GYMNOPÉDIE

Chapter 07

     Somehow, Martin always managed the black cat to take a liking to him. Now, these cats have long-live ranged, from 17 to 25 years which was why she was a wizard familiar.

    "Depends." Martin broke off, "Depends on how old is she and if she was sick, and incurable then I don't have a choice don't I. But if she was dying from things curable, then I'll try to save her."

     God, Martin was a gentle soul behind his jokes and bad temperament. Gemma hummed to the answer, she had been pondering about it all night. If she could save Regulus Black would that change something in this timeline? How bad could it get?

     But then, why him? Gemma interacted with a lot of people and then she came across this Slytherin and bam — he was dying.

      Saving one person from dying would be tipping a set of domino, you see, when one fell the others too. Dealing with timeline was always complicated, and you could never see what happened once the first domino fell, which direction it would go. If only she could talk to the portrait she could get clarity.

     "Do you plan to poison her?" Martin's grating voice snapped her out of her thought, she turned to meet his pallid eyes.

     Gemma grinned, "No." she replied cheekily, his eyes narrowed at her, "I swear no, but if that devil put her claw on me again she wished she never did."

    Martin chuckled at that, shaking his head. And with that  a loud boom was heard signing the period was over. Professor Sprout cued the others to hurry with their plants and one by one left the greenhouse.

***

The two Ravenclaw marched their way to the great hall right in time for lunch. The corridor was much more crowded than other periods. Hoisting her bag to her shoulder she couldn't wait to get her hands on another treacle tart.

      "Hey, Zygo." a chilling voice called behind the two of them, Martin looked over his shoulder. And his face contorted with confusion, puzzled over the view of two Slytherins walking towards them.

      Gemma closed her eyes, the torture had begun, she turned on her heels. Her gaze landed upon two raven haired boys on her year, Evan and Regulus. The hazel-eyed boy snickering next to the younger Black. His lips twisted into a smirk as he got a load of notes and yellowish parchment on his hand.

     The two Slytherins boys met eye-to-eye with the Ravenclaws, such a rare sight for eagles interacted with serpents. She inhaled sharply, chin up to face the boys, daring the serpents, "What?"

     Regulus handed her the notes on his hand, which she took firmly. Her eyes swiftly scanned the notes he offered, then narrowed at the unfamiliarity she found in the notes, "That's for next week."

    "Arithmancy?" she mused, facing him again as she handed the note back, "Unfortunately for you, I don't take Arithmancy, Mr. Black."

     "Is that so?" Regulus peered down to the notes, instead of taking it back he tilted his head with his devilish smirk, "Rules, Zygo. It's the homework that I have to do, whether you can do it or not. You take the class or not, you do it."

    "What the hell is that?!" the blond boy protested, "Who are you to boss her around?"

     Regulus turned his gaze to the blond, "None of your business, half-breed." he spat coldly, Martin clenched his fingers into a fist. But a soft hand pulled his robe to calm him down.