have become futile. I don’t care if you pull my hair, steal my fries or make fun of the way I talk or walk. You don’t affect me.” 

“Pads! Just give it up. We have to mess with Filch, he's close.” Potter says from behind them and Sirius doesn’t take his eyes off of her. He waits for a second then he moves back to the ‘marauders’, and finally leaves her alone, but not before looking back to take a second glance at her. 

She turns back to her original direction and moves to her class, hoping that Slughorn hadn’t already explained much yet. 

***

“You’ll find someone.” Regulus reassures her as they sit in the library, going over their charms notes for their exam in a few days. She huffs and flips one of the pages of her book angrily. She dips her quill in ink for the fifth time in the past two minutes. She writes an answer to one question from the practice exams book that she found, then she places her quill back down again, the excess ink already dripping down on the table. 

“I just don’t understand how everyone already has a date, but me? Slughorn’s party is in a week, I can’t go alone, I’ll be bored, miserable and humiliated. You just had to say yes to Pandora.” She says, exasperated. Regulus rolls his eyes and gets ready to answer to the same words for the millionth time, “I said yes because she needed to make Lovegood jealous.” 

“You could’ve given me a two weeks’ notice.” she huffs with her arms folded in front of her chest. She leans on the table, and she says, “We’ve always gone to Slughorn’s dinners together, what am I going to do now?” 

“You could always ask someone.” Regulus says, in a know-it-all tone and it makes her roll her eyes. He presses his quill to some parchment and writes a definition of something. She replies, “Regulus, you should know by now that the first half of Hogwarts finds me repulsive because of my house or my family, and the other half think I’m off limits because of you. No one I would ask would say yes.” 

“Except for one…” Regulus says reluctantly as his eyes fixate on something behind her, and she turns around to see what he’s talking about. Her face falls when she sees what he’s seeing, Lupin reading and revising while Potter plays with a snitch he owns and Pettigrew and Sirius playing a game of exploding snap. She plays dumb, “Potter’s already too obsessed with Evans to go out with me.” 

“Not that one, idiot.” Regulus replies while rolling his eyes. She purses her lips and tilts her head to the side with an innocent expression on her face, if there’s one thing that annoys Regulus it’s when people are being moronic. She hums, “Who else then? Pettigrew is too short for my liking, and Lupin is gorgeous, but-” 

“Sirius!” he nearly screams, “If you asked Sirius, he’d say yes.” He sinks in his chair when a few annoyed gazes fall on him, as people note the now disturbed silence. He gulps and he continues to write down his notes, avoiding everyone’s gaze. She leans in closer to him and whispers, “He wouldn’t say yes, Sirius hates me with every fibre of his being-” 

“Only because he thinks you do.” Regulus says and then continues writing as something from behind her causes him to stop. She furrowed her eyebrows at his answer, and before she had a chance to continue. Sirius says, “You called.” 

“Actually we didn’t.” She turns and replies, quickly. He folds his hands over his chest, and he pulls a chair from beside her, much to her dismay. She groans when he sits down, and puts her head in her hands. He says, “I’m pretty sure I heard my name.” 

“Well, you heard wrong.” she replies, hoping that it would shut him down, lifting her head momentarily from her palms. He cocks his head to the side and he says, “That doesn’t matter, now. A little birdie told me that you don’t have a date for this weekend.” 

“Who told you that?” she snaps, lifting her head to look at him. He smirks, glad to have her attention. Sirius intertwined his fingers together and brought them dramatically on his lap. He shrugs his shoulders and says, “That doesn’t matter, what matters is what you’re going to do about it.” 

“That’s none of your business.” She says, with a flush on her cheeks, she didn’t want him to know about her misfortune when it comes to dates. She could see Regulus watching the interaction, carefully, she hated how Sirius didn’t acknowledge him. Sirius interrupts her train of thought, “I think it is, since I happen to be available this weekend.” 

“Why would that matter?” she says, ignoring his hints. He grins, amused, it frustrates her to no end. He leans in closer to her and he says, “Because if you were to ask me, the probability of me saying no is very slim.” 

“Now, why would I want to go with you?” she says, ignoring the pleasant feeling in her chest at what Sirius was hinting at. He purses his lips and the words fly out of his mouth before he registers them, “Because no one would want to go with you.” 

A sharp pain flies through her chest as she sucks in a deep breath and she grabs her books haphazardly. She shoves some in her arms and the other in her bag. She swings her bag over her shoulder, and looks at Regulus, “I’ll see you later-” 

She turns around and leaves the library. She ignores the way she feels her eyes stinging a bit at Sirius’ words. 

***

The dinner was boring…as always. However, it was even more boring without having Regulus beside her while they commented on everything that was being said around them. She would’ve not gone in the first place, but Narcissa would’ve told her mother about her failing to do her duties and a howler was something she didn’t want. 

Goyle was beside her shoving some type of food she didn’t care about down his throat. Sirius was wrong about what he said, there was someone that would go with her, unfortunately, that someone was Goyle. She resisted to grimace as she acknowledged his obvious lack in table manners. Regulus was seated at the other side of the table, on his right was Pandora and right in front of them was Lovegood and some Hufflepuff girl that she didn’t know.

Slughorn asked Goyle about something related to his parents while she tried to ignore who was only a few feet away from her. Sirius and an older Ravenclaw girl who was his flavour of the week. She really tried not to be bothered by their presence, but it was hard while hearing her incessant giggling as he whispered in her ear. Y/n rolled her eyes every time her giggles would get louder. Occasionally, she could see Sirius press a few kisses on the girl’s neck and the way she would blush every time as if she hadn't already shagged him. 

They were disturbing the otherwise calm and professional atmosphere. She didn’t even want to be here, and when Goyle slurped on some snail’s juice beside her, she decided it was time to go. She stood up, abruptly and the chatter died down around her as all eyes turned to her. She flushed under the attention, and turned to Slughorn to say, “I apologise, Professor, but I’ll have to cut my stay short.”  

“Completely fine. Are you well, my dear?” Slughorn asked, and she noticed that the giggling finally stopped. She resisted the urge to sigh from relief. She nodded her head with a small smile, “Yes, excuse me.” 

She moved out of her chair, and walked out of the room, finally feeling calm when the door shut behind her. She slumped against the wall, then wobbled to the window seat that was opposite to her, ignoring the pain from her heels. She sat down and pressed a hand to her face as she tried to get rid of the memories of her horrible night. “You didn’t stay for the dance.” 

She didn't have to lift her face out of her hands to know who it was, she sighed, “I didn’t want to stay for the dance.” She plucks her heels off of her feet and sighs in relief. She didn’t know what made him sit down beside her, but something did. She wasn’t in the mood for his antics and so she turned to rest the side of her head on her hands while she said, “Don’t you have that Ravenclaw waiting for you inside?” 

“She can fare well without me for a few minutes.” Sirius said, and he shuffled closer to her, prompting her to move to stick to the wall beside her to remain far from him. She didn’t say a word as she tried to suppress the noise of Goyle’s munching that had engraved itself inside her brain without her permission. Sirius whispered, “I didn’t mean what I said…at the library.” 

She didn’t say anything, but she looked away from him. She toyed with her fingers on her lap, and bit her lip. Sirius took this as a sign to keep talking, “It was out of line, and I’m sure that many-uh many people would love to go with you.” 

She gulps and Sirius stands after a sigh, and he says, “I don’t know what I was expecting you to say, you hate me anyways.” He starts to retreat back to the room when her voice stops him, “It’s because you hate Regulus.” 

“He called me a blood traitor.” Sirius says as if it were obvious and turns to look at her. She stood up and said softly, “Lucius was standing.” 

“He could’ve not done that, he could’ve stood up for himself.” Sirius said, and she pursed her lips, both the Black boys were hopeless in their own ways. Neither of them could admit that they missed each other. She bent down to grab her heels, and then she replied, “Not all of us are Gryffindors, Sirius.” 

***

She had been drenched in water from head to toe. Her hair was completely wet and her robes were soaked along with her. Her Transfiguration book was ruined and her socks were soggy. She was already late for her lesson, and now she wouldn’t even be able to go. She knew just who was behind this. She screamed, “Sirius!” 

From behind one of the pillars, Sirius and James stood with shocked expressions on their faces. The prank had backfired, it was supposed to be for any other Slytherin, they didn’t expect her to be the Slytherin who would fall victim to their prank. James patted Sirius back and rushed off down the hallway. Sirius shouted, “Traitor.” 

He walked from around the pillar and he was in her line of sight. She rushed towards him as soon as he appeared and she stood a few feet away as she shouted, “You idiot! You ruined my book and my clothes and now I’m never going to get to my lesson.” 

“It wasn’t meant for you-” 

“You’re lying. You’ve always hated me and wanted to annoy me any chance given. You knew that I would be the one to come out.” She screamed as she brushed a wet lock of hair out of her face. He held both his hands up in surrender as he said, “It really wasn’t-” 

“Why the hell do you hate me?” she shouted as she took a step closer to him, grimacing at the scrunch that her shoes made as she moved. She poked his chest with his finger as she continued, “Ever since we were kids, you teased me, you made fun of me-” 

“I-” 

“You annoyed me and you pull my hair and you always steal my stuff back at the house-” she continued, “You turned my room upside down and you hate me.”

“Would you just-” 

“Why do you hate me? I was so kind to you, and you were only ever mean to me. Why do you hate me, Sirius? What thing about me infuriates you so much that you hate me and make my life miserable?” She rambles on while he tries to get a word in. 

“Stop!” he shouts and it makes her mouth shut. He keeps talking, angry, “Would I hate you if I made sure that every prank I’ve ever made never touched you? Would I hate you if I always tried to go to every one of stupid Slughorn’s dinners just to see you in a pretty dress? Would I hate you if I’m the one who convinced my parents to let you stay with us? If I hated you, do you think I would still be hurt every time I remember how you’re engaged to my brother and not to me-” 

Sirius didn’t get to keep talking as she cupped his face and kissed him. Sirius’ face comforts into shock before he melts into her touch. He places his hands on her drenched waist, and pulls her closer to him. The action makes the pre-existing butterflies in her stomach erupt. His taste was addictive to her and she couldn’t help but keep kissing him until the air ran out of her lungs. 

She parted their lips with her chest heaving and her heart beating wildly. She noticed how one of her hands fell against his chest and she could feel his heart doing the same. She looks up at Sirius to find his face expressionless. His body stings her and she brings her hands back to her body. She rambled, “I’m sorry- I shouldn’t have-” 

He crashed his lips to hers again and it took the breath out of her lungs. She finally understood why there were always so many girls wanting to be with Sirius even if just for a few days. He was absolutely intoxicating and a wonderful kisser. She brought her hands around his neck and pulled him closer to her. His hands slipped down to her hips and it made her heart jump up to her throat.