Winter 1976, Malfoy Manor

The wedding of Lucius Malfoy and Narcissa Black - now Malfoy - had been such a boring event. But as the best man of the groom, Ariel Malfoy had to keep a distinguished attitude. The young man had always been known for his elegant manners although people would rarely talk about him in comparison to his elder brother and father. However, recently, this boy had been gaining attention for his charismatic and good looks and he was now a major subject of discussion among all the ladies of his community. He had yet to have the same reputation as his relatives but rumors saying a Malfoy boy with a charming and flirty attitude that was in age of marrying were spreading like wildfire.

At least this day had some positive aspects. The first one being Narcissa - whom he greatly appreciated - that was now officially his sister-in-law, and the second being the fact that for once she was too busy greeting all sorts of guests, making her unavailable to introduce him some young girls in age of marrying too. And so, Ariel was enjoying this night of "freedom"  to do what he had been assigned to do : discuss, make acquaintances among guests as famous as his father, create his reputation, find a potential spouse of course... The usual for him ever since he was born, but these missions were now essential like had said his father as he was slowly approaching graduation. For Ariel it was still one year and a half away but for his father it was only a matter of months.

At the moment, Ariel was discussing with a couple in their sixties, mostly talking to the woman though. It was such a mere thing to get favors of ladies, with just a smirk of his finely-curved scarlet lips or a wave of his fair blond hair lightly brushing his forehead. It was enough to seduce them and make them approve of every one of his following words. His favorite subjects being obviously the rise of the Dark Lord as well as the supremacy of their pure blood, would keep everyone's attention anyway. Those people all adored hearing the amount of eloquence he would use to describe such awful and cruel acts and maybe he was taking a certain pleasure in receiving this much attention.

The man and the woman were closely listening to his every word, they were so focused on what he was saying that they didn't even notice the stare of Ariel slowly averting towards another direction. Not far behind the couple, the eyes of a boy, not much younger than him, were intently fixing him, showing he too seemed very much interested in his words. His expression didn't falter, he kept a charming look while looking back at him from time to time. Unfortunately, the boy had disappeared from sight by this end of his conversation, which was a small disappointment he must admit.

And as expected, his new sister-in-law came to find him.

"Ariel! There's the Rowle girl right there if you're interested," she whispered, showing a direction with her head. The Rowle girl was in fact there, looking at him in what she thought was in a discreet way, but he didn't show the least interest in her.

"I saw, yes, I'll greet her later. Anyway, Cissy you look splendid in that dress," he replied with a charming grin placed on his features. Like any other girl, Narcissa didn't resist his looks and blushed slightly at the compliment.

"Aw, still as gentlemanly Ariel, thank you."

As she finished her sentence, something caught her attention and she lightly grabbed Ariel's wrist, guiding him through the crowd.

"My baby cousin is hiding there. I haven't seen him yet," she said in an almost whining voice before adding, "Come greet him with me."

They walked together until reaching the opposite side of the large ballroom, and Ariel recognized the boy who was staring at him earlier.

"Hello Cissy. Congratulations," said the smooth voice of Regulus Black.

"Thank you Reg!" exclaimed Narcissa as she and her cousin shared a quick embrace. "I brought Ariel with me, but you've seen him before, right?"

"Ariel Malfoy. Of course. Nice to see you," replied nonchalantly Regulus as he brought out his hand for Ariel to shake, which he did. It was soft and tepid, he noted.

"It's not the first party we attend, and we're at Hogwarts together, remember. Although we've never had real occasions to discuss since Regulus is in fifth year, am I right?"

"Yes. I'm in fifth year," answered Regulus.

"Well, well. I guess I can leave you have a small chat to get to know each other then," said the blond girl, smiling, before leaving the two together.

For some short seconds they stayed quiet, then Ariel's eye caught something and he said, "Champagne?"

"Oh, I'm only fifteen," replied Regulus calmly.

His response made Ariel chuckle lightly which made a frown appear on Regulus' features. He directed himself to the table to their side and took two flutes of champagne, offering one to Regulus.

"Well, maybe you don't know it, but I've only reached seventeen a few weeks ago. And before, age didn't stop me from drinking. Just have a drink, it's fine, this won't even get you merry. And if it does, I'll take the entire responsibility," he said, chuckling again before taking a sip of his beverage.

Regulus noticed Ariel's voice had lost its pompous tone from earlier which he used to interact with the old couple, but it still sounded as mellow, sensuous and mesmerizing.

After contemplating for a while, he just shrugged and allowed himself to have a taste of the bubbly liquid. His lips were drawn in a tight line as he examined the glass of alcohol in his hand.

"It's my first time drinking alcohol," muttered the raven-haired male once the sip had been swallowed. And Ariel chuckled again.

"You'll get used don't worry."

They stayed quiet again while drinking. Regulus Black wasn't the talkative type, thought Ariel. His blue eyes watched him appreciate the bitter taste of the alcohol very slowly. He scanned and detailed every little thing as he observed him with the ghost of a grin on his lips. He was barely two inches smaller, but he definitely looked younger. For a moment it struck him how similar he looked to his elder brother, Sirius, a fellow classmate who was an insufferable Gryffindor git. They surely had the same wild dark curls, the same haughty features and handsome looks that were typical of their family but they didn't give off the same aura at all. And Ariel was sure, if he looked closer he wouldn't discern the same look in his eyes as well.

"It's crazy..."

"Hm?" just said Regulus, returning his focus on him.

"It's crazy, how come you and I, we've never had any real conversation before. I'm pretty sure I always talk to the two thirds of the guests whenever I attend this sort of little parties, and still, I've missed you every single time. It's rather sad since you're Narcissa's dear little cousin, I would've loved to get to know you before," murmured Ariel, his piercing blue eyes staring directly into Regulus' grey ones, the ghost of a smile tugged on his scarlet lips as he talked. He too, was mesmerized now, thought the boy.

Regulus was in fact mesmerized yes. His tone of voice was so pleasant, it sounded like a melody to his ears, and the look in his eyes was so intense, he swore his heart stopped beating for a second. So that was how strong was the effect of Ariel Malfoy.

He came back to his senses quickly, looking nonchalant as per usual as he replied in a disinterested voice, "You know, we'll be able to meet and talk more often once I'll become a Death Eater." But there was a hint of smugness in his tone of voice as he said these words.

"Is that so? I'll be glad to have you as my partner then. Though I believe we won't have to wait that long. Lucius told me your integration was set for next summer? We'll have plenty of time to get to know each other at Hogwarts you'll see," whispered his soft voice and shivers ran down the back of Regulus, not that he let it show.

There was definitely something interesting in Regulus, Ariel couldn't hide his sudden appeal.

author's note: hi, welcome! this is the author, i'm so happy to finally post this! i've been waiting for this for so long and as much as i'm excited, i can't help being a little nervous even though that's my second story! if you haven't read my first story (lost in the stars) which is still on going, i'll make a quick introduction about myself. so i've started writing last year thanks to my college writing classes. the classes were for writing in english because i'm actually not a native speaker so i apologize if you see any mistakes. feel free to correct me or let me know if you find something weird. but just letting you know that i am fluent obviously or i wouldn't be writing stories in english.

this story is very important to me. the first reason is that, if you hadn't understood already, this is a lgbt story and i'm happy to contribute to the normalization of lgbt romance. i hope my lgbt characters are good characters, that represent well our amazing community. if you feel like something is inappropriate let me know of course! and so obviously any homophobic comment will be reported.
the second reason why this is important to me isn't because this story has become a safe place to me. last year, when i started writing this, i was having hard times in my job and someday in june i believe the inspiration came and i started taking notes whenever i could. and when i came back from work i'd start writing and this has become what it is now!

i most likely started in july and ended writing in september or october. this is shorter than my first story and if i had to be honest, this is also better. i'm more satisfied with this and so i hope you'll like it as much as i do!

thank you for starting this, it means the world to me<3

(btw, if you read lost in the stars, you can see that i'm reusing my original characters here! i hope you can see another side of them!)