Don't Tell Anyone About This | Regulus Black

Chapter One

Adam Stark was a relatively normal man. Muggle through and through. He taught modules on Roman history at the University of Bath, and enjoyed gardening on sunny days. Professor Stark was the kind of man that wore tweed blazers with elbow patches on them, and was always dashing from place to place with an armful of unorganised files and paperwork. He was quite a tall man, slender too, and had wild curly hair that was slowly turning from black to grey with age - and would become unbelievably frizzy in the rain.
Previously, Adam Stark would have described himself as a perfectly normal man. Nothing interesting about him at all. No, sir.

Then his daughter was born.
And oh dear, did all chaos shortly ensue.
His daughter, Nerezza Stark, was anything but normal.

Nerezza was tall like her father - the year being 1976 and her being nearly sixteen years old. Though her tall and slender frame was perhaps where the similarities ended.
The most notable difference was that Nerezza was half-Indian, courtesy of her late mother.
The second biggest difference, though you couldn't tell just by looking at her, was that Nerezza was a witch.

At first, Adam Stark had thought he was going simply insane. As he struggled to raise his daughter by himself, he noticed things would go missing off shelves and lights would flicker on and off and his daughter's toys would mysteriously change colour day to day. It wasn't until a strange woman wearing a cloak and a pointed hat arrived on their doorstep one morning to confirm that Adam was still sane, and his daughter possessed magic.
So, yes, that had taken some getting used to.

"You promise you'll write, yes? Every week. I don't want the next time I hear from you to be Christmas."
"Yes, alright, I will. Every seven days on the dot." She replied, tugging slightly at the neckline of her jumper.

Her father smiled down at her and tucked a strand of her dark brown hair behind her ear. "Promise?" He asked.
Nerezza rolled her eyes, "You know, promises aren't legally binding."
"This one is." Adam Stark joked with a lopsided smile, "I'll sue you if you break it."
She scoffed at her father, "Oh yeah, that's a reasonable thing to do to your daughter and only child."

He chuckled, "Alright, smart arse. Get on the train before it leaves you behind." He ruffled the girl's hair, much to her dismay, and gave her shoulder a squeeze with his hand. Then Adam Stark straightened up and dusted off his tattered blazer.

Sending his daughter off to Hogwarts when she was eleven years old had been a very difficult thing for Adam to do. Nerezza was the centre of his entire life. Needless to say, it didn't get easier to say goodbye with every passing year.

"See you at summer then. Love you." She waved off her father and the swiftly boarded the train, ready to begin her fifth year at Hogwarts.
He called after her, "Love you too!"

Nerezza reached into her pocket and pulled out the small strip of red ribbon she used to tie her long hair back and turned to give her father one last smile.
Though this was wiped off her face as she caught sight of her own reflection in the window of the train, and paused for a moment. She'd never met her mother, but had been told countless times by her father about how to two resembled each other. Nerezza had only ever seen her mother in a couple of small photographs still kept in their home. They both had a warm skin tone and long, straight, brown hair with matching big brown eyes. Nera straightened her glasses and sighed.

Adam often told his daughter how beautiful she was, but Nerezza never believed it.
Teenagers never do.

As the train engine rattled to life and slowly began to roll out of the station, Nerezza was reminded that she wanted to find somewhere quiet to sit. Most of the compartments were already full of nervous first years or older students reuniting with their friends after weeks apart. Wandering down all of the carriages, eventually Nerezza found one empty compartment. The very last one right at the back of the train.