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𝐭𝐢𝐭𝐥𝐞 ── anything you can do
𝐭𝐢𝐦𝐞𝐥𝐢𝐧𝐞 ── marauders' era (1977)
𝐥𝐨𝐯𝐞 𝐢𝐧𝐭𝐞𝐫𝐞𝐬𝐭 ── regulus black
𝐨𝐜 𝐧𝐚𝐦𝐞 ── rory potter
𝐟𝐚𝐜𝐞𝐜𝐥𝐚𝐢𝐦 ── your choice!

𝐬𝐭𝐚𝐭𝐮𝐬 ── taken by svnsetcrve

𝐬𝐡𝐨𝐫𝐭 𝐝𝐞𝐬𝐜𝐫𝐢𝐩𝐭𝐢𝐨𝐧 ── in which rory potter needs regulus black to like her, and he's having none of it.

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𝐞𝐱𝐭𝐞𝐧𝐝𝐞𝐝 𝐬𝐮𝐦𝐦𝐚𝐫𝐲
✧ ₊˚ˑ༄ؘ

Winning is Rory Potter's middle name. She won't tell you that it's actually Euphemia because that would be boring and deceiving of her. Because she truly believes there is nothing better than a grand slam. Or the display of red and gold banners when Gryffindor hoists the House Cup. Or the sweet sweet sound of her opposition folding in a game of poker, when she knows her hand is unbeatable. Or even the feeling of her father's embrace when she returns home for the holidays because her father hugged Rory first and not her older brother, James. But possibly her favourite, the looks on a Chaser's face when she whacks that Quaffle out of sight and out of mind. The following triumph for Gryffindor in that same match that shortly follows Rory's incredibly Keeping abilities is a very close second. Especially when that opposing team is Slytherin.

It's safe to say that Rory Potter thrives off of coming out on top.

Regulus Black, on the other hand, and on the complete other side of the spectrum, prefers academic success. Unlike Rory, Regulus does what he's told, favours chess over childish card games, and aces every lesson without fail. But also unlike Rory, he cannot fly a broom to save his life, won't admit that he doesn't know how to shuffle a pack of cards, and has never received any kind of love and affection from his parents in all his sixteen years of life. He hates her. Because of what he cannot have. And because of what she does.

He may not win as often and as extravagantly as Rory Potter does, but Regulus has had his fair share of success. He is top of every class he's in, Professor Slughorn can't stop singing his praise, and he has just been personally selected by Lord Volde-

Oh wait, scrap that.

The kid's bright, end of story. Oh. And one more thing you should know about Regulus Black. One thing that he has in common with Rory Potter, actually: Regulus Black has to, most definitely, without a shadow of a doubt, agreed by everyone, be right in every situation that arises.

Another thing that Rory Potter strives for, bar complete and utter success, is people's validation. Her classmates' seal of approval on her personality. Her parents' appreciation for her perfect Quidditch clean sheet (her O.W.L results should not be acknowledged as of right now . . . ). Her brother's friends' admiration. She's a real people person, and cannot stand for someone to not like her. Bit self-obsessive actually . . .

So when it comes to her attention that perfect Regulus Black isn't too fond of our sweet, considerate Lorelai Potter because of her perfect life and how little she appreciates it (Jesus Mr Pessimist, just teach yourself how to shuffle a deck of cards already) it becomes her soul-purpose to change just that.

But things don't go quite as well as planned for winning-freak, Rory Potter, when all Regulus does to repay Rory for her heroic attempt at repairing their previously non-existent relationship is be a dick. She isn't much of a fan after that.

Rory soon learns that Regulus Black is a stuck-up, know-it-all smart ass with enough money to wipe his ass with a ten-pound note, and an even worse family. She concludes that neighbourhood-friendly Regulus Black doesn't deserve her kindness whatsoever and needs to wash his mouth out with soap.

But because she doesn't have a heart of coal, and is suffocating at the thought that even one person doesn't like her, Rory makes a preposition:

If Regulus can make the Slytherin Quidditch team by the end of their sixth year, Rory will leave him alone forever. She will never bother him ever again. He would never hear a peep out of Lorelai Potter till the end of their days.

But being the self-righteous twat he is (Rory's words) Regulus wants to have his fun as well. If Rory Potter can pass her Potions O.W.L with the highest grade, and the top marks, he will introduce her to everyone he knows (even his small litter of companions) as his "friend" (she squealed quite literally at this).

And what if they both succeed you ask? They make a mutual agreement to smile once a day at each other in the corridors but never interact elsewhere. It would quite obviously be easier and a heck of a lot simpler for the both of them if they just did that anyway, but that was out of the picture because Regulus wanted her silence and Rory wanted his companionship.

Naturally, Rory agrees to his conditions because this just became a competition.

Of course she's going to win. And she's going to win him over in the process. Two birds with one stone, if you ask her. And Potions? Pfff, that's a piece of piss. But good luck to Regulus though ─ Quidditch doesn't come as easily as opening a textbook and scribbling down some notes. He may be good at Potions, and every other subject for that matter but there isn't a chance in hell that Regulus Black stands a chance winning a bet when his opponent is Rory Potter. She never loses. Failure is a myth to her.

And even if this little genius of a boy picks up flying a broom as quickly as he processes information from Professor Slughorn, that's no biggy. Because Rory believes that anything he can do, she can do better.

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𝐨𝐜 𝐢𝐧𝐟𝐨𝐫𝐦𝐚𝐭𝐢𝐨𝐧
✧ ₊˚ˑ༄ؘ

𝐡𝐨𝐮𝐬𝐞 ── gryffindor
𝐛𝐥𝐨𝐨𝐝 𝐬𝐭𝐚𝐭𝐮𝐬 ── pureblood
𝐥𝐢𝐤𝐞𝐬 ── winning, cake, quidditch, being the center of attention
𝐝𝐢𝐬𝐥𝐢𝐤𝐞𝐬 ── not being liked, boring people and boring things, negativity, losing
𝐚𝐠𝐞 ── 16
𝐩𝐞𝐫𝐬𝐨𝐧𝐚𝐥𝐢𝐭𝐲 ── bubbly, friendly, boisterous, funny, laid-back
𝐩𝐞𝐫𝐬𝐨𝐧𝐚𝐥 𝐚𝐧𝐭𝐡𝐞𝐦 ── hermit the frog, marina

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𝐧𝐨𝐭𝐞𝐬
✧ ₊˚ˑ༄ؘ

first and foremost: reg is not a sweetheart. this reg is loosely inspired by the reg written in AYD and if you haven't read it, regulus is very introverted, negative towards life, can be unnecessarily rude, is craving love and affection, and is pessimistic because of it. he doesn't want rory to talk to him because he's very unsociable, and desires the affection that she gets from her parents. something he doesn't get. he's jealous.

the face claim is up to you! this is because i don't know who your fav james potter fan-cast is, so you can cast rory according to who you cast james as! (my favs are dev patel, jordan fisher, and ofc atj)

rory is the captain of the gryffindor quidditch team despite being younger than her brother who is also on the team (james hates how his little sister is captain and not him. also, james was not a seeker!!! he was a chaser lol, the movies made that up)

rory and james are very alike, and get on as well as most siblings

the "bet" of sorts, comes about when regulus belittles rory for a gryffindor win and he bets it's not that hard

you're probably wondering: reg played quidditch already though?

it's not mentioned anywhere when he joins his house team, so for this fic, as they are in the sixth year (one year below the marauders) reg learns how to play quidditch and ends up actually enjoying it and making the team. he stays on the team for his last year

both of them complete their task ─ rory gets an outstanding in her potions o.w.l and reg makes the team towards the end of the year. he seriously struggles at first though (please make this funny)

as tryouts happened more towards the beginning, reg has to "pull some strings" in order for the captain to let him tryout so late in the year. he only really manages to get a chance to try out because his dad is a literal deatheater, and because his family is of such high status. basically the same as how draco got on the team in chamber of secrets

he gets on the team in early june and rory gets her results mid-summer

they obviously fall in love in the process, but i imagined that because they both did complete their tasks, they do stay away from each other and do as the agreement says. but neither of them like how that goes, and confess their love for each other :)

this relationship is heavily inspired by kat and pat from 10tihay in the way that kat wants nothing to do with him (regulus) and pat wants to be friends (rory)

i give you permission to kill him off if you wish x

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𝐪𝐮𝐨𝐭𝐞𝐬
✧ ₊˚ˑ༄ؘ

❛ you're like a parasite. ❜
❛ you best believe i'm taking that as a compliment. ❜

𝐩𝐦 𝐦𝐞 𝐚𝐧𝐲 𝐪𝐮𝐞𝐬𝐭𝐢𝐨𝐧𝐬!
© neilspoets