Knowing Regulus Black was a Death Eater caused Aurelia to have an abnormal amount of stress for the following days. She was glad that she knew; it was useful information to have and she could use it to her advantage — but whenever she saw Regulus walking through the corridors she grew wary. Regulus noticed her occasional flinches when they were close, or how her eyes would trail up his arm that he took extreme care to cover. He knew that she knew that he was a Death Eater, and he hated it.
But he wrote the letter, and he knew full well that this was to be expected.
Regulus Black was a reserved person. He only ever really talked when he was around someone he knew, or was familiar with. Whenever his parents hosted a party he would stray away as Sirius would do some bizarre stunt that he'd get punished for later.
That was years ago, since obviously Sirius was no longer living with him. He had James and his parents — lovely people who treated Sirius with more respect and warmth than all of the times Walburga and Orion treated him with something other than hatred and loathing.
It was as if ever since Sirius was gone his punishments transferred to Regulus, because whereas Sirius would get numerous bruises on his back if he didn't behave, and Regulus would usually go without punishment since he was better at obeying his parents orders. But it was as if they were bored that they didn't have Sirius to punish, because even though Regulus would do as he was told his parents would hurt him nonetheless.
Thus why there were numerous scratches and scars littered across his left arm, right where the Dark Mark was.
Regulus made his way to Defense Against the Dark Arts, eyeing the teacher whom had a twisted smile on her face. Aurelia was seated at the desk, not daring to look at her after what happened last time.
Lark and Sybill were beside her, whispering and passing notes — doing their absolute best to cheer Aurelia up.
It did somewhat work.
Regulus sat with Avery, Rosier, and Mulciber — who too were whispering in hush voices, but for completely different reasons.
The teacher made a hem hem noice, which caused Aurelia to roll her eyes.
She decided right then and there she hated her.
"Today we will be learning about inferis."
For the rest of the class Aurelia zoned-out, her head lulling back. She was awoken by Lark, who had kicked her hard, causing her to make a pained noise.
The professor made her way to Aurelia's desk. "How about you pay attention? Can you do that for me?" Her voice made it sound condescending, so even though her words weren't particularly mean it was overly-sweet and child-like.
Way too sweet for her liking.
Aurelia nodded her head, mustering an apologetic look.
When class ended, Aurelia was quick to grab her stuff and leave. A Gryffindor second year said that Horace Slughorn needed her for whatever reason.
When she got to where the Potions class was, and saw Slughorn seated at his desk, she went inside. "You needed me?"
Professor Slughorn looked up cheerfully. "Ah yes, Aurelia! I was wondering if you could make room for supper with a few other students. You were suppose to come last week, but obviously since you were in the Hospital Wing it didn't go to plan."
"That would be lovely," Aurelia said politely. "I'd love to come."
"Splendid!" Slughorn said jovially. "Can't wait to see you there!"
Aurelia exited the room, thinking nothing of the dinner.
And the people who would be invited.
That night Aurelia got ready. She was wearing a simple black dress and light makeup that was just barely noticeable. She was going to just show up in her pajamas but she decided against it — because, well, she didn't think Slughorn was exactly going for a pajama party. Sybill, who was coming along with, had an eccentric green dress. The dress was bizarre and strange, but it did suit her personality and she somehow managed to pull it off decently well.
Earlier that day she had received a letter saying that the dinner would be hosted in the dungeons; so, knowing this, Aurelia had one of those old people cardigans that she had stolen from Remus in her third year.
The two girls linked arms and skipped all the way to the cold dungeons, snickering to themselves as Sybill went on a rant about her latest prediction. When they finally arrived, they noticed that at least a dozen people were seated at a large table — Slughorn at the head. He looked up, his gooseberry eyes filling with mirth as he noticed the two. "You're here! Come, sit!" He indicated the two empty seats that were clearly reserved to them. Aurelia politely smiled, taking one whilst Sybill took the other.
"It's good you're both here," Slughorn said, raising a glass of crimson wine to his lips before setting it back on the table. "I was just telling everyone here about Sybill's great-great-grandmother, Cassandra Trelawney. A very celebrated seer, might I add." He put the emphasis on 'very'.
Sybill looked pleased as she muttered a small 'yes', her face turning a bright shade of red as she started cutting into a piece of meat.
"And Aurelia," continued Slughorn, just as adamantly, "has a very nice family history. Your mother always got Outstandings. She was a Ravenclaw herself." He seemed very content as he said this; obviously he admired her. "Also had an older sister — Ophelia, and she was very intelligent as well. Always liked competing with the Slytherins. Shame what happened to them."
Aurelia swallowed hard, growing rather uncomfortable with the topic at hand. "Shame," she whispered, as she too cut into a piece of meat to distract herself.
Regulus Black was right next to Avery, Mulciber, and Rosier; whom seemed very interested with the corner of the table at the moment. When Slughorn directed his talking to them, they would mutter a small response and go back to their meal, or pretend that they weren't interested when in fact they were listening to Slughorn's words with rapt attention. Lark Scamander would brightly go on about her father, and all of what he had accomplished. She spent a few minutes talking about the rare and magical animals that her father had found on one of his many trips; then she talked about visiting New York, and how she spent a week there with the bustling people and the loud sounds of the city.
Finally it was over, and Aurelia went up to the common room with Sybill. Aurelia's hurried walking didn't go unnoticed by her, but she thought nothing of it and continued going on about the Inner Eye.
But when they got there the Grey Lady looked like she had been expecting them, because she was a few feet away, an opened letter in one of her translucent hands.