ADHARA, the second
brightest star in the
Canis Major constellation,
right after sirius. It
was as if her father had
named her after a murderer
A few neighbourhoods away from Number 4, Privet Drive, there was a tall...
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Regulus Black, Adhara decided, was an idiot. Or perhaps he was just a selfish hypocrite like everyone else in the world.
She felt like all of her current problems could be traced back to him.
She never paid attention to what people thought of her. And even now, she didn't. Not really. It didn't matter to her what the rumours said about her. But, despite her best efforts, she started to care about her friends' opinions. And it bothered her that they thought of her House like that.
This problem too took up its roots with Regulus. If the man hadn't run, if he had just stayed, then maybe these useless rumours wouldn't be circulating right now.
She started to reach for his letters less and less. Which didn't really help her case since those letters were one of the only things keeping her together at the moment. She wasn't speaking with any of her friends.
Avoiding them was easier than expected, except for the fact that she shared a living space with Millicent. They tried to approach her on multiple occasions, Hermione more so, but then Adhara figured out it was rather easy to sneak out to the Forbidden Forest without anyone noticing.
Harry was ignoring her as well, so he wasn't much of a chore. The only time she was forced to be in the same space as him was during Potions lessons.
It was already her least favourite class, and now she had to bear with this awkwardness.
Adhara tried to keep her attention on the puffer-fish eyes, unevenly slicing them before putting them in a mortar. She wasn't instructing Harry on anything, as she would normally. She focused on the ingredients, doing her best to ignore the heat radiating from underneath the cauldron.
The silk on her hands felt tight. She managed to keep her thoughts occupied in order to distract herself from the fire, but that also meant she wasn't paying enough attention to the knife.
"Adhara!"
She flinched at the impact, rapidly holding her index between her other fingers. The boy beside her tried to help, addressing her for the first time in weeks, but Adhara only backed away.
"Adhara, your finger-"
"It's fine."
"Your gloves are getting-"
"It's none of your business."
Harry's mouth snapped shut.
━━━━
Millicent dragged a stool close to Hermione's bedside for the second time that day. She visited once before during breakfast, and now that classes were over, she decided to pay the girl another visit.
