6Summer Loving
Chapter Two:
Vesper Ada McDonald sat in her bedroom thinking over the events of her fifteenth birthday party; they played out in her head like a film and with every slight significant event, her heart gave out with a twang and she tried not to yell out in frustration. She had not even undressed yet and night time had passed into the early hours of morning; it was still dark outside and though she had tried to convince herself to sleep, she couldn't. Sleep was what somebody like herself yearned but tonight it was a lost cause; frustration and excitement would not allow her the space to sleep so she simply lay warm and cozy in her bed, thinking over the events of her fifteenth birthday. Finally, the sun rose over the horizon and soon, she gave up altogether and crept out of the comfort of her bed and slunk to her door, rubbing her eyes and yawning all the way. As was customary, George and her father were awake and busy preparing breakfast in the kitchen; as Vesper made her way down the stairs, she heard them talking in hushed whispers and she grew curious.
"Did she say anything to you?" said George.
"Nothing at all. She was so tired and I think she hated the party." Victor replied. "I'm glad though. Lola's got no business introducing that Regulus kid to her. He's trouble."
Vesper shook her head and went to the living room, where last night's evidences lay scattered about; ignoring them, she meekly placed herself in the centre of the couch and outlined the lace of her dress with one finger; once again, last night's events began a fantastic takeover of her thoughts…
…Vesper passed an anxious glance at the young man who was sharing her library; he was angry that she had found him, she could tell and that he wanted her to leave. The worst though was that he wouldn't even wish her a happy fifteenth birthday. Vesper did not break her glance and continued to watch him, brimming with curiosity at his angst-ridden character that he would not even look at her and simply pretended to read a random book he had pulled out of the case as soon as she had offered to lead him to another room to brood. Vesper took a deep breath and turned her face away; tilting her back with a nonchalant expression and from the corner of her eye she caught him with a quick curious glance in her direction.
"Why are you here?" He asked then, giving away his confusion.
"Why are you here? It's my house." Vesper replied monotonously, "I can be in the library if I want."
Besides, she wasn't sure whether or not he had been invited and therefore could be a possible party-crasher who was perhaps trying to find something valuable to sell on the black market. A farfetched notion, Vesper had to admit, but one would've been surprised at the number of them that often showed up at the parties that the family threw in France.
The young man didn't reply so she jerked her head to him, her short soft hair moving too and once more studied him; he didn't seem to mind her staring at him too much and in fact, he seemed to be inviting it and therefore basking in it. Repelled by this idea, Vesper again turned the other direction and looked heaven-wards, seemingly interested in the glow of the chandelier. "Are you bored?" She asked and found him looking over her with a distressed smile.
"Yes." He replied in his clipped voice without discarding the smile. "Are you?" He gave her figure a sweeping look and she was once more repelled. She swallowed and shook her head.
"Oh, not at all. No…" She then glanced at the library door and said, "I'm hiding."
"From who?"
Vesper made a face and hopped off her stool before disappearing behind the third book case. "That's none of your business."
Looking back only to affirm that he hadn't followed her, with a crossed brow and an irritated mood, she immersed herself in her favorite section of the library; contrary to what most believed, her wizard family did not like to keep books about wizardry right in the open and so this library contained Literature of over fifteen different languages and her favorite was of the French section; she was fluent in French and exercised any opportunity to better herself in it. Though she tried to convince herself that she was trying to abide by the rule of library to be silent, the rule had never really applied in hers and she was actually really trying to listen into any movements made by the boy so that he wouldn't startle her.
"What are you doing?" He said suddenly right behind and though her heart had leapt with fright and her body immediately tensed up, she remained outwardly cool and relaxed and replied with considerable ease.
"Scouting for a book."
"Really?"
"Yes."
He was really stringing her last nerve now and he was really too close to her; she did not have it in her to flip and see just how close he was but could tell by his voice and her own senses that he was too close. "Can you read?"
"Yes, I'm not entirely illiterate." Was the instant good-humored reply.
"French, I meant." She said without a smile or a laugh; he was too close and he was getting closer and she wanted for him to read the signs and back away.
"…Yes." He said, prolonging his answer into her ear and she had had enough.
"Excuse me…" She said pleasantly as she turned around, saw that they had not an inch of space between them and then even more pleasantly brushed past him with her book to her favorite floor cushion. She made a quick glance at him and was amused that he had not moved at all from his area of ambush; he stood there, almost as if he were frozen and then after a deep breath, slowly began some movement. Vesper laughed to herself silently and then got on with reading her book.
A few minutes later she looked up and found him reading a book by the same author that she had before her; leaning against the smallest surface area of the bookcase, he seemed rather interested in it before pretending to have caught her glance whereas she was quite well aware that he knew she was watching. He gave a laugh of surprise, "Oh, you're reading it too?"
Vesper couldn't help but smile a smile of perhaps mock disbelief and he continued, "How do you like yours so far?"
"I wouldn't know, I haven't started as of yet." She said coolly, "I was reading the Acknowledgements."
"Oh, me too!" He said energetically and then returned to his book as though deeply interested in it. Vesper could have laughed; her father had better acting chops!
"You're laughing." He said, looking up from his book.
"Only at you." She replied, hoping that she had removed any misconceived notion of his about her regarding where this was going.
"Good, because I was beginning to think you were nothing but a serious judgmental little girl." He said triumphantly and moved to the ground next to her on her left.
She hesitated now, but said it anyway after a few seconds of silence, "I'm not little…"
"You're a child!" he laughed and for the first time Vesper was unsure of her own beauty. "You're too young…y'know?"
Vesper and he held a gaze for a few seconds which Vesper broke with all the coolness of an experienced young woman and began reading her book again.
The young man tsked, "Oh…I hope I haven't put you off?"
"Put me off…?" She questioned with protesting innocence as though the thought had not even crossed her mind and it encouraged a great smile on his face.
"Really, now…!" He laughed, encouraged and his smile became soft and intimate, "You are blooming though…"
Though she was cautious, Vesper couldn't bring herself to face him again; again, he was too close, leaning over and peering into her book and then he shared a glance with her, before suddenly taking her right arm and kissing the hollow of it where the elbow joint was. Holding her arm, he looked at her and it was like Vesper was caught by a flash of a camera. Slothfully, he moved closer to her and kissed her softly on the mouth. She made a quick gesture for him to stop and she bobbed her head back before inviting him back but he wasn't interested anymore and without meeting her eyes, like a kitten, he nuzzled her jaw with a drugged murmur, "Happy birthday, birthday-girl." before leaping to his feet and leaving without another word.
Vesper's perplexity in warp speed evolved into hot anger and tossing aside her book, she exited the library, just about catching him leave into the backyard where she felt like shaming him before the flock with a slap but she was stopped by a familiar face; one she had been hiding from.
"Vesper where have you been?" Regulus asked with slight interest. "I lost you."
"You didn't lose me. I lost you." She replied defiantly.
His confusion was too much of an invitation and Vesper blasted him with the anger that she had wanted to reserve for the boy in the library, "Oh do not look at me like a bloody wounded pup...!" She paused, choosing her next words wisely and carefully, "All night, you've been a little pretentious prick...! All night! Who, might I add, despite all his world class breeding does not know the simplest and most decent of gestures and that is the common action of courtesy and as it is, I've had just about enough of you and every other loser tonight, so please just keep it all to yourself tonight alright?"
Regulus had listened patiently and then said uncertainly with a sigh, "I'm sorry if I caused you any pain…and if I came across as unsympathetic. However my parents had put me in a position I had not at the time wanted to be in." He paused for a few minutes, perhaps thinking Vesper wanted to leave but she was interested in knowing. "Of course, you did not make it any easier."
"I didn't do anything." Vesper scowled dismissively, "Don't kid yourself."
Regulus offered another soft smile and her heart somewhat softened. "Well, being the eldest Black, I am always expected to escort some girl or the other at some occasion or another. I am not accustomed to escorting pretty girls. They usually follow around my younger brother while I deal with the nasty ones."
"As I have already said, you are quite pretty." He continued in a factual tone. Vesper likened him at least in manner and speech to any French hero she might have read of. "So you can quite imagine how utterly mortified and elated I was when my parents attached me to you." He finished with an explanatory hand gesture and awaited her response which came muted and dismissive.
"You're difficult to read…" Vesper muttered, feeling foolish even though she still believed she was in every sense in the right.
"Or contained?" He offered pleasantly and she nodded, slightly mortified with herself now, offering a muted, "yup..."
"Why not...?" She said more to herself than to him; she wished he would go away because her stomach was in tight knots and her face was scorching.
"Are you alright?" He asked.
"Uh huh." Vesper managed, just about keeping down any obvious feature of her humiliation; she honestly felt that she shouldn't feel this way, humiliated but his gentle calm assuring explanation had rendered her significantly mute.
He gazed at her questioningly and she shrugged her shoulders as if to apologize and yet reaffirm her own significant change in feeling.
"I would like to see you some time Vesper." He said suddenly in his trademark matter-of-face tone. "Perhaps you could accompany your delightful mother to our manor this weekend."
"What if I don't want to come?" It was an honest question, Vesper thought to herself, one she very well wanted answered.
He smiled, snickered almost at her snarky response. "Perhaps this will help." He suggested and then leaned in and gave her a lingering kiss on the lips and cheek; unlike the boy in the library, he didn't perplex her and instantly made clear his intentions. "Come and see me." He spoke nonchalantly but with great expectation of her visit.
Vesper could have laughed at his self-assurance but was left lingering in the hallway, finding a deep interest in her feet of a sudden. Instinct propelled her to look up and as she did, she caught the boy from the library standing casually by and chatting to another girl; Vesper immediately recognized everything from the laugh to the look to the gestures; they had all been used on her. What was this guy? Suddenly he caught her too for a moment and blinked; she realized he was egging her to come to him but intelligent and quick to learn from her mistakes, Vesper offered a derisive smile and latched herself onto her mother and began a delightful conversation about Regulus Black...
…Vesper took a deep breath and exhaled; whatever had happened last night, she was really regretting taking on with her mother a trip to the Blacks; her mother had been too thrilled with the idea that her daughter might possibly be interested in the slightest bit in Regulus Black and would certainly make a fool of Vesper once there. Also, the boy from the library was plaguing her mind like a disease and yet, she was in desperation to know more about him; she would have it, after all, she was a girl and as George once said that there was no greater curious being than a young girl.
A/N: I always think that that reviewing is a nice gesture particularly since I would like to know how the story can be improved; I will be taking on suggestions! Also, as you may have picked up, Sirius is the younger brother in this, Regulus the older, that's probably one of few liberties that I've taken, so ha!