Chapter One
Regulus clutched onto his leather trunk, biting his bottom lip to stop himself from screeching in a mixture of excitement and anticipation. He was finally going to Hogwarts. Sirius had told him such great things about the castle, his friends, and the classes they take, but second hand tales were nothing compared to the experience first hand. "Don't make a fool of us, like your brother already has." His mother quipped when Regulus attempted to leave for the train.
"Yes, mother." He replied, coldly. He despised his mother. After discovering that Sirius had been sorted into Gryffindor, the House of Black was filled with the ear piercing screams of his brother. She was such a cruel woman, and Regulus was ecstatic to finally leave her, he had been looking forward to it the second that Sirius had left the house.
As Regulus searched through the narrow hallways of the train for an empty compartment, he made a note as to avoid the fifth one to his right. That was the one where Sirius was sat with his friends. Whilst they seemed friendly, the air had felt heavier whenever he was introduced to their conversations. Finally, he landed on one which was almost at the end of the train.
He sat down at the seat by the window, nervously fidgeting with his fingers as he stared outside. His mother had already apparated back to their Manor, and as he swallowed the lump that formed in his throat, he couldn't but help feeling a twinge of jealousy when he noticed all of the parents waving goodbye to their children. He could never have that.
Suddenly, the door of his compartment slid open, and two people entered; a girl and a boy. They were both dark caramel skinned, the girl had long, blonde hair with braids neatly woven into her curls whereas the boy had short, fluffy platinum blonde hair along with freckles dotted across his delicate skin. The girl gave Regulus a friendly grin, revealing her tooth gap. She opened her mouth to speak, but her brother (Regulus assumed) stepped forward and spoke for her. "Hi, I'm Evan Rosier and this is my sister," He was about to introduce her when she barged past him and introduced herself.
"Pandora!" She said in a soothing voice. "Mind if we sit?" She asked, and Regulus shook his head, nervous of scaring them away. The girl, surprisingly, sat next to him rather than her own brother, and began starting conversation with him. "So, you got a name?" She asked, and Regulus shook himself out of his daze.
"Regulus," she raised an eyebrow, as if urging him to continue, "Black." She took an exasperating, long, gasp at his name.
"I've heard of your family! So what house do you recon you'll be in? Slytherin, right?" She spoke quite a lot, and quite easily, where as her brother, Regulus noticed, was more of a listener.
"Yeah, what about you?" Regulus politely asked, and she nodded eagerly.
"Perhaps Ravenclaw or Slytherin, Evan here wants to be a Hufflepuff!" She choked out a laugh, as she pointed to her brother who appeared to have been daydreaming before the mention of his name.
"Do not!" He defended himself, and Regulus stifled a laugh. "I'm a Slytherin!" He exclaimed proudly and confidently, although they hadn't even been sorted yet. Suddenly, the compartment door opened again, and another boy entered. This time, he had short, brunette hair and a slight tan, but other than that was quite basic. He didn't even ask before sliding next to Evan, and introducing himself. Quite rude, Regulus thought.
"I'm Barty Crouch Jr!" He grinned, revealing a chipped tooth as he shook Evan's hand. They instantly seemed to click, quite miraculously, Evan began talking.
"I'm Evan Rosier! What house is the best?" Evan quickly asked him, as if doing quick fire questions.
"Slytherin! Duh!" Barty responded, and Evan pulled him in for a very over dramatic hug.
"Gosh, this is gonna be a long ride." Pandora said under her breath, and Regulus giggled lightly.
"Quite right." He replied, and Pandora turned to face him, as she studied his face, her gaze softened into a comfortable smile. At some point in the journey, Regulus must've fallen asleep, because he opened his eyes to notice how everybody except Pandora (who was reading), was asleep. Barty had his head rested on Evan's shoulder and was snoring loudly, dried drool beneath his lip.
"Hello, Regulus!" She said happily, a wide grin plastered on her face. Regulus grunted in response, still unable to form a coherent sentence as he had just awoken. "I expect we'll be arriving at the castle soon, would you like to talk?" She asked, politely. Regulus smiled warmly and nodded. She was quite a nice girl.
"Do you know anybody at the school - other than your brother?" Regulus pondered this thought for a second, before replying.
"My cousins are in their seventh years, and Siri told me about some of his friends I suppose." Pandora nodded in understanding, she was definitely a beautiful girl. Her lips formed a Cupid's bow shape, and they were full - as were her brothers. "What about you?" He asked.
"Well, I know my oldest brother, Marc. He's in Hufflepuff, and fourth year. Our family doesn't really have a trend in where they're sorted;I suppose that's a factor of why we're called odd." She answered, and Regulus thought about this for a second. The sorting hat definitely took into consideration of where family was sorted, so this was quite peculiar.
"I'm hoping for Slytherin, my mother will be so pissed if I'm anything else," Regulus blurted out, barley noticing the swear which had just come out from his lips. "Siri is a Gryffindor, he'll probably want me there with him." Regulus turned to face Pandora, who was still sat next to him. Her knees were tucked into her stomach and she was resting her chin on top of them. Suddenly, the compartment door swung open, causing Barty and Evan to wake up as well.
"Reggie! What are you doing in here?" Sirius was stood at the door, whining. His long, black hair reached his shoulders now, and it looked quite curly; probably the humidity. He had quite feminine features: long eyelashes, nails, full lips. Although, his body was broad, and he was more manly than Regulus nonetheless. Regulus swallowed the lump that had formed in this throat, how would he escape this confrontation?
"Well, I wanted to sit with Pandora, Evan and Barty," He lied, trailing off. Luckily, nobody brought up how he wasn't being honest, although, the other two boys did still seem as if they were half asleep.
"Alright, see you at Gryffindor table then?" Sirius slipped in hopefully, attempting to be casual. Regulus didn't respond, he just turned away and let out a sigh when Sirius left.
"What was that about?" Barty asked, rubbing his eye. Regulus bit the inside of his cheek, a bad habit which he had picked up from his father, and shrugged.
"Siri wants me to be in Gryffindor with him," He said, simply, "I'm probably going to be a Slytherin though." Regulus shrugged and turned back to Pandora, who happily continued their conversation for the rest of the journey. Barty and Evan played a few rounds of exploding snap, whilst eating chocolate frogs which they had bought from the trolley. When the train finally came to a halt, Regulus found his arm interlocked with Pandora's. They both exited the train together, Barty and Evan close behind.
Pandora would point at small intricate details, for example, when they were approaching the forest which they had to pass through, she talked Regulus through the difference between a Nargle and a Niffler. "Nargle's are terrible creatures," She said, as if she had some sort of backstory with them, "Their everywhere." She would ramble on about different details of the scenery to Regulus, who thoroughly enjoyed it.
A humongous man, perhaps half giant, led them onto boats in order to cross the black lake. The rule was five per boat, and so Barty, Pandora, Regulus and Evan all decided to board with a girl who was sat alone. She had dark skin, long, black braids, but hers weren't the same as Pandora's. This girl's were smaller, and didn't have the same curl which Pandora's had. She had a button nose, full lips, siren eyes and an extremely brooding resting face. She was so cool.
They all took their seats around her, Evan behind her, Barty next to him, Regulus next to her and Pandora on the other side to him. "I'm Regulus Black," He put his hand out for her to shake, and she inspected him before taking it cautiously.
"Dorcas Meadowes." She replied, coldly. She was almost the complete opposite to Pandora, but they both seemed sweet. Dorcas had her braided hair tied into a high ponytail, and looked quite nervous despite her tough act. "What house are you lot going for?" She asked everybody, and all of them (Pandora aside) were surprised that she would willingly start a conversation with them. She seemed like quite the antisocial type.
"We're all aiming for Slytherin, but Dora wouldn't mind Ravenclaw," Evan answered on behalf of everybody, and they all nodded along. "What about you?" He asked, attempting to shrug Barty's head off of his shoulder.
"Oh, I'm not fussed. Ravenclaw does seem quite nice, but Slytherin is probably the best," Dorcas honestly said, and Barty gave a loud cheer for her, causing her to chuckle. Her laugh was raspy, but still sweet.
When they finally reached the castle Regulus gaped in awe. The real thing was even more marvellous than what Sirius had described, which seemed to be impossible. "Holy fuck balls!" Barty exclaimed, and Evan choked out a laugh which sounded more like a wheezy cough. An old woman was stood in front of them, and she led them inside the castle with a lantern in hand.
She lead them through the ancient looking hallways until they came to a stop outside of two large, wooden double doors. They had patterns woven onto them, swirls and spirals. The old woman said that her name was Professor Mcgonagall, and Regulus immediately realised that she was the 'Minnie' whom Sirius always told him about. She didn't seem as carefree as Sirius had made her out to be, though. Professor Mcgonnagal explained the different houses and requirements to get into each, before leading them inside the Great Hall.
The ceiling was enchanted to look like the night sky, it wasn't all that impressive, but was still ethereal all the same. Some muggleborns gaped in awe at this, though. Regulus glanced around the tables, still clinging onto Pandora. Sirius waved at him and Regulus pursed his lips together to form a straight line, signifying a polite non-smile.
Leah Andrea was the first to be sorted, Regulus didn't recognise her surname. She was placed into Ravenclaw, and a few more people were sorted after her. By the time that Regulus was called, there were two Hufflepuffs, one Ravenclaw and one Gryffindor. No Slytherins, yet. "Black, Regulus." The lady called out, and Regulus released himself from Pandora whilst she offered an encouraging smile and whispered good luck messages under her breath.
He cut through the crowd, trying to avoid everybody staring at him. He took a seat on the stool, and felt uncomfortable as the hat was placed on his head, ruffling his hair. "Ah, another Black, very interesting," It spoke in a wisdom filled voice, "Perhaps Ravenclaw? A good mind, I see, not Gryffindor, that's for sure. Hufflepuff is out of the question. A good mind, dignity, ah, yes, a strong sense of ambition. It'll have to be, SLYTHERIN!" When the hat called out the final word, Regulus felt a strong sense of relief wash over him. He sighed and made his way towards the Slytherin table, smiling at Narcissa and completely avoiding looking in Sirius' direction. He couldn't stand it.
The list went on, Barty was sorted into Slytherin and immediately sat with Regulus. Dorcas joined them soon after, and sat opposite the boys. The hat barley touched Evan's head before sorting him with them as well, whereas Pandora's took several minutes. Even the teachers were growing impatient until it finally declared Slytherin. When she sat with them, she had to explain how it was deciding between Ravenclaw and Slytherin. "I practically begged it to put me here!" She exclaimed, using an obscene amount of unnecessary hand gestures.
They chatted throughout dinner, scaring from the poltergeists which swooped down and through the food which had mysteriously appeared on the plates in front of them. After a long meal of avoiding his brother's gaze, they were led to the dormitories by two prefects. Of course he had to sleep in the dungeons. Typical.
The common room seemed quite sinister, but was actually slightly cosy. The emerald fire crackled in front of the leather seats which had more deep green blankets draped over the top of them. "Girls left, boy's right." Narcissa called out, and Regulus made his way up to his dormitory. Narcissa was Regulus' favourite cousin, her curly, black hair was nearly identical to her sister's. She was kind-hearted and never made Regulus or Sirius feel excluded, despite their age. He waved goodbye to his cousin, Pandora and Dorcas whilst walking up the spiral staircase with Barty and Evan at either of his sides.
When they entered their room, a boy whom he recognised from the sorting, Avery, was sat on top of the bed nearest to the door. "So many mudbloods, it's preposterous." The dark-haired boy muttered under his breath, however, Regulus didn't agree. Avery had black hair, pale skin and bushy eyebrows. Regulus didn't like him one bit.
"Evan and Reggie," Barty said, ignoring the daggers in which Regulus was shooting him for using that nickname, "Wanna go pull a prank?" He asked, his eyebrows raised. Regulus thought back to the way his mother would torture Sirius for getting in too much trouble for pulling pranks, but he didn't quite care.
"We won't get caught?" Regulus asked, and Barty and Evan both turned to face him.
"Of course not," Evan said, smirking, "I've never been caught at those stupid, posh dinner parties I have to attend." Barty nudged him, smirking in pride.
"Alright then," Regulus said, "I'm in.”