Don't Tell Anyone About This | Regulus Black

Chapter Eight

"You Brits are gross, I swear. Just stop with the baked beans already!" Ada complained, taking great delight in earning a loud laugh from Nera, sat opposite her in the Great Hall.

Nera clapped a hand over her mouth to keep herself quiet and then, with a soft voice, reminded Ada, "We're not here to complain about British cuisine. We're here to study. Stop distracting me!"

Ada scoffed and rolled her eyes in response. But before they could return their attention to their books and notes, another distraction arrived.

"Hey, Nera! Long time no see." Edgar Bones greeted with a warm smile - despite it had been little over a week since their last conversation during the Potions lesson. Their most recent lesson had been spent in silence as the class had been made to sit a preparatory exam.

"Oh, hi, Edgar." She greeted back and turned around to face Edgar, and as she did so she took note of the huddle of students that stood behind him. Suddenly Nera felt like she was under a spotlight, what with the faces of vaguely familiar students peering around Edgar to stare at her. It very quickly reminded the girl why she disliked large groups so much.

Edgar turned to Ada and quickly said, "Hi, I'm Edgar Bones."
Ada frowned at this. She'd already been introduced to the boy on a previous occasion and didn't quite understand what was going on. She supposed he must simply have forgotten that. No harm.
"Ada Ostrowski." She stated, with a smile.

Still under the watchful gaze of his companions, Nera was quite hoping that would be the end of the conversation and that Edgar would move swiftly on.

"I've been meaning to ask if you fancied going to Hogsmeade this weekend?" Edgar asked, as his gaze was focused on the back of Nera's head.
Reluctantly, she turned around to face him and yet again met with his group of friends looking at her unwaveringly.

Ada jumped in, "That would be great! Just the other day Nera and I were talking about going down. It would be great if you were to join us."

Nera didn't know if Ada inserting herself into the situation was deliberately on her behalf or not, but she appreciated it none the less. The gaze of Edgar's friends had shifted from her to focus on Ada instead - and the blonde girl didn't seem to notice or care.

"Yeah." Nera nodded her head, "That would be... Would be nice."

She didn't mean to sound so hesitant to hanging out with Edgar. Truthfully, she did enjoy his company. However, the pressure of his popular companions was throwing her off. And Nera's confidence was shaky at the best of times.

"Nera." Edgar waved his hand in front of her eyes, "Are you alright?"
She snapped out of her thoughts and looked up at him, "Sorry. I-er-what did you say?"

For a split second, Nera thought one of the boys behind Edgar was sniggering at her. She wanted the ground to swallow her whole. But, then again... Maybe she'd imagined it.

"If we go to Hogsmeade Saturday afternoon, then we can get drinks at the Three Broomsticks." Edgar repeated, "What do you think?"
"Oh, that would be nice. I haven't actually-" As soon as she caught herself, Nera clamped her mouth shut. She really didn't want to admit that. She really didn't want to admit she'd never been to the Three Broomsticks before. That would have been mortifying.

Ada, not quite clued up, asked, "Haven't actually what?"
"N-nothing." Nera stammered, feeling herself start to blush, "Sorry, I was thinking about something else."

Before anything further could possible happen, with any threat of further embarrassing the girl, the doors to the Great Hall slammed open. The whole group whipped around to see who had entered. Nera was pretty sure the doors to the hall had been open the whole time. However, as they spotted the Marauders sauntering in, Nera wouldn't have put it past them to close the doors in order to make their grand entrance.

Edgar's friends broke out into hushed whispers upon seeing the popular Gryffindor boys.
"Have you spoken to him about it?"
"You'd never guess it."
"I don't even think I believe it."

Edgar sunk his hands deep into his trouser pockets and pulled an expression as if to convey his apologies on behalf of his friends. Ada completely missed this subtle signal, and asked, "What's going on?"

At last, Edgar sat down at the table. His friends followed suit and sat down on the other side of him. "Do you know Sirius Black?" He asked.
Ada shook her head.
"With the guys who just walked in - they're the year above us." He explained, "Shaggy black hair."

Ada peered across the room and spotted the boy in question. He seemed oddly familiar to her. "Why..." She frowned in thought, "Do I recognise him?"
"He's in Gryffindor." Edgar said.
Nera, however, provided the answer that Ada desired, "He's Regulus' brother."

One corner of Edgar's mouth tugged downwards slightly, pulling his lips into a brief grimace at the name. Nobody took any note of this though.

"So what happened?" Ada inquired as she propped her elbows up on the table and rested her chin in her hands.
Edgar continued, "I don't know if it's true or just a rumour... But apparently he ran away from home over the summer. I think he went to live with James Potter - his friend with the glasses there."

Suddenly, Nera broke out into a spluttering cough. Somehow she'd managed to choke on the air she'd inhaled. As she held a hand over her chest and regained her breath, the girl still couldn't wrap her beard around what she'd heard.

Why on earth would Sirius Black run away from home? Wasn't his family rich and well respected within the wizarding community?
Of course, there was the obvious factor that Sirius belonged to Gryffindor, a house which the Slytherins commonly looked down on - and this was relevant given nearly all of the pureblood students (whose families were like those of the Black household) resided in Slytherin. But... It wasn't like it was Sirius' choice to be in Gryffindor. Nera didn't really see what that had to do with anything.

Then, of course, there was the matter of Regulus. Recently, she had been wondering what could have happened to make the boy start acting differently. He seemed more miserable and had been missing quite a few lessons, but on the other hand there were also times where he'd been much more chatty and, she dare say, even somewhat friendly.
Of course, Nera had no idea that it was only her that had seen the emergence of this chatty side of Regulus. Everybody else was only witness to his newfound gloom.

"Nera, you alright?" Ada caught the girl's attention and dragged her out of her thoughts.
Nera nodded, "Yeah, good. Sorry, I was just... Thinking-daydreaming."

"So... Apparently there was this big fight and Sirius ran away. I don't think he ever got on with his family - or at least not since I've known him." Edgar concluded, "But I haven't actually spoken to him about the running away thing... It might not be true."

Nera had a gut feeling that it was true.

Ada thought, "If it wasn't true, wouldn't this Sirius guy just tell people straight away? Stłumić... Er, sorry, quash the rumour."
The red headed boy shrugged, "I don't know. I think all he really cares about is that people think he's cool and funny. I don't imagine this rumour necessarily damages that rep."

Nera was undeniably an amazingly smart girl. She knew so much information - most of it random little facts that she thought were fascinating but would probably have no real use to her at any point. There were some areas that Nera was quite oblivious in, however. They were the kind of areas that it seemed everyone else was well versed in - friendship, families, confidence, general social interaction (particularly in big groups).

She had never had a great deal of experience with any of that. Now, Nera couldn't really wrap her head around what could have happened to the Black family over the summer. She'd read lots of stories where children ran away from home, and so she was privy to some of the reasoning behind it. But... In the real world... Could a home really be so cruel that you had to run away from it? And if it was, what did that mean for Regulus?
It seemed like he hadn't run away, but had he perhaps been left behind? Was he still trapped in a cruel environment?

Then she remembered: Regulus wasn't going home for Christmas this year.
That probably had something to do with what had happened over summer. That couldn't just be a coincidence. Anyway, it wasn't exactly like she could ask him about it. They weren't friends.