RISE OF THE FALL | R.B.

XIX.

Disclaimer: The Harry Potter World belongs to J.K. Rowling

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CHAPTER XIX.

Hogwarts was not as cheerful as usual, especially at the Slytherin table.

There would usually be laughing—mocking, teasing, yelling—but this year there was almost nothing at the Slytherin table.

Only murmuring, whispering, hissing, and meaningful glances.

The other Houses seemed to have also noticed Slytherin's silence.

And Gryffindor's silence, too.

After all, Gryffindor was missing its four loudest members this year.

For some reason, to Reia, the Gryffindor looked so empty without the four boys, even though their spots, along with all of the spots of the others who had graduated last year, were already filled by excited First Years.

Slytherin had gotten three new students this year, with most of the First Years being sorted into Ravenclaw.

The three new Slytherin First Years were huddled together beside Fagan and Josie Nott—the siblings who were in the same year but were not twins; they were silent and still as they sat next to each other, a bit further down the table from where Reia sat with Narcissa and Regulus.

The once loud, cheerful noises of the Welcome Feast was gone and was replaced by a quiet murmuring, with light giggles and laughs coming mostly from the Ravenclaw and Hufflepuff tables. The Gryffindor table appeared serious too. They kept on turning around to look at the Slytherins, but they turned around quickly the moment a Slytherin noticed, pretending that they hadn't been staring.

The older Gryffindors especially cast suspicious glances at the Slytherins, and Reia just rolled her eyes at them and shook her head.

Sure, maybe some Slytherins were Death Eaters; but that had nothing to do with the fact that they were Slytherins.

But it had everything to do with the fact that they didn't want to disappoint their families—they didn't want to disgrace their parents and their pureblooded family history—they wanted to make their families proud.

It had everything to do with the fact that although the Slytherins, especially the pureblooded students from the more prestigious families, weren't evil, they still respected their parents.

Maybe it made them cowardly that they weren't willing to stand up against their parents, but Reia didn't think so.

Reia believed that although she had never met the Dark Lord himself, when in the presence of the Dark Lord, it probably took a very brave person to defy him.

Reia reached a hand under the table and grabbed Regulus' hand, and he smiled at her before taking her other hand and squeezing it comfortingly.

Bellatrix had graduated last year, so Lucius sat awkwardly in silence beside Narcissa, who appeared to be pointedly ignoring him.

"Erm, Cissy...are you and Lucius alright?" Reia whispered to her friend across the table, casting a glance at Lucius, who pretended that he hadn't heard them.

"It's fine," Narcissa said, rolling her eyes, "He's just being an idiot, that's all."

"Oh. Okay...?" Reia said, frowning, "Erm, so...what happened?"

"We just had an argument," Lucius cut in, "It's nothing."

"Good," Regulus said with a smirk, "Because after this Feast, we aren't going back to the Common Room."

Reia turned to him and raised her brows, "Then where're we going, Mr. Black?"

Regulus grinned, lowering his voice dramatically as he said, "We're going to the Kitchens."

"Whoa," Narcissa said flatly, "Excellent."

"Hey, we can get Butterbeer," Regulus argued, "And we can just hang out in peace."

Reia laughed quietly, "Remus, Sirius, Potter and Pettigrew think they're the only ones who were clever enough to figure out how to get into the Kitchens. But they weren't clever enough to tell the House Elves not to tell anybody else that they'd been there."

She still remembered the times that Lucius, Narcissa, Regulus, Reia and Josie had snuck off to the Kitchens after curfew. Everything had been so simple then.

Reia wished that things could just go back to that. She wished that knotted strings would untangle themselves and return to their perfect, simple, easy forms.

She wished that the problems that they had to face now could just erase themselves—and that the world would let her and her friends just live happily and peacefully.

She wished.

Lucius shook his head, "They sometimes believe things that are just too good to be true."

"Yeah," Reia said with a sigh, "Don't we all."

Author's Note:

Thanks so much for reading; leave a comment (or two) and a vote if you enjoyed it, to let me know! 

Looking forward to seeing what you guys thought~

Cya <3