Detention

Variana Rider knew the delusion of pure blood. She herself came from a family that prided itself on having kept its bloodline pure. But she herself had never understood or even honored these values. She had fallen in love with a Muggleborn called Terry and all her family's words of warning had been wasted. For one year of her then young life, she had been happy. Blissfully happy.

Then her father had Terry murdered.

To say that her world collapsed would have been an understatement. At first she couldn't do anything, then she cried and then she raged with hatred against the two people who called themselves her parents. But all she got in response was a slap in the face and a request to be grounded.

She had escaped that very night.

She never looked back. Not on the way to the next port. Not on the cheap ship. Not when she arrived in England.

Many years had passed since then. She rarely thought back to her old life in the States. She had resolved to move on and she did. She did it when she was admitted to Hogwarts on a scholarship, when she left Hogwarts with top marks and when she took up the profession of Auror to fight dark witches and wizards. But in the end, she found that the British Ministry of Magic froze when a real threat arose. Lord Voldemort and his followers were terrorizing the country and despite the many deaths and suffering that had been going on for years, the Minister and Garmot closed their eyes to the truth.

The money that financed the darkness and its machinations clearly came from the rich old pureblood families. And not only that. Many of the family members had become so-called deatheaters themselves, and Variana couldn't bear to watch her superior and the minister kissing the shoes of members of these very families.

But any of her objections to this corrupt system were immediately silenced. Especially her objections to the center of the purebloods. The family that lay at the center of all the ancient magical families in England.

The ancient and most noble house of black.

It was related to every other pureblood family and spread its influence to the few families that were not.

When Variana had been threatened with suspension for daring to criticize the public head of the Blacks, Orion Black, she had handed in her resignation. She would have to influence the system differently. From the inside.

There was no talking to the older generation, so she decided to focus on the heir. Sirius Black.

However, she had only just gathered enough information about him when Sirius left his family shortly before Jul 1975 and moved in with the Potters.

Variana was genuinely happy for the boy, as he seemed to have recognized the depths of his family all by himself.

But then she immediately focused on the next in the line of succession;

Regulus Black.

Everyone knew less about him than they did about his brother. The younger one got top marks, was a confidence student and kept his head down. He was almost invisible. Which made him more difficult for them to assess. The only facet of his life in which the boy Slytherin stood out was in sports. He was an excellent Seeker. She couldn't find out much more than that.

With the little information she had about him, she decided to begin her mission with the first practical phase: Observation.

In the first few weeks after the winter break, she did her best to assess the boy. However, time hardly seemed to help in deciphering the youngest Black. No abnormalities, no edges. A first-class student with good attendance in class. Totally convinced of his family's ideals.

Variana tried to be patient. Eventually she would get to a point where she would know how to influence Regulus.

Her patience was interrupted one morning by a report in the Daily Prophet:

"Minister of Magic declares Black family politically immune"

Angrily, she crumpled the newspaper in her hand and looked down to the Slytherin table where Regulus was talking to his friend Evan Rosier. She had to convert the heir quickly. By any means necessary. Otherwise, the future looked dark.

A few days later, an opportunity seemed to present itself to her. She was on an evening patrol when she heard screams coming from a classroom.

Sirius Black had confronted a Boggart. Without a wand. His Boggart? Regulus Arcturus Black with the dark mark. Variana removed the Boggart. Her heart was full of worry, compassion and anger as she lectured and questioned the completely distraught Sirius as to how he had come up with this life-threatening idea. The answer brought her angry thoughts to a halt.

Regulus Black could defeat a Boggart without a staff? That was....unexpected. It took deep black magic...and incredibly strong self-control. The first clue to Regulus Black's character. The first hint of the range of family magic the heir could cast. The impact he could have on his family’s future.

All at once, an idea came to her. If she could capture Regulus with this affair....maybe she could bring him under her influence after all. And the power the boy carried....might even be the downfall of the darkness.

She was not proud of the plan that was forming in her head.