Ch. 2

When I woke, I kept my eyes shut tightly. I could feel Noelle's head still in my lap and I instinctively stroked her soft hair, myself still half asleep. I opened my eyes a little trying to see if Noelle's parents had come back from getting tea. I found them standing in the doorframe talking quietly with a couple that looked a lot like…my parents!

I came to my senses with a jolt, causing Noelle to wake. She lifted her head and gave me a dark glare before realizing where she was sleeping. Her eyes widened and she opened her mouth as if to apologize, but I shook my head as Mother and Father came to my bedside.

"Well, Regulus," my mother said sharply, raising her eyebrows at Noelle who looked as if she'd like nothing more than to crawl in a hole and never come out. "It seems as if Mr. and Mrs. Keller have invited you to spend the rest of the summer with them. We have agreed to let you stay and Kreature will be coming with your trunk very soon. We will see you over Christmas." They left me staring after them, my jaw hanging slack. Noelle looked equally surprised, but turned to me with a smile on her face.

"You're coming for the summer!" she cried happily nearly jumping out of her chair from excitement. Her parents walked back into the room and Noelle attacked them both with a hug. "Thank you, Mum! Thank you, Daddy!" Her mother and father smiled down at her and then turned to me.

"Your parents didn't seem concerned about your…ehm, 'accident.' We offered to let you stay the summer so that we could make sure you wouldn't end up here again," she explained to me.

"Took us awhile to persuade them, though," her father said with a slight smile.

"Sorry about that," I muttered, sitting up. "Thank you both for inviting me to stay."

"Well, you seem to be a very close friend of Noelle's, so how could we not?" Mrs. Keller looked down at Noelle who was red once again and muttered something about being tired.

With a loud crack, Kreature appeared with my trunk. He bowed low to me and left with another crack. I got out of the bed and limped over to the trunk, my foot still a bit tender. I rummaged through my things and found a change of clothes, as I was wearing the pajamas St. Mungo's had given me. Mrs. Keller closed the curtains around my bed for me and I dressed quickly. When I stepped out again, The Kellers were waiting for me at the door.

I walked next to Noelle as we made our way to the main desk to check me out. Every now and then, our hands would brush together and we would glance up at each other before turning away. Having enough of the awkward silences and embarrassed looks, I threw one of my arms over her shoulder, the other dragging my trunk.

Noelle looked over her shoulder to see her parents' reaction, but leaned into me slightly as they pretended not to notice. We struck up a funny conversation about why my Herbology textbook only got what was coming to it, and by the time we finally came to the front desk, were already flirting like we had the year before, calling each other "Mr. Black" and "Miss Keller."

After checking out, we walked out the door and found ourselves in a back alley of London, the ugly mannequin in the window right behind us. We walked a little ways to the right of the window before stopping.

"Side-along apparition," Mrs. Keller told Noelle and me. "Noelle, you'll come with me and Regulus, you'll go with Joel." I gripped Mr. Keller's arm tightly and felt the squeezing sensation of apparition before landing on soft ground.

We were about a hundred yards from a large house. There were many hills and I could just barely see a lake glittering in the early morning sun from behind the house. I saw Noelle and her mother appear right at the doorstep and made to go forward, but Mr. Keller held my arm, turning me around to face him.

"I want you to listen," he said sternly. "My daughter isn't something you can use once and throw away. She has feelings, and if you don't respect her, you'll have me to answer to. Do you understand me?" I gulped and nodded.

"Yes, yes, I do," I choked. Mr. Keller gave me a genuine smile for the first time and clapped me on the shoulder, turning me around and letting me walk up to the house. I opened the door and stepped inside.

It was very different from my house. The walls were painted a light blue and there were many windows letting in as much natural light as possible. Noelle was curled up on the sofa in the living room, and I went to her, sitting beside her.

She didn't look at me.

"What's wrong?" I asked her. She shook her head. "Noelle…"

"What happened last night?" she asked. "Why did you let me sleep in your lap? I thought you hated me. I thought that you were mad at me for when… I thought you'd yell at me when you saw me." I didn't answer for a while.

"I…I just figured that anyone who thought I was worth coming to see wasn't someone I should remain mad at," I muttered. It wasn't exactly truthful, but I knew that she probably cared more about me than my own parents.

"Yes, but today!" she protested. "It was as if we had never stopped talking." My temper flared.

"Do you want me to go or what?" I snapped at her, standing up. She looked up at me and our eyes met. She shook her head slowly, her eyes not leaving my face. I sat down again and sunk low in the cushions, nodding off to sleep after what had already been a long day.