02. REQUISITE PROMISES

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CHAPTER TWO

-: seventh year :-

CHAPTER TWO✧-: seventh year :-

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── REQUISITE PROMISES

. . .


THE FEAST WAS ADEQUATE. Nothing special; nothing simple. It was plain; usual, like any other meal. If it had the grandeur that the usual welcome-back banquet maintained, neither Celia nor Regulus noticed it. Instead, they spent their time with their knees brushing and shoulders turned in towards each other, completely unaware of their four closest friends sitting together only a few feet away, glares set on the majority of their expressions.

Glares that they didn't care about, or bother to do anything in reply to. Confrontations were a thing of the past when their focuses were on whether or not the green cardigan they substituted their uniform-assigned jumper for looked stupid, or whether so-and-so had kissed so-and-so at the last Quidditch celebration party - and wasn't so-and-so dating her, and didn't they break up over the summer? When the drama and constant conversation didn't seem to lull nor interest them in the slightest, their attentions focused on one another without much care to whoever else may be speaking.

Besides, between Celia and Regulus there could easily be the culmination of many more fascinating topics to capture their attention as everyone else pretended that nothing serious was happening in the world and listened to the Welcome Back speech, or introduced the new teachers - Frederick Vallant for Defense Against the Dark (it seemed to only be his position as an old, former Ministry worker that provoked any interest as he stood up to the spattering of applause; most knew too well than become attached, given the lack of teacher for the subject by the time the year came to an end), Electra Whitefern for Divination (a subject not many really believed in and instead took merely for an easy pass) and, which interested Celia and Regulus far more than much else that had been discussed, the new Ancient Runes teacher, a woman named Tanith Sykes. 

Professor Sykes appeared to be far younger than the rest of the faculty although her blazing red hair seemed to be streaked with grey - no, silver. She wore a single eyeglass; a monocle chain clipped to the breast pocket of her blazer of green and had a single scar crossing from her chin up her cheek, stretching into her hairline. It wasn't for the contradicting appearance that pulled Regulus and Celia's interest to her though; Celia had studied Ancient Runes since third year and, now that Dumbledore had decided that Binns was most certainly not suitable to teach any extra subjects, Sykes would also be leading the Ancient History class the friends shared. 

It all seemed strikingly normal. As though they weren't attending a boarding school as though their lives on the outside was spiked with fear of Daily Prophet articles detailing the latest disaster at the hands of Voldemort. Hogwarts was protected by numerous spells constantly strengthened by the power of such magic users within its hallowed halls and so, they didn't need to worry of it anymore. 

𝗽𝗲𝘁𝗲𝗿 𝗽𝗮𝗻, regulus blackWhere stories live. Discover now