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Dear Aspen,
Sometimes I like to imagine what our life could have been like. Especially what you would have done. You were so smart. Smarter than all of us. I like to think you would have been a healer. You once told me that was your dream. I know you could have done it. You are so kind and you always took such good care of us. I remember after every full moon, when we couldn't go to the infirmary because nobody knew we were animagi, you were the one who healed us.
I'll never be able to heal again without you.
Sirius Black
ASPEN BLEU
We all practically ran to potions and into the classroom. When we got there, James sat next to Lily, I sat next to Remus and Sirius sat next to Peter. Luckily, we got there rather early so we had time to relax. James and Sirius were talking about quidditch and I noticed Remus acting strange. "Moony-" I whispered. He was just staring at his paper and not moving. "Remus-" I said, nudging him. He looked at me as I noticed his skin was on fire. "Bloody hell, what's wrong?" I asked. "Nothing," he said as he shook his head at me. I grabbed his wrist and his pulse was racing. "It's the you-know-what, isn't it?" I asked. He nodded and looked down. "Do you want to skip?" I asked. "We can't skip the first day," he said. "We can if you need to." I said. "I'm fine. I'll be fine." he said. I nodded. "Ok," I said and the rest of the class began to file in. I just tried not to worry.
Everyone was in their seats when Professor Slughorn came in, shaking his head. "No, no, no. I would be a fool to let you all sit next to your friends and goof off all of class. I'll be assigning your seats." he said. Everyone let out a series of groans and complaints. I could feel the glares of Lucius Malfoy, Regulus, Severus and the Lestrange brothers. They hated me. They hated me, and Lily and anyone else who wasn't a rich, pureblood, Slytherin. Remus must have noticed my fear because he tapped my shoulder and leaned over. "They can't do anything in class. It'll be ok." he whispered. I nodded, then Slughorn gave us the seating chart.
James sat next to Rodolph Lestrange, Sirius got put next to Rabastan, Peter got a Slytherin girl I didn't know, Remus got Lucius and Lily was put next to Severus. My heart was racing as Slughorn went down his list. Then I heard my name and my partner and I knew I was screwed.
"Aspen Bleu and Regulus Black" he said. Could this be any worse? My stomach flipped and I immediately looked at Sirius. He looked pissed. "I'm not sitting next to the mudblood!" Regulus snapped. "Mr. Black! We do not use that slur!" Slughorn said. Regulus scoffed and sat down. I nervously walked over and sat down next to him. He scooted his chair over as if I was contagious or something. As if my "dirty blood" would corrupt his perfect "pure blood". What a load of bullshit.
"For class today, I want you and your partner to select a potion you learned last year and reconstruct it and write an essay about it. You will have all week to complete your potions and then you will present your findings. Begin." he said. Everyone immediately started talking and I looked at Regulus. "What potion do-" I started. "Don't talk to me." he snapped. I rolled my eyes and sighed. "You don't have to like me but I'm not going to fail this class because you are too petty to do our work. So either get over your stupid predjudices and help me or just let me know and I'll do it myself." I snapped back. He narrowed his eyes at me and scoffed. "Fine. I'll work with you but only because I know if I leave it to you, you'll certainly screw it up." he said. I just looked at him. How did he become this? "What? Why are you staring at me?" he spat. "I know what your mother and father do to you. But that's not an excuse to be cruel." I said quietly. His face dropped and he looked away. "You don't know anything." he spat. "That's not true. I healed his legs. Before he left, for 6 years, I was the one who healed him. I'm just sorry nobody healed you." I said. "Just shut up. I don't need your pity." he said sharply. I nodded. "That's good. I have none to give you." I said. He said nothing. "What potion should we do?" I asked. "Draught of the living death. It's easy and can be brewed in a week." he said. I just nodded. I don't want to argue with him. He may not be nice but he's still Sirius's brother.
