𝙍𝙚𝙙𝙪𝙘𝙩𝙤 {𝙎𝙞𝙧𝙞𝙪𝙨 𝘽𝙡𝙖𝙘𝙠}

Twenty One

Raina hopped off of the Hogwarts express, happy to finally be back to her real home once again. She had sat alone in her compartment, unable to find Regulus, and so, that was her first priority.

She walked into the castle, smiling at the familiar scent of fire wood and rosemary. And as everyone began to make their way into the Great Hall for the start of term feast, Raina followed.

The hall looked the same, spotlessly clean, ready for a wonderful dinner as children of all ages began to take their seats at their house tables.

Raina spotted Regulus and Evan at the table, looking as if they were talking in hushed voices, in an important, and heated conversation. Raina smiled to herself, walking over to her friends and taking a seat across from Regulus.

"Hello, boys." She smiled at them. "Excited for sixth year?"

Neither boys answered her. Instead, they looked at each other almost uncomfortably, then looked down at the table.

"Hello?" She said, after neither responded. "What's up with you two? All right, Reg?" She asked him, not having seen or heard from him since their night outside of her home.

Regulus clenched his jaw, not responding to her as he kept his eyes on the table. Raina turned her head to Evan, who was also looking down, a look of sadness on his features.

"Reg?" She asked, her heart starting to break slightly. "Reg, why are you ignoring me?"

Regulus stayed silent, he turned his head away from her, not being able to keep his face on the table.

"Evan?" She quietly asked. Evan looked as if he were about to say something, but he had gotten a stern look from Regulus, and looked back down.

Raina stared at the two in disbelief, but neither of them even looked at her. And so, she stood up, and walked over to the Gryffindor table.

"Raina?" James said, as she took a seat next to Peter.

"I don't think you're supposed to sit here on the first day of term." Peter told her.

"Your brother's a prat." She said to Sirius, ignoring Peter and James, while resting her chin on her palm.

"Yeah, tell me something I don't know." He replied to her.

"What'd he do?" Peter asked her.

"He's ignoring me." She stated. "I tried to talk to him and he looked me dead in the eyes and turned away."

"Well are you two arguing?" Remus asked her.

"No."

"Did you say something to offend him?'' Peter tried.

"No." She said, a bit sharper this time.

"Well did you-"

"I ...didn't do anything." She finally told them. "I haven't seen him since he took me home from Narcissa's wedding and we were fine."

"Maybe he's just in a bad mood." Remus tried to reassure her.

"Yeah, or he's just a git." Sirius replied.

"Yeah, I guess." Raina scoffed. Raina stayed at the Gryffindor table, though getting some confused looks from teachers from the staff table she ignored them,

As the sorting ended, and Dumbledore finished his speech, the tables, like every year, magically filled with food. However, Raina didn't touch any food. She left her plate empty as she stared at the back of Regulus' head.

"Are you going to eat?" Peter asked her, his mouth filled with chicken.

"I'm not hungry."

At these words, Regulus' head turned to Raina, his look of concern quickly masked with an attempt to play it off, looking over her and acting as if he were looking for someone else, then turning his head back to Evan, though Raina knew well enough that that wasn't the case.