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One step forward, two steps back... Take that as you will ;)

Chapter Seven

Monday arrived far too soon for Diana's liking. She'd spent the weekend slacking off, enjoying the last of the good weather with her friends outdoors before winter well and truly set in, and the momentary respite had caught up to her dearly when she arrived at Charms Monday morning with Henrietta, Jackie, and Gemma.

She bypassed Regulus Black where he sat with another Slytherin, Augustus Nott, on her way to the desk she shared with Gemma. They didn't acknowledge each other, but his gaze was cool, unlike the burning disgust he had bestowed upon her only a month prior.

It was progress, she decided as she took her seat, but it wasn't anything life-altering. Just seeing him sitting with Nott—a rather cruel boy who delighted in taunting those of lower blood status, as she'd seen firsthand over the years—reminded her that despite their truce, she and Regulus still saw the world quite differently from the other.

The thought put a bitter taste in her mouth. What did it make her, she wondered, if she willingly got on with someone who thought of her as lesser because of her blood?

Gemma nudged Diana in the side after they had finished getting out their supplies. "Shit. We might be in trouble today."

Diana followed her friend's gaze to the blackboard perched behind Professor Flitwick. In big, loopy cursive was written: Today's lesson will be over the practical usage of the Gouging Spell. As you will have learned over the weekend's reading—

Diana stopped reading after the second sentence, her heart dropping to her stomach. "Mother—"

She ripped through the pages of her copy of The Standard Book of Spells: Grade 6 while Gemma frantically did the same beside her. A practical lesson, of all things, and of course she hadn't prepared at all for it. She began to regret her lax weekend more and more as her eyes flew over the chapter on Gouging Spells.

"The Gouging Spell enables a witch or wizard to carve through materials with ease, such as earth or stone. From budding Herbologists digging for Snargaluff seedlings to treasure-hunting Curse-Breakers uncovering ancient wizard tombs, the Gouging Spell makes all manner of heavy labor a matter of pointing a wand…"

"Books away, please!" Professor Flitwick called as the bell rang. "That means you, too, Miss Sutton, Miss Fairchild."

Diana and Gemma reluctantly put their books away as the tiny professor peered out at the class.

"Good morning!" he squeaked. "I trust you all had a good weekend? Enjoyed some sunshine?" He smiled beneath his dark mustache when the class mumbled their replies. "Good, good… Well, as you've seen, today's lesson is a practical one, going over the proper way in which to cast a Gouging Spell. Your homework over the weekend was to familiarize yourself with the chapter in your Book of Spells and the correct wand motions used for the spell." He gave a pointed look in Diana's direction, and both she and Gemma grimaced. "For today's lesson, I've decided to put you together in groups of four, picked randomly by me. You and your seatmate will be joining another table to work together on producing a successful Gouging Spell by the end of class. Each group will receive a slab of stone, roughly six inches thick, and the first table to penetrate the stone all the way through using the Gouging Spell will be awarded twenty-five points apiece for their House. Now, here are the groups…"

He flicked his wand and more writing appeared on the blackboard. Diana craned her neck and cursed silently when she realized that she and Gemma were to be paired with Regulus and Nott. Of course. Because Fate could never get enough out of torturing her already.

"You have a little under two hours to work," said Professor Flitwick. "Hop to!"

"Great," Gemma muttered as she collected her things. "I so fancied working with the Slytherins today."

Diana grimaced. "It won't be so bad. R—Black is smart, at least."

Thankfully, Gemma didn't notice her slip-up. "Whatever you say."

They made to get up and change seats, but stopped when Regulus and Nott appeared in front of them, their bags slung over their shoulders.

"Hello," said Regulus neutrally as he and Nott drew up chairs.

"Hi," Diana said. She glanced at Gemma, but the other girl said nothing, her face pinched into a frown. Diana held in a sigh. "Did you two read the chapter this weekend?"

"Naturally," drawled Nott before Regulus could reply. He lounged in his seat like it was his throne, one of his arms draped across its back. "Did you?"

"Yes," Diana lied swiftly. For some reason, she didn't want to admit to him and Regulus that they hadn't. She cleared her throat. "Well, we'll start as soon as Flitwick gives us our stone, I guess."

Nott smirked, punching Regulus lightly in the arm. "Is this what you deal with on a weekly basis, Reg? A bossy Hufflepuff?"

Diana frowned. Beside her, Gemma sat straighter in her seat.

"I was only making a suggestion, Nott," Diana said. The tell-tale itch that accompanied her blush was already beginning. She didn't dare look in Regulus's direction. "Sorry if it came across wrong."

Nott only gave her a sneer that made her look away, uncomfortable. Regulus said nothing until Flitwick deposited their slab of stone on the table with a simple spell. "Let's just get this over with."

Diana agreed wholeheartedly. It was awkward enough that she and Gemma had been paired with the two Slytherins, but with Regulus sitting right in front of her, it was hard for her to concentrate when her mind kept wandering back to their conversation the week before.

"Are we at war, Regulus?"

"No, we're not at war, Diana."

Gemma motioned at the two Slytherin boys. "You can go first."

"Very well." Nott rolled up his sleeves just barely, the cuffs only curled back as far as his wrists. Diana thought it was odd, but she watched Nott carefully as he performed the spell. "Defodio!"

A tiny crack appeared within the sand-colored stone. Gemma hid her mouth behind her hand, and Diana coughed to disguise her snort. Nott scowled, but Regulus's lips twitched.

"Spectacularly done," he said.

This time, Diana couldn't smother her laugh. Nott's eyes flashed.

"Why don't you try, Miss Know-It-All?" he shot at her.

Diana's face flushed, but before she could respond, Regulus had picked up his own wand.

"Relax, Nott," he said in that bored, bland tone of his. "I'll go next."

Diana watched as he studied the stone, intent. He didn't acknowledge her at all, but she wondered if he had stepped in on purpose. She shook her head a bit to herself. She was clearly starting to read too much into things. Regulus was civil toward her now, yes, but he'd made it clear that that civility would extend no further.

Regulus slashed his wand in a sharp Z. "Defodio!"

Another crack splintered off from Nott's, about three inches across and an inch deep. Regulus frowned as if perplexed he hadn't done it perfectly on the first try.

Nott snorted. "Nice, Reg."

"Better than you," Regulus replied coolly. Nott's smirk remained intact, but Diana thought his left eye twitched just a bit. He turned back to the two girls.

"Well, get on with it, Hufflepuffs." He waved a dismissive hand that had Diana's fingers curling into fists under the desk. "Don't just sit there and gawk."

Gemma tugged her wand out of her sleeve with a huff. "Fine." She swished her wand in a poor imitation of what Regulus and Nott had done. "Defodio!"

Nothing happened. The four of them stared at the stone. Gemma lowered her wand in defeat. "Bloody hell."

"You might've done something," Diana tried to assure her. "Look, here—" She pointed to a small fracture a few inches off from Nott's.

Regulus coughed into his hand. "Er, I think that was already there when Flitwick gave it to us."

"Oh."

Nott looked victorious. "Skive on our reading, ladies? Naughty, naughty. Professor Flitwick will be ashamed."

"Ignore him," Diana muttered to Gemma as she pulled her wand free from her hair. Regulus watched her, impassive as ever, but she focused on her friend, who seemed ready to leap across the table and slap Nott. Not that Diana would object, but she didn't want her friend in detention. "He's just trying to get a rise out of you."

Gemma gritted her teeth but kept silent. Diana turned her attention to the stone, the poplar wood of her wand warming under her touch. Her wand wasn't a very tough one, but it was dependable and loyal, and it would do anything she asked of it. And right now, she was asking a lot.

She pictured the Z in her mind like Regulus had done. His motion had been sharp, surgical; there was a controlled power behind his spellcasting that stemmed from his core. She wondered… If she didn't put as much brute force behind her spell, would it still work? Could a slighter, softer approach work better?

"Any day now," Nott drawled.

Diana shook back her sleeves and raised her wand after shooting the Slytherin an annoyed glare. She tamed the motion to just her wrist and slashed. "Defodio!"

Down the side of the stone sprouted a ravine three inches deep that stretched almost all the way across the surface. Regulus and Nott leaned over the table to get a better look at the depth of her spell.

"Halfway," Regulus remarked. He gave her a slight nod. "Not bad, Fairchild."

She shrugged, trying not to seem too pleased. For all she knew, that had been pure luck. "Thanks, Black. Want to try again?"

"You did something different with your wrist," he said as he lifted his wand. He examined his own hand intently. "Your wand motion had a narrower path. Your Z motion was more controlled."

She nodded. "I noticed when you did the spell. You, er, used your elbow too much when you were casting. I think that's why it had power on the surface, but not enough to really penetrate."

"Interesting." He stared at the stone, concentrating, before casting again. "Defodio!"

This time, a loud snap echoed around the room. They peered at the stone. Branching off Regulus's initial crack was another that zigzagged across the surface, but it went much deeper than his first—almost fully through, about five inches.

Professor Flitwick walked over and clapped when he saw. "Excellent work, Mr. Black! Very close. Keep at it, hm?"

"Thank you, sir." Though his expression didn't change, he seemed pleased with himself. "I will."

When Flitwick left, Nott scoffed.

"Tosser," he threw at Regulus. Regulus only smirked. Nott picked up his wand again. "Fairchild," he said. Diana started and blinked at him. His expression was neutral, but there was something in his gaze that made unease churn in her gut. "Can you show me how you moved your wrist before?"

"Oh, er, sure." She performed the motion. "Like that."

"One more time?" Nott asked with a saccharine smile.

Diana's hand hovered in the air, uncertain. "Er…"

"Just do the bloody spell and quit bothering the girl, Nott," said Regulus in a bored tone.

Nott's smile slipped, but he readied himself to cast. "Whatever, Reg. Defodio!"

There was another loud CRACK, but it took Diana a moment to register that it had come not from the stone, but rather, her hand that had still been in the air.

Gemma screamed and leapt from her seat when Diana's now-limp hand began to spurt blood across the table. Diana stared, alarmed, at the gaping hole that had appeared in the middle of her right hand. Nott's spell had missed the stone and instead blasted right through her hand, ripping through flesh, tendon, and even bone. With some distant morbid humor, she imagined she could peer right through her hand like a spyglass and see Regulus clearly on the other side of it where he sat, his jaw slack and his eyes wide.

The class had stuttered to a halt. There were several cries and exclamations as Diana's hand continued to drip blood all over the table, her robes, and the floor, but they were muffled to her own ears, as if coming through a layer of cotton. All she could do was stare at her maimed hand, numb.

"Oh, my!" tittered Professor Flitwick when he had bustled back over. "Goodness, what happened, Miss Fairchild?"

When Diana didn't answer, Gemma spoke for her, her face white behind the hands clapped over her mouth.

"N-Nott's spell…" Gemma gulped. "I-it m-missed and h-hit Di-Diana…"

"It was an accident, I swear," Nott said. His tone was sincere, but his lips twitched like he was holding back a smile. He looked at Diana imploringly, but that odd look from earlier was still there as he said, "Diana, I'm so sorry. I never thought the spell could do such a thing."

"Ah, well, these accidents do tend to happen from time to time," said Professor Flitwick, uneasy. "Do be more careful next time, Mr. Nott… Goodness, er, Mr. Black, could you please escort Miss Fairchild to the hospital wing? You'll both be exempt from the rest of class and receiving any marks, of course."

"Yes, Professor," Regulus said, climbing to his feet. He pulled a handkerchief from his robes and pressed it into Diana's non-injured hand. Belatedly, she wrapped it around her wound and clenched her fingers around it to stem the worst of the blood flow. Already, the white cloth—embroidered with green thread and a small silver serpent—was turning red. "Let's go, Fairchild."

She followed the Slytherin boy out of the classroom without a word. He glanced at her over his shoulder. "Can you walk?"

She nodded. "Y-yes." Her stomach roiled as she remembered the literal hole in her hand. "Oh, Merlin…"

He narrowed his eyes. "You're not going to faint, are you?"

She put her other hand over her mouth but shook her head. He snorted.

"Good. I don't fancy lugging you all the way to the hospital wing."

"Why doesn't it hurt?" she whispered from behind her fingers. All the corridors they passed through were empty, but she still kept her voice down for fear that she would start screaming if she did not.

"You're in shock," he said. "Trust me; you'll feel it when we get to Madam Pomfrey."

Her eyes filled with tears. "Did…did Nott do this…on purpose?"

Regulus's shoulders tensed in front of her. "Probably."

"Why?"

When he didn't answer, she swallowed, sniffing angrily. "Oh. Right. I forget. He doesn't like little half-bloods like me."

Regulus didn't dispute her claim, and her eyes watered more. She brushed the tears away angrily.

They didn't speak again until they had reached the hospital wing. Regulus's handkerchief was saturated with her blood by that point, and Diana looked away when the hospital matron unwound it from her hand.

"Great Merlin!" Madam Pomfrey declared when she saw Diana's hand. The young matron looked to Regulus shrewdly. "Gouging Spell gone awry, I assume?"

Regulus nodded, and the matron began poking and prodding at Diana's hand. She barely felt it. "Any pain?"

Regulus spoke for her again. "She said she didn't feel any on the way here. I told her she must be experiencing shock."

"Quite right," Madam Pomfrey murmured, turning Diana's hand this way and that. "Fortunately, such accidents can be fixed. Unfortunately, Miss Fairchild, I'll have to keep you here overnight—skin and muscle are easy to mend, but I'm afraid you'll have a bit of bone to regrow in the meantime…"

The matron whisked away, muttering under her breath as she began to retrieve various vials and bottles from her office, leaving Diana alone with Regulus.

She sat on the edge of one of the cots lining the walls of the hospital wing, her feet barely touching the floor. Her cot was situated underneath one of the larger windows, and the afternoon sun streamed through, collecting her in a pool of warmth and light. Meanwhile, Regulus stayed on his feet, keeping to the shadows, his hands in his pockets. Madam Pomfrey had performed a spell to staunch her bleeding, but pain had begun to prick at her fingertips, and she supposed her shock was wearing off.

Diana gestured to his discarded handkerchief with a nod of her chin. "Sorry about that. I'll fix it for you."

"Don't worry about it," he said, his tone indifferent.

Her teeth clenched. "Fine."

"Is your hand starting to hurt?" he asked.

It was, terribly. She set her jaw. "No."

His eyes narrowed. "Why are you lying?"

"Why are you still here?" she snapped. She glared at him, her hand now well and truly beginning to throb and spasm, but she was so furious that she didn't care. "I thought you pure-bloods didn't care for anyone who isn't you?"

"Now who's being the dramatic one?"

She thrust her injured hand at him. "Your friend did this to me! Because he wanted to! Because—" She broke off. "I-I don't know why."

Regulus looked out the window, not meeting her gaze.

She clutched her hand to her chest. "I'll never understand it."

He still didn't look at her. "Understand what?"

"The hatred." She swallowed. "The prejudice. It's…I can't imagine seeing the world that way. Seeing it only in terms of blood status and basing your beliefs on such a thing." She stared at him, at every inch of that achingly handsome face, even if he refused to acknowledge her. "Do you believe it?"

"Do I believe what?" But from the way he tensed when she asked, she knew he understood what she meant.

Her hand was on fire now, but she forced herself to speak through the pain. "Do you believe that I'm lesser? That I'm not like you?"

"You're a witch," he said coolly, "and I'm a wizard. That's why we're here, aren't we?"

"That's not what I'm asking, Regulus."

His head snapped toward her, and she was taken aback by the sudden storm of fury in his gaze when he glared at her.

"Then ask, Diana." Despite his furious eyes, his voice was still low and soft. "Ask me what you really want to ask."

"Would you hurt me? People like me?" she whispered. She pressed her hand harder into her chest and for a moment relished in the pain of it. "Would you ever kill someone like me?"

His left arm jumped like someone had shocked him, and he clamped down on it with his right hand. His grey eyes burned into her. "Why would you ask me that?"

"You said it yourself last week. There's a war."

"And I told you we're not at war."

"Would you still do it?" she asked softly. "Would you do something to me like Nott did?"

They held gazes for so long, she frightened and aching and he cold and angry, that minutes had passed without a word between them until Madam Pomfrey returned with a cart full of potions.

"Cheers, Miss Fairchild," the matron said, unaware of the tension between the two students as she poured Diana a dose of Skele-Gro and handed it to her. "Down the hatch, there we go, that's a good girl…"

When Diana had choked down her fourth and final potion, resisting the urge to vomit, Madam Pomfrey turned back to Regulus with a broad smile.

"You're free to go, Mr. Black," she said brightly. "Your next lesson will be starting soon, yes? I assure you, Miss Fairchild will be fine. You can even come back and visit after dinner."

"That won't be necessary," said Regulus, his posture and tone stiff.

"Oh." Madam Pomfrey blinked. "Well, all right, then…"

She hurried away as fast as her short legs would allow. Diana flopped back on the pillows, exhausted and wanting nothing more than to sleep as the pain worsened and the potions went to work, making her hand feel like pins-and-needles.

"Go away, Regulus," she murmured, staring at the high ceiling above.

It was only after his footsteps had faded away that she closed her eyes and let sleep take her under.