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I'm which the students of Hogwarts react to a secretive Hufflepuff in hopes of changing the future, but she hides more secrets than they could expect.
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Regulus eyes drifted to the sharp rocks of the dark cliff. The sky, the sea, the sand... it all looked grey, except the cliff and the cave: those were dark as night, a black hole wanting to absorb him and Mariana, who was standing besides him.
She was shivering, holding her shawl tightly, but something told Regulus it wasn't because of the cold. How couldn't she? The place reeked of dark magic, poisoning everything around it.
"Maybe we should have planned this better..." she whispered. "A day with three hours of sleep isn't enough preparation."
"No. It isn't." Regulus nodded, looking at her from the corner of his eyes, regret filling him. "You don't have to do this, Mariana. It was never your fight."
After Hogwarts, most students had taken a side: they joined Voldemort's army or decided to fight clandestinely against him. Very few, like Mariana, had opted for neutrality. She took it a step further, leaving the country for months in some sort of 'vacation'. It was clear she wanted to be away from the war.
"That's very cowardly from you" both Sirius and Snape scoffed at the same time. It was weird how much both agreed when they weren't busy hating each other.
"Sometimes we must do what's best for others, even if it scares us." Dumbledore sighed, flashing a fatherly smile.
"I just don't want another war..." Mariana whispered to herself, nervously scratching the palm of her hands.
The Hufflepuff seating close to her didn't dare to ask what she was talking about.
"You think I'm doing this for some twisted sense of morality?" She turned to him, staring in disbelief.
"Yes?" Regulus winced at his own words, suffering from Mariana's cold glare.
"I'm not doing this to stop some war started by a sick man." she rolled her eyes, hair flowing crazily from side to side by the wind. "I'm doing this because I don't want to watch the brat I met when I was 12 die."
"And I'm the brat? Your brat?" he chuckled, nudging her arm.
"Don't push it, Black." after an annoyed sigh, Mariana took the first step into the cave.
"She called you brat." Barty wheezed, mocking Regulus who looked done with his shit.
"Oh, as if you weren't." Evan slapped the back of his friend's head.
"Only for you, dadd-" the Crouch was thankfully interrupted by Dorcas' gagging noises.
Regulus smiled, letting his mind drift to the day they had met.
"Finally! I've been dying to know for so long!" Rita Skeeter, a Ravenclaw, was practically hopping in her seat.
It was a sunny day in Hogwarts. That normally meant that most students were outside, sunbathing in the school grounds, which also meant Regulus stayed inside in the library.
