When Grace woke up she found herself in her own dorm, without Regulus by her side and her clothes still a mess. She found all her things on her bed side table along with an origami crane with a beautiful yellow tulip on top.
She put on her glasses and picked up the paper crane, opening it, so she could read the cursive writing of the younger Black. She knew that he wrote a note on the inside but made a crane out of it.
Sorry, love. I had to sneak you into your dorm because Evan and Barty were going to be back soon. And all your things are there, don't worry.
See you in detention. It's at 10, try not be late this time, and I hope you like the crane.
- R.A.B
Grace smiled and re-folded the origami back to how it was setting it back down, and picking up the flower to smell it. She checked the time: 4:37pm. She still had time, so she got up and took a shower and freshened up.
She would've gone to one of her friends but Dorcas and Marlene were on a date, Alice was out with Frank, Cleo was hanging out with Peter as they had gotten quite close since she introduced them. Lily was most probably with Remus in the library studying, and she didn't feel like hanging out with the other boys right now.
She was, however, very happy when she heard that Sirius and Remus reconciled but Remus was definitely giving Sirius a hard time.
So, instead, she decided to clean up the dorm a bit. She put on the records she got from Remus and started cleaning and dancing once 'Starman' by David Bowie started playing.
After around 45 minutes she was finally done. She dug through her trunk and took out a small box and kept the paper crane in there. The she acciod a vase with some water in it keeping the tulip inside before getting ready for detention with Regulus - even though it was early she didn't feel like changing later.
She walked out and, yet again, noticed people giving her wierd looks and eyeing her like she did something wrong. She decided to ignore them and decided to turn back to head to the kitchens for a snack.
However, the minute she turned around to go there she bumped into someone and would've fallen if not for the arms that had caught her. Sadly, her glasses fell and the same person that caught her also stepped on them completely shattered the frame.
She wanted to slap the person who did that, but as soon as she looked it was James - her brother. So she decided to do just that, and slapped him.
"You broke my glasses" She said. "I'm pretty much half blind without them."
"Oh please, you're blind eve-" He stopped mid way, and before Grace got to ask why he pointed at her neck. "Is that what I think it is?"
His eyes were as wide as saucers as he continued to stare. She looked down a bit and saw a faint blurred purple bruise right on her neck.
She immediately turned red, and racked her brain to get out of this situation with her brother - who most likely would both kill her and Regulus if he found out that it was them.
"Um-" She didn't get the chance to continue before James had picked up her broken glasses and dragged her to an empty classroom by her arm. "okay, ouch, you can let go now"
Typically he ignored her until the door to the classroom was closed. He muttered 'repairo' to fix her glasses, handed them to her, and then started to interrogate her as if he was a cop and she was his first suspect for a huge case.
"Who did that to you? Is that actually a hickey? Grace, I swear to Merlin if you don't tell me right now who did that I WILL find out and then I'm going to kill that boy" He started pacing in front of her.
"Who said it was a boy?" She asked.
"Wait what?" He looked up so fast it was almost funny. "Wa- was it Lily? Ugh I knew you guys were doing something behind my back but this-"
This time Grace was the one to interrupt him. "What? No it's not Lily! I was joking" She started to laugh, but stopped short when she noticed the look on his face. The poor boy looked like he was about to cry.
"Okay I'm sorry that wasn't funny" Grace said. "I promise nothing is going on with Lily and she's completely single."
"Oh thank Merlin" James let out a breath of relief wiping the tears and pretending that he wasn't just about to cry.
"Now if you'll escuse me I have detention with Regulus, and I can't be late." She said trying to reach the door without being stopped which did not work well for her.
"Oh no. Nuh uh. Not till you tell me who it was!" He then went on a rant of all the boys that could've done it and how would make their lives at Hogwarts miserable with the amount of pranks he would pull on them for touching his baby sister.
"I'm not a baby" She mumbled. "And he wasn't bad, if anything Re-" She immediately stopped herself when she realised that she almost said his name.
Oh fuck. Now he knows.
"Wait a minute. Was it Regulus? Regulus Black? Sirius' younger brother? The one you SWORE that you hate?" This time he was really angry, as if was very clear on his face.
"Grace you can't be serious!" He shouted this time. "Him? Him? Out of all the people in this huge school?"
Grace tried to stop the tears. If there was one thing she hated it was her family being disappointed in her. She couldn't bear it. She couldn't bear to see the look in their eyes because even if they didn't actually say it she could practically see the dissapointment in their eyes, and that hurt her beyond compare.
When the tears finally started to fall, and James noticed, he tried to apologise but he just couldn't. He was too sad and disappointed in his sister. So, without another word she left, and headed straight for detention keeping her head down to prevent anyone from seeing her red eyes.
When she got to Slughorn's classroom she still had her head down and just walked in sitting on one of the chairs.
Regulus noticed her immediately, and saw the way she was acting. It was strange. The only time he saw her like that was when someone shouted at her or when he almost drowned her by pushing her in the black lake because he thought that she could swim. She didn't. But apparently she had learned to face her fears and learned how to swim.
Oh how he regretted those first few years. He couldn't even think about those years without getting mad at himself. So, as soon as Slughorn was done giving them their punishment and left he got up and sat next to her.
"You okay?" He asked, and when she didn't answer he continued. "Look I know we're not exactly friends or well- I'm not entirely sure what we are but we did shag so is that a good enough reason for you to tell me?"
She let out a small laugh before sniffing and running both her hands through hair hair as she held her head in her hands. As gently as possible - and with slightly shaky hands - he slowly moved her hands and made her look at him.
He couldn't figure out why, but the look on her face broke him. It physically hurt him to see his amór hurt and crying over something.
"Hey it's okay" He let go of her hands and kissed her forehead as he held her. "You don't have to tell me right away. Just try to relax okay, mi amór?"
She nodded then after a few minutes she stopped crying and got her breathing under control. Once she fully relaxed she buried her head deeper into his chest.
"I'm sorry" She whispered.
"Hey, how come you're always apologising for shit? You did nothing wrong and yet here you are apologising like you did somethjng wrong." He said looking down at her seeing her still cuddled into his chest.
"Right sorry- I mean I'll try not to do it again." She replied in a slightly better mood.
"That's it mi amór" He rubbed her back before moving her back just enough to get a clear view of her face.
"What if" Grace hesitated at first, but then decided to go through with it because why not. "What if we became friends? Or at least tried to be I mean? It's not like you have to agree, we could definitely just stay how we are, but I was just thinking-"
Her ranting was cut off when she felt a pair of familiar soft lips on hers as her tense form started to relax just as she melted into the kiss.
"Yeah" Regulus broke the kiss but still held her face in his hands as he rested their foreheads together. "I wouldn't mind. Plus, this would give me a chance to make up for all the shit I pulled back then."
She laughed, and all Regulus wanted was to hear that laugh again, but he wanted to be the one to make her laugh. He wanted to be the reason that she wore a smile on her face. A real one. Not the fake one that she always put on to stop people from worrying about her. Not the one she puts on every morning to make it seem like she has the 'perfect' life.
There is no 'perfect'. It doesn't matter what kind of home you come from. Whether you're rich, poor, well cultured, have caring parents, have abusive parents. It doesn't matter, because everyone is broken in some way. And just because someone was brought up in a well bred and healthy environment doesn't mean that they weren't at least a little bit broken on the inside. Even if they didn't show it. Especially if they didn't show it.
No one's life is perfect. Not everything is as it seems, and both the young teenagers had learned that fact a long time ago. Each of them broken in their own way.