Jared was sitting at the far end of the tent; shirt off and with bandages all around his stomach and down his left arm. Julian was sitting in the middle; robes all intact, but with a deep gash just above his eyes which Pomfrey was now healing.

When I entered, Jared seemed to smirk. Julian winced as Poppy tapped her wand on his bandage. Then Poppy spotted me. "You! Raylynx, you sit here right now."

"Poppy, I'm all right," I said miserably.

"Nonsense! Dragons, dementors, sphinxes, and whatnot! What were they thinking!?"

I looked down at my bloody palms, feeling the shame well up inside.

Poppy cleaned and bandaged both my palms, a large gash on my lower left shin, two burns on both my arms and a cut on my cheekbone. She handed me a bit of chocolate and said, "For the dementor. Eat that, and then the three of you can go and get your scores."

I ate as slowly as possible, not wanting to get my score at all. But finally, I finished and the three of us rose and went back out into the now late-afternoon sun. The other students were a little ways away, waiting eagerly as we approached the judges.

The judges turned out to be the three Headmasters (Cadmus from Academie des Talons, Valetri from Letra Damien, and Dumbledore from Hogwarts), Mr. Crouch, and Mr. MacFarlan.

"You will submit your wands for examination to make sure you only used your magical ability within the same stage," Mr. MacFarlan told us and we all handed him our wands.

On each of them, he pointed his own wand and said, "Priori Incantatem!"

From mine, there was the Patronus Charm and the Drying Spell. From Jared's there arose a series of Blasting Curses, and finally, a Shield Spell. From Julian, there was a variety of incredibly creative spells, involving a Disillusionment Charm and Transfiguration spells that transfigured rocks to dogs and trees to fat rocks.

"Mr. Jared Kaius, who finished in an hour and forty-two minutes," Mr. MacFarlan announced and then each judge shot a purple number out of the end of their wands: 9, 10, 9, 9, and 9 for a total of 46.

The students of Letra Damien and even a few girls from Hogwarts let out thundering cheers.

"Mr. Julian Sorentis, who finished in one hour and fifty-nine minutes," Mr. MacFarlan said next and again: 9, 7, 8, 8, 8 for a sum of 40.

The same general cheering, though slightly lessened, resounded.

"And finally, Ms. Raylynx Kingsley, who finished in two hours and thirty-six minutes."

My heart clenched in anticipation as the numbers shot up: 7, 4, 8, 4, 5 for a result of 28.

There was hardly any applause at this. But it was better than I could have expected. But an eight from Dumbledore, really? I hadn't expected Dumbledore to have such a strong bias.

"And that concludes the First Task of the TriWizard Tournament! Thank you! Congratulations and well done, champions! Back to the castle, everyone!"

Julian was immediately ambushed by his mass of friends and admirers, and Jared was pointed and whispered at in incredulous awe and admiration as he and Valetri headed back to the castle in a very dignified manner. Nobody seemed to want to wait for me as they all trampled up to the castle.

I stayed where I was, unwilling to join the crowd, unwilling to constantly be beside people who judged me in a negative light and were ashamed of me.

"May I escort you back to the castle?" a voice said from beside me.

I turned to see Professor Dumbledore looking down at me along the line of his crooked nose.

I tried to manage something resembling a smile and we headed back up towards the castle together, far behind everyone else.

"What you did today was remarkable," Professor Dumbledore told me graciously as he handed me my Hogwarts outerwear, which I took, "And I am very proud of you."

I tried to smile again, but instead, embarrassingly, I found my eyes getting wet again and quickly looked down.

"You don't seem to believe me," Dumbledore commented, smiling a little ruefully.

"You heard," I replied, my voice heavy with shame, "I took a very long time. I finished miles behind the other competitors."

"It's very easy to judge when one is standing on the sidelines," Professor Dumbledore said quietly, "I would not take their criticism to heart, Ms. Kingsley."

"But Professor, don't you think you were at least a little too generous with my score?"

"Not at all, I was in the full belief that I graded you justly."

"Really? Why is that, Professor?"

"You attempted Legilimency on the sphinx, didn't you, Ms. Kingsley?" Professor Dumbledore asked me, his blue eyes twinkling brightly.

How did he know? I wondered, but then I thought, of course he would have noticed. He taught me Legilimency himself and he is himself, a far better Legilimens that I can imagine.

"I failed miserably," I replied bluntly.

"You nearly lost your life, and in the end, you solved the riddle," Dumbledore replied gently, "Do not trivialize your struggle by misdefining it as a failure."

Unsure of how to respond, I remained silent as we climbed up the steps of the castle and into the Great Hall.

Just before we parted, Dumbledore turned to me and said, "Ms. Kingsley, there is no shame in the risks you took tonight and most particularly not in the outcomes. You overcame a dragon, a hinkypunk, a dementor, and a sphinx in one night. That is no mean feat, not even for the greatest of witches and wizards."

He clapped a hand on my shoulder, right on the burn, causing me to hold back a wince, and then left me standing there, in a state of utmost puzzlement.


I trekked up to Gryffindor Tower, thoroughly exhausted.

"Well, well, how did it go?" the Fat Lady asked me.

"Scraggly pirate beards," I said, ignoring her question.

The Fat Lady muttered to herself about how I was "so moody for a seventh year" as she swung open to admit me.

I stepped inside.

I'm not sure which was worse- the sympathetic looks, disgusted glares, or the general atmosphere of disappointment and dislike.

I tried to keep my eyes straight on the entrance to the girls' dormitory. Luckily, nobody bothered me, not even to shout out an insult.

When I entered into the dormitory, only Dorcas and Alice were there, and they immediately stopped talking and nervously got to their feet as I entered. I ignored this awkward reception and sat at the end of my bed as I pulled off my shoes and stripped off my robe.

"What?" I finally asked them when they remained there, staring at me. They quickly averted their eyes.

"Um, nothing, we just wanted to know if you were feeling okay," Dorcas said to me. Hesitancy sounded strange on her.

"I feel brilliant," I said, unable to wholly keep the sarcasm out of my voice.

To my surprise, it was Alice instead of Dorcas, who broke out of her trance as she said to me in a sharp tone I'd never heard her use before, "Don't take that tone with us, Ray. Don't you dare shut us out like that."

There was a moment of tense silence, but I felt my defensiveness melt away. I said to both of them, "Sorry, you're right."

We all seemed to relax a bit after that, and I asked, "What happened to the other champions? Could you see anything from where you were?"

"Yeah, actually, we could see almost everything except for whatever happened inside those caves," Dorcas answered. "And Mr. MacFarlan was commentating and he had these special lenses- not exactly sure what they were- Omniculars?"

"Anyways, Jared was fastest. He was brilliant," Dorcas explained. "He did some sort-of logic puzzle with the griffin in the Forbidden Forest and then at the Lake, he walked in a few steps to a silent lake before this huge, slithering sea serpent went right for him."

Alice nodded and said, "Well, it was hard for him to be running through water and avoiding this thing, so he relied upon magic- shield spells and Blasting Curses mostly, because Stunning requires a lot more precision and all that."

Dorcas picked up the story again. "Anyways, so he goes sprinting off, avoiding this thing only to go into the cave and discover, as Mr. MacFarlan says, an acromantula. Can you believe it? That big beastly spider. So he ran for it, nearly got caught a couple times. Luckily, he's quite fit and fast on his feet. Finally, he breaks out of the woods and he had a hippogriff waiting for him at the front of the gates. Well, you know, you just bow to a hippogriff and hope it takes to you, which he did. So he finished in an hour and forty-five minutes, quite good."

"I knew he would be," I said. "And Julian?'

"Julian messed up the abilities part because he came face-to-face with a cockatrice and used magic reflexively, right away," Alice said.

"He used quite weird magic, too, let me tell you," Dorcas said.

"How so?" I asked.

"Well," Alice said, "he Transfigured this rock into a dog to distract the cockatrice and then put a Disillusionment Charm on himself to make himself harder to spot. Only, the problem was that his footprints could still be spotted in the foliage and heard by the rustling of the foliage, so the cockatrice went for him and he had to charm these trees to um… stretch themselves and turn into rock."

"That's some magic," I commented, my eyebrows raised.

"Yes, but it gave him enough time to get away, although he was hurt," Dorcas said. "Then he came upon something invisible in the water. It was eating something bloody too, not too friendly, it seemed. But anyhow, he couldn't use his wand, but he recognized it as something called a thestral. I'm not too sure what a thestral is, but he simply moved away the bloody thing and made his way across the Lake, no problem."

"And next was the cave, wasn't it?" I said.

Dorcas nodded. "In the cave, MacFarlan said he came across a manticore. Julian took quite a while there and when he came out, he looked a lot worse for the wear. He was exhausted and his eye was puffed up and there was a gash on his head, but he made it. Then he came across a boggart in the fields. But he couldn't use the Riddikulus Charm, he'd already used magic. So he had to defeat a boggart logically."

"Is that possible?" I said.

"It was the weirdest thing," Alice said. "The boggart turned into this huge, snake-like thing. I think it was a basilisk, but he tried to sit next to it and talk to it and confuse it, even though he was shaking like mad. Anyways, the boggart turned into a lot of gruesome things, like dead bodies and banshees and werewolves, but finally, it became confused and just turned into this tiny garden snake. Julian laughed and it vanished in wisps of smoke…"

"Can you believe it?" Dorcas said. "He logicfied a boggart."

I shook my head in amazement.

"I wonder what I looked like from the stands," I said.

"Well, you were doing brilliantly," Dorcas said, "until er- you sort-of flopped over in front of the sphynx, and it basically looked like you took a nap in the fields. Other than that, though, you were fantastic."

I felt embarrassed, but I had to laugh. So, it looked like I had taken a nap, huh? When the reality was that I had barely saved my mind from being crushed by the Sphynx's mental labyrinth.

"Listen, you should probably take a shower and we can head down to dinner in a bit, all right?" Dorcas said to me. I nodded and as I headed for the showers, asked, "Where's Lily? And Marlene?"

"Lily has Head Girl Duties with Potter before dinner and as for Marlene… I'm not actually sure. I couldn't find her after we got separated in the crowd," Alice answered and she looked a bit worried.


After I'd showered, we headed down for dinner. But as we passed through the common room, we found Marlene sitting at one of the larger desks with a group of other Gryffindors.

I took one look at her and felt an irrepressible anger rise in me. I made to simply walk past her, but Dorcas grabbed my arm and said, "Wait a moment." I unwillingly stopped.

She turned to Marlene and said, "Marlene, are you coming to dinner with us?"

I felt Marlene's gaze turn to me as she answered crisply, "I don't think so."

Dorcas nodded and made to leave but the anger within my chest tightened.

I turned to Marlene and said, "Why not?"

Marlene scoffed. "You really don't know? Oh well, I guess that's possible, seeing as the champion I'm talking to is you."

One of the girls besides her giggled.

"For Merlin's sake. I mean, what the hell were you thinking?" Marlene asked me scathingly, egged on by the Gryffindors around her.

"I wasn't," I replied shortly. I was too busy trying to survive, I thought to myself.

"Clearly! You made Hogwarts look like the stupidest school out there!" Marlene retorted loudly.

"Marlene," Alice said quietly, but Marlene ignored her and said to me, "You shouldn't have put your name in the Goblet in the first place if this is how you were going to do it!"

You put it in! I thought angrily, but I wasn't going to say that in front of a whole common room full of people who already didn't believe in me. Instead, I opted for another truth. "Marlene, I'm trying my hardest-"

"Well, it's not good enough!" she replied, nearly cutting me off.

There was a bone-shatteringly loud silence before I asked in a quieter tone, "Marlene, what is it? This isn't just about my performance today, is it?"

Marlene's eyes widened for a moment before she looked down and stuttered, "N-nothing. You just... You embarrassed the entire school, Raylynx."

"No," I said impatiently. "No, be honest. You think I'm not good enough to be Hogwarts Champion. You think the Goblet made a mistake."

"Yeah, I do," she replied quickly, almost cutting me off again. But this time her voice was jumpy, nervous, almost.

"That's pretty harsh, Marlene," someone else spoke aloud, joining the fray that until then I hadn't realized was gathered around us.

It was Sirius, along with Remus and Peter, gently nudging people out of the way to reach us.

A flush appeared along Marlene's cheeks, but she kept her mouth tightly shut.

"Now if you'd like to come eat with us, Kingsley, we should go now," Sirius said, surprisingly chivalrous.

I studied him with confused eyes. I hadn't missed that he'd called me Kingsley while he called her Marlene, but when he shot me a look that clearly said, "Hurry up. Can't you see I'm trying to get you the hell out of here?" I finally said, "Yeah, all right." I turned to leave, refusing to look at Marlene. Dorcas and Alice followed me. Marlene's eyes followed me, troubled and hurt.


In the Great Hall, the company was no less welcoming, as now I was in the presence of several pissed-off Ravenclaws, Hufflepuffs, Slytherins, and amused and arrogant Letra Damien and Academie des Talonxs students.

There were some kinder voices in the crowd, though.

George Bones from Hufflepuff saw me passing and said, "I can't believe you solved the Sphynx's riddle. I couldn't have done it in a million years."

And Aiden Thomas, who had once been on the Gryffindor Quidditch team, said to me, "You outran a dragon! That was wicked."

I also ran into Riley Smith, who asked me, "You weren't badly hurt, were you?"

I shook my head. "Some cuts and burns, but nothing Madam Pomfrey couldn't fix."

He nodded and said, "Well, you were brilliant, you know," before moving along.

"Will we ever get to our table?" Dorcas complained.

We were nearly there, but then I bumped into someone from Letra Damien. He was a dark-skinned boy with quite short black hair and a rather ridiculous mustache.

"Excuse me," he began arrogantly, in a tone that meant he was not sorry at all, but upon recognizing me, his face broke into quite a nasty smile.

"Ah, so it's the pathetic Hogwarts champion, is it?" he sneered, laying particular emphasis on the word 'champion'.

He went on before I even had a chance to breathe. "You know, I have a theory that the reason why the Hogwarts champion is so inept is because you're a Mudblood."

I froze, completely taken aback that someone whom I had never met in my life, suddenly called me that foul word.

Sirius leapt to my defense, saying angrily, "You leave her alone, you ugly git."

"Sirius," Remus said quietly, laying a hand on Sirius' shoulder to calm him.

The boy's eyes widened with delight. "Sirius? Sirius Black? Oh, I've heard of you, I have. Even among us French, you are famous as the blood traitor who threw away your family in favor of some dirty Mudbloods."

Sirius was now fighting against Remus, who was struggling hard to contain him. Peter looked on quite nervously.

"Who are you?" I wondered aloud, amazed by his insolence towards strangers.

"Does it matter to you? You'll be dead soon enough. I reckon you won't last ten seconds in the Second Task and even if you do, there's still the Third Task. The Third Task is difficult, requiring intellect clearly far beyond what you can manage to drag out. "

"You sound as though you already know what it is," I observed. Suddenly, his eyes flooded with anxiety.

"You also gave away the location of your school, in France," I continued. His face paled.

"Furthermore, you said you had a theory as to why I was inept. Theories can be invalid while laws are absolute. So I guess you're not so sure that Mudbloods are inept, after all?"

Behind me, Dorcas snickered appreciatively.

"You're not very smart, are you?" I finished, staring at this boy. He looked livid.

"Karkaroff, what do you think you're doing?"

An elegant but cold voice reached our ears. We all turned as one to see the Letra Damien champion, Jared, come up towards us.

"I told you we are eating at the Slytherin table today. We are waiting on you." Jared's eyes flickered over to me and he asked solemnly, "Has he been bothering you?"

"No, not at all," I replied, locking eyes with Karkaroff. As always, I felt a tremor of fear pass through me at such hateful eyes, but I fought to hold his stare unflinchingly.

"Then we will take our leave. Excuse us," and Jared dragged Karkaroff away.

As they went I heard Karkaroff say, "I was only-"

Jared cut him off, saying in a stern voice, "Karkaroff, you will only get in my way. Stay away from the other champions!"

"Karkaroff, eh? His name is as ugly as his face," Peter said, seeming quite relieved that the confrontation had not escalated.

We all sat down then. It was clear that Sirius was not in a very good mood. He stabbed rather viciously at his turkey, clanging his fork against the bottom of his plate.

"Padfoot," Peter said worriedly, his eyes on the plate, "You'll break the plate if you aren't careful."

"Why'd you hold me back, Moony?" Sirius growled. "That ugly twerp called me a blood traitor!"

"Padfoot, you are a blood traitor," Remus said sourly. "And you're normally quite proud of it."

Suddenly, Alice laughed.

We all turned towards her and she stopped and blushed.

"What is it?" Peter asked curiously.

"Oh, nothing. I was just thinking, well, me too, right?" Alice said. "I'm a blood traitor, too. And I'm rather proud of it. It just never occurred to me to say it that way."

Nobody said anything, but Sirius seemed a bit better after that. Suffice it to say that plate suffered less trauma after that.


Lily's POV

Head Girl duties with Potter were the worst. And I was particularly not in the mood today, because I had just received a very nasty letter from Edmund, telling me who did I think I was to break up with him and that I couldn't possibly find anyone better who would support me in terms of finances and security.

I snorted. Finances and security. As if a woman in this century couldn't support herself "in terms of finances and security". Like that was supposed to threaten me.

"Something funny?" Potter asked in response to my unamused snort as we turned a corner in the hallways.

"No," I replied immediately, shutting him out.

"Okay, I'm just trying to get some conversation going here."

I ignored that too.

"Merlin, Lily, who shoved a broomstick up your-"

"If you would please stop talking to me, Potter, that would be incredibly appreciated."

"Touchy, touchy," Potter chided but quieted after that.

But sure enough, less than five minutes later, he picked it up again. "Say, I was thinking if you and I had children someday, they'd probably be very brilliant, wouldn't they? I mean, your brainpower and mine combined? Kid would save the world, probably."

"Potter, please-"

"Just imagine it for a moment, Lils."

"Lils?"

James grinned, slightly embarrassed. "Yeah, well, I say your name so often, I run through your nicknames rather quickly. What, you don't like Lils?"

Petunia used to call me, before I got my Hogwarts letter.

Again, I didn't reply, but Potter insolently went on. "Do you think our child would have my eyes or yours? My hair or yours?"

Unable to take this strange and disgusting fantasizing any longer, I broke in, "As long as he doesn't have your mouth. You never stop talking, do you? Or being a smartass?"

Potter shrugged. "Well, sometimes I'm asleep."

I shook my head. "And there you go again. Proving you don't know how to be mature."

"What's wrong with that? Immaturity makes me happy," Potter said, ruffling his hair with his hand yet again.

"Obviously," I replied shortly as we made our way down the stairs to the fourth floor.

"What about you, Evans? What makes you happy?" Potter asked me.

"Not you," I retorted.

"No, seriously, what makes you happy?"

I stared at him blankly. "Potter, what are you talking about?"

"I mean what do you do for fun? Hobbies?"

"I spend time with my friends," I answered uncertainly.

"And?" James prompted.

"What do you mean 'and'?" I said. "I just told you."

Potter was looking at me in a skeptical way, as though I were pathetic. He was looking at me like Edmund wrote to me. I immediately bristled.

"Stop looking at me like that," I snapped.

"Why are you so angry with me?" James asked defensively. "I'm just trying to get a conversation started, all right?"

"As if you really care," I retorted angrily, and then words I never meant to say spilled out of my mouth in my fury, "You certainly have no appreciation for how important my friendships are to me, seeing as how you effectively drove my best friend away from me."

"What the bloody hell are you yapping on abo- Snape?! Are you talking about Snape?" Potter threw his hands up. "You still lament being apart from that greasy git?"

"He wasn't a greasy git!" I said hotly. "See? This is why I despise you, Potter. Because you don't care about anyone except yourself. Even when you pretend to 'care' about me and ask me out or ask me questions, you have no regards for how I might actually feel, all the embarrassment and the frustration I might have to endure. All you care about is that you and your mates have fun making me look incredibly stupid in front of the entire school every time!"

"I-You-What!?" James sputtered.

"You're arrogant and annoying and worst of all, you're down-right inconsiderate!" I finished, breathing heavily, as though I'd thrown a great load off my chest. Yeah, you and Edmund are two of a kind. Ugh.

"Listen, I never- You're not- I mean, you think it's easy for me to get rejected by you all the time?" James finally blurted out. "You think it makes me happy when you tell me how much you despise me or how you prefer Snivellus-"

"-Severus-" I corrected through gritted teeth.

"-over me?"

"Oh please," I scoffed derisively, "when have you ever seriously asked me out, Potter? And I mean meaningfully, without the overboard theatrics meant to be displayed in front of the entire school?"

"What about that time I gave you a bunch of roses and asked you to the Masquerade-?"

"Those roses squirted water into my face, if you don't remember! No doubt you thought that was some funny prank of yours."

"That wasn't me! That was somebody else. Somebody who wanted you to think that I was being insincere."

"Who?"

"Oh, wrack your brains, Lily, it shouldn't be too difficult to-"

"Severus doesn't do petty things like that! Besides, even if he did, so what? You and Black have made his life miserable since day one!"

"So this is what you think of me! Thank you for explaining so fully! Merlin, Lily, I never thought you would be this prejudiced." Potter looked at me in disbelief, his eyes not glittering with mischievousness, but hard and fierce. This was a side to him I'd never seen before- angry and dead serious.

"Prejudiced? You think I'm prejudiced?" I said, in complete disbelief. I was being accused of being prejudiced by the boy who pranked all Slytherins on sight?

"Yeah! I messed up a couple times, I know that, all right? But just because that might embarrass you doesn't mean I do it with the intent of embarassing you! Have you ever considered that I'm more than nervous to confess to you- to ask you out? Or do you just always take it for granted that I'm going to ask you out? I did it because I seriously liked you- or at least, the girl I thought you were."

This was James Potter, the arrogant, good-for-nothing berk. James Potter, the mean, bullying toerag who thought he was attractive to every girl in the castle because he could fly longer than ten seconds on a broomstick.

And yet. His words hit me hard, like a train. And I felt like he'd punched me straight in the heart.

We'd come to the end of our watch and ended up just before the open doors of the Great Hall, where the majority of students were dining and chatting away.

James Potter turned to me and said sarcastically, "Thank you, madam, for letting me take up so much of your precious time. And next time, I won't bother since I'm such an insincere prat."

I wanted to point out that he was doing it again- being insincere, but I couldn't make the words come. As he walked away from me without his trademark goofy smile, I felt like I had lost something irrevocably, but I couldn't define exactly what it was that I had lost.


Raylynx's POV

Despite the few bright spots of encouragement, the teasing was worse than ever. Before people have bullied me about the fact that I was going to fail, now people teased me about how I had failed.

I spent more time in the Room of Requirement than ever, exploring the many rooms it offered me. I once found a handsome bedroom with plush carpeting and a chandelier, complete with a set of bedtime tales, including Beedle the Bard. I also chanced upon a room that was a labyrinth of items that seemed to have at some point or anything, been banned. Bottles of suspicious potions and drinks, a set of heavy-looking brooms, and tons of furniture, even.

Marlene and I avoided each other as much as possible and while Dorcas and Alice told me that it wasn't my fault, they were also adamant on not taking sides. I could sense there was a secret they weren't telling me, but I didn't press on it. As for Lily, she seemed to be dealing with her own problems at the moment. And as always, she wouldn't admit that anything was wrong, and airily said that it would pass. What would pass, she wouldn't say.

However, in the midst of all this, there were two new solitary figures that shone unusually bright. By this, I mean that although I would never depreciate Alice's, Dorcas', Lily's, or even Marlene's friendship just because it was constant, two other friendships began to strengthen in my life, and they were sorely welcome in the midst of the constant teasing I faced.

The first bright spot came in the form of a chocolate bar stuck unceremoniously in front of my face.

I blinked and followed the hand holding it up to a familiar face.

"Lupin?"

"Won't you take it?"

I looked up at him curiously. "What is this for, exactly?"

"Well," Remus said, somewhat awkwardly, " You faced that dementor during the first task. Chocolate helps with dementors."

I stared up at him in surprise. If Remus knew that chocolate was the antidote to dementors, then surely he knew that the effect of a dementor didn't physically linger. I was sure Remus knew that. Aside from Dorcas, he was perhaps the best at Defense Against the Dark Arts in our year, though it had taken me a good six years to realize that because he was never purposefully flashy about his skills.

So then, what was he doing?

"Are you pitying me?" I asked quietly.

Remus bit his lip as we stared at each other for a long moment. As he started to chew on his lip nervously, I could see the gears turning in his head. He was probably regretting giving this chocolate bar to me at all.

"Sorry," I broke the silence quite abruptly and took the chocolate from him. "I don't know why I'm being such a prat. You gave me a chocolate bar and I didn't even say thanks."

Remus watched me unwrap the chocolate bar without saying anything. I hesitated just before I took a bite and then broke off about half.

I held it out to him.

He just looked down at it as if to say, "That's yours."

"Won't you take it?" I asked him.

With slow fingers, he did, taking it from me just before it began to melt in my fingers.

As we both bit into the delicious chocolate, Remus cleared his throat and spoke, "It wasn't out of pity. It was because I thought that fighting four monsters in a very short period of time is a huge accomplishment. I thought it should be somehow celebrated."

As the taste of chocolate spread in my mouth, I felt a light warmth blossom in me.

I thought to myself, Remus Lupin is kind.

In him, I saw the soft kindness that I sometimes felt with Alice and Lily.

It was strange. Because although the effects of a dementor wear off almost immediately (at least physically), I did feel considerably better after eating the chocolate. It felt like I'd gotten rid of a more permanent dementor hovering over me, one that I hadn't been quite aware of it being there.

That encounter with Remus was the first bright spot. As for the second brightness-


I climbed the Astronomy stairs quickly, pausing every now and then to make sure I wasn't being followed. Finally, I raced up the stairs and then appeared, breathless, at the top of the Astronomy Tower.

I shut the door behind me and locked it, then turned around, still breathing hard.

And there he was.

How lonesome of a figure he cut, all in black, outlining the evening glow of the sun.

"You did well on your first task," Regulus said warmly, sensing my gaze on him.

"I-No-Failed… miserably. I was- total mess," I gasped out, trying not to pant, but seriously out of breath. I had run here all the way from the dungeons, where I had returned a few phials that Madam Pomfrey had needed at the beginning of our lesson.

He turned and he saw me standing there, all spent of breath.

"Catch your breath," he told me, smiling. "I'm right here and I'm not going anywhere."

I couldn't help but smile back at his words.

"You're not a mess, Raylynx. You're brave for trying. And succeeding, may I add," Regulus said kindly.

I wanted so badly in that moment to go to him and take his hand, but I still felt so afraid of him. Terrified because though I knew in my heart that he would never hurt me, every time I saw him I couldn't help but wonder how many Muggles he had slaughtered, what evil spells he was capable of performing, and most of all, the resentment towards Gryffindors, particularly Sirius, that must be growing somewhere deep in his heart every day. Even though I knew his intentions were as good as humanly possible, I still feared what he had done with his own hands, no matter on whose orders. But I joined him anyways, standing at the ramparts and gazed out into the setting sun. Streaks of blood-orange with a sheen of gold sparkled across the horizon, lighting the trees of the Forbidden Forest as though brilliantly aflame.

"What are you thinking about?" he asked me curiously.

I'm thinking that you are not so different from the Death Eaters that killed my parents. You bear the same mark, utter the same disgusting language in their presence, and have likely killed Mudbloods with your own hands.

"I wish… I wish you'd been born an idiotic Muggle-born like me, who knew nothing about the magical world, so that you didn't have to feel the burden of saving your family from the age of eleven," I said.

Regulus shook his head defiantly. "Don't. Don't pity me. I am in a position to protect people. That is a gift."

Unable to think of a mature enough response, I finally asked, "What would it have been like if we had both been your kind of pure-bloods, then?"

"My kind of pure-bloods?" Regulus repeated, gazing back at the floor again.

"Sorry," I said regretfully,."Sorry, I didn't mean-"

"No, I know," Regulus said quickly, "I know you didn't mean to offend."

A silence settled in in which I felt a terrible guilt weigh down my heart. I bit my lip, unsure of what to say, afraid to offend any further.

Thankfully, Regulus carried on. "If we had both been pure-bloods… We would have met each other at a very early age and probably become the best of friends. You would have been taught to dance and we would see each other at grand balls all the time. You'd be doted on by people, who only later you grew up to realize were murderers and bigots, but you'd never quite forget how much they liked you when you were a child. People would spoil you all the time until you actually started to believe that the world owed you something…"

His voice seemed troubled for a moment, but then he lightened up again. "But the main thing is, well, we'd dance together and play Quidditch together all the time."

"We've already done that," I pointed out. "Play Quidditch together."

Regulus' smiled in a half-humorous, half-sarcastic way. "That's true. I suppose I meant Quidditch where I didn't have to blast you off your broom for fear that if you won, my teammates would ambush you and hurt you."

"I remember that. At the time, I felt betrayed and confused. I didn't understand why you would hex me when it was already so clear that you were going to win. I didn't understand what you were really afraid of," I recalled. "I think that was the first time I started to recognize the prejudices that so defined this world."

I felt Regulus' eyes flash up to my face. Unwilling to break this light-hearted tone we had somehow silently agreed to adopt, I added, "But you're right. We haven't danced yet. But you don't seem to attend the Masquerades here anyways. Last year…"

I paused, wondering if it was worth the risk to go down this line of conversation…

"Last year…?" Regulus probed.

I hesitated again and then went for it. "The night of the Halloween Masquerade, why did you come up to Gryffindor Tower? I remember you were searching for Sirius."

Regulus' eyes darkened and internally I winced. I knew this was a question I should have withheld.

"I had just become a Death Eater and I was scared out of my wits. I was looking for Sirius. I don't know exactly why. I just thought he could help."

Regulus shook his head. "You see? I'm not so dependable as you give me credit for, Raylynx. In that moment, I risked everything I had given my entire life for just to be consoled by my brother. I'm still so weak." His voice was deeply pained.

My heart throbbed. I knew that feeling. That feeling of trying so hard, but also feeling that you were barely holding on and that you couldn't make it anymore- you just weren't strong enough, you didn't have it in you to play the hero, like others did. Like Jamie and Sola did. Like Sirius did.

Night was fast falling, and the brightest stars were already out, bravely shining, refusing to be wiped out even by the last glares of the sun itself.

"Look," I said, pointing towards one of the stars, "Collins said that was the Regulus star, didn't he?"

Regulus gave me an amused look. "You actually manage to pay attention in that class, do you? What with him placing you besides that freezing cold window every day?"

"Well, I can't fail. Then I'd be exactly what he expects me to be, and I don't want him to be right about everything," I explained.

Regulus laughed, and it was the warmest, rarest sound I could ever treasure.

"Go on, what about the Regulus star?" Regulus said, looking out at the vast expanse of sky the view from the Astronomy Tower offered.

"It's the brightest star in the Leo constellation," I said. "It's the very heart of the lion."

Regulus was silent for a moment and then he said, in a very soft voice, "So it is. I suppose I'm where I belong in the skies, even if not here on earth. That's nice to know."

Dusky lavender spilled across the horizon and the last rays of the sun slowly retracted their claws from the world. Above us, a deep velvet ocean of sparkling crystals began to wash over the world.

I shivered slightly as a light breeze picked up. I had not brought any form of jacket or cloak with me.

Regulus slipped off his outer robe and carefully placed it on my shoulders, without physically touching me.

I searched his expression, wondering if he was consciously avoiding touching my bare skin with his bare skin.

His eyes locked with mine, and I found my answer in the always sorrowful and regretful silver of his eyes.

How lost are you in your own regret? Is there a way for you to come back anymore? And even if you did, would your eyes ever stop being silver with sad?

And I could just so obviously see how different how paths would become in a very short amount of time.

"Regulus-" I started to say, but he stopped me, saying quietly, "I know."