my flower, regulus black - regulus black (prologue)
1972
Adelia had met the marauders in her first year, nervous and alone with nobody to sit with on the train. As a muggleborn, receiving the news ‘hey there! You’re a witch and in a month or so, you’ll be at a magic boarding school in Scotland for 7 years!’ was quite shocking, believe it or not.
Even at muggle primary school, Adelia had difficulties finding friends, she was shy, she would rather read books and learn everything she possibly could in all her classes. That being said, she wasn’t outgoing, she didn’t speak to people without being spoken to first, she was kind and helpful but quiet, so she mostly stuck to herself in the first couple years of school.
She wasn’t expecting any of that to change just because she was moving to a different school. All of that changed, when 4 boys who looked high on adrenaline and short of breath tumbled into her compartment, all smiling like maniacs, laugh lines still embedded on their faces. The last boy to come in, who had hair lighter and blonder than the others quickly shut the blinds down so nobody could see who was inside. They all sat down and let out a puff of air, their chests were heaving, they must have been running she thought, internally.
Once they had come back to reality, they finally noticed someone else in their usual compartment, slightly curled into themselves looking down at their lap, lips puckered awkwardly, and fingers fidgeting with themselves. She’s shy, they thought.
'Hi there’ she looked up toward the voice, the boy sat across from her. He had a scar across his face, vertically from his eyebrow to just below his lips. But she didn’t find him scary, he looked kind. A warm smile adorning his face, he smiles with his eyes too, she observes.
She smiled softly back at him, 'My name is Remus’ he continued, 'these are my friends; James’ he pointed to the boy sat to his right, he had a bright smile, his glasses slightly crooked on his face, his hair was curly and standing up everywhere, and his eyes were kind, welcoming. He waved at her with a 'hi’, 'this is peter’ he pointed to the boy on his left, he had blonde hair, a gentle smile directed at her and his eyes were a shade of blue, she thought they looked pretty, and finally, he pointed to the boy who was next to her, he had dark hair, just sitting above his shoulders, his eyes were grey but if you looked close enough you could see a shade of blue blending in with them, his smile was mischievous and wide, he winked at her cheekily. 'this is-’ 'Sirius Black, pleasure to meet you’ he cut off Remus and introduces himself to her personally.
'Leave the poor girl alone Pads’ James laughed 'she looks to be a firstie, aren’t ya?’ she looked shocked that the spectacled boy was addressing her 'me?’ she asked wide eyed, he chortled for a second before replying 'yes, you! Who else would I be talking to?’ he laughed at his own words.
'um- yes, this is my first year. Is it yours?’ she didn’t think it was, they looked to be older than she was, but she asked anyway, feeling slightly stupid.
'we’re in our second year now’ it was Peter who answered this time as his lips quirked upward, 'what’s your name?’ he questioned politely
'my name is Adelia’ she let out a small smile, still slightly fidgeting in her place, one of her hands now brought up to her brown hair to fumble around with the ends of it as a distraction. Nerves taking over her mind and body, even though the boys don’t seem mean in the slightest, it was just how she was.
'that’s a pretty name… I think my great grandmother Ophelia had a cousin named Adelia! What a funny coincidence’ James laughed out loud at his revelation, seemingly very intrigued at the prospect of two people not related in the slightest and a few decades apart sharing the same name.
Remus looked quite embarrassed at just how amusing James thought the situation was, still chuckling away to himself, while peter gave a little laugh as well, not really at the discovery but more at how James was laughing.
'Are you nervous?’ It was Sirius who leaned over a little to discreetly whisper the words to her, so that only they could hear
She nodded slightly, 'a little, I’ve read up on Hogwarts in the history book and it seems amazing, it’s just- well, I only found out I was magic a few weeks ago so I’m not very sure about everything. That’s all’ she rambled off nervously
'Oh so you’re muggleborn?’ he sounded fascinated, for some reason, and she had no idea what a 'muggleborn’ was, so she just blinked up at him, eyebrows lightly pinched together in confusion
'a what-’
'oh- right, my bad … muggleborn means you don’t have magic parents, your parents are muggles, you aren’t. You’re special’ he bumped his shoulder into hers and he smiled down at her while whispering
'really?’ Adelia flushed red at the compliment and found this new information quite surprising, her? Special?
'yeah’ he laughed in a whisper 'y'know I have a brother going into your year, Regulus. Perhaps you’ll be friends?’ he let out quietly, hoping for both Adelia and Regulus’s sake that they make friends going into their first year, they were both on the shy side, so maybe they would fit in well with each other? He thought
'What house are you hoping for Adelia?’ Remus asked her, trying to attempt to wind down James and start up a new conversation
'I’m not quite sure. ’ she said uncertainly 'All of them seem great, and they all have good qualities, so I think I’d be happy with any really. What houses are you all in?’ she asked, albeit quietly so they all subconsciously leaned in while she was talking to hear her properly.
'Gryffindor of course!’ Suddenly James got up from his seated position to stand upwards and began to fight an imaginary sword battle 'The house of the brave and mighty! The house of the lion! We fight and protect, and are the best house, because well- I’m in it.’ James let out boisterously, still battling his dragon, that only he could see, making quite fool of himself
'Oh- dear merlin’ Remus looked tired, and quite frankly, he was tired … tired of James making all of them look like twats who have imaginary dragon pets, to people they have just met.
But when Adelia let out a tiny giggle, Remus turned his frown upside down.
All the boys turned to the sound and smiled at the sight of her rosy cheeks and bright eyes watching James in his imaginary sword battle.
We totally have to adopt her Sirius’s mind was in overdrive at his new thought, this will be so much fun.
'So, Adelia, how do you feel for being officially adopted by us, hm?’