I got my last test tonight, so have this chapter as a premeditated celebration. By the way, the test I had last Monday left me with a maximum grade: my final grade for the bimester is 10! I'm crazy happy, you have no idea. I never felt so smart before.

Leave comments through this chapter. I think you'll like it, I focused of a lot on the Marauders this time with a little moment between Luna and Regulus.

Peter Pettigrew, once upon a time, had taken a fancy for Luna Lupin in third year, when the girl was nothing but a second year, interested in nothing more than her grades and looking at Sirius when he wasn't looking at her. He didn't need to be rejected to know that Luna didn't like him back, so all that he did was watch her from a distance since then until the "fancy" passed – which had been no more than a couple of weeks before the very conversation he was part of.

"Well, you don't know Regulus like I do," Sirius was complaining.

"You said that he's probably just having fun with her, though. You were the one that said that he couldn't date or marry her," Remus said.

"Well, you didn't date nor married Joey Ambrosia," James said from his seat in the Common Room chairs. He messed with his hair while rolling his eyes. "Don't be a hypocrite, Moony. She's grown enough to know who she goes out with. Besides, we don't even know if they are indeed going out, they might just be studying."

"You were there! You saw them!" Remus complained.

"It looked like harmless flirting," Peter dismissed, shaking his head.

Sirius frowned.

"Look, I don't like the idea of them together either, but Regulus won't do anything too bad," Sirius said, voice soft, but firm. "The poor boy is terrified of talking to any girl that not our cousins and, maybe, Pandora Rosier."

"He didn't look terrified yesterday," Remus said.

"Well, then perhaps he really likes Luna. What's the problem in it?" James said. "Moony, come on, they were being so well-behaved."

Moony crossed his arms, lips pressed together so tightly in dismay that they were nothing but lines.

"Luna isn't as naïve as you think her to be, Remus. She can take care of herself," Sirius said.

"You didn't see the state the last one left her, Pads," Remus said.

Sirius looked away, staring at the fire in silence, locking his jaw in place to keep whatever he wanted to say inside.

The boys often underestimated Peter's ability to recognise signals in their body language and the ability he had to keep their secrets under lock and key. Peter was known for knowing a lot and saying very little; James sometimes jokes that it was the very reason he had taken the form of a rat as an Animagus, eating away holes in the stories people told and squeezing through the smallest of places to get where he wanted. He didn't understand how they could joke around about that and then pretend they weren't keeping secrets from him – one look at Sirius and someone could see that he knew something (or did something) that Remus had no idea about, but James did, that was why he was always glaring and signalling in silence to him.

"Whatever it happened with her last boyfriend, at least we know that it can't get worse," Peter said as supportive as he could, but that made Sirius' tense up even more. "For all we know, Regulus is just flirting. He didn't even kiss her in the library, and they didn't notice us there."

"Pete's right," James said, nodding, putting his feet on the coffee table in front of him. "Everybody knows that you go to the Potions' session of the library for a snog, and they were studying as the good bookworms they are, really. Sirius has been –" James stopped himself shortly.

Sirius glared at James from where he sat, finally looking away from the burning fireplace.

Remus watched the exchange in silence before frowning.

"Sirius has been 'what'?" Remus asked, raising his eyebrows at James, urging for continuation for the sentence.

Sirius sighed.

"...keeping an eye on Luna in the map," Sirius answered, continuing James' slipped sentence. "I've been watching them ever since I learned that they were meeting up sometimes, but you weren't supposed to know until I was sure something was happening."

The boy glared at James once more, locking his jaw again and shaking his head from side to side in quiet disappointment.

"It's my sister, I think I deserved to know that my best mate was keeping an eye on her because he was suspicious of his own brother," Remus said bitterly.

Sirius rolled his eyes.

"Remus, I like this as much as you do. My family is not good, and if this 'relationship', or whatever they would call this – Merlin knows what my brother would call meeting up with a girl sometimes – got to my mother's ears, they would certainly be in trouble," Sirius said, putting his legs over the arm of the chair, almost lying across it at that point. "But I couldn't just tell you something and make your worried for nothing. You know how much your feelings are involved in your transformation; telling you something like that was asking your next transformation to tear you apart."

"Well, too bad. Now I know," Remus grumbled.

Peter sighed. "This mood is terrible."

Remus glared at him through the corner of his eyes but said nothing to contradict what Peter had said. He did, however, take a sip of the tea that he had requested for the house-elves to bring him – lavender tea; James swore upon it having calming effects.

"I can try to talk to her," James offered.

Remus turned to James.

"Have you ever talked to my sister?" he asked.

James hesitated.

"Yes, actually, I have," he answered.

Remus seemed to be caught by surprised by such confession.

"When?" he asked.

"A few times," James answered. "I know that you don't like it, Remus, you don't need to glare at me, but your sister is not nearly as bad as you seem to think. I talked to her a couple of times when I saw in the library last year and in the corridor this year, nothing much. Actually, I thought you knew about this last time – Evans saw us. She's one of your best friends as well, I would've imagined she would've told you."

"She told me that she saw you snogging a blonde– oh, good Heavens!"

"I didn't snog your bloody sister! For Merlin's sake, Remus!" James said, jumping up from his seat. "When the hell have I snogged anyone?"

"Last year –" Peter started.

"That was an accidental snog after someone put a potion in my drink," James said, cutting Peter off and glaring at him. "Luna was crying, I hugged her and let her cry, no more than that. What I'm trying to say is that I know what state that 'Ullu Ka Patha' left her, and I doubt that Regulus Black will leave her at any similar state. Even if we don't like him or his family, we do know that he had no reputation of leaving girls broken and crying."

Sirius looked at his friend with his eyebrows raised at the light-hearted insult.

After so many years living so closely to James, most people of Gryffindor had learned a few important words in Hindi, being called 'son of an owl' had become most common that they had imagined when they started school. Sirius had even taken upon himself using it and even speaking some other words near Euphemia and Fleatmont, who usually laughed at his attempts and corrected his speech.

Remus nodded.

"You're right. It can't be that serious," Remus nodded.

"Yeah," Peter added in. "It can't be that bad."

Sirius pushed some of his curls away from his face with his hand, blowing some off his eyes.

"If I promise to keep an eye on them, will you calm down?" Sirius asked to Remus. "I'm sure that if things go too far, Luna will listen to me."

James looked away, holding back an annoyed scoff, but couldn't hold back the roll of his eyes. He hid his feelings well enough by turning away from everybody, staring at the ceiling with determination.

"I'll keep an eye on both of them as well," James said, not looking at anybody. "At least that will make sure that Sirius doesn't mess up."

Peter raised his eyebrows, but said nothing.

After all, there was nothing to be said, because the subject wasn't brought up again until a couple of days later.

It was October 15th when, on their way to Care of Magical Creatures (the only class that Remus didn't share with the rest of the Marauders, for it was a class that he refused to take no matter how long Sirius begged him to), Peter, James and Sirius saw the forming couple once more.

Sirius had just taken Peter into a headlock, using his knuckles to mess up his hair in a painful way. Peter was trying not to scream too loud and push Sirius away from him at the same time. James was laughing at the scene, teasing Peter about not being strong enough to push Sirius away from him by himself. And then, Sirius froze, arm around Peter's throat tightening suddenly.

"Oh, shit," Sirius grumbled.

Peter understood his shock and disgust almost right away when his eyes met Luna and Regulus, even if he could hardly breathe under his friend's control.

Regulus was carrying Luna's bag in his shoulder alongside his and her books in his arm, silently walking beside her as she was saying something and – more than anything else – he was holding her hand with his free hand.

The people that were walking nearby did turn to look twice at the now very public couple were doing, some even stopping instead of going to class just to watch the scene as they walked by.

"I don't know about you, but it seems pretty serious to me," James said.

"Oh, Remus is going to kill me," Sirius grumbled.

"I think that might happen no matter what, Remus will be angry at you," James said, voice lower, forgetting for a moment that Peter was right there. Peter said nothing, just stayed froze in place, trying to breathe. "We need to talk to Luna. Does she know anything about your family?"

"I'm sure she knows enough," Sirius answered.

"Sirius –" Peter choked out.

James almost jumped out of his skin, turning to look at Peter once more and gasping, hands grabbing Sirius' arm to pry it away from their smaller friend.

"Merlin's Beard!" James said. "Sirius, you're choking him! Ease up!"

"Fuck!" Sirius exclaimed, finally letting Peter go. Peter fell to the ground, gasping to for air "Wormy, are you alright, mate? Merlin's Tits. I'm sorry. I'm so sorry, I got distracted."

Peter tried his very best to nod with his hands around his own throat to ease the throbbing, he focused on breathing, but only gasps came. Sirius was on his knees in front of him in a second, eyes wide and scared.

James watched the couple disappear around the corridor.

"Wormtail, you alright?" James asked, not looking down at him.

"Yeah," Peter choked out.

"Then up you come," he said, offering him his hand, still not looking at him. "We got to tell Remus that, perhaps, he might need to worry."

Peter took his friend's hand and allowed him to pull his body to stand up.

People often underestimated Peter's capacity to understand things that were happening around him and keep himself silent, so Sirius didn't even try to hide the way that he was uncomfortable and staring at where Luna and Regulus disappeared.

Luna hoped her hand was not sweating so much, even though she was so nervous. She had never held somebody's hand for quite such a long time before. Remus and her mother would hold her hand when she was small, leading her around or crossing the street. Her dad still would hold her hand when they were walking outside, especially in the markets and parks. There was Pandora, of course, but she didn't like physical touching, so they would walk side by side most of the time, but not holding each other as most of the other girls did.

But holding Regulus' hand was surprisingly nerve wrecking.

She had done so much more than that before. She knew the feeling of intertwined lips and limbs, but it was the intertwining of her fingers with someone else's that made her press her lips together.

"Everybody's looking," she whispered.

Regulus didn't even glance around.

"I thought that was the very reason we started this," he answered.

She looked at him, one of her braids slipping over her shoulder and falling to her chest. He didn't look away from their way, still holding her hand with his free hand and holding her books with the other.

"Not all those people," she admitted.

"If it comforts you, an apoplexy almost happened to Sirius once he saw us walking by," he said.

She looked around, surprised.

"He was here? I didn't see him," she said.

Regulus smiled to himself. That grin became rather charming once he turned to look at her.

"Isn't it for the better, Luna?" he asked, tasting her first name.

He had been avoiding calling her anything at all, afraid of slipping into calling her 'Miss Lupin' amongst the common public; while he said that he was supposed to call her 'Miss Lupin' in front of their parents, they both knew that they were to call each other by their first names when they were amongst people their own age or assumed that they were "alone".

She nodded.

"Yeah, it's for the better," she said, even if she wasn't all that convinced.

Her anger did help her mind to protect itself from believing that whatever Sirius did to said to her was true or meant to actually hurt now that she knew that he had been purposefully cruel to her. However, it seemed to her that no matter how angry she was, her heart still tried to find him – search for a single look or position that would harbour hope... even if she knew that she wouldn't find anything. This masochism was hurtful and harmful, but she couldn't control herself, even if Regulus' presence did seem to lessen the effect of her own thoughts against her.

She slowed down her walking, making Regulus accompany her rhythm.

"Is everything alright?" he asked, turning to look at her.

"You're already late to your class, you don't need to walk me all the way up to the Divination's Classroom," she said.

Regulus opened his mouth to answer her, but closed it right away when a group of Ravenclaw girls walked by, a lot closer than they probably needed to and gawking at them. He cleared his throat and waited for them to pass by, until they were far enough to hear their conversation.

Letting go of her hand, he put his hand on her shoulder.

"Going after him –" he started.

"I'm really not going to follow him," she promised, cutting him off, even though she knew that he hated it. "I'm not too far away from the classroom. I can walk by myself there and not make you late."

He shrugged, taking his hand away from her shoulder.

"I don't mind at all," he said.

"Regulus –"

"I really don't mind walking you to class, Luna. I'm supposed to be in Transfiguration, and we both know how I feel about the subject," he said with a small smirk. "Besides, I've already warned Evan to tell Professor McGonagall that I wouldn't go to class right away, that I might be tardy. I need to go to the Hospital Wing today."

She frowned.

"Are you alright?" she asked, worried.

His smirk grew into another charming smile as he nodded.

"I am," he soothed her. "I need to pick up potions from Madame Pomfrey." He put his hand into his pocket. "It's not for me, but the person that needs such potions isn't allowed to request such a thing."

Realising that he wouldn't talk about whoever actually needed to potion, she nodded.

"Is that something that you cannot brew yourself?" she asked.

"Thought I'm known for a talent in potions, I fear that such psychological potions might be too fickle for my complete comfort. I wouldn't dare for my own hands to poison someone that I care about," he answered. "Madame Pomfrey is more than capable of doing so, and I spend only time to get it from her, not to actually brew it."

She smiled.

"Well, if you don't mind walking me, then I cannot complain," she said.

He offered her his hand once more. She took it without even looking around to see if there was someone watching, after all it was better to be safe than sorry.

She looked down at their joined hands as they started walking again.

"You wear a lot of rings," she said.

Though he was quite aware of what rings he used, Regulus still glanced down at their hands. He nodded.

"I like rings," he explained poorly.

"What are they for?" she asked.

Regulus hesitated but took a deep breath and licked his bottom lip before answering and pulling his left hand away from hers again. However, he showed his right hand to her first.

"This one is the Black Family Ring; all children of the family get one once they receive their letter to Hogwarts. It's the only ring that grows alongside our hands. This is our family stone and this gold was melted from the first handful of gold the family puts in the vault of the newborn," he explained. "It's an old family tradition, much older than most families."

The ring he pointed at was at his right forefinger. It was a somewhat thick ring with space for a rectangular stone that Luna took a few seconds to place for its odd colour.

"It's black-ish," she mentioned.

"It's just a diamond," he explained. "Magical diamonds can be of any colours one wants, but in our family it's almost always black. Narcissa's changed colours, though."

"Narcissa?" she asked.

"My older cousin," he answered. "She finished school last year."

"Oh, yes. Now I remember her. Why did hers change colours?" she asked.

Regulus shrugged.

"Sometimes it happens. We're not sure why, and its quite rare to happen. However, my father has a theory – he has a theory for a lot of things. Since diamonds are known to absorb and amplify the thoughts, strengths and weaknesses of their users, Father thinks that she might have changed abruptly during the time that the diamond changed colours."

"And what colour is it now?" she asked.

He turned to smile at her.

"Blue," he said. "A greyish sort of blue very similar to our family's eyes."

"Sounds beautiful," she whispered to herself.

"Oddly enough, it's the very colour of her possible fiancé's House colour," he added, smile growing. "After such change, one would think my uncle and aunt would put the wedding in its starting tracks, but they seem to think that poor Lucius Malfoy needs to work and get respect from the Ministry – grovel to their friends, if you will – before being allowed into marrying the family."

Oh, she thought. So the change of the colour of her stone could also be called true love. Almost a fairytale concept for such a cold family.

"They don't approve?"

"Oh, they do," Regulus said, shaking his head. "They just don't like the fame the Malfoys seemed to have gathered since they came to England a couple of generations back. According to rumours, they are known for being sly negotiators that take more than one can give with their silver-tongue." He shrugged. "If there's one thing that my family hates is losing money into a useless transaction."

She frowned at his wording but said nothing.

"And that one?" she asked, looking at his other finger.

Still in his right hand, in his ring finger, there was another ring. That one was silver, she realised, and most likely real and expensive singer with one famous and expected gemstone on top of it: an emerald. That ring was different though, for the silver seemed to try to cover the stone, protecting it from anybody that dared as much as look at it.

"Oh, this one I got from my mother in my fifteen-year-old birthday," he said, showing it to her. "Emerald for the House of Slytherin, you see; silver because it looks better with green than gold, according to her, though I might disagree somewhat. One of my favourite rings, but otherwise meaningless."

"It's beautiful," she complimented.

"Thank you." He cleared his throat before showing her his left hand. "This one in my middle finger is pure silver. Used to be my Uncle Cygnus ring, it's usually given to the second son of the family – since my father, who is from the main branch of the family, didn't have any siblings, it went to his cousin: my Uncle Cygnus. Uncle had no males, so the ring came back to me."

The ring was indeed pure silver, but there were carvings in it. His House's Coat of Arms and something else that she couldn't recognise.

"What is that, carved in the middle?" she asked.

"The first second son in the family's initials," he explained. "His name was Florian Blanche. He and his brother were the ones that first came to England way too many generations ago to count and changed their surnames to 'Black'."

"But 'Blanche' is supposed to be 'white', isn't it?" she asked.

He nodded.

"Well, they wanted their initials to be the same still for when they wrote letters, but they weren't very creative, unfortunately," he jokingly answered. She chuckled. "However, they were very charming and landed themselves a lot of money and a comfortable position and title with the King of England at the time."

She smiled.

"It must be nice to know all of that about your family," she said.

"Most purebloods here know about their families just as much as me, perhaps even more, since I was never one to History," he admitted.

"Well, I'm not a pureblood," she said.

"Do you know anything about your family?" he asked.

She thought for a second as they still walked, biting down on her lip with a guilty weight of shame on her heart.

"Some," she admitted.

He looked at her and raised his eyebrows.

"Do go on, now you made me curious," he insisted.

"My family's history is not nearly as heroic as yours, you can be sure. None of us became friends with kings and queens or got a title out of anything," she warned him beforehand. He chuckled, but nodded. "Well, my mother's mother is from Portugal and her father is half-Spanish, half-German, but was raised mostly in Spain, so her surname is Jensen. My father's family has been Welsh since... well, since the first generation that they can find, however his mother was Irish."

"And what do they do to come here? Your mother's family, I mean. They are Muggles, are they not?" he asked.

She hesitated, glancing at him with some tension in her shoulders, but nodded.

"Yes, they are. Well, my grandfather was a very important doctor in Spain, a neurologist, but he got sick and the treatment was better in London, so he was sent here, but my mother was young; six or seven years old, so she got very well situated and fast, and so did her older sister. When he was healed, it seemed rather cruel to get them away from their friends and the language that they had learned, so they stayed," she explained.

He watched her for a second.

"And your grandmother?"

"She was a wife and mother," she answered. "That's plenty a job."

Regulus frowned.

"Well, you said that you wanted to keep working after marriage and I thought Muggles did that," he explained his line of thought.

"Not all of them, and especially not at the time," she said. "My mother kept working after she married my father. She was a clerk in Cardiff's courthouse, finishing her university studies in Nursing. Daddy helped her through it, she finished her course and kept on working throughout the whole marriage." Regulus bit the inside of his cheeks. "It wasn't why they divorced," she added when she noticed him holding himself back. "My dad never cared that she worked, he actually liked it, it taught us independence."

Regulus almost started laughing, but nodded.

"Well, this is your stairs," he said, stopping and taking her bag from his shoulder, putting the books that were in his hand into it before offering it back to her. "Have a good day in Divination, Luna."

She smiled as she took the bag from him.

"Have a good day skipping Transfiguration, Regulus."

I hope you all liked it. This one was really fun to write. Thank you so much for reading.

So: what do we expect from Walburga 'The Gossip' Black?