Chapter 200: The Urge to Laugh [bonus]
Eight o'clock. Room of Requirement.
Nearly a week had passed since term started, and this was the first time Cuthbert and Alex had actually shown up.
Not because they'd spent the whole week slacking and only just now decided to get serious. Well, Cuthbert absolutely had. Alex was the one who brought it up the night before. Said he wanted to start training under Regulus again.
He'd always been the sharper one.
Dumbledore's speech at the start-of-term feast. The new Defence Against the Dark Arts curriculum. The looks the older students kept trading in the corridors when they thought nobody noticed.
And down in Slytherin House, that weird mood hanging over the common room. Some people were excited. Some were tense. Some were trying very hard to act like nothing had changed.
Alex felt all of it.
That low, creeping unease had gotten into the walls.
Not every kid noticed, obviously. The ones with their heads full of games, gossip, and who fancied who didn't care. As long as homework got done and their marks stayed decent, the rest of life was for messing around. That was enough for them.