April 21st, 1979

It was weird being back at school after two weeks. I hadn't seen or heard from Regulus since the night of James and Lily's wedding. So, when I saw him walk into the Great Hall with Evan, Barty, and Tiberus Nott, I felt a bit relieved.

I sat between Jack and Emmeline at the Gryffindor table, Maggie, Thomas, and Sam across from us. The six of us were all catching up while waiting for the feast to begin.

Emmeline went home to her parents, but she met Evan in London for the day. Thomas went home, Samuel went home. Maggie went to stay with her boyfriend, Rory Mitchell, and his family. Jack also went home to his family's house in Godric's Hollow.

I'm pretty sure that Maggie and Rory will get engaged this summer. They've been together since fifth year, and I don't see them breaking up anytime soon.

"How was the wedding?" Emmeline asked, tapping her foot underneath the table.

I smiled, "It was good, loads of fun."

Maggie peered her eyes at me.

"Why do you look guilty?" She questioned, brushing her red hair to the side.

I raised an eyebrow at her. "I look guilty?"

"Yeah," She replied. "You did something over Easter that you don't want us to know about!"

She's not wrong.

"What? No," I lied, wishing that the food would appear on the table and shut everyone up.

Emmeline stared at me. "No, Mags is right," She said. "What'd you do?"

Thomas stifled a laugh. Sam looked unbothered as he made eyes at his girlfriend, who was sitting at the Hufflepuff table.

Jack leaned in. "Yeah, what'd you do, Mer?"

"Oh, I've got it!" Maggie exclaimed. "You shagged someone at the wedding."

She wasn't going to drop this.

"Let me guess, it was Remus Lupin-, nope, it was Sirius Black."

I stifled a laugh. If only she knew that they were shagging each other.

I just shook my head, and by the grace of Godric, food appeared on the table and the feast began.

Maggie seemed to have gotten enough of an answer out of me, and began filling her plate with food.

The conversation died out as I started piling food onto my own plate.

"Please don't tell me that you slept with him over Easter," Jack whispered.

I stepped on his foot underneath the table. "You better keep your mouth shut," I muttered, trying not to smile.

- - - - -

Regulus Black

As soon as dinner was over, I went my separate ways from my friends and started to walk aimlessly around the castle. The lot of them were being annoying.

Emma got engaged over the holiday, which meant that Barty was in a bad mood. But when we all found out that she was engaged to Tiberus Nott, Barty got up from the table and left.

It was obviously an arranged marriage, Emma never even showed any interest in Nott.

She was supposed to be engaged to an Italian pureblood, but he had a secret love child with a muggle so the whole arrangement fell through.

So Barty got mad, Tiberus just sat there in silence, Evan wouldn't shut up about how hilarious the whole situation was, and Lucinda kept asking Emma questions about wedding planning. It was all annoying.

"Hello, Reggie!"

Pandora fell in step beside me, a grin on her face.

"Hey Pandora," I replied, "How was your holiday?"

"It was great, how about yours?"

I nodded, "It was okay."

"Just okay?"

I nodded again. "I saw Meredith," I admitted.

Pandora smiled, "And did you talk things through?"

"Not really," I said.

"I'm sorry about that then." Pandora cleared her throat. "I found out more about that thing you asked me about-, the Horcruxes."

I looked around the hallway, making sure that we were alone.

"Really? What'd you find?"

"I think he's made five so far. I don't know what any of them are, except for the one that's in the Cave that Kreacher went to."

I still vividly remember the night that Kreacher told me. It was Christmas eve. He was abandoned and left for dead. I think that was the first time that I really started to hate the Dark Lord.

"Five?" I questioned. "I didn't know that someone could make that many."

Pandora frowned, "They can't. He's the first to make more than one Horcrux."

"Oh," I said.

The whole subject suddenly felt very heavy. There was way more going on than I thought there was. He is practically immortal.

"Have you found out how to get to the Cave?" Pandora asked.

I shook my head. "No, not yet," I replied. "I'll speak more to Kreacher about it when the time is right."

Pandora nodded. "This is dangerous, Reggie," She cautioned.

"This whole war is dangerous."

- - - - -

Meredith McKinnon

After dinner, our group scattered out throughout the common room. Emmeline and Maggie were sitting on the coach with Thomas, the three of them immersed in their conversation. Sam was sitting on the floor by the coffee table, ignoring everyone as he hastily wrote a charms essay that's due tomorrow.

I sat on the other coach with Jack, my legs draped across him.

"So, you saw Black over Easter?" Jack whispered.

I glanced over at him.

"Yes, I did."

"How did that happen? I thought you hated him."

I sighed, "I did-, I do. He just showed up at my house and he needed help, so I helped him."

"Helped him by shagging him?"

I kicked Jack in the arm with my foot, making him chuckle. "It wasn't like that. It just happened," I answered.

"Okay, whatever you say," Jack joked.

I rolled my eyes. "I don't want to talk about this. Let's talk about something else."

"Like what?"

"I don't know, how was your Easter? You see your sister?" I questioned.

Jack smiled, "Yeah, I saw Katherine. She's doing well."

"Oh, are we talking about Jack's sister?" Sam asked, looking up from his textbook.

Thomas leaned in. "We're talking about Katherine?"

Maggie hit Thomas upside the head.

"What? She's hot!"

Jack groaned, "How many times do I have to tell you to stop trying to get with my sister? She's twenty two for Merlin's sake."

"So?" Samuel said. "Doesn't change the fact that she's super fit."

Emmeline stifled a laugh.

Jack rolled his eyes, leaning back into the couch.

"Hey, don't be irritated with them," I said. "I would totally shag your sister too."

"You know what, Mer? I might just tell Kat that you said that the next time I see her," Jack teased.

I smirked, "Oh, please do."

"I hope you all know that she has a boyfriend," Jack continued.

Thomas laughed, "Like that's going to stop me. I told her to send me an owl when they break up."

"Bloody hell, all of you are impossible," Jack joked, trying not to laugh.

As the night got later, and the common room started to clear out, the six of us stayed seated in our spots by the fireplace, talking about the stupidest shit until it was time for me to leave to go patrol with Davey Gudgeon.

Everytime I have to patrol with him and work in awkward silence for an hour, I miss Regulus. But I don't trust myself around him. I don't trust myself not to run back into his arms after one kiss, or one flirtatious comment.

It was already bad enough that I spent the night with him just last week.