Summer 1971
Regulus:
He wished he had been allowed to say goodbye. His brother was the only person that spoke to him. Kreacher spoke to him, yes, but only when he was asking regulus if he needed anything. His parents spoke to him too, but only when they were giving him orders or scolding him. He never had ‘friends’ because he never had the opportunity to make any. His parents didn’t see the need for social interactions between non-family-members. Maybe he could consider his cousin -Andromeda- his friend, after all she spoke to him casually and was friendly enough but she had gone to Hogwarts last year. He really was all alone now.
The last time Regulus had interacted with someone, who didn’t live in the house, was when he was 6 years old. His parents thought it important to be literate, so they had hired a governess to teach Sirius to read and write. They didn’t hire her to teach Regulus but they hadn’t forbidden him from sitting in on the lessons. He had learnt how to read from listening and looking. It had taken him a while to learn but Sirius had helped him. However, once Sirius could read and write, in both French and English, the Governess left. He never saw her again. That was four years ago. At least Regulus could find company in the books he stole from his father’s study. At least he wouldn’t be completely alone.
Sirius:
Sirius was terrified. He had been looking forward to the day he could leave Grimmauld Place but now that it had arrived, he was terrified. He had only ever known life in Grimmauld Place and the thought of Hogwarts being different was incredibly daunting. None the less, the day had arrived.
Kreacher had woken him up with breakfast in bed, the house elf always did this on special occasions. The elf had laid some muggle clothes on his bed, once Sirius had finished eating, he then left, without saying goodbye. It wasn’t Kreacher’s place to say formalities, he had been punished for it once before and he had never made the mistake again.
He looked at the neatly folded clothes on his bed, a pair of Jeans and a checkered shirt. He had seen his dad wear this outfit once, when he was going outside. Hand-me-downs. The Blacks rarely shared anything, it was too sentimental for them. Perhaps this was their way of saying they were proud of him… but then again they had never said anything like that before. He new that, in reality, he wasn’t important enough for something like that, his parents didn’t want to waste their money on him. He wasn’t going to let something like this effect his day, it was going to be hard enough without adding ‘sentiment’ to it.
He grabbed his trunk and went down stairs. His parents were waiting for him, just to make sure that he would actually leave.
“Good morning Dad, Mum.” He knew they hated him calling them this, but that’s exactly why he did it. It was much more reasonable than ‘Mother’ and ‘Father’. They didn’t say anything as a reply, just scowled. Today they couldn’t hurt them, they couldn’t risk people thinking that the ‘Most Noble House Of Black’ abused their children.
He stepped into the fireplace with his trunk and grabbed a handful of floo powder and, very clearly, said: “Kings Cross Station.”
There wasn’t a connection to the floo inside Kings Cross; wizards would appear in a back alleyway townhouse just behind Kings Cross.
Sirius tumbled out of the fireplace, he never managed to do that gracefully. He jumped up and brushed himself off, there was no point in staying on the floor. He left the house and walked through the alleyway until he found the main road. Did he know which way he was supposed to be going? No, no he did not, he decided to go in the direction the crowds were going, and hopefully he would make it to Kings Cross. He was successful.
Kings Cross was massive and they wouldn’t let people by the trains unless they had a ticket. Sirius did not have a ticket but he did have some muggle money (his parents weren’t so cruel as to not supply him with the resources he needs to leave)
“Hello sir.” Sirius said to the man at the ticket desk, “Could I please have a ticket to-“ he looked up at the board, he needed to find a train that left platform 9 or 10, “A ticket to Piccadilly?” The ticket officer nodded, and grabbed his money. There was a sound of ripping and he handed Sirius a piece of paper. “Leaves in 10 minutes, no refunds will be given if you miss your train.” Sirius nodded and moved towards the Platforms. He reached platform 9 and looked around, making sure no muggles were looking at him. He ran at the wall of 9 and 10.
He had made it! AHAHA! Who needed their parents to take them to the Hogwarts express? His didn’t and yet here he was, standing on platform 9 and 3/4, looking at the Hogwarts express. There were a lot of people on the platform, some had teary eyes while others looked rushed and frazzled, the words ‘I love you’;’Goodbye’ and ‘Have a good term’ could be heard from around him. It didn’t upset him to know that none of them were directed at him. He could pretend that they were.
His parents had instructed him to sit with his cousins on the train. ‘Don’t start the term off by speaking to the wrong people’ they had said. Sirius didn’t really want to do this but he didn’t know who else he would speak to. He walked along the train looking for his cousins. They were in compartment 15.