Les Misérables | Regulus A. Black [1]

Chapter Twenty-Nine

[Chapter Twenty-Nine]

Regulus would have liked to believe that the night before was nothing more than a bizarre dream brought on by the fact that he shared in too many sweets at dinner time. He would have liked it more to believe that he had taken a nap himself and that his first date with Éponine had yet to come, leaving him with the opportunity to make the date unforgettable in a good way. When he stated that he wanted to make the date unforgettable, he honestly wanted it to be something that Éponine would remember, even long after they were married and when she thought about it, it would bring a smile to her face. Unfortunately, he was sure that when she looked back at that night, she would only shake her head.

Obviously, it wasn't his fault, there was no way he would have known that there would be a werewolf roaming the grounds, nor did he know that his brother and his friends were also roaming the grounds as illegal animagi. It was an assumption that it was illegal but Regulus could only assume that his brother had done it illegally because that was the excitement behind it. Doing something that he knew he shouldn't do, that's what Sirius lived for. It was tearing Regulus apart because he wanted to report the fact that there was a werewolf within the school but at the same time, did he really want to get his brother in trouble as well? There was a matter of getting Sirius and his friends a detention, but being illegal animagi was grounds for being expelled as it was against Ministry law to go unregistered.

He would ruin Sirius' life as well as the others if he reported it and perhaps, Éponine had been more aware of it the night before as she prevented Regulus from going to the Headmaster's office. Regulus was so worked up that he hadn't been thinking of all the consequences and he believed that Éponine was just afraid of getting into trouble herself. But that wasn't giving the girl enough credit, he knew that she was far from stupid and she had been the one with the fastest reaction time when it came to the situation.

In the beginning, Regulus had been concerned with the idea of Éponine not being one to protect herself, Emmarentia seemed to share in those same concerns, but he was beginning to realise that it wasn't that Éponine wasn't capable of looking after herself, it was more along the lines that she was holding herself back. From setting his trunk on fire back in her third year, pulling out the conjunctivitis curse on a werewolf, it seemed that Éponine was not this helpless girl, she was a silent storm, brewing inside of her small body and the poor unfortunate bastard that caused the storm to unleash probably wouldn't be able to survive.

Just like how Regulus had done in the beginning, his brother and Sirius' friends had underestimated the girl, but he doubted that after last night that they would do such a thing again. She had proved herself and once again, Regulus was filled with a sense of pride, even though he had done nothing. He was proud of Éponine because, since the beginning of the summer, she was coming to realise on her own that she had a voice and wanted to be heard but not only that, she had power and she wanted people to know that as well. Maybe she wasn't ready to take on the world just yet, maybe she wasn't even ready to approach her parents and demand respect, but she was starting off with her peers.