a/n- publishing these (a lot) earlier than expected because I'm too excited to share them. 

Gemma was back in the forest. Her feet were bare, and rain was beating down on her heavily. Her bare feet curled on the glacial ground, too cold to register the cuts from which blood ran. Wet hair clung to her face as her breathing hitched in her throat from fear, the chime of twelve bells telling her that it had just struck midnight. She didn't know how she'd gotten there, but she was alone and lost. 

Her eyes were wide as she stumbled through the trees, spinning in circles to try to gather her bearings- until she came upon a familiar clearing. She closed her eyes as haunting memories crashed down on her, biting her lip and drawing blood. When she opened them, a strangled cry escaped her throat, at the sight of Isolde Greengrass' corpse laying exposed on the forest floor, already in the late stages of decay, flies swarming her rotting mouth. Beside her, shards of familiar iridescent glass were littered around the dead girl in an almost decorative manner.

Gemma staggered away, dumbstruck, tears streaming down her face as she fell to her knees before her dead best friend. She was vaguely aware of a hooded figure watching, in the corner of her eye. 

'What do you want?' She choked out, unable to bring herself to look at them. 'I have nothing left for you to take from me.'

I've never wanted to take anything from you. The voice was in her mind again, and she let out a gut-wrenching scream at the agony it inflicted. 

'You've stolen everyone from me!' She cried as the rain beat down on her harder, mixing with the tears. 

Have you learned your truth yet? He was almost mocking her, and she'd never wanted to murder someone more than just then. 

'About Dumbledore? Yes. And it makes no difference,' she snapped, finally able to stand up. She didn't have her knife, but she still stood before him defiantly, finally raising her eyes to meet him. 'I'll kill you one day, with or without magic. I swear it.'

Would you kill me if you knew who I was? Gemma hissed in pain, but refused to let her hand go to her head in a sign of weakness. 

'I don't care,' she spat. 'The day I find out is the day you die.'

Is that so? Well, let's see then.

Gemma watched with shock as gloved hands went to the hood which concealed the face, the one that Gemma loathed more than anything. But when the black fabric fell back, she felt her entire understanding of reality crumble like hardened clay, as she stared at light blue eyes and short, perfect blond hair. 

Edward Rosier's smile had not changed since she'd first seen him on platform 10 at Kings Cross station five years ago. 

-

Gemma stumbled out of her bed and threw up. Pandora was beside her in an instant, vanishing the mess with a wave of her wand, and within minutes the kind girl was pressing a cool cloth against Gemma's forehead. 

It was just a dream she thought to herself, still shivering, still trembling. Never had she wished someone was dead more than she did Edward in that moment. Just a nightmare. Just imagination. She rocked backwards and forwards, mumbling the words to herself until Pandora thought she was mentally unwell, lighting a candle and offering to call a professor. Gemma didn't hear a word she was saying. She felt her hair fervently. It was soaking wet.

With a jolt, she got out of bed, and lurched towards her wardrobe. She began pulling things out and throwing them so carelessly that some of the other girls started to wake, but she didn't care. Finally, she found what she was looking for. 

The Orb of Living Death was shattered, and pieces of it were missing, lying deep in the forest where she'd discovered that Edward Rosier had murdered her father and her best friend. 

A faint, demented laugh escaped her lips, and then her world went black. 

.•*•.•*•.•*•.•*•.•*•.•*•

The only reason Gemma got out of bed the next day was Regulus Black. The only reason she put on her school uniform, and mindlessly studied in the library all day, and went to meals was because Regulus Black needed her. She smiled and joked to try to cheer him up, as she tried to ignore the horrible feeling of betrayal and confusion that festered in her heart.

The final day of school came, and she hadn't thought about where she'd be staying over summer, until Luke offered, and she agreed immediately. Her mother had offered too, but she'd ignored the letter completely. 

Gemma and Regulus sat alone in a compartment, as neither could bear the light moods that Ted and Luke sported about the end of the year. Her head rested on his shoulder and he played with her hair absent-mindedly. They'd stayed silent for most of the train ride, and only now did she strike conversation.

'Will you write to me over summer?' She asked, and his response was immediate. 

'Every day.' She lifted her head off him.

'Things will be better next year,' she promised and he smiled dryly. 

'They can't quite get worse,' he joked, but there was no juvenility in his tone. 

'That's what I've thought for the last twelve months,' she sighed. After Edward's "death". After her dad. After Iz. After Elladora. After Dumbledore's betrayal. Now, after her latest revelation, she'd realised things could always get worse, because life somehow always found something else to take from them. 

'At least you're still here,' he sighed. 'It's not much, but it's something I suppose.'

'Shut up,' she said lightly. 'I am not something.'

'You're right. You're everything.' She stared at him with wide eyes as he surveyed her with serious ones, a smile forming on her lips.

'Regulus Black, you are such a sop!' She laughed, and he let out a genuine chuckle. 

'Yes, I suppose I am,' he sighed. 'Don't tell anyone though. It'll ruin my image.'

'Right right,' she said, her smile dying. He pulled out his wand suddenly. 

'I've been meaning to show you this for a while,' he told her, 'but I haven't been happy enough. I think I am now though.'

'What do you- ' she was cut off by his short incantation Expecto Patronum. A white swan emerged from the tip, and Gemma watched in awe as it glided gracefully around the compartment. She pulled out her own and cast the same charm, and her black swan met his white in what seemed almost like the reunion of two old friends. 

'So you can do a patronus,' she laughed, punching his arm. 'Liar!'

'Yeah, I guess,' he said, grinning. They looked at each other, simultaneously leaning forward and pressing their lips together. They were connected by a bond kindled from hardship; the type that could only ever grow stronger. 

That was the last time Gemma saw Regulus Black for the next two months, and she clung to the feeling of his kiss for the entirety of it. Whenever she laughed, she thought of his laugh, and whenever she cried, she savoured the memory of his touch. 

But the indescribable bliss that was titled love had a way of tearing its victims apart in an unnatural manner. It wore the pretty face of a flower, then grew like a disease inside the person, until they choked on the noxious petals and the thorns tore through their throat, as they struggled to no avail for air.

Though they didn't know it yet, fate had inscribed in her cruel grimoire that Gemma and Regulus, who had succumbed to the poison, were doomed from the start, and their stories would go, untold, down the path of grief. 

XXXXXX END OF PART ONE XXXXXX

a/n- wow. only took me a year lol. three updates in one go because the next two chapters were pre-written like five months ago and don't reallyyyy count as chapters. If you made it here, thank you so much for reading, you mean the world to me!

Here's a little explanation if you're confused ; the glass around Iz was glass from the Orb of Living Death, which can be used to find whether someone is dead or not; in this case, Edward uses it to reveal his identity to Gemma, and that he is not dead, and he is the person behind the hood that killed Iz and her father. Finding the Orb shattered is how she knows it was real.