"Sirius," Walburga said, going quiet.
For Sirius Black had just walked through the room.
"What are you doing here?!" Orion shouted, standing up. "And you've brought her back!" Sirius was holding the hand of a girl with long blonde hair and purple eyes, and she seemed quite scared. She obviously didn't want to be here.
"We got stuck in the snow," the girl said quietly. She glanced around the room, and her eyes fell on Regulus. "Are you Regulus? I'm Gwen."
"Don't talk to our son!" Walburga shrieked. "Both of you, out of here, now!"
"I realize that I ran away, but it's snowing like mad out, and the streets are too crowded to get through!" Sirius shouted. "And I wanted to talk to Regulus as well."
At this, Regulus glanced up quickly, and saw that his brother was trying to get attention. Without saying anything, he stood up and followed him into the kitchen.
"Out, Kreacher!" Sirius shouted at the house elf, who had been busying himself with food.
"Don't talk to him like that!" Regulus said, as Kreacher disappeared with a crack!
"I don't have time to deal with a stupid house elf," Sirius said, waving his hands. "I need to talk to you about your future."
"My- my future? Look, Sirius, you left. You're not really supposed to come back anymore."
"I know, and believe me, this will be my last time. But I had to see you..."
"We know what you want to do after Hogwarts..." Gwen said. "And please, Regulus, don't join them."
"How did you know?" Regulus asked. "I bet you're both in the Order, aren't you? Filthy blood-traitors."
"Don't call us that!" Sirius snapped. "It doesn't matter how we know, but Regulus, you're better than this."
"No, I'm not. This is the best I can do, because it's what I want to do. Mother and Father understand that, why can't you?"
"Mother and Father are stupid!" Sirius yelled.
"SHUT UP!" Regulus screamed back.
"No, I will not shut up! There are Death Eaters in the other room, and you admire them, want to be one of them! Don't you think that it's sick, how the Mark is branded into their arms like they're cattle? Do you want that? It probably really hurts you know. I can't imagine that Voldemort would make it painless."
"DON'T SAY HIS NAME!" Regulus shouted, leaning into his brother's face.
"I'm not scared of him!"
"Stop shouting!" Gwen said, pulling on Sirius's arm. Sirius listened to her, and stepped back a bit, still glaring at Regulus. Regulus glared back. How dare Sirius show his face here, after what he had done?
"Regulus, Sirius is only trying to help," she then continued, but he cut her off.
"Shut up, you filthy little Mudblood."
Gwen gasped and stepped back, and Sirius growled at Regulus. Literally growled.
"Don't talk to my girlfriend like that!"
"And for your information, not that it should matter, I'm a half-blood. So your incredibly rude comment is false. Sirius, let's get out of here."
"No, I wanna talk to my brother for just a moment longer," Sirius said, still snarling like a dog.
"No, Sirius, you might hurt him. He deserves it, but you don't want to hurt him."
"Yes, I do."
"Hold on, what are you talking about?" Regulus interrupted. "Sirius, you look like you're about to become a dog."
"Sirius, we're going!" Gwen said quickly, trying to pull him away.
"Fine," Sirius snapped and they were gone. What was that all about?
Orion and Walburga entered the kitchen. "What did he want?" The pale woman asked.
"I-I dunno, he wasn't making any sense," Regulus lied. He saw Bella and Cissy looking at him with suspicious expressions, and he had a feeling that they knew exactly what he and his brother had been discussing.
The rest of Christmas break passed in a blur, and truth be told, Regulus was relieved it was over. He was glad to be getting back to Hogwarts.
He hadn't even heard from Blanche in the rest of the two weeks, even though he had sent her another letter. He didn't suppose that it was lost; his owl always delivered quickly. Besides, he had come back the very next day. Blanche just wasn't replying.
Christmas dinner had been stressful. His mother and father had been tense since Sirius had come and gone, and Regulus still hadn't told anyone what he had said to him, even though some asked.
He had never been more relieved to get on the train, and he found Arden straightaway.
"How was your Christmas break?" Arden asked when they were seated.
"Terrible," Regulus replied. "My brother showed up, and ruined everything."
"Wow. What was he doing?"
"He... He wanted to try and convince me not to join the Death Eaters," Regulus admitted. Arden scoffed.
"I suppose he's against them, is he? Blood traitor."
"I have to agree with you," Regulus said. "My parents were upset for the rest of the break. I'm actually glad to be getting back to this place."
"This year will be better of course," Arden said. "Maybe we can finally get you a girlfriend."
"Me?" he said and laughed. "I think we should focus on getting you someone first. At least people have approached me, I've just turned them down."
"Hey, every girl in school wants this," Arden said and pointed to himself. Regulus laughed, and another voice joined in.
"I hope you're joking," Blanche said.
"Why do you care?" Arden snapped.
"Oh, I don't, I just think it's funny that you think you're good-looking," she said. Regulus was avoiding her attempts to make eye contact.
"Why don't you go and finish patrolling the corridors? You want to be the perfect prefect, after all."
"Clever," Blanche said. "I actually came to tell you that your trunks need to be put away in the top racks. Someone could trip over them."
"It's only us in here," Regulus said. "We're not going to trip over them."
"Look, will you please just put them away?"
"I'm going to find out where that stupid trolley woman went," Arden said and left, slamming the door behind him.
"Regulus," Blanche said immediately and sat down. "I missed you."
"Really? That's surprising," Regulus replied.
"Why?"
"You wrote to me once."
"I'm sorry, I was busy. I tried to write a couple times, but I always got called away or something."
"Whatever. I really don't care," he said, but just then the train came to a screeching halt.
Blanche went flying off the seat and into Arden's trunk. "See this is why I told you to put them away!" She said angrily as Regulus helped her up. "Why did the train stop?"
"I dunno," he said, looking out the window. "I don't see anything out there."
"Then why did we stop? We've barely left the station."
"Hold on," Regulus said, opening the window and sticking his head out. "Some people are coming onto the train."
"Who?"
"I dunno. Just people in black robes. There's about twenty of them."
"Close the window," Blanche said, sounding scared. Regulus did, and joined her on the seat. "Regulus, what if they're Death Eaters?"
Regulus didn't know how to answer at first. Would that be good or bad? He didn't want Blanche to know he admired them, for she might stop liking him. So he finally said, "I'm sure it's not."
The compartment door slid open, and Blanche tensed. But it was only Arden, coming back. "What's going on?" he asked.
"I don't know," Regulus said. "Some people are coming onto the train. We don't know who."
"We?" Arden saw Blanche. "Oh, you're still here?"
"Yes, I am!" Blanche snapped. "Now shut up, I hear something."
Sure enough, footsteps could be heard stomping down the corridor, and then the screams started. Someone was sobbing, boys were yelling, and flashes of light echoed through the cabin.
"Regulus, I'm scared," Blanche said, moving to his side and clinging to his hand. Arden glanced at them, his eyebrows furrowed. Regulus pretended he didn't see.
"It'll be fine," he said absentmindedly, as a jet of green light flew past the closed glass door.
"What's out there?" she asked.
"I'm going to go check," Regulus said.
"What?" Arden asked, shocked.
"Are you mad? You'll be killed!" Blanche protested. For once, she and Arden were in agreement, but Regulus wanted to know what was going on. "Please, just stay in the cabin."
"No, I want to know what it is."
"Reg, people are screaming!" she said with a hint of tears in her eyes. "Please don't go out there. Whoever it is, they can't be good."
Arden had been listening, and when Blanche said this, he cocked his head. "It might be Death Eaters," he said.
"Well, then you really can't go out there!"
"I'll be fine, Blanche," he said, and opened the door. But before he could exit, someone came in.
"Well, well, well," a man's voice said. "What do we have here?" He was wearing a mask, with his hood drawn up. He had a cold voice, that sounded calculating. "Two Slytherin boys, and one Ravenclaw girl. Take the girl," he said to another Death Eater who entered behind him.
"No!" Regulus said.
"Why do you care?" Arden asked. The second Death Eater darted in and grabbed Blanche, pulling her away from Regulus. Regulus followed them into the corridor, with Arden behind him.
"Reg, what are you doing?" he asked.
Regulus ignored him and continued on, stopping when he saw the sight in front of him.
Students were screaming, and some lay on the floor, unmoving. Girls were crying, but the Death Eaters marched through them, kicking the fallen and the living alike.
Blanche looked very pale, and Regulus thought that she might faint at any second. The two Death Eaters met two others in the middle of the floor.
The new ones looked smaller, thinner, more like women. They were wearing masks as well though.
"Who is this?" one said in a drawling voice that Regulus recognized. Bellatrix. "And why did you drag her all the way here?"
"Don't speak to me as if you have a higher rank than me, Bellatrix," the man's voice said. "I know that you don't."
"Never mind that now," the second woman said (and Regulus realized with another jolt that it was Narcissa), "Why are they here, Lucius?"
Lucius replied in a very different voice than the tone he had used with Bellatrix. "One last person, before we must leave. She's a prefect. It'll break the students."
"No," Regulus said. Narcissa and Bellatrix looked at him, and their eyes widened.
"He protested before as well," Lucius said. "I know the Dark Lord didn't want us to kill any Slyrherin's, but perhaps we can make an exception for him."
"No," Narcissa said. "We don't have the time. Put the girl down."
"It's a simple-"
"I said, we don't have time!" Narcissa snapped. "Dumbledore must have heard about this by now, and no doubt he'll be here soon. We must leave."
"Fine," Lucius snapped, and pushed Blanche away. He pushed too hard, and she crashed through a compartment door, sending glass flying. The Death Eaters all gathered by a door, then jumped out the door and Disapparated.
Once they were gone, Regulus ran to Blanche's side. She was covered in little cuts, but was conscious.
"Are you all right?" he asked frantically.
"I-I'll be fine," she said. "Help me up."
He did, and Blanche leaned against the wall for support. "How is everyone else?" she asked.
"I don't know," Regulus replied truthfully. "Arden is fine."
Blanche looked like she was trying to resist rolling her eyes. "Are any teachers here?"
"I don't know!"
"Don't yell!"
"I'm sorry, but I don't know anything more than you do."
"Just help me get into the corridor, I want to check on people," she said.
"That's not your job."
"Regulus, what if someone's hurt? Do you just want to leave them there?"
"No, I guess not," he said and together, they walked out of the compartment.
Bodies littered the ground, and Regulus couldn't tell if the majority were dead or alive. Did it matter at this point?
Author's note: Sorry I haven't updated in a while! 5 days I think? That's nearly a week!
But here it is now, so I hope you all like it. I might be able to upload another chapter later this evening, but I'm not sure. I have to catch up on Once Upon A Time, and I'm only 2 pages into the next chapter. Cute Blanche/Regulus moment will have to wait, sorry :/
Annnd... Yeah. Two votes, one comment? Thanks! :)