[Chapter Nine]

Orion would be the first in the household to be surprised by how quiet things had become, practically overnight. The sounds of Regulus' and Éponine's bickering finally seemed to come to a halt and for some reason, it didn't offer a sense of relief, in fact, it made him rather nervous. Despite the fact that they weren't arguing with one another, he still went to check on them throughout the house, in fear, that one of them had finally killed the other out of pure annoyance. But it wasn't the case at all, they seemed to have no murderous plots crossing their minds. However, they weren't making any effort to spend time with each other either. Regulus would hide away in his room, while Éponine hid in her room or the library. 

The only time they seemed to share any interaction over the course of the next few days was during mealtime, but even then they were quiet. Walburga had informed her husband what Regulus had dared to say to the girl after he had spoken with both of them and it left the father in shock that his son would stoop so low to get a jab in. He knew he had raised Regulus better than that, Éponine was growing up to be a fine young woman. Educated and polite, came from a proper family and shared in the beliefs that many upheld within their circle. Yet, Regulus and his friends seemed to have focused solely on outer appearance, which wasn't exactly fair in Éponine's case. 

It was no secret that the girl had suffered a few years with her complexion, but that was naturally out of her control.Her parents had tried quite a number of remedies for her face, but many of them only made it worse for the girl. Orion remembered the discussions with Victor, as the man claimed that some of the mixtures led to the girl's face cracking and peeling. Some made it look like she was suffering from burns, nothing had been working for them, until recently. Finally, they were able to find a solution, an expensive one, but a solution that cleared up Éponine's face. But Orion could see that the damage still lingered, even if it wasn't external, the girl had suffered greatly over the years due to something that she could not help. 

Even with her face clear, she still had her insecurities and apparently, Orion's youngest son had not been helpful when it came to boosting her self-esteem. Instead, he was one of the members that had taunted the girl, leading to further problems. Orion hoped that his message to Regulus about protecting Éponine would get through to his son so that the two could share in a happy life together and hopefully, leave the past behind them.

The perfect opportunity was approaching the two teenagers to see what their life could be, as the wedding between Narcissa Black and Lucius Malfoy was to take place during that afternoon. While Éponine's parents would be in attendance, along with plenty of others, Éponine was still in the care of Orion and Walburga, attending the ceremony and gathering with them and Regulus. 

The same morning of the wedding, Walburga had the girl up quite early to get ready to attend, although Éponine saw it as quite unnecessary to be awake so early considering it only took several minutes for everything to be done with the use of magic. With her hair curled and placed up and simple pink pastel coloured dress robes that resembled a light coloured rose, Éponine had plenty of time to read before they were to leave the Grimmauld Place. She sat at the dinner table, with her book propped in her lap, listening to all the sounds taking place around her. 

Upstairs, Walburga was fussing with Orion, hoping that they had found an appropriate gift for her niece as a wedding present. Orion was doing his best to reassure his wife that he thought it was "just fine" but "just fine" was not enough for Walburga as she thought of multiple things that they could add on to make it look better. Éponine didn't understand the idea of a person receiving a gift on their wedding day, thinking that it would be enough to be marrying someone they loved and having a wonderful celebration with friends and family.

Narcissa Black was one of the lucky few as Éponine would put it that actually loved her intended, something Éponine had witnessed from the time when she was younger and the pairing between Narcissa and Lucius was announced. Whenever they were in the company of each other at the gatherings, they looked so incredibly happy. Narcissa looked at Lucius with admiration, and even the usual cold-faced man looked at Narcissa as if she were the only good thing left in the world. It was clear to see the love shared between them and Éponine was happy for the couple as was everyone around the couple that knew them long enough. 

Of course, that led to another question entering Éponine's head, who else would be attending the wedding? So far, she was well aware that her parents would be there, although she was still debating back and forth whether she was thrilled to see them or not. After her last conversation with her father, after having him blow her off her a dinner party, she wouldn't say they were her favourite people at the moment. Éponine felt as though they had practically abandoned her for the summer. 

She knew her cousins would more than likely be there, Evan and Elizabeth Rosier would be in attendance with her father's brother. That would probably be it from her side of the family, more than likely it would be the Black family that would be the largest in attendance, which also meant that Bellatrix Lestrange would be there as well. Originally, she had been Bellatrix Black, the eldest of the three sisters bore to Cygnus and Druella, but she married Rodolphus Lestrange shortly after she left Hogwarts. 

They were quite the talk of the families, mainly because Bellatrix was a force to be reckoned with, power and strength in her stride wherever she went. However, as of recent, most of the discussion was about her lack of child with Rodolphus. It didn't really matter how much power a woman carried with her magic or with her stance, among the eyes of others, the power was in childbearing. She would need to be the one to carry on the lines that they were all so desperate to keep prominent with pureblood lines dwindling and "mudbloods" on the rise. Bellatrix had yet to present any child with Rodolphus, leaving people to talk. 

There was the discussion of her possibly being barren, no blame placed over Rodolphus' head as if he couldn't be infertile. 

If the couple didn't produce a child, the pressure would be on the middle son, Rabastan, and if he failed, all the pressure would be placed on the youngest, Roderick. The Lestrange lines were damn near dead and people thought it would be a blessing to have three sons to keep the lines going, but it didn't seem to be going in the favour of any of them really. Roderick and his intended, Elizabeth Rosier were still quite young and there were no plans of children in their minds, but as the day grew closer for them, Éponine knew the pressure would be on. 

The days were growing closer for her and Regulus and even before that, Éponine had felt the weight of the pressure. 

Just as she was beginning to turn the page of her book, a cup of tea came to rest in front of her on the table. A small smile appeared on her face as she went to turn her head and thank Kreacher, but as she looked over she jumped slightly. It wasn't the house-elf that had provided her with the beverage but Regulus. For a few seconds, she stared at him as he grabbed a teacup of his own and proceeded to make his way to sit across from her at the table. It was the first interaction between them since they had agreed to basically start over a few days prior after fighting. 

"Th-thank you," Éponine said softly before looking into the cup of tea for a second.

"It's not poisoned if that's what you're thinking," Regulus said, his tone defensive as if he believed that she was trying to find fault with his offering.

"I didn't say it was," Éponine countered, " I was just wondering if you added a touch of milk to it."

"Milk?" Regulus repeated before letting out a small groan. "Oh, don't tell me you're one of those people that drink tea with milk? Do you add sugar as well?"

"Yes, I do."

He looked disgusted, twisting his face in all sorts of directions that Éponine couldn't help the laugh that escaped her during the moment. Of all the things that she thought Regulus would be offended by, she didn't know he would take great offence to how she liked her tea. 

"No, no, no," he said pushing her teacup towards her, " you have it all wrong. Milk and sugar ruin the flavour. If you drink it as is, you'll get more of the robust flavour."

"Well, what if I don't like robust?" Éponine countered. "I quite like the milk and sugar in my tea."

Glancing up, Regulus looked as though he was going to go further with the argument, but as he met Éponine's gaze, he looked back down at his own cup and grumbled to himself. She didn't understand why it bothered him so much, but she had to admit, she found it awfully amusing that one of the things that stressed Regulus in life was how someone took their tea. He said no more on the topic, watching silently as she grabbed the milk and sugar to add in. Although she did catch sight of him shaking his head as she poured the little bit of milk. 

Every so often, he would take a sip of his, while Éponine's left hers to sit for a couple of minutes as she returned to her reading. However, the problem lied with how quiet it was in the room. Normally, Éponine welcomed silence as she read, it allowed her to concentrate, but that was only if she was alone or if another person was occupied with something else. As much as he was trying, Regulus couldn't have been content with just sitting there, drinking tea in silence.

He could have easily taken his drink elsewhere, but instead, he had joined her at the table, it had to be for a reason. Not to mention, his offering of giving tea to her, perhaps he was looking for some company. Whenever she peeked up from her book, he was just sitting there, looking terribly bored. He would take to swirling the liquid around in his cup, but not be saying anything. Each time he looked as though he were about to say something, he would look up but Éponine's eyes would dart right back to her book. 

Through her stolen glances, Éponine had to admit that dressed in his black dress robes for the wedding, Regulus looked quite handsome. He always looked so well dressed whenever she saw him, she believed that he didn't own a tattered old shirt in his possession at all. All of his shirts were always wrinkled free, his trousers straight and pressed, and everything fitted him perfectly. That morning, his hair was somewhat flopped to the side, a few strands falling in front of his face whenever he moved his head too quickly. He smelled good too if she was being honest with herself. Whether he was wearing something or it was just the lingering smell of a shower, he did smell wonderful. 

But the smell couldn't carry the awkward silence away and with him, sitting there being so quiet, Éponine felt like she was going to go mental.

"Do you know why a lot of people put milk into their tea?"

The question caught Regulus off guard as his head shot up from where he had been staring at his own tea. He had actually been debating whether to leave the kitchen, seeing as sitting around wasn't getting him anywhere. He thought to bring the tea over would have been a conversation over but it only led to a slight bickering over tastes and preferences before it fell silent. However, Éponine finally spoke, leaving him surprised and a little confused by the choice of topic. 

When he looked up, Éponine was still focused on her book, even though the front cover was closed over. She seemed nervous to meet his gaze as if she would turn to stone if she looked him in the eye. Just from where he was sitting, he could see the tops of her cheeks turning pink in colour.

"Because they enjoy ruining a perfectly good cup of tea, like monsters," he answered, able to see the corners of her mouth turn upward. 

"No, Regulus, that is not the reason and it's not ruining a good cup of tea, it's just making it different, that's all. Anyways, the reason was back when people were pouring tea, they were using these very fine and delicate cups, and often time, when they poured the hot tea, it would lead to the cups actually cracking and breaking from the heat. So they would pour in colder milk and then the hot tea to make sure that it didn't break and it became practically a tradition."

"Are you making that up? Making it up so that you have some sort of excuse?"

"No," she said with a light laugh, " no, I'm not making it up, I read it in a book once."

"Oh, really?" Regulus said, leaning back in his chair. "What book?"

The question seemed to catch her off guard as she sat there, trying to remember the title of the book, but with as much material as she covered in the course of a month alone, she honestly couldn't pinpoint the title.

"I-I-I can't remember-"

"Aha! That's because it is a lie, you did make it up!" Regulus pointed at her, all in a playful manner. He was sure that she had read it somewhere, with how much she read all the time, he wouldn't be surprised. But he did enjoy the teasing aspect as she grew more and more flustered, trying to defend her milky tea. He enjoyed it because rather than growing angry, he could hear her laughing and he could see her smiling as she tried to remember.

Of course, she was clearly frustrated with him bothering her about the title, but she wasn't growing angry with him, which was a complete first. 

Suddenly, Éponine stopped with her own guessing and peered up at him, narrowing her eyes.

"Have you ever tried tea with milk and sugar?" She asked him.

"No, of course not!"

"Then how do you know it's bad?" 

It seemed the morning was going to be full of turning the table on each other during their conversation to see who would triumph. She had gotten him there and he knew that very well. He honestly just didn't like milk and seeing her pour even just a little bit into her tea seemed revolting, but he truly didn't know how it tasted.

"Here," she said pushing her cup towards him, " try it."

"Oh, no! No, I don't want to!"

"Come on, you can't say anything against it when you haven't even tried it!"

"I haven't licked the underside of a shoe and I still know it's disgusting!"

"Taste it!"

Orion had been fixing his cuff links when he heard the two teens downstairs, bickering once more. With a heavy sigh, he decided to intervene as he headed down the stairs. However, as he reached the last step, he paused when he heard the sound of Éponine's laughter echo from the kitchen area. He decided to give a listen as Regulus seemed to be refusing to try a cup of tea when it came to having a dash of milk in it, and apparently, the girl was finding it highly amusing. 

He could tell that his son was playing up the dramatics as he normally never acted in such ways, but perhaps he was trying to get Éponine to laugh. It made Orion happy to hear the two of them interacting without cursing each other's names, but as he heard Regulus shriek and demand that Éponine place the teacup down, the smile began to fade. The man was still happy to hear Regulus and Éponine getting along in their odd ways, but hearing Regulus' dramatics, reminded him of Sirius. 

How foolish his son would act in order to get a laugh out of someone, it seemed Regulus had picked up on that trait as well in his own way. It was nice to hear the dramatics once more, he didn't think he would ever hear them again since his eldest son was gone, a blood-traitor. But while he would never admit it out loud, Orion would carry one thought to his grave when the time came.

He missed Sirius and just wanted his son to come home. 

He wouldn't have to marry Éponine, he wouldn't have to do much, just offer an apology to his mother to make things right between them Orion didn't care what it would take, he just wanted his son back. 

He wanted his family to be whole again.