Regulus was bored. Sirius had gone to his first year at Hogwarts leaving him alone in the house. Kreacher wasn’t allowed to play with him and playing alone wasn’t fun for long. He read in a book hidden away in the library of a thing called a playground. A place where children go to play. Surely he’d find someone to play with there.
Mother and Father were away on business and Kreacher was busy so Regulus slipped out the front door and began walking down the sidewalk. He kept glancing around at everything. He shied away from the other people sticking close to the buildings. He had never been in muggle London before and it was quite overwhelming. He wasn’t sure which way he should be going.
He wandered for a bit before hearing the sound of children laughing. He followed the sound and found a large group of children running around and playing on weird structures. He found a playground.
He hesitantly walked towards the playground glancing around at everyone and wondering if this was a mistake and he should go back home. He found a box full of sand and had some digging tools in it. He crouched down and ran his fingers through the sand.
“You’re dressed funny.” He turned around and saw a little girl. She had blonde hair like Cissy and brown eyes like Bella.
“What's wrong with how I’m dressed?” He looked down at his button down and slacks.
“Did you come from church?” She asked. He wasn’t sure what that was but nodded anyway. She smiled and held out her hand saying, “I’m Juliet, what's your name? Do you want to play tag?” He shook her hand shyly saying, “I’m Regulus, whats tag” She looked confused. “Regulus?” He nodded, “It's a star,” She said, “Ohhhh that’s cool. And what's tag? Are you silly? How do you not know what tag is?” He looked down feeling stupid for coming here. He felt his eyes fill with tears.
“I’m sorry I’m sorry! It's okay that you don’t know what tag is. I can teach you1” Juliet said, quickly grabbing his hands. He looked up asking, “really?” Juliet nodded. “Cmon I’ll explain the rules,” She pulled him towards an open area while telling him the rules.
Tag turned out to be really fun even if it was just the two of them. They laughed and chased each other around. Eventually though an older woman called out, “Juliet! It's time to go!” Juliet stopped running from him and pouted. “I guess I gotta say bye.” She hugged Regulus, “I had a lot of fun playing with you. Maybe my mom can meet yours and we can play again,” Juliet said grinning at the idea. “My mom isn’t here. I’m alone.” Juliet gasped a bit saying, “They let you come to the park alone? That's so cool! Well I come here every Sunday so come then and we can play more.” Regulus nodded saying “It sounds like a lot of fun,”
She ran to her mother waving goodbye to Regulus before grabbing her mothers hand and walking away.
He believes he made a friend. He ran home and thankfully Mother and Father were still gone. He quickly washed up and changed clothes and hid the clothes he wore to the playground at the bottom of his hamper. His parents had business on Sundays at the Ministry so sneaking out shouldn’t be too hard.
He can’t wait to see Juliet again.