The rest of the week was rather nice, Gigi had developped a soft spot for astronomy but managed to melt her cauldron in potions. Anissa revealed herself to be a true study monster, the girl even took notes in History of magic! She was really another thing. They grew closer by the minute and spent a lot of time with Snape, who introduced them to Lily Evans, his Gryffindor friend. Gigi also talked a lot with Wilkes, whose name she found out to be William.
Giovanna had made her duty as the month went on, to ignore the brat, he had tried to talk to her, but she simply wouldn't answer. That was becoming a bit of a problem since they now had to work together in herbology.
"Watch what you're doing with those pincers!" Regulus said, the pincers coming dangerously near his hair. He watched as she merely furrowed her dark brows at that, her own curls and waves tied in some kind of approximate bun, holding by a lilac wooden stick. She was now petting the carnivore flower she had fought with to actually put inside the pot.
As class ended, they were the last ones to put away their stuff in the small room they used for storage. They finally got to enter the room. Gigi also minded the silence, she somehow missed the bickering, but she was ashamed he had seen her like that, even more ashamed than with the 'rat incident'. That was just ridiculous.
"Owh, fuckshit-" The brat let out in a muffled growl.
"What did you do?" Gigi immediately took his hand and eyed the small cut in his palm, heavily bleeding. "You're such a baby." she said, rolling her eyes.
"Talking to me now?" He snapped back, covering his hand with a tissue. Seeing her hace harden, he tried to soften the look on his own. "Listen, I'm sorry, ok? That was a stupid thing to do, I didn't know you would be that scared." He said, looking at the ground. He looked honestly sorry, and that cute pout he made, didn't help her stay angry for very long.
"It's fine, just stop staring at me like a lost puppy." She added playfully.
"I don't-"
"I know, I'm just messing with you." She was now smiling, she didn't know how to hold a grudge. Regulus thought that it was one of the most genuine smiles he had received.
"Will you be my comrade?" He asked with a blush, looking like he regretted it the second he said it. "Nevermind actually, I don't know why I-"
"I mean, yes, why not, even if I prefer the term friend, hmph who says comrade?" they both avoided looking at each other, embarrassed.
"You know, when I said you looked terrible everyday, I meant that you looked tired, you need to sleep more or to get some sun, you look pale, like sick pale." Gigi said playfully.
"Shut it, will you?"
They argued while going back to the common room. And the morning after, and the month that followed.
They got rather close, up to the holidays. Gigi helped him with charms and Snape helped her with potions. They studied a lot in the library since she couldn't really focus with Anissa. He explained quidditch to her, she had to admit she really liked those moments, it felt like he was just a normal boy and not some kind of cold, stuck-up monarch. Snape and Anissa seemed to be spending a fair amount of time together, she really came to appreciate Evans, that Gigi found nice besides her control freak attitude. They were only two sensitive subjects : the group that included Black Senior, James Potter, Remus Lupin and Peter Pettigrew; those weren't to mention under any circumstances in front of Regulus and preferably not with Severus if you wanted him to be in a good mood. The war wasn't also easy to talk about, Gigi didn't really understand the reasons behind it but she heard that there was some snake lord that wanted to kill muggles. She got asked once or twice about her blood and her first answer was "B negative" which she would learn later was an indeed stupid answer. She didn't get the point, but prefer not to mention it, afraid to sound stupid. It was quite hard not to talk about it, since it seemed to obsess the three quarters of her house.
This year, she would spend christmas at her dad's. She loved France, she spent half her life there. She kind of wished she could see her mom and grandma, even if they wrote every week, she wanted to hug them.
"I'm gonna miss you, you know?" Gigi said, looking up at her friend's beautiful face, her green eyes teary. Nini mumbled a shaky "me too" and let go of her friend.
"You too Snape don't look at me like that, you freak. And Blue, don't worry I won't ever forget about you".
"Try to start by maybe remembering my name, right?" The black haired boy said, taking his trunk down.
"Sometimes it feels like he's still here, talking to me." She said dramatically, causing the boy to sneer.
As they got out of the train she instantly spotted her father waiting for her with her sister, that ran up to her.
"Ah, tu m'as trop manqué*." Gigi said, hugging her sister closely while her father arrived.
"Et moi, je t'ai pas manqué*?" Added her father, who was now also holding her. As she looked around she realized she couldn't spot any of her friends anymore, until she saw Regulus, Gigi smiled brightly and he nodded back. She would miss them, all of them.
Christmas is great, especially when you have actual friends to give presents to. That's why I got Anissa a deep green jade bracelet, that I thought would match her eyes. I gave Severus rare ingredients for potions that you can only find in Brazil. It was easy to get William something, anything from Zonko's made it. Choosing something for Regulus on the other hand was.. rather complicated, but at the end I remembered his slight obsession with Quidditch or when he told me he wanted to make the team. I could already picture his face when he would receive his gift. I couldn't help but smile at that and looked up at my father opening the slytherin tie I had gotten him.
"It is your house, hm? That's classy, I love the green." He said while trying it on.
"I'm glad you like it, now that you opened yours, I'm opening mine!" I said with excitment.
The first present is neatly packed, I recognised Nini's cursive handwritting 'Because they made me think of you.' If there was anything like a friend soulmate, Nini was mine, for sure. When I opened the box, I saw a pair of earrings, tiny golden butterflies, with green stones on his wings.
"Shit, Anissa-" I whispered in amazement, Fuck we almost had the same idea.
Next package was William's, that bastard had gotten me some sort of chocolate that made, since the size of my tongue at the moment, you're tongue swell. Very, very smart. Apparently my friends were a bunch of smart-asses since Severus gift was a book : Potions for Suckers. Talk about subtle. Regulus got me a book about astrology that looked really well-made, whith a note 'So that you can stop asking about my name and my zodiac sign, for the last time it is capricorn'. I let out a small laugh and proceeded to read the book while petting Willibat.
"Alright girls, I'm going, the office needs me, apparently no ones knows how to interrogate a 90 year old thief. Fucking idiots. Gi' you better study history because if you get another T, I swear you will wish that snake lord catches you before I do." He shot one last warning look at his daughters and left.
"YOu BeTtEr StUdY Gi. Huh, It's holidays for fuck's sake I'm not studying shit." Gigi said exaspereted. Clara laughed at her sister's antics, wishing they could spend more time together.
"When am I going to go to Hogmarts?" The blond girl asked, looking up from her drawing.
"I told you already, in two years and it's Hogwarts. I'll be a third year, you better startstudying english more." The brunette smiled, it was weird how they were barely alike physically. Their noses and the shape of their eyes maybe?
" I hope I will get as much letters as you do." She jumped of her seat as she said it, and started looking through Gigi's pile of letters. "Do you really know a Rab?" Clara asked quizzically.
"No Clarita, it's Regulus Arcturus Black. He's just too much of a lazy sod to put his whole name in." Gigi said, amused. Clara was just so tiny and fragile, like a doll. She was definetly the prettier one. She fetched the camera her mother had given her for christmas and took a picture of her sister, going through her letters.
"I'm bored, should we go out a little?" The younger girl asked.
"Yeah, sure. But not too long, it's getting late." Both girls grabbed their coats and shoes and headed out the appartment.
"Hello, can I help you?" Gigi was eyeing an old woman with curiosity. She was sitting on the stairs, smoking her cigarette, her purple velvet dress spread around her. "are you looking for Vera?" She wondered if she was her neighbor's grandmother, but the woman just kept smoking. Gigi looked at her sister, who shrugged her shoulders. As they were about to leave, she felt a hand grasp her wrist. She looked over the woman with alarm, icy blue eyes scrutinizing her.
"You should not have been here you know?" The old woman said matter-of-factly. "Your kind should have not survived. This" she said, gesturing around. "is too dangerous."
"Yeah, right, sure, do you.. want us to call anyone?" Fear was now replaced with pity, poor old thing, talking nonsense to kids, wait, is this like a rape technique? I'm too young for this.
"You think I am crazy? I know everything there is to know about you. Listen now, I don't have all day. When they tell you what you can do, they will try to take it from you. Don't let them. Can you hear me? Do not let them. Now go." She let go off her hand and Gigi went back as quickly as she could to her house. 'What the fuck was that!?'
"Maybe we should call dad?" Clara asked, looking at the door, as if the old bitch was about to come in.
"Good idea, I was looking forward to spend the rest of my life locked in a room!" Gigi was now pacing nervously around the room, fidgeting her light coloured wand. "You know what, there's nothing to stress about, it's just probably some crazy nutjob that has nothing else to do. I'm gonna make some coffee." Clara knew her sister was worried even if she didn't show it. She could clearly see her hands were shaking as she stirred the dark liquid.
[*-Ah, I missed you so much.
-What about me, you didn't miss me?]
[I would love to have a review, even if it is negative, I wish to improve my writing, thank you.]