"She's like a rose. Beautiful, but deadly," Evan said, reverence in his voice.
Regulus thought Bellatrix was more like a venomous tentacula - thorny, poisonous, impossible to escape from - but didn't dare voice that opinion out loud in case she was listening in on them outside the door. He wouldn't put it past her. He wouldn't put anything past her these days. Hadn't Sirius warned him this would happen?
He'd been a fool, but Regulus had just wanted some peace for once in his wretched life.
"Mm," he said noncommittally and pretended to be too focused on polishing his wand to offer up a better response. Bellatrix had impressed upon them the importance of a well-polished wand in their first 'lesson' and apparently it hadn't been a euphemism. Something about blood affecting the magic; Regulus had been so disgusted he'd blocked it from his mind.
"What do you think she'll be teaching us today?" Evan continued, slashing his wand through the air like a bloody idiot. Regulus wished he'd accidentally slash his foot off. "I hope it's some decent hexes. Ones we can use on those annoying little 'Puffs."
"Easy pickings," Regulus replied in a bored voice, inwardly horrified about how nonchalant his supposed friend was these days about picking fights with random students who had done nothing but have the misfortune to stand in his way. "There's no honour in fighting those so beneath you."
"I don't care about honour," scoffed Evan. "I just want to fuck up some mudbloods."