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....THE PLAN OF action was simple. So easy that it was practically child's play. If Jude knew how to manipulate anyone, it was a foolish man. And Regulus Black was a prime example of a foolish man.
Jude was excellent at reading people. Even when she was little and had not yet been hardened by the horrors of war, she had been observant. She could always tell when Cécile had been lying by the twitch of her nose, when her father was more tired than usual from the hunch in his shoulders.
Humans were glaringly obvious and open creatures, even when they thought themselves elusive. And Regulus was exactly the type of person who fancied himself unreadable.
She had spent those few hours after dinner last night analyzing the boy and she had come to a solid conclusion. Black was driven by his inflated ego. Everything he did was in an effort to keep up this cold, calculated front that he had going on. And it would take just a few well thought out jabs to have this fragile ego crumbling into pieces.
He had spent so long being treated like a lord in pureblood society and now he was so selfish that it made Jude's stomach churn. His every motive was rooted in what would benefit him most. He ran on pride and image and self-preservation.
She desperately wanted to kill him. She wanted to hunt him down like the vermin that he was. She was eager to let him run just far enough that he would think he was safe, only to shoot him down before he could escape. But she couldn't do that quite yet, so public humiliation would just have to do.
She had to hit him where it would hurt.
She'd need to get her little digs in all day long and there seemed like no better time to start than the present. When she hopped out of bed, she genuinely had a spring in her step and while she dressed, she tried not to dwell on the fact that making others miserable put her in such a chirpy mood.
Surprisingly enough, she found Regulus in the kitchen, even though it was nowhere near his usual noon waking time. Upon spotting Pandora rooting around in the pantry for extra flour, it became blatantly apparent why he had risen so early. She had presumed that the boy would be smart enough to heed her warning and stay away from Pandora.
