"Give it back James!" Eleanor shouted through the train. They had only just boarded and he was already getting on her nerves. He had stolen her beanie she stole from Remus.
"No, I look good in it," he said, flipping his invisible long hair. He sat down in a compartment with Sirius and Peter. Remus had gone to the Prefect's compartment.
Eleanor rolled her eyes and sat down in the opposite compartment next to Kathy. Doris and Amelia joined them as well.
She leaned forward and looked into the boys' compartment. "Sirius, how did you like the record player?" she asked him. The other girls frowned.
"Oh it's bloody brilliant!" he said, looking like a little boy thinking about his first time at a sweet shop. "That Bowie guy is a-ma-zing."
Eleanor grinned. "What's your favorite song?"
Sirius thought for a second. "Of Bowie's? I think 'Lady Stardust', but 'Changes' is great as well," he said with a smile. Eleanor nodded and then quickly snatched the beanie from James' head.
"Oi! But it went well with my eyes!" he sounded offended. Eleanor stuck her tongue out at him. He mimicked her. She laughed and leaned back in her seat.
"You gave him your record player?" Amelia whispered and frowned.
"Yeah, he really liked it. And besides, I can still listen in the livingroom," Eleanor explained.
The train ride was - as usual - very long, and at around seven-thirty that evening, all of the students were seated at the four long tables in the Great Hall, enjoying a good meal.
Eleanor looked across the room while eating her pudding. Ever since Regulus had sent his last letter, she had been worried about him. He seemed so unlike himself.
She saw him sitting on his usual spot at the Slytherin table, but he didn't seem to notice her. Well, she'd see him the next day after class anyway.
James, Peter, and Sirius got up from their seats and left the Great Hall when they were done eating. Remus poked around the food on his plate.
Eleanor frowned. "Aren't you joining them?" she asked her brother.
He shook his head. "Prefect duties, need to patrol with Lily when everyone has left," he explained.
"Ew, glad I'm not a Prefect," she said with a grin. Remus rolled his eyes.
Eleanor finished her drink. She was thinking back to their little get together with New Year's, and all of her moments alone with Sirius. The more she thought about them, the mkre she wished she could go back and do it all over again, but properly this time.
"What's on your mind?" Remus asked her, leaning his head in his hand. She looked back at him and bit the inside of her cheek.
Elenor checked if the others would hear her and then turned back to her brother again. "You knoe that night eith New Year's," she started.
"Yeah, hard to forget," he chuckled. "What about it?"
"Well, it's just that I woke up in the middle of the night and Sirius was up as well. He told me he 'just had a nightmare', but he was all sweaty and stuff," she said with a frown.
Remus diverted his eyes. Eleanor noticed. "He gets them often doesn't he?" she asked. She knew she was onto something. But hadn't he just told her?
"He does," Remus mumbled. "It's because of Grimmauld Place, he can't let go of his past there." Eleanor's heart sank at the thoughts of what went dosn there going around in her head. It must've been really bad... But she had never heard him mention anything?
We never had music at Grimmauld Place.
Nothing really.
Her eyes widened in shock as the truth dawned on her. "Was he-"
"Don't say it," Remus whispered. "He never wants to talk about it. But yes, he was." His jaw clenched and his eyes seemed to be looking for something that wasn't there.
Eleanor shook her head in disbelief. Just the thought of it made her sick to her stomach. And angry. So very angry.
"Ella don't tell him I told you, even though you kind of figured it out yourself," Remus mumbled. Eleanor nodded solemnly.
"Ella are you coming?" Kathy called for her. She quickly got up and followed her friends up to their dormitory.
Once there, Eleanor closed the door behind and then dropped down onto her bed. She was exhausted.
"So, I heard New Year's was fun," Doris mumbled, putting on her pajamas. She hadn't really said much the whole day.
Amelia and Eleanor gave each other a look, both not really knowing to makr of that comment
Amelia frowned. "Er yeah it was really fun," she said carefully. "Too bad you guys couldn't make it though."
Doris huffed and got under her sheets. Eleanor raised her eyebrows. "No need to get all worked up about it," she muttered. Without saying another word, Doris drew up the curtains around her bed.
Eleanor snorted and shook her head. Kathy shrugged, said goodnight and also closed her curtains. Amelia and her then did the same thing. She changed into her pajamas and crawled under her blanket.
As she stared up at the ceiling, her mind wandered off to her conversation with Remus. Eleanor hadn't actually said the word 'abuse', but he immediately knew what she was talking about.
Of course she understood Sirius didn't want anyone to know or didn't want to talk about it, but still, she wanted to be there for him. She felt she had to, as his friend.
Eleanor closed her eyes and tried to banish the dark images floating inside her mind. So, she thought of their dance together, how she had felt so happy and free in those moments. And singing the song ''39' inside her head, she drifted off into a peaceful sleep.
***
Professor McGonagall wasn't kididng when she told her students at the beginning of term that this year wouldn't be as easy anymore.
Not like Eleanor had found school 'easy' at all the past three years, but fourth year was definitely something different.
Around a week in afted they Holidays, they seemed to be up for a real treat with all of the essays they had to hand in. Even Potions was getting rather difficult.
Their last class on Thursday was Potions, and Slughorn announced that for the next three weeks, they would be paired up with someone to work on an in-depth project on the Ageing Potion.
"Right," Slughorn began, pulling up the roll of parchment on which he had scribbled down the duo's. "Miss Goldstein will go with miss King, mister Rosier and mister Jackson, miss Richett will go with mister Stanton..."
Eleanor looked over at her friends in despair. She hadn't been paired with any of them, and Kathy was with Charlie Stanton who wasn't exactly fum either.
"...miss Lupin with mister Black..."
Her head shot up. She turned to look across the room. Regulus always sat at the back of the room with his friends, hidden away in a the corner. He met her gaze and gave her curt nod. Eleanor smiled at him and then turned to face professor Slughorn again.
"I want you to work together for the remainder of this lesson, and then I want to see two rolls of parchment with a summary on the Ageing Potion for next Tuesday," he said, looking around the classroom. Sighs and groans were coming from several people.
He clapped in his hands, "Come on, get to work!" he encouraged them with a smile.
Chairs shuffled as the Slytherin and Gryffindor students moved around to get to their partner. Eleanor got up and walked to the back of the room where Regulus was sitting.
"Hi Reg," she smiled at him. He gave her a short smile. "How've you been?" Eleanor sat down next to him and opened her book on the right page.
"Fine, you?" Regulus asked, paging through his book. Eleanor nodded.
A frown formed on her forehead. "Hey uhm, I was wondering where you were last Tuesday. I waited for you in the Library but you didn't show up," she nervously twirled her quill.
Regulus shrugged. "I had some other things to do, I forgot," he said in a monotone voice.
Her eyes scanned the side of his face as he was looking down at his book, reading the chapter on Ageing Potions.
Eleanor noticed he looked rather pale. Now, Regulus never really had a lot of colour in his face, but this time it seemed as though his skin hadn't seen sunlight in at least a month. She shook her head lightly and decided to let it go.
For the rest of the class, Regulus and her read the chapter thouroughly and made a start on their summary. Regulus was the one to actually write, as his handwriting was way neater than hers.
"You might be the only boy I know who writes neatly," Eleanor said with a chuckle.
Regulus snorted. His quill stopped moving for a second as he just blankly stared at the parchment.
"Sirius has nice handwriting," he mumbled and then continued to write again.
Eleanor thought about that. She had never actually seen him write anything. That explained a lot as he never really did his schoolwork.
She furrowed her eyebrows. "Did your parents teach you to?" she asked him, leaning her head in her hand as she watched him scribble down another sentence.
Regulus cleared his throat. "Yeah, something like that," he said coldly.
Eleanor figured she had touched a bit of a sensitive nerve there, so instead she resumed to read out loud what he had to write down.
Slughorn clapped in his hands again, indicating class was over. Everyone started to pack their bags. They agreed that Regulus kept their work with him.
"So do you want to go to the Library now?" Eleanor asked him, hanging her bag over her shoulder.
Regulus scratched the back of his neck. "I er actually have other things to do," he muttered, avoiding her eyes. Eleanor bit the inside of her cheek and looked doen at her feet.
"You know what," he said, shaking his head. "Let's go, I can do those things another time, I already let you down Tuesday."
Eleanor looked up into his grey eyes and smiled. "That's very nice of you."
She told the other girls she was going to finish the essay now so she could have a free weekend, and said she would meet them at dinner.
Her and Regulus left the Dungeons and walked up many flights of stairs to the Library. Eleanor looked around anxiously, making sure Sirius wouldn't suddenly pop up.
Regulus noticed and raised an eyebrow at her strange behaviour. "Something wrong?" he asked, putting his hands in his pockets.
Eleanor bit her lip. "Yeah well, James and Remus now we're friends, but Sirius doesn't. I'm just afraid what he'll say," she mumbled.
"Why? It's not like you owe him an explanation for hanging out with me," Regulus huffed.
A frown formed on Eleanor's forehead. "You know, you're right actually, I don't," she said resolutely. But still she felt in the pit of her stomach that things would run out of hand once he did find out.
They sat down at their usual desk and immediately got to work. The first roll of parchment soon was done and they had Regulus had started on the second.
"Well well, running around with blood traitors are we?" a voice snarled above them.
Eleanor's eyes shot up. Severus Snape was looming over their table with Dolohov and Rookwood by his side. Even though she wanted to stay strong and confident, Eleanor couldn't help but feel a little scared as his dark eyes bored into hers.
"She's not a blood traitor, Snape," Regulus said calmly. "Her father married a Muggle."
Snape snorted, "The spawn of a blood traitor then."
Her knuckles went white from clenching her fist tightly under the table. She felt her blood starting to boil more with every second he stood there.
"Just go, Snape," Regulus mumbled, putting the tip on his quill back down on the parchment again.
"Not until you explain why you are here with that," Snape spat.
That was it. Eleanor got up from her seat and grabbed the greasy-haired boy by his robes. Snape grunted and got his wand out of his pocket. Dolohov and Rookwood were alarmed as well.
"Why don't you and your abnormally large nose keep out of other people's business Snivellus!" she hissed at him.
"What is this!?" Madam Pince hurried over, her heels clacking fast in the floor. Eleanor let go of Snape, who then quickly hid his wand again.
"Detention, both of you!" she shrieked, pointing at Regulus and Eleanor
Snape threw one more nasty glance at Regulus and then strutted away with the other two right behind him. Eleanor's mouth hung open.
"But- But he insulted me!" she exclaimed.
"I don't care who did what, I saw you holding onto him, and you were aiding her," Pince uttered.
"He didn't even do anything!" Eleanor said desperately.
"Detention with me, tomorrow night seven o'clock, sharp," the librarian spat and then turned her back on them.
Eleanor banged her fist on the table. She couldn't ruin anything more at this point, so she might as well. Regulus just started to pack his stuff.
"I'm sorry I got you into this," she apologized to him.
"It's okay, don't worry," he said and got up. "Besides, it was totally worth it." He grinned, making Eleanor laugh.
She also grabbed her stuff and the two quickly left the Library. Regulus looked down at Eleanor by his side, a smile playing on his lips. Eleanor looked up at him with the same look on her face. Suddenly, they both just burst out in laughter.
"The look on his face when you grabbed him like that," Regulus said in-between laughs. "It was priceless. And that remark: you and your abnormally large nose-" he had a fit of laughter again.
Eleanor grinned up at him. "Why thank you," she bowed her head as a joke.
He shook his head, still smiling. They stopped at the point were their ways separated, as usual.
"Well," Eleanor sighed. "I'll see you tomorrow then."
Regulus chuckled and nodded, then went down to the Dungeons. Eleanor ran up the stairs, now and then waiting on a moving staircase.
"Widdershins," she said when she reached the Fat Lady. The portrait hole opened up and she climbed through.
Amelia looked confused when Eleanor entered the common room. "I thought you were with Regulus?" she asked.
A grin immediately appeared on her face again and she sat down next to her on the sofa. Eleanor told her abkut what had happened between her and Snape, and how she got detention with Madam Pince.
At the end of the story, Amelia laughed. "That's bloody brilliant. And you should be glad you're not alone in detention, it's the worst." Eleanor shrugged and nodded.
Amelia grinned. "And some alone time with him is certainly not something to decline," she said, wiggling her eyebrows.
Eleanor laughed and rolled her eyes. "I don't like him like that Lia!" she uttered, crossing her arms over her chest.
Amelia chuckled and grabbed a biscuit from the tray on the coffee table. "No I know," she said, biting off a piece. "It's the other Black you want."
Eleanor's eyes widened and she felt her cheeks go red. She looked at her friend in shock, who was roaring with laughter and almost choking on her biscuit. Eleanor smacked her on her arm.
"Oh shut up," she said softly, not being able to hold back a goofy smile anymore.