pairing : regulus x petunia word count : ~3.1k prompt : summer fling for : the anon who requested it and @petuniaevans who i know loves this pair
she didn’t know. of course she didn’t know. she wouldn’t let herself know.
here was this perfectly polite and handsome boy, this funny and intelligent and charming boy and he was interested in her.
she should have known.
the summer of her sixteenth year was hotter than usual. the clouds had all ran away and left the sun free to cook the streets of cokeworth. just like lily had ran away to spend the summer with her school friends and left her there all alone.
her sundress stuck to her back as the tall grass bit at her chins. she wiped the sweat from her forehead with the back of her wrist and pushed her hair off of her face. the lake seemed closer last year. had she come to the right spot? just as she was starting to think she’d made a mistake, she crested the hill and saw her glistening salvation.
the air was hot but the water was cool. the sun hit her face as she floated along on her back, the rest of the world slowly fading out of existence. the water lapped at her chin and birds called out overhead. it was so peaceful that she almost forgot how unfair her life was.
“watch out!”
she almost forgot how sad her life was.
“hey! girl!”
she almost forgot how horrible her life was.
“STOP!”
she startled, breaking the water tension and taking in a gulp of water. upright and treading in the water, she looked around to find a dark haired boy waving frantically at her. he pointed to her left; she was a meter away from his fishing line. she sighed and wiped the water from her face.
“it’s too hot to fish!” she called. he fiddled with what she now saw was a very expensive looking rod, struggling to reel his line in.
“what?”
she rolled her eyes and swam in towards him. “it’s too hot to fish,” she repeated when she was at the bank. she pulled herself up but stayed sitting on the bank, keeping her distance.
“maybe that’s why i haven’t caught anything.” his accent was too polished.
“what are you using for bait,” she asked, looking around and seeing no tackle box or anything that could be holding bait.
“that might be another reason.” with his bait-less line finally out of the water he set rod down.
“haven’t you ever even fished before?” she scoffed.
his face fell for a moment before he shrugged. “no, but it looked like fun. have you ever fished?” she nodded but didn’t say anything. there was a silence between them before he stretched a leg out and dug around in his pockets. “do you want a peppermint?” he asked, holding a hand out to show three wrapped candies in his palm.
she shrugged. “sure.”
he stood and walked over to her, then sat down beside her, careful to leave a generous gap between them, then handed her a sweet. she pulled her legs into her chest and hugged them, resting her chin on her knees and unwrapping the peppermint in front of her legs.
“i’m regulus,” he finally said, the candy affecting his words. her face scrunched.
“that’s a funny name,” she said before thinking. she flinched. it was a mean thing to say. she’d found that lately everything she’d say would be mean, and she didn’t know how to stop herself.
but regulus just laughed. “yeah, i guess. but it’s a family name.”
she looked at him, really looked at him. she took in his odd clothes and his posture and his nails, his new rod with zero experience, his odd and stuffy family name. “you’re not from around here, are you?”
a big smile spread across his face and his bit his lip. she knew then she was in trouble. “it’s that obvious, huh?”
she had to leave, and she had to leave now. she’d only end up embarrassing herself if she stayed any longer. she’d only end up hurt. she pushed herself up with her hands and then wiped them together to clear them of dirt. “maybe next time you should leave the fancy loafers at home, regulus.”
he jumped up as she walked into the water and shoved off from the bank. “where are you going? you didn’t tell me your name! wait!”
“petunia!” she called, unable to help herself. she swam backwards, farther away from him. “it’s petunia!”
“i’ll be here tomorrow petunia! right here, right at this time!”
she took a breath and dived, turning around under the water and swimming away as fast as she could. when she came up for air he was a small dark blob against the green grass of the bank, standing there with his had shading his eyes, watching her swim away.
she should have known.
it had been a week of meeting almost everyday, right there by the lake. most days they just swam around, racing each other, splashing each other, seeing how long they could hold their breaths, and when they grew too tired to swim they laid out on the beach towels she’d brought and let the sun dry them off. more often times than not, they fell asleep, if only for a few minutes.
this time he’d brought a picnic basket, full of sandwiches and fruit and fizzy drinks. “i can’t keep living off of crisps,” he laughed as she looked at it all in amazement.
“yes but how have you kept it all cool?” she asked, popping a grape into her mouth. she didn’t see his face, she was too excited about the food.
“uh, fancy new basket,” he said, pushing the empty, plain wicker basket back with his foot. “try the sandwiches,” he hurried, “they’re delicious.”
they spoke as they ate, all about petunia and her family, her school, her hobbies. he was so interested in her that she hadn’t even realized that he’d never given up any information about himself. it was so rare that anyone wanted to hear about her and her thoughts and ideas and now that he’d opened the gates she couldn’t stop.
“i think i’d like to open up a little bakery one day,” she gushed. “with yellow awnings and little tables outside.”
regulus smiled. “you like to bake?” she nodded. “well then you’ll have to bake me something sometime.”
she blushed and finally decided that it was too hot to continue sitting in the prickly grass. they stripped to their swimsuits and raced to the water’s edge, laughing as they each kept trying to pull the other back so as not to lose. the day continued on just as the days before it. they swam until their skin was pruned and their legs cramped up and then they crawled on to their towels and stretched out in the sun.
only this time, just as she was nearly asleep, he reached out and rested his hand in hers.
when they woke up, still holding hands, they didn’t say anything for a long while. they turned and faced each other, their cheeks sunburned and their fingers dancing together between them. he looked into her eyes, memorized by their honeycomb color. she blushed.
“you’re getting freckles,” he finally said, his voice barely audible.
“well your hair’s getting lighter.” she retorted. they laughed.
they laid there even longer, until the air cooled off and the sun started hiding behind the trees, their sign that it was time to part ways.
“let me walk you home,” he said suddenly. they’d been quietly packing up their things and petunia almost dropped her towel.
“that’s probably not a good idea,” she said, reaching for the towel regulus had rolled up.
“it bugs me every time to think of you walking all that way alone.”
she was quiet. the last thing she wanted was for this to all be spoiled. she felt like if they never left this spot everything would stay perfect forever. she didn’t want her parents to know, didn’t want them asking questions or ruining everything like they always did. and if her sister ever found out? well that would be the end of everything. lily would be so excited and happy for her, would want to know every detail, would never stop smiling every time she looked at her. it would be horrible.
“petunia?”
she looked to him. his concerned face morphed into a small smile. but oh! if he walked her home that was just more time to spend with him. “fine,” she sighed. “but not to my door. i don’t want my parents to see you.”
he smiled and took the rolled up towels from her, putting them into the empty basket, then held out his free hand for her to hold.
“what about you? won’t you have to walk twice as far now?”
he shrugged. “i’ll just send for my brother. he has a motorbike.” he smiled, like he was proud.
she should have known.
there was a ping on her window. she put down her book and looked around, and then another one sounded. concerned, she threw back her covers and went to the window between her bed and lily’s, which stood empty and perfectly made. just as she pushed the window up, another ping sounded right above her.
“oh! sorry!”
she looked down to see regulus smiling up at her. it had been a week since he first walked her home, and he’d done it everyday they met since. “are you honestly throwing rocks at my window?”
when he didn’t respond she closed the window and changed from her pajama bottoms into jeans and put her shoes on. she opened her door and peeked into the hall, the clock on the wall read half past ten. her parents would be sound asleep, even so she crept quietly down the stairs and out of the front door.
“what are you doing here?” she asked when she met him on the street.
“i just wanted to see you,” he stammered.
she eyed him, then looked around. “how did you get here? did you walk the whole way?”
“my brother dropped me off,” he said quickly, then took her hand. “want to go for a walk with me?”
she eyed him carefully again before agreeing. it wasn’t until they passed under their first streetlight that she saw how puffy and red his eyes were, how rough his cheeks were. “reg, what happened?”
he tried to shrug it off, tried to keep walking. “just some family stuff. honestly, i’m fine.”
petunia stopped them and turned to him. “you know, i don’t know anything about your family. aside from the fact that you’re well off and have a brother with a motorbike.”
regulus sighed and sat down on the curb. petunia sat next to him. “i don’t really have a good home life. my father’s never around, and when he is he and my mother are fighting. my brother’s a bit of a family disappointment and because of that i have all these extra high expectations on me.” he stopped and she could see that he was trying not to cry. “but when i’m with you it’s like, none of that exists, i’m just a fifteen year old kid enjoying the summer. it’s just us and the lake and the sun. it’s just you.”
and there, in the middle of a summer night, sitting on the side walk under a street light, next to chain link fence, with a boy whose last name she didn’t even know, petunia evans had her first kiss. his lips were salty but soft, and his nose was pressed into her sun-burnt cheek but she didn’t care. her arms were still at her sides, gripping the pavement as if she might float away at any minute, but his hands moved to her hair, pulling her closer as his tongue slid across her bottom lip.
the light above them burst with a loud pop, leaving them startled and in the dark.
she should have known.
the next few weeks passed in a hazy and sticky sweet blur. they spent more days at the lake, but petunia would also occasionally led them into town where they got ice cream and sweets and once they even went to the cinema.
“that was amazing!” regulus gushed as they walked out, hand in hand as they nearly almost always were. petunia laughed.
“you act like you’ve never seen a movie before.”
he laughed too, but his was more nervous. “my mum’s really strict. it’s all books as far as she’s concerned.” he was quiet for a moment before he turned to her. “want to see another!?”
she should have known
it was the middle of august. the heatwave had finally broken and cooling off in the lake wasn’t quite as satisfying as it had been, so they laid on the bank, sprawled out on a large quilted blanket.
“you’ve been so quite all day,” regulus said, playing with the ends of her hair. he was on his stomach, propped up on his forearms, and she was on her back with her arms folded over her eyes to block the sun. “what’s the matter?”
she sighed dropped her arms to look at him. “my sister’s coming home tonight.” regulus didn’t say anything, he knew what a touchy subject her sister was. “it’s all my parents have been talking about for days, it’s all they’re going to talk about for ages. she’s going to have learned all this new-” petunia caught herself about to say the word magic. that would have been horrible, it would have been the end of her and regulus. he would have thought she was insane and run away screaming. “i wish she’d just stay there.”
he kissed her, sweetly, slowly, in the way that always calmed her down when she got upset. “i wish we could just stay here,” he said.
“the summer’s coming to an end,” she said, holding back tears. “what’s going to happen then?”
“we’ll figure something out.” he said, pressing his forehead to hers. but she pulled away, sitting up and looking down at him.
“i don’t even know where you go to school! how are we going to figure it out?”
he sighed. “it’s just some dumb old private school. it’s embarrassing really.” he paused, then when he saw her skeptical face he added, “i can write to you!”
she thought about the offer for a moment, thought about how romantic it could be. maybe in the letters he’d open up more, they’d could share more and be even closer next summer. “we can trade addresses,” she said hopefully. her heart dropped, though, when she saw his face. “what?”
“i don’t really know the schools address, is all.”
there was something in his voice that told her he was lying and her heart broke. “you ass!” she cried. she pushed him away and stood up and began to hunt for her sandals. “what, do you have a girlfriend at school or something? was this all just some joke to you?”
“petunia, no!” he said, struggling to get to his feet. “of course not! i’ve never even had a girlfriend before. please, just stop!” he took her by the arms, stopping her from gathering up her things.
“why are you lying to me?” she pleaded. she saw that he was just upset as she was.
“there are just, things i can’t tell you.” he said. she scoffed. “i can’t. i’m scared to, but i want to, but i just can’t. i would be in so much trouble if i did.”
she crossed her arms. “oh, you’d be in big trouble if you gave me your school’s address?” she asked. “please.”
“it’s just complicated, okay?”
“it seem’s like you’re the one who’s making it complicated. can’t you even tell me the name, then? if you can’t give me the address? or do you just really not want me to write you? how about a phone number?”
“there is no address!” he exclaimed, and half empty can of fizzy drink that had been sitting on the ground next to them exploded.
petunia shrieked and froze, hands up, fingers splayed, legs covered in syrup. and then, as if a sports highlight reel was playing behind her eyes, everything came together. how out of place he was, the odd name, the mysteriously cold picnic basket, the streetlight, his amazed reaction to nearly everything she showed him, how he never talked about his life, the school…
“you-” she started, pointing a shaky finger at him. he reached out a pleading hand, but she pulled back.
“it’s not what you think, i can explain.”
“you’re one of them,” she mumbled, tears streaming down her face, eyes focused on th ground behind him. she was too heartbroken to move.
“please petunia,” he begged, “let me-”
“hogwarts,” she croaked. this time regulus froze. she looked to him, saw the confusion in his face. “that’s it. you go to hogwarts, don’t you? don’t you!”
“h-how do you know about hogwarts?”
“my sister, you idiot!” she slapped at his arm. “my sister’s a witch! and her friends are witches! and you-you’re-” she finally broke down and her knees gave out. his arms latched around her, catching her and guiding her do the ground. “you’re a freak, just like her!” she sobbed, pushing away from him. she stumbled to her feet.
“petunia wait!” regulus cried, but she was already running.
“just leave me alone!” she yelled, she ran until she hit the street nearest the lake, until he was clear out of sight, and then she walked home, crying and cursing herself.
she should have known it was too good to be true.
petunia watched as her father slammed the boot of their car shut, lily’s school trunk snugly inside. her mother was already in the front seat, and as her father opened the driver’s door he called for her sister. lily stepped on to the step behind her.
“are you sure you don’t want to come with us, tuney?” lily asked, nudging her shoulder.
petunia shook her head. “i’m still not feeling well,” she lied. lily nodded and hugged her, petunia hugged her back but only just. she watched as the early morning sun bounced off of her lily’s shining red hair and for the first time since she was twelve, petunia wanted to follow after, to go to the station and get on the train and go to school with her.
“lily, wait,” petunia said, her voice surprising even herself. lily turned and took a few steps back.
“yeah?”
petunia bit her lip. “do you… do you, maybe, know a boy named regulus?”
lily looked at her with amazement. “sirius has a brother… but how-”
“does sirius have a motorbike?”
lily stepped even closer. “petunia how do you know all of this?”
petunia took her sister’s hands. “please. i’ll tell you everything when you come home if you just- just tell him that i’m sorry.” lily opened her mouth to speak but petunia kept going “please. just tell him that i’m sorry and that… he can write me, if he still want’s to.”
so sometimes i think about harry potter being in the aurors and like
he’d never really thought about child protective services, muggle or otherwise, cause it’d never been relevant, right? like when he was a miserable kid he just thought that was what it was like being an orphan. but then he sees cases come through the department where parents are murdered and there’s kids sitting in their waiting room with copies of the quibbler and water waiting while an auror sits down with a family tree and tries to find whatever relatives this kid might have in the wizarding world, going back maybe even five generations to find anyone living and vaguely related to this child to drop them off with
and he goes to shit apartments in diagon alley after noise complaints and finds children who are black and blue with hexed, bleeding skin who insist they were just playing with a weasley’s wizard wheeze, no really mr. potter
and he thinks about how merope gaunt stumbled into a muggle orphanage and left them a child who would grow up learning fear was the key to harmony, and becoming a god meant safety
and really, how was the headmaster of a school the person who made the call about where he ended up, how was the system so haphazard that a man who wouldn’t be part of his life for another ten years got to make the biggest decision of his life
harry thinks about his cupboard
and then harry potter sits down with hermione and ron and neville (cause of course neville would want a stake in this) and says, “we need to change the wizarding world again.”
Do you ever just wonder what happened to an author that sort of dropped off the face of the planet and then get major anxiety because did they get into an accident are they ok WHAT IF THEY DIED.
Oh god I really hope they just got tired of writing fanfic.
I had sooooo fun with this, mostly cause they are Harry Potter characters (Parvati Patil and Lavender Brown) but also cause I tried a new coloring technique! Turned out to be great practice and something I’ll definitely try again.
Thanks for the opportunity to color your lines Méabh, your art is amazing and it was an honor omg lmao *-* <3
“What brings you to England, Mr. Lestange?” She asked, hoping the lighten the mood.
“Call me Radalphus, please.” He requested, bending so that his cheek rubbed against her own. Hermione tried not to think of how the feel of his slight scruff made her heart skip a beat. “My children are nearing the age of schooling, and with the fighting, I thought that Hogwarts would be a better option than Beauxbatons.”
That was a fair idea, Hermione decided. “And does…your wife find England agreeable as well?”
Is what I think going to happen going to happen? Do I smell something brewing?!
I feel like when you’re writing, organizing chapters and dialogue is easy
but jfc, the amount of time it takes to constantly keep people moving and make sure they’re in the right spaces and trying to come up with wording for it is always such a shock.
Like, fuck, I made you pick up a coffee cup, you need to put it down at some point. also I can’t remember what I dressed you in, can you push up your sleeves? I don’t remember if you even have your shirt on.
and YOU. YOU OVER THERE, you got out of your chair earlier, but did you come back yet? Are you coming back? Where did you even go and why’d you get up? Fuck, I can’t make you sit down again already, you just stood up, go…over there. go get more coffee. Did you bring your mug with you? fine. bring the pot to the table and—wait, wasn’t the coffee pot already over here? shit, hold on, I need to go back and re-read and re-write
this is the most relevant thing i have ever read.
Oh my gosh. They folded their arms. Do they unfold their arms? Are they still smiling? Wait, how can she put a hand on her hips when her arms are folded??? Is there a synonym for smirk? Auuurgh
Relevant
It’s dates that get me - did he really have enough time to travel from here to there? What about the weather? If she sends the letter now, when will he get it?
In one of my last fics a character made himself a cup of tea… and never took a sip nor put it down. I just didn’t find a good place to make him actually drink the tea or get rid of the cup without disrupting the story, so I just didn’t do it. So far nobody seems to have noticed :P
Did you know that there’s a person (or people) whose job it is to spot all these things in movies and tv shows during shooting? And yet bloopers still happen. It’s totally ok to miss these things, it’s difficult!
