Chapter 1
As a general rule, Hope avoided Regulus. He was a year younger than her, but he was a Black and he was intimidating. Hope had already had the pleasure of being on the wrong end of his older brother's anger and Regulus looked as though he could be just as destructive. He had a calm coldness about him that contrasted with his brother's hot fury, but both spoke of trouble for Hope. As an open and proud Muggle-born, she knew better than to even risk time in his presence.
Today, though, Hope had the misfortune of running into Regulus on her way to the dungeons and she was not quick enough in her attempts to redirect her path. She heard him call her name as she turned away.
"Caldwell! Got somewhere important to be?"
Hope turned back around to face him. "No, nowhere." She mentally cursed herself for her lame response as Regulus raised his eyebrows at her.
"No? Do you frequently run off with nowhere to go?"
Hope flushed. "I'm just trying to find a place to study, ok?"
"By all means. Don't let me stop you from studying in the dark. I've no interest in carrying on a conversation with the house mudblood."
"I'm not letting you! You're the one who called to me!"
Regulus smirked. "You're getting needlessly hysterical. You're perfectly capable of walking away."
"I tried to! Ugh! I don't want to talk to you either! Just leave me alone!"
At this point, Regulus was laughing at Hope's rapidly escalating frustration and anxiety, which only brought her closer to the verge of tears. "You're such an arrogant bastard! You're just like your stupid brother."
Regulus stopped laughing. Hope didn't have time to process what was happening before she felt a sharp pain on the side of her face and stumbled backwards. "Shut up, you intolerable cow. You can very well stay away from me."
Hope blinked. He had punched her. Punched her! With his fist. Like a muggle. As he started to walk past her, though, the shock of the situation faded and her anger boiled back up. He had just fucking punched her! She reached out and grabbed a fistful of his hair and pulled. Years of frustration over the torment she suffered at the hands of Sirius Black came back to the surface as she lashed out as his baby brother.
It wasn't a fair fight. Regulus was easily twice as strong as her and had her pinned with his wand to her throat in an instant. None of that mattered when it came to the doling out of punishment though. Detention for a week for both of them.
The Black brothers, thought Hope as she huffed angrily back to the dungeons holding ice against her eyes, are guaranteed trouble.
o O o
It was a brisk night in November when Hope marched down to Hagrid's cabin for her detention. Even under her five layers of clothing she felt a chill. "It figures," she thought grumpily. "They send me on outdoor detention in the dead of winter. I'm literally going to die tonight because of stupid fucking Black."
When she arrived she found Regulus scowling, clearly not any happier about this than she was. "You're late," he hissed at her. "How do you even function when you cannot even arrive on time?"
Hope bit her tongue as Hagrid explained that they were to collect wormwood for Slughorn in the Forbidden Forest. She wasn't going to let him bait her again. So she trudged into the Forest silently cursing the younger Black. "We're not just going to look in the same spot, right? Can I go off on my own?"
Hagrid was hesitant to let her go, but she assured him that she would be within shouting distance and he let her go. She was a seventh year after all; she could handle herself. And she was happy to be away from Regulus.
It wasn't as if Hope was stupid. She didn't risk her life, she was no Gryffindor. She didn't wander off into risky situations with a false assurance that she would be alright if she just conquered fear. Fear was an appropriate adaptive response, and Hope was well aware of that. Healthy fear kept you alive. She wasn't stupid, she reasoned. The school was stupid for sending two kids into a forest that was literally named "Forbidden" because students weren't allowed in it. At night. Surely her parents would have something to say about the situation.
As aware as Hope was, she was nevertheless lost. She didn't remember going far into the Forest and could have sworn that she was only a few yards away from Hagrid and Regulus. But when she walked back to where she last saw them she found no one. No one responded to her screams. The more she looked for them the more hopelessly lost she was.
Frustrated, frightened, and miserable, Hope finally gave up and sat down. "HAGRID!" She screamed at the top of her lungs. "WHERE THE FUCK DID YOU GO?!"
She jumped as she felt someone's hands on her mouth. "Be quiet," Regulus snarled in hushed tones. "You're only letting it know where we are."
Terrified she turned to him. "Letting what know?"
"The manticore," he hissed.
Hope shivered as she noticed the gash on his left leg. As desperately as she tried to reassure herself that manticore were not native to Britain and almost definitely not in the forest, she couldn't deny that they were in danger of something. She started to sob...quietly.