When Doves Cry

~~I've got restless in my soul An untamed heart that's used to letting go Never been one for standing still I know it won't be very long until I wanna chase that setting sun~~
When I woke up, it was very dark out. Too dark. I realized it was early morning. Holy crap. I had slept forever! I tiredly rubbed at my face, trying not to move too much and jostle Remus awake. He was sleeping peacefully beside me, his head turned in my direction. In the darkness, I could just make out his features, and I had to smile. He looked so childlike, one hand curled up beside his face, his golden hair falling across his forehead. I'm not gonna lie, sometimes I considered Remus to be like my large, mature, well-behaved child. The fierce protection and fondness I felt for him perfectly matched how I imagined a caring mother must feel about her little boy. And my little boy looked so innocent when he slept. I just wanted to wrapped him tighter in his blankets and sing him a lullaby!
Instead, I silently crawled out of his bed and left the room, creeping up to my own so I could put on fresh clothes (in the form of cute sweatpants and a big, comfy t-shirt) and brush my hair and teeth. Then I made my way out of the girls' dorm and out of the Gryffindor common room altogether. I felt like an early morning jog. I made it all the way to my exit before I turned around, changing my course. I wanted some company during my morning jog.
Still creeping along like some stealthy ninja thief, I eventually made it to the entrance of the Slytherin common room. I had no trouble getting in, and once I did, I went up to the fourth year boys' room, silently sneaking in. I frowned, not having anticipated how dark it would be since we were in the Dungeons. Deciding to throw caution to the wind, I crept to the nearest bed and peered closely at the person sleeping in it.
"Regulus?" I whispered, squinting at the figure. The boy, whoever he was, snored loudly and rolled over. This was not working, so I pulled out my wand. "Lumos," I whispered, shining the light on the sleeping figure. Nope, not Regulus. I moved on to the next bed, peering at the boy sleeping in it. Still not Regulus. This one, however, was apparently a fairly light sleeper. When my light fell on him, he stirred, eventually waking up.
"What the hell?" he asked, shocked to see a random girl standing beside his bed.
"Ssh," I said, waving my hand at him and moving on to the next bed. "Go back to sleep. Wait, which bed is Regulus's?"
"That one," he said tiredly, pointing to the last bed.
"Thanks," I whispered brightly. "Now, go back to sleep."
"This is a weird dream," he mumbled sleepily before rolling over and going back to sleep.
I walked over to Regulus's bed and gently shook him. "Reg?" I whispered. "Wake up." I shook him again, trying a little harder this time.
He mumbled something in his sleep before slowly opening one eye, clearly expecting not to find anything. When he saw me, his eyes flew open wide in shock and he grabbed his wand from his bedside table, aiming it at me. When he finally realized who I was, he lowered it, glaring at me. "What are you doing in here?" he grumbled, closing his eyes again.
"Waking you up," I answered in a low voice so as not to wake the other sleeping boys.
"Go away," he said, pulling the blankets up over his head. "Jus' wanna sleep."
"Come on, Reg, wake up," I said, shaking him again.
"Why?" came his reply from beneath the blankets.
"I want to go jogging."
"So jog, freak," he muttered.
"I don't want to go alone. I'm sad."
He was silent for a long while, but I could tell he wasn't sleeping. He was silently cursing the fact that he had lost. "Shit," he said, pushing the blankets back down and looking at me. "What time is it?"
"Well..." I said, giving him a slightly sheepish smile.
"Well?" he prompted, already giving me the stink eye because he could tell it wasn't a good hour.
"It's 4:30," I said grudgingly.
He stared at me in annoyance for awhile. "I really hate you," he muttered, sitting up. "Go out into the common room while I change. I'll be about five minutes."
I grinned and hugged him. "Thank you! And no going back to sleep, because I will come back in here and continue to terrorize you."
He sighed sadly. "I know. Bloody horror." He looked fondly at his pillows for a moment before getting out of his bed with a groan. "Go out in the common room," he repeated. "Unless you fancy seeing me naked."
I chuckled and gave him a suggestive smirk. "Who says I don't?" I teased.
"Just go out there," he said, rolling his eyes and swatting at me. I smiled and did as he said, waiting for him in the common room. Thankfully, since he was a boy and no one would be seeing him, I didn't have to wait long. He hadn't been kidding when he'd said it would only take him about five minutes.
"You're pure evil," he said to me as soon as he got to the common room. "I want you to know that."
"So I've been told," I said, smiling at him. I suddenly hugged him, squeezing tightly. "Thank you for waking up to come jog with me. Most people would've just told me to piss off."
"I tried to tell you to piss off, but you didn't listen. Clearly, I need to be taking lessons from these people if they actually manage to make you leave."
I made a face at him, rolling my eyes."So mean," I said, shaking my head.
He simply shrugged. "You woke me up at 4:30 on a Sunday morning. I'd say I'm entitled."
We walked out into the hallways of Hogwarts together, our strides easily matching.
"Yeah, I guess you are entitled to be a little mean since I did wake you up so early," I agreed with him.
"Damn right I am," he grumbled softly.
"I promise to repay you for this. Somehow."
He sighed and shook his head. "Whatever. Doesn't matter. But I am curious as to why I'm the one you woke up."
"Well, Severus would have hexed me for waking him up just to jog, and Adrian get pissy if he wakes up before 5:45."
"What about your boyfriend? Doesn't he like to jog?"
I gazed at the floor sadly. "He broke up with me," I finally said.
He scoffed. "Really? That Ravenclaw tosser dumped you? What a fool."
I smiled lightly at that. "Well, thanks. But he did have reason to."
"What reason?" Regulus asked. I was pretty sure he was only asking me to be nice, not because he actually cared about my love life.
"Well, he saw me snogging another boy. Well, technically, he saw another boy snogging me, but still. He saw snogging that involved me and did not involve him."
Regulus actually slightly interested at that. "You snogged another boy? Who?"
"Uh... Sirius," I said.
Regulus raised his eyebrows at me in surprise, reaching out his hand to grab my arm and stop me. "You snogged my brother?" I couldn't tell if he was grossed out, or just shocked.
"Like I said, technically he snogged me. But yes. There was some snogging."
"So... Did you like snogging him?"
"I don't know," I answered, leaning up against a wall. We were almost outside, but our destination had been forgotten because of our conversation. "Maybe," I said after awhile.
"Oh, thank Merlin," he said, relieved.
"What? You want me to like snogging Sirius?"
"Look, Sirius is an annoying git. But he's still my brother. That counts for something. And if he's gonna be an annoying Gryffindor boy who falls for an obnoxious Gryffindor girl, I'm glad it's you. Anyone else would have driven me mad."
I laughed softly. "Thanks for that slightly insulting encouragement, Reggie." Reggie was my nickname for him, one that only I was allowed to use. If anyone else ever called him Reggie, he's have hexed them. Which is why I never told Sirius about it. Because he'd have used the nickname for evil.
"Anytime, Rocket," he said. He, too, had a special nickname for me. It was our thing.
We started walking again, finally making it outside. It was still very dark out, but we had our wands for light. We jogged in silence for awhile, but I reached over and grabbed his hand, smiling at him as I did. For those of you who might wonder, no, there was absolutely nothing romantic about our relationship. I'm pretty sure he was kind of a poof. Or maybe asexual. Either way, he had better things to do than waste his time falling for me, and I felt the same way. We were just close.
After we jogged until we were both out of breath and fairly covered in sweat, we slowed to an easy walk, eventually collapsing beneath the tree by the Black Lake. The sky was a darkish gray color now, but sunrise was still some time away. At least forty five minutes, if not a little over an hour.
"So," he said once we had both caught our breath, " do you think you'll hook up with Sirius?"
I sighed, picking at the grass beneath my hands. "I don't know. He's kind of an arrogant prick. Do you think I should really date him?"
"Hmm," he said, thinking about that. "Well, maybe not. You do have a point about him being an arrogant prick."
Sometimes, it was hard to tell if Regulus felt contempt or admiration for his rebel brother. It was like he wanted to be proud that Sirius had been brave and strong enough to be his own person, but he was also so wrapped up in what his parents said that he felt like he should despise how Sirius was.
"He seems to be less of a prick when he's around you, though," Regulus said, turning his head to the side to look at me.
"Really?" I turned my head and looked back at him, idly tossing grass shreds at him.
"Really," he confirmed, brushing the grass off his shirt and out of his hair. "Come on, silly child. We should head back in and shower."
"Ooh, together?" I asked jokingly, smirking at him.
"But of course," he answered, his face and voice totally serious.
I cracked up, tossing more grass at him, before we both got up and headed back into Hogwarts. When it was time for us to go our separate ways, I smiled at him and hugged him again. "Thanks again for coming jogging with me. I greatly enjoyed your company and your input on my drama."
"I would say anytime, but I'm afraid you'll take that literally and continue to wake me up at horrifying hours. So, anytime between the hours of 7:00 a.m. and 12:30 p.m." He smiled at me, giving a half wave as he walked down the hallway leading to the Dungeons.