Starry skies and Gardenias

Chapter 123

Isabella had this jittery feeling for the rest of the week. And no matter what she tried, it didn't seem to go away. Especially when Black was around.

So, she did the most logical answer that came to her. She avoided him as much as she could.

She never ran into Black, except for class and their meetings at the end of the day.

And she was so pissed at her past self for arranging the seats in such a way that Black was beside her. She had never given it much thought. 

When Black tapped her on the shoulder at Potions, she almost jumped a mile. 

"What?" she breathed, almost panicking. 

Black pointed silently at the silver dagger on her table.

When did his dagger get there? Isabella hurried to return it, when she realised it was her dagger.

She looked at him questioningly, and Black muttered, "Forgot mine,"

Isabella nodded and handed it over. She had finished using it anyway.

Regulus didn't forget his silver dagger. It was in his bag. He was just looking for an excuse to talk to her because he didn't find any otherwise. Asking for homework advice seemed stupid, and he couldn't just go speak about Quidditch. If he suddenly went and said, "Good morning," she would suspect something was up, and he couldn't have that.

Regulus had fried his brain, trying to figure out what she could possibly be having a time-turner for.

He thought of million reasons as to why she had an extremely powerful magical object in her possession. 

He wondered if he should follow her around and find out what she was up to. Or if he should just confront her.

Then he decided to just keep it to himself.

If it was her heavily guarded secret, then he wouldn't bother her. He would respect her wishes. He wasn't even going to let her know that he knew about it.

It didn't mean that he would stop searching for answers on his own. Only he would do it discreetly. He didn't want Jefferson to know, she'd probably despise him for that. 

It was more than just curiosity. It was a maddening urge to know everything about her. It was almost insane. 

So, for the time being, he'd leave Lupin alone. 

He couldn't keep an eye on her at all times, so he would have to find someone to do the job for him. . .He could always ask for a favour from Kreacher, and he was a house-elf, he could go to places Regulus himself couldn't.

But what if Jefferson notices? She would rain hell-fire upon him. 

Regulus had only seen Jefferson angry once. . .He didn't want to be on the receiving end of her wrath if she ever went absolutely livid.

He should start by sorting out everything he knew about her. There were countless things that were strange about her. 

"Oi, Marcus," Regulus called at the Great Hall during lunch. 

"You said that Jefferson's taking Divination, right?" 

"Yep," Marcus nodded, then stuffed some food into his mouth. He spoke only after he finished swallowing his mouthful.

"The professor goes on and on about how accurate she is," he said rolling his eyes. "She's not in the same class as me. But we've heard about her. And I've seen her giving exams.  The ones whose names come after hers are lucky. Professor's in a good mood after evaluating her,"