Silent Riot | Regulus Black

THIRTEEN

It was the last lesson of the year, Arithmancy, and even though it was one of her favourites, Gemma was struggling to concentrate. The rush of going home and seeing her dad and enjoying Christmas with her cousins was consistently taking a hold on her mind.

Professor Vector had a seating plan, and Gemma's partner was Natalia Johnson, a pretty Slytherin girl with braided hair and an always serious expression. Natalia wasn't big on conversation, so Gemma decided to catch the attention of Regulus instead.

Naturally, Regulus was rather shocked when a piece of paper hit him him on the back of the head. He picked it up and unfolded it, revealing a terribly drawn animation of a Christmas tree coming alive and eating a curly haired stick figure. He guessed this was supposed to represent him. He didn't even bother turning his head, he knew who the note had come from. He scribbled a note of his own, and tossed it back to her.

Gemma caught the note and unfolded it.

𝒴𝑜𝓊𝓇 𝒹𝓇𝒶𝓌𝒾𝓃𝑔 𝓈𝓀𝒾𝓁𝓁𝓈 𝓈𝓊𝒸𝓀.

She saw Regulus watching for her reaction, and she gave a mock gasp, pretending to be offended. He grinned, and waited for the next note. He received it less than a minutes later.

𝘯𝘰 𝘵𝘩𝘦𝘺 𝘥𝘰𝘯'𝘵, 𝘐'𝘮 𝘢𝘯 𝘢𝘳𝘵𝘪𝘴𝘵. 𝘸𝘩𝘦𝘳𝘦 𝘶 𝘨𝘰𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘧𝘰𝘳 𝘤𝘩𝘳𝘪𝘴𝘵𝘮𝘢𝘴?

She saw him scribbling an answer.

𝒩𝑜𝓌𝒽𝑒𝓇𝑒, 𝐼'𝓂 𝓈𝓉𝒶𝓎𝒾𝓃𝑔 𝒽𝑒𝓇𝑒.

Her eyes widened.

𝘩𝘶𝘩? 𝘸𝘩𝘺? 𝘤𝘰𝘮𝘦 𝘩𝘰𝘮𝘦 𝘸𝘪𝘵𝘩 𝘮𝘦 & 𝘵𝘦𝘥. 𝘸𝘦'𝘭𝘭 𝘩𝘢𝘷𝘦 𝘢 𝘣𝘭𝘢𝘴𝘵.

As Regulus read this, he was filled with longing. He wanted more than anything to go home with Gemma and Ted, and hang out with his friends like a normal person. But if his parents found out he was staying with a muggle, he knew the consequences.

𝒩𝒶𝒽, 𝐼 𝓈𝒽𝑜𝓊𝓁𝒹 𝓅𝓇𝑜𝒷𝒶𝒷𝓁𝓎 𝓈𝓉𝓊𝒹𝓎.

But as Gemma started to throw a reply to this back to Regulus, the note stopped in mid-air. It floated up to the teacher's desk. The class erupted into laughter, while Regulus and Gemma's faces burned bright red.

'You are not children,' Vector said. 'Do not act like it.' She dropped the note into the bin, and the class went back to doing their work. Out of the corner of his eye, Regulus saw Gemma grinning. And that made him grin too.

.•*•.•*•.•*•.•*•.•*•.•*•.

That evening, Gemma decided to go and see her owl. Well, it wasn't her owl, it was one of the Hogwarts barn owls that all students could use. But whenever she had a letter to send (which was rare) she would always look for the same owl. She wasn't sure why, she just liked it. She'd named it Gerard, because her eleven- year- old self had found the name amusing.

Now she reached the tower, she smiled as she found the brown owl sitting in its usual perch. It nipped her finger affectionately as she fed it some seeds.

'Apparently owls are drawn to people with low intellect.' She turned to see Iz, leaning in the doorframe. Gemma grinned.

'Well, then I'm sure he'll love you.' Iz rolled her eyes as she approached.

'Please,' she said. 'At least I can perform a spell without blowing something up.' Gemma winced at the low blow, but didn't say anything. 'Have you packed?' Iz continued.