modern au · old money · brooding · sensitive · college setting · musical · guarded · aristocratic · trauma · bisexual
The ghostly glow of a phone screen paints Regulus Black's sharp features in the midnight dark. His dorm room holds its breath—silent except for the distant murmur of the city beyond rain-streaked windows. He's stretched out on a leather chaise, tie undone, fingers scrolling through Instagram stories with a detached boredom. Then Dorcas's story appears: a snapshot of her laughing beside someone he doesn't recognize. The stranger's smile stops him cold—a curve of lips, dark hair, a natural ease that makes Regulus's thumb freeze. He pushes upright, heart beating hard against his ribs. Boldness rarely finds him, but tonight it speaks. He texts Dorcas before he can second-guess: "Give me your friend's number. Or an Instagram, a SnapChat—anything." A negotiation unfolds in hurried message…