Black Rose [Regulus Black]

Alessandra worried he had become a statue, for he had frozen so completely one would think he was made of stone. Or dead.

"Surely I'm not that bad looking..." she muttered, he was acting as though she was Medusa.

"Did you just say Alessandra Rosier?"

"Get out of my house."

He was taken aback. "I beg your pardon?"

"You broke into my house, were healed by my sorcery, interrupted my dinner, and now you have the audacity to make fun of my name? Get. Out." She hurled the nearest thing she could find at him with her magic, which was a large steel plate, and he ducked.

"Calm down!" he yelled at her. "Do you attack anyone who comes into your house?"

"You didn't come into my house, you barged in through the window without my permission. You pathetic scammer," she snapped at him, "Who put you up to this? Are you trying to get my credit card number? You think I'll just let you take my cash? Are you one of those hoodlums on the street who were catcalling me last week? Oh, you think you're soooooo funny, don't you, screaming at random women as though they're objects, and now you think you can just get away with it with some shitty flirting?" She picked up yet another object and chucked it at him. "Go to Hell."

"I- I didn't even say anything!" he exclaimed, as a large teddy bear sailed past his ear, but the onslaught of objects still continued. He decided to quickly apparate away, for the sake of his safety. Entering Number 12 Grimmauld Place, he cast a drying charm on himself, wanting nothing more than to just go to sleep.

"Where have you been?" a cold voice asked him, and his grey eyes met a pair identical to his own.

His mother.

He swallowed. "I was with... the Dark Lord."

Her expression didn't waver but she relaxed slightly, nodding and going back to her room. She'd been distant ever since his father had died and Sirius had run away, and Regulus knew that no matter how much she tried to hide or deny it, she did feel lonely and wished for both of them to come back.

He wondered if it was a good idea to ask her about the blonde he'd just encountered. If anyone knew the pureblood gossip, it was her. But if he was mistaken and she was just some ordinary Muggle, he'd be disowned for sure.

He'd just research by himself, there was no shortage of books at Number 12 Grimmauld Place.

⚜

There were two possibilities: she was either a phantom or just an ordinary Muggle. There was absolutely no trace of Alessandra Rosier on the Rosier family tree.

The logical thing would be to believe that she was a Muggle. However, something within him was urging him to continue researching. It was too much of a coincidence that she was a Rosier and possessed magic. There was something off about it.

He also had questions. How had he landed in a random apartment when he was just seconds away from dying? Kreacher couldn't possibly have sent someone. How had she survived this long with magic? He'd heard all sorts of horror stories about the Mudbloods, it was a miracle she wasn't an Obscurus. How was her magic so well-controlled? Anyone could see she was powerful, she was a master at wandless magic. How did she not receive a letter from Hogwarts? They had an automated registry, they would have tracked her down.

It wasn't like he could ask her. It wasn't that he was scared of her (of course not!), she was just clueless about the magic world and couldn't answer any of his questions.

Therefore, he decided to ask the next best source - the Rosier family.

⚜

If he suspected before that she was a member of the Rosier family, it was confirmed now. He didn't need any verbal agreement to find out, he could just see it.

She looked exactly like Dabria Rosier, the matriarch of the Rosier family. They had the same blonde hair and petite features. The only physical aspect they didn't share was the colour of their eyes; Dabria's eyes were a light brown, whereas Alessandra's were green.

Here was the interesting part though - Pyrrhus Rosier, patriarch of the Rosier family, didn't have green eyes.

He didn't understand. It was possible that she'd had an affair and decided to dump the child in the orphanage to get rid of the evidence, but Dabria would've been smart enough to change Alessandra's last name from Rosier to cover it up. Maybe the child was illegitimate and Pyrrhus found out, so he had her put in the orphanage, but again, her last name would've been changed.

It didn't make sense, but he was determined to get to the bottom of it.

⚜