Marmoris | Rabastan Lestrange [1] ✔︎

51 | WORRY

Although Jack had announced that her training would start the following day, he didn't show up. Phoenix didn't hear from him or Rabastan and worry was a constant companion of hers in the next few days. The professors seemed to be on edge, still searching the school. Phoenix was glad that they had obviously gotten away, but on the other hand she felt guilty for letting them leave in the first place. It seemed impossible to her that Rabastan would have been capable of doing something like that. Sure, he had violently hexed other students on several occasions, which she didn't approve of at all, but attempted murder was something completely different.

After three days of not receiving any sign of life from them, Phoenix' nerves were going crazy. Regulus, who she sat down next to in Divination, didn't seem to see a problem in the situation at all. "Have you heard anything yet?"

Regulus simply shrugged at her whispered question. "Have you?"

"Would I be worried if I had? Do you think something happened?" Phoenix questioned, placing her book on the desk.

It was a rare occasion for them to sit next to each other in class as Regulus usually liked to make fun of her concentrating face. Since he spent so much time with his new friends, however, it seemed to be her only option if she wanted to talk to him. He finally adverted his gaze in her direction and raised an eyebrow, completely ignoring her questions. "Why are you as wet as if you had decided to go for a swim in your school uniform?"

"Well, maybe I did. You wouldn't even have noticed, considering you have not seemed to care for what I do or feel since Rabastan disappeared," she replied, annoyed by his attitude.

She knew that she didn't have the right to project her feelings on him, as none of what had happened was his fault, but she just couldn't help it. She quickly drew out her wand to dry her clothes and hair from the water Peeves had tossed over her in the hallway a few minutes earlier. "How can you not care about your best friend being missing?"

"Did you ever consider that he may have a good reason not to contact us? It's not that easy to send owls if you don't want anybody to find you," Regulus pointed out, crossing his arms in front of his chest.

Phoenix shook her head and persisted, "He's smart. He would find a way."

"Or perhaps he simply needs some time to come to terms with some personal stuff."

There was something weird about Regulus' answers and his disinterest. He was one to always care about his friends, but in that moment he seemed to avoid any thought about something being wrong. "What are you hiding?"

"I don't know what you're talking about. Why do you even worry that much?" Regulus told her, tapping his fingers against the desk in an annoyed manner.

"Because he's my friend and yours too. But you don't seem to care at all. Your best friend is a suspect in an attempted murder case and all you do is going to these weird meetings every evening. What do you even do there?"

Regulus turned around to her, slamming his hand against the desk and making a few students, who sat closest to them, turn around. "That's none of your business. Sometimes people simply don't want to tell you everything, okay? So stop poking your nose into other people's issues."

It was as if he had slapped Phoenix. Even if they had fought the two of them had usually been honest with one another, but since he had joined the Dark Lord he seemed to be turning into a completely different person – somebody that she didn't like at all. She started to gather her supplies. There was no way she would sit next to him, even if it meant that he was sitting next to some Slytherins she very strongly disliked. He obviously didn't want her near him and she had enough of him making her feel uncomfortable.