Chapter 2
Regulus can never catch a break. After practically running out of the Great Hall he felt a coughing fit coming up his throat. Running to the nearest bathroom he could find he locked himself in a stall and started hacking violently. It’s a good thing he left before breakfast was over considering this fit felt never ending, Regulus only hoped he wouldn't be late for class. He never misses one and he won't be starting now.
Suddenly the coughing stopped, and he felt relieved, until he looked down to the inside of his elbow to spot a single petal. Though from what flower he is unsure.
It couldn't have come from him though, Regulus was puzzled. He looked around to find one of the bathroom windows pushed open, a breeze coming with it. Regulus was sure the petal blew in from outside somehow and landed on him during his coughing fit. It was the only logical explanation.
Regulus went to throw out the petal but felt unable to. He felt connected to it for some reason. Puzzled, he decided to keep the petal for now until this random obsession of his died down. He stuffed it in the inside pocket of his robes and headed to class.
Ghoul studies was his first class on Fridays, and despite the hate the class got for its disturbing nature, Regulus quite liked it. It provided him a lot of solace about death. The class taught him what the wizarding world currently knows about the Veil and what being trapped inside entails, what keeps wizards here as ghosts or ghouls, and what lies beyond.
Yes, Regulus would go as far to say that Ghoul studies is his favorite subject. Today he could absolutely not be late, as they are starting their essays. The professor, Elara Grimwood is assigning every person in class a ghost in the castle to interview, and the goal is to be able to figure out their “residual tasks” which is just Grimwood's’ fancy term for unfinished business. Then the essay is to be written about their life and help the ghosts achieve the rite of passing over.
Not every student succeeds and it’s typically unusual for a student to get a ghost to cross over as they aren’t professionally trained for it, but the class exposes students to the opportunity to become an Ectopsychologist. Someone who helps ghosts pass over full time. Getting the assigned ghost to cross over isn't a big part of the grade but it does count towards extra points for the houses.
Regulus thinks he could easily help a ghost cross over, after all how hard could it be? He knows how to work people, get them to reveal their secrets to use against them later. It is what he was raised for after all. Growing up in the Noble House of Black does that to a wizard.
He would make a great Ectopsychologist, in his humble opinion.
Regulus finally enters the classroom with 2 minutes to spare, and immediately finds Pandora to sit next to.
Pandora glances over to Regulus
“I didn’t see you at breakfast today, Regulus.”
“It’s because you were late, Dora. You know I usually leave early anyway, where were you?”
“You know one of these days you’ll choke and keel over if you continue shoving food down your throat?”
“Didn’t answer my question, Dora.”
Pandora smiles, shrugs, and looks away. Regulus opens his mouth to continue pushing for her whereabouts when Professor Grimwood walks in. He curses Pandora and her seer abilities. He knows she does this on purpose. He can never get anything from her that she doesn't want him to know yet, but she can seamlessly pull information from him. She’s the only person he hasn't fully cracked and for that she is his best friend and most trusted confidant.
Professor Grimwood starts class, discussing the requirements for the essay and expresses the need for compassion when discussing a ghost's past life. Then she goes on to assign ghosts to everyone. Grimwood does this by going in alphabetical order, why she does this he has no clue.
He doesn't pay much attention until Pandora’s ghost is announced. Her name is Seraphina Hawthorne and apparently resides mainly in the Owlery. He looks over to Pandora to see her smiling. Pandora and him share a love for this class, thankfully she is not like Barty, Evan, or Dorcas. All three of them think the class is a mixture of boring and dark, surprisingly. Barty and Evan hate to think of death and feel immune to it, they can't imagine having to live without the other and refuse to acknowledge that the day will come, so the class is deeply despised between the both of them. Dorcas just believes it to be too dark to be taught at Hogwarts.
Regulus checks back into the repetitive drone of name after name until his pops up.
“Regulus Black assigned, Evangeline Tallhart. She mainly resides in the Forbidden Corridor, weeping. You’ll be sure to hear her.”
Great. Regulus thinks, how will he ever get her to talk if she’s too busy weeping. He wonders how long she has been dead. If it’s been at least 2 years, he thinks she should get over it and move on already.
He’ll have to visit the library and see if he can find any old new clippings of her to find out her cause of death first. The class has until the first week of June to complete their essay and considering its early April, Regulus has plenty of time.
Class is later dismissed and with some extra free time, Regulus goes to the library to look for anything relating to an “Evangeline Tallhart”. Only one newspaper comes to him when he uses “Accio”. He tucks it under his arm and decides to read it later. Heading out of the library to his next class, he hears someone behind him.
“What are you reading?”
Regulus turns oh so slowly. A pit forms in his stomach despite not emotionally feeling nervous.
“Nothing at the moment, Potter.”
It just had to James Potter. He looked exceptionally good today, but Regulus would never admit that out loud, nor did he want to admit that in his head either. He shook his head slightly to rid himself of that thought.
“It looks like something though, Black.” James points to the newspaper under his arm.
“It is not for you to know.” Regulus huffed.
“Fine, keep your secrets then.”
“I will.”
James felt appalled by the nature of Regulus Black. He wanted to know what was under his exterior attitude. He wasn’t just interested in his reading habits but everything about Regulus, he knew it was an obsession that had been stewing for quite a while but refused to acknowledge it, in hopes it would dissipate. No such luck.
James asked no other questions and let Regulus leave, not that he could do much to stop him. Regulus could feel James' eyes on him the entire way out of the library. He did not like that. As soon as he was out of range of James’ sight, he let out a sigh and another cough.
Merlin, he was unsure what was wrong with him, but this cough needed to stop. It’s only been a day really, but he has never been sick like this before. He knows he has a good immune system and obviously magic can easily heal any muggle sickness he would be affected by.
If it isn't done by the end of next week, he decides he’ll bring it up to Pomfrey.
He goes about the rest of his day with minimal coughing and a sore throat and finally he can read up on his ghost, Evangeline. He opens the newspaper and starts scanning the inside first, thinking if Evangeline is still haunting the school and mostly unknown then she was someone unimportant. The more boring stories typically are inside, not on the front page of the paper.
He doesn't find her name. He goes to the back and still nothing. Finally turning to the front of the paper, he sees in medium print, “Student dies from unknown, rare disease. Hogwarts in mourning.” He reads the article and finds out she was a Hufflepuff, the crying makes sense to him now. He continues reading but it doesn't say much else about her life other than the basics. “She was a kind, hardworking, caring student.” Blah, Blah, Blah.
When an unknown person dies, it’s all anyone can say about them, there is never anything deeper to the one who dies. They just die and are suddenly the best person to have ever lived, it doesn't seem to matter if they never did anything meaningful. Regulus thinks if he were in charge of writing obituaries, he would do an amazing job painting a picture of the one who died. He’d put more research into it, giving them a better meaning.
Although now is not the time for Regulus to be pondering the competency of the friends and family who write obituaries. He needs to find Evangeline. He’d like a head start on his essay, finishing it early would give him the extra free time to study for his O.W.L.s.
He leaves his dorm, noticing it is almost curfew. He can be quick though, so he isn't worried. He travels down to the Forbidden Corridor, as he slowly approaches, he can hear someone quietly sniffling, and he knows he’s found her.
He approaches the tapestry he can hear the sniffling coming from and moves it aside to find a small room, filled with stacked desks and chairs covered with a cloth tarp. It exudes an earthy aroma combined with the settled dust, giving Regulus the sense of abandonment and neglect. Not an unfamiliar feeling.
He sneezes.
God Dammit.
He didn’t want to alert her like that, but he hears a stuttered gasp, and looking up from his arm he sees her. She’s sitting in the front corner of the room, beside the stack under the tarp, staring at him. Her eyes are red and puffy, she’s wearing her Hufflepuff robes, and has brown straight hair.
Regulus thinks she looks very plain.
“Stop looking at me like that.” She says and Regulus almost is caught off guard by her gravelly voice.
“Like what?”
“Like you’re analyzing me.”
“I am.”
“Well stop it, I don’t like it.”
Regulus didn’t care what she liked or disliked but he needed her to cooperate with him so he could finish this assignment. So, he does what he absolutely hated to do.
“I’m sorry, I didn’t mean to upset you.”
He apologized.
“It’s okay, you have just come at a bad time, why are you down here anyway?”
“I wanted to ask you a few questions.”
Evangeline gives him a suspicious look and looks him up and down.
“About what?”
“Your life.”
She sniffles again looking to be on the brink of tears.
“What about it?”
“What was your life like? Happy? Sad?” Regulus just wants her to give him something to work with.
“What was your family like?”
She looks at him as if she is now analyzing him. He does not like it.
“I was happy, for most of my life I was satisfied. I had an amazing group of friends, a wonderful family, and my little sister as my most cherished person.”
Evangeline’s tears spilled down her face as she talked of her family life, her mom, dad, and little sister. They sounded like a happy family, Regulus caught himself wishing he could have been as treasured by Sirius. She also talked about her friends, she had two really good ones and a few minor ones. She spilled everything about her life to him. He really couldn't comprehend someone being so open and trusting but here she was.
Regulus thinks she’s been waiting for someone to listen to her. To him everything she did in her life was to help her friends and family, rarely was she given an opportunity to be listened to. The only thing she didn't talk about was how she died and why she still was tethered here. Once she was done reminiscing about her life, Regulus asked about her death.
“Your life was amazing, if I could ask, how did you die?”
Evangeline glared at him.
“I don't want to talk about that right now. I’ll tell you later, and if that’s the only reason you came then you can leave.”
“That wasn't the only reason.” He lies. He doesn't need to know all about her life, just how she died, but he needs her to trust him. So, he lies to her.
“I’ve told you about my life, I think it's only fair if you tell me about yours.”
“I’m virtually the same as you, with a wonderful family, I have a brother, and two parents. No pets.”
“I can tell that you’re lying.”
“I’m not lying” Regulus says as he scrunches his nose.
“Someone with that much sadness in their eyes can't have a happy family life. I’ve told you how often I used to help my friends, and you think I can’t spot a broken heart from miles away?”
Regulus jerks back. He stands up, unsure when he even sat down on the dusty floor. He brushes himself off.
“I have to go, It’s after curfew by now. I’ll be back to talk to you another day.”
Evangeline chuckles.
“You’re just like an old friend of mine. Always running away from her issues.”
Regulus pushes back the tapestry and walks back to his dorm. He enters to see Barty and Evan already asleep, beds pushed back together. He goes into the bathroom and changes into his sleeping clothes before going over to his bed and flopping onto it. As soon as he’s comfortable he’s out like a light.