Les Misérables | Regulus A. Black [1]

Chapter Twenty-Seven

[Chapter Twenty-Seven]

Éponine wasn't sure what caused her to stir from her slumber so suddenly, but as she woke up in the Slytherin dorm room, she sat straight up and glanced around the room in almost a frantic manner. As far as she was aware, her state of sleep had been dreamless, so she didn't think she was waking up from any sort of night terror, but she was still quite confused. Looking all around her, her brown gaze immediately settled on the small window and she noted that it was night time. The amount of moonlight that poured through the glass instantly caused her to rise to her feet, nearly leaping out of her bed. She didn't have the slightest clue as to what time it was, but she knew she had slept long past an hour.

Inside the room, one of her other dormmates seemed to be at rest, the other beds empty, including Emmarentia's. The girl couldn't help but frown as she stood there for a moment, remembering what Emmarentia had told her before she agreed to settle down for a nap. Emmarentia had promised to come and wake her up in an hour's time or at least when she was through in the library. However, it definitely didn't appear as the case and Éponine came to the conclusion that it was all done on purpose.  Why Emmarentia would do such a thing when she claimed to be a friend of hers, it was beyond Éponine at that moment, the only thing that was important to her was to make sure that she wasn't late for her date.

Walking out into the Common Room, she made her way over to the old grandfather clock that ticked on in the corner, noting that it was nearly ten in the evening. Instantly, the girl pressed her lips together, a cold wave of guilt washing over her entire body. She knew that it wasn't entirely her fault, but she hated the idea of leaving anyone to believe that she was standing them up, especially when it wasn't the case at all. She had been looking so forward to the date and if she wasn't mistaken, it appeared that Regulus was looking forward to it too.

How terrible was it of her to ask a boy out on a date, only not to show up herself? Éponine could only hope that Regulus would understand that it wasn't entirely her fault. She would have gone straight outside, but she hardly believed that Regulus would take to waiting an entire hour for her to show up. More than likely he was in the boy's dorm, more than like fuming or asleep by that time. With a heavy sigh, Éponine could feel her headache returning, only this time, she couldn't blame it on Professor Azariah's smelly classroom.

She was about to turn and head back to her own dorm, to spend the rest of the evening composing an apology when suddenly a hand reached out and tapped her on the shoulder lightly. Quickly turning around in hopes that it was Regulus, a look of disappointed took to her face as it was only Gian standing before her.

"You don't have to look at disappointed that it's me," the young boy mumbled, looking away from her, " I was just coming over to actually thank you."

"No, no, I wasn't disappointed to see you," Éponine told him, " I just thought you were someone else, that's all. And what are you thanking me for, last time I-"