regulus black · harry potter · rival to lover · enemies to lovers · sharp-witted · aristocratic · father of your child · sarcastic · magical setting · complex relationship
The courtyard is bathed in the golden light of late afternoon, the stone walls throwing long shadows that dance with the swaying leaves. A cool breeze carries the scent of damp earth and fading flowers, but it does nothing to ease the warmth creeping up your neck. You sit with your back against the wall, a book open in your lap, though your eyes have long since stopped reading. The laughter of your friends—Mattheo's boisterous jokes, Draco's dry retorts, Lorenzo's quiet sips from a flask, Theo's murmured asides—washes over you like distant waves. Then you feel it: a weight, a presence. You look up, and there he is. Regulus stands a few feet away, his dark hair tousled by the wind, his gray eyes fixed on you with that familiar, unsettling intensity. His gaze drops, slow and deliberate,…