Song for this chapter: Only Love Can Hurt Like This - Paloma Faith

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When I wake up the next morning, it takes me a second to realize where I am. Regulus's dormitory, wearing one of his jumpers.

He's still asleep, his breathing steady.

I have a throbbing headache, and the room feels like it's spinning.

How did I get here?

I rack through my brain for answers, but only get snippets of last night.

Shots. Talking to Thomas. Leaving. Sitting in the dungeons. Lucinda. Regulus.

I remember the important things, but I have no idea what I said to Regulus last night. I must not have said anything, considering the fact that I'm sleeping curled up in bed with him.

The curtains are still drawn, but I can hear his roommates. I can clearly hear Evan's voice, which is getting louder.

I sit up, running a hand through my hair, which is now completely tangled. My head is pounding.

Regulus shifts slightly, and reaches over. When he realizes that I'm no longer curled into his side, his eyes fly open.

I grab his hand, and our eyes meet.

"You're still here," He whispered, his voice groggy.

I nodded, "Always."

I still need to talk to him. I've been awake for less than five minutes, and I'm violently hungover, but we need to talk.

There was a lot of noise outside of the closed curtains. Someone was rummaging around the entire dorm, muttering profanities. Evan.

I stifled a laugh and laid back down next to Regulus, running my hand through his hair.

"Reg, are you awake? I can't find-"

The curtains flew open, and Regulus quickly covered me with his arm. I ducked my head into his side, not knowing which of his dorm mates were still here.

"Hey Meredith," Evan said. "Anyways, my beaters bat?"

"Evan-"

Evan interrupted Regulus. "Relax, no one else is here," He said. "Now, my beaters bat?"

I turned my head to see Evan, who was standing at the side of the bed with his hands on his hips.

"Hey, Evan," I muttered.

Regulus rolled his eyes. "Did you check under your bed?"

Evan's eyes lit up, and he went to check under his head. A few seconds later, he reemerged with his bat."

"Thanks mate," Evan cheered. "See you guys later."

Evan left the dorm, closing the door behind him, leaving Regulus and I alone.

"Reg-"

"Is this about last night?" He asked. "You said you wanted to talk about something."

I was starting to get cold feet. "Uh-, I was really drunk," I admitted.

Regulus nodded, "I know, but it's still important to me if it is to you."

I got out of his bed and began pacing. Regulus sat up and watched me.

"Meredith."

"It was about what Marlene said to me yesterday," I said. "We got into this fight, and she said something that I can't stop thinking about."

Regulus gave me a confused look, "Okay. What were you fighting about?"

"She found out. She pieced things together or something, but she found out."

"About us?"

I nodded, "Yes, about us."

"And what did she say?" Regulus asked.

That you're a Death Eater.

I didn't answer him. I just kept pacing around the room in his jumper.

Regulus got out of bed and stood by the foot of his bed, watching me pace.

"What did she say?"

I stood in front of him and I looked over at him, meeting his eyes. His eyes were puffy from sleep and his hair was an absolute mess.

"Marlene said that you're a Death Eater," I admitted, watching his face. My heart rate was through the roof as I waited for him to say something.

Regulus sighed, "Oh."

"That's what I said," I rambled. "I told her that she was being crazy and judgemental, because that would be insane, right?"

Regulus didn't say anything.

I looked up at him, feeling my heart slowly start to fall to my stomach.

"Right?" I asked again.

Regulus shook his head, "Meredith."

I took a step back from him and began to pace again. My head hurt so bad and I felt like this was all a bad dream that I want to wake up from so badly.

"No, no, no," I muttered.

Regulus reached out for me, but I stepped away, brushing his hand off of me.

"Meredith, you need to listen to me-"

I tilted my head to look at him. He had such a look of pain on his face, and I'm sure that my expression matched.

"You're one of them?" I asked, my voice breaking.

Regulus looked down at the ground not saying anything.

I could feel the tears forming in my eyes. "You're a Death Eater?" I questioned.

Regulus nodded, looking at me with glassy eyes.

I covered my mouth with my hand.

No, no, no.

"Meredith, please just listen-"

I turned towards him. "Then speak! I'm leaving, so you better start talking now."

"I didn't want to," Regulus said. "I never wanted this."

I felt like I could physically feel my heart breaking.

"But you did!" I replied, raising my voice. "You took the Mark! You did it anyway!"

Regulus had tears threatening to spill out of his eyes and run down his face as he stared at me. "I know, but now it's too late, and-"

"It's never too late!"

Tears were streaming down my face now as we stood on opposite sides of the room, our voices raised.

"Meredith, please."

I shook my head, feeling like I was going to be sick.

"I want to see it," I muttered.

Regulus stared at me.

I stepped closer towards him. "I want to see it, Regulus."

He stared at me as he held out his left arm. Regulus was breaking in front of me, along with everything that we had built. He slowly lifted up his sleeve to reveal his forearm.

Sure enough, the Mark was tattooed against his pale skin.

I didn't say anything, I just turned away from him. I pulled on my jeans and slipped on my shoes. I ripped off his jumper and threw it on his bed, putting my own shirt back on.

"Meredith," Regulus pleaded.

I didn't listen, I just finished putting my clothes back on.

"Please, you have to understand."

I walked over to the door, tears streaming down my face.

"Goodbye, Regulus."

"Please, don't leave me-"

His words were cut off as the door closed behind me.

I quickly went down the stairs, walking through the common room to leave.

Considering the fact that it was a Sunday morning, the common room was empty aside from a few people here or there. All of whom gave me weird looks.

I left the Slytherin common room, my heart breaking as I walked through the corridor.

Marlene was right.

He is a Death Eater.

And I was just naive.