Here, have an early update. 

There is slightly mature content ahead (aka smut), because I finally wrote some that isn't an abomination to mankind. 

Also, someone kills a bird. Sorry about that. 

Gemma sat in the compartment, on the large red steam train that would carry her back to Hogwarts. Back home. Where the heartache began, the grief and the pain and the reckless decisions that haunted her dreams and her wake. Home was not sweet; it was malicious and daunting, and every passing second made her regret coming back.

'And that is why Albus Dumbledore is a homosexual,' Ted said proudly, leaning back in his seat, while Gemma fixed him with a bewildered stare. It was an odd sentence to tune into.

'Were you dropped on your head as a child?' Luke demanded with disbelief. Ted blinked.

'I think my mother dropped me in a well once, actually, but I don't see why that-' He was interrupted by a knock at the door of their compartment. A girl with black hair and blood red lipstick waltzed in. She had an air of confidence and mystery about her.

'Hello,' she said, voice dripping with false sweetness. 'You wouldn't mind if I sat here, would you?'

Gemma and Ted stared at her openly, not saying yes, until Luke jumped in.

'Of course,' he said graciously. 'Take a seat.' She smiled at him, and sat down beside Ted- slightly too close for Gemma's liking. Iz would have said no, and gotten them out of this situation.

'I am Natsya,' she said, shaking Luke's hand. 'Natsya Sovetskaya.' Gemma shook her hand too, and then Ted- who she made sure to linger on for longer. The blonde girl noticed the slight redness which crept onto his cheeks.

'Um... I'm Ted,' he said, still shaking her hand. Gemma feared it would fall off. 'Ted Nott.'

'A very respectable family, the Notts,' Natsya said, leaning backwards comfortably. Gemma didn't like that. 'And you... you sound Irish?'

'Oh, I am Irish,' Luke said proudly.

'I live in Ireland for a few years, actually,' Natsya said proudly. 'And then in Germany, and France... I've been around the world, actually.' What a bloody show-off, Gemma thought to herself. But Luke and Ted were more intrigued.

Soon, her friends were swept into conversation with the newcomer. There was something about her that Gemma didn't like, but she couldn't understand why...

'Excuse me,' Gemma said suddenly, and she left the compartment quickly. She needed some air.

She barely got any, before it was whisked from her lungs once again. The sight of Stygian, now over-grown curls atop a familiar, haunted face, whose shadows did nothing to conceal the alluring quality of the features they tried to smother. Regulus Black.

'Regulus!' She called out. He turned, and looked at her for a moment. Then, he hesitated, and gave her a brief nod.

She marched up to him, and slapped him on the side of his head. 'A nod?' She demanded with fury. 'You give me a fucking nod?'

'What else do want?' He asked, irritation lacing his words as he scowled. 'A welcome party?'

'A- well a hello would be nice,' she stuttered angrily. 'Or a "how ya doing?" Don't you purebloods take etiquette lessons?'

'Yes. Clearly you could do with one.' He brushed a speck of invisible dust off his robes, then took a deep breath. He gestured to a compartment. 'Sit with me? I imagine we have a lot to talk about.' Gemma nodded, and followed him inside. 

The first thing she did when she closed the door was kiss him. She pulled him down by the tie, and pressed her lips to his. He reciprocated, and it felt as though a missing piece of a puzzle had been put back into place.

'I'm sorry,' he murmured against her lips, 'I should have written to you. I- I was lost, all summer, I couldn't th-'

'For the love of god,' she breathed, pushing him back into the seat. 'Just shut up.'

.•*•.•*•.•*•.•*•.•*•.•*•.

The welcome feast at Hogwarts was, as always, magnificent. Only when everyone was finished did Dumbledore stand to give his speech, and Gemma honed her rage by digging her nails into Ted's arm. The boy didn't even notice- he was too busy swooning over some girl next to him that Gemma had never seen before. 

'Now that we are all fed and watered, I would like to make some announcements,' Dumbledore said, and Gemma pictured him falling off the podium and breaking his hip. It made her smile. 

'I would firstly like to introduce you all to our new DADA teacher, following the unfortunate passing of Professor Yaxley. Our new, temporary stand-in to fill this vacancy is Professor Perfidious Vies.' 

Perfidious Vies stood, and Gemma felt her stomach plummet. Perfect blond curls on top of his head. Glittering blue eyes- which were gazing directly at her. She looked around, but nobody else recognised Edward Rosier, in a feat that she could only imagine was magical. 

Her vision blurred, and she didn't hear a word of the remainder of Dumbledore's speech. She wanted to grab the steak-knife in front of her and plunge it into her neck. 

Suddenly, Perfidious had disappeared, and someone else entirely stood in his place. She was blonde, one of her eyeballs had been pecked out by birds looking for food. Her skin was white, her flesh bloated, half her face covered in decay and maggots feasting on it. She opened her mouth, and a swarm of flies came out.

'Gemma,' Iz whispered. 'Gemma, I'm here.' Gemma was going to be sick. She needed to leave... why was Dumbledore still talking? 

'Are you alright?' Regulus asked in a low murmur, placing his hand on her lower back. No, she was not alright, as Iz made no sign to leave. 

'You miss me, don't you, Gemma?' Iz asked innocently. It took a step closer, and Gemma nearly lurched out of her seat, if it weren't for Regulus' grip. 

'Why are you staring at Professor Vies like he's a ghost?' Luke asked wryly, and she stared at him in horror. She couldn't even see Edward- Perfidious now. Only Iz, that rotting cadaver, that was coming nearer. 

Finally, Dumbledore fell silent, and Gemma staggered out of the Great Hall before anyone else had even stood up. Her mind was a whirring mess of emotion, and once she was out of sight, she started running. The Room of Requirement. She would calm down, and then figure out what needed to be done. 

She slammed the door shut. The room was littered with trinkets, and a chirpy bird sat in a cage in the corner. 

Gemma sobbed, clutching at her chest as she felt her breath grow heavy. She was afraid, no, she was utterly terrorized, and she let herself slide against the wall, her body growing fatigued as the adrenaline slowly diffused out of her bloodstream.

Chirp chirp chirp. She wished many things to be different, but right now, she just wanted the bird to be silent, as she felt overwhelmed by familiar rage. Then, the door creaked open, agonisingly slowly. Iz- with her hair in clumps and the rest stringy, and her single functioning eyeball, peered in. 

'You ran away,' it said, twisting its face into something that resembled sorrow but was too grotesque to make out. Gemma screamed and scrambled away, pointing her wand at the visage which embodied all of her darkest thoughts. 

Chirp chirp. 'You're not real!' Gemma cried, her voice threatening to break. 'Where are you, Edward! COME OUT, COWARD!' 

Iz's face contorted again, and now Gemma recognised the snarl clearly; rage. 'I am not real?' Iz roared. It picked up the nearest trinket- which was sharp razor-blade- and threw it at Gemma. The blade buried itself in the wall, an inch from the girl's face. 

Chirp chirp chirp chirp. Gemma closed her eyes, felt Iz come close, so close, until she felt its breath on her neck, but still she didn't open her eyes. She trembled as the corpse dragged its finger across her cheek, which had been so rotten that it was bone that she felt against her skin.

Gemma opened her eyes and pointed her wand in Iz's face, which was two inches away from her own. The corpse's expression changed one last time, into one of surprise. 'Confringo!' Gemma yelled, squeezing her eyes shut once again. She only heard Iz's scream, before the silence. 

The unbearably loud silence. Slowly, Gemma opened her eyes. The bird in the cage was little more than a mush of flesh and feathers now. Tainted blood stained the blonde girl's clothes as bile rose to her throat. Iz had disappeared. 

Her frantic hands pulled at her bloodied clothes, and she whimpered as the metallic smell filled the room. Gemma raised to her feet, and her vision was clouded by a storm. Her mind collapsed in on itself, and the emotions ate her raw with a rotting cascade of nothingness. Someone's arms grabbed her, and she gasped at the way Regulus' warmth seemed to soothe her cold heart somewhat, and that was when the last piece of her soul clung to his in a desperate attempt for comfort, 'I killed her- oh my god, I..'

'Calm down,' he ordered, as he pulled her close, eyes widening in alarm at the blood on her clothes. 'What happened?'

She didn't answer. Regulus covered her bloodied clothes in his coat, and then pulled her through the door and up through the corridors quickly, hand pressed against her mouth to repress her sobs of anguish.

He pulled her into his room, then shut the door behind and let the girl's trembling figure fall on his bed as she clung to his shirt in utter torment. Gemma could no longer see nor feel anything around her, nothing except the way he held her, and so she pulled him closer in a desperate attempt to salvage the last of her mentality.

The others had not yet returned, and nor would they, as Regulus charmed the lock. Any spells wouldn't work; it was a handy trick he'd learned from Bellatrix over the summer. 

They sat for a while, Gemma in a stunned silence, until Regulus could not longer bear it. 'I think you should sleep,' he said softly. He rummaged through his drawers and pulled out some random clothes. 'Change.'

'Okay,' she murmured, but didn't move, aside for the strand of hair she kept tugging on. He turned around and sighed, kneeling down in front of where she sat. 

'Would you like to tell me what happened?' He asked, and she finally looked up at him. She didn't want to explain. She didn't want to think at all, about how much more complicated everything hat just become. Gemma wanted to escape it. 

She crashed her lips against his in a desperate need of comfort, and he responded just as eagerly, trying to hide the way his mind was slowly dissipating into a mess of uncertainty. Regulus needed the comfort just as much as she did, as weeks of loneliness began peeling away like wax. 

His hands went to her buttons, and he struggled to take off the bloody clothes, and he threw her shirt in a corner as he rose over her and placed lips against her chest. Gemma felt everything tangled together; she found herself numb to anything except his touch.

Her nails dragged themselves up to his neck and into his hair, and the witch pulled at shadow curls until the boy let out a painful groan, and yet something in him tingled with excitement at the feeling. Regulus' grey eyes met her blue ones, and a silent promise transpired between the two. They were each other's safe place outside of their worlds of trauma.

'Make me forget,' her voice cracked as he placed cold lips against her breast, and circled it with need of something he had not quite figured out, his tongue darted upwards from her core to her collarbones, and she whimpered as he bit down on her skin.

He pulled away, and only then did she realise he'd unbuttoned his shirt. He hadn't removed it, which she was grateful for; he was hiding what he knew she didn't want to see. But the thought struck her like a bullet. 

She didn't want to see him for who he was. 

As though he'd read her mind, Regulus backed away and ran a hand through his hair, regaining his composure. He went into the bathroom and emerged with a bowl of water and a towel. 

It took less than ten minutes to scrub the blood from her body and hands, and they were silent the entire time. Finally, she put on the t-shirt he'd given her and clasped her hands nervously. 

'You can take my bed,' Regulus said stiffly, and she nodded, but he avoided her gaze. 'Goodnight.' With that, he left the room- he left her once again, and this time, it hurt a little bit more. 

a/n- I've started making this book so much more morbid haha. if I can't be happy neither can they <3 also what do guys think about Natsya?