"Arrogance is a family trait, y'know," Jo comments, with a bit of the wand hanging from between her teeth, grinning wide.

She's always grinning when they're together, as is he. Their time is filled with light laughter, subtle and sweet, airy and soft. It is not the bellowing laughter, not the kind she has with her friends, with her brother, the kind that makes her sides hurt. It is something different with Regulus.

He drops his grin, temporarily, to look down at her with a bit of concern etched into his features. Another emotion Jo has unlocked, slightly downturned lips and a furrow between his brows. "Are you okay?" he questions.

Jo gives him a shrug. "Doing fine, why?"

Regulus sighs deeply, turning his head away from her, training his eyes on the stone floors of the corridors as they march past the steps to the Astronomy Tower. "Well, you got put in the Hospital Wing by some sod you used to date-"

"Sounds real bad when you put it like that."

"-which you seem to be taking a little too lightly, and you look like you got something on your mind. Several things, in fact," Regulus concludes.

Jo bites down on her bottom lip and thinks carefully before she answers. "I've always got something on my mind."

"Tell me about it," Regulus insists, though his tone his light, gentle, not at all forceful.

For a moment, Jo contemplates, thinking of the way Marlene McKinnon was wrapped up in Dorcas's sheets, thinking of the way Dorcas sobbed into her embrace, thinking of that inkling of a feeling that she just doesn't like it. Moreso because of the girl Dorcas chose to snog, less to do with the fact that it's a girl, which Jo repeats to herself many times over. "One of my friends," Jo starts, placing her words carefully, "they're sort of, well, they were hiding something from me. And I found out today."

Regulus blinks. "That's it?"

"Essentially," she confirms with a nod.

"Well?" he prompts back at her.

"Well, what?"

"Was it something bad?"

"No, not at all," Jo is quick to answer. "I mean, I think it's something that might bother other people, and my friend was worried about that. But I don't think any decent person would mind it."

Regulus takes a moment to absorb this, and Jo watches him. He tilts his head back a bit, and she can almost see the way the thoughts are churning in his skull. "Then what's the issue?"

There are many answers Jo can go with, many ways she could talk it out, but she doesn't want to give up any clue, any indication. "It's hard to explain," she eventually settles on.

He scoffs. "You're not usually so reluctant."

"There's just something about the circumstance of it," Jo attempts to clarify, and she never stops to wonder why she's explaining it all to him, or attempting to. Talking to him, saying the words out loud to him, has already made her feel a bit more at ease, a bit more relaxed. "Gives me a gut feeling."

"What kind of gut feeling?" he probes, like he always does, attempting to weed more out of her.

"Could be a number of things. I get a lot of gut feelings. They're usually right," she tells him.

This makes him grin down at her again. "Must be difficult, being usually right about everything," Regulus teases.

"I'm hoping I'm wrong about this one, though," she says with a bit of a sigh in her voice. "I would just like all of my friends to be happy and safe. I think that's what I'm worried about."

This makes Regulus tilt his head; he looks down at her, quizzically. "You're worried about your friends not being safe?"

"Constantly," she answers, and looks back up at him and says, "My friends are muggle-born, Regulus."

And it occurs to Jo in that moment that the muggle-born topic was something she should have dove into with him much sooner. All at once, she feels cold, letting her face drop as he shoves his hands deep into his pockets, keeping his gaze fixed straight ahead, face neutral all at once again. "Well, I think with a friend like you, they'll be alright," Regulus says to her, switching back to his usual detached tone.

Jo feels impossibly small, gut twisting, when she whispers to him, "Does that bother you?"

There is no need for clarification, Regulus knows exactly what she means. "I think it's supposed to. It doesn't," he says, confident and voice a little louder than it has been. Regulus then turns, looks down at Jo with his sharp, green eyes and Jo feels her mouth go dry. "I know you've heard about my family, and what they're like and what they believe. Everyone has. I just like to think I'm nothing like them."

"That's enough, I think," Jo tells him, small smile on her face and in her tone, maintaining the eye contact that makes her feel like squirming. And for whatever reason, Jo reaches out to him, takes his hand in hers and squeezes it tightly. It is, as it was before, ice cold in her warm palm, and she wishes she could pour some of her warmth into him. Jo watches as his pupils go a bit wider, mouth in a thin line, and she drops his hand, letting his swing back to his side.

Regulus clears his throat. "You look tired."

"I feel it," Jo says. "Walk me back to my dorm?"

"Yeah, let's go then."

Jo sleeps well into the next day and wakes up feeling a whole lot better about herself.