The Darkest Hearts || REGULUS BLACK

Chapter Three

 The next morning, Diana was still in a towering rage. Henrietta, Gemma, and Jackie all kept their distance from her as she washed and dressed for the day, her thoughts black at the reminder of Regulus Black and their tutoring session the night before.

She yanked a brush through her short brown waves and glared at her own reflection in the mirror, sorely wishing it was Black she could turn her acidic stare on. With every pull of her brush, she thought, Uppity, sneering Slytherin...Self-righteous, prejudiced, foul pure-blood...Oh, I can't wait to be rid of him for good. She wasn't one to back out of commitments so easily, but she knew she would never be able to get through to someone like Black. Might as well spare herself the trouble.

She was still stewing when she followed her friends out of their dormitory, through the common room, and up to the Great Hall for breakfast. She couldn't even enjoy the beautiful blue sky the enchanted ceiling depicted that day as she took her seat at the Hufflepuff table and immediately began piling scrambled eggs onto her plate. It wasn't until she was buttering her toast with a vigor that bordered on violence that Gemma cleared her throat.

"So..." she started warily, "I take it that it didn't go well last night?"

Diana had been so angry the night before that she'd gone straight to bed without a word to anyone. She snorted.

"He's cruel," she burst out, throwing down her toast and butter knife. "I've never met anyone so intent on being rude before! And whenever I tried to help, he called me half-blood, like it was some dirty word!"

Jackie scoffed. "I told you he was bad news, D."

"He's foul," Diana muttered, picking her toast back up. "Loathsome, malicious, smarmy, pompous, stuck-up pure-blood who thinks he's something special because he's a Black..."

As Diana continued her tirade, she didn't notice her friends' faces going white or their eyes latched onto something in horror until it was too late. By the time she cottoned on and turned around, Regulus Black had already been standing behind her for a full minute, listening to every nasty word that tumbled out of her mouth.

"Please," he drawled, "don't stop on my account. Do continue. I'm certain there are still many words in the dictionary you have yet to use."

Diana's jaw went slack. "I-I...er—"

Something on Black's face twitched—a flicker of amusement before it was gone. He smirked at her, but it was a cold, cutting thing.

"Walk with me," he said. An order. Not a question.

Diana stared, words unforthcoming. It wasn't until Gemma spoke up that she was broken from her stupor.

"Don't go with him, Diana," she said, glaring at Black. "There's no telling what a snake might do when it gets you alone."

Black raised a smooth eyebrow. "I assure you, Sutton, if I wanted to cause harm to your friend, I wouldn't declare my intentions so openly like this. It's just a walk."

In a daze, Diana forced herself to her feet.

"I'll be fine," she said, hoping that she wasn't lying. "Just...give me a minute."

She grabbed her book bag, and Black led the way out of the Hall. Before she followed, she grabbed her toast and then hustled after him. His longer legs had carried him to the doors faster than she thought, so when she caught up to him outside in the entrance hall, she was slightly out of breath.