UNFINISHED VERSION

2.4

She was livid. Violet didn't return to her table  after her encounter, choosing to make her way to her dorm instead.

She had to come up with something good, something better than tricks as trivial as slipping hair dye into shampoo bottles.

This, this would have to be legendary.

It would have to surpass every prank the Marauders had ever pulled, any payback aimed at Snivellus, any trick Peeves had ever thought of.

This was no longer a prank.This was revenge.

She paced the dorm room to help her focus, tossing her snitch into the air as she walked.

Violet was only wrenched from the cycle, when something caught her eye in the corner of the room. Above the small corner desk, a folded paper was falling softly toward the wood. She tilted her head, watching as the paper fell gracefully through the air.

"What in merlin's name..." she whispered to herself. It was a small piece of parchment, expertly folded over several times into tiny triangles, her initials elegantly scribed on top.

She stalled for a moment, not because she recognized the handwriting—well— she did recognize the writing, but that's not what made her pause.

"How the hell did he manage to center it?" she spoke, turning the paper as if she looked at it from just the right angle, the three letters would move or become a little less perfect.

It was definitely no letter. It was short and sweet, no more than three or four inches of paper when unfolded.

Meet me in the library, I would like to speak with you.
—R.A.B

She threw her head back, whining slightly, "The library? Again?"

—

She sighed as she flopped down into the seat she'd claimed as her own last year. The candle was burning in the center of the table like usual, but the table was clean at the moment. The wood was visible and not hidden beneath piles of papers and various texts.

"You really need to work on being less formal." she started hoping to lighten the mood. The seriousness in his gaze was beginning to freak her out. "Your note felt like a summoning from a professor."

She laughed. He didn't.

Her go-lucky act faultered. Usually, the innocent-joke-cracking-attitude could pull her out of trouble, it even worked with Minnie... occasionally.

But, it didn't seem to be working on the raven haired boy before her. The act seemed to drop as quick as she managed to put it up.

Violet turned her gaze down, looking like a scolded child. "Sorry. I'll stop talking now."

"Please— just, don't do anything rash." Regulus spoke up, surprising the Potter girl. She was almost certain he was going to yell at her for arguing with his friends... clearly that would not be the case.

His hand stuttered, barely making its way to the brunette's arm when he quickly pulled it back, moving to interlock it with his other hand instead.

He sighed, hanging his head, staring down at the wood grain, "I apologize."

Violet laughed bitterly, "Yeah, ok" she slapped the table with her palms, pushing on them to leave, "Was that all? Am I done here? Because I was in the middle of something before I was summoned here for your apology."

Regulus didn't make them say those things, but he didn't exactly stop it either. The two had spent almost half of the previous year together, they even wrote back and forth over the entire summer, but he couldn't step in to defend her?

Regulus' head whipped upwards and their eyes connected. The chaos reflecting in his gaze had caught Violet so off guard, she felt as if she might be knocked off her feet by the intensity within his eyes.

The little window she'd managed to carve in his brick wall facade seemed useless now. The wall she'd been battling to climb for years seemed to disappear, no trace that it was ever present at all. He was distressed, panicked, scared— it was all so blatantly visible with in his stormy grey eyes.

It confused her, seeing the blatant desperation. The silent plea felt louder than a warning siren, yet not a sound was heard.

'what could possibly make him feel like that?' Then it hit her. He was scared she'd leave.

"No! I mean— wait— I— uh... I really am sorry" he rushed out. Calm only came when she sat back in her chair and removed her hands from the table, placing them back on the armrests. "They shouldn't have spoken to you like that. I shouldn't have let them speak to you like that." Regulus sighed burring his face in his hands.

Violet stayed silent, he never acted like this—she was afraid if she even breathed too loudly the brick walls would snap back up.

Slowly, the boy raised his eyes, the conflicted gray gaze slowly hardening as the gears turned in his mind. "But there's not much I can do. Especially when you walk up to the table" he gritted his teeth, "even less so when you sit down in that section."

The bespectacled girl was unbothered by the attempt at his usually intimidating manner, but she was the slightest bit disappointed that he felt the need to be so cold the moment he began to show any vulnerability.

"Can't be that bad" she shrugged, "you're at that table, aren't ya?"

He glowered, eyes turning half a shade darker and swimming with frustration, "That's not the point Potter." he ground his teeth together, "It's dangerous for you-"

"Holy hell Regulus!" she scoffed rolling her eyes, "It's a bloody table!"

"Yes!" he yelled, "Yes it's a table! A table you aren't meant to go near!"

Her eyebrow arched, "Why the hell not? I've always thought sitting in separate house was dumb anyway."

"That's not the point-"

"Well" she glared, "then it's not like I started it either."

"No." Regulus interrupted, "No, you did start it. You were the one who came up with the brilliant idea to sit there-"

"To ask you a question!" she exploded, eyes wide and appalled, "I only meant to ask you if you could continue to tutor me this year!"

She continued to speak but none of the words registered in the boys mind. He was too clouded in horror.

"Thank Salazar Rosier spoke up." he breathed, eyes wide and unfocused.

"Excuse me?" the brunette spat eyes ablaze

"Thank Salazar," he laughed in relief, "That would've been absolutely catastrophic."

This time, Violet had no hesitation when she stood from the chair. She swiftly turned her back to the table and left the library.

She would've ignored him if Regulus called out to her. She would've disregarded him if he followed her pleading her to stay— but he didn't. Regulus stayed rooted in his lonely wooden chair, watching as she disappeared, the heavy door slamming shut behind her.

Violet stormed through the cold stone corridor, two distinct thoughts on her mind.

One, Regulus Black had now solidified his very own place in her plan for revenge.

Two, she'd have to either humiliate herself by finding a new tutor, or be subjected to her mother's scolding as she failed DADA again this year.