Harry Potter and the Wondrous Blood Ri

Chapter Twenty-Nine

The school year began and ran just as Regina had laid it out. The Junior Death Eaters, now thirty in number was filled with only 6th-7th years, and for the first time ever, they had every Prefect from every House in their number. It had been a coup to get even the Hufflepuffs, which now included Rose Zellar, a Hogwarts prefect among their number.

Regina repeated her instructions even to them. "All punishments will include the Cruciatus Curse."

It turns out that it was a good thing that Regina had provided some private lessons for her ally, Rose. Rose would not have been able to follow instructions without the private Dark Arts tutoring that Regina provided.

Regina insisted on teaching the beginner levels of Dark Arts to Professor Snape's surprise. Jillian was not surprised. Regina was a firm believer in building blocks, not just in magic, but in knowing the young students. Regina chose Natalie McDonald as her assistant. She was the Gryffindor Prefect, but a deadly Dark Arts student.

Jillian was elevated then to teach the Intermediate course. Jillian worked with Orla Quirke as her assistant.

Professor Snape taught the one class at Hogwarts, Dark Arts Advanced.

As time progressed, Regina received correspondence in turn from the Parkinsons and Malfoys thanking her for her gracious words in their hour of grief. But especially sweet was the correspondence that began with Draco Malfoy. The two began to write daily letters at this moment.

Regina spent her first Newt year with the little relief that she had being able to drop some of the non-essential classes. She no longer took History of Magic, Herbology, or Astronomy.

She of course continued to take Transfiguration, Charms, Potions, her self-study on the Dark Arts, Arithmancy, and Ancient Runes. These courses were proving to be challenging. Her perfect O's again during the OWLS certainly gave her some leeway from the teachers, but they had high expectations for the girl almost everyone considered to be Hogwarts best student. Her name now was spoken in the same breath as Hermione Granger or Tom Riddle as some of the most intelligent and intuitive students ever to grace these halls.

Regina also was granted special dispensation to self-study in Alchemy. Specialized books were ordered and she studied the difficult mixture of Potions, Charms, and Transfiguration. Sadly for Regina there was no known Alchemist mentor since Dumbledore and Flamel were the only known experts in the field.

Regina was still in the Slug Club, along with her best friend Jillian MacDougal and their for-show boyfriends. Regina knew that Harry Potter would have hated the club. But for Regina's purposes, the club allowed her to interact with graduates and important people Professor Slughorn had maintained in the past.

Samhein passed quietly as it did each year Regina had been herself rather than Harry Potter. And November flew by quickly. Regina only paid marginal interest in the restarted Quidditch season at the school. Slytherin's large house size meant they always had the best players and the other three Houses just couldn't compete with the athletes that kept going Slytherin's way.

During the December Hogsmeade weekend, Regina, Jillian, Graham, and Malcom decided to formerly break up. Neither Regina nor Jillian were truly interested in formal courtship. Graham had actively sought ought Eleanor Branstone and Malcom wished to date Natalie McDonald. The two ladies graciously released the men without hard feelings from their commitments to them.

Then, they were packing for the return trip to London.

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Regina was sitting in the office at Malfoy Manor with Lucius Malfoy, Narcissa Malfoy, Draco Malfoy, and her solicitor Marcus Zeller.