Les Misérables | Regulus A. Black [1]

Chapter Forty-Three

[Chapter Forty-Three]

Éponine remained true to what she said of rather having no friends at all than put up with Emmarentia's childish ways. The two had yet to speak again once Emmarentia had confessed that she had set Regulus up to fail for her own selfish needs. And while Éponine was very capable of speaking to other people, she found herself not really wanting to associate with others unless she had to. She still had Avery and Mulciber and while Regulus was obviously avoiding her, they chose to still speak with her. They reassured her numerous times that Regulus wasn't angry with her, he was just fearful in the sense that he had managed to screw everything up in such a short period of time.

However, Éponine wished that he would just allow her to approach him so that she could apologise properly for snapping at him. She didn't think anything had been ruined, it had just been a manipulated situation paired with a very bad timing in her life. But she still wished to speak with him and she wanted him to know that despite her parents not being joining them for the holidays that she was looking forward to spending time with him and his family. Only Regulus was bound by his own fears that he did everything to avoid her until they were actually getting ready to board the Hogwarts Express to head home.

Packing up some of her clothes and belongings to head back to the Grimmauld Place, Éponine kept her expression blank, knowing that Emmarentia was in the room with her. The other girls in the room could probably sense the tension between the two since the argument but no one had dared to say a word. Emmarentia would continuously look over in  Éponine's direction, hoping there would be some form of mercy where she would look up and say that all was forgiven, but there was no such luck.

Éponine was still furious and had already said everything she had wanted to say to her. There was no other reason for them to speak at the time especially since she had yet to apologise to Regulus. Preparing to leave to head to the Hogsmeade Station to catch the train, Éponine grabbed her bag off the bed, only to see an envelope fall to the floor. For a moment, she stared at it, especially as she saw that it was addressed to her with her name clearly written on the front.

Looking over at Emmarentia, she could see that the girl was already out of the room, but Éponine didn't recognise the handwriting to be hers and Emmarentia didn't come across as one that would write out an apology. Bending over to collect it off the floor, Éponine held it up before tearing the top of it open. Perhaps one of the girls had been in the Owlery when a letter arrived for her and they had placed it on her bed, but none of them had made mention of it when they were all in the room.

Tearing it open, Éponine pulled out the letter and unfolded it in her hands. There wasn't much written but there was enough written on the piece of parchment that made her heart pound rapidly in her chest.