[Chapter Fifteen]

It always seemed to rain on the first of September, no matter what and that particular morning as Éponine prepared herself for the trip aboard the Hogwarts Express, was no exception. Her window had been opened during the night as she had found herself too warm around midnight. A strong breeze carried into the room, blowing several of the girl's loose curls around as she finished packing her trunk. Glancing out the window, Éponine could see the dark clouds in the distance, distinct rain clouds that were threatening to pour over London. In a way, Éponine could relate to the dark grey and gloomy clouds as she closed her trunk with a sigh full of discontent. 

It was wishful thinking to believe that her parents would meet her at the platform to see her off to school, but Éponine found herself disappointed even before the first of September. After receiving the news that their daughter had made Prefect, Victor and Heloise wrote to her, claiming that they were so proud of her, and yet, they only wrote that they hoped that she would have a good start to the term and nothing else. For a few moments, Éponine thought it was some sort of mistake, of course, her parents would be at the platform to see her off. But then came the confirmation from Walburga that her parents were off on holiday, enjoying the countryside of Sweden for the next couple of weeks. 

Éponine was incredibly offended, even if she didn't bother to voice it. It wasn't like her complaining would change anything, she knew that all too well. However, she figured the two could postpone their trip to at least see her before she started school, she had practically gone the entire summer without really seeing them. But the more Éponine thought about it, she realised that she probably didn't want to see them. If they didn't want to see her, what was the point of chasing after her parents' affections? They didn't listen to her anyway, all they did was tell her what she needed to do, how she needed to listen to everyone around her, all the time.

Yet, during the summer, Regulus had told her along with Emmarentia, that she needed to change that train of thought. She simply couldn't live her life following everyone's direct orders like a silent mouse. She had a voice and it was about time that she started to actually put it to use. Although Éponine would be the first to admit that she was frightened by the idea, fearful of the trouble that she would find herself in. The fact of the matter was, she was so well-trained by her parents to keep her mouth shut and obey that doing anything differently felt foreign. She was so used to bottling up her emotions and feelings until they breached the surface in moments of desperation to be heard. 

However, she did take Regulus' advice that his older brother had given to him before his departure: Act Now, As For Forgiveness Later, it was her new motto that she planned to live by for her fifth year to see if it would actually get her anywhere.

There was a sound of a small crack outside of her bedroom, leaving Éponine to turn around and see Kreacher preparing to enter. A warm smile appeared on her face as she gave her full attention to the house-elf. No one had really spoken about it, but the summer had turned around in Kreacher's favour as well. From the beginning where he had found himself bleeding from the head, mourning over his mother's shrunken head that was mounted on the wall, Kreacher seemed a lot happier as the summer came to an end. She had made sure, nearly every day to spend time with the house-elf to ensure that he was fairing well. 

Some days, Kreacher seemed weary of her approach, attempting to brush her off in the most polite way possible so that he didn't offend anyone and find himself in trouble. But more or less, he would welcome her company as she asked him how he was doing. Regulus picked up on the routine as well and even he made the effort to do the same. With the two teens around, they made sure that Kreacher didn't find himself in any sort of trouble if they could help it. They were quick to defend him in many ways and in a short time, Kreacher found himself pleased to serve the family once more. 

Despite his obedience nature, Kreacher was at the beck and call of Regulus and Éponine, even when they didn't request his help. He was loyal to both of them, even if Éponine had yet to marry into the family, she would be part of the Black family soon enough. Walburga and Orion had already informed the house-elf that he was to treat the girl as if she was part of the family and that didn't really seem like much of a demand or order placed on Kreacher, he was willing to do it without it being asked of him. 

In many ways though, the children had to be careful as house-elves were still viewed as lesser beings if they were too friendly towards Kreacher in the presence of the adults, it was more than likely that they would find themselves facing a scolding. But Éponine and Regulus were not stupid by any means and they knew exactly how to go about it without causing problems for Kreacher or themselves. 

"Good morning, Kreacher," Éponine greeted the house-elf with a small bow of her head, " how are you this morning?"

"Kreacher is well, Miss Rosier," he answered quickly, although his normally raspy voice became animated with excitement. "Mistress has requested that you head downstairs for breakfast before leaving to King's Cross Station."

"Of course, I'll be right down," Éponine told him, "I'm just finishing up here. I'll be down in two minutes. Thank you, Kreacher."

Kreacher bowed his head in return before disappearing to deliver the message to Walburga, wherever she was in the home. Éponine turned around once more to glance around the room and make sure she had everything she would need for the upcoming year. After checking her bed and her nightstand, she was sure she had everything until she looked over in the direction of the window. 

The curtains were dancing about with the light wind creating a whimsical tune for the material to swirl around. On the windowsill came to rest a small vase where a few select flowers had come to rest to capture moments of sunlight that peeked through the dense clouds and fogs that normally surrounded the home during the day. A smile came to play on her lips as Éponine approached the cut flowers. 

The flowers themselves weren't much to look at, small and sort of plain looking with tiny white petals surrounding an amber centre. Their stems were thin, the leaves were bare, and there was only about five of them sharing the vase, leaving it all to look quite sparse. But Éponine didn't care about any of that, the flowers were still incredibly special to her because they had been given to her. 

Not once had she ever been gifted with a flower, let alone multiple flowers, and to make it all better, they had been hand-picked by Regulus. 

During their trip to the fields and cliffs, Regulus asked her to walk with him after her first broom riding lesson. He took her over to view the cliffs, however, it really only led to her taking a quick peek before jumping back, fearful that she would fall and meet her death. She did enjoy the sound of the waves crashing below and she enjoyed walking beside Regulus, listening to him talk about the upcoming year. He told her what he was looking forward to and what he wasn't looking forward to. 

He was looking forward to the upcoming Quidditch season as he was hoping that Slytherin could take home the cup, but he wasn't looking forward to seeing his brother. 

"Do you miss him?"Éponine had foolishly asked, but she couldn't help it during the time as curiosity got the best of her.

Regulus seemed to pause for a few seconds, staring at the ground before he started walking again, that time he picked flowers as he went along.

"I miss who he used to be," Regulus admitted. "I miss when he used to be my brother. Before he met that filthy blood-traitor on the train. I was his brother, not James Potter. I was his best friend before the rest of that group came around. He used to come to my room during the night and he told me how great Hogwarts was going to be once he started. Anything to get away from Mum for a little bit sounded great to him."

"They never really got along, did they?"

"They tried," Regulus said, " they both did. I watched them but there was always something that made them clash or butt heads with one another. Sirius liked doing things his way, Mum wanted him to follow the traditional upbringing. He kept saying that times were changing, she kept saying that it didn't mean that tradition had to die out."

"Did they ever share any good memories together?"

"Of course, but the bad memories have a tendency to override the good ones in our minds. Mum bought these enchanted scissors one day from one of the shops. She wanted to desperately cut Sirius' hair because it was becoming unruly and he wouldn't do a thing about it. However, Sirius was terrified of the scissors, he wouldn't let them come anywhere near his hair. Mum figured if she could cut a bit of her own hair that she could show Sirius that it wasn't as bad as he thought it was. So she took to cutting her own hair and that little part has yet to grow back to this day. That's why she never wears her hair down, nothing worked to make it grow back."

"Did Sirius ever get that haircut?"

"No, when she realised she used the enchanted scissors on her own hair, she made such a face that Sirius couldn't stop laughing. I thought she was going to explode, but she just ended up laughing too. I doubt he thinks of that memory, though. I doubt he really thinks of any of us anymore. He told us that we weren't his family, that we didn't care about him."

He bent over to collect another flower before continuing.

"Dad told him that he was wrong, that he was talking nonsense. But Sirius said that ever since he was sorted into Gryffindor that no one looked at him the same. That he might as well have become a blood-traitor in that very moment because that's how everyone in the family saw him anyways. Mum didn't blame him for being sorted into Gryffindor, she blamed the Sorting Hat and she blamed Dumbledore."

"Why blame the headmaster and the hat?"

"She figured the hat was just worn out at that point and made a mistake but then she claimed that Dumbledore had it planned all along. That he had done something to the Sorting Hat to make sure that Sirius distanced himself from the rest of us."

Éponine's eyes widened at Walburga's conspiracy theory. "But why would Dumbledore want Sirius to distance himself from his own family?"

Regulus gave a shrug of his shoulders. "I don't know, my parents always said that Dumbledore was his own villain disguised as a hero, the sheep around him just loved to follow."

She wasn't really sure how to respond after that, never really forming an opinion about Professor Dumbledore during her time in school. He wasn't much a presence in her life but he had done nothing to offend her. He was just simply there, normally showing his face around the castle for appearances here and there and that was it. But Regulus seemed to take her silence as an assumption that he had made things awkward by unloading his family's problems on her. It was bad enough that she enough problems with her own family, she didn't need to be riddled with his problems too. 

"Here," he said holding out the few flowers that he had collected over the time of their discussion, " thank you for listening."

"Oh! Th-thank you!"

Standing back in the bedroom, Éponine didn't want the flowers to simply die when she headed off to school. It may have sounded foolish but they were considered special to her. Grabbing one of her books, she made her way over to the vase, collecting the flowers and shaking them gently to rid of the droplets of water. She laid them gently on a page after opening the book, lining them up beside each other before carefully closing the book over to press them. She walked back over to her trunk, opening it up once more and then placing the book inside before hurrying out of the room before Walburga grew impatient.

King's Cross Station was always crowded, not only with magic folk but muggles as well, as the station, was shared by both parties. Éponine walked behind Walburga and Orion alongside Regulus as they made their way through the crowds. Regulus pulled along his own trunk while Orion had insisted on pulling Éponine's for her as soon as they arrived at the station. She could already see the uncomfortable look on Walburga's face and it seemed the two parents were looking around for someone. As the girl looked over at Regulus, she could see that his eyes were searching as well and that's when it finally clicked in her mind.

They were all looking around for Sirius. 

There was a glimmer of hope, she could feel it, hope that Sirius would come out of nowhere and rush towards them. It didn't even matter if there was an apology as long as he just came back to them. However, no such thing happened as they crossed the barrier, there was no sign of the boy. Éponine had to look away from Orion and Regulus as the expressions on their faces were enough to make one's heart shatter in their chest. She looked up at Walburga and it was no better, despite the strong face that the woman was attempting to keep.

Suddenly, Éponine could see it, the little lock of greying hair that was comparably short to the others and cut at a weird angle. The woman lifted her hand up at one point, running her fingers over it before gently tucking it behind her ear. It was such a moment of vulnerability that Éponine never believed she would witness with Walburga, but it was brief as the woman's face suddenly hardened. Éponine followed her gaze where she spotted an elderly couple, waving in the direction of the train.

The Potters.

Walburga's tongue nearly dripped with venom as she muttered things under her breath about the couple that "stole" her son away. She told Orion that they were leaving, bringing the couple to pull Regulus and Éponine in for strong hugs and a kiss on their foreheads. They wished the two a good year and told them to write frequently so they could stay in touch. Within a couple of minutes, they were gone, leaving Regulus and Éponine to exchange looks. Regulus nearly looked apologetic for his parents' behaviour, even though Éponine wasn't offended by the quick goodbye at all.

She had seen the pain on the faces of the adults, she didn't blame them for wanting to leave a painful situation behind.

"We should get to the prefects' compartment," Regulus told her as he led the way to board the train. She merely nodded her head and followed, casting a look over her shoulder in the direction of the Potters as they were still waving in the direction of one of the windows. As they walked in that direction, Éponine counted the spaces down and realised that it was possible that James Potter was in one of the compartments and wherever he was, Sirius wouldn't be far behind.

Of course, in that moment, she hated more than anything that she was right.

One of the compartment doors slid open and out popped James, with Sirius right at his side. Éponine looked at the former Black brother that she had been destined to marry in the beginning and proceeded to look directly at her shoes to avoid confrontation. However, with Regulus in the lead, it was truly a confrontation between the brothers. Despite all the noise on the train and in the train station, it felt as though everything around them had become still and silent as Regulus and Sirius stood before each other.

There was nearly a two-year difference in age, but Regulus stood at equal height with his older brother, leaving them to make direct eye contact. When Éponine finally looked up again, she wished she hadn't almost immediately as Sirius looked right over at her. His face contorted in disgust, as it seemed his brother had ignored his advice. It was true since the marriage wouldn't be between her and Sirius, it had to fall upon Regulus. He had tried to warn Regulus but it seemed to have fallen on deaf ears.

But what Sirius didn't understand was, while he didn't want to marry Éponine and follow tradition, while he was repulsed by the idea, Regulus wasn't. He didn't mind following the tradition and he wasn't against marrying Éponine when the time came anymore. In fact, it didn't bother him at all, but what did bother the youngest Black was how his brother looked at Éponine with such a face. Éponine didn't need anyone looking at her unless it was in admiration. 

"Reggie," Sirius began, his tone firm and stern, unusual compared to his usual playful one that Éponine had become familiar with during her childhood.

"It's Regulus," he was quickly corrected, " my brother used to call me Reggie."

"Regulus, I am your brother-" Sirius went to protest but Regulus shook his head.

"Not anymore," he said. "Not after what you've put Mum and Dad through, what you're still putting them through.  You stopped being my brother the moment you left Grimmauld Place. The moment you walked out that door, he became your brother."

He pointed in the direction of James. "You left me behind for him, for all of them. So go call them your brothers, but leave me alone."

Éponine was left in a stunned state, along with the two older boys, before Regulus grabbed her hand gently and made his way through them, guiding her along as well. He didn't bother to turn around, he didn't say anything as they walked in silence to the prefects' compartment. And just when Éponine believed that the awkwardness was fading, Regulus opened the door to the compartment, only to reveal another one of Sirius' friends sitting there.

It had completely slipped her mind that Remus Lupin was a Prefect as well.