Disclaimer: All rights go to J.K. Rowling. Anything you don't recognize is mine.
Thank you for all the favorites/follows so far, and thanks to my first reviewers! I'm glad you're all as excited for this story as I am!
I'm not quite happy with the way this chapter turned out, but maybe I'm putting too much pressure on myself after the amazing response I got on Chapter 1. Guess I'll find out! Enjoy!
Chapter Two
Diana prodded her lifeless moly flower and sighed when its black stem wilted. The white petals shriveled and fell to the wooden worktable in less than a minute, and Diana groaned, beginning to pack away her supplies and copy of One Thousand Magical Herbs and Fungi. There was no use trying to save the plant now, so she sat and braced herself for Professor Sprout to come around and dole out her usual zero for Diana.
She glanced to her left, where Henrietta pruned her moly meticulously, her flower very much alive. To her right, Jackie watered her own moly, and Diana could've sworn the flower bloomed even more. She scowled.
"Kill another innocent plant, D?" said Gemma across from her, a healthy flower standing upright on the worktable she shared with Diana.
Diana drummed her fingers on the table. "I don't understand! I did everything right!"
"Did you till your dragon dung properly?"
"Yes. Just like the book said."
"And did you add the two drops of flobberworm mucus to the water like you were supposed to?"
Diana stared. "The what?"
Gemma grinned. "No wonder Sprout hates you. You're a plant murderer."
"It's not like I do it on purpose," she said. She stripped off her dragonhide gloves and threw them on the table dejectedly. "I just don't have a green thumb like the rest of you."
Gemma shook her head. "Oh, D. Whatever will we do with you?"
Jackie turned to them when she was done. "Did either of you happen to notice that Karen Hartley still hasn't turned up yet?" she asked in a low voice. She swept a surreptitious glance around the sixth year Gryffindors they shared greenhouse four with. Diana copied her and realized that she was right; the Gryffindor girl in their year was nowhere to be seen.
"She probably didn't come back this year," said Gemma knowingly. "A lot of Muggle-borns are scared. I know my mum and dad were on the fence about me returning to Hogwarts with everything that's going on."
"You almost didn't come back?" Diana repeated.
Gemma nodded. Her face was serious. "They were worried about my safety. I don't blame them though; things are getting bad out there. I kept up with the Daily Prophet this summer. You-Know-Who has more and more followers every day. And with what happened to Mary MacDonald last year…"
The three girls shared a dark look. Mary MacDonald was another Gryffindor, but in the year above them. She'd been cursed badly the term before, and though no one said it aloud, the whole student body believed that it was because she was Muggle-born.
"What are we whispering about?" asked Henrietta, finally looking up from her flower.
"Karen Hartley not returning to Hogwarts this year," Diana said.
Henrietta nodded slowly. "I s'pect not. She seemed rather scared before we went on holiday. I remember her telling me that her parents had found out about You-Know-Who and everything, and they were beside themselves. I'm not surprised they kept her home."
"More pruning and less whispering, ladies!" called Professor Sprout from the front of the greenhouse. "We have five minutes left! Make sure your molies are in good shape!"
"Yes, Professor," the girls muttered, falling silent.
Diana stared at her poor plant, her stomach churning as it always did whenever You-Know-Who was mentioned. There was a war going on, she knew; a campaign to rid the Wizarding world of Muggle-borns, with some even calling for half-bloods like her to be eradicated too. To leave the Wizarding world "cleansed" and back in the hands of pure-bloods. Even the thought of it sickened her. And it was only getting worse. She had to admit that perhaps Karen Hartley's parents may have the right idea. There was no telling when the war would end, and—perhaps the most terrifying thought of all—which side would be victorious.
She was pulled from her thoughts when Professor Sprout began coming around the greenhouse to check their flowers. When the professor reached Diana's table, she gave Gemma full marks and turned to Diana with a grimace.
"Another dead plant, Miss Fairchild?" she said. "Pity—I suppose you forgot to add the two drops of flobberworm mucus?"
Ignoring Gemma's look, Diana said, "Yes, Professor. Sorry."
"Not to worry, not to worry," Professor Sprout said. She waved her wand, and Diana's moly vanished. "Though I am afraid you will not receive any marks today…"
She moved on and gushed over Henrietta's plant, and Diana put her head down on the table with a dull thunk.
She hated Herbology.
When Professor Sprout released them for lunch, Diana trudged back to the castle with her friends, feeling as if someone had put a damper on her. Though Herbology had always been her worst subject, getting another zero was still disheartening.
"Chin up, D," Jackie said, nudging her shoulder. "It was just one plant."
Diana said nothing until they had reached the double doors, where she was promptly stopped in the entrance hall.
"Diana Fairchild?"
She looked up. A skinny second year Ravenclaw walked toward her, a scroll clutched in his hand. He handed it to her, puffing out his chest a bit with a pompous air that made her lips quirk in amusement. "Professor Slughorn instructed me to give this to you."
Diana's grin disappeared as she took the scroll, dread settling in her belly when she realized what it must be. "Thanks."
The Ravenclaw boy nodded smartly before striding into the Great Hall. Once he was out of earshot, Diana groaned.
"Oh, don't be so dramatic," Henrietta chastised lightly. "I don't think tutoring Regulus Black will be all that bad."
Diana opened the scroll. "You didn't see the way he looked at me at dinner last week. He wanted to pulverize me!" She read the scroll. "Eight o'clock tonight. Great."
"Maybe Ettie has a point," Gemma said. "He may hex you, but at least you stand a better chance of recovery compared to a curse."
"Thanks, Gem," Diana said, putting the scroll into her bookbag. "You inspire such comfort."
"Let's just go to lunch," Jackie said. "You still have a whole day ahead of you before you have to deal with Black."
"Wonderful," Diana grumbled, but she trailed after her friends anyway.
At a quarter to eight, Diana bid her friends good-bye and left the basement level for the dungeons. It was a short walk, and by the time she reached the door of Professor Slughorn's classroom, she still had ten minutes before her session with Regulus Black was to begin.
She loitered outside the closed classroom door, fiddling with the strap of her bookbag and taking deep breaths to keep her anxiety at bay.
It's just tutoring, she thought. You've done this before. And you're brilliant at Potions.
It's also Regulus Black, a small voice said in the back of her head.
The Black family was well-known in the Wizarding world, but not entirely for the best reasons. They were pure-bloods, part of the elite families that made up the Sacred Twenty-Eight, and their family had produced more Dark Wizards than any other. They were also all Slytherins, with the exception of Regulus's older brother Sirius, who had gone to Gryffindor and broken centuries' worth of tradition.
Diana knew all about Sirius. It was hard not to. He was a year above her, but immensely popular, as were his three best friends. He was also exceptionally handsome and talented, though could be arrogant and mean. But Regulus…
She remembered the disgust on his face when she'd met his stare in the Great Hall the week before. Sirius Black had turned his back on his family's name and prejudice, but it was clear that Regulus did not share the same sentiment. But he wouldn't do anything to her—he couldn't. Not with Professor Dumbledore as Headmaster. Then she thought about Mary MacDonald. Whoever had cursed her had done it right under Dumbledore's nose…
Diana shook her head. No. She could do this. She wasn't afraid. She checked her watch and saw that she had five minutes to. Steeling herself, she pushed open the door to the Potions classroom and found that it was already occupied by Professor Slughorn himself, who was talking to another student.
"Oh, I'm sorry, Professor," Diana said, blushing when the professor glanced up at her. "I didn't realize you were in here—"
She faltered when the student turned. Regulus Black appeared to have been in some sort of heated discussion with his Head of House, for his face was twisted into an unpleasant scowl and his dark eyes were narrowed.
Diana gulped. "Sorry. I'll just, er—"
"No, come in, Miss Fairchild, come in," said Professor Slughorn, waving a hand. He stood behind his desk, wearing a rich set of brown robes that made him look more like a walrus than ever with his considerable girth and ginger mustache that made Diana think of tusks. He cleared his throat, looking uncomfortable. "I was just telling young Regulus here of your prowess in Potions and that he has no reason to worry; he is in very capable hands."
"That's very kind of you, sir," Diana said. Regulus Black looked as if he thought the exact opposite, but she forced herself to smile at Slughorn.
Slughorn fiddled with the gold buttons at his sleeves. "Yes, yes, well…No denying that you are one of my brightest students, Miss Fairchild…Yes, Mr. Black, you'll be in good hands…"
And before either Diana or Regulus Black could say a word, Professor Slughorn collected his briefcase and waddled as fast as he could to the door, snapping it shut behind him.
Diana stood in the ringing silence. Regulus Black had put his back to her again, facing the blackboard on the wall with his arms crossed. Figuring she should just get this over with, she coughed slightly to get his attention.
"Hello," she said when he half-turned. "I'm Diana—Diana Fairchild. I'm your tutor."
"I know who you are," he said coldly. His voice was softer than she expected, but as commanding as if he'd barked an order at her. It was touched with a fine edge that she had come to associate with pure-bloods—a lingering note that screamed of elegance and privilege.
"Right," she said when he said nothing else. She smoothed down an invisible wrinkle in her robes as her face heated with embarrassment. "Er, if you'll pick a table, I can grab a cauldron?"
He didn't acknowledge her, but he moved to the far-left corner of the room, where a table sat out of view of the door. Probably to avoid anyone spotting them together if they were to walk in, she supposed. Realizing that this was about to be the longest hour of her life, Diana went to the cupboard where the cauldrons were kept and grabbed a standard pewter one before bringing it to the table Black had chosen.
She set down the cauldron on the tabletop and stowed her bag underneath the seat next to Black's. They didn't speak as she prepared the cauldron, coaxing a small flame from her wand and leaving the cauldron to heat as she took out her copy of Advanced Potion-Making. She noticed with some surprise that Black had already done the same.
"You've got your book out already, good," she said.
His upper lip curled faintly. "I'm not an ignorant first year. You don't have to congratulate me for every small thing."
She nodded, her face flushing again. "'Course. Sorry."
When he said nothing, she took out the list Slughorn had laid out for her and consulted it briefly. "Professor Slughorn wrote that while you're very good at identifying potions and their properties and uses, you sometimes struggle with brewing them properly?"
He grunted. The sound seemed foreign with someone who looked so haughty. "It appears so."
She nodded and put the parchment aside. "All right. I was thinking we could start small with a Draught of Living Death. It's often tested on N.E.W.T.s, and not nearly as complex as, say, Amortentia or Felix Felicis—"
"Just tell me the page number and I'll do it myself," he said, cutting her off. "I don't need you breathing down my neck or chatting in my ear all the while."
Annoyance prickled Diana's skin, making it hot. "Very well. You'll find the ingredients and instructions on page one hundred and six."
He flipped through his brand-new copy of Advanced Potion-Making until he found the correct page. After reading through the list of ingredients, he moved off to the storage cupboard at the back of the classroom and disappeared inside the small room. She could hear him rummaging around, but she stared blankly at her own secondhand copy of the Potions book, a sort of dull ringing starting up in her ears.
A few minutes later, Black returned with his ingredients. He read the first line of instructions and pulled out his wand and a small silver dagger. He tapped the cauldron's side, and it filled with water. He then grabbed a mortar and pestle from his pile of ingredients and added the asphodel root before beginning to grind it up.
Diana, not knowing what else to do, watched him work. Up close, it was easy to see the similarities he shared with his brother. While Diana did not know Sirius Black personally, he was difficult to not notice. There was something gravitational about him, a force that pulled any object—or person—into his orbit, so it was hard to look away. Regulus Black was not the same way.
He was shorter than his brother and broader in the shoulder, but they shared the same olive skin tone and silky black hair. She didn't know what color Sirius's eyes were, but Regulus's were a dark grey, and completely unreadable. He wasn't the kind of careless handsome that Sirius was. His hair was neatly combed, and his robes impeccable, but he still had the aristocratic good looks most pure-bloods seemed to possess with the sharp lines of his face, nose, and jaw. As he powdered the asphodel root, she studied his large hands and lithe fingers. They were rougher-looking than she expected, scattered with callouses, but she seemed to remember something about him being on the Slytherin Quidditch team, which would make sense.
As he moved on to the next step, Diana gathered up her hair and shoved her wand through it, seeing as she wouldn't be using it anytime soon. Black began slicing the sopophorous beans, but Diana cleared her throat.
"You're doing good so far," she said, "but you should try crushing them instead of slicing. It saves more of the juice."
He didn't look at her. "The book says to slice them."
"It was just a suggestion," she said hastily. "I, er, overheard Severus Snape talking about it last year to someone." Well, it was partially the truth. She had gotten the idea from Severus Snape, a Slytherin boy in the year above her, but only because he'd left his notes out during a detention they'd had together with Professor McGonagall last term, after Diana had forgotten to turn in an essay and Snape had hexed Sirius Black's best friend, James Potter. "But it seemed to work, so…"
She trailed off when Black gave her a judgmental glance. "Perhaps Snape should've been my tutor then."
"Yeah," Diana said, disgruntled by his cold attitude. "Perhaps."
They fell into silence then, but Diana noticed how he began crushing the beans with the flat of his dagger rather than cutting them.
The rest of the hour passed slowly, with minimal words spoken between the two. Diana gave pointers here and there, but Black seemed intent on doing the work without her help. When nine o'clock came around, Diana stood.
"Well, let's have a look," she said, keeping her voice light and pleasant. Just because he was rude didn't mean she had to be. She peered into the cauldron and saw that the potion was a deep purple—not the pale lilac sheen it should have been.
Black rifled through his book, his teeth gritted. "It should be lighter. What did I do wrong?" His head suddenly snapped up. His eyes bored into her accusingly. "Did you set me up with those beans?"
"What? Of course not." She glanced inside the cauldron again. "I think you just added too much infusion of wormwood—and stirred counterclockwise once, not twice, look—"
Black snapped his book shut with a scowl and stood up, his stool scraping loudly across the stones.
"This is useless," he said angrily, snatching his things off the table and throwing them into his bag. "I have better things to do than this—"
He grumbled under his breath, continuing to pack away his things. Diana just watched, uncertain.
"It's salvageable," she managed to say between his dark mutterings. "You actually did very well, Regulus, not many people come so far on a first attempt—"
"You dare use my name?" he snapped. He glared at her. His eyes had grown darker, like storm clouds about to burst. His left arm twitched. "Let me make one thing abundantly clear, Hufflepuff." He said it with such derision that Diana's annoyance flooded back tenfold. Her face heated, but not from embarrassment. She was angry. "We are not friends. We are not acquaintances. You are merely providing me a service that I don't need but am forced to suffer through anyway. In no way are we equals. I don't need any help—especially from a half-blood like you."
Diana felt as if he'd hexed her right in the face. How dare he play half-blood against her like it was some foul curse? How dare he talk to her that way—as if she were beneath him?
She yanked her bag off the floor and threw the strap over her shoulder, her face burning.
"Fine," she said. She pulled her wand out of her hair and Vanished the contents of the cauldron with a quick swish and spell. "If you don't want my help, fine. But I won't sit here and be talked down to by the likes of you." She made sure to enunciate the word with as much venom as he'd uttered half-blood. "Enjoy finding another tutor, Black. I'll be speaking to Slughorn tomorrow and letting him know what a hopeless case you are."
He sneered at her. "Your threats are nothing to me. Go on, then; do your worst. At least I'll be rid of you."
Diana scoffed. "You don't even know me, Black."
"Something I'd like to keep that way," he said with an ugly smile.
With a last glare, Diana turned on her heel and stalked out of the classroom. As the door banged shut behind her, she thought that, if anything, she was the one glad to be rid of him.
A rocky start between Diana and Regulus, but only the beginning for them, of course. Let me know what you thought or if there's anything you're looking forward to in a review!