[Chapter Five]

Éponine would admit that she was surprised by the gesture of Regulus escorting her down to the kitchen for a midnight snack. Although there wouldn't be much interaction between them as they just sat at the table while she ate. It made her feel self-conscious to be the only one eating but as she peered up several times while eating a couple of chocolate digestives, she could see that Regulus was struggling to stay awake. He had his elbow on the table, his chin resting in the palm of his hand, and his eyes were closed but fluttered every so often at the slightest of noise. She attempted to eat quietly, only watching to make sure that his hand didn't slide out from under the boy leading to him slamming his face against the table.

While she still wasn't exactly fond of Regulus, Éponine wouldn't deny that she was thankful that he went along with the lie when it came to his parents finding them out of bed. He could have easily placed all the blame on her and she thought he would especially after her little stunt with her "piano lessons." When her stomach growled on the staircase, she was already embarrassed enough and she just assumed she would be going hungry for the rest of the night, hoping for a big breakfast in the morning. Yet, Regulus just seemed to be full of surprises when he grabbed her by the wrist and led her downstairs. He quickly made note that he wasn't cooking anything as he rummaged through the cupboard in the corner of the kitchen.

However, Éponine certainly didn't find herself complaining when he handed her the chocolate digestives. They were among one of her favourite things, but one of the things her mother didn't allow her to have, simply because Éponine needed to maintain her figure. It drove the girl absolutely mad that she couldn't have a simple biscuit without her mother worrying. If anything when Éponine looked at herself in the mirror, she thought she looked quite underweight, rather than healthy. Not to mention, the way her stomach growled most nights after dinner, it was unsettling.

Yet, her mother's reasoning behind the lack of sweets had also gone along with her daughter's acne and how they were doing everything to get rid of it. Heloise believed that the sugar definitely had a playing part in Éponine's condition and they really just put her on a strict diet of water, vegetables, and some proteins. Even fruits were kept to a minimum with the girl, leaving her incredibly frustrated. The change in diet didn't do anything for Éponine's skin condition, it was only when they brought the new remedy home that she was finally free of it all. But the damage had already been long done, having a clear face didn't suddenly free Éponine from all the harmful things others had said to her. 

It was all she could think of when she finished the last biscuit, all the teasing and horrible things that were said to her, and how not once, did Regulus come to her defence. How she had caught him smiling and that was all she could see besides the sleepy boy sitting in front of her. With the old laughter ringing in her ears, Éponine brushed the remaining crumbs away from her and picked herself up. She didn't even bother to wake Regulus up as she left him at the table and went back to her own room to go back to sleep.

A few minutes later, Regulus nearly hit the table as he was nodding off, only to startle himself awake and look around. Éponine was gone and he had been left in the darkness of the kitchen, leaving him slightly offended that she didn't bother to wake him before she left. He quickly stood up and ventured upstairs to tell her off, considering he went out of his way to be nice and bring her downstairs to the kitchen. However, when he reached her room, Éponine was already in her bed, her duvet pulled over her and her back facing the doorway. 

If he decided to wake her up then, he would probably only cause a scene that would result in his parents waking up again and it probably wouldn't look too good on his behalf if Éponine cried out in alarm that he was sneaking into her room. Deciding to leave it for the morning, Regulus stepped back out of the bedroom and closed the door behind him before heading towards the stairs to head back to his own room. He just hoped that there wouldn't be any more disruptions and that Éponine would stay in bed for the rest of the evening. 

The next morning, Éponine was the last to wake up as Kreacher pointed out when he was given the task to wake her. She grimaced as she pushed herself up to shower and get dressed and by the time she ventured downstairs to join everyone for breakfast, she could see that nearly everyone was finished with their plates. Walburga told her to sit down and hurry with own breakfast as they were running a bit behind schedule before she and Orion left the table. 

Regulus remained behind, finishing off the last bit of tea in his cup as Éponine took her seat across from him. Quietly, she began eating her meal, thankful for each bite as she even found herself hungry that morning, but not hungry, the poor girl was starving. Her body had savaged through the digestives with such intensity that only an hour later, Éponine had found herself waking up to the noises of her stomach. It wasn't the best cooking, but in her hungry state, each bite was like a gourmet meal that she wanted to savour. 

However, long after her meal came to an end, Regulus was still sitting in her company, with a bit of a grumpy expression plastered on his face. She was sure he had finished his tea long before she finished her food, leaving her to wonder what he wanted as he stayed behind. She wasn't going to ask though as she pushed herself up as her plate vanished from the table.

"I thought it was awfully kind of you last night to leave me at the kitchen table," Regulus grumbled as she went to turn and leave. She paused for a moment and looked over her shoulder at him to see him looking directly at her. Did he honestly take offence to such a thing or was he just saying it to bother her further?

"Well, I found it awfully kind of you when you encouraged the behaviour of your friends taunting me while we were in school by laughing at me. A sore neck would be the least of your worries in life," she countered as she watched his gaze widen.

"Is that what that was about?" Regulus questioned as she heard the sound of his chair scraping against the floor as he stood up. "That happened in the past-"

"And so was leaving you in the kitchen last night, yet here you are bringing it up."

The area fell silent as Regulus didn't have anything to counter-argue with Éponine. She was still standing in the doorway, giving him a few more seconds but when he came up short, she only gave a small smile before leaving him once more. A noise that could only be let out due to frustration escaped him as he returned to his seat and plopped down. They were supposed to be spending the entire day in Diagon Alley in each other's company and at the rate they were going with just their interaction that morning alone, it was going to be a long and miserable trip. 

After arriving in Diagon Alley later on that morning, Walburga told the two teens that they would all be meeting up around four at Twilfitt and Tatting's, a clothing shop where Walburga did most of her shopping. The adults left the two with nothing more but money for them to enjoy the day and best wishes to the both of them. But Orion's sounded more like he was bribing them not to kill each other. 

Éponine simply wanted to walk away from Regulus and spend her day doing what she wanted before meeting up at the clothing shop later. She assumed that Regulus shared similar thoughts, but she was proved wrong as Regulus grabbed her hand and began leading the way down the pavement. For a few seconds, she allowed him to lead her down one way, but it was merely because she was in a state of shock that he dared to grab her hand.

He wasn't just holding it either, he had practically forced his fingers between hers so that they were intertwined. The way she stared at their interlocked hands, one would assume that she was attempting to set them on fire and perhaps that was what she was trying to do. 

"Just what do you think you're doing?!" She whispered harshly to him as they passed a group of witches. The women seemed to think it was cute to catch sight of a young couple holding hands as they cooed in the direction of Éponine and Regulus as they walked by. The girl only rolled her eyes as she turned her attention back to Regulus waiting for him to answer her question.

"I am going to Quality Quidditch and you are coming with me-"

Suddenly, Éponine managed to pull her hand from him and stubbornly planted her feet on the pavement, making it a clear point that she wasn't moving any further. However, Regulus' attention drifted to where she was holding her hand as he had heard several of her knuckles crack when she pulled her hand from his abruptly. 

"I can walk myself there just fine, thank you very much!"

People were certainly walking slower or pausing on their way to the shops to catch a glimpse of the two arguing. But Regulus was not the one to air dirty laundry to the public as he started pushing Éponine down an alleyway so they could have privacy somewhat. Of course, it didn't go as smoothly as he intended as she put up a fight and a half until he was able to get her in the alley. He was sure that plenty of people had witnessed the scene and it wasn't one that looked good, but no one seemed to come over and intervene.

"What is wrong with you?!" Regulus questioned her. "Is this how you want it to be between us? Do you want it to be hostile? You do realise that you have to spend the rest of the summer with me and when it comes time to us leaving Hogwarts, the rest of your life."

"There is absolutely nothing wrong with me, but there is certainly something wrong with you," Éponine replied. "If you honestly believe that everything is just going to be fine between us after everything you and your friends put me through over the course of the last couple of years. You think all that teasing and all those mean comments, you think they simply disappeared from my mind overnight? Well, they didn't. I won't hold hands with someone who made it a point to laugh in my face over something I had no control over and I won't stand beside someone who just let his friends talk to me. You want to talk about me being hostile, you started it!"

Regulus swallowed but didn't manage to say anything because Éponine wasn't done yet. 

"Not to mention, all the times you called me stupid when we were younger all because my native tongue was French! I could have easily deemed you stupid for not understanding what I was trying to say. But I didn't, instead, you made me feel terrible about myself before school even started and then you rallied up with this group that nearly brought me to hate myself. Every morning, I have to remind myself that I'm worth it, that I deserve nice things and that I love myself because of people like you."

Venom dripped from the girl's tongue, enough that Regulus believed that one drop would fall to the pavement and burn through it like acid. 

"And you want to hold this marriage over my head like it's some sort of blessing? Well, how about this? I don't want to marry you, at this point, I still rather marry your blood-traitor of a brother!"

Pushing him out of her way, Éponine exited the alleyway and made her way down the pavement, disappearing among the crowd of witches and wizards. She was not going to Quality Quidditch, certainly not with Regulus. She was going to Flourish and Blotts where she would hopefully find some of the books that were on her reading list. Éponine had to admit that as she strolled down the pavement, she was holding her head higher than usual and the light breeze that was hitting her face felt good. She felt so much better and finally letting Regulus have it, she didn't even care what the repercussions were going to be. 

She was sure that the boy would probably go back to his mother and tell Walburga what she had to him and there would be a huge uproar, but in that moment, Éponine didn't care. It was a moment that was long overdue for the girl, carrying all the weight of her bullies taunting her. If Regulus thought it was some sort of blessing or honour to be marrying him, she was going to set the record straight. She didn't want to marry him and while she had only said it out of anger to drive her point home, she didn't want to marry Sirius Black either.

No one seemed to understand that Éponine didn't want to marry anyone. She had yet to develop romantic feelings for anyone at fifteen years old but before that, even when she was younger, she had people shoving the idea of marriage in her face. Of course, she wasn't alone, it was very much part of the tradition within their families. Even her younger cousin, Elizabeth already found herself locked in a marriage with a Lestrange brother when she left Hogwarts. She had overheard her parents discussing that. Little shy Elizabeth that always latched onto her older brother's arm whenever they had to attend social gatherings among the families.

She had fallen into the same trapped lifestyle as Éponine and there was hardly anything they could do about it.

They could run away, much like Sirius did or their cousin, Andromeda, who ran off to marry a muggle-born. Those were options, but not very good ones. Andromeda had her husband Ted Tonks, and Sirius had a group of friends that had replaced Regulus as brothers to him. Éponine didn't have that sort of luck, she didn't have people to run to or ones that would support her. If she ran off, she would be disowned with nothing to her name and she wasn't sure how to function on her own. Not to mention, she loved her parents, despite the whole marriage thing, they had always treated her kindly and she knew they loved her. Leaving them behind would be too much for the girl.

She was only fifteen years old, where was she supposed to go and do if she ran away from home?

There was the other option of refusing the marriage altogether but that would just backfire on Éponine and her family. If she refused to marry Regulus, she was going to set forth a bad reputation for her family, one that they had worked hard to maintain and present. She would be deemed as difficult or possibly defected. The Black family would probably run her name through the mud over all the power they held as well as influence. It would be hard for her to find work if the Black family had anything to say about it, they would probably make up all sorts of lies about her. All because it would be seen as disrespectful to refuse the marriage to Regulus, that's how much power he already had over her.

And yet, there he was, trying to just guide her along like a dog on a leash to Quality Quidditch. Very similar to how it felt when Ernest Nott touched her hand, Éponine felt a stinging sensation where Regulus had grabbed her hand without permission. The way he interlocked their hands together without even asking her had left her feeling violated. That's how he saw it all, that it was an honour to be with him and that she would be thankful and giddy to hold his hand in a public setting. 

Well, she certainly made him think twice about that.

Éponine didn't carry any sort of guilt as she made her way to Flourish and Blotts, with the money in hand that was given to her by Orion and Walburga, she made her way into the shop. A smile on her face as she was surrounded by books, but a smile on her face as well as she wasn't led to the story. She walked there perfectly on her own and she made the decision for herself. Unsure of what the consequences were going to be following her actions, Éponine figured it would just be best for her to spend the day as she pleased.

However, her enjoyment would be short-lived as she walked down one of the aisles and came to a halt. Standing in the middle of the aisle was Ernest Nott and it only took a second for him to notice her as he looked up from the book in his hand.

"Well, hello there, Éponine. You look lovely today."