Starry skies and Gardenias

Chapter 185

Regulus stared at the ceiling overhead, falling back onto the bed.

"What?" he said.

"Confusing?" Isabella said, trying to smile, but it looked more like a grimace.

"No, no. . .what?" Regulus muttered. 

He had been listening. Very carefully, that too. But somewhere, it stopped making sense. But at the same time, it made sense.

He did get the answer to a very bothersome question, "How?"

Now he knew how she knew all that, because she had read those 'books'. Who even came up with stuff like this? 

"So you know all this stuff about Voldy because of these books," Regulus said slowly. "And you knew about how people were going to die and stuff because of these books. . .And the protagonist is Harry? The unborn baby of Lily and James?"

Isabella nodded.

She noticed that Regulus was no longer calling Voldemort as 'Dark Lord' as he used to. He had switched to the Marauders way and there was a harsh bitterness whenever he said his name. . .Was it because of her again?

"And you lied away easily," Regulus said with a small glare. "About how my mannerisms had changed when I got the mark,"

Isabella didn't think he was grumpy about that even now. 

"And this kid is supposed to be the 'Chosen One'. . . We aren't really mentioned much, are we?" Regulus said, more to himself than anyone.

"I might have some proof," Isabella said and slid off the bed, went towards her trunk and returned with a black metal box. 

"I found this in Vauxhall street," she said. "That's where I lived in my past life, the reason why the place visited my dreams so many times. It just recently made sense why I would find this box there,"

She placed the box before him.

"It might burn you," she said as he reached out for it. 

Regulus paused for a second, then touched the lid. He immediately pulled his hands back with a yelp. 

Sure enough, his fingertips were blistering with angry red burns.

Isabella sighed and took his hands in hers, before running her fingers over them, healing them instantly.

"You've gotten stronger," he said. "Your magic,"

"Yes," Isabella said, but she didn't look happy about it at all.

"But even simple spells require a lot of energy," she said dejectedly. "I've been drinking health potions more than I'm having water, and I'm supposed to be seventy per cent water,"

Regulus could see it. 

The difference was almost alarming. 

The Isabella he knew would never have been this way. . .And he also noticed that she had been smiling a lot. It was not a true smile, a forced one that she seemed to have practised for years.

She seemed to have become smoother in lying, but it was not Isabella's style at all. And he could see the differences blaring at him.

But he didn't want to say anything. He had just gotten her back. 

And so what if she had been through two lives? She just happened to remember both, unlike others. . .And that had messed with both her head and soul a bit, but she was fine. ..Right?

She had a tough life last time, and even now, it wasn't the best. She was going through a lot, he wasn't going to add to that burden.

Isabella took the lid off easily, and the metal didn't burn her as it had done to him.