matching hearts ━ r. lupin

Chapter 10

𝐂𝐇𝐀𝐏𝐓𝐄𝐑 𝟏𝟎
*ੈ✩‧₊˚

Aria was in one of her moods.

November had arrived replacing hard and heavy rain with brisk winds and flurries. The warmth the summer sun had kissed her skin with quickly faded as she became paler. Her lips cracked and her hands ashened. She would be going home soon.

The Daily Prophet was what allowed Aria to gauge what the mood her parents would be in when she arrived.

They supported Voldemort and his ideals of purity and smiled coldly as they read the news of the attacks against muggleborns.

Her secret trips down the creaky wood stairs at Grimmauld Place had given her a better understanding of the war at hand. She watched silently through the thin door opening of her father's study as distant cousins of hers arrived at odd hours of the night.

She questioned the strange number of trips her parents took to visit Narcissa and Lucius at the Malfoy Manor and doubted the pure intentions of Bellatrix, suggesting she look into jobs at the ministry. She noticed the warning look her father sent her manic older cousin when Bellatrix told her that she could be of use soon.

Most of the Sacred 28 were preparing. Aria didn't know what for and that fact left her eternally uneasy.

She did not want to return to that house for the holiday break especially at the behest of Walburga.

Aria spent time with her friends. She laughed at jokes, studied, and kept her mind busy. But when the lights went out and she was curled up in her bed alone, the silence came and the thoughts and worries arrived. She hadn't been sleeping well.

The mood today had been grim. Aria queried the silence at breakfast when Nico handed her the latest edition of the Daily Prophet. She wasn't in the eating mood as the images of an annihilated muggle-born community stuck to her mind.

She couldn't pay attention in classes as she thought about all of the extended family she would see at Christmas. How would she get through a conversation with aunts, uncles, cousins, and the swarm of in-laws, when she'd only be wondering if each of them carried a branding on their left forearms?

Was one of her brothers meant to be next?

The questions crossed her mind as she sat silently against a corridor wall. She was in the part of the castle closest to the dungeons. She wanted to talk to Regulus but she couldn't bear it. While he didn't want muggle-borns or muggles dead he still was fine with spewing vitriol against them. She had failed him in the department. She should've kept him closer when he was sorted into Slytherin. She shouldn't have let him be when he fought her and sided with their parents. She should've shown him that there was so much more outside of following every order they gave. She should've—

"Is that you Black?" She heard a voice call out.

She turned and spotted a familiar figure, further down the corridor walking toward her.

"Fuck's sake," Aria muttered as Avery took a seat beside her.

"Nice to see you too." He grinned.

Her chin dug into her knees as she faced straight ahead.

"You look shit," He acknowledged and she rolled her eyes.

"You know how to charm a girl." He wasn't entirely wrong. Her hair was still damp from her shower after quidditch practice and her collared shirt was wrinkled from the wet patch that had dried on her back due to the long locks. She was missing her tie and her robes were crooked.

"You didn't even insult me back." Avery raised a curious brow. "What's happened?"

She didn't answer.

The corridor was quiet. Curfew had just begun a half hour earlier and Aria had been sitting here for too long.