A week passed. The prank had, as predicted, been spectacular. It had resulted in the four boys receiving a detention, Avery getting a concussion, Potter having a full- blown fight with Black (physical and verbal), and somehow nobody suspecting them of anything.

Or at least Gemma had thought they'd gotten away with it, until she'd been called to Professor Dumbledore's office. Her heart was hammering in her chest. She'd gotten in trouble a fair few times, but never before had she been spoken to by the headmaster.

'Chocolate frogs,' she said dully, and she was let in. As she entered, she was in awe of the strange artefacts and size of the well- decorated office. Dumbledore had clearly been collecting for years.

'Take a seat, Miss Aston,' a dreary voice called. She turned around to see the old man sitting at his desk, inspecting her with his half- moon spectacles. She'd never liked Dumbledore- he was biased towards his own house, sure, but there was also something about him that didn't seem right. Gemma sat down opposite him.

'How is school, Miss Aston? How are your friends?' He asked.

'Good,' she replied curtly. He nodded.

'And your father?' He questioned. 'Have you heard from him recently?'

'No,' she answered carefully. 'He doesn't like owls because they scare him, and Hogwarts doesn't exactly have a postbox.'

'Ah yes, of course,' Dumbledore said. 'To business. Today I called you here for a reason. How much do you know about your mother's line of work, Miss Aston?'

'Nothing,' she said bitterly. Her mother had practically disappeared from her life over nine year ago. Now she only got owls on her birthday and Christmas, and the letters usually contained little more than five words. Her father however, refused to remarry or change Gemma's surname to match his, despite her encouragement.

'Well,' he said, leaning forward slightly. 'What if I were to say that I know of her location?'

'I would tell you to take that location and stick it up- um- forget about it. I don't care where she is, because I don't care about her.' Gemma pushed her chair back slightly. 'Is that all?'

'Perhaps if you saw her, or understood her position-'

'No,' she snapped. 'Listen, I respect you and all, but I'd appreciate it if you stayed out of my business.'

'Ah but the thing is, your mother's business is my business.' Gemma stopped for a moment.

'Stop talking in riddles,' she said warily. 'If you want to say something, just say it.'

'I would recommend reading this,' he said, sliding an envelope to across the desk. Scrawled on it in black ink was the name Gemma Aston, from Genevieve. Gemma went to open it, but Dumbledore stopped her.

'Not yet,' he urged. 'Open it in private, preferably when your mind is fully at peace.'

'Fine,' she said, trying her best not to roll her eyes. 'Thanks. Is that all?'

'Yes,' Dumbledore said. 'Remember, help can always be found at Hogwarts for those who seek it.'

'Brilliant,' she replied dryly, exiting the office.

.•*•.•*•.•*•.•*•.•*•.•*•.

'Rook to B4.'

As the black rook moved to the selected square, Gemma winced as she realised she'd been checkmated. She ran her hand across the board, knocking over the pieces in frustration.

'I suck at this,' she grumbled. 'It's a stupid game anyway.'

'You're not usually this bad,' Regulus observed. 'Normally I take a bit longer to beat you.'

'Oh fuck off,' she said, rolling her eyes. She reclined on the sofa while Regulus began putting the pieces back in the box, while a million thoughts ran through Gemma's head.

'What're you so worked up about?' He asked curiously. She sat up, and pulled the envelope out of her pocket. She stared at it for a few moments before answering.

'This,' she said. 'Its from my mum.' Gemma had told Regulus about her mother, and he seemed confused.

'It isn't Christmas yet though,' he commented. 'She's a bit early.'

'Dumbledore gave it to me,' she explained. 'He said to open it in private, when my mind is at peace.'

'Okay.'

'But your here and my mind most certainly is not at peace,' she said thoughtfully. 'Oh who cares, who listens to that old fool anyway?' She ripped open the envelope and found a glass vial half filled with water, accompanied by a letter. She unfolded the letter and began reading it. Regulus leaned over slightly to read too.

Dear Gemma,
How are you? Good, I hope. Please do send my regards to your father, as well as Ted.
Attached are my tears which you should put in a pensieve. There is too much to say, so the pensieve will give you an idea of everything you need to know.
Ask Albus how the pensieve works. He will also explain in more detail.
Love, Genevieve

'Are you kidding me!' Gemma exclaimed. She began to tear up the letter in frustration, but Regulus stopped her.

'You might need it,' he insisted.

'No I won't,' she snapped. 'She's too lazy to write to her own daughter, Dumbledore sent me away from his office knowing I'd have to come back again anyway, and I don't like mysteries! Their stupid!' He listened to her entire rant before placing a reassuring hand on her shoulder.

'They are,' he agreed. She sighed, before resting her head on his shoulder. They stayed like that for a few minutes, before she reluctantly sat up again.

'You have to go,' she said.

'Why?' He said, frowning.

'You have a date with Severus in Hogsmeade, don't you?' She teased lightly. He groaned, burying his face in her shoulder.

'I don't wanna go,' he mumbled. But of course, Regulus knew that he did in fact have to go, and listen to what Snape had to say. He stood, and left the room, but he couldn't help but feel like he was walking away from a life he desperately wanted but just couldn't have.

.•*•.•*•.•*•.•*•.•*•.•*•.

When Regulus left, Gemma escaped to the Room of Requirement. She'd spent a lot of time here three years ago when she'd had her phase of practising magic (to no avail, of course). Now, she came less often, only once or twice so far this year. Now the room had taken the form of a comfortable bedroom, not too dissimilar to her room at home.

She hadn't particularly wanted to see Ted or Iz or Luke; she would rather just be alone with her thoughts for a while.

Strangely, it wasn't her mother, or Dumbledore, or even Regulus that she thought about. It was Edward- Edward would have known what to do. Edward would have been able to comfort her, and tell her everything would be alright in a believable way.

She knew Regulus tried, but he just had too many problems of his own. And every time she was around him, she just didn't feel comforted- he seemed to create more butterflies in her stomach than calm the ones already there.

She was tempted to sink into these thoughts, when there was a knock at the door. Startled, she stared at it, until the knocking became more frantic and desperate. She was confused- shouldn't the RoR currently only be visible to her?

Nonetheless, she opened the door- and was shocked to find Mulciber, blood streaking through his shirt.

'What the fu-' her sentence was cut off by him stumbling forward. In her panic, she took three steps back, and he fell flat on the floor. He lay there, groaning.

It took her a few seconds to regain her wits, but when she did, she quickly knelt beside him.

'What happened?' She questioned frantically. 'Are you hurt? I mean, duh, your hurt, but how? Why? What happened? Or even, who happened? Answer, goddammit!' But the only answer she got was a raised fist, which opened to reveal a scrap of paper. She unfolded it.

'Vulnera sanen- what the hell is this?' She demanded, showing him the paper.

'Counter- curse,' he breathed, with much difficulty.

'Huh?' Gemma was now well and truly confused. She followed his gaze to her wand, and her eyes widened. 'You want me to perform this spell? Me? A spell? Have you lost it?'

'Please,' he said, his voice even weaker than before. 'You have to.'

'I can't! Like, I literally can't... can't magic!' But she realised she would have to. She didn't know what had happened to Mulciber, but they were too far from the Hospital Wing and he'd lost a lot of blood. Her hands shaking, she pulled out her wand and pointed it at him.

'V- Vulnera Sanentur!' She exclaimed. The result was a loud bang and yelp from Mulciber as he doubled over. 'I told you!'

'Shit,' Mulciber whimpered. 'You really suck. I- I'm dead.'

'Be quiet,' she ordered. She had to try again. She had to do it right this time.

'Vulnera Sanentur,' she said, in more of a whisper. This time, the blood began to disappear. She opened the top two buttons of his shirt, to see a long scar. It closed slightly, enough to reduce the bleeding, but her spell hadn't been completely successful, as it was still clear and visible. Still, she reckoned she'd done a decent job.

'I'm gonna go get some bandages,' she said to him. 'We're going to try and get you fixed up.'

'Okay,' he said. 'Try not to mess that up.' This reassured her. If he was back to his cocky tone, he must be feeling a lot better.

Over twenty minutes later, Mulciber was all bandaged up and sitting on the bed, while Gemma had an earache from all of his complaining.

'Shut up,' she finally snapped. 'I just saved your life, okay? I think I deserve a bit of peace.'

'It makes up for the time you spilled orange juice on my head,' he said. 'Now we're even.' She stared at him in disbelief.

'Alright then, fine. If you have to run your mouth, why don't you tell me what exactly happened?'

'Avery,' he explained. 'We decided to duel- just for a bit of fun, y'know? 'Cept he used some dark spell Snape told him. When he saw the state of me he got scared. Sorta just chucked the counter-curse he had written down at me and legged it.' Gemma stared at him in shock.

'But what if this room hadn't shown up for you? You'd be dead!' She said.

'Probably,' he said, wincing.

'Real nice friends you've got,' she said in awe.

'Sometimes you don't become friends with people for their personality. You do it due to circumstance.' Gemma realised how similar that sounded to what Regulus had said. She was also aware that she had not seen a dark mark on Mulciber's arm.

'You are still an asshole,' she decided. He laughed.

'No, I'm not,' he said.

'Yes you are.' She wasn't in a humorous mood now. 'You constantly bully people, especially Elladora, you're always trying to get into Regulus' head, you-'

'Bullying people. I just tease them. And Elladora deserves it.'

'She does not!' Gemma snapped. 'She-'

'You don't understand!' Mulciber said, strangely calm. 'When I was younger-'

'Oh here we go,' she groaned. 'I don't want your bloody life story man.'

'Let me finish,' he snapped. 'Whenever my parents met the Hargeaves, at balls or parties or meetings or whatever, all they'd ever talk about for weeks after was her. How polite she is, how special,  how she could resist the Imperius curse already, blah blah blah. Everything I did was pointless, because-'

'That's stupid,' she cut him off. 'You are cruel and vile and horrible- because your mummy and daddy didn't pay enough attention to you?'

He fell silent. They both did. As much as she tried not to, Gemma couldn't help but understand him- but not enough to excuse the things she'd seen him do in the last five years she'd known him.

'Come on,' she said, trying to sound nice as possible. 'You should go find Snape or Avery to heal you properly'. He stood and left without another word, closing the door behind him.