Black Rose [Regulus Black]

Walburga looked exactly like her son.

They shared the same dark hair, grey eyes, judgmental air and aristocratic attitude. However, while Regulus' eyes were filled with warmth, Alessandra could see nothing behind Walburga's.

It was terrifying how a human could show no emotions yet convey so much at the same time - shock, curiosity, suspicion and a burning hatred that did nothing to freeze the ice in her eyes.

The three of them were currently in a stare-down with each other. Actually, it was Walburga eying Alessandra haughtily and Alessandra refusing to break eye contact with her while Regulus awkwardly sat in the middle.

Regulus cleared his throat, wanting to dissipate the tension, yet the women's stare off didn't break. "Mother, this is Alessandra-"

"-Rosier, I know," the dark-haired woman interrupted. "You're not supposed to be here."

"I'm not supposed to be here?" Alessandra repeated. "Do you know what happened?"

Walburga paid no heed to Alessandra, her eyes flicking over to Regulus. "Regulus, how did you find her?"

When Alessandra was young and she and her friends at the orphanage had found an abandoned treehouse to play with, her gut instinct told her that something bad was going to happen, and it did. Only hours later, the treehouse collapse. It was simple incidents like these that had taught her to rely on her intuition.

And now, every molecule in her body was screaming at her to not let Walburga Black know. There was just something off about the woman, although she would never voice her opinion to Reg. Alessandra didn't know why, but she had this strange feeling that Walburga finding out about her was not going to end well.

Regulus, on the other hand, trusted his mother whole-heartedly. His mother had always been supportive of him, although she could be a bit harsh occasionally. She'd been there for him from the day he was born, and they only had each other now. Therefore, despite the pleading look in Alessandra's eyes, the vigorous head-shaking and the desperate kicks under the table directed towards him, he still made the decision to tell his mother.

Only in return for some information, of course.

"I will tell you, but Mother, how do you know her?"

Neither of them missed the way her grip tightened on the table, and they both leaned forward in anticipation, waiting to see what she had to say.

"A few years ago, when you both were two years old, your father and I were looking for potential suitors for alliances."

Understanding dawned in Regulus' eyes, but Alessandra remained clueless.

"The Rosier family seemed like an appropriate option, and Pyrrhus was only too happy to arrange a union between our youngest son and his only daughter."

Then it clicked. The youngest son was Regulus and the only daughter was...her.

Numb. That's how she felt. They'd arranged for her to get married to someone without even consulting her when she'd only just started walking?

Regulus seemed somewhat unfazed though. He was surprised, but she suspected it was because of the newfound connection between them and not because it had been arranged years ago.

"You, on the other hand," Walburga addressed Alessandra, "weren't as...magic-oriented as the pureblood community would've liked you to be. Most children display accidental magic from a young age, at least by the time they're eight. You didn't show any signs of magic, and were declared a Squib."

Squibs...Alessandra had read about it in a book Regulus had given her. They were people with magical heritage but no magical ability.

But I can do magic...

"Of course, pureblood tradition requires for Squibs to be cast out of the family, as you know, Reg," his mother continued, "My uncle, Marius, was cast out because he was a Squib. Therefore, Alessandra was completely removed off of the Rosier family tree, her ministry records removed and her name scraped off of every magical institution's records."

"Including Hogwarts," he spoke up. It made sense now, they wouldn't have invited Alessandra Rosier to Hogwarts if they hadn't even known she existed.

"Precisely." Walburga eyed Alessandra with vehement hatred, annoyed by the fact that a Squib girl, who was no better than a Muggle, had walked into her son's life so easily. It didn't take a genius to tell that they had something going on, and clearly had feelings for each other. She had her own suspicions that her son had been brainwashed by Alessandra, and now they had some sort of sick affair. No doubt the Muggles had rubbed off on that girl, and now her poor son had to pay the price. "Now, how did you come across her?"

Alessandra's eyes narrowed at the way the woman pronounced 'her' with unbridled contempt, like she was some sort of noxious object and not an actual human.

Regulus noticed too, but he brushed it off as motherly concern. "Mother, before I tell you this story, I need you to know that what I did had a very valid reason behind it."

Fear took over Walburga as all sorts of horrid scenarios played out in her head, all of them connecting to that wretched blonde girl sitting at their table. Her son had decided to run away with the girl. Or worse, she was carrying his child, and had tainted their bloodline with a child who probably had no magic. However, she still remained calm and evaluated all her options. There was always the option of making the girl 'disappear' due to the Death Eaters, or perhaps the girl could want to break it off on her own accord with a few more Galleons in her pocket.

Walburga Black wasn't a Slytherin for no reason, after all.

"Go on."

So Regulus explained everything to her. He explained his doubts and fears that the Dark Lord didn't care about the pureblood community, and what had transpired in the cave. When it came to the part about him somehow being pulled from the clutched of Death, however, he was too overwhelmed, and Alessandra had to take over for him. He was still affected by what he saw and what had happened, and had several physical and mental scars from the tight, unyielding grip of the Inferi.

"I don't really know what happened that night," Alessandra began hesitantly. "But he was somehow pulled out of the cave and then came crashing into my house out of nowhere. I do remember there being a bright flash of light though, and there was a strange burning on my wrist."

"We aren't sure why it happened though," Regulus said slowly. "I didn't try to apparate, I didn't have the strength to do so. I didn't call Kreacher either, I specifically ordered him to not return."

Walburga's heart sank. "The marriage contract," she whispered, holding her head in her hands. The situation was worse than she thought.

"A marriage contract!" he exclaimed. "Why would you do that, Mother? Those are permanent, they can't be revoked." It all made sense now, why his mother hadn't pushed him to marry someone the way she'd pushed Sirius. He'd chalked it up to her not wanting to push him away as their first son had already run away, but it was far deeper than that.

"The Rosiers were already suffering the repercussions from Grindelwald's fall, because they were his most avid supporters. They were losing a lot of money and assets, and pushed for a contract because they wanted to be absolutely sure we didn't revoke our word. In return...we might have tied you together with a ritual to prevent either party from running away and breaking the agreement."

Alessandra didn't know anything about the Wizarding World, but from what she could tell, that didn't sound good. It basically meant she was a dog on a leash; she couldn't go anywhere or do anything without him tagging along. How would she get to fulfill her dream of travelling the world now? She'd been saving up all her money to travel to different places so she could explore their culture and their cuisine, it had been something she was extremely invested in, and to now know that she might not have a proper chance at it was discouraging.

"Wonderful," he groaned, and she fought the urge to snap at him. She was beginning to feel rage bubble up inside of her. It was so easy for them to bitch about the inconvenience when it was her life that had completely been turned upside-down. She'd transitioned from a world she'd grown up in her entire life, to a world she didn't know anything about, yet they had the audacity to look like they were the ones suffering.

And what the bloody hell was a Dark Lord? It sounded like a villain straight out of those sci-fi movies she hated, except the fear in Reg's eyes and the reverence in Walburga's seemed to show that perhaps this 'Lord' was more formidable than his ridiculously childish title suggested. She filed that piece of information away for later, adding it to the growing list of things she had to ask Regulus.

"Perhaps we should deal with that problem some other time," she suggested. "Reg, you said that you had a way of determining my heritage?"

Walburga's lip curled as she looked at the way her son directed all his attention towards the girl. Reg. Apparently she was stupid enough to think she had the authority to even speak to someone who was above her in any way. Clearly, the uncivilized Muggles taught her nothing about etiquette. She didn't have a penny to her name, didn't know which fork was which and had even thanked a house-elf.

Ridiculous. She didn't care that her son could only be married to that woman, even ending the bloodline would be better than tainting it with that talentless Squib.

"Why do you want to find out about your heritage?" she snapped, not wanting to waste her family's precious resources on some nobody girl her son had picked up off of the streets.

"We just want to confirm my heritage, it's better than jumping to conclusions," Alessandra interrupted him before he could say anything. There was just something off about his mother, though she would never say it to him. She couldn't bring herself to trust the woman with so much information.

Walburga hummed lightly, deciding to keep an eye on the girl because she wasn't trustworthy enough.