As February arrived, the snow was still falling on Hogwarts, the weather was still as cold as January's and the amount of homework for the seventh years was still as huge. And for once, Adena was quite relieved to attend Slug Club. It was finally a good distraction from homework which she had no motivation to do on that evening. Eugenia and her were walking down the hallway. The redhead girl felt somehow excited and it was no surprise for the brunette since she had been complaining about homework for weeks. Upon entering the room, Slughorn welcomed them and they took place at their usual sits. Adena by Regulus' side with Barty Crouch and Rabastan Lestrange on his other side and Eugenia took a seat between Adena and a sixth year Hufflepuff the brunette could never remember the name. She had heard about him, but she had forgotten his name, or wasn't listening. However what she knew was that Eugenia also took a liking in him.

"Nice dress," commented Regulus and Adena snickered. Regulus was so rarely giving that kind of compliments and she couldn't help but laugh since she had worn that dress at the year-end party organized by his family and he clearly had recognized it. She just grinned at him before turning her head the other way when she heard Eugenia talking to the Hufflepuff boy. Her smile widened.

More people started coming in, welcomed by Slughorn and soon the dinner began. As always, Adena was already lost in her thoughts as soon as their teacher started rambling about anything and everything, sometimes interacting with his students. Surprisingly, he directed his conversation towards Adena at some point and she looked up at him, a little confused.

"I recently discovered you and the young Arsene Dubois are relatives. It was a great surprise to know that. I can guess where he got his potions skills," chuckled the joyful man.

"Oh? Really? It's true Arsene's a good student."

"Yeah. And from what I heard from the other students, he's good at many more things, and loves to discover. Definitely someone I should add to this club."

"I'm sure it'll please him a lot, sir."

"I hope he'll become such a model student like you Miss Winsten and have a great career."

"I think he might enroll into Quidditch in the future. I've played with him before and he's really talented for his age," suddenly said Regulus.

The teacher turned his surprise-filled eyes towards the new speaker, Adena doing the same, and chuckled again. "Is that so? I shouldn't be too happy about Slytherin having concurrence then."

He continued talking left and right to other students. The brunette leaned on the side to quietly say these words to her boyfriend, sounding rather pleased, "You really like Arsene. Promoting him even. That's kind."

When he turned to face her, she had a small but happy grin displayed on her lips. "I think... I even consider him as a little brother at this point."

"He thinks the same. You know he really looks up to you," she added, and he nodded. Of course, he knew. Nobody could miss the admirative glint in Arsene's eyes whenever Regulus would do something awesome at Quidditch or would help him complete an exercise the blonde boy hadn't understood. And such admiration coming from the young boy was far from being displeasing for him. They became much closer than she would have expected, spending actual time together, interacting with each other even when Adena was not there. The girl felt really happy when hearing about this, knowing how Regulus was going past his boundaries as a supporter of the pure blood supremacy. He was definitely more open, even to her friends. And she was glad. No, she did not try to change him, she didn't even expect him to have friendly encounters with her comrades, he only chose it himself. She liked to see him discover other people and evolving in this positive way.

The next weeks were filled with excitement regarding the new Hogsmeade visit for Valentine's day and the new Quidditch matches since the snow had stopped falling. For Adena it was not so important. She would bring Regulus along with her for Hogsmeade visit but they wouldn't do all the sappy things couples from Hogwarts do at Hogsmeade, like visiting Madam Puddifoot's tea shop, which unlike Adena, Eugenia had planned to visit with her new love interest. There was no need to talk about that, it would just be a normal day. She liked doing something different with him. Like she had decided, she wanted him to enjoy his youth as long as he could, and since Hogsmeade visits were becoming rarer and rarer for the older students, there was no other option than to enjoy the last moments in the village. As for the Quidditch matches, the brunette couldn't help but feel a little more excited since Ravenclaw was the favourite this year as well as the top team for now. They already won two matches and there was a chance for them to win the cup.

"We have a chance to win too you know," told her Regulus boastfully one day as they were walking to class.

"I know, but I want my house to win this year..." whined the girl.

"Actually, I don't think we'll win the cup this year," added more seriously the boy. "We already lost one match. And even if we win the next one, Ravenclaw still could win and so be first since they would have won their three matches. There's more chance for your house."

"That's good then. Jacob has been waiting this for so long. As the captain he'll be even prouder."

Just as Regulus predicted it, Slytherin didn't win the cup with year, making them, second alongside Hufflepuff who also won two matches out of three, and Gryffindor last for the first times in decades. Adena could swear she saw Jacob cry out of joy when the Ravenclaw victory was announced. When she looked to her side, even Arsene was crying as well since he was the emotional type.

"You're coming to the party tonight, you don't have a choice," said Adena in Regulus' ear through the cheers of her housemates surrounding them.

"The last part was unnecessary. As if I would decline spending time with you," replied the boy with an amused look.

Back at school, Jacob was engulfed in hugs and cheers, and he looked very touched.

"I want to become a great captain like you," told him Arsene, his eyes still sparkling with both tears and a glint of admiration.

"I'm sure you can," replied the older boy.

For Arsene, Jacob was like a model, as much as Regulus was. Adena really enjoyed seeing important people in her life being so important as well for her cousin. Her attention was soon focused again on Jacob who was tightly hugging Noah out of the crowd of cheering Ravenclaws. She couldn't tell what their relationship was, nor would she ask, but she was sure they meant a lot for each other. 

The party started pretty early at the Ravenclaw common room, some people like Jacob and his team skipped dinner to have fun for a longer time. Adena still preferred enjoying the much calmer Great Hall for a while before coming back to her common room.

"I'll join you after my shift ends," said Regulus in the middle of the hallway they were in. He then left a sweet kiss on her soft lips, filled with all his affection, one hand gently tugging at her brown curls, his lids close, looking so peaceful in that moment. A year and a half after dating, he was still so good at making the brunette lose her mind.

Back in the common room, Adena was unsurprised to see many of her housemates had already enjoyed a few glasses of Firewhisky.

"Here's my favorite girl!" yelled Jacob. "Have a drink cutie," he said as he gave her a glass. She stared at him strangely because of his choice of words. He returned the gaze and said nervously, "Don't tell Black I said that. I'm just being friendly."

His behavior could be so funny when he was tipsy that she couldn't help but laugh. "Don't worry. I don't think he even cares."

"Oh, he's coming right?"

"Yeah, after patrolling."

"Great, gonna enjoy this night of victory with my best mate!" yelled again the blonde boy. And Adena laughed again, just knowing how close he could become to people he wasn't close to usually and knowing how Regulus wasn't the type to party like him.

After he let go of her and went back to dance with the others, the young girl found herself in a calmer corner of the common room where she could sip her Firewisky without getting bothered. However, it didn't go as planned as Eugenia walked up to her. Her cheeks were flushed from what she could guess was the alcohol, until she started talking.

"I kissed Conan. And he kissed me back," she exclaimed with wide eyes.

"Wait, who?"

"Conan. The guy from Slug Club."

"Oh, the guy you like," chuckled Adena.

"Hm. Yes. Well, we kissed!" she said again more excitedly.

Her happiness filled the brunette with a feeling of contentedness.

author's note: always so thankful for the reads, and this story has reached 60k reads omg it's incredible! thank you for reading, and if you're still here, thank you staying! i know it's long and i will probably go into heavy editing once it's done but just to mention, less than 20 chapters are left, we're reaching the end