Chapter 2: Watching Eyes

Adria returned to school and to proper Slytherin green a week later. There was still, technically, a day left of vacation but settling down in the comfiest common room chair and sipping a mug of tea while people straggled in was its own entertainment. Most Slytherins were from families she'd known forever and it was good to see if they returned looking tired or looking rested. Nice to know how people stood with their families.

Good to have a day to prepare for how much she missed her own.

When Regulus came in she paused with the cup halfway to her mouth, wondering if he was going to say hello to her. She thought he almost did. Then his eyes slid past her and he disappeared into the boy's dorm.

There were too many people in the common room, now that she thought about it. And she did have some homework due in a week or two.

Adria abruptly stood and set her tea down on the nearest table. With a toss of her head, she turned and wandered out of the dorm towards the library, twirling her wand in one hand and glaring at the Hufflepuff and Gryffindor first years that yelped when they saw her. The Ravenclaw first years never did that. They never even seemed to notice her. A distracted bunch, the Ravenclaw first years. Though it had been nice when the castle had been new and every bit of magic was a new puzzle to wrap her mind around.

Now her puzzles were just people.

Not as interesting.

Pale hair bouncing in a neat braid behind her, the youngest Malfoy walked into the empty library. She trailed a hand along one of the large wooden tables and began to consider the shelves. Failing to make a decision, she began to wander up and down the rows and tip random books into her arms based on how old and decrepit they looked. She was about to do the same with the Restricted Section when a vehement round of cursing began back at the study tables.

And continued.

Loudly.

"Irritating."

Adria gathered her books more securely in her arms and made her way back to the last shelf, peering around to see what idiot was risking the librarians' ire. She caught a brief glimpse of another student, dark hair, leaning over a table with his wand stabbing the air. Then she was distracted the paper in front of him.

It appeared to be…

Screaming? Quietly?

Odd.

Still a bit irritating.

A moment of watching and she decided that the student was trying to drown out the sound of the paper. And the paper wasn't so much screaming as it was quietly playing the sound of hundreds of voices all at once. The longer she watched the more curious she got and the more it seemed that this Gryffindor-that Sirius Black-wasn't going to get it to stop.

Finally, he grabbed the paper and ripped it neatly in two.

The library fell silent.

Adria said: "Huh."

Sirius whipped around and found her leaning casually against a shelf, arms full of books and hair braided neatly over one shoulder.

"What do you want, Malfoy?"

She smiled. "To read in peace. You?"

Sirius looked down at the paper. It was singed where he'd ripped it. The map he'd drawn was bleeding into a puddle of ink. It was staining the table.

"Interesting." Adria appeared beside him. "Is that Hogwarts?"

"Bright for a Slytherin, aren't you?" He snapped sarcastically.

"Don't be rude," Adria replied. "Oh, is that the Grand Hall? With four little tables… how adorable, Black."

Sirius looked murderously down at her. "And I'm not supposed to be rude?"

"I'm seri-I'm not… This is very good." Adria reached out a hand toward the blank spot where the Slytherin common room should have been and abruptly the entire map was ripped away and stuffed into Sirius' bag. "Oh, please, Sirius. That was the most interesting thing in this entire library."

"No," Sirius flashed her a grin. "That would be me. And I'm leaving."

"Let me help. I'm sure I can help."

"Nope!"

Adria considered her pile of books as he made his way to the door. Now that she looked closer, she had read at least half of them.

She chased after.

"I had to dance with you," She said as they began their way down the hall. She was jogging slightly to keep up with him. "You can't even tell me what you were trying to do?"

"No."

"Oh come on, Black. It's not like I'll tell anyone." She was trying desperately to smile as charmingly as she'd seen him do in the past. It didn't seem to be working. "It'll make your mother happy if you're seen talking to me."

"Because that's my main goal in life. Making Mother happy."

"No. But it wouldn't be a bad thing, would it? If she laid off you?"

Sirius slowed. "It's something I'm trying with my friends, Adria."

"Oh." Adria scowled. "You already have help."

"Yes."

"Oh."

Sirius watched her deflate with disappointed and a small smirk appeared on his face.

"Of course, it'll still make mother happy if you're seen talking to me. You want to start seeing more of each other, Malfoy?"

"You're the absolute worst," Adria told him.

She stormed back to her dorm, books abandoned and forgotten.

She had no idea what he'd been trying.

But she was going to find out.

And then she was going to do it better.

...

Adria woke the next morning wishing she'd thought to steal Sirius's wand and spent a minute staring at the ceiling with a frown before she remembered why. Next, she remembered that classes began in an hour, reminded by the long groan Emma let out as she stumbled out of bed.

"First class with the Gryffindors. That's how we end our break." Emma grumbled when she caught Adria blinking at her. "Bloody Gryffindors."

Emma was a foot taller than Adria and built exactly how one would expect the best Beater on the Slytherin Quidditch team to be. She'd once thrown the slight second-year Adria over two angry prefects into the lake. Neither of them remembered why they had thought it a good idea but the prefects had been too stunned to take away any points for whatever they'd been doing wrong.

"Do you think they're complaining about that too?" Adria said. "Because if not, we need to try harder."

"Try harder to torture the Gryffindors." Emma considered as they dressed hurriedly. The others had already disappeared to breakfast. "So, basically, bring up how brilliant we are at Quidditch. Should we carry out brooms with us? Bet Professor Kettle says nothing."

A head poked in the door as Emma trailed off. Evelyn.

"You two are going to be late if you don't stop chatting." Evelyn frowned. "See how things go today, bring the brooms tomorrow. No hurry up!"

"We're coming."

"Yeah, yeah."

Their first class turned out to be nothing. Sirius sat across the room, too far away to overhear or bother. He and his friends then managed to slip out before Adria could tail them. The rest of the day went by similarly. A few classes with other houses, a few glimpses of the four Gryffindors before they slipped away.

Finally, at dinner, Adria grabbed a sandwich and lurked by the Great Hall doors. They were going to have to walk through and then she could… she could hope they were talking about what she wanted to know. Her chances couldn't be too bad: Sirius and his friends were always sneaking off. It was more a question of if they snuck off to do something she cared about.

Adria settled into an alcove behind a statue and nibbled the corners of her sandwich. She was there for maybe two minutes before someone slid in beside her.

"Oh, hello, Reg."

"My brother wants you to stop spying on him."

"So you've come to help me? How kind of you."

Regulus sighed and crossed his arms so they were quite so squished together. "I'd rather help you stop him from doing anything at all."

Adria nodded and slipped the food away, hoping it didn't make a mess in her school bag.

"For what it's worth, I don't think he's doing anything wrong. He just invented something that looked… It looked absolutely brilliant."

Reg sighed. "Yes. My brother can be brilliant. When he wants to be."

Adria twirled a lock of hair around her fingers, considering this for a minute. Her eyes never left the Great Hall doors.
"You could offer to help him." She attempted the same charming smile she'd tried the day before. "And then report back to me?"

Regulus bit his lip and began to stare fixedly at the ceiling. Not the reaction she'd wanted.

"Reg, they're inventing new magic. New! Are you curious?" She gave him a friendly bump with her shoulder. "And you know those Gryffindors. No ambition. They'll keep whatever discovery to themselves."

Regulus gave her a look now. It was skeptical.

"No."

"Is that all you two know how to say?" Adria teased. "Fine. You told me not to. You can go-" She caught sight of Peter Pettigrew laughing as he opened the doors. "-oh-oh, no."

"Wh-"

"Hide!" She hissed.

When he moved too slowly, she grabbed his arm and yanked. She'd only meant to drag him behind the statue and out of sight. Instead, he failed to resist as much as she'd anticipated and she found him stumbling toward her with wide, panicked eyes.

She could fall too.

Or she could shove him into the statue and reveal their hiding place.

She wasn't going to do that.

They both tumbled around each other, off the wall and onto the floor.

Adria found herself too stunned to move, staring down into the hazel eyes of suddenly very close Regulus Potter and wondering how she'd ended up on top of him. He'd tried to catch her and his arms were still around her waist.

It was suddenly more important than ever that Sirius or anyone else of pureblood descent not find her here with the younger Black son.

She couldn't quite figure out how to move.

"I…" Regulus said quietly.

It broke the spell. "Are you alright?" Adria whispered.

"Yeah."

Another beat passed.

Then both shoved themselves away from each other and Adria peeked around the statue, her mind on her former problem.

But sure enough.

Sirius was already gone.