Grace was sat at the Hufflepuff table with her two friends: Dorcas and Cleo when the marauders showed up.
"Hello Gracie" James sat next to her wrapping his arm around her shoulders.
"James" She pushed his arm off, and greeted the other three boys standing at the edge of the table before making themselves comfortable on the benches. Sirius sat on the other side of Grace while Peter sat next to Cleo, and Remus next to Dorcas. "Do you have no one else to annoy?"
"Actually" Sirius butted in. "We are here to inform you of the party we're throwing tomorrow night. Since you are Prongs' sister we thought a personal invitation would be better."
"Okay then. How nice of you." Dorcas replied. "If you don't mind we are a bit busy here, so bug off."
"Ouch Meadows! You hurt my feelings" Sirius put his left hand on top of his heart while pouting, and pretending to wipe some tears.
"Don't mind him. He's a drama queen." Remus said looking at Cleo. "I'm Remus."
He held his hand out and she shook it, smiling.
"I'm James. You probably know me already." James' smirk was quickly wiped off as Grace elbowed him in the stomach. James put on a fake smile, mumbling an 'ouch', and rubbing the part she hit.
"Sirius Black, at your service" He leaned forward and kissed the back of her hand before looking into her eyes. "And you are?"
"Cleo Lexington." The blond smiled. "Nice to meet you"
"And I'm Peter" Hers and Peters eyes met as they smiled at one another politely.
"Dorcas" The slightly darker skinned girl said pointing to herself before pointing in front of her at her friend and saying, "Grace." She turned to look at each of the boys with an annoyed expression.
"Great!" Dorcas clapped her hands. "Now that we've got the introductions out of the way....scram"
"Yes ma'am" James saluted and got up - the others following suit and walking back to their table.
"They seem" Cleo paused looking for the right word without offending anyone. "nice"
"Trust me." Dorcas glared at the boys from her seat before turning back to her friend. "They're anything but"
The three girls talked and laughed for another 15 minutes before Dorcas excused herself and left to go see Marlene. Then 2 minutes after Cleo excused herself and went to class early leaving Grace alone.
She too decided to get up, but since she didn't have an early class she went and sat by the black lake behind Hogwarts. It was a secluded spot, so she was alone. It was peaceful. She stayed there reading till she had to get up to go to her class.
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"Where were you last night?" He interrogated.
"I didn't feel like coming" She replied.
"Right, so you decided to skip our study session because you didn't.....feel like it?" Regulus was shocked and angry.
She pretended to think for moment before replying, "yeah pretty much"
"You little-" He said but was interrupted by the sound of professor Slughorn's voice.
"No no go on. Finish the sentence." Grace smirked, happy seeing him get all riled up over the smallest things she did.
The younger Black rolled his eyes, and started to pay attention to the professor. He remained in a bad mood the rest of the day unlike Grace who was more than happy to remind him of just how annoying she could be.
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Again, no matter how hard she tried, Grace just couldn't fall asleep. Thanks to Lily and Remus she knew that there were perfects roaming the halls, so she had to be careful. As quitely as possible she got out of bed, grabbed a shawl, her slippers, her glasses, and was out the door in a matter of seconds. She wore her glasses and wrapped the dark green wool over her shirt and around her shoulders.
She walked around for a few minutes trying her best to avoid any teachers and perfects in the halls.
This would be so much easier if I had a map or something to know where everyone is at exactly what time, she thought.
Sighing she turned a corner but regretted it immediately as she bumped into something hard, almost falling before strong hands steadied her. Hesitantly, she looked up to be met with none other than Regulus Black staring at her in confusion.
Before the short, brown, girl could even muster a response they heard footsteps coming their way.
Regulus muttered a quite, "shit" before opening the first door he saw and pushing the girl inside before getting in himself.
Grace tried to control her heartbeat as she realized that they were in a broom closet.
"What the-" She tried to say, but was interrupted by a hand covering her mouth preventing any sound from being made.
Regulus leaned down a bit and whispered for her to be quite before removing his hand.
Her breath hitched and she was finding it very hard to breath at the moment. They were close, very close. Their bodies were practically squished against each other as her breathing became more uneven.
She looked up at him to see him already looking at her. She was scared that he was able to hear how fast her heart was beating with how close they were.
She wanted to say something. Anything. But she couldn't find the words. It was like she lost her voice, but she couldn't be bothered to find it again. She finally broke eye contact and just looked at him; observing every single detail on his face. His beautiful grey-blue eyes, his black hair that she always thought looked very fluffy as she wondered how it would feel between her fingers. The way his eyes would light up when he smiled, but this time he wasn't smiling.
Instead, it looked like he was taking her in too. She looked down, embarrassed that she was even looking at him in the first place, admiring him.
Grace immediately flinched when she heard Filch shout "come out", and moved closer to Regulus without even realising it. She pushed her glasses up but didn't move much other than that. She hadn't gotten a single detention ever since she came to Hogwarts, and she wasn't about to start getting them now.
She was scared that they would get caught, but at the same time she was thrilled as adrenaline rushed through her.
Regulus was trying his best to remain calm and control his heart rate. He could thank his mother for that. Thanks to her, he was able to keep his emotions in check; however, the one thing he couldn't control no matter how hard he tried: was how fast his heart was truly beating.
He was brought out of his trance when she moved closer to him, and that was when his heart started beating a million miles per minute. He started to feel hot as he watched her fix her glasses. He didn't know why he was feeling like this. He never felt this way around her - or anyone for the matter - before. So why now?
It was quite, but somehow it wasn't awkward for either of them, just different. It was a calm, comfortable silence but at the same time there was so much tension in between them that both of them couldn't even banter like they usually would. It was like they had both lost their voice.
When they finally heard the sound of footsteps receding they were brought back to reality and immediately looked at each other, locking eyes. Soft brown eyes meeting his grey-blue ones.
Even when the halls were clear, and they were free to go neither of them showed any sign that they wanted to leave. So they stood there still locking eyes embracing each others presence. This time Regulus was the one to break their staring contest as he glanced at her lips before looking into her eyes again. And she did the same.
Just as Regulus realised that they were leaning in and their lips were mere inches apart he looked down and to the side, clearing his throat.
"We should-" he tried to say, but his voice sounded hoarse, lightly clearing his throat again he continued, "we should go"
"We should" Grace whispered looking down and pursing her lips in disappointment. Yet she couldn't figure out why she was disappointed.
Even after he said that, again, neither of them made any move towards the door as they just stood there in the silence.
Grace ran a hand through her hair and held the door handle in between her hand, slightly shivering from the cold object. Looking back at him one last time she finally pulled the handle down, and pushed open the door. She let out a breath that she didn't know she was holding, and with shaky legs she slowly started walking away.
Regulus mentally face palmed himself. He shouldn't- he couldn't get close to anyone, especially not Grace Potter. No. He wasn't going to get close to anyone. He made a promise and he always kept his word.
His parents wanted him to get the dark mark once he goes back home at the end of his 5th year. He wouldn't allow himself to form any sort of relationship with anyone other than his closest friends. Especially not with the girl who he hated and bullied relentless their first four years.
He banged his fist on the wall where Gracie once stood not even a minute ago. He rested his forehead against the wall and stayed there for a minute before finally forcing himself to leave and go back to his dorm.
And yet even when he was in the comfort of his room he couldn't get Grace out of his head. He stayed up till five in morning before finally falling asleep with her still in his mind.
What he didn't know was that Grace also couldn't go back to sleep. No matter how hard she tossed and turned trying to get the Slytherin boy out of her head she couldn't. Eventually, she gave up finally falling asleep after replaying their little 'meeting' at least a thousand times over.