About a week after I was sorted into Slytherin I was curled into my bed, crying myself to sleep. At eleven I thought I knew what I was getting myself into by electing to be sorted into Slytherin. I didn't register the feeble clapping from my table when I sat down and I didn't think about all of the political headlines I'd seen about how half-blood's were often as distrusted and disliked as muggleborn's were. I thought it would be different for me. That naivity quickly died out. The first day all of the girls spoke to me for hours. I thought that they were as nervous and excited as I was. I thought they wanted to be my friend. It didn't occur to me that they were just trying to get information to use against me. But then I found that they'd jinxed the word 'slut,' onto all of my school skirts and sprayed 'half-breed' onto all of my sheets in permenant ink. That dream wasn't long lived.

Dropping down into one of the squishy bean bag chairs Dumbledore had placed all over the Great Hall, I tried to calm down my nerves. I tried to think about anything else; school, family, goals, books, anything but I couldn't forget the color of her skin or the angle her body was in. I couldn't stop thinking about how she had gotten that way and how scared she must have been.

It killed me. To think of that poor girl probably running, screaming for someone to help her... forever silenced.

"How long are we stuck here for?" Clara Rosier sighed looking at herself in a mirror to fix her make-up. "I mean a Mudblood is dead so what? How many of them die in a year? It's just another."

Swallowing the bile in my throat, I fought the urge to throttle her self-absorbed ass. Of course a life would mean nothing to her. She was headed for Stepfordumb. To be Mrs. Someone for the rest of her life and have no concerns other than if her husband would leave her when her body wasn't as tight after popping out four heirs.

She had no idea what it would be like. To live in a world were you could be left with your throat slit so your entire life would amount to what some sick bastard wrote on the wall in your blood. To live in fear. Once fifth year Clara gotten a pimple and I thought she was going to have a panic attack when every other girl in the dorm had told her to just put some toothpaste on it.

Fucking idiot.

Jocelyn made her way over to me, bringing her boyfriend Jack McKinnon with her once they realized I was in the hall with them. She hugged me tightly, her long arms curled around me. "This is so messed up."

I nodded, shifting so they could sit down in the bean bag chairs next to me.

Jack reached over and squeezed my arm. He said with a grimace. "The teachers should have her taken and... it cleaned up soon."

"Still doesn't help that we're probably sitting near the psychopath that did it." I shook my head vemonously. "God... why Mary? She was so nice."

Jocelyn curled into her hoodie. "Maybe that was it?"

"Being too nice?" I asked, "Then I guess both of you are screwed."

Jack shook his head. "It looked messy... I couldn't tell if it was intentional or a cover up."

"Like if they killed her and then tried to make it into a political fuck you or if they killed her to make it a political fuck you?" I furrowed my eyebrows.

"Exactly." He said.

"So fucked up." I sighed, wiping my face.

Jocelyn said softly. "I just can't imagine who would do it... And so arrogantly."

"Someone that knew they wouldn't get caught or be punished if they did." I answered.

"That narrows it down." Jack said, openly staring at the Slytherin group where the teacher's table usually sat.

I looked over to where Jack was glaring. They were all sitting together playing exploading snap, laughing and talking like nothing was new. I went down the row one by one. Rabastan couldn't have done it because he was in detention. Flint was too stupid to write a threatening note with every word spelled correctly. Mulciber, Avery and the Carrows certainly would be capable considering their outspoken hatred and lack of any moral decency. Finally my eyes landed on Regulus Black.

He wasn't sitting with the rest of them for some reason. He was off to the side looking at his shoes like they were particularly interesting. I'd only glanced at the others for a second, not wanting them to see I looked at them at all. But he was so focused he didn't look up when I stared longer.

He was handsome like his older brother but smaller, still tall but lankier with high cheekbones and a razor sharp jawline. Out of all of them he was the only one I couldn't gauge. At first I wanted to discount him because he'd walked up with me but he could have staged that. All of the rest frequently spouted their racist bigotry but he was quiet about whatever his opinions were. Calculated.

"Emma?" Jocelyn poked me. "Did you hear me?"

"Hm?" I turned and blinked. "What?"

"I said. Do you want to stay in my dorm tonight? I really don't think you should go back there considering..."

I smiled at her. "Thanks but I'm fine. We don't even know if they'll let us out of here."

"You should take her up on it." Jack suggested, his heavy eyebrows furrowed in concern.

"I can take care of myself. Besides I can hardly sleep in your bed for the rest of term, can I? So I might as well suck it up now."

"I know." Jocelyn sighed, fidgeting with her sleeve. "I just worry about you being with all of them..."

"I know honey." I smiled sincerely, pulling her over into my side for a hug. "But I'm tough. Okay?"

She nodded, the tears slipping down her face. "Mhmm."

"And besides. I hate cuddling with you two." I teased, grinning when she laughed. "Jack takes up so much space, and you make noises when you sleep... It's just too much for us all."

Jack laughed heartedly. "At least I don't take all of the covers."

"I'm not going to apologize for that, Jack."

"You never do..." He sighed dramatically.

Jocelyn frowned suddenly and I asked. "What?"

"It's just...Dorcas... I hope she's okay."

"I'm sure this was just an isolated event."

"No... You're probably right but Mary was in her house... I think they were friends." Jocelyn said quietly.

I nodded with a sigh. "As soon as they let us out of here we will go get her."

"Okay." Jocelyn let out a heavy sigh running rubbing her temples.

We didn't get out for hours. Dumbledore had dinner served and sleeping bags brought in. By the time we got to Dorcas it was the next afternoon. Her eyes were puffy and she was unnaturally quiet, curled up in a big fluffy blanket. Jocelyn, Jack, Dorcas and I hung out together until we had to go back to our dorms for curfew. There was a tension in every conversation, a hesitation in every goodbye. I didn't like the idea of leaving any of them after what happened to Mary but there was little I could do about it.

It wasn't until I started going up the stairs to my room that I thought about Jocelyn said. She had a point. Dorcas was surrounded by blood-traitors and likeminded people all of the time. Jocelyn was off the radar and dating a McKinnon. I was the one walking directly into the gallows. There wasn't a single doubt in my mind that one of my housemates had done this and I had absolutely not protection from it.

So I stopped, turned around and stayed down in the common room for a bit, hoping that Alecto and the others would be asleep by the time I decided to go up. It had been too long of a day for me to have a verbal sparing with her about what should or shouldn't happen to people that were less than Pureblood.

Everyone had gone up. I was sitting by the wall, away from the fire with my legs tucked into my chest. I didn't even have a time in my where I would drag myself up. I just knew I needed to sit there and try to breathe. All of it just felt so surreal. Like a bad dream.

"What are you doing?"

My eyes lifted from the carpet to the speaker. I expected someone else, anyone else. When I saw Regulus, I replied. "Sitting."

Regulus gestured to sit down across from me and I shrugged, too worn to be as shocked his appearence or his willingness to sit with me as I should have been.

"What are you doing up?" I asked.

"I don't sleep much."

I snorted at that.

"What?"

"You just... I'm sorry but you don't seem like a real person." I told him simply. "You're always in control. Always have an automated response. It's surprising to hear you have flaws."

Regulus replied, leaning back. "I'm a real person. I just know better."

"You know better?"

He nodded. "You give people information about you. You give them power."

"That's fair." I said, looking over his stoic expression wondering why he had just given me information.

There was a long silence between us. Neither of us clearly had much practice speaking to one another. But I could see he was trying to figure out how to say something and I couldn't help but be curious to what that was. I thought, what could Regulus Black possibly want to ask me?

"Did you know her?" He asked finally.

I shook my head. "Not really. My friend was friends with her."

He was quiet for a few minutes. I thought he was going to leave before he asked. "Want to go for a walk?"

My eyebrows shot up. "We're not supposed to..."

"So?"

I had no solid reason to get up and go with him. A day earlier I hadn't even knocked him off the suspect list for Mary. We weren't friends. We were barely teammates, but I stood up, slipped on my shoes and said. "Okay."

Walking alone in the dark is one thing; every noise could be someone coming, every step is a step away from safety. Walking with someone you don't even know is worse because if you're walking with them you should trust them. You should know that no matter what thing you see or hear it's the two of you against everything.

"Do you do this normally?" I asked to break the silence.

He nodded. "I like it better at night. It's more peaceful."

"It is." I said, looking around at all of the shadows and moonlit coridoors.

"Are you going to leave?" He questioned, his grey eyes glancing over my face curiously. "I heard a few people are transferring."

"No... I hadn't thought of it. You want to be Captain? Is that why you want to know?" I asked, my tone bordering on teasing without any recognition why.

"No." A low laugh left him.

"He laughs?"

"I'm human."

"Hmm... That is new information." I teased again.

Regulus stopped walking and smirked at me in front of one of the alcoves. The moonlight showed all the freckles on his cheeks that I'd never been close enough to see before... And other things that I could have noticed perfectly well at a greater distance.

That should have been the moment, standing there with him in my sweats with no make-up on and my silver and green headband keeping my hair back. Regulus standing there in his long sleeved Quidditch shirt and sweats... That should have been the moment where I realized this, whatever we were doing at that exact moment, was ridiculous and suggested we head back. And it would have never had to go any farther than a series of odd decisions caused by tragic circumstance.

I didn't do that though. I didn't do a lot of things I should have. Like when I saw his face and recognized the expression to be familuar I should have changed the subject. Or when he started leaning down to kiss me I should have stopped him. I should have known that that was crazy. Instead, I looked from his strong looking lips to his grey eyes and stopped thinking completely. The instant he touched me the entire world faded away. And I was gone.

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