Stars and Mist | Regulus Black

c h a p t e r. t w e n t y - o n e

Like the other days, Mirabel was quiet throughout the school day and after that, she'd disappear. Liora'd been told that Mirabel wanted privacy whilst doing that, and she could respect that although she was insanely curious.

What she hadn't expected, though, was detention.

On any other day, the incident wouldn't have cost her detention; just a deduction of house points and a telling off. It was just her luck that some nasty students had come and made Slughorn especially angry, so when Liora accidentally shattered a glass of hellebore and it spilled into another student's cauldron, a week's worth of detention was what she got.

And of course, she had to be given detention with other people. From other houses.

Liora cautiously opened the doors to the Potions storeroom, wondering what was in store for her. The dungeon wasn't empty, though; there were two Ravenclaws, two Gryffindors, two Hufflepuffs, and her.

Oh, great.

"Thank you, Miss Gaunt, for arriving on time. We just have to wait for one more student and then you can start re-organizing my stockroom shelves."

Liora moved towards the left and the stockroom fell silent again as the students waited for the final one to arrive. The room was quiet until two raps on the storeroom door sounded.

"Come in, Mr. Black," Slughorn sighed, letting the younger Black family member step in. Liora lowered her eyes to stare at the stone as he moved to stand beside her, not wanting to annoy him any more.

"You will organize my shelves in alphabetical order. Do not move an ingredient from one shelf to another. Get started."

The students dispersed and Liora backed into the left wall shelf, swapping bottles left and right so that they were organized. Behind her, she could hear the other students grumbling about detention and how it was so unfair.

"Can you believe them?" she muttered to herself. "It's their fault that they got detention. It's not unfair at all," she added.

"Of course they're grumbling. It was Slughorn that gave them detention," Regulus added quietly, startling Liora and nearly causing her to drop the vials she was holding.

"Yeah, you were right. What did you do to get here?"

Regulus shrugged, and it was like last night had never happened. "I'm not sure, actually. There was a big commotion about something and I accidentally bumped into Slughorn, making him drop some papers."

Liora nodded, continuing to organize the bottles as they continued talking, and soon the first half of the shelves were finished.

"Don't you think that you should be doing something instead of complaining?" a Ravenclaw called at the students that were still slacking off. The Hufflepuff and Gryffindor looked up, realizing that they had to do something, and quickly dashed towards a shelf to clean. Regulus rolled his eyes as he organized, clinking the glass vials together accidentally.

"Oops," he said. She laughed softly. They worked faster, waiting for someone to start up a conversation.

"Meet me in the Astronomy tower tomorrow night," Regulus lowered his voice as he said that, glancing around to check if anyone had heard. "We're friends, right? You found out my secret; I want to know some things about you in return."

"Deal," Liora replied and they got back to shelving.

"Done!" A Hufflepuff and Gryffindor called simultaneously, shocking the other students still working. No one responded, and the two shrugged and left the room. Liora sighed and continued sorting the shelves, this time in silence, and there was no one who noticed when she left the room.

***

The Clock Tower was beautiful.

Moonlight streamed through the gaps in the gears and the large window, creating patterns that danced across the stone floor. Liora sat by the floor, resting her head on her knees and closing her eyes, almost like she was sleeping when a noise struck her from her dreamy state.

"Mirabel?" she whispered, rubbing her eyes and looking up. Her friend didn't look well, but that wasn't what worried Liora. The expression on her face was sad and slightly angry, maybe even disappointed.

"What happened?"

"Liora, is that you?" Mirabel said quietly. The words came out raspy and crooked, shocking both girls. Fully alert, Liora patted the small space beside her for Mirabel to sit. The latter did, her robes spreading elegantly behind her.

"What's wrong?" Liora asked again, facing Mirabel. The two girls looked at each other and Mirabel let out a sigh.

"It's nothing. You've been up to something as well, what's going on?"

Liora sighed, shrugging. "Last year when I went back to the dorms, Regulus and Evan were talking about something related to the Dark Lord. This year, I decided to check it out by being fake friends with him." She'd lowered her voice down to a whisper at that point.

"Be careful, Liora. Members of that family are extremely manipulative and prejudiced; and remember what your mom said?"

"Trust no one."

They both fell silent after that, watching the moonlight and the shadows on the floor when Mirabel broke down into tears; and not pretty ones. She swiped at her eyes furiously to get rid of them, not wanting to be an embarrassment.

"What's wrong?" Liora asked for a third time, this time more harshly. "Mira, you should tell me. Please?"

"Emmeline Greengrass is missing; has been since last year. Liora, what if there's a curse on the Greengrass family?"

***

Regulus held the papers that he'd written while spying on Liora, slotting them into an envelope and closing it, writing an address on the paper. He tied it to an owl, watching it fly out into the dawn and disappear.

"You know you're not supposed to be out this early," A voice behind him said. Regulus whirled around to see Gabiel Ollivander standing behind him, staring at him curiously.

"What do you want?" Regulus spat back. Gabiel shrugged, moving back to sit on a table. "Researching into the Gaunt family would be beneficial. After all, isn't that the family the Dark Lord's mother is from?"